Venue: Korakuen Hall (Tokyo)
Broadcast: TV Asahi 2, IJPW Network
Japanese Commentary: Taka Shimura and “Samurai X”
Misao Sakurai
English Commentary: Yo Kurasawa and Eric O'Flaherty
Ring Announcer: Raka Matsumua
Referees:
Masanori Katayanagi (Senior Referee), Kanzaburo
Outakara, Tashiaki Suzuki, and Mabuchi Hida
After a strong start, Iron Japan Pro Wrestling fell into
uncertainty when the promoter, Goro Yamashi, fell into investigation
for potential Yakuza connections. With Yamashi choosing to put both
IJPW and Death Trip Wrestling on hiatus, he then sold the former to a
friend – eccentric Tokyo socialite and hotel owner Shun Nagahama.
The new promoter had a different vision in mind and decided to put
IJPW on hold, canceling all upcoming shows and retiring the IJPW
World Tag Team Championship and IJPW Television Championship.
John Scroggs, the IJPW World Champion, was set to be
named as the first IJPW Heavyweight Champion as Nagahama intended to
introduce weight classes to the promotion. However, Nagahama and
Scroggs fell out over booking dates. Scroggs didn't want to come to
Japan as often as Nagahama demanded. The promoter decided to make the
Heavyweight title an entirely new belt, disconnected from the World
Championship and its lineage, thus bringing in an entirely new age to
Iron Japan Pro Wrestling.
Nagahama announced a new television deal with TV Asahi 2 and
a new series – Iron Japan CLASH! (Combatants – Libertines –
Anarchists – Sadists – Heretics).
A contract was signed for forty episodes, including an unset number
for supplemental episodes featuring footage of IJPW wrestlers working
outside of the promotion. A tournament for the IJPW Heavyweight
Championship was announced for the first episode. For the second, a
tournament for the IJPW Junior Heavyweight Championship, and a
tournament for the IJPW Tornado Rules Championship was announced for
the third episode.
With IJPW set to
reopen, the roster formed into various factions set to claim
dominance. Each faction was aloud to enter one participant into the
Heavyweight Championship Tournament.
AKIO (Divine Vanguard)
DANJURO (Danjuro-Gun)
Eien no Honou (Celestial Torch)
Isamu Shinagami (Blood Militants)
Markie Bristow (Street Syndicate)
Shi no Karasu (Naraku no Soko)
Suda Tsukasa, “The King of Korakuen Hall (Royals and
Rebels)
Teiji “The Terror”
Shintaro (Ultraviolence Union)
A draw at the Meiji
Shrine in Tokyo was held to determine the first round matches.
DANJURO vs. Shi no Karasu
Eien no Honou vs. Markie Bristow
AKIO vs. Isamu Shinagami
“The King of Korakuen
Hall” Suda Tsukasa vs. Teiji “The Terror” Shintaro
With the stage set,
puroresu fans once again turned their eyes to Korakuen Hall – this
time to watch a new age in Iron Japan Pro Wrestling be brought with
the crowning of the first-ever IJPW Heavyweight Champion.
IJPW Heavyweight
Championship Tournament – First Round Match
DANJURO vs. Shi no
Karasu
Referee: Mabuchi Hida
Danjuro Komatsuzaki was
the head of the IJPW Dojo until Nagahama closed it in favor of a new
business direction. The former trainer and his crew of old school
puroresu stiffs were upset and Komatsuzaki lost his mind, changing
his name to DANJURO and forming Danjuro-Gun with Killer Komukai,
Hirano Denbe, and Fujimaro Odaka.
“Nagahama took a job
away from me and my men,” DANJURO said before the draw at the Meiji
Shrine press conference. “It is also a bad business decision. What
is the future of Iron Japan if the company can't build its own stars?
But it affects me more on a personal level. I love breaking in
newcomers. I love to bind and torture them. I love to show them how
tough they have to be to make it in this business. That has been
taken away from me. Now I will take it out on the rest of Iron Japan
with Danjuro-Gun! I will win this tournament. Nagahama killed the
dojo. Now I will hold the Heavyweight title belt to his face like a
severed head to spite him! My contract runs out after Budokan
Battle Bash. I won't say that I will leave after that. We will see.
But Danjuro-Gun will bring chaos to Iron Japan until then.”
