Digest of 1/2/06-7/3/06 tours plus the following complete matches
3/21/06: Kannazuki & Keiji Muto vs. Ijiri Okada & Satoshi Kojima 12:26
4/20/06: Champion Carnival 2006 Final: Taiyo Kea vs. Suwama 20:21
5/28/06: Kensuke Sasaki vs. "brother" YASSHI 9:31
7/3/06 Tokyo Ota Ward Gym
Kensuke Sasaki vs. "strong" YASSHI 4:32
AJPW Junior Heavyweight League 2006 Final: Kaz Hayashi vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima 20:58
Triple Crown Title: Satoshi Kojima vs. Taiyo Kea 19:56
#87
TAKA Michinoku & D-Lo Brown & Buchanan vs. Arashi & Kaz Hayashi & Nobukazu Hirai
Keiji Muto vs. Taiyo Kea
#88 Kensuke Sasaki 20th Anniversary Commemorative
Michael Iwasa & Daniel Mishima & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Kikutaro & Masked Volcano & Space Lone Wolf
Winner Takes All Battle Royal
#89
Kensuke Sasaki Debut 20th Anniversary Commemorative Special Dream Tag Match: Kensuke Sasaki & Kenta Kobashi vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Katsuhiko Nakajima 26:36. Sasaki went all out to make his special match memorable, delivering an intense and brutal chopfest in the style Kobashi & Sasaki made famous. The rivals exchanged chops to warm up then shook hands and prepared to lay into the opposition. Nakajima tried to stand up to his mentor, but after a quick start, Sasaki simply countered his headlock by picking him up and tossing him. The heat here was on Tenryu vs. Kobashi, and although Tenryu tried to avoid getting sucked into a chop exchange, they were quickly going back and forth until Tenryu changed it up with a kneecap dropkick after actually getting beat bloody. Tenryu took it to the floor, and after he reentered Kobashi challenged him to come back out for more, but Tenryu held the ropes open for him only to double cross him with an elbow then follow with a tope suicida. Kobashi remembered this, dragging Tenryu to the outside as soon as he had the chance, but Nakajima interjected, giving Tenryu the opening to chair Kobashi. Tenryu's chair caught Kobashi in the mouth, perhaps knocking a tooth out, but certainly busting him up so bad streams of blood dripped down his chest. The blood added to the aura of this totally badass match. Nakajima, of course, had to do most of the work for his team. He fought valiantly, trying to use his kicks to stand up to the heavyweight legends chops, of course predominantly taking a merciless beating. Nakajima was damn good though, providing all the diversity and much of the movement, even though he generally avoided finesse to keep the match in the realm of savagery. Tenryu helped him out a couple times, but generally allowed the kid to sink or swim on his own. Tenryu was into the sadism, and when he Tenryu finally made the hot tag, he directed his gu punches at Kobashi's bloody mouth. Tenryu may have finally dropped off in singles, but his work with Kobashi has been memorable. Though not quite as outstanding as Tenryu & Akiyama vs. Kobashi & Taue from NOAH 9/18/05, Kobashi & Tenryu have again delivered one of the best tags of the year! ****
#90
Junior Tag League highlights
Junior Tag League Match: Shuji Kondo & "brother" YASSHI vs. Kaz Hayashi & TAKA Michinoku 9:27 of 13:17. Effective, well structured story match with diabolical Voodoo Murderers dominating through ignoring sportsmanship. Unfortunately, Hayashi was the only wrestler that was good. Hayashi & TAKA had a fast start, but sinister Kondo irrevocably altered the contest by bashing TAKA's broken finger with his staff, causing Hayashi to have to go alone while TAKA was attended to in the locker room. Not only was it now a handicap match, but Murderers constantly double teamed Hayashi, instilling a sense of urgency, as he had to come up with something to end the match before he was too damaged. Hayashi had some explosive counters, but, of course, was mainly destroyed. A severely limited TAKA did eventually make it back to the ring when Hayashi finally made a comeback, his right hand and wrist so heavily taped he could do little more than clasp just facelock. TAKA set up a quebrada, but Kondo pulled him off the apron and once again slugged TAKA's hand with the staff, putting him out of commission for good and sealing Hayashi's fate. **1/2
