Essential Japanese Wrestling Discussion/News

[TrueEpic08]

he was the greatest japanese wrestler of all time and a top 10 of all time

wait he came in as ghc champ?

when did he win the belt?

KENTA's the champ.

I haven't watched it yet, but I believe that they gave Kobashi a belt on the show to commemorate what he did for the title and for the company. I'm not sure how many people realize just how important, not just in a match quality sense, but in a company stability sense, his GHC reign was.

I'm confident in typing this: If Kobashi didn't hold that belt as long as he did and in the way that he did, NOAH might be dead right now.

PLEASE STAY RETIRED KOBASHI. YOU'VE EARNED IT.

 

[Honga Ciganesta]

he was the greatest japanese wrestler of all time and a top 10 of all time

wait he came in as ghc champ?

when did he win the belt?

It was just a symbolic thing I think, KENTA is GHC champ right now. EDIT: Yeah what TrueEpic said.

Speaking of which, latest NOAH card:

Spoiler

Pro Wrestling NOAH 12.05.2013 "Ark New Chapter"
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
2,200 Fans

1: ARK NEW CHAPTER OPENING MATCH: Taiji Ishimori b. Hitoshi Kumano (4:41) with a Modified Camel Clutch
2: GO FORWARD TAG MATCH: Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa b. Genba Hirayanagi & "Maybach SUWA Jr." (11:01) with a Cross Armlock by Marufuji on Hirayanagi
3: BATTLE OF SPIRITS SINGLE MATCH: Mohammed Yone b. Maybach Taniguchi (11:04) with the Muscle Buster
4: MOMO NO SEISHUN SHOWDOWN SINGLE MATCH: Atsushi Kotoge b. Daisuke Harada (12:10) with the Killswitch
5: BATTLE THE SUPER HEAVY SINGLE MATCH: Yoshihiro Takayama b. Takeshi Morishima (1:48) with a Rolling Clutch Hold
6: GHC TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka (c) b. Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste (15:03) with the Oni Kuroshi by Yano on Haste (V1 Defence)
7: GHC HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: KENTA (c) b. Takashi Sugiura (32:33) with the Go 2 Sleep (V2 Defence)

at match 5, I know I'll like that one.

Some news coming out of the show:

*Akira Taue announced that he will be retiring in December, and would like to devote himself fully as President of NOAH. He vowed to help restore NOAH as the must see promotion in Japan.

Toru Yano stated after the GHC Tag Team Title defence that he wants to challenge for the GHC Heavyweight Title.

*KENTA offered Sugiura the opportunity to join NO MERCY. Sugiura accepted, stating that it doesn't matter that he joins NO MERCY, but it will be significant if he and KENTA join together.

 

[Jmare007]

I'm confident in typing this: If Kobashi didn't hold that belt as long as he did and in the way that he did, NOAH might be dead right now.

That's very hard to say. If everything stays the same (booking and growing talent wise) then yeah, NOAH is dead by 2011. But we can't say for sure that they would have been as lazy and as moronic as they were if Kobashi doesn't have that monster reign.

 

[Honga Ciganesta]

Just now noticed the name attached to the Suzuki match:

Four Men GET Together: Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Suzuki vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori

 

[FRIED MASON]

Thanks for the Kobashi match Honga.

 

[Psychosis]

 

[Jmare007]

Someone else is probably going to make a thread about this but fukk it...

Big Japan just announced Sami Callihan wont be appearing for them because he signed with WWE.

Not a big fun of the guy, too over the top for my liking, but at least he is different

 

[Miracle Violence]

Enjoyed this quite a bit. Definitely the most vicious match I've seen in a while.

I hadn't watched any NOAH at all since Shiozaki's last GHC title run, but I thought KENTA & Sugiura proved that under the right circumstances this style can still work well.

 

[Mr.Black]

isnt the noah style atleast last time i watched basically the old ajpw kings road shyt?

 

[Honga Ciganesta]

This is awesome:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89iR7iQnFOg&]Kenta Kobashi & Stan Hansen Sit-Down Discussion (Translated Into English & Japanese) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[TrueEpic08]

Some New Japan news to digest while the BOSJ plays out:

Spoiler

Shinsuke Nakamura was beaten by La Sombra for the IWGP Intercontinental Title yesterday while in CMLL.

Not sure how I feel about this, since I've never rated this guy highly. But maybe he got better since I last saw him.

 

[Miracle Violence]

Some New Japan news to digest while the BOSJ plays out:

Spoiler

Shinsuke Nakamura was beaten by La Sombra for the IWGP Intercontinental Title yesterday while in CMLL.

Not sure how I feel about this, since I've never rated this guy highly. But maybe he got better since I last saw him.

He and Nakamura had a match at Fantasticamania this year that I thought was pretty good. I've always been a fan though.

And speaking of BOSJ, the 5/30 card is worth a watch. Solid matches throughout, with the Devitt vs. Ricochet main event being the obvious highlight.

[ame=http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x10dgah_09-prince-devitt-vs-ricochet-njpw-05-30-13_sport]09. Prince Devitt vs Ricochet - (NJPW 05/30/13) - Video Dailymotion[/ame]

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

Some New Japan news to digest while the BOSJ plays out:

Spoiler

Shinsuke Nakamura was beaten by La Sombra for the IWGP Intercontinental Title yesterday while in CMLL.

Not sure how I feel about this, since I've never rated this guy highly. But maybe he got better since I last saw him.

Ive only seen him in multi man tag matches. I dont like this at all but it does tell me that Machine Gun is prob the next heel to run with it.

 

[TrueEpic08]

Some more news to digest while the BOSJ plays itself out...

Spoiler

Keiji Mutoh to leave All Japan Pro Wrestling, chaos ensues - Cageside Seats

If you don't want to read the article, Keiji Mutoh is leaving AJPW after what was basically a double-cross. It was expected that Mutoh was to become the next president of the company (you see, owner Nobuo Shiraishi the crazy guy fired the last one, who basically taught him about the wrestling business), but rather than appoint Mutoh, Shiraishi appointed himself. As a result Mutoh is leaving All Japan at the end of the month.

Here's the kicker: Contracts are coming up at the end of the month and, according to reports, a LOT of wrestlers are not happy with the way that the company is being run. Add to this the fact that Mutoh is apparently attempting to find backers to either buy AJPW back from Shiraishi or start a new promotion altogether, and it seems like All Japan is a full scale clusterfukk at this point.

For fukk's sake.

 

[Wcthesecret]

Some more news to digest while the BOSJ plays itself out...

Spoiler

Keiji Mutoh to leave All Japan Pro Wrestling, chaos ensues - Cageside Seats

If you don't want to read the article, Keiji Mutoh is leaving AJPW after what was basically a double-cross. It was expected that Mutoh was to become the next president of the company (you see, owner Nobuo Shiraishi the crazy guy fired the last one, who basically taught him about the wrestling business), but rather than appoint Mutoh, Shiraishi appointed himself. As a result Mutoh is leaving All Japan at the end of the month.

Here's the kicker: Contracts are coming up at the end of the month and, according to reports, a LOT of wrestlers are not happy with the way that the company is being run. Add to this the fact that Mutoh is apparently attempting to find backers to either buy AJPW back from Shiraishi or start a new promotion altogether, and it seems like All Japan is a full scale clusterfukk at this point.

For fukk's sake.

...so does this make ajpw the Japanese tna?