Current NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Champions, Kohei Sato and Ryouji Sai, held a press conference tonight at a local restaurant and spoke about the upcoming defense of their titles on 10/9 against Takao Omori and his new partner Tadao Yasuda. They announced that they have created a new tag team combo move that they plan to debut, and are confident that they will be victorious.

The winner of the 10/9 title match will go on to face current NWA International Lightweight Tag Team champions Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita, who just had their V5 defense. When asked about this match, Kohei shrugged it off and used his food to explain that "Hidaka and Fujita are like the carrots and cucumbers in this meal. And the carrots and cucumbers can never win over the meat!" We can only assume "the meat" in this sentence is refering to he and tag partner Ryouji.

Several ZERO1-MAX fighters took part in today's RIKIPRO show at Korakuen Hall, a promotion run by owner and booker Riki Choshu. ZERO1-MAX roster members on the show included Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Ryouji Sai, Rikiya Fudo and Osamu Namiguchi. Plenty of other famliar wrestlers also took part, from Dick Togo to several members of the Apache Army.

The opening bout saw Rikiya Fudo battle with Daisuku Shimoda, where the two exchanged stiff chops and strikes and Fudo took practically all of Shimodoa's offense, including the running face kick, a camel clutch, a boston crab and a exploder suplex. Fudo managed to rally from all this and finally hit the diving elbow, and his own Boston crab for the submission win. After the match, Shimoda angrily faced down Fudo before leaving the ring.

RIKIPRO - Match #1:
x Daisuku Shimoda	vs.	Rikiya Fudo o
(11:56 --> Boston Crab)

The second match of the show had the impressive combo of Takaiwa teamed with Dick Togo in a tag match against two members of the Apache Troop - Takeshi Sasaki and GENTARO. And while the Apache members tried their hardest to mount some offense against their opponents with GENTRARO even getting a 2 count on Takaiwa with a late fisherman's buster. But the ZERO1-MAX fighter then turned the tide, hitting a top-rope Death Valley Driver and then the Death Valley bomb for the victory.

RIKIPRO - Match #2:
o Tatsuhito Takaiwa Dick Togo	vs.	Takashi Sasaki GENTARO x
(15:59 --> Death Valley Bomb)

The third match was the final match of ZERO1 participation, as the YOUNG MAX duo of Ryouji Sai and Osamu Namiguchi teamed together against Shiro Koshinaka and Karate Force member Masashi Aoyagi. This was the only match that ZERO1 lost as the two young fighters were unable to defeat the veterans. At just over 11½ minutes, Nami took a mean high spink kick to the head from Aoyagi and was pinned as Koshinaka held Ryouji outside the ring.

RIKIPRO - Match #3:
Shiro Koshinaka o Masashi Aoyagi	vs.	Ryouji Sai Osamu Namiguchi x
(11:36 --> high spinning kick)

Two of the ZERO1-MAX fighters taking place on the October Tour have had to been removed due to sickness - Tatsuhito Takaiwa and the returning CW Anderson. Takiawa was told to take 5 days off from wrestling by the doctor due to a high fever. And while he was reluctant to do so, he wants to be healthy for his NJPW tag match on 10/8 at the Tokyo Dome. Osamu Namiguchi, who was suppose to be taking some time off before heading to Mexico for several weeks will be filling in for him until the 10/4 show.

CW Anderson is also ill and had to be hospitalized due to sickness. And while he still wanted to make the trip, this is impossible, as he'd never be allowed on an airplane for international travel because of his illness. The ZERO1-MAX office in Japan sent their hopes for a speedy recovery for the current NWA United National Heavyweight Champ.

Today was the "Business Launch - 2nd Show" of Satoru Sayama's Real Japan Pro Wrestling at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, with an announced attendance of 1239 fans. The main event had ZERO1-MAX ace, Shinjiro Otani, teamed alongside The Tiger (Ultimo Dragon) against Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Kagetora. The Tiger scored the pinfall in just over 18 minutes when he hit the Asai DDT on Kagetora for the win.

Real Japan "Business Launch: 2nd Show" - Main Event:
Shinjro Otani o The Tiger	vs.	Tatsuhito Takaiwa Kagetora x
(18:15 --> Asai DDT)

After the match Tiger got on the microphone and challenged Takaiwa to a singles match either in ZERO1-MAX or Real Japan when he returns from tours of American and Europe. Takaiwa didn't respond to the challange and just exited the ring. Takaiwa's tag partner, Kagetora, showed interest in appearing in a ZERO1-MAX ring also in the future.

