CHAOS in New Japan: Nakamura’s War on Sports Entertainment

It’s hard to know really where to begin withthe news coming out of New Japan right now, because frankly there’s no shortage of news from the “King of Sports.”  Any report on New Japan right now, or at least the ones that are worth a damn, should begin with the new IWGP Champion, Shinsuke Nakamura, because the world in the land of strong style is mostly revolving around him and CHAOS.

New Japan’s show at Kobe World Hall on September 27 (which was also the conclusion of the New Japan Generation tour) played host to a rematch from this past summer’s G1 Climax final between Shinsuke Nakamura and Togi Makabe.  On this particular go around, the vacant IWGP Championship was on the line, a vacancy created when Nakamura fractured the cheekbone of then champion Hiroshi Tanahashi in the G1 Semifinals.  The injury forced Tanahashi to forfeit the belt, as he was unable to defend his belt in a timely manner.  Having a broken face will do that.

New Japan elected to fill that vacancy by having Nakamura and Makabe do battle once again at Kobe World Hall, and it only made sense to let the two G1 finalists fight for the belt.

G1 Climax Champion Togi Makabe was the king of the summer for New Japan; he had built up a head of steam heading into the Kobe World Hall finale, thanks to the promotion booking him as a tough and rugged anti-hero who never surrendered and fought his way to victory no matter the odds.  Makabe’s blood frequently stained the New Japan mat during the G1, but he managed to fight back, even when it looked like he was done for, to win the tournament.

Makabe had gotten the best of Nakamura and his CHAOS faction in most of the tag team exchanges they were involved in during the tour.  In addition to demonstrating inextinguishable resolve and immeasurable toughness, Makabe had recently defeated the winner of ZERO-1 MAX’s Fire Festival (ZERO-1’s G1 equivalent) Ryouji Sai.

Makabe’s opponent, the brooding Nakamura, had been a mystery ever since he turned Makabe’s former tag team partner, Toru Yano, against him to form his CHAOS faction.  Nakamura’s run at winning the G1 without once being defeated was ruined by his bitter rival, Makabe, a man he had dominated since forming CHAOS.

Understandably Nakamura rolled into Kobe World Hall with a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Fuji, but what exactly had Nakamura angry wasn’t known.  Many imagined that his loss to Makabe didn’t sit well with him, but Nakamura just wasn’t saying much.  Nakamura, to that point, had not even revealed what exactly compelled him to turn heel and form CHAOS at the beginning of this year.

On the night of September 27, Nakamura issued a declaration of his intentions, and fired the first shots of what could become a long and brutal war.

The Nakamura-Makabe rematch was, as New Japan worded it on their website, “a fierce fight surpassing the G1 final.”  The match, as one might expect given the two workers involved, was highly physical with Nakamura avenging his loss at the G1 by pinning Makabe after wasting him with his lethal Boma Ye knee strike finisher, the same move (in storyline, Tanahashi actually broke the bone during a different part of the match) that broke Tanahashi’s cheek bone.

Even with the way Makabe has been booked of late, the right man won the match.  I just don’t get the feeling that Makabe is quite ready to carry the IWGP Championship yet, and he just seems to lack that certain something that makes you look at someone and go “there goes a future world champion!”

The match itself was thoroughly enjoyable.  There is nothing quite like watching Nakamura glare at an opponent with utter disdain the way he does before the start of a match.  It’s about the same way my cat looks at me when I play with my dog.

I would rate the affair at about four stars.  The match featured some psychology (with Nakamura working on Makabe’s arm after Makabe accidentally clotheslined the ring post on the floor), storytelling (Makabe spits on Nakamura as Nakamura brutalizes Makabe with a series of kicks), brawling on the floor and into the crowd, and a series of near falls and submissions that do a good job of leading into the finish.  I will also say that I enjoyed the finish in this particular match more than I did the finish to the match at the G1.

With his victory over Makabe, Nakamura became a 3-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion.  Nakamura also shocked the Puro world with his sharp and cryptic words following the match:

“Does the IWGP title shine like it did in the old days? I don’t think it does. It isn’t good enough. Inoki! I’ll get back the old IWGP title!”

Nakamura followed that up by implying he wished to drop the fourth generation IWGP Championship in favor of carrying the original IWGP Heavyweight Title, a belt created when Antonio Inoki defated Masa Saito in 1987.  So what’s the big deal, you ask?  In order to properly answer that question, I must first provide a little back story.

