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DDT "KEISUKE ISHII PRODUCE ~ NEW YEAR! MOMOIRO KNEEL KICK 2016~", 23.01.2016 Tokorozawa Citizen Gymnasium Subarena 482 Fans - Super No Vacancy 6. All Asia Tag Team Title: Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto © besiegen Keisuke Ishii & Shigehiro Irie (20:39) nach dem Isamuashi-Zan von Kodaka gegen Ishii (1st defense). Assuming everybody brought their working shoes to this one then i smell MOTYC.

Am I alone in thinking they would be better off putting the belt on Zeus? He's not much greener than Miyahara and he has the charisma and star factor that Miyahara really lacks. Miyahara strikes me as a very capable young guy in the mold of the older generation's top guys...bits of Misawa, Mutoh, Kobashi and Kensuke Sasaki mixed together but he comes across bland the way KAI and Seiya Sanada do in W-1. Zeus may be goofy but he's something different and more WWE-inspired than most top Japanese heavyweights. They can always go back to Miyahara a year later, but giving Zeus a surprise megapush might be a one-time-only deal. For every Diesel that kinda flopped there's a Goldberg or Brock success story to argue for.

Oh right good point. Think anybody else will leave since the contracts are up this month? I can't imagine the temptation to freelance is as big as it used to be. Nagata does a lot of freelancing compared to the rest of the roster, I keep expecting him to formally leave the company and either go full-time freelance or start his own weird promotion.

will Nakamura drop the IC title or just vacate it? they should have him get pinned clean by Ishii and make him the new IC guy now that hes dropped the NEVER strap.

I feel like Suzuki finally dropping the belt should have ended the storyline. Having Sugi join Suzuki-gun just waters down the upcoming title match and makes Sugiura look more like a henchman than a top guy in his own right. How much longer are these guys going to linger around NOAH? And who will finally get the tag belts, are they gonna put them back on TMDK? Also I'm not a fan of his work over the past 10 years but would there be any upside to putting the strap on Yone finally, even as just a 1 defense transitional guy? He must have a sentimental fanbase accumulated by now, the same way Nakanishi did by the end of his tenure as Top NJPW Heavy Who's Never Had the Belt.

SPOILER alert from today's Zero One show: 6. NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Title: Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa © besiegen Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka (29:31) nach einer Death Valley Bomb von Takaiwa gegen Kanemoto. Whether or not this match was any good, im impressed these four can still do 30 minutes. intrigued to check it out.

the booking on the final was so dumb. Big Guns beat Evolution to TIE for first place, then immediately a rematch begins to determine the "tiedbreaker"?? Uhhh correct me if im wrong but if theyre tied following a win for Zeus and the BG that means the winners are Zeus and BG. durrrrr.......

back to AJPW and their toils: just saw the Day One results of the Real World Tag League. they should just have Nomura and Aoyagi keep winning and go to the finals against Suwama and Miyahara. hell, just have them win it, what do they have to lose? new young lion heroes, could spark some interest.

when exactly did Naito turn heel anyway? I'd like to see Lyger turn heel and don the black suit one more time before he retires, he would be a good partner for BUSHI in that group.

Are there any major talents right now who are publicly unhappy/have contracts expiring soon that in theory AJPW could snap up? I feel like if they had that one Big Name to lend credibility to the promotion and feud with Suwama for a year or two it would at least buy them some time. Nakamura would be my impossible dream, not that he would ever leave NJPW. I think the key would be to find someone interested in promoting as well as competing. Mutoh jumping in 2001 was clearly, in hindsight, because he wanted his own company and not because he wanted to save All Japan. There's a whole generation of younger guys who weren't part of the whole "top names books his own card" mentality the way Mutoh, Chono, Misawa and Hashimoto were. Maybe guys like Nakamura and Tanahashi will start developing the itch to be running their own show. If they did, AJPW is ripe for the usurping.

back in the 90s AJPW wasn't opposed to doing repeat challengers. I'm pretty sure Misawa, Kawada, Hansen, Kobashi, Taue and Dr Death all habitually got an extra shot or two, depending on the reign and the length. I was actually going to remark that they could run Suwama vs Akiyama twice with Akiyama winning and then a third time with Suwama winning the belt and it wouldn't even feel *that* repetitive to me. But then I'm a huge mark for both guys. Even barring multiple title shots you have Doering, Zeus, Suwama, Miyahara, Omori, Kea if he's healthy, a novelty defense against a junior like Aoki, Kanemaru or Suzuki, outsiders like Hino or Shuji Ishikawa, maybe even KENSO if you could build him up as a potential fluke transitional champ, SUSHI could unmask as Akira Raijin or KYOSHI and get a push for a few months....there are options here, people. Hell you could run Akiyama vs Fuchi as Fuchi's first and last TC shot and at least you'd have a sympathetic crowd of old school AJPW buffs.

SPOILERS below from today's big AJPW show: Anyone else think Akiyama should just get his late-career giant 18 month title run with the Triple Crown the same way Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi all did? He's never held a top title for more than a handful of months, and there's nobody else they really NEED to be pushing right now. Even if Miyahara isn't ready in 2 years he could still drop it to Suwama and then Suwama could put over Miyahara or Jake Lee or whoever's the man of the hour by the time. Jun is still in great shape and capable of really solid main events, and he works well with a wide variety of opponents. Looking forward to seeing him defend against Doering, Zeus and maybe Hino now that he's a freelancer.

It would be cool if he went to BJW for awhile and worked against Sekimoto and Okabayashi. Could give their Strong Style title some big league cred. Edit: I didn't realize KENSO left too. Hasn't AJPW always been pretty good to that guy? I don't see him being in demand for freelance bookings the way Go is. Hopefully Suwama stays at least.

