The Navigation Log 4.20.08: A SHOCKING Heel Turn!

Posted by Matt Short on 04.20.2008

A light week from the Global Tag League, but hints that Takeshi Morishima will be turned into a real monster champion. Also the unit shuffle begins in Dragon Gate as a member of New Hazard makes a SHOCKING jump! Also, we're featuring a Kaientai reunion match from 2006 just to show the awesome.

So after a mild and unimpressive winter, summer is upon us. And I only say that because it's like we skipped spring and jumped right into the excessive heat phase. With its blazing heat and unending drone of air conditioning, this summer is sure to be stupid. What can I say, I hate temperatures over 85. Fall through spring is the time for me. Furthermore, talking about the weather is stupid.

So then onto the Navigation Log!

Global Tag League
It was a rather brief week for the Tag League in NOAH this week, but not uneventful. There were interesting things to note as the week went on and the standings ended in a deadlock by the end of the week.

4/13
Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura fought Bison Smith & Akitoshi Saito to a 30 minute draw. Neither team rose in the standings, but it says a lot for Smith & Saito to draw with the champs. Meanwhile in the match Takeshi Morishima & Mohammad Yone and Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa, Morishima DQed his team assaulted the ref. I haven't seen any replays of this, but my hunch is he beat down Misawa hard and tossed the ref when he was told to break. The thing is he's done this in the past and not been disqualified for it in the past. Guess this time he REALLY went over the line.

4/15
Morishima & Yone continued to slip as they drew with Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima. I wouldn't be surprised if Morishima turned on Yone after this and dissolved their team on the grounds of sucking.

4/17
Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio meanwhile kept going strong with a big win over D-Lo Brown & Buchanan. This win tied them for first with the leaders Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano.

4/19
Smith & Saito also rebounded after their draw on the 13th as they beat Akiyama & Rikio, leading to a three way tie at the top.

So after Saturday the points fall like this:

Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano: 7 points
Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio: 7 points
Bison Smith & Akitoshi Saito: 7 points
Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima: 6 points
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa: 5 points
Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura: 5 points
D-Lo Brown & Buchanan: 4 points
Takeshi Morishima & Muhammad Yone: 4 points
Akira Taue & Go Shiozaki: 3 points

Like I said, not as many matches as last week, but there was major movement in the upper end of the standings. Three teams are tied for first and while there's not as many chances for some of them to build on their leads. Meanwhile teams like Marufuji & Sugiura and Misawa & Ogawa can surge toward the finals. Expect to see Sasaki & Nakajima to get into the upper end of the brackets or at least try to take that lead over the next week.

The Morishima DQ was interesting as I can't think of the last time a NOAH match ended in a DQ. Let alone a tournament match. I see why they did it though. You have your new champion across the ring from the man he beat for that championship. That's not something you just give away and you can't have one pinning the other because then it makes the title win look unimportant. But the DQ? It just makes me think even more that they'll break up the Morishima and Yone team to let Morishima focus mainly on his title reign and turn him heel in the process. Done right, they can turn Morishima into a real monster and beating up refs is a good way to start.

Elsewhere, Global Hardcore Champion Kishin Kawabata had a successful defense against Yuto Aijima who I think comes from All Japan, but might actually be a Kensuke Office member. Either way Kawabata got his third defense in and I'll say it again: while people like focusing on the guys in NOAH who get a lot of press, Kawabata is a damn solid performer. No, he's not nearly as polished as some but he's damn fun to watch. His team with Kentaro Shiga in 2007 was great and while he might not make a name for himself as Global Hardcore Champion, he's doing something and wearing gold. Kudos for Kawabata.

Dragon Gate: War Were Declared
It's been awhile since I've had anything to mention from Dragon Gate, but events have been picking up over there.

First, Masato Yoshino's excellent Open the Brave Gate reign came to an abrupt end when he was upset by the low man on Typhoon's totem pole, Anthony W. Mori. But there's a lot more to the story than that. Yasushi Kanda intruded during the title match and cost Yoshino his title. Mori realized this and being the upstanding babyface that he is wasn't going to win the title like that. He vacated it immediately and a two day tournament has been set up to determine the next champion. It'll happen next weekend with the first round on 4/25 and the semi-finals and finals on 4/27. The opening round matches will be:

El Blazer vs. Genki Horiguchi
Gamma vs. PAC
Naoki Tanisaki vs. Super Shisa
Masato Yoshino vs. Anthony W. Mori

El Blazer competing in this should be interesting. The guy is a literal human highlight reel and can probably out flip Jack Evans and PAC any day of the week. He's also got an extensive collection of gimmicks that he employs one of which is his old Toryumon guise of Mini CIMA. There's obviously heavy interest in seeing that. We'll also get a rematch of Yoshino and Mori which should be interesting. Mori will want to prove that his win wasn't a fluke while Yoshino needs to show that his time as champ isn't over. Meanwhile Naoki Tanisaki will be out to prove that he's not back in Dragon Gate to play job boy any more.

