Naomichi Marufuji vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa 16:00. Hoshikawa's 01 tryout match turns out to be the second best of his career, as well as Marufuji's first MOTYC. It's amazing that it's a new match, as these two work together as though they'd wrestled each other 100 times a year for the past half decade. It's a perfect mix of what they do so well individually - fast-paced, flashy, athletic, aggressive, stiff, and intense - with both men actually being better than usual through bending their style slightly to suit the opponent. Hoshikawa wrestled like a man possessed, leaping at Marufuji as if he were shot out of a cannon. The fans were really into it throughout, showing great appreciation for the effort as well as the quality. If there's any minor downside, it's that the match seems really short, but when you consider it's 16 minutes, that's more because it's such an amazing sprint the time just flies by. It could have been a little better if they elongated the finishing sequence, but there wasn't much within what they did that could have been improved. ****1/2
Akitoshi Saito vs. Tadahiro Fujisaka 4:16. 3/4*
YU-IKEDA vs. Takeshi Tosho R2 2:20
Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Gary Steele 9:55. DUD
Kazunari Murakami vs. Shinjiro Otani 7:11. **1/4
Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Alexander Otsuka & Tatsuhito Takaiwa 7:33. **3/4
Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata 19:10. An excellent heat up the rivalry match that was one of the big highlights of the NOAH vs. 01 vs. NJ feud, opening up so many possibilities that, too often either never came off or lived up to this, but that's another story. Hashimoto did a great job of making this first 01 main event his, selecting a partner who shares his brutality and intensity, and doing a dramatic match in the style that made him famous. Hashimoto was focused and on top of his game, but Nagata was really the one was carrying the team and making the match with his standout performance. Akiyama tried to stand up to Hashimoto & Nagata in their style, but was mainly the whipping boy while Misawa spectated and bailed him out once in a while. Thus, Akiyama was kind of stuck in the youthful sidekick role he should have graduated from 3 years ago, and there was really a stark difference here between the way he and his peer Nagata came off as Nagata looked like a legit ace who was prepared to carry NJPW throughout the 00's. In any case, they clobbered each other all night and did a great job throughout of using interplay and saves to keep the intensity up, doing the little things such as having Misawa take umbrage to Nagata saluting him. The post match had three parts with several brawls errupting, first focusing on setting up matches between the four who just wrestled then introducing Naoya Ogawa and finally Kazuyuki Fujita into the melee. ****
3/2/01: Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata 19:10
12/15/02: Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa vs. Matt Ghaffari & Tom Howard 12:23
5/2/03: Naoya Ogawa & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Keiji Muto & Satoshi Kojima
12/14/03: Shinya Hashimoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki & Shinsuke Z Yamagasa & Kohei Sato & Hirotaka Yokoi & Osamu Namiguchi vs. Riki Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii & Ichiro Yaguchi & Takashi Uwano 14:26
12/24/03: Shinjiro Otani vs. Shinya Hashimoto 19:54
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Naomichi Marufuji. 13:04. ***3/4
Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. The Cobra. 8:06. **
Alexander Otsuka vs. Takashi Sugiura. 7:29. *1/2
Sean McCully vs. Shinjiro Otani. 4:50. *1/2
Shinya Hashimoto & Tadao Yasuda vs. Masao Inoue & Tamon Honda. 9:00. **
Mitsuharu Misawa & Takeshi Rikio vs. Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami. 6:40. **
Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Lee Young Gun. 6:26. *
Greg Beilfuss vs. Kohei Sato. 3:52
Shootboxing: Tatsuya Maeda vs. Kachasuk Janbogym. Good. 2R 1:01
Yuki Ishikawa & Katsumi Usuda vs. Samoa Joe & Keiji Sakoda. 16:48. **3/4
Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Alexander Otsuka vs. Igor Meindert & Gerard Gordeau. 14:51. *1/2
KENGO vs. Jason Drexel. 3:36
Shinjiro Otani vs. Kazunari Murakami. 7:56. ***
Naoya Ogawa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. 6:48. *1/4
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Tom Howard. 11:54. **
Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Ikuto Hidaka 13:58. An excellent opener. These two have great chemistry and are able to play off each other really well. It wasn't in the class with their great 5/23/02 match, but they are beginning to lay out the basics that would make the match so good. They countered each other extremely well, and Hidaka did a good job with his strikes, more than hanging with Hoshikawa in the stiff exchanges. They pretty much switched between athletic counters and strike exchanges early, and shifted to Hidaka's knee attack later on. Hoshikawa still did his kicks, but sold the knee after hitting his diving enzuigiri. The match was kind of short, but they do short well, as they don't waste any time or even movement. ***1/2
Kohei Sato vs. Sean McCully
The Cobra vs. Masato Tanaka
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Tom Howard
NWA International Tag Title Match: Mike Rapada & Steve Corino vs. Shinjiro Otani & Yuki Ishikawa
Shinya Hashimoto & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Alexander Otsuka & Katsumi Usuda
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Alexander Otsuka 8:56. Otsuka tried to engage Hashimoto in a shoot style match, but Hashimoto was content to play rudo, using the post, guard rail, and ropes to supplement his kicks to the arm. Hashimoto totally dominates and brutalizes after the first few minutes, making short work of The Diet Butcher.
