News Archive

Today, ZERO1-MAX ace, Shinjiro Otani, regained the Fire Festival katana for the first time in two years. Otani struggled through the last two Fire Festivals, losing big matches and never able to regain his title after winning the first two Fire Festivals in 2001 and 2002. This time he not only broke his losing streak, but also defeated Kensuke Sasaki, the 2004 Japanese wrestling MVP and journeyman, for the first time.

To secure his win over Block B to get to the finals, Sasaki managed to defeat Ryouji Sai decisively in his final placement match. Sasaki was relentless with the hard vertical chops, making the crowd grimace and making Ryouji's chest swell up and turn purple. Sai tried to counter with chops, elbow strikes and kicks of his own, but was just no match for the powerful force of Sasaki. In just over 12 minutes, Sasaki floored Ryouji with a lariat and scored the pinfall to advance. After the match he pointed to Ryouji's damaged chest and told him it might sting for a while.

In Otani's final placement match, he had much more on the line, as ZERO1-MAX announced that if there were ties in any of the blocks they would be decided in 3-ways or 4-ways. This turned out to be unnecessary, as Otani was able to defeat last years Fire Festival champion, Kohei Sato, with the King Cobra hold. Also, Daisuke Ikeda defeated the "Debt King" Tadao Yasuda in their final match to eliminate Yasuda from the finals on the opening match of the show. So it came down to Otani versus Sato for the decision as to who advances.

Kohei again went right after Otani's weakened left leg with kicks, but managed to fight back until Kohei went on a rampage, hitting him with a avalanche urinagi, multiple German suplexes, and finally his big dead-lift German suplex hold but Otani was able to kick out. Otan then fought back in rapid-fire succession: spinning heel kick, springboard dropkick, spiral bomb, and then finally the King Cobra hold for the tap-out victory.

And so to the finals go Shinjiro Otani versus Kensuke Sasaki. Until they met last month (7/9) in a singles match these two hadn't fought in over 4 years, way back on February 16th, 2001 for New Japan Pro Wrestling for Sasaki's then IWGP Heavyweight title. Back in July, Sasaki had won once again, defeating Otani in 17½ minutes in Niigata with the Northern Lights bomb. The turning point of the match came in an unusual moment witched caused the crowd to gasp in astonishment.

As the gong sounded to start the match, the two fighters stood motionless for sometime glaring into each other's eyes. Sasaki has declared he would win the Fire Festival and Otani declared if he himself wasn't the victor then he'd feel like a failure. Eventually the two began to circle each other and locked up. Once again, Otani's opponent went relentlessly right for his left knee. Eventually the chop battle began, as Sasaki rained his deadly chops onto Otani, but Otani shot around behind Sasaki and hit the surprise German suplex, and then the Face wash in the corner. Sasaki quickly hit a low dropkick on the left knee to buy himself some time but the following lariat attempt was seized by Otani who then quickly went for the jujigatame, but Sasaki made it to the ropes.

15 minutes in and once more to the horizontal chops it goes, as Sasaki unleashed with everything he had on Otani's chest, the loud SMACK reverberating through Korakuen Hall. And that's when it happened - Otani sunddenly unleashed with a huge overhand karate chop on Sasaki, a signature move of recently deceased ZERO-ONE boss Shinya Hashimoto, and floored his opponent completely. The crowd was stunned along with Otani as for a second he just stood there staring at his hand in surprise.

He quickly took advantage of the situation as Sasaki stumbled back to his feet, Otani scored with the missile dropkick to the back. Sasaki went for it all at this moment, conjuring his remaining strength by nailing a hard lariat and then his finsher the Northern Lights bomb, but could only score the 2 count on the defiant and inspired Shinjiro Otani! Otani then changed the momentum for the final time, hitting a jumping kick to the head, and then grabbed the dragon suplex hold for the victory!

Afterwards, both Otani and Sasaki got on the mic to thank the fans who applauded loudly. Otani thanks the crowd from the bottom of his heart for supporting ZERO1-MAX and that the wrestlers all thank them. The ZERO1-MAX wrestlers then hoisted Otani onto their shoulders and threw him in the air several times in celebration.

When asked about the spontaneous Karate Chop after the match by reporters, Otani said he had no idea where it came from, but he added that he knows that particular strike was one of Hashimoto's favored moves and Kensuke Sasaki was a big rival of The Boss. He then added for this obvious reason he dedicates his victory to the "Father of the Fire Festival" and his former mentor - Shinya Hashimoto.

Other matches saw Hirotaka Yokoi beat Takao Omori in a short decisive victory with the Anaconda choke. Masato Tanaka and Kamikaze teamed together in a losing effort against the gaijin tag team of Chris the Bambi Killer and Alex Shelley. World-1 Jr tournament champion Yoshihito Sasaki defeated Rikiya Fudo. And in a 6-man tag, Ikuto Hidaka, Minoru Fujita and Katsuhiko Nakajima defeated the team of Tatsuhito Takaiawa, Takehiro Murahama and Osamu Namiguchi when once more Nakajima defeated Namiguchi.

A very successful and entertaining Fire Festival this year, and also a very close run thing leading into the final day of the tournament with the scores so close. After the troubles and tribulations ZERO1-MAX has gone through since ZERO-ONE folded, nobody deserves this win more than Shinjiro Otani. The Fire Festival katana is back where it belongs.

After the match, Tanaka got on the microphone and showed his excitement to the Korakuen Hall faithful by doing the "3-2-1-ZERO-1 Ooooooooo- MAX!!" cheer.

