The Navigation Log 10.25.08: KENTA and Marufuji Go the Limit and G1 Tag League

Good day, readers. So how many people have seen Saw 5 this weekend? I know I did! It’s actually become something of a tradition for me as I’ve seen all five of these movies their opening weekend no matter how terrible they get. The first two are actually quite good, but the series takes a massive nose dive at the third film. V did not disappoint in that regard. It sucked. Hard. Thus, I implore you all don’t go see Saw V unless you’re like me and just love going to terrible movies.

Onto The Navigation Log!

NOAH: And the Winner is…
The Budokan finale of the Autumn Navigation is in the books and it looks like it was a damn good show. On paper it wasn’t impressive outside of the main event, but the early reports I’m seeing in Japanese are giving the show good marks. The attendance is being reported at 12,000 which is not a bad number at all for NOAH. Sure it’s probably inflated, but the attendance had to have been pretty high if they think they could get away with a number like 12,000.

Now I noticed in the comments from last week that a few of you like to play Negative Nancy and called for KENTA vs. Marufuji to end in a draw. While I was a bit premature in saying there would be a double champion by the end of the month, at least I wasn’t out to rain on anyone’s parade. But credit is due to these people. KENTA vs. Marufuji went on last and went the full 60 minutes before it ended in a draw. Both men successfully defended their titles, yet neither lost.

So far it is hard to gauge the quality of this match as the event has yet to broadcast in Japan. I’m seeing it being on Nippon TV tomorrow night and then G+ later this week if communities on Mixi (Japanese Myspace) are to be believed. But reports are trickling in with most people calling it a great match, but few are going ahead and calling it Japan’s Match of the Year. Perhaps not even up to the same level as their 2006 encounter. But it has captivated the audience and will be debated about in great detail for weeks to come. We shall see how it turns out when the match hits the Internet, but there are some things to consider right off the bat. First, there’s the fact that these two went the full 60 minutes in a title match. That’s quite a feat in NOAH, when not many title matches will go anywhere near the full limit. Second is the attendance. Recall that in 2006 when these two main evented against each other they did not draw very well due to a poor undercard. This time they had a slightly stronger undercard with a GHC Tag Team title match on the show and did very well attendance wise. While not speaking directly to the match quality itself, it does show that these two can draw in crowds in the main event position and gives them hope for future main events.

Also on the card, Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith defended their GHC Tag Team Titles against Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio in the semi-main event. Akiyama & Rikio were the heavy favorites to win this. They held the belts last year and were just getting into a nice groove as champions before Rikio was injured and the titles had to be vacated. Akiyama & Rikio have been eager for another shot at the belts, but they came up just short against Saito & Smith. Saito actually pinned Akiyama to end the match a little over 13 minutes in to get his team their first defense. Not many people expected the champions to retain due to the fact that they have been inactive since they won the belts. Bison Smith has been all over the place except NOAH while the GHC Tag Title gathered dust. It only made sense for the belts to be moved to the very popular tandem of Akiyama & Rikio, but it was not to be. I do hope this leads to the champions defending more often because they were incredibly over when they first won the belts, yet scheduling caused them to drop off the map. Hopefully they’ll get back into the swing of things. The big question now is on Saito. He did pin Akiyama, one of the top names in NOAH. It might lead to a shot at Kensuke Sasaki’s GHC Heavyweight Championship, but we’d need something more to happen.

While Saito’s prospects at a shot at Sasaki went up, in a six-man tag between Sasaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima, & Kota Ibushi against Mitsuharu Misawa, Taiji Ishimori, & Ricky Marvin went down on the same card. Nakajima pinned Marvin, but the real story was apparently the battles between Misawa and Sasaki. Could we see these two up against each other in the future? Almost certainly, but it might come soon than later. That would probably be a match a lot of Japanese fans would love, though Misawa has shown how his age is affecting his performance on more than one occasion. Yet a match against Sasaki might be the type of thing to get Misawa to bring his A-game. We shall see…

NOAH has also announced the Mauricious Cup, which Japanese-Engrish-English skills tells me is the return of the Mauritius Cup. This took place last year as a tournament to highlight the younger generation of wrestlers in NOAH who did not often get the spotlight. It was ultimately won by Shuhei Taniguchi. Both he and the runner-up Atsushi Aoki are currently each receiving a 10 match trial series. Though Taniguchi’s is stopped due to an injury he suffered, Aoki’s is going very nicely. All NOAH’s rookies got the spotlight this year at one point or another. Genba Hirayanagi, Akihiko Ito, and Ippei Ota got chances to win here and there. Hirayanagi has been a real stand-out, developing an awesome heel persona and performing great on the SEM shows. I’m interesting in seeing this year’s field, and I expect the ranks to be filled out a bit by members of the Kensuke Office as they have become jobbers for NOAH’s rookies since they started appearing regularly. Stay tuned, I expect we’ll have a full list of participants by next week if not sooner.

