Willsky

MCFLYIN’ HIGH At Night of WRESTLING, Sean McFly overcame Kojiro Harada to win the Historical Japan title. It was his first taste of singles gold in PGHW and his second title after his record-breaking tag run with Mito Miwa. And for many, it was long overdue. McFly had promised a lot from the moment he arrived in mid-1998. Yet despite his brilliant performances, he had never quite come out from under the shadow of the heralded Japanese stars. At Night of GLORY in 1998, Dread stated that McFly “would be the best wrestler in the world in 5 years time”. That was two-and-a-half years ago. McFly was halfway to that milestone and stood a good chance of getting there. As was customary with the Historical Japan title, frequent defences were an expectation. Night of RESPECT, January 2001 The first show of the year saw Sean McFly defend the Historical Japan title against a debuting superstar. Not well-known in Japan yet, but certainly a big deal in Canada, Dan Stone Jr made his arrival in PGHW as one of the top prospects in the world with a legendary name attached. He immediately made an impact, going toe-to-toe with McFly. The pair put on a great match, showcasing their speed and smoothness. Ultimately McFly got the win with a Delorean Driver, but many considered Dan Stone Jr to be the “new Sean McFly”. (Side note: Sean McFly got engaged to Dan Stone Jr’s sister Victoria Stone in May 1999) Night of ENERGY, January 2001 Sean McFly’s next opponent was a more familiar face, but one with no less energy. Noriyori Sanda, one half of Team Energy got his title shot at Night of ENERGY. Sanda was steadily developing but still lacked the physicality and experience to compete with the likes of McFly. A spirited showing saw Sanda fall to the Delorean Driver. Night of DESTINY, February 2001 Walter Morgan was next to challenge Sean McFly for the Historical Japan title. Morgan seemed like a perennial contender for the belt, but was yet to get his hands on it. Some considered his style to be too one-dimensional, relying on ground-wrestling alone, while others noticed he struggled with conditioning in singles matches. Whatever the cause, Morgan fell to another defeat as he suffered the Delorean Driver. Night of BATTLE, February 2001 From technical wizardry to brute strength, Sean McFly defended the Historical Japan title against Raymond Diaz at Night of BATTLE. Diaz had struggled in the last year or so, in most part due to the decline of his tag partner Lee Wright. Still, the young big man was not progressing as some had expected and he still had plenty to go in his development. Decision-making seemed to be his fatal flaw and McFly exploited this, catching Diaz off-guard on multiple occasions. And in a heroic finish, McFly managed to lift Diaz up for the Delorean Driver – an impressive feat given the size difference. Going into the Elite Series, Sean McFly was certain to take part and could even be in the mix for qualification out of the block!

AN ENVIABLE PROBLEM The transition was over. The new wave had washed away the remaining structures and now the pillars stood in their wake with bricks and mortar joining to create a sturdy whole. Mito Miwa and Eisaku Hoshino proved to be a revelation. They took the company from what some were calling a period of mediocrity to another burst of excitement. That is no slight on Tatsuko. His achievements were incredible and without him, Miwa and Hoshino would never have had the opportunity to do what they did. Now it was time to capitalise. The only issue I had at this point was the sheer number of talented wrestlers who were worthy of main event and title glory. Beyond the core 6, Sean McFly, Dread, new signing Kojiro Harada, Pistol Pete Hall and soon, Tommy Cornell all wanted to be the top guy. I wondered if I had recruited too much top-level talent. Should I have brought in more like Mamoru Nagahama, Fukusaburu Inao and Walter Morgan? Guys who could do wonders in the midcard but never quite had the x-factor, or the ambition, to make it to the very top. In the beginning, there was always going to be a transition. The likes of Mushashibo and Tatsuko and all those legends-in-the-making had their path to the top laid out. Ichihara, Kumasaka, Kitoaji – they would move aside as they aged. But this new wave would not budge. They were still young. The oldest, Tatsuko, was still only 30. They all had at the very least a decade of elite level performance in them. Would they ever budge? And how long before those below got tired and frustrated? Admittedly, it was a good problem to have. It bred competition. They all knew they had to be the absolute best to make it to the top. And those supposedly “hand-picked” stars? Well, they’d find out pretty quickly that if they didn’t cut the mustard, there’d be a long line of equally talented young men ready to take their spot.

Night of WRESTLING, 2000 Chuichi Sanda and Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) vs. Noriyori Sanda and Kumasaka-buntai (Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan) Eisaku Kunomasu vs. Nobuatsu Tatsuko DREAD Army (Dread, Mamoru Nagahama & Raymond Diaz) vs. Hito Ichihara, Koryusai Kitoaji and Pistol Pete Hall Kojiro Harada © vs. Sean McFly for the Historical Japan title Team Dynasty 2000 (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo) vs. Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) © for the Glory Tag Crown titles Eisaku Hoshino vs. Mito Miwa © for the Glory Crown title MATCH 1: Chuichi Sanda and Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) vs. Noriyori Sanda and Kumasaka-buntai (Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan) The opening match gave an opportunity for some of the wrestlers who weren’t involved in major confrontations to show their stuff on the biggest stage. Tommy Cornell stood out above all others in another excellent performance that got plenty of people thinking he was destined for big things in the near future. He pinned Chuichi Sanda after a Guilt Trip to get the victory for his team. MATCH 2: Eisaku Kunomasu vs. Nobuatsu Tatsuko One of the hottest matchups of the last eighteen months saw its latest instalment as Tatsuko took on Kunomasu. For a change, there was no gold on the line, only pride and the ability to boast they were the best striker. Their previous encounters mostly ended in Tatsuko winning, with the exception of the Elite Series final earlier in the year. Despite that one win, Kunomasu was going in the underdog, particularly as he had suffered several defeats to Tatsuko in tag matches leading up to Night of WRESTLING. But as the back-and-forth got underway, it looked like Kunomasu was in the ascendency. Massive blows were thrown in both directions and at one point they were taking turns one-upping each other with elbows, knee strikes and devastating chops. The psychology of the striking battle might have been what turned the match. Tatsuko’s best moves were not strikes. He rarely defeated anyone with a single blow, instead using the famed Tatsuko Driller. In contrast, Kunomasu’s most devastating move was his Launching Knee Strike. It was that move that won him the Elite Series. As they had wordlessly agreed to make the match a striking battle, Tatsuko didn’t use his big moves. Meanwhile Kunomasu was enthusiastic in his. He hit a Launching Knee Strike but didn’t go straight for the pin. Instead, he waited for Tatsuko to recover, then smashed him with a second that put the former Glory Crown champion down for the three count! MATCH 3: DREAD Army (Dread, Mamoru Nagahama & Raymond Diaz) vs. Hito Ichihara, Koryusai Kitoaji and Pistol Pete Hall Pistol Pete Hall claimed that this was the last time he’d face DREAD Army after a year of being tormented by the dominant faction. In his mind that meant he would beat them so hard they’d crumble. They had other ideas. Mamoru Nagahama was instrumental in booting out Lee Wright from the group and now he took Wright’s position alongside Raymond Diaz as a lieutenant to Dread. On the other side, Hall had the aging Ichihara and Kitoaji in his corner. Both were on the decline but had showed they were not quite done yet. And Hall was riding high after defeating Dread in singles competition at the previous show. But this match turned on the burning emotion of hatred. Mamoru Nagahama had vowed to end Hito Ichihara for his betrayal over a year ago. He was ruthless in his assault, targeting his former tag partner and making him suffer. Ichihara struggled to hold him off and was forced to tag himself out of the match. Pistol Pete Hall fought hard, but couldn’t contain DREAD Army on this occasion. Kitoaji was the man who took the pin, suffering first a Dread Bomb and later a Detonator (a new move from Diaz and Nagahama with Diaz shoulder-tackling the opponent into a German suplex by Nagahama). Nagahama made the pin on Kitoaji and got the victory for DREAD Army. After the match, Dread ordered his men to throw each of the three opponents over the top rope into a pile on the ground and the three victors stood tall. Then Dino Maldini came out on crutches to join his team mates in standing tall. The army was just as dominant as ever. MATCH 4: Kojiro Harada © vs. Sean McFly for the Historical Japan title Since making his exciting debut, Kojiro Harada had quickly become one of the least liked wrestlers in PGHW. His treatment of Yasunobu Koiso riled plenty of people, not least Sean McFly who had recently been teaming with Koiso. But Harada was unstoppable on his rampage to Historical Japan success. He stepped back in time to win the belt he had held 19 years before by beating Sean McFly in the final of the tournament. McFly did not give up. He earned himself a title rematch at Night of WRESTLING and looked determined to make amends. He started the match on fire, getting Harada on the back foot early on. He showed even more energy and speed than usual, at times looking like a cruiserweight with some of the leaps and sprints he made. However, Harada would not go down easily. He held BHOTWG for nearly two years and had defeated everyone there was to defeat. He surged back into the match and clobbered McFly with some heavy strikes and slams. Successfully slowing the pace, he ground down McFly’s exuberance and the excitement of the crowd. But McFly wasn’t about to lose again. He surged back into contention with a passionate display of courage, culminating in a springboard uppercut that had Harada down for a near fall. It wasn’t enough to finish the champion, though. McFly summoned everything he could and tried for the Delorean Driver. He hit it! He put Harada down on the mat and got the three count! Sean McFly won the Historical Japan title! Harada was dazed for a while after the match, then furious at the result. He stormed off while McFly celebrated alongside Yasunobu Koiso. MATCH 5: Team Dynasty 2000 (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo) vs. Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) © for the Glory Tag Crown titles A year ago, nobody would have given Team MILLENIUM a chance in this match. They only came together at the tail end of 1999, having never achieved anything. Meanwhile Team Dynasty 2000 were two of the top wrestlers in PGHW, having a Glory Tag Crown reign and Elite Tag Series victory to their name. But things were different now. Sure, Inukai and Mushashibo had put aside their differences and managed to win the Elite Tag Series again, but Inukai was a long way short of full physical fitness. And Team MILLENIUM had become a serious force in the tag division. They beat Team EXPLOSION to win the Glory Tag Crown titles and worked extremely hard to become a well-oiled machine. The doubts over Inukai’s condition were apparent well into the match. Mushashibo started as the legal man and stayed there for quite some time, fending off the attacks of Inao and Umehara. It was notable that Mushashibo was quite content to push the boundaries of the rules and test the referee’s patience. He did so several times by not breaking holds on his opponent until the referee nearly reached the end of his count. Eventually, though, Mushashibo couldn’t hold off his two opponents alone and had to tag in Inukai. It was Inukai’s first time in the ring since the final of the Elite Tag Series and he did not look great. His spinal injury slowed him significantly and Inao took advantage. The only reason for Inukai to be in the match was to give Mushashibo a rest. Because while Inukai couldn’t offer any offence, he wouldn’t be beaten. He struggled through intense pain to kick out of several attacks and keep his team in with a chance. Finally he could take no more and Mushashibo took control again. But still it felt like two against one and Mushashibo could do little to handle the swift tags and excellent communication between the champions. Then Mushashibo made things ugly. First, he insisted a corner turnbuckle was loose and made the referee inspect it. Then he held his hands up to Umehara as if to say the match was on pause while the ref was distracted. And finally, with the referee distracted, he stepped behind Umehara and dug a finger into his eye. Umehara lashed out with a wild miss and Mushashibo took him down straight into the Yoshimi Lock. Inukai, having seen what was going on, shouted at the referee, who turned just in time to see Umehara struggle… and tap out! Team Dynasty 2000 won the Glory Tag Crown titles! But everyone had seen what Mushashibo did – there was no denying he had used underhanded tactics to earn the victory. What’s more, Inukai was on board. He congratulated Mushashibo and celebrated with him as they held the tag titles high over the unfairly defeated Team MILLENIUM. MAIN EVENT: Eisaku Hoshino vs. Mito Miwa © for the Glory Crown title Everyone wanted to see this rematch. Hoshino and Miwa had put on, in many people’s reckoning, the best PGHW match of all time a couple of months ago at Night of KINGS. Blood was spilled, tempers snapped and Miwa just about got the victory to start his title reign with a success. Since then, the pair had fought on the same team, with plenty of difficulties, and against each other in a tag match. Their hostility towards each other was reaching a fever pitch. Hoshino always had a chip on his shoulder about not being a chosen one. Miwa, on the other hand, represented everything PGHW. He was the archetypal Jimbo wrestler who embodied the spirit of the company more than anyone except for, perhaps, Nobuatsu Tatsuko. Hoshino was scrappy and tenacious. Miwa was collected and imperious. And that is how this match began. Hoshino wanted to take it right to Miwa, get in his face and renew the violence from previous encounters. While Miwa certainly wanted to fight, he took a more conservative approach, keeping Hoshino at bay and frustrating him. This worked for a while until Hoshino found a breakthrough and scored a headbutt to Miwa’s forehead. It was a repeat of the move that bust Miwa open at Night of KINGS and the blood flowed again. This time, though, Miwa shook off the medical attention and continued fighting with crimson spilling down his face. Not to be outdone, Hoshino walked into a massive knee strike that had his nose leaking blood. All thought of strategy from Miwa had gone now and the pair starting taking lumps out of each other. A powerslam from Miwa was answered by a DDT by Hoshino. Hoshino’s uppercut was answered by a Miwa forearm smash. And so it went. Twenty minutes into the brawl, both men smacked into each other with lariats and crumpled to the ground. They lay unmoving, broken, exhausted, unable to stand. The referee began to count. One of them had to get to their feet to break the count by the count of twenty. Ten came and went. Then fifteen. Eighteen. Nineteen. At the final moment, both men roared upright in a moment that had everyone in the arena hearing their own pulse. Then the violence began again. This time strikes were slower and heavier. Energy was departing and now it was a battle of wills. One strike after the other. Hoshino was the first to break from the back-and-forth. He span Miwa up in the air and hit the Godzilla Plunge! He went for the pin… one… two… Kickout! Miwa just about got his shoulder up! Hoshino was stunned, while Miwa struggled back into contention. He hoisted Hoshino onto his shoulders… Pride Bomber! One…two… No! Hoshino got a shoulder up! Neither man would accept defeat! Then Mito Miwa showed why he was the man. His expression turned as he stood over Hoshino, knelt down in a mount position and started dropping elbows onto his face. It was brutal. The repeated thunking strikes had Hoshino’s head whacking into the mat and his face bright red with blood and welts. The referee saw Hoshino’s body go limp and pushed Miwa aside, calling an end to the match. Miwa won by technical knockout! It was a brutal and stunning end to another incredible title match! Conclusion Miwa vs. Hoshino’s second match earned just as many plaudits as the first. Nobody could definitively separate the two bouts, but simply because it was at Night of WRESTLING, this title match came out on top and became PGHW’s best ever match. Absolute credit to both men, but especially the Glory Crown champion Mito Miwa who really took the company to the next level at the end of 2000. There were plenty of other classics on the show as well, notably Kunomasu vs. Tatsuko and McFly’s Historical Japan title win. But nobody was talking about them. Instead, the nation was alive with the image of Hoshino’s bloodied face and Mito Miwa standing tall. The year concluded with the two members of Team MYTHOS holding both singles titles. Miwa had inarguably had the most successful year of anyone, while Sean McFly finished on a high. PGHW End of Year Awards: WRESTLER of the year: Mito Miwa MATCH of the year: Mito Miwa def. Eisaku Hoshino for the Glory Crown, Night of WRESTLING, December MOST IMPROVED wrestler of the year: Dino Maldini TAG TEAM of the year: Team EXPLOSION Team EXPLOSION also won the World Tag Team of the Year Award, a brilliant way to recognise their talents. Isei Deushi, commentator for SAISHO was rewarded for his brilliant year, winning the Best Announcer in the World award for 2000. It seemed a certainty he’d be promoted to PGHW in the very near future. A few wrestlers made their thoughts known after the show. Shuji Inukai: You’re all hypocrites. I heard you all criticising Yoshimi when he failed to beat Tatsuko. When he put wrestling craft over victory. And now you all pile in on him when he finds his killer instinct? He was a superstar out there. He won that match because he was strong and smart. He did the right thing to make sure we won. Nobuatsu Tatsuko: What’s next for me? What do you think? I beat the hell out of everyone and get my Glory Crown back. What the hell did you think I was going to do? Pistol Pete Hall: I said I was done with DREAD Army, but this isn’t how I saw it. I feel terrible right now. But there’s only one way to deal with failure. Come back stronger. Come back with more fire and more fight. My battle is no longer against Dread and his legion. It is against everyone. Yeah, that’s right. Call it copying, call it whatever you like, but whatever Dread can do, I can do, too. Starting in 2001, I will defeat every single wrestler in PGHW in singles competition. Eisaku Kunomasu: Tatsuko is beaten. Miwa, you’re next

