The Navigation Log 2.03.08: Indy Japanese Invasion

Onto the Navigation Log!

Getting to Know Kota Ibushi
Using my masterful deduction skills, last week I correctly predicted that Kota Ibushi would the Japanese star being brought into Ring of Honor. Kota is essentially your typical Japanese indy wrestler. Indy in this case means working in every possible promotion as many times as possible. His home promotion is DDT, but he has appeared for Dragon Gate, El Dorado, NOAH, OZ Academy, Big Japan, and a slew of others. Ibushi gets around and now he will be making his debut in ROH.

“Golden Star” Kota Ibushi
Finishers: Golden Star Press (630 Phoenix Splash)
Signature Moves: German Suplex, Tiger Suplex, Moonsault Press, Springboard Phoenix Splash

Ibushi is a bit spot heavy. For example his moonsault press will often involve his opponent rolling out of the way only for Kota to land on his feet to hit a second moonsault. This is a pretty cool spot, I’ll admit and could go over well in ROH. One of his not so great spots would be when his opponent ducks a buzzsaw kick by laying down. Ibushi then hits either a standing moonsault or shooting star press. That one generally doesn’t look as good. All in all though I think Ibushi will go over well. There was some skepticism on the ROH message boards (big surprise there) as a lot of people seemed to fear that they were going to end up watching a Japanese version of Pac. Not that there’s anything wrong with Pac (well, I’m not really a fan) but the general consensus was he choked in New York and that he couldn’t handle the pressure of the big crowd. One thing I can say about Ibushi is he’s been in a big match situation. And being able to get a Budokan crowd to go nuts is, in my opinion, a lot more impressive that the performing in the much smaller venues that ROH frequents.

I’d guess that the best way to use Ibushi would be in multi-man matches. He could easily steal the show in a Four Corner Survival match. I didn’t check, but I think that his visit may be around the same time Dragon Gate is coming. He would fit in great in a DG-style match (mostly due to him wrestling a similar style and being familiar with the Dragon Gate wrestlers).

Kota Ibushi in my eyes is more than welcome to visit the US anytime he wants.

NOAH News
That might be the first time I haven’t discussed NOAH first in this column. Well there’s a first for everything.

NOAH is gearing up for the Second Navigation, announcing some big title matches. First, Global Hardcore Champion Kishin Kawabata will be defending his title against Mitsuo Momota. Momota is the oldest wrestler on the NOAH roster with a 36 year career. There’s a special catch with this match though: there will be a 10 minute time limit on the match. If Kawabata cannot beat Momota in that time limit, he will lose his title. It’s a tight spot for the champion in this case. Momota is a very cagey veteran and could keep the match going long enough to win the belt. Imagine a Japanese version of Flair though maybe not quite as dirty.

Next title match is set for the Budokan finale. Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura will defend their Heavyweight Tag Titles against The Briscoes. That’s a very interesting title match if you ask me. You’ve got two teams who technically fall under the category of junior heavyweight fighting over a heavyweight title. It would be pretty cool to see The Briscoes win the belts, but it’s not likely. Their win of the Jr. Heavyweight belts was improbable, but there was also an easy out for them to drop the titles before they left. Is NOAH really going to let their titles go to another country? It’s especially even less likely while there’s another set of tag titles around the waists of another non-NOAH team. This should be a pretty entertaining match though.

Two other big match to take note of are not exactly huge matches per se, but it’s worth noting because it’s another thing I predicted. The opening show of the Second Navigation is going to feature a long awaited Kings of Wrestling reunion. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli will face Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga. Following this at the Budokan finale The Kings will face Akiyama again only this time his partner will be Takeshi Rikio who is making his long awaited return from injury during the Second Navigation. Could this be the most awesome moment in NOAH of all time? Sources say yes. Sources being me.

Japanese Independent Stars to CHIKARA
CHIKARA’s big King of Trios weekend is coming up at the end of February and as expected they’re going to be bringing a couple contingents from Japan. The official Team Japan will be comprised of MIYAWAKI, KUDO, & SUSUMU. Three stars from the Kaientai Dojo, MIYAWAKI look like he’ll be the team captain of sorts and KUDO has a lot of experience in CHIKARA. The outsider here is SUSUMU, who is something of an unknown to me. He’s another Japanese indy guy who probably gets around to a lot so I’m sure he’ll do fine. MIYAWAKI & KUDO made it to the finals last year along with Yoshiaki Yago so I’m sure they’d love a repeat.

A new team will be representing the El Dorado promotion. This team will consist of Mototsugu Shimizu, Go, & Michael Nakazawa. I can admit some ignorance to a lot of El Dorado’s stars but I can say that Shimizu and Go are from opposing factions in Dorado called SUKIYAKI and Hell Demons respectively. I’m more familiar with Nakazawa, who spent 2007 as part of the Nuru Nuru Brothers tag team in DDT. He had some solid matches and over all has a pretty hilarious gimmick. He liberally applies baby oil to himself and thus his opponents can’t grab him and throw him or anything. It’ll do great in CHIKARA.

Your Weekly Puro
This week’s match comes from DDT. HARASHIMA defends his KO-D Openweight title against MIKAMI. I’ll admit, this match can get ugly at times but these two really kill each other. MIKAMI is well known for his best friend LADDER~! who actually ends up playing a part in his matches. Of he LADDER~! enters this match and we get quite the spotfest. The best part? MIKAMI looks like a poor man’s Jeff Hardy, from the Swanton down to the fishnet shirt.

DDT KO-D Openweight Title: HARASHIMA © vs. MIKAMI

Part 1

Part 2

At Home
Wow the Royal Rumble was great. I really enjoyed it, even though a lot the undercard was just to advance other stories but it still worked. The Jericho/JBL stuff was great, if mostly for the story over the match. Hardy and Orton worked well and I do think the WWE missed a chance to really push Hardy to the top. I have a feeling that the reason they didn’t was they didn’t want Hardy winning the title to be overshadowed by Cena’s Rumble win. By the way, Cena coming back was epic. Screw the haters.

The Rumble itself was subpar until Cena’s appearance but I was really impressed with a few performances. Namely John Morrison, CM Punk, and Cody Rhodes. These three young guys looked good and did hold their own against a lot of veterans. Sure they were all dumped when it came time for more heavy hitters to come out. They looked like the future stars so many people have pegged them as.

Short Takes
-Kofi Kingston has been good, but he really is going to get old as a generic babyface fast. He’s got to just have some squashes when he just hits that kick and ends it. That’d be cool.

-Stone Cold Shark Boy might get old soon, but if TNA’s going to milk it let them. It’s a parody so they technically can’t be sued for it, though it wouldn’t be prudent to keep it long term.

-Colin Delaney/Olsen is the man. He appeared at CHIKARA’s shows last weekend all bandaged up apparently telling people he fell down the stairs. His partner Jimmy Olsen apparently doesn’t realize what’s going on.