Keiji Muto & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima 17:27 of 24:00. Sasaki had pink hair and tights to make fun of Yoshie. Yoshie was all effort, and Sasaki's match fits well into what little he can do. He had good chop exchanges with Kensuke and took Nakajima's kicks. That may be the extent of Yoshie's abilities, but irregardless, the match was much better when he was in because he actually allowed Sasaki & Nakajima to do their thing. Muto was pretty much on offense the entire time. There was one good spot where he did his worn out knee routine to Sasaki, but Nakajima stopped the figure 4 with Muto's own shining wizard. Otherwise, it was pretty routine. **3/4
#103 taped 5/21/06 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kaz Hayashi & TAKA Michinoku vs. NOSAWA & Katsushi Takemura
Satoshi Kojima & Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Akira Raijin vs. Voodoo Murders (TARU & Suwama & Shuji Kondo & "brother" YASSHI)
#104 taped 6/10/06 Mitsui Greenland Rainbow Dome Amusement Park
Minoru Suzuki vs. Ryuji Hijikata
Triple Crown Heavyweight Title Match: Satoshi Kojima vs. Suwama 21:28. I'm really at a loss to describe Suwama's performance here. He's getting his first big push, joining Voodoo Murderers and droping his first name. He's worked his way up to a title match with an opponent who is very much into entertaining the crowd, and he just doesn't show up. I mean, he seemed half asleep. He did some lame brawling and rest holds early, and things didn't get much better as the match progressed. Kojima was good as ever, going through his whole routine. The match was quality when he was on offense, but even then it never had any drama or intensity, never felt like a title match, a big match, even a main event. **
#107
Kensuke Sasaki & Akira Raijin & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Minoru Suzuki & NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA
Keiji Muto & Yutaka Yoshie & Brute Issei vs. TARU & Suwama & Shuji Kondo
Undercard clips
#108
YASSHI "Strong" Physical Feeling Match: Kensuke Sasaki vs. "Strong" YASSHI
Junior Heavyweight League Final: Kaz Hayashi vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima 20:58. Just two years into his career, Nakajima is already coming into his own and proving himself to be one of the best wrestlers on the planet. He'd done enough with his mentor Sasaki against Kenta Kobashi to prove he could have excellent tag matches, but now he took the next step and showed he didn't need those guys, despite just turning 18, he was his own man and could carry the excellence to singles. Both men stepped it up in a big way for the final, delivering some intense, desperate, and brutal action. It was the best of both styles with a stiff opening that gave way to Hayashi's junior offense, but not before a deadly knee attack that put Nakajima at an even more distinct disadvantage. The key spot of the match came early with Hayashi doing a kneebreaker off the apron where he jumped with Nakajima and crashed the kid's knee into the guard rail. Nakajima was hobbled for the rest of the match, and mainly took a king sized beating, earning points from the audience for a display of heart that included kicking out of virtually all Hayashi's favorite moves. The fans were going nuts when Nakajima finally came back with a few kicks and got a near fall with his German suplex. I thought/hoped/expected he had one last run in him, but he and the match just kind of ran out of steam there with Hayashi quickly put him away. ****
Digest of 7/22/06-12/25/06 tours plus the following complete matches
9/30/06 Elimination: Kaz Hayashi & Keiji Muto & Satoshi Kojima & Taiyo Kea & TAKA Michinoku vs. Buchanan & D-Lo Brown & RO'Z & Suwama & TARU 31:53
8/27/06 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Shuji Kondo vs. Kaz Hayashi 23:53
Hiroshi Hase Retirement Match: Hiroshi Hase & Satoshi Kojima & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. TARU & Suwama & "brother" YASSHI 20:36
12/2/06 2006 World's Strongest Tag League Final: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. RO'Z & Suwama 24:21
12/15/06: Kannazuki & Keiji Muto vs. Haraguchi & Hiroyoshi Tenzan 13:20
AHII vs. Voodoo Mask 3:53
