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Kawada Wins World Heavyweight Title! Aibou Double Crown Tag Champs!

October 24th, 2009

"Dangerous K" Toshiaki Kawada is the new ZERO1 World Heavyweight champion. This is Kawada's first singles title since losing the AJPW Triple Crown four years and eight months ago in February 2005. This is also the first time he faced Masato Tanaka in a singles match in eight years going back on December 2, 2001.

Both men threw everything they had at each other during the 14:20 of the match. Early in the match as Tanaka set up Kawada on a table outside the ring, Kawada reversed it on him with two consecutive Atomic Drops on to the table! The match the became a grueling slugfest of kicks, loud chops and hard elbows!

The momentum of the match continued to sway back-and-forth as the match progressed, with Tanaka having a close call when caught in the Stretch Plum hold. He was able to escape to the ropes and again the offense by reversing out of a powerbomb attempt and hitting some hard lariats! Kawada fired back immediately with a powerful backdrop suplex, but his attempt to follow up with the jumping high kick was blocked!

Tanaka then delivered a "Sliding D" to Kawada's right knee sending the heavyweight down for a second "Sliding D" but only for a 1 count! Tanaka kept up the attack with another lariat and two more "Sliding Ds" in an attempt to wear Kawada down!

The legendary wrestler wouldn't go easily, as he began to lay in the jumping high kicks and a dangerous brainbuster! Tanaka wouldn't go down! Kawada followed with a powerbomb but again Tanaka wouldn't quit as Korakuen Hall began to go wild! With one last attempt Tanaka fired back with some elbows, a final kick to the gut and a running kick to the face ended his championship run.

Following the match Tanaka immediately exited with an ice pack on his head. The rest of the ZERO1 locker room stood stunned that again their title was taken by an outsider. Otani had to be physically restrained when Kawada said he "...only tried a little bit and won ZERO1's most important belt" and "I'll decide the challenger when I feel like it."

After Kawada exited Otani spoke to the fans and told them that ZERO1 will reclaim their belt and he hopes Kawada chooses him at the first challenger.

The other title defense on the show was for the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team match between Ikuto Hidaka and Munenori Sawa versus champions Kohei and KAMIKAZE. They both showed the heavyweight power early as they had promised, basically manhandling Sawa at the beginning of the match. Finally Sawa was able to tag out and Hidaka was able to turn the tide on Kohei, taking him to the mat in an attempt to submit him. It wasn't long until Hidaka was tossed aside like a rag doll as well!

Now Hidaka and KAMIKAZE were in the ring and again Hidaka looked for the leg submission on the ground. Hidaka was able to keep him grounded as Sawa returned and laid in some kicks. KAMIKAZE again overpowered him as Hidaka called for Sawa to use his strategy of looking for the submissions. In response, both KAMIKAZE and Kohei instead locked in the double leg holds on Sawa!

They champs continued to overpower Sawa with strikes and holds and plenty of cheating thrown in, as they swapped in several times without tagging. Kohei then took Sawa outside the ring and threw him into the chairs and choked him with a fan's umbrella! Back in the ring, KAMIKAZE continued to confound him by reversing several offense attempts into an Octopus Hold. Sawa cursed out loud in English from frustration!

Finally after much effort he was able to get a dragon screw leg whip on KAMIKAZE and tag in Hidaka! Hidaka came in fast and strong using rapid fire kicks and a Misty flip for a 2 count. Again the champs tried to use the double teams but Hidaka's speed kept him on offense, finally grabbing his "Shawn Capture" leg hold! Squeezing with all his strength he was unable to make KAMIKAZE submit.

With KAMIKAZE worn down, Sawa was able to tag back and take advantage. He was unable to get the pinfall even without Hidaka helping with double team attacks. Again the heavyweights took over, with Kohei unloading on Hidaka with a Uranage and a piledriver. The heavyweights then unleashed a brutal attack of power and double team moves, dropping both Hidaka and Sawa!

