The Navigation Log 5.18.08: Much Like Prom Night Major Dissapointment
Posted by Jarrod Westerfeld on 05.18.2008
Matt Short gets drunk in front of a camera and commits acts that if Ashley had to do would cause her to raise her asking price. This aint your momas typical Navigation Log.
So Matt Short is off graduating and getting drunk while laying with, as Bayani calls it, some Asian bitches, doing unspeakable things that would leave even John Waters looking for a toilet to hunch over and vomit into. Freaking FAB-U-LOUS!
So while Matt's off decapitating baby kittens with his DANGEROUS~ nipple tassels, I'll be filling in your regular Puro needs with this very special edition of The Navigation Log.
But before Matt left for the week to enjoy his new found success, he sent me a PM of stuff to write up about and look into, and while I'll try and get around to most of it later on, the thing I'm going to focus on is most of the NJPW news I could find see Short, NJPW isn't completely dead yet.
If you want to discuss puro happenings from the week your best bets are going to be:
The start of the Northern Navigation in NOAH. They just started it yesterday with Bryan Danielson beating Atsushi Aoki in his latest trial series match and Nigel MicGuinness defending the ROH Title against KENTA and BJ Whitmer. By tomorrow morning the results from the next show will be in which is going to include a GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title defense between Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Magnitude Kishiwada.
Dragon Gate also had a huge faction shift. Shingo and Cyber Kong turned on BxB Hulk and united with the rest of the Muscle Outlaw'z to for a new unit called Real Hazard. Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Hulk, and Naoki Tanisaki are forming their own new unit with no name yet. They're also planning to add m.c.KZ when he returns.
There's also the Best of Super Juniors which could use some discussion, but that would take a hell of a lot of research in a short amount of time. I really don't care what you write about to be honest. You can shit on Antonio Inoki for 1500 words if you wanted to.
I really appreciate this and with school being done it opens up more free time for me, so if you ever need someone to cover, let me know.
Unfortunately, my source for NOAH news has been dead for 3 years, and I'm just now hearing about this. I was about to cry before I realized that if I didn't care to check that site often enough to know it's been officially dead for 3 years, then yeah, I have no right to shed any tears.
Dragon Gate news I can get around, if I'm lucky. Let's hope I'm lucky, though I'm sure JD Dunn will assure to that I won't get lucky anytime this lifetime. Damned line. *Grabs another Snickers.*
Now everyone get ready to
New Japan Pro Wrestling
Still slightly more relevant than TNA we think.
Things over in New Japan continue to roll along as the results for their May 15th and 16th shows are in along with the upcoming cards of their future shows leading into mid June are announced. Even bigger is the Super Jr. tour matches are announced thus far and it all looks rather interesting, but in case you've forgotten who's participating in this tour, or who is in what block, here's your refresher course.
Best of the Super Jr. XV
Block A
Block B
Wataru Inoue: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion (7th Participation) Jushin Thunder Liger: IWGP Jr. Tag Team Champion (16th Participation) Minoru:
2006 winner (9th Participation) Ryusuke Taguchi:
(5th Participation) Yujiro:
(2nd Participation) Tatsuhito Takaiwa: 2000 winner (6th Participation)
Yuji Nagata, ManabuNakanishi & Tiger Mask
Vs.
Shinsuke Nakamura, Hirooki Goto & Jimmy Rave
Best of the Super Jr. Block B:
Koji Kanemoto
Vs.
Prince Devitt
Best of the Super Jr. Block A:
Yujiro
Vs.
Minoru
Best of the Super Jr. Block A:
Ryusuke Taguchi
Vs.
Jushin Thunder Liger
NJPW, 6.15.08 (WPW)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Best of the Super Jr. Semi Final:
Block A 1st Place
Vs.
Block B 2nd Place
Best of the Super Jr. Semi Final:
Block B 1st Place
Vs.
