8/12 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan 11,500 sellout
G1 CLIMAX Final: Nagata made Muto submit to his Nagata lock II at 22:03.
Tenzan & Kojima beat Nakanishi & Yasuda when Tenzan used his moonsault press on Nakanishi at 13:48.
Tanaka & Samurai defeated Naruse & Liger when Samurai pinned Naruse at 11:54.
AKIRA made Inoue submit to a gyakuebigatame at 11:54.
The "big" angle of the G1 was Chono introducing two new giants into T2000, Giant Silva & Giant (Dalip) Singh. Seems like the latest attempt for Inoki to recreate the past by finding the next Vader.

8/11 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan 10,000 sellout
G1 CLIMAX Semifinals:
Nagata made Chono submit to his Nagata lock at 13:44 to advance to the finals for the 1st time.
Muto made Yasuda submit to an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 11:22.

Kojima pinned Yoshie at 11:25 following his lariat.
Choshu & Koshinaka & Kidea defeated Tenzan & Hiro & Goto when Kido pinned Hiro in his Kido clutch at 8:32.
Naruse pinned Makabe at 7:33.
Jado & Gedo & AKIRA beat Liger & Tanaka & Inoue when Jado made Inoue submit to crossface of Jado at 14:56.

8/10 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan 9,000 "sellout"
G1 CLIMAX league matches:
Tenzan pinned Kojima in his moonsault press at 20:53 to save Chono's bacon by keeping his partner Kojima from advancing.
Muto won B Block when he pinned Chono at 8:14 following his shining wizard .
Nagata pinned Fujinami in his backdrop hold at 11:30 to win A Block.
Murakami pinned Yasuda at 3:48 following a punch barrage.
Nakanishi made Tanaka submit to an Argentine backbreaker at 9:47. Thus, the former junior champ made the expected "strong" showing of beating one whole heavyweight.
Liger went to a 30:00 draw with Nishimura so he didn't fair quite as pathetically as Tanaka, he drew a heavyweight also.

8/8 Sendai Miyagi Shi Taiikukan 6,000 sellout
G1 CLIMAX league matches:
Muto pinned Tenzan at 18:35 following his shining wizard. Tenzan is out because, while a win would tie him at 6 with the Muto vs. Chono loser, they hold the tie breaker because they both beat him. Muto is in if he beats Chono or Kojima loses to Tenzan.
Nagata put the first blemish on Yasuda's record, forcing him to submit to Nagata lock II at 8:11. Yasuda is already in the final 4 because he has 6 points and he beat the guys with 4, Nakanishi & Fujinami. Nagata, who has 5, can still win the block and will almost certainly be in the final 4. Pretty much the only logic behind Fujinami beating him would be that he owes Fujinami from previous years. If Nagata draws Fujinami he can still make if it Tanaka beats Nakanishi, but either result would be somewhat of a stretch considering Fujinami's age and juniors never beating heavies.
Chono beat Nishimura with the STF when the ref stopped the match at 26:16. Chono is in if he beats Muto or if Kojima loses to Tenzan.
Murakami beat Nakanishi via DQ in 2:02.
Fujinami made Tanaka submit to his Dragon sleeper at 8:38.
Liger upset Kojima, pinning him at 16:01 following his shotei. Kojima can still make the final four if he beats Tenzan. I think it's the right move, but since he already beat both Muto & Chono in the league and that would mean his higher ranked partner would finish with only 4 points the odds are probably against it.

8/6 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan 9,000 sellout
G1 CLIMAX league matches:
Kojima upset Muto with his lariat at 17:30
Nagata made Tanaka submit to his Nagata lock Ii at 12:39
Fujinami beat Murakami with a kubigatame in just 36 seconds
Chono pinned Liger at 14:16
Tenzan used his TTD on Nishimura at 24:06
Yasuda continued his hot streak, forcing Nakanishi to submit to his front sleeper at 7:11. It's hard to believe Yasuda is the one guy that's still perfect. I know the G1 is supposed to be about creating new stars, but can we at least pick someone that's not virtually the same age as Mr. G1 Chono?

