This week we have some interesting news from Zero1, the first batch of Results from NOAH’s NTV Cup and news of Go Shiosaki’s first title win. In addition to this we will be looking at the aftermath of Dragon Gate’s Summer Adventure Tag League and analysing the results for NOAH’s NTV cup . Although I promised coverage of the G1 Climax in the last column I felt that Ditch’s last Puro Pulse was a great summary and that my thought’s weren’t needed.
Results
All Japan: The Korakuen Hall show on 8/22 saw former TNA Road Agent Scott D’Amore make a rare foreign excursion. D’Amore teamed with Phil Atlas and veteran Osamu Nishimura, beating Tokyo Gurentai by D’Amoralizer. Tag Team Champions Minoru Suzuki and Taiyo Kea beat the strong face team of Joe Doering and Suwama while Satoshi Kojima beat his former Voodoo Murders team mate TARU by DQ. This lead to a Voodoo Murders beat down on Kojima which was broken up by a run in from Kojima’s former Tag partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan. New Japan invaded to set up for Hirooki Goto’s challenge for Keiji Mutoh’s IWGP Heavyweight Title on the 8/31 Sumo Hall show, with Goto and Shinsuke Nakamura beating Mutoh and Akira Raijin.
Dragon Gate: After 6 Straight days of Summer Adventure Tag League shows the final 4 announced for the 8/28 Korakuen Hall Show were: YAMATO & Cyber Kong, Shingo Takagi & Dragon Kid, Susumu Yokosuka & Ryo Saito and Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi. That is a good mix of established tag teams and newly formed teams. YAMATO and Cyber Kong seemed favourites due to them beating all 3 of the other teams in the tournament but they lost in the semi’s after Shingo beat Cyber Kong using a Doujime Sleeper. The two regular teams clashed in the other semi, with Doi managing to pin Yokosuka after a series of reversals. The final came down to the veteran tag team vs. the Open the Dream Gate champion and Dragon Kid. Yoshino pinned his long time rival Dragon Kid with a Lightening Spiral, winning the Summer Adventure Tag league for the second year running.
HUSTLE: HUSTLE held 2 shows this week, on 8/21 and 8/23, featuring 2nd Round matches for the HUSTLE GP Tournament. 8/21 saw New Japan’s Shiro Koshinaka beat Puroresu legend Genichiro Tenryu and Wataru Sakata pin Toshiaki Kawada. 8/23 saw a big upset in the second round, with Osaka Pro wrestler Zeus beating former IWGP champion Bob Sapp. HUSTLE seem to be placing a lot of faith in Zeus with a huge win over Sapp, arguably the biggest name he’s beaten in his career.
New Japan: 8/26 saw a show for referee “Red Shoes†Unno’s 20th anniversary of being a referee. As expected the legendary trio of Riki Choshu, Masa Chono and Genichiro Tenryu beat their GBH opponents, pinning Tomoaki Honma. The team of Tiger Masks 1 and 4 was also successful, beating Jado and Gedo by a Tiger Suplex (what else?) from Tiger Mask 4 on Gedo.
Pro Wrestling NOAH: NOAH kicked off the Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League (NTV cup for short) at the 8/23 Korakuen Hall show. This featured a huge upset with the Student team of Atsushi Aoki & Akihiko Ito beating Naomichi Marufuji & Kento Miyahara, with Ito pinning Miyahara with a Dragon Suplex. Three shows have taken place so far, with each being headlined by 6 man matches featuring Kenta Kobashi.
Zero1: At the 8/24 Shin Kiba 1st Ring show rising youngster Munenori Sawa lost to Kohei Sato while his tag team partner Ikuto Hidaka teamed with Shito Ueda against BattlArts representatives Yuki Ishikawa and Yuta Yoshikawa. The BattlArts team won and will get a title shot for Hidaka and Sawa’s NWA International Lightweight Tag titles at an upcoming BattlArts show.
At the 8/29 Korakuen Hall show Yugi Nagata defeated Shinjiro Ohtani in the main event. This gives Nagata, unbeaten in this feud, a lot of momentum for the inevitable match with Masato Tanaka. In other picks from the show, Hidaka managed to defend his International Jr Heavyweight
title against Ryusuke Taguchi and Kohei Sato took Big Japan’s Daisuke Sekimoto to a 30 minute draw and Takao Omori won his last match in Zero1, a 6 man match between the Axe army and Sword army factions.
