Lion’s Gate: Project 11 - 4/10/2018: Two Young Lions Debut; RIP Johnny Valiant; Okada Is “All In;” This Week’s NJPW on AXS
Wa-hey, I’m back. This morning, two new Young Lions (Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura) debuted at the first Lion’s Gate show of 2018. This was also the first time Michinoku Pro talent have worked this show, and we even had a mini-reunion of TEAM 2000. You can watch it all now on NJPWWorld.
Lion’s Gate: Project 11
- 4/10/2018, Tokyo Shinjuku FACE (NJPWWorld)
- Yuya Uemura Debut Match: Ren Narita d. Yuya Uemura (Boston Crab, 8:06)
- Yota Tsuji Debut Match: Tomoyuki Oka d. Yota Tsuji (Boston Crab, 7:16)
- Hiro Saito [FREE] & Gedo [CHAOS] d. Tiger Mask IV & Tetsuhiro Yagi (Gedo > Yagi, Gedo Clutch, 16:51)
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi d. Manjimaru & Ken45° [Michinoku Pro] (Tenzan > Ken45°, Anaconda Vice, 13:35)
- Ayato Yoshida & GO Asakawa [K-DOJO] d. Yuji Nagata & Shota Umino (Yoshida > Umino, Backdrop, 10:03)
Following the main event win, Yoshida called out Nagata once more. This is a rekindling of their feud through the Lion’s Gate shows before he suffered an injury in K-DOJO last summer. Shota Umino actually main events! I could be wrong but I believe this might be Ren Narita’s first-ever victory.
Yesterday, it was announced that IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada will be appearing at the Bullet Club produced All In event on 9/1/2018 from the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates, IL. No word on whom he will face, however with previous talent announcements, there is a potential dream match between Okada v. Penta el 0M waiting in the wings. However, there are also some very VERY strong lucha politics where Penta is concerned, and CMLL might get extremely upset over NJPW working with Crash (and former AAA)(and possibly still current Lucha Underground) talent. (There were reports that a match at NOLA this past weekend that got scrubbed was the Golden Lovers v. Penta & Rey Fenix; instead the Lovers faced Chuck Taylor & Herb Flip Gordon) Whatever the case, personally Okada being there makes my attendance much more likely than it was before.
Speaking of NOLA, there were a LOT of shows that happened there over the weekend. I have no idea about the results of most of them, and I am not planning to go look at this point. I know Minoru Suzuki filled in at the last second for Low Ki at GCW/Matt Riddle’s Bloodsport event. I know Joey Janela’s Spring Break 2 was a madhouse. I know Tomohiro Ishii beat ZSJ for the RevPro title. I know Cody beat Kenny in ROH. And I know AJ v. Nakamura kinda wasn’t all that. But that’s all I know. There are sources more qualified than myself at this point who reported all of this, you should go read them for this news honestly. My weekend was otherwise occupied so I wasn’t paying all the attention I should have to the wrestling. But hey, we’re almost back on tour again…
This week’s edition of the AXS show returns to the 46th Anniversary Show, from 3/6/2018 at Tokyo Ota Ward Gymnasium. The featured matches are the Champion v. Champion match as Kazuchika Okada faces Will Ospreay, and Tetsuya Naito takes on Taichi. Show at the usual time, usual channel, usual hosts.
Lastly, since it’s my blog, I am going to say RIP to Thomas Sullivan, aka “Luscious” Johnny Valiant, who died last week at the age of 71. I mention this just because he is a Hall of Fame wrestler, who also happens to be a distant relation of mine. His sister is my late Nana’s brother’s wife, making him an in-law relative. Now, I don’t know if I ever met him, and if I did, it was when I was reeeeaallllllllllllllly young (indeed, my father said he didn’t remember seeing him since he was in high school), so we were the furthest thing from “close” we possibly could be. But, still, he was family, ish. Also, just to keep this on-topic, Valiant did work NJPW in 1973, when he was still going by John L. Sullivan, during the Summer Big Fight Series 1973, where he would have matches against the likes of Antonio Inoki, Kotetsu Yamamoto, Seiji Sakaguchi and Katsuhisa Shibata. This would be his only NJPW tour, although as Johnny Valiant he would do tours of All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1976 and 1980. RIP, and my condolences, Great-Aunt Pat.
The next show is the opener of the Road to Wrestling Dontaku on Friday, which JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE MY 45TH BIRTHDAY AHEM AHEM AHEM. The show will be live on NJPWWorld, although I’ll be skipping the main for reasons you’ll soon see. I’ll do another Upcoming NJPW Events post beforehand too.
Road to Wrestling Dontaku
- 4/13/2018, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)
- Tetsuhiro Yagi v. Yuya Uemura
- Manabu Nakanishi v. Tomoyuki Oka
- Togi Makabe, Ryusuke Taguchi & Ren Narita v. Yuji Nagata, Tiger Mask IV & Shota Umino
- Rocky Romero, SHO & YOH [CHAOS] v. Takashi Iizuka, Taichi & TAKA Michinoku [SZKG]
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Toa Henare v. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano [CHAOS]
- EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] v. Lance Archer, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado [SZKG]
- Elimination Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, David Finlay Jr., Michael Elgin & KUSHIDA v. Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Jay White, YOSHI-HASHI & Will Ospreay [CHAOS]
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