Toshiaki Kawada & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Hiroshi Hase is the new main event for the 1/28 Tokyo Dome show. There doesn't seem to be any angle regarding why Hase is involved or against his former partner Sasaki. I guess we just have to be happy that we aren't stuck with Choshu...Neither Kawada nor Tenryu, in storyline, seem to want the match and Hase doesn't have time to say much, so Sasaki is the only one of the four that is definitely happy with this main event.
As of now, the other scheduled matches are Kea vs. Muto, Terry Funk & Onita vs. Abdullah & Kimala, Fuchi vs. Liger, & a battle royal.

Toshiaki Kawada wants to team with Genichiru Tenryu against Kensuke Sasaki & Riki Choshu on 1/28. Some of the basis of this match is that Kawada was supposed to team with Tenryu at the Tokyo Dome against Choshu & George Takano on 2/10/90 (this was an AJ/NJ combined show), but Tiger Mask Misawa replaced him. Tenryu has refused to team with Kawada though because he says the Baba memorial show isn't meaningful unless there is a match for the Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken. Since Sasaki wants to team with Kawada but Tenryu doesn't, this will probably result in Tenryu & partner against Kawada & Sasaki.

Genichiru Tenryu is "mad" at Toshiaki Kawada for pulling out of their Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken match on 1/28. Since the show is to honor the late Giant Baba and the title the a symbol of Baba's league, the idea is that the belts should be defended and who better to have in the match than the companies top two guys. This point of view makes sense, but the angle itself is a real turnoff. I understand that they've already done Tenryu vs. Kawada once and they don't have any other big matches within the league, so doing it again severly limits what they can do on their own in the forseeable future. However, all their previous angles had built to this match headlining what may well be the biggest show post split All Japan ever promotes and they've been selling tickets based on this match being the card, so it's pretty shady to just pull it a little more than 3 weeks before the show.

Hiroshi Hase would like to reform his team with Kensuke Sasaki for the 1/28 show. The duo had the IWGP Tag Senshuken briefly in both '90 & '91. Due to Hase and to a lesser extent the opposition, this was about the only time Sasaki was having some very good or better matches.

Toshiaki Kawada, disgusted over his inability to capture the IWGP Heavykyu Senshuken yesterday, is turning down the already announced title match against Genichiru Tenryu. He wanted the opportunity to put that title against Tenryu's 3 in a unification match to honor Baba, but since he's got no belts to offer, he doesn't feel worthy of trying for Tenryu's. At the same time, he wasn't able to win tag titles from either AJ or NJ, yet he's got no problem being in the Sekai Tag Senshuken decision match with Fuchi against Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith on 1/14. To appease the fans that already bought tickets only to have the highlight of the show cancelled for no good reason, it was announced that Kensuke Sasaki will appear on the show. I'm sure everyone is just jumping for joy now. It looks like Kawada will try to get revenge by opposing Sasaki in a tag match.

Now that Riki Choshu has come out of retirement, Genichiru Tenryu would like to have another match against him this year.

12/2 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center 2,100
Sekai Saikyo tag league matches:
Genichiru Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya (6) beat Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith (8) when Araya used his moonsault press on Smith at 19:46.
Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi (8) beat Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Danny Kroffat (0) when Fuchi made Kroffat submit at 17:21.

Mitsuya Nagai made Gran Naniwa submit to an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 10:31.

12/1 Iwate Kenei Taiikukan 1,800
Sekai Saikyo tag league matches:
Genichiru Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya (4) beat Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai (0) at 14:00 when Tenryu gave Nagai 3 lariats in a row.
Mike Barton & Jim Steele (8) defeated Barry Windham & Kendall Windham (6) when Steele gave Kendall his turbo drop II at 14:40.

Mike Rotundo pinned Shigeo Okumura at 10:19.

11/30 Miyagi Yamoto Chomin Taiikukan 2,800 sellout
Sekai Saikyo tag league matches:
Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith (8) defeated Barry Windham & Kendall Windham (6) when Smith used his British fall on Barry at 18:46.
Steve Williams & Mike Rotundo (8) beat Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai (0) when Rotundo used a backflip on Nagai at 15:08.