AKIRA & Masa Fuchi & Ryuji Hijikata vs. Nobutaka Araya & Nobukazu Hirai & Kikutaro 9:08
Rosey vs. Akira Raijin 2:36
D-Lo Brown & Bull Buchanan & TAKA Michinoku vs. Mazada & NOSAWA & Minoru Suzuki 11:02
World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Shuji Kondo vs. Kaz Hayashi 23:53. This match exceeded my expectations, and then some. They gave an all out effort from bell to bell and Hayashi was awesome, giving the most spectacular performance I've seen from him. Though I'm not a big fan of Kondo's offense, he was excellent in every other regard. He can certainly take a lot better than you'd expect from looking at him, making a nice base for Hayashi's flying and helping ensure everything from both men was pulled off with precision. The reason the match was so exceptional is they set it up so well, making their divergent styles, Hayashi's speed and Kondo's power, played into each other beautifully. They did numerous excellent, even surprising counters. My favorite had Kondo run the apron for a spear, but Hayashi turn it into a DDT that was so fast I didn't even see it until the replay. Hayashi came out on fire, showing some sweet flying, so Kondo wrapped his knee around the post and worked it over, going back to it when necessary in an effort to compromise his main offense. Hayashi came back with a lionsault, but it did more damage to his own knee than to Kondo, so he had to be careful, altering his flying to avoid the moves that had a great deal of knee impact and instead impressing by slinging himself to the floor and catching a Frankensteiner. They went back and forth with Hayashi doing great spots and Kondo using pretty basic power moves that they made come off a lot better than they were because of the timing and incorporation. After several dramatic near falls, the champ proved too strong for the junior league winner. ****1/2
Great Muta vs. TAJIRI 18:33
Triple Crown Heavyweight Title Match: Taiyo Kea vs. Toshiaki Kawada 24:51. Kea wasn't easing into his title reign, taking on the returning legend in his first defense. It was a good match that should have been an excellent one. I have to fault Kawada here, as the main problem seemed to be his lack of conditioning. Kea was willing and able to do Kawada's match. He generally seemed better than he usually is in the big spot, and against Kawada, but part of that is Kawada was not up to Kawada standards. The idea that Kawada doesn't care is absurd, he was working hard but his body was betraying him because he hadn't put in the hard yards out of the ring. It was what you'd expect from Kawada in a big match stylistically, but not as stiff, intense, and energetic a version. The basis of the match was Kea working over Kawada's bad knee. Kawada, of course, did an excellent job of selling this, but what really separates Kawada is his ability to sell when on offense. I particularly liked his comeback with the ganmengiri where he first had to stop his charge after running two steps and then had to recover from the impact his knee took throwing the kick before he could continue. Little things like this, Kawada was still doing well, but Kea was executing a lot more crisply. Normally, I'd say Kea had no business beating Kawada, but on this particular night it was clear that he was the better athlete, and in this case that allowed him to appear the better wrestler. ***
Hiroshi Hase Retirement Match: Hiroshi Hase & Satoshi Kojima & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. TARU & Suwama & "brother" YASSHI 20:36
#123
Taiyo Kea & TAKA Michinoku & Akira Raijin vs. TARU & D-Lo Brown & Bull Buchanan
World's Strongest Tag League Match: Keiji Muto & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroshi Tenzan
#124
Minoru Suzuki & MAZADA vs. Shuji Kondo & "brother" YASSHI
World's Strongest Tag League Match: Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kaz Hayashi vs. Suwama & RO'Z
Shuji Kondo & YASSHI vs. Akira Raijin & Katsuhiko Nakajima 11:57
2006 World's Strongest Tag League Finalist Decision Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Keiji Muto & Toshiaki Kawada 23:28
2006 World's Strongest Tag League Final: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. RO'Z & Suwama 24:21