Other results saw the "Debt King" Tadao Yasuda beat last years "Fire Festival" victor, Kohei Sato, in just over 7 minutes with the Big Boot. And even more surprising, Chris "the Bambi Killer" managed to out think Kenuske Sasaki into a count-out and win his match. Sasaki gave props to the Austrian after the match and said he was out-witted by the maneuver. Hirotaka Yokoi hasn't won a match yet, as fellow ROWDY member Ryouji Sai beat him with the "Sky Kick" with the win.

In non-tournament matches, ZERO1-MAX junior rivals Ikuto Hidaka and Alex Shelley met in singles action once again, this time for the ZERO1-MAX International Jr. Heavyweight Title. Shelley had won their first singles meeting in the "Tenka-Ichi" Jr. Tournament, and with the help of Tadao Yasuda pinned Hidaka once more in their Tag match on the opening night. Hidaka held onto his title this time, nailing the "Misty Flip" in just under 15 minutes for the victory. Speaking of rivalries, who could forget the Osamu Namiguchi versus Katsuhiko Nakajima singles match from Night 2 of this years "Differ Cup." That match ended in a time limit draw as Nakajima was about to score the win on a bloodied Namaguchi. This time his victory was decisive, as the current All Asia Tag Team champion (along with his Sensei, Kensuke Sasaki) won in 11:26 with the R-15.

ZERO1-MAX ring announcer, Oki Okidata, once more did the announcing honors as they played Hashimoto's music and fans chanted his name. Otani even lead the crowd in the vintage "3-2-1-ZERO-ONE!" cheer, and Ogawa led everyone in doing the "hustle." There was a large shrine in which photos of Hashimoto through his career were shown, along with his ring robe, attire, and the recently retired old IWGP Heavyweight title (the title has now been replaced by a newer version).

Shinjiro Otani said everything he learned about running a promotion he learned from The Boss, and that the spirit of Hashimoto will live on in ZERO1-MAX.

The guest list included numerous ZERO1-MAX wrestlers and many others from All-Japan, New Japan, NOAH and several freelancers. Fighters appearing included: Takao Omori, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Masato Tanaka, Kohei Sato, Jun Akiyama, Tatsumi Fujinami, Animal Hamaguchi, Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Koji Kanemoto, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, Satoshi Kojima, Mitsuharu Misawa, Hiroyoshi Tenzan Katsuhiko Nagata, Yuji Nagata, Shinsuke Nakamura, Manabu Nakanishi, Seiji Sakaguchi, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, Jinsei Shinzaki, Nobuhiko Takada, Kiyoshi Tamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi and others.

The show started of with a re-match between Osamu Namiguchi & Yoshihito Sasaki versus Takehiro Murahama & Katsuhiko Nakajima. These two teams battled fiercely in a "Differ Cup '05" qualification match on 5/5, with Murahama & Nakajima coming out on top. Then on the 2nd night of the Differ Cup" Namiguchi and Nakajima met in a violent and brutal singles match that Nakajima won. Sadly for the ZERO1-MAX fighters, the outcome was the same as Murahama hit Nami with the brainbuster for the win.

In the first match of the tournament last year's winner, Kohei Sato, pulled of a big win against Masato Tanaka. Tanaka has been looking forward to this "Fire Festival" ever since an injury forced him to have to exit last year's tournament. Kohei reminded Tanaka of that injury as he repeatedly attacked the injured shoulder. The matched contained much brawling and head dropping, not to mention several submissions and reversals. Kohei nailed the victory when he hit the German suplex hold for the victory.

The Austrian, Chris "The Bambi Killer" Raaber, made his Japanese debut against Takao Omori in the second tourney match. Omori was sporting his old dyed-blonde hair and mocked Raaber as the two held a battle of moves. The two battled outside of the ring, and exchanged Axe Guillotine Drivers before Omori nailed the Axe Bomber on the "Bambi Killer" in just over 8 minutes for the win.

In an interesting tag team match, Alex Shelley teamed with Tadao Yasuda against Ikuto Hidaka & Kamikaze. Shelley and Yasuda weren't on the same page however and got in each other ways a few times before getting it together near the end. At one point, Kamikaze took money out of the back pocket of the Referee and tried to distract Yasuda who almost got rolled up by Hidaka. Yasuda played the last trick however, as he grabbed Hidaka's foot as Hidaka was about to perform the "Shawn Capture" on Shelley. Hidaka then turned into a Shell Shock and was rolled-up. This bodes well for Shelley, who faces Hidaka on Sunday in a singles match for the ZERO1-MAX International Jr. Heavyweight Title.

The next match featured Otani versus Daisuke Ikeda in their Block A match. Ikeda spent the match working over Otani's left leg, and the two exchanged chairshots and facewashes in the corner. The two also traded submissions as both escaped each other's King Cobra Hold (by Otani) and rear-naked choke (by Ikeda). But eventually the time ran out, much to the aggravation of Otani.

The final match saw Kensuke Sasaki against Hirotaka Yokoi. Sasaki has promised he will win the "Fire Festival" and showed lots of fire coming off his loss to Kenta Kobashin in NOAH and his subsequent victory in All Japan Pro Wrestling for the All-Asia Tag Team Titles with student Katzuhiko Nakajima. Sasaki showed his fire, by mercilessly chopping Yokoi over and over, as Yokoi countered with straight punches. He also took a nasty brainbuster on the floor, and a hard slam. Though he was able to hit his own German suplex and get several submission attempts in. Eventually one final chop is all it took, as at 10:44 he shot Yokoi off the ropes, hit him with a vicious reverse knife edge chop and scored the pinfall.