Pro-Wrestling NOAH
The Autumn Navigation ’07 went on for the past two weeks building to the final event of the tour at the Tokyo Nippon Budokan however before that the GHC Tag Title Tournament reached its conclusion as D’Lo Brown and Bull Buchanan became the 15th champions winning the four man league last defeating Go Shiosaki and Akira Taue…
They then faced the tag team of two former GHC Junior Heavyweight champions (and junior tag team champions) in Marufuji and Suigura who have now both graduated to the heavyweight division, in fact Marufuji has held both the GHC World Tag belts and the GHC World title.
Also on the same Budokan show Kotaro Suzuki would defend his GHC Junior title for the first time since winning it back in the spring as his alter ego Mushking Terry. He faced former three time champion Kanemaru in a match that could give him the unfortunate label as being the shortest reigning champion since Makoto Hashi.
But the big one was that Misawa would face Samoa Joe for the GHC Title in the main event, a match boosted in interest by the fact that Samoa Joe defeated Misawa directly on the final build up show, using the Island Driver (which is an Emerald Frosion, Misawa’s own move) for the win.
So the event took place yesterday and here are the results…
NOAH 10/27/2007
Tokyo Nippon Budokan,
14,000 Fans(No Vacancy)
1. Junji Izumida and Tsutomu Hirayanagi beat Mitsuo Momota and Akihiko Ito in 9:00 after Izumida used the Meteorite on Ito.
2. Tamon Honda, Masao Inoue and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi beat Kentaro Shiga, Kishin Kawabata and Makoto Hashi in 14:38 when Masao Inoue used the Argentine Backbreaker on Hashi.
3. Takeshi Morishima, Mohammed Yone and Taiji Ishimori beat Yoshinari Ogawa, Doug Williams and Bobby Fish in 13:17 after Yone used the Muscle Buster on Bobby Fish.
4. Akitoshi Saito and Taka Michinoku beat Jun Akiyama and Atsushi Aoki in 11:42 after Taka used the Just Facelock on Aoki.
5. Akira Taue, KENTA and Go Shiosaki beat Yoshihiro Takayama, Takuma Sano and Ricky Marvin in 15:26 after Go used the Go Flasher on Marvin.
6. GHC Jr. Title: Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Mushiking Terry in 22:22 with the Touch Out to become the 14th Champion. Terry loses in his first defense.
7. GHC Heavyweight Tag Titles: Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura beat D’Lo Brown and Bull Buchanan in 26:17 after Sugiura used the Olympic Slam on Buchanan to become the 16th Champions. RO&D loses in their first defense.
8. GHC Heavyweight Title: Mitsuharu Misawa defeated Samoa Joe in 17:14 after an elbow smash to the back of the head. Misawa retained in his 6th defense.
So Joe did the job and goes back to TNA empty handed, Kanemaru becomes a four time Junior Heavyweight Champion and D’Lo and Buchanan suffer the same fate as the Briscoe bothers earlier this year – they are crowned tag champions only to be defeated and stripped of their titles a few weeks later.
However there is one final big story coming out of the event… Kobashi came back and announced the details of his return on the 2nd of December….
It will be him alongside Takayama to face the tag team of Akiyama and Misawa, the top four wrestlers in NOAH together in the main event.
All Japan Pro Wrestling
As the tours have finished in AJPW it is quiet bar the results of their 35th Anniversary Show which took place on the 18th of October…
Sasaki retained his Triple Crown against Kawada with the Northern Lights bomb in the main event, Nakajima and Silver King fought to a no contest over the AJPW Jr Title after which the title was held up. This is due to Nakajima’s broken hand being more serious then first thought.
Also the teams for the Real World Tag League 2007 have been announced and are as follows…
Keiji Muto & Joe Doering
Kensuke Sasaki & X
Osamu Nishimura & Masanobu Fuchi
Taiyo Kea & Hawaiian Lion
Abdullah The Butcher & Minoru Suzuki
Nobutaka Araya & Touru Owashi
Satoshi Kojima & Suwama
TARU & The Zodiac
The X that was supposed to team with Sasaki was going to be Nakajima but due to his injury different arrangements are being made, no word on what they are yet…
Also as you can see Nishimura, the former NJPW star is in the league with old school Fuchi… this because he and Manabu Soya have left MUGA World and joined the league full time… given the fact that Muga aren’t running that many shows and have failed to make an impact after the split from NJPW this isn’t really too much of a surprise
New Japan Pro Wrestling
Well Hiroshi Tanahashi is once more the IWGP Champion, using the shot earned by winning his first G-1 Climax (which he wasn’t supposed to win believe some but did due to Nakamura’s injury) to win the title back from the man he lost it to, Yuji Nagata.
