Chikako Shiratori Intai Kogyo 6/8 Tokyo Differ Ariake 658
In her retirement match, Shiratori went to a 10:00 draw with Rie Tamada. Both were members of AJW's class of '91.

DEEP 2001 1/8 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan 4,800
Brazil defeated Japan in the five match series 2-0-3. All the matches in this series were three 5 minute rounds, except the Gracie match, which was two 10 minute rounds. Surprisingly, Royler Gracie was only able to draw with Osaka Puroresu's Takehiro Murahama. Murahama was able to avoid Gracie's tackles and use his striking skills to do some damage. He survived a choke sleeper, and even put Royler down twice. This should be a big boost to Murahama's career, as he was just another pro wrestler doing a (striking oriented since he started in shootboxing then went to K-1 where he won the featherweight tournament in 1997 and became champion, but at 5'4", 150 he was too small to do anything on the main cards) shooter gimmick, but suddenly he's got a win in RINGS and a draw with probably the best Gracie in his first Vale Tudo match. Once again, the lines between pro wrestling and shooting were blurred as Murahama is trying to use this showing to get a match with Minoru Tanaka in New Japan for the IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshuken.
Pancrase's Ikuhisa Minowa drew Ricardo Liborio.
Carlson Gracie student Paulo Filho beat Pancrase's KEI Yamamiya via KO from ground punches 29 seconds into round 2.
Marcelo Tiger made Katsuhisa Fujii submit to a choke sleeper at 2:27 of round 2.
Pancrase's Daisuke Ishii drew Jorge Patino Macaco.

Manabu Yamada, 31, had his retirement exhibition match, going 3:00 with Sanae Kikuta. Initially, Yamada was one of the best fighters in Pancrase, largely because he was established in Shooto before joining the promotion for the 5/31/94 show, whereas the other natives were guys that had been doing works or were rookies. He could strike well enough that he was fine in standup unless he was in with Bas Rutten, but submissions were what won him virtually every match, particularly the heel hold (while it was still legal). He was undersized (theoretically 5'8", 187), but isn't everyone in Pancrase? Yamada's best year was 1994 when he went 7-2, including wins over Frank Shamrock & Minoru Suzuki to reach the finals of the KING OF PANCRASE Title Tournament where he lost a 30:00 decision to Ken Shamrock. Unfortunately, this did not propell him to greater success, as he was basically a .500 fighter in 1995 & 1996 and never recieved a title shot. He did defeat Masakatsu Funaki on 4/8/95, and it was not a fluke because he was the better fighter on that night. He also came back and defeated Jason Delucia to keep his ranking on 5/13/95 after being upset by Delucia on 3/10/95. He had his arm operated on after his 10/8/96 loss to Bas Rutten, and did not return until 9/14/98. He was no longer any good when he returned, but they kept him in preliminary matches so he didn't take too much of a beating and often was able to win via decision. He pretty much fought a full schedule in 1999, but his only match since was a 10:00 decision loss to Yuki Kondo on 1/23/00. Apparently he's a good cook because even when he was out of action he'd usually be shown preparing a meal for the other guys.
Pancrase's KENGO (Watanabe) beat SPWF's Tachihikari via 22 second KO from standing punches. Watanabe is looking to represent Pancrase on PRIDE & UFC (Japan) shows.
Pancrase's Kosei Kubota went to a draw with Ueyama Ryuki from Kiyoshi Tamura's U-FILE CAMP.
Yoji Anjo drew Seikendo's Hirragishvili Gia.

A puroresu only building in the Koto ward of Ariake called DIFFER Ariake is set to open on 7/1. The building was already there, just not used for wrestling. They spent 700,000,000-en remodelling it. Shows from there should look good because it has a 9 x 15 meter television screen, runway, color lights, and a directional smoke machine. The owners hope it can surpass Korakuen Hall as wrestlings sacred building. Also, the third floor will have press conferences and exercises that are open to the public, so the promotions can do their angles there before or after shows. They are catering to fans who drive to the shows by offering free parking in their 1,000 car lot. All Japan will open their '00 Summer Action Series there on 7/1, and may not use Korakuen Hall anymore despite selling the building out 2-3 times on each tour for several years. The buildings second show will be All Japan Women on 7/2.

