Other News Torch Japan Report: Top Five Stories of the Week including Big Show vs. Akebono
Apr 7, 2005 - 4:32:00 PM
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO BOOKMARK US & VISIT US DAILY
By Mike Sempervive and Keith Lipinski, Torch contributors
1. It's just business. No, really, it is!
Many of you were scratching your heads when it came to WrestleMania's sumo challenge between Big Show and Akebono, and why the non-WWE guy in a diaper went over. Well, for those you may have never seen our past columns, it goes like this: The mighty Akebono, despite being far removed from his sumo heyday and being an god awful K-1 style fighter, still equals mainstream newspaper coverage and great television ratings in Japan. Many times, he pulls those big ratings for Fuji TV – which is one of K-1's favorite networks, which also happens to broadcast WWE's SmackDown.
As you may know, WWE has had grand visions of running the massive Tokyo (Egg) Dome. Not an easy task unless you have a major TV network behind you, print media coverage and hype, and a "native" drawing card to put prominently on the show. It should now be a touch more clear on why everything went down the way it did at WrestleMania XXI. Akebono vs. Big Show in a professional wrestling match could be a huge draw in the future, where salt can be used properly as in being thrown by Mr. Fuji in a proper heelish salt ceremony. This explains why Big Show lost at Wrestlemania, now can someone explain to us when Former WCW World Heavyweight Champion David Arquette joined the Hogan Family (not the Sandy Duncan/Valerie Harper show)?
2. Revenge is a dish best served with gauze, stitches, broken pinkees.
Pride Fighting Championships heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko, who is widely-regarded as the best heavyweight in mixed martial arts, defended his title with a brutal doctor's stoppage TKO (via cuts and sweet blood) of Tsuyoshi "TK" Kohsaka on April 3's Bushido Volume 6 main event at Yokohama Arena. The event will be broadcast on North American PPV beginning on Thursday, April 14th. For Fedor, it was appropriate revenge considering that the only loss on his record came against TK, in a bout that was stopped due to a cut. On three separate occasions during the ten-minute first round, the doctor checked Kohsaka's gash but declared him able to continue. Finally, and mercifully, between rounds the decision was made to stop the fight. In an interesting note, Fedor went straight to the hospital after his fight (and hopefully a refreshing shower) and it was revealed he injured the same finger while bashing in Koshaka's skull that he hurt in the 12/31/04 Saitama fight against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He is unlikely for his fight against Cro Cop for either June 26 OR August 28th. Which is a shame as it was a money fight which has already been previously postponed due to another Fedor arm/hand related injury injury.
Other notable results of Bushido Volume 6 included American Dean Lister winning a four-man tourney to gain entrance into the upcoming Pride Middleweight (205-pound) Grand Prix, Canada's Denis Kang winning in his Pride debut, and Fedor's always sleepy and grumpy looking brother, Alexsander, knocking out Ricardo Morias in 15 seconds. In other Pride news, the lineup for the first round of their 16 man 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix has been announced for April 23rd, 2005 from the Osaka Dome. This lineup looks to be the greatest in MMA tournament history. Here are the first round matches, MMA fans much like Fedor will need a shower after reading this lineup.
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Yoon Dong Sik (South Korea Judo guy making his debut)
Dean Lister vs. Ricardo Arona
Vitor Belfort vs. Alistair Overeem
Yuki Kondo vs. Igor Vovchanchyn
Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Kevin Randleman
Dan Henderson vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Mauricio Shogun
Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Vanderlei Silva
3. Super champ Kojima defending IWGP belt against ex-champs, readies for Carnival (no, not like Spring Break!).
On March 26 in Ryogoku, "quadruple-crown" heavyweight champion Satoshi Kojima made his first successful defense of his New Japan IWGP heavyweight championship by wrestling to a 60-minute draw with former champion "Supernova" Shinsuke Nakamura. The match was billed as the IWGP title vs. Nakamura's flowing hair but, due to the draw, neither one lost a thing. Total shame, but given the men involved the 60 minute draw was for the best as neither man lost steam. Kojima, who also holds All Japan's Triple Crown title, will have his next IWGP title defense against the man he beat for the belt, Hiroyoshi Tenzan at the Tokyo Dome on May 14. Tenzan earned the top contender's spot at the same 3/26 show by defeating both Manabu Nakanishi and Masa Chono in separate matches to earn the position of number one contender. Therefore the two men who had trouble filling the Sumo Hall for their double titles match will now try and fill the enormous Tokyo Dome in a no-time limit match (based on their last two matches). In addition, Kojima is also readying himself for the annual tradition that is the All Japan's Champion's Carnival that begins on April 9. This year's Carnival includes Kojima, Kensuke Sasaki, Love Machine Arashi, Taiyo Kea, Giant Bernard (A-Train portraying the son of legendary Brute Bernard, although the name Brute Bernard Jr. sounds much better) and Shuji Kondo in Block A, and Keiji Mutoh, Toshiaki Kawada, Jamal, Bull Buchannan, Chuck Palumbo, and Kohei Suwama in Block B. The top finishers in each block meet on April 20 in the semifinals and finals on April 20 when the semifinal and final take place on PPV in Yoyogi. The Carnival Tournament will be in competition for wrestling tournament attention with New Japan's creatively titled "New Japan Cup" this month. Take that March madness!
4. NOAH's second dome show brings them closer to DESTINY, the returns of Kawada and Takayama plus dream match of Rikio vs. Tanning bed
Pro Wrestling NOAH, who's first Tokyo Dome show was a critical (Wrestling Observer's 2004 show of the year and match of the year honors for Akiyama vs. Kobashi) and financial success announced over the weekend they would be running their second Tokyo Dome show on July 18th. In a not-so-surprising announcement, NOAH President Mitsuharu Misawa announced he wants fellow high school rival (yes, we're serious here) and the last of the All Japan 1990's big names not leave the company to work for NOAH Toshiaki Kawada to work the show. A Kawada vs. Misawa match after 5 years apart would definitely help fill out the Dome, unless Kawada wrestles under his Hustle-K character (even though that could be highly entertaining). Rumored for the Tokyo Dome are the long awaited Jun Akiyama vs. Genichiro Tenryu match, as well as the possible debuts of BOTH Fujita & Kensuke Sasaki into NOAH. Most importantly the possible return of Yoshihiro Takayama who most likely will wrestle his first match since being diagnosed with cerebral thrombosis on 8/8/2004 after a G-1 Climax match against Kensuke Sasaki in a New Japan ring in which Takayama passed out on a couch shortly after the match was over. In GHC title notes, Dark Agent leader and at one time the greatest mullet in puroresu, Akitoshi Saito will get the first shot at Takeshi Rikio's GHC Heavyweight Title for 4/24 at Nippon Budokan Hall show. Saito in the press said if no-one else wanted it, he'd like to have a crack. I guess the GHC title is very lonely right now, probably due to Rikio not wearing it around the house/NOAH dojo due to injury. Rikio, and this is not a bit, suffered a deep skin burn last week as he stayed in his tanning booth too long (much like a forgotten Thunder angle where PPH #44 guest Chuck Palumbo was trapped in a tanning booth).
5. Important historic and influential wrestling promotion closes doors on 4/17.
On April 17, in conjunction with Zero-One MAX, All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling will run its final show at Korakuen Hall and then officially fold the company after 37 years. AJW was founded in 1968 by the Matsunaga brothers, and is directly responsible for producing a majority of the greatest women's wrestlers and teams (Akira Hokuto, Manami Toyota, Bull Nakano, The Beauty Pair and The Crush Gals, to name a few) and events (November 1994's incredibly lucrative Tokyo Dome show, for one) in history. Most of the intellectual property of the company – including the WWWA World Women's championship – is being sold to Zero-One. The title belt is key due to it having the ability to manipulate its lineage as far back as 1932 (possibly earlier), and is arguably the most prestigious, as Mildred Burke laid claim to the title in 1937, created the WWWA in Los Angeles with it in the 50's, and immediately added credibility to the All Japan Women's promotion when it debuted.
