The Navigation Log 1.18.09: NOAH’s First Navigation, Beer Money Inc to New Japan, and More!

Some interesting news this week as apparently TNA is going to finally be running a PPV from here in Philly. Specifically, we’re going to be getting one of their bigger events in Lockdown. I’ve always thought Lockdown was a mixed bag as far quality goes. Last year’s show was great, but then if you look at 2007’s Lockdown… well that show sucked. From a pure stand point of a live spectacle you can’t really beat a cage match, and a match full of them kinda ups the “wow” factor. The Philly crowd should provide a good atmosphere, whether they’re hot for the whole card or they’re crapping all over the show if it sucks. Can’t say events in Philadelphia are boring.

Onto the Navigation Log!

Getting Caught Up in NOAH
Seems like It’s been awhile since I’ve really covered NOAH, so let’s do that now while the other big companies have slowed down after the start of the new year, let’s take a glance at the Green Mat.

There are a few main stories that are important right now. Two of which concern the junior division. If you were to visit the main NOAH site, they’re advertising a big GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title match between KENTA and Kotaro Suzuki. These two have been locked in a gradually escalating feud since about May of last year when Suzuki turned heel and joined Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Suzuki & Kanemaru managed to beat KENTA & Taiji Ishimori to capture the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team belts and they’ve been fighting on and off for the rest of the year, now culminating in this title match scheduled for the Korakuen Hall tour finale. Suzuki has held the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title in the past, though he did it under the guise of Mushi-King Terry. And while he hasn’t held the belt as himself, he has one previous title shot in a losing effort to his current partner Yoshinobu Kanemaru. While his heel turn hasn’t set the world on fire like many were hoping, Suzuki is seasoned enough at this point to hold a singles title I think. Beating KENTA would be an impressive feat too, especially after KENTA had the incredibly well-received double title match against Marufuji last year and added onto his already impressive resume. I think the guy is ready.

Last week Marufuji ran a self-produced show with some help from NOAH, which yielded a couple of interesting results. One of which was an impressive victory by Takashi Sugiura & KENTA over Akira Taue & Yoshihiro Takayama. What made this victory impressive was Sugiura pinning Taue to score the win. From 2007 on, NOAH has had a slow burn push on Sugiura to build him into a legitimate main event player. Recall in the middle of last year Sugiura earned himself a well-received title match against Takeshi Morishima after pinning the champion in a tag team match. He also finished off 2007 with a huge pinfall against Jun Akiyama. Now in 2009 he’s started off strong again with a pin against Taue. The list of champions that Sugiura has gotten one over against is steadily growing. The next step should be getting those wins in one-on-one contests and Sugiura will be a legit contender. After the amount of praise he got from his performance at New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom III earlier this month, I think that NOAH would be very wise to continue to push this man. Otherwise, with the situation the company is currently in I could see Sugiura being lured away to New Japan or All Japan. It could happen, but I’d love to see the guy become a success in NOAH before anything else.

Also from this show Marufuji made his fourth defense of the All Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Title against NOSAWA Rongai. So having now made it past KENTA, Shuji Kondo, Tsuyoshi Kikucho, and now NOSAWA the next challenge facing Marufuji is going to be the always impressive Kaz Hayashi. Most who haven’t see Hayashi’s more recent work will remember him as one-third of WCW’s Jung Dragons alongside Jimmy Yang and Jamie “San” Noble. Hayashi has become one of All Japan’s legitimate aces in its junior division since then, and is possibly the biggest threat to Marufuji since Kondo’s memorable attempt for the belt. Marufuji meanwhile has to get through ten more defenses in order to make the record books for holding the belt the longest. Hayashi is going to be an extremely difficult challenge for him, and I’ve got to admit this has the makings of a real dream match here.