Block A 2nd Place
Best of the Super Jr. Final
That's a long list of stuff to look forward to, and we haven't even touched up on the current Zepp shows results and the upcoming Zepp Sendai show (5.20.08). But after recapping some of that stuff, I do have one question, and it probably could be answered if I went about researching this before posting this column, but why is Tiger Mask, the perennial face of the wrestling industry, teaming up with heels on the 6.6.08 show? Isn't Black Tiger the guy you utilize in the heel role considering that's what his character is all about, being the antagonist to Tiger Mask the very entity that represents all of the negatives of the virtuous hero? Oh well, whatever. Let's look to what NJPW has in store for us on May 20th.
Zepp Osaka 5.15.08 Poster
NJPW, 5.20.08 (SXW): Zepp Sendai
Taichi Ishikari vs. Minoru
NO LIMIT GENERATION SMASH.3:
Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito vs. Wataru Inoue & Koji Kanemoto
Kazuchika Okada IMPOSSIBLE SMASH.3:
Kazuchika Okada vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
Shinsuke Nakamura, Hirooki Goto & Milano Collection AT vs. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Tomoaki Honma
SENDAI GRAND CROS ~WADACHI~:
Masahiro Chono, Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA vs. Shinjiro Otani , Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ikuto Hidaka
We'll end up all talk about NJPW this week with results from the 5.15 and 5.16 shows.
NJPW, 5.15.08 Zepp Osaka: 450 Fans
Wataru Inoue & Koji Kanemoto beat Ryusuke Taguchi & Mitsuhide Hirasawa (13:17) when Inoue used a cross armbreaker on Hirasawa.
Shiro Koshinaka & Super Strong Machine beat Tomohiro Ishii & Tomoaki Honma (10:01) when Machine used a Devil Windmill suplex hold on Honma.
Kazuchika Okada IMPOSSIBLE SMASH.1: Hirooki Goto beat Kazuchika Okada (8:59) with a single-leg crab hold.
NO LIMIT GENERATION SMASH.1: Jado & Gedo beat Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito (14:30) when Jado used the Crossface of JADO on Naito.
Shinsuke Nakamura, Milano Collection AT & Minoru beat Manabu Nakanishi, Tiger Mask & Taichi Ishikari (16:44) when Nakamura used the Landslide on Ishikari.
Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka & Karl Anderson beat Riki Choshu, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA (11:11) when Iizuka used a Jigoku Tsuki on Liger.
Courtesy of Puroresufan.com
NJPW, 5.16.08 Zepp Nagoya: 550 Fans - No Vacancy
Ryusuke Taguchi beat Taichi Ishikari (11:13) with the Dodon.
Shiro Koshinaka, Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA beat Tomohiro Ishii, Tomoaki Honma & Karl Anderson (8:30) when Koshinaka used a diving hip attack on Anderson. Kazuchika Okada IMPOSSIBLE SMASH.2: Shinsuke Nakamura beat Kazuchika Okada (7:57) with a front neck lock.
NO LIMIT GENERATION SMASH.2: Togi Makabe & Toru Yano beat Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito (14:25) when Yano used the Oni Koroshi on Naito.
Takashi Iizuka, Jado & Gedo beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Wataru Inoue & Koji Kanemoto (9:26) when Iizuka used a sleeper hold on Inoue.
Riki Choshu, Manabu Nakanishi & Tiger Mask beat Hirooki Goto, Milano Collection AT & Minoru (10:59) when Nakanishi used an Argentine backbreaker on Minoru.
Courtesy of Puroresufan.com
Oh, and one other thing before I move on Milano Collection AT and Taichi Ishikari will be heading over to TNA to participate in the World X Cup. Their matches are pending, but the purpose of both men is simple: Milano wishes to avenge his loss at the hands of AJ Styles in the trios tag match back at Wrestle Kingdom II (I believe), while Ishikari just missed out on making it into the Best of the Super Jr. XV tournament, so is looking to prove himself overseas. Both men could stir things up things every week on Spike TV and might just garner enough recognition to warrant returns at later dates to work some dates out for TNA. Only time will tell for certain, but one can only hope to see more talents like these men on American television we could all benefit from the exposure of the Oriental talents.