Danny Kroffat pinned Gran Naniwa at 10:14 following a cobra clutch suplex.

11/27 Niigata Shi Taiikukan 1,800
Sekai Saikyo tag league matches:
Steve Williams & Mike Rotundo (6) beat Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi (6) when Williams used a nadare shiki no avalache hold on Fuchi at 17:37.
Mike Barton & Jim Steele (6) defeated Genichiru Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya (2) when Barton used the Diamond cutter on Araya at 15:51.
Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith (6) defeated Mitsuya Nagai & Masahito Kakihara (0) when Smith used his British fall on Kakihara at 14:37.

11/25 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 2,200 sellout
Sekai Saikyo tag league matches:
Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi (6) beat Mitsuya Nagai & Masahito Kakihara (0) when Kawada made Nagai submit to his stretch plum at 23:21.
Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith (4) defeated Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Danny Kroffat (0) when Kea used a facebuster on Kroffat at 15:25.

11/22 Kochi Kenmin Taiikukan 1,500
Sekai Saikyo tag league matches:
The Windhams (6) beat Steve Williams & Mike Rotundo (4) when Barry used a kubigatame on Rotundo at 11:56. Williams swore this would be his teams only loss.

11/21 Okuyama Budokan 1,400
Sekai Saikyo tag league matches:
Genichiru Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya (2) defeated Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Danny Kroffat (0) when Araya used his moonsault press on Kroffat at 13:38
Toshiaki Kawada & Masanobu Fuchi (3) beat The Windhams (4) when Fuchi pinned Kendall at 15:06.
Taiyo Kea went to a 30:00 draw with Mike Barton.

11/20 Hyogo Himeji Nando Dome 1,300 sellout
Sekai Saikyo tag league matches:
Steve Williams & Miko Rotundo (4) defeated Genichiru Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya (0) when Williams pinned Araya at 15:26 following his satsujin backdrop.
Toshiaki Kawada made Mitsuya Nagai submit to a gomon shiki (torture style) no stretch plum at 9:31.
The Windhams (4) beat Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Danny Kroffat (0) when Barry pinned Kroffat at 9:04 following a nadare shiki no brainbuster.
Masahito Kakihara pinned Shigeo Okumura at 11:16 following a running shotei.
Masa Fuchi made Gran Naniwa submit at 13:16.

11/19 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 2,100 sellout
Motoko Baba announced that the top gaijin in the history of the promotion, Stan Hansen, would be retiring. The 51-year-old was examined by doctors in America, who told him to retire because the joints in both knees and thighs are shot. Hansen has been wrestling with the pain for a long time, but the doctors told him he shouldn't continue doing so because not only is there no hope of improvement, continuing to wrestle will make things get worse and worse. Hansen left a brief message for Baba to read to the fans, basically saying that he was retiring because he couldn't meet his standards in the ring anymore due to various injuries. Hansen will return to Japan for the 1/28 Tokyo Dome show. A 6 man tag match has been considered since he could just tag in, do a few of his famous spots, and tag out, much like Jumbo Tsuruta did from 1993 on. Right now it looks like his in ring career ended on 10/28 because only a ceremony is scheduled.
The Sekai Saikyo tag league started with the native team failing to win a match. Barry Windham & Kendall Windham upset Genichiru Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya when Kendall used a neckbreaker on Araya at 9:59. Mike Barton & Jim Steele beat Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai when Steele used his turbo drop II on Nagai at 11:09. Steve Williams & Miko Rotundo defeated Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Danny Kroffat when Williams pinned Fujiwara at just 1;07. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi didn't actually lose the main event, as Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith held them to a 30:00 draw.
In the only non-league match, Shigeo Okumura beat Gran Naniwa with an exploder at 20:56.