Sayama, as Tiger Mask, fought in the semi-main event in singles against Masao Orihara. The two wrestlers ended up fighting to a 30 minute time limit draw. Tiger Mask hit many of his trademark moves, including numerous kicks, the flying headbutt and the Tiger suplex. After the match Sayama got on the mic and said the match had reminded him of many of the time limit draws he had with the Dynamite Kid back in the day.

In the opening bout of the show ZERO1-MAX fighter Osamu Namiguchi faced Lasse. Namiguchi was unable to defeat the Michinoku Pro fighter and lost the match in a little over 11 minutes. Nami will be heading to Mexico after his 9/29 match against Shinjiro Otani at the S-ARENA (announced as his "Farewell Celebration"). He will spend about eight weeks there and then will come to the US in early 2006 to compete in Pro Wrestling WORLD-1.

Real Japan "Business Launch: 2nd Show" - 1st Match:
o Lasse	vs.	Osamu Namiguchi x
(11:08 --> Jyagaragi)

ZERO1-Max held the Naohiro Hoshikawa tribute show - "Perseverance" at Korakuen Hall today in front a packed house of 1700 fans who came to support the wounded fighter. While Hoshikawa himself couldn't make it to the show, his Father did come to the ring before the start and thanked the pro wrestling fan and ZERO1-MAX for putting on the show. The crowd gave him a loud cheer and Hoshikawa's music played as his image was shown on the big screen.

The main event of the show was a 6-man special Junior tag team match between the current NWA Lightweight Tag champions, Hidaka and Fujita teamed with current GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title holder, KENTA versus Takaiawa, NOAH's Tiger Emperor, and former ZERO-ONE Junior ace, Wataru Sakata. After over 20 minutes of fighting, Takaiwa finally was able to get the Death Valley bomb on Fujita for his team's victory. KENTA said he wants to return to ZERO1-MAX, and would like to team with Naomichi Marufuji who was originally scheduled to participate but couldn't due to a knee injury.

The semi-main event was a special tag pitting the heavyweights against each other. Team EMBLEM faced off against former AWA Heavyweight Champ Takao Omori and former Triple Crown Champion, Toshiaki Kawada. Omori and Kawada hadn't team together in a long time, since when they were in All Japan Pro Wrestling together. And since Kawada was in this match, Otani and Tanaka got kicked in the face a few times, Tanaka especially. There was plenty of out of the ring battling as well, with chairs and tables coming into play. At one point Tanaka placed Omori on a table outside the ring and frog splashed him off the top rope. Eventually the 30 minute time-limit ran out with no victors. Kawada got on the microphone after the match and said that out of all the groups he worked for, ZERO1-MAX is the most charming. Otani said Kawada can come back anytime is he's looking for a fight.

Kohei's singles match against "Mr. Danger" ended how one would predict - with lost of blood pouring from Kohei's head care of Matsunaga's fork. And while Kohei was able to mount a defense against the weapon, eventually he had lost too much blood and the referee declared the match a no-contest. Kohei's ROWDY tag team partner, Hirotaka Yokoi then charged the ring to protect his wounded teammate. He then told Matsunaga that he wants a no-ropes barbwire match against him on the October 9th show in Korakuen Hall!

The decision match for the ZERO1-MAX US Openweight title was apparently a high speed affair between Alex Shelley and Sonjay Dutt. The US title was vacated when the previous holder, Spanky, returned to the WWE. On the September 16th, Shelley and Sonjay had teamed together against Hidaka & Fujita for the NWA Lightweight tag titles but now faced each other for this single title. Shelley was wearing very Hidaka-esque tights and was able to secure the victory against Sonjay in 12½ minutes with the Shell Shock.

Other matches saw Hardkore Kidd & Bambikiller defeat Yoshihito Sasaki and Rikiya Fudo. ROWDY teammates Hirotaka Yokoi and Ryouji Sai teamed to defect Takehiro Murahama and Kamikaze. And in the opening match, Dragondoor "Aagan Iisou" member Takuya Sugawara made short work of Nami, forcing him to submit in less than 4½ minutes. Afterwards, Sugawara got on the microphone and said he shouldn't be facing a young boy like Nami in the opening match and that he really has come looking for a match against the man who pinned him at the 9/9 Dragondoor show "Los Conquistadores," Minoru Fujita.

At the close of the show, Tatsuhito Takaiwa picked up the microphone to thank the fans once again for coming to the show, and he thanked KENTA and Tiger Emperor for coming as well. He said he hopes everybody continues to support and pray for Hoshikawa and he like many others can't wait to see him return to ZERO1-MAX. "Hoshikawa, please return to this ring quickly. We're waiting for you." He then called all the fighters into the ring along with Mr. Hoshikawa and did the ZERO1-MAX cheer with the fans:

3-2-1-ZERO-1…ooooooooo…MAX!!