DANJURO'S opponent, Shi
no Karasu, said very little before the draw. The sinister man, who
built Naraku no Soko through brainwashing and kidnapping, slowly took
to the podium and hovered over the microphone for a moment before
speaking gravely. “Iron Japan will be a dark world when I become
Heavyweight Champion. I will be its ruler. Vera, Akuma, Macabro –
they are my soldiers. The laws of the new land will be made by Naraku
no Soko.”
IJPW
Heavyweight Championship Tournament – First Round Match
Eien no Honou vs.
Markie Bristow
Referee: Tashiaki
Suzuki
Eien no Honou, “The
Eternal Flame,” recruited a group of fun, fast-paced, and
high-flying eccentrics to form Celestial Torch and take on the
dangerous world of Iron Japan Pro Wrestling. The strange, shiny man
in silver took to the podium at the Meiji Shrine gesticulated wildly
throughout his promo.
“It doesn't matter
who I fight,” ENH said. “The spooky Isamu! The evil Shi no
Karasu! The Herr With The Green Hair! AKIO or DANJURO! I will take on
them all – even The King of Korakuen Hall! I will fight them from
the east, west, north, and south! I will teach Teiji The Terror that
poo goes in the loo and not in your mouth!”
Markie Bristow, the
young Mancunian, was once a good guy. Now he comes to Iron
Japan CLASH! as the captain of
Street Syndicate, joined by two other Brits and Detroit's Freddy
Deeds. Bristow made it clear that these angry gaijins are set to
attack everyone in sight.
“Every-fucking-one of
ya is on notice,” Bristow said at the Meiji Shrine. “I don't give
a fuck who ya are. I don't even give a fuck if you're that mad cunt
Teiji Shintaro. Street Syndicate will come out of these next three
shows with all the fucking gold. If ya got a problem with what I say,
then fucking bring it on, lads.”
IJPW
Heavyweight Championship Tournament – First Round Match
AKIO vs. Isamu
Shinagami
Referee: Kanzaburo
Outakara
AKIO was a main event
star in 2015, but his 2016 saw him get stuck in a brutal feud with
Fabulous Adrian Bagglio that derailed his career and personal life.
The crowd favorite had an opportunity to start anew in the best way
possible – something that many fans hoped to see.
“It's a new era for
Iron Japan Pro Wrestling and a new era for me,” AKIO said at the
Meiji Shrine. “I am the captain of Divine Vanguard. A new age in
puroresu will be ushered by the likes of myself, my lovely girlfriend
Kuni Hishida, Masuko Mitsuharu, and Toshitsugu Takagaki. The new age
starts when I become IJPW Heavyweight Champion.”
Isamu Shinagami used
his time to warn of Naraku no Soko. “Many wonder why I made it a
mission to stand up to Shi no Karasu and Naraku no Soko. I am an old
man now. I walked a path of darkness for most of my career. I know
what it's like to live with darkness in your heart. It eats you up
eventually. It's too late for me now, but it's not too late for Shi
no Karasu or Naraku no Soko. But saving them would only be
consolation to saving professional wrestling from this dangerous
group. Blood Militants will stop them at all costs. Shi no Karasu
must not win the IJPW Heavyweight Championship!”
IJPW
Heavyweight Championship Tournament – First Round Match
“The King of Korakuen
Hall” Suda Tsukasa vs. Teiji “The Terror” Shintaro
Referee: Masanori
Katayanagi
Suda Tsukasa had one of
the more memorable runs during the World Crown Tournament – an
Indian summer that reignited his career and captivated a nation as he
won all the Korakuen Hall rounds before losing to John Scroggs in the
semi-finals at Budokan Hall. He then famously beat Teiji Shintaro on
the Iron Road. “The King of Korakuen Hall” wasn't getting younger
as IJPW sat inactive, but he looked confident at the Meiji Shrine
press conference.
“This is my last
run,” Tsukasa said. “I want to hold a top title again before
retiring. Winning the IJPW Heavyweight Championship and setting a
high standard for the title would be the greatest way to end my
career. It would be the greatest achievement of my career too.
Korakuen Hall is my ground. Nobody has wrestled there more than me.
Nobody has won there more than me. I know every inch of Korakuen
Hall. It is my home. Whoever fights me will fight a man with
homefield advantage. I'm not just fighting to win matches or titles
at Korakuen Hall! I'm defending my home!”
