The Navigation Log 2.15.09: CIMA's Tryout, NOAH vs. Kensuke Office

Posted by Matt Short on 02.15.2009

Let the speculation commence as, Dragon Gate's CIMA works a WWE dark match. Also, Kensuke Office takes a surprising lead of NOAH as Kensuke Sasaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima score huge wins. Also Misawa vs. Kawada. Nuff said.

Welcome back, world! I hope everyone had a very good Valentine's Day. Though as I write this, it is actually not Valentine's, I'm confident in saying my day was productive and well spent. But I really don't care that much about holidays that exist solely for companies to have a buffer between Christmas and Easter. No, let's talk about the Friday the 13th reboot. I have not seen it yet, but I have high hopes for it. I ended up liking the Halloween remake, which I didn't expect. The original Halloween is my all-time favorite horror movie and for me to at least be okay with the remake says volumes. I'm less attached to the Friday the 13th franchise, but it's still a classic. So don't fuck this up. Or at least make it as fun as Jason X and Freddy vs. Jason were.

Onto the Navigation Log!

Dragon Gate: Commence Hyperventilation
Remember a few months back when Takeshi Morishima got a WWE tryout match and puro and indy fans collectively shat themselves? And then they got up in arms because Vince thought Morishima was too fat? Yep, good times.

Hey, and do you remember when not long afterwards Go Shiozaki got a tryout match and almost the same thing happened? Well, minus the Vince thinking Shiozaki was fat. Actually, this one wasn't nearly as interesting or fun because it didn't have the added drama behind it of having the GHC Heavyweight Champion possibly leaving for the WWE. But anyway…

Here we go again!

Earlier this week, reports started to float in that the man who has arguably been the face of Dragon Gate for the past few years, CIMA had a tryout match with the WWE in Southern California. This came after many sources were unsure whether CIMA was actually still contracted to Dragon Gate or not. His future had been in doubt since the middle of 2008 when he was forced to vacate the Open the Dream Gate title due to a bad neck injury and had only just recovered enough to return on the very last show of the year. But still, his future with the company was very much in doubt.

This makes his sudden appearance in the WWE all the more interesting. Okay, let's say he was going to come back to Dragon Gate with a lighter schedule until he was fully healed. That strikes me as the most logical course of action for him. Hell, even a TNA schedule would benefit him more due to their taping schedule which attracted guys like Kurt Angle, Booker T, and Mick Foley. But a WWE schedule doesn't exactly benefit a wrestler who is still technically on the mend, with a very heavy touring schedule. It would be a massive change from CIMA's normal schedule. However, while we're talking about the toll it would take on CIMA's already injured body, the one benefit is that he probably have to drastically change his in-ring style. The Dragon Gate/Toryumon style of wrestling has to take a huge toll on someone's body, and while CIMA would certainly bring a very exciting kind of wrestling to the WWE he won't be doing his crazier moves.

So where does this leave Dragon Gate? Obviously, losing CIMA is a loss for the company as far as its image is concerned. He wasn't just the face of the company on its own shows, but he was the Dragon Gate ambassador. It was CIMA who encouraged the open door policy that paved the way for guys like Jack Evans, Matt Sydal, and PAC to become regulars for the company, as well as the host of independent stars who visited Dragon Gate over the years. CIMA has represented the company in NOAH, ROH, and PWG and is probably who American fans think of first when they hear the name Dragon Gate. On the other hand, DG has done fairly well for itself in CIMA's absence. Shingo Takagi and BxB Hulk has two strong matches on the road to filling the vacated Open the Dream Gate belt. The events of 2008 showed that Dragon Gate was more than capable of thriving and being entertaining without CIMA.

Basically, I'd have very mixed feelings about a WWE run for CIMA. It'd be interesting to say the least. I could see him on ECW, possibly once again teaming with Evan Bourne to relive their days in Dragon Gate. He could make it about as far as any Japanese wrestler usually does in the WWE, which might mean US/Intercontinental Title level. But that would be a massive maybe, but even with some limitations on his moveset, I think CIMA would be able to get over. However, I would rather see him stay with Dragon Gate. For now anyway. DG has their biggest show in company history right around the corner at Tokyo Sumo Hall. How can you have the biggest Dragon Gate show ever without CIMA? It seems wrong. From the sound of things they were planning on pairing him with his eternal rival Gamma to take on YAMATO & Cyber Kong for the Open the Twin Gate, which would have been… interesting and amazing at the same time. But in the meantime, all we can do is wait and see what happens. Even if CIMA doesn't go to WWE there's no guarantee that he's resign with Dragon Gate either.

I really do want CIMA at Sumo Hall though. The show already has a hair vs. mask match between Cyber Kong and Anthony W. Mori, stemming from Mori beating Kong and then continually getting under his skin, winning matches with Kong's Cyber Bomb. Also, New Japan's Koji Kanemoto just defeated BxB Hulk in their one-on-one match, which prompted him to issue a challenge to Naruki Doi for the Open the Dream Gate title. I'd love to see CIMA make this show too. Time will tell what happens and we shall be watching this closely.

