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ZERO1 & SUN - "Passion Cup Tag Tournament '07!"

September 4th, 2007

First On Stage, the parent comapny of ZERO1-MAX and Pro Wrestling SUN announced that they will have a two-day tag team tournament on back-to-back days at Kimitsu Aquamarine Studios in Chiba on September 23rd-24th.

There will be a six tag teams in total competing for the "Passion Cup" trophy. The teams will be announced as soon as they are determined.

Tenka-Ichi Jr. Approaches! More Announced!

September 3rd , 2007

The ZERO1-MAX Tenka-Ichi Jr. tournament has arrived once again. This year it will be taking place on September 25, 28 and 30th in the "Brand New Sensation Tenka-Ichi Jr. 2007" tour. The First and Second Rounds of the tournament will take place at the 25th and 28th shows in Aizu, Japan. The final four will then advace to The Semifinals and finals that will take place on the 30th in Korakuen Hall.

More wrestlers have been announced for the tournament.

• Dick Togo (4th AWA World jr. Champ)
• Munenori Sawa (BattlArts; Lion King Cup '07 MVP)
• Naoki Tanizaki (freelance)
• Katsushi Takemura (Muga World Pro Wrestling)

• Minoru Fujita (1st AWA World jr. Champ)
• Ikuto Hidaka (2nd AWA World jr. Champ)
• Takuya Sugawara (El Dorado)
• Masaaki Mochizuki (DRAGON GATE)

Two more wrestlers have yet to be selected for the tournament, and will be announced shortly.

Omori Fends off Kohei! Now Sawa's AWA Trial!

September 2nd , 2007

ZERO1-MAX kicked off their next tour, "Brand New Sensation," in Hokkaido today at the Sapporo Teisen Hall. The main event saw AWA World Heavyweight champion Takao Omori take on upstart Kohei Sato for his 2nd title defense. The 3 time AWA World champ Omori retained his title in 16 minutes with his dangerous Axe Bomber.

Omori needed this win, as he had a fairly dismal performance in the "Fire Festival" losing three of his four matches. Back on Day 2, July 17, 2007, Kohei defeated Omori in their Block B match with a German suplex hold. And then again on August 24 at "More Than Higher" in Korakuen Hall Kohei defeated Omori in the "Best German in the World" tag match.

Now on the heels of his victory, Omori will have to defend his title again tomorrow at the Tomakomai Ichikawa park gymnasium against challenger Munenori Sawa due to a Surprise Inspection of an AWA Board Member. AWA Board member No.30, Steve Izumi, made the following comment relating to the match up:

Tanaka - True Man of Summer! Defeats Otani!

August 24th, 2007

ZERO1-MAX's August 24, "More Than Higher" show drew 1,300 fans to Korakuen Hall to see the main event of 2006 & 2007 "Fire Festival" Champion Masato Tanaka versus Shinjiro Otani who won the Fire Festival in 2001, 2002 and 2005. Following his victory at this year's tournament, Tanaka called Otani to the ring and challenged him to a match to determine who the "True Man of Summer" really is. Tanaka and Otani are tag team partners in Team EMBLEM, and have even won Tag Team MVP in Japan before. Both men pulled out all the stops here, as Tanaka focused in on Otani's ailing left knee and Otani on Tanaka's newly repaired right shoulder.

The battle raged for almost a half hour, with Tanaka coming out the victor at the gong. The end of the match saw Otani hit Tanaka with a missile dropkick to the back of the head, a jumping powerbomb and a Dragon suplex. Tanaka came back with a Diamond Dust, a rolling elbow and a hard lariat for a 2 count. Otani fought back with another dragon suplex, however Tanaka recovered with a Falcon Arrow, and the Slide D (Sliding Elbow) for another 2 count. At 25 minutes Tanaka hit another Roaring Elbow for only a 1 count! Otani with a Spiral bomb, 2 count! Tanaka with a lariat and the Slide D, 2 count! And finally with a final Slide D, Otani fell to the three count!

After the match, Tanaka offered his hand to Otani to shake. Although initially refusing from his disappointment of losing, Otani eventually shook halfheartedly. Later, Tanaka said "from now on I will take all the titles in ZERO1! That includes the AWA Heavyweight titles and winning a third successive Fire Festival next year!"

The Semi Main Event was the "Best German in the World" match involving three people who have much confidence in their German suplex. BJW's Daisuke Sekimoto, ZERO1-MAX's Sato Kohei and Yoshihiro Takayama's "Everest German" suplex. Also in the match was AWA Heavyweight champion Takao Omori who himself doesn't use the German suplex and said he would continue to rely on the Axe Bomber. As usual the Korakuen Hall crowd was solidly behind Sekimoto by chanting his name. As one would imagine, the match was filled with German suplexes, double German suplexes and even triple German suplexes.

