Puroresu News Digest~
New Japan…
…bid farewell to CTU, one of their most popular factions of recent years, on the 26th at Korakuen Hall. Important happenings – Hirooki Goto made his official return to New Japan, in the battle of the Italy Brothers Minoru beat Milano Collection AT by ref stop in what was said to be an excellent match, and finally Gedo & Jado beat Jushin Thunder Lyger and AKIRA in the main after GBH interfered.
Coming out of the show CTU members have found new homes, Gedo & Jado join Togi Makabe and co. in GBH; Lyger has aligned himself with the rest of the old guard - Masahiro Chono, Riki Choshu, Shiro Koshinaka and Super Strong Machine; and Minoru, Milano, Prince Devitt and Hirooki Goto have joined forces with Shinsuke Nakamura to form a new, as yet unnamed group.
After beating him in last weeks G1 Climax final, Hiroshi Tanahashi was announced as Yuji Nagata’s next challenger. Tanahashi will challenge for the IWGP heavyweight title on October 8th at the Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo Hall). On the subject of the G1, attendances for the tour were way up from 2006, particularly in Osaka and Tokyo.
…held their biggest show of the year last Sunday, PRO-WRESTLING LOVE in RYOGOKU vol.3 at -yes- the 11,500 seat Ryogoku Kokugikan. Main saw Kensuke Sasaki pin Minoru Suzuki after 8 successive lariats to become new Triple Crown champ. Match went 42 minutes, which sounds a little scary. Other big results – wunderkind Katsuhiko Nakajima beat Chris Sabin to retain his AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title in what was said to be the match of the night; and super-heels Satoshi Kojima and TARU became AJPW World Tag Team champions after defeating Toshiaki Kawada and Taiyo Kea. The reported attendance is 8,200, so the actual number is probably around 6,000 – either All Japans biggest attendance this year if you’re a glass-half-full kinda person, or a half-house if you’re a bit more pessimistic.
NOAH…
…announced that Takeshi Rikio will be out until (at least) mid-September, due to a cervical vertebrae injury. This obviously scuppers his chances at winning NOAHs rather ho-hum #1 Contenders tourney for Mitsuharu Misawa’s GHC Heavyweight title. It may also mean that Rikio and Jun Akiyama have to forfeit their GHC Heavyweight Tag titles.
In other news…
‘Black Angel’ Jaki Numazawa became Big Japan’s new Death Match Heavyweight Champion last Sunday, beating Takashi Sasaki in 19 minutes with a low altitude lariat in front of a sell-out crowd at Differ Ariake.
Reawakening memories of his truly diabolical Super Famicom game, former FMW star turned disgraced politician Atsushi Onita unveiled his new game for the Nintendo DS – Atsushi Onita’s Political Quiz.
Yinling became a proud mother during HUSTLE’s show on the 18th of this, when her giant egg hatched, revealing this monstrosity. Monster Bono is, of course, the result of Great MUTA spraying Yinling’s nether-regions with his ‘special’ mist.
Less than two weeks away, an 11,000 capacity Nagoya Rainbow Hall to fill, and no matches announced – it could only be Antonio Inoki’s latest bright idea. The Chin did announce some more names for his September 8th IGF show, basically most of the undercard from his first show, including Naoya Ogawa. Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar’s names were conspicuous by their absence.
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