TLLK

They’ve got Mercury, I believe, but that’s it. PWI has been able to hold onto their dudes. It’s strange. And the logo is the *American* Puro Society one. Forgot the American in there. It’s not great, but it’s a placeholder and something I can jettison for a name.

Dragon is No. 2 only to Kinjo in my Show Stoppers tab on the Creative Meeting. I've been fortunate with Time Decline at the moment, only Graham Mackenzie and Ram Diablo have it at the moment. He could have an incredible junior rivalry with Storm in the future. Since I'm such a big fan of Okada, I find booking Yamawaki so fun. But then I realized he had his title run via UPJ Invitational shot instead of winning the Summit, so getting it here made total sense. And Prophet is a machine in angles and got insanely over in Japan — A across the board —*despite him being No. 5 among the five stable aces in terms of success and wins. As for the Summit, me moving back Ascension (my version of NJPW's Dominion) because of the bigger Junior Mountain tournament made me fuse what I would normally do there into the Summit Final. - I'll get to this later, but AWF has stuck around at Cult while PWI has stayed steady at National. The wrestling industry and the economy in the U.S. are very low, so I got to broke the bank to go get Hart. - Excellent chemistry between Grace and Cody have made The Fallen a red-hot tag team for The Brotherhood. Grace is in the Next Big Things for me still, so there might be a single run coming from him down the road, even if he's small. - The cage match was just an idea, know it's not very puro. I'm trying to figure out a way to get a Juro-EVR match where interferences and all that won't happen. Any suggestions? - Yasutake just isn't getting over for me yet. Maybe it's a bad roll or something. The Summit helped him some, maybe that can turn things on for him. This makes me sad. Deguchi has been the centerpiece to my two favorite feuds so far, and Deguchi-gun just freaking owns as a stable name. He's a heck of a comrade for Kinjo in The United Throne. Not going to be an ultra star or even a serious world title contender, but he clicks so well with so many people. He's starting to take off for me. Perfect in RENEGADES, already has a past connection to TEMPEST, rocks in promos, and just fits the cocky nature of the stable. I hired his girlfriend to be a manager for the stable, and it's worked out quite well. I hate that he had to retire for you, but man, I love the idea of him as a stable leader as a mouthpiece. I started an alliance with PWI and GBWF and took the Puro Society logo from the database. It's great to be able to borrow PWI guys for one-offs, especially with Morton's past with UPJ. At some point, he's going to either face off with his old FlatLine partner Eda or team up again. I might have been too reactionary in just not re-upping with him because he hadn't worked out for me, because I like the character and the idea of him. But man, he just wasn't clicking. I cut bait with Strength and Honour early, and Yamashita never picked up a mentor. Sad, because I thought there was potential there. Girven is on the cusp of becoming a big deal for me. I'm thinking that when Deguchi starts to decline, he puts his attention on Girven becoming the next top gaijin in the promotion. The Best Buds trio of Girven-Igelsias-Jordan have been the backbone of Deguchi-gun. Yeah, Ignite Zero coming back for a run with the belts is the beginning of the end for P&T. They both have gotten popped for steroids recently and are just alright in the ring now. They were big-time weapons for Deguchi when he turned on Kinjo, but now they're just temperamental gatekeepers. Furosoto's performance skills are excellent for me right now, and I loved the idea of Storm being threatened by him as soon as he joined RENEGADES. The switch to being a face and the blue mask was fun, and it gave Iesada something to do — trying to reform him as a "coach" of sorts and taking the junior division back from the clutches of RENEGADES and The Brotherhood. Ram had good chemistry with Eda, which made sense for a tag title run. Eda is always going to be a B-tier worker for me, so they helped each other out for a while. But now Diablo is starting to wear down, and I might not keep Eda around forever. I *just* now was able to sign Dragon Prince because he finally met some sort of owner goal — either basics or safety, I think —*but he won't be a young lion for too long. Also "Young Lion" is a loose definition there. It's mostly "tournament for young dudes who haven't gotten out of enhancement/opener status yet." DRAGON doesn't have a TV deal either and are basically where they started at, popularity-wise. Naruto, who I let go because he was in time decline and wasn't exclusive to me, is still the head booker and the champion at 43. They've still got Jay Paro and Jarid Hart, but the top real-deal talent is gone and they've signed a bunch of weird indy dudes. Still at Cult (B- across the board in the US and has been stuck there for a while), behind a National PWI (B+ in the US), which is just behind me in the global rankings. Not sure if there was a scandal or something, because I can't figure out how they've plateaued while PWI is decently ahead. They're also strong financially, which makes the Hart poach even weirder, now that I look at it. Jordan hasn't quite caught on as a singles guy yet, but as I mentioned earlier, yes to Girven. Jordan will probably get there soon. I love his work. Hasn't had anything lower than a B+ since the middle of last year. Machine. Not sure yet. The United Throne needs more blood outside of being Kinjo + Eikichi + Kozue and HashiWara in the junior division. This might be where a Yasutake push fits in.

