Home » News Archive » News from 04/23/07 to 04/28/07

Takaiwa Loses GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title

April 28th, 2007

Pro Wrestling NOAH held a show of their "Spring Navigation '07" tour today at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan. The six match of the show was a GHC Jr. Heavyweight match between champion Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Mushiking Terry.

Takaiwa went right to the power moves at the sound of the bell, hitting a Death Valley driver followed by a hard lariat. However, when he tried to powerbomb the masked NOAH wrestler out of the ring, Terry reversed it. The match then went to the mat as the two traded hold. Takaiwa hit an avalanche brainbuster and the two fighter brawled outside the ring.

Back in the ring Takaiwa hit the diving elbow, another lariat and brainbuster but Terry kicked out at 2! Trying to finish Terry, the masked NOAH wrestler kept reversing, trying powerbombs and roll-ups until Takaiwa finally got his own reversal and powerbombed Terry in the corner, hit him with another lariat and then his a devastating avalanche Death Valley driver. Terry again kicked out at three!

Takaiwa then lifted Terry as if to hit him with a brainbuster, then switched to a Death Valley Driver, and finally hit his signature piledriver. Terry slowly rose only to eat yet another violent lariat. Takaiwa took Terry up to the top rope once again to deliver a avalanche power bomb but Terry reversed it into a hurricanrana, the kicked Takaiwa outside the ring and did a running moonsault plancha. Back in the ring Terry continued to press his attack with several suplexes and a top rope hip toss bomb. And then pinned Takaiwa his Myst Crash finisher to become the 13th GHC Jr. champion.

Otani Angered As Thunder Rolls!

April 28th, 2007

Shinjiro Otani is furious! Today he discovered an article in a sports newspaper showing a photograph of Kohei Sato talking to Simon Inoki in the parking lot of the IGF (Inoki Genome Federation) company. Simon Inoki is connected with the IGF as he's Antonio Inoki's son-in-law, and of course Kohei had made it known he's looking to leave ZERO1-MAX and join the IGF. As Otani raged inside the FIRST ON STAGE office, thunder wracked the skies outside over Tokyo adding emphasis to his anger and surprising the reporters!

To make matter worse and increasing his anger, also in the photograph was BML President and recent ZERO1-MAX participant Kazunari Murakami! Murakami and Otani had their differences when BML first entered the ZERO1-MAX ring, but since then Murakami has become an honorable and reliable tag team partner. Murakami even sided with Otani and Omori against the invasion of Yoshihiro Takayama.

Otani said he was expecting as much from Kohei but not Murakami. Kohei has been showing a bad attitude directly before his re-signing of his contract. Kohei no-showed the April 14th show in Chiba without contacting ZERO1-MAX, and when asked about it offered no explanation or apology. When confronted the following week he showed up late to the meeting, still drunk from the night before and showed contempt and arrogance towards Otani. Otani has said over and over again that this is unprofessional behavior and if Kohei no-shows his 4/30 match with Kamikaze he's fired rather then at the end of his contract.

Hidaka Tests Nami's Spirit for Differ Cup Vol. 3

April 28th, 2007

Global Pro Wrestling's hold the "3rd Annual Differ Cup" on May 5th - May 6th in Tokyo. This is a time in Japan known as "Golden Week." Golden Week is a series of national holidays that run consecutively, these include Showa Day, Constitution Day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day. The GPWA will be running festivities all day at the Differ Ariake.

ZERO1-MAX participants this year are Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita, who let the sports media in to watch their specialized training regimen. Hidaka, a very successful tag team wrestler his entire career, thought it was important to test Osamu Namiguchi's ability and to practice some combination moves.

One of the moves they practiced was the combination missile kick (with the help of Shota Takanishi) each attacking from the different corner. Hidaka explained that it's important for both wrestler to connect simultaneously for the move to have full impact. In addition the exhibited a "double pedigree" finisher.

Another test for Nami was to climb a 5 meter rope and then Hidaka swings the rope violently back-and-forth from the bottom. If Nami would lose his grip and slide down the rope Hidaka would be waiting at the bottom with a hard boxing glove punch to his stomach. He even deputized Shota Takanishi to mete out punishment to Namiguchi if he failed.

Namiguchi himself felt confident of their success in the tournament, saying they only need win three times to win the tourney. Their first round opponents are Pro Wrestling NOAH's Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Ippei Ota, and the young Z1 junior feels once they get past Team NOAH the rest of the field should be easy. The provoked a hard slap across the mouth from Hidaka.

Differ Festival News & Notes!

April 24th, 2007

After a one year hiatus, the "Differ Cup" has returned this time under the Global Pro Wrestling Alliance (GPWA) banner. It will take place on May 5th & 6th with all day festivities at Differ Ariake. The first week in May in Japan is known as "Golden Week" and is traditionally a time of vacation for most people so the GPWA is hoping for a good turnout.

