#takayamania

[mackdaddyofthecravate]

[x]

[thistledropkick]

Suzuki posted a couple posts about the Takayamania show on his instagram, one before the show and one after. I'll keep things simple and post translations of both of them here in the same post.

(source)

He posts some technical info about watching the PPV first, which I won't bother to translate, but here's the rest of the post. Also, the English at the beginning referring to the song 上を向いて歩こう which was renamed "Sukiyaki" when it was released in outside of Japan, and includes lyrics that translate to "I'll look up as I walk / so my tears don't fall"

Suzuki:

SUKIYAKI SONG Let's look up and walk

I always approach "now" and "what I can do" with my full strength. Yesterday too... with my full strength. Tomorrow too... with my full strength. Being alive... with my full strength.

I've made many mistakes and had many failures, and I've been able to grasp many victories, all by using my full strength. It's not a matter of chance. It's results. Just results.

Opposing with my full strength Striking with my full strength If you don't run with your full strength... What is the meaning of being alive.

Are you choosing to take the safely paved path because you fear what will happen if you don't? Are you so busy thinking about the past that you miss what's right in front of you right now?

Enjoy walking. Enjoy running. Enjoy resting. Enjoy stumbling. Enjoy standing back up. Enjoy the path under your feet. Enjoy your far-off distant goal. Enjoy being alive. Those who enjoy living are the strongest! That's what I say to myself...

I must continue to tell Takayama this forever: "I'll keep sitting here on this throne, as the King of Pro Wrestling, awaiting your return."

Today, TAKAYAMANIA EMPIRE comes alive once more!

(source)

Suzuki:

I put my full strength into pro wrestling. Not thinking about the past or the future. Whatever, however, I always approach it head-on, and with my full strength. Right or wrong... Good or bad... Win or loss... Success or failure... Either way is fine. Facing it with all your might - that's what matters. Of course, doing things however you please gets you lots of criticism and haters. But, I don't care about that. That's just how I am (lol)

I always do important things "Sincerely, from my heart"

Whenever, wherever... Only that...

Takayama Yoshihiro... We've sincerely laughed together, We've sincerely gotten into fistfights, We've sincerely stood in opposition to each other. We've sincerely stood beside each other, We've sincerely tried to kill each other... People like that are few and far between He is "my friend"...

[gdwessel]

NJPW at All In 9/1/2018; Suzuki, Nagata, Tenzan, Kojima, Umino, Narita at Takayamania Empire 8/31/2018

Strong Style Story Episode 44 & Strong Style History 16 on Place To Be Nation

As you may have heard, the Bullet Club’s All In event ran last night at the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates, IL, in the northwest Chicago burbs. Your humble blogger may or may not have grown up in that area. One of us from the Podcast was also in attendance at the event. I managed to get a way to see it, although if I am frank I mostly had it on in the background as there were only three matches I felt any need to see with intent. I did manage to watch Cody Rhodes beat Nick Aldis for the NWA World’s Heavyweight Title, which on the one hand it’s cool he won a title his father help make, but on the other, hey, a Rhodes booking himself an NWA title win, whoda thunk it.

The three matches directly involving NJPW talents all happened in the last part of the program, thankfully.  Yes, Adam Page and Herb Flip Gordon appear in NJPW but they are under ROH contracts, like most of the talents on display last night. Kenny Omega had a great match with Penta el 0M last night, indeed was maybe the best match of the night. Part of that lay firmly with Penta not allowing Kenny to do a lot of his usual shtick; the YOU! CAN’T! ESCAPE! moonsault got blocked, Penta kicked Omega out of an early springboard, etc.  I hope Penta really got to show himself to the NJPW brass on this, politics aside. Chris Jericho appeared post-match disguised as Penta to attack Omega, hyping the Jericho Cruise later this year.

In the semi-main, Kazuchika Okada had a pretty decent match with Marty Scurll. I guess Scurll is now pushing for heavyweight status, which, OK, I guess he isn’t winning that IWGP Junior Heavyweight tournament. Thanks for that. But it also didn’t seem like a typical Okada match, but it paled to Okada’s recent CMLL appearance, which was also not a typical Okada match.

