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MAX LAND - Progress! Hidaka & Fujita Loss!

August 25th, 2006

Double Main Event tonight at Korakuen Hall for the "MAX LAND - Progress" show in the middle of the 2006 Tenka-Ichi Jr. tournament, as the International Lightweight and Intercontinental tag team titles were both on the line. And while "Wild Child" defended their titles again Team Emblem, Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita lost their titles to the TNA X-Division combination of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin.

The Main Event match went almost 28 minutes, and last year's tag team MVPs showed their fighting spirit and tag team combo skill. And while the two sides had many fast exchanges and broken pinfalls it wasn't enough for the Champions to retain. Sabin hit Hidaka with his Cradle Shock and held him outside the ring as Shelley, avoiding Fujita's attack, scored the "Shell Shock 2006" for the pinfall.

After the match Sabin and Shelley held their titles and posed for the crowd. Shelley is a former ZERO1-MAX US Openweight champion. Hidaka and Fujita held the Lightweight tag titles for over a year, winning them on March 27, 2005 in a decision match against Spanky and Shelley. They also lost the GHC Jr. Tag Team titles earlier in the month to Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Takashi Sugiura of Pro Wrestling NOAH.

The second Main Event was actually the 5th match of the 7th match show, as the Intercontinental Tag team champions of Takao Omori and Manabu Nakanishi faced off with Team EMBLEM - Shinjiro Otani and Masato Tanaka. When Tanaka won the "Fire Festival" and received the champion's katana he said it had been the "Shijiro Otani sword" but now would be known as the "Team EMBLEM" sword.

The Intercontinental Tag team titles are somewhat known as the Team EMBLEM belts as Otani and Tanaka have held the titles twice before in 2002 and 2003, they face one of the more popular tag teams of late in "Wild Child" (or sometimes referred to by fans as "Ho! Fear!" It was a hard hitting match which came to an end when after eating an Axe Bomber, Otani received the "Washington Treaty" on Otani for the victory.

Tiger Emperor returned to ZERO1-MAX to team with Takaiwa and Yoshihito against the El Dorado upstart team of Takuya Sugawara, Kagetora and their surprise partner - Black Emperor. An all-black version of Tiger Emperor in the vein of New Japan Pro Wrestling's Black Tiger. Once again Sugawara tried to cheat with the black box, and managed to nail Takaiwa with it before Yoshihito shoved it right back down his throat. But when the match fell to 3-on-2, Sugawara was able to get the victory over Sasaki with his Shiisanputa finisher.

To add to a show of all tag matches but one, STONEHENGE also came together to take on the team of Tomoaki Honma and Tomohiko Hashimoto. And while the visitors fought hard, the former Intercontinental Tag Team champions got the victory when Kohei grabbed a Tiger Suplex hold on Honma. After the match Kohei said he's interested in defending his UN Heavyweight title against everybody, including Hashimoto if he wants a shot.

The former Ace of KING'S ROAD, Kazushi Miyamoto, has been in a sort of limbo since the folding of that promotion. So he received a welcome of sorts to Z1-MAX by facing Lingerie Muto in singles action! Lingerie Muto came to impress Korakuen Hall, with his shiny green undergarments and a flower on his head. Alas, Miyamoto dropped him in 7½ with a wedgie followed by a vicious powerbomb for the win. After the match Miyamoto got on the microphone and thanked Lingerie Muto, saying later that to Miyamoto guys like Lingerie Muto make pro wrestling pleasant, and both the Muto "LOVE" pose in the ring.

Speaking of turbulent times, BIG MOUTH LOUD is on shaky grounds, but that didn't stop Katsumi Usuda and Manabu Hara from showing up to fight in the company's name against Rikyia Fudo and young Shota Takanishi. Hara defended the honor when he lowered Takanishi with a German suplex hold. After the match, Fudo appealed for a singles match and scrapped with both BML fighters.

The opening match had Osamu Namiguchi teamed with GENTARO to take on the Gaijin Jr team of Billy Moreno and Aussie Ozbone. The Australian and Filipino won when Moreno used a modified shoulder buster for the win on Namiguchi.

Tenka-Ichi Opening Show!

August 24th, 2006

The first show of the 2006 "Tenka-Ichi" Jr tournament happened today at Tokyo's Shinjuku FACE. Ten fighters participated in the opening round, with current Jr champion Tatsuhito Takaiwa and #1 contender Takuya Sugawara getting a pass from the first round. The winner of the tournament is recognized not only as the Tenka-Ichi champion but also the first AWA World Jr. Heavyweight champion.

The most surprising outcome was the match between International Lightweight tag team champions -Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita. Coming off a loss of their GHC Jr. Tag Team titles and facing TNA's Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin tomorrow for the Lightweight titles, these two haven't faced each other in singles action since June 2005. One would expect a fierce battle, and long drawn out war of maneuver and attrition.

Instead the result of this match was a surprising 1 minute victory by Minoru Fujita! Hidaka hit a stiff high kick at the bell and Fujita went down for a 2 count. Hidaka raised Fujita up and looked to be attempting a Misty Flip which Fujita reversed into an arm lock and then quickly rolled Hidaka up for the 3 count. Following the match, Fujita said, "Beyond defeating my partner, now there is only total victory" and added that the defense of their tag titles tomorrow is focus this instant.

