BHOTWG - A Walk Along The Burning Path

[ShikariFC]

Hello! 

I am a long time general lurker here and I am excited to share this playthrough of Burning Hammer with everyone. Compared to most of the excellent work on here I am afraid I am lacking the creativity and graphical ability (particularly the latter) so this is, in my head at least, probably going to read more like a Wikipedia page of sorts - since I started playing C-Verse (I'm still very new to a lot of the background) I've always written up what was going on with the game and in the game world on a word document mainly so that if I left a save alone for months (or in some cases years) I could pull up the document and be able to jump back into where my thought process was. So with that in mind rather than those write ups sitting in word documents on my PC I figured I would share them here, so with that in mind, here's the first post! 

"Burning Hammer Of The Wrestling Gods have been the giant of Japanese pro wrestling for decades, with a lot of their success coming from the fact that they've always been willing to adapt to changing circumstances. Never far from controversy, BHOTWG have weathered many storms and scandals over the years (such as the "INSPIRE crisis" of 2006) but in recent years they've hit a particularly rocky patch: their short-lived dalliance with a more western style upset their core fan base, the tsunami of 2016 added to the hurt, and that was then followed by a string of high profile retirements that gutted the roster. Now, for the first time in three decades, BHOTWG are genuinely reeling and vulnerable....."

Tadiyuki Kikkawa took over BHOTWG at the start of 2020, at the companies first road to show after the takeover (Burning Path Tour Day 2) Kikkawa spoke to the crowd about his plans for BHOTWG, him wanting to take the promotion in a new direction, he hinted at a roster shake up, new titles and massive investments into the dojo and into the future talent of Japanese wrestling. True to his word the next day there was a somewhat shocking wave of releases, some names more eyebrow raising than others, the releases greatly reduced the average age of the roster, a sizeable amount of money was also invested into the Hinote Dojo making it undoubtedly one of the best training facilities in the world, arguably the number 1.  
 
Full list of releases: Yoshii Shiomi, Yasohiko Taira, Kansuke Konda, Hyosuke Kokan, Hirokumi Saito, Golden Scorpio, Kiminobu Kuroki, Danjuro Komatsu, Gargantuan, Marihito Musuko, Murai Enomoto, Nisshi Yuasa, Prometheus, Tadakuni Toshusai, Taro Shionoya. 

Kikkawas next move was to secure a talent trading agreement with Total Championship Wrestling as well as improving relations with 21st Century Wrestling, Canadian Wrestling Alliance and rather surprisingly given the contrast in styles, RAW. Following this, and rounding off a busy first few days in charge a highlights package agreement was signed with Prime Japan TV. During the early weeks of Kikkawas reign there were strong rumours of BHOTWG having a growing talent shortlist but by the time the first “main” show came about there were no signings, the following was the match card from Kikkawas first big show in charge. 

The Burning Path V 

Nippon Budokan - 16,800 SELL OUT 

(Pre-Show) Aio Bandai & Ko Minamino vs Toju Munkata & Teruki Nakayama 

Chomei Sugiyama, Hachigoro Maeda & Masakatsu Kaima vs Ninja Shunji, Reijiro Hiraki & VENOM 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships 

23rd Champions Rebel Run X (HDR & Jin Miyamoto) vs Crimson Ghost & Helikaon 

Special NEO V NEO Match 

Heihachiro Sakai vs Koshiro Ino 

BHOTWG World Tag Team Championships 

Senmatsu-gun (Gonkuro Gamioka & Ieyoshi Shimakage) vs Ryushi Sato & Atsumori Takemura vs Takayuki 2000 & Hiroyasu Gakusha  

Special “Junior Ace” Tag Match 

Emerald Angel & Elemental III vs Sensational Dragon & MYSTIC Dragon 

BHOTWG World Championship 

33rd Champion Kinnojo Horri vs Hiroaki Nakasawa 

The match of the night was generally regarded as the semi final. The first seeds were also sewn for the coming storm between NEO PRIME and NEO X with Inos victory over Sakai. After Emerald Angel and Elemental III’s victory it was decided the two would face each other at the following months event in a #1 contenders match for the Junior Heavyweight Title. Other fall out from the event included Crimson Ghost and Helikaon deciding to call time on their tag team after defeat and the vacant World Tag Team Championships being won by the Golden Army.

 

January Game World Round-Up

- PSW & GSW at war

- PGHW broke talent trading agreement with SAISHO

- DIW and APW at war 

- QAW and CILL became friendly 

- Chance formerly of CGC passes away 

- EILL agree to send developmental workers to OLLIE

- SWF fall to medium 

Edited June 6, 2023 by ShikariFC

[ShikariFC]

February 

The Warrior Globe tour through February saw NEO X tease a new member who was to debut at the tours finale in a 3v3 NEO Prime v NEO X match, preview tag matches for the #1 contender match for the Junior Heavyweight Title between Emerald Angel and Elemental III and saw Munemitsu Senmatsu emerge as the next man to challenge for the World Championship with the Champion Kinnojo Horri becoming increasingly preocupied with both the faction war with NEO X and trying to keep hold of his prize possession. The month of February also saw Koshiro Ino take Teruki Nakayama under his wing as a protégé  

The night of Warrior Globe there was once again swirling rumours of Tadiyuki Kikkawa closing in on one or more sinings, reports indicating that he had been keeping an eye on Black Canvas Grappling shows of late.  

