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Shin
Nihon Puroresu
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
7/8/00:
7/8 Miyagi Furukawa
Shi Sogo Taiikukan 1,800 A rule meeting for the 7/30 Riki Choshu vs. Atsushi Onita match is planned for 7/10. Masa Chono thinks Choshu will accept the stipulations. He said the explosions didn't hurt that much and Choshu shouldn't fear them, but he also wore an electro shock preventive suit "designed by NASA." |
7/6:
7/6 Yamagata Yonezawa
Shiei Taiikukan 2,700 sellout |
7/4:
7/4 Hyogo Takasago
Shi Sogo Taiikukan 1,700 |
7/3:
7/3 Okayama-ken
Taiikukan 3,600 sellout Atsushi Onita wants his 7/30 match against Riki Choshu to be the most powerful amerperage explosion match ever held indoors. I think he supposedly got clearance from the fire department to exceed the previous record of 200 volts and 160 bombs. Onita has had 3 indoor explosive matches in the past, 8/29/94 at Osaka Jo Hall, 10/30/94 at Harumi Kokusai Mihon Shi Dome, and the biggest on 4/10/99 at the Tokyo Dome. Choshu is still rejecting the idea of the match being an explosive death match, much less the biggest ever in an enclosed arena. |
7/2:
7/2 Gifu Sangyo
Kaikan 4,000 sellout They are playing up an angle where President Fujinami actually isn't doing Antonio Inoki's bidding. Inoki wants Kenda Kashin to fight Renzo Gracie on PRIDE.10, but Fujinami says he's not going to allow Kashin to participate. Of course, even when it's not decided in the ring, Inoki never loses a work, so expect Kashin to fight on PRIDE.10. |
6/30:
6/30 Kanagawa Ebina
Undo Koen Sogo Taiikukan 3,000 sellout Atsushi Onita made a surprise appearance so he could hand out petitions to get his match with Riki Choshu changed to an amperage explosion death match. This lead to some shouting back and forth. As an angle, Onita is trying to make New Japan concede to his demands by pulling a Gracie and saying that he won't wrestle the match unless it's under his rules. |
6/29:
6/29 Fukushima Kooriyama
Big Parrot (?) Fukushima 3,000 sellout |
6/28:
6/28 Tochigi Utsunomiya
Shi Taiikukan 3,000 sellout |
6/27:
6/27 Niigata Fukuoka
Kosei Kaikan 2,000 |
6/26:
New Japan had a stockholder meeting, discussing plans for their 30th Anniversary in 2002. It's already been decided that Seiji Sakaguchi will come out of retirement for one match in March 2002 (New Japan held their first show on 3/6/72 at Tokyo Ota-ku Taiikukan) to not only commemorate New Japan's 30th Anniversary, but also his 60th birthday (which is actually on 2/17/02). Antonio Inoki will probably be involved in this match as well. Sakaguchi retired in March of 1990, but came out of retirement for one match on 3/1/92 to celebrate New Japan's 20th Anniversary, teaming with Strong Kobayashi against Umanosuke Ueda & Tiger Jeet Singh. |
6/25:
6/25 Tokyo Korakuen
Hall 1,985 |
6/23: Juniors In G-1
The latest wrestler
Kensuke Sasaki has challenged to an IWGP heavyweight title match is
none other than Toshiaki Kawada. Sasaki also requested that Shinya Hashimoto
participate in he G1 Climax. The blocks for the G1 were announced though,
and, of course, Hashimoto's name isn't on the list of participants,
and neither is Muto's. Not coincidentally, it's the weakest G1 ever
from a marquee standpoint. A small change is that there will be 4 blocks
this year instead of in the past when it was either a tournament or
a two block league. The big change is that there will be a few juniors
in the G1 this year. I personally think this is a bad idea because they
don't seem very special when they are losing 75% or more of their matches
against the 'big boys." At least the juniors they picked are the
ones that are like heavyweights wrestling in the junior division. Anyway,
the blocks are as follows: |
6/20:
New Japan's 1st PPV on 7/30 will be on the Perfect Choice channel, which is channel 121 on SKY PerfecTV! for 2,000-en. New Japan hopes to get 100,00 buys. I believe the record for a wrestling/MMA event in Japan is only 50,000 buys for the 5/1 show. If they can get their 100,00 guys, the shows PPV gross would be in the $2 million range. |
6/9:
BEST OF THE SUPER
Jr. VII Yushoketteisen 6/9 Osaka Shi Cho Taiikukan 6,200 |
6/8:
6/8 Kagawa Takamatsu
Shi Sogo Taiikukan 2,600 New Japan has rejected Atsushi Onita's proposal for the match against Choshu to be an amperage explosion match. Onita felt this was the best way to "kill" Choshu, but New Japan wants to "protect Choshu's health." Seiji Sakaguchi said that Masakatsu Funaki's retirement is a waste. The former judo champion said he would have submitted as well if an expert had him caught in a choke, and also played down Funaki's loss saying that it was to a tough opponent. New Japan is interested in using Funaki, who began his career there before getting into worked shoots with U.W.F. and real shoots with Pancrase, but at the moment Funaki doesn't seem to be interested in them. |
