#kumamoto super rings

[keepingthespiritalive]

News Listings for June 21, 2017

BASARA NEWS ~ More matches were announced for the July 5 show at the Shinjuku FACE, which will feature the finals of the on-going Itadaki League. BASARA, 7/5/2017 [Wed] 19:00 @ Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo () Takato Nakano vs. Naoki Tanizaki () Pro-Wrestling Trial: Goma Ryu (Defense) & Abdullah Kobayashi (accused) vs. Hercules Senga (Prosecutor) & Fuminori Abe (Witnes) () Special Single Match: Ryota…

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW Road To WRESTLING DONTAKU (April 26th 2019, Hiroshima Green Arena)

Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura  ***

Hirooki Goto, Dragon Lee & Will Ospreay vs. Jay White, Taiji Ishimori & Hikuleo  ***1/4

Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA, EVIL & Tetsuya Naito  ****1/4

IWGP Jr. Tag Title Match: Roppongi 3K (c) vs. Shingo Takagi & BUSHI  ****1/2

NJPW WRESTLING HINOKUNI 2019 (April 29th, Kumamoto, Grand Messe Arena)

Dragon Lee & Will Ospreay vs. Taiji Ishimori & Hikuleo  ***

Mikey Nicholls vs. Bad Luck Fale  *3/4

Juice Robinson vs. Chase Owens  **1/2

Okada, Ishii, Ibushi & Roppongi 3K vs. SANADA, EVIL, Naito, Shingo & BUSHI  ***3/4

IWGP Tag Team Title Match: Guerrillas Of Destiny (c) vs. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano  **1/2

Hirooki Goto vs. Jay White  ****

Photos.

Well these were truly a tale of two shows. The first, held in front of a white hot crowd in Hiroshima, had a couple of excellent matches, including the best junior tag title match in years. Things opened with your usual, very solid Young Lions match-up, then devolved into the usual, decent enough multi mans, before picking up again with the Goto-gumi vs. White-gumi six man. This was a fun 10 minute sprint, which culminated in Goto hitting the GTR on Hikuleo (of course) to win for his team. The Ibushi and CHAOS/LIJ six man that followed was the best bout these teams have had against each other so far this tour. Which is saying something; These matches have been what has carried this tour so far, and have made these shows go from the usual fare, to must see stuff. This was an all-action 16:58 battle, that built to a fantastic climax. The exchanges between EVIL and Ishii once again drove this, with them stiffing the hell out of each other (that singles match on May 4th should be off the chain). After Ishii scored a near fall with a big Lariat, he nailed a german and a headbutt, but the King Of Darkness cut him off with his STO to win for the Ungovernable team. This was great.

Then the main event, which was even better. As I said, this is the best Junior tag title outing in forever, probably as far back since the Young Bucks/Time Splitters classic at Dominion 2014, and by far the best match on the tour thus far. It too was action packed, with the hard-hitting exchanges between SHO and Shingo really being the highlight here (give me that BOSJ match ASAP), and featured great spots and sequences. It built to a dramatic, and unpredictable, finishing stretch. After Red Shoes was bumped, BUSHI hit a low blow on YOH, followed by a backslide for a very believable near fall. A standing MX from the masked man gets another near fall, then he ate a 3K, but Shingo ran in to break up the pin. YOH then lifted BUSHI up, as SHO detained Shingo, and hit a bridging Dragon Suplex at 25:10, to score the win, and the teams first successful title defence ever. This match was exceptional stuff, and I recommend it to everyone highly.

