This week focuses on the NTV Cup and various news items, including a veritable feast of news from New Japan, word of Antonio Inoki’s latest venture and news of Japanese wrestlers joining the biggest compaines in America.
Results
Dragon Gate: Dragon Gate had their first 2 shows in the USA this week. The 9/5 LA show featured Shingo Takagi defeating Pac, Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka defending their Open The Twin Gate Titles against the Young Bucks and the Real Hazard trio of YAMATO, Gamma & Yasushi Kanda retaining the Triangle Gate titles against Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi and BxB Hulk. The 9/8 show at Waikiki Shell, Hawaii saw more of the younger competitors get a chance to show their wares, while also seeing Genki Horiguchi successfully defend the Open the Brave Gate.
The 9/11 Korakuen show saw Shingo & Dragon Kid beat the team of Masaaki Mochizuki & Taka Michinoku.
New Japan: Togi Makabe & Toru Yano retained their IWGP Heavyweight Tag team titles, defeating Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto at the 9/5 Korakuen Hall show. This happened when Giant Bernard & Rick Fuller cost their RISE team mates the win and sided with Makabe’s GBH group. At the same show Tiger Mask’s 1st challenger for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title was determined when Low-Ki returned after a long injury initiated absence and attacked the mask of Tiger Mask. The match will go down on the 9/21 Kobe World Hall show. This was the most eventful show in a busy week for New Japan, as they had 4 shows into 8 days.
Pro Wrestling NOAH: The Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League concluded at the 6/9 Budokan Hall show, but that wasn’t the biggest news as Kensuke Sasaki defeated Takeshi Morishima to win the GHC Heavyweight Title and become the 1st man to hold the Triple Crown, GHC and IWGP Heavyweight Titles. KENTA & Taiji Ishimori had to defeat Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru twice in a row to walk away triumphant as the winners of the NTV Cup. NOAH’s most heelish student, Genba Hirayanagi, is now a close associate of Kanemaru & Suzuki. The show also featured a great match between the Briscoe Brothers and Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kota Ibushi.
Zero1: Zero1 also had a show on 6/9 at the Kimitsu Aquamarine Studio. This was a one night Tag team tournament called the Passion Cup. The eventual winners, Ryouji Sai & Kohei Sato, defeated the team of Masato Tanaka & Ikuto Hidaka in the semi finals ad Shinjiro Ohtani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa in the final.
News
All Japan: Ryuji Hijikata’s next Jr Heavyweight title defence is against NOAH wrestler Naomichi Marufuji. Marufuji, who debuted in All Japan 10 years ago, was in the year below Hijikata at the same High School in Saitama. This will be held at the 9/28 Yokohama Bunka show, where Akira Raijin will wrestle in his fair well match for All Japan after signing a 2 year contract with TNA.
Dragon Gate: The 9/28 Fukui show will see Shingo Takagi defend the Open the Dream Gate against Taka Michinoku and Saito & Yokosuka defend the Open the Twin Gate Titles against Doi & Yoshino.
New Japan: Firstly, youngsters Yujiro and Tetsuya Naito announced that they will enter Pro Wrestling NOAH, with an aim to gain the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Titles from Kanemaru & Suzuki. Their first experience will be a dark match against Suzuki & Genba Hirayanagi at Ring of Honor’s 9/14 Differ Ariake show.
Two G1 Tag League teams have been announced: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & All Japan’s Satoshi Kojima and Manabu Nakanishi & Dradition’s Yutaka Yoshie. Both will be very formidable teams and have experience working together, making them both strong teams.
New Japan announced a new Sub brand which will commence on 10/20 at Osaka World Hall: LEONIS. This is a series of shows focussed on New Japan’s younger wrestlers, such as Hirooki Goto, Ryusuke Taguchi, Milano Collection AT, Mitsuhide Hirasawa and Shinsuke Nakamura.
The most shocking news is that Naofumi Yamamoto, a member of the 2002 dojo which produced Nakamura, Taguchi and Goto, has signed a contract with the WWE, having passed an official try out in April. Yamamoto had been on a learning excursion since November 2007, spending a lot of time at WWE development promotion FCW as Mr. Yamamoto, a Mr Fuji style Japanese heel. I wish him the best of luck but find it ironic that Yamamoto announced his joining the WWE after the high profile try outs given to Takeshi Morishima and Go Shiosaki.
Following on from my article last week on rumours of the Super J Cup, Masahiro Chono’s PREMIUM brand announced 2 Jr Heavyweight matches as “Road to the Super J Cup†matches.
This week Wrestling Observer announced that Riki Choshu had been ousted as the New Japan booker. The current booking team consists of Jushin Thunder Liger, Gedo and Jado.
Pro Wrestling NOAH: In the most devastating news possible for NOAH, Kenta Kobashi will be out for 2-6 months as he rehabilitates his right arm after being diagnosed with Ulnar Nerve Paralysis that had prevented him from being able to grip with that hand. This is bad news for Kobashi, who must all ready been feeling emotionally strained after his mother was diagnosed with cancer. This makes any chance of Kobashi having another singles match before retirement seem very small.
Sasaki’s first title defence will be against Mohammed Yone in Osaka on 9/27.
