PURO ISLAND - JAPANESE WRESTLING ROUND UP
By Mike Cranwell on 1/6/2010 11:54 AM
Happy New Year one and all, and welcome back to the Island of Puro. I hope that everyone had a excellent Christmas and New Years with their family and friends. Before we get started, my deepest condolences to the family and friends of “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, who passed away on December 30, 2009 at the age of 49. Williams, who was first stricken with throat cancer in 2004, defeated cancer twice before it came back again earlier this year. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson and Buck Woodward did a tremendous job covering Williams’ passing, especially their Elite Audio retrospective of Williams’ career. If you’re reading this and aren’t Elite, you’re crazy. For anyone interested in reading my homage to Dr. Death, there is a link at the end of this piece.
Today, we’ll be talking about New Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH. Mike Johnson has already covered the results of New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom IV on January 4th, and in my next issue I will talk in-depth about the card after viewing it. In the meantime, New Japan hosted the Super J-Cup 5th Stage (meaning fifth-ever) at legendary Korakuen Hall (Japan’s answer to the ECW Arena) over two days, December 22 and 23. Thanks as always to Stuart over at SSS for the results. NJPW “SUPER J-CUP 5TH STAGE ~Land of Confusion~”, 12/22/09 (Samurai! TV)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
2,020 Fans - Super No Vacancy Full House
1. SUPER J-CUP - Round 1: Tigers Mask beat Taichi (6:41) with a ground Octopus hold.
2. SUPER J-CUP - Round 1: Ryusuke Taguchi beat GENTARO (10:39) with the Dodon.
3. SUPER J-CUP - Round 1: YAMATO beat AKIRA (8:13) with a modified double kneelock.
4. SUPER J-CUP - Round 1: Danshoku Dino beat Jado (10:14) with a Gedo clutch.
5. SUPER J-CUP - Round 1: Gedo beat Kota Ibushi (14:15) with a Gedo clutch.
6. SUPER J-CUP - Round 1: Prince Devitt beat Atsushi Aoki (10:51) with a vertical drop DDT.
7. SUPER J-CUP - Round 1: Koji Kanemoto beat Fujita “Jr.” Hayato (13:45) with an ankle hold.
8. SUPER J-CUP - Round 1: Naomichi Marufuji beat Jushin Thunder Liger (16:21) with the Pole Shift.
A quality night of wrestling, capped off by a dream match of sorts. Before that however, a young wrestler named Fujita “Jr.” Hayato absolutely, unequivocally stole the show. Fighting 2009 BOSJ Champion Koji Kanemoto, Fujita wrestled the match of his life, and one of the top matches of 2009 (it will be in my Top-20 for 2009, without question).
Telling a great story of master vs future, Hayato, who wrestles basically the same style as Kanemoto, matched Kanemoto move-for-move, and often times got the better of the former 3rd Tiger Mask. In the end, Hayato tapped out to the inevitable ankle lock, but not before cementing his name as one of the best young wrestlers in the World today. And that is what makes the Super J-Cup special.
In the main event, defending J-Cup Champion Marufuji defeated two-time J-Cup Champion Liger in a good, if not very good match. Liger, who is well past his prime, can still go in the ring, and put in a great showing against Marufuji, who looked both very good, and fearless in spite of his recent injuries woes. It’s a shame this match never took place in 2002 during the original New Japan vs NOAH feud, though no one is complaining that it took place here.
On the second night, while the end result was predictable, it was more about the journey than the destination.
NJPW “SUPER J-CUP 5TH STAGE ~Land of Confusion Final~”, 12/23/09 (SXW)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
2,020 Fans - Super No Vacancy Full House
1. SUPER J-CUP - Round 2: YAMATO beat Gedo (8:36) by referee stop.
2. SUPER J-CUP - Round 2: Prince Devitt beat Danshoku Dino (5:49) with a diving footstomp.
3. SUPER J-CUP - Round 2: Ryusuke Taguchi beat Koji Kanemoto (10:14) with an achilles tendon hold.
4. SUPER J-CUP - Round 2: Naomichi Marufuji beat Tigers Mask (6:39) with an Aussie suplex hold.
5. SUPER J-CUP - Semi Final: Prince Devitt beat YAMATO (8:41) with a vertical drop DDT.
6. SUPER J-CUP - Semi Final: Naomichi Marufuji beat Ryusuke Taguchi (10:57) with the Shiranui.
7. SUPER J-CUP Special 8 Man Tag: Jushin Thunder Liger, AKIRA, Taichi & Kota Ibushi beat Gedo, Atsushi Aoki , GENTARO & Fujita “Jr.” Hayato (17:41) when AKIRA used a la magistral on Gedo.
8. SUPER J-CUP - Final: Naomichi Marufuji beat Prince Devitt (18:06) with the Pole Shift.
Another dream match in the main event, only this time both wrestlers are in close to, if not in their primes (Prince still has room to move upward, even if he is Top-10 in the World today).
Devitt and Marufuji tore the roof off of Korakuen, having one of the Top-5 Jr. matches of 2009. Any time a match is at this level it’s a tremendous accomplishment, so let’s add in a few things to consider when talking about this match and it’s victor.