The Ultraviolence Union
have been one of the most notorious groups in professional wrestling
since the start of 2016. Union captain Ricky Holt has a lot to do
with that, but it's Teiji “The Terror” Shintaro that everyone
truly worries about. Teiji The Terror, to put it lightly, is the GG
Allin of professional wrestling and legitimately one of the most
dangerous individuals on the planet. The derelict demolition man is
described as “a walking feast of filth” according to his manager
– Pro Wrestling's Rogue Manager and Ultraviolence Union founder
Eric O'Flaherty. Teiji was not in attendance for the press
conference, but O'Flaherty spoke for him at the podium.
“It's not that Teiji
The Terror needs me to speak for him,” O'Flaherty said, “because
you all heard him begin to speak for himself going into DTW
Deathmatch Demolition and into the last DeathTube before DTW went on
hiatus during this whole Yamashi-san investigation. Besides, Teiji's
actions always speak louder than any words anyway. But that's not why
he isn't here today. They wouldn't let Teiji come into the Meiji
Shrine because they know this place would be burning to the fucking
ground by the time he left! That could happen at Korakuen Hall! What
definitely will happen is that Teiji will violate and desecrate
everyone in his path – all the way to the IJPW Heavyweight
Championship! Three matches! Everyone will have GG Allin's 'Violence
Now' stuck in their head by the end of the night and it couldn't be
more fitting for what the new IJPW will be like! So ENH, you wanna
make whimsical little rhymes? Here's one for ya: 'Welcome to Teiji's
world, a battlefield blitz! It's as real as it seems, as bloody as it
gets!'”
The stage was set for the semi-finals! The winners of
the first two matches competed in the first semi-final match.
*** SPOILERS IF YOU DIDN'T WATCH THE FIRST ROUND ***
*** SPOILERS IF YOU DIDN'T WATCH THE FIRST ROUND ***
*** SPOILERS IF YOU DIDN'T WATCH THE FIRST ROUND ***
*** SPOILERS IF YOU DIDN'T WATCH THE FIRST ROUND ***
*** SPOILERS IF YOU DIDN'T WATCH THE FIRST ROUND ***
IJPW
Heavyweight Championship Tournament –Semi-Final Match
Shi no Karasu vs. Eien
no Honou
Referee: Mabuchi Hida
A man of darkness vs. a bizarre, yet fun individual. Who
would advance to the final?
IJPW
Heavyweight Championship Tournament –Semi-Final Match
AKIO vs. “The King of
Korakuen Hall” Suda Tsukasa
Referee: Tashiaki
Suzuki
Korakuen Hall was hot as these two crowd favorites
collided. Both men have great mutual respect for one another, but
only one could go to the final.
Six-Person
Tornado Rules Match
Naraku no Soko (Akuma
Usami, El Macabro, and Vera Vicious) vs. Blood Militants (“Queen of
the Deathmatch” Trista Capra, Datenshi, and Notorio)
The war between Naraku
no Soko and the newly-formed Blood Militants saw the first shots
fired on this night.
IJPW
Heavyweight Championship Tournament – Final Match
Shi no Karasu vs. “The
King of Korakuen Hall” Suda Tsukasa
Referee: Masanori
Katayanagi
*** SEGMENT WITH
SPOILERS BELOW ***
*** SEGMENT WITH
SPOILERS BELOW ***
*** SEGMENT WITH
SPOILERS BELOW ***
*** SEGMENT WITH
SPOILERS BELOW ***
*** SEGMENT WITH
SPOILERS BELOW ***
Nagahama and IJPW
Commissioner Hisashi Matano presented the IJPW Heavyweight
Championship belt to Shi no Karasu in the middle of the ring. SNK
also received a trophy to commemorate the tournament victory. Akuma
Usami, Vera Vicious, and El Macabro joined him in the ring as Nagaham
and Matano stepped out. SNK took the microphone in his moment of
triumph.
“This is just the
beginning!” SNK said. “We started with the Heavyweight title
tonight! Vera Vicious will win the Junior Heavyweight Championship at
Iron Japan CLASH! 2!
Akuma Usami and El Macabro will become Tornado Rules Champions! The
reign of darkness has just begun! Nobody can stop us – especially
Isamu Shinagami and Blood Militants! You won the six-person tornado
rules match earlier, Blood Militant, but look who holds the biggest
prize at the end of the night!”
Just after one episode of Iron Japan CLASH!, the
promotion was already looking for a hero...
