ZERO1 Fire Festival Finals

Pro-Wrestling ZERO1
Fire Festival Day 8
3rd August 2014, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

Despite not being completely knocked out by the Zero1 event that I reviewed early in July, there were sufficient positives to offer the impression that a good day for Zero1 might be a good day for wrestling. I was also giddily high on the thrills and spills of tournament wrestling offered by New Japan's wildly successful G1 Climax, so reaching down the ladder to a smaller promotion offering the same experience seemed like both a nice thing to do in terms of exposure and personally beneficial to me w/r/t entertainment.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Finals

G1 CLIMAX 24: FINALS
Seibu Dome, Saitama
10th August 2014

int. New Japan headquarters

GEDO: So we need to do something big to sell the tickets for the G1 Final, it's our chance to earn the second and third biggest draws for any wrestling show worldwide in 2014.
  
JADO: I'm on it. You go back to your bandana collection. Anyway, isn't Inoki-san doing a big show in North Korea? 

GEDO: No, that stuff is 100% legit.

both look at camera

Promotion: DONE

So, in spite of them spacing it out and giving us more matches and indeed a separate event for the final match to headline, the G1 Climax 24 Final has rolled around really quickly. Critics all over the place are calling this the best edition of the tournament, the best tournament and the best thing that happened this year in wrestling. I cannot comment to that too heavily having not seen all the G1 Climaxes, all the tournaments nor all the things that have happened this year in wrestling. It is the best that I've seen though.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 11

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY ELEVEN
Bunka Gymnasium, Yokohama
8th August 2014

It's the last day of regular competition at this year's overwhelmingly successful G1 Climax and the names of the finalists are yet to be decided (shocking, I know!). Usually the finals take place right after the final Block matches, meaning that the final night has more people in contention than we have tonight. The downside of that is that more of these matches are 'meaningless', but the upside is that people know that the final is guaranteed to be star-studded and the last run on Seibu Dome tickets can commence.

Here are the brief permutations: in Block A, if Hiroshi Tanahashi wins, he wins the Block. If he loses, the winner of Bad Luck Fale and Shinsuke Nakamura wins. Should Tanahashi lose and Katsuyori Shibata win, Shibata would take the runners-up slot. In Block B, if Okada wins, he wins. If Styles wins and Okada loses, Styles wins. If both lose, Okada wins. Here, courtesy of the amazing @matsu_bomaYe is the potential finalist club having a break.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 10

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY TEN
City Gymnasium, Takamatsu
6th August 2014 

NJPW leaves Honshu for Shikoku, the smallest of the four major islands - and in particular, the city of Takamatsu, reachable by ferry from Kobe. On the boat ride over I daresay many of the workers will look to this blog for spirit and courage and to remind them of of who they're really trying to please here.

RRRRAAAAARRRRGGGHH!

Tonight's card has one marquee match based on their Meltzer-approved tear-up from last year as Katsuyori Shibata takes on Tomohiro Ishii. Their bout in Osaka was utterly heartstopping and is probably one of my favourite matches of all time. I'm not going to pressurise this rubber match (as you'll see later) as Ishii is reportedly hurt but it should be interesting at worst and bloodcurdling at best.

fujiwara armbar investigates: All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW)

An occasional series in which, in a bid to further my spotty knowledge of Japanese wrestling promotions, I watch a recent event and assess whether or not I'd watch regularly given the time, money and ability to access.

Promotion: All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW, sometimes AJP)

Event watched: Summer Action Series Day 8, 27th July 2014, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo.

What did I know about the promotion going in?: A lot. Too much. The extracurricular problems of AJPW in 2014 ensures they're as much a walking soap opera as TNA are in the US.  Much of what I write here will cover the official history too.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 9

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY NINE
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya
4th August 2014

After a barnstorming weekend of two shows that would knock the block off almost anything I've ever seen, the NJPW charabanc rattles into Nagoya, between Tokyo and Osaka and a little farther north of Hamamatsu (Day Six). As well as being an important port city, Nagoya calls itself home to the founder of Toyota, the 1989 World Figure Skating Champion Midori Ito and one of the greatest cruiserweight wrestlers of all: Ultimo Dragon. Dragon-san also helped train current Block B co-leader Kazuchika Okada, who hails from just down the road in Anjo.

Clear leaders at the top of each Block have emerged, though the eventual victors are far from cut and dried. Five men, all at 5-2, will comprise the second half of this show, going out to bat one after the other. The first half of the show contains few who could feasibly enter the winner's circle, but plenty who could yet spoil the party. CHAOS foot soldiers Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii have the night off, which is quite timely for the latter man, who is reported to have seriously duffed up his shoulder.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 8

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY EIGHT
BODYMAKER Colosseum, Osaka
3rd August 2014

It's quite possible that I'm not fully ready for Day 8 after such an excellent show at the Korakuen on the 1st. Reports I've seen online suggested that after cheering themselves into a frenzy for Tenzan-Goto, Styles-Suzuki and Nagata-Shibata, the crowd was pretty much blown out for the main event. I wasn't but I can understand if someone else was: it was insane. People aren't even really talking about Naito-Makabe and it was brilliant.

I SIGNED KENTA RIGHT HERE IN OSAKA JAPAN BROTHA

The wrestlers, hopefully, will have no such problems tonight. They absolutely bloody love their wrestling in Osaka and people who consider such things consider the Osaka crowd for New Japan Pro Wrestling to be the gold standard in worldwide audiences. A little bit smarky, sure - they wrongly hate Naito - but vocal as hell and capable of pushing the in-ring work on to greater heights.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 7

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY SEVEN
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
1st August 2014 

Everybody loves Korakuen Hall, right?

Gym-ski now an then one the coolest places on earth to Rassle Korakuen Hall Tokyo Japan @njpw1972 #G124
— Lance Hoyt/Archer (@LanceHoyt) August 1, 2014

On the site of Tokyo Dome Hall complex is arguably the spiritual home of Japanese wrestling, an approximately 2000 capacity cuboid on the fifth floor of an otherwise unremarkable-looking building. Smaller promotions build to shows at Korakuen to blow off their biggest angles and larger promotions at their most highly-scrutinised time of year still incorporate Korakuen in their schedules because, it seems, that there really isn't another place like it that just seems so perfectly constructed for ring-based sports and pseudo-sports (like boxing).

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 6

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY SIX
Act City, Hamamatsu
July 31st 2014

Approximately halfway between Tokyo and Osaka lies Hamamatsu, birthplace of the founder of Honda, they of the frequently product-recalled cars. New Japan had a great house in this very city earlier in the year for an Anniversary tour house show notable for nothing more than a singles victory for Captain New Japan. Last year's G1 also got under way in Hamamatsu, headlined by Prince Devitt cheating his way to victory against then-champion Kazuchika Okada.

Minoru Suzuki hits the saka otoshi on Yujiro Takakashi (credit: Yahoo!)

A couple of rumours have been doing the rounds, possibly a work, on the health of Hiroshi Tanahashi and Togi Makabe. It'll be interesting to see how either bears up, especially Tanahashi given his headline match this evening against the very physically-demanding (but safe!) Tomohiro Ishii. This said, Tanahashi does get the following night off.