Jumped back into my UPJ save last week because of Dalton’s posts — awesome job with the 100 match, by the way. Expanded the Junior Mountain Cup to 20 participants like the Ozeki Summit. Fergus Storm came into the tournament with the junior title and having turned on Juro Deguchi to join RENEGADES. Storm had grown to resent the rest of Deguchi-gun and Juro himself. Deguchi had won the UPJ Invitational over EVR back in February, which had turned into the winner getting the new Intercontinental belt as a twist. Meanwhile, Storm had upset Kintaro Kinjo in a champ vs. champ match earlier in the year but failed to become the first dual-division champion in the rematch. Deguchi’s first title defense against Eikichi Minamoto became the main event at Procession of Champions — Kinjo was in a special showcase match against PWI champ Eli Morton higher on the card — and overshadowed the tie-breaking three-way match between recent champions Storm, Goto and D’Anton Joubert. After Deguchi beat Minamoto, Storm came down to congratulate Deguchi and then nailed him with a low blow like Deguchi had done to Kinjo years earlier. Storm flashed the sign of RENEGADES and escaped before the rest of Deguchi-gun could get him. In the Junior Mountain Cup, Storm was rolling in Block A until new stablemate Furosoto shocked him with an upset win. Storm would finish second in the block to Furosoto, while Jung Dragon ran away with Block B. In the final, Dragon pulled off the win — he’s absolutely incredible in the ring. After the match, Storm and EVR and the rest of RENEGADES come down to the ring to help up an exhausted Furosoto. Storm pulls him up to his feet and then levels him with a lariat. RENEGADES then pile on Furosoto, with Storm going as far as ripping his mask off. The United Throne, ever the upstanding heroes, swoop in for the save, with the recently retired Thunder Iesada covering Furosoto’s face with his cape. This leads to the Ozeki Summit — I moved Ascension back in the schedule to make up for the bigger Junior Mountain — where battle lines have been drawn. Deguchi is feuding with EVR over Storm’s turn. TEMPEST is feuding with Ram Diablo over the COBRA title. Goto has moved to the heavyweight division and is butting heads with all of he and Kato’s old rivals. Kinjo is trying to become the first reigning champion to win the Summit. Scott Hart, fresh off a lengthy run with a now-flailing AWF, has finally made his UPJ debut and joined James Gilmour in FEARLESS. All of those developments, though, don’t quite have the same heat as Oda Yamawaki vs. Christian Prophet. Yamawaki, having lost the world title to Kinjo at HOI 2016 and the rematch at Procession of Champions in 2017, is trying to get his first Ozeki Summit in order to get a shot at the belt again. But he’s been in the crosshairs of Prophet, who claims the Favored Son of UPJ doesn’t have what it takes to survive the onslaught that’s heading his way. Yamawaki overcomes an early loss to Prophet’s right-hand man, Waotaka Eda, and a draw with Kinjo to win a chaotic Block A. Prophet runs the table in Block B, which was mostly headlined by the continuing war between EVR and Deguchi. At the Ozeki Summit Final: - Yamawaki beats Prophet to win the Summit for the first time - Jung Dragon beats Fergus Storm to win the Junior title after Furosoto — back in his old blue mask — causes a distraction - Erik van Rijn and Juro Deguchi draw in an intercontinental match after all hell breaks loose at ringside between their two stables - James Gilmour and Scott Hart beat Kintaro Kinjo and Eikichi Minamoto in a special tag match - Ignite Zero make their debut as a heavyweight tag team and end Pain & Torture’s long run with the World Tag titles - TEMPEST retains the COBRA Openweight title against Ram Diablo - The Fallen (Cameron Cody and Derek Grace) retain the Junior tag titles against Kozue and Evan Kuja - The COBRA Six-Man carousel continues, this time with the RENEGADES team of Seven Brandt, Richie Santana Jr. and Koji Yamada taking it from the Deguchi-fun trio of Sean Girven, Nathan Jordan and Alejandro Iglesias The fall tour will include a Young Lions Cup and the World Tag Grand Prix, along with a title defense against Girven for Kinjo and a contract defense against Eda for Yamawaki. Here’s what I’m thinking early for a Hall of Immortals Card: - UPJ World Heavyweight: Kintaro Kinjo © vs. Oda Yamawaki - UPJ Junior Heavyweight: Jung Dragon © vs. Junichi Matsuo - UPJ Intercontinental: Juro Deguchi © vs. Erik van Rijn — Steel Cage Match (no countouts, no DQ, no one can interfere) - Mask vs. Hair: Furosoto vs. Fergus Storm - The Brotherhood (Christian Prophet/Waotaka Eda/Ram Diablo) vs. Eikichi Minamoto and Two Friends to Be Named Later - UPJ World Tag: Ignite Zero © vs. Scott Hart and James Gilmour (penciled in as World Tag Grand Prix winners at the moment) - UPJ Junior Tag: The Fallen © vs. TBD - COBRA Openweight: TEMPEST Masato vs. either Sean Girven or Alejandro Iglesias or Nobuhisa Yasutake - COBRA Six-Man Openweight: Very Much TBD UPJ has said goodbye to Toki Ink (never could do much of anything with him), Arttu Jensen (thanks for tagging with Joubert for a stretch), Kris Phoenix (another long-term injury), The Prophets (that did not work at all), Sen Masuda (same) and Taka Yamashita (sadly, same) during this time. I used those departures to bring in some more young talent, here’s what I’ve got now for an eight-man “young lions” cup: Dragon Prince Gao Xi Ichibei Jon Diamani Lincoln Nash Masa Kahaya Susumu Kimata (good LORD this kid is incredible, even though he’s a teenage deathmatch worker) Yusuke Amura

