The Navigation Log 11.04.07: Misawa in America

With the Autumn Navigation over and NOAH stars making appearances in the United States, things have slowed down here quite a bit. While NOAH prepares for the Winter Navigation and their final shows of the year I’ll spend my time this week talking about the ROH shows this weekend. Cop out? Yes! My deepest apologies if this comes off as incoherent as I think it does in the end.

Coming to America
I feel I should note that NOAH’s official English page has pictures of the NOAH contingent running up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. Now I had been there and left within maybe a few minutes of them doing this. I’m kicking myself that I missed them. I haven’t seen them up close since January when I had seats on the floor in Differ Ariake.

At the time of writing this column Mitsuharu Misawa will have already competed in one match. That being the all NOAH tag match in Philadelphia with KENTA against Marufuji & Morishima. It’s interesting that the match went to a time limit draw, but at the same time it’s not all that surprising. Time limit draws are fairly common in NOAH, especially as a way when they don’t want anyone to look weak. No one takes the fall and the fact that they all took each other to limit with no clear winner. It’s a great device in tournaments, as we’ve seen over the past year. A draw kept the NTV Tournament from going to a tie at the end.

Some might say that the time limit draw finish was something of a cop out in this case. In a way, they’re right. You pay good money to Misawa, a living legend of Japan and you can’t get a clean finish. On the other hand, you got 30 minutes of action featuring Misawa, which is why anyone who went to the show would have bought a ticket in the first place.

Dispute over the finish aside, ROH fans: was I right about Misawa? How did he look in the ring? Be honest? How much work did he do in that tag match? If you went in there expecting him to be at the same level that Kenta Kobashi had when he visited ROH, you were in denial. I hope Misawa brought his working boots to New York, because it sure as hell doesn’t sound like he did in Philly.

A Japanese Wish List
ROH fans have become quite accustomed to seeing big time Japanese stars come to the States for them. Misawa, Kobashi, KENTA, Morishima, and Marufuji have all made their presence felt in America through their visits. Stars from Dragon Gate have made an equal impact. These guys came in a left a lasting impression on American fans to the point where they want to come back or in some cases send other stars. We wouldn’t have gotten Morishima as ROH champion had all the previous stars before him not have made such an impact. The following is small list of Japanese stars and acts that I would like to see come visit The States.

Masato Tanaka: Come on, who doesn’t want Tanaka to come back? Do you have a pulse? I think a lot people assumed that he dropped off the face of the Earth after his final battle with Mike Awesome at ECW One Night Stand. Tanaka has continued to do well for himself in Japan though and has been having a great 2007. The only problem might be finding an opponent for him. Any promotion that brought him in would want to get him in a match that would rival his series with Awesome, which might prove to be a problem.

Yoshiaki Yago: Yago appeared for CHIKARA’s King of Trios already this year. He made quite an impression in 2006 as well with a hard hitting war with Necro Butcher. I say bring ‘em back more often. He throws some of the stiffest heart punches I’ve seen in awhile.

MIYAWAKI: This is along the same lines as bringing in Yago. He got insanely over in CHIKARA and deserves some extra exposure in the US. Plus, headbutt.

Akira Taue: They’ve brought in Kobashi and Misawa to ROH. So why not Taue as well? They would need to do this soon though. Taue is no spring chicken and the time he has left is fading fast.

Go Shiozaki: He’s not often on the winning side of things in NOAH, but if you’ve seen his match with Bryan Danielson or his matches during the King of Europe Cup tournament he’d be a real draw in a place like ROH.

BxB Hulk: He appeared in FIP awhile back and will hopefully be a part of this year’s Dragon Gate contingent that visits ROH this year.

Kota Ibushi: He flips and flops, but damn he looks good doing it. I’m a hell of a lot more impressed with him then I have ever have been with say PAC.

That’s a small list I guess. There’s a lot more guys I’d like to see in the States more frequently. Maybe, I’ll continue the list in coming weeks.

