Home » News Archive » News from 07/16/07 to 08/03/07

¹ Kazunari Murakami originally held this spot in the tournament. After going to a draw versus Shinjiro Otani on 7/16 for Block A, Murakami received a head injury causing him to be replaced by 1st alternate, Ikuto Hidaka.

Himatsuri! Tanaka Wins Back-to-Back!

August 3rd, 2007

ZERO1-MAX puts 1800 fans in Korakuen Hall yesterday night for the finals of the "Fire Festival '07," ending with Masato Tanaka winning the tournament two times in a row. Tanaka won Block B on July 31st in Nagoya, defeating Kohei Sato with the sliding bullet elbow. Block B was decided this night in a 5-way match this same night. Shinjiro Otani, Akitoshi Saito, Yutaka Yoshie, Ryouji Sai and Ikuto Hidaka faced each other elimination style, with Ryouji finally pinning Hidaka for the victory in Block B.

Last year Tanaka dislocated his shoulder in the midst of the finals match with Ryouji Sai, resetting it to continue on to victory. Tanaka went for surgery on the arm on November 11th, 2006 and returned to ZERO1-MAX this year on May 27th. As the victor two times in a row, following the match Tanaka called out Team EMBLEM partner Shinjiro Otani for a singles match when ZERO1-MAX returns to Korakuen Hall on August 24, 2007. Tanaka called Otani, "...the original Fire Festival man," as he won the first Fire Festival in 2001 and then again in 2002. "Shall we find out who has more fire?" Tanaka asked Otani as the two shook hands.

Ryouji, despite having thrown everything he had at Tanaka, said that he's ready to continue his fight forward, "...in Japan, the world, anywhere...and against anybody."

The Semi-final of the show as a 6-man Junior class tag match involving Minoru Fujita, Takuya Sugawara and Munenori Sawa versus Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Dick Togo and Masaaki Mochizuki. Tatsuhito Takaiwa made his surprise return from a knee injury which had him out of action since May, and turned the planned tag match into a 6-way. Sawa Munenori volunteered for the match as the last fighter. The end came when Mochizuki defeated Fujita with a high kick.

After the match, Mochizuki announced that he would take part in ZER01-MAX's Annual "Tenka-Ichi Jr." Tournament. Takaiwa also expressed interest but didn't commit to anything.

The fourth match was a heavyweight tag team match involving those eliminated from. the Fire Festival. The match also put BJW Tag Team champions Daisuke Sekimoto and Yosihito Sasaki on different teams. Sekimoto teamed with Kohei Sato against AWA World Heavyweight champion Takao Omori and Yoshihito.

Easy to tell this was a hard hitting match with lots of elbows, forearms and German suplexes. Including a triple German suplex! It in the end it was Kohei's German suplex that finally won it by pinning Yoshihito. After the match the BJW Tag Champions shook hands to affirm their alliance.

The 2nd Match was the Block A 5-way match to give the wrestler time to prepare before the main event. First Akitoshi Saito was eliminated when after being hit by everybody was nailed with the Nachi Waterfall and then body pressed by the large Yoshie! Sadly for Ryouji, he was still going for the pinfall when Yoshie dropped his girth on he and Saito!

Pinning the massive Yoshie came next, and took some extra effort. And even though Otani managed to hit a huge dragon suplex on the big guy, Yoshie continually fought back against both Hidaka and Otani. Finally with a combined pinning attempt by Otani and Hidaka they were able to get the three count, even though many in the crowd felt Yoshie had kicked out right at the 3-count by the referee.

Ryouji was still been recovering from his painful squashing by Yoshie, Otani added more pain with a face washing! Otani and Hidaka now turned their attention to each other, Hidaka managed to score a high kick but Otani came at him with some hard-hitting offense: Another dragon suplex and the Spiral bomb which Hidaka kicked out of! Otani then came with a running kick only for Hidaka to quickly grab a cradle hold for the surprising pinfall! Otani looked stunned as he rolled from the ring!

Now with only Ryouji and Hidaka remaining, a loud chant came from the crowd, "Hidaka! Hidaka!" Would the unlikely Jr. class fighter win Block A? Hidaka only gained his spot in the tournament with the injury to Kazunari Murakami and placing 5th in the Fire Festival voting poll. Hidaka put up a valiant effort, though the single combat versus Otani had taken its toll. Ryouji hit him with the running knee and finally the Sidmouth back suplex finisher to seal his victory and a re-match of last years Fire Festival.

The first official match of the night was a "Road to the Lion King Cup" jr. 6-man tag. On one side were ZERO1-MAX's Osamu Namiguchi teamed alongside BattlArt's Munenori Sawa and El Dorado's Hercules Oosenga. Their opponents were THE*ZEST, BIG MOUTH LOUD's Manabu Hara and Pro Wrestling Muga's Manabu Soya.This fast moving young jr. match came to an end when Manabu Hara finally leveled Namiguchi with a high kick for the victory. After the two wrestlers had words and had to be pulled apart by the other wrestlers and seconds.