This might be the T-Verse/UPJ/EVR love in me talking, but let’s say Matthew Keith has become a version of Kenny Omega and is the leader of a red-hot gaijin stable that has BHOTWG seriously going after international expansion.

Dang, you’re making me want to go back to my UPJ save. I might still give DRAGON a whirl, but I absolutely love the Japanese scene in the T-Verse.

Parallels with an unlicensed (but legal) Windows 10 download is the way to go. It’s seamless.

Should clarify: Buying out The Club for its popularity and having TV deals in the US helped me out a good bit, and I only ran a show a week for four weeks. I should really call it a mini-tour, because it came between the usual spring and summer ones for me. I saved a lot of the PWI guys I used for the supercard show at the end of the month. It wasn’t financially a good move at all, but I had a ton in the bank and wanted to test out what would happen if I ran shows overseas.

Yeah, I got halfway through my third year in UPJ and had Fergus turn on Juro and Deguchi-gun to join RENEGADES. At some point, I knew in my head we were gonna have a EVR-Fergus civil war. I got through a month-long American tour using my partnership with PWI (Morton vs. Kinjo was pure money) and decided I just wanted to try a US save with a more normal schedule before 2020 comes out. DRAGON just might be the move. Know people have done it, but there’s room for an AEW type promotion in this universe, since PWI is more like ROH that got too big for its own good. Maybe I can strike that perf > pop with good characters and gimmicks and stories with DRAGON.

Ooh. I haven’t even considered DRAGON yet. I’ll check them out.