So while it's not HUSTLE, Dragon Gate still delivers with the golden goods of quality entertainment of the wacky Japanese variety. Seriously, no amount of dubbing done to Takeshi's Castle to create MXC could possibly match the wit of anything genuinely done out in Japan. I've said it before and I'll continue to say it: Japan has far more potent drugs than anything we could ever import from Columbia over here (in America). I mean, have you seen Katamari Damacy?
Anyway, while I won't be around in time to get the results of the 5.17 show up in time for this week's article, I do have the 5.16 results, and some things to add to that.
Dragon Gate, 5.16.08 Kanagawa, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse
Okay, so like Matt said earlier Shingo and Cyber Kong have turned on BxB Hulk, leaving me without any more BxB Shingo to look forward to, but hey, there's still always BxB CIMA to look forward to, right? RIGHT!?
So while Shingo and Kong have united with Muscle Outlaw'z to form a new team based on the Hazard name, Real Hazard, BxB Hulk has gone and found him some friends in Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino and Naoki Tanisaki to form a still unnamed stable. I don't know anything about m.c.KZ so his inclusion in the Hulk unit, which should just be dubbed SUPER AWESOME DANCE-DANCE SPARKLE for my own amusement, really doesn't do anything for me one way or the other.
It seems to me that Dragon Gate is always going to be up on stable wars holding together their product, and why not? It's different and works out in their interest to further separate them from the rest of the pack. It also makes sense when you look at NOAH's fascination with multiple tag team matches cluttering the early card everyone has a working relationship with each other so there's no need to create random tag teams to fill out a card. Everybody wins here except YAMATO. YAMATO never wins because his name, translated to English, means JOBBER~, apparently. Seriously, I don't think I, or any of my friends on Skype, have ever seen that man win a match. It's probably like seeing Hailey's comet, or Miley Cyrus's vagina. Only a few can see such a sight, and the opportunity to see it just never seems to come around when you're actually expecting it too.
It'll take some getting used to but the sight of Shingo with the blue demon prince (looking) Genki may grow on me in time. I just pray that Shingo doesn't get it into his head to try more of a Tenzan look, only with blue everything tights, tongue, teeth, horns, tips for his mullet hair, shit if he throws on some blue contacts, I think I may have a harder time coping with this than I would have thought.
All Japan Pro Wrestling
Yeah, I know, that's anti-climatic considering I pulled out super cool productions for NJPW, but everyone else gets generic as shit headers. Sorry, short notice, I'm getting really sleepy, and I had plans on Saturday that pulled me away from the computer for most of the day. When I offered to do this fill-in, I forgot when Matt's column usually showed up [Sunday], and figured I'd have until Sunday afternoon or Sunday night to get this bad boy in. Seeing that I don't have that luxury, and I just found some interesting news about AJPW, I'm just going to move on and get less techy with the production values and focus more on writing and yes, I had enough time, and energy to write out this long winded explanation, so just deal with it.
First on the agenda is the 5.14 news, courtesy of Shining Road; out of the Kensuke Office, Ryuji Yamaguchi is being forced into early retirement after suffering torn ligaments in both of his legs. Doctor's have informed the young wrestler that it would be near impossible for him to return to the ring any time without facing possible fractures to both of his knees. As seen on Shining Road "Akira Hokuto stated that she had a meeting with both Yamaguchi and his parents, and while a return was discussed, there was only one option, and that is retirement, but she is sad since she considers him a candidate for the future of pro-wrestling."
The return show to the Korakuen Hall on August 17th and will be contested under "SEM" brand rules, which essentially means a spot light featured on the younger wrestlers of the pro-wrestling industry. Featured, thus far, for the night prior to the Korakuen Hall show at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium #2, Kensuke Office presents Take the Dream ~ Vol. 5, which is to feature Katsuhiko Nakajima taking on KENTA and Kensuke Saski taking on Naomichi Marufuji .