Also in the opening rounds, GENTARO defeated Billy Moreno and Yoshihito Sasaki defeated Aussie Ozbone to advance. And in the TNA vs. TNA match, Chris Sabin was able to defeat Alex Shelley in just over 19 minutes with the cradle shock. This lead to GENTARO versus Takaiwa and Sugawara versus Yoshihito for the semi-finals.

Tatsuhito Takaiwa vacated the International Jr. Heavyweight Champion and the WWA World Welterweight title to participate in the tournament, vowing to win it all back in the end. After receiving his bye out of the first round, he faced Apache Army's GENTARO. And while GENTARO tried to use his speed on Takaiwa, the former champ was able to use his power to win the match with an Avalanche-style Death Valley driver.

The other semi-final match was between Sugawara and last year's Tenka-Ichi champion Yoshihito Sasaki. Sugawara managed to get the black box past the referee and as Yoshihito was seeing stars he used his Shiisanputa finisher for the win. He added he's been practicing his English to trash talk Chris Sabin.

Also on the show, ZERO1-MAX clashed with BIG MOUTH LOUD in a 6-man tag match with Otani, Ryouji and Takahashi against Murakami, Usuda and Hara. Otani and Murakami, opponents on the first ever ZERO-ONE show back in 2001 have been going back-and-forth with the victories over each other.

It was Murakami who defeated Otani in their "Fire Festival" match this year and tonight the two went at it with the hard punches and chops. But it was Ryouji Sai who decided the match for Z1 with the Nachi Waterfall (diving foot stomps) on Manabu Hara. The two sides glared at each other after the match.

Hidaka & Fujita BML Victory!

August 20th, 2006

BIG MOUTH LOUD had their "Illusion 7" show at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall today and ZERO1-MAX tag team Junior aces Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru were there to face BML's Manabu Hara and Katsumi Usuda in a tag team match. This challenge stems from the first day of the "Fire Festival" when Fujita demanded BML entry by addressing BML's Director Fumihiko Uwai who was seated in the crowd. Fujita had said he and Hidaka would be appearing at the August 20th show so their should be opponents ready.

The veteran teammates had the BML audience's attention with their coordinated attacks and the high speed and accuracy they performed them. And in the end, it was Hara who submitted to Fujita's BONEYARD. Osamu Namiguchi and Fuyuki Takasashi came as seconds and after the match got in a scuffle with Usuda.

BIG MOUTH LOUD "Illusion 7" 8/20 - 5th Match:
x Manabu Hara Katsumi Usuda	vs.	Ikuto Hidaka (Z1-MAX) Minoru Fujita (Z1-MAX) o
(20:04 → BONEYARD)

AWA and Tenka Ichi Change! BML Main Event!

August 17th, 2006

Some interesting political decisions surrounding the upcoming ZERO1-MAX "Tenka-Ichi Jr." tournament running from 8/24 - 8/26. The most notable being a surprise missive from AWA's President Dale Gagne to the First On Stage offices regarding the operation and card.

Mr. Gagne had received a report of Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita's GHC Jr. Tag Title loss on August 13th to Takashi Sugiura and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. And while Gagne said he'd heard it was a great match, the AWA board members were disappointed in the results from ZERO1-MAX, the AWA Japan representative.

The AWA board were also suspicious of the NWA affiliated TNA wrestlers participation in the tournament, and the NWA sending along NWA Referee Mr. Fred Rubenstein to be the head referee of the tournament.

So by AWA decree the two TNA Wrestlers, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, will face each other in the opening round and longtime partners and multiple-time champs Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita will be facing each other instead.

On his Livedoor blog, Ikuto Hidaka gave a short response to the AWA board's decision saying he accepts their decision with no problem. Hidaka and Fujita, the current International Lightweight Tag Team champs, have been former ZERO1-MAX Intercontinental Tag team champs, as well as the aforementioned GHC Junior tag team champs.

The last time the two faced each other as singles was over a year ago on June 17th, 2005 during "Survivor 72H" in an International Jr. title confrontation. That match went almost 24 minutes before Hidaka won with the Misty Flip. Hidaka and Fujita had commented afterwards that this type of battle only strengthens their bond as partners.

Also announced for the first bout of the tournament is the Main Event of ZERO1-MAX versus BIG MOUTH LOUD in a 6-man tag match . BML's representative will be the returning Kazunari Murakami, Katsumi Usuda and Manabu Hara versus Otani, Ryouji Sai and Fuyuki Takahashi. After their battles during the Fire Festival, you can be sure Otani and Murakami look forward to confronting each other once again.

GHC Jr. Tag Title Loss!

August 13th, 2006

Today at Pro Wrestling NOAH's "NAVIGATION" show at Tokyo's Differ Ariake in front of 1,800 fans, Takashi Sugiura and Yoshinobu Kanemaru regained the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team titles from Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita. Kanemaru and Suguira had lost the titles to Hidaka and Fujita back in March at Tokyo's Budokan Hall.

The match ended when Kanemaru used the "Touch Out" on Hidaka to become the 4th title holders.

Pro Wrestling NOAH "NAVIGATION" 8/13 - Main Event:
GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title:
Yoshinobu Kanemaru © o Takashi Sugiura ©	vs.	Ikuto Hidaka (Z1-MAX) x Minoru Fujita (Z1-MAX)
(31:12 → Touch Out)