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Kamikaze Returns! Sayama Speaks!

May 5th, 2005

Korakuen Hall, and a few things of note. The first being the winning of the Differ Cup Participation match by Takehiro Murahama and Katsuhiko Nakajima against the Young MAX teaming of Sasaki and Namiguchi.

The show also saw the return of Tiger Mask I, Satoru Sayama, sans mask to announce the debut show of his new "Real Japan Pro Wrestling" which will feature he and Shinjiro Otani in a singles match. Both wrestlers promised each other they would do their best, and Otani wondered aloud if Sayama will ever appear in a ZERO1-MAX ring.

And speaking of masks, Tengu Kaiser voluntarily had his mask removed by opponent Minoru Fujita after their opening match revealing Kamikaze. Kamikaze stated that he's returning to his unmasked role and called Kohei and Ryoji Sai into the ring to challenge them for their NWA Intercontinental Tag Team titles. He told them he wanted to team with current AWA Heavyweight champ Takao Omori. Later on in the show he asked Omori, and the champ accepted the offer.

Spanky also successfully defended his ZERO1 US Openweight championship against a returning Jason the Legend. This match had the stipulation added that if one of the fighters was thrown over the top rope he would be declared the loser. Spanky was able to reverse being thrown over by the monster gaijin and retained his title.

The main event saw the ZER01-MAX team of Otani, Takaiwa and Hidaka defeat the mixed bag team of outsiders of Tiger Emperor (NOAH), Super Shisa (Dragon Gate) and Sonjay Dutt (AWA). Sonjay turned out the be the weak link as Hidaka submitted him with the Shawn Capture. Both of these Juniors will be taking part in the 3rd Tenka-Ichi Junior Tournament.

And finally, Kastuhiko Ogasawara also made his return in a match against Ryoji Sai. After the match Sai, along with fellow Young MAX members Yoshihito Sasaki and Osamu Namiguchi, mocked Ogasawara's fighting style in which his stablemates, Matsuzaki and Aoyagi took issue with.

Kamikaze Returns! Sayama Speaks!

May 5th, 2005

It's spring again, so it's time for the "Tenka Ichi" (World #1) Jr. 3rd tournament. This tournament is done in the standard 2 block system of 10 fighters, with a win scoring 2 pts, a draw scoring 1 point and a loss being 0 points. Tatsuhito Takaiwa won last year's tournament, winning it decisively by not losing one of his four matches, all the way to the finals. In his Block A he defeated Hoshikawa, Low Ki, Nami and Ikuto Hidaka before facing the winner of Block B, RIKIPRO's Tomohiro Ishii. Full results of last year's "Tenka-Ichi Junior League Tournament" can be seen here.

Takaiwa and Hidaka together spoke to the media about the upcoming event, currently scheduled to take place from May 20th to May 29th. Takaiwa even brought out the Tenka-Ichi title belt (the title, after being decided in an initial tournament, was defended as a regular title belt until eventually sealed by Wataru Sakata last year. The title then returned to a tournament format once again). Though current ZERO1 Junior Ace Ikuto Hidaka managed to one up Takaiwa by bringing his NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Title (held along with Fujita) and his recently won ZERO-ONE/UPW/WORLD-1 International Jr. Heavyweight Title.

Currently announced participants (only 8 so far) are: Ikuto Hidaka, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Minoru Fujita, Yoshihito Sasaki, Osamu Namiguchi, Takehiro Murahama, Alex Shelley and Sonjay Dutt.

Enter Sandman!

April 17th, 2005

Yes you heard right, The "Hardcore Icon" The Sandman is taking part in the ZERO1-MAX show tomorrow. Sandman is in Japan taking part in the "We Love Sabu" shows run by Sumie Sakai, where he tagged with Ryuji Ito against BADBOY Hido and Necro Butcher.

At tomorrow's show Sandman will be in a 6-person mixed tag alongside Slyck Wagner Brown and April Hunter against Sumie, Eddie Edwards, and Japan's own hardcore icon, Kintaro Kanemura.

ZERO1-MAX in RIKIPRO!

April 16th, 2005

Several ZERO1-MAX wrestlers took part in the April 16th RIKIPRO "Tsubushiai" show at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall today, namely Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Ikuto Hidaka, Super Crazy and Osamu Namiguchi.

Super Crazy and Osamu Namiguchi tagged together in the 3rd match on the show against the old-school Far East Connection of Dick Togo and Ikuto Hidaka. Togo eventually scored the win at 13½ minutes with the Diving Senton on Nami.

And the 5th match saw Tatsuhito Takaiwa defeat Big Japan Pro Wrestling's Daisuke Sekimoto with the lariat.

Young MAX Triumph!

April 14th, 2005

Kohei Sato and Ryoji Sai lived up to their promise and tough talk these past weeks, as they defeated the reunited Team Emblem in just under 20 minutes at the "Outburst Revolution" show at Korakuen Hall today. The victory came when Ryouji eventually hit the soccer kick on Masato Tanaka . After the win Kohei acknowledged that it's been over a year since Emblem had been together, and gave the 3-2-1 ZERO-1 MAX cheer. Big win for the Young MAX crew, especially Sai.

Takao Omori eventually abandoned the fingerless gloves in his semi-main event AWA Heavyweight defense against Justin McCully. He also fought shoeless as part of the "True Attacking" rules of the bout. Omori had some tough moments during the fight, getting punched several times, ground & pound, and even an 8-count. Omori was able to escape from a triangle choke and a cross arm breaker, and eventually hit the Axe Bomber. He then locked on a single leg crab (he'd been working the leg the whole match, and McCully couldn't reach the rope so the Ref called the TKO.

McCully then flipped out, slamming the ref and needing to be restrained by other wrestlers. He attacked Omori, punching him in the face and screaming at him before things settled down.

The opponents who have faced each other numerous times across different time zones battled for the ZERO-ONE/UPW/WORLD-1 International Jr. Heavyweight Title - Super Crazy and Ikuto Hidaka. After a great battle that ranged all over Korakuen Hall the two unleashed on each other, with Crazy escaping the Shawn Capture and Hidaka kicking out of the spinning brainbuster. Crazy was grateful in his defeat, handing the belt over to Hidaka with both hands and holding up a sign in the crowd that thanked him as he is headed to the WWE after this tour so this was his final show in Korakuen Hall. Hidaka was very proud of his victory over one of the best juniors in the world - The "Insane Luchador," Super Crazy.

The student versus teacher match of Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Osamu Namiguchi had an added stipulation that if Nami could go the 20-minute time limit it would be considered a victory. Sadly for Nami he didn't even make it past 7½ minutes before he was dropped with the Lariat. Nami had an interesting strategy for this match, attempting to catch his teacher numerous time with a count-out, at one point Takaiwa made it back in just at the 19 count mark.

The second match of the show had some familiar faces for the Northeast Indy fans, with "Team Underground" of April Hunter and Slyk Wagner Brown teamed with King Adamo against Fujita, Eddy Edwards, and Sumei Sakai (who also spent some time in the Northeast). April and Sumie had many singles matches while Sumie was in country and it came down to them as April managed to get the pin on the native joshi wrestler.