Irving

The thing is All Japan doesn't have debt and actually has tons of sponsors. It's how they signed and kept Akebono. If I were Akiyama I would have let Go work where he wanted because it would have kept him. I could see him doing well in NJPW though. I wouldn't be surprised to see Kotaro leave soon too. This isn't what Burning signed up for. Akiyama only agreed when it was clear Muto had no interest in returning and forcing us to deal with W1.

Akiyama isn't allowing the guys to work outside the group. It's why they lost KENSO and Go.

I honestly don't know how to call that tournament however I could see a Akiyama/Ishikawa final with Akiyama taking it giving Bono 3 fresh challengers in Suwama, Ishikawa, and Akiyama. More matches announced for Tenryu's retirement. Suwama and Kazuyuki Fujita finally square after a summer full of politics. - Koki Kitahara, Ryuji Hijikata & Kotaro Nasu vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima, Hikaru Sato & Daichi Hashimoto - Yoshihiro Takayama & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Minoru Suzuki & Kazunari Murakami - Suwama & Kengo Mashimo vs. Kazuyuki Fujita & Yuji Hino

AJPW 9/10 @ Korakuen 4. Royal Road Tournament - Round 1: Zeus vs. Yuji Hino 5. Royal Road Tournament - Round 1: Takao Omori vs. Shuji Ishikawa 6. Royal Road Tournament - Round 1: Go Shiozaki vs. Jun Akiyama Yes, please.

Akiyama is why

Doering got hurt but I'll be damned if the crowd didn't love the Doering/Aoki tag team. That's a team I'd like to see more of. Apparently the Captain's Fall from 8/16 and the Akebono/Zeus TC matches are both worth tracking down as well. Suwama is in the press allegedly unhappy with Jun Akiyama. He feels that Akiyama needs to reform All Japan, revitalize stables, and allow the company to work with other companies. Apparently, Suwama has Atsushi Aoki in his corner but the rest of All Japan doesn't necessarily agree. It was Akiyama who killed Suwama's IGF program as the President wants to the promotion to mimic the time of Giant Baba's which as isolated as possible with the workers showing loyalty only to All Japan. There's an allegience test going on with workers choosing either the "President Faction" or the "Senior Managing" section. Suwama made it clear at the Tenryu Retirement conference that he wanted to assume Tenryu's rebellious spirit and might rebel against Akiyama's conservative ways and do whatever he wants. If it's an angle, it's awesome. If not, well this sucks again. However, I'm more inclined to believe it's an angle.

Fuck yeah Madusa! Honestly.. if it wasn't for Madusa, I wouldn't know who Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto was sooooo... I'm for it

The Suzuki/Kanemaru series is epic if you want to see how many different ways Suzuki can die. I literally screamed during some of the spots.

Of the matches I've been able to watch these were some that stood out. - World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Kotaro Suzuki © vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (7/8/15) - Captain's Fall: Suwama ©, Joe Doering & Atsushi Aoki vs. Go Shiozaki ©, Kento Miyahara & Yohei Nakajima (7/8/15) - World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Kotaro Suzuki © vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (7/28/15) - World Tag Team Title: Go Shiozaki & Kento Miyahara © vs. Joe Doering & Atsushi Aoki (7/28/15) Go had a really good TC defense against Zeus a while back in Osaka as well. The whole group has been working pretty hard.

Anyone been keeping up with All Japan lately? I'd say from maybe June to now the matches and crowds have increased significantly and Xceed has really been putting on great stuff.

Is that Nanae in the blue/silver/gold? When did she become so lean?

It's like 2004 all over again.. that was a rough year

I haven't watched any of it. The balance between good matches and entertaining storylines between AJPW/W1 is sad. However, I'd rather watch Suwama/Doering/Akiyama/Omori/Akebono/Miyahara try to put on good matches then watch whatever it is W1 is trying to do.

Nanae's new group? FLASH-7, 7-UP, SUN, STARDOM and now a new one?

TAJIRI took a spot date contract where has to work a certain amount of dates and is paid per appearance. Financial wise I'm not sure what shape W-1 is in, but I could imagine they spent a lot of money having nearly 30 guys on the roster and all the equipment they travel with.

To add to W-1 troubles, Masakatsu Funaki announced today that he was leaving the promotion to become a freelancer and his last show would be on 6/20. Muto offered him a spot contract, and he turned that down as well. Sanada's in America, Funaki's leaving, and Kea's returned to All Japan.

I'd put it on Kazuyuki Fujita and get this IGF thing rolling and let him go through two challengers before Suwama lifts it from him.

Yeah he lost a significant amount when he was out sick last year

Akebono won the Triple Crown again...

This just made me laugh so hard at work, lol.

I liked Nakanoue but I think he lacked a bit of charisma to be anything more than a tag guy. I was amped about KAI's return and he seemed super ready to mix it up with the NOAH guys. KAI/Go from the CC Semi's 2013 might be a carry job from Go, but KAI didn't make it too hard for him to be carried. My crossover doubts of Suwama were squashed after he wrestled Nakamura/Okada at the big interpromotional show at Budokan. Fans love him and he definitely brings a big match aura when he's other places. He wants to wrestle other places as he absolutely loved working with the BJW guys for that year or so.

--- Been doing some watching lately.. I think someone really underrated but can never be taken seriously is Zeus. His match with Go Shiozaki this year was really fucking good. Also, I too thought that out of all the guys who left Manabu Soya (and KAI) should have stayed as they definitely would have shifted a lot of the weight that Kento Miyahara has to prematurely carry on him. Suwama vs. Manabu would have been an awesome TC match (just as Go vs, KAI would have been). I tend to lean more towards Yohei Nakajima than Naoya Nomura, but I do think it's time to start putting Nomura in a couple of veteran/rookie tags ala Suwama/Takumi Soya

Well, Shiraishi did attempt on more than one occasion to sell the company back to Muto, and apparently for way less than Muto sold it to him. Muto had the financial backers and decided to start W1 instead. Akiyama stated in January that he didn't blame anyone who left for W1 and was ready to work with them and anyone else who was positive to working with All Japan. On another note, Naoya Ogawa is in the press demanding Suwama and All Japan show up to IGF's show in Osaka on 5/5. Kazuyuki Fujita has been asking for it as well.

I will give them an A for effort. They've tried shifting spotlight to other guys like Akebono, Joe Doering, and Omori who aren't bad at all... they've even done a decent job with Zeus by using him effectively (Shiozaki/Zeus was really fucking good).. No one cares though. It's obvious the small fanbase they had spilt into two when W1 formed and honestly, both companies should just cut the fat and merge, take some of the few decent workers NOAH has and really do this thing.

A bit of an exaggeration here, Suzuki hurt Issei (no idea of the intent) in September of 2006, he retired in September of 2007. The last four months of his career he was on an excursion wrestling in America. So while I don't know if they were directly related, and they probably were, the time frame was a lot wider than that. He had already had a problem with his shoulder earlier that year. Suzuki continued to crank that arm bar until he completely dislocated it. Suzuki would also single him and another trainee out at the time during harsh training sessions, the trainee left, and Brute ended up never fully recovering from his shoulder injury and retiring a year later.