The Navigation Log 2.17.08: First Navigation II: The Second Navigation

I don’t often get many comments on my columns. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing really. Considering what they’re like on more high traffic columns I guess it could be a good thing and I have mostly gotten positive comments. But I’m going to point out one in particular from last week:

I love this column. Please don’t stop. This is THE source for Japanese/Puro wrestling and I would truly hate to see it leave.

This was from Zeke. I’d like to thank him for the positive outlook on this column and assure him that it is going nowhere (provided of course my schedule remains open to write it. But this brings up something I was mentioning before, that being my own ego. It shouldn’t be inflated any more than it already is. But before anyone accuses me of complaining about getting compliments, I am joking and you may all go on worshipping me. Go on.

Onto the Navigation Log!

NOAH Korakuen Hall Results
The Second Navigation opened up on Friday and seems to have been fairly uneventful.

In the Global Hardcore Championship match Kishin Kawabata squeaked by in his defense against Mitsuo Momota. A 10 minute time limit had been placed on this match, and if Kawabata couldn’t win before time ran out then belt would change hands. I predicted that Momota, despite his age, would be able to pull out the win just on the factor of his experience. The match ended at 9.28 so that should tell you how close it was. Kawabata could have a decent size run with the title, though it’s nearly impossible to predict that sort of thing especially with the Hardcore Championship. This is the belt that began as Jun Akiyama’s personal title where if a larger man couldn’t beat a smaller opponent in the time limit he would lose it. Then it became a tag title belt for most of 2007 and now it’s back to a singles title. For all we know by next month it could be decreed that the title only defended in triple threat matches.

The 10 match trial series for Atsushi Aoki and Shuhei Taniguchi continued as well, with both rookies taking losses. Aoki went 18 minutes with KENTA, which is a reasonably strong showing. For Aoki to be able to hang with someone who had been pushed as hard as KENTA has been looks very good on his part. Taniguchi faired much worse in his bout against Takeshi Morishima as the former ROH Champion squashed the poor kid in 5 minutes. I do however feel vindicated in this as I predicted that it was going to happen something like that would happen as Morishima is heading to a showdown with Misawa at the end of the tour. You definitely see the difference in how these two different guys are being booked though. Aoki is being groomed for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight division and could possibly holding gold as a tag or singles champion by the end of 2008 or the start of 2009. Hence his second match win over Davey Richards. Taniguchi on the other hand is a more pure heavyweight and thus they’ll build him much slower. With Shiozaki heading to America and probably bigger things, Taniguchi could fill the void as talented heavyweight who gets beaten every time out until they decide to push him. And incidentally, Shiozaki won his match on Friday. Granted it was over another rookie, but there you go, upward mobility on the card. Good for him!

The last noteworthy point from the show was the Kings of Wrestling Japanese Reunion. Unfortunately for all you KoW fans out there, it kind of fell short. Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli (in his NOAH debut) were defeated by Jun Akiyama and Kentaro Shiga. I’m somewhat disappointed by this loss as KoW has a much bigger match against Akiyama and the returning Takeshi Rikio at the tour’s Budokan finale. I figured that with Shiga in the mix it would a great way to put the visiting team over as a legit threat to Akiyama and Rikio at the end, but it was not to be. It was even more shocking that Shiga got the win in the match. Does this make the Kings appear weak heading into their future match? Sure, but when you think about kayfabe in the US these two haven’t willingly teamed together since early 2007 (ROH) and Claudio has been forced into working with the entire Kings of Wrestling stable in Chikara. So they don’t really get along much these days. There may yet be redemption for the Kings though. At the 2/25 SEM show, the Kings will join forces again to take on Shuhei Taniguchi & Naomichi Marufuji before the team’s Budokan Hall debut. So perhaps there will be a chance for them to gain some extra momentum heading into the match with Akiyama & Rikio.