OTHER NOTES
Hero's (Maeda's new MMA promotion) first show on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) was an 11.8% Which is nice, but not as high as K-1 shows. The show saw two of their promising Asian draws Yoshihiro Akiyama and Kim Min-Soo go down in defeat to Jerome Le Banner and Electra star Bob Sapp respectively…
Akira Hokuto, who's was in line as the number one contender World Jr. title after making Kendo KaShin disappear off the face of wrestling last year after their All Japan match, nominated "adopted sun" Katsuhiko Nakajima to face TAKA Michinoku for the World Jr. Title she also, like any good mom, nominated herself to be special guest referee for the bout… The Wrestle-1/Big Mouth show schedule for 4/23 has been postponed due to "unknown reasons"...
Seven out of the eight Differ Cup tag team tournament teams have been named for the two day event May, they are: Akarangers (GENTARO & Takashi Sasaki), Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka, Hustle Ikamen Kaz Hayashi & Leonardo Spanky, KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji, Iifushi Kota & KUDO, Super Shisa & Tigre Imperial, TAKA Michinoku & X. Hopefully X is "Akira Hokuto"…
New Japan announced that Seiji Sakaguchi would retire from New Japan after 32 years with the company, but he would remain an informal advisor to upper management. He stated his two biggest regrets were not keeping lost in the WWE shuffle star Kenzo Suzuki on the New Japan roster, and never following up with a dream match against Bob Sapp…Yuji Nagata announced his heel turn very politely during a press conference where he started he wouldn't let New Japan hold him back anymore…
Masa Chono and his Black New Japan stable are running a show on 5/29 at the Korakuen Hall called "Black Hole" which is appealing to the ladies, oh that Chono… After the last NOAH show, Minoru Suzuki who has a moniker of "the worlds worst man" is hopefully taking Akira Taue under his wing, as he wants Taue to "become an erupting volcano instead of the dormant volcano, which he has been."
LIVE EVENT RESULTS
ZERO-ONE-Max - 03/25/2005 – Sapporo Teisen Hall - 1,500 fans
1. Takashi Uwano beat Osamu Namiguchi in 8:11 with a Boston Crab.
2. Rikiya Fudo defeated Fuyuki Takahashi in 10:25 with the Mishima Beef Driver.
3. Spanky beat Alex Shelley in 8:03 with a schoolboy.
4. Riki Choshu defeated Tatsuhito Takaiwa in 2:23 with a lariat.
5. Shinjiro Otani & Ryouji Sai beat Takao Omori & Kohei Sato in 15:00 when Otani used a Full-Nelson Suplex hold.
6. Tables/Ladders/Chairs Match: CW Anderson/Steve Corino/Masato Tanaka defeated Sonjay Dutt/Minoru Fujita/Ikuto Hidaka in 18:51 when Tanaka used the Complete Dust on Dutt.
Opening Fight - Chalid "Die Faust" Arrab (Golden Glory/Holland) defeated Yukiya Naito by decision after two 5-minute rounds.
1. Shungo Oyama defeated Valentijn Overeem in the 1st round in 1 minute, 28 seconds with an ankle-lock.
2. Ian Schaffa (Australia) defeated Kazuyuki Miyata by decision after three 5-minute rounds.
3. Joachim Hansen defeated Kaoru Uno in the 3rd round in 4 minutes, 48 seconds by KO from a left knee.
4. Genki Sudo defeated Ramon Dekker in the 1st round in 2 minutes, 54 seconds with a heel hook.
5. Gary "Big Daddy" Goodridge defeated Alan Karaev in the 1st round in 2 minutes, 58 seconds with a guillotine choke.
6. LYOTO (Ryoto Machida) defeated BJ Penn by unanimous decision after three 5-minute rounds.
7. Sam Greco defeated Heath Herring by TKO in the 1st round in 2 minutes, 41 seconds by TKO due to injury stoppage to Herrings knee.
