I know it's still a long way off, but I think this show should have a thread for discussion.

Matches confirmed:

1. Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki
2. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada

It's also been confirmed that Tenryu will be involved in some capacity.

Feel free to post predicitions for matches, results and any news regarding the show here...

Current rumors place Rikio facing Tanahashi for the GHC Title and the much speculated GHC Jr. Title match, KENTA/Kanemaru.

I can see SUWA & one of his skinheads (Kanemaru & Sugiura) challenging KENTAfuji for the Jr. Tag straps... if Sugiura and Kanemaru aren't victorious this month. If Kanemaru and Sugiura win the straps this month I could see KENTA going for Kanemaru in a GHC Jr. Title Match, or SUWA in a re-match and Marufuji & MiSu challenging Williams & Scorpio at the dome.

Also rumored is a IWGP Jr. Title Match between Tiger Mask and Tiger Emperor... funny thought, ain't it?

I think KENTA should wait until after the dome show for his title shot. The dome show NEEDS a MaruKENTA match...

I'd like to see this added, but I now it won't happen

Morishima vs Tenryu
GHC Title Rikio vs Akiyama
GHC Jr title KENTA vs Kanemura
GHC Tag Titles Marufuji & MSuzuki vs Williams & 2 Cold
GHC Openweight Title Yone vs Ikeda
Eigen & Kikuchi vs Ebessan & Momota
Taue, Sano, Ogawa vs Honda, Izumida, Shiosaki
Tiger Emperor, Marvin, Milano AT vs SUWA, Sugiura, Hashi

From Puroresupower

(NOAH) Nikkan Sports reports that Nippon TV is considering giving the promotion a 2 1/2 hour time slot for their upcoming 7/18 Tokyo Dome show. The N-TV producer behind the call to expand the time slot for the show says that he doesn't think TV ratings will be a problem at all for the telecast, and that it is going to be a renewed faith in pro-wrestling programming. N-TV will debut brand new production equipment, including a giant TV screen and super-slow motion imaging technology.

Nikkan Sports also confirms what we had heard about the initial strong advance for ticket sales of the 7/18 Tokyo Dome show. There are high expectations now of a sell-out with Misawa vs. Kawada and Kobashi vs. Sasaki. Big time.

orginal story
http://www.nikkansports.com/ns/battle/p-bt...50517-0007.html

Awesome news!

Really good news! I strongly believe NOAH will outsell New Japan's Dome show now!

Great News!

Whether or not it outsells NJPW...NOAH will surely once again out-perform NJPW.

I'm getting really pumped about this now. Cannot wait.

How likely is it that Rikio will defend the GHC Championship at this show and against who?

Its 50/50, the title should be defend but it would be overshadowed by the 2 main events and GHC title has never been defended outside of the main event.

I have to agree I think the title should be defended on the show.

I too would like to see the title defended on the show, but the list of quality opponents for a Dome show defence is really thin.
It's either Tenryu or Akiyama.

I'm against a defence. It will de-credit the title because there's no way the match will be able to live up to the two big matches on the card.

Better off giving Rikio a tag match which he loses, and thus gains an opponent for the future.

Tanahashi vs. Rikio GHC Title Match has been confirmed for the Dome!

Is it wrong that I want a Tanahashi win?

Good news though. This show is shaping up to be, in the words of Tony the Tiger; "GRRRRRREEEAAAAT"

No your not becasue I do to

If Tanahashi wins then Misawa has too much love for that kid.

I just think it'd make the whole scene in Japan that much more interesting and unpredictable if the GHC Heavyweight Title was held by aother company, like the IWGP Title was.

GHC Heavyweight Title match has been confired...currrent card is:

Ogawa vs Tenryu has been added

1.Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Genichiro Tenryu
2. Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki
3. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada
4. GHC Heavyweight Title: Takeshi Rikio vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

I wish they went with Suzuki & Marufuji vs Akiyama & Tenryu, but Marufuji & Suzuki will probably drop to them so it'll be better to wait.

It will be really interesting to see how the final match order is going to be since they have alot of big matches that could easily take the main event spot.
Putting the GHC title in the main will probably be the ultimate test for both men to see if each can carry the other to a good match. We will see if Rikioh will step up his game and keep up with Tanahashi, as well if Tanahashi can carry a match against someone sluggish like Rikioh, with all the pressure of a world title match being carried on both their shoulders

I would book the big three matches in this order:

Kobashi vs Sasaki
Rikio vs Tanahashi
Misawa vs Kawada

Reason being, after Kobashi/Sasaki, the crowd should be pretty hot, which would help out the GHC Title Match...but the crowd could sort of calm down before Misawa/Kawada.

I think if you put the GHC Title match as the main event, you're asking for nobody to care about it. The crowd will be much hotter going into that match ahead of Kawada/Misawa than they will be going into it after it, when the crowd will have worn themselves out, and the GHC Title match will suddenly look rather insignificant/

I hate to say it but i wouldnt mind to see Tanahashi win that GHC title from Rikio...It would be great to have someone outside of NOAH hold that belt for a while.

The way i want to see this show with the three big matches are...

Sasaki/Kobashi

Rikio/Tanahashi

Kawada/Misawa

I mean how can you have Tanahashi/Rikio headline this dome show??? You cant...

hey im loving this.....Yone icon :Yone:

Kanemaru vs. KENTA is 99.99999 % official by now!

check: http://noah.puroresufan.com/

Good. Now, if Marufuji and Suzuki win the tag titles over here in England, I'll be a happy chappy

The KENTA-Kanemaru GHC Jr Title match was made official today. Will KENTA become The Jr Ace or will Another one of the Skinhead'z put him down again.

