(Retro) Tossing Salt - Japanese News - 10/4/03

Tossing Salt - Japanese News - 10/4/03

What's up all? I just completed the latest installment of my column for the Wrestling Informer - Tossing Salt - Wrestling From the Land of the Rising Sun, and as usual, I wanted to give ya'll the first look before it gets posted later tonite. Hope ya'll enjoy.

-Doug

Greetings all and welcome to Tossing Salt (Wrestling from the Land of the Rising Sun)! I'm your host and resident degenerate, Doug M. I've been slack for a couple of days, catching up on some of my other responsibilities, but the news never quits, so let's can the small talk and get right to it: As always - let's start with

NEWS:

NEW JAPAN MANAGEMENT DISSAPOINTED AT EARLY TICKET SALES

Weekly First Newspaper in Japan is claiming that the management of New Japan is very upset at the poor ticket sales and general lack of interest in the Hogan/Chono match at their 10/13 Tokyo Dome show. Estimates of tickets sold in advance are anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 depending upon who you ask, but even these numbers are nowhere near what New Japan was expecting for the return of Hulk Hogan to Japan. To help generate ticket sales, New Japan has added Bob Sapp to the main event elimination tag team match.

FINAL LINE-UP FOR ULTIMATE CRUSH II ON 10/13 AT THE TOKYO DOME

Super Jr. New Japan Rumble for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Jushin Liger, Koji Kanemoto, El Samurai, Tiger Mask IV, Heat, Masahito Kakihara, Masayuki Naruse, Jado, Gedo, Katsushi Takemura, & X
U-30 Championship match - Yutaka Yoshie versus Blue Wolf
Shinya Makabe versus TOA the Samoan Beast (K-1)
Osamu Nishimura & Kotetsu Yamamoto versus Tadao Yasuda & Kantaro Hoshino
Khaliun Boldbaatar (Mongolia/Judo champion) versus Osami Shibuya
Tsayoshi Kohraka versus Richard Morais
KOP Championship match: Josh Barnett versus Yoshiki Takahashi
2,000,000 yen bounty match - Kazunari Murakami versus Katsuyori Skibath
Masahiro Chono versus Hulk Hogan w/ Jimmy Hart
10 Man Elimination Tag Team match
Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yugi Nagata, Manabu Nakenishi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Senji Sakaguchi
versus
Yoshihiro Takeyama, Minoru Suzuki, Kazuyuki Fujita, Shinsuke Nakamura, & Bob Sapp

HARD TIMES FOR WORLD JAPAN PRO

I told you a few days ago that the World Japan promotion is having some hard times. A few days ago, I reported that Riki Chosu, Kensuke Sasaki, Shiro Koshinaka, & Takao Omori had an emergncy meeting to handle matters such as the need for new cash resources, wrestlers not being paid, and other matters. Well, the company has now been forced to cancel several house shows scheduled for late October and early November. The reason is simple - they just don't have the necessary resources available (cash and local promoters) to be able to effectively promote their product in certain areas of Japan. Until new resources are found, World Japan may continue to cancel events booked in smaller venues and just concentrate on arena shows and TV instead. And if the money problems weren't enough, one of their top stars, Kensuke Sasaki has cancelled all his appearances on the next scheduled tour due to an injury to his right thumb. When it rains, it pours and right now, it's definitely typhoon season for World Japan.

ICP NAMED WORST ARTIST IN MUSIC HISTORY

This is not really Japanese news, and is actually kind of old now, but I wanted to send a shout out to former WCW and WWF stars, the Insane Clown Posse. It seems that Blender magazine decided to rate (in their opinion) the fifty worst music artists in music history - and the juggalo twosome beat out such noted luminaries as Vanilla Ice (number 6), Kenny G (number 4), and Michael Bolton (number 3) to capture the top honors in this dubious list.

By the way, Emerson,Lake, & Plamer were the #2 ranked music artists. I'm sure that Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope will accept this honor with pride and dignity and acknowledge it in a future recording. But I like the ICP and their music - and if that's what Blender magazine calls the worst - I'd hate to see what they think is good. ICP rocks!

And now, I'd like to take a moment and say something to Jessica, a reader who e-mailed me and asked if I could find out any information for her about "Pretty Boy" Doug Sommers. Jessica, I have been all over the internet and talked to a lot of people, but as I told you, it's as if Doug Sommers vanished off the face of the world after the AWA folded. So, if any Informer readers know anything on the current whereabouts of Doug Sommers and what he's been doing since his glory days as 1/2 of the AWA World Tag Team champions with Buddy Rose, please drop me a line here at the Informer, so I can pass the word to Jessica.

