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#Post#: 21685--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar’s A year in Japan Part 1
By: SheriffLonestar Date: December 28, 2013, 3:19 am
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Sadly the forum only allows posts of 20,000 characters and I
went a bit overboard this week so this weeks post will be in two
parts Here is Part 1.
Sheriff Lonestar’s A year in Japan Part 1
Okay then so it’s Christmas and you folks deserve something big
and meaty to read over you inter Christmas/New Year Weekend. So
I shall proceed. Unlike other year in reviews this as always
will be something different because you know everything that
happened in WWE and TNA so let us recap the places less visited
by mainstream wrestling fandom.
New Japan Pro Wrestling
This year has been one of renewal in NJPW. The year began as
always with the big show at The Tokyo Dome. This year’s Kingdom
VI gained rave reviews, the 29,5000 crowd witnessed Hiroshi
Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada, the feud that has made the company
resurgent received its big blow off On April 7th Okada picked up
the win at the Invasion Attack PPV and took his second IWGP
title signifying a changing of the guard as he became NJPW’s
Ace. That is not to say Tanahashi has had a bad year, he has had
stellar performances specifically in the wars with The Bullet
Club and SuzukiGun, but it is Okada that became Tokyo Sport’s
MVP for the second year running. He also worked both sides of
the fence; as a heel against Tanahashi and DDT standout Kota
Ibushi while being a face against Karl Anderson and Prince
Devitt (or least hated heel depending on how you look at it).
Here is Okada and Tanahashi’s standout 5 star match from King of
Pro Wrestling in October;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzrNdUP6tNU
At the top end of the Junior Heavyweight division it’s kind of
been a quiet year. The big story has been Prince Devitt’s full
on heel turn and transference into a heat machine as a Bullet
Club Member. Starting 2013 as IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion
(he defeated the soon to be gone Lowki for the belt) he began to
grow his villainous performer. After losing to Tanahashi at the
41st Anniversary show in November 2012 and turning on his long
time and very popular tag team partner Ryusuke Taguchi. With
Apollo 55 dead and buried he picked up Bad Luck Fale as his
Bouncer and formed the Bullet Club Stable while renaming himself
The Real Rock ’N’ Rolla. He then went through the Junior
Heavyweight Roster for the rest of the year while moving into
upper echelons of the card with a win over Tanahashi and then
challenged, unsuccessfully, Okada for the heavyweight title. He
is back in action in the Junior Heavyweight ranks on January
fourth at The Tokyo Dome defending against former champion Kota
Ibushi in what could be one for the ages. It is re match from
exactly one year ago, so let’s look at what happened last time;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIwASBS424M
Tag teaming in NJPW has been very strong this year with a mix of
stable outfits and put together teams that built up to the World
Tag League in December. The stand outs this year have been Team
Ten-Koji and The Killer Elite squad. With the NWA reactivating
New Japan’s membership there have been two sets of belts
floating around to fight for and the combination of those two
teams with representatives from The Bullet Club and Chaos. The
KES took the NWA straps back to NJPW for the first time in many
years with a win over The Kingz of the Underground in Houston,
while Ten-Koji (Hirohsi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) started their
year as champs in their record equalling fifth reign and though
their year ended badly with a title loss to KES it’s been a good
year for the veteran team that have been together on and off
since 1998. They are still the only team to win The World Tag
League and The Strongest Tag Team Determination League all the
more remarkable when they were working for different companies
at the time. When people go on and on about the Team 3D, and
quite rightly, being the greatest tag team of all time, there is
still one they have yet to face and that’s Ten-Koji.
Here is both teams World Tag League showdown from December;
HTML http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18635q_killer-elite-squad-davey-boy-smith-jr-lance-archer-vs-ten-koji-hiroyoshi-tenzan-and-satoshi-kojima-n_sport
The next big issue for the KES is The Bullet Club as DOC and
“The Machine Gun” Karl Anderson finished on top of The World Tag
League and cash in their title shot at Wrestle Kingdom.