8. Bob Sapp defeated Kim Min-Soo (South Korea) in the 1st round in 1 minute, 12 seconds by KO from a counterpunch.
9. Jerome Le Banner defeated Yoshihiro Akiyama in the 1st round in 1 minute, 24 seconds by KO from two left knees.
New Japan "NEXESS V" - 03/26/2005 - Tokyo Sumo Hall - 9,000 fans
1. Tatsumi Fujinami Return Match: Tatsumi Fujinami battled Osamu Nishimura to a 15:00 draw.
2. Wataru Inoue & Koji Kanemoto beat Taiji Ishimori & Katsuhiko Nakajima in 10:54 when Kanemoto used a moonsault press on Ishimori.
3. Masahito Kakihara, El Samurai & Tiger Mask IV defeated Masked CTU-G (Liger), Masked CTU-L (Gedo) & Masked CTU-T (Jado) in 10:45 when Samurai used a chickenwing armlock on CTU-T.
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yutaka Yoshie beat Togi Makabe & Ryushi Yanagisawa in 7:13 when Tanahashi used a sliding-style front cradle on Yanagisawa.
5. #1 Contender Tournament for the IWGP Heavyweight Title Semi - Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Manabu Nakanishi in 12:17 with the Anaconda Cross.
6. Young Lions Cup – Finals: Hirooki Goto beat Hiroyuki Ito in 9:55 with the Go to Heaven (which apparently is a wrist-clutch Olympic Slam.)
7. Minoru Suzuki & Ron Waterman defeated Takashi Iizuka & Kensuke Sasaki in 14:03 when Waterman used the Tiger Driver on Iizuka.
8. Tsuyoshi Kosaka beat Yuji Nagata by TKO in 4:41 with a sleeper hold
9. #1 Contender Tournament for the IWGP Heavyweight Title Finals: Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Masahiro Chono in 19:02 with the Anaconda Cross.
10. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Satoshi Kojima battled Shinsuke Nakamura to a 60:00 draw.
ZERO-ONE-Max - 03/27/2005 – Tokyo Korakuen Hall - 1,200 fans
1. Ashikaga-shi Iron beat Rikiya Fudo in 5:46 with the Hachimaki Twist.
2. Ryouji Sai & Masato Tanaka defeated Tomoaki Honma & Osamu Namiguchi in 14:51 when Sai used a low kick on Namiguchi.
3. Winner gains entry in the AWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title Tourney - Sonjay Dutt beat Tatsuhito Takaiwa in 15:04 with the Phoenix Splash.
4. NWA United National Heavyweight Title: CW Anderson defeated Kohei Sato in 10:28 with the Samson Clutch to win the title.
5. NWA International Lightweight Tag Titles: Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka beat Alex Shelley & Spanky in 17:47 when Hidaka pinned Spanky to retain their titles.
6. 3 Way Dance for the AWA World Heavyweight Title: Shinjiro Otani defeated Steve Corino at 6:25 with a daio cobra hold. Takao Omori beat Shinjiro Otani at 20:13 with the Axe Bomber to retain his title.
NOAH - 04/03/2005 – Tokyo Korakuen Hall - 2,100 fans
1. Naoki Sano beat Tsuyoshi Kikuchi in 7:20 with the Northern Lights Bomb.
2. Tamon Honda & Jun Izumida defeated Kishin Kawabata & Shiro Koshinaka in 10:16 when Izumida used the Mukado Domu on Kawabata.
3. Scorpio beat Go Shiosaki in 14:25 with the 450 Splash.
4. Michael Modest/Donovan Morgan/Rick Steiner defeated Yoshinari Ogawa/Richard Slinger/Kotaro Suzuki in 16:13 when Modest used the California Roll on Suzuki.
5. Jun Akiyama beat Makoto Hashi in 14:17 with a wrist-clutch Exploder.
6. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Mitsuharu Misawa/Takashi Sugiura defeated KENTA/Kenta Kobashi/Ricky Marvin in 9:49 when Kanemaru used the Touch Out on Marvin.
7. Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Suzuki beat SUWA & Akira Taue in 18:44 when Suzuki used sleeper hold on SUWA.
