The Navigation Log 6.15.08: Road's End

Posted by Matt Short on 06.15.2008

The GREAT VOYAGE comes to a close this week, as well as New Japan's Best of the Super Juniors. We may have a few weeks with no tournaments to talk about. Also, find out why Colonel Sanders hates Japanese baseball.

I wanted to talk about Million Dollar Mania right off the bat so I don't have to spend time talking about it later on in the At Home section, taking up space from me praising Speed Muscle vs. MCMG. Million Dollar Mania was the definition of dead air. You know how when radio stations do cold call give-aways like this and they try to fill up the dialing time with amusing verbal jabs at each other or maybe by playing music of some kind? Yeah, it's still comes off as dumb. The Rickrolling though was epic. I don't care what anyone says, the RickRoll is still funny under the right circumstances. Those who hate it are terrorists.

Onto the Navigation Log!

NOAH: A Great Voyage Indeed
The one shot NOAH GREAT VOYAGE show wrapped up Saturday with predictable results in the big matches. But, the event itself looked like it came off well.

First of the critical matches was Atsushi Aoki's fifth trial match against Yoshinari Ogawa. This is the mid-way point of Aoki's series and he's got five more matches to go. Aoki lost here to an Ogawa cross armbreaker cutback after a solid 16 minute bout. Aoki has performed so well during this series and with one win under his belt in this year-long event this is definitely his breakout year. I'm predicting that he'll have a shot at the GHC Jr. Heavyweight title by the end of the year or in early 2009. There's really no other reason to push the guy so strongly unless they have plans for him. Unfortunately, the man who was having his own ten-match trial Shuhei Taniguchi is currently down with an injury. The guy had been turning heads with his performances and he looked to be on track to become a good addition to the heavyweight division. More than likely when he finishes with his series Taniguchi would have take up the spot Go Shiozaki occupied as the resident super rookie. Hopefully his injury won't keep him out for too long and he won't lose too much momentum by the time he'll be back.

Team Kenta (Kobashi & KENTA) took on the Kensuke Office team of Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima on the same show. In a bit of a preview of the match the previous night, KENTA managed to beat Nakajima on a Kensuke Office show giving the NOAH team some extra momentum. The major story of the night though was going to be the prospect of Kobashi and Sasaki chopping the shit out of each other again, shades of their previous encounter in 2005. Both teams threw their best at each other, but in the end the result was a 30-minute draw. Leaves open the possibilities for more matches in the future, but what I really hope for would be a feud between KENTA and Nakajima over the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Titles. There is a Junior's Tag Tournament in the works and a Kensuke Office team would be likely given how much NOAH has been working with Kensuke Office this year.

Last, but certainly not least, was Takeshi Morishima's first GHC Heavyweight Title defense against Takashi Sugiura. Sugiura's been on fire for most of 2008 and this well deserved title shot was a good chance for him to turn heads. Sugiura lasted 25 minutes before a Backdrop Driver put him away. This was a big test for Morishima, not just because it was his first defense in kayfaybe terms, but it was a test to see how well he will bring in crowds as a main eventer. This is how champions succeed or fail in all wrestling companies. If your main champion, the most visible star in your company can't bring in audiences you're doomed to fail as a champion, no matter how good you are in the ring. In that sense, it was just as much of a test for Sugiura as it was for Morishima. The bad draw was part of the failure of Marufuji as champion. Even though his Budokan defense against KENTA was hailed as Match of the Year in 2006 in Japan, the show didn't have good attendance. Part of it could be blamed on the idea of two juniors fighting for a heavyweight title not appealing to fans, but another big part was the fact that the show had a weak undercard that didn't help draw in fans either. GREAT VOYAGE managed to avoid this as the card had the big Kobashi & KENTA vs. Sasaki & Nakajima showdown to bring people in. Morishima is being given a lot of support by NOAH in the early stages of this reign and depending on how his matches continue to be received he should remain champion at least into 2009.

New Japan's Best of the Super Juniors: The Finale
The end of this prestigious juniors tournament is upon us. The last week was somewhat light on the action, but it has helped set the stage for the semi-final playoffs of the tournament.

Block A finished up with Ryusuke Taguchi in first place after an impressively defeating legend Jushin "Thunder" Liger. Though he and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Wataru Inoue are equal in points, due to the fact that Taguchi has already beaten Inoue he takes the first place spot. Inoue finishes second. Also from that same show youngster Yujiro managed to upset Minoru, thus preventing a shutout for the younger man.

Block B is also set as Tiger Mask and Koji Kanemoto occupy the first and second places in the standings. Kanemoto was tied with TNA's Jimmy Rave in points, but for the same reasons as those between Inoue and Taguchi, Rave will finish in third place. Despite his early advantage in the tournament, Rave fell twice this past week to Kamemoto and Tiger Mask. Tiger Mask was far and away the leader of Block B, going 5-0 in all of his matches and finishing with a perfect 10 points. The tournament now heads into the final stage as the first place of Block A faces the second place of Block B and vice verse in the semi-finals. The matches will this go like this:

Tiger Mask vs. Wataru Inoue
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Koji Kanemoto

I see Taguchi going over Kanemoto here. Inoue has the biggest test of the night as Tiger Mask has been on fire throughout the entire tournament. The IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion will have to bring his A-game if he wants to derail Tiger Mask. Taguchi has been impressive as well and a final match between Tiger Mask and Taguchi would be interesting. I can't help but wish for Inoue to win this though. The guy's a great junior and is deserving of a BOSJ win. I'm calling for Wataru Inoue to win the whole thing. You heard it here first.