Osaka Jo Hall – 16,000 SELL OUT 

 

(Pre Show) Tetsuji Nishimoto & Aio Bandai vs Reijiro Hiraki & Ko Minamino 

Sensational Dragon, MYSTIC Dragon & Ninja Shunji vs Toju Munkata, Chomei Sugiyama & Crimson Ghost  

Special Singles Match 

Hiroaki Nakasawa vs Yasunobu Masuno 

BHOTWG World Tag Team Titles 

27th Champions Takayuki 2000 & Hiroyasu Gakusha vs Senmatsu-gun (Kamioka & Shimakage) 

X REVEALED AS HELIKAON 

NEO X (Heihachiro Sakai, Helikaon & Hijo Del Relampago) vs NEO Prime (Koshihiro Ino, Matthew Keith & Tatsuya Toshitara) 

#1 Contenders Match for Junior Heavyweight Title 

Elemental III V Emerald Angel 

BHOTWG World Championship  

33rd Champion Kinnojo Horri vs Munemitsu Senmatsu 

 

The match of the night again was the Juniors, Emerald Angel winning setting up a title match against Sensational Dragon at the following months historic event Fire Dream of The Immortals. Kinnojo Horri held on to his World Championship after a hard fought victory against Senmatsu, ending his night on a high dispite NEO Primes loss earlier in the night, in his pre match comments he talked about doing some recruitment of his own for NEO Prime and warning those in NEO X that this war is far from over. Crimson Ghost, the former tag team partner of NEO X’s newest member Helikaon, was to make some unsavory comments backstage to the waiting press about the formers choice to join the group and challenged him to a singles match. More than one report leaked out from BHOTWG that owner Tadiyuki Kikkawa had been less than impressed with the performance of the upper card of his heavyweight division leading to speculation that the Junior Championship match would be given the Main Event at Fire Dream of The Immortals.  

February Game World Round Up  

- Numerous workers walk out on Scottish promotion SNP due to owner Mark Carnie 

- Despite dropping in size the previous month SWF to air second TV show “SWF Elite” 

 

[ShikariFC]

March 

March’s Fire Dream Tour started with Helikaon accepting Crimson Ghosts challenge for a singles match, Confirming it would take place at Fire Dream of The Immortals. Amidst growing talk of Kikkawa being less than impressed with the state of the Heavyweight title picture, NEO X leader Heiachiro Sakai positioned himself at the front of the queue to take the belt to new heights, Sakai seeking his first title reign would challenge Horri but it was yet to be seen whether Kikkawa would place them in the main event or not.  

Disaster was then to strike, on the second show of the tour Horri was Injured during a match, it was later revealed he would be side-lined for a whole year, this thrusted the title scene into immediate question with numerous people staking their own claim at the belt, Kohsiro Ino for instance state that he should be awarded the title as it should be kept in NEO Prime. Tadiyuke Kikkawa spoke prior to the next show and confirmed that the BHOTWG World Championship had been vacated, bringing to an end Kinnojo Horri’s 5th reign and he also confirmed it would be a long time before Horri would be fit to wrestle. The announcement was made that at Fire Dream of The Immortals there would be a 4 way match to determine who would face the already confirmed #1 Contender Heihachiro Sakai for the vacant title in April, Kikkawa said his mind wasn’t made up on the participants, and that every single BHOTWG heavyweight will be in action during the tour and they would all have a chance to prove themselves worthy of competing for the belt that Kikkawa himself held on five occasions.  

The awful luck with injuries continued as only two shows after Horri was was shelved the same fate fell upon Elemental III arguably this a bigger blow to roster though not disturbing the current title picture and unlike in Horris case there were hopes for surgery to possibly reduce his time away.  

As the tour progressed Kikkawa started to put the pieces in motion and gradually announced competitors for the #1 contender match, the first man announced was Matthew Keith - Representing NEO Prime, the two time tag champion would have his chance to work towards singles gold. The second competitor was to be another man with a chance to taste singles gold for the first time, Senmatsu-gun's Gonkuro Kamioka. Yasunobu Masuno was the third man, 8 years older that the other two competitors and carrying an obvious experience advantage. The fourth slot was something that Kikkawa would later reveal he pondered over, he eventually settled on the idea of offering the current tag team champions, The Golden Army (Takayuki 2000 & Hiroyasu Gakusha) a place in the match, as two respected competitors he was happy to let them decide between themselves, a decision he left with the two and it wasn’t until the final night of tour shows that they responded rather cryptically saying “there will be a member of The Golden Army in the four way....you will find out on the day” mind games from two veterans? Or something more? 

In other BHOTWG news in March, Takayuki 2000 was the first wrestlers contract to come up for renewal in the new era under Kikkawa, T 2000 was signed to a new one year deal. Sesnsational Dragon was already resigned to a three year deal. 