The Kumamoto show, however, was not as good. in fact, it wasn’t anywhere near. In vast contrast to the hot Hiroshima faithful, the Kumamoto crowd seemed either completely dead or asleep throughout most of this show. Not that it would have helped some of these matches. I missed the beginning of the show, but saw everything from the third match on. Will Ospreay pinned Hikuleo with the Oscutter to win a decent match for he and Dragon Lee. This featured the weakest exchanges so far from Lee and Ishimori, who usually light these matches up. I can only but imagine they’re tired, as some of the stuff looked pretty sloppy. All in all, it was a good match though. Bad Luck Fale inexplicably pinned Mikey Nicholls in a bout which wasn’t very good at all, and performed in front of silence. Also, it isn’t the finish I’d have gone with as Nicholls hardly needed to lose this. Juice Robinson squared off with Chase Owens again for some reason. The work was good, but the crowd didn’t care (who could blame them?). Juice won with Pulp Friction, which hopefully ends this feud now, and Robinson can go on to better opponents. Things got much better in the CHAOS/Ibushi vs. LIJ battle that followed, and it succeeded in waking up the crowd. This was great stuff, yet again, though far from the best of the tour. After SHO scored a near fall on SANADA with a deadlift German, this really broke down; Shingo broke up a SHO Shock Arrow attempt, they trade lariats, before Takagi hits a Pumping Bomber. Ishii breaks up Skull End, EVIL takes him out with a German suplex, Ibushi wipes out EVIL, Naito takes Kota down with a dropkick, BUSHI hit a tope suicida on YOH, and SANADA taps SHO out with Skull End at the 14:40. This was lots of fun.

The same cannot be said of the IWGP Tag Title match, however. Even though it only went 14:50, it felt double that, probably because the crowd were indifferent to what they were seeing. The match was fine, but there was nothing especially interesting about it, featuring the usual quota of shenaningans; ref bumps, interference etc. The finish saw Tanga Loa break up a King Kong Knee Drop pin attempt, Makabe clotheslines him out of the ring, but is distracted by Jado, then Tama Tonga gets a fist-full-of-tights-assisted school boy pin on Makabe to reclaim all their belts, which Yano stole. The main event between Jay White and Hirooki Goto was another excellent bout. In front of a livlier crowd, this would have been even better, as the closing stretch was actually super-dramatic. Unfortunately, it took them a while to get there, and a lot of the early portion was Jay stalling, and/or locking on chin locks for heat. It built to a great finish though, which saw some really creative counters. Goto tried Shouten Kai, but Jay knees himself free. Aramusha cut White off with a big lariat, hit a hanging neckbreaker and scored a near fall with his Kaiten sunsetflip bomb off the top. They exchange strikes, before an interfering Gedo rolls in, but he eats an Ushigoroshi for his troubles. White tries to use a chair, but gets headbutted, then Goto scores a near fall with the reverse GTR. From here they reversed the Blade Runner into the GTR and back again, so many times it was impossible to keep track, and it was great every time. Jay finally hits a sleeper suplex, but Goto popped up, tried a lariat, but ate another sleeper suplex, then was put away with Blade Runner in 23 minutes of an excellent contest. So it looks like Switchblade is getting the Okada/SANADA winner at Dominion, but where Goto goes from here is anyones guess. Especially as the whole story to the match was that he always chokes in the big matches. Many think he should go to All Japan where he’d actually be a big fish in a small pond, as opposed to the treading water he’s doing in NJPW nowadays. I’ve always been a big Goto fan, and at this stage I tend to think those people are right.

NDT

[gdwessel]

G1 Supercard - 4/6/2019; Wrestling Dontaku Tour: Featured Matches, Tanahashi & Tenzan Injured; Nagata/Kojima in Crockett Cup; This Week’s NJPW on AXS

Yes, hi, hello. It’s been a bit. After two twelve-hour drives, five wrestling shows (which is apparently NOT ENOUGH judging by how many shows some people attended, or WORKED, during Mania Weekend), and a brush with death (I’ll explain next time I record), I needed to recover a bit. I’m still kinda half-assing it now, since I won’t be going through the full lineups for Wrestling Dontaku in this post. But youse all can forgive me, right? Anyway, let’s start with the whole reason I went to NYC...

(And hey, you can also listen to me do a podblast on Pro Wrestling Only about the event!)

ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard - 4/6/2019, Madison Square Garden, NYC (NJPWWorld / PPV)

Honor Rumble: Kenny King d. Jushin Thunder Liger, Great Muta [Wrestle-1], TK O’Ryan, Vinny Marseglia, Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], King Haku [Bullet Club], Cheeseburger, Minoru Suzuki [SZKG], Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Jonathan Gresham, Toru Yano [CHAOS], Colt Cabana, Delirious, Bad Luck Fale [Bullet Club], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS], Rocky Romero [CHAOS], PJ Black, Tracy Williams [Lifeblood], Brian Milonas, Chase Owens [Bullet Club], Will Ferrara, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables], Rhett Titus, SHO [CHAOS], YOH [CHAOS], Shaheem Ali, LSG, BUSHI [Los Ingobernables], Beer City Brusier (42;21, OTTR)

NEVER Openweight Championship & ROH World Television Championship Title v. Title: Jeff Cobb [FREE] © d. Will Ospreay [CHAOS] © (Tour Of The Islands, 12:52) - Ospreay fails his 2nd defense - Cobb succeeds his 6th defense, and is the 24th NEVER Openweight Champion

Rush [Los Ingobernables] d. Dalton Castle (Skewer Dropkick, 0:15)

Women of Honor World Championship: Kelly Klein d. Mayu Iwatani [STARDOM] © (K Power, 10:38) - Iwatani fails her 3rd defense - Klein is the 4th champion

NYC Street Fight Open Challenge: Juice Robinson [Lifeblood], Flip Gordon & Mark Haskins [Lifeblood] d. Bully Ray, Silas Young & Shane Taylor (Gordon > Bully, Four Flippy Splash, 15:01)

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship 3-Way Match: Dragon Lee [CMLL] d. Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] © & Bandido [Lifeblood] (Lee > Bandido, Desnucadora, 8:54) - Ishimori fails his 3rd defense - Dragon Lee is the 84th champion

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team v. ROH World Tag Team Championships Title v. Title 4-Way Match: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] © d. PCO & Brody King [Villain Enterprises] ©, EVIL & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] and Jay & Mark Briscoe (Loa > King, Super Powerbomb, 9:54) - Guerillas of Destiny succeed their 1st defense - PCO/King fail their first defense; Guerrilas of Destiny are the 54th ROH World Tag Team champions

RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] © d. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Jim Breaks Armbar, 15:14) - Sabre succeeds his ? defense

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Kota Ibushi d. Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables] © (Kamigoye, 20:53) - Naito fails his 2nd defense - Ibushi is the 21st champion

ROH World Championship 3-Way Ladder Match: Matt Taven d. Jay Lethal © & Marty Scurll [Villain Enterprises] (29:35) - Lethal fails his 13th defense - Taven is the 21st champion

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] d. Jay White [Bullet Club] © (Rainmaker, 32:33) - White fails his 1st defense - Okada is the 69th champion

Hoo wee, a lot to unpack here. This actually ran longer than Wrestle Kingdom 13. And it did feel every bit of that towards the end, sitting in MSG, I have to say. But this was a great show, and for being the last show I saw this weekend, it was a great way to end my Mania Weekend.

Which isn’t to say there are some major questions here. Like, was this the right move to take titles off White and Naito? Both are VERY over in their respective roles, Naito the only NJPW wrestler to get pre-match chants, White clearly the most hated heel in NJPW, both in Japan AND America. While Ibushi in his first championship as a contracted wrestler offers fresh title matches, Okada retaking the belt does not. And they were in the midst of an angle whereby Naito wanted to win the IWGP Heavyweight title while still IC champion. So that was... a waste of time and energy? Neither of which says the matches were not good, because both of them were. Just not sure of the results.

Tanahashi got injured, maybe by that Jim Breaks Armbar? So he is out of the next tour. So is Hiroyoshi Tenzan, which, not sure how he got injured considering he didn’t work this show. Maybe it happened during the New Japan Cup tour, or whilst in training. 