Night of WRESTLING, 2000 Chuichi Sanda and Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) vs. Noriyori Sanda and Kumasaka-buntai (Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan) Eisaku Kunomasu vs. Nobuatsu Tatsuko DREAD Army (Dread, Mamoru Nagahama & Raymond Diaz) vs. Hito Ichihara, Koryusai Kitoaji and Pistol Pete Hall Kojiro Harada © vs. Sean McFly for the Historical Japan title Team Dynasty 2000 (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo) vs. Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) © for the Glory Tag Crown titles Eisaku Hoshino vs. Mito Miwa © for the Glory Crown title

NEXT LEVEL Even the most enthusiastic supporter of PGHW would have trouble arguing against the fact that the major shows throughout the middle of 2000 had faltered somewhat. They were by no means poor, but considering the rapid growth of the company and the lofty expectations of all involved, the shine was beginning to wear off. Some blamed Tatsuko’s long title run, others put it down to an accumulation of injuries and the decline of the established stars. Regardless of the cause, one man had stepped up to lead PGHW into the next phase of its existence. Mito Miwa. The new Glory Crown champion. He aimed to raise the bar and take the company to the next level. But was he ready? At just 27 years old, this was the first time he had to bear a large responsibility. Time would tell if he could be the man. Night of KINGS, October 2000 Mito Miwa began his reign with the Glory Crown by defending it against Eisaku Hoshino in the main event of Night of KINGS. Hoshino and Miwa were no strangers, having locked horns in the tag division several times. But until now, they had remained mutually respectful of each other. That changed here. What fans in the arena saw was the beginning of something that promised to be special. It all began when a sequence of chain wrestling came to a sudden halt as Hoshino headbutted Miwa square in the forehead. The strike busted Miwa open straight away and the referee had to pause the match to allow doctors to clean up the blood. As soon as he was let back into the match, Miwa stormed straight over to Hoshino and headbutted him as hard as he could, splitting open the challenger’s forehead in just the same way. Hoshino pushed away medical attention and insisted on continuing the fight. Things got wild. The sheer savagery and refusal to back down from both men meant a thousand more strikes were exchanged before anything got resolved. Hoshino came within split-seconds of winning the match, but ultimately the blood in his eyes cost him as he spent a vital second blinking it away only to receive a huge elbow to the jaw followed by a Pride Bomber. Miwa had to fight hard to make his first defence of the Glory Crown! The match immediately stole headlines across the nation. Even considering the effects of recency bias, it was considered to be on the level of Kitoaji vs. Ichihara from 1997 and Tatsuko vs. Kunomasu in 1997. In fact, a good portion of the journalists reporting on the match put it a step higher, heralding it as the greatest PGHW match of all time. Night of IMPACT, October 2000 Mito Miwa followed up his title defence by teaming with the man who had challenged him. He partnered Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) to face the trio of Nobuatsu Tatsuko and Cornell & Morgan. It was a match dominated by the disagreements between Hoshino and Miwa. They clearly hadn’t shaken hands and become friends after their match at Night of KINGS and were barely able to stand in the same corner. Their verbal animosity boiled over when they hopped down to the ringside area and began getting physical with each other. Their attention on the match was gone, leaving Eisaku Kunomasu to take a Tatsuko Driller and eat the pin at the end of a fantastic match. Kunomasu was furious and dragged Hoshino away from Miwa before things got out of hand. Meanwhile, Tommy Cornell performed admirably in the match, impressing Miwa before he got distracted and the champion offered the young Englishman a Glory Crown title match at Night of COURAGE. Night of COURAGE, November 2000 Tommy Cornell got his biggest break yet – a Glory Crown title shot against Mito Miwa in the main event of Night of COURAGE in front of over 46,000 fans in Kyoto. Since his arrival in PGHW, Cornell had promised plenty and looked solid in the midcard. But few were expecting him to step up to the heights of this match. He pushed Miwa to his absolute limit, holding his own in a striking battle and getting a stunning near fall on the champion that had plenty of fans in the arena believing there would be a title change. Given the pair had very little in the way of history and rivalry, they managed to put on such a well-worked match that it flew into the bracket of best of all time PGHW matches, way beyond what others may have expected. Tommy Cornell could hold his head high in defeat, while in the past three shows, Mito Miwa had been part of three of the promotion’s top ten matches of all time. He really was taking things to the next level. Night of ENDURANCE, November 2000 Mito Miwa and Eisaku Hoshino came to blows again, this time on opposing teams. Miwa tagged with his old rival Nobuatsu Tatsuko against Team EXPLOSION (Hoshino & Kunomasu). There was plenty of animosity between all four men, with the only pairing that could be called allies being Hoshino and Kunomasu. Despite their history, Miwa and Tatsuko got on the same page. While Tatsuko focused on Kunomasu, Miwa and Hoshino got back into their wild brawl from Night of KINGS. In the end it was Miwa who scored the victory by pinning Kunomasu. The champion made a blind tag to Tatsuko who was getting battered by Kunomasu. Kunomasu didn’t see the tag nor the figure of Miwa stalking him, ready to hit the Pride Bomber. The move was completed and the match was won. There was a hugely tense moment after the bell as Miwa and Hoshino looked set to tear each other apart and Tatsuko and Kunomasu were ready to keep things violent. But all four men knew that Night of WRESTLING was where things would be decided. Because Eisaku Hoshino made a challenge to Miwa for another shot at the Glory Crown which Miwa quickly accepted, hoping to score further pain and humiliation. Hoshino was defiant in the post-show press conference. Hoshino: The only reason Miwa beat me at Night of KINGS was because he didn’t have blood in his eyes. Because he paused the match to get cleaned up. I just wanted to fight! But at Night of WRESTLING, blood or no blood, I won’t make the same mistake. Miwa, you think you’re the man, but really you’re just like Tatsuko and Mushashibo and Inukai. A chosen one. Meanwhile me and Kunomasu are the extra men, the guys who made it to the top without being handpicked. And I’ll prove I deserve to be the man when I beat you and raise the gold above my head!

LET’S GO AGAIN Two men who epitomised the hard-hitting style of PGHW were former Glory Crown champion Nobuatsu Tatsuko and two-time Glory Tag Crown champion Eisaku Kunomasu. Both could boast of plenty of success, with Elite Series victories to their names as well as high-profile victories over pretty much everyone else on the roster. And when they fought against each other, it was a real spectacle. The world first became aware of this fact in 1999 when Kunomasu challenged Tatsuko for the Glory Crown at Night of WARRIORS in a match that flew to the upper echelon of bouts in the company’s history. They since battled in the Elite Series 2000 final and two weeks later for the Glory Crown again, with Tatsuko retaining. Now neither man held gold. And that made them even more determined than ever. And that determination would be channelled into the intense power of a celestial body. Should two such bodies collide… the results would be explosive. Night of KINGS, October 2000 An eight-man tag match at Night of KINGS saw Tatsuko and Kunomasu collide again. Nobuatsu Tatsuko teamed with Yoshimi Mushashibo and Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) while Eisaku Kunomasu partnered Chuichi Sanda, Hito Ichihara & Koryusai Kitoaji. Given the talent of many of the competitors, there was no surprise when the match was excellent. But standing out above all else were the brief moments when Tatsuko and Kunomasu shared the ring together. Kunomasu reminded everyone of his crisp, clean striking, while Tatsuko was in a foul mood having just dropped the Glory Crown when he was so close to breaking the longest-reign record. The result was a series of short but highly-charged exchanges that had everyone in the arena buzzing. Fortunately for Tatsuko, his team proved superior on the night and he got the pinfall victory with a Tatsuko Driller on Chuichi Sanda. Night of IMPACT, October 2000 A huge trios match headlined Night of IMPACT. Nobuatsu Tatsuko tagged with Cornell & Morgan who were in fine form. They took on new Glory Crown champion Mito Miwa and Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu). The match was notable for two things. The first was the inability of Miwa and Hoshino to get along for reasons explained in another story. The second was the renewed hostility between Tatsuko and Kunomasu. The pair seemed intent on battering the daylights out of the other. Which was all well and good until Hoshino and Miwa’s friction left Kunomasu isolated. Tatsuko took advantage and hit the Tatsuko Driller on Kunomasu to get the pin. Kunomasu was angry both with Tatsuko for beating him and with Miwa for causing his team to fall apart. His ice-cold demeanour was beginning to thaw – Tatsuko was bringing out the heat. Incidentally, the match was exceptional and for many fans, was definitely a top-ten match in PGHW’s history. Night of COURAGE, November 2000 Night of COURAGE saw Nobuatsu Tatsuko and Eisaku Kunomasu clash once again. This time they were with their established tag partners. Kunomasu alongside Team EXPLOSION mainstay Eisaku Hoshino while “established” was a strong word to describe Tatsuko’s relationship with Noriyori Sanda in Team Energy. Still, Sanda had managed to get himself in another match alongside Tatsuko, although it didn’t do their future prospects much good. Sanda was consistently the weak link and, without Mito Miwa’s presence distracting Hoshino, Team EXPLOSION were rampant. The beating of Sanda was brutal. Credit to the youngster, he showed plenty of courage befitting of the event’s name, and the kind of grit that impressed Tatsuko enough to consider teaming with him. But it wasn’t enough. The Eisaku Explosion finished off Sanda and Kunomasu could claim a victory over Tatsuko following two losses. Night of ENDURANCE, November 2000 The last show before Night of WRESTLING saw a colossal main event. Four of the company’s major talents competed in a memorable tag match. For Nobuatsu Tatsuko it was hard to stand beside his partner for the night, Mito Miwa, the man who had defeated him for the Glory Crown just a couple of months ago. They took on Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu). As you would expect from the wrestlers involved, the match was incredibly intense. Miwa and Hoshino seemed intent on continuing their own violence, while Tatsuko and Kunomasu were quite happy to duke it out blow-for-blow. But it was actually Miwa who scored the victory by pinning Kunomasu. The Glory Crown champion showed he hadn’t forgotten his tag team exploits and made a blind tag to Tatsuko who was in trouble at the time. Kunomasu didn’t notice and got caught in a Pride Bomber that ended the match. After the bell had rung, though, all four men seemed keen to keep things going. But cool heads prevailed and they went their separate ways. In the post-match press conference, Tatsuko confirmed that he and Kunomasu would compete in a singles match at Night of WRESTLING. Tatsuko: I don’t hate Kunomasu. In fact I respect him very much. But he is not the best. I am the best. I have been for the last two years in this company and I continue to prove that. I showed it to Kunomasu at Night of FORTITUDE when I beat him to retain the Glory Crown. But fighting him is a pleasure. Beating him is even better. So at Night of WRESTLING, let’s go again.

THE OLD AND THE NEW Dino Maldini’s major injury had serious ramifications for the Historical Japan title. He immediately vacated the belt and an eight-man knockout tournament was hastily organised to crown a new champion. There were contenders from all parts. One of these was Sean McFly who was one of the most popular wrestlers in the company by now but yet to win any singles gold. Since he and Mito Miwa parted ways, it was Miwa who had gone on to great things, notably winning the Glory Crown at Night of HONOUR. Many thought it was time for McFly to do something similar. But another force had arrived. Recently joining PGHW from BHOTWG was Kojiro Harada. One of Japan’s most highly-respected and experienced talents, at 40 years old it seemed he was set for a final run in the big time. And Harada had history with the Historical Japan title, winning it all the way back in 1981 when he was still a youngster. His arrival in PGHW coincided with the tournament for the belt and it seemed appropriate he should be a major contender. In fact, his previous reign with the title ended due to his own injury, so it seemed poetic he should be involved. Night of KINGS, October 2000 The four first round matches of the Historical Japan tournament took place at Night of KINGS. Mamoru Nagahama defeated Noriyori Sanda and Pistol Pete Hall defeated Lee Wright. Sean McFly also saw victory, getting a good victory over the much larger gaijin Raymond Diaz. But the main highlight was the debut of Kojiro Harada. He came out to open the show, announcing that he would fight tooth-and-nail to win the belt he hadn’t held in nearly twenty years. He faced a very game Yasunobu Koiso and defeated the young lion, although it was a close-fought match. In the end, Harada had to raise his game to the violent level he had become famous for. A nasty-looking Kojiro Clutch got the match won, although he held it in for several seconds after the bell had rung. Harada ignored Koiso’s show of respect after the match, and the fans quickly turned on Harada. Night of IMPACT, October 2000 Night of IMPACT saw the semi-finals of the Historical Japan tournament. Sean McFly had to fight hard to beat Mamoru Nagahama and afterwards suggested Harada didn’t understand the meaning of respect in PGHW, referring to how he treated Koiso. Kojiro Harada for his part, looked strong and violent again in victory as he overcame Pistol Pete Hall. It was a tough match that saw blood spilled from both men thanks to the impact of the shots going back and forth. Eventually Harada got the win with the Kojiro Clutch. Night of COURAGE, November 2000 Sean McFly and Kojiro Harada faced off in the final of the Historical Japan tournament with the eponymous title on the line. McFly was eager to get his first singles title in Japan, while Harada wanted to relive his successes from two decades ago. Neither held back. After cheering his debut, the fans soon realised Harada was not the kind of man they wanted to support, so they were strongly behind McFly who, as usual, put on a fantastic performance with his lightning speed and boundless energy. But he couldn’t handle Harada’s sheer violence. This was a man who held the BHOTWG World Championship for nearly two years, defending it 28 times. A man who defeated Koryusai Kitoaji in his prime. Harada took no prisoners and was ruthless in defeating McFly with a Kojiro Clutch. Kojiro Harada won the Historical Japan title – his second reign with the belt! Night of ENDURANCE, November 2000 If Harada represented the past of the Historical Japan title, he must have missed the part where it was defended on every available occasion. Instead of putting the title on the line, Kojiro Harada teamed with Chuichi Sanda and Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) at Night of ENDURANCE against the foursome of Sean McFly, Noriyori Sanda and Cornell & Morgan. McFly and Harada quickly assumed leadership of their respective teams and it was clear McFly wanted revenge for the loss he suffered two weeks prior. Fortunately, he had the fast-rising pair of Cornell and Morgan on his team and he was able to lead them to victory. McFly got the winning pinfall over Chuichi Sanda, handing Harada his first loss since joining the company. Harada was not pleased about this, and reacted with passion when McFly challenged him to a rematch for the Historical Japan title at Night of WRESTLING. He accepted and threatened to hurt McFly so bad he’d never wrestle again. McFly didn’t seem scared by the threat in his post-show comments. McFly: Harada came in here and did something cool. He won the Historical Japan title again after a huge wait. Good for him. The problem is, he did it in a way that I consider… unpleasant. The way he treated Koiso was callous. A veteran like him should know better. And while he beat me at Night of COURAGE, I don’t think he’s unbeatable. And I don’t think he’ll be a great Historical Japan champion. So when I beat him at Night of WRESTLING, you can be sure I’ll take that belt and defend it the right way, with pride and respect!