Some more notes on the Rikidozan Memorial Show. Jones was 7'2" former WCW wrestlers Ron Reis dressed up in the full bodysuit that Vader wore when he first started wrestling in New Japan. Jones didn't get over because he is still ungodly awful. Furthermore, Hashimoto is the worst guy to use weak blows and brawling against because of his shooter image. Hashimoto didn't come out initially, but finally came out looking like he'd sustained a huge beating. The thing with the Kazunari Murakami angle is that nobody saw it since it was done before the show with no one around and there was no announcement made during the show that Hashimoto had been attacked, so everyone was like WTF? when Hashimoto came out acting half dead. Hashimoto was destroyed by Jones, but Jones wasn't able to look credible, so people were laughing at what was supposed to be their toughman Hashimoto getting overwhelmed by a new monster like Inoki was by the real Vader on 12/27/87. I guess it once again shows that what sounds good on paper isn't always good in actuality.

3/11 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena 13,500
There was a huge American type angle where Shinya Hashimoto was humiliated by UFO. Hashimoto was jumped by Kazunari Murakami in the parking lot. Murakami caught him off guard with a leg kick and proceeded to beat the out of him and made him bleed like crazy. The asphalt of the parking lot had a crimson puddle. Hashimoto went to the hospital to be treated, but returned in time for the match. He was obviously pissed at his partner Naoya Ogawa because Ogawa's regular partner put their grudge above what was important on this day, but winning wasn't important to U.FO., further humiliating Hashimoto was. Hashimoto was considering attacking Ogawa before the match, but the U.F.O. member of the opposing team, Big Van Jones, attacked Hashimoto before he had the chance. Tenryu, of course, gave Hashimoto the typical assortment of heavy blows, leading to Hashimoto's cut being reopened. Hashimoto was pinned by the guy that "didn't belong," young 210 cm monster Jones following an elbow drop at just 8:51. Hashimoto was totally disgusted because he was convinced by U.F.O. President Antonio Inoki, a man that Hashimoto looks up to, to put aside the grudge for one day for the good of paying tribute to the father of puroresu Rikidozan when the reality as far as Hashimoto is concerned is that Inoki and his boys couldn't put aside the grudge. Instead, they made an ass of him in front of all those people, and made their wannabe Vader into a star. Due to this great humiliation, Hashimoto vowed to retire if he couldn't beat Ogawa on 4/7 at the Tokyo Dome. This angle should really work because the kind of heat that should translate into money was put on the U.F.O. Ogawa is already a major star so he doesn't need help, but Murakami and Jones weren't stars so this angle is helping them reach that level. Hashimoto looked really bad today because they screwed him, but bruising his ego to the point where he feels there's no point in going on if he can't regain his honor be defeating his mortal enemy will translate into more people paying to see him avenge this humiliation. The only thing that I don't like about the angle is that Inoki and Ogawa claimed that Murakami acted on his own. It's more WWFish if it was a plot from someone in power, but they've made the most money off screwing a top face in this manner. Thus, if you are going to import anything from WWF, this should be it.