8. Takeshi Morishima/Takeshi Rikio/Mohammad Yone defeated Masao Inoue/Akitoshi Saito/Bison Smith in 16:33 when Morishima used a lariat on Inoue.
*** *** ***
Upcoming Shows
AJPW 4/09/2005 – Korakuen Hall - Championship Carnival Night #1
1. Champion Carnival – Block A: Shuji Kondo vs. Love Machine Arashi
2. Champion Carnival – Block B: Jamal vs. Chuck Palumbo
1. New Japan Cup – Semifinals: Winner of #1 on 4/21 vs. Winner of #2 on 4/21
2. New Japan Cup – Semifinals: Winner of #3 on 4/21 vs. Winner of #4 on 4/21
3. New Japan Cup – Finals:
NJPW 5/14/2005 – Tokyo Dome
1. IWGP Heavyweight Title-No Time Limit: Satoshi Kojima vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
NOAH 7/18/2005 – Tokyo Dome
*** *** ***
Credits: PuroresuPower.com, PuroresuFan.com, WorldWideWrestling.puroresufan.com, Mike & Keith's scary imaginations
Dr. Keith Lipinski & Mike Sempervive are regular contributors to PWTorch.com. They also do a semi-weekly radio show entitled the Puroresu Power Hour, take a listen at puroresupower.com. This week (#43) Rocky Romero and Kenny Florian of the Ultimate Fighter. Next weeks show is shaping up to be our BIGGEST to date. If you have any questions, corrections, feedback, comments and ideas, Dr. Keith can be reached at: keith@gumgod.com Mike can be contacted at semp@gumgod.com
THE TORCH REACHES MORE COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT FANS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE
PWTorch editor Wade Keller has covered pro wrestling full time since 1987 starting with the Pro Wrestling Torch print newsletter. PWTorch.com launched in 1999 and the PWTorch Apps launched in 2008.
He has conducted "Torch Talk" insider interviews with Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Eric Bischoff, Jesse Ventura, Lou Thesz, Jerry Lawler, Mick Foley, Jim Ross, Paul Heyman, Bruno Sammartino, Goldberg, more.
He has interviewed big-name players in person incluiding Vince McMahon (at WWE Headquarters), Dana White (in Las Vegas), Eric Bischoff (at the first Nitro at Mall of America), Brock Lesnar (after his first UFC win).
He hosted the weekly Pro Wrestling Focus radio show on KFAN in the early 1990s and hosted the Ultimate Insiders DVD series distributed in retail stories internationally in the mid-2000s including interviews filmed in Los Angeles with Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara and Matt & Jeff Hardy. He currently hosts the most listened to pro wrestling audio show in the world, (the PWTorch Livecast, top ranked in iTunes)
REACHING 1 MILLION+ UNIQUE USERS PER MONTH
500 MILLION CLICKS & LISTENS PER YEAR
MILLIONS OF PWTORCH NEWSLETTERS SOLD
PWTorch offers a VIP membership for $10 a month (or less with an annual sub). It includes nearly 25 years worth of archives from our coverage of pro wrestling dating back to PWTorch Newsletters from the late-'80s filled with insider secrets from every era that are available to VIPers in digital PDF format and Keller's radio show from the early 1990s.
Also, new exclusive top-shelf content every day including a new VIP-exclusive weekly 16 page digital magazine-style (PC and iPad compatible) PDF newsletter packed with exclusive articles and news.
The following features come with a VIP membership which tens of thousands of fans worldwide have enjoyed for many years...
-New Digital PWTorch Newsletter every week
-3 New Digital PDF Back Issues from 5, 10, 20 years ago
-Over 60 new VIP Audio Shows each week
-Ad-free access to all PWTorch.com free articles
-VIP Forum access with daily interaction with PWTorch staff and well-informed fellow wrestling fans
-Tons of archived audio and text articles
-Decades of Torch Talk insider interviews in transcript and audio formats with big name stars. **SIGN UP FOR VIP ACCESS HERE**