AJ announced the teams for the 2000 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei Leaguesen, which runs from 11/19-12/6 with the final to crown the 43 Sekai Tag champions on 12/9 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan. The one team that had been previously announced, Genichiru Tenryu & Atsushi Onita is not in the tournament. Onita also didn't make his redebut on the 10/28 Budokan show like he was originally supposed to, and hopefully we won't be seeing him here anytime soon. Tenryu is teaming with his protege Nobutaka Araya instead, a much better team from a wrestling perspective even though Araya is nothing special but this tournament really lacks name value now and isn't likely to draw well again. Still, this team will probably make the finals, and the finals will sell out because they are in Budokan, it's just the rest of the tour that's shaky since there aren't any NJ teams. Toshiaki Kawada's partner is Masa Fuchi even though Taiyo Kea made it back in time. This means Kea loses out on his chance to make his first finals. Kea is teaming with Johnny Smith, which is somewhat bizarre since they've been having Kea team with the natives for the most part. This is one of the two up and coming teams. If they don't get a strong push then the pairing is pointless because there are a lot of over the hill wrestlers involved that could use one of these two to carry the team. A really bizarre pairing sees former Sekai Junior Senshuken and Asia Tag Senshuken holder Danny Kroffat return to Japan to team with long time "shooter" Yoshiaki Fujiwara. What was the thinking here, we have two really over the hill guys and no one to team them with so we'll toss them together? The other up and coming team, while saying it that way is kind of weird since they've never teamed before, is Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai. Both are shooters and among the only wrestlers working in the promotion with any upside. Kakihara, of course, is a perennial on the most underrated list, while Nagai surprisingly making a smooth transition from worked shoots to pro style to the point that after a few months he was more impressive in Battlarts than he ever was in RINGS (although he was rather overrated in RINGS). Hopefully this team doesn't fair as poorly as I expect. Wolf Hawkfield is returning to his roots, as he's billed as Jim Steele like in his WCW days. At least they put him with his semi-regular partner, Mike Barton, although the downside is neither can wrestle. Although you'd think they would have graduated by now, one half of The Varsity Club is back as Steve Williams will be teaming with Mike Rotundo. Booking Rotundo defies logic since he's so old for them to be "introducing him," and his style is so dated. He has wrestled (poorly) in NJ over the past few years, but doesn't mean his name (and he's not even going by the same name) is going to sell any tickets. I'll be surprised if his body can hold up for the whole tour. The sad thing is, Williams & Rotundo might not even be the 2nd worst team in the league because, aside from Barton & Steele, Barry Windham is back, this time with his brother Kendall. If everyone was in their prime, this would be one awesome league. The problem is, since Kea hasn't reached his yet, the only guys that you could make a case for as being in their prime are Kakihara, Nagai, Barton, & Steele. With Barton & Steele, that's no compliment though because their prime is only now if they never stop sucking.

10/28 Tokyo Nippon Budokan 16,300 sellout
Genichiru Tenryu surprisingly won the tournament for the vacant Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken, pinning Toshiaki Kawada in his northern lights bomb at 26:28. Kawada bled from the right ear. Since Tenryu got to the finals as expected, the only way to have Kawada come out of the 1/28/01 AJ Dome show as 4 crown king would have been to beat Tenryu twice in a row. In this situation, Kawada won't wind up looking any weaker in the end, but Tenryu will look a whole lot better since even though he'll have lost the bigger match, the series will still be even. Tenryu doesn't want to be in the IWGP title tournament on 1/4, but would like to challenge the next king to a unification match. Atsushi Onita, whose participation in this show was "refused" at some point after his participation was announced, demanded an amperage explosion match with the triple crown holder (this was earlier in the day before Tenryu had won) on the 1/28 Tokyo Dome show. It'll never happen, but Onita always has to stir up controversy to keep his name in the news.
Jinsei Shinzaki & Masahito Kakihara defeated Taiyo Kea & Mohammed Yone when Kakihara pinned Yone following a right high kick. Kakihara was put over in his return match to All Japan, while Kea, who missed only 20 days on an injury that was potentially going to put him out until the end of the year, avoided the job even though the he's not 100% excuse was there.
Masa Fuchi & Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Johnny Smith beat Stan Hansen & Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield when Smith used his British fall on Wolf at 13:08.
Nobutaka Araya & Shiro Koshinaka defeated Mike Barton & George Hines when Araya pinned Hines in his moonsault press at 12:18. Koshinaka is going to participate in New Japan's final series of this year, which is significant in that it means he's not going to be in the Sekai Saikyo tag league.
M2K beat Gran Naniwa & TARU & Ryuji Hijikata when Kanda pinned TARU in a German suplex hold at 14:32.
Giant Kimala pinned Shigeo Okumura in his body press at 9:53.