Antonio Inoki returned to the ring for an exhibition match, losing to 17-year-old Hideaki Takizawa in 3:57 following an elbow drop. Yoshiaki Fujiwara was the ref, and he was helping Takizawa out. I'm not sure if this was why Inoki punched Fujiwara or if he accidentally hit Fujiwara and that caused Fujiwara to help out the opposition. Anyway, Fujiwara he held Inoki so Takizawa could rip his shirt off. He also gave Inoki a fast count, so Inoki's loss was tainted. Takizawa's key offense was five alley kicks in a row. The female fans were supposed to be really excited that the idol won. Inoki said there would be a return match. If it's supposed to be an exhibition so Inoki doesn't have to become another Mr. Liar, why should there be a rematch? In Inoki's defense, they didn't announce this match until Takizawa, who was there to sing (he's one of those singers that all the teenage girls like and all the guys hate), asked for it during the opening ceremony, so this was hardly a cheap stunt to sell more tickets (although the rematch probably will be).
Yoji Anjo defeated Tarzan Goto by disqualification in 13:37 when Goto tried to use the chain on Anjo. Anjo hasn't been fighting since the Maeda incident, and faces a 200,000 yen fine if Maeda wins the case. I guess they didn't want to make him look like any more of a bad guy. When I saw DQ I expected it to be Anjo trying to be an even bigger heel, but I guess we are supposed to feel sorry for the cheap shot artist.
Ryuji Yamakawa & Tomoaki Honma defeated H & Naohiko Yamazaki when Yamakawa pinned the designated jobber Yamazaki at 18:58 following his reverse Tigerdriver.
Junji Hirata & Ryuma Go downed Osamu Kido & Tadao Yasuda when Hirata used a kubigatame on Yasuda at 7:11.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara defeated Shodai Tiger Mask when the referee stopped the match at 10:56 because Tiger was trapped in an akiresukengatame.
Neo may be dead, but somehow Kyoko Inoue & Yoshiko Tamura & Yuka Nakamura were able to beat the superior JWP team of Dynamite Kansai & Azumi Hyuga & Tsubasa Kuragaki when Tamura used her reverse doublewrist armsault on Kuragaki at 16:36.
If anyone paid to see the first match between former WWWA world champion Yumiko Hotta & current JWP open weight champion Ran Yu-Yu, they were ripped off because they wound up doing a watered down tag match with Hotta teaming with Command Bolshoi to beat Yu-Yu and Kayoko Haruyama. The match only went 10:10, with Bolshoi pinning Haruyama, of course, following her nadare shiki no uranage. It's certainly good for the long run that they didn't do Hotta vs. Yu-Yu on this show, but there's absolutely no excuse for them not seeing this from day one.
Yuki Kondo beat Korea's Han Tae Yoon in :40 with a choke sleeper. I assume this was the one shoot on the show.
Naoki Sano upset Yuki Ishikawa, forcing him to submit to a boston crap variation at 11:30.
Gran Hamada & Magnum TOKYO defeated CIMA & Sumo "Daddy" Fuji Nichi in 10:10 when Magnum used his Viagara driver on Fuji.

Yoji Anjo defeated Tarzan Goto by disqualification in 13:37 when Goto tried to use the chain on Anjo. Anjo hasn't been fighting since the Maeda incident, and faces a 200,000 yen fine if Maeda wins the case. I guess they didn't want to make him look like any more of a bad guy. When I saw DQ I expected it to be Anjo trying to be an even bigger heel, but I guess we are supposed to feel sorry for the cheap shot artist.
Ryuji Yamakawa & Tomoaki Honma defeated H & Naohiko Yamazaki when Yamakawa pinned the designated jobber Yamazaki at 18:58 following his reverse Tigerdriver.
Junji Hirata & Ryuma Go downed Osamu Kido & Tadao Yasuda when Hirata used a kubigatame on Yasuda at 7:11.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara defeated Shodai Tiger Mask when the referee stopped the match at 10:56 because Tiger was trapped in an akiresukengatame.
Neo may be dead, but somehow Kyoko Inoue & Yoshiko Tamura & Yuka Nakamura were able to beat the superior JWP team of Dynamite Kansai & Azumi Hyuga & Tsubasa Kuragaki when Tamura used her reverse doublewrist armsault on Kuragaki at 16:36.
If anyone paid to see the first match between former WWWA world champion Yumiko Hotta & current JWP open weight champion Ran Yu-Yu, they were ripped off because they wound up doing a watered down tag match with Hotta teaming with Command Bolshoi to beat Yu-Yu and Kayoko Haruyama. The match only went 10:10, with Bolshoi pinning Haruyama, of course, following her nadare shiki no uranage. It's certainly good for the long run that they didn't do Hotta vs. Yu-Yu on this show, but there's absolutely no excuse for them not seeing this from day one.
Yuki Kondo beat Korea's Han Tae Yoon in :40 with a choke sleeper. I assume this was the one shoot on the show.
Naoki Sano upset Yuki Ishikawa, forcing him to submit to a boston crap variation at 11:30.
Gran Hamada & Magnum TOKYO defeated CIMA & Sumo "Daddy" Fuji Nichi in 10:10 when Magnum used his Viagara driver on Fuji.

If you thought Kazuyuki Fujita was a weak partner for Genichiru Tenryu, it gets a lot worse. Inoki couldn't get any major players, so he's putting the Vader wannabe from his U.F.O. promotion Big Van Jones with Tenryu against Naoya Ogawa & Shinya Hashimoto.