Well done. It felt like EVR was standing tall like Omega at the end of that 2-of-3 falls match against Okada at Dominion. If you kept that going, I feel like a Fergus Storm or Seven Brandt turn on EVR and a RENEGADES Civil War would be a fun story idea. I'm currently scrolling through options for a U.S. promotion save before 2020 comes out. (I really hope the Japanese scene in the C-Verse can hook me like UPJ did here, since it doesn't look like we're going to get a true T-Verse in 2020.) HCG feels like a fun pick, I had the idea of Jerry King burying the hatchet with Casey Skym and trying to take down AWF over time. I would love the concept of PWI, but I find their roster and events names so... dull. My other idea was to put CWT in the AWC and set them up as the new lynchpin promotion, with HCG no longer in the picture. Even though they're small TV deals, CWT could become a version of Jim Crockett Promotions for the AWC thanks to their higher media exposure and old-school feel.

my absolute king

I love this dynasty. Cueto shows up, and then Best Friends win titles on the next show? I want this to be real.

please tell me there will be a LLLLLLLLLLLLLADDER MAAAAAAAAAAAAAATCH soon now with Dario in the fold

In my UPJ save, I’ve booked FEARLESS to be a hybrid between CHAOS and LIJ. It started with Ignite Zero joining forces with Oda Yamawaki to take down RENEGADES after they captured every title in the company. Goto has been the top junior, while Kato has been an excellent heavyweight main eventer who isn’t quite world title material but is a fixture in the IC and openweight divisions. Nakada + Yamada are an excellent junior tag team. And after I brought in Kahoku Meka for a couple of years to reestablish Tokyo Underground with Toki Ink, I plugged James Gilmour in Meka’s place after he left the company. I’ve enjoyed bringing new blood into RENEGADES and created Deguchi-gun and Christian Prophet’s Brotherhood... but the balance and storytelling has been best for me with FEARLESS. In the tag team ranks, my favorite duo has been the RENEGADES junior tag team of Aydan Farrell and Tiger Singh — known as ROYALTY.

Has anyone figured out how they’ll be able to play the ThunderVerse in 2020? I’m not sure how converting mods works for this one, but I seem to recall being able to export a save file and turning that into a database? That, with some tweaks, could be fun. I’m still interested in seeing what the CVerse looks like in 2020, but man, I love the TVerse so much.