THE WAR RAGES FORTH DREAD Army did not enjoy a positive Elite Tag Series. Sure, Dread and Maldini made it to the semi-final stage, but in that match against Team EXPLOSION, Dino Maldini suffered a devastating injury, ruling him out for as long as a year. And if they had pinned any hopes on the faction’s established pairing, Team STRENGTH RUSH, they were sorely disappointed. The former two-time Glory Tag Crown champions failed to score a single point from the five block matches. Mamoru Nagahama pointed out, quite rightly, that Lee Wright was the obvious weak link. It was a time of frailty, then, from PGHW’s most dominant group. Meanwhile, the men who stood up to them: Hito Ichihara, Pistol Pete Hall and Koryusai Kitoaji above others, were not willing to let up the fight. Ichihara and Hall had also made it to the Elite Tag Series final and were set on revenge. Dino Maldini’s long-term injury meant he had to vacate the Historical Japan title. It was a shame for him, but an opportunity for others. An eight-man knockout tournament was scheduled over the next three shows, with the final taking place at Night of COURAGE. Some of the competitors included Mamoru Nagahama, Pistol Pete Hall and Lee Wright, so the warring groups would be drawn together. Not that they needed an excuse. The war would rage on until a victor was decided. Night of KINGS, October 2000 The first round of the Historical Japan tournament saw two matches relevant to this story. The first was Mamoru Nagahama defeating Noriyori Sanda and looking extremely intense in the process. The second pitted Pistol Pete Hall against Lee Wright. It was a domination. Lee Wright may have been a big bruising force in the past, but he looked feeble compared to Hall. After the match, the two other fit members of DREAD Army made their way to the ring: Dread and Raymond Diaz. They looked set to attack Pistol Pete Hall, who grabbed Lee Wright in a proactive move, as if he were a hostage. But DREAD Army shouted at Hall and convinced him to release Wright. They let Hall leave, which he did, tentatively. Lee Wright staggered to his feet in the ring, using Raymond Diaz as his support. His tag partner pushed him to the ground. Wright looked confused. And his confusion turned to fear as Dread waved to the back and Mamoru Nagahama came out, entering the ring and standing over Wright. Dread and Diaz stepped back. Nagahama saw this as his signal to strike and leapt upon Wright, trapping him in a guillotine. The veteran tapped furiously, but Nagahama refused to let go until Wright lay unconscious in the middle of the ring. In their own, brutal way, DREAD Army removed one member of their group and replaced him with another. Raymond Diaz showed little concern for his broken former partner. Team STRENGTH RUSH was no more. Night of IMPACT, October 2000 In the semi-final stage of the Historical Japan tournament, Pistol Pete Hall took on Kojiro Harada. The major star recently signed from BHOTWG looked set to create history and proved an insurmountable opponent for Hall on this occasion. Later on, Mamoru Nagahama also suffered defeat as he faced Sean McFly in the other semi-final. It was a hard loss for Nagahama to take considering he had just been welcomed into a new faction. But Sean McFly was on another level. And it wasn’t all bad news for DREAD Army as in another match on the show, Dread and Raymond Diaz got a big win over Hito Ichihara and Koryusai Kitoaji. It was the group’s first big statement since the disappointment of the Elite Tag Series and afterwards, Dread paid tribute to Nagahama as the new member and also to Dino Maldini who was spending some time back in America to recover. Night of COURAGE, November 2000 It was time for the latest huge battle between the two warring sides. Pistol Pete Hall teamed with Hito Ichihara and Koryusai Kitoaji against all three fit members of the new-look DREAD Army: Dread, Mamoru Nagahama and Raymond Diaz. It was also a moment for Nagahama to share the ring with Ichihara again. It was not long ago that Nagahama had declared he would haunt Ichihara until he put him out of the business and that attitude was clearly on display in this match. Maybe it was that reckless aggression or the fact the three men were wrestling together for the first time and lacked communication that led to their surprise defeat. Pistol Pete Hall may have held his major grudge with Dino Maldini, but it was DREAD Army who had tormented him for a big part of the year. He led Ichihara and Kitoaji to a powerful win, hitting the Pistol Lariat on Diaz for the victory. All three members of DREAD Army were furious and vowed to get their revenge. In fact, Dread was so angered, he challenged Pistol Pete Hall to a singles match at Night of ENDURANCE to put him in his place. Night of ENDURANCE, November 2000 The battles were coming thick and fast. In the opening match of Night of ENDURANCE, Mamoru Nagahama and Raymond Diaz teamed against Hito Ichihara and Koryusai Kitoaji. It was a hard-hitting match in which Nagahama and Diaz showed much better chemistry than they had at the previous show. This chemistry helped them to victory with Nagahama getting the pin on Kitoaji. After the match was over, Nagahama and Ichihara stared each other down until their team mates intervened to stop anything more violent occurring. Then it was the singles match between Dread and Pistol Pete Hall. Two of the finest big-man gaijin to ever wrestle in Japan, both having toured in the country during the late eighties and early nineties. Dread was widely considered the best brawler in the world, but Hall had definitely caught up since returning from hiatus and may well have taken first spot after this match. Because he scored a famous win over Dread, hitting a huge Pistol Lariat to down the giant and marking another notch in favour of his side. After the show, a rematch of their six-man tag was announced for Night of WRESTLING, with both sides having something to say. Dread: This cannot stand. DREAD Army is here to dominate, but we have suffered too many defeats of late. We can rectify this. A victory at Night of WRESTLING over three of the company’s biggest names will surely keep us at the top of the pile. So Diaz, Nagahama, don’t let me down. And I won’t let you down. Pistol Pete Hall took on the roles of spokesperson for his team. Hall: For the whole of this year I have been fighting Dread and his band of thugs. They turned my partner against me and attacked me outside of matches on multiple occasions. If it wasn’t for the support of my allies, they would still be doing so. I am sick of it. I am sick of seeing Dread and Diaz and whoever follows them around. That’s why this match at Night of WRESTLING will be my last against DREAD Army. Because we will defend the honour of this company and defeat them. It will be a blow so hard they cannot come back the same, if at all. At Night of WRESTLING, this war ends with the annihilation of the army.

TAG TURMOIL Following the Elite Tag Series, the PGHW tag division was wide open. The reigning Glory Tag Crown champions Team MILLENIUM failed to qualify from their block, suffering several losses on the way and opening the path for a number of teams to get a shot at their titles. The most obvious of these was Team Dynasty 2000 who, with a little rebranding and reuniting had propelled themselves to the top of the division once again, winning the tournament and guaranteeing themselves a title match. But would they even be able to compete? Shuji Inukai’s spinal injury looked increasingly painful and severe as the tournament went on and despite his never-say-die attitude, at some point he wouldn’t be able to continue. And what about Mushashibo’s controversial actions in the Elite Tag Series final? Opinion was split about whether the finger that entered Kunomasu’s eye was deliberate or not, and Mushashibo seemed nonplussed. All anyone could say for sure was that the road ahead was unpredictable at best and chaotic at worst. Night of KINGS, October 2000 Team Dynasty 2000 were unable to compete at Night of KINGS as Inukai had not been cleared for action. Instead, Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) defended the Glory Tag Crown titles against one of the teams that defeated them in the block stage of the Elite Tag Series: Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan. Considering the four young men were still a rung or two below the stacked main event scene, they managed to put on a fantastic bout. Tommy Cornell looked especially impressive. However, it was Fukusaburu Inao who was most decisive, getting the pin on Walter Morgan after the Y2K. Night of IMPACT, October 2000 With Shuji Inukai still out of action, Yoshimi Mushashibo teamed with Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) to face the trio of Noriyori Sanda and Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara). The most notable thing about the match was the change in Yoshimi Mushashibo. He still held himself with grace and poise, but there was something keener, more predatory about his body language. He didn’t hold back on his opponents and led them to victory. Harumi Okazawaya got the pin over Takeshi Umehara. This prompted Rebel Cell to suggest they were next in line for a tag title match, assuming Team Dynasty 2000 were still unable. Mushashibo reluctantly assented and the match was set for Night of COURAGE. Night of COURAGE, November 2000 Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) made their second defence of the Glory Tag Crown titles against Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara). At the start of the year, these two teams had been at the bottom of the pecking order, but here they were battling it out for gold. Still, Rebel Cell hadn’t quite reached the top level and they fell to a Y2K with Umehara getting his pinfall win back over Okazawaya. Night of ENDURANCE, November 2000 The announcement that Shuji Inukai would be fit enough to compete at Night of WRESTLING was met with relief. Team Dynasty 2000 would be able to get their title match and one of PGHW’s top stars would be on the biggest show of the year. On the last show before the big finale, Yoshimi Mushashibo faced Fukusaburu Inao in singles action. There was no denying Mushashibo had found a more ruthless edge. There were no controversial eye-pokes, but he stretched the referee’s patience at times, always bordering on the edge of rule-breaking. This led him to a solid win over Inao and a whole heap of momentum going into Night of WRESTLING where he and Inukai would challenge for the Glory Tag Crown titles. After the show, Mushashibo was asked whether Inukai would be at 100% for the match. Mushashibo: No. But then neither will I, nor Inao, nor Umehara. We are never at 100% in this business because every night we put our bodies on the line, taking hit after hit in search of victory. Shuji will be fine. It is a brutal business – he knows that more than anyone. And those who emerge at the top with glory and acclaim are those who get the job done when it really matters. You know, I used to think wrestling was beautiful. And in a way it still is to me, but more and more I see it as an ugly sport. That’s not a bad thing. Ugly has its place in the world. I’m sure at Night of WRESTLING our match will get ugly and I’m not afraid of that. I’d rather win ugly than lose beautifully.

