The Navigation Log 12.07.08: Mauritius Final Results, GHC Defenses, and World’s Strongest Tag League!

Last week was something of a hiatus for the Thanksgiving weekend. A forced hiatus, actually. My family had this weird idea that the big family get-together should be two days after Thanksgiving. How this makes sense when you’ve got a holiday that is literally made for family togetherness is beyond me. But at least there was free food and drinks. So I guess it’s not all bad. But I’ve got two weeks of news to cover here, so that’s enough with reminiscing.

Onto the Navigation Log!

NOAH: Upsets and Surprises
The past couple of weeks have been fairly interesting from the Green Mat. Perhaps not earth-shattering, but interesting by themselves.

The Mauritius Cup finished up last week, with the final match of Genba Hirayanagi vs. Akihito Ito. It went on a run in his previous matches and the final point totals going the bout were Genba with 6 and Ito with 5. Ito would have to win it in order claim the Cup. I had a preference for Genba in this, and from the booking so far in the tournament I expected him to win here as well. Ito managed to overcome Genba though and became the 2008 Mauritius Cup winner. Ito was a surprise to be honest, mainly because I’ve heard so little from him throughout the year. Not saying he’s been lousy all 2008, but compared to the attention Genba has been getting from his appearances on the SEM shows, Ito has not been quite the same blip on the radar. After having all this time to digest it though, it makes sense from a booking standpoint. Genba has gotten over because of his heel character. He doesn’t need the tournament win to establish himself because he’s already garnered fans’ attention. Ito on the other hand doesn’t have the character to play off of, but the tournament win will get him over as a legit star now. It seems like strong performances in the Mauritius Cup are the key to getting a rookie push in NOAH these day. Last year it was Shuhei Taniguchi and Atsushi Aoki. Looks like Genba Hirayanagi and Akihito Ito will be the guys to watch for in 2009. Ippei Ota will perhaps remain on jobber duty until he adjusts his attitude, which is reportedly why the guy has been neglected in these pushes.

Apart from the Mauritius Cup win, we had a bevy of title matches leading into the Budokan Hall show (which will over by the time this column goes live). Naomichi Marufuji had his third defense of the All Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Title against a man who once held the belt in the past, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. I can see the nostalgia factor behind giving Kikuchi a title match, but the guy has done very little in the past couple of years. I’ve got a soft spot for the guy since I met him briefly after the first NOAH show I went to, so I’m hoping he gave a good match against Marufuji. Incidentally, Marufuji has 11 more defenses to match the record of Masanobu Fuchi for most defenses of the belt.

KENTA had a reportedly good outing in his GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title defense against Eddie Edwards. The match went almost 30 minutes, which was a surprise to some fans given that his opponent was Edwards. No one expected KENTA to lose the title here, but no one really expected the match to get as much time. If Edwards made a good enough account of himself here he could rise up the ranks in NOAH’s junior division. If he can make the same level as Ricky Marvin in the company I can see his stock rising in the US as well.

Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith may not be known the most defending GHC Heavyweight Tag Team champions of all time. Smith’s long hiatus in the middle of the year has seen to that. But the team is more than making up for it in the past couple of months. They had a big defense over Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio, where Saito pinned Akiyama and earned his main event match against Kensuke Sasaki at the Budokan Hall. Last week, Saito & Smith had yet another defense this time against another pair of former GHC Heavyweight Champions in Akira Taue & Takeshi Morishima. Taue & Morishima aren’t exactly and established team, but rather they’re one of those “super teams” with a pair of champions who by rights should give anyone a run for their money. Saito & Smith not only managed to retain, but Smith scored a huge pin fall victory over Morishima. This is probably the biggest win Smith’s gotten in a couple years in NOAH. Eyebrows can be raised as to why Morishima needed to take the fall though. Taue doesn’t exactly need to be protected at this stage of his career as he can absorb just about any loss. Morishima on the other hand needs a bit of help to get back on track since losing the GHC Title. The loss might have made more sense had it been under Saito, who NEEDS the boost heading into his title match. Smith might be considered the top foreigner in NOAH, but that’s a far cry from being a guy who can legitimately be considered a championship threat. In short, I like Smith but he’s no Vader, Dr. Death, or Stan Hansen. Could this be the start of a potential push to a title shot for him? I kind of hope so, because he’s certainly been very game in 2008. I’d like to see a well built up Smith challenging for the GHC Heavyweight Championship in 2009. He doesn’t have to win, but I’d love to see him get a better shot than he got against Misawa in 2007.