Antonio Inoki founded New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1972 as a platform to promote strong style professional wrestling, a style of wrestling that was created in Japan when various disciplines of martial arts, or mixed martial arts, were fused together with the catch wrestling style taught to many Japanese fighters, including Inoki, by Karl Gotch, a man many in Japan refer to as Kamisama, which roughly translates to “god of wrestling.”

For many years, strong style was the backbone of New Japan, including its Three Musketeer (Chono, Mutoh, and Hashimoto) driven glory years during the 90’s.  New Japan began to struggle in the late 90’s though, which culminated in the 2005 purchase of Antonio Inoki’s majority share of New Japan by Yuke’s, a video game company based in Osaka, Japan.

Inoki was eventually phased out of New Japan altogether, leaving him free to create the Inoki Genome Federation, or IGF, in 2007.  The IGF, as one could probably guess, promotes the sort strong style professional wrestling that helped make New Japan a puro power.

Nakamura seems to believe that New Japan lost touch with its strong style roots when Yuke’s purchased the majority share of New Japan and phased out Inoki.  Nakamura seeks to re-establish true strong style wrestling in New Japan and once again make it the focus of a promotion that, in his mind, has become overly fixated on showmanship, or as most of you gaijin know it, sports entertainment.

No longer are true warriors the focus of New Japan; men like Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Satoru Sayama (aka the original Tiger Mask), and Akira Maeda and their style of wrestling are no longer the spirit and soul of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Instead of strong style fighters, glitzy and glamorous (albeit talented) showmen like Hiroshi Tanahashi were made the focus after Inoki was taken out of the New Japan equation.

Nakamura created CHAOS to create the sort of chaos he felt was needed to change New Japan, in his eyes, for the better and transform the promotion back into what made it the “King of Sports.”  The formation of CHAOS explains what was behind Nakamura’s change in style from a flashy style beloved by many fans to a more straight forward and physical approach that has transformed him into the best wrestler in New Japan.

So why is the original IWGP Championship belt so important for Nakamura to find?  It would appear that he feels it is the ultimate symbol of his strong style revolution, where as the current IWGP Championship belt is a symbol of the very phenomenon that he is fighting against, sports entertainment.

For those who do not know, the IWGP Championship belt has four different generations.  The first is the original belt that was created and used for the IWGP Champion to carry.  This belt was used throughout the formative years of New Japan and through its glory years in the 1990’s.  The second was merely a redesign of the original belt, only more modern looking that the somewhat archaic looking first belt.

The third generation belt was created when Brock Lesnar was stripped of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for being unable to defend it.  Lesnar, however, claimed that New Japan still owed him money and kept the belt for himself as a form of collateral.

With Lesnar at odds with New Japan, Antonio Inoki saw an opportunity to land a big name talent that would be a perfect fit for his new promotion and signed “The Next Big Thing” to compete in the IGF.  Inoki then declared that

Lesnar was still the IWGP Champion, no matter what New Japan claimed, and had Lesnar parade around with the belt on IGF shows until Kurt Angle, freshly fired from the WWE, eventually beat him to win the belt.

The fourth generation belt that Nakamura presently holds was, oddly enough, created when he defeated Kurt Angle to unify the second and third generation championships.  The championship belt that is carried by IWGP Champions in New Japan to this day was created by New Japan as a tribute to each of the previous three belts, and includes elements that were featured on each of those belts.

It remains to be seen if Nakamura will actually be carrying the first generation IWGP Championship belt around with him on his quest to bring back strong style, but it is very apparent that Nakamura wants to be the sort of champion that Inoki would be proud of, and that means taking on fighters of various disciplines around the world.  The question that now has to be asked is whether or not some sort of IGF invasion of New Japan, or even vice versa, is on the horizon?

There is already speculation that Nakamura could potentially face Naoya Ogaya, a former Olympic silver medalist in wrestling, accomplished MMA fighter, and former NWA World Heavyweight Champion.  A match between Nakamura and Ogawa would be a strong style spectacle that would intensify a strong style fire that Nakamura feels is burning out.  That match would also be in line with Nakamura’s apparent M.O. as IWGP Champion.

Josh Barnett, not far removed from losing his MMA license due to testing positive for steroids, was once upon a time New Japan’s gaijin ace, but he now works for Inoki’s IGF.  Barnett caught wind of Nakamura’s comments and decided to sound off on the issue.  Barnett issued a direct challenge to Nakamura for a match, saying that if he truly wants the old IWGP championship, then he should step foot on Inoki’s turf, the IGF, and prove himself.

