Destiny 6.10.07: June is for Juniors
Posted by Matt Adamson on 06.10.2007
The junior heavyweights take the stage all over Japan, including the TNA X Division champion Chris Sabin.
I'm about 10 minutes away from ordering a pizza from Chicago. I live in Portland, Oregon. Does anybody think that's a little odd? I sure do. Pizza is an excellent source of the major food groups. If you get a pizza with olives, a meat of choice, a veggie of choice and pineapple (optional), you have a complete balanced meal with a whole lot of calories. Here's how it works: The meat and veggies are obviously your protein and vegetable servings while your sauce and pineapple make up your fruit. The olives are your oils and the cheese is your dairy. Your grains? Well, that would be the crust. Many pizza sauces also contain small amounts of sugars, but if you have a soda with your pizza, you are all set. How fantastic is that? I'll be eating pizza for every meal from now on, and I'll be getting all my food groups. What a way to live! It's stuff like this that makes most people think I need to be institutionalized, and probably die within the next three years, but it'll be a tasty three years.
On a serious note Pacific Northwest wrestling legend Sandy Barr passed away last week of a heart attack at his flea market in Portland, he was 69 years old. He wrestled in the 50's and 60's all around the Northwest. He was known mostly as the referee for Don Owens Portland Wrestling. He had a very unique style and was one of very few referee's the used a style that protected the baby faces and appeared smart to the fans. He was a legendary promoter as well, promoting Portland Wrestling, Championship Wrestling USA and the International Grappling Association. His sons Art and Jesse Barr had some significant success in wrestling as well. "Love Machine" Art Barr of course is best known as one half of a tag team with Eddy Guerrero that had tremendous success in the AAA promotion in Mexico. Jesse Barr had a lot of success in Championship Wrestling from Florida and appeared in the mid-80's for the WWF as Jimmy Jack Funk. Sandy Barr will be greatly missed by all fans of northwest professional wrestling.
So Far So Good!
This week I'm going to do things a little different. Instead of writing about one subject, I'm going to do a few of them, but write less on each. I'm doing this because I want to change things up, give myself a little break from the formula and cover each of the major puro companies goings on at the present. I'm writing this on Friday as I'm planning on taking my wife out to a bed and breakfast for the weekend, so things may change over the weekend a bit, but I'm still holding my ground in my predictions.
Well, it would seem as though my bold prediction of Ryusuke Taguchi winning the Best of the Super Jrs Tournament is in full swing. So far he's had two matches and won both of them. In his first match he defeated Minoru, which was an upset to say the least. So far it seems Minoru isn't fairing too terribly well in the tournament having zero points of of Friday's show. I'm excited about the performance of Wataru Inoue as he is really picking up the W's. He beat Tiger Mask on the first date in a rather short match. I would consider this a pretty significant upset, but an exciting on regardless. He also defeated Milano Collection AT, which while not an upset, is certainly an accomplishment that is needed to win the tournament. On Friday night he was awarded the forfeit win over Prince Devitt, who was injured and will be unable to finish the tournament. So far things are looking good for Wataru. Besides those two, there is only one other competitor that I'd be ecstatic to see pick up the win, and that is Milano Collection AT. While I'm sure he is a long shot, he has fared well thus far. Besides losing to Wataru Inoue, he has managed to pick up wins against Prince Devitt before he was injured, and a huge upset victory of Jushin Thunder Liger on Friday Night. I guess it's now obvious who the big Liger upset would be. This is exciting and signals a chance for AT to do well in the tournament.
Announced this week also was that Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan will happen again at the BOSJ Final at Korakuen. This is a great heavyweight match to have added to a card with such an important Juniors match. That pretty much covers it for New Japan this week.
June Is The Month For Juniors
Right after New Japan finishes up the Best of the Super Jrs Tournament, All Japan picks up right where they left off for their own juniors tournament called the Junior Heavyweight Division League. It's run similar to the BOSJ in that there are two blocks and they all face each other once during the block round. After that the winner of Block A goes against the winner of Block B in the final. The interesting this about this tournament is the lack of old veterans. The only real long time vets in this tournament are AKIRA, TAKA Michinoku and Dick Togo. This makes the question of whether a young wrestler will win the tournament or not much easier to answer than the BOSJ. Here's some brief thoughts on the competitors of this tournament which includes TNA X Division Champion Chris Sabin.
Block A - I have little doubt that this Block is going to have the best match of the block round. It's got Nakajima and Kondo, two of the most skilled in ring juniors in All Japan. I just had the chance to watch their match from earlier in the year and it was tremendous, All Japan match of the year so far, and this one has all the potential to be better.
Katsuhiko Nakajima - The All Japan Junior Champion, he has the obvious upper hand. He's really quite a good wrestler and has so much going for him as far as the future goes. If he wins this it will no doubt be a notch in his belt that will mean something down the road. I don't think he will be the guy to win it as it'll be the winner who will face him for the title at some point down the road.
Ryuji Hijikata - If anybody who you wouldn't expect is going to win it, Hijikata is that guy, but I still don't expect him to win it. He's got a future ahead of him and frankly I think that he will wind up being a major player in the tournament just by upsetting somebody that will make a huge difference in how this block plays out.