The Lucha Cousins

And here's how we ended 2017 in UPJ... September: Wrestling Ryogoku - Pain and Torture made another world tag title defense, this time against impressive newcomers YasuHara - Waotaka Eda won the COBRA Openweight title from Kato, who had been a target of RENEGADES throughout the tour —*notably, an attack from TEMPEST Masato made Kato less than 100 percent for this matchup - Kintaro Kinjo retains the World Heavyweight title against Christian Prophet, who had beaten him in the Ozeki Summit to set up this main event - Elsewhere on the card: Juro Deguchi and Fergus Storm knocked off Oda Yamawaki and Goto, Erik van Rijn led a RENEGADES team to a win over some United Throne members, recent signings The Disciples (of Pain) teamed with Jung DRAGON to get a six-man tag for The Brotherhood and James Gilmour did the same for a FEARLESS crew against Deguchi-gun. October: Golden Age at the Saitama Super Arena - HashiWara defend the junior tag titles against The Fallen (Derek Grace and Cameron Cody) - Jung DRAGON and The Disciples upset Junichi Matsuo and REVILED for the COBRA Openweight Six-Man tag titles, with Des Miller taking the pin - D'Anton Joubert beats Goto, who also had been a target of RENEGADES during the tour like his partner Kato, for the junior heavyweight title - Elsewhere on the card: EVR leads another RENEGADES team to victory, then attacks Yamawaki after FEARLESS' win over The Brotherhood — prompting a chaotic brawl that had been building for months. Deguchi teams with Pain & Torture to beat Kinjo, Eikichi Minamoto and Ryotaro Naruto to throw more on their Hall of Immortals fire. November: Hall of Immortals in Tokyo Dome - Jung DRAGON and The Disciples defend their COBRA six-man titles against Kozue and YasuHara - Flight Club snag the junior tag titles from longtime champs HashiWara in an electric four-way dance (an A* match!) that included Nakada & Yamada and ROYALTY - After months of disrespecting The Supreme Warrior in promos, Junichi Matsuo beats Ryotaro Naruto in a heated grudge match... afterwards, a tearful Naruto announces he is leaving UPJ because he feels he can't put together the performances his fans deserve anymore - Pain & Torture defend their world tag titles against World Tag Grand Prix champions Sean Girven and Alejandro Iglesias (who has unmasked and joined Deguchi-gun with his buddies after Crimson Matsuka is released) - Christian Prophet beats Eikichi Minamoto in a rambunctious falls count anywhere match - Oda Yamawaki/Goto/Kato/James Gilmour/Toki Ink beat Erik van Rijn/TEMPEST Masato/Furosoto/Des Miller/Bruiser Cassidy in a 10-man elimination showdown... after the match, Miller and Cassidy, who were the first two eliminations, are turned on by EVR/TEMPEST/Furosoto and kicked out of RENEGADES (Miller and Cassidy were on their way out to HONOUR, where they will get main event status and I will get to freshen up the stable some) - Waotaka Eda defends his COBRA Openweight title against his former FlatLine partner, Eli Morton, who I picked up on a quick loan from PWI just for fun - Fergus Storm gets a junior heavyweight title match against D'Anton Joubert, who he beat for the Junior Mountain Cup in the summer... and pulls off a surprise victory — there will most likely be an unorthodox-by-UPJ-standards triple threat match between Storm/Joubert/Goto for the belt in 2018, since they are all 1-1 against each other in title matches now - Kintaro Kinjo goes wire-to-wire in 2017 with the World Heavyweight championship by outlasting Juro Deguchi in a main event that nearly goes for an entire hour... after the match, Kinjo sticks his hand out to Deguchi —*after a long pause, the old friends who had been locked into a back-and-forth feud of almost two whole years share an embrace as the confetti falls in the Tokyo Dome (Kinjo maintains his spot as the undisputed ace, while Deguchi gets to be more of a face again with his popular "army" behind him) ------------ Once again, UPJ wins Company of the Year, Match of the Year (Kinjo > EVR all the way back at Procession of Champions in March) and Show of the Year (Hall of Immortals). Ignite Zero is the Tag Team of the Year again thanks to all of their stable warfare excellence. In the Power 500, Kinjo is No. 2 behind Hiroto Nori (again). EVR is 7, Deguchi is 8, Kato is 9, Prophet is 11, Goto is 14, Minamoto is 16, Joubert is 18, Yamawaki is 19, Eda is 22 and Storm is 28. Several more UPJers are in the top 50. ------------ So at one point in this save, I tried to bring in Seven Brandt and Super TIGER for touring deals. Both of them were snatched by The Club, which signed them to written contracts. (They also did that to Richie Santana Jr., who I had on my shortlist.) In late December, I noticed that The Club were bleeding money. I decided to take them over for their cult pop in America and just those three specific workers. (Pettiness rules.) I also took The Club's Championship and rebranded it as the UPJ Intercontinental title to set the tone for our 2018 goal of worldwide expansion. I let my two TV show contracts run out because a) I didn't really need the extra money and b) I wanted to be more flexible with my schedules in 2018 and truer to the NJPW-ish format. I upgraded my production to get deals with Star PPV in Japan (which is Huge in size) and The Entertainment Network in North America (Big in America, medium in Canada and Mexico). Star has us on in evenings, while I figured that an On Demand slot would make the most sense for UPJ overseas. ------------ Heading into 2018, here's what the roster looks like... The United Throne Leader: Kintaro Kinjo © (World Heavyweight) Top Junior: Kozue Heavyweights: Eikichi Minamoto, YasuHara (Nobuhisa Yasutake and Ukon Kajahara) Juniors: HashiWara (Jin Fujiwara and Shingo Hashi), Evan Kuja (teams with Kozue in K-Splosion), Thunder Iesada FEARLESS Leader: Oda Yamawaki Top Junior: Goto Heavyweights: Kato (teams with Goto in Ignite Zero), Tokyo Underground (Toki Ink and James Gilmour) Juniors: Akito Nakada & Haruko Yamada, Tokyo 2K (Nakano Yuki and Ryuko Mishamoto) Manager: Yuko Enoki RENEGADES Leader: Erik van Rijn Top Junior: Junichi Matsuo Heavyweights: RECKLESS (TEMPEST Masato and Koji Yamada), REVOLUTION (Seven Brandt and Richie Santana Jr.) Juniors: Furosoto (teams with Matsuo in REBELLION), ROYALTY (Aydan Farrell and Tiger Singh) Manager: Sakura Enoki Deguchi-gun Leader: Juro Deguchi Top Junior: Fergus Storm © (Junior Heavyweight) Heavyweights: Pain & Torture, Alejandro Iglesias & Sean Girven Juniors: Flight Club (Ebi Kadivar and Nathan Jordan) © (Junior Tag) and Graham Mackenzie The Brotherhood Leader: Christian Prophet Top Junior: Jung Dragon © (COBRA Six-Man Openweight with The Disciples) Heavyweights: Waotaka Eda © (COBRA Openweight) & Ram Diablo, The Disciples (Butcher Hachirobei and Yura Malakayan) © Juniors: Blood Tiger, Kris Phoenix and The Fallen (Derek Grace and Cameron Cody) Unattached The European Connection (D'Anton Joubert and Arttu Jensen) Taka Yamashita Yusuke Amura Ichibei Sen Masuda