10/26 Kagawa Takamatsu Shimin Bunka Center 2,600
Mike Barton & Johnny Smith & George Hines defeated Toshiaki Kawada & Shiro Koshinaka & Nobutaka Araya when Smith pinned Araya in his reverse DDT at 19:47.
Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield beat Genichiru Tenryu & Shigeo Okumura when Wolf used his turbo drop II on Okumura at 13:25. Tenryu admitted he's worried he'll succumb to the power of Kawada when they meet on 10/28.
Mohammad Yone & Ryuji Hijikata beat Yasushi Kanda & Susumu Mochizuki when Yone pinned Kanda at 12:48.
Masaaki Mochizuki pinned Gran Naniwa in his twister at 13:29.

Hiroshi Hase, who hasn't wrestled since last January, finally took sides in the All Japan/NOAH split, opting to stick with All Japan. He said he'd participate in the '01 Shinshun Giant Series from 1/2-1/14 and asked for a match with Masa Fuchi on the 1/28 Tokyo Dome show. He'd like to represent All Japan in the program against his old promotion, New Japan. If he fights Fuchi on 1/28, he'd probably have to wrestle on New Japan's 1/4 Tokyo Dome show to do so.

10/22 Osaka Shi Chou Taiikukan 1,700 "sellout"
Toshiaki Kawada advanced to the finals of the Shin Sankan Oza Kettei Tournament when he pinned Shiro Koshinaka in his powerbomb at 18:23.
Genichiru Tenryu & Jinsei Shinzaki defeated Mike Barton & George Hines when Shinzaki made Hines submit to his gokurakugatame at 19:45.
M2K beat Gran Naniwa & Ryuji Hijikata & TARU when Masaaki used a suichoku rakka shiki no brainbuster on Hijikata at 12:55.

10/21 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan 6,100
Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi & Shiro Koshinaka beat Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito when Kawada powerbombed Hiro at 17:37. It's not a good sign for these promotions that they could not sellout this show with an interpromotional main event and a big tournament semifinal. It's probably due to disinterest in seeing the lesser Team 2000 members in key matches, coupled with the fact that AJ has no interesting guys to throw at them other than Kawada (Fuchi has meant nothing for years, and Tenryu & Koshinaka have fought these guys hundreds of times).
In the semifinal of the Sankan Oza Tournament, Genichiru Tenryu pinned Stan Hansen at 11:22 following his top rope elbow drop.
Satoshi Kojima & Tatsutoshi Goto defeated Steve Williams & Nobutaka Araya when Kojima lariated Araya at 11:17.
Johnny Smith used his British fall on Michiyoshi Ohara at 10:03. Thus, All Japan won 2 out of the 3 interpromotional matches again, including the main one.
Mohammad Yone & Ryuji Hijikata & Gran Naniwa beat M2K when Yone pinned Susumu at 13:40.

10/18 Miyagi Natori Shimin Taiikukan 1,600
In the first round of the Sankan Oza Tournament, Genichiru Tenryu pinned Mike Barton at 10:43 following his lariat. Tenryu had pledged to win the match inside of 10 minutes, so he was slightly regretful. However, he felt he gave people their money's worth because he showed such varying offense with a tope, dragon screw, udehishigigyakujujigatame, etc. He's trying to go away from so many chops and punches, moving toward what he calls a "department store of skills."
Toshiaki Kawada & Jinsei Shinzaki beat Steve Williams & George Hines when Shinzaki made Hines submit to his gokurakugatame at 20:13.
Masa Fuchi & Shiro Koshinaka defeated Johnny Smith & Mohammed Yone when Koshinaka powerbombed Yone at 14:08.
Masaaki Mochizuki pinned TARU in la magistral at 13:55.

