The Navigation Log 9.09.07: 9/9 Budokan Hall Show

Now that that’s out of the way, onward to NOAH.

Determination League

Three matches over the past week have set the stage for the final night of the NOAH Determination League at the Budokan. I’ll admit, I’m surprised at how they’ve managed to make these final moments interesting to the point where the Budokan matches are going to be major, deciding moments in the tournament.

9/2
Block A: Akitoshi Saito beat Naomichi Marufuji: NOAH made a little slip up here that I should have caught. I was under the assumption that this match was going to take place at the Budokan as it had been listed as such on the NOAH English page. However, they went ahead with this match. Saito won it here, thus making the Budokan match a tie breaker. That’s some good drama which Block A needed since Rikio had to drop.

Block B: Jun Akiyama beat Takashi Sugiura: No surprise here, Akiyama stays undefeated heading into the Budokan.

9/4
Block B:Takeshi Morishima beat Tamon Honda: Morishima pulled out the win here and is now one point behind Akiyama. Morishima now looks like he can pull the whole block out from under Akiyama.

So going into Sunday’s Budokan show the top four look like this with their points:

Block A
Naomichi Marufuji: 6
Akitoshi Saito: 6

Block B
Jun Akiyama: 6
Takeshi Morishima: 5

The drama! The suspense! Thrilling action! It all leads into…

NOAH at the Budokan: Hard Rockin’ in Tokyo
Usually the order of the matches is as NOAH presents the card. I’m not so sure about it this time as I expect the tournament matches to be spread out a little more.

1) Shuhei Taniguchi & Ippei Ota vs. Akihito Ito & Thoruf
THORUF~! returns to the Budokan! As far as openers go, this one could be a little more fun than most others. All four of these guys are young and willing to impress and should put on a solid match to get the crowd warmed up.

2) Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue vs. Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Kikuchi is the man, so I’m pulling for him in this. Again, this is basically a warm up match for the finals of the tournament matches later in the night. Fun, but probably not all that great from a work rate fan’s stand point.

3) Mohammad Yone & Makoto Hashi vs. Junji Izumunda & Tsutomu Hirayanagi
Here’s the biggest problem with NOAH shows, especially the Budokan ones. While they list a few big matches, they’re mostly filler tag matches that no one really cares about. They have some good guys in them, but they don’t promote these matches as important. That’s the case with most things here.

4) KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Atsushi Aoki
This one could be fun. It’s got the wonder team of KENTA & Ishimori who are going to be looking to put themselves back into the Jr. Tag title contention. Kanemaru and Aoki are no slouches either and I’m expecting a good show from both teams.

5) Akira Taue, Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, Takuma Sano, & Takashi Sugiura
Again, this match looks like some real fun. Suzuki and Marvin always bring the goods. Sano and Sugiura are both really strong competitors. Then there’s the heavyweight veterans of Taue and Takayama going at it. Yeah, this is going to be fun. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sugiura got the win here.

6) NOAH vs. MUGA: Mitsuhara Misawa & Go Shiozaki vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura
From the stand point of a puro nut, it doesn’t get much better than this. You’ve got two guys who, though not in their prime, are certifiable legends in Japan. Then there’s Osamu who is extremely well traveled and well regarded as well. Then there’s the young gun in Shiozaki who needs to prove himself. Shiozaki can get a great rub for just being in this match and looking good. I hate that he’s pretty much been set up to job here, but who knows stranger things have happened. Maybe he’ll get the win. Man, that’s wishful thinking.

7) Block A: Naomichi Marufuji vs. Akitoshi Saito
It’s the tie breaker round. Saito has a real advantage in having beaten Marufuji already in the tournament. That puts him at a psychological advantage you’d have to think. Though Marufuji has proven time and time again that he can beat the bigger guys. This is going to be interesting to say the least.

8) Block B: Jun Akiyama vs. Takeshi Morishima
Akiyama goes into this ahead by one point and undefeated in the tournament. Morishima himself is undefeated with only a draw stopping a perfect record. Akiyama has a real advantage, but don’t count out Morishima. He’s been going strong for months and winning here would give him a great opportunity at Misawa and some great momentum heading into it.