major props to Cutler for going nearly 12 minutes with the Demon

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="dalton0911" data-cite="dalton0911" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="41411" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>This is one of the best interpretations I've seen so far, and is most definitely the closest parallel to what would happen in "real-life." By that I mean the small tours such as LuchaMania and The Clove that probably result in your match ratings taking a hit due to most of the new dudes aren't over in Japan. And having title feuds involving less over talent like Yamashita.<p> </p><p> Keep it up and let us know what happens next!</p></div></blockquote><p> Yeah, no kidding. I’m impressed at the detail of this save. Once I roll over to 2018, I’m probably gonna start looking at doing some of that cross-promotional stuff. </p><p> </p><p> Also like how you’re using different guys. I can fall into a trap of just cycling through the same main event scene for feuds because I know how to roll off A and even some A* shows in my sleep now. Gotta try to avoid getting in a lull.</p><p> </p><p> I’ve mapped out what all is gonna go down at Hall of the Immortals in my save, including a different kind of big match that I’m interested in pulling off.</p>

Summer 2017 is in the books... Junior Mountain Cup BLOCK A Fergus Storm: 13 Goto: 12 Kozue: 8 Furosoto: 8 Ebi Kadivar: 6 Tiger Singh: 4 Jin Fujiwara: 3 Haruko Yamada: 2 BLOCK B D'Anton Joubert: 14 Junichi Matsuo: 12 Ryotaro Naruto: 8 Shingo Hashi: 6 Aydan Farrell: 6 Hidestugu Genji: 4 Nathan Jordan: 4 Akito Nakada: 2 In Block A, Fergus Storm upsets Goto and draws with Kozue. In Block B, the debuting D'Anton Joubert sweeps the board with his technical masterclass style —*while Junichi Matsuo beats everybody but Joubert for a strong showing in the Mountain. But Storm knocks off Joubert in the final, setting up a showdown with Goto for the title at Ascension... Ascension 6.14 in Osaka-jo Hall - Pain & Torture become eight-time World Tag Team champions by knocking off Waotaka Eda & Ram Diablo - Goto retains the Junior Heavyweight title over Fergus Storm - Kintaro Kinjo retains the World Heavyweight title over Oda Yamawaki - After the match, a hooded figure yet again storms the ring to interrupt Kinjo's celebration... but it's revealed to be Eikichi Minamoto, playing a joke on one of his old buddies. Minamoto congratulates Kinjo on his current run and says he's back in UPJ — now that the idiot Matsumoto brothers are no longer in charge — to help the old guard in The United Throne. (This gives The United Throne another big name, since Kinjo was kinda isolated in the heavyweight main event scene.) Ozeki Summit 28 BLOCK A Erik van Rijn: 16 Kintaro Kinjo: 15 Kato: 15 Christian Prophet: 12 Sean Girven: 8 James Gilmour: 6 Pain: 6 Bruiser Cassidy: 4 Kahoku Meka: 4 Ram Diablo: 4 BLOCK B Juro Deguchi: 18 Oda Yamawaki: 16 Eikichi Minamoto: 14 TEMPEST Masato: 10 Waotaka Eda: 8 TOKI INK: 8 Graham Mackenzie: 4 Koji Yamada: 4 Torture: 4 Des Miller: 2 In Block A, Christian Prophet upsets Kintaro Kinjo on Night 1, and Kato takes him to a time limit draw a couple of weeks later. Erik van Rijn runs the table until the final night, where he loses to Kinjo after already clinching the block. Prophet earns a title match against Kinjo prior to Hall of Immortals. In Block B, Juro Deguchi and Oda Yamawaki sweep their entire block until the final night — when Deguchi knocks off Yamawaki in a winner-take-all main event. Elsewhere, Minamoto shines in his return to UPJ and TEMPEST Masato positions himself to challenge for major hardware in the future. Ozeki Summit 28 Final in Kawasaki Stadium - HashiWara retain junior tag titles against Flight Club - Junichi Matsuo and REVILED retain NEVER Openweight Six-Man titles over Tokyo Underground and James Gilmour - Pain & Torture retain world tag titles in a rematch against Eda & Diablo - Christian Prophet and the debuting JUNG Dragon defeat TEMPEST Masato and Furosoto in a strong cross-divisional tag match - Oda Yamawaki and Ignite Zero defeat Kintaro Kinjo, Eikichi Minamoto and Kozue in a thrilling co-main event - Juro Deguchi beats Erik van Rijn in a marathon match to win the Ozeki Summit for the third time in his illustrious career, tying only Sonoda for most all-time. I let a few older folks go for various reasons and am starting to replenish my undercard and young lions with new talent. Pretty pleased that two of them have been taken as proteges by main eventers — Yusuke Amura by Kintaro Kinjo and ICHIBEI by Kato.

