Pro Wrestling ZERO1 USA

ZERO1-MAX vs. KING'S ROAD 5-on-5 Update!
June 26th, 2006

ZERO1-MAX announced its five-man team facing KING'S ROAD's on July 1st at Tokyo's Kitazawa Town Hall for KING's ROAD's "Battle League Vol. 2" show. It will be a 30 minutes per bout, 5 man elimination tag team match. Also on the show, Mitsuya Nagai, Munenori Sawa, Daisuke Ikeda, Shota Takanishi, more...


KING'S ROAD "Battle League Vol. 2" - Main Event 5 vs. 5 Elimination Tag Match:
KING'S ROAD Kaz Miyamoto Tomoaki Honma Tomohiko Hashimoto Taichi Ishikari Yuto Aijima	vs.	ZERO1-MAX Kohei Sato Ryouji Sai Hirotaka Yokoi Rikiya Fudo Osamu Namiguchi

New Champions! Murakami Accepts!
June 24th, 2006

ZERO1-MAX returned to Tokyo at Differ Ariake for the "Rights" tour with a card loaded with title defenses. In the end only the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champs retained, as in the Main Event Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita successfully defended their titles against El Dorado Pro Wrestling's Takuya Sugawara and Kagetora. NOAH's referee was on hand to officiate the match. The rivalry between these two teams have built of late, with current ZERO1-MAX International Jr. Champ Sugawara owning victories over Hidaka and Fujita in singles and tag matches. Often Sugawara tries to cheat using his black box or outside interference.

The black box came into effect as the NOAH ref tried to keep Sugawara from using it they both fell from the ring. ZERO1-MAX referee Shinsuke Abe jumped in to substitute, just as Kagetora hit his Ikkitkousen finisher on Hidaka and placed his feet on the ropes. Ref Abe counted three and called for the bell, but at this time the NOAH referee has recovered and saw clearly Kagetora's cheating ways. After some arguing by the El Dorado fighters the match was restarted and the champs got the win in over 25 minutes when Hidaka hit the Misty Flip on Kagetora.

In the semi-main event Kohei Sato and Ryouji Sai's current run as Intercontinental Tag Team champs was short lived (4 days) as there run was put to a stop in 15 minutes by new tag partners Takao Omori and New Japan's Manabu Nakanishi. The veterans were fast to the attack, immediately hitting double back suplexes at the onset. Stonehenge was outclassed however, even in the tag double team department as Ryouji was finally finished by a union skill move called the "Washington Treaty" - a combination of Omori's Axe Bomber and Nakanishi's McEnroe. Afterwards the new champions posed with their titles and Omori stated he wants to defend the titles in the United States or anywhere in the world for that matter.

The sixth match of the show saw the return of young Jeto Yamagasa from his tour of America to team alongside Shinjiro Otani against Kensuke Sasaki and Masato Tanaka. Sasaki welcomed Jeto back to ZERO1-MAX by unleashing his devastating horizontal chops on him. Jeto managed to rally later on against Tanaka as Otani and Kensuke fought outside the ring, but his "Flying Z" cross body attack was reversed into a modified ground choke by Tanaka and Jeto was forced to tap out.

This was only the beginning of the action as directly after the current Fire Festival participants all came to the ring and started fighting as they spoke on the microphone about being this years winner. Sekimoto dumped Tanaka on his head, Yoshie declared this Summer the "Season of Pink" before Omori kicked him down. As this all continued, First on Stage President Mr. Nakamura, who is suspended currently from the ZERO1-MAX offices made an appearance alongside BIG MOUTH LOUD's Kazunari Murakami who came dressed in a dapper white suit and carrying flowers. He announced he accepted a position in the Fire Festival and then went to hand the flowers to Otani. As the 2005 Fire Festival victor reached for them Murakami then smashed them across Otani's face and departed in silence with Nakamura right behind him.

Originally scheduled as a title defense against Yoshihito Sasaki, and injury to the 2005 Tenka-ichi Jr. champ forced a substituted opponent for WWA World Welterweight champion Katsuhiko Nakajima in Tatsuhito Takaiwa. Nakajima had defended himself several times against Takaiwa's student Osamu Namiguchi. While taking part in some big matches against notable opponents this was a big singles match against Takaiwa, a former ZERO1-MAX, IWGP and NOAH Jr. Champion. Takaiwa used veteran strategy and his superior strength to out with Nakajima, keeping the fiery youngster from using his array of kicks by focusing on his left knee. This didn't keep Nakajima from trying several times for his R-16 kick.

