gordi

Thanks. That's one of the element of this that I really enjoy, too, w/r/t both writing and reading about it.

Cheers!

NJPW (JWA) requests Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, and Mil Mascaras for May 8, 16, and 24, please.

Really great booking here. The finish to every match is believable and makes perfect sense given the wrestlers involved. I feel like it's a nice tribute to George Steele to have him win the Mid Atlantic belt in classic "Animal" fashion.

http://www.avclub.com/article/japanese-wrestling-has-its-own-donald-trump-storyl-252414 DDT ran a Trump angle leading to an Anal Explosion Death Match between Danshoku Dino and Joey Ryanat the Anniversary show.

Tatsumi Fujinami's regular partner, Kengo Kimura, has been sidelined with a shoulder injury. Fujinami and Kimura had been set to face Canek and Dos Caras for the IWGP Tag Team belts at the Young Lions Cup tour-ending show on March 23rd, at the Fukuoka Sports Center. Their place in that match has been taken by Antoinio Inoki and a "Mystery Partner." As previously reported in these pages, Inoki has recently been seen around Tokyo in talks with "Shoot Style" pioneer Akira Maeda. There are also rumours that Blade Runner Sting, a muscular youngster working out of Montreal, could be the mystery partner, as he will be staying in Japan for 3 ore months after participating in the Young Lions Cup. Speaking of the YLC, the final match will be between two recent NJPW dojo graduates: Shinya Hashimoto and Keiji Mutoh. Will these young boys some day step up to fill the giant boots of Inoki and Fujinami? Only time will tell! Finally, after Rick Steiner and Naoki Sano vs Masakatsu Funaki and Steven Regal broke down into chaos at their last big show, Inoki promised to appoint a special guest referee who could keep order for the rematch. Word out of Japan has it that former Karl Gotch Cup winner Yoshiaki Fujiwara has agreed to fill that role.

I'm really looking forward to reading how this all works out.

Freak out… FREAK OUT…. OHHHH YEAAAAH!!! I watched WMIII "Live on Closed Circuit" at my local hockey arena.It was packed with screaming WWF fans. What an experience.

At first I thought you meant that dumb Jake Gyllenhaal movie... but how could that be? So, I searched for "Southpaw" Good GAWD is that ever amazing. Russev the farmer! Cena's "Lance Catamaran" voice is the greatest thing he's ever done... I'm dying. Hopefully we can make some room for you. Have you been reading kevin and Gene's threads here? The scene down south is going crazy right now.

***Revised and Updated Card** NJPW Young Lions Cup Final Night, March 23rd, Fukuoka Sports Center Akira Nogami vs Dave Taylor (YLC Tournament runners-up) Masa Chono and Keiichi Yamada vs Hirokazu Hata and Shunji Kosugi Special Guest Referee Yoshiaki Fujiwara: Rick Steiner and Naoki Sano vs Masakatsu Funaki and Steven Regal Pat Patterson, Ray Stevens, Umanosuke Ueda and Tatsutoshi Goto vs Sting, Owen Hart, 2 Cold Scorpio, and Kantaro Hoshino **BREAK** Young Lions Cup Final Match: Keiji Mutoh vs Shinya Hashimoto Tatsumi Fujinami, Seiji Sakaguchi, and Strong Machine #1 vs One Man Gang, Great Kokina, and Anoaro Atisanoe IWGP Tag Titles First Defense: Canek and Dos Caras © vs Antonio Inoki and Mystery partner "X"

Thanks, I find that doing tournaments really helps provide structure. Also, it gives me something to think about between lessons. As long as you all keep generously sending wrestlers to Japan, I'll keep working them into story-lines. I've wanted to try Armchair Booking for years, I finally had the time to give it a go this year. Thanks. I'm excited to write it up.