<p>First tour of 2017 is done, and while not much changed in January and February in terms of hires or title matches — ROYALTY repeated as Junior Tag Grand Prix winners but were unable to beat HashiWara for the titles at Ignition in January — March had a lot of action.</p><p> </p><p> In the UPJ Invitational, EVR knocks off Juro Deguchi in the semifinal, while Oda Yamawaki defeats Kintaro Kinjo. EVR wins the final, earning a title shot at Procession of Champions.</p><p> </p><p> Takehide Harada's contract was coming to a close, and I decided to let run it out instead of re-signing him because his best days were behind him. The week before Procession of Champions, I had a Hall of Fame show for him, where he won a six-man tag match with Kintaro Kinjo and Ryotaro Naruto over the FEARLESS team of Oda Yamawaki, Goto and Kato. You're probably supposed to go out on your back... but, since Harada's three-decade career was defined by never winning the big one, I decided to let him go out on top.</p><p> </p><p> Procession of Champions was in front of 45,000 at Jingu Stadium, and it did not disappoint with several A matches on the card.</p><p> </p><p> - HashiWara retain the Junior Tag titles in a phenomenal opener against Nakada & Yamada.</p><p> - Junichi Matsuo and REVILED snatch the COBRA Openweight titles from the Deguchi-gun team of Fergus Storm, Graham Mackenzie and Sean Girven. RENEGADES get their hands on some belts again. Matsuo and Cassidy have been putting out some incredible performances recently.</p><p> - Waotaka Eda & Ram Diablo retain the World Tag titles against Tokyo Underground.</p><p> - A larger Deguchi-gun team, led by Juro, beats Christian Prophet + The Fallen + The Forgotten in a special showcase match to break up the card some.</p><p> - Kato retains the COBRA Openweight title in a rematch against TEMPEST Masato.</p><p> - Goto retains the Junior Heavyweight title against Thunder Iesada after Goto challenged him during Rebellion... he felt that no junior title reign would be truly complete without facing the legend himself.</p><p> - Kintaro Kinjo gets pushed to the absolute limit by EVR but retains the World Heavyweight title. After the match, Oda Yamawaki stops Kinjo in the middle of his speech to the crowd and reminds him that a) he pinned him in the UPJ Invitational and b) he hadn't gotten his shot at a rematch from Hall of Immortals.</p><p> </p><p> So now we're gearing up for the Junior Mountain and Ozeki Summit summer tour. D'Anton Joubert's contract with HONOUR is ending, so I'm going to try to snag him to get one more heavy hitter in the junior division to go alongside Furosoto, Goto and Naruto (who has lost a step but can still hang with the juniors). The Mountain should be big for both Storm and Matsuo, as both have star potential in the division. Kris Phoenix is still out for a while with injury.</p><p> </p><p> ---</p><p> </p><p> Question... so Ikina continues to be a pain backstage, and his stagnant B- rating in announcing has a tendency to drag matches down. Oimikado seems to be stuck on B- as well, while Ki (my user character) is now up to A on color. LETHAL's announcer is the only one I can get who is rated higher, but he's just a B and loyal to them, so no written deal. What should I do?</p>

<p>Is the title of this a Vince Staples reference?</p><p> </p><p> If so, I’m so in. (If not, I’m still in.)</p>

Love the Ito-gun idea, also like how you brought the COBRA over, too — it just fits perfectly. Now that I’ve hit national, I’ve considered establishing relationships like NJPW has with ROH and CMLL and hitting the West Coast for some shows.