12/6: Marufuji returns from 8+ months on the sidelines, recovering from a torn ACL
12/22: Wrestles Liger for over 16 minutes in the main event of Night 1
12/23 afternoon: Produces his own show, featuring both New Japan and NOAH wrestlers
12/23 afternoon: Wrestles in a tag match on that same show
12/23 night: Wrestles 3 matches, and finishes the night with an MOTYC in winning the 5th Super J-Cup.
In becoming a two-time Super J-Cup Champion, Marufuji wrestled 5 times in approximately 24 hours (59+ minutes in-ring including the tag bout), just over two weeks removed from his return after a torn ACL. That is just amazing. The scariest thing though? Marufuji looked like he hadn’t missed a day. His match with Tigers Mask was a 5 minute showcase of Marufuji’s creativity, as he broke out several rarely-used moves. And against Devitt, Marufuji broke out a High Jump Dropkick (as in, he high jumped the top rope and dropkicked Devitt, who was standing on the floor outside the ring), one of the craziest moves that any wrestling fan has ever seen. Paul London, eat your heart out.
Kudos to Jushin “Thunder” Liger, who booked the tournament, for allowing both Hayato and Devitt to shine, elevating them in the process.
Pro Wrestling NOAH
NOAH went through an incredibly trying, difficult 2009. Unfortunately, 2010 has started where 2009 left off for my favourite promotion.
Jun Akiyama has announced that 2010 will be his final year of in-ring competition. Akiyama’s shoulder woes (which apparently are bad after all – oh the beauty of getting information from Japan), his back issues, and more importantly his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, further complicated by the latest revelation that Akiyama suffers from panic attacks, has all combined to cause Akiyama to decide that it is time to end his career as a professional wrestler. Though Akiyama peaked in 2000-2002, he was still one of the most meaningful names that NOAH could put in the ring, being Misawa’s protégé from All Japan, and having been a 3-time GHC Heavyweight Champion. He could also still put on great matches, as witnessed by his MOTYC with KENTA last year. It will be interesting to see when exactly Akiyama finishes up. I would expect a final singles’ match with former teammate and great rival Kenta Kobashi…assuming that Kobashi is able to wrestle again.
Yup, he’s hurt too. Kobashi recently underwent surgery to repair an ulnar nerve injury in his right elbow – the same elbow he had surgery on in August, 2008. If you remember at that time, Kobashi said that he would go against Dr.’s orders and continue with the style that is not-so-kindly known as Chopbashi in online circles. The information that I’ve been able to uncover on Kobashi’s situation vs the actual injury itself is a little odd, so bear with as I piece it together.
Apparently, without this surgery, Kobashi’s elbow would never heal. But the elbow may never completely heal after having the surgery, which for the record was deemed to be a success. Kobashi’s condition is called Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, and I decided to turn to the Internet’s answer to the meaning of life, Wikipedia, to find out all about CTS (because when you’re talking about Kenta Kobashi for PWInsider, you want to know these things).
Wikipedia says that CTS is a result of Ulnar Nerve Entrapment, which occurs when the ulnar nerve becomes pinched or trapped due to physiological abnormalities. The surgery that Kobashi had, according to Wiki, is only needed in extreme cases, and is done to move the nerve away from the area (which will provide more space for the nerve and tendons to function).
I wasn’t happy with this info as it seemed pretty basic, so I did some more searching. A site called Eat on Hand answered the remaining questions. According to this site, 80% of those who get the surgery are able to fully recover. The other 20% however still suffer from “permanent areas of numbness around their elbow or forearm as a result of surgery.
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The report out of Japan said that Kobashi had trouble moving his fingers for a few days leading up to the surgery, and that is what convinced him to undergo the procedure. According to EoH, “If the nerve has been damaged to the point that the fingers don't straighten properly, they may not recover the ability to straighten even with surgery.” It’s safe to say that wrestling involves a fair amount of gripping, so let’s hope that Kobashi didn’t wait until his elbow nerve was too far gone before getting the surgery.
That being said, I’d infinitely rather see the broken-down Kobashi go out after the 2009 comeback that he had, where he proved yet again that he was still one of the best wrestlers in the World today, rather than have him tragically die in the ring as Misawa did, or even suffer a quality of life-altering injury.
Finally, I’ll close out on a fun New Japan/WWE note as a bonus to those who made it all the way through this. There is a story going around online that former New Japan Jr. Heavyweight Naofumi Yamamoto, who is known in North America as ECW Superstar Yoshi Tatsu, beat up current WWE Heavyweight Champion Sheamus during their time living together in Florida (the FCW days). And ya, the story’s true. How can someone from the same country as Fergal Devitt not know that the NJ Dojo teaches you how to really fight? Oh Sheamus, I hope your comeuppance tasted frothy.
Mike Cranwell has been an avid Puroresu watcher for seven years, and also writes for The Wrestling Daily. His tribute to Steve Williams can be found here, and his archive, including an exclusive sit-down interview with Katsuhiko Nakajima and the most extensive looks ever done on the history of All Japan and New Japan, can be found here.