The main event was shorter than perhaps I would have liked given the talents involved, however the Golden Elite (Kota Ibushi & the Young Bucks) beat Rey Mysterio Jr., Rey Fenix y Bandido in a thriller. Rey Mysterio came out in a Wolverine-inspired costume for this, one of his final indie appearances before going back to WWE for three years. Bandido really elevated himself in this, and Fenix is simply incredible. The shorter match did prevent a lot of the Young Bucks’ bullshit comedy however, so there’s a plus.

Overall, this still wasn’t my cup of tea for pro wrestling events, but it was also Not Horrible, admittedly. I still think this was a non-branded ROH event filled with Being The Elite in-jokes, but 10,400 people were satisfied, I suppose, so in that respect it worked. It is, overall, a good thing for pro wrestling, however I just wish the card was a little more interesting or suspenseful in the results. It isn’t quite yet up on NJPWWorld, but it’ll be there soonish I am sure.

On Friday at Tokyo Korakuen Hall, the charity show Takayamania Empire was held, with an all-star cast of Japanese wrestlers past and present appearing on the show. Put together by Minoru Suzuki to benefit the now-paralyzed former IWGP, Triple Crown and GHC Heavyweight champion Yoshihiro Takayama, he, MAZADA & NOSAWA Rongai beat Shuji Kondo, Taiyo Kea & TAKA Michinoku in the main event. There was also a video message from Takayama saying he hopes next time to be there in person to boot Suzuki in the face himself. Suzuki said he knew half the wrestlers there hate his guts, but was glad they all came for Takayama.

NJPW, for their part, sent Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, and Young Lions Shota Umino and Ren Narita to the event. DDT’s Danshoku Dino seemed to take a shine to Umino. In their match, the team of Nagata & Narita beat Tenzan & Umino. Kojima did not wrestle, as his official return is of course at Blue Justice VIII on 9/9/2018 next week. 

But if you see the pic above, you can see all sorts of folk here. Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama, Kensuke Sasaki, Taiyo Kea, Meiko Satomura, Chihiro Hashimoto, Shuji Ishikawa, Yuji Hino... seriously, get this show and watch it.  Afterwards, make a donation to Takayamania to help Takayama get a comfortable life in the coming days and years while he lives with this paralysis. 

I think tomorrow I will be posting an up-to-date Upcoming NJPW Events list, and then Wednesday is the start of the Road to Destruction tour.

Strong Style Story Episode 44 & Strong Style History 16 on Place To Be Nation

[keepingthespiritalive]

[TAKAYAMANIA NEWS] Several more matches were announced, including the semi-final, for the Yoshihiro Takayama support show that will be taking place on August 31st at the Korakuen Hall.

Joining the previously announced main event is the team of Shuji Ishikawa Yuji Hino and Konosuke Takeshita taking on Suwama, Ryota Hama and Kazusada Higuchi, Jun Akiyama teaming with Dick Togo as they face Takao Omori and Danshoku Dieno, and then a mixed tag match as Takashi Sugiura teams with Meiko Satomura to take on Hikaru Sato and Chihiro Hashimoto. A battle royal was also announced as it will kick-off the show.

TAKAYAMANIA EMPIRE, 8/31/2018 [Fri] 18:30 @ Korakuen Hall in Tokyo

(1) Battle Royal: (to be announced)

(-) Jun Akiyama (AJPW) & Dick Togo (MichiPro) vs. Takao Omori (AJPW) & Danshoku Dieno (DDT) (-) Takashi Sugiura (NOAH) & Meiko Satomura (Sendai Girls) vs. Hikaru Sato (Pancrase MISSION) & Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls) 

(6) Semi-final Match: Shuji Ishikawa (FREE), Yuji Hino (FREE) & Konosuke Takeshita (DDT) vs. Suwama (AJPW), Ryota Hama (BJW) & Kazusada Higuchi (DDT)

(7) Main Event: Minoru Suzuki (Pancrase MISSION), NOSAWA Rongai (Gurentai) & MAZADA (Gurentai) vs. Taiyo Kea (FREE), Kaz Hayashi (W-1) & TAKA Michinoku (K-DOJO)

~ Also announced to compete : Noamichi Marufuji and Sanshiro Takagi

http://puroresuspirit.net/tag/takayamania/

[mackdaddyofthecravate]

[sicksadbilly]

Not me crying at some japanese wrestling.