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Kohei Sato
Steve Corino & Mike Rapada vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Katsumi Usuda
The Cobra vs. Kazunari Murakami
Alexander Otsuka vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa 7:56. Otsuka comes out with his arm taped up. Again, he tries for a shoot style match, but after Hoshikawa grapples with him for a minute he attacks the arm. Though Hoshikawa directs some kicks at the weakened area, he's mostly concerned with providing an entertaining match, so he quickly shifts to his stiff, precisely executed junior style. This is really good stuff, as Hoshikawa is one of the best workers in the world at this point, and Otsuka is able to hang with him. Unfortunately, since Otsuka came in beat up and was drawing double duty, the match is severly abbreviated and has a somewhat unconvincing finish. If these guys got 15-18 minutes, the match would have been very good at the very least.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Tom Howard & Shawn McCully
Shinjiro Otani vs. Masato Tanaka 17:37. Tanaka was trying to hook on with either All Japan or 01 at this point, so he worked twice as hard as usual, which says something. Otani was almost beyond caring from the point he went heavyweight, but Tanaka's effort and enthusiasm triggered a flashback. Otani scrapped most of his prickish antics that replaced the majority of his quality offense, instead focusing on attacking Tanaka's knee. Tanaka was selling for all it was worth and then some, as if the question was whether he was willing to sell. He tried not to put any weight on the knee as he did some wickedly stiff regular and running elbows. Though Otani tried, his old offense was nowhere to be found, so Tanaka was pretty much supplying the moves for two once they started doing better moves, which was fine beyond being counterproductive to him continuing to sell in the later stages. ***3/4
Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Shawn McCully 5:50
Kohei Sato vs. Igor Meindert 5:59
KEI Yamamiya vs. Hikaru Sato 2R
Masato Tanaka vs. Gerard Gordeau 4:55
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Yoji Anjo 11:03
Tom Howard vs. Lee Younggun 5:55
Shinjiro Otani vs. Atsushi Onita 7:22
Shinya Hashimoto & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Mark Kerr & Big Van Vader UFO 11:43
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa 15:16
Igor Meindert vs. Ryoji Sai 4:12
Fire Festival 2001 Block B: Kohei Sato [2] vs. Samoa Joe [0] 8:25
Fire Festival 2001 Block B: George Takano [1] vs. Masato Tanaka [1] 9:28
Fire Festival 2001 Block A: Shinjiro Otani [2] vs. Daisuke Sekimoto [0] 11:29
The Predator & Tom Howard vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Yoshiaki Fujiwara 15:19
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa 14:55. They didn't care that it was the opener, bringing consistently good, solid action with stiffness and intensity from start to finish. It wasn't an attempt at a blow away match, but they were wrestling at a level where they could have had a memorable match if they added 5 minutes at the end with the big moves they held back on. Takaiwa was a malicious bruiser, but Hoshikawa can give the hard hitting offense more or less as well as any junior in 2001. Takaiwa began working the knee after the hot opening, but was mixing in his rough offense, easing into the exchanges. ***1/2
Tom Howard & The Predator vs. Mike Kurkhard (?) & Mike Hedinger
BURNING HEART League A Block: Sean McCully vs. Daisuke Sekimoto
B Block: Samoa Joe vs. George Takano
B Block: Masato Tanaka vs. Kohei Sato
A Block: Shinjiro Otani vs. Horseshoe
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
BURNING HEART League: Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Horseshoe
League: George Takano vs. Kohei Sato
League: Masato Tanaka vs. Samoa Joe
League: Shinjiro Otani vs. Sean McCully
Yoji Anjo vs. Sai
Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Shinya Hashimoto & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Takashi Sugiura
League Final: Shinjiro Otani vs. Kohei Sato
Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Mikey Henderson 7:18
Kohei Sato vs. Kazuki Okubo 7:52
Masato Tanaka vs. Hubert Numrich 7:00
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 4:22
Tom Howard vs. Bruiser Alvarro 6:55
Mark Kerr vs. Dick Vrij 5:30
Shinjiro Otani vs. Yoshihiro Takayama 12:10
Naoya Ogawa vs. Josh Dempsey 6:30
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Gerard Gordeau 8:51
Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Wataru Sakata 8:20
Ryoji Sai vs. Lee Younggun 5;57
Kohei Sato vs. Greg Veras 7:49
Gerard Gordeau vs. Hans Nijman 7:03
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dick Vrij 7:22
Kazunari Murakami vs. Josh Dempsey 1:37
Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka vs. The Road Warriors 15:06
Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa vs. Mark Kerr & Tom Howard 20:11