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MVP Intrusion - Omori's Redemption Not Final!

January 10th, 2005

Takao Omori took almost the exact same path he took during the last Fire Festival, but this time with a different result in the final. The match today was to be the final of the #1 Contender tourney for the AWA Heavyweight Championship. The key word here being was. Switching opponents from the announced card was the first bit of AWA bureaucracy that took place today.

So just like Fire Festival '04, Omori faced off against Wataru Sakata in the semi-final of his block. Sakata had all but won Block A during the Fire Festival until he choked against Omori in his final match and Omori went to the finals to face, and eventually lose to, Kohei Sato.

Kohei also relived a Fire Festival moment this show, as he competed against Otani and won again, using Otani's own dragon suplex hold for the win. So, once again Omori versus Sato for a top prize in ZERO-ONE, a match Koehi won that day back in August after a 22-minute battle.

This time the results were different however as Omori won with the dreaded Axe Bomber in just under 15 minutes. As Omori raised his arms in victory, figuring he had erased his loss for possession of the Fire Festival katana, his celebration was cut short by ring announcer Okita. A document was then read from AWA Administrator Oscar David stating that it has been decided that the final match for the #1 contender of the AWA Heavyweight tournament would be a 3-way dance featuring the winner of Block A (Kohei) and the winner of Block B (Omori) against an opponent to be decided by ZERO-ONE management.

The crowd became restless after hearing this, and Shinjiro Otani came out to announce that his choice for the 3rd fighter would be Japanese pro-wrestling MVP of 2004 - Kensuke Sasaki. Needless to say, Omori and Kohei were not amused. The match was announced for the "Business Launch" show in Korakuen Hall on 1/23.

Also on the show, AWA representative Adrian Lynch lost his singles match against Ryouji Sai, when Sai submitted him with a leg lock. Tatsuhito Takaiwa faced off against his trainee, Osamu Namiguchi in a hard fought battle that saw Namiguchi try to show some power to his teacher. He managed to last almost 13 minutes AND he kicked out of the top rope brainbuster.

"E-Style" stands for "Extreme Style" and is a reference to ECW. The match was a 4-way between Masato Tanaka, current Jr. Champion Super Crazy and current PWF tag team champions Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita. There was lots of brawling but also much high flying by Crazy, Hidaka, and Fujita. After the match everybody showed mutual respect. Since it was every man for himself, Hidaka eventually submitted his own tag team partner with the Shawn Capture.

Takaiwa Comes Up Short...

January 8th, 2005

ZERO-ONE's former Jr Champion, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, finally faced off against current NOAH Jr. Champ Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the belt at NOAH's "Great Voyage '05" show in Tokyo. The two had been looking forward to this match, and from all reports it was an extremely hard-hitting bout.

Takaiwa came out with a ZERO-ONE towel over his shoulders, and Kanemaru came out swinging his belt around. There were many stiff strikes and chops, along with several powerbombs, a body slam on the floor, and a top rope Death Valley driver on the champ that got a close 2 count. After the match the two fighters shook hands, and Kanemaru put over Takaiwa in a post-match interview as being faster and stronger than he is...