8/5 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 6,500 sellout
G1 CLIMAX league matches:
Nakanishi pinned Nagata at 14:15 following a bulldogging headlock.
Chono made Tenzan submit to his cross style STF at 17:53
Muto pinned Liger at 14:24 following his shining wizard
Nishimura upset Kojima with his ground cobra twist at 19:23
Yasuda upset Fujinami with a standing akiresukengatame at 5:14
Tanaka beat Murakami with a kubigatame at 5:10. Murakami, whose gimmick is being out of control and it's not all a gimmick, broke Tanaka's nose during the match.

8/4 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 6,500 sellout
G1 CLIMAX league matches:
Kojima pinned Chono at 17:18 following his lariat
Nagata went to a double ring out with Murakami at 8:01
Nakanishi made Fujinami submit to his Argentine backbreaker at 5:18
Muto made Nishimura submit to his figure 4 at 16:06
Tenzan pinned Liger with his TTD at 15:44
Yasuda made Tanaka submit to his front sleeper at 7:35

NJ is going to have a G1 CLIMAX for foreigners in September. Bam Bam Bigelow, Norton, Hall, Johnston, & Super J are slated to participate. The top two finishers in the league will fight for the championship on the 9/16 PPV in Nagoya. The winner will then meet the winner of the regular G1 on 9/23 in Osaka to decide the world G1 champion. The winner of that match will then challenge Fujita for the title at the Tokyo Dome in October. I can see some logic behind it, but it seems like another Inoki idea to recreate his past succes. Times have changed and I question how many people are going to want to see a league of gaijins? I mean, it's hard enough for most of them to be watchable with the better natives to carry them. It essentially means the regular G1 winner has to be capable of headlining the Tokyo Dome, which should be much of the point, but it does make it more of a gamble to create a new star (more something they'd have to worry about if they started doing this every year) because they have to be able to draw a big house and probably TV rating within two months.
Fujinami's going to attend the 8/11 RINGS show. Since RINGS doesn't have the funding from WOWOW they've had in recent years, Maeda is looking to put something together with NJ. It seems like that would be really complicated though because all the valuable shooters controlled by Inoki are guys who fight in RINGS rival PRIDE.
Former RINGS wrestler Yoshihisa Yamamoto says he'll fight Ogawa under any rules just to get the "blunder king" in the ring.

DOME QUAKE 7/20 Sapporo Dome 28,000
Fujita retained the IWGP Heavykyu Senshuken, forcing Frye to submit to a front necklock at 7:22. It's all well and good for Inoki to have the promotion revolve around these shooters, but it's not only killed the house shows, it's lead to some of the most pathetic Dome attendances in the history of the company.
Chono made Muto submit to an STF at 16:09 of a non-title match.
Tenzan & Kojima retained the IWGP Tag Senshuken, defeating Kea & Shinzaki when Tenzan gave Shinzaki his moonsault press at 16:28.
Mark Coleman made Nagata submit to a kesagatame at 7:59.
Gary Goodridge TKO'd Nakanishi at 6:06. This is probably a sign of the difference between the league then and now because Nakanishi was one of Choshu's favorites, but here we see an Inoki guy who previously was only used in works to put someone over (Ogawa, Hashimoto) come in and take out a guy who has supposedly been one of NJ's best. Coleman is a far bigger star, so it's much easier to see it as a good move to give him a win here because he has the name and potential (due to being able to maintain his intensity in works) to be a main eventer in wrestling as well. Goodridge actually is probably worth more in wrestling than shooting because it's his look and personality that keep him over, but if he's going back and forth he isn't someone a wrestling promotion can rely on to build up since he loses the majority of his shoots (even if to top competition). You can get one or two big matches out of him now though.
The junior division, which is going to be a real one again now that Choshu is out and Liger is keeping them separate from the heavyweights again, was shaken up. Masayuki Naruse, who recently left RINGS and hadn't fought a pro style match yet (he did plenty of shoot style works in the old days of RINGS that were supposed to be totally real) won the IWGP Junior Senshuken from Minoru Tanaka (a good opponent for him since he has regularly done worked matches that were based in shoot style) in 11:27.
Jado & Gedo, who just started working here, captured the IWGP Junior Tag Senshuken by defeating Liger & Samurai when Jado made Samurai submit to crossface of Jado at 19:06.
Fujinami & Choshu & Kido defeated Makabe & Suzuki & Tanahashi when Kido made Tanahashi submit to a wakigatame.
Yasuda made Ohara submit to a front sleeper at 6:14.
Hiro Saito & Goto & AKIRA beat Koshinaka & Yoshie & Nishimura when Hiro gave Yoshie his senton at 13:52.