NJPW Young Lions Cup Semi-Finals, March 20th, Kagoshima Pref. Gym Sting, Owen Hart, and 2 Cold Scorpio vs Shunji Takano, Black Cat, and David Morgan A fun showcase for our visiting Young Lions. The 6’7” Takano sold and bumped all over the ring making Sting’s power moves look particularly awesome, and he paid tribute to Stu Hart by selling like crazy for his son Owen. David Morgan also brought out thoughts of The Dungeon as he and Owen took it to the mat and worked through a variety of submission holds and creative reversals. Then Black Cat and Owen picked up the pace with a little high-flying offense, and finally 2 Cold Scorpio took it into overdrive by working a crazy five-minute sprint against Black Cat that ended with a Flying Somersault Legdrop for the win. Steven Regal and Masakatsu Funaki vs Rick Steiner and Naoki Sano A stiff, nasty match that quickly grew out of control. Steiner seemed to lose his temper about nine minutes in, after Regal held him open and Funaki blasted him with several stiff kicks to the gut. The Dog Faced Gremlin started throwing closed-fist punches and when the ref tried to stop it, Steiner punched him, too. With the ref down things went absolutely bonzo gonzo, and Inoki, Sakaguchi, The Strong Machines, Sting, and Dave Taylor had to come to ringside to restore order. Inoki announced to the crowd that the two teams would meet again on March 23rd, at the Fukuoka Sports Center, with a special guest referee who Inoki *guarantees* will be able to keep control of the match. Kengo Kimura and Shiro Koshinaka vs Canek and Fishman About five minutes into this match, Kengo Kimura took a bad bump off of a Running Drop Kick and his shoulder popped grotesquely out of the socket. He bravely tried to continue the match, but it was obvious that something was seriously wrong. Referee Verne Siebert made an audible in the ring and called for the boys to go home early. Kimura tagged Koshinaka in, The Lucha Legends trapped Kosh in their corner, and a couple of minutes and one Dos Caras Clutch later they made their way backstage where Kimura could get some medical attention. Fortunately, the dislocation won’t require surgery, but it looks like we are going to have to make a change in our main event on the 23rd, as there is no way Kimura will be good to go by then. The Machines vs Adrian Adonis, Anoaro Atisanoe, and Mr. Pogo A short, violent brawl that ended when Adonis nailed SM#3 with a DDT while the other four men were mixing it up on the floor. Atisanoe and Strong Machine #1 got into another heated exchange after the bell, drawing Seiji Sakaguchi down to ringside to help restore order. Atisanoe shoved Sakaguchi and demanded that he and SM#1 find a partner to face him and two BIG friends in Fukuoka on the 23rd. ** BREAK** YLC Round 3 - Keiji Mutoh vs Keiichi Yamada It was tough not to think of this as “Great Muta vs. Jushin Liger” but these are still two young boys, learning their trade. Through “I know what these guys will someday become” eyes, the match was OK but nothing too special. Through “These guys were still in the dojo a year ago” eyes, the match was amazing. Mutoh really is a lot bigger than Yamada, by about seven inches of height and thirty pounds of muscle. I think what they did best was keep the crowd believing that Yamada had a real chance to win it all, right up until the end. It was a pretty dammed good ending too: Yamada managed to get the larger man up into position for a power bomb, but Mutoh reversed it into a Head Scissors Take-down and from there grabbed a Double Leg Cradle for the pin. YLC Round 3 - Masa Chono vs Shinya Hashimoto This was the longest match in the tournament by several minutes. The match built and built, along classic NJPW lines: Starting with mat-work, which Chono got the best of, the progressing to strikes, where Hashimoto came out on top, the finally to the big power moves, which Hashimoto more or less dominated. Chono got a near-fall off of a Kenka Kick around 20 minutes in, and hooked in the STF about 5 minutes later, but they were too close to the ropes. After that, Hashimoto clubbed Chono around the ring, threw him into the corner and kicked him again and again, then put him down for three with the Vertical Drop Brainbuster. Tatsumi Fujinami vs Dos Caras A nice, twenty-minute, back-and-forth technical wrestling match. Like their thirty-minute draw in Nagoya back in January, they worked everything as a real struggle, with lots of defensive wrestling and a ton of interesting reversals. They stayed on the mat for the first two thirds of the match, and then spent the last seven minutes escalating through their big moves. Dos Caras got near falls off of a Quebradora con Giro and a Diving Cross-body. Fujinami returned fire with a Dragon Backbreaker and a Diving Cross-body of his own. In the end, it was the Dragon Suplex that put Dos Caras away.

Yeah, great debut for Kimura! "Shut up all you filthy people from the slums of Texas!" is such a great heel line from the King.

Your Jr. champ is actually five pounds heavier than your Heavyweight Champion (Mascaras was generally listed at 246 pounds) That aside, I think Mascaras and Idol (and Honky) are great choices as singles champions, and Hansen and Brody will be amazing challengers for your tag belts. Not sure if even help from Idol and Johnny V will be enough to save the Platinum Club in this case. .

Definitely want to work something out because I wanna read about Kawada, Fuyuki, and Ogawa in Mexico. It's almost 3 am here, though... So I'll send you a pm tomorrow to figure out details.