This more than merely implies a future business relationship between New Japan and Antonio Inoki, which is strange given that Inoki founded New Japan and then left/was forced out.  It is not, however, a new concept, since New Japan and the IGF have crossed paths and done business in the past, most notably the unification match between Angle and Nakamura.

If Nakamura were to accept Barnett’s challenge, the match would likely occur in IGF territory on November 3 at the JCB Hall in Tokyo.  Barnett has not yet been booked to wrestle on the IGF promoted card that will feature Naoya Ogawa wrestling Yoshihiro Takayama and Bob Sapp taking on Montanha Silva.  A bout between Nakamura and Barnett, like a bout between Ogawa and Nakamura, is must see wrestling and would be a huge deal for the IGF if it happens.

So what does all of this mean for New Japan itself?  Quite simply, it means that we are heading toward a heated war pitting old school strong style values against new school sports entertainment values, and at the epicenter of it all will be the top two wrestlers in New Japan, Nakamura and Tanahashi. Nakamura will play the Bret Hart to Tanahashi’s Shawn Michaels in this program, just to give you an idea of what this program will be like.

Tanahashi is the personified symbol and golden poster boy of everything wrong about New Japan that the brooding, malcontent Nakamura is revolting against and attempting to transform.  For Nakamura, the key to erasing sports entertainment from the New Japan landscape and re-establishing the sport starts and ends with Tanahashi.

Throwing fuel on an already hot fire is the fact that Nakamura broke Tanahashi’s face and holds the belt that Tanahashi was never beaten for only serves to exacerbate the situation, which is, of course, great for us, the audience.  The injury forced Tanahashi to miss his own 10th anniversary celebration.  Tanahashi has made no secret that of the fact that he is eager to come back and win back his championship.

To that end, it has been announced that Tanahashi, for his return to the ring, has been granted a shot at the very championship he was forced to surrender due to the injury inflicted by the current champion. The match will be apart of Destruction ‘09 at the Sumo Hall on November 8, shortly following a tour which is perhaps appropriately subtitled Truth.  It would seem that the upcoming G1 Tag League tour and Destruction ‘09 will reveal a very important truth about the future of New Japan’s identity.

Here is a lineup for the Truth tour, including Destruction ‘09:

CIRCUIT 2009 TRUTH ~G1 TAG LEAGUE~
- 10/17 @ Asukaru Satte Sakura Hall SXW
- 10/18 @ Tatebayashi Citizen Gymnasium
- 10/21 @ Takaoka Techno Dome
- 10/23 @ Niigata City Gymnasium
- 10/25 @ Yamagata Sports Center Sub Arena
- 10/26 @ Ichinoseki City Gymnasium #2
- 10/31 @ Yokkaichi City Gymnasium
- 11/1 @ Tokyo Korakuen Hall SXW

- 11/8 “”DESTRUCTION ‘09″ @ @ Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan WPW/PPV

2009 G1 Tag League

As was mentioned above, New Japan’s G1 Tag League tournament is on the horizon.  The G1 Tag League, which kicks off on October 17 in Saitama and concludes on November 1 at Tokyo’s KorakuenHall, is basically a version of New Japan’s celebrated G1 Climax tournament for singles wrestling, only this tournament, as you may have guessed, is for tag teams.  The tournament features the same dual block, round robin system that its sister tournament operates under, and it also features the same point system (two points for a win, one point for a time limit draw, zero points for losses, double DQ’s and double count-outs).  New Japan recently announced what teams will be competing, as well as the block alignments for the tournament:

Block A:
- Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue
- “Wild Child” Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori
- Hirooki Goto and Kazuchika Okada
- Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano (both representing CHAOS)
- Masato Tanaka (representing ZERO-1) and Tomohiro Ishii (representing CHAOS)

Block B:
- Masahiro Chono and AKIRA
- “Apollo 55” Ryusuke Taguchi and Prince Devitt (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions)
- Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma (both representing GBH)
- “Bad Intentions” Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson (both representing CHAOS)
- Jado and Gedo (both representing CHAOS)

The field for this year’s G1 Tag League, with the exception of Gedo and Jado, is completely different from the 2008 field.  Several teams from last year’s tournament, including last year’s champions TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima), the runners up (Makabe and Yano), and semifinalist teams (Nakanishi-Yoshie and Nakamura-Goto) are no longer active.

