Tengu Baron & Tengu Kaiser vs. Munenori Sawa & Naoki Ueda 13:48
Kohei Sato vs. El Blazer 5:22
Koji Kanemoto & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Shota Takanishi & Tatsuhito Takaiwa 16:26
The Great Sasuke vs. Minoru Fujita 3:17
Kesen Numajiro & The Great Sasuke vs. Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara 5:36
Ryoji Sai & Yoshihito Sasaki vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Takao Omori 11:52
NWA International Lightweight Tag Title: Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs. Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka 24:20
ZERO1-MAX World Heavyweight Title: Masato Tanaka vs. Daisuke Sekimoto 19:43
Munenori Sawa & Shota Takanishi vs. Naoki Ueda & Vansack Acid 9:41
Masato Tanaka & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Crow Kaiser & Tengu Kaiser 12:38
NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Title: Match: Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara vs. Kesen Numajiro & The Great Sasuke 13:23
Koji Kanemoto & Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Axe Army Kohei Sato & Osamu Namiguchi & Takao Omori 17:45
Daisuke Sekimoto & Yoshihito Sasaki vs. Kengo Mashimo & Ryoji Sai 21:23
ZERO1-MAX International Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Ikuto Hidaka vs. Masaaki Mochizuki 13:54
Minoru Fujita & Kamikaze vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Shito Ueda 0:41 of 8:41
Yujiro vs. Osamu Namiguchi 4:57 of 7:11
Mitsuhide Hirasawa & Tetsuya Naito vs. Ryuji Sai & Shota Takanishi 11:21 of 11:40
Takao Omori vs. Manabu Nakanishi 6:53 of 17:50
Masato Tanaka & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Koji Kanemoto & Ryusuke Taguchi 20:26
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kohei Sato 16:43 of 17:08
Don Arakawa vs. Kikutaro 2:55 of 7:26
Ikuto Hidaka & Munenori Sawa vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & El Blazer 10:00 of 14:20
Himalayan Tiger & Tengu Baron & Tengu Kaiser vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Shota Takanishi & Shito Ueda 12:39 of 13:24
Falls Count Anywhere Match: The Great Sasuke & Great Otani vs. Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara 21:21 of 22:00
Akebono & Ryuji Sai & Sandy Beach vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Yoshito Sasaki & Kohei Sato 9:13 of 14:51
Masato Tanaka vs. Takao Omori 21:25 of 22:08
Mixed Six Man Tag: Ikuto Hidaka & Munenori Sawa & Saki Maemura vs. Hikaru & Minoru Fujita & Osamu Namiguchi 16:20
Ryoji Sai & Shinjiro Otani vs. Kohei Sato & Tengu Kaiser 14:20
NWA United National Heavyweight Title Match: Sandy Beach vs. Yoshihito Sasaki 13:21
Masato Tanaka & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Mitsuhide Hirasawa & Ryusuke Taguchi 14:28
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Takao Omori 12:51
Munenori Sawa & Osamu Namiguchi & Ryoji Sai vs. Mitsuhide Hirasawa & Tetsuya Naito & Yujiro 13:52
Kohei Sato vs. Ryusuke Taguchi 9:25
Togi Makabe & Toru Yano vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Yoshihito Sasaki 14:35
Jushin Thunder Liger & Riki Choshu vs. Takao Omori & Tatsuhito Takaiwa 11:00
Koji Kanemoto vs. Ikuto Hidaka 15:52
WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Title Match: THE ZEST vs. NOIZ 8:57
NWA Intercontinental Tag & NWA International Lightweight Tag Title Unification Match: Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara [NWA IC Tag] vs. Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin [NWA IL Tag] 15:02
ZERO1-MAX World Heavyweight Title Match: Masato Tanaka vs. Manabu Nakanishi 24:12
Kamikaze vs. Ken Sato 5:32
Osamu Namiguchi & Shito Ueda vs. Munenori Sawa & Shota Takanishi 7:46
Hiroki vs. Chiharu 4:46
NOIZ vs. Takuya Sugawara 5:10
Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Minoru Fujita & The Great Sasuke 14:27
Shinjiro Otani & Takao Omori vs. Masahiro Chono & Tadao Yasuda 11:14
Ryoji Sai vs. Kengo Mashimo 29:29
Daisuke Sekimoto & Kohei Sato vs. Masato Tanaka & Tatsuhito Takaiwa 30:00
Daisuke Sekimoto & Kamikaze & Kohei Sato & Minoru Fujita & Osamu Namiguchi & Takao Omori & Takuya Sugawara vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Masato Tanaka & Munenori Sawa & Ryoji Sai & Shinjiro Otani & Shota Takanishi & Tatsuhito Takaiwa 8:17
Osamu Namiguchi & Shito Ueda vs. Shota Takanishi & Yuzuru Saito 10:59
Hikaru vs. Saki Maemura 9:33
Takao Omori vs. Kamikaze 13:22
Kohei Sato & Minoru Fujita vs. Munenori Sawa & Yuki Ishikawa 12:30
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Ikuto Hidaka 14:09
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Shinjiro Otani 18:25
Masato Tanaka & Ryoji Sai vs. Koji Kanemoto & Yujiro 18:10
Ryoji Sai vs. Yuzuru Saito 8:32
