The Navigation Log 2.08.09: Hayashi vs. Marufuji, Minoru to All Japan, and a New Japan Sumo Hall Preview

Good day, humanity. It is time once again to delve into the world of Japanese professional wrestling and see just what there is to see out there beyond the realm of the US based promotions. Though I’ve started to see the catch with the plan I developed about a year and a half ago: what do you do when very little happens during the week? I had that problem this week… until we had a whole lot of news break at the end of the week. Which is pretty much what I live for, aside from all the stuff that doesn’t have to do with Japanese wrestling.

Onto the Navigation Log!

All Japan: Hayashi vs. Marufuji
Possibly one of the most closely watched stories going into 2009 was how far NOAH’s Naomichi Marufuji was going to make it as All Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion. He seemed off to a strong start in 2008, going to his 60 minute draw with KENTA in the NOAH ring and then having his match of the year against Shuji Kondo in All Japan. His third defense came against NOSAWA Rongai, which was to be honest a step down in opponents, but it did main event Marufuji’s self-produced show.

The competition was to be raised considerably for his fourth defense though as he was going to be facing Kaz Hayashi. Hayashi was considered one of the top juniors in All Japan, so the match was highly anticipated given the level of the wrestlers involved in the match. Truthfully, I expected another Marufuji victory here as it seemed like they were going to give him a serious run with the title as he had expressed a desire to actually surpass the record of 14 successful defenses. I didn’t think he’d actually beat it, as he is an outsider but I expected him to at least get within striking distance of his goal and really solidify his place as one of Japan’s top junior wrestlers.

The contest has happened, these two clashed, and we have a new champion. Hayashi managed to up-end Marufuji and position himself firmly as All Japan’s ace junior. Many congratulations to Kaz Hayashi for this huge win and he certainly deserves it as he is pretty fucking awesome.

However, news like this often comes in waves all at once. On the very same show, former New Japan standout Minoru made his debut as a member of the VoodooMurders faction with a win over former All Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Ryuji Hijikata in a tag match. No sooner did Hayashi win the belt from Marufuji, Minoru made his presence known to the new champion and laid out his own challenge for the belt. Earlier he had essentially called All Japan’s juniors bottom of the barrel fighters and made it known that he was going to dominate Hayashi and claim the belt for himself. From the looks of things, the title match is set for the March Sumo Hall show and that should end up being a tremendous match.

The only thing I’m not clear on with this is Minoru’s status within All Japan. There was speculation that when he left New Japan he was going to go freelance and thus might appear in NOAH and All Japan. This appearance gave the impression that he’s signed with All Japan from where I’m sitting. He’s an official member of VM and he’s immediately made a play for the Jr. Heavyweight Title. I’m almost certainly reading too much into this. Yoshihiro Takayama is freelance in All Japan, yet is also a member of Tokyo GURENTAI and seems to be looking at a Triple Crown Championship match with The Great Muta. Thus, I’m willing to believe that Minoru won’t be successful in his attempt at the title unless he’s contracted to All Japan. The belt was already held up by an outsider and I don’t see much value in having the title go from Marufuji to Hayashi and then to Minoru. Unless Minoru is going to be spending a lot of time in All Japan, I don’t see him winning. That isn’t going to stop the match from being amazing though.

New Japan: Full Card for Next Weekend
We’ve finally got the full card for next weekend’s big Sumo Hall show, which will heavily feature TNA stars:

-Special Tag Match: Mitsuhide Hirasawa & Nobuo Yoshihashi vs. OKUMURA & Kazuchika Okada
Let’s break it down a bit. Special Tag Match: non-factor. It’s essentially a dark match and while it might be entertaining, means little in the overall scheme of things.

-IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title #1 Contender 4WAY Tag: NO LIMIT vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt vs. Jado & Gedo vs. Milano Collection AT & Taichi Ishikari
The Four Way Tag Team match should prove to be a spectacular spotfest, judging from the position on the card. Much like TNA likes to use big multiple man X-Division matches to get the crowd going on their PPVs, I feel like New Japan will be doing something similar here. The winner of this match will be the first opponents for the Motor City Machine Guns and get to challenge for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles. This may end up having serious implications for future editions of Impact as the winners will likely get a trip to Orlando for their title match. I really like NO LIMIT’s chances of winning this and I think they would do well in the Impact Zone. On the other hand, Jado & Gedo are one of the most decorated junior heavyweight tag teams in New Japan and I can already hear Mike Tenay singing their praises in my head. There’s a disturbing thought… but that aside, they almost certainly wouldn’t win the belts from The MCMG. Then there’s Milano Collection A.T. and Taichi Ishikari. They’re not the most terribly successful team, but they do have a lot of experience. Milano has experience in TNA and in my opinion (along with several others) needs a push from New Japan. Because he’s awesome.