Next week we’ll run down the results from the Budokan show. The big matches to watch for will be Kensuke Sasaki’s title defense against Akitoshi Saito, the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team title bout between Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki and KENTA & Taiji Ishimori. Also there’s going to be a number one contenders match for the GHC Heavyweight title between Jun Akiyama and Takeshi Morishima. That is going to be a rematch from the semi-final match of 2007’s Determination League which Morishima won, but lost in the finals to Marufuji. Lastly, there’s a special attraction match to look out for between Misawa and Katsuhiko Nakajima. Tune in next week for the results!

All Japan: World’s Strongest Tag League
The final event of All Japan’s 2008 calendar is the Real World Tag League and it is currently in full swing. How do the standings look you may ask? Well here you go:

-Joe Doering & ZODIAC: 8 points
-Minoru Suzuki & Taiyo Kea: 8 points
-Suwama & Shuji Kondo: 7 points
-Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan: 7 points
-Keiji Muto & Ryota Hama: 6 points
-Osamu Nishimura & Kaz Hayashi: 6 points
-TARU & Hate: 4 points
-Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya: 2 points

I’ll admit to being surprised by Doering & ZODIAC. Theirs is an interesting story, as Doering took ZODIAC’s mask earlier in the year then joined VoodooMurders later on. The fact that these two have come together as such a strong team to actually lead the pack in the World’s Strongest Tag League is an interesting story to watch. Whether they finish as the winners is a tough call though. Suzuki & Kea are no surprises though and it would have been very bad for the AJPW World Tag Team Champions to not be at the top of the rankings. But this one’s not over yet. There’s one day of matches before the finals which will consist of these bouts:

-Doering & ZODIAC vs. Sanada & Soya
-Muto & Hama vs. Suwama & Kondo
-TARU & Hate vs. Suzuki & Kea
-Kojima & Tenzan vs. Nishimura & Hayashi

A VoodooMurders vs. Tokyo GURENTAI final between Doering & ZODIAC and Suzuki & Kea would be an interesting heel vs. heel bout, but I don’t see them going for that kind of thing. Suwama & Kondo are my favorites to reach the finals, but I wouldn’t count out Kojima & Tenzan. It’ll come down the wire.

The most interesting performance so far in the League has been Ryota Hama. The rookie former sumo wrestler has continued to impress audiences in his matches. His earlier losing efforts in the tournament garnered a lot of praise. From what I’ve seen of Hama he’s by no means a brilliant worker, but I’ve got to say he’s gotten people talking and that is key. This has paid off for All Japan in spades thus far.

Quick News
-Over in New Japan Hiroshi Tanahashi has gone on an impressive 8-0 run since returning to Japan. He’s been involved mostly in tag matches, but he has scored the pin in each of them. His most recent win has come one-on-one against Giant Bernard and he looks to be in a strong position for his title match against Keiji Muto in January.

-Shinsuke Nakamura has laid out a challenge to NOAH’s Mitsuharu Misawa to face him in some kind of a match at the Tokyo Dome show in Jaunary.

-Dragon Gate’s King of Gate is in full swing right now, following single elimination rules over round robin. Masaaki Mochizuki looks like a current favorite, but Taku Iwasa has promised to avenge the loss of Tozawa-juku against Mochizuki.