The "Differ Cup" is a junior class tag tournament, where the various companies involved send a team to represent their company. Previous winners were KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji and Ultimo Dragon and YOSSHINO. In 2005, the finals included ZERO1-MAX tag aces Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita, who lost to the NOAH team of KENTA & Marufuji in a very exciting bout.

The eight teams this year will be represented by the following companies: NOAH, ZERO1-MAX, K-Dojo, BIG MOUTH LOUD, IWA-JAPAN, DDT, El Dorado and a special GPWA designation team. The winners will be decided over the two day tournament.

The 1st day of the Differ Festival will be shown "near live" on Samurai TV and the final show on Day 2 will be broadcast on Pay-Per-View. The following are the tournament match-ups for Day 1 of the festival.

ZERO1-MAX will also hold its own show on May 6th, featuring a "Differ Fiesta Special Tag Match" and the return of Toshiaki Kawada tagging alongside Takao Omori against Otani and Kazunari Murakami. Hidaka, Fujita and a back from injury Takuya Sugawara will once again battle against the Far East Connection of Dick Togo, Masao Orihara and Macho Pump.

Saki Gets Her Wish! C-Dub Returns!

April 24th, 2007

Saki Maemura, after months of trying to get Steve Corino in the ring for a singles match finally will get her wish as the "Trouble King" returns to accept the challenge. A few weeks ago Saki walked right up to Otani during a press conference and pleaded for the singles match. She said he already had Nanae Takahashi's consent to take part in the match, and would fight Corino that instant if she had the opportunity! Otani, impressed by Saki's zeal and fearlessness consented and scheduled the match. Corino and Maemura have been feuding of late in Pro Wrestling SUN, but truthfully their heat goes back to ZERO1-MAX in 2005 when Saki teamed with Spanky to battle Corino and Amazing Kong in a tag match.

In SUN the two met once again in a tag match on October 1, 2006 at the "Sun Rise" show where Corino along with American wrestler Panther Claw faced Saki and Yoshihito Sasaki. Following that they fought again in a tag match on January 14th with Saki teamed with Chris "Bambikiller" Raaber against Corino and Toshie Uematsu. Here Corino played a devious trick, as Raaber turned on Saki near the end of the match leading her to get destroyed in a 3-on-1. Now Saki finally gets her chance to face the "Trouble King" alone, will the small girl be able to defeat Corino?

Corino sent the following message to the FIRST ON STAGE offices in regards to this challenge:

Apparently Corino brought up the stipulation that the loser should have to strip naked in the ring. This was rejected outright by the FIRST ON STAGE office.

May will also see the return of Corino's "Extreme Horsemen" partner "The Enforcer" CW Anderson to a ZERO1-MAX ring. C-Dub spent the last few years under contract with the WWE and ECW. C-Dub is a former ZERO1-MAX United National Heavyweight Champion and ZERO1-MAX Intercontinental Tag Team champion alongside Corino. This will be the first time CW Anderson will appear in ZERO1-MAX since March of 2005!

Welcome Back DANGAN!

April 23rd, 2007

Masato Tanaka returned to the FIRST ON STAGE offices today to announce his return to the ZERO1-MAX ring! Tanaka had been hampered with a wounded shoulder since July 2004, and when it popped out by itself during the finals of last years "Fire Festival" he knew it was time for the operation. The shoulder had deteriorated enough where it would just dislocate on its own. Tanaka's last time in the ring was on November 24, 2006 in a tag match alongside EMBLEM partner Shinjiro Otani against Minoru Fujita and TAJIRI.

It was with Otani that Tanaka addressed the media today, announcing his return for the May 27th Korakuen Hall show. Tanaka had hoped to return in 6 months, and his doctor has agreed his shoulder is healed nicely and everything should be okay. Otani said that ZERO1-MAX has not decided the fight card for Tanaka's return, but as his partner in EMBLEM Otani would like to be involved someway in his return match.

At this moment, Tanaka's student and ZERO1-MAX junior firebrand Yoshihito Sasaki entered the press conference. He respectfully asked that he be Tanaka's first opponent on his return. He said Tanaka is one of the reason he wanted to be a pro wrestler, and if he won't accept Sasaki will re-phrase it as a direct challenge! Yoshihito said if it's to be a tag match he could bring along his Big Japan tag team championship partner Daisuke Sekimoto to oppose EMBLEM. Though he'd really like a singles match with Tanaka. While the idea wasn't rejected there was no confirmation given.

When asked what he wishes for his return, Tanaka quickly answered, "A successive Fire Festival victory."