The NJPW Intercontinental title has remained firmly around the
waist of Shinsuke Nakamura since July but his loss to La Sombra
in Mexico City in a two out of three fall match(as is the Lucha
tradition for title matches) in May was a blot on a very good
year for the resurgent veteran. He took the title back in July
in Kazuna Road in Akita, Japan making him the first two time IC
Champ. He spent a lot of the year in a feud with journeyman
veteran leader of SuzukiGun Minouro Suzuki. Nakamura led his
Chaos faction into wars with Suzuki over and over with an even
balance between the two. Chaos held the upper hand in singles
holding the IC title (Nakamura) and World title (Okada) while
SuzukiGun ruled the tag ranks with the Killer Elite Squad.
Here are both title changes for your perusal;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYh2EKLqZxU
HTML http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x125avr_la-sombra-vs-shinsuke-nakamura-njpw-kizuna-road-akita-2013_sport
So do you long for the days of The Midnight Express and The Rock
‘n’ Rolls and their crisp tag action? It was relived in spades
in the NJPW Junior tag division this year. With regular show
stealers across the board by teams that gave the full spectrum
of wrestling variety. Wily heels, speed merchants, glorious
flyers, mat based shooters. This has been an awesome year for
tag wrestling. It shows to as the tag title match puts together
the four teams in the division that represent the four groups in
NJPW, the faces The Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and ,
SuzukiGun’s Taichi and TAKA Michinoku, Chaos’ The Forever
Hooligans (Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov)and The Bullet Club’s
The Young Bucks. This match’s talent base alone should have show
stealing possibilities plus the biggest show to date for the
reigning Champion Young Bucks as they take their Super Kick
Party to Tokyo to try and make that town. With Shelley out with
a series of injuries, Kushida has found himself a little lost in
6 man’s and teaming up with former Champions Jushin Liger and
Tiger Mask IV, but with the Time Splitters back in full swing,
this should be something special to see as Shelley always seems
to pull it out on the big stage. They started the year as
champions but lost the belts to The Forever Hooligans at
Wrestling Dontaku in May who in turn dropped it to wily veterans
SuzukiGun. They dropped the belts in a classic to The Young
Bucks who blew minds like they have been all over the states all
year.
Here is the Wrestling Dontaku card where the SuzukiGun/Hooligans
match took place;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dQYThr2oZk
Also featuring;
01. Jushin 'Thunder' Liger & Tiger Mask vs BUSHI & Yohei Komatsu
02. Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA), Maximo & Captain
New Japan vs CHAOS (Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero & Alex
Koslov), Jado & YOSHI-HASHI)
03. Yuji Nagata & Hirooki Goto vs Hiromu Takahashi & Takaaki
Watanabe
04. TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) vs CHAOS (Toru
Yano & Takashi Iizuka) vs Muscle Orchestra (Strong Man & Manabu
Nakanishi)
05. GBH (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) vs CHAOS (Masato Tanaka &
Yujiro Takahashi)
06. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi vs 'Machine Gun' Karl
Anderson & Tama Tonga
07. 8-MAN ELIMINATION TAG: CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke
Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo) vs Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki,
Shelton Benjamin, TAKA Michinoku & Taichi)
All Japan Pro Wrestling
Good lord what hasn’t happened in AJPW? We have had veteran
title reigns, super stiff main events, some old school MMA
comebacks, a mass exodus, some very smart booking to navigate
this mess and the retirement of the physical belts in the Triple
Crown the most prestigious championship in All Japan, and
possibly all of Japan.
As the long term company Ace Kohei Suwama was Triple Crown
Champion at the start of the year. His group Last Revolution
would not the last 2013 though as members Kaz Hayashi and Shuji
Kondo announced their resignation from All Japan to join their
mentor Keiji Mutoh in the new Wrestle One Promotion. This was a
major blow to All Japan who had worked hard under Mutoh to
rebuild after the 2000 exodus of their top talent to Pro
Wrestling NOAH. Thankfully for All Japan there was an exodus
back if you will Atsushi Aoki, Go Shiozaki, Jun Akiyama, Kotaro
Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru collectively known as “Burning”
joined the promotion after running out of contract in NOAH.