The Guerrillas of Destiny are now double-champions, however their belts were stolen by Toru Yano at the conclusion of the match. Not that anyone in MSG actually noticed, because everyone’s attention was on the (what we now know to be worked) crowd invasion by fucking Enzo & Cass. I really don’t want to spend too much time on those two scumfucks. MSG let their feelings known in no uncertain terms, however. As did many of the wrestlers, like, true to form, Tama Tonga. This was a recurring theme, of Ring Of Honor really not reading the room, and having such shitty booking decisions. The Women of Honor match was patently Not Good, and a waste of Mayu Iwatani’s talents; this goes double for the Beautiful People appearing at the end, to absolute crickets in MSG. Kenny King robbing both Jushin Thunder Liger and the absolute surprise entrant THE GREAT MUTA (yes, I absolutely did lose my shit seeing him at this show, why do you ask?) of an MSG moment (Muta did spit red mist in King’s face tho). A streetfight clusterfuck that became a 6-man match to put over Herb Gordon. The way too long ladder match. ROH stinks, folks. Stop watching them. They are awful. The only thing  on their end that was remotely good was Rush destroying Dalton Castle, but Dalton is either turning heel or leaving the company, following his attacks on The Boys. But yeah, this show made it crystal clear that NJPW are way better off without fucking around with Sinclair Broadcasting Group, especially if they are going to hire scumbags like Enzo Amore.

Dragon Lee finally wins the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title! That was a bit of a shocker. So was Ospreay ending his Giant Killer push by losing the NEVER title to a much deserving Jeff Cobb. Real happy he finally has an NJPW title.

Long story short, I really did enjoy this show, but mostly by ignoring the ROH content. I also had a wonderful weekend, where I met quite a lot of people, both regular folk and wrestlers (ZSJ! Shibata! Chinsuke Nakamura! Jiro “Ikemen” Kuroshio!), saw friends and co-hosts, ate some great food, and saw some awesome wrestling. Including the RevPro show on Friday, which had a lot of NJPW guys, but I don’t have the energy to go over that now. And what’s passed, is past. Time to look into the future yo...

This Saturday (my 46th birthday!), we begin the cycle of shows leading in to Wrestling Dontaku, which will be a 2-day event once again. I don’t have the energy to enter in the full tour cards right now. I will get to that tomorrow/Friday when I do a new Upcoming Events post. But I can go over some of the feature matches...

On 4/20, we will have Sengoku Lord in Nagoya, at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. Two title defenses on this show, as Kota Ibushi will make his first defense of the IWGP Intercontinental title against Zack Sabre Jr., who of course beat Ibushi during the New Japan Cup. Also on this show, Juice Robinson will defend the IWGP US belt against Bad Luck Fale.

Another title match takes place on 4/29, at the annual Wrestling Hi no Kuni  event in Kumamoto. Here, GOD will defend the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team straps against the Most Violent Players, Togi Makabe & Toru Yano. The main event of this show is a special singles match between Hirooki Goto v. Jay White. Not sure why, but here we are. There will also be a special singles, non-title match (if Juice retains on 4/20) between Juice v. Chase Owens.

The first day of Wrestling Dontaku, on 5/3 in Fukuoka, has the first time the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title is a main event match for a megashow in... a long time. (Someone tweeted when the last time was, and I didn’t save it, and I can’t fathom looking right now.) Dragon Lee makes his 1st defense against the previous champion, Taiji Ishimori. That ought to be good. Also, Jeff Cobb makes his first defense of the NEVER Openweight title against Suzuki-gun’s Taichi. And only that belt.

The following day, on 5/4, sees Kazuchika Okada make his first defense of the IWGP Heavyweight title against LIJ’s SANADA. Those three have had great matches before, including the recent New Japan Cup Final. They are also advertising a special singles match between Tomohiro Ishii v. EVIL, as well as a tag match that sees Dragon Lee & Will Ospreay team v. Taiji Ishimori & an X wrestler. Not sure why they are going the X route when we all know it’s El Phantasmo. 

As I said above, I will list all cards tomorrow or Friday in an Upcoming Events post.