Weekly Puro
In celebration of Tiger Mask's perfect BOSJ preliminary run, let's pay tribute to the gimmick. And by that I mean this match is going to feature a tribute gimmick to Tiger Mask.

This match comes from Osaka Pro, a fun little promotion that Chikara took a lot of cues from when it was conceived, both in wrestling style and match style. Wackiness and lucha-stylings abound. This bout took place earlier this year and features the top face of the promotion, Tigers Mask. Note the extra "s." Tigers Mask is a tribute to two facets of Japanese pop culture at the same time. First is Tiger Mask, while the second is the Hanshin Tigers, the baseball team localized in the Kansai region of Japan. If you want a description of the Tigers you can think of them as the Japanese version of the Red Sox: a long history of misfortune, blown championship chances, and a rabid, loyal, and potentially insane fan base. They even have their own curse, only instead of Babe Ruth they were afflicted by Colonel Sanders after fans threw a statue of him into a river during a victory celebration. Tigers fans are all nuts. I've been to rock concerts where the bassist was a Tigers fan and forced the crowd to do the Hanshin Tiger's Fight Song during the intermission.

Strangely, Tigers Mask does not display any of the insanity generally associated with Tigers fans during this match. Instead he fights for justice against his main enemy Black Buffalo. This is their epic final battle with each other in a mask vs. mask bout. Be aware that the last couple of videos have post match angles in Japanese which may confuse and anger some.

Osaka Pro: Osaka Hurricane – Tigers Mask vs. Black Buffalo, Mask vs. Mask








At Home
Hoooooly shit here we go. Motor City Machine Guns vs. Speed Muscle made my week. Hands down my favorite bout of the whole week (though Punk & Kane vs. Miz & MORRISON was quite fun too). Doi & Yoshino were sporting swank new silver tights to go with World-1 and they really took the fight to Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin. Some people have said the match should have been given more time, but it was actually the perfect length. Both teams wrestle in ways that complement each other and Dragon Gate bouts that move as fast as the one on Thursday did don't tend to last a little more than 10 minutes unless it's a big show. Plus, there's no reason for TNA to blow their load on an all out war between two teams in what's supposed to be a preview of the World X-Cup. Let's just hope we get these two teams on a PPV against each other. It would be a shame if this is the only taste TNA gives of this pairing. It gives me high hopes for the X-Cup, but my only real complaint is making Davari captain of Team International. He's not a bad wrestler on the whole, but I'd think a better choice would have been Doug Williams. Some people can argue name value with Davari, but what name value does he actually have? It's not as if the team captains for Japan and Mexico will be household names either. Consequently, who is on Team Mexico? I think I missed that update.

While TNA had a great week, I felt WWE felt kind of down. Despite two solid matches on Raw, it felt like the money giveaway was dragging down the rest of the show. Had the phone call segments been more entertaining I might have felt differently. ECW was fine again this week as we had Evan "Don't Call Me Sydal" Bourne getting his first win on TV over Mike Knox. That was a nice match and helped advance the Kofi Kingston/Shelton Benjamin issue. The main event was quite fun as well. Smackdown was another show that felt down, but I really like Punk vs. MVP despite the finish. It was a well paced match. Maybe it was too slow for some people's tastes but I really enjoyed it for the most part.

Short Takes
-Some quick Dragon Gate stuff: BxB Hulk paid tribute to the new Incredible Hulk movie this last week after he unveiled a new darker persona based off Japanese visual bands. He smashed the hell out of Yasushi Kanda. Hulk smash indeed.

-People made way too big a deal over Bryan Danielson winning a dark match in the WWE this week. But that's the problem with things that are indy. "Oh no" cry the independent wrestling fans. "A wrestler that we are fans of might be advancing his career. Let's hate him forever." Oh come on people. If Danielson goes to the WWE, do you think it will be because he had his arm twisted? As much as one can enjoy the many great promotions across the United States, the WWE is still considered the pinnacle of the business. That's where everyone is gunning for and it's not "selling out" to want to push your career higher.

-Everyone always talks about starting a stable of second generation wrestlers. But no one ever remembers Jesse of Jesse & Festus. He's Terry Gordy's son after all.

-My Chikara Young Lion's Cup pick is Vin Gerard. So far he's made it to the finals with just one more to go. I hate to get behind a douche like him, but he's probably the best candidate to win it. And most importantly, I enjoy being right about stuff. Maybe if he wins that emo kid will cheer up.

That's it for this week. I will be going to see The Incredible Hulk to alleviate the boredom. Much thanks also for last week's words of encouragement to survive the heat wave. Those of you living in the tropics are the real heroes. Peace!