[gdwessel]

Suzuki, Nagata, Kojima, Tsuji at Takayamania Empire 2 8/26/2019; Superstar Talents Announced for Fighting Spirit Unleashed ; RIP Tazuko Tada

NJPW’s founder and former owner, Antonio Inoki, tweeted out late Monday (early Tuesday morning in Japan) that his wife Tazuko Tada had passed away. I don’t know much about Tada; I think she may have been a photographer, if I read Inoki’s tweet correctly. The pic above is the two of them in 2001, swiped from Tokyo Sports. The two had been married since 2017. The Inoki family is requesting privacy, of course. We here offer our sincerest condolences to the entire family in this time.

This past Monday at Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Takayamania Empire 2 was held, in tribute to, and as a benefit for, the fallen Yoshihiro Takayama, paralysed from the neck down following an injury suffered in a match in DDT in 2017. Minoru Suzuki has been one of the prime drivers of this event, close as he is to Takayama, and indeed he featured in the main event, teaming with his namesake Hideki Suzuki in a 30-minute time-limit-draw against the legendary Masato Tanaka and Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Naomichi Marufuji. I saw some pics from this match, with Marufuji chopping the ever-living bejeezus out of Suzuki; Kenta Kobashi even got a shot in at one point. 

Suzuki was not the only NJPW wrestler to take part in this, however. Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima and Young Lion Yota Tsuji were also part of this show, in a match mixing talents from NJPW and Pro Wrestling ZERO-1, as Nagata & Tsuji teamed with Shinjiro Otani against Kojima, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Shoki Kitamura. Nagata would get the win with a Backdrop Hold on Kitamura.

But there were loads of other talents there as well, in addition to a special video message from Takayama himself. Daisuke Sekimoto, four of the top women from Sendai Girls (Meiko Satomura, Chihiro Hashimoto, Hiroyo Matsumoto, DASH Chisako), talents from DDT, NOAH, Dragon Gate... basically, if you can see this, do so. Videos are already starting to circulate on the internet, so you should be able to find something. It will be worth your while.

NJPW have announced a bevy of talents for the Fighting Spirit Unleashed tour of the East Coast in late September. Certainly bigger names than those who were on the New Beginning USA shows in February (and yes, we all know why that was). This is seems to be essentially a Make-Good for that tour, and with the tickets already moving pretty well, why the Hell not? (New York and Philadelphia are sold out; Lowell, MA, still has tickets available)

The listed talents are: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada, HIrooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi, BUSHI, Jay White, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & KENTA. More should be announced soon enough, but this is a good sampling. It should be noted that NJPW is saying that Okada will not be at the tour-ender in Philly at the 2300 Arena (the old ECW Arena, of course). No reasons have been given for his absence at that show.

The tour starts on 9/27/2019 in Lowell.

[nishimooooo-blog]

今日の西村やの日替わりプレートは『豚肉とナスの煮物』です😋 今週も雨模様ですね☂️ 髪の毛ペタンコになる〰️❗よりも、頭痛が😰同じお悩みの方、お互いに頑張りましょう‼️ さて昨日の夜は、TAKAYAMANIA EMPIRE2があり、もちろん東京へは行けなかったのでAbemaTVで見てました😊 西村やにもご来店された事がある選手がいっぱい出場されてて、どっちを応援したら良いか迷う試合もありましたが、とても愉しく見てました😍 大将もｳﾁも、プロレス会場で募金箱を見つけたら、気持ちですけど募金しています。 この先もし続けると思います😊 ラストに高山善廣さんからビデオメッセージもあり、パワーもらったな～♪ 色々と頑張ろう(•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑ って事で、今日も宜しくお願いします(・∀・)ﾉ✨ #西村や加古町店 #汁なし担々麺 #カレー炒飯あります #TAKAYAMANIA EMPIRE2 #みんな見てたよ〰️‼️ (西村や) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1po3rRhe5s/?igshid=lb5z8oj1m5hm