There was also an opening singles match between Kamikaze and Fuyuki Takahashi with the slightly unfair stipulation that the match could only be won by moonsault press. As Kamikaze is known as "Mr. Moonsault" the outcome was fairly obvious.

Karl Gotch: 1924-2007...

July 28th, 2007

It is with great sadness that we report the death of professional wrestling legend, Karl Gotch. Gotch, known as the "God of Pro Wrestling" in Japan, had a hand in training some very well known Japanese wrestlers such as: Tatsumi Fujinami, Hiro Matsuda, Osamu Kido, Satoru Sayama, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara.

A forefather of the sport of Pro Wrestling, his style greatly influenced the more athlethic variant we see in Japanese puroresu. Gotch died today in Tampa, Florida where he was residing, he was 82 years old.

Kazunari Out of Fire Festival! Hidaka Alternates!

July 20th, 2007

Today it was announced that Block A participant Kazunari Murakami will be medically unable to continue in the "Fire Festival '07." He will be replaced by alternate member and high-rank junior Ikuto Hidaka. Hidaka placed 5th in this years "Fire Festival Fan Poll" making him the first alternate.

After his opening match against Shinjiro Otani on 7/16 which involved lots of brawling and use of chairs and tables. After the match Murakami had an intense headache and was taken to the hospital. There he was told he has a severe concussion and needed to take the next 10 days off. While Murakami wanted to continue anyway, Shinjiro Otani and others at ZERO1-MAX understand full well the damage head injuries can cause and the seriousness of not compounding them.

Hidaka will retain the 1 point Murakami earned in his match versus Otani. Hidaka said the fans always are interested to see how well a junior class fighter can handle himself against heavyweights. Hidaka said he's enthusiastic after receiving this chance and wants to put on a good showing. He mentioned that his next opponent will be super-heavyweight Yutaka Yoshie who has 75kgs on Hidaka.

Fire Festival '07 - Opening Show!

July 16th, 2007

The "Fire Festival '07" has begun, as ZERO1-MAX held the opening show yesterday in Korakuen Hall in front of 1,400 fans. The opening show presented a total of four tournament matches, two from each block. Previous to the first match of the tournament, all the participants entered the ring. Then last year's champion Masato Tanaka spoke on the microphone to the crowd, thanking them for coming to the show. He then returned the Fire Festival katana and with this act signifying the begining of this year's tournament.

The main event saw Tanaka face off against Big Japan Pro Wrestling's Daisuke Sekimoto. The two heavyweights clashed in a hard-hitting match that went the time-limit of 30 minutes. Sekimoto tried many attempts at victory, hitting Tanaka with a powerbomb off the apron through a table, hard lariats, and several German suplexes. Tanaka responded with his own lariats, trademark elbows and the Super Fly splash. Both wrestlers receive 1 point each for their draw.

The semi-main of the show was a Block A match with Muga World Pro Wrestler Yutaka Yoshie, a participant of last year's tournament, versus last year's championship runner up Ryouji Sai. While Ryouji tried to kick the big man down, rallying several times from Yoshie's powerful attacks, in the end he fell to the "flying sausage" for the loss.

Probably one of the biggest surprises of the tournament occurred in the 4th match. It was the Block B meeting of AWA World Heavyweight champion Takao Omori versus Yoshihito Sasaki. This is the 25 year old Sasaki's first "Fire Festival" participation. This match was a sprint of heavy moves and was over in under 6 minutes! The winner was Yoshihito Sasaki who hit Omori with a hard lariat and then held him down of the pinfall victory. The crowd was surprised, as Yoshihito has made quite a statement in his first ever "Fire Festival" match.

The 3rd match has two wrestlers who met in the opening match of last years tournament in a match dubbed, "Blood festival." Shinjiro Otani and Kazunari Murakami lived up to that confrontation as the mercilessly pummeled each other for almost 15 minutes. The match came to and end when after fighting on the outside, neither wrestler could return to the ring at the twenty count and the match was decided a draw. This match involved both fighters taking and receiving many shots to the head involving chairs and kicks.

Other matches on the show saw a jr 6-man tag match involving Ikuto Hidaka, Naoki Tanizaki and THE*ZEST versus Minoru Fujita, Takuya Sugawara and Osamu Namiguchi. Hidaka had just returned from a trip to visit his sensei FUNAKI of World Wrestling Entertainment in the United States. Here he was on the opposite team of long time tag partner Minoru Fujita. The match ended with Hidaka pinning Osamu Namiguchi with a spiral bomb.

Since he had no tournament match this day, Kohei Sato participated in the opening tag match with Apache Army's GENTARO versus Kamikaze and Shota Takanishi. Kohei pinned Takanishi with a German suplex hold at one second past 9 minutes.