Weekly Puro
I was feeling like showing a really epic match here, but I’m thinking I’ll save it for next week. Instead, I’m heading to the indies with this match from DDT. This was from when Kenny Omega made a tour of DDT back during the late summer having matches with the likes of Kota Ibushi and Sanshiro Takagi. This is his final match in the company against DDT’s ace, HARASHIMA. Very flippy match, with one notably cool spot. This is a lot of fun, especially to me since I haven’t seen that much from Omega until now.

DDT: HARASHIMA vs. Kenny Omega

At Home
Final Resolution is tonight! While this isn’t exactly one of TNA’s biggest PPVs, but I do find this more interesting going into this than I have for some of their past PPVs. I credit it to sitting down and carefully watching Impact this week. The show was all about selling the PPV, whether it was the comedy promos with Beer Money and Abyss or Christie Hemme actually getting a win over Awesome Kong. The wrestling wasn’t especially strong on the program, but it all served the purpose of trying to get people to buy the PPV. Were it not for the greatness of the MEM vs. Frontline storyline, I wouldn’t be as interested. I credit it working to the great mic work by Rhino, Brother Ray, and pretty much all of the MEM. This is how I wish the New Blood vs. Millionaire’s Club feud in WCW had gone. This just flat out works, because it actually looks like it’s going to get people over. I can’t say for sure if AJ Styles is going to win the title tonight as I feel like him winning after a one-on-one match would be better, but I think were he to pin Sting it would be just as good.

The Big Show and Undertaker had a fairly decent match this Friday too. I don’t think it was the greatest cage match of all time, but it was a nice rebound from their very dull casket match at Survivor Series. It was also great to see HURRICANE Helms back on TV beyond the little pop-ups during matches. I think this is finally going to lead to a solid push for the guy into the mid-card. Helms is easily US Champion material after he gets more and more time in the ring. I liked the new moves he busted out too. He had me thinking he was even going to do the Vertabreaker when he pulled his little double-underhook neckbreaker dealie. I don’t even know what you’d call it, but it was cool at the moment.

Short Takes
-Dolph Ziggler. Crappy name, but damn he looked good this Monday. People have been saying that he made Batista look bad, but I think that selling Big Dave a little short. Batista could just as easily no sold everything Ziggler threw at him. The follow-up is going to be the key to whatever success or failure the kid is going to have, but he really shined on Monday.

-They’re killing the Beautiful People with this Sarah Palin bit. Not cool or funny.

-I was all set to go to CHIKARA’s 2008 finale next Sunday, but work scheduled me for that day out of the blue. Dammit, I really wanted a Swiss n’ Sour shirt. They’re made with love by a Swiss banker and a vintage 80’s guy.

-I can’t tell if Mike Knox is going to do well on Raw. He was improving on ECW and I kind of wonder if they should maybe have given him a try as champion on that brand before sending him to Raw. But who knows, it could work out for the best.

-I’m going further qualify my claim that Rhino was more wasted in the WWE than Matt Morgan that I made in A Brace For Impact. My feelings there are that Rhino, when used as something more than a screaming big man, can be a wrestler with a ton of depth. He’s shown it the past few weeks working with The Frontline. To me, Morgan might have the size and look, but he comes off as really generic to me. Yes, he’s better than a lot of other big men but right now he’s not in the same league as Tomko or Giant Bernard. He was screwed over with the stuttering gimmick. There was no way he could get over with that, but even now I just can’t see the guy as anything other than just another big man. He’s good, don’t get me wrong but I’m not at the point where I buy him completely as God’s gift to wrestling.

That’s it for this week. I admit, I had to cut the column short (again) in the interest of time. My schedule is going to free up considerably after next weekend so I’ll have more time to devote to writing here. Make sure to check out A Brace For Impact as well, as I join Chris Lansdell to riff on this week’s episode of Impact. Peace!