Awesome show, loved some of the bolder decisions you made in it. Most importantly, glad to see Darby holding some championship gold.

Alright, let's put a bow on 2016 with UPJ. September: Wrestling Ryogoku - REVILED defend the world tag belts against The Hunters. Koji Yamada turns on Avalanche Miyagi and joins RENEGADES. - Kozue & Genji challenge ROYALTY for the junior tag belts and win them. - TEMPEST successfully defends the COBRA Openweight title against Kahoku Meka. - Furosoto successfully defends the junior heavyweight title against Shingo Hashi. - Kinjo teams up with Naruto and Iesada to beat Deguchi, Pain and Torture in an electric co-main event, putting more fuel for their showdown in October. - Yamawaki successfully defends the heavyweight title against EVR. October: Golden Age - Most of the undercard for this show was the first night of the World Tag Grand Prix. - Kato challenges TEMPEST for the COBRA Openweight title and wins it. After the match, a celebrating Kato is attacked by the debuting... Christian Prophet. - Kinjo successfully defends his main event contract for Hall of Immortals against Deguchi. November: Hall of Immortals - UPJ introduces the COBRA Openweight Six-Man title, which is won in a 3 v 3 v 3 match by the trio of Sean Girven, Fergus Storm and Graham Mackenzie. - HashiWara springs a surprise upset over stable mates Kozue & Genji for the junior tag belts. - Eda & Diablo, thanks to their excellent chemistry, run the table in the World Tag Grand Prix and then win the world tag belts against REVILED. - Deguchi avenges his loss to EVR from 2015's Hall of Immortals main event with a non-title win. - Kato successfully defends the COBRA Openweight title against Christian Prophet. - Goto finally gets his hands on Furosoto and wins the junior heavyweight championship in a no-DQ title match. - Kinjo and Yamawaki pull another A* rated classic, with Kinjo winning the world heavyweight title. ---------------- Here's the stable lineup right now... RENEGADES: Erik Van Rijn, Furosoto, Bruiser Cassidy, Des Miller, TEMPEST Masato, Koji Yamada, Aydan Farrell, Tiger Singh, Junichi Matsuo Sakura Enoki, girlfriend of Matsuo, manages the stable FEARLESS: Oda Yamawaki, Kato, Goto, Kahoku Meka, TOKI INK, Akito Nakada, Haruko Yamada Yuko Enoki, girlfriend of Goto, manages the stable Deguchi-gun: Juro Deguchi, Pain, Torture, Fergus Storm, Sean Girven, Graham Mackenzie, Captain Scotland, Ebi Kadivar, Nathan Jordan Kadivar and Jordan are in a tag team called Flight Club after Paul Crowley bounced to DIASPORA... but Jordan tore an abdominal muscle and will miss Junior Grand Prix The Brotherhood: Christian Prophet, Waotaka Eda, Ram Diablo, Kris Phoenix, Alejandro Iglesias, Crimson Matsuka, Derek Grace, Cameron Cody Iglesias + Matsuka = The Forgotten Grace + Cody = The Fallen Phoenix is also out for an extended time with a knee injury The United Throne: Basically everyone else, with Kintaro Kinjo as the ace and Kozue as the top junior ---------------- Rose to national early in the final tour of the year, and I turned my Monday tour show into a televised one. Going to try to get the Wednesday one televised as well, and I'll move to three shows a week in 2017. That setup would leave Friday shows non-televised, giving me weekend flexibility for the PPVs at the end of the month. UPJ was named company of the year and most improved company of the year, with the summit final between Yamawaki and Kinjo taking match of the year. Hall of Immortals (which went an astonishing A-A-A-A* in terms of the last four matches) wins show of the year. Nine of the top 25 workers in the Power 500 are with UPJ, including four of the top 10 —*Yamawaki, Kinjo, Goto and Kato. Prophet, Furosoto, EVR, Deguchi and TEMPEST are the others.