This year’s field includes a number of teams that are composed one prominent star and one lower card worker.  This could either lead to a tournament with a number of shocking and unforeseen upsets, or make for a tournament that is highly predictable in favor of a more regular tag team (i.e. Wild Child, Jado and Gedo, Apollo 55, or Bad Intentions) or teams with two prominent stars (Nakamura and Yano).  I, personally, am hoping for a delicate balance of both, and I believe that these groups of tag teams are capable of delivering a pretty damn good tournament.

Block A seems to be set up for a probable CHAOS victory.  The most powerful team, on paper, is the team of CHAOS top dogs Nakamura and Yano.  Nakamura, of course, is the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion and Yano is a tag team specialist that has absolutely no problem bending the rules in order to win a match.  Yano frequently utilizes the time keeper’s hammer, not to mention chairs, to bloody his opponents, though I have to say that watching him do that is getting rather old.  Yano also has a Ric Flair like love of low blows, and for the record, this will be the first and ONLY time that I will compare Yano to Flair; the two men are like apples and oranges, with Yano being a rotten piece of fruit, because he’s honestly not that great.  He functions well as a heel, but Yano will never be in any list of the top workers in Japan, much less the world.

One team you can pencil in as a dark horse candidate to win Block A would be Hirooki Goto and Kazukchika Okada.  Goto has been a disappointment since winning the G1 Climax unexpectedly a little over a year ago.  When Goto is hitting on all cylinders, he is fun to which and capable of producing an excellent match with just about anyone.  Goto can also lay a brick at just about any time, just as he did in his IWGP Championship match with Tanahashi this past May.  The match between Goto and Tanahashi was highly disappointing given the talent level of the two men involved.  The underwhelming match was a devastating blow to Goto’s post G1 push toward main event status; had Goto done well in the match, there is no doubt in my mind that he would be a regular at the top of the card right now.

Instead, Goto has been floating around the mid card of late, participating in a large number of tag team matches that have had little effect on his status as a singles wrestler. Goto does, however, have a shot at Masato Tanaka’s ZERO-1 Championship on November 8.  A good performance against Tanaka, coupled with a strong performance in the G1 Tag League could do wonders for Goto’s career.

Goto’s partner, Kazuchika Okada, is a talented young lion (not to mention a former student of Ultimo Dragon) who has demonstrated a great deal of potential while receiving a pro wrestling education working at the bottom of New Japan cards.  In 3 to 5 years, perhaps even sooner, Okada could be a big name in New Japan.  A good performance in the tournament, along side Goto, will go a long way toward starting the process of moving Okada up the card.

The team of Wataru Inoue and Yuji Nagata will be an interesting one to watch during this tournament.  Inoue recently became a heavyweight after spending much of his career as a junior heavyweight.  Thus far, the venture has proven to be a rough one for Inoue, who has lost every singles match involving a heavyweight on the opposing side of the ring, including even his 10^thAnniversary match, in which he teamed with Nagata to lose to Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii.  To make matters worse for Inoue, he took the pinfall loss in the match after eating a Boma Ye from Nakamura.

The teacher-student relationship between Nagata and Inoue started shortly after Nagata overwhelmingly defeated Inoue (surprise surprise) in a singles match at a recent New Japan event.  Ever since, Nagata has been seen watching the matches of Inoue and looking on in disappointment when Inoue takes a loss.  According to the story, Nagata sees potential in Inoue, and has taken the talented wrestler under his wing to school him on life as a heavyweight wrestler.

One can only assume that eventually Inoue will get it, especially with Nagata as his teacher, but the question here is will Inoue get it in time for the team to do some damage in the G1 Tag League?

The Wild Child team of the Herculean like powerhouse Manabu Nakanishi and the master of the Axe Bomber (clothesline) Takao Omori has the potential to do real damage in this tournament, given Nakanishi’s semi final appearance alongside Yutaka Yoshie last year.  Will he attain similar results with Omori?  Maybe, but for the record I’m not a huge fan of Omori, even though he performed better than I expected he would at the G1 Climax this summer, and in the process he even got over a bit.  It would not be irrational to think that Wild Child could make an appearance in the semis.