In the mean time, to tie you over until then, here are some results:
AJPW, 5/16/08 Tottori Industrial Gymnasium Small Gym: 800 Fans - Super No Vacancy Full House
1. Manabu Soya beat Hajime Suruga (13:32) with a crabhold.
2. Kaz Hayashi & Nobutaka Araya beat MAZADA & TAKEMURA (13:33) when Hayashi used an Araya assisted inside cradle on MAZADA.
3. Shuji Kondo, ZODIAC & Al Daivari beat Joe Doering, Ryuji Hijikata & T28 (13:47) when ZODIAC used a chokeslam on T28.
4. Taiyo Kea, Minoru Suzuki & NOSAWA Rongai beat Keiji Muto, Seiya Sanada & KAI (18:44) when Kea used the TKO34th on KAI.
5. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima beat TARU & "brother" YASSHI (16:58) when Sasaki used a lariat on YASSHI.
6. Osamu Nishimura & Nobukazu Hirai beat Suwama & El Samurai (19:22) when Nishimura used an backslide on Suwama.
Courtesy of Shining Road
Though I haven't been following AJPW in a long while, apparently this was the first time Suwama has been pinned since becoming the Triple Crown champion. Prior to pinning the champion, Nishimura had made it clear he wanted to be the first to challenge Suwama for the title and after pinning the champion he may just end up getting that wish granted.
Anti-Climatic Intro: NOAH! YAY~
I wish I had more energy, and no other engagements yesterday (as you're reading this), because I'd love to take my time with this and really give you the proper skinny on all of this much like Matt would but much like every typical man, I started off strong, blew my load too early, and ended up a limp memory that she'd love to chase away with some Gin and Tonic. Ah, good times.
I went through hell to find any of the results from the NOAH show from 5.15. (NTV/G+ LIVE) show, but now that I have them, let's spare you of any banter and hand them off to you to enjoy.
NOAH "NORTHERN NAVIGATION 2008", 15.05.2008 (NTV/G+ LIVE) Tokyo Korakuen Hall: 2,100 Fans - Super No Vacancy
1. Junji Izumida besiegt Mitsuo Momota (7:30) mit einem Front Cradle Cutback.
2. Magnitude Kishiwada & Raptor besiegen Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Ippei Ota (13:01) nach einem Last Ride von Kishiwada gegen Ota.
3. Kotaro Suzuki besiegt Taiji Ishimori (12:26) mit einem Front Cradle.
4. Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone besiegen Takuma Sano & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (7:56) nach einem Muscle Buster von Yone gegen Kikuchi.
5. Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Ricky Marvin besiegen Akira Taue, Kishin Kawabata & Masao Inoue (18:05) nach einem Jackknife Hold von Ogawa gegen Inoue.
6. Akitoshi Saito, Bison Smith & Genba Hirayanagi besiegen Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura & Akihiko Ito (12:28) nach einem Modified Backdrop Suplex von Saito gegen
7. Atsushi Aoki Shining Magic 10 Match Series 4th: Bryan Danielson besiegt Atsushi Aoki (18:10) mit einem Triangle Choke Hold.
8. ROH World Title, 3 Way Match: Nigel McGuinness (c) besiegt KENTA & BJ Whitmer (13:09) mit der Jawbreaker Lariat gegen Whitmer (15th defense).
9. Jun Akiyama, Takeshi Rikio & Kentaro Shiga besiegen Kenta Kobashi, Tamon Honda & Shuhei Taniguchi (27:07) nach einem Backslide von Shiga gegen Taniguchi.