Meanwhile, the brackets have been announced for the 2019 Crockett Cup tag team tournament, taking place on 4/27/2019 at Cabarrus Arena in Concord, NC. NJPW will be sending over the team of Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima to this event; one assumed it would have been TenKoji were Tenzan not injured. They will face the recently dethroned ROH World Tag Team champions PCO & Brody King in their matchup. Should Nagata/Kojima win, they will face the winners of The Briscoe Brothers v. The Rock’n’Roll Express. Yes, you read that right. Over in the other block, an ROH team of Herb Gordon & Bandido (poor Bandido) goes up against a CMLL tandem of Stuka Jr. & Guerrero Maya Jr., whilst the War Kings (Jax Dane & Crimson) face off against the winner of a Wild Card Battle Royale that will take place during this show. This event will also have an NWA World’s Heavyweight title defense by Nick Aldis v. Marty Scurll. 

Finally, NJPW on AXS has a 2-hour special this week, with matches from G1 Supercard just last weekend. The advertised matches are the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental matches. You can scroll above to see who is in those. Show starts at 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT.

And that’s it. I’m still recovering, so off to bed with this old man. Tour starts Saturday. Happy to be back. Hope you enjoyed the G1 Supercard, and anything else you watched during Mania Weekend. Come back for the Road to Wrestling Dontaku!

[yoshi4sushi]

(purupurupuru) (purupurupuru) (click!) (coo!) (coo!)