PEPE Michinoku - TAKA or PEPE as he's going by these days is hopefully in the tournament to help put guys like Konda and Nakajima over. They seem to be pretty high on the guy, but his time has come and gone and it's long been time for him to be the guy that helps elevate the younger generation. That's what I see happening here.
El NOSAWA Mendoza - I never really count on NOSAWA to make much of an impact. In fact I remain confused about what his purpose really is in these types of situations. I don't think he will play much into factoring who wins the block as hopefully he allows Nakajima and Kondo to be elevated.
Shuji Kondo - Not only is Kondo my pick to win Block A, but he's also my pick to win the entire tournament. I also want him to win it, so consider it a personal bias. He is the most talented young wrestler in All Japan and has put on the best matches over the last couple years for the company. I think a decisive win over Hijikata will be the difference maker as I'd love to see a draw with Nakajima to keep Nakajima strong.
Block B - I'm really looking forward to two matches in this block. First Hayashi vs. Togo should be fantastic as it has been in the past, and Hayashi vs. Sabin should rock the house. I'm really excited at Sabin's participation in this tournament as he is really a great worker and can have some really great matches here.
Migual Hayashi Jr. - Hayashi won it last year which was a feat of it's own. It led to his MOTY against Shuji Kondo at the 8/27 show, so I'm very pleased he won it. I'm also thinking he could be the guy to win it this year, but he's going to have to get past Togo and Sabin which will be a daunting task. If he does win and we get an eventual Nakajima vs. Hayashi match, you won't hear me complaining. It can only mean good things.
AKIRA - The veteran who is around to help elevate the younger generation is basically what I'm expecting him to be. AKIRA knows his place in the ranks of All Japan yet is still capable of putting on find wrestling matches. He might not mean much to the tournament, but he is certainly going to be spending some time on his back.
Dick Togo - His presence here makes me happy. He will certainly bring some great matches to this tournament as stated before, but I don't think we'll be able to see a Togo/Kondo final here. He will help whoever doesn't make it, miss the mark by beating them. It'll be sweet justice whoever it is.
Chris Sabin - I'm going to pick Sabin to win this Block and set up a potentially amazing match in Sabin vs. Kondo. If All Japan realizes how awesome that match could be, they are smarter than I thought. Here's to hoping this also leads to guys like Kondo and Nakajima wrestling in TNA some time down the road.
"brother" YASSHI - As usual "brother" YASSHI is the long shot. He'll probably play a huge part in it, potentially even winning it because he cheats. If he ends up facing Kondo in the final it sure will be interesting, but I wouldn't put my money on it, not with All Japan seeking a relationship with TNA.
That covers the Junior Division League Tournament, but not the tour. On the final on July 1st at Yokohama Bunka, the time has come for Mutoh to cash in his Champion Carnival win to get a Triple Crown shot against Minoru Suzuki. Will he win the Triple Crown and bring it back to All Japan? Probably, but like I stated last week, I don't think he's the right choice. I'm surprised yet pleased that they have decided to have this match at that show. It'll be a good end to the tournament and if Kondo does win the tournament, the crowd will go home happy is Mutoh wins the Triple Crown.
Northern Navigation Comes To An End
NOAH finished up its Northern Navigation last Sunday in Hokkaido. Nothing really major happened except that the junior tag title match was said to be fantastic as Kotaro Suzuki and Ricky Marvin beat Kenichiro Arai and Taku Iwasa. Pretty much anything Suzuki and Marvin touch turns to gold, and this was said to be no exception. Also on the card, Mitsuharu Misawa beat Bison Smith to retain his GHC Heavyweight title in what came as no surprise. I have a feeling that Misawa has a ways to go in this particular title reign. Another match that was said to be good was KENTA's defeat of Go Shiosaki. The match wasn't incredibly long but word has it that it was quite good.
On Thursday Night June 7th, NOAH had their Fan Appreciation Night. It featured a one night Six Man Tag Team Tournament. Some of the notable teams were: Yone/Terry/Kanemaru, Marufuji/Shiosaki/Ota, Honda/Sugiura/Taniguchi, Shiga/Kawabata/Hirayanagi and one of the best possible six man combos I've ever seen in Kotaro Suzuki, Ricky Marvin and KENTA. Can you say awesome? I sure can. Regardless of how awesome that team might have been, they couldn't even manage the finals as they were defeated by Marufuji's team, who went on to win the entire tournament. Hopefully that will help secure Marufuji as a main eventer, but thing don't ever seem to be pointing that way and it's a shame.
That's All Folks!
What? Were you expecting a new "Catching Up With Puro!"? Well, Since I covered a lot of ground this week, I'm going to save my recommendation for next week. However, if you do want to check out some fantastic wrestling, check out SHIMMER: Women Athletes. The Volume 8 DVD just came out at ROHwrestling.com and is a tremendous event featuring Del Rey vs. Martinez III. I'd also love to hear from you, please send me an email at voldegalle@yahoo.com. Until next time.
