This time this update has a dual purpose! NJPW ran a mid-tour big show in Osaka yesterday with the aim of crowning a new IWGP champ after Bob Sapp vacated after a crushing MMA loss to Fujita!
Sapp’s scheduled opponent Hiroshi Tanahashi faced off against Fujita to decided the 38th holder of the gold and in the end the man now billed as the ‘Real Beast’, Fujita came away with the gold after knocking out Tanahash with brutal kicks to the head much like he destroyed Sapp with days before.
Also on the line was the IWGP Jr Heavy Tag Team titles as the American champs AmDragon and the King Of Spice, Curry Man faced Jado and Gedo. Curry Man is currently suffering from a fairly serious shoulder injury and was isolated by the Japanese ex champs. Jado locked him in the Crossface of Jado and made the unforunate Curry Man pass out. It also seems he’ll have to forfeit his remaining Best of the Super Jr matches as well.
The full results are as follows…
NJPW “THE CRUSH II”, 6/5/04 (WPW/NJ+IWTV Internet)
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium
6,300 Fans – Super No Vacancy
1. Ultimo Dragon & Katsuhiko Nakajima beat Wataru Inoue & Garuda (9:03) when Ultimo used an Asai DDT on Garuda.
2. Koji Kanemoto, El Samurai & Rocky Romero beat Heat, Masahito Kakihara & Masayuki Naruse (15:09) when Kanemoto used an ankle hold on Kakihara.
3. Yutaka Yoshie beat Toru Yano (5:23) by DQ.
4. Kensuke Sasaki & Jushin Thunder Liger beat Minoru Suzuki & Tiger Mask (13:43) when Liger used a horizontal cradle on Suzuki.
5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Jado & Gedo beat American Dragon & Curry Man (c) (19:30) by TKO (Jado beat Curry) to become the 13th champions.
6. Genichiro Tenryu & Tadao Yasuda beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Osamu Nishimura (11:10) when Yasuda used a backslide on Nishimura.
7. Shinsuke Nakamura Return Match: Shinsuke Nakamura beat Manabu Nakanishi (3:32) with a standing cross armbreaker.
8. Yuji Nagata, Kendo Kashin & Shinya Makabe beat Masahiro Chono, Kazunari Murakami & Katsuyori Shibata (11:39) when Nagata used a rolling horizontal cradle on Chono.
9. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuyuki Fujita beat Hiroshi Tanahashi (11:45) by KO to become the 38th champion (decision match).
Also I thought I’d update you on the on going Best of the Super Jr tourney going on at the moment… Obviously Curry Man is out with his injury so discount him but it is getting pretty close as we head to the next round…
Kakihara and Liger drew today in Block A and Koji, MA-G-MA, AmDragon and Liger can all still go through.
In block B its a four horse race still as Naruse has taken out Nakajima and Ultimo in successive shows to level with Heat, Ultimo and Tiger Mask on 8 points… I’ll update more as the tourney goes on.
Block A:
1. Masahito Kakihara [7]
2. Koji Kanemoto [6]
3. Big Boss MA-G-MA [6]
4. Jushin Thunder Liger [5]
5. American Dragon [5]
6. El Samurai [4]
7. Wataru Inoue [4]
8. Ryusuke Taguchi [3]
Block B:
1. Heat [8]
2. Masayuki Naruse [8]
3. Ultimo Dragon [8]
4. Tiger Mask [8]
5. Rocky Romero [4]
6. Katsuhiko Nakajima [2]
7. Curry Man [1]
8. Garuda [1]