Night of HONOUR, 2000 Elite Tag Series Semi-Final 1: Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) vs. Dino Maldini & Dread Elite Tag Series Semi-Final 2: Team Dynasty 2000 (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo) vs. Hito Ichihara & Pistol Pete Hall Chuichi Sanda, Noriyori Sanda & Raymond Diaz vs. Koryusai Kitoaji & Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) Lee Wright vs. Mamoru Nagahama Kumasaka-buntai (Danger Kumasaka, Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan) vs. Sean McFly and Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) Elite Tag Series Final: Winner of Semi-Final 1 vs. Winner of Semi-Final 2 Mito Miwa vs. Nobuatsu Tatsuko © for the Glory Crown MATCH 1: Elite Tag Series Semi-Final 1: Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) vs. Dino Maldini & Dread The show’s opening match was a mouthwatering prospect. Four men who hit hard and refused to back down went hell for leather in a bid to reach the Elite Tag Series final. It was new ground for Maldini & Dread. Maldini’s experiences with Strike Force in the past had never taken him to the semi-finals, and Dread had hardly competed in the tag division before. In contrast, Team EXPLOSION were veterans of the Elite Tag Series, having reached the semi-finals for the fourth time and having won the whole tournament the year before. Their familiarity with each other in these big situations may have been the deciding factor, or it was the sheer intensity of the match as after both teams whacked seven shades of the proverbial out of each other, Maldini’s knee looked in very bad shape. Team EXPLOSION hit the Eisaku Explosion with Hoshino getting the pin on Maldini. MATCH 2: Elite Tag Series Semi-Final 2: Team Dynasty 2000 (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo) vs. Hito Ichihara & Pistol Pete Hall The second semi-final was similar in that one team had seen great success in all of the previous three Elite Tag Series while the other had hardly teamed with each other before. Team Dynasty 2000 looked fantastic in the block stage, but Shuji Inukai was still suffering from a herniated disc that slowed his movement significantly. On occasion he had looked reluctant to hit the Untouchable Lariat because of the pain it put him in. Ichihara and Hall failed to capitalise on this, though. Not through want of trying, but because Mushashibo was smart in tagging himself in when Inukai was really feeling it. And eventually it was Mushashibo who got the victory for his team, locking the Yoshimi Lock in tight on Ichihara who was forced to tap out. A huge moment for Mushashibo and another final for him and Inukai – up against Team EXPLOSION in a repeat of the 1997 tournament’s final. MATCH 3: Chuichi Sanda, Noriyori Sanda & Raymond Diaz vs. Koryusai Kitoaji & Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) Raymond Diaz found himself on a relatively weak team against three men who had fiercely resisted DREAD Army recently. Rebel Cell defeated Team STRENGTH RUSH at Night of GLORY and made it a second victory over Diaz here, although it was Chuichi Sanda who took the pin. MATCH 4: Lee Wright vs. Mamoru Nagahama At Night of TOUGHNESS, Mamoru Nagahama tagged with Dread and Team STRENGTH RUSH and found himself on the losing team thanks to, as he saw it, the weakness of Lee Wright. Wright took offense to this and this match was set up to settle the dispute. Lee Wright’s recent performances had been woeful and here things didn’t get better. In fact it was a one-sided affair that really exposed the veteran’s decline. Nagahama choked him out with a Guillotine and stood tall. MATCH 5: Kumasaka-buntai (Danger Kumasaka, Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan) vs. Sean McFly and Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) Cornell & Morgan got a sensational victory over Team MILLENIUM during the Elite Tag Series block stage and they picked up another win over the Glory Tag Crown champions here, alongside their mentor Danger Kumasaka. It was another setback for the tag champions who had contenders lining up to dethrone them, not to mention the defence they would have to make against whoever won the Elite Tag Series. MATCH 6: Elite Tag Series Final: Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) vs. Team Dynasty 2000 (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo) Some were surprised to see the tournament final second from last on the show, but that perhaps was due to the sheer magnitude of the Miwa vs. Tatsuko main event. Regardless, the anticipation for Team EXPLOSION vs. Team Dynasty 2000 was palpable. The teams had seen similar successes and disappointments, spending some time away from each other while enjoying Glory Tag Crown reigns and previous Elite Tag Series victories. Shuji Inukai was clearly in significant distress even before he got in the ring. Mushashibo did well to cover for him in the semi-final, but few expected Hoshino & Kunomasu to take it easy on him. And they didn’t. Even with Mushashibo starting the match and avoiding tagging in his partner for a while, Inukai didn’t want to be left out and entered for a few moments of explosive action, then doubling over in pain. But as Eisaku Hoshino knew from personal experience, Shuji Inukai was a tough son of a gun. In Spring 1999 they had battled for sheer pride and over who was the most resistant to pain. And he proved his mettle again by surviving the absolute onslaught Kunomasu and Hoshino inflicted upon him. For long periods he was trapped on the wrong side of the ring. Mushashibo got the crowd behind him and eventually, Inukai crawled his way to make a tag. Then for ten minutes, Mushashibo was essentially in a handicap match. Inukai was surrounded by medical officials while Mushashibo battled with the ferocity he kept hidden inside him only to be unleashed at these crucial moments. A level of intensity and savagery seemed to overcome Mushashibo. And something else, too. Something never seen before. It occurred when Inukai tried to haul himself onto the ring apron, catching the eye of the referee. At that moment, Mushashibo struck. A wild lash at Kunomasu, catching him in the face. In the eye? It was hard to see for sure. But whatever happened, Kunomasu seemed unable to see properly. It was enough for Mushashibo to lift him up and dump him on his head with a brand new move that resembled a Michinoku Driver. The referee turned his attention back to the action and counted to three. Team Dynasty 2000 won the Elite Tag Series! Mushashibo dragged Inukai into the ring to celebrate with him, although Inukai could hardly lift his golden plate and seemed unaware of how the match had ended. MAIN EVENT: Mito Miwa vs. Nobuatsu Tatsuko © for the Glory Crown This Glory Crown title match was laden with history. For a start, the two competitors were very much the embodiment of the two men who had formed the foundation of PGHW – Hito Ichihara and Koryusai Kitoaji. The comparisons had been drawn from the very start, with Tatsuko adhering to Kitoaji’s direct, intense style while Miwa favoured a cerebral, adaptive approach. Both had defeated their predecessor and now stood atop the company. But their rivalry had deeper roots than that, going back to times before PGHW even existed. Their rivalry over the Historical Japan title on the independent scene and later in PGHW was looked back on as what propelled them both to stardom. At Night of FORTITUDE in 1997, Mito Miwa defeated Nobuatsu Tatsuko and in doing so ended his 22-month reign with the belt. A reign which had seen hundreds of defences and came within a hair’s breadth of breaking the record for longest duration. Tatsuko was denied his place in history then. Now he was a step away from breaking Kitoaji’s record for longest reign with the Glory Crown. A victory over Miwa would do it for Tatsuko. In theory, that shouldn’t be a problem. They had seen three singles matches since that Historical Japan bout, all of which were in the semi-finals of the Elite Series and all of which Tatsuko had won. This last encounter was what spurred Miwa towards this moment. It had motivated him to sweep aside ten of PGHW’s top competitors in his open challenge and earn a title shot. The match began as you’d expect. Tatsuko at full throttle and Miwa avoiding the worst of the assault and formulating a plan of response. That plan took the form of targeting Tatsuko’s ankle. Tatsuko would overextend himself with some high kicks and Miwa caught the leg in a tight grip, twisting hard to send the champion to the mat. The ankle lock proved an effective antidote to Tatsuko’s violence for a while. Until Tatsuko did what he did best and blasted through adversity and hit back harder than ever. In the end it was a huge Tatsuko Driller that led to the end of the match. Tatsuko had just clocked Miwa in the jaw and went for his finisher… Miwa slipped out of his grasp and immediately reversed into a Tatsuko Driller of his own, dumping the author of the move on the mat! This was exactly how Miwa defeated Tatsuko for the Historical Japan title over three years ago! One… Two… Tatsuko kicked out! The champion refused to be humiliated in that way again. He surged back to his feet… and got caught by Miwa who lifted him up, then dumped him down with the Pride Bomber! One…Two… Three! It was over! Mito Miwa became the new Glory Crown champion and ended Tatsuko’s reign at two weeks short of Kitoaji’s record! It was an astonishing change at the top of the company as Miwa became the fifth man to hold the prestigious trophy. Tatsuko looked stunned. He could hardly believe what had happened. Conclusion Miwa’s victory saw him climb to number one spot while Team Dynasty 2000 reigned supreme, albeit with some controversy to their victory. It was a solid show from PGHW who had lost a touch of their magic over the last few months. The Elite Series matches all shone, as did the Glory Crown bout, but none reached a transcendental level and some of the midcard matches disappointed. Added to that was the injury difficulties suffered by Inukai and the fact Dino Maldini got badly hurt. After the show, Maldini revealed his patellar tendon was severely damaged and he would be out of action for around a year. He would have to vacate the Historical Japan title. The spectre of Luis Figo Manico’s retirement hung over the whole ordeal. Perhaps a new champion in Mito Miwa would add a new freshness to proceedings and boost the mood, and it was certain the rest of the year would hold plenty of intrigue and excitement. After the show, there were some notable comments in the press conference. Mamoru Nagahama: I want to speak directly to Dread and his army. Lee Wright is done. He’s not even half the competitor he used to be. I showed that tonight. I’m not going to tell you how to handle your personnel, but if I were you I’d kick him out and recruit someone young and violent… Yoshimi Mushashibo: Of course I’m delighted to win the Elite Tag Series again. We had to fight hard and I want to thank Shuji for his unbelievable determination to hang in there. I know how much that hurt him. I think we both showed how passionate we are about winning tonight. In response to a question about the nature of his controversial victory where it looked like he might have poked Kunomasu in the eye, Mushashibo had this to say: Mushashibo: We won the match, alright? If there was something illegal then the referee would have reprimanded me, correct? That’s what he’s there for. But he didn’t, so what’s the problem? Finally, the new Glory Crown champion had some words. Mito Miwa: Do I take pleasure in once again stopping Tatsuko from breaking a record? No. I didn’t last time, and I don’t tonight. But I do take pleasure in beating him. I have seen him rise to the top over the last two years and it made me wonder why it wasn’t me in that position. Whatever he can do, I can do, too. And tonight, I did it better. And what brings me even greater pleasure is that I’ll be able to prove it time and time again while I hold this belt. I no longer need to hold an open challenge because the best in PGHW will be lining up to face me. Bring it on

Night of HONOUR, 2000 Card Elite Tag Series Semi-Final 1: Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) vs. Dino Maldini & Dread Elite Tag Series Semi-Final 2: Team Dynasty 2000 (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo) vs. Hito Ichihara & Pistol Pete Hall Chuichi Sanda, Noriyori Sanda & Raymond Diaz vs. Koryusai Kitoaji & Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) Lee Wright vs. Mamoru Nagahama Kumasaka-buntai (Danger Kumasaka, Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan) vs. Sean McFly and Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) Elite Tag Series Final: Winner of Semi-Final 1 vs. Winner of Semi-Final 2 Mito Miwa vs. Nobuatsu Tatsuko © for the Glory Crown

ELITE TAG SERIES 2000 The tag landscape in PGHW had shifted significantly since 1999’s Elite Tag Series. One of the most successful teams of all time, Team MYTHOS would not be taking part, Strike Force had broken apart and now Team MILLENIUM were a major force, going into the tournament as Glory Tag Crown champions. Block A contained three well-established teams and three unknown entities. Team EXPLOSION were the clear favourites to advance, having won the tournament in 1999 and reigning as tag champions for most of the year so far. Hito Ichihara and Pistol Pete Hall made an intriguing partnership and posed a serious threat. Sean McFly had pedigree in the tournament, winning alongside Miwa in 1998, but his young partner Yasunobu Koiso was still mostly untested. Team STRENGTH RUSH were always a force to be reckoned with, while Rebel Cell had stepped up recently. Could this be their year to advance? And finally, the thrown-together outfit of Nagahama and new Canadian signing Steve Flash were a complete wildcard. BLOCK A: Hito Ichihara & Pistol Pete Hall Mamoru Nagahama & Steve Flash Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) Sean McFly & Yasunobu Koiso Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) Team STRENGTH RUSH (Lee Wright & Raymond Diaz) Block B was just as unpredictable. Team MILLENIUM were certainly big favourites, considering they were the reigning tag champions. Team Dynasty 2000 had only recently reunited, but as inaugural winners and perennial contenders, many had them as their pick to win the whole thing. Team Energy was a strange prospect. Some speculated that the concussion he suffered at Night of LEGACY was the reason he ever let Noriyori Sanda have a chance at impressing him. Still, the youngster held up his side of the bargain and the two made an odd but potentially devastating pair. Speaking of devastating, it was hard to rule out Dino Maldini and Dread who had become DREAD Army’s best chance of winning the tournament. They would surely expect to do better than the likes of Cornell & Morgan and the favourites for the wooden spoon, Kwakami & Sanda BLOCK B: Akinori Kwakami & Chuichi Sanda Dino Maldini & Dread Team Dynasty 2000 (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo) Team Energy (Nobuatsu Tatsuko & Noriyori Sanda) Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan PGHW Elite Tag Series DAY 1 Block A Results Nagahama & Flash def. Ichihara & Hall McFly & Koiso def. Rebel Cell Team EXPLOSION def. Team STRENGTH RUSH The first day of the tournament saw a couple of big surprises. Nagahama exacted some revenge on former tag partner Ichihara as the impressive Steve Flash helped him to a stunning win. McFly & Koiso also had a strong start for a new team, defeating the established Rebel Cell. Old rivals Team EXPLOSION and Team STRENGTH RUSH underlined their different trajectories over the last couple of years as Hoshino & Kunomasu dealt with Wright & Diaz quite comfortably, hitting the Eisaku Explosion on Lee Wright. Block B Results Cornell & Morgan def. Team MILLENIUM Team Dynasty 2000 def. Kwakami & Sanda Maldini & Dread def. Team Energy Glory Tag Crown holders Team MILLENIUM had an awful start to the tournament, losing to the motivated Cornell & Morgan. Kumasaka-buntai then made it a perfect first day as Team Dynasty 2000 easily beat Kwakami & Sanda. The main event saw Tatsuko come up against Dread, the man he defeated to win the Glory Crown over a year ago. But Dread was alongside the massively improved Dino Maldini who proved decisive against the inexperienced Noriyori Sanda. PGHW Elite Tag Series DAY 2 Block A Results Ichihara & Hall def. McFly & Koiso Nagahama & Flash def. Team STRENGTH RUSH Team EXPLOSION def. Rebel Cell Ichihara & Hall recovered from their opening round loss to beat McFly & Koiso, while the surprise package for the tournament turned out to be Nagahama and Flash who overcame the faltering Team STRENGTH RUSH, with Lee Wright taking the pin once again. Team EXPLOSION made it two from two with a solid victory over Rebel Cell who, with two losses now, were far from getting that breakout moment. Block B Results Team Energy def. Cornell & Morgan Maldini & Dread def. Kwakami & Sanda Team Dynasty 2000 def. Team MILLENIUM Nobuatsu Tatsuko got his first Elite Tag Series win as Noriyori Sanda helped him overcome Cornell & Morgan. Meanwhile, Dread and Maldini had a relatively easy time against Kwakami & Sanda. The show’s main event saw Team MILLENIUM suffer their second loss. This time it was against the serious threat of Inukai & Mushashibo who looked to be working great together despite a spinal disc injury to Inukai. Still, for Team MILLENIUM the result left them bottom of the block. PGHW Elite Tag Series DAY 3 Block A Results McFly & Koiso def. Team STRENGTH RUSH Ichihara & Hall def. Rebel Cell Team EXPLOSION def. Nagahama & Flash Team STRENGTH RUSH looked a shadow of their former selves. They fell to McFly and Koiso, meaning they were yet to score a single point. Ichihara & Hall recovered from a poor start to lay more misery upon Rebel Cell. The top two teams in the block, Team EXPLOSION and Nagahama & Flash collided with the outcome narrowly favouring the former two-time tag champions. Block B Results Team MILLENIUM def. Kwakami & Sanda Team Dynasty 2000 def. Team Energy Maldini & Dread def. Cornell & Morgan Team MILLENIUM finally got a win, beating the much weaker Kwakami & Sanda. Team Dynasty 2000 continued their winning streak with a solid victory over Team Energy, something that irritated Nobuatsu Tatsuko. The other strong team in the group, Maldini & Dread picked up their third victory over Cornell and Morgan. Mid-point round-up Block A Table 6 Team EXPLOSION 4 Nagahama & Flash 4 Ichihara & Hall 4 McFly & Koiso 0 Rebel Cell 0 Team STRENGTH RUSH Block B Table 6 Maldini & Dread 6 Team Dynasty 2000 2 Cornell & Morgan 2 Team Energy 2 Team MILLENIUM 0 Kwakami & Sanda PGHW Elite Tag Series DAY 4 Block A Results Rebel Cell def. Team STRENGTH RUSH McFly & Koiso def. Nagahama & Flash Team EXPLOSION def. Ichihara & Hall Rebel Cell picked up their first win of the tournament at the expense of the hugely disappointing Team STRENGTH RUSH who remained on zero points from four matches. Lee Wright getting pinned again was a clear problem. The two surprise outfits collided, with McFly & Koiso getting a big win over Nagahama & Flash. McFly & Koiso now had a pretty good chance of advancing, despite still having to face Team EXPLOSION. As for Team EXPLOSION, they continued their 100% form, getting a tight win over Ichihara & Hall who just about remained in the running. Block B Results Team Energy def. Kwakami & Sanda Team Dynasty 2000 def. Cornell & Morgan Maldini & Dread def. Team MILLENIUM Team Energy had their easiest match yet with Tatsuko able to dominate Kwakami & Sanda while Noriyori Sanda showed plenty of energy alongside his senior partner. Team Dynasty 2000 made it four from four with a solid victory over Cornell & Morgan who dropped out of the running. And the advancing teams were confirmed as Maldini & Dread beat Team MILLENIUM in another big loss for the tag champions – knocked out of the block with a match to go. PGHW Elite Tag Series DAY 5 Block A Results Rebel Cell def. Nagahama & Flash Team EXPLOSION def. McFly & Koiso Ichihara & Hall def. Team STRENGTH RUSH Rebel Cell got their second win and put an end to the surprising start from Nagahama & Flash. In fact, this victory took Rebel Cell above Nagahama & Flash in the standings. Team EXPLOSION rounded out a perfect block stage with a win over McFly & Koiso who needed some help from Team STRENGTH RUSH. They didn’t get it as Ichihara & Hall surged their way to victory, piling on the misery for Wright & Diaz and scraping into the semi-finals thanks to their head-to-head record over McFly & Koiso. Block B Results Cornell & Morgan def. Kwakami & Sanda Team MILLENIUM def. Team Energy Team Dynasty 2000 def. Maldini & Dread For four teams in Block B it was about saving pride. Cornell & Morgan made sure they finished with a win, meaning Kwakami & Sanda finished with 0 points. Team MILLENIUM clawed back a victory over Team Energy to avoid a completely humiliating tournament. And in the main event, Team Dynasty 2000 overcame Maldini & Dread in the match of the tournament to make sure they topped Block B and kept their 100% record. FINAL STANDINGS Block A Table 10 Team EXPLOSION 6 Ichihara & Hall 6 McFly & Koiso 4 Rebel Cell 4 Nagahama & Flash 0 Team STRENGTH RUSH Block B Table 10 Team Dynasty 2000 8 Maldini & Dread 4 Cornell & Morgan 4 Team Energy 4 Team MILLENIUM 0 Kwakami & Sanda Conclusion While the Elite Tag Series 2000 blocks didn’t see the extreme heights of match quality from previous years, it was a remarkably consistent tournament with many “smaller” teams putting in some fantastic performances. Sean McFly and Yasunobu Koiso were the standout performers considering they had never tagged before and Koiso was still in his second year of wrestling. The fact they only missed out on a semi-final spot thanks to a head-to-head record showed how well they had done. Team EXPLOSION and Team Dynasty 2000 were rightly favourites going in and they did not disappoint. Maldini & Dread also lived up to the expectations attached to their individual names. For the likes of Rebel Cell and Cornell & Morgan it wasn’t an awful tournament, but they were once again a step or two away from taking the next forward step. Meanwhile, Nobuatsu Tatsuko’s first appearance in the tournament was disappointing – his future with Noriyori Sanda looked bleak. Not as bleak as Team STRENGTH RUSH’s prospects, though. The team that began in PGHW as the most dominant force failed to get a single point. Many fingers pointed to Lee Wright’s age and lack of conditioning, but there were a few comments about how Raymond Diaz hadn’t progressed as much as expected. Still, DREAD Army had one team in the semi-finals. Maldini & Dread would face Team EXPLOSION in what promised to be a hard-hitting bonanza. Ichihara & Hall had the tough task of facing the in-form Team Dynasty 2000 although they would gain confidence in the fact that Shuji Inukai’s injury did not go away. He was suffering from a herniated disc, slowing him down significantly. Another fact that came out of the tournament was that Team Energy did not reach the semi-finals, so Mito Miwa would get his highly-anticipated Glory Crown title match at Night of HONOUR. The card for that show was promising to be one of the biggest of all time!