The latest on Genichiru Tenryu's partner for the main event is that it'll probably be Kazuyuki Fujita. Even though Nobuhiko Takada's drawing power continues to free fall, Fujita is still a far cry from Takada at this point. The thing is by the time they get around to announcing him, practically the only thing he might effect is the walk up sales.

The latest angle to set up the Rikidozan show is that Shinya Hashimoto "agreed" to tag with Naoya Ogawa for the main event of the Rikidozan Memorial. Hashimoto & Ogawa shook hands at Narita airport a little before Antonio Inoki was going to leave for the US, and all was well for a few seconds. Takashi Iizuka & Kazunari Murakami, their respective partners in the 1/4/00 Tokyo Dome tag match, soon found out that Hashimoto had agreed to tag with Ogawa and weren't the least bit pleased. There was a scuffle and Ogawa "couldn't contain" his anger, so he wound up punting Hashimoto in the chest.
Nobuhiko Takada officially declined Antonio Inoki's offer to team with Genichiru Tenryu against Hashimoto & Ogawa, citing the infamous knee injury that was his excuse for his latest awful MMA performance against Royce Gracie. Inoki is now interested in getting Vader to be Tenryu's partner, but considering what company Vader works for, I certainly don't expect this to happen.

With the exclusion of the dream main event, which hasn't been announced because Shinya Hashimoto "refuses" to team with Naoya Ogawa and Nobuhiko Takada hasn't agreed to participate, the lineup for the 2nd Rikidozan Memorial on 3/11 at Kanagawa Yokohama Arena was announced. The matches are as follows:
Yoji Anjo vs. Tarzan Goto in a grudge match. This grudge goes back to 1996 when Anjo was wrestling on all the independent shows because UWF-I was basically dead.
Tomoaki Honma & Ryuji Yamakawa of Big Japan vs. H & Naohiro Yamazaki of FMW. I'm kind of surprised that Kanemura isn't in this match.
Osamu Kido & Tadao Yasuda of New Japan vs. NJ's Junji Hirata & Ryuma Go of his own Go Yumerai (?) Pro-Wrestling
Yoshiaki Fujiwara of his own Fujiwara-gumi vs. Shodai Tiger Mask of his own Seikendo
Dynamite Kansai & Azumi Hyuga & Tsubasa Kuragaki of JWP vs. Kyoko Inoue & Yoshiko Tamura & Yuka Nakamura of the new Neo Japan
Yumiko Hotta of AJW vs. Ran Yu-Yu of JWP. I would have expected them to save the first match between these two for one of the AJW vs. JWP shows, especially since none of the other promotions are sending "big" matches that you would have expected to see on their own shows. Perhaps they want to make a good impression and feel this is a way to get people interested in AJW vs. JWP, but they would have been better off using Manami Toyota if that was the case.
Yuki Kondo of Pancrase vs. Han Tae Yoon.
Yuki Ishikawa of Battlarts vs. Naoki Sano of Takada Dojo.
Gran Hamada of Michinoku & Magnum TOKYO of Toryumon vs. CIMA & Sumo "Daddy" Fuji Nichi of Toryumon.

A main event tag match between Naoya Ogawa's team and Genichiru Tenryu's is now definite for the 3/11 Rikidozan Memorial. Since Kazunari Murakami has no name value or drawing power, he's not going to be teaming with Ogawa. The proposal right now is for a dream tag match where Ogawa would team with arch enemy Shinya Hashimoto for the first time against Tenryu & Nobuhiko Takada. It's safe to say that this has way more drawing power than Ogawa & Murakami vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata. It should also be a much better match. One would think such a pairing would set up Ogawa against Takada, assuming Takada's options are now limited enough that he'll agree to put Ogawa over.

Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami's shot at the IWGP tag titles on the Rikidozan show might be falling through or at least held off because they are doing an angle to set those two up for a match against Genichiru Tenryu and a partner of his choice.