The combination of Tanaka and Ishii intrigues me greatly.  Tanaka has been on a roll this year and is a much better wrestler than I was willing to give him credit for back in his FMW and ECW days.  Tanaka has been very impressive in New Japan and appears to be in the best shape of his life.  I can’t imagine another CHAOS member (Ishii) going over a team with CHAOS bosses Nakamura and Yano though.  I would stunned if a CHAOS team not involving Nakamura came out of Block A.

Block B has all sorts of possibilities, the most salivating of which is a match up between Gedo and Jado and the Apollo 55 team of Ryusuke Taguchi and Prince Devitt.  If you have never seen the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Apollo 55, in your life, I would strongly recommend that you head to youtube and type in “Apollo 55 vs. The Motor City Machine Guns.”  You will be very happy that you listened to me if you do.

One half of Apollo 55, Prince Devitt, is easily one of the best junior heavyweight wrestlers in the world today and is someone that would make an excellent IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, should New Japan ever elect to break up Apollo 55 and hop off the Tiger Mask IV train.  You will hear more of my disdain for the fourth installation of Tiger Mask in the near future, but for now, back to business.  Devitt’s partner, Taguchi, is talented in his own right, but not nearly on the level of Devitt.  Together, the two make a fantastic tag team that for my money is the most exciting tag team to watch in New Japan.

What will be really exciting is the round robin match between Apollo 55 and Gedo and Jado.  I expect this to be one of the best matches during the round robin portion of the tournament and I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if it ends up being the best match in the entire tournament.  For those who are interested, that match will occur on the opening night of tournament (October 17) at Sakura Hall in Saitama.

Out of Apollo 55 and Gedo-Jado, Apollo 55 is the more likely of the two teams to win the block, but I have trouble imagining either winning the block.  I would love it if Apollo 55 won the block and think an Apollo 55 and Nakamura-Yano final would be intriguing as hell, but my gut tells me that you will find your block winner amongst either Bad Intentions or the remnants of the Great Bash Heel faction (Makabe and Honma).

Now I realize that Honma is a loser of epic proportions, and given that Honma recently lost to TAJIRI in 3 seconds (yes you read that correctly) I might even be crazy for thinking this, but I think it is possible that the “Unchained Gorilla” Togi Makabe can drag Honma to a good showing at the G1 Tag League.  I don’t believe they could possibly win the tournament given Honma’s penchant for epic failure, but a run through the tournament for them would be a good story if it were done properly.

Considering that doing a job in New Japan is practically referred to as pulling a Honma, I have my doubts.  I mean, for crying out loud, of the GBH faction, Honma was the ONLY ONE that Nakamura DIDN’T chose to turn against Makabe.  I would think that being able to say that you turned a man’s entire faction against him would be pretty cool, but even Nakamura wasn’t willing to go so far as to bring Honma into the CHAOS fold.  It’s almost as if Nakamura deliberately left Makabe a mocking mercy gift.  To think, people hate Nakamura; if you ask me, leaving Honma to Makabe proves just how funny Nakamura is.

The Bad Intentions team of CHAOS gaijin Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson could do a lot of damage in Block B.  I imagine Apollo 55 and Gedo and Jado having a tough time beating this team, but a victory over a much larger (more specifically Bernard) team could be the perfect springboard for either team to make the finals, particularly Apollo 55.  I doubt the heel tandem of Gedo and Jado would be the beneficiary of such an inspiring angle, but the popular Apollo 55 would be perfect for it.

Some of you American folks who remember Giant Bernard as the WWE’s A-Train may think I’m nuts for singing his praises, but Bernard has come a long way since his WWE days and has improved as a worker by leaps and bounds.  I would go so far as to call Bernard the gaijin ace of New Japan Pro Wrestling.  Anderson is also an interesting story, going from working the indies for feds like the NWA and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla in the United States to regularly touring New Japan as a member of its most prominent faction. For those of you who may have been wondering, “The Machine Gun” is a kayfabe member of the Anderson wrestling family, which includes the likes of Gene, Ole, Lars, Arn, and CW Anderson.

Rounding out the field in Block B will be the team of the legendary Masahiro Chono andAKIRA, both of whom recently celebrated their 25^thanniversary in the pro wrestling business.  I highly doubt that Chono and AKIRA will be a threat to win the block, but I really wouldn’t be surprised to see them pick up an upset win somewhere.  Neither man is what they used to be; Chono physically looks horrible and AKIRA is much slower than what I remember from watching his work in the 90’s.  Their purpose in this tournament is to mostly bring some nostalgia to the table, not to mention the promotion is honoring them for their collective half century of service to puroresu.  I would be absolutely shocked if Chono and AKIRA come anywhere near the semifinals of this tournament, not to mention I would question the booking team’s sanity.