New Japan: G1 Tag League
The G1 Tag League kicked off this week and is in full swing. The standings up until now look a little something like this:

Block A
-Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto: 5 points
-Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima: 4 points
-Giant Bernard & Rick Fuller: 3 points
-Wataru Inoue & Koji Kanemoto: 2 points
-Milano Collection AT & Taichi Ishikari: 2 points
-Takashi Iizuka & Tomohiro Ishii: 2 points

Block B:
-Togi Makabe & Toru Yano: 6 points
-Jado & Gedo: 6 points
-Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito: 4 points
-Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie: 2 points
-Yuji Nagata & Mitsuhide Hirasawa: 1 point
-Negro Casas & Rocky Romero: 0 points

Everyone in Block A is on the board. Nakamura & Goto have gotten off to a very strong start managing to stay undefeated until a double count out against Giant Bernard & Rick Fuller. In contrast, Tenzan & Kojima had a very rocky start as Tenzan was pinned by his rival Iizuka in the opening match of the tournament. They’re back into it though with two wins over Inoue & Kanemoto and Bernard & Fuller.

The IWGP Tag Team Champions of Togi Makabe & Toru Yano have gotten off to a commanding lead in Block B, followed by Jado & Gedo, both with 6 points each. Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito have also been working pretty damn hard and so far the new IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions are at 4 points and in second place. They even managed to get a win over the team of Yuji Nagata & Mitsuhide Hirasawa. They’ll definitely be knocking at the door, but I don’t see them winning due to them still being ranked much lower on the card than the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. It will still be interesting to see. Sadly, Negro Casa & Rocky Romero have become the jobbers for Block B and will have a hard time getting out of the cellar.

Champions’s Roster
No changes this week, but Marufuji, KENTA, and Saito & Smith all made their first title defenses.
All Japan Pro Wrestling

Triple Crown Champion: The Great Muta
-Defeated Suwama on 9/28/2008 to become the 38th champion

Next defense: 11/3/08 vs. Minoru Suzuki

All Japan Pro Wrestling Jr. Heavyweight Champion: Naomichi Marufuji (NOAH)
-Defeated Ryuji Hijikata on 9/28/2008 to become the 27th champion

-1st defense: went to a 60 minute draw with KENTA on 10/25/08

Next defense: vs. Shuji Kondo on 11/3/08

All Japan Pro Wrestling World Tag Team Champions: Taiyo Kea & Minoru Suzuki
-Defeated Keiji Muto & Joe Doering on 6/28/2008 to become the 55th champions

-1st defense: defeated Suwama & Osamu Nishimura on 8/3/08
-2nd defense: defeated Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan on 10/11/08

Next defense: TBA

New Japan Pro Wrestling

IWGP Heavyweight Champion: Keiji Muto
-Defeated Shinsuke Nakamura on 4/26/2008 to become the 48th champion

-1st Defense: defeated Manabu Nakanishi on 7/21/08
-2nd Defense: defeated Hirooki Goto on 8/31/08
-3rd Defense: defeated Togi Makabe on 9/21/08
-4th Defense: defeated Shinsuke Nakamura on 10/13/08

Next defense: TBA

IWGP Tag Team Champions: Togi Makabe & Toru Yano
-Defeated Giant Bernard & Travis Tomko on 2/17/2008 to become the 51st champions

-No contest finish against Giant Bernard & Shinsuke Nakamura on 3/9/08
-1st Defense: defeated Takashi Iizuka & Hiroyoshi Tenzan on 4/27/08
-2nd defense: defeated Giant Bernard & Rick Fuller on 7/21/08
-3rd defense: defeated Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto on 9/5/08

Next defense: TBA

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion: Low Ki
-Defeated Tiger Mask on 9/21/2008 to become the 55th champion

Next defense: TBA

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions: Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito
-Defeated Minoru & Prince Devitt on 10/13/2008 to become the 22nd champions