The big story within NOAH though is the slow build for Jun Akiyama’s challenge for Kensuke Sasaki’s GHC Heavyweight Title. NOAH is definitely attempting to make this into an important bout for them and will more than likely headline their first Budokan show of the year. This is a match a lot of people will want to see, as matches between two legends like Akiyama and Sasaki always generate major interest. The slow build for it is an effective way to just grow that interest over time. NOAH has to do this. They have to make their next Budokan show a big success, because with the way the company is now if they turn in any more flops in attendance things are going to get worse before they get better. I’m really interested in seeing Sasaki vs. Akiyama for the belt, but I can’t pick a winner in that one. Sasaki’s reign has not been all that interesting, but I don’t know where an Akiyama reign would be a major step up. NOAH needs new challengers if they want to get interest back up and I think that the best way to do that would be to hold defenses against outsiders. Since Akiyama was the only NOAH star to get the pinfall in his match at Wrestle Kingdom, I get the feeling that a win with him would mean seeing more invasions by top New Japan stars. Now THAT would be interesting.

New Japan vs. TNA
January has so far seen a good month for TNA stars in New Japan, with The Motor City Machine Guns and Team 3D all capturing tag team gold at Wrestle Kingdom and them basically sweeping all their matches on the show. The cross-promotion will continue next month, with a huge team making their debut.

Beer Money Inc. will be appearing in New Japan for the first time in February, taking on the Legends team of Masahiro Chono & AKIRA. Now while there is no way in hell I could see Chono jobbing to Roode & Storm, but I really see Beer Money getting the win here by pinning AKIRA. With little question, Beer Money is probably the best heavyweight team that TNA has right now, and there’s a lot of unique match-ups you could have by having them take on New Japan teams. While Team 3D is more famous in Japan, Beer Money have the advantage of youth and can go all out more so than Team 3D can. In that sense, I kind of wish there was some way to get the IWGP Tag belts onto Roode & Storm and have them defend the belts.

Speaking of Team 3D, Brother Ray & Brother Devon have their first defense set in February and it will be a rematch from the Tokyo Dome in January. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano, the MVP tag team of New Japan, have demanded a chance to get their titles back from Team 3D in another hardcore style match. 3D is perceived to have had Makabe & Yano’s number since their dominant performance at last year’s Wrestle Kingdom and now taking the titles from them just boosts heightens their desire for revenge. The hardcore rules might benefit Team 3D, but they also give some real advantage to the challengers. Makabe & Yano have a full stable to back them up here and are absolute masters of playing dirty. It’ll be a close contest, but I think that the former champions will get the titles back. There’s really nothing that Team 3D can do with the belts and with Hiroyoshi Tenzan out of action, the one team that fans want to see win the belts can’t do anything. I say send the belts back and give people the match that they wanted: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano.

Kurt Angle’s match with Giant Bernard is also finally official. When was the last time these two wrestled one-on-one? Damn, that’s a piece of trivia. Regardless, that should be a fine match. It bears saying because its true: Bernard is miles ahead on talent than where he was while in the WWE. And hell, he was never a bad worker in the WWE he just had a gimmick that got heat solely from his damn back hair. I would still love for the guy to make a return to the US for some matches, but I’d really love to see him grab a really huge win for himself because from what I’ve heard his injuries are beginning to catch up with him.

Quick News
-NOAH’s top gaijin, Bison Smith, made his ROH debut this weekend. As of writing this I haven’t heard if he had any part of the PPV tapings on Saturday, but I was really surprised to hear he appeared at Friday’s show. Smith is highly underrated by Western fans and though he isn’t the kind of foreigner in Japan on the level of a Vader or Stan Hansen, he does a fine job. Don’t know what they’ll do with him ROH, but I’d be interested in a title match between him and Nigel McGuinness.

-Kenny Omega seems to be become quite the indie darling in Japan. His latest tour in Japan has him all over the place, wrestling in various promotions though his away base seems to be DDT. He’s currently set to challenge HARASHIMA & Toru Owashi for DDT’s KO-D Tag Team Titles with Kota Ibushi.

-Dragon Gate’s yearly faction shift is in full swing. Shingo Takagi has given his new group their name. Shingo, Taku Iwasa, Akira Tozawa, and Dragon Kid will be collectively known as KAMIKAZE. It fits in well with Shingo’s whole “Made in Japan” gimmick. Ryo Saito has been invited to join World-1 while Gamma and Yasushi Kanda will finally face each other with the loser being expelled from Real Hazard.

