Welcome back to the article that aims to keep you in the loop with some of the promotions in Japan that keep the news and events coming at a regular pace. This week I will trying to catch you up with the last week and this past week happenings.
If you may not know Central USA has been hit with storm after storm and the previous week I went without power for 48 hours and there was a lot of damage in my community. There were plenty of trees down and a lot of home damage. I have personally be working a lot since then and my site has taken a back seat to the more important issues around me. Though that is not to say that I am done with the site because I am from a long shot to ending this site and I will be trying to write something up and bring all the latest happenings to you all.
So let’s get into the Puroresu goodness, shall we!
NJPW announced that the J-SPORTS CROWN ~ 6 Man Tag Tournament is returning this year and will be taking place on June 21, 22 & 23 @ Tokyo Differ Ariake.
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr.XVIII [ 5/26 to 6/10] All 18 Participants Announced:
A Block:
Prince Devitt (2010 Winner)
Kohji Kanemoto (’98, ’02 & ’09 Winner)
Tiger Mask (’04 & ’05 Winner)
Taichi
Jado [CHAOS]
Davey Richards [CHAOS/ROH]
Fujita “Jr” Hayato [MICHINOKU]
Kenny Omega [DDT]
TJP (TJ Perkins) (First Appearance)
Block B:
Jushin Thunder Liger (’94 & ’01 Winner)
Ryusuke Taguchi
KUSHIDA
Gedo [CHAOS]
The Great Sasuke [MICHINOKU]
TAKA Michinoku [K-DOJO]
Kota Ibushi [DDT]
Daisuke Sasaki [DDT] (first appearance)
Mascara Dorada [CMLL]
NJPW “NEW JAPAN ALIVE 2011”, 5/1/2011 (Sun) 17:00 @ Kumamoto City Distribution and Information Hall
(1) King Fale vs. Kyosuke Mikami
(2) Manabu Nakanishi & KSUHIDA vs. Jado & Gedo
(3) Prince Devitt, Ryusuke Taguchi & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Davey Richards, Rocky Romero & Mascara Dorada
(4) Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson & Tama Tonga vs. Takashi Iizuka, Yujiro Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito
(5) Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Tiger Mask vs. Satoshi Kojima, TAKA Michinoku & Taichi
(6) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzna, Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Toru Yano, Masato Tanaka & Tomohiro Ishii
The card for the 5/3 NJPW “Wrestling Dontaku”.
Tanahashi and Nakamura will be facing one off against one another in the main event. Tanahashi is coming in as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and Nakamura always has his eyes set on the getting the belt around his waist. These two have a historic past and really no nothing to be said about. Though NJPW has been kind enough to post a history of these two in 4 of their stronger matches from the 1/4/05 for the U-30 Belt, 12/10/06, 1/4/08, and 11/8/09 of their IWGP Heavyweight Title Matches. If you want to be more familiar with both guys this is a good video to do just that. No better way to understand how this match is being build that watching it for yourself.
With the update also comes the quick return of Hirooki Goto who has spent the last month in Mexico with CMLL. Makabe and Kojima will yet again be going against one another. Both men are currently holding wins over each other so this match is aiming to be the decision on who is really the better man. NO LIMIT are finally back in title contention as they go up against Bad Intentions. Richards & Romero return to Japan to go after the Jr Tag Titles. Both men have shown they work well together in the past, but is that enough to take out Japan’s strongest tag teams?
Tanaka got the upset over Nagata the other weekend and has in turn created a singles match between the two to happen at the big PPV. Will Tanaka get the win again or will Nagata prove that he didn’t win two of the bigger singles tournaments in Japan for reason?
Davey Richards & Rocky Romero have a title shot for the Jr Tag Belts against Apollo55, Devitt and Taguchi. Richards has been competing in solid matches for NJPW for the last year and has shown traits of a solid competitor there. Romero has wrestled off and on in Japan in his career and himself and Richards make for a strong union. Personally I am sort of foreseeing a possible title change in the works here, but who knows at this stage. It would definitely be a big plus for Richards and Romero to appear at the NJPW USA invasions shows as champions.
NJPW “Wrestling Dontaku 2011”, 5/3/2011 (Tues) @ Fukuoaka Kukosai Center
(1) Manabu Nakanishi, Tomaoki Honma & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jado, Gedo & Killer Rabbit
(2) Tiger Mask & KUSHIDA vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi
(3) Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Wataru Inoue & King Fale vs. Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka & Tomohiro Ishii
(4) CMLL World Middleweight Championship Match: [Champion] Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Mascara Dorada
(5) IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match: [Champions] “Apollo 55” Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Davey Richards & Rocky Romero ~ 4th Defense.
