Sup Bros, Jake Mulligan here as always with your weekly dose of Vitamin Puro. This week, we’ve got an updated New Japan 2/17 PPV card, with a HUGE Dream Match just signed today, with TNA involvement. We also have results from Dragon Gate’s Two Night Stand at Korakuen Hall, featuring wrestlers from all across the globe, like PAC, El Generico, Austin Aries, and more. Also, news and analysis on one of the most shocking title changes in a long time. And I’ll assign a little homework for you loyal readers afterwards. With that, let’s get to it!
NEW JAPAN VS. TNA 2: OVERBOOKED BOOGALOO
Well, New Japan is well on its way to their next PPV, taking place live from Sumo Hall on February 17th. However, before we get there, we have a junior themed show at Korakuen Hall, headlined by two title matches, on 1/27. In the semi-main, the K-DOJO team of Dick Togo and TAKA Michinoku will defend their IWGP Junior Tag Titles against a team of RISE juniors, Minoru and Prince Devitt. TAKA and Togo have made it through a few defenses most expected them to lose, but I see this one being the switch, as Minoru and Devitt will win one for fallen comrade Milano and take the straps. In the main event, Wataru Inoue makes his v2 defense of the IWGP Junior Title, against the man he took it from, Ryusuke Taguchi. I definitely see the champ retaining here, unfortunate for the fans of the Funky Weapon. And I would be remiss in not mentioning the top heavyweight matchup on the card, as in a tag team attraction, Yuji Nagata teams with rival/teammate Hiroshi Tanahashi to take on IWGP Champ Shinsuke Nakamura and Hirooki Goto. With time, this could be amazing, so I will definitely have some updates on this.
This all leads to the PPV, on the 17th. The main event we already knew: Kurt Angle comes back to Japan to defend his Fake IWGP Title against the true champion, Shinsuke Nakamura, in a unification match. In the semi-main, we have Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko taking on the Tokyo Sports Team of the Year 2007, GBH of Togi Makabe and Toru Yano. And just today, a huge dream match was signed. On February 17th, presumably without a run-in finish, Hiroshi Tanahashi will take on AJ Styles! Styles has made it known he wants to become a heavyweight force in Japan, so this is a match to keep an eye on. The rest of the card will be announced in the coming weeks, so I will be sure to keep you updated.
DRAGON GATE DOUBLESHOT: LIVE AT KORAKUEN
Dragon Gate pulled double duty at Korakuen the past two nights, with night one a Dragon Gate event marked by a huge title switch, and night two kicking off WrestleJAM (JapanAmericaMexico) 3. Night One featured a big tag team attraction to kick off the second half, as the team of Keni’chiro Arai and the returning Taku Iwasa defeated the New Hazard reps Cyber Kong and the visiting Austin Aries. Taku pinned Kong with a power move, extremely rare to see, so Taku has not missed a step since his injury, clearly. New Hazard rebounded quickly, however, as in a huge upset, Shingo Takagi and BxB Hulk claimed NOAH’s GHC Junior Tag Titles from Speed Muscle, even though Shingo has never appeared in a NOAH ring! The match was said to be extremely exciting, and after 25 minutes of action, Shingo proved his dominance and pinned Naruki Doi with the Last Falconry, the move that has won him both the ROH Tag Titles and the Triangle Gate. In the main event, fan favorites Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, and K-ness retained their Triangle Gate championship over the visiting team of Ikuto Hidaka, Dick Togo, and Munenori Sawa. However, the talk of the show was the GHC switch. After thinking about it, I see it as nothing but a positive for Dragon Gate. They now have two sets of credible tag champions to defend on shows. This could set up some true dream encounters with NOAH, as well, such as Shingo vs. KENTA. It will also get Dragon Gate’s main men of the future, Shingo and Hulk, into the public view of a bigger promotion, NOAH. Finally, with Shingo’s win, it sets up a HUGE rematch down the line with the Twin Gate on the line. Speaking of the Twin Gate…
Night two of the doubleshot was a WrestleJAM production. Not much of note on this show, other than Speed Muscle retaining their Twin Gate titles over the SAT, with Doi pulling out the Muscular Bomb for the win. The main event was the 3rd JAM Cup, this time a battle royal. PAC won, defeating El Generico in the end to continue their rivalry. There are some big matches upcoming on the tour, such as Masato Yoshino vs. El Generico for the Brave Gate, and AraIwa vs. Gamma and Kanda for Tozawa-juku’s pride (and pants). Past JAM, the big night is February 3rd, when CIMA will make his v4 defense of the Dream Gate, against the King of Gate himself, the Dragon Gate Ace, Gamma. Should CIMA win, he will tie Mochizuki’s record for most successful defenses, and basically everything in DG for the better part of two years has built to this, so ya, big match.
WRAP-UP AND HOMEWORK
Not a lot to write about this week, with NOAH in the middle of their tour doing nothing of note, and many companies on break. Which brings me to my point. What do you guys want to read about? I am going to start recapping Big Japan on the same level of the others, so I would like everyone to search this match out. It’s my deathmatch of the year, and its Takashi Sasaki, Shadow WX, MASADA, and Abdullah Kobayashi vs. Yuko Miyamoto, MEN’s Teioh, Jun Kasai, and Jaki Numazawa from January 2nd. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s a great intro to the main players of Big Japan, and it’s damn good to boot. If somehow, your reading this column and DON’T know how to find this, email me at jmull911@yahoo.com. And everyone else, use that email and tell me what you want to hear about. Zero-ONE? El Dorado? The main companies I write about now? Do you want recap, predictions, match reviews, what? Let me know. And before I sign off, let me pimp a match. Speed Muscle vs. Kanemaru and Aoki from December 28th, for the GHC Junior Tag Titles. It’s clipped, but I was shocked how coherent it remained. Very exciting down the stretch, if you’re into the DG style, I don’t see how you couldn’t like this. And with that, I’m out. Feedback, people. Feedback.