And finally, you know them and you love them - you just can't live without them. It's time for :

MATCH RESULTS:

TORYU-MON 10/2/03 Iwate Prefectural Gym
Kenichiro Arai, Dragon Kid, & Mesaaki Mochizuka beat Genki Horiguchi, K-ness, & Susumu Yokosuka in 12:59
3 WAY DANCE
BATAyan defeated Stalker Ichikawa & Takamichi Iwasa in 6:32
Magnum Toyko over Second Doi in 10:11
SUWA & TARU bested YASSHI & Dotti Shuji in 10:00 by DQ
Milano COllection AT, Anthony W. Morii, & Yossino defeated CIMA, Don Fujii, & JUN in 13:25

K-DOGO 10/02/03 Chiba City, Japan Blue Gield
Attendance: 51 fans
Hyper Brave G. Valion beat Taku Joetsu in 7:40
KAZMA over Quiet Storm in 9:06
Kunio Toshima defeated Mike Lee jr. in 8:75
Yasu Urano beat TAISUKE in 8:10
Daigoro Kashiwa & Teppei Ishizek beat Sambo Dishi & Shiori Asahi in 16:08

TORYU-MON 10/03/03 Iwate Prefectural Gym
Genki Horiguchi & K-ness & Susamu Yokosuka defeated Second Doi, Dtagon Kid, & Masaaki Mochizuki in 3:58
3 WAY DANCE
BATAyan over Stalker Ichikawa & Kenichiro Arai in 6:50
Magnum Toyko defeated Takemichi Iwaga in 11 seconds. Match was ordered restarted.
Magnum Toyko beat Takemichi Iwaga in 2:44 when Iwaga was disqualified.
TARU & Don Fujii beat YASSHI & Dotti Shuji in 9:22
JUN, SUWA, & CIMA beat Anthony W. Morii, YOSSINO, & Milano Collection A.T. in 12:54

OSAKA-PRO 10/04/03 Delfin Arena
Daio QUALLT beat Masato Matoba in 7:17
Takehiro Murahama & Ebessan defeated Gamma & Billy Ken Kid in 12:32
Super Delfin over Tigers Mask in 9:23
Tsubaga & Black Buffalo beat Miracle Man & Yutaka Fukuda in 10:19
Big Boss MA-G-MA & Goa defeated Kuisinbo Kamen & Pero in 12:44

K-DOGO 10/04/03 Toyko, Japan
Ofune over DJ Nira in 6:29
PSYCHO & Yuu Yamagata beat Hardcore Kid Kojiro & Apple Miyuki in 8:17
Yasu Urano & Quiet Storm beat Shiori Asahi & Taku Joetsu in 11:22
MIYAWAKI & Kengo Mashimo & Kunio Toshima beat Sambo Oishi, Mr. X #3, and Mike Lee jr. in 11:44
UWP INTERCONTINENTIAL TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Mr X and Mr. X #2 defeated Daigoro Kashiwa & Teppei Ishizaka to retain their titles in 13:07
Gentaro, KAZMA, and Hi69 beat Ryotas Chikyzen, Yoshiya, and Joe Auyoma in 13:45

A to Z 10/3/03 Miyagi, Japan Ishinomaki City Gym
baby A beat Yukari Kitao in 8:56
Sachie Abe pinned Bullfight Sora in 8:24
Mika Nishio defeated Sarah Del Ray in 8:14
GAMI over Rie Tamada in 11:22
Mirai Momoe, Nakanishi, & Yumiko Hotta defeated Leo-na, Akino, and Mariko Yoshida in 18:40

(All news and match reports courtesy of Picksi's Puroresu World)

Well, that;s gonna do it, I guess for this edition of Tossing Salt! Will World Japan survive this financial crunch? Will sales pick up for the Toyko Dome show? Is Kensuke Sasaki really nursing an injury or is there more to the story. For the answer to all this and so much more, come on back to the "Wrestling Informer" and the next fun filled edition of "Tossing Salt - Wrestling from the Land of the Rising Sun".

And if you have any questions or comments, contact me at DougMaynard@wrestlinginformer.net or at Doug28352@yahoo.com. Also, if you have any info on Doug Sommers, I'd like to hear that too. Well, I guess that's it - so until next time - remember that wrestling is real! It's the rest of the world that's fake. Take it light!

-Doug