Atsushi Onita wants Toshiaki Kawada, who is against Onita appearing in All Japan, to team with Masa Fuchi in the upcoming Sekai Saikyo tag league. Since Taiyo Kea, who originally was going to be Kawada's partner is out, this would make sense because the main things within the promotion that are being built to are Kawada vs. Tenryu and Fuchi vs. Onita.
Onita is off to L.A. to try to make his dream of an amperage explosion death match in the US come true. Based on XPW TV, an Onita vs. Sabu death match is a possibility. The Japanese media are actually reporting a (Onita's?) rumor that the WWF had a hand in getting his amperage explosion match that was supposed to take place in CZW on 6/25 cancelled. I guess Vince brainwashed all the wrestling fans in Pennslyvania into spending their money on WWF merchandise instead.:)

10/16 Fukushima Iwaki Shi Sogo Taiikukan 1,800 sellout
Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi & Shiro Koshinaka beat Mike Barton & Wolf Hawkfield & George Hines when Koshinaka pinned Hines in his powerbomb at 17:25.
In the first round of the Sankan Oza Tournament, Stan Hansen pinned Jinsei Shinzaki at 11:36 following his lariat.
Shigeo Okumura & TARU beat Masaaki Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda when TARU used a moonsault press on Kanda at 10:54.
Yuto Aijima made Gran Naniwa submit to a gyakuebigatame at 10:35.

Atsushi Onita wants his match on 10/28 to be a no time limit barbed wire death match, possibly with bombs as well, against Masa Fuchi. Giant Baba must be rolling over in his grave.

10/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 2,100 sellout
In the first round of the Sankan Oza Tournament, Toshiaki Kawada pinned Steve Williams at 12:45 following a jumping high kick and Shiro Koshinaka, replacing Taiyo Kea, pinned Johnny Smith in his powerbomb at 11:52. Williams stomach was injured, but Kawada wanted to prove he could beat him in the punch and kick real fight style, so he didn't attack it. Kawada will now face Shiro on 10/22 in Osaka, which could be the best match of the tournament.
Stan Hansen & Genichiru Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya defeated Mike Barton & Wolf Hawkfield & George Hines when Hansen used his Western lariat on Hines at 15:01.
Giant Kimala & TARU & Gran Naniwa beat M2K when Kimala pinned Susumu in his body press at 13:20.
Masa Fuchi & Jinsei Shinzaki beat Shigeo Okumura & Yuto Aijima when Shinzaki made Aijima submit to his gokurakugatame at 16:00.

The participants and most of the main matches for the 2000 Giant Series that runs 10/14-10/28 were announced. In addition to the usual suspects, New Japan's Shiro Koshinaka, Toryumon's M2K group and TARU, and free agent Gran Naniwa are supposed to work the whole tour. Masahito Kakihara, who defected to NOAH but then quit almost immediately after they started running shows, is back for the final on 10/28 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan which features the finals of the triple crown tournament and the return of Onita. The other big show is on 10/21 at Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan with a tournament semifinal that should be Tenryu vs. Hansen plus three AJ vs. NJ matches; Kawada & Fuchi & Koshinaka vs. Chono & Tenzan & Hiro (the first time Kawada and Chono get to work together), Williams & Araya vs. Kojima & Goto, and Smith vs. Ohara. This could easily be 2-1 All Japan again because Hiro and Araya are obvious jobbers, and Smith is more important to All Japan than Goto is to New Japan.