Dragon Gate Gets Fat
As if the strife in the Muscle Outlaw’z and New Hazard wasn’t enough, Tozawa-juku seems to be heading for a meltdown as well. In the past year Taku Iwasa & Kenichiro Arai have really set themselves apart from the rest of the stable as its top tier amassing an impressive amount of wins in 2007, the IJ Tag Titles, and now the Open the Twin Gate titles. Young Iwasa and the cagey veteran Arai have far outclassed their stable mates, but the “school’s” namesake Akira Tozawa and Yuki “Katsuo” Ono have also been making strides. Wide, husky… okay they’ve apparently been just getting fat. Katsuo and Tozawa have been packing on the pounds in recent months to the point where Katsuo has been eating MO’z protein powder. The two have turned a negative into a positive and though they remain in Tozawa-juku have renamed themselves the Metabolic Brothers. Of course these shenanigans aren’t sitting well with AraIwa who have worked pretty damn hard to gain Tozawa-juku some much needed respect in Dragon Gate. This has lead to fighting and now the Metabolic Brothers have issued a challenge for the Open the Twin Gate belts. This should prove interesting and we’ll likely see the champions put the upstarts in their place.

Elsewhere in Dragon Gate, DR NEX trainee m.c.KZ is preparing for a learning excursion to Mexico. He recently won a Dragon Gate NEX tournament to receive this honor and the main roster is giving him a proper send off by killing him in the ring. Thus far he has faced Masaaki Mochizuki and Shingo Takagi, taking two losses along the way. I haven’t heard where in Mexico he’ll be going (I’m unfamiliar with lucha libre companies as it is) but the learning trip should do him well. He’s *this* close to joining with New Hazard and from what I understand Shingo was scouting both KZ and Lupin Matsutani a few months ago. Good luck to m.c.KZ while he’s in Mexico.

Your Weekly Puro
Wow, I’m not horribly behind this week so I’ve got time to post a match. This week we’re returning to DDT from 2007 in a match for the DDT Extreme Title against Muscle Sakai and the dastardly NOSAWA Rongai. The stipulation for this match is what makes it a classic: these two are facing each other in a Silence Match. The rules are simple. The first to make three loud noises will lose the match. What makes this gimmick match so awesome is the fact that everyone gets into it: the ref, the crowd, and the announcers. When you have the audience shushing the wrestlers, you know you’ve gotten a gimmick match over.

DDT Extreme Championship Silence Match: NOSAWA Rongai © vs. Muscle Sakai

At Home
I dislike being at school for the fact that I have no time to watch wrestling on TV. I say this just about every week, but it’s almost unavoidable. But what happened this week anyway? Let’s see…

In the WWE Stephanie McMahon got pregnant! No doubt Triple H is trying to sire a male heir to his throne as the King of Kings. Think about the next generation stars we’ve got now for a second. Teddy Hart is a raging douchebag. Ted DiBiase Jr. just got pulled over for a DUI. Randy Orton poops in gym bags. Cody Rhodes is… well he’s okay I guess. What the hell are Triple H’s kids going to be like when they’re old enough to get into the business? A Hunter Jr. possibly doing X while manipulating backstage politics? For some reason I just imagine some deflated version of Triple H only with more tattoos and sunken eyes. Like someone’s horrible Create-a-Wrestler in the old Nintendo 64 War Zone games.

TNA seems to have gotten less offensive, though it’s kind of hard to be worse then the Rat on a Poll match. Somehow the presence of Tiger Mask and Curry Man make everything better. I will however say that the arrival of Curry Man is both a blessing and a curse for me. While I love the awesomeness of Curry Man he is more of a taunt that there’s no good place for curry rice anywhere in America. Trust me when I say you don’t know heaven until you’ve eaten curry with fried oysters and cheese.

Short Takes
-XPW is apparently running a reunion show featuring a Gangstas Reunion. So they found Mustafa? Where? Who the hell felt this was necessary? Fuck you XPW.

-I’m so stoked for King of Trios I might have to preempt next week’s Navigation Log to do a full preview of it.

-I should watch more lucha libre. I keep seeing clips from AAA and CMLL and I think “Uh where can I get this whole match?” Then I end up not doing it. J.D. Dunn’s AAA recaps aren’t making this any easier.

-I enjoy actually having time this week. I’m happier overall with quality of this week’s column than say the ones from the past couple of weeks.

-Mozzarella sticks are fucking awesome.

That’s all for this week folks. I’ll be back next week with more of the same. Peace!