(6) IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match: [Champions] “Bad Intentions” Giant Bernard & “The Machine Gun” Karl Anderson vs. “NO LIMIT” Yujiro Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito ~ 7th Defense.
(7) Special Tag Match: Hirooki Goto & Tama Tonga vs. Takashi Sugiura [NOAH] & Makoto Hashi
(8) Special Singles Match: Yuji Nagata vs. Masato Tanaka [ZERO1]
(9) Special Singles Match: Togi Makabe vs. Satoshi Kojima
(10) IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: [Champion] Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura ~ 3rd Defense.
NJPW “NEW JAPAN LIVE IN OKAYAMA”, 5/4/2011 (Wed) 17:00 @ Okayama Prefecture Orange Center Hall
(1) Kyosuke Mikami & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jado & Gedo
(2) Manabu Nakanishi, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Wataru Inoue, KUSHIDA & Mascara Dorada
(3) Tomoaki Honma & King Fale vs. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii
(4) Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson, Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Yujiro Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito, Davey Richards & Rocky Romero
(5) Togi Makabe, Hirooki Goto & Tama Tonga vs. Satoshi Kojima, TAKA Michinoku & Taichi
(6) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yoshihiro Tenzan & Yuji Nagata vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Takashi Iizuka & Masato Tanaka
NJPW has also announced the card for the 5/13 show. This event will be sort of like a NEVER show, but on a bigger scale with some of the major players who are not going to the USA for the NJPW Invasion Shows. At the show we will see the debut of New Japan’s latest rookie Watanabe. Goto who is now turning into a full blown heel will be taking on another heel in Tomohiro Ishii. Also the match that should get a lot of people stirred up is the fact that Nagata and Akiyama will yet again be across the ring from another. These two have a historic past and this match could be the start of for us seeing them potentially squaring off one on one once again.
NJPW “Life Goes On!”, 5/13/2011 (Fri) @ Shinjuku Face in Tokyo
(1) NEVER.SPECIAL I ~ Takaaki Watanabe Debut: Hiromu Takahashi vs. Takaaki Watanabe
(2) NEVER.SPECIAL II: Wataru Inoue vs. Kyosuke Mikami
(3) NEVER.SPECIAL III: Tomoaki Honma & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Keisuke Ishii [DDT] & Shigehiro Irie [Team Dera]
(4) NEVER.SPECIAL IV: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Taishi Takizawa [K-DOJO]
(5) KUSHIDA & Kota Ibushi [DDT] vs. Taichi & TAKA Michinoku [K-DOJO]
(6) Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii
(7) Yuji Nagata & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Jun Akiyama [NOAH] & Tamon Honda
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NOAH’s 2011 Global Tag Leagu just ended and STERNNESS Jun Akiayam & Akitoshi Saito emerged the winners.
Akiyama and Saito met the team of GHC Heavyweight Champion Takashi Sugiura and Mohammed Yone in the final deciding match and Saito picked up the win after landing the Death Brand on Sugiura at the 20:45 mark.
Soon after their win they spent no wasting second in calling out the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions to a match on 5/8 in which the champions agreed.
Naomichi Marufuji will be out of action for the the time being. On 4/16 Marufuji and KENTA seemed to be fighting each other like normal, but Marufuji fell down after a kick from KENTA and was holding his neck. Right now they are suspecting it to be suffering from a cervical spondylotic radiculopathy degenerative condition. Which can be summed up to a pinched nerve in his upper vertebrae and he is scheduled to have test done ASAP. As of right now there is no news on if he will be able to come back to the ring, but given he also suffered a serious injury last year as well and came back. Only time can tell at this point.
Yesterday in Japan (4/29) Marufuji and Aoki relinquished the GHC Junior Heavy Tag Titles. KENTA though has made a stand that himself and Genba Hirayanagi want the belts.
NOAH has announced that Kotaro Suzuki will be defending the GHC Junior belt against Ricky Marvin.
Marvin as of late has been showing more physicality and intensity in his matches and been aiming to get his name out there as a strong singles competitor. These two are no strangers to one another and have even been tag champions together in the past, but that will mean nothing once these two face off in the ring. Will Suzuki prove yet again that it is his time to be called the champion or will Marvin finally get the big break that he needs?