-Riki Choshu, Manabu Nakanishi, Wataru Inoue & Koji Kanemoto vs. Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii, Karl Anderson & Tomoaki Honma
The next match is basically just a big tag match between the New Japan faces against GBH. It could lead to some new feuds and could potentially be fun, but it doesn’t mean much in the long run. Keep an eye on it though, just in case

-Special Tag Match – NJPW vs. TNA Augmented Reality: Masahiro Chono & AKIRA vs. Beer Money Inc.
Beer Money Inc.’s debut match in New Japan looks to be an entertaining bout. They’re taking on the legendary Masahiro Chono and AKIRA, which is a tall order for a first time match in another company. Chono is obviously not the wrestler he once was, but his name still carries a lot of respect in Japan. AKIRA can still go, so expect him to carry most of the work for his team. Regardless, I see this one going to Beer Money. Just because AKIRA is a guy that can take a pin and still be fine, while Roode & Storm can claim they beat a certifiable legend in Chono.

-IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tiger Mask (c) vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
I’m extremely biased in wanted Liger to win this. First, it’s freaking Liger. Liger is awesome, even if he’s slowed down a bit as his career has gone into its 20th year. Still, the man has faithfully served New Japan for years, and while he is the most decorated junior competitor in the company, hasn’t held theIWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title for several years now. It would be a great reward for his 20th Anniversary and to be honest, it would be a step up from Tiger Mask, who kind of bores me right now.

-Special Singles Match – Burn the Debt: Yuji Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto
The Nagata vs. Goto rivalry is brought back to the fore-front. Goto almost needs this win. He’s a guy who has done just about everything he can do in New Japan, except win the IWGP Heavyweight Title. He’s viewed Nagata as that one final wall that he needs to overcome in order to permanently cement himself in the upper echelon of New Japan. It’s very single-minded of Goto, but he’s got the right idea. Nagata is a true legend in New Japan and if you have an opponent as highly regarded as Nagata as your goal to beat, then you’re going to need to do it. Can’t be IWGP Heavyweight Champion without beating Mr. IWGP after all.

-CMLL World Welterweight Title – Lucha Libre Globalization: Mistico (c) vs. Mephisto
I’m very glad to see Mistico back in New Japan. And this time he’s defending his CMLL World Welterweight Title against one of his biggest rivals in Mephisto. It will be very interesting to see how the luchadores will be received in this one-on-one contest. NOAH has had some pretty successful Mexican showcases with AAA, but this type of one-one-one match will be something completely different for the New Japan crowd. I’m hardly a buff on lucha, but I know enough to recognize that Mistico vs. Mephisto will be quality.

-Special Singles Match – Wrestle-incident DIE OR BREED: Giant Bernard vs. Kurt Angle
I usually enjoy the names that New Japan gives to their special matches like this. Let me break this one down for a bit. “Wrestle-incident” makes sense. This match stems from an “incident” following a “wrestling match.” So we have Bernard vs. Angle. The “DIE OR BREED” part… I guess the winner is going to get to impregnate lots and lots of women. Or something. It’s things like this that make me want to submit my resume to Japanese companies and offer to be their English editor (NOAH’s English site is the bane of my existence). I don’t see Bernard winning this one as he’s almost been raised in New Japan to be a monster to take falls in the big matches like this. But he didn’t get that spot by not being good at what he does. I hold out hope that we’ll get to see Giant Bernard in TNA someday. Who knows, this match could be a catalyst for such an event.

-IWGP Tag Team Title – Hardcore Rules: Team 3D(c) vs. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano
The hardcore rules should hopefully go a long way in hiding some of Team 3D’s deficiencies. But like most aging veterans, they still know how to bring the goods in a big match, especially when there’s a gimmick involved. I would love to see Makabe & Yano get the belts back here as it feels like there’s very little upside to an extended run by them. Since the belts are basically being kept warm for when Hiroyoshi Tenzan gets back from injury, I’d like the titles to go back to Makabe & Yano just to get their showdown with Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima.

-IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
The biggest rivalry in New Japan today is revisted as Tanahashi and Nakamura do battle one more time. This bout has happened plenty of times in the past, but that’s only because it’s always a strong match. These two young aces are good at what they do and we should expect the very best from both of them. I don’t see Tanahashi losing the IWGP Heavyweight Title just yet as he just won it in grand fashion over Keiji Muto.

Quick News
-Roderick Strong is going to be making his debut in NOAH over the coming tour. I’m kind of surprised it’s taken him this long to debut, but after his bouts over the past year against Kensuke Sasaki it was inevitable.

-Also over the coming tour, Go Shiozaki will get a crack at Bison Smith, making it his biggest singles match of the year. A win here would skyrocket him up the card.

-All Japan had open tryouts to scout new talent. 19 tried out, only two were selected. They were Takumi Soya, brother of current All Japan wrestler Manabu Soya, and Takufumi Hatchi. Soya has a background in judo and karate and expressed a desire to team with his brother in the future. Hatchi has amateur wrestling experience and wants to become a player in the heavyweight division.

-Big title match in Dragon Gate coming up, as Taku Iwasa will challenge Naruki Doi for the Open the Dream Gate title. I’ll have the fallout from that show next week, and will even attempt to get caught up on who is in what stable. Because it’s really confusing right now.

The Weekly Puro
The Weekly Puro is… suspended for this week. I didn’t have time to pick out anything really fun for this week’s column. It’ll be back next week, hopefully with Hayashi vs. Marufuji, which I REALLY want to see.

At Home
TNA’s Against All Odds is tonight! Glad to see that they have finally come out and said that some of their PPVs are going to be less important than others. It doesn’t inspire confidence in the quality of some shows. Who’s going to buy a show when they know that it’s not going to be good as another one. But in a way it makes a lot of sense. If they limit their big shows, it gives them more time to build toward them, while trying new things in between. Say for example that Ray or Devon were to actually win the TNA World Title tonight. Say for some reason this idea flops. Rather than risk one of their big PPVs getting slammed for a bad ending, they can use it as a buffer to build for bigger things. Of course, this is almost like preparing to fail the way I explained it. Truthfully, it’s the kind of thing that works for smaller companies or foreign promotions in Japan.

WWE had an alright week. Raw was an alright show, with some cool advancement of Orton vs. The McMahons and a surprisingly good tag match between Mysterio & Kingston vs. Kane & Knox. Mike Knox in particular continues to be surprising and I think that if the WWE were to actually stay with him, he’d have a lot of upside for the company. His booking is really going to have to stay consistent. Also Ric Flair’s coming back next week. Again. I actually recall a conversation I had with Larry Csonka on the old podcast regarding the first time Flair made his Raw return where since they blew it unannounced the first time, the second time wouldn’t have the same impact. I kind of feel like that’s what’s happened here. Flair is almost sure to get the biggest pop tomorrow night, but after his prior appearances I find myself feeling very meh about the whole thing. But I will say that its very likely that he’ll probably set a very high standard for promos for the rest of the year. Not bad for one night’s work.

Short Takes
-I really dug the segments with Akira Raijin aka Kiyoshi this week on Impact. Very rarely do foreigners like him get a chance to tell their story in the US and it was cool to hear it in his own words. Hearing Sting talk about The Great Muta was cool too.

-Swagger vs. Finlay should be a damn fine match for No Way Out if their previous encounters have been any indication.

-I kind of wish the Intercontinental Title was going to be defended at the PPV though. It doesn’t help raise its prestige if it’s not being defended on PPV. But there’s a week left, maybe it will make the show.

-Brutus Magnus’ debut was probably one of the blandest things I’ve seen. Maybe against a stronger opponent he’ll look better, but a lot of his offense looked lazy. And then when he hit Tormentum… well I was expecting a lot more after hearing it talked up. His promo afterwards was really good though.

That’s it for this week folks. Tune in next week for more coverage of wrestling from everyone’s favorite Asian nation! Unless you’re a big fan of Korea, in which case rock on. Peace!