Home » News Archive » News from 06/26/06 to 07/01/06

ZERO1-MAX vs. KING'S ROAD Victory!

July 1st, 2006

ZERO1-MAX battled KING'S ROAD today at Tokyo's Kitazawa Town Hall for KING's ROAD's "Battle League Vol. 2" show. The Gauntlet main event started fairly even, until Tomoaki Honma managed to eliminate Hirotaka Yokoi and Rikiya Fudo. Kohei Sato managed to eliminate Honma and Ajima next with his German suplex hold, and then fought to a double count-out with Tomohiko Hashimoto. So even in defeat he eliminated three KING'S ROAD fighters. It came down to his partner in STONEHENGE, Ryoji Sai to bring home the victory for ZERO1-MAX. Ryouji fought Taichi Ishikara for over 14 minutes and finally got the win with the double foot stomp of the top rope.

After the match KING'S ROAD President Kenji Aoki entered the ring and announced that he had made the promise that if ZERO1-MAX were victorious in the Gantlet main event that KING'S ROAD would cease operations. Aoki-san confirmed this will be the case, and this was the last KING'S ROAD show. Also on the undercard, in singles competition Shota Takanishi beat Yuya Kubo and Munenori Sawa and Mitsuya Nagai defeated Daisuke Ikeda and Junji Inazuma in a tag team match.

Press Conference! Euro Excursion!

June 29th, 2006

New ZERO1-MAX Intercontinental Tag Team champions, Takao Omori and Manabu Nakanishi, spoke today at the New Japan Pro Wrestling offices. They announced that they're both very happy to be teamed together and have the highest confidence in each other, and now want to compete for the IWGP Tag Team titles.

They added that they would like to defend their Intercontinental Tag Team titles all over the world, and would especially like to come to America to face challengers. Nakanishi said a nice place to start would be on 7/17 at the Tsukisamu Green Dome.

The champs also announced their official tag team name as "Real Wild Child."

Press Conference! Euro Excursion!

June 29th, 2006

Today at the ZERO1-MAX/First On Stage offices in Tokyo to speak the media on the Fire Festival, a tribute for Naohiro Hoshikawa, and ZERO1-MAX wrestlers competing in Austria and England.

On hand to speak were Masato Tanaka, Shinjiro Otani and one half of the current Intercontinental Tag Team champions Takao Omori. As to be expected, all the fighters were very positive of their chance to win this years Fire Festival. Tanaka stated that he hopes to win all his matches, and that considering some of the American wrestlers he'd faced, the girth of his first opponent, Yutaka Yoshie, doesn't intimidate him.

Otani also wants to start the Fire Festival off on a strong note, and must face BIG MOUTH LOUD'S Kazunari Murakami whom he has show particular anger towards. He went so far as to say he hated Murakami and that if he doesn't win the match he will feel "useless." He added that as the previous years Fire Festival victor he has more pressure as he knows many would like to take the Fire Festival katana from his grasp.

Omori said he noticed that aside from Tatsutoshi Goto in Block B the rest of the block is made up of young fighters. He said the one wrestler he's interested in facing is Big Japan's Daisuke Sekimoto who he said had an "outstanding physique" but he wonders if his skill matches his appearance.

Omori and Corino Go to Europe
ZERO1-MAX fighters and former AWA Heavyweight Champions Takao Omori and Steve Corino are headed to Europe to wrestle for the European Wrestling Association in Austria and AWA UK and 1PW Pro Wrestling in the United Kingdom. Omori will be in EWA on July 1st facing Chris "the Bambikiller" Raaber, a participant of the 2005 Fire Festival who scored a victory over Kensuke Sasaki. Then on July 7th he and Corino will do a doubleshot as they both will appear for AWA UK and 1PW.

For the 1:00pm AWA UK show at Ware Drill Hall, Ware, England, Omori will be in singles action against Darren Burridge, and Corino will be in tag action alongside Chad Collyer against Robbie Brookside and Hade Vansen.

The 1PW show takes place that night at the Barnsley Metrodome at 7:00pm where Omori will again see singles action against Andy Boy Simmonz. Corino, the 1PW World Heavyweight Champion will defend his title against Pro Wrestling NOAH's Doug Williams in the main event. Also on the show is the tag team of Jonny Storm and Jody Fleisch who faced ZERO1-MAX International Lightweight Tag Team champs Minoru Fujita and Ikuto Hidaka back in October 2005 during the Interception tour.

On a final note, AWA Japan and ZERO1-MAX President Masakazu Kusama has approved the presentation of a commemorative AWA Jr. Heavyweight title belt to be presented to Naohiro Hoshikawa during the 7/15 Destructive King Shinya Hashimoto Annual Conference & Hoshikawa Encouragement show in Niigata.

Fire Festival '06 Participants Finalized!

June 26th, 2006

The Fire Festival '06 commences from July 20th to July 29th, and ZERO1-MAX along with parent company First On Stage today announced the final participants and fight schedule. As for the fighters participating, five are ZERO1-MAX contracted wrestlers.

Last year non ZERO1-MAX participants were the "Debt King" Tadao Yasuda, FUTEN's Daisuke Ikeda, and 2004 Japanese Pro Wrestling MVP Kensuke Sasaki.

This year it breaks down like this:

Block A

Shinjiro Otani (ZERO1-MAX)

Masato Tanaka (ZERO1-MAX)

Yutaka Yoshie (Freelance)

Kazunari Murakami (BIG MOUTH LOUD)

Tomoaki Honma (Freelance)

Block B

Takao Omori (ZERO1-MAX)

Kohei Sato (ZERO1-MAX)

Ryoji Sai (ZERO1-MAX)

Tatsutoshi Goto (Freelance)

Daisuke Sekimoto (Big Japan Pro Wrestling)

Below are the scheduled bouts, all with a 30 minute time limit.

A win is 2 points, a draw 1 point, and a loss 0 points.