GHC Heavyweight Title Match
Takeshi Rikio© vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

No Time Limit, Must be a Winner
Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada

No Time Limit, Must be a Winner
Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tilte
Yoshinobu Kanemaru© vs KENTA

Grumpy Ass-whipping Match
Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Genichiro Tenryu(grumpy)

And the Debut of Mushiking Terry

LOL. I can just imagine the ring announcer announcing Ogawa/Tenryu as the "Grumpy Ass-whipping Match"... :rofl:

Jun Akiyama will team with his long term friend and rival Makoto Hashi to take Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji for the GHC Tag Team Title at Destiny.

The current card (in assumed order):

NOAH "DESTINY", 7/18/05
Tokyo Dome

1. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title: Yoshinobu Kanemaru © vs. KENTA
2. GHC Tag Team Title: Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji © vs. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi
3. Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Genichiro Tenryu
4. Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki
5. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada
6. GHC Heavyweight Title: Takeshi Rikio vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Credit: Green Destiny

Pro Wrestling NOAH's newest wrestler, Mushiking Terry, will debut at pro wrestling's grandest stage, the Tokyo Dome, in a singles match. Terry's opponent's is Black Mask; nothing is known about him.

NOAH "DESTINY", 7/18/05
Tokyo Dome

1. Mushiking Terry Debut Match: Mushiking Terry vs. Black Mask
2. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title: Yoshinobu Kanemaru © vs. KENTA
3. GHC Tag Team Title: Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji © vs. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi
4. Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Genichiro Tenryu
5. Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki
6. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada
7. GHC Heavyweight Title: Takeshi Rikio vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/headlines/im...po-view-000.jpg

This picture basically confirms what a lot of people believed from the start...that Mushiking Terry is infact Kotaro Suzuki.

Is Kotaro still doing the tiger emporer gimmick too? I liked that gimmick for him. I heard Misawa is trying to draw more kids to the show with this new gimmick...wonder if itll work

Yeah, it's meant to be the new Tiger Mask...at least that's the hope.

I think he's dropped Tiger Emperor for good...

Main Event - "The Final Showdown"
Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada

Semi-Main Event - No Time Limit "The Fate Instead of Fate"
Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki

"Grumpy Ass Whipping Match"
Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Gen'ichiro Tenryu

GHC Heavyweight Title Match - "Respect Your Elders"
Takeshi Rikio vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

GHC Tag Titles Match - "Hashi's a Heavyweight!"
Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi

GHC Jr. Title Match - "Ikemen On Top"
Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. KENTA

"NOAH loves the Kids"
Mushiking Terry vs. Black Mask

"Dark Agents vs Akira & 'em"
Akira Taue, Naoki Sano, Jun Izumida, & Haruka Eigen vs. Akitoshi Saito, Shiro Koshinaka, Masao Inoue, & Kishin Kawabata

"Muscle Bustaaaaaaaaaa!"
Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Morishima vs. Tamon Honda & Go Shiozaki

"This is why you drop the Jr Tag titles?"
Takashi Sugiura, SUWA, & Masaji Aoyagi vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Mitsuo Momota, & Katsuhiko Nakajima


Complete line up for the Dome show.

Yep, cool Line Up... the Shiosaki/Morishima Tag Match could be the highlight of the undercard! The multi-man tags are okay... I'm not into that so much. But overall, great Card with the right main event.

Nakajima~!~!!!!

I'm so glad he's going to be there. Far and away the best prospect in the entire wrestling world right now.

The undercard looks about as strong as last years (which wasn't particularly good), but the big matches look much better than last years ones.

The Mushiking Terry match will be interesting.

KENTA taking the junior title (c'mon, you know it's happening) will be all kinda of fun.

Marufuji & Suzuki defence = Good

Tanahashi/Rikio = Possibly good

The rest looks "off the hook".

NOTES FROM GHC TITLE SIGNINGS:



KENTA was very confident ahead of his GHC Jr. Title match with Yoshinobu Kanemaru at Destiny. KENTA said that he had changed considerably since the last time the two met in a singles match back in December 2002, where he fell to Kanemaru. KENTA has since this time had great success with partner Naomichi Marufuji in the Jr. Tag Title ranks, and this success has fueled his confidence ahead of the match. Kanemaru pointed to NOAH's last trip to the Tokyo Dome, last year's Departure show, where he overcame Liger to beat the belt. Kanemaru was similarly confident of retaining the title he will have held for over a year come Destiny.


There was little smooth sailing in the GHC Tag Title Signing. The champions Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji made it clear they were disappointed with Akiyama's choice of partner, as Makoto Hashi was not what they saw as a strong challenger. Suzuki & Marufuji were calmed down by GHC Title management chairman Joe Higuchi, who told the team to take out their frustrations in tomorrow's main event, where the two teams will meet in a six man tag team match.


GHC Heavyweight Title holder Takeshi Rikio said today that he would retain the title against challenger Hiroshi Tanahashi, continuing NOAH's dominance over New Japan in GHC Heavyweight Title matches. Rikio referred to the fact that both he and Tanahashi debuted in the same generation, going on to say that he knew that one day the two would be facing eachother. Rikio finished by once again asserting that he would retain the title at Destiny.

Challenger Tanahashi acknowledged that both Yuji Nagata & Masahiro Chono had failed in their attempts to win the GHC Heavyweight Title, and stated that New Japan could not fail any longer. Tanahashi said that the GHC Title would be taken home to New Japan, and swore victory over Rikio at Destiny.

Credit: Green Destiny

So awesome...

Nice lineup undercard wont be too bad...

Liger vs KENTA cant wait for it!

Liger?

Yeah, Liger challenged the winner of KENTA-Kanemura.

Oh right. Wicked!