News
Dragon Gate: Dragon Gate student Yuki Ono has resigned from Dragon Gate. Ono debuted in 2005. In 2007 he left the Dragon Gate Dojo for a few weeks before returning and starting a new direction: very charming fat guy. This really caught on with the fans and rumours suggest that Ono enjoyed the direction as he could eat as much as he wanted. He formed a tag team with Akira Tozawa as the Metabolic Brothers. Ono had been pushed to one side in his unit, Tozawa Juku, due to the presence of the more talented Kenichiro Arai and Taku Iwasa and new members El Generico and Shinobu. This is an interesting situation as Katsuo seemed to be gaining a connection with the fans but he had a history of problems with the Dragon Gate dojo. Time will tell whether he decides to leave wrestling all together or whether he heads to promotions like El Dorado or DDT. In other news, Taka Michinoku is planning on returning to Dragon gate and has an Open the Dream Gate title shot in his sights.
New Japan: After weeks of Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Koji Kanemoto’s watching each others backs the two are set to team up in New Japan for the first time in a while. The pair will team on the 9/5 Korakuen Hall show, taking on the GBH duo of Takashi Iizuka and Karl Anderson. On the same show IWGP Tag Champs Togi Makabe and Toru Yano defend their titles against the RISE duo of Shinsuke Nakamura and Hirooki Goto.
Pro Wrestling NOAH: Following up from last week, it seems like Takeshi Morishima will be staying put in NOAH for a while. According to the WON, Jonny Ace had worked out a deal with NOAH management. Vince cancelled the deal when he saw Morishima, thinking he was too fat. Supposedly, Michael Hayes had heard the comparisons between Morishima and Terry Gordy and bad mouthed Morishima because he was insulted by people saying that he was as good as Gordy. As to whether this is how things happened, who knows but a recent blog by Jim Ross, which suggested that Morishima needed to lose some weight seems to corroborate this. True or not, this seems to rule out Morishima from joining WWE, which should benefit NOAH in the short term at least.
In other news, Go Shiosaki won his first title, the FIP World Heavyweight Title. Shiosaki won it at the last FIP event, beating Erick Stevens with the Moonsault. This is a good start for Shiosaki and hopefully he can prove that he can work as a title holder.
Zero1: In the big news for Zero1, former All Japan and NOAH wrestler Takao Omori has announced that he is leaving Zero1. He will be taking a brief hiatus from wrestling before looking at his options. Suggested future endeavours include working as a Freelancer or taking roles in All Japan or New Japan. Omori would be a good fit in All Japan, boosting up their star power and maybe even acting as the big threat in the Voodoo Murders stable. This news will rock Zero1 as he was one of their top 4 guys. Since he lead their Axe Army Zero1 has decided to end the Sword Army and Axe Army storyline. His last show will be 8/29.
Down the Tube
This weeks Down the Tube is the best match from last years Pro Wrestling NOAH NTV Cup: Naomichi Marufuji & Kota Ibushi vs. KENTA & Taiji Ishimori. This match is in three parts, found here, here and here. This was one of the best NOAH matches in 2007, a great Jr Heavyweight Tag match that served as a showcase for Ibushi and helped cement KENTA and Ishimori’s status as a team. All four men return for this years competition. KENTA and Ishimori are one of two returning teams while Marufuji teams with Kensuke Office student Kento Miyahara and Ibushi forms a Japanese Jr dream team with Katsuhiko Nakajima.
Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League progress report
After four shows the NTV cup has already begun to take shape. The league is currently being led by 3 teams with 6 points: Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kota Ibushi, KENTA & Taiji Ishimori and Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki. All three teams are unbeaten, although Kanemaru’s team has had 2 time minute draws, against the Briscoes and Bryan Danielson & Davey Richards. In contrast, the other 2 teams have beaten Danielson & Richards. Just behind them are the Briscoes on 5 points.
The winners of the tournament will be one of these four teams. They are facing each other on the last day of the tour at the Budokan so these matches will have that added tension which can turn a good match into a great one. The Briscoes vs. Nakajima & Ibushi will be a good Briscoes style tag match while KENTA & Ishimori vs. Kanemaru & Suzuki will be a very heated grudge match that could be great if Kanemaru is motivated. My picks for the winner will be Nakajima & Ibushi, although any of the top 3 teams could win this.