9) FINALS Block A Winner vs. Block B Winner
My prediction for this is that it will be Marufuji vs. Akiyama. That’s just a rematch that I want to see happen and have high expectations for. It also has a great deal of drama behind it since Marufuji has beaten Akiyama and the question will stand as to whether he can do it again. Saito doesn’t really have that going for him in the finals. Morishima however could surprise me and all the other people looking for an Akiyama win. We’ll just have to see if NOAH has a surprise up their sleeves here.

**Programming Note: By the time this column goes up this event will most likely have been completed. We’ll do full coverage next week and feel free to let me know which of my predictions were wrong before then.**

At Home
This week’s At Home is something of a combination of NOAH and ROH musings. Especially given how we finally have confirmation that Misawa will be appearing in Philly and New York in November. Also coming along will be KENTA, Marufuji, and the ROH Champion Morishima. While those three are certainly some of the most popular Japanese performers to come to ROH and Misawa is a legend but there’s plenty of other guys who could take the trip across the Pacific and do some awesome stuff.

The most obvious to me would be a visit from the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag champs, Kotaro Suzuki and Ricky Marvin. They’ve got an easy grudge match against the ROH Tag Team champs, The Briscoes and they bring a great cruiserweight style of wrestling to the table. Plus, you might also get a surprise appearance by Mushi-King Terry out of it. These two can pull off an exciting match under most circumstances and I think these two are long overdue for some more US exposure.

What about Go Shiozaki? He had a great match against Bryan Danielson during the Japan tour and would be a great heavyweight competitor to bring in. His only downside is that for as exciting as he is, Shiozaki does not get booked strongly in NOAH. He gets into big matches and has good matches, but always seems to come out on the bottom. While NOAH could just simply book him stronger, he could also benefit from a couple of appearances in ROH. He can pick up some extra experience and as a good ambassador for NOAH he’ll get pushed harder back home. Maybe?

Who else could ROH bring in? Takashi Sugiura and Mohammad Yone might be up for consideration as they’re both fun and have some following here in the States. Plus, they have made appearances in ROH in the past but didn’t wrestle. Sugiura could be used in a good technical match with the likes of Danielson and a Yone vs. Delirious match could be a ton of fun with some good wrestling thrown in there.

Before I forget (again) No Surrender is this weekend and is going to be chock full of fun. Just bursting at the seams with it. No really. After a week of the steroid scandal in the WWE and all the shit that’s been going on any PPV could do wonders to cheer up a wrestling fan. Yeah, the show looks terrible and allows people to use the “Total Non-Stop Angle” tag in regards to Kurt Angle being in three matches. Possibly in a row. THAT would be too much. But maybe we could all do with a distraction and No Surrender could do that for us. Hey, if nothing else we can make fun of Jimmy Rave. Christ, that’s going to be a mess if Rave hasn’t go a decent manager. Christy Hemme is no Prince Nana, but it’s better than the nothing he had at the end of his run in ROH. Plus, his matches were shitty.

Short Takes
-London & Kendrick winning the tag titles in South Africa was some interesting news. Kind of just the topping off of a wild week in the WWE.

-It’s a shame that Ric Flair is gone with so little fanfare. At this point only the WWE can really give him the perfect stage for a retirement angle and while he could really help TNA by putting them over, anything long term there wouldn’t work out.

-I’m not surprised that WWE would try to approach Morishima and I’m even less surprised that NOAH would flat out say no. He’d be good in the WWE style and while he’d have to ease up on his offense his size and agility would really help him out. But Morishima is the kind of guy who’s more suited to the Puro style of things and if he did go to the WWE he’d get some weird gimmick that people would hate.

-CHIKARA’s Cibernetico is probably my favorite time of the year with that company. I’d love to go if I get the time. If you’re in the Philly area, check it out because the Cibernetico is something that’s pretty damn special.

-Team Pacman is going to win the TNA tag titles. I can just feel it. How they do it is going to determine how much hate they get for it.

That’s all for this week. I’m in a bit of a rush with other things, but I want to say thanks to those who sent in some emails last week. I’ll get to them next week when I get the chance. Rock on.