Rising Sun Soliloquy Newsletter #31
July 1, 2009
By: Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
New Japan Announces New Japan circuit Soul Tour Cards and Matches
New Japan Pro Wrestling announced several matches for this month’s New Japan Soul Tour that kicks off in the Korakuen Hall on July 5th and will conclude on the 20th in Sapporo. Three title matches are scheduled to take place on the tour, two of which will be featured on the Sapporo show. The first title match will feature the Motor City Machine Guns team of Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin will defend their IWGP Junior Tag Team Championships against Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt.
In Sapporo, Koji Kanemoto will challenge Tiger Mask for his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title and Hiroshi Tanahashi will defend his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Takashi Sugiura.
Nakamura Rubs Shoulders with MMA Royalty
New Japan Star Shinsuke Nakamura held a ‘for the sake of publicity’ press conference earlier today, with Nakamura meeting with MMA insider Rickson Gracie, who is in Japan touring around doing media events. Gracie invited him to come to Brazil to team him Ju Jitsu, but Nakamura said his schedule wouldn’t allow it, although her could set aside a few weeks.
Chono Announces Anniversary Show
New Japan legend Masahiro Chono announced that he will be holding a 25th Anniversary show in October. Both he and fellow member of ‘the three musketeers’ Keiji Muto, will be the stars of the show. Both started their careers in 1984 and had their first singles match against each other on October 5th of that year.
NJPW, 05.07.2009?(SXW)?
Tokyo Korakuen Hall?
1. Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA vs. Milano Collection A.T. & Taichi?
2. Tomoaki Honma vs. Toru Yano?
3. Hirooki Goto vs. Kazuchika Okada?
4. Manabu Nakanishi & Takao Omori vs. Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson?
5. Yuji Nagata vs. Tomohiro Ishii?
6. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Togi Makabe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Takashi Iizuka?
7. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tiger Mask vs. Wataru Inoue & Koji Kanemoto?
8.?IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Alex Shelley??& Chris Sabin??(c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt?
NJPW, 10.07.2009?(SXW)?
Chiba Port Arena Sub Arena?
1. Manabu Nakanishi, Takao Omori & Kazuchika Okada vs. Giant Bernard, Val Venis & Karl Anderson?
2. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yuji Nagata & Mitsuhide Hirasawa vs. Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii & Jado?
3. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano?
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Tiger Mask vs. Masahiro Chono, Wataru Inoue & Koji Kanemoto?
NJPW “THE STAR FESTIVAL IN MAEBASHI”, 12.07.2009?
Green Dome Maebashi Sub Area?
1. Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma & Mitsuhide Hirasawa vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & Jado?
2. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Togi Makabe vs. Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka?
3. Manabu Nakanishi, Takao Omori & Yutaka Yoshie??vs. Giant Bernard, Val Venis & Karl Anderson?
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt vs. Masahiro Chono, Milano Collection A.T. & Taichi?
NJPW, 14.07.2009?
Fukushima City Gymnasium?
1. Riki Choshu, Jushin Thunder Liger & Mitsuhide Hirasawa vs. Giant Bernard, Val Venis & Karl Anderson?
2. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Yuji Nagata vs. Takashi Iizuka & Tomohiro Ishii?
3. Togi Makabe, Wataru Inoue & Tomoaki Honma vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Toru Yano & Jado?
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto, Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt vs. Masahiro Chono, Manabu Nakanishi, Milano Collection A.T. & Taichi?
NJPW, 15.07.2009?
Miyako Citizen Gymnasium?
1. Hirooki Goto & Tiger Mask vs. Wataru Inoue & Koji Kanemoto?
2. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yuji Nagata, Takao Omori & Mitsuhide Hirasawa vs. Takashi Iizuka, Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson & Tomohiro Ishii?
3. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano?
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Milano Collection A.T. & Taichi?
NJPW, 20.07.2009?(WPW)?
Tsukisamu Alphacourt Dome
1. Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Yuji Nagata, Hirooki Goto & Mitsuhide Hirasawa?
2.?IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tiger Mask (c) vs. Koji Kanemoto?
3.?IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Takashi Sugiura??
NJPW, 22.07.2009?
Asahikawa Local Industry Promotion Center?
1.?Apollo 55 vs. Unione I: Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt vs. Milano Collection A.T. & Taichi?
2.?GBH vs. CHAOS I: Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano?
3. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Manabu Nakanishi & Takao Omori vs. Giant Bernard, Val Venis & Karl Anderson?
NJPW, 23.07.2009?
Hakodate Citizen Gymnasium?
