Hirooki Goto has challenged new GHC Heavyweight Champion, Takashi Sugiura, to a rematch at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th. The two have history of late with Sugiura getting the better of Goto in two matches during his New Japan stint earlier this year. Their last meeting, during the 2009 G1 Climax allowed Sugiura to progress to the semi final round, where his campaign ended. Goto of late, however, has started showing signs of a revival with a revenge win over ZERO1 ace, Masato Tanaka. Now he wants to make it two-in-a-row by beating the new top man of NOAH, Sugiura, and has called on Sugiura to show courage and put his belt on the line.
TAJIRI shows no signs of exiting New Japan. His parent company HUSTLE is now officially dead but he looks to be part of a smaller offshoot group called SMASH launching soon. But it looks like he will continue to appear regularly in New Japan and has set his new target as Yuji Nagata’s Aogi-gun. TAJIRI said he wants to reeducated the group - comprised of Nagata, Super Strong Machine, Inoue, and Hirasawa - as he believes the faction has a startling lack of talent. TAJIRI said he would dye the blue colour of the group to green and make them kneel before him.
To clarify and respond to a few emails I’ve gotten at once, the rumours that Hulk Hogan had been approached to work the January 4th Tokyo Dome show were true. However, Hogan won’t be on the show due to (in part at least) a colliding schedule, as he has joined TNA Wrestling now. The newest rumour, though, is that New Japan is working on bringing in an American pro wrestling legend for the show who is “on par” with Hogan. Well, I’m not sure if anyone is on par with Hogan but there are certainly some big names out there.