There is a big gap between 4th and 5th right now. The fifth placed team is the biggest surprise so far: Atsushi Aoki & Akihiko Ito. Ito is rocking some nice black tights while Aoki has had a drastic haircut. Their points were earned when they beat Marufuji and Miyahara in a very competent display of good tag team strategy. Aoki often had the measure of Marufuji on the outside and Ito even managed to drag the former GHC Champion halfway across the Korakuen Hall to buy Aoki some time. Despite this, I can only see these guys picking up 1 or 2 more wins, with them dropping falls to the top teams. The next placed team is Danielson & Richards, with one solitary point. With the exception of their upcoming match against the Briscoes, I can see Danielson and Richards winning all their upcoming matches and moving into 4th or 5th since they have already faced the top 3 teams. Richards came very close to making KENTA tap out with a Texas Cloverhold. The last two teams are the jobbers of this tournament: Ricky Marvin & Eddie Edwards and Naomichi Marufuji & Kento Miyahara. The latter teams form surprised me at first but Miyahara’s experience is a big weak point for his team. I expect both team to pick up a win, possibly over Ito & Aoki. In typical NOAH booking style the inexperienced guys are dropping all the falls, keeping the more experienced guys looking strong.
The matches I’ve seen so far look good and Aoki and Ito look like a solid Jr team who have the tag team basics worked out to a tee. Danielson and Richards look like a great Gaijin Jr team, with a solid strike based style. Nothing too flashy, just solid work with some decent psychology thrown in. Hopefully the potential match of the tour, at the Differ Ariake show on 8/30, will deliver: Nakajima & Ibushi vs. KENTA & Ishimori. You can bet the bank that this will feature much hatred and a multitude of kicks.
Dragon Gate Summer Adventure Tag League analysis
This years Summer Adventure Tag League started with some iffy booking but it has ended up with a decent looking set of semi’s and a really nice looking final. This tournament embodies the focus on 2 man tag team matches ever since Dragon Gate decided to focus on the division and introduce the Open the Twin Gate Titles.
Highest placed team in the group stages was Real Hazard’s Cyber Kong & YAMATO. These two are Dragon Gate guys who were trained after the split from Ultimo Dragon. They both have a good future ahead of them, which is why it’s refreshing that they came top on points and only lost to the team of Taku Iwasa & Kenichiro Arai. This included beating the number 2 team, Dragon Kid & Shingo Takagi, whose loss to Doi & Yoshino left them on 12 points. Speaking of Doi & Yoshino, these two came joint third with OTG Champions Susumu Yokosuka & Ryo Saito, making up the four teams that went through to the Semi finals on the 8/28 Korakuen Hall show.
Iwasa & Arai finished just outside the top 4 with 8 points after a poor start where the lost 3 matches in a row, including a loss to the Young Bucks. Their second half of the tournament made up for it with wins over both Real Hazard teams. It was a shame that they missed out this year but the top four teams make a lot of sense, with a combination of older, established stars and the future of Dragon Gate: Takagi, Cyber Kong and YAMATO. PWG wrestlers the Young Bucks also got 8 points but got them in the opposite fashion to Iwasa & Arai after winning their first four matches. This included a shock win over Yokosuka & Saito. Unfortunately they couldn’t sustain the level of performance needed to get into the top 4 and lost to all the other finalists. I don’t like that they won so many matches as I feel that they are not good enough to deserve wins over the guys they’ve beaten. Part of this is due to hyping up Dragon Gate’s upcoming shows in Los Angeles and Hawaii. Real Hazard’s Veteran Pairing of Yasushi Kanda and Gamma got 6 points, beating the Young Bucks, Doi & Yoshino and Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii. The latter finished last with 2 points, equal with the pairing of BxB Hulk & Naoki Tanisaki. This surprised me since BxB Hulk has had some high profile matches, even though his booking hasn’t been that strong.
