Tag: wrestle-1

Tanahashi facing Miyahara in tag match at Baba memorial show

Posted on by Bryan Rose

The main event for the Giant Baba Memorial show has been set.

IWGP Heavyweight champion Hiroshi Tanahashi will team with Yoshitatsu (who has been regularly wrestling for All Japan) to take on the team of Triple Crown champion Kento Miyahara and Big Japan’s Daisuke Sekimoto. It will be the first time that Tanahashi and Miyahara will be in the same ring.

The event marks the 20th anniversary of Giant Baba’s death, as he passed away from liver failure on January 31, 1999. It will also have the official retirement ceremony for Abdullah the Butcher, who wrestled regularly for All Japan for a number of decades.

Here is the full, likely final card for the memorial show which will take place on February 19 at Sumo Hall. Broadcasting information is currently unknown:

  • Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yoshitatsu vs. Kento Miyahara and Daisuke Sekimoto
  • Mil Mascaras and Dos Caras vs. NOSAWA Rongai and Kaz Hayashi
  • Naomichi Marufuji and Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Masaaki Mochizuki and Shun Skywalker
  • Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata and Omasu Nishimura vs. Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori and Taiyo Kea
  • Atsushi Onita, Kendo Kashin, Hideki Suzuki and Hideki Hosaka vs. Great Kojika, Mitsuya Nagai, Shuji Ishikawa and Hikaru Sato in a street fight tornado bunkhouse deathmatch
  • SANADA and BUSHI vs. Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto vs. Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino in a three way match
  • Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Taka Michinoku vs. Masanobu Fuchi, Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Yuma Aoyagi
  • Kazushi Miyamoto, Tomohiko Hashimoto, Daichi Hashimoto and Takuya Nomura vs. Tomoaki Honma, Yuji Okabayashi, Naoya Nomura and Ren Narita
  • Giant Baba Memorial battle royal featuring Mitsuo Momota, Kim Duk, Joel Deaton, MEN’s Teioh, TARU, Ryuji Hijikata, Yuto Aijima, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Masahito Kakihara, Masao Inoue, Tamon Honda and Yasu Urano

Wrestling All-Star Battle to be held at Sumo Hall in February

Posted on by Bryan Rose

A multi-promotional event featuring a number of high profile Japanese promotions will take place next February.

Tokyo Sports announced this morning that Wrestling All-Star Battle will go down on February 19 at Sumo Hall. It will feature wrestlers from All Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling NOAH, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Big Japan Pro Wrestling and Wrestle-1. Broadcasting information for the event isn’t currently known, nor were any matches announced.

The event is in commemoration of two events: the 20th anniversary of Giant Baba’s death (which took place on January 31, 1999) as well as the 60th anniversary of Tokyo Sports itself.

The last Wrestling All-Star Battle took place in August of 1979. On that show, Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki, who teamed for years before a split led to the eventual founding of both AJPW and NJPW, teamed for the last time. They defeated Abdullah the Butcher and Tiger Jeet Singh.

The Week In Japanese Wrestling: WRESTLE-1 on the rise

Posted on by Alan Counihan

Editor’s note: the following originally appeared in this week’s Figure Four Weekly.

On September 8th, 2013, Keiji Mutoh launched his new promotion WRESTLE-1 into the Japanese pro wrestling landscape. It followed the split of Mutoh and many of his wrestlers from an All Japan promotion that was left in bad shape.

In all honesty, this was the last thing Japanese wrestling needed. The pool was already full and another splintering of promotions just watered things down.

W-1 never really got going to any great degree and — as recently as last year — many felt the promotion might not be long for the world. Conversely, Jun Akiyama had steadied All Japan’s ship and built the company up again on the back of a steady ace in Kento Miyahara. Mutoh had tried with different guys in that role, but it never worked out.

The one thing W-1 did have going for it was that they were quietly developing an impressive pool of young talent in their dojo system under the watchful eye of Kaz Hayashi and Shuji Kondo. This year, that youth movement has given the company the identity it’s been looking for — and right now they are on a major upswing.

Hayashi and Kondo have really taken the reigns as president and vice president of the company, with Muto seemingly taking more of a figurehead position and removing himself from direct involvement. The WRESTLE-1 we’re seeing right now is the Hayashi/Kondo vision, and it’s being carried out by their kids.

Of course, for any Japanese promotion at their level, Korakuen Hall is a huge measuring stick. They have had a string of great shows in the building in recent months and the reactions are getting stronger and stronger from the fans in attendance. The match quality has become really high level and the personalities up and down the card have really clicked with the audience.

On September 2nd, they had a very successful big show in Yokohama that really felt like a coming out party of sorts for both the promotion and the wrestlers. If this were the 1990s, this would be the W-1 show that would be getting passed around in tape trading circles.

They also now have their Miyahara. Champion Shotaro Ashino has been the definition of a top guy this year. Since he won the title from Masayuki Kono in March, he has dominated — knocking off challengers left and right and really establishing his persona, ring style, and attitude. He now has his own stable and comes off like a star.

Other names to watch for are Jiro “Ikemen” Kuroshio (a charismatic babyface), Koji Doi & Kumagoro (a tag team with great chemistry), Daiki Inaba (a no-frills technician with a great look), Andy Wu (a spectacular high-flying masked man), and Takanori Ito (the Japanese Kevin Owens). It might be a stretch to call this the ground floor, but the W-1 elevator is definitely on the rise. It’s time to jump on.