The G1 CLIMAX league runs 8/4-8/10. A Block has Fujinami, Nagata, Nakanishi, Tanaka, Yasuda, & Murakami. B Block has Chono, Tenzan, Kojima, Muto, & Liger, & Nishimura. Only the final day of the league is at the traditional location, Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan. However, the semifinals will be there on 8/11 and the finals there on 8/12, so essentially what was easily the NJ heavyweight highlight of the year because they worked hard for that particular serious crowd has been reduced to 6 league matches, highlighted by Tenzan vs. Kojima, and three playoff matches. The playoff matches could be better though since in the past you had some guys fighting two to three times on the final day.

The following matches were added to the 7/20 Sapporo Dome show
Tenzan & Kojima will defending the IWGP Tag Senshuken against Kea & Shinzaki
Fujinami & Choshu & Kido vs. Makabe & Suzuki & Tanahashi. Fujinami wants to have another singles match with Choshu. This is supposed to be a special match because he hasn't teamed with Choshu in 4 years (not really a big deal since Choshu only fought like 2 matches from '98-'00).
Shibata vs. Inoue

Chono's illness is either more serious than they initially thought/let on or it's an excuse for when he loses to Muto.

7/1 Totori Sangyo Taiikukan 2,600
Norton & Kojima beat Nagata & Yoshie when Norton powerbombed Yoshie at 16:02.
Liger & Tanaka & Casas defeated Jado & Gedo & Candido when Tanaka made Candido submit to his udehishigigyakujujigatame at 14:28.

6/30 Gifu Sangyo Kaikan 3,800 sellout
Chono & Norton & J beat Fujinami & Nakanishi & Nagata when Norton powerbombed Nananishi at 11:09.Nagata wants big money to fight against K-1, while Nakanishi is worried about the rules. I think he pretty much said if the fights are under K-1 rules then it means about as much as beating a shooter in soccer or baseball.
Tenzan pinned Yoshie with his TTD at 13:46.
Kojima pinned Suzuki at 9:42 following a lariat.
Jado & Gedo beat Liger & Shibata when Jado made Shibata submit to crossface of Jado at 12:57.
Casas & Candido defeated Samurai & Makabe when Candido pinned Makabe in a powerbomb hold at 8:50.

6/29 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,855 sellout
Tenzan & Kojima made their 5th successful defense of the IWGP Tag Senshuken, defeated Nakanishi & Yoshie when Tenzan used his moonsault press on Yoshie at 22:02. After the match, Muto asked them to join BATT.
Muto & Kea beat Chono & J when Muto used his shining wizard on J at 10:35. Steve Williams attacked Muto after the match.
Liger & Inoue & Shibata defeated Jado & Gedo & Casas when Shibata pinned Casas in a German suplex hold at 13:10.
Tanaka & Naniwa beat Samurai & Candido when Tanaka made Samurai submit to his udehishigigyakujujigatame at 9:59.

6/28 Utsunomiya Shi Taiikukan 3,000
Muto & Kea beat Norton & Kojima when Muto used his shining wizard on Kojima at 15:02.
Nakanishi & Yoshie defeated Tenzan & Goto when Yoshie tacked Tenzan at 11:23.
Hiro Saito & Jado & Gedo beat Liger & Tanaka & Samurai when Gedo used his Gedo clutch on Liger at 16:39.This helps set Jado & Gedo up as credible challengers to Liger & Samurai.
Naniwa pinned Candido in a powerbomb at 5:55.
Chono didn't work the show because he was hospitalized due to illness.