1. Cyber Kong & YAMATO [14]
2. Shingo Takagi & Dragon Kid [12]
3. Susumu Yokosuka & Ryo Saito [10]
3. Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino [10]
5. Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson [8]
5. Kenichiro Arai & Taku Iwasa [8]
7. Gamma & Yasushi Kanda [6]
8. Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii [2]
8. BxB Hulk & Naoki Tanisaki [2]
The semi finals were held on the 8/28 Korakuen Hall show. The first Semi was Cyber Kong & YAMATO vs. Takagi & Dragon Kid. This should have been a good match, with Takagi having been cast out of Real Hazard after winning the ODG title due to his defence of his mentor, Cima. Takagi beat his former New Hazard team mate YAMATO by causing a ref stoppage using a Doujime Sleeper.
The second Semi pitted the OTG champs against former Champions Doi & Yoshino. This match could be another good match, with Doi getting the best of Yokosuka by coming out on top of a series of reversals and counters. This set up a potentially great final between Takagi & Dragon Kid and Doi & Yoshino. The final went over 25 minutes but the tag team cohesiveness forged by years of teaming together showed through for Doi & Yoshino as they repeated their achievements from last year by winning the Summer Adventure Tag League.
Summer Adventure Tag League Repercussions
Doi & Yoshino winning the League helps to re-establish World 1 as a powerful force after dropping a lot of falls to Real Hazard. The problem is that they lost to both Real Hazard teams and World 1 are coming off as the worse group. While keeping Real Hazard strong is all well and good this is making World 1 look pretty bad. If booking continues like this for long the group will have lost a lot of it’s reputation. This should also put them in line for an Open the Twin Gate title shot. Shingo Takagi comes off looking strong and the matches against YAMATO & Cyber Kong should really help build anticipation for his first ODG title defence against Cyber Kong. Yokosuka & Saito had a good run, only losing to the other 3 semi finalists, as befits the current Open the Twin Gate champs. All these matches could lead to potential Twin Gate title shots. The biggest winners from this were YAMATO & Cyber Kong. Only losing once in the main tournament to perennial Dark Horses Arai & Iwasa, they looked strong and both Cyber Kong and YAMATO look to be at the level where they can get ODG title shots. This also builds Cyber Kong up strong for his upcoming title shot against Shingo Takagi and makes Real Hazard look like a dominant force.
Iwasa & Arai had a poor start and really shouldn’t have lost to the Young Bucks. They still proved that they are one of the best teams in Dragon Gate with them being the only team to beat both Real Hazard teams. If this leads to Tozawa Juku becoming the number two face stable then that would help to keep the product fresh after the protracted Muscle Outlaw’z – Typhoon and current Real Hazard – World 1 struggles. The Young Bucks had a strong early showing, most likely in order to build up the upcoming Dragon Gate shows in Hawaii and Los Angeles. The Young bucks are the current Gaijin flavour of the month having wrestled on PWG shows with many Dragon Gate wrestlers. The interesting question is how long they last in Dragon Gate after this. I expect the bookings to dry up within 9 months. Gamma and Kanda picked up a couple of big wins but were overshadowed by their team mates YAMATO & Cyber Kong. I doubt that this will lead to unit upheaval, so soon after Real Hazard lost Shingo, so Gamma will still be the de facto leader. The advantage with these two is that they are great at keeping their heat and are invaluable in tournaments like this. The veteran team of Mochizuki & Fujii can also afford to lose falls and aren’t involved in any active story lines. They are currently direction less and this tournament doesn’t seem to have changed much. The biggest loser seems to be BxB Hulk. After main eventing the last World show he only picked up one win and his teams have been dropping a lot of falls to Real Hazard. I hope that he can maintain his heat and that he gets booked better soon as this Hulk is one of the main faces of Dragon Gate this year and they can’t afford to have the fans become apathetic to him.
Last thoughts
Tournament season in Japan is beginning to come to an end and Dragon Gate had a successful Summer Adventure Tag League, putting over some new teams while giving Yoshino & Doi a lot of heat. NOAH’s NTV Cup is looking good, with any of the current top four teams looking to be able to win on the last day. If you love Jr Heavyweight Tag matches then look for these two tournaments when they become available. Next week will cover the rest of the NTV Cup and All Japan’s big show at Sumo Hall.
All information used in this column is gleaned from a multitude of sources. These include Purolove, and the PuroresuFan Network. I will not regularly post my sources but these are some of the best.