And it was the Axe Bomber that disrupted things for the Omori/Sekimoto team, as Omori aiming to get Kohei with his finisher instead hit Sekimoto. As Omori stood shocked by his mistake, Takayama grabbed him for a Mt. Everest German. Kohei then followed with his own German suplex hold for the victory. After the match Kohei got on the microphone and said he would have no problem dealing with Omori once again on September 2nd when he faces him for the AWA World Heavyweight title in Sapporo.

As the Tenka-Ichi Jr. Tournament approaches, the 4th match was a jr. class 3-way tag of Ikuto Hidaka and Naoki Tanizaki versus Minoru Fujita and Takuya Sugawara versus current AWA World Jr. champ Dick Togo and one half of the ZERO1-MAX International Lightweight Tag Champions Alex Shelley.

The match became a mad scramble as everybody started fighting right at the bell, and as one would expect the match had many hard kicks and high flying moves. The end came when Hidaka finally caught Shelley with the Misty Flip for the victory.

The third match was a singles match seeing ZERO1-MAX's Ryouji Sai versus former New Japan and now HUSTLE wrestler Hiroshi Nagao. Ryouji, coming off his second loss in as many years in the Fire Festival looked to get some redemption. And while Nagao put up a strong fight and almost saw victory with his chokeslam, Ryouji fought back and after felling the very tall Nagao with a knee strike and then dropped the Nachi Waterfall double footstomp for the victory.

The 2nd Match of the show was a meeting between two former Jr. Champions, one young and one a veteran of many tough battles. Recently returned from a knee injury Tatsuhito Takaiwa battled Yoshihito Sasaki. Sasaki entered the heavyweight ranks not too long ago and is already one-half of the BJW Tag Team Champions. He also participated in his first "Fire Festival" this year. Takaiwa said he will make his "formal return" at this year's Tenka-Ichi Jr. Tournament. Still rusty from injury, Takaiwa was no match for the fiery Yoshihito, as he felled Takaiwa with a hard lariat in just under 9 minutes.

The 1st match was a 6-man match involving many of the jr. class fighters from the recent 3-day "Lion King Cup '07." This match included fan voted MVP of the show, BattlArts' Munenori Sawa. ZERO1-MAX's Osamu Namiguchi was also in the match, still sporting the embarrassing head shaved haircut he endured for losing to El Dorado's Hercules Osenga. This match went 12 minutes and ended when El Blazer hit the Lighting Strike on LA Dojo wrestler LTP for the victory.

Also on the show, Kamikaze defeated Fuyuki Takahashi with a Cobra Twist.

Lion King Cup '07 MVP - Munenori Sawa!

August 23rd, 2007

The 2nd "Lion King Cup" is over, with BattlArts' Munenori Sawa the victor. His special prize is "earning the right of an overseas expedition." So Sawa will travel overseas to wrestle on foreign soil. Sawa received the most popular fan votes of the three days and won the MVP. Along with the champions trophy presented by FIRST ON STAGE he also gets the "overseas expedition."

Sawa will also take part in a special 6-way tag match at tomorrows ZERO1-MAX "More Than Higher" Korakuen Hall show. Others in the match will be El Blazer, Shota Takanishi, Ken Ohka, Osamu Namiguchi and LTP.

Lion King Cup '07 - Soya & Sano Day 2 MVP!

August 23rd, 2007

The second day of the "Lion King Cup '07" is over and the fans in attendance once again voted for the day's MVP. This time Pro-Wrestling Muga's Manabu Soya won 1st place, with Naoshi Sano once more coming in next.

MVP Winners of Day 2:

1. Manabu Soya (Muga), Naoshi Sano (IPW)
2. El Blazer (J-Nesis), Sawa Munenori (BattlArts)
3. Taku Anzawa (K-Dojo), Ken Ohka (DDT)

Lion King Cup '07 - Sawa & Sano Day 1 MVP!

August 23rd, 2008

The First day of the "Lion King Cup '07" was completed at Tokyo's Shin-Kiba 1st Ring, and the fans voted for the day's MVP. Each day fans will vote for a MVP, despite winning or losing their match, and at the end of the 3 days the wrestler with the most votes will be declared the Winner of the "Lion King Cup '07" and be given some special prizes by ZERO1-MAX and Samurai TV.

MVP Winners of Day 1:

1. Munenori Sawa (BattlArts), Naoshi Sano (IPW)
2. El Blazer (J-Nesis), Manabu Soya (Muga)
3. Hercules Osenga (El Dorado)

There are two 1st and 2nd MVP winners due to a tie vote.