The following matches have been announced for the 7/20 Sapporo Dome show:
Fujita defending the IWGP Heavykyu Senshuken against Frye. Fujita is 0-2 against Frye, but they haven't fought since 1997 when Frye was the new gaijin getting pushed and Fujita was still an upstart.
Muto vs. Chono (could be for the Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken)
Nagata vs. Coleman
Nakanishi vs. Goodridge
Minoru Tanaka defending the IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshuken against Naruse
Liger & Samurai defending the IWGP Junior Heavykyu Tag Senshuken against Jado & Gedo
Yasuda vs. Ohara

From Nick Higley:
- Lioness Aska was introduced by Rossy Ogawa as the new "fighting producer" of ARSION. This is certainly a better choice than Aja Kong, who hasn't been a draw since 1997, whereas Aska remains the main reason Jd' is ever able to draw. Also, Aska actually sells for the youngsters, unlike Aja the egofreak.

Mike: The only two free agents left that I've really wanted to see in ARSION are Lioness & Ozaki, and Lioness is obviously the bigger name of the two. Lioness hasn't been very good about putting the younger wrestlers over though. In Jd' Kosugi, Bloody, & Yabushita were never allowed to even compete with Lioness, which essentially eliminated the idea of a big match from the promotion and resulted in the TWF title vanishing (since there was no one for Lioness to lose it to). She's better about this in GAEA, but even there she's been able to avoid losing to the younger wrestlers because she's been in the main event with or against Chigusa on all the big shows. If Chigusa is involved a Lioness match draws, but none of her other big matches (most notably the Kyoko series) did anything of note at the box office. Lioness is still as good a wrestler as any woman, but it remains to be seen how much she can help the league. Everyone other than Ayako is easily beatable, so if she feels like giving them enough to have an excellent match than ARSION should be the best it's been since the end of Yoshida style. Things could go very wrong though if they let her beat Ayako and Ayako doesn't get the win back anytime soon or if she comes in, beats everyone, and then never fights Ayako because neither wrestler can lose. In any case, the premise of Lioness has me excited about ARSION for the first time in quite a while.

- The reasons behind Meiko Satomura's super push were revealed when Chigusa Nagayo underwent surgery for a seperated shoulder. Chigusa will be out about six months.

Mike: I'd like to think it was at least set in motion before Chigusa got hurt. It's dangerous because GAEA has been a promotion where only Chigusa is important. Thus, although someone has to do it, it's not fair to ask anyone to carry the promotion in her absence. It's really excellerating Satomura too far too fast (she's that good, but her big matches were a couple of semifinals where she lost title matches to Aja). If the fans remain loyal then they should continue to run with Satomura, having her win the title and eventually lose it to Chigusa on one of the big shows of the year. Then they would need to build up to the point where she can beat Chigusa and theoretically be seen as surpassing her so Chigusa doesn't have to wrestle to she's 50 for the company to last. If the numbers drop noticabl, which they probably wilI (percentage wise it's a given, but I don't think they'll suddenly become Jd' or anything), hopefully they'll realize that no one could be expected to draw for them like Chigusa and this doesn't mean they should change their mind and depush Satomura.

- Speaking of which, Meiko scored a second singles win over Dynamite Kansai and a KO victory over Akira Hokuto during GAEA's 6th Anniversary tour.

- Hokuto said her retirement is on the horizon, hinting she may rent out the Tokyo Dome for her final match. This is insane on so many levels. The only way they'd be able to draw a good crowd (and I'm guessing Akira is thinking the same thing) is if they got AJW involved and lured some big name veterans (Dump Matsumoto, Bull Nakano, Megumi Kudo, Combat Toyota, Bison Kimura, Jaguar Yokota, etc.) out of retirement to work the show. Stranger things have happened.

Mike: Since Kyoko won the WWWA title from Toyota on 12/8/96, hardly any shows have even drawn 7,000. I suspect you'd have to believe you can draw at least 4 times that to even consider renting the dome, and I dont think there's any set of women's matches capable of doing it. GAEA has all the biggest names except a few wrestlers that Hokuto had great match(es) with when she was in AJW like Toyota & Kandori. She could draw 10-15,000 against those two during her heyday, but women's wrestling was far more popular then and these days Hokuto doesn't mean nearly as much a she used to in the ring or at the box office.