Takaiwa's superior strength then came into effect as a top rope brainbuster, top rope power bomb and top rope Death Valley Driver was too much for the Kensuke Office fighter as finally a devastating lariat floored him for the loss. Takaiwa shook hands with Nakajima after the match and held his title high. He stated he now wants a singles match against current ZERO1-MAX International Jr. champ Takuya Sugawara.

Also on the card, Steve Corino fought Rikiya Fudo in a rematch from the day before, in that match Corino won with a side roll-up. A chair came into play, and Corino his the high knee the Axe Bomber and tried to score with the Corino Clutch/Pink Latch. But Fudo was able to eventually hit his U-39 finisher for the win.

In the 3rd match Apache Army's GENTARO and Battlart's Munenori Sawa defeated Kamikaze and Nami when GENTARO hit the Shooting star press on Nami for the Win. The 2nd match saw Hirotaka Yokoi defeat Fuyuki Takahashi with a jujigatame. And the opening match was an "Axe Bomber Offering Match" that put Omori's crew of indy rejects against each other as Isami and 726 defeated Yuko Miyamoto and Kazuhiro Tamura.

Tenka-Ichi Jr. Tourney IV! August Schedule!
June 24th, 2006

First On Stage and ZERO1-MAX have announced their August Schedule for 2006, and this includes the 2006 "Tenka-Ichi Jr. Tournament." In the past the Juniors' tournament is held before the "Fire Festival" around April and May. This year due to HUSTLE commitments, ZERO1-MAX had to postpone the tourney until later in the year.

Previous "Tenka-Ichi" Champions are: Wataru Sakata, Tatsuhito Takaiawa and Yoshihito Sasaki. The title originally started out as a standard title belt, and in 2004 became a Tournament. The Tournament this year will take place from 8/24 to 8/26.

A 8/6 and 8/14 show were also announced.

New Tag Champs! Yoshihito Default! Sai In!
June 21st, 2006

"Stonehenge" are once again Intercontinental Tag Team champions, as Kohei Sato and Ryouji Sai defeated the "P-Force Men" of Y2P-160kg and Steve Corino on June 20th in Kanagawa to become the 16th champs. The last time Kohei and Ryouji were champs was over a year ago in April 2005. Their victory puts them right in the path of the new ZERO1-MAX/New Japan tag team of Takao Omori and Manabu Nakanishi on the big upcoming Toyko's Differ Ariake show.

June 24th is the date for three title defenses in one day, the ZERO1-MAX Intercontinental Tag Team title, the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles, and the WWA World Welterweight title. Also the current ZERO1-MAX International Lightweight tag team champs, Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita will defend the NOAH belts against El Dorado pro wrestling's Takuya Sugawara and Kagetora.

The updated card:

"Rights" Toyko, Japan - June 24th, 2006 Differ Ariake
FIGHT CARD
ZERO1-MAX Intercontinental Tag Team Titles:
Kohei Sato © Ryouji Sai ©	vs.	Takao Omori Manabu Nakanishi (NJPW)

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles:
Ikuto Hidaka © Minoru Fujita ©	vs.	Takuya Sugawara (El Dorado) Kagetora (El Dorado)

Jeto's Return Match:
Shinjiro Otani Shinsuke Z Yamagasa	vs.	Kensuke Sasaki Masato Tanaka

WWA World Welterweight title:
Katsuhiko Nakajima ©	vs.	Tatsuhito Takaiwa

Rikiya Fudo	vs.	Steve Corino

Kamikaze Osamu Namiguchi	vs.	GENTARO Munenori Sawa

Hirotaka Yokoi	vs.	Fuyuki Takahashi

Kensuke Office and young phenom Katsuhiko Nakajima was originally scheduled to take on #1 Contender Yoshihito Sasaki in his WWA World Welterweight title defense. Sasaki was injured earlier in the week during training and had to pull from the match. His new opponent maybe one of his toughest singles matches to date - against Tatsuhito Takaiwa! This should be a hard hitting match. Sasaki has originally

Jeto finally makes his return from wrestling in the USA, and teams with Otani against Kensuke Sasaki and Masato Tanaka in a tag match.

The Fire Festival also has one more official member as Ryouji Sai defeated Stonehenge partner Hirotaka Yokoi in their qualifying match. Kamikaze versus Amazing Kong ended with both opponents being counted out at just over 8½ minutes.