-Sad news from New Japan as the junior heavyweight sensation Minoru has opted to let his contract expire. Minoru is hands down one of the most impressive stars in Japan right now, yet he has done little lately in New Japan’s Jr. Heavyweight division. The belief is that he’ll be turning freelance, which will possibly mean we’ll see more of him in other promotions all around Japan.

Weekly Puro
There is still a severe lack of Wrestle Kingdom III matches. New Japan does not want that show on YouTube it looks like. Regardless, we’ll instead turn to checking out Kaz Hayashi. Haven’t seen him in a match since WCW closed? Here’s a chance to get a look at him as he teaches Atsushi Aoki a thing or two.

NOAH: Atsushi Aoki Shining Magic 10 Match Series #6: Atsushi Aoki vs. Ka Hayashi

At Home
I wish that every Raw could end with Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena. But then they wouldn’t be quite as special, would they? These two know how to seriously tear shit up on Raw, so you know what? An annual main event between them is just fine by me. Michaels really is an amazing performer to still be getting matches like this out even at the stage of his career he’s currently at. I just wish this was enough to silence the Cena haters out there too, but I won’t get my hopes up. I can’t really make them like the guy, but hell he’s clearly on a level that surprises a lot of people.

I was not all that surprised to see Jack Swagger win the ECW Title this week. He’d have been dead in the water if they built him up to be undefeated only to lose to Matt Hardy on TV. That would have been foolishness, especially since he’s really starting to get over strongly. ECW once again proves to be the perfect platform to introduce WWE fans to new wrestlers. Now with the rematch set for the Royal Rumble, we’ll hopefully get to see Swagger win on an even bigger stage and then go on real tear as champion. With what appears to be a Tommy Dreamer retirement angle on the horizon, Swagger is in a really strong position to become the top heel on ECW. Within a year, he’ll probably be moved to Raw or Smackdown. The real question then is, does he move beyond the mid-card or can he actually get to the top of the company? The slow burn for the guy will help him out in the long run. Rather than do the undefeated streak on one of the other shows, they pulled it on ECW which gives him the chance to play the big fish in the little pond before moving on. The push is very similar to the ones given to Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley, but the difference here is that Swagger isn’t being given more than he can handle at once. If he flops as ECW champion, the hit the company takes isn’t nearly as bad as if they had pushed him to the WWE Title immediately and he sucks too much. The slow build will help him in the long run and maybe let him avoid the losing streak angle MVP just had to deal with.

Speaking of MVP, glad he finally could break the streak. It was in a pretty high profile match too and seems to be solidifying the guy as a real face. On top of it all, it wasn’t a bad match either! You want to talk about MVPs, The Big Show has been great in his latest heel run. He gotten down these last man standing matches to science as he’s now put on great performances with The Undertaker, Triple H, and now MVP. It was a bitter sweet Smackdown though, as this was the final match for Victoria. I know people will rag on this because she hasn’t done much other than be enhancement talent in the WWE for the past few years, but come on. Not only was she one fine-looking woman (to put it lightly) but she was a hell of a wrestler. You don’t often get that from the Divas, and I think the division will feel it now that she’s gone. Let’s hope that history looks kindly on her career, because she’s really earned it.

Short Takes
-I’m really glad Mickey Rourke got the Golden Globe for The Wrestler. He really turned in a hell of a performance in that movie. Now I just hope Oscar gives him the same acknowledgement.

-I’m actually not sure if I would go to Lockdown or not. I’d probably wait to see what the card was going to be before I decided anything, but going into Philly will be a pain in the ass. One of the things I liked about CHIKARA is that their Sunday shows start early and thus end early.

-I want Regal vs. Punk III to actually get some time tomorrow night. I wouldn’t have minded the finish this Monday, were it not so brief. It would have made the cheap DQ all the more dramatic.

-For once, I feel really unsure about who will win the Royal Rumble. I’m feeling Orton more than anyone else right now. So that just leaves, who holds the belts going into WrestleMania? Say they actually have JBL win the belt next Sunday. Doesn’t that make JBL vs. HBK for the title a lock? I feel that match happening anyway, but with the title on the line it would hold much more weight.

That’s it for this week. Next week we should have a full preview for NOAH’s First Navigation finale as well as updates from Dragon Gate, New Japan, and All Japan. Until next week then people! Peace!