4/22 Mie Tsu Shi Taiikukan 3,500 sellout
Muto & Shinzaki beat Chono & Hiro when Muto made Hiro submit to a figure 4 at 9:41. Team 2000 was interfering as usual. Liger helped Muto run them off after the match and said he wanted to join BATT.
Nakanishi & Iizuka & Yoshie beat Norton & Tenzan & Kojima when Norton made Kojima submit to his Argentine backbreaker at 15:36.
Liger & Makabe defeated Wagner & Silver King when Liger pinned King at 12:06.

Masahiro Chono criticized Antonio Inoki for setting rules up that favored his guy, Kazuyuki Fujita, winning the IWGP Heavykyu Senshuken from Scott Norton on 4/9. Chono revealed a new Kuro no Belt (belt of Black) plan. I guess the idea is if Chono and Team 2000 increase their popularity enough, they'll also get to make their own rules that make it easy for them to win the titles.
Keiji Muto invited Tatsumi Fujinami to join his BATT group.
Minoru Tanaka is out for a few days due to injuries suffered in his latest title defense against Murahama. He's having headaches from the hard kicks, and his is cut required 3 stitches. He might be back on the 26th.

4/20 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,650 sellout
Tanaka made his second successful defense of the IWGP Heavykyu Senshuken, forcing Takehiro Murahama to submit to an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 15:51. Tanaka trimmed down about 10kg to 83kg so he could handle Murahama's speed and quickness. Murahama busted Tanaka open with a left high kick.
Samurai made Delfin submit to a chickenwing armlock at 14:16.
Iizuka & Nagata & Nishimura beat Norton & Tenzan & Kojima when Nagata pinned Kojima in a backdrop hold at 18:05.
Chono & Hall defeated Nakanishi & Yoshie when Chono made Yoshie submit to his STF at 15:03.

NJ formerly announced the enlistment of Yuji Nagata's brother Katsuhiko. Katsuhiko, captured the silver medal in Greco Roman at 69kg in 2000, isn't giving up amateur wrestling though and plans to win the gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The 5/5 Fukuoka Dome show will have:
Choshu & Nakanishi vs. Ogawa & Murakami
Muto & Hase vs. Chono & Tenzan
Iizuka vs. Yasuda
Norton vs. Frye
Kojima vs. Kea
IWGP Junior Tag Senshuken: Liger & Samurai vs. Wagner & Silver King
Tanaka vs. Kashin
Ishu Kakutogisen: Yuji Nagata vs. Rainy Martinez. Supposedly a shoot. If Nagata wins his wants a title match with Fujita.
Koshinaka & Yoshie & Nishimura vs. Hiro & Goto & Ohara
Inoue & Tanahashi vs. Makabe & Shibata

4/19 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,685 sellout
Kensuke Sasaki called in sick so to speak claiming he's still suffering from the mental shock of his humiliating KO loss to Hashimoto on 4/9.
Choshu & Nakanishi & Nagata & Yoshie beat Chono & Norton & Tenzan & Hiro when Nagata made Hiro submit to his Nagata lock II at 12:35.
Muto pinned Liger at 16:36 following his shining wizard.
Hall & Norton beat Iizuka & Rob Rage when Hall used his Outsiders edge on Rage at 14:54.
Wagner & Silver King defeated Samurai & Kashin when Wagner used his Michinoku driver II on Samurai at 15:43.

Nagata, Nakanishi, Choshu, & Hirata visited the grave of Masakazu Fukuda, who died a year ago today.

Interesting matches on the next tour include:
4/19 - Liger vs. Muto
4/20 - IWGP Jr: Tanaka vs. Murahama, Samurai vs. Delfin
4/21 - Muto & Shinzaki vs. Fujinami & Nishimura
4/28 - Chono & Hall vs. Muto & Kea
4/30 - Nagata & Yoshida vs. Muto & Kea