GLORY CROWN Seiji Jimbo (c) vs. Mutant GLORY TAG CROWN
 KamaGuchi (Bussho Makiguchi & Tsurayuki Kamachi) (c) vs. Chojiro Kitoaji & Eisaku Kunomasu INTERNATIONAL TITLE SATO (c) vs. Magnum Kobe SPECIAL SINGLES MATCH Austin Smooth vs. Kozue Kawashima TAG TEAM MATCH Akinori Kwakami & Noriyori Sanda vs. Hirokazu Yamanoue & Masaru Ugaki SIX-MAN TAG TEAM MATCH
 RONIN VII (Avalanche Takano, Haranobu Kobayashi & Yuri Yoshihara) vs. Coyote Club (BISON Yano, Brute Kikuchi & Toyotomi Yasutake) FOUR-WAY ELIMINATION MATCH - HISTORICAL JAPAN TAG TEAM TITLE SHOT ON THE LINE The Front (Kazushige Matsuki & Michio Gensai) vs. The Supreme Warriors (Hatamoto & Hikichi) vs. The Griffin Brothers (Mark Griffin & Robby Griffin) vs. The American Cobras (Marvel Malloy & Storm Spillane) TAG TEAM MATCH Daigo Goya & Washi Heat vs. The Lions of Japan (Shinji Mihara & Shozo Furuta) SINGLES MATCH Hirotsugu Satou vs. Joshua Taylor

I love how you're embracing the curveballs thrown at you during this whole save. I'd have certainly thrown in the towel long ago, but credit for sticking with it and providing us the entertainment of it all going mad!

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED Team MILLENIUM was the standout tag team of the months leading up to Night of GLORY in June 2000. They ran through a number of competitors and called out Team EXPLOSION who they claimed hadn’t been defending the Glory Tag Crown titles often enough. So they got their title match and lost. A sizeable roadbump in their trajectory and a serious confidence knock for a team made up of two men who had never been picked as major stars of the future. But all good competitors share the same trait. When they fail, they get back up and try again. And that’s what Team MILLENIUM were ready to do. Would it get them back into the title picture? That remained to be seen. Night of STRENGTH, June 2000 Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) competed on the same side as their Night of GLORY opponents Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) in an eight-man tag match against Kumasaka-buntai’s Danger Kumasaka, Tommy Cornell and Yoshimi Mushashibo as well as Noriyori Sanda. During the match, the champions and recent challengers combined well together, seemingly enjoying their time as they achieved a good victory with Team MILLENIUM hitting the Y2K on Noriyori Sanda. After the match, though, there was little in the way of friendliness. Inao and Umehara made it clear they weren’t going to go away any time soon. Night of WARRIORS, July 2000 After their victory over Team STRENGTH RUSH at Night of GLORY and another win at Night of STRENGTH, Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) had risen to the position of challengers and got their Glory Tag Crown match at this show against champions Team EXPLOSION (Hoshino & Kunomasu). Rebel Cell fought hard, but once again showed they weren’t quite at the level required to win gold yet. Elsewhere on the show, it was another win for Team MILLENIUM (Inao & Umehara) who got a fine victory over Sean McFly and Koryusai Kitoaji. Takeshi Umehara enjoyed the biggest moment of his career by pinning the legendary Kitoaji after a Y2K. Night of VICTORY, July 2000 Team MILLENIUM (Inao & Umehara) were at it again. They scored another fantastic win over Kumasaka-buntai’s Shuji Inukai and Walter Morgan. The Y2K was becoming one of the most effective tag finishers in PGHW and it reflected how much Inao and Umehara had worked on their communication and chemistry. Later in the show, Team EXPLOSION (Hoshino & Kunomasu) tagged with Dread to defeat Yoshimi Mushashibo and Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara). Their celebrations were interrupted by Team MILLENIUM coming out and making their challenge official. Inao claimed they had earned their way back into title contention with some strong wins and were ready for another title shot. Hoshino and Kunomasu were never ones to back down from a challenge and the match was set for Night of LEGACY. Night of LEGACY, August 2000 The Glory Tag Crown titles main evented Night of LEGACY. Team EXPLOSION (Hoshino & Kunomasu) were used to being part of the final match of the night, having held tag gold twice, the Historical Japan title once each and having several Glory Crown title shots. For Team MILLENIUM (Inao & Umehara) it was unknown territory. The pressure was extremely high. They had worked incredibly hard to get another shot at the titles – a loss here would set them back a long way. And they were not willing to let that happen. Inao and Umehara looked far different from their initial tag attempts at the start of the year. Their commitment to creating a strong understanding between them had led them to the point of being a well-drilled machine. They looked even more cohesive than Team EXPLOSION who had been tagging (albeit on-and-off) for four years. And this hard work bore fruit. They managed to hit the Y2K on Eisaku Hoshino. Fukusaburu Inao went for the pin and got the three count! Team MILLENIUM became new Glory Tag Crown champions! It was a huge moment for the team and a colossal shift in the division’s landscape just a month away from the Elite Tag Series. Night of TOUGHNESS, August 2000 Night of TOUGHNESS always put on several multi-man matches involving the major tag teams heading into the Elite Tag Series. This was no different. Team MILLENIUM (Inao & Umehara) enjoyed their first outing since winning the Glory Tag Crown titles as they teamed up with Hito Ichihara and Pistol Pete Hall in the main event. They took on Team EXPLOSION (Hoshino & Kunomasu) who were looking for revenge, and the reunited Team Dynasty (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo). The match ended with Mushashibo pinning Ichihara, but the action had been fairly equal throughout. Now heading into the Elite Tag Series, there was plenty of intrigue about which teams would rise to the top. Old favourites like Team Dynasty (now going by the name of Team Dynasty 2000) and Team EXPLOSION were surefire candidates, but so were Team MILLENIUM and the combination of Ichihara and Hall. The tournament blocks were announced after the show. BLOCK A Hito Ichihara & Pistol Pete Hall Mamoru Nagahama & Steve Flash Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) Sean McFly & Yasunobu Koiso Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) Team STRENGTH RUSH (Lee Wright & Raymond Diaz) Nagahama and new signing Steve Flash were a last-minute thrown-together partnership. BLOCK B Akinori Kwakami & Chuichi Sanda Dino Maldini & Dread Team Dynasty 2000 (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo) Team Energy (Nobuatsu Tatsuko & Noriyori Sanda) Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan Chuichi Sanda called upon SAISHO prospect and young lion Akinori Kwakami to be his partner which the youngster was willing to accept as he would get experience against major opponents.

COLLISION COURSE Mito Miwa’s open challenge was fast becoming a highlight of PGHW shows. It started after his disappointment at the Elite Series, losing for a third straight year in the semi-final stage to perennial rival Nobuatsu Tatsuko. Since then he had beaten established stars and youngsters without pause. His trajectory was clear – a collision course with the top star of the company and Glory Crown holder Nobuatsu Tatsuko. Tatsuko was also showing great form. His reign had reached a full year, thanks to the victory over Mushashibo at Night of GLORY and it looked like nobody could stop him. If he kept on in this way, he would surely break Kitoaji’s record for the longest reign holding the belt. Night of STRENGTH, June 2000 Mito Miwa continued his open challenge with a solid victory over Walter Morgan. The British technician gave Miwa a few things to think about, but by now the Pride Warrior was able to adapt to almost any situation. More and more he resembled Hito Ichihara’s flexible, reactive style. Nobuatsu Tatsuko appeared in the main event of Night of STRENGTH, tagging with the man whose profile he aligned with, Koryusai Kitoaji. Since their heated rivalry throughout 1998, Tatsuko had never really forgiven Kitoaji and their partnership was tense. Still, they managed to overcome the strong pairing of Hito Ichihara and Roka Furuhata to get a solid win. Night of WARRIORS, July 2000 Nobuatsu Tatsuko had his work cut out as he tagged with Chuichi Sanda and Noriyori Sanda to take on Kumasaka-buntai’s Danger Kumasaka, Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan. Chuichi Sanda was largely ineffective, while Noriyori Sanda seemed overawed by Tatsuko’s presence. The youngster did his best to impress the Glory Crown champion and succeeded by surviving the long, punishing holds of Kumasaka-buntai. When Tatsuko finally got tagged in, he ran wild, getting the victory with a Tatsuko Driller. Elsewhere on the show, Mamoru Nagahama got a huge win over Roka Furuhata and challenged Tatsuko to defend his Glory Crown at the next show, Night of VICTORY. Tatsuko accepted and the match was confirmed. In the main event of Night of WARRIORS, Mito Miwa’s open challenge was answered by Yoshimi Mushashibo. This was a huge match as Mushashibo had been the last to challenge for Tatsuko’s title. The winner would surely take a large step closer to a championship opportunity. Mushashibo didn’t quite look himself. He clearly hadn’t fully recovered mentally from the Night of GLORY loss and Miwa noticed. The Pride Warrior took advantage and got the win with a Pride Bomber. Night of VICTORY, July 2000 It was an easier ride for Mito Miwa in his open challenge at this show as he was answered by the young lion Akinori Kwakami who was making his debut in PGHW after some good showings in SAISHO. Kwakami replicated Yasunobu Koiso’s earlier performance by staying with Miwa for over twenty minutes and impressing everyone with his durability. Of course Miwa got the win, but Kwakami’s name was on many fans’ lips afterwards. In the main event, Nobuatsu Tatsuko took on Mamoru Nagahama with the Glory Crown on the line. Nobody expected Nagahama to unseat the champion, and he still remained someone fans didn’t consider a worthy contender. There were some reminders of Kitoaji’s match against Nagahama all the way back in 1997 which was controversial at the time because Tatsuko was considered the strongest challenger. Three years later, Nagahama had changed his attitude significantly but he was still a few levels below Glory Crown success and he fell to a Tatsuko Driller. Night of LEGACY, August 2000 This time it was Danger Kumasaka who turned out for Mito Miwa’s open challenge. The veteran had a smile on his face, perhaps knowing he would lose but wanting to test himself, and test Miwa. Miwa passed any such tests with a Pride Bomber. Nobuatsu Tatsuko found himself teaming with young Noriyori Sanda again. Sanda was delighted and did everything he could to impress the champion. He gave all his energy and spirit, up against Pistol Pete Hall and Koryusai Kitoaji who beat him from pillar to post. Yet he survived and made the tag to Tatsuko who got the job done on Kitoaji with a Tatsuko Driller. It was noted that Tatsuko took a blow to his head during the match and looked a little concussed on his way to the back. After the show, Noriyori Sanda had a proposal for Tatsuko. Sanda: I think I’m right in saying Tatsuko has never competed in the Elite Tag Series. Perhaps he has never found the right partner. Well, I’d like to say I’d be very happy to partner him. Tonight we beat two serious opponents and showed we can be a formidable team. So I humbly make this offer to you Tatsuko. When asked about this later, a still dazed looking Tatsuko frowned. Tatsuko: I hadn’t thought about it. He’s right that I’ve never found the right partner, but I’m not sure it would be him. I admire his courage, but I doubt he really has the guts. However, he can try to prove me wrong. Night of TOUGHNESS is up next. Let’s have a singles match, no title or anything, just a chance for this kid to prove himself. Night of TOUGHNESS, August 2000 Noriyori Sanda got the biggest singles match of his life, taking on Nobuatsu Tatsuko. The Glory Crown champion was taking no prisoners. He assaulted Sanda with merciless intensity. It was a brutal spectacle. But Sanda refused to stay down. He kicked out of a dozen big moves, survived three painful submissions and managed to barely get to his feet before the referee counted him out. After twenty-five gruelling minutes, he finally succumbed to the Tatsuko Driller, but in doing so he earned Tatsuko’s respect. After the bell had rung, Tatsuko shook the youngster’s hand and almost reluctantly agreed to be his partner in the Elite Tag Series! Sanda later suggested they name themselves Team Energy. Tatsuko didn’t seem too bothered by the name and went along with it. In fact, he seemed quite annoyed he’d ever given Sanda the opportunity. Later in the show, Mito Miwa was shocked by Sean McFly who answered his open challenge. But once the surprise had died down, the friends put on a fantastic match. Miwa got the win with a Pride Bomber – his tenth in a row. After the show, he didn’t hold back with his intentions. Miwa: At the next possible opportunity I want my title match. It’s been nearly two years since I got my shot and nobody can deny I’m the number one contender. I don’t care if Tatsuko wants to win the Elite Tag Series, I’ll wait until Night of KINGS instead. Because, Tatsuko, I know what your target is. You want to make it past Night of KINGS to break Kitoaji’s record. But you won’t get there without going through me. You might remember we have some “history” when it comes to this. Miwa was later confirmed as due an imminent title match. If Team Energy didn’t make it out of the blocks of the Elite Tag Series, Miwa would get his Glory Crown match at Night of HONOUR. If Team Energy were successful, the title match would be at the next show, Night of KINGS.