Minoru Fujita vs. Shota Takanishi 10:30
Tetsuya Naito & Yujiro vs. Osamu Namiguchi & Shito Ueda 11:03
Fire Festival Executive Committee Nomination Match: Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Kamikaze 11:44
Fire Festival Executive Committee Nomination Match: Takao Omori vs. Kohei Sato 10:33
Ikuto Hidaka & Munenori Sawa vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Minoru 17:01
Masato Tanaka & Shinjiro Otani vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata 30:00
ZERO1-MAX vs. BattlARTS ~ BATI-BOKO: Osamu Namiguchi & Ken Saito vs. Yuto Yoshikawa & Keita Yano
BATTLE-SOUL-NOW: Minoru vs. Munenori Sawa
KAMIKAZE & Shito Ueda vs. Kohei Sato & Minoru Fujita
ZERO1-MAX vs. GBH: Masato Tanaka & Ryoji Sai vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma
ZERO1-MAX vs. New Japan ~ Dauntless: Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Shinjiro Otani & Takao Omori
International Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Ikuto Hidaka 17:07 of 17:21. A very good match, but I felt like it didn't live up to the tremendous potential they have together, or even the early potential the match showed. They devoted the first half to working each other's knees, which I thought was a very promising start. Mochizuki injured Hidaka's with a kneebreaker onto the apron, and Hidaka came back catching a kick on the apron and hitting a Dragon screw into the ring. The knee injuries didn't set up the second half all that well though. Sure, there was a spot where Hidaka's swandive move was compromised, but he went back to it for the swandive missile kick to set up the Shawn capture, which was not only stopped by Mochizuki, but he even rolled into his own kneebar! That was really the climax of most of the knee activities though, and for the most part the second half was about doing nice moves as if neither had injured their knees. These guys can really go, but they are better with more basic offense and more developed sequences and counters than at trading bigger moves. ***1/2
Fire Festival B Block: Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Ryoji Sai
Fire Festival A Bloc: KAMIKAZE vs. Kohei Sato
Fire Festival B Block: Masato Tanaka vs. Manabu Nakanishi
Fire Festival A Block: Togi Makabe vs. Shinjiro Otani
7/31/08 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 2
Fire Festival A Block: Shinjiro Otani vs. Masaaki Mochizuki
Fire Festival B Block: Masato Tanaka vs. Ryoji Sai
8/3/08 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Fire Festival B Block Finalist Decision Match: Masato Tanaka vs. Takao Omori vs. Manabu Nakanishi
Fire Festival Final: Masato Tanaka vs. Togi Makabe
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Shito Ueda 7:45
Fire Festival 2008 Block B Finalist Decision Three Way Dance: Masato Tanaka vs. Manabu Nakanishi vs. Takao Omori 7:24
Ryoji Sai vs. KAMIKAZE 11:00
Masaaki Mochizuki & Shinjiro Otani vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Kohei Sato 15:32
NWA International Lightweight Tag Title Match: Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Munenori Sawa 23:00
Fire Festival 2008 Final Match: Masato Tanaka vs. Togi Makabe 19:37
Yuta Yoshikawa vs. Shito Ueda 8:05
Munenori Sawa vs. Yusaku Obata 9:00
Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Kohei Sato 30:00
KAMIKAZE & Minoru Fujita & Takao Omori vs. Masato Tanaka & Ryoji Sai & Tatsuhito Takaiwa 14:55
ZERO1 International Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Ikuto Hidaka c vs. Ryusuke Taguchi 16:30
Yuji Nagata vs. Shinjiro Otani 19:05
Ryoji Sai & Shito Ueda & Durango vs. KAMIKAZE & Osamu Namiguchi & Yusaku Obata
Tenka-Ichi Junior Tournament Round 1: The Great Sasuke vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa 9:32 of 12:48. These two were looking their age, and even a bit clumsy. Sasuke did a bunch of nice moves including the Sasuke special where he does the diving headbutt with his opponent on the apron and missing a senton atomico to the floor, but Takaiwa was useless and the match wasn't flowing at all. Junior wrestling is about being graceful and fluid, and this was anything but, and it was just kind of sad to see because you see this matchup and you think it should be good. *3/4
Tenka-Ichi Junior Tournament Round 1: Minoru Fujita vs. Kimbos Rice
Tenka-Ichi Junior Tournament Round 1: Takuya Sugawara vs. Munenori Sawa