As Kohei and Sawa battled outside the ring, Hidaka and KAMIKAZE traded moves in the ring until finally as KAMIKAZE tried to lock in another Octopus Hold Sawa reversed it and rolled him up for the 3 count and the victory! A quick move that won the Aibou tag team the NWA Intercontinental Tag titles much to the surprise of Kohei and KAMIKAZE. This is the 2nd time Hidaka has held these titles, the last time back in 2005 with Minoru Fujita.

The 4th match of the show saw the debut of ZERO1 young Kenta Kakinuma team with ZERO1 president Shinjiro Otani to take on the powerful team of Ryouji Sai and Daisuke Sekimoto. At the start Kakinuma was fired up, demanding to be the first to fight and charging Ryouji before the bell. His early flurry was short lived as very soon Ryouji overpowered him with chops and kicks.

An head kick dropped Kakinuma like a sack of potatoes, and as the ring doctor entered to check him Otani instead tagged himself in an d continued the attack cursing at Kakinuma. Ryouji tagged out and Daisuke entered laying Otani out and stretching him with an Argentine backbreaker. When Otani finally gained the offense again, Kakinuma pleaded from the apron to be tagged in. The crowd cheered and Otani relented as again Kakinuma began a flurry on Daisuke.

Again it was short lived, as Ryouji was soon back in the ring beating the young wrestler down. Bleeding from the mouth, Kakinuma was able to survive a crab hold and crawl to the ropes. With Daisuke back in his punishment continued with hard chops. Otani wouldn't let him be pinned, but he also wasn't going out of his way to tag back in.

The harsh beating continued from Daisuke and Ryouji as Kakinuma struggled to survive. They alternated beating on the young boy until he finally dogged a flying elbow from Daisuke but Otani refused to tag in. He instead slapped Kakinuma across the face and ordered him back into the fight! Kakinuma flew at Daisuke with running elbows, finally dropping him to the mat. Now Otani did return and delivered the facewash on Sekimoto!

Otani tagged Kakinuma in again where he was facing Sekimoto. He again attacked with the running elbows, until unbelievably he hit a German suplex hold on Daisuke! It was short lived however as Daisuke hit a hard suplex and then locked on a deep Boston Crab hold. Kakinuma struggled to the ropes as Korakuen Hall chanted his name! Finally reaching it, Daisuke then lifted him up and pinned him with his German suplex hold.

Following the match when Otani told Kakinuma to shake hands with his opponents he instead shoved Daisuke and Ryouji! He then got on the microphone and thanked the ZERO1 fans now and in the future.

The 3rd match was Shota Takanishi's return to Korakuen Hall teaming alongside Michinoku Pro's Hayato "Jr" Fujita against the Gikyodai of Minoru Fujita and Takuya Sugawara. This is Hayato Jr.'s first appearance in ZERO1. Previous to the match Hayato Jr. had said that he's looking forward to facing Fujita, who also once wrestled in Michinoku Pro. The match began with these two facing off as the crowd seemed evenly split.

Fujita inexplicably tagged out, to which Hayato gave him a hard running kick to the face for his trouble! Hayato and Sugawara then began to exchange holds on the mat, until a furious Fujita returned to attack the young upstart. Even when Shota was tagged in for a little while with Sugawara, Fujita was soon back in seeking revenge on Hayato Jr.

Shota also showed fight spirit, having only returned recently to the ring he struggled at moments.He did however show some new moves and fought through some strong adversity. At one point he even scored a 2 count off a Fisherman's suplex!

The Gikyodai were able to isolate Shota and inflict some serious damage, though he fought hard to survive. As Fujita and Hayato fought outside the ring Sugawara was finally able to hit the Shiisanputa on Shota for the win.

Following the match there was some discontent in the ranks of the Gikyoudai, as Sugawara made sure that Fujita knew in the upcoming "Tenka-Ichi Jr." Tournament that it would be every man for himself. Fujita understood and leveled the challenge back to his longtime tag team champion though without any overt venom as Sugawara walked out. Fujita then turned his attention to Hayato "Jr." Fujita and welcomed him to the ZERO1 ring, pointing out that he will be gunning for him in the upcoming Jr. Tournament. Hayato stood in silence and when Fujita left he spoke on the microphone and introduced himself to the ZERO1 fans and said he will fight with the banner of Michinoku Pro Wrestling on his back. He also promised he would leave the Tenka-Ichi Jr. Tournament with the victory.

