The Navigation Log 1.25.09: Shiozaki's New Push, New Japan vs. NOAH on the Horizon, and More Unit Shifts in Dragon Gate

Posted by Matt Short on 01.25.2009

Go Shiozaki is on a major tear right now, New Japan prepares for a future war, and Gamma might be turning... face? Also, Kenny Omega is tearing through DDT and apparently Hiroshi Tanahashi likes boobies. Can't argue with him there!

Greetings all, it's time once again for 411's weekly trip to Japan! I am your host, Matt Short, and if you're a new reader please be aware that this first paragraph is related to crap completely unrelated to the rest of the column. This week's topic: not the inauguration, because I'm a bad American for sleeping through that. It's got little to do with disliking Obama or anything, I just like sleeping in better. But there were also the Oscar nominations this week, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. I haven't seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but for it to be walking away with all those nominations, it better be as awesome as No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood were. Because they were awesome. I'm a little disappointed The Wrestler didn't get a Best Picture nod, but Mickey Rourke being nominated for Best Actor is nice. Heath Ledger getting Best Supporting was great to hear, but I was really surprised Robert Downey Jr. got some recognition for Tropic Thunder. I really didn't like that movie all that much, Downey Jr. was easily the highlight. It's nice that he's getting some much do credit for pulling off a character that could have ended up being extremely offensive and unfunny. Anyway…

Onto the Navigation Log!

Pro Wrestling NOAH
The final sprint to the First Navigation's finale at Korakuen Hall has not been without some interesting moments. Mostly, the focus has been on increasing the build to the main event of KENTA vs. Kotaro Suzuki for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title. As I've mentioned before it's a risky main event, even for a small hall like Korakuen. They wouldn't dare try this in the Budokan, but they at least stand a better chance in a smaller venue. If they bomb… well then NOAH just might be fucked. Again, the build for this match has revolved around KENTA & Taiji Ishimori taking on Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and Genba Hirayanagi who seem to have formed a loose alliance. With Kanemaru playing the veteran and Suzuki as the up and comer with Genba as the "understudy" if you will, this group has some potential. I'd like them to become a full on stable and pick up a heavyweight ally, but that seems unlikely in the long run. Some factional warfare within NOAH might be just what they need to spark some new interest.

Despite the main event being the Jr. Heavyweight Title match, the real story of this tour has been Go Shiozaki. Shiozaki is fresh off of his successful run through the United States where he picked up the WLW Heavyweight Title and even bigger, the FIP World Heavyweight Title. Shiozaki might not have captured the ROH Title like Morishima did, but what he did do was still impressive in and of itself. Go has now begun to apply his experience directly to his career in Japan as over this entire tour he's grabbed some impressive wins for himself. In many of the tag team matches he's participated in, Shiozaki has scored the pinfall for his team. If you look at his record for the entire tour, Shiozaki is actually undefeated. This includes three singles victories over Takuma Sano, Tamon Honda, and the biggest of all, Takeshi Rikio.

So what's going on here? The easy answer is that this is the start of Go's big push. Many have felt that this is a long time coming (myself included). Shiozaki has been wrestling since 2004, but has yet to truly break out. He's impressed fans and obviously the NOAH staff over this time, but his big push into the upper tier of NOAH has been a slow one. He's jobbed to just about the entire roster I think, but now it looks like we can see him really make a play toward the heavyweight division. NOAH has done a great job building him though. Go does have a pretty solid following among NOAH fans who are just as eager to see him get pushed. By very slowly easing him into the main event after years of giving him exposure, this is very easily the start of big things for Shiozaki. Stay tuned fans.

New Japan Pro Wrestling
The hangover from the epic Wrestle Kingdom III continues as New Japan continues to hype up their coming tour. We've already got TNA participation, Mistico returning, and now it seems like ZERO1 may be coming back to once again try to take back their World Heavyweight Title. Shinjiro Otani is once again being granted a chance at Yuji Nagata to reclaim the title, but at the point no date has been set. I'd actually be surprised if it didn't happen on a ZERO1 show, as someone from that promotion finally beating Nagata would be huge and ZERO1 would I'm sure love to cash in on a main event like Nagata vs. Otani. Even though this match-up already happened once before, which Nagata won. It feels a little strange that a big match like this is just being thrown out there after it just happened not too long ago. But it mostly points to the fact that ZERO1 really doesn't have many stars who can legitimately share the stage with Nagata and follow through with it. I still want Daisuke Sekimoto to get a shot, but we'll settle for Otani. I think this will be the chance for him to pull it off.

Ryusuke Taguchi is intending to invade NOAH in the near future. The former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight champion is very eager to get his hands on the top juniors of NOAH and I will definitely be interested in seeing such matches, though we'll have to wait a bit as Taguchi is still healing up from an elbow injury. Things like this after the Wrestle Kingdom show just feed the imagination for many, many battles between NOAH and New Japan. We already have Shinsuke Nakamura and Hirooki Goto begging for NOAH to send more competition and now with Taguchi throwing himself into the mix one can only wonder where this will take us in 2009.