King of Gate 2007
Dragon Gate has announced the field for its 2007 King of Gate tournament. The participants will be:

Typhoon
CIMA, Dragon Kid, Susumu Yokosuka, Ryo Saito, Anthony W. Mori

New Hazard
Shingo Takagi, BxB Hulk, Cyber Kong

Muscle Outlaw’z
Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Yasushi Kanda, Gamma

Tozawa-juku
Kenichiro Arai

Non-affiliated
Don Fuji, Masaski Mochizuki, Austin Aries

There’s one spot left in the tournament. Who’s it going to be? Fucked if I know, don’t ask me. Be prepared though Dragon Gate fans, Naruki Doi is poised to drop his final bombshell this week. I cannot wait to see what it ends up being.

At Home
I really haven’t had time to watch any wrestling on TV this week so I couldn’t really comment on anything. Well, I suppose that I could laugh over all the people who watched both Cyber Sunday and then Raw the next night hoping to see Chris Jericho. That’s what I’d call buying into non-existent hype. They’ll damn sure let you know when they’re ready to unveil what this whole thing is going to be about. It’s also hilarious that a guy who wasn’t even on the show was more over than most of the people who performed at Cyber Sunday. I guess I just have a sick sense of humor. Though I’ll give the WWE credit, the show was solid and a huge step up from last year’s god awful Cyber Sunday.

No sooner does the WWE enact a policy to name names when someone is suspended for Wellness violations, then both Chris Masters and Harry “D.H.” Smith are given suspensions. Smith has just made it to TV so this will certainly set him back. I wouldn’t be too concerned about his future though. The WWE has put a lot of effort into getting the guy ready for TV. Provided that he has the right attitude about it in the end (read: not Teddy Hart) he’ll be fine. Masters on the other hand may as well be fucked. This is his second Wellness suspension and combined with his recent problems with the Undertaker on house shows and his general stagnation on TV we could be seeing the end of the Masterpiece soon. Unlike Smith, Masters doesn’t have the benefit of being the son of a legend so you’d have to imagine that management’s patience will run out eventually.

Finally, I’d like to issue condolences to the family, friends, and fans of Lillian Ellison, The Fabulous Moolah. We liked to complain about her appearances in the WWE in recent years, mainly because they always had her take her clothes off, but that should change the memory of her golden years as a performer. She really paved the way for women’s wrestling today. While it is shame that a lot of that has fallen to the wayside in favor of T&A, it does still live on. Moolah, you will be missed.

An Email
Since I left out the Weekly DDT this week, I thought I’d include an email. It’ll help me pretend I’m a linguist. The email this week comes from Chris Jacobs.

ok the article I read before this that talked about Joe winning the tag match said Emerald Frosion, not Flowsion, and didnt even mention the fact that Joe used it as a Island Driver, and just said that Joe won using the guys move against him. You guys gotta get your stuff together. And isnt the move called Emerald Fusion?

First, people should be aware that Joe’s Island Driver is the same as Misawa’s Emerald Flowsion. Same move, different name. The two moves are about as different as the Scorpion Deathlock is from the Sharpshooter. The allowed Joe to pin Misawa with it to add a bit of drama and intrigue to the title match that was to come.

As for what the right way to say Emerald Flowsion or Emerald Frosion, both are correct. This is the part where I pretend to be a linguist. The sounds of “L” and “R” don’t exist in Japanese, that’s why they have such a hard time pronouncing them when they speak English. When it’s spelled out in Japanese it would probably be closer to “Frosion” but if you look at NOAH’s official English page its spelled “Flowsion.” Again, both are correct it’s just a matter of preference to whoever’s writing it out. At the same time, when one talks about Misawa’s finishing move they wouldn’t say Fusion. That might be the English name for the move, but when speaking strictly about Misawa I’d say it’s wrong. Though again, that’s just a matter of preference really.

Short Takes
-I cannot believe Nigel McGuinness wrestled this weekend. It’s a great example of heart and desire to be a fighting champion, but with his injury it’s also downright stupid.

-I continue to laugh about the Jericho situation. It’s getting to point where people are saying they’ve dragged this out too long, when in actuality they’re just upset they bought a PPV to see a guy who wasn’t advertised.

-Batista vs. Undertaker in Hell in a Cell is going to be great. This is finally a feud that deserves this as the final match.

-It’s finally getting cold. Which is good because I was hating the unseasonably warm weather.

-Late addendum to my Japanese guys I want to see in the States: NOSAWA Rongai.