So even when he's not a part of the company anymore BJ Whitmer still finds himself in position to at least challenge for the ROH World Championship, and it was clear Nigel had no issue with dispatching with him via a Jawbreaker Lariat. I know I ride on Nigel a lot for being a better version of Randy Orton, but this looks like the type of fun match you'd want to see, even if it is Whitmer the working horse of RO oh, right
Bryan Danielson continues his roll out in Japan as he beats on the rookie, Atsushi Aoki, via triangle choke. With that loss, Aoki is now running 1-3 (1st lost to Jun Akiyama at SEM's SEMFUL GIFT IN DIFFER 2007 12.23.07, 2nd win over Davey Richards at 6.1.08's NTV/G+ LIVE show, 3rd lost to KENTA at 2.15.07's NTV/G+ LIVE show), with a 5th match scheduled for the 6.14 Great Voyage 2008 In Yokohama show against Yoshinari Ogawa. Aoki still has time to turn this around and possibly snatch up a good enough record to look impressive enough, but he has had a lot of strong talents to deal with and those names don't come cheap. With a near 20 minute bout with Danielson it almost seems as though there might be something there for the young Atsushi, coming off of another near 20 minute bout with KENTA. That's two, back to back, with some of the best light-heavyweight workers in the world. Good things will come to this kid if he continues to work hard with these performers.
And like that, that'll do it for me this week. Apologies for ruining your prom nights, and not following strong enough on some of this information, but hey, we've always got Tuesdays together for Scripted Through Sin
What? I swear it's not like that 5 dollar skank who gave you that weird boil on your shaft.
Okay, well, there's always the return of Matt Short next week to give you the real, and awesome The Navigation Log next week on the same Short time, same Short channel that'll be a nickel, Matt. Oh, and try to keep your return speech short, otherwise a big wild Samoan will come out and job to you.
Um, did you noticed that the NOAH results were in German?
Anyway, one thing that I'm a little concerned about is the fact that for the NJPW for the next few months, Mutoh won't be defending the IWGP Heavyweight Title. I realize the Super J Cup is probably a lot more important right now, but I would think that Mutoh would be defending the title at least once.
Or maybe they are trying to figure out who should challenge him and then update the card later. At any rate, it just doesn't look right when the main champ isn't on the card in some capacity.
Posted By: bluedragonx (Guest) on May 18, 2008 at 01:05 AM
Bluedragon, yes, I noticed that. I wouldn't have known how to fix that without having a horrible translation that probably wouldn't have read right at all. Figured to leave it as was, and hopefully people would kind of pick up on the pattern of the previous results - winner on the left and loser to the right. I'm sure when Matt returns he'll clarify these results better.
Posted By: Jarrod Westerfeld (Registered) on May 18, 2008 at 01:17 AM
A few notes:
Tiger Mask actually is not teaming with heels. Tenzan, Chono, Liger, and AKIRA are all babyfaces. Their opponents make up the GBH (Great Bash Heel) faction that has been dominating New Japan lately. On the last tour, GBH interfered to give Tiger Mask a win in a 6-man tag, so there's a lot of speculation as to whether Tiger Mask will be turning heel and joining the faction.
And NOAH's obscene amount of tag matches just drives me crazy. On top of that, most of them are long and pretty pedestrian, with the veterans taking it easy or doing comedy and the young guys keeping it basic. New Japan and Dragon Gate pace their shows MUCH better.
Posted By: John Gregory (Registered) on May 18, 2008 at 12:52 PM
Thanks, John. I wasn't so sure about that, considering the last time I noted, Tenzan, Chono and Liger were all heels. I just can't understand turning someone like Tiger Mask, though, as that character, as far as I can recall, has always been portrayed as a face, and has roots in being a face character.
And I agree with the NOAH undercard sentiments - they have a really drawn out and lousy undercard because of all those tag matches. Would be nice if they built things up through more singles bouts. Just mix things up and really give us a chance to enjoy singles workers being just that.
Posted By: Jarrod Westerfeld (Registered) on May 19, 2008 at 07:32 AM
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2000 winner (6th Participation)
(1st Participation)
and Kensuke Saski taking on Naomichi Marufuji 
& NOSAWA Rongai beat Keiji Muto, Seiya Sanada & KAI (18:44) when Kea used the TKO34th on KAI.