1.?Apollo 55 vs. Unione II: Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt vs. Milano Collection A.T. & Taichi?
2.?GBH vs. CHAOS II: Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano?
3. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Wataru Inoue vs. Giant Bernard, Val Venis & Karl Anderson
Jun Akiyama Officially Withdraws Name For President Job at NOAH
Three-time GHC Heavyweight Champion and long-time company booker Jun Akiyama officially announced to the press that if he were asked to be company President, he would turn it down. The Stockholders meeting is scheduled for the fifth, the day after the Misawa public funeral, and it has been rumored by several Tokyo Sports Publications that Akira Taue will be named company President. Akiyama has joined Kenta Kobashi in publicly stating that they have no interest in the position.
Pro-Wrestling NOAH – “SUMMER NAVIGATION 2009” Ready to kick Off. NTV Cup Match Ups Announced
The schedule for the NTV Cup has been announced along with the two Blocks. Each team will play each other once in their respective blocks with two points awarded for a win, 1 point awarded for a draw and 0 points for a loss. The top two teams in each group will advance to the knockout stage.
Block A:?
– KENTA & Taiji Ishimori?
– Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong?
– Atsushi Aoki & Kota Ibushi??
– Genba Hirayanagi & Kikutaro?
Block B:?
– Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki?
– Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Akihiko Ito?
– Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kento Miyahara?
– Ricky Marvin & Eddie Edwards?
NOAH, 12.07.2009?(G+)?
Tokyo Korakuen Hall?
1.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block B: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kento Miyahara?
2.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block A: KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs. Atsushi Aoki & Kota Ibushi??
NOAH, 14.07.2009?
Hive Nagaoka?
1.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block A: Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Kikutaro?
NOAH, 15.07.2009?
Iwate Prefectural Gymnasium?
1.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block A: Atsushi Aoki & Kota Ibushi??vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Kikutaro?
NOAH, 16.07.2009?
Kuji Citizen Gymnasium?
1.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block B: Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Akihiko Ito vs. Ricky Marvin & Eddie Edwards?
NOAH, 18.07.2009?
Akita Furusato Mura?
1.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block B: Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Akihiko Ito vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kento Miyahara?
NOAH, 19.07.2009?
Mikawa Citizen Gymnasium?
1.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block B: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Akihiko Ito?
NOAH, 21.07.2009?(Samurai! TV)?
Akita Municipal Gymnasium Sub Arena?
1.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block B: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Ricky Marvin & Eddie Edwards?
2.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block A: KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs. Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong?
NOAH, 24.07.2009?
Fuji Messe?
1.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block B: Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kento Miyahara vs. Ricky Marvin & Eddie Edwards?
2.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block A: KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Kikutaro?
3.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Block A: Atsushi Aoki & Kota Ibushi??vs. Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong?
NOAH, 25.07.2009?(G+)?
Tokyo JCB Hall
1.?Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League – Final:
The Following are results from All Japan’s Cross over Tour which kicked off last week.
AJPW “CROSS OVER 2009”, 23.06.2009?
Fukushima National Athletic Meet Commemoration Gymnasium Sub Arena?
1,400 Fans?
1. Phil Atlas & Brad Martin def Nobutaka Araya & Hiroshi Yamato?(10:42)? when Martin used an Exploder on Yamato
2. Joe Doering def Manabu Soya?(10:45)?with the Revolution Bomb
3. Osamu Nishimura, Kaz Hayashi & Ryota Hama def TARU, Zodiac & Toshizo?(14:24)?when Nishimura used a backslide on Zodiac
4. Satoshi Kojima & KAI def Minoru & Hate?(15:12)?when Kojima used a lariat on Hate
5. Suwama & Shuji Kondo def Taiyo Kea & NOSAWA Rongai?(14:02)?when Suwama used the Last Ride on NOSAWA
6. Yoshihiro Takayama, Minoru Suzuki & MAZADA def Keiji Muto, Masayuki Kono & Seiya Sanada?(17:57)?when Takayama used the Running Knee Lift on Sanada
AJPW “CROSS OVER 2009”, 25.06.2009?
Sakata City Gymnasium?
1,500 Fans?- Super No Vacancy?
1. Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya def Ryota Hama & Brad Martin?(14:06)? when Soya used a Tornado bomb on Martin
2. Toshizo def Phil Atlas?(8:34)?with a Super Fisherman Buster.?
3. Joe Doering & Hate def Osamu Nishimura & Nobutaka Araya?(13:08)?when Doering used the Revolution bomb on Araya?
4. TARU, Minoru & Zodiac def Satoshi Kojima, KAI & Hiroshi Yamato?(13:54) when Zodiac pinned Yamato with a choke slam
5. Yoshihiro Takayama & MAZADA def Suwama & Kaz Hayashi?(14:16)?when Mazada used a modified pile driver to pin Hayashi?
6. Keiji Muto, Masayuki Kono & Shuji Kondo besiegen Taiyo Kea, Minoru Suzuki & NOSAWA Rongai?(17:35)via Ref stoppage
AJPW “CROSS OVER 2009”, 26.06.2009?
Miyako Citizen Gymnasium?
700 Fans?- No Vacancy?
1. Nobutaka Araya & Phil Atlas besiegen Seiya Sanada & Hiroshi Yamato?(11:30)?When Araya used the Moonsault Press on Yamato
2. Shuji Kondo & Ryota Hama def Zodiac & Toshizo?(8:23)?when Hama hit a running body press on Thoshizo
3. Minoru def Brad Martin?(9:56)?With a low blow
4. Taiyo Kea & Minoru Suzuki def Suwama & Manabu Soya?(16:11)?when Suzuki pinned Soya with a Gotch Style pile driver
5. Satoshi Kojima, Kaz Hayashi & KAI def Yoshihiro Takayama, NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA?(15:39)?when Kojima used a lariat on Nosawa
6. Keiji Muto, Osamu Nishimura & Masayuki Kono def TARU, Joe Doering & Hate?(15:02)? when Muto pinned Hate with a shining wizard
AJPW “CROSS OVER 2009”, 01.07.2009?
Matsumoto Meitetsu Show Hall?
1,200 Fans?- Super No Vacancy?
1. Kaz Hayashi & Ryota Hama def Nobutaka Araya & Phil Atlas?(13:06)?when Hayashi Pinned Araya with an inside cradle
2. Zodiac def Phil Atlas?(10:41)?with the Z-Bomb
3. Suwama & Shuji Kondo def Minoru & Hate?(13:05)?when Suwama used the Ankle Lock on Hate
4. Yoshihiro Takayama & Taiyo Kea def Osamu Nishimura & Seiya Sanada?(14:23)?nach When Takayama used the running knee lift on Sanada
5. Minoru Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA def Satoshi Kojima, KAI & Hiroshi Yamato?(19:00)?When Mazada used the Vertical Drop on Yamato
6. Keiji Muto, Masayuki Kono & Manabu Soya def TARU, Joe Doering & Toshizo?(12:45)?when Mutoh used the shining wizard on Toshizo
Zero-1
In big Zero-1 news this week, Masato Tanaka finally won back his Zero-1 World Heavyweight Championship, defeating Tyouji Sai with his patented sliding D to win the title for the second time. Tanaka lost the title last year when Yuji Nagata defeated him in October, and then later again at the Tokyo Dome in January. Tanaka has been billed as the ‘company ace’ in Zero-1, and is supposedly being put back in the top slot yet again as the company begins its feud with Big Japan Pro Wrestling.
ZERO1 “ZERO1 WRESTLER?S 4”, 01.07.2009?
Shinjuku FACE?
1. Shito Ueda def Yuzuru Saito?(12:18)?with a Lariat.?
2.?ZERO vs. Soul Connection: Toru Owashi & Takuya Sugawara def Minoru Fujita & Osamu Namiguchi?(13:38)?when Sugawara used the Shiisanputa Namiucuhi
3.?Fire Festival Assessment Match: Magnitude Kishiwada & Rikiya Fudo def KAMIKAZE & Munenori Sawa??(17:11) when Kishiwada used the Last Ride on Sawa
4.?The Pride of B 2nd: Ikuto Hidaka def Katsumi Usuda??(10:54) with the wild dog high kick
5.?Seize the Advance: Shinjiro Otani def Kohei Sato?(17:25) with the spiral bomb
6.?World Heavyweight Title: Masato Tanaka def Ryouji Sai (c)?(21:27) with the Sliding D to win the Championship
Big Japan
Big Japan’s big show in Yokohama on the 12th of July at the Bunka Gymnasium announced its full lineup. The event will air on a same day tape delay on Samurai TV and be headlined by a Scaffold match between Yuko Miyamoto and Masashi Takeda for the Big Japan Death Match Heavyweight title. Tatsumi Fujinami will also be appearing, teaming up with Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi to take on the team of Hiro Saito, Yoshihito Sasaki and Shinya Ishikawa.
BJW, 12.07.2009?(Samurai! TV)?
Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium?
1. Atsushi Ohashi & Ryuichi Kawakami vs. Madoka & Masato Inaba?
2. Daikokubo Benkei & Yuichi Taniguchi vs. Onryo & Shinobu?
3.?Ladder Death Match: Takashi Sasaki vs. Isami Kodaka?
4.?Death Match: Ryuji Ito, Shadow WX & Kankuro Hoshino vs. Jun Kasai, “Black Angel” Jaki Numazawa & Abdullah Kobayashi?
5. Tatsumi Fujinami?, Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Hiro Saito?, Yoshihito Sasaki & Shinya Ishikawa?
6.?BJW Death Match Heavyweight Title, Scaffold Death Match ~ one night carnival again: Yuko Miyamoto (c) vs. Masashi Takeda
IGF
Antonio Inoki’s Inoki Genome Federation announced that it will hold its next show on August 9th at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo. The show will be headlined by Toshihiro Takayama and Naoya Ogawa as the main event and Josh Barnett is slated to appear as well.
Inoki himself is scheduled to be embarking on a 13-city interview tour next year. Tickets will run around $40 and the show will be Inoki giving a speech before showing a slide show and taking an audience Q&A session. Then (and I’m dead serious), he’ll slap everyone in the face. Its considered a big honor and transfer of fighting spirit to be slapped by Inoki. Weird, but this will be happening.
VADER TIME
Jesse White, son of Leon White aka Vader was one of the more heavily recruited centers in the country in football. He went on to the University of Oklahoma, but ended up having severe back problems there and was forced to end his football career. He is scheduled to appear on both of the Vader Time shows at the end of the month (July 31st) and early next month (August 2nd), as Leon is grooming his for a career in Pro Wrestling.
Hunter’s Mindless, Ongoing, Who-Cares-what-he-thinks!? Best Puro Matches of 2009
I’m hoping by that at the end of this nonsense, I’ll have a nice 10-15 match list for you guys to check out at the end of the year. Heck, maybe even a top 20~. Just so you guys know, I hate star ratings. I just do. I used to love them, had great affection and maybe even got caught by my wife with them i n the past, but hey, I just don’t think ******** is a replacement for actually knowing what you’re talking about and wish to communicate. Take them with a grain of salt, but anything that pops up on THIS list, you should probably check out.?
1.) Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Shinsuke Nakamura, IWGP Heavyweight Championship, New Japan 2/15 ****
2.)Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Gotoh v. Mitsuharu Misawa & Takeshi Suguira, New Japan 1/4 ***3/4
3.) Alexander Otsuka vs. Yujiro Yamamoto, BattlARTS 2/15 ***3/4
4.) Minoru Suzuki & Taiyo Kea v. SUWAMA & Shuji Kondo, World Tag Team Championship, All Japan 3/15 ***1/2
5.) Takashi Suguira & Go Shiozaki v. Shinsuke Nakamura & Milano Collection A.T., NOAH 3/1 ***1/2
6.) Jun Akiyama v. KENTA, NOAH 5/17 ***1/2
7.) Go Shiozaki & Kenta vs Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiku Nakajima, NOAH 6/22 ***1/2
8.) Katsumi Usuda vs. Yuta Yoshikawa ? BattlARTS 2/15 ***1/2
9.)Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada vs. Takashi Sugiura & Atsushi Aoki, New Japan 5/5 ***1/4
10.) Hirooki Gotoh v. Giant Bernard, New Japan Cup Semi Finals, New Japan 3/22 ***1/4
11.) KENTA v. Ricky Marvin, NOAH 6/5 ***1/4
12.) Mammoth Sasaki & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Shinya Ishikawa & Yoshihito Sasaki, Big Japan ? ***
13.) Ricky Marvin v. Taiji Ishimori, SEM 5/18 ***
14.) Alexander Otsuka v. Daisuke Sekimoto, IGF 3/15 ***
15.) Giant Bernard v. Yutaka Yoshie, New Japan Cup Semi Finals, New Japan 3/22 ***
16.) Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka, B-Rules, BattlARTS 1/10 ***
17.) Milano Collection A.T. vs. Prince Devitt, New Japan 5/30 ***
18.) Takashi Iizuka v. Yuji Nagata, Chain Match, New Japan 4/5 ***
Go Shiozaki & Kenta vs Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiku Nakajima, NOAH 6/22
The best and worst thing about this match is Go Shiozaki, who looks as good as he’s ever looked in his sections with Nakajima. They have a fantastic struggle for control. Some people might take some issue with a junior getting THAT much in on the heavyweight champ, but for me its fine. Strike-based juniors have always been able to push heavyweights and Shiozaki isn’t super-established yet. It gives them some lee-way to work with and it comes across really awesome. The Shiozaki/Sasaki segments though… yuck. These two are CLEARLY not on the same page, and there’s not one, but about four or five strikes where they’re out of position, trying to move into position, ahead of themselves… it just looks bad.?