Tenka-Ichi Junior Tournament Round 1: Ikuto Hidaka vs. Minoru 23:31 of 24:16. It's been a long time since these two have had a chance to really show what they can do on the mat. I'm not talking about the usual Minoru hits a flying armbar, his opponent struggles to the ropes, and then they run around again. This was an excellent technical match with some really well developed hold and counter hold, with really intricate and super fast movements on the mat. They really knew what they were doing, and could manipulate their body anyway they wanted. The timing was slightly off early on, as they haven't worked with each other of late, but they were really consistent after the early stages, and it was so good when they were on. Minoru attacked Hidaka's hand early, so Hidaka kept shaking it long after he went on the offensive. Hidaka worked Minoru's leg to set up the Shawn capture, but this was a match where they could be opportunistic hookers rather than settling for the usual methodical focus the lesser technical wrestlers are more suited to handle. They did some spectacular stuff as well, including Minoru hitting the nadare shiki fisherman buster after Hidaka blocked the Dragon suplex, but no matter what they did, the moves themselves took a back seat to the speed, quickness, and athleticism. ****
ZERO1-MAX vs. WPF: Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka vs. YaYa Brazil vs. Mr. Wrestling III
World Heavyweight Title: Yuji Nagata vs. Kohei Sato
Shito Ueda vs. Osamu Namiguchi
Tenka-Ichi Junior Tournament Semifinal: Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Munenori Sawa 14:07 of 14:20. A tough go stylistically putting a power wrestler without any great size against a shooter. Takaiwa leaned more toward Sawa's style, but it wasn't as good as it could have been because Sawa didn't have enough on his strikes. Takaiwa began to throw Sawa around in the second half, but didn't really get nasty until the end. Sawa increasingly switched to Muto mode as the match progressed, which never helps. It was all quite watchable, but you never got the sense that they were clicking. **
Tenka-Ichi Junior Tournament Semifinal: Tenka-Ichi Junior Tournament Semifinal: Minoru vs. Minoru Fujita
Chick Fights SUN 3 Way Match: Saki Maemura vs. Hikaru vs. Haruka Matsuo
Ikuto Hidaka & Yuta Yoshikawa vs. Yusaku Obata & KAMIKAZE
The Great Sasuke & Masato Tanaka & Shinjiro Otani vs. Kohei Sato & Ryoji Sai & Takuya Sugawara
Tenka-Ichi Junior Tournament Final: Minoru vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa 19:34 of 20:48. It'd be nice if every major league effort put the kind of effort into a lesser league tournament that Minoru did. The Hidaka match was two excellent wrestlers pushing each other to achieve a level of technical excellent they aren't able to with pretty much anyone else they wrestle, but Minoru was the one who had to make everything happen here. Takaiwa showed little aptitude to make the power wrestler vs. shooter work earlier in the night against Sawa, but Minoru has high end matches with opponents of any style because he understands how to adapt. This was the usual, Minoru working his shoot style in by countering pro style moves then focusing his attack on a body part. As Minoru was the visiting wrestler, he played heel some, including a chair shot to the knee in his knee attack. Minoru just did technical pro wrestling as opposed to the super flashy shoot style hooking we saw against Hidaka on 10/30/08, but although my preference is toward two equals matching each other, Minoru found a way to make this match excellent as well. As Takaiwa is simply a guy who is going to work in his killer moves, that usually meant doing a number of memorable high spots including Minoru hitting an Orihara moonsault, Takaiwa nearly getting a ring out with a Death Valley bomb on the floor, Minoru countering the Mochizuki powerbomb by going into a kneebar after the first powerbomb, Minoru using Takaiwa's Death Valley bomb on him, and so on. Takaiwa did attack Minoru's injured hand some, so he showed some technical wrestling, but it's always mostly going to be his power moves that make him worthwhile. I've been giving most of the credit to Minoru because he supplied the skill and made it work, but Takaiwa really stepped it up and wrestled the sort of badass, concussive match he's infamous for. I've only watched him sporadically, but it's been quite a while since I've seen him at this level while in full control. ****
Osamu Namiguchi vs. WPC 5:46
KAMIKAZE & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Yusaku Obata & Yuzuru Saito 11:34
Shinjiro Otani vs. Shito Ueda 8:23
BADBOY Hido & Mr. Gannosuke vs. Masato Tanaka & Munenori Sawa 14:38
Kohei Sato vs. Ryoji Sai 15:05
NWA Intercontinental Tag Title Match: Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara vs. Charles Evans & Mr. Wrestling 3 16:41
ZERO1 International Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Ikuto Hidaka vs. Tyson Dux 16:36