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International Wrestling Scene News - Puroresu

Japan: Wrestling News Roundup

Pro Wrestling NOAH

Samoa Joe as I mentioned before is coming to NOAH and the match to decide who will face him took place about one day before my last update, Marufuji v Misawa for the GHC Title.

It was a bit of a back and forth match but in the end Misawa botched a top rope Tiger Driver, nearly killing Maru, then he kicked out of a Super Shinauri and Shinauri Kai (Solo Spanish Fly) before nearly killing Maru with a botched Emerald Flowsion before picking him up and doing a proper one for the one, two and three to retain and book a date with the big cuddly Samoan.

In other news Suzuki and Marvin retained their Junior Tag straps against the Dragons Gate pairing of Doi and Horiguchi on the same show and Rikio was forced to drop the tag straps due to a neck injury.

To decide new champions there has been a new tournament in which several teams are taking place, the winner of it will be crowned the new GHC Tag Champions. Yone and Morisihma are in there as are Taue and Shiosaki, D’Lo Brown and Buchanan and Saito and Shinga who as replaced an injured Bison Smith

The HUGE news however is that god amongst men, king of kings and hardest sod on the planet, Kenta Kobashi is to finally return from Kidney Cancer (which cost him a Kidney) on December the 2nd this year.

No opponents, match type or anything bar that has been announced but that doesn’t matter. The king is returning.

New Japan Pro Wrestling

Tenzan is hurt, worked through it and then fell to the returned Hirooki Goto in a match to decide the number one contender to the IWGP Championship.

That championship was won for the second time by Tanahashi on the very same show as the G-1 Climax winner defeated Yuji Nagata with the High Fly Flow (Frog Splash) to win their third contest this year.

Taguchi is still the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion as he downed Tiger Mask (IV), AZTECA and Minoru in the space of three weeks… he will however face the four time former champion Koji Kanemoto later this year in Kobe in his forth defense.

Also the company announced it will run at the Sumo Hall with Goto v Tanahashi before going to the Dome to ‘go to war’ with TNA, thats right TNA!

No matches have been announced as yet but NJPW is eager to bring back the title held by Angle and stolen by Lesnar earlier last year in a IWGP v IWGP match to finally unify the gold.

All Japan Pro Wrestling

Sasaki is the Triple Crown champion, as he defeated Suzuki for the title with a lariat after an EPIC 42 minute battle.

He will face proper all round hard nut and AJPW legend Kawada on the 35th Anniversary show despite having a head injury. Which is insane as Kawada likes to kick and drop people on their heads.

Nakajima defeated Chris Sabin of TNA to continue his reign as junior champion and will now face Silver King on that same show IF he gets past an broken hand.

Also Muto has hired Zach Gowen, yes he of one leg and taken him under his wing. The two are in a war with Kojima and TARU, the AJPW Double tag champs but will have to be content with getting their hands on ‘brother’ YASSHI and Kojima instead.

Rest of Japan

Tiger Mask won the Fukeman or Masked Man league by defeating Atlantis with a Cross Armbreaker. He had previously won the 1999 addition over Dos Caras with that same hold.

Dragons Gate saw CIMA crowned as the Open The Dream Gate champion as he defeated Liger with the Crossfire (Double Wrist Lock Powerbomb, similar to the Pyramid Driver used by Super Crazy) before defeated Doi in his first defense with the same move.

He also added the Open the Owarai Gate from Stalker by first getting the pinfall and THEN earning the needed approval from the crowd.

They are also currently unifying the old WAR International Junior Titles with a new two man tag belt. The IJ titles were held by Susuma and Ryo Saito but they lost them to Iwasa and Arachi who in turn lost the unification match to Doi and Yoshino who then became the first ‘Twin Gate’ champions.

The triangle gate is currently held by Masaaki Mochizuki, K-ness and Don Fujii who defeated Muscle Outlaw’z for the titles and then defended them against the New Hazard team of Iota, Takagi and Cyber Kong.