NOAH: Advantage: Kensuke Office
The Kensuke Office has been battling with the Pro Wrestling NOAH roster for the better part of the last year now. Most notable battles in this feud were the BURNING vs. KO Elimination match, Kensuke Sasaki winning the GHC Heavyweight Title from Takeshi Morishima, and numerous battles between KENTA and Katsuhiko Nakajima.

However, this past Wednesday saw Kensuke Office pull out even farther ahead of NOAH in their battles. First, in a hotly contested tag team match, Kensuke Sasaki & Kota Ibushi defeated Jun Akiyama & Taiji Ishimori. The shocking moment in this was Sasaki pinning his up-coming challenger for the GHC Heavyweight Title, Akiyama. It throws adds extra interesting into the already high-profile title match. Expect Akiyama to get the win back sometime down the line in the coming tour. But at this point, it feels like the title match could go either way. Sasaki wins and you've still got a few matches you can run, most notably against Misawa and Kobashi who will be making his full-time return at the beginning of March. But Akiyama is red hot at the moment. Another chance to run with the GHC Heavyweight Title might be in the cards for him to help him improve upon his last reign as champion, which honestly was not widely well received. Mostly that title run is most famous for elevating Marufuji to the GHC Heavyweight Championship level. We'll have all the answers come March 1st!

The other major news coming from this show stemmed from the continuation of the feud between KENTA and Nakajima. They were meeting one-on-one once again, but this time KENTA's GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title was at stake. In what many consider an upset, Nakajima unseated KENTA and took the title for himself, giving the Kensuke Office all the major singles titles in NOAH. Nakajima's win isn't the biggest surprise though. The title match was the main event of the Kensuke Office show and it makes some sense to close out the show with the title change. Nakajima has been a solid performer since NOAH and Kensuke Office started working together regularly and with a prior shot at the title, when Bryan Danielson was champion, this seemed inevitable. Some aren't happy with KENTA losing the belt though. Truthfully, it would have been a great way to push him as the unquestioned ace of NOAH's juniors if he racked up a ridiculous amount of defenses. But my feeling is that NOAH is going to have plans to push him higher than a junior. KENTA has done about all he can do in the division as he's held all the junior titles multiple times now.

So what's next? Nakajima's win opens up some decidedly fresh title matches with the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title. We can now get some battles between him and possibly the old stand-by Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Kotaro Suzuki is looking to really elevate himself beyond his rather unimpressive run with the title as Mushi-King Terry. KENTA's regular partner, Taiji Ishimori, is another potential challenger. As for KENTA, I kind of expect him to begin to gradually move to more heavyweight competition. He already has a great deal of experience, but what he does lack though are big wins. I anticipate him finding a partner to challenge for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles, as that is always a good introduction for a new guy to move hard into the heavyweight division. Take note of Go Shiozaki's big singles match with Bison Smith, one half of the tag team champions. Should Shiozaki win, that will put him as a potential challenger for the belts currently held by Smith and Akitoshi Saito. Who's a good partner for that? Someone just as hungry as Shiozaki is. I'm thinking it'll be KENTA if it gets that far.

The Weekly Puro
I apologize for not having a match here last week. To make up for it, how about we show a classic. I give you Misawa vs. Kawada from 98 for the Triple Crown. I think that more than makes up for having no match at all last week.

All Japan: Triple Crown Championship: Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs. Toshiaki Kawada





At Home
I watched Against All Odds while chatting online with my good friend Ted last weekend. He really enjoyed the show, more than I did I think, but we both agreed that it was a decidedly weird PPV. First, you started with a really strong X-Division Title match with Alex Shelley and Eric Young. The Steiner vs. Petey Williams ended up being ten times better than it really had any right to be. They worked a great big man vs. little man story, where Williams actually got to look pretty good. And I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who watches a lot of Japanese wrestling, but the proof of that was the fact that Steiner pulled out the Screwdriver to finish off Petey. Usually when a veteran pulls out a very rarely used move like that to beat a guy considered much farther down the card than him, it speaks volumes. Of course I could just be reading too much into it. Regardless, I marked for the Steiner Screwdriver and I give props to Petey for taking it. From there, the show slid down the scale. Sewell vs. Booker didn't get enough time, and even if it did I had little hope for it because they're playing Sewell way too much as an underdog. It's boring to me. Knockout's Title match was bad. Morgan vs. Abyss was hampered by Morgan's injured shoulder. When he kept botching every move while trying to protect it, the match lost a lot, but a clean face win by Abyss was unexpected. The tag titles match was really good though and then there was the main event. It was booked well enough for the guys involved, but still was just weird. I dunno, it was a mixed bag.

No Way Out is tonight. Two Elimination Chambers and good times. I'm actually not that interested in watching it though. Couldn't say way, it's probably the rum coursing through my veins.

Short Takes
-Christian is back! I support his move to ECW, it lets him get the audience back on his side before moving on to a bigger brand with bigger feuds.

-Randy Savage DVD will be many buys. I don't buy WWE releases, but that might actually tempt me.

-I laughed so hard at CHIKARA's latest entry for King of Trios: Blood Runs Cold. Al Snow, Iceburg, and Glacier. Multiple acquisitions.

That's it. I'm tired, I'm a little drunk and I've got nothing left to write about. Take it easy peeps!