Next defense: TBA

Pro Wrestling NOAH

GHC Heavyweight Champion: Kensuke Sasaki
-Defeated Takeshi Morishima on 9/18/2009 to become the 13th champion

1st defense: defeated Mohammad Yone on 9/27/08

Next defense: TBA

GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions: Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith
-Defeated Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura on 5/23/2008 to become the 17th champions

-1st defense: defeated Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio on 10/25/08

GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion: KENTA
-Defeated Bryan Danielson on 10/13/2008 to become the 16th champion

-1st defense: 60 minute draw with Naomichi Marufuji on 10/25/08

Next defense: TBA

GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki
-Defeated KENTA & Taiji Ishimori on 7/13/2008 to become the 10th champions

-1st defense: defeated Yujiro & Tetsuyo Naito (New Japan) on 9/27/08

Next defense: TBA

GHC Openweight Hardcore Champion: Makoto Hashi
-Defeated Kishin Kawabata on 10/6/08 to become the 8th champion

-Next defense: TBA

Dragon Gate

Open the Dream Gate Champion: Shingo Takagi
-Defeated BxB Hulk on 7/27/08 for the vacated title to become the 9th champion

-1st defense: defeated Cyber Kong on 8/31/08
-2nd defense: defeated TAKA Michinoku on 9/28/08

-Next defense: 11/16/08 vs. Susumu Yokosuka

Open the Brave Gate Champion: Masato Yoshino
-Defeated Genki Horiguchi on 10/12/2008 to become the 10th champion

-Next defense: 11/16/08 vs. winner of K-ness vs. Dragon Kid

Open the Twin Gate Champions: YAMATO & Cyber Kong
-Defeated Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino on 10/5/2008 to become the 5th champions

-Next defense: TBA

Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fuji, & Magnitude Kishiwada
-Defeated YAMATO, Yasushi Kanda, & Gamma on 9/28/2008

-Next defense: 11/16/08 vs. Akira Tozawa, Taku Iwasa, & Kenichiro Arai

Open the Owari Gate Champion: Jackson Florida
-Gained enough fan support against K-ness and ICHIKAWA on 8/16/2008 to become the 8th champion

1st defense: fan support over Ryo Saito on 8/23/08

-Next defense: TBA

Weekly Puro
KENTA vs. Marufuji has been on everyone’s minds. There’s a lot of hope that they’ll at least be able to equal their 2006 encounter. Can they? If you haven’t seen it yet, this should give you an idea of what people are going to be comparing this weekend’s bout to. This was the Tokyo Sports Grand Prix Best Bout of 2006.

Pro Wrestling NOAH: GHC Heavyweight Title: Naomichi Marufuji vs. KENTA

At Home
Cyber Sunday is tonight folks! I always have mixed feelings about this PPV. There’s always the potential for good matches, but it doesn’t always work out. It’s the kind of gimmick that would work well on TV, but for a PPV maybe not. Filler like Santino’s match against a legend is something better suited for Raw, though I’m sure it will still be entertaining. And they can put anyone out there who isn’t Goldust for all I care. Big Show vs. The Undertaker is actually pretty clever. No matter what gets voted in as the stipulation, all the matches are essentially the same. Thus, only one finish is needed.

Then there’s this big new controversy about Vince wanting his wrestlers to now be called entertainers. While they are indeed entertainers, it does strike me as a bit unfair. No one goes into the wrestling business to be an entertainer. Maybe a sports entertainer and maybe they want to entertain fans, but it does strike me as odd that they’re stripping away the very name of what wrestlers are. I mean I know kayfaybe is pretty much dead at this point, but at least give the wrestlers this much.

Short Takes
-I missed TNA this week. This was a great week for them to do live though. For one thing a lack of spoilers kept people from knowing about the Main Event Mafia being formed that night (or give them a chance to pick apart the unit’s name). I don’t know if Foley as company head will work, since I see them trying to channel Commissioner Foley. Might be too much of a repeat.

-Vote for Jamie Noble & Mickie James vs. William Regal & Layla! Okay that’s a long shot, nevermind.

-CHIKARA’s Global Gauntlet sounds like it was an awesome event.

That’s all for this week, I really don’t have much to talk about. Keep your eyes peeled on YouTube and torrent sites for KENTA vs. Marufuji. We’ll preview All Japan’s Sumo Hall show and update the G1 Tag League. Also, GO PHILLIES. Man, that’s a long shot. But they need to win, just so people around here will shut the fuck up about this parade I hear about every time someone makes the playoffs. Okay, I’m done, peace!