Love the idea. Kawada's hair is pretty close to shaved already Who are you offering in return? Maybe Fuyuki's hair then? Are you doing a super juniors tournament this year? Yep. August 22-31st

Love the idea. Kawada's hair is pretty close to shaved already Who are you offering in return?

Done! Perfect! Thanks.

So many possible match-ups here. Where else is it possible to maybe see Nobuhiko Takada vs George "The Animal" Steele or Terry Funk vs Andre the Giant, or...

Yep. Furry boots, unsavoury jobs, Rudolph clowns, and Los VIllanos cheating to win... what more could we ask for?

Done! Great trade. Thank you.

JWA Wrestlers available to travel to North America for April-June 1985: Shiro Koshinaka: Master of the Hip Attack. 6'1" 231 pounds. Charismatic, speaks some English, works an entertaining style.Has experience working in Mexico. In addition to his signature hip attacks, he also used the Power Bomb into a Prawn Hold and Samurai Driver '84 as finishers. Rusher Kimura: 6'1" 275 pounds. Grizzled kick-ass veteran with a sumo background, a powerful style and a fierce look. His real-life career extended from 1964 through 2004(!) Master of the Cage Match in Japan. Speaks pretty good English and has lots of experience working with Gaijin wrestlers. TRADED TO USWA, April through June Super Strong Machine (Junji Hirata):6'0" 254 pounds Great tag team wrestler with a power style and a famous masked gimmick. Uses the Windmill Suplex and Machine DDT as finishers. TRADED TO LUTTE INT, April through June Tatsutoshi Goto: 5'10" 209 pounds. Backdrop specialist with a great sleazy died-blonde heel look. Stuck in a jobber role on the expanded JWA roster, he'd love to get some experience overseas and raise his stock. Shunji Takano: 6'7" 287 pounds. Great bumper and seller for his size. Spent some time in Stampede Wrestling, and also worked in AWA and Portland as Super Ninja. Can speak English. Also stuck in a jobber role in JWA at the moment, eager to travel. Uses a Missile Dropkick as his finisher, which is pretty impressive for a guy his size. Akira Nogami: 5'11" 200 pounds Charismatic and athletic young wrestler who is also stuck at the bottom of the loaded JPW roster. A good choice if you want to add some juniors-style action to your roster. Uses various STF variations, adopted from the next guy on this list, as finishers.TRADED TO Smoky Mountain Wrestling, April through June Masa Chono: 6'1" 212 pounds Needs no introduction, hopefully... but keep in mind that this is the young Chono. Uses the STF and Kenka Kick as finishers. Very charismatic, and still athletic at this point in his career. Could be good in a team with Akira Nogami, or on his own. - Please note that Masa Chono has been booked in the Rougeau Cup tournament from April 28-30 and will not be available on those dates. Toshiaki Kawada, Samson Fuyuki, and Yoshinari Ogawa: (only available as a group this quarter) - Three young boys from the All Japan Dojo with enough experience and talent to match up with any athletic young team and enough toughness to face down any bad-ass team in North America. Kawada is of course already on his way to becoming one of the Greatest of All Time. Fuyuki was his regular tag partner in the 1980s (their team was called "Footloose").Ogawa was Tenryu's protege at this time. Earned the right to go to CMLL for an extended tour.

So, with big changes coming to Japan in April, we are going to try something a little different in terms of talent exchanges. I'm going to list wrestlers who are available to travel to North America for a given three-month period (Jan-March, April-June, July-Sept, Oct - Nov). Any promoter can make an offer or ask for a loan of any wrestler on the list. I will have the option of accepting the offer, rejecting the offer, or making a counter-offer. The idea behind the three-month period is it will give us plenty of time to develop stories and feuds and so forth with the visiting wrestlers. If you just want a wrestler for a one-shot deal for a big show or something, you can make a request in this thread or send me a personal message. One-shots can be with any wrestler on the JWA roster, they are not just limited to the wrestlers listed here. If there is a wrestler on my roster that you would like me to make available in the Trades and Loans thread for next quarter or any time in the future, you can make a request in this thread or send me a personal message.

I know it's hard for anyone who didn't grow up in the South and see how over the Armstrongs and Fullers were (and are) to really get it......I worked a show as recently as last year in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Alabama that had the Armstrongs (Bob & Steve & Steve Jr) and Jimmy Golden on the show that drew over 600 people. They were all superstars here in the South and it's what I grew up on being from Mississippi so I'm having an absolute blast booking this area! That's awesome. I'm happy to hear that they are still going strong and that indie wrestling can still draw down South.

It's going to be so fun to read about Inoki at WrestleMania.