His first defense will be at the Sumo Hall show in November at which TNA will also send some of its wrestlers in the start of the ‘war# between the two companies. Here is the card so far…
NJPW "DESTRUCTION ’07", 11/11/07 (WPW/PPV)
Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
1. New Japan Jr. vs. TNA X Division ~J or X~: Minoru & Prince Devitt vs. Christopher Daniels & Senshi
2. New Japan vs. TNA: Tiger Mask vs. Ron Killings
3. GBH vs. TNA ~ SPEAR or GORE: Toru Yano vs. Rhino
4. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Dick Togo & TAKA Michinoku (c) vs. Jado & Gedo
5. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Hirooki Goto
At the moment the company is running the annual G-1 Tag Team Climax and Tanahashi is teaming with his partner from last year, Junior Heavyweight Koji Kanemoto. At the moment their is still two matches left to decide who need to face off to decide the league and at the moment the standings are…
1. Hirooki Goto & Milano Collection AT [8]
2. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Koji Kanemoto [8]
3. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi [6]
– Takashi Iizuka & Naofumi Yamamoto [6]
– Giant Bernard & Travis Tomko [6]
– Masahiro Chono & Akebono [6]
– Togi Makabe & Toru Yano [6]
– Jado & Gedo [6]
Makabe and Yano face Jado and Gedo and Chono and Akebono face Bernard and Tomko so we could end up with four teams on eight points which will lead to semi final and then a final match to decide the winner later down the line. Also on that same card Taguchi will face Kanemoto in the fourth defense of his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title
News from the rest of Japan
Zero One MAX saw the crowning of a new AWA World Champion in its ring on the 26th as Masato Tanaka defeated Takao Omari with the Sliding D to become the new champion. On that same show Sai and Takayama (wrestling in another promotion yet again) lost the NWA Intercontinental Tag Titles to Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara and Ikuto Hidaka defeated Dick Togo to become the new AWA Jr. Heavyweight Champion.
In Dragons Gate Gamma was banished from MUSCLE OUTLAW’z only to return, betray CIMA and then kick crooked referee Kinta from the group, his exit a swerve all along. Their will be a three way captains fall 3 man team tag match at the next big show on the 18th of November as a result along with KNESS facing Yoshino for the Brave Gate title…
11/18/2007 Fukuoka, Hakata Star Lanes
-Open the Brave Gate: Masato Yoshino vs. K-ness
– Hakata Style 3 Way Match: Typhoon (CIMA, Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid) vs. Muscle Outlaw’z (Naruki Doi, Gamma, Magnitude) Kishiwada vs. NEW HAZARD (Shingo Takagi, BxB Hulk, Cyber Kong)
In APACHE Pro the WEW champion Mammoth Sasaki defeated Jun Kasai in an 4 Corners of Glass Crash Death Match with the 29 Years Old (Northern Lights Bomb) in the first defense of the gold since winning it from Toru Yano in September
DDT saw a new KO-D Openweight Champion crowned as HARASHIMA defeated Koo with the Green Demon Sword. At the next show Kota Ibushi will defend his Independent Jr. Title against Antonio ‘The Dragon’ Honda.
The IGF has announced a show for the 20th of December that will have Angle, Styles, Josh Bartnett, Senshi amongst others set to appear.
Onto Joshi Puro (well whats left of it) and JWP held a show on the 21st which saw the team of Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kayoko Haruyama defeat Manami Toyota & Etsuko Mita in the first defense of their JWP Tag Team Titles
In NEO the last event saw Kaoru Ito & Ayako Hamada defeat Misae Genki & Aya Yuki when Hamada used the AP Cross on Yuki to keep hold of their NEO Tag Team titles.