Belgian_Waffle

Agreed, and not to mention how boring the BOSJ looks this year. I think Taichi is the only guy I'd be excited to see win out of the whole thing, and it's not like that has any chance of happening. edit: also just occurred to me that Ibushi isn't in the tournament. instead he's challenging Ishii for the NEVER title in Yokohama. looks like they didn't learn anything from the Deviitt era: the Jr. champ is still ranked so far above all his potential challengers that it makes the whole division look kind of inconsequential.

Am I the only one who could see this being a super short reign with Okada winning the title back in a rematch a month or so from now? Also, I really thought (and still potentially think) that Okada's title reign was/is gradually going to lead to him vs Nakamura at the Dome at some point.

hah, good point. here I go speculating again, but maybe they could try to sign Daichi Hashimoto now that he's left Z1? I'm guessing he would be a tough sell for anyone other than New Japan, and even then he'd stand to profit more as a freelancer, but who knows...

they do seem to be headhunting Sekimoto lately. if they were going to toss some money around and try to score one big indie name he wouldn't be a bad choice. doubt it would help them long term though, unless he brought along Okabayashi and some of their other cronies.

Pretty much all the stars in NOAH are damaged goods anyway due to the grueling work ethic. I don't see New Japan wanting anyone except for maybe some of the juniors. Morishima and Sugiura would be fun in All Japan but once they've both finished feuding with Suwama and Doering there wouldn't be a lot of interesting matchups there. I'm probably alone in thinking this but I think Genba Hirayanagi is NOAH's least-utilized asset. I think he would be a great breath of fresh air in either NJPW or AJPW, heeling it up with their top jr. babyfaces. Six man tags with Gedo, Jadoh & Genba as the heel team. Or TAKA, Taichi and Genba. Genba as the first Japanese member of the Bullet Club. And so on.

Fair points all around re: my doubts about KENTA's current in-ring abilities. But how about we move away from the WWE discussion and talk about how this effects NOAH? With KENTA gone that leaves the top of their roster looking like Morishima, Taniguchi, Marufuji (who is inured all the time), Sugiura, Yone and some of the juniors. Not exactly an A-list set of challengers lined up to eventually take the belt away from Nagata (especially since he's already beat most of them). NOAH's been hurting for a long time now so it's not like KENTA leaving really makes the picture all that more worse than it already is but it's certainly not going to help.

Ten years ago KENTA in WWE would have made some sense. Don't really see the point in bringing him in now---he's bigger, sure, but also older and banged up, and not the motivated freaky athletic guy he was in his prime. He doesn't have any of the buzz he did back when he was still a Jr. and was every US indy fan's favourite wrestler. Then again that description sounds an awful like Benoit and Eddy and Danielson around the time Vince started pushing them, so maybe the time is right for KENTA in WWE. If they were really gonna pick up a free agent from Japan and feud him with Bryan for the title though I wish they'd just bring in Devitt.

I like this result a lot. I've always had a soft spot for Omori so finally winning the CC against a former AJPW rival sits well with me. I wouldn't write him off as a transitional champ until Go comes back, if for no other reason than as a 'thanks' nod for staying with the company after the W-1 split (not that Mutoh probably wanted him all that bad anyway). As was pointed out, they were in a tough spot with Go and Bono both getting hurt/sick so kudos for going with a surprising sentimental choice. Him and Akiyama always work well together so hopefully the crowd dug it.

also, Billy Ken Kid and the Bodyguard were on yesterday's AJPW show.

to be honest, i would mark for just about any of the old AJPW/NOAH guys if Kobashi brought them in for some fun matches, whether it was Honda and Kikuchi or Izumida and Hashi.

looks good to me. nice of him to get Honda in there,though I'm beginning to wonder whether or not Kikuchi is gone for good.

Suwama vs Fujita in a balls-out brawl would be my MOTY on paper (so long as Fujita jobbed clean).

Couple off-hand comments after reading the NOAH results today: 1. 20 minutes of Nagata vs Maybach sounds like a really long time 2. I was excited to see Yone and Ikeda doing so well in the Tag League because in my naive Bati-fanboy mind I thought maybe they were going to bring back Ikeda as a regular with a push and then today I see Yone is the new #1 contender for the GHC and suddenly the mediocrity of NOAH booking is once again reaffirmed for me.

It's not even really an upset. By this point I think Doering has pinfall victories over just about everyone, and he's got the edge over Akiyama both in the youth department and the "never won a Carny before" factor. He drew Go today too. I could totally see him winning...he was Akebono's V1 challenger so it's not like if he won and got the title shot they would be repeating a match that just happened super recently (as opposed to if Go or Miyahara won). They've been doing a lot of booking like this recently. I was so sure Miyahara was winning the Triple Crown just because I felt they would need some sort of surprise "New Hero" factor to catch the fans off guard and create some word-of-mouth interest. Instead they went the Wrestlemania 2000 route and kept the belt on the heel. Surprising us with the lack of surprise...if they weren't doing such poor business I'd say that maybe they were actually on to something novel. .

hey, not bad, actually got some elevation on the big guy. the Akebono one was more like a variation on Kaz Hayashi's old finisher (I think it was the Final Cut?) where he just drives his arm onto the guy's neck while standing.