 Super, Happy Monday, minna-san! I hope everyone had a good weekend. The weather is getting chilly lately so keep yourselves warm. With that said, let’s on with this week’s news. We have loads to cover. First, last week’s chapter was ferocious! We last see poor Luffy lying in utter, bloody defeat from Kaido’s attack. Law was about to rescue him, but Hawking shot with him a sea stone nail bullet and rendered him helpless to use his devil fruit power. Kaido then noticed Luffy glaring at him even though he was unconscious. He then ordered his goons to lock him in jail. Just as they were about to, Luffy released his haki and knocked out the goons. Kaido was surprised to know he also has it. He then left to continue to his beer time. Back in the forest, Law was able to escape barely with his injury, and worries for his crew. However, he doesn’t want to leave Luffy. Back in Leftover Town, Kinemon went to check on his wife, O-Tsuru. She was tending to the poor villagers that were injured from Shuntenmaro’s attack. Back in the ruins, everyone was safe from Kaido’s attack. They all fell down from a deep hole thanks to Shino’s mature-mature fruit that has the ability to make anything rot. O-Kiku was then ready to let the gang know about the situation. Back at shore, it looks like Duke and his followers found Tama. Yay! She’s gonna be saved. So back in town, everyone was receiving news about Luffy’s revolt against Kaido. Franky, Ussop, and Robin read the newspaper and made hilarious “WHA?!” panic face. Zoro also got the wind of his situation while he was eating his onigiri on a boat. The next day at Rabbit Bowl, Kaido’s goons are all abusing the poor villagers working them to death and feeding them poisoned food from their devil fruit factory. At the end, the goons brought Luffy with his head bandaged all over. As he was being escorted to jail, someone shot a fish bone into one of goons. We finally see a familiar face we haven’t seen in a while, Eustass Kid. He looked all beat up. So the goons threw Luffy in jail as both swear that they will get their payback against Kaido. Suddenly, a masked lady shows up before them. Who is this stranger? How will the plan proceed? Act I ends. Let’s see how act II goes. Next, this past weekend’s episode was joyful, but still not out of the woods. We start off with Sanji pushing the cake onto Bege’s ship, and Chiffon finally reunites with her beloved family. However, Oven wasn’t gonna let them have their celebration as he heats up the ocean to melt the ship. Just as they were about to perish from the heat, Mr. Pound came to the rescues and hit Oven from behind. He then see Chiffon from a distance as he feels guilt for not being there for her and Lola during the times Big Mom abused back then. Even felt regret for not being able to hold them when Big Mom turned him away as she birth them. As his final moment, he congratulates Chiffon on his new family, and Oven killed them. At the end, Luffy returns to Mirror world for round 2 with his fight against Katakuri. Next time, the time has come, Carrot finally transforms into her sulong mode. Will she be sane? Guess we’ll see. Don’t miss it this week! Now on with the goods. Look who came to visit! Yup! Our fellow tower mascot, Tongari-san. Take it away, my friend! What you got for us? Tongari-san says that more awesome shopping goods are available at the tower. First off, let’s give a bday shout out to the one and only marimo swordsman, Zoro! Happy bday, you clunkhead. The tower has some neat birthday goodies of Zoro. First, they’re now selling this key holder of him. Next week, they’ll sell Bepo’s key holder as well. Next, the Tongari store have restocked of selling these plush ticket holder of Carue, Merry, Sunny, Chopper, and Bepo. Next, store downstairs are selling these bday goods of Zoro such as this key holder, a denim pouch and tote bag, and this B&W t-shirts. Next, all arcades will be stocking this neat Glitter & Glamour Venus figurine of Vivi in her bikini. Get your coins ready. Beat that crane! Next, more bday goods of Zoro are available at all Straw Hat stores, Jump Store, and the tower. They’re selling this Heroes collection buttons of Zoro in 10 designs from the beginning to Dressrosa. They’re also selling this bromide card set, a mini tote bag, an art board, a black tote bag, a long sleeve shirt, hand towel, and a folder. Next, this week, the store will be selling this edible snack that has the wanted poster of the Straw Hats, Ace, Law, and Hancock. Good for gifts to your friends or family. Next, new mochi mochi hamster plush. This time, it’s Ace and Marco. Adorable fellas. It will be released on Feb.9th at Straw Hat stores, and general release will be on Feb.23rd. You can order it online, but if you prefer to buy it in person, then you can head to Animate or Straw Hat stores. Next, stores are also selling this bromide card set of the Wano series. Next week, stores will be selling the second Memorial square badge. The 2nd theme is pride. It will be released on Nov.23rd. Next, new updated for the Kumamoto event. On Nov.30th, Kumamoto prefecture will finally release the first ever statue of Luffy to commemorate the rebuild from the earthquake. Also, next spring, Ginza will have a Tokyo Girls Collection collab goods. More events will be coming later so we’ll keep you updated on it. Moving on, the fashion brand store, #FR2, have an OP collab. They’re selling neat, but pricey goods of Sanji and Smoker that says “NO SMOKING.” They’re selling hoody sweaters, long sleeve shirts, jacket, t-shirts, a cap, long towel, tote bags, a strap, smart phone ring holder, and a sticker set. Not sure if this is some kind of awareness, but if you don’t like smoking, this is a good away to raise awareness. Ha ha ha ha! You can find the store in Harajuku that’s 5 min from Meiji Jingu-mae st. It will only be available until Nov.23rd. No online order. Next, OP game app, Thousand Storm, will have a short event where you can now use Crocodile and Mr.1 from Impel Down version as playable characters. Just win enough points and pass levels, and you’ll receive them. Next, on Jan.25th, they’ll release character albums of the Straw Hats of their solo songs. It’s available at the Straw Hat stores or Avex online. More details will be released later on. Next, here’s the new DVD cover of vol.16 of WCI that has Nami in her party dress. It will be released on Dec.2nd. Last, but not least, here’s the cast celebrating the return of Pudding’s seiyuu, Miyuki-san. She’s finally ready to get back up on her feet to continue her role as Pudidng. She was gone for a bit due to her maternity leave, and of course, she had baby boy. Congrats! We hope he grows up health and happy. Look who’s also there. Katakuri’s seiyuu, Sugita-san. GUA! So rare to see him in person. Phew! I think we covered everything. Well, that’s all we got for now. Tune in next week for more news and goods. Special thanks to Tongari-san. Thanks for dropping by. Oh, one more thing. We’ll leave the schedule of the next episodes. Once again, congrats to Miyuki-san for her return and the birth of her son. Boys, job well done. Let’s get some shut eye.

 Nov.18th: “Sulong – Carrot’s Mysterious Transformation”

Nov.25th: “Breakthrough – The Straw Hat Crew’s Big Naval Battle!”

Dec.2nd: No episode.

Dec.9th: “Clashing at Last – The Emperor vs. The Straw Hat Crew”