10/8 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 2,100 sellout
In the only match on the show, Taiyo Kea won a 15 Man Battle Royal when he pinned Shigeo Okumura at 38:51 following his Hawaiian crusher. Unfortunately, Kea was injured performing this move and is likely out for the rest of the year. This injury could not have come at a worse time for him because he was most likely going to beat Yutaka Yoshie in one of the AJ vs. NJ matches on tomorrows dome show and would have at least gotten to the final of the Sekai Saikyo Tag League because he was going to team with Kawada.
They had the contract signings for tomorrows Tokyo Dome interpromotional matches. Obviously this was just for show, but am I the only one that thinks it's goofy even to have a show contract signing the day before the show? I mean, don't things like this give people the idea the matches could possibly fall apart? Sasaki talked about defending New Japan, smashing Kawada, etc. Kawada said he wouldn't disgrace All Japan fans by losing and letting the promotion fall to independent level (ie what happened to UWF-I)

Toshiaki Kawada promised All Japan fans that he'd defeat Kensuke Sasaki on 10/9.

Genichiru Tenryu & Atsushi Onita will form a team for the Sekai Saikyo tag league.

Genichiru Tenryu wants to be Toshiaki Kawada's second for the 10/9 match against Kensuke Sasaki. Tenryu knows what it takes to defeat Sasaki at the Tokyo Dome because he's done it in the past, so he feels this makes him the best candidate for the position.

At a party to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of Giant Baba's debut, Motoko Baba announced that their 3rd memorial performance for the late Giant Baba would be held on 1/28 at the Tokyo Dome. They seem to be building the show more around it being Baba's grand debut 40th anniversary party than the 3rd memorial of his death, which makes sense in that 40 is a big round number and 3 means no more or less from an event sense than 2 or 4. Alll Japan drew an announced crowd of 58,300 for their first ever Tokyo Dome show on 5/1/98 and 65,000 for the 5/2/99 Tokyo Dome show that was to mourn the death of Baba, but didn't run a Tokyo Dome show in 2000 and their current roster hardly resembles the one that drew either of those numbers. Baba's "retirement" is really what drew the second number, so there's hope that building the card around sympathy for him again can work well. I'd expect the show to be profitable, but I don't see them approaching their previous Tokyo Dome numbers. Wrestling wise, the show appears to be built around the only All Japan match that could headline a card of this magnitude, Toshiaki Kawada vs. Genichiru Tenryu. Tenryu said he'd like to beat Toshiaki Kawada in the final of the tournament for the vacant Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken on 10/28 and then beat him again in the main event of this Tokyo Dome show. Tenryu also said he'd like NOAH to participate. Some members of NOAH attended this party since Baba was such a big part of their lives, but I doubt any of them will wrestle on this show. Atsushi Onita will probably wrestle on the dome show though.

Genichiru Tenryu re-enlisted in All Japan (meaning he's no longer a free agent). This was probably done so Tenryu can represent All Japan against New Japan after the 10/9 show. Tenryu will still run WAR shows occassionally.

The bracketing for the Sankan Oza Kettei Tournament (triple crown decision tournament) that runs from 10/14-10/28 is as follows:
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Steve Williams
Taiyo Kea vs. Johnny Smith
Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Stan Hansen
Genichiru Tenryu vs. Mike Barton

I don't expect a lot of upsets here. Kawada, Hansen, & Tenryu are virtual locks to win in the first round. I think Kea will win since he's the only young guy they are pushing and Smith probably won't be involved in the New Japan feud, but I wouldn't bet a large sum of money on it. Either way, Kawada will win in the semifinals. Tenryu vs. Hansen is pretty much a situation where if you want to hold off the Kawada vs. Tenryu match for a Tokyo Dome or even simply build a Budokan show around their first real singles match then Hansen could win without hurting Tenryu. All Japan has always tried to present a classic match on their anniversary shows, and Kawada vs. Tenryu has a real chance to be that while it would take a miracle for even Kawada to have a match of the year type of match against Hansen at this point, so I'm going with Tenryu here. Since Kawada is All Japan as far as the program against New Japan goes, Kawada seems a sure bet to come out of this with the gold. .