4. Champion Carnival - Block B: Go Shiozaki [4] besiegt Yutaka Yoshie [2] (17:46) nach dem Go Flasher hopefully he pulled this one off better than the "Go Flasher" he gave Akebono in the tag leading up to their TC match... also spoiler alert.

I edited my picks so that they're in order (I was supposed to do that, right?). Also re: the Kashin thing, yeah I don't see him doing very well, but at the same time they have to legitimize their choices for outsiders, so I see him picking up a few upset wins via cradles and whatnot. Zeus is a tougher one to call since I know nothing about him and hes barely even a name (I was hoping it was Tiny Lister).

so will Warrior's final warning to the young guys at the end of his HOF speech be wrestling's equivalent to Eisenhower's military-industrial complex speech at the end of his presidential term? "this is why things are fucked up and they'll keep going this way unless you recognize the problems and do something about it"?

he was always my favourite as a kid. i remember when i first got into wrestling in 1993 and my fantasy booking was that the Warrior would come out of retirement and be the one to beat Yokozuna for the title at WM 10. by the time he eventually came back in '96 i was more a Brer Hart fan, but you maintain a soft spot for your early favs It's all already been said in here; the timing is shocking, the circumstances mysterious, and I feel really bad for his family. Haven't watched the speech from RAW yer but I thought his HOF speech was lovely; seemed like a good guy with a lot of BS in his past to work through.. very weird and very sad news, and an especially crazy week for a company that doesn't exactly specialize in "typical weeks".

I don't think it's been mentioned on here yet but apparently Devitt left New Japan after his match with Taguchi. This mean he's probably headed to WWE? let the speculation begin...

trivial observation: Ka Shin technically left the promotion twice while holding two different titles---he never dropped the Jr strap and he and Nagata never dropped the tag titles. if he comes out flaunting some illegitimate gold a la "real world's champion" Flair in WWF, then I will be officially okay with him being in the tourney.

BLOCK A: 1. Suwama 2. Kento Miyahara 3. Akebono 4. Kendo Kashin 5. Osamu Nishimura 6. Takao Omori BLOCK B: 1. Go Shiozaki 2. Joe Doering 3. Jun Akiyama 4. Yutaka Yoshie 5. Zeus 6. KENSO Winner: Shiozaki Tie-breakers are as follows: First Tie-Breaker - 7 Second Tie-Breaker (if still tied) - 1,010 it's a tough one to call. Most of the likely contenders have already fought Akebono and lost so whoever wins and gets the title shot will probably be a rematch-challenger. This includes Doering and Shiozaki (my pick) who have both already lost to Akebono twice, once in the openweight tournament last year and once in TC defenses. if we had to guess who their opponent will be in the final I would guess Go going over Suwama because it will get the better draw, though I wouldn't be surprised at all by a Go/Miyahara final. One thing I'll say for sure is that whoever wins this thing has to beat Akebono in the title match.

Watched Shinsuke Nakamura vs Bad Luck Fale from the NJ Cup finals and it was not good. Are you a fan of Kawada vs Gary Albright from 1995? If so you will find little that reminds you of it here. Fale comes across as just some big dude with no charisma or presence; it doesn't help that despite having the major size advantage he has to rely on like six other big guys outside the ring to keep interfering on his behalf. Nakamura was real good in it but the match just never gets off the ground. Nak comes out holding his shoulder (I guess MiSu banged him up earlier in the night?) but there's no limb work to tease a fluke submission finish. I don't recall there being any point in the match where a Fale victory seemed plausible. Nakamura bleeding at the end gave the match some unexpected violent shock value, but it's all kind of moot once the replay shows us that he basically hurt himself by accidentally driving Fale's big melon head onto his own face while synching up a cross-armbreaker. I don't know. I really wanted this to be good. I like when stuff that sounds weird and unappealing on paper ends up being uniquely great and memorable, but that didn't happen here. It was uninspired from the get-go, and despite a hot finishing sequence, wasn't a strong enough one-man show by Nakamura to make up for Fale's (or the bookers') weaknesses.

hope this doesn't mean Ishii is dropping the title already (unless it's only so he can go on the challenge for the IC or something). that Gracies match sounds so bad I might have to actually watch it. maybe Iizuka will abandon his evil ways for one night and turn back into the Yamazaki-style shooter guy of his youth?

Just checked out Otsuka/Saito and really enjoyed it, thanks for the recommendation. On paper the six man sounds like something I'd love so it's next in line. Watched Kento Miyahara vs. Mitsuya Nagai from 16/02, as part of my ongoing evaluation of Miyahara. Nagai was my favourite wrestler in the world back in 2001 when he was Kawada's understudy so it's good o keep tabs on him too. Match was pretty forgettable but inoffensive. TONS of interference from KENSO kind of mucked things up (isn't Nagai supposed to be a good fighter who doesn't need outside help to smack around a punk like Miyahara?), but for what it's worth KENSO is really charismatic and comfortable in his heel role so he tended to at least keep things lively. Actually KENSO seemed more into the match than Miyahara or Nagai did...not that they were lazy, but they both kept it in first gear for the most part. Ending was kind of dumb with KENSO accidentally nailing Nagai to set up a pinfall by Miyahara---again, isn't Miyahara supposed to be a rising star capable of taking down a mid-carder like Nagai without help from a botched run-in? Overall it's worth watching...sort of reminiscent of a WWF PPV mid-card match circa 1989-92 (imagine Miyahara as Tito Sanatana and Nagai as King Haku or something)..