A NEW DYNASTY Yoshimi Mushashibo’s loss to Nobuatsu Tatsuko at Night of GLORY was a serious blow to the young contender. Afterwards, his enigmatic response suggested a new approach to wrestling. But what would that entail? What would Mushashibo change to get him to the next level? And what would he sacrifice? Meanwhile, Shuji Inukai’s Historical Japan title reign was going well. He had dispatched many worthwhile opponents and some were beginning to believe that he might have a chance at breaking the record for longest time holding the belt. And of course, the Elite Tag Series was on the horizon. Team Dynasty had competed at all three of the previous tournaments, although there was plenty of doubt about whether they were on the same page after their dispute over the Historical Japan title at the end of 1999. They had hardly been seen together since. Night of STRENGTH, June 2000 Shuji Inukai continued his regular defences of the Historical Japan title, as was tradition, by taking on Yasunobu Koiso. Koiso made his debut a couple of months before, answering Mito Miwa’s open challenge and giving a good account of himself. Now he found himself with the opportunity to make a real impact in PGHW. As a young lion, a victory over Inukai here would have propelled him to instant stardom. Inukai wasn’t having it though. Once again Koiso was impressive, but Inukai’s Untouchable Lariat was deadly once again and the youngster had to settle for earning only respect rather than victory. Also on the show, Yoshimi Mushashibo tasted defeat as he teamed with fellow Kumaska-buntai members Tommy Cornell & Danger Kumasaka as well as Noriyori Sanda. They lost to the impressive team of Glory Tag Crown champions Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) and the team that had challenged for the titles at Night of GLORY, Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara). Night of WARRIORS, July 2000 Both Inukai and Mushashibo competed in high-profile singles matches at Night of WARRIORS. First, Shuji Inukai accepted the challenge from Dino Maldini for the Historical Japan title. Inukai found himself up against the newest member of DREAD Army who had surged into great form recently. And this form paid off as Maldini managed to score a huge victory, choking out Inukai with the Triangle Choke and winning the Historical Japan title! It was a devastating blow to Inukai whose bid to become longest reigning champion fell disappointingly short, at just seven months. In the main event of the show, Yoshimi Mushashibo stepped up to Mito Miwa who was still running his open challenge. Mushashibo was by far the biggest threat to Miwa yet and it was unofficially considered that the winner of this match would soon earn a shot at Tatsuko’s Glory Crown. It was a solid match between the two, but Mushashibo couldn’t shake off the disappointment of his failed challenge and Miwa’s impressive form led him to victory with the Pride Bomber. On this night, Inukai and Mushashibo left with heads hanging low. Night of VICTORY, July 2000 In the opening match, Shuji Inukai partnered Kumasaka-buntai stablemate Walter Morgan to take on Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara). Iano and Umehara were in fine form, rebounding from defeat at Night of GLORY to keep themselves in the running as title contenders. They isolated Morgan and beat him with the Y2K. Inukai looked bereft of confidence. In the next match, it was another defeat for Kumasaka-buntai as Danger Kumasaka and Tommy Cornell teamed with Noriyori Sanda who was pinned by Pistol Pete Hall tagging with Hito Ichihara and Koryusai Kitoaji. And later in the show, Yoshimi Mushashibo took another loss alongside Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) up against Dread and Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu). With not a single thing to cheer at Night of VICTORY, Danger Kumasaka called a meeting with his group. He was seen backstage speaking for a long while with Mushashibo, Inukai, Morgan and Cornell and at the end, the four looked much more confident. Night of LEGACY, August 2000 Kumasaka-buntai took part in three matches at Night of LEGACY. The first was a rather predictable loss for Danger Kumasaka as he stood up to Mito Miwa’s challenge and suffered a Pride Bomber. The second was Walter Morgan’s challenge for Dino Maldini’s Historical Japan title. The belt had been with Kumasaka-buntai for well over a year prior to Maldini defeating Inukai, and Morgan was the one tasked with winning it back. He failed. However, it was not all doom and gloom for Kumasaka-buntai as the trio of Tommy Cornell and a seemingly reunited Team Dynasty (Shuji Inukai & Yoshimi Mushashibo) got a big win over Roka Furuhata, Mamoru Nagahama and Chuichi Sanda. More than the win was the sight of Inukai and Mushashibo back together, competing with confidence and expression. Night of TOUGHNESS, August 2000 Danger Kumasaka’s work in turning around the fortunes of his group was clearly having an effect. He got a good opening match victory over young Yasunobu Koiso, but it was later in the show that we saw the younger members shine. Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan tagged with Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) to defeat the incredibly dangerous foursome of DREAD Army (Dread, Lee Wright & Raymond Diaz) along with Mamoru Nagahama. Cornell looked especially impressive, and got the pinfall victory over Lee Wright. And in the main event, Team Dynasty (Inukai & Mushashibo) tagged with perennial rivals Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) in a massive win over Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) and Hito Ichihara and Pistol Pete Hall. Inukai and Mushashibo were singing from the same hymn sheet and at the end of the show, Kumasaka announced Cornell & Morgan would be entering the Elite Tag Series, as would Inukai & Mushashibo, but not as Team Dynasty, but as Team Dynasty 2000! Diary will be inactive for a week or so as I'm away on holiday.

SEAN’S SEARCH Sean McFly was one half of PGHW’s longest-reigning Glory Tag Crown champions Team MYTHOS who held the belts for an incredible fourteen months. He and Mito Miwa brought the tag division to new heights until they finally lost to Team EXPLOSION at Night of WRESTLING 1999. After that loss, Mito Miwa decided to focus on his singles career, with McFly happy to do the same. Miwa saw much more success during the year 2000 while McFly found himself a bit lost in the shuffle. Now, with the Elite Tag Series coming up and Miwa declaring he would not take part in the tournament, it was natural that McFly was looking for a new tag partner. But with most big names already part of an established team, who would step up? Night of STRENGTH, June 2000 Sean McFly began his search for a new tag partner by teaming with Mamoru Nagahama in a match against Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara). Nagahama had also been part of a successful tag team. His reign alongside Hito Ichihara was only ended by Team MYTHOS. With Nagahama and Ichihara at each other’s throats, Nagahama was also on the lookout for a partner. However, they did not get along at all well. Nagahama’s single-minded aggression left McFly stranded on his own at times and up against the in-form Rebel Cell, such failures of communication left them struggling to compete. In the end, Okazawaya pinned Nagahama to get the win. McFly decided Nagahama was not the right man. Night of WARRIORS, July 2000 The second man to have a test tag match with Sean McFly was none other than Koryusai Kitoaji. The legend had been in many major tag teams over the years, with Shimi Komatsuzaki in BHOTWG and recently Hito Ichihara in PGHW. They faced the red hot Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara). Many fans thought the McFly-Kitoaji pairing could be a powerful one, but this match proved otherwise. Kitoaji had slowed down a lot and often seemed a step behind the lightning-quick McFly. They couldn’t handle Inao and Umehara, and in the end fell to the Y2K with Umehara getting a monumental pinfall win over Kitoaji. It was another failed experiment for McFly, but there was still plenty of time left to find the right partner. Night of VICTORY, July 2000 It was more than generous for Sean McFly to give Chuichi Sanda the opportunity to tag alongside him. Despite showing glimpses of potential and occasionally threatening to up his game, Sanda had been a failure in PGHW. He had little to cheer about in singles action and even less in the tag division. But McFly was open to new possibilities and the pair took on Team STRENGTH RUSH (Lee Wright & Raymond Diaz) who had dropped off from their dominance a few years ago. Still, the DREAD Army members were able to keep Chuichi Sanda at bay with relative ease and McFly was helpless to stop them hitting the Too Hot to Handle to get the win. It wasn’t all bad for McFly, though, as after the match, a young star-in-the-making approached him. Yasunobu Koiso. The young lion had impressed in his few matches in PGHW so far, notably going over twenty minutes with none other than Mito Miwa. Still, the kid had a lot to prove and McFly suggested he show his abilities in a singles match between them at the next show, Night of LEGACY. Night of LEGACY, August 2000 Sean McFly took on Yasunobu Koiso in the second match of the show in a match where everyone knew the outcome. There was no way Koiso would beat McFly. But the youngster showed he wasn’t as far off as they thought. On several occasions he looked close to getting a three-count pinfall over McFly, who was just as surprised as the fans. Ultimately McFly got the win with a Delorean Driver, but Koiso had impressed him so much he agreed to give him a shot as a tag partner for the Elite Tag Series. McFly had these words after the show: McFly: Koiso is a real talent. At his young age he’s already better than half the men on this roster. But I’m not getting my expectations up too much. He has a way to go and winning the Elite Tag Series will be a real outside bet considering the opposition. But we may as well try. And who knows, this could be the start of another legendary partnership. Mito Miwa gave me an opportunity a couple of years ago and look what happened. I hope this might be the same kind of thing. Night of TOUGHNESS, August 2000 At Night of TOUGHNESS, with his partner for the Elite Tag Series set, Sean McFly surprised a lot of people by answering Mito Miwa’s open challenge. It was the first time they had shared a ring since dropping the Glory Tag Crown titles in December 1999 and the first time they’d gone head-to-head since April 1998. Both men had developed significantly since then. Mito Miwa was shocked at first, but soon a smile spread across his face as McFly stood up to him. They were good friends still. This match simply marked the moment that they no longer considered themselves on the same team. Miwa was doing his own thing, McFly had a new partner. It was a typically enjoyable match from the pair, with Miwa getting a hard-earned win with the Pride Bomber. Yasunobu Koiso appeared afterwards to stand with his new partner, and Miwa expressed how he was very impressed with the youngster. And after the show, it was officially announced that Sean McFly and Yasunobu Koiso would compete in the Elite Tag Series.

RESISTING THE ARMY Since their inception at the tail end of 1999, DREAD Army had been dominant. First they showed their power over Kumasaka-buntai, then they spent the first half of the year 2000 splitting Dino Maldini from his tag partner Pistol Pete Hall and making the latter’s life miserable. There was plenty of controversy about their actions. Post-match attacks were extremely rare and severely frowned upon by everyone in the company, but DREAD Army got away with several leading up to Night of GLORY, receiving no punishment. Sadaharu Jimbo, who created the motto “do the right thing”, was notably quiet on the matter. Some wondered whether he was loosening his tight grip on the boundaries and willing to let more pass. Either way, Pistol Pete Hall had found some allies willing to help him in the fight against DREAD Army, and after a mixture of results at Night of GLORY, the resistance was only strengthening. But would it be enough to stop Dread and his band of thugs? Night of STRENGTH, June 2000 In the opening match of Night of STRENGTH, Dino Maldini tagged with his stablemate and leader Dread in a crushing win over Yodo Nakane and Chuichi Sanda. It was always going to be a one-sided affair, but Dread hardly had to get involved. It was incredible to see the change in confidence and aggression from Maldini since joining DREAD Army and no shenanigans were needed for him to choke out Sanda with the Triangle Choke. Pistol Pete Hall was absent from the show, reportedly recovering from the battering he had picked up over the previous months. Rumours of an injury were shut down quickly when his return was announced for the next show, Night of WARRIORS. Night of WARRIORS, July 2000 Pistol Pete Hall returned with plenty of vigour, a month since his defeat to Dino Maldini. This time he tagged with Hito Ichihara to take on Team STRENGTH RUSH (Lee Wright & Raymond Diaz). Hall and Ichihara worked well as a team and dispatched the former two-time tag champions when Hall hit the Pistol Whip Lariat. In the next match on the show, Dread accompanied Dino Maldini to the ring for his Historical Japan title match against champion Shuji Inukai. Few expected Inukai to drop the belt considering he was setting himself up for a record-breaking reign, so it was a huge shock when Maldini followed Dread’s barked orders to a victorious performance. The critical moment was when Inukai was setting up his Untouchable Lariat, which nobody had ever kicked out of. Dread’s shout was audible around the arena, just in time to alert Maldini who dodged it and fought back, finally applying the Triangle Choke until Inukai passed out. Maldini became the new Historical Japan champion! Night of VICTORY, July 2000 At Night of VICTORY, there was no direct conflict between members of DREAD Army and those who resisted them, with the exception of Dread teaming with Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) to face Yoshimi Mushashibo and Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara). It was at Night of GLORY that Rebel Cell got a surprise win over Dread’s stablemates Team STRENGTH RUSH, but the big man got his revenge on this occasion, putting away Sarumara with a Dread Bomb. Elsewhere in the show, Koryusai Kitoaji apparently added himself to the resisting alliance as he teamed with Pistol Pete Hall and Hito Ichihara to defeat Noriyori Sanda and Kumasaka-buntai’s Danger Kumasaka and Tommy Cornell. Team STRENGTH RUSH (Lee Wright & Raymond Diaz) were back to winning ways as they dealt with Chuichi Sanda and Sean McFly. And of course, Dino Maldini defended the Historical Japan title, getting another impressive win. He dispatched the hugely popular Roka Furuhata, earning his third big singles win in recent times, after Hall and Inukai. Night of LEGACY, August 2000 A feisty six-man tag match was one of the best matches at Night of LEGACY. It saw Hito Ichihara and Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) face Dread and Team STRENGTH RUSH (Lee Wright & Raymond Diaz). DREAD Army’s original lineup suffered due to one thing – Lee Wright’s physical decline. There was no doubt he was still technically proficient, but when exposed in action for a few minutes, he blew up quickly. Ichihara spotted this and directed Rebel Cell to take advantage. It all resulted in Okazawaya once again pinning Wright and a loss for DREAD Army. Fortunately for the group, Dino Maldini fared better. He came out on top of a bout against Walter Morgan that saw plenty of technical mastery from both men. Maldini’s Triangle Choke got the job done for his second defence. Night of TOUGHNESS, August 2000 Night of TOUGHNESS, as was tradition, featured two major eight-man tag matches ahead of the Elite Tag Series. One of these saw Rebel Cell (Okazawaya & Sarumara) team with Kumasaka-buntai’s Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan to face DREAD Army’s Dread, Team STRENGTH RUSH (Wright & Diaz) as well as an aggressive Mamoru Nagahama. Many expected DREAD Army to get the victory, but Rebel Cell once again had the measure of Lee Wright. Nagahama looked frustrated as Wright was isolated and dispatched with an Insurrection. He made his opinion clear to Dread and Diaz as he stormed to the back. Another loss for DREAD Army that was softened by Dino Maldini’s excellent performance in defending the Historical Japan title against Koryusai Kitoaji. Yes, the veteran’s star had certainly waned, but it was still another big name to add to his collection. At the end of the show, both sides of the war announced they would be entering two teams into the Elite Tag Series. Hito Ichihara and Pistol Pete Hall would team up, while Rebel Cell would take their usual place. Team STRENGTH RUSH were an obvious choice, while Dread announced he would take part in the tournament for the first time, teaming with Dino Maldini.