Which, to give you some reference, is the equivalent of The
Undertaker, John Cena and The Shield all turning up on Impact
on a Thursday night. With this fresh injection of very viable
talent All Japan closed out the year strong with fresh
challengers for the titles. Another high end acquisition was
former Sumo Yukozuna Akebono. He originally started in All Japan
under the tutelage of Keiji Mutoh where he was well, let’s be
kind, passable as a superheavyweight, he “graduated” Mutoh’s
tutelage and went on to work for Pro Wrestling NOAH, NJPW,
HUSTLE and DDT finding his way back to his home promotion after
years of free lancing. Well this year he has put that experience
to good with a Ōdō Tournament win in which he defeated
Jun Akiyama, Low Ki (ending his career in the process), Bambi
Killer and final match victory over Go Shiozaki with his new
pile driver finish. He traded that tournament win into a Triple
Crown at the expense of the aforementioned Suwama on the
Anniversary tour and here is indeed that match;
HTML http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x16jly9_suwama-vs-akebono-ajpw_sport
At the beginning of the year Manabu Soya and Takao Ōmori
where in their third reign as champions, that’s before the
Burning Crew turned up and took the belts on March the 17th. Go
Shiozaki and Jun Akiyama, held on to them till October when
Suwama and Joe Doering took them. For Akiyama it was his 7th
tag title reign in NOAH and All Japan alongside his AJPW All
Asian Tag title, his World’s Strongest Tag Determination League,
Asunaro Tag Cup in 1998, NOAH Global Tag League wins making him
one of the most decorated and innovative tag wrestlers of all
time. His new job as co-booker in All Japan make him very
influential veteran, with many of his protégés on the All Japan
books. His dead serious style matching that of his own teacher,
mentor and friend Kenta Kobashi, hopefully his influence will
steady the ship in All Japan in the coming year who seem to have
found some bankable champions.
Here are burning with Manabu Soya and Takao Ōmori to
showcase the great talent on offer in All Japan’s Tag Division.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDDi_MHkbsk
All Japan’s Junior Heavyweight division has somewhat been
maligned down the years from time to time as just “not as good
as NJPW’s” where as I say it’s just different. Whereas NJPW has
emphasised flyers, AJPW’s Juniors and by extension their NOAH
brethren have been about stiffness and seriousness. Things got
off to a bang on January the Second when Shuji Kondo took the
title from Hioshi Yamamoto, and then Yoshinobu Kanemaru took the
title from Kondo in February taking the first title for Burning
since their arrival in AJPW. He finally dropped the title to
Jap-Lucha Legend and former Sheriff Lonestar interviewee Último
Dragón. Just about the only belt in Japan and Mexico Último
Dragón hasn’t held in.
To celebrate all things Burning here is Pro Wrestling Love
Ryoguko which featured the tag match between Get Wild (Manabu
Soya & Takao Omori) vs. Go Shiozaki & Jun Akiyama. It also
features the stiff as nails former MMA standouts Don Frye and
Yoshihiro Takayama in a tag match that also features Keiji Mutoh
and Masayuki Kono who apparently where there for the beer. It
also features one of the last performances of Reid Flair before
his sad demise.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7EUqCk2fOs
Full Card;
1.Tag Team Match: Andy Wu & SUSHI vs. Jonetsu Hentai Baka
(Hikaru Sato & Hiroshi Yamato)
2.Tag Team Match: KENSO & Reid Flair vs. Masanobu Fuchi & Osamu
Nishimura
3.All Asia Tag Team Title Match: Junior Stars (Koji Kanemoto &
Minoru Tanaka) © vs. Burning (Atsushi Aoki & Kotaro Suzuki)
4.AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru
© vs. Kaz Hayashi
5.Six Man Tag Team Match: Last Revolution (Joe Doering, Masahiro
Chono & Shuji Kondo) vs. SMOP (Akebono & Ryota Hama) & Yasufumi
Nakanoue
6.Tag Team Match: Don Frye & Keiji Muto vs. Masayuki Kono &
Yoshihiro Takayama
7.Singles Match: KAI vs. Seiya Sanada
8.AJPW World Tag Team Title Match: Get Wild (Manabu Soya & Takao
Omori) © vs. Burning (Go Shiozaki & Jun Akiyama)
9.Triple Crown Title Match: Masakatsu Funaki © vs. Suwama
More in part 2 here;
HTML http://www.tnafanforum.com/sheriff-lonestar's-ppv-of-the-week/sheriff-lonestars-a-year-in-japan-part-2/
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