Speaking of Tanisaki, there was a lot of suspicion that he was probably going to be drafted into a brand new stable, what with the dissention growing in all the units right now. He was expected to join up with New Hazard's resident grumpy boy YAMATO, but instead YAMATO has joined Muscle Outlaw'z. He did so following a match he had while teaming with Tanisaki which ended in a beat down from YAMATO. He turned heel a lot sooner than expected, but the break-ups most likely won't end there. Kanda, Horiguchi and Gamma have been acting super heel while Naruki Doi and Yoshino have been showing face tendencies lately. An interesting note is that two guys dressed as Dr. Muscle (MO'z mascot) appeared to save Tanisaki. Interesting, huh?

This will probably be settled by the May 5th show that features the Hair vs. Mask Six Man Cage Match. Ryo Saito has been causing trouble in Typhoon and he will challenge for the Open the Twin Gate titles with Susumu Yokosuka which could end in Saito leaving should he lose. Meanwhile Tanisaki has accepted a hardcore match with Shingo Takagi on the same night and many expect Tanisaki to join New Hazard there one way or the other. Most fans are speculating that we'll see a new faction or a shuffling of factions soon that will see YAMATO, Ryo Saito, Gamma, Genki Horiguchi, and Yasushi Kanda together. Yoshino and Doi will join up with CIMA and Dragon Kid. Yokosuka and Mori will stay with CIMA unless things go differently. Tanisaki will join with New Hazard and there's some hope that there will be room for mcK.Z. when he gets back from his Mexico excursion. Tozawa-juku will break up over the fighting between Taku Iwasa & Kenichiro Arai and Akira Tozawa & Yuki Ono. Both teams would probably become independent of other groups or join up else where. I'd imagine Iwasa & Arai would like some awesome free agents for any unit in Dragon Gate right now.

It's pretty obvious who's turning and where the factions are going to fall, but there might be some surprises. The Tanisaki/YAMATO partnership seemed inevitable yet that fell apart this past week. And for all we know that could just end up being a ruse. You can never fully guess where Dragon Gate's booking will. Sometimes its obvious, sometimes its out of left field. I could come back next week to report Dragon Kid turning heel and becoming Darkness Dragon.

Your Weekly Puro
I've mentioned in the past that I think more people should be made aware of the awesomeness that is Kaientai. So far I have not followed through… until today. This is one of the reunions the unit has done over the years

Indie Summit 2006 New Year's Eve: KAIENTAI DX Reunion
TAKA Michinoku, Men's Teioh, Dick Togo, Shiryu, & Sho Funaki vs. Assorted Japanese Indy Guys (Seriously, I only recognize KUDO and Milanito Collection a.t. Apologies)

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


At Home
Lockdown was a lot of fun last weekend. I didn't think it was the best PPV ever, but it was pretty high up there so far this year. Angle vs. Joe was perfect. I didn't mind the slow start, but then I think that's from watching a lot of puro matches where the pace is slow at the start. I'll admit, the MMA stuff was a bit weird. I mean some of those shots, thrown legitimately would knock most guys out. I remember a knee from Angle to Joe that was really nasty looking. That's the problem with using legit moves in a wrestling match. But it's also why I'm a fan of big impact strikes like lariats or hard elbows. When used right they're awesome. As finishers they're my favorite. But the thing about MMA is that it's real. If you're not careful you'll end up with… I don't know what but it won't be MMA and it won't be wrestling. Angle vs. Joe was about the best you can do mixing the two together.

As a commenter pointed out last week, the handcuff match wasn't as bad as some people thought it would be. It wasn't amazing, but it was entertaining. Again, it was about the best you could have gotten out of that situation. The Super Eric stuff though… man, the jury's still out for me. I like Eric Young, but damn, they won't let the guy show off. I don't even know how good he is because all he does is be made to look like a fool.

Short Takes
-Mike Adamle. I think the phrase is "LOL is not enough."

-I'm shocked and appalled that they didn't give Colin Delaney his big win over Mike Knox. At least at this point beating Delaney isn't a sign of some push. I guess Knox still having a job is enough of a push for the guy.

-How many times in the past during a tag team title match has a challenger had his partner walk out on him and still win the match when another partner shows up? So why does it happen that the titles are stripped from Super Eric and Kaz? Answer: the heels actually bothered to complain. That's still dumb to me.

-Mini Pump FTW.

-Congratulations to MIKAMI & Tanomusaku Toba for winning the DDT KO-D Tag Team Determination League and winning the KO-D Tag Team titles. Everyone should go find DDT matches and watch them. Go, do it now.

That's all for this week. Next week we'll have more Global Tag League and Dragon Gate coverage. And if I get time I can finally make due on my promise to cover more of New Japan and All Japan. Though the end of this semester is going to be crazy. Until then, peace!