The 2nd match of the show was the retirement of ZERO1 wrestler Osamu Namiguchi. Nami would be facing the wrestler who handed him his first defeat, Kintaro Kanemura. Nami came out on fire, immediately attacking Kanemura with a chair! Kanemura fought back with his own chair, as the two began to brawl outside the ring.

Back in the ring, Kanemura continued to attack with the chair, hitting Nami multiple times before cracking it over his head sending the seat cushion flying! Kanemura then held up a pair of scissors, but as he turned to gesture to the crowd, Nami delivered a dropkick and grabbed the scissors for himself! He began to carve Kanemura's head with the blades, and jamming the scissors into his forehead as the blood flowed!

Kanemura hit a low blow to fend of the attack and brought a table in the ring. Sitting Nami in the corner Kanemura slid the table numerous times into his groin! Then finally drove it home with a chair! Kanemura then took the table up in to the south seats of Korakuen Hall and set it up in front of the stairwell. He then jumped off the wall and put Nami through the table!

Kanemura then pulled a spike from his boot, and bringing a piece of the table with him returned to the ring. Nami soon followed him, pouring blood from his own forehead now. Kanemura tore off a piece of table and began to cut Nami's head! He then repeatedly drove his head into a chair before perching him on the top turnbuckle for another had chair to the back!

Nami was now a bloody mess, but still able to fight, exchanging headbutts with Kanemura! Kanemura then attacked with another large piece of table but Nami blocked it, seizing it he slammed it numerous times of Kanemura's head before taking to the turnbuckle for a flying dropkick!

He continued the attack, with multiple running elbows, a Samoan drop and then a high-flying diving headbutt! The veteran Kanemura still wouldn't go down, kicking out of several pinfall attempts including a German suplex hold! As Nami spring-boarded off the ropes, again Kanemura hit him with a low blow! He attempted to climb the turnbuckle but Nami caught him with a avalanche suplex as the crowd began to chant his name.

Kanemura attempted to get the win by any means, including straight punches to the face! A blast YAMA special attempt was kicked out of at 1! So Kanemura gave him two more in-a-row and got the 3 count.

Following the match Nami and Kanemura embraced in the ring after a very bloody and hard fought match. Nami then thanked Kanemura on the microphone before he left and asked to perform the TNR Dance with him in the ring with the rest of the ZERO1 roster. Being Nami's retirement show they had to comply! Nami then thanked everybody individually by shaking hands and receiving flowers from his friends. He then quickly addressed the crowd as the bell tolled 10 times on his career.

The first match saw recent tag team partners Rikiya Fudo and Shito Ueda collide in a singles match. The two heavyweights had a short but hard-hitting bout with the veteran Fudo coming out on top. The two will once again tag together on 10/31 in Osaka where they will take on Masato Tanaka and Magnitude Kishiwada.

"ZERO1 WRESTLER'S 6 ~ Never Gonna Stop!" Approaches!

October 20th, 2009

The "ZERO1 WRESTLER'S 6 ~ Never Gonna Stop!"show will be presented this weekend at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall. Aside from the big main event, a World Heavyweight Title defense by Masato Tanaka versus Toshiaki Kawada, there are several other important things happening. The current NWA Intercontinental Tag Team champions, Kohei Sato and KAMIKAZE, will defend their titles against current NWA International Lightweight Tag champions Ikuto Hidaka and Munenori Sawa, ZERO1 young boy Kenta Kakinuma will make his debut, Hayato "Jr" Fujita's first appearance in ZERO1, Shota Takanishi returns to Korakuen Hall since coming out of retirement, and Osamu Namiguchi will retire from professional wrestling.

