Pro Wrestling NOAH's Great Voyage Pay-Per-View

Pro Wrestling NOAH's
Great Voyage Pay-Per-View

Ariake Colosseum, Tokyo - Japan
Saturday December 23rd, 2000.

As part of SLAM! Wrestling's growing commitment to provide in depth coverage of international wrestling, we are pleased to provide a preview of Pro Wrestling NOAH's 'Great Voyage' Pay-Per-View on Saturday, December 23rd from the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo. History will be made as Kenta Kobashi takes on Jun Akiyama in the main event and in a special grudge match Vader takes on Mitsuharu Miswa. We're tagging up with the good folks at Live Audio Wrestling, as Dan "The Mouth" Lovranski, a noted observer of Japanese wrestling, along with John Molinaro, SLAM's resident international wrestling junkie, offer their full predictions for the show. We'll have a full report on the show on Saturday.

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The Main Event

Kenta Kobashi Best Move: Burning Hammer, Diving Guillotine Drop, Moonsault Press. Major titles held: All Japan Triple Crown, All Japan World Tag, All Asia Tag. Pro Debut: February 26, 1988 vs. Motoshi Ohkuma

VS

Jun Akiyama Best Move: Northern Light Suplex, Exploder & Double Arm DDT. Major titles held: All Japan World Tag, All Asia Tag. Pro Debut: September 17, 1992 vs. Kenta Kobashi

SLAM! Predictions

John Molinaro: When these two guys hooked up on NOAH's first pay-per-view back in August it was a stiff, hard match. They both worked really hard to put on a memorable performance. I expect the same here. This is the biggest show in NOAH's short history and both guys are looking to make a major statement here. I know most people are saying Akiyama will win because he's so over and younger but I'm going with Kobashi just because he did the job last time and I think in order to continue this feud and make it compelling you can't have Akiyama go over again.

Dan "The Mouth" Lovranski: This should be a hot match as everytime these two are in the ring together it's a masterpiece. I would expect that Akiyama would win just to keep the NOAH title really strong since the promotion is still young.

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Grudge Match

Mitsuharu Misawa Best Move: Tigerdriver, Rolling Elbow & Elbow Suicida. Major titles held: All Japan Triple Crown, All Japan World, All Asia Tag. Pro Debut: August 21, 1981 vs. Shiro Koshinaka

VS

Vader Best Move: Power Bomb, Moonsault Press & choke Slam. Major titles held: IWGP Heavyweight, All Japan Triple Crown, IWGP World Tag. Pro Debut: 1986

SLAM! Predictions

John Molinaro: Misawa appears to be putting people over left, right and centre as of late. He's doing an injury angle going into this match so I expect Vader to win here. That'll restore his monster heel image, build him up again as the top heel and set him up for a long feud and rematch with Misawa down the road.

Dan "The Mouth" Lovranski: I'm going to go with Vader since Misawa seems to be going into the match doing a shoulder injury angle and I think they may give Vader the win and build up to a rematch between the two which would see Misawa be triumphant.

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NOAH VS New Japan

Takao Omori Best Move: Axe Bomber, Diving Elbow Drop & Diving Knee Drop. Major titles held: All Japan Wolrd Tag, All Asia Tag Pro Debut: October 16, 1992 vs. Satoru Asako

VS

Shinya Hashimoto Best Move: Stiff karate kicks, chicken-wing armlock. Major titles held: IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP World Tag. Pro Debut: September 1, 1984

SLAM! Predictions

John Molinaro: I don't see how Hashimoto could lose. He's making his NOAH debut and will continue to work in the future for New Japan which leads me to believe Misawa has worked out a deal with New Japan. No way New Japan sent Hashimoto to this show to lose.

Dan "The Mouth" Lovranski: Hashimoto will get the win here since there is already talk that he'll face Choshu on an upcoming New Japan show.

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Old Guard vs Young Gaurd

Akira Taue Best Move: Choke Slam, Power Bomb & German Suplex. Major titles held: All Japan Triple Crown, All Japan World Tag, All Asia Tag. Pro Debut: January 2, 1988 tagging with Giant Baba

VS

Yoshihiro Takayama Best Move: German Suplex, Sleeper & Guillotine Drop. Major titles held: All Japan World Tag, All Asia Tag, WAR 6-Man Tag. Pro Debut: June 28 1992 vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara

SLAM! Predictions

John Molinaro: I don't have much use for either guy because I think they're real slow and plodding in their ring style. Still, Takayama has developed this cocky heel persona that I like and he is getting a push from booker Misawa Look for Taue to put Takayma over.

Dan "The Mouth" Lovranski: Even though neither of these two are great wrestlers, since Taue is past his prime and Takayama has never been that good, I would still expect Taue to put over Takayama and elevate the younger star.

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Under card matches

Match	John Molinaro	Dan "The Mouth" Lovranski
Yoshinari Ogawa & Daisuke Ikeda vs Masashi Aoyagi & Akitoshi Saito	Ogawa & Ikeda	Ogawa & Ikeda
Tamon Honda & Naomichi Marufuji vs Kudo Fuyuki & Tetsuhiro Kuroda	Honda and Marufuji	Honda and Marufuji
Masao Inoue, Takeshi Rikioh & Takashi Sugiura vs Kentaro Shiga, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takeshi Morishima	Shiga & Kanemaru & Morishima	Shiga & Kanemaru & Morishima
Rusher Kimura, Mitsuo Momota & Makoto Hashi vs Haruka Eigen, Jun Izumida & Satoru Asako	Eigen & Izumida & Asako	Kimura & Momotoa & Hashi
Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Kenta Kobayashi vs Scorpio & Kishin Kawabata	Scorpio & Kawabata	Kikuchi & Kobayashi

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