That's a big loss for them. Hopefully they can raid someone's roster and find a replacement. I'm dreaming but if Soya showed up with Mutoh's belt and trashed the W-1 title and then challenged Bono I would be so happy.

something that occurred to me the other day: with both Takeshis now retired, is Akiyama the only active wrestler with big title match wins over Misawa and/or Kobashi? I know Ogawa pinned Kobashi in a captain's fall match to promote their 2004 title bout but that doesn't count.

It's funny, last year I remember we were all (okay a few of us) saying how cool it would be if Tenzan made it to the finals by the skin of his teeth and then lost to a young guy. now we're all predicting his grotesque demise. either way, good for him so long as his matches don't suck. Taiyo Kea. Back in AJPW. all his matches so far seem to run about 10 mins shorter than one would expect them to given the other wrestlers involved. please tell me he's not like horribly broken down/out of shape and just doing weird short guest appearances as a kind of borderline-comedy Legends figure to add a name to the roster.

if they can get some guarantee that he would job to suwama than I would love to see it. just so long as they don't put it on ka shin. i also remind people that bob sapp owes akiyama a job from that weird W-1 tournament Mutoh put together ten years back...

My guess: Suwama is getting his win back from the Carny final so they can run Suwama vs Go for the TC with Go as the challenger (since he's better in that role vs Suwama).

Agreed on all counts, though I haven't checked out Go/Zeus yet. I was also a big fan of Yasufumi Nakanoue and would have liked for him to stick around and develop some more. Never really saw the potential in KAI (too generic for my taste) but I did like him better than Seiya Sanada. Also just watched the Carny final, and it's fun. Crowd is hotter/louder than you would expect considering how little attention the tournament got. Suwama did an STO at one point and it got a big pop...not sure if it was a direct dig at Ogawa or not but if they are gonna feud with IGF they could do worse than Suwama vs Ogawa as the key match. Does Suwama have any marketability as a freelancer at this point? He's one of the few top guys who never did many inter-promotional matches. I'd like to think people would be excited about something like Suwama vs Nakamura or Suwama vs Okada but I also feel like he's got that B-league stigma from being in an ailing company for so long (a la Booker T never really being taken seriously by WWE fans after WCW went under).

couple quick things re AJPW: AJPW is actually the only promotion I go out of my way to follow these days beyond just reading all the results. call it blind loyalty, but they've always been my favourite company. the most negative thing I can say is that Kento Miyahara has been a big disappointment and I don't see him ever being a convincing top guy, though I'm sure AJPW will continue to force it because they don't have anybody else. some of the young lions that debuted recent;y look real good, especially Naoya Nomura. i think they only really need to steal two or three big names to freshen up the roster and create some new match-ups. the obvious choice would be Sekimoto since he would make a good opponent for Suwama and Shiozaki, but I think he's pretty closely tied to NOAH these days. if i were Akiyama I would steal Manabu Soya back from Wrestle-1 and give him the whole New Hero push right away. it's sad watching him try to adjust his hard-hitting style to guys like KAI and Kono in W-1. I love the idea of an AJPW vs IGF feud, not that anybody would take notice. Suwama vs Fujita in a 10-12 minute super stiff brawl that ends with Suwama getting the win would make my year.

could this be the first big thing Yano ever wins?

Just watched (and loved) Tenzan vs. Goto. Fuckin' Tenzan. I always had a huge soft spot for the guy but he is really doing a lot of good to whatever legacy he leaves behind by working his ass off during these last two G1s. Sure, I could have lived without him doing a flying headbutt after having his neck worked on the whole first half of the match, but everything else he did was awesome. Feel like he's one of those guys we'll appreciate a lot more in hindsight once he finally hangs up the boots. Also AJ vs Suzuki: a miracle of a match. When I read the result on paper I was picturing something like Kazuyuki Fujita vs Scott Norton but holy hell what a great fight. Ever since Meltzer started creaming over every Tanahashi/Okada match I've approached all these ultra-hyped NJPW matches with a bit of a grumpy bias, but this was the first time the match not only lived up to the hype for me, but kind of exceeded it. Don't like throwing hyperbole around but I literally "can't remember the last time I saw a match this good". I rewatched Mashimo & Madoka vs Teioh & Shinobu (from...whatever year that was, 2009?) last night just to compare the two and sure enough, I thought AJ vs Suzuki was better. Easy MOTY for me so far, although admittedly I don't watch tons and tons of stuff.

I keep forgetting that Yujiro is in the Bullet Club. reminds me of Owen in the Nation. the Bullet Club has way too many flunkies now, they need to shed a couple.

Another fantasy scenario I forgot to mention earlier that I would love to see: Karl Anderson leaving the Bullet Club, turning babyface, and becoming the first Gaijin G1 winner. Won't happen, but it would be cool. Maybe next year... Nakamura seems like likely winner to me, especially coming off his loss to Fale, but he's almost TOO likely. I could see this going a lot of ways. Last random thing: for NOAH's sake, I hope they give Nagata a strong showing (assuming he's still GHC champ come August).

I like how I'm apparently not the only one whose attention was immediately drawn to Tenzan's name being in the brackets. Honestly I'm much less excited with this year's tourney than I was with last years because, as mentioned above, it's all the same guys, plus AJ as champ doesn't interest me so it's not like i'm hyped to see who gets to fight him next. I would love to see any of the following results: A) Ishii win (won't happen), B ) Ishii make it to the finals and lose in a glorious loss (probably won't happen), C) Tenzan make it to the finals and then die a la Jake Roberts in the '96 KOTR (won't happen and wou;ldn't do the company, or Tenzan, any good really). Is it bad I still like Tenzan a lot? I know he's pretty much been the heavyweight version of El Samurai for close to a decade now but then I always had a soft spot for Samurai too.