6/7:
6/7 Imabari Shi
Kokaido 2,000 sellout |
6/6:
6/6 Yamaguchi Ube
Shi Tawarada Okina Kinen Taiikukan 2,500 Atsushi Onita is going to be training in the mountains for his match against Riki Choshu. This is going to help him "absorb the power of nature by assimilation" like Rickson Gracie does. |
6/5:
6/5 Kyoto Kameoka
Shimin Taiikukan 1,700 |
6/4:
Atsushi Onita wants his match against Riki Choshu to be a No People Match that would only be seen by the fans that purchased the PPV. This makes less than no sense when the live gate for this match will be a million or two, but only people with the Sky PerfecTV! Satellite dish can order the PPV. |
6/3:
6/3 Mie Tsu Shi
Taiikukan 3,500 sellout |
6/2:
6/2 Tokyo Nippon
Budokan 10,000 |
6/1:
6/1 Saitama Kuki
Shi Sogo Taiikukan 2,500 |
5/31:
The 7/30 show with Riki Choshu vs. Atsushi Onita will be New Japan's first PPV. The show will be broadcast live on SKY PerfecTV! for 2000-en. Next year, New Japan plans to broadcast all their shows live on PPV and the internet. They would be selling a package for all of them kind of like the season pass packages you can get for sports here except instead of seeing a bunch of different teams, it's the same league night after night. The wrestlers and bookers would really have to step to make more than the hardest of the hardcores want to watch 100 complete New Japan shows next year. Great Muta is eating sports nourishment food to enhance his muscularity since look is more important than work in the US. However, a Great Muta candy bar is being developed. |
5/30:
5/30 Ibaraki Tsukuba
Kabio 2,000 sellout |
5/29:
5/29 Nagano Saku
Shi Sogo Taiikukan 1,600 |
5/28:
5/28 Nagano Undo
Koen Sogo Taiikukan 3,300 sellout Atsushi Onita nominated the director of the Economic Planning Agency, 64-year-old Taichi Sakaiya to be his second for the match against Riki Choshu. Sakaiya is a smart guy that's well informed about the economy and has attended JWP before because he's a fan of Mayumi Ozaki, but how he would help Onita against Choshu is anyone's guess. Of course, when you look at the people WWF has had at their big shows over the years, you'd always ask the same question and the answer is as long as their appearance gets some publicity and they give a rub to the wrestlers, it doesn't matter what they can and can't do once they are there. Considering it's Choshu vs. Onita, it would be hard for Sakaiya to reduce the quality of the match any if he were to get involved momentarily, but it sounds like it's unlikely that he'll accept Onita's invitation. |
5/27:
Riki Choshu claims
his body feels as good as it did at his peak and he weighs 5kg less
than he did at his peak. He exercises twice a day, often with the G-EGGS
and his knee doesn't bother him as much as it used to (sure, but wait
until he starts competing again). |
5/26:
5/26 Aichi Kasugai
Shi Sogo Taiikukan 4,000 sellout Antonio Inoki, who wants Riki Choshu to make his in ring return against Naoya Ogawa, said he'll get Tatsumi Fujinami to banish Choshu from New Japan if he returns to the ring to wrestle Atsushi Onita. This may be the stupidest thing this side of the UFC ban on most cable systems, but at least this is just an angle. Let's see, Inoki is from a "rival organization" and wants that rival organizations top star to face Choshu immediately, but he's also New Japan's largest stock holder and in the storyline has more power there than their booker Choshu because President Fujinami was his protege and still does his bidding close to 30 years later. Onita worked 3 or New Japan's 4 biggest shows in 1999, but all of a sudden it's the worlds gravest sin for Choshu to come back and face him even though Onita has been calling Choshu out since late 1998, while Ogawa has only wanted to fight Choshu for a month. I don't see any logical reason presented for Choshu to be banned, and what difference does it really make if Choshu fights Onita at Yokohama Arena and then Ogawa at the next major show? Shinya Hashimoto accepted Fujinami's invitation and watched Funaki vs. Gracie with him. It's possible that he will return to fight Gracie, but I wouldn't count on it because Rickson isn't interested in doing works and Hashimoto isn't a shooter. |
5/25/00:
Tatsumi Fujinami is going to be at ringside for the Rickson Gracie vs. Masakatsu Funaki fight because he might try to put together Rickson vs. Shinya Hashimoto. Good luck. |
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