Nakamura Out Pending Good Behavior!
June 19th, 2006

It has been no small surprise that since the May 11th, 2006 appointment of new ZERO1-MAX General Manager Masakazu Kusama has caused some friction with the former GM, Yoshiyuki Nakamura. Kusama was brought in to the promotion almost out of nowhere by parent company First On Stage, who praised his previous experience in the pro wrestling industry with New Japan and HUSLTE. Nakamura took the demotion graciously, as while no longer in control of all operations he was still President of First On Stage and the AWA board member for Japan.

The latter duty was stripped of him 11 days later, as AWA President and owner Dale Gagne sent him a FAX on his birthday also relieving him off those responsibilities. Gagne sent a list of scathing reasons and violations of AWA policy as an explanation and place Kusama-san in that position as well. Kusama then discovered the official ZERO1-MAX blog where a war of wit and words broke out between Nakamura and Kusama. Kusama often criticized and brought up what he felt Nakamura's faults were, most notably whenever Nakamura, who was still Firest On Stage President, booked matches or made decisions Kusama himself felt were to expansive. Mostly involving other promotions like New Japan, El Dorado and KING'S ROAD.

Yesterday however at the Korakuen Hall BIG MOUTH LOUD show Mr. Nakamura made a visit to the locker room and offered BML fighter Kazunari Murakami a spot on this year's "Fire Festival '06." BIG MOUTH LOUD Director Fumihiko Uei told the press he likes the offer and is very positive of the idea.

Kusama-san, who had already designated this year's "Fire Festival" the "AWA World Fire Festival 2006" was quite furious seeing how he's the head of AWA Japan. Already annoyed with Nakamura's setting matches with El Dorado and KING'S ROAD he pulled the trigger, suspending Nakamura through the remainder of June. Kusama stated that if Nakamura can keep his nose clean for that long he will be welcomed back. But until then he's suspended and Shinjiro Otani will take on all his professional duties with First On Stage.

"Destructive King" Shinya Hashimoto Annual Conference & Hoshikawa Encouragement Show!
June 17th, 2006

On July 15th in Niigata, Japan, ZERO1-MAX will present a special show titled "Destructive King Shinya Hashimoto Annual Conference & Hoshikawa Encouragement Show." The show will honor the founder of ZERO-ONE and puroresu legend Shinya Hashimoto, who died suddenly on July 11th of last year. Shinjiro Otani reavealed the poster for the event to the media today, pictured above.

In addition, this show will also be this year's tribute and charity drive for Naohiro Hoshikawa. ZERO1-MAX fighter Hoshikawa suffered a serious brain injury on October 17th, 2004 in Sapporo during a International Jr. Heavyweight title cage match against Tatsuhito Takaiwa and is now under long term medical care.

New AWA World Champions Crowned in Indy!
June 15th, 2006

Indianapolis, Indiana - A huge night of AWA action was held at the Speedrome in Indianapolis last night. Nearly 1,000 fans turned out on a Wednesday night to see some incredible action and witness two AWA World Championships change hands.


CWF Mid-Atlantic 6/14 - Main Event AWA World Heavyweight Title:
o Ric Converse ©	vs.	Takao Omori (Z1-MAX) x
(18:10 → Kido Clutch)

2-Time AWA World Heavyweight Champion Takao Omori flew in from Japan to defend the title against the #1 ranked U.S. contender and reigning AWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion, Ric Converse. It was a long awaited confrontation for Converse who had been on the hunt for the title for nearly a year. Fans cheered on Converse in his struggle for the heavyweight crown, which in the end saw the challenger score a pinfall over Omori to become the new AWA World Heavyweight Champion.

During the match the referee had his nose broken when Converse collided with him. Steve Corino and Ricky Landell, who had just won the AWA tag team Titles the previous match, ran into the ring and hit a spike piledriver on Converse. As the referee remained dazed, Kirby and TJ Mack entered in an attempt to help Converse but were cut off by Omori and Corino. The "Maneuver Baron" then set Converse up for Omori's Axe Bomber, Converse reversed on Corino and went for a running boot on Omori. The champ side-stepped the kick and aimed to hit the Axe Bomber for the victory. Converse quickly took advantage of the momentum and caught Omori with the Kido Clutch and the victory. Ric Converse - New AWA World Heavyweight champion.

Another big change in the AWA tag team scene, Steve Corino & Ricky Landell became the new AWA World Tag Team Champions. Earlier in the night "Krazy K" Kirby Mack and his brother TJ Mack had won the titles over The Henchmen, but were forced to defend their newly won titles against the "Old School Blondes" managed by AWA Vice President Jon Stewart.

The young new champions, having already been spent capturing the titles only moments before, could not turn back the challenge of the former AWA World Heavyweight Champion Steve Corino and current AWA World-1 Heavyweight Champion Ricky Landell.

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