Today all the principles came together at the SKYPerfect TV JSAT building in Tokyo, Japan for a press conference and title signing ceremonies. The first was the World Heavyweight titles defense signing, and as Kawada and Tanaka both entered the room there was immediate tension in the air as the two fighters stared at each other. These two have faced each other in a singles match only once before back on December 2, 2001 at All Japan Pro Wrestling, where Kawada defeated Tanaka in just over 11 minutes with a Powerbomb. Following their contract signing today, both wrestlers than spoke to the media.

Kawada said he was offered the challenge and as a pro wrestling he can't turn down a challenge. He also said that Tanaka is much different now than he was several years ago, being in much better shape physically, but he is looking forward to taking on the younger Tanaka and winning the title belt. Tanaka then commented:

Kawada said he remembered their last singles match clearly, and that he remembers that Tanaka hits hard. He also pointed out that the ZERO1 World Heavyweight title is a replica of the AWA World Heavyweight title (as it was split from the AWA title when ZERO1 left the AWA 2007.)

Following their NWA International Lightweight tag title defense on 8/29, the "Aibou" tag team of Hidaka and Sawa challenged the holders of the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team titles Kohei Sato and KAMIKAZE. Soon Sawa was sidelined with a neck injury and is finally making his return to the ring on this show. The heavyweight tag champions also accepted the title challenge from the lightweight tag champions and will defend the belts this night as well. The champions and challengers sat down as well to sign the fight contract and address the media.

Hidaka said that with Sawa's return the Aibou tag can climb back in to the spotlight. He did mention that it's more appropriate to wear a shirt and jacket to an NWA signing ceremony, as for some unexplicable reason Sawa came to the signing dressed in the ring costume of NEO joshi pro wrestler Yuki Miyazaki! Hidaka added that he just noticed that the NWA International Lightweight titles were silver but the NWA Intercontinental titles were gold.

Sawa then mentioned how he was out with a cervical spinal hernia for the last month and a half, and that when told that his return match in ZERO1 was a title match he became disoriented and brought the wrong costume.

The focus then shifted to KAMIKAZE and Kohei who won the tag titles back on July 7th versus Ryouji Sai and Osamu Namiguchi. KAMIKAZE said that he and Kohei have "warmed up" as far as being a team and that they want to defend their titles and keep the ball rolling on that front.

Kohei then responded, and while he had words of support for KAMIKAZE he went on the attack against Aibou:

Ikuto Hidaka's parents have a goat at their rural house in Japan...

New ZERO1 Wrestler Debuts on 10/24 - Kenta Kakinuma!

October 17th, 2009

A new ZERO1 young boy will debut on October 24th "ZERO1 WRESTLER'S 6 ~ Never Gonna Stop! ~" show in Korakuen Hall. Kakinuma is a 22 year old from Saitama Prefecture in Japan and 2009 graduate of Nihon University in Tokyo. The 183 cm/90 kg Kakinuma was first introduced to ZERO1 in April of this year and has been training and living at the ZERO1 dorm. He will debut in a tag team match along with ZERO1 President Shinjiro Otani versus Ryouji Sai and Big Japan Pro Wrestling's Daisuke Sekimoto.

To announce Kakinuma's debut, ZERO1 held a practice session that was open to the media. The young wrestler performed some basic warm-ups like push-ups, Hindu squats, back bumps, and then with Otani initially looking on ran through some exchanges with Kuniyoshi Wada of RIKIPRO. Then he did a short exhibition against Otani, and as the two men sparred, a large photo of ZERO-ONE founder Shinya Hashimoto stared down at them.

Kakinuma showed some aggressiveness but had no chance against the legendary Otani who challenged him both physically and mentally during their short but eventful bout. It came to an end after Otani relentlessly stretched the youngster with a Boston Crab and he was unable to make it to the ropes and had to tap out. After a strict beating and some words from Otani, the two men then shook hands as an exhausted Kakinuma fell to the mat.

Following the exhibition, Otani addressed the media and said he wants to support Kakinuma but not coddle or protect him. He said he expects good things from the young fighter but doesn't expect him to be immediately great. "He shouldn't worry if he is defeated at this stage, only that he works hard," he added. "What will he show the fans? I don't expect something bold....all I say is - win."