Dragon Gate
The big story out of Dragon Gate this week was the battle between Real Hazard members Gamma and Yasushi Kanda. The two have been at odds for months now after one miscommunication too many. Things had gotten so bad that the match was turned into a banishment match: the loser was to be kicked out of Real Hazard. Gamma won, but in what could be seen as a very ironic swerve he was the one to find himself with no unit. Kenichiro Arai arrived after the match, seemingly to defend Kanda from a full assault from Real Hazard. Instead, Arai sided with the rest of RH, and Gamma was expelled. This felt extremely similar to when Gamma lost a Muscle Outlaw'z banishment match to Kinta Tamaoka (evil referee with big hair), but later returned and the rest of the unit sided with Gamma and kicked out Kinta. With Gamma gone, he is now slowly turning face, which should prove to be VERY long considering he's played the asshole heel for so many years in Dragon Gate. I don't think he's EVER been a face actually. This expulsion is also huge for YAMATO, who adds yet another item to his growing list of accomplishments by taking control of Real Hazard and defeating Shingo Takagi in a No Rope match. YAMATO's rise is going to be another interesting story to follow in 2009.

In other unit shifts, PAC has joined up with World-1, officially making them the prime face group in Dragon Gate as they are now the host unit for the talented foreigner. A small feud with New Japan may be brewing as well. Koji Kanemoto paid a visit to Dragon Gate, teaming with Masaaki Mochizuki to defeat Naoki Tanisaki & BxB Hulk. Kanemoto and Hulk have some history, going back to the 2007 Super Juniors tournament. Kanemoto made quick work Hulk back then, but things are vastly different now. The two will have a one-on-one match, which even Kanemoto is anticipating as being a much greater challenge.

Quick News
-This is the season for contract renewals. DDT has been extremely vocal about who is resigning with them and who isn't, but then again everything DDT does is kinda on the loud side. By comparison, New Japan is keeping the proceedings to themselves unless something major occurs (as was the case with Minoru). The exception to this is IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, who has demanded a new package which guarantees "exclusive nude pictures of some women." It's a work of course, but is still possibly one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time.

-New Japan is planning to run a major, Sumo Hall-caliber show at the Fukuoka International Center. Their last big show there flopped with with Brock Lesnar vs. Giant Bernard in the main event, but there is a great deal of hope that we get some big NOAH vs. New Japan match in the main event to wash away the taint of prior failures.

-There's quite a bit of drama in Dragon Gate right now, as the current rumor is that CIMA is not under contract right now and hasn't been seen since the 2008 finale show.

-**~LATE BREAKING NEWS~**: Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi defeated HARASHIMA & Toru Owashi to win the DDT KO-D Tag Team Championship. That's more than a little surprising.

Weekly Puro
I'm still being lazy in finding matches, so here's one everyone has probably already seen. And if you haven't now is the time to watch it. This is probably one of the more epic encounters since the turn of the century in Japan. True, it has some faults, but they are very few. And to be honest, you've really got to be some kind of a stuck up, asshole, wrestling snob to find something to not like about this. This match has it all: blazing hot crowd, stiff strikes, and a wild match from bell to bell. I for one am surprised it took me so long to put this up here.

NOAH: GHC Heavyweight Title: Mitsuharu Misawa © vs. Kenta Kobashi


At Home
The Royal Rumble is tonight! But I made a poor choice and didn't watch much wrestling this week. This is my downfall apparently, because Raw sounded like a very good show with a great ending. I don't often watch YouTubes of WWE shows if I miss them, but I went out of my way to see the video of Orton punting Vince. Absolutely amazing segment, great ending. All around good shit. Didn't care to see ECW, nothing sounded interesting. I did how however watch Smackdown, and that was fine show. It lacked that defining moment like Raw did, but it had three very fine matches. Shelton Benjamin vs. The Undertaker delivered once again. The No DQ match was fun and the handicap match at the end came off surprisingly well, considering most handicap matches suck. The real surprise though was the match between Raw's and Smackdown's respective tag team champions. Miz & Morrison vs. The Colons was amazingly fun and fast-paced. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a match involving Carlito so much. He hasn't been unwatchable like he was since he started teaming with Primo, but I haven't really cared all that much for the brothers.

But the Rumble. Yeah, looks pretty awesome! I'd say more, but I said all I could in the Roundtable and don't necessarily want to repeat myself.

Short Takes
-Holy shit Johnny goddamn Saint is coming to the US for King of Trios. That is beyond epic and CHIKARA continues to get huge names like this for their shows.

-CM Punk is the fastest Triple Crown winner in history? This somehow strikes me as something that no one was considering when they decided to put the Intercontinental Title on him.

-Seriously. The most amazing punt of all time.

-I said it last week, but I'll say it again: Bison Smith is probably one of the best guys ROH could bring in right now. The guy is highly underrated.

That's it for this week. I've got nothing cool to sign out with so we'll just end it… now.