The second memorial show to honor the father of puroresu, Rikidozan, will be held on 3/11 at Kanagawa Yokohama Arena. Kotetsu Yamamoto will be the matchmaker. They are trying to get 18 promotions to participate in the 10 match show. So far NJ, FMW, UFO, Battlarts, Takada Dojo, PWFG, Michinoku, Toryumon, Seikendo, Samurai Puroresu, BJ, Pancrase, AJW, JWP, LLPW have agreed, so there will be at least 15 promotions plus freelancers Genichiru Tenryu, Tarzan Goto, and Yoji Anjo. The first Rikidozan Memorial was on 6/30/96 at the same arena, and was not particularly good because there were too many garbage wrestlers involved on a show where garbage wrestling basically wasn't allowed.

The annual Puroresu awards were announced today. These awards are very political in nature. For instance, an All Japan wrestler couldn't win MVP this year because their MVP would be Vader and a gaijin can't win this award. Thus, these awards should not be taken seriously as far as them making accurate selections goes because they really don't try to or at best they try to pick the right person within the restrictions they place on themselves. They pretty much just spread the awards around between the big names of the various promotions. However, with so many promotions drawing poorly and no one in FMW winning anything, it seems like it's basically down to New Japan & All Japan this year.
Keiji Muto was named 1999 MVP and his 5/3 Fukuoka Kokusai Center IWGP Heavykyu Senshuken defense against Genichiru was named Best Bout. & Kenta Kobashi won MVP and Best Bout last year, so it was probably New Japan's turn or something. I can see Muto getting MVP even though he's had a lot of injury trouble because he held the IWGP title all year and drew a big house for the DUD against Onita. However, Best Bout is something they never get right and this is far worse than the last two years when they simply picked the wrong Misawa vs. Kobashi and the wrong Kobashi match.
Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama won the award for best tag team, which seems fair considering they have the most actual talent and that translated into holding the tag titles for half the year and winning the tag league.
Kazushi Sakuraba won Shukan Sho (distinguished services/performance award). I'm not sure of their reasoning, as the article talks about him wanting to compete in the New Japan Junior division. Anyone who exposes how overrated the Gracie's are deserves some kind of award though.
Naoya Ogawa & Manabu Nakanishi won Kanto Sho (fighting spirit award). Ogawa is a weird choice because his psychology seems to go against the definition of the award. Sure, he has a lot of charisma, but fighting spirit is generally an underdog who fights hard against all odds, rather than a star who knows he's good and isn't afraid to brag about it. Nakanishi had the push, but It's still weird to see him get this award when he's not particularly fiery or charismatic. I guess the surprise of him winning the G1 goes a long way except when it comes to him actually meaning anything at the box office.
Yuji Nagata won Ginou Sho (technical skill award) for the second straight year. To show you the credibility of this award, last year Hiro Saito was nominated, while Kiyoshi Tamura wasn't. That's not to say that Nagata isn't one of the better technical wrestlers, but it should take a better technical wrestler than him to win two years in a row, especially when he obviously wasn't the best either year.
Naomichi Marufuji won Shinjin Sho (new face/newcomer award).This award is more like someone that came out of nowhere and impressed people than anything else, I think. However, that still doesn't explain how Marufuji can go from finishing second last year to winning this year.
Lioness Asuka won the Joshi Puroresu Taisho (women's pro-wrestling big prize). I figured this would go to Chigusa Nagayo since she beat Lioness in the rematch and was more responsible for drawing the two big houses than Lioness was. I guess Lioness staring in more than one league, being TWF champ, and having a chance to unify that title with the WWWA Sekai Single (she went to a 60:00 draw with Kyoko on 8/22, so both women kept their respective titles) is probably what put her over the top. The fact that she's still one of the best while Chigusa is a slug couldn't have hurt, but I doubt it really helped either since they had no problem giving the award to Shinobu Kandori (it was unanimous) last year even though she is not a good worker because when she held the WWWA Sekai Single, put asses in the seats, and had heated matches. This year she didn't have many opportunities to draw because the other leagues wised up and didn't let her run over their big stars.
The late Giant Baba won Tokubetsu Koro Sho (special meritorious deeds/service large award), while Masa Saito, Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Maeda, Kazuo Yamazaki, Katsuhisa Shibata (NJ referee), Yoshinosato, Jackie Sato, & Hiro Matsuda won the smaller Koro Sho (meritorious deeds/service award). These two always go to wrestlers who either die or retire, so Baba was an obvious choice given his huge stardom and all he's done for Puroresu.