SHIFTING The transition to the new era of PGHW couldn’t have gone much better. I was delighted with how Tatsuko was able to lead the charge as champion without any step down in quality or intensity from his more experienced predecessors. The other top youngsters were shining and it was perfectly reasonable for six men under the age of thirty to be considered the best in the company. But part of that was due to a decline in the old guard. Yodo Nakane, Danger Kumasaka, Koryusai Kitoaji, Hayate Hasegawa were the main four who had seen a serious drop off. That was to be expected. Age catches up with everyone. But while they transitioned away from full-time action and the young midcard rose to main event status, that meant several positions opened up for other to impress. Those wrestlers who had performed admirably for years but never really shone enough to get a big break. I needed them to become the mortar to keep the old foundation and the new pillars standing. The first candidates were well known to PGHW fans. Fukusaburu Inao and Takeshi Umehara in Team MILLENIUM had picked up their game significantly in the last six months. They were a strong tag outfit and potential contenders for the Historical Japan title. Mamoru Nagahama was steadily improving, although not as fast as I’d hoped, while Rebel Cell were finally showing some signs of progress. Behind them, though, was where excitement began to build. Noriyori Sanda had already shown he was a great talent, while dojo graduates Yasunobu Koiso and Akinori Kwakami were stars ready to be formed. It wouldn’t be long before the three of them would be a regular part of the shows. Yet still there was more shifting. Go Matsunaga and Kazuo Mitsushi were out of the picture now, going to help with training in SAISHO, and Luis Figo Manico’s retirement left another big spot unfilled. So there was definitely room for another signing or two. There were options everywhere. But my attention was firmly fixed on Canada. A young lad there looking to break out of the confines of his family’s company. I thought PGHW might be just the right place for him.

Night of GLORY 2000 Koryusai Kitoaji vs. Mamoru Nagahama Chuicha Sanda & Noriyori Sanda vs. Kumasaka-buntai (Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan) Mito Miwa vs. Roka Furuhata Dino Maldini vs. Pistol Pete Hall Rebel Cell vs. Team STRENGTH RUSH Dread vs. Hito Ichihara Sean McFly vs. Shuji Inukai © for the Historical Japan title Team EXPLOSION © vs. Team MILLENIUM for the Glory Tag Crown titles Nobuatsu Tatsuko © vs. Yoshimi Mushashibo for the Glory Crown title MATCH 1: Koryusai Kitoaji & Mamoru Nagahama Despite Koryusai Kitoaji defeated Mamoru Nagahama at Night of WRESTLING six months before, Nagahama’s disrespect had not waned and he still desired to prove himself against the icon. It all began when Hito Ichihara replaced Nagahama with Kitoaji as his tag partner, an act that sent the previously calm and humble Nagahama into a spite-fuelled rage which continued to this point. This match saw the culmination of that bitterness as Nagahama was relentless against Kitoaji. There was no doubt that Kitoaji had declined over the last year or so, but even so, Nagahama took up his game here. After fifteen minutes, Kitoaji was struggling with energy and conditioning. Nagahama battered him for the next five minutes and finally applied the Guillotine Choke. Kitoaji struggled… and faded, ultimately tapping out. It was a colossal victory for Nagahama, by far the biggest in his career so far! MATCH 2: Chuicha Sanda & Noriyori Sanda vs. Kumasaka-buntai (Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan) The two men called Sanda tagged for the first time together, although after this performance it appeared their name wouldn’t be strong enough to overcome their difficulties in this match as they fell to a comprehensive defeat against the much more established partnership of Cornell and Morgan. MATCH 3: Mito Miwa vs. Roka Furuhata Roka Furuhata was making his name as a legendary freelancer across the world and he returned to face Mito Miwa, having advised Miwa he would answer his open challenge. Miwa relished the prospect of knocking off the big name and, while Furuhata brought his energetic style, The Pride Warrior came out on top with another big Pride Bomber. Miwa’s Elite Series disappointment seemed to be a thing of the past as five straight victories put him back on the path towards singles success. Many fans thought he was due a Glory Crown opportunity at some point soon. MATCH 4: Dino Maldini vs. Pistol Pete Hall Dino Maldini faced his former Strike Force partner in singles competition for the first time since their acrimonious and violent split. Maldini came to the ring with the entirety of DREAD Army in his corner: Dread, Lee Wright and Raymond Diaz. It was the first of a string of three matches for the dominant faction, and many predicted they might win all of them. Hall had always been the senior partner in Strike Force, but Maldini had been slowly progressing. With Dread helping him gain his first pinfall victories in a long time over the previous few months, he held his head high and showed no fear in the face of Hall, who outweighed him significantly. It wasn’t long before Hall was punishing him for his errors, though. Hall had not taken kindly to DREAD Army’s constant beatdown of him over the spring and he was out for revenge. His body was strapped and bandaged in several places, but in the early stages of the match, that didn’t seem to worry him. However, the physicality of the match took its toll. And psychologically Hall was facing an uphill battle, too. Team STRENGTH RUSH had shown in the past they weren’t above bending the strict PGHW rules, and they tested the limits again here, repeatedly calling out abuse to Hall and occasionally even climbing up on the ring apron. The crowd were furious at this. It may have been acceptable elsewhere, but not in PGHW. Jimbo’s “Do the right thing” mantra was not to be dismissed. But once again DREAD Army escaped the consequences and Dino Maldini used the physical and mental advantages to his benefit. He finally managed to trap Hall in the Triangle Choke and, while Hall refused to tap, he couldn’t stay conscious and the referee called an end to the match. Dino Maldini got his first major win in PGHW! MATCH 5: Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara) vs. Team STRENGTH RUSH (Lee Wright & Raymond Diaz) Rebel Cell were part of the group that came to the aid of Pistol Pete Hall at the end of Night of SUCCESS two weeks prior, and now they faced off against the inaugural Glory Tag Crown champions, the infamous Team STRENGTH RUSH. It seemed like the most straightforward of DREAD Army’s three matches at Night of GLORY, with Rebel Cell, while improved, yet to reach the level of Wright and Diaz’s partnership. Perhaps Team STRENGTH RUSH were overconfident. Perhaps Wright’s declining condition played a big part. Maybe they all had their minds on other battles. Whatever it was, it led to one of the most stunning victories in the tag division, with Rebel Cell putting in a heroic shift. Okazawaya was once again impressive, battling from under Raymond Diaz’s mighty power and hitting back with ferocity. It all led to Lee Wright isolated in the middle of the ring, set up perfectly for the Insurrection, which Rebel Cell hit with aplomb, and Okazawaya got the pinfall victory and the biggest result in the tag team’s history. MATCH 6: Dread vs. Hito Ichihara Having just watched his team mates suffer a stunning loss, Dread had to turn his attention to an old foe in Hito Ichihara. When Ichihara was Glory Crown champion back in 1997, he had the better of Dread. But the big American changed his fortunes over the coming year and a half, culminating in his incredible run of beating everyone in the company that finished with Hito Ichihara at Night of WRESTLING 1998. Since then, their only singles encounters had come in the Elite Series block stage, with Dread winning in both 1999 and 2000. Ichihara wasn’t the wrestler he used to be, but he was far from a spent force. And he showed he could still hold his own against the man voted “Best Brawler in the World”. It was a violent and brutal match with both men giving as good as they got. But Dread was the younger man and he had to maintain his group’s position of dominance. Those two factors provided the edge and he hit the Dreadsault followed by a Dread Bomb to win the match. MATCH 7: Sean McFly vs. Shuji Inukai © for the Historical Japan title Shuji Inukai set himself the task of becoming longest reigning Historical Japan champion. That was a huge endeavour that few expected him to achieve. Just six months into his reign, he had another fourteen to go. And if he faced opponents like Sean McFly, he’d be in real trouble. McFly’s run as one half of the longest-reigning Glory Tag Crown champions had elevated his stock enormously, but he was yet to prove himself as a top singles competitor. This was his opportunity. And he went for it. He caught Inukai by surprise early on, busting out some of his more acrobatic manoeuvres that weren’t often seen in PGHW. Inukai was on the back foot. He had to work hard to get back into contention, which is exactly what he did. Several times McFly had him set up for the Delorean Driver, but Inukai managed to escape on all occasions, and on the last, he countered with the Untouchable Lariat. That was game over because nobody ever kicked out of the Untouchable Lariat. MATCH 8: Team EXPLOSION © (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) vs. Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) for the Glory Tag Crown titles Hoshino and Kunomasu defended the Glory Tag Crown titles for the first time since February, something Team MILLENIUM were keen to point out leading up to the show. The champions had seen mixed success in their singles endeavours, with Kunomasu winning the Elite Series, but both men failing to beat Tatsuko to win the Glory Crown. Inao and Umehara hoped to capitalise on those distractions and continue their impressive run of victories with another that would gain them gold. But despite their newfound connection and power, Team MILLENIUM were reminded why Team EXPLOSION were champions. They were simply the best tag team in PGHW. Kunomasu’s precise striking and Hoshino’s ragged intensity were too much to handle for any pairing. The Eisaku Explosion got the job done. Still, Team MILLENIUM were able to hold their heads high in defeat as they’d shown they could at least compete at the top – something neither man had been able to do until now. And with some more time together, who knows what they could achieve? MATCH 9: Nobuatsu Tatsuko © vs. Yoshimi Mushashibo for the Glory Crown title If one had the inclination to rank the potential and talent of the new wave of wrestlers in PGHW, it would be hard to argue that Nobuatsu Tatsuko and Yoshimi Mushashibo wouldn’t occupy first and second places. Mushashibo was one of the most technically accomplished wrestlers in the world, second only to perhaps Jeremy Stone, who was ten years his senior. He was also one of the most enjoyable to watch and certain for a career rich with gold. Meanwhile, Nobuatsu Tatsuko was the man with the gold. For a full calendar year, he had reigned with the Glory Crown, defeating the likes of Dread, Kunomasu and Ichihara. He had all the tools to dominate the next decade or more of Japanese wrestling. That’s why seeing them compete against each other in singles competition was special. Their most recent encounter was a time-limit draw in the Elite Series block stage, with neither man able to assert their superiority. They had sixty minutes on this occasion, virtually guaranteeing a victor would be decided. The standout fact about this matchup is that Mushashibo had never defeated Tatsuko in singles competition. Not the most embarrassing, because very few people could claim to have defeated Tatsuko. Nonetheless, it only gave Mushashibo more drive to win. The match began slow. This was Mushashibo’s aim as he reacted to Tatsuko’s aggressive start and quickly shut him down, taking things to the mat where he could methodically, gracefully begin a masterpiece. Nearly ten minutes passed with Tatsuko writhing under the oppressive grappling from the challenger. But the champion wasn’t interested in Mushashibo’s artwork and as soon as he freed himself, started hitting back with ugly, industrial strikes and slams. The following ten minutes proceeded in that way with Tatsuko delivering his own brand of intensity upon Mushashibo. Yet the challenger was not defeated so easily. Eventually, the match broke down into trading strikes and heavy-hitting offence. In theory this benefitted Tatsuko, but Mushashibo held his own. The artist had grit. And he reverted to his strengths again, smoothly taking Tatsuko down and applying the Yoshimi Lock. He had it dug in tight, pulling Tatsuko’s head nearly off his shoulders with the torque. But Tatsuko fought out. His surge of energy came seemingly from nowhere, but those long hours working out to get into “Ironman” condition paid off. As soon as he was free, though, Mushashibo had him back down on the mat with the Yoshimi Lock in tight. Tatsuko once again battled. The referee paid careful attention to him, checking he would stay conscious… he did. He heaved Mushashibo off his back and went for the Tatsuko Driller… Mushashibo escaped and got the Yoshimi Lock on again! This time Tatsuko was in real trouble. His limitless energy was running dry… surely he couldn’t get himself free again? The answer was no. But he didn’t need to. Instead, he showed that he had some technical nous and shifted his body upwards and backwards, rolling over on top of Mushashibo whose shoulders were flat on the mat. The referee spotted it and counted. One… Two… Three!! That was it! Tatsuko retained the Glory Crown by the skin of his teeth. It was a shocking moment for the crowd who had begun to believe that Tatsuko’s reign was over, but the Ironman found a way to get the victory. Conclusion Night of GLORY 2000 wouldn’t go down as one of the all time great PGHW shows, but it was solid and enjoyable. There were no particular standout matches with the main event title match the best of the night and even that was a step below a lot of the recent performances. The ending was a little disappointing for some fans and the match went on a little too long. Still, it set up plenty of interest for the future. The show saw some surprising results – Nagahama beating Kitoaji and Rebel Cell besting Team STRENGTH RUSH. Now attention would swing towards the summer season and the leadup to the Elite Tag Series and which teams would take part. After the show, a few wrestlers spoke in the press conference. Mito Miwa: I would like to announce this as early as possible in order to avoid any later confusion or disappointment. I will not be competing in this year’s Elite Tag Series. While I very much enjoy tagging with Sean, I must focus on my singles career. I am 90% of the way to where I want to be. The tag tournament would be a distraction. I want the Glory Crown and I will not allow anything to take my attention away. Mamoru Nagahama: I think you’d all better start taking me seriously now. I don’t care about your ideals of respect and honour towards elders. They’re the past. I’m the present. Yodo Nakane is washed up. Danger Kumasaka is done. Kitoaji is done, I just put him out to pasture. And there’s one man who keeps hanging on to his youth, but soon enough I’ll put him down like a sick old dog, too. Hito Ichihara, I’m coming for you. You betrayed me and wrecked my life. So I’m not going to stop going after you until the day you retire. And I’m going to make sure that day is soon. Yoshimi Mushashibo: I lost. You can debate the manner of the loss, and I’m sure you will. But the fact is, my shoulders were pinned to the mat for three seconds. That’s all. I’d love to tell you how that flash, reactive pinfall doesn’t align with the beauty of wrestling. But I can’t. Because it was decisive. Nobuatsu Tatsuko taught me something tonight. Wrestling can be art. It can be graceful and full of joy. But the most beautiful form of wrestling is winning. Victory triumphs over everything else. I will not complain or criticise Tatsuko tonight. He deserved to win. I have to think very carefully about that.

