The Navigation Log 8.12.07: Countdown to NAVIGATION

Here’s the best thing about coming home after a 16 hour international flight. You have the ability to get out of anything you want. It especially works if you have been gone for a year. You can pretend that the reverse culture shock has made you unable to function any more. Driving on the right hand side of the road is just weird. These non-metric measurements are destroying my perception of reality. Having conversations actually is hard. I can never think of the right words in English.

NOAH is starting up their series of stand alone shows which will feature the Determination League bouts to crown a new number one contender to Misawa. Full cards haven’t been announced yet, but that is normal from NOAH. The main thing is going to be the tournament matches, though there have been a couple big matches signed.

The Juniors Go To War
8/31 in Hiroshima will feature a GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team match. Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin will defend against the NTV Cup winners KENTA & Taiji Ishimori. Given the reputation that Suzuki & Marvin have built for themselves as champions and KENTA & Ishimori putting on a hell of a performance during the NTV Cup expectations are high for this match. These two teams went to a 30 minute draw when they met during the tournament, but they’ll have a full 60 minutes here.
I can see a title change here. KENTA & Ishimori have proven themselves, especially given how their final match against Marufuji and Ibushi went last month. They’re a major threat to the titles, make no mistake. But as stated before, the champs have built quite a reputation and have had a great string of title defenses. They won the belts in what I easily think is NOAH’s MOTY so far against The Briscoes and have had great defenses against Ishimori & Rocky Romero and teams from Dragon Gate. Though they fell short in the NTV Cup they looked good as they drew in another good match with The Briscoes.

So yes, they’ve got a lot to live up to but these two teams can pull it off. It’s amazing that since The Briscoes won the titles from Takeshi Sugiura & Yoshinobu Kanemura in January they have meaning again. The Jr. Heavyweight tag division really has become one of NOAH’s best attractions I think.

NOAH vs. MUGA
It has also been announced that the 9/9 Budokan Hall show will feature a special attraction tag team match pitting NOAH’s Mitsuhara Misawa and Go Shiozaki against Tatsumi Fujinami and Osamu Nishimura representing MUGA World Pro Wrestling. This is pretty damn awesome I have to say. Fujinami is a well traveled veteran and is credited for inventing the Dragon Sleeper and Dragon Suplex. He’s a legend and while in his 50’s his name still carries a lot of respect. Nishimura is another great veteran who has appeared in America in recent years. He worked a few dates for Chikara and was recently involved with NWA’s Heavyweight title tournament.

This is a big time match and I would guess is going to get a lot of press in Japan. They’re going to give an interesting old school style match I’d imagine. There’s a lot of experience in this match with the youngest guy being Shiozaki. I think it’s great that he’s being given this chance to be in the ring with a legend and it shows that they trust him in a high profile match. Well, more likely they trust him to job in a high profile match but still he’s there. Hell, even Misawa might be motivated enough for this match.

And One For The Rumor Mill
There are many interesting rumors out there about many things. But I’ll take this one and run with it because I’ve seen it a few times. Could the GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuhara Misawa be coming to America? The word on the underground is that there’s a chance that Misawa could make an appearance in ROH to defend his title. If this is true, it will be great for ROH for obvious reasons. They will be getting THE man of NOAH to appear for them which will easily generate that kind of atmosphere they had for Joe vs. Kobashi.

I only wonder though who they would have face Misawa for the title if this were to happen. The two best candidates are Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuiness. Both have been heavily involved with NOAH in the past and are two of the top guys of ROH. I would pick Danielson for it mainly because he’s become the face of ROH and a singles match between him and Misawa would draw. The only issue that I would have with this possible match is that if Misawa were to perform as he’s been doing lately in his title defenses, it really wouldn’t do anyone any good. On the other hand if he put the effort into the match it really would be something amazing to see and would defiantly be a crowd pleaser.

So Misawa to the US? If he’s willing to bring his working boot they can job the entire roster to him since there’s no way he’d lose here. I’d love to see him in a ROH ring in the States.

At Home
I’m enjoying the rumor mill as of late. Which works fine since the shows didn’t keep my interest like they did last week. I think the loss of the X-Division is probably the most interesting and if true the worse one out there. I know TNA hasn’t given a damn about it, but the X-Division has served the company well over the years and to just cut it away and leave a lot of their smaller and most loyal employees high and dry would be terrible. That said, I really don’t think that it’s very likely to happen for the reasons I just gave. Though with other rumors about TNA having a second hour of television the X Title will probably not be seen on TV as much. The reason being they will probably roll out a mid-card title which would be great for all the company’s mid-card guys who get stuck doing months on end of feud that have no point or logical reason to continue.

Then there’s the Lashley rumor that has him acting the way Brock Lesnar did toward the end of his run. Poor guy, as if people already didn’t compare the two. Hell, they even use the same pyro. It’s funny how these things pan out. It’s like enough people on the IWC chanted this and it actually happened. I would like to see Lashley turn this around though. I have been vocal in the past about my dislike for him and the push he’s received, but he does have potential. It was a mistake to make him ECW champion and move him to Raw. It was a mistake to give him such a push when he really wasn’t ready. He should have spent some more time on Smackdown I think. The biggest mistake was moving him to ECW because he didn’t really improve there and killed the main event scene for the guys who had been on the show already.

And this isn’t really a rumor, but Umaga as a full blown face doesn’t really work for me. I’d like the guy better if he just went around and beat the crap out of everyone. Though the writing was on the wall when he squashed Santito two weeks ago and he got a huge pop for it.

Last rumor is my favorite, but I also hate it. That’s the Project 161 issue in ROH. I think the odds are good that it’s a work. It’s far too elaborate not to be I think and is getting a lot of people talking about it. But I just have to say, I hate campaigns like this. It’s part of why I can’t stand Lost, you have endless episodes where nothing really gets solved and makes people act like idiots when talking about it. The same can be said for Cloverfield, the movie that no one knows what it going on, but looks really cool. If you just took the trailer for that movie and showed nothing else it would generate more than enough interest. Instead they have all these hidden websites with clues that don’t really say anything. Thus, it shall ultimately lead to disappointment when the revelation in the movie doesn’t live up to expectations. If ROH is doing that I hope whatever they have planned works out, otherwise it will be a letdown. And if it’s not a work? Some group of people have waaaay too much time on their hands.

Short Takes
-MVP’s promo on Smackdown was amazing. That’s an example of playing off real life events perfectly.

-While the House of Fun match made no sense, I did enjoy it a lot. It didn’t get boring and James Storm was amazing with the nunchucks. But they need to have more Storm vs. Harris too, because that trash can lid spot is just great.

-I was hoping to be at Death Before Dishonor Night 2 on Saturday, but plans had to change. I’d love to see Quack vs. Danielson but I’ll just wait for the DVD.

-Jesse and Festus. Well, there have been worse gimmicks I think. I can’t think of any right now, but they’re there.

-William Regal is god-like as Raw GM. Long may he reign.

We’re done for this week. I cannot wait until my computer gets fixed because this keyboard hurts my wrists. The Determination League will be in full swing next week and I’ll have the results from the first matches. Peace!