Yone will be taking on all of his ex- DISOBEY team members in a 1 on 3 handicap match. This has been a feud that has been brewing for over a month now and Yone is looking for retribution with this match that he personally requested to take place.
Of course the main event for the match will be Takashi Sugiura defending the GHC Heavyweight title against Minoru Suzuki in what should be a technical and possibily brutal contest between the two. Suzuki is known to take a full on beating before finally falling. The you got Sugiura who is aiming to become the new ironman in Japan by getting to 13 defenses with the GHC belt to tie with the current record holder Kenta Kobashi. This will be his 11th defense against Suzuki.
NOAH “GREAT VOYAGE 2011 in Tokyo vol.2”, 5/8/2011 (Sun) @ Ariake Colosseum
(1) Atsushi Aoki, Taiji Ishimori & Mikey Nicholls vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima [K-O], Kento Miyahara [K-O] & Satoshi Kajiwara [Kensuke Office]
(2) Masao Inoue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga [Free]
(3) Takeshi Morishima & Yutaka Yoshie [Free] vs. Kensuke Sasaki [K-O] & Takashi Okita [K-O]
(4) Go Shiozaki vs. Shuhei Taniguchi
(5) Special 1 vs. 3 Handicap Match ~ Yone vs. NO MERCY: Mohammed Yone vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, KENTA & Genba Hirayanagi
(6) GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: [Champion] Kotaro Suzuki vs. Ricky Marvin
~ 5th Title Defense
(7) GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match: [Champions] Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano vs. Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito
~ 4th Title Defense.
(8) GHC Heavyweight Championship Match: [Champion] Takashi Sugiura vs. Minoru Suzuki [Pancrase MISSION]
~ 11th Title Defense
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The All Japan Junior Tag League 2011 ended today in Japan and have emerged victorious.
Kaz Hayashi & KAI beat the team of Kohji Kanemoto & Minoru, better known as Junior Stars, today in what could be a big win for KAI as he pinned the current Junior Heavyweight Champion Minoru with the Splash Plancha at the 30:45 mark.
This shall definitely earn KAI a title match in the near future and I will keep you all up to date on any further developments.
All Japan’s next set of events starts on 5/15 as they start the RISE UP TOUR 2011 and it will run from 5/15 to 5/29.
All Japan “RISE UP TOUR 2011”, 5/15/2011 (Sun) 12:00 @ Korakuen Hall
() Suwama & Masakatsu Funaki vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi
We can expect this next tour to be doing a lot to build up the 6/19 show in which Suwama will defend the Triple Crown against Yuji Nagata. Also with how things are going this could be the time where the possibility of Minoru and KAI could meet as AJP will be putting a lot of bigger matches and title matches into this event.
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SMASH Live in Nagoya, 5/1/2011
() Akira & Takao Omori vs. Hide Kubota & Yasu Kubota
() TAJIRI vs. Akito
() Akira vs. Leatherface
() Shuri vs. Serena Deeb
() TAJIRI & Ultimo Dragon vs. Starbuck & Hajime Ohara
SMASH.17 in Tokyo, 5/3/2011
() Yoshiaki Yago vs. Leatherface
() Shuri & Hikaru Shida vs. Mio Shirai & Io Shirai
() Shinya Ishikawa [BJW] vs. Starbuck
() Kana vs. Serena Deeb
() Main Event: 3WAY Ladder & Dash to Belt Match: TAJIRI & Makoto vs. Hajime Ohara & Jessica Love vs. Micheal Kovac & Lin “Bitch” Bairon
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KAIENTAI DOJO will be starting their “Golden Week Special” started this week and they will be running 6 shows pretty much back to back. There are many big matches signed as well as some up and coming big names a part of the shows as well. From NOAH’s Go Shiozaki, Sekimoto & Okabayashi from BJW, and Kota Ibushi & Yoshihiko from DDT Pro. Definitely going to be some descent shows and with all the K-DOJO belts on the line throughout the week and a tournament to crown a new 6 Man Tag Champion we could quite possibly see some history made as well.
Today [4/30] K-DOJO crowned their first 6 Man Tag Team Champions with Little☆Galaxy: Shiori Asahi, Yuki Sato & Hiro Tonai. They beat Taishi Takizawa, Kaji Tomato & Marines Mask in the finals of the one day tournament.