Kakinuma also addressed the media:

Hayato Jr. Booked for 10/24 in Korakuen Hall

October 16th, 2009

As the Tenka-Ichi Jr. Tournament approaches, Michinoku Pro phenom Hayato "Jr" Fujita will make his first appearance in ZERO1 at the October 24th "ZERO1 WRESTLER'S 6 ~ Never Gonna Stop! ~" show in Korakuen Hall.

Hayato debuted for Michinoku Pro back in 2005, and is also a student at the dojo of MMA fighter Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto. He spent some times overseas in Mexico and has had some high level matches versus the likes of Dick Togo, Katsuyori Shibata and Katsuhiko Nakajima. On December 12th, 2008 Hayato won Michinoku Pro's Tohoku Jr. Heavyweight Title from Yoshitsune and held that title for almost 10 months before losing it.

On 10/24 he will team alongside Shota Takanishi to face the Gikyoudai team of Minoru Fujita and Takuya Sugawara in a tag match.

Nanae & Natsuki Return to ZERO1 in November!

October 15th, 2009

Former Pro Wrestling SUN roster members Nanae Takahashi and Natsuki☆Taiyo will make a brief return to ZERO1 on November 3rd and November 4th in both Matsuda and Matsue, Japan. As many will remember, Nanae and Natsuki were key roster members of Pro Wrestling SUN, the now defunct sister joshi promotion to ZERO1 also produced by First On Stage.

Since leaving SUN both women have reestablished themselves as part of the "Passion Red" stable with Kana and have continued battling regularly in the Japanese joshi pro wrestling scene. This will be their first return to ZERO1 since back on January 14th, 2008.

Also appearing will be new ICE RIBBON wrestler Tsukasa Fujimoto who will be making her first appearance in ZERO1. Joining them on November 4th will also be legendary joshi wrestler Manami Toyota. Toyota last appeared at the final SUN show and retirement of Hikaru and Saki Maemura earlier this year on April 26th, 2009.

Injury Report - Yuzuru Saito Out 2-3 months!

October 14th, 2009

Young ZERO1 wrestler Yuzuru Saito fractured his right hand in two places during practice back on October 5th. This injury will most likely keep him out of action until the new year, 2010. Saito has showed great improvement lately in his matches, and it's hoped he will remain ready while he is recuperating.

Saito said he is sorry to all the fans that were looking forward to his matches on the upcoming shows.

Daichi Hashimoto's First Trip To the "Pay Windah!"

October 13th, 2009

Amongst all the other dramatic moments at the "Masahiro Chono 25th Anniversary ~ Aristrist In Ryogoku Kokugikan" on October 12th, Daichi Hashimoto also received his first pro wrestling payday. Not only did Shinya Hashimoto's son accompany the ZERO1 roster to the ring in support of ZERO1 President Shinjiro Otani, but he also was ringside for the main event of the show.

Following the conclusion of that match, a 6-man tag between Masahiro Chono, Keiji Muto and Kenta Kobashi versus Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima and Jun Akiyama, Daichi was invited in the ring to celebrate with the Chono and his victorious legend teammates. This all less than a month since Daichi made his in-ring debut with a Kickboxing Exhibition Match back on 9/21 in Korakuen Hall for ZERO1.

Following Chono's show in Ryogoku, ZERO1 President Shinjiro Otani approached Daichi in front of the media with an envelope of money. "Your first fight money is now paid by the company president," Otani said as he handed the money to Daichi. Daichi received the parcel with both hands and bowed deeply in response. The two then shook hands and posed for photos by the media.

"I'm not sure I deserve this for that particular match," Daichi said. "This only makes me want to do much better the next time!"

The media then asked Daichi about the old IWGP Heavyweight title that was given to him by Shinsuke Nakamura last year at the ZERO1 "Truth Century Creation - SEVEN -" show on March 2nd last year. Daichi reiterated what he said then, that he will one day enter the ring and win the IWGP Heavyweight title like his father. He also said that watching the main event at Ryogoku he was able to see firsthand some of the greats of Japanese Pro Wrestling and study as much as possible.