ProWres Expo 2008: This is a series of 3 Sumo Hall shows held on 10/24 and 10/25, run by Masahiro Chono and Antonio Inoki. This is a tag team tournament and the organisers aim to have 50 wrestlers from 18 countries take part. Talent from Argentina, Australia, Austria, France, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, Norway, Samoa, South Africa and the USA have been announced
Down the Tube
This weeks treat is a match from NOAH’s 9/6 Budokan Hall show: Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kota Ibushi. The second part is found here. As an extra bonus, that has absolutely nothing to do with anything I’ve talked about this week, here is former Toryumon and NOAH heel extraordinaire SUWA’s take on young British Wrestlers.
Shills
Pulse Glazer looks at ROH’s shows in Tokyo this weekend.
John Wiswell looks at the evolving character of Jimmy Jacobs in ROH
NTV Cup Analysis
At the 9/6 Budokan Hall show NOAH’s second Nippon TV Cup Jr Heavyweight Tag League came to a close. For the second year running it was won by KENTA & Taiji Ishimori, although they had to win two matches in one night after achieving a points draw with GHC Jr Heavyweight Tag Champions Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru.
KENTA & Ishimori were joint top with 10 points, losing only to the teams of the Briscoe Brothers and Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kota Ibushi. It took a win on the last day of the tournament against the team who had, up till then, not lost in the tournament: Suzuki & Kanemaru. After beating Suzuki & Kanemaru the teams had to wrestle again in the tournament final. This gives them some momentum going into their now inevitable shot at Suzuki & Kanemaru’s GHC Jr Tag Team Titles.
Kanemaru & Suzuki only lost on the last day and had not lost before then, drawing to the Briscoes and Bryan Danielson & Davey Richards. Despite losing the finals they added a new edge to their team as they were joined by the student Genba Hirayanagi. Hirayanagi assisted them throughout the two matches at the Budokan hall show and could become one of NOAH’s best heels, with the crowd exploding when KENTA got his hands on him. This trio look to be a strong force in NOAH’s Jr Heavyweight ranks and are currently the closest thing NOAH has to a heel stable.
Two teams came joint 3rd: with 9 points. The Briscoe Brothers and Danielson & Richards, all of whom joined NOAH due to their links with ROH. The Briscoes had one of the best matches of the tour against Nakajima & Ibushi, only losing to the gaijin teams of Danielson & Richards and Ricky Marvin & Eddie Edwards. The Briscoes were booked strong and showed a more restrained in ring style, toning down the number of spots and the complexity of their double teams. The Briscoes have cemented their place as NOAH’s main regular Gaijin tag team and are refining their style.
Danielson & Richards had a poor year last year and were only one of three returning teams (all of whom got 9 or more points) but this year their familiarity with each other paid off. Both wrestled very intelligently, very similar to a team of two Dynamite Kid’s and they only dropped points to the finalists and Nakajima & Ibushi. This was a great way of warming the crowd up to Danielson as he challenges for Kanemaru’s GHC Jr Title on ROH’s 9/14 show at Differ Ariake.
The 5th placed team were the two Japanese outsiders, Nakajima & Ibushi. The two young phenoms on the independent Jr Heavyweight circuit had a good tournament and impressed before falling just short. I would not be surprised if NOAH try to sign Ibushi permanently in the next 2 years if they can, as he displays a lot of fire alongside his great spots and striking. Nakajima looks very solid but he has not come on much more then the level he was at last year in All Japan. Then again, no footage of their match with KENTA & Ishimori has been seen, if it was taped, and this could have been the match of the tour. Both young men have a good future ahead of them.
After a poor start Marvin & Edwards managed to pick up 5 points, losing most of their matches but picking up points against the Briscoes and the 2 teams below them. Both these guys are fairly direction less at the moment but Marvin could look to gain revenge after Suzuki turned on him. Edwards will keep getting bookings as he is someone who NOAH are slowly training up as their own lower card gaijin jobber. That his finisher is called the Wakaranai Cutter (this translates as the “I don’t understand†cutter) is a nice touch and adds a bit more personality to a very competent youngster.
The 7th placed team were the two NOAH students, Atsushi Aoki & Akihiko Ito. The pair looked very good in their opening match where they beat tournament losers Naomichi Marufuji and Kento Miyahara, showing a lot of great tag team psychology. Aoki continues to impress and Ito looks better then I had seen him for some time. This tournament has had me very impressed with the NOAH students and I think that Aoki could be NOAH’s next great Jr Heavyweight.
In last place were Marufuji & Miyahara, a young trainee from Kensuke Office. Miyahara picked up all the falls as the mismatched pairing managed to only win one match, beating Nakajima and Ibushi. The fact that he didn’t drop a fall should keep this from affecting Marufuji’s credibility and Miyahara gained a fair bit of experience.
In summary, this was a good tournament that produced an intriguing final, some great matches and saw the genesis of what could be two great teams if they stick together: Nakajima & Ibushi and Danielson & Richards. While the latter teamed together last year they have really gelled and have a great feel as a no nonsense, beat you down style Jr tag team with a very sound technical base. I am looking forward to the release of these shows but I feel that this tournament won’t do enough in of itself to revitalise NOAH’s Jr. Heavyweight division. Inserting Nakajima, playing up the Danielson & Richards team and maybe even bringing in some new blood (Yujiro and Naito would be a very welcome addition) would all be positive steps, as would Danielson defeating Kanemaru for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight title at the 9/14 ROH show.
Last thoughts
The NTV cup has been and gone, bringing some new developments and some good matches. New Japan has been churning out more news bites then the BBC and Dragon Gate made what could be a very positive step with two good shows in the USA, even if the attendance was low compared to NOAH’s European Navigation in England. However, the news and results look bleak for NOAH, with their booking screaming of short sightedness and an inability to trust their young talent.