Night of Glory 2000 Card Koryusai Kitoaji vs. Mamoru Nagahama Chuicha Sanda & Noriyori Sanda vs. Kumasaka-buntai (Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan) Mito Miwa vs. Roka Furuhata Dino Maldini vs. Pistol Pete Hall Rebel Cell vs. Team STRENGTH RUSH Dread vs. Hito Ichihara Sean McFly vs. Shuji Inukai © for the Historical Japan title Team EXPLOSION © vs. Team MILLENIUM for the Glory Tag Crown titles Nobuatsu Tatsuko © vs. Yoshimi Mushashibo for the Glory Crown title

PROGRESS AT LAST For the entirety of PGHW’s existence starting in 1996, Fukusaburu Inao was Mr. Rock Solid. Solid and unspectacular. Unfortunate, maybe. Unsuccessful for sure. Despite his evident potential, the youngster struggled to get any sort of traction. His tag team with Hayate Hasegawa evolved from Inao being the understudy to their split at the tail end of 1999 when Inao indicated the veteran was holding him back. Three and a half years and he felt he hadn’t achieved anything. Meanwhile, Takeshi Umehara was going through something very similar. His tag team with Go Matsunaga, known as Boundary 97, was a mainstay in the division, but were far from ever winning gold. Umehara also ditched his tag partner and shortly after joined with Fukusaburu Inao to form Team MILLENIUM, named because it was the end of 1999 that they came together. In the early months of the new millenium, they didn’t do much better than before in terms of results. But fans could see the improvement. The pair together looked far better than either had alongside their previous partners. Could this partnership be the catalyst to success? Night of FORTITUDE, April 2000 Team MILLENIUM (Fukusaburu Inao & Takeshi Umehara) took on the pairing of Chuichi Sanda and Yodo Nakane. Yodo Nakane was at the tail end of a great career and unable to keep up with most of the roster, while Chuichi Sanda was still far from achieving what his potential promised. As a result, Team MILLENIUM were expected to get the victory, and so they did. It was a pretty dominant performance, with the new partnership showing they had been practicing together and developing their communication. They hit the Y2K and Inao pinned Sanda to win. Night of POWER, April 2000 At Night of POWER, Team MILLENIUM took on the established young tag team of Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara). Like Inao and Umehara’s previous tag pairings, Rebel Cell had yet to make any waves in the division. This was a tough match for Team MILLENIUM, though, as they struggled to overcome the chemistry between the two men who had been teaming for nearly four years. But Inao was once again in fine form, getting the pinfall over Sarumara after the Y2K. Night of EXCELLENCE, May 2000 After two wins on the bounce, Team MILLENIUM were looking for more. They took on Tommy Cornell & Walter Morgan, representing Kumasaka-buntai. The young brits were a real test for Inao and Umehara, who again had to dig deep. Their continued training paid off, though, as their ability to communicate and be in the right place at the right time saved Inao when he was trapped in Morgan’s Wigan Wrench. Umehara was there to save his partner, then get the pinfall victory after they hit the Y2K. After the show, Inao spoke out against the Glory Tag Crown champions. Inao: It’s been two months since Team EXPLOSION defended their titles. And when they did, it was against Cornell and Morgan. We just beat them, making it three wins in a row. When are we going to get our shot? If they cared about the tag division, maybe they’d be less focused on becoming singles stars. Or perhaps they can let a real tag team take the reins. Night of SUCCESS, May 2000 Team MILLENIUM were in six-man action at Night of SUCCESS, getting the honour of teaming with Koryusai Kitoaji. They took on Danger Kumasaka, Mamoru Nagahama and one half of the Glory Tag Crown champions, Eisaku Hoshino. It was a fierce, back and forth match. But Team MILLENIUM were determined to prove a point to Hoshino and fought like tigers. And Hoshino was never one to back down from a fight. In the end, it was Kitoaji who got the pin for his team after hitting the Kitoaji Braindrop on Danger Kumasaka. And while Kitoaji and Nagahama squared off, Team MILLENIUM made their challenge directly to Hoshino. Hoshino was fired up and accepted the title challenge, setting it for Night of GLORY. After the show, Inao was outspoken again. Inao: This is our time. We have finally made some progress. Takeshi is a great partner for me, and I know he feels the same way. We’re finally ready for success. For gold. For glory. And at Night of GLORY, Team EXPLOSION will regret not paying attention to the tag division because they’ll no longer be the ones at the top!

SERIOUS COMPETITION The New Wave of talent in PGHW had washed over the original landscape and now the foundational veterans like Danger Kumasaka, Koryusai Kitoaji and Hito Ichihara had given way to the pillars of what was fast becoming a powerhouse in Japanese wrestling. Nobuatsu Tatsuko stood front and centre of that movement, but as he was finding out during his reign as Glory Crown champion, there were plenty of major threats breathing down his neck. The potential of 1996 was manifesting itself in 2000 in the form of serious competition for the Glory Crown. The Elite Series 2000 was a prime example. All four of the semi-finalists (Tatsuko, Miwa, Kunomasu and Mushashibo) were under the age of 30 and the likes of Inukai and Hoshino narrowly missed out. Tatsuko had fended off some dangerous threats so far in his title run, but things were stepping up. As he neared one year holding the belt, his defeat to Eisaku Kunomasu in the Elite Series final meant Kunomasu was closing in on taking the top spot. Night of FORTITUDE, April 2000 Night of FORTITUDE hosted the monumental clash between Nobuatsu Tatsuko and Eisaku Kunomasu whose Elite Series victory earned him a shot at the Glory Crown. It was a rematch of the tournament final two weeks ago and Kunomasu’s second attempt at dethroning Tatsuko. The first was at Night of WARRIORS in 1999 in what was considered by many to be match of the year and inarguably one of PGHW’s greatest ever contests. Kunomasu had recently taken exception with Tatsuko dismissing Kunomasu as one of the top stars of the company, claiming instead the four pillars of PGHW were himself, Inukai, Miwa and Mushashibo. So there was plenty of pride at stake above and beyond the importance of the Glory Crown. Both Tatsuko and Kunomasu were famed for their direct intensity, and once again they clashed in spectacular fashion. Kunomasu looked set to repeat his Elite Series victory when he hit the Launching Knee Strike, but as he went for the pin, the referee noticed Tatsuko’s leg positioned under the bottom rope. This allowed Tatsuko a way back into the match which he took advantage of, battling from underneath to stun Kunomasu with the Tatsuko Driller and retain the Glory Crown! While the match wasn’t nearly as incredible as their previous two encounters, it was another huge victory for Tatsuko. Night of POWER, April 2000 After retaining the Glory Crown, attention turned to who would be the next contender. The main event of Night of POWER gave an answer to that as Team EXPLOSION (Eisaku Hoshino & Eisaku Kunomasu) and Sean McFly defeated Nobuatsu Tatsuko, Hito Ichihara and Yoshimi Mushashibo in six-man action. In an absolute classic match, Eisaku Hoshino was the star of the show. It seemed he was invincible, withstanding a barrage of offence from his opponents, particularly Tatsuko, but refusing to go down. In fact, he became one of the rare men to kick out of the Tatsuko Driller. This monumental show of spirit led to Hoshino rallying his team to victory when he and Kunomasu hit the Eisaku Explosion on Hito Ichihara to win the match. Tatsuko was angry at the loss, but more impressed at Hoshino. He immediately offered him a shot at the Glory Crown at the next show, Night of EXCELLENCE. Night of EXCELLENCE, May 2000 Surprisingly, Eisaku Hoshino’s challenge for the Glory Crown was only his second in his career. The previous came over two years before against Koryusai Kitoaji. Now he stood as number one contender against Nobuatsu Tatsuko. It was also remarkable that Hoshino and Tatsuko had only ever faced off three times in their history, two times in the Elite Series and once in early 1998. All three times saw Tatsuko come out victorious. Hoshino was determined to change that record and was typically tenacious and relentless. But Tatsuko knew how tough Hoshino could be and planned accordingly. When he managed to hit the Tatsuko Driller, instead of going straight for the pinfall, he picked Hoshino up to hit him with the move a second time. There was no kicking out of that, and Tatsuko got the three count, retaining his title once again. Night of SUCCESS, May 2000 Night of GLORY couldn’t go without a Glory Crown title shot, so Sadaharu Jimbo set up a huge number one contender’s match between Eisaku Kunomasu and Yoshimi Mushashibo. Mushashibo had drawn with Tatsuko at the Elite Series and only fell to Kunomasu in the semi-final stage. This was his opportunity to get that win back and earn his first Glory Crown shot since 1997. He and Kunomasu starkly contrasted each other in the ring. Kunomasu favoured precise strikes and utilitarian functionality. Mushashibo was an artist. He flowed and swayed with fluidity. It was staccato versus legato. And on this occasion, Mushashibo rose to the occasion. He narrowly dodged the Launching Knee Strike that put him away last time and transitioned smoothly into the Yoshimi Lock. Kunomasu was loathe to tap out, but finally he had to submit or risk permanent damage. After the match, Tatsuko, who had won in a ten-man tag earlier in the night, came out to congratulate Mushashibo, but warn him that Night of GLORY was Tatsuko’s night and there would only be one winner. In the post-show press conference, Mushashibo was pensive about his chances. Mushashibo: I have shown many times that I am capable of dealing with Tatsuko. He doesn’t intimidate me. In fact, I consider him an equal both as a wrester and as a man. There’s no denying he is seeing incredible form at the moment. But as I found out last year, reigning as a singles champion for an extended period is a challenge beyond just winning one match. There can be no days off, no mistakes, no possibility of thinking of anything other than victory. So his comment about Night of GLORY belonging to him… I think that tells us something. We know Night of GLORY was when he first lost to Kitoaji. Does that bother him? Still? I think maybe he wants to eliminate that from his memory. If he has that on his mind, there’s a potential weakness. Will I be able to exploit that? We shall see. But do not think that Tatsuko is unbeatable at this time. Someone will defeat him sooner or later, and I hope that I will be that man.

HELL (AND HELP) FOR HALL At Night of PRIDE, Dino Maldini shocked the world by turning on his Strike Force tag partner, Pistol Pete Hall and joining DREAD Army. The pack led by Dread then enacted a brutal beatdown on Hall, who couldn’t stand the four-against-one advantage. Long-time fans of PGHW were stunned by the violence. Physical contact outside of the confines of sanctioned matches was extremely rare and severely frowned upon. While it was commonplace in other promotions, it wasn’t here. Less surprising, though, was Dino Maldini’s reasons for switching sides. He had been under Pistol Pete Hall’s guiding influence for quite some time, but had failed to press on. Strike Force promised a lot, but failed to deliver in the big moments. And Dino Maldini’s year so far had been awful. He suffered loss after loss, most at the hands of DREAD Army. So when Dread gave him the opportunity to join them, it made total sense. That, unfortunately, left Pistol Pete alone and vulnerable against the most dominant faction in PGHW. Night of FORTITUDE, April 2000 DREAD Army’s new addition, Dino Maldini, joined the other three members (Dread, Lee Wright & Raymond Diaz) in an eight-man tag match against Mamoru Nagahama, Sean McFly and Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya & Sotatsu Sarumara). The match was brutal. As if energised by battering Hall two weeks ago, DREAD Army took their viciousness to a new level. Also, it didn’t help that Nagahama and McFly couldn’t get on the same page, leaving Rebel Cell to take a lot of punishment. Still, Okazawaya and Sarumara showed courage and heart in defeat, refusing to go down easily. But they never stood a chance. And once Dread had Sarumara down, he tagged in Dino Maldini who finished him off, getting his first victory of the year with a Triangle Choke submission. After the match, Pistol Pete Hall came out. He sported a few bandages around his midsection, but overall looked in decent condition after two weeks of rest. He kept his distance and challenged Dino Maldini to face him like a man. Dread responded saying he wouldn’t get Maldini, but “The Monster” Raymond Diaz at the next show, Night of POWER! Night of POWER, April 2000 DREAD Army continued their dominance as Dread, Dino Maldini & Lee Wright teamed with Mamoru Nagahama to beat Chuichi Sanda, Koryusai Kitoaji, Tommy Cornell and Walter Morgan. The story of the match was Nagahama and Kitoaji butting heads again. Nagahama’s aggressive disrespect had riled up Kitoaji at the end of 1999, leading to the veteran defeating Nagahama at Night of WRESTLING. Clearly Nagahama hadn’t forgotten that and made a point of targeting Kitoaji who, in response, told Nagahama to know his place. Once again, Dread set up the finish for Dino Maldini, who applied the Triangle Choke on Walter Morgan. Then there was the match between Pistol Pete Hall and Raymond Diaz. Two massive brawlers. They collided in an enjoyable match that was only marred by the presence of DREAD Army at ringside. Hall managed to keep them out of his mind to get an excellent victory over Diaz. But once the bell had rung, Dino Maldini and Lee Wright surged the ring and began another savage attack on Hall. Officials raced to the ring as Dread called his men off, but damage had been done. This was the second post-match attack, and fans wondered if there would be repercussions. Night of EXCELLENCE, May 2000 Pistol Pete Hall must have called in some serious favours as he tagged with Hito Ichihara and Koryusai Kitoaji to face DREAD Army (Dread, Dino Maldini & Raymond Diaz). For much of the match, Hall and the veterans had DREAD Army on the back foot. A spirited performance led to Ichihara exchanging massive blows with Dread. The big American struck harder, but Ichihara resisted and neither man could find an advantage. Dino Maldini and Raymond Diaz survived for long enough for Dread to recover, then get the job done himself, pinning Kitoaji after a Dread Bomb. Night of SUCCESS, May 2000 In the opening match, Pistol Pete Hall took on Lee Wright with the stipulation that if Hall won, he would get a singles match against Dino Maldini at Night of GLORY. With more and more strapping and bandaging across his body combined with the looming threat of DREAD Army at ringside, Hall had his work cut out. But Lee Wright was no longer at his peak. The veteran ran out of gas, meaning Hall was able to get a relatively comfortable win. What was not comfortable, however, was the third and most brutal beatdown yet as Maldini, Dread and Diaz piled onto Hall after the match. But while it was the most violent, it was shortlived. Hito Ichihara rushed out, followed by Rebel Cell (Harumi Okazawaya and Sotatsu Sarumara) to come to Hall’s aid and DREAD Army retreated. Later in the show, Hito Ichihara and Harumi Okazawaya would be in action again, teaming with Sean McFly, Tommy Cornell and Walter Morgan in a losing effort against DREAD Army (Dread, Dino Maldini, Raymond Diaz) with Nobuatsu Tatsuko and Noriyori Sanda. It was a wild, exciting match that ended with Tatsuko pinning Cornell, but after the show, matches were made for Night of GLORY. First, Pistol Pete Hall’s bout with Dino Maldini was confirmed. Second, Rebel Cell (Okazawaya & Sarumara) would take on Team STRENGTH RUSH (Wright & Diaz) and third, Hito Ichihara would face Dread in singles competition.