K-DOJO “GWSP6”, 5/1/2011 (Sun) 13:00 @ Chiba BlueField
(1) Yuki Sato vs. Benham Ali
(2) Shiori Asahi & Makoto Oishi vs. Kaji Tomato & Marines Mask
(3) Kengo Mashimo & Ryuichi Sekine vs. Saburo Inamatsu & Randy Takuya
(4) Taishi Takizawa vs. Go Shiozaki [NOAH]
(5) UWA World Middleweight Championship Match: [Champion] Yasu Urano vs. Daigoro Kashiwa
K-DOJO “GWSP6”, 5/3/2011 (Tue) 13:00 @ Chiba BlueField
(1) Saburo Inamatsu vs. Shiori Asahi
(2) JOE & Randy Takuya vs. Owen Phoenix & Benham Ali
(3) Ryuichi Sekine vs. Ricky Fuji
(4) Hiro Tonai vs. Ikuto Hidaka [ZERO1]
(5) STRONGEST-K TAG Championship Match: [Champions] Kengo Mashimo & Ryuichi Sekine vs. “SEX-MEN” Munenori Sawa [BattlARTS] & Hikaru Sato [Pancrase MISSION]
K-DOJO “GWSP6”, 5/4/2011 (Wed) 13:00 @ Chiba BlueField
(1) Kaji Tomato vs. Hiro Tonai
(2) Daigoro Kashiwa & Ryuichi Sekine vs. Saburo Inamatsu & Toru Sugiura [DEP]
(3) Taishi Takizwa vs. Quiet Storm
(4) Yuji Hino & Benham Ali vs. KAZMA & Owen Phoenix
(5) Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: [Champion] Tigers Mask [Osaka] vs. Marines Mask
K-DOJO “GWSP6”, 5/5/2011 (Thurs) 13:00 @ Chiba BlueField
(1) Quiet Storm & Lightning Bousou Boy Raito vs. Taishi Takizawa & Toru Sugiura [DEP]
(2) Shiori Asahi & Hiro Tonai vs. Owen Phoenix & Benhamm Ali
(3) Kengo Mashimo, Ryuichi Sekine & Yuu Yamagata vs. Saburo Inamatsu, Randy Takuya & Bambi
(4) Tigers Mask [Osaka] & Marines Mask vs. Daigoro Kashiwa & Kaji Tomato
(5) KAIENTAI★DX The Final Countdown 4: TAKA Michinoku & HIROKI vs. Dick Togo & Yasu Urano [DDT]
(6) CHAMPION OF STRONGEST-K Championship Match: [Champion] Yuji Hino vs. KAZMA
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Shinjiro Ohtani made the announcement that Masaaki Mochizuki will be facing Daichi Hashimoto on the ZERO1 5/23 show @ Korakuen Hall. Mochizuki is of course the new Open the Dream Gate Champion, so that makes things ever more so interesting that a young lion even gets a singles match against a champion. Of course Daichi’s career so far has been unlike any young lions in the past, so it will be great to see how Daichi can hold his own in this match.
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Also in the coming week is the debut for Yuichiro Nagashima as a pro wrestler.
New information has come out in regards to the anime based characters in the opening match of the show. Weiβ Schwarz is the trading card game company behind the show and we will be seeing a lot of anime references in the show. Black★Rock Shooter has finally been announced to being portrayed by Erika Ura who has spent time in the ring outside of her being a j-idol. The match is centered around the anime “Black★Rock Shooter” and she will be facing a now announced enemy of the show by the name Dead Master. Also another character has finally been brought to life and that is “Emperor” Schwarz who has a striking resemblance to one Yoshihiro Takayama.
“BUSHIROAD ~ Nagashima ☆Jienotsu☆ Yuichiro’s Pro Wrestling Debut”, 5/5/2011 (Thur) 18:30 @ Tokyo Korakuen Hall
() Yuichiro ☆Jienotsu☆ Nagashima vs. Kohei Sato [ZERO1]
() Masato Tanaka & Kenta Kakinuma [ZERO1] vs. Manabu Nakanishi & King Fale [NJPW]
() Weiβ “Weiss” & “Emperor” Schwarz vs. Shinjiro Ohtani & Ryouji Sai [ZERO1]
() Black★Rock Shooter vs. Dead Master (Mysterious Masked Man)
Also announced to compete:
Kota Ibushi, Danshoku Dino & Micheal Nakazawa [DDT]
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That is all for this week be sure to follow Puroresu Spirit around the net. For all the latest happening brought to you on a daily basis.
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Questions or comments, send them to: PuroSpirit@gmail.com
This Week in Japanese Pro Wrestling: Keeping the Spirit Alive V.7 (4/30/2011)
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