My Predictions:

I have to say that although this tournament is incredibly intriguing to me, it is also next to impossible to even know where to start when it comes to picking a winner.  I feel good about Nakamura and Yano winning  block  A, and I feel pretty good about Goto and Okada, so I will say that they finish second in block A to advance to the semis.

Block B confuses the hell out of me.  There are several different directions that the block could go in, but I think that this very well could be Apollo 55’s tournament to shine.  I also think that Makabe and Honma will sneak into the semifinals some how and take second place behind Apollo 55.  Expect Block B to be close and for each team to lose at least once or twice.

The semifinals will see Block A winners Nakamura and Yano appropriately take on Block B runners up, Makabe and Honma.  The other semifinal will see Goto and Okada take on Apollo 55.  Nakamura and Yano will narrowly defeat Makabe and Honma, while Apollo 55 will defeat Goto and Okada.  The championship match, will see Apollo 55 shock the world and defeat Nakamura and Yano after interference from Tanahashi leads to Nakamura taking the pinfall loss.  This will build some heat for the Nakamura-Tanahashi match on November 8 and establish Apollo 55 as a major force in New Japan.  I could be wrong, but in my head, that would be a damn good tournament.   

Here now is the match schedule, day by day, for the G1 Tag League:

NJPW, 10/17/09 (SXW)
Asukaru Satte Sakura Hall

1. G1 Tag League – Block B: Ryusuke Taguchi and Prince Devitt vs. Jado and Gedo
2. G1 Tag League – Block A: Hirooki Goto and Kazuchika Okada vs. Masato Tanaka and Tomohiro Ishii
3. G1 Tag League – Block B: Masahiro Chono and AKIRA vs. Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson

NJPW, 10/18/09
Tatebayashi Citizen Gymnasium

1. G1 Tag League – Block B: Ryusuke Taguchi and Prince Devitt vs. Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma
2. G1 Tag League – Block A: Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue vs. Masato Tanaka and Tomohiro Ishii
3. G1 Tag League – Block A: Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano

NJPW, 10/21/09
Takaoka Techno Dome

1. G1 Tag League – Block B: Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma vs. Jado and Gedo
2. G1 Tag League – Block A: Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori vs. Hirooki Goto and Kazuchika Okada

NJPW, 10/23/09
Niigata City Gymnasium

1. G1 Tag League – Block B: Masahiro Chono and AKIRA vs. Jado and Gedo
2. G1 Tag League – Block B: Ryusuke Taguchi and Prince Devitt vs. Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson
3. G1 Tag League – Block A: Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano

NJPW, 10/25/09
Yamagata Sports Center Sub Arena

1. G1 Tag League – Block B: Masahiro Chono and AKIRA vs. Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma
2. G1 Tag League – Block A: Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori vs. Masato Tanaka and Tomohiro Ishii
3. G1 Tag League – Block A: Hirooki Goto and Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano

NJPW, 10/26/09
Ichinoseki City Gymnasium #2

1. G1 Tag League – Block B: Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson vs. Jado and Gedo
2. G1 Tag League – Block A: Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue vs. Hirooki Goto and Kazuchika Okada
3. G1 Tag League – Block A: Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano vs. Masato Tanaka and Tomohiro Ishii

NJPW, 10/31/09
Yokkaichi City Gymnasium

1. G1 Tag League – Block B: Masahiro Chono and AKIRA vs. Ryusuke Taguchi and Prince Devitt
2. G1 Tag League – Block B: Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma vs. Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson
3. G1 Tag League – Block A: Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue vs. Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori

NJPW, 11/1/09 (SXW)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall

1. G1 Tag League – Semi Final:
2. G1 Tag League – Semi Final:
3. G1 Tag League – Final:

Here is the card that is presently booked for Destruction ‘09 on November 8:

NJPW “DESTRUCTION ‘09″, 11/8/09 (WPW/PPV)
TokyoRyogoku Kokugikan

1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Mistico (c) vs. Tiger Mask
2. Togi Makabe vs. Takashi Iizuka
3. ZERO1 World Heavyweight Title: Masato Tanaka (c) vs. Hirooki Goto
4. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Stay tuned later this weekend for some news on recent New Japan events and the results for the kickoff of the G1 Tag League.

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