KENTA in a way, is really the glue that keeps this together, as he’s got some searing exchanges with Kensuke Sasaki. While I wasn’t wild about Kenta and Nakajima’s singles bouts, in a tag setting things are cut down far better and it looks good. I thought he was the overall best thing about this.?
The strike exchange thing I’ve soured on over the years, but have grown to accept as something that just is going to happen whether I like it or not. This was a shade TOO back and forth on the strike exchanges, but I’ve seen far, far, far worse in the past two-three years in Japan. The finishing stretch of this is seriously awesome, with some super great false finishes and teases that the crowd’s BONKERS for.?
The thing I really LIKE here is the visual presentation. The camera crew is top notch here. Between showing the picture with the time keeper about to ring the bell on the ankle lock spot, to the desperation on Kensuke’s face, to getting up close and personal with the action in a way I haven’t seen on anything taped by the NOAH crew… this just had way more of a human appeal. Add in the fact that his like.. zero down time, and you’ve got yourself a pretty good match where the good far outweighs the bad. And oh yes, the crowd… they’re into this. Big time.
So yeah, the good outweighs the bad here enough to the point where I’d give this a sound ‘yes’. This is kind of neck and neck with the March NOAH-New Japan tag, but isn’t in the realm of the Dome tag, IMO, but to each their own I suppose. But in comparison to the other Kensuke Office v. Burning/NOAH tag matches, this is probably my second favorite next to the 11/05 match.***1/2
Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka, B-Rules, BattlARTS 1/10
So B-Rules in Bat Bat basically means no strikes. This is definitely more low-end for a BattlARTS main event, but I like this a lot. For one, they work a great drop section with Ishikawa getting Otsuka down to the mat with his legs and the struggle is awesome, with both totally gassed by the first rope break. The double leg lock spot is pretty cool, with Ishikawa’s selling in particular… being pretty awesome there. Otsuka is absolutely, hands down the best mat-wrestler on the planet right now, and just shows why here; transitioning from a standing switch position to rolling through to an ankle lock is mind blowing. There’s even a feaux-sharpshooter. Can’t go wrong with that. I wasn’t as big on this show as a lot of other people are, because I’m not big into B-Rules, but I like this enough to put it in my tentative top 20. ***
Koji Kanemoto vs. Kota Ibushi, New Japan 5/30
This was the first big main event of the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament and while Koji Kanemoto is better here than he’s been in a while, Ibushi sucks so bad that I want to place my head in a piston, and push the on switch. This kid just cannot be bothered to sell ANYTHING. Koji hammers his leg, Kota is flipping off of it and kicking him in no time flat with the injured leg. Kanemoto rips the leg up more, Kota just no-sells more. I hate this stuff in wrestling today. Its a shame, because Kota’s offense is OK and he moves like grease lightning, but until he figures out selling is actually part of pro wrestling, I can’t get behind anything he’s doing. Kanemoto on the other hand, is really good with his ‘who the f— is this kid?’ cockiness. He really lays the kicks in, works some nutty spots and makes Ibushi’s nuttier spots look, well, nuttier. He’s good. Kota, not so much. **1/2
Milano Collection A.T. vs. Prince Devitt, New Japan 5/30
Now this is a MOVEZ~y kind of match that I can get into. Devitt’s one of the few bright spots in an otherwise barren but ever growing Juniors universe out there. He moves fast, has some very cool, innovative spots, but its his selling that really makes him stand out. Who’d have thought something so basic in wrestling would make someone stand out, but Devitt’s awesome here, and the crazy thing is he’s on offense for 85% of this match. Devitt breaks out some really big spots here and they’re all high-risk, with an emphasis on ‘risk’, as each move he whips out does some damage to Milano, but also takes a little something out of Devitt as well. This builds and builds and Devitt has a harder and harder time following his big rushes up and it eventually leads to him gassing himself and Milano being able to crawl back into the match. We get some fun near falls and while sure, they go a little over-kill ish, it never takes anything over, as they keep this match at about 10-11 minutes. I love the fast paced junior stuff that’s kept within a nice, neat time frame. They can keep the 35 minute ‘epics’. ***