Yokohama Arena – 17,000 SELL OUT 

(Pre-Show) Chomei Sugiyama & Aio Bandai vs Ko Minamino & Teruki Nakayama 

NEO V NEO Match 

Koshiro Ino & Tatsuya Toshitara vs Heihachiro Sakai & Ryushi Sato 

Special Singles Match 

Hiroaki Nakasawa vs Munemitsu Senmatsu 

Special Singles Match  

Crimson Ghost v Helikaon 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships 

23rd Champions Rebel Run X vs Hiraki & Kaima vs PUNK Nasty Club vs MYSTIC Dragon & Hachigoro Maeda 

Golden Army reveal MABUCHI FURUSAWA as newest member of group 

#1 Contenders Match For World Championship 

Mabuchi Furusawa vs Matthew Keith vs Yasunobu Masuno vs Gonkuro Kamioka 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Championship 

49th Champion Sensational Dragon vs Emerald Angel 

(Post Show) Sensational Dragon attacked during celebrations by MYSTIC Dragon who is wearing Red and Black facepaint, he raises the belt above his head and members of NEO X appear on rampway applauding 

The main event was comfortably the best match since Kikkawa took over at BHOTWG, a truly exceptional display from two of the worlds very best Junior Heavyweights, the big shock coming after the match with another big coup for NEO X, Helikaon last month and MYSTIC Dragon this month. Backstage Heihachiro Sakai talked about NEO X taking over BHOTWG which will be solidified when he wins the world title next month, in terms of the NEO war Matthew Keith presents NEO Primes best chance at gaining some momentum after losing their leader to long term injury. Mabuchi Furusawa becomes the newest member of the Golden Army and the first signing under Kikkawa, Furusawa signed an exclusive 3 year deal. A good night for Senmatsu-gun as the junior tag titles coming back to them and with their leader winning his singles match against Nakasawa. Hiroaki Nakasawa continues to be in somewhat of a funk, questions were beginning to be raised about what the future may hold for the 42 year old.  

March Game World Round Up 

- Pretty Okakura leaves EXODUS Twenty-10 

[ShikariFC]

International Wrestling Grand Prix

Kyle Rhodes (Total Championship Wrestling CEO) & Tadiyuki Kikkawa (Burning Hammer Of The Wrestling Gods CEO) are happy to announce the forming of the International Wrestling Grand Prix, an International alliance that opens up the possibility of continental talent trades, joint shows, and the growth of both promotions within the USA and Japan. The IWGP seeks to raise the level of all of its members and is keen to increase its ranks in the coming months and years. 

"We are thrilled to forge this alliance with BHOTWG, a company rooted in tradition, this alliance is an important step in our international expansion strategy, bringing together the best performers around the globe" Said Kyle Rhodes. 

"This is a very exciting announcement for BHOTWG, we as a promotion hold high regard for the traditional values of professional wrestling and with this in mind a working relationship between ourselves and TCW makes complete sense" Said Tadiyuki Kikkawa.

[knkmaster69]

Yoo a TCW and BHOTWG alliance? I'm in, I love it. I can't wait to see your next installment, BHOTWG is one of my favorite c-verse companies and a fun challenge in the current game. 

[Scottie]

This is a nice breezy read. I've always found BHOTWG hard to get into because it just seems so overwhelmingly big, so I'm excited to follow along. I'm enjoying the short summary style too.

[ShikariFC]

12 hours ago, knkmaster69 said:

Yoo a TCW and BHOTWG alliance? I'm in, I love it. I can't wait to see your next installment, BHOTWG is one of my favorite c-verse companies and a fun challenge in the current game. 

Thanks for the kind words! 

6 hours ago, Scottie said:

This is a nice breezy read. I've always found BHOTWG hard to get into because it just seems so overwhelmingly big, so I'm excited to follow along. I'm enjoying the short summary style too.

Thank you! as I said I tend to make notes on whats going on in my cverse saves on a word document so that if I dont play it for a few months I can easily jump back in, So these entries are just a little spruced up - the summary style suits me for my first attempt at a dynasty 

[ShikariFC]

April 

Just before the start of the tour the formation of the International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP) was announced which caused much excitement in Japan, a press release (above) was issued and a new era of professional wrestling was to begin. 

Aprils tour was the Prophecy Tour which would conclude at the end of the month with  Junior Heavyweight Title match and a World Title match so much of the preview tags towards the top of the card revolved around these two, an interesting point about the World Title match being that whoever wins would be a first time champion. NEO Prime found themselves in a position where they were outnumbered by their counterparts in NEO X, that was part remedied at the start of the tour when Yasunobu Masuno chose to realign with the group, though it appeared in less of a leadership role than previously. The Golden Army featured heavily across the tour which saw Mabuchi Furusawa complete his first tour with BHOTWG, T 2000 and Gakusha were due to defend their titles at the end of the tour against the NEO Prime team of Iro and Masuno.  

At the start of the month Sensational Dragon took Aio Bandai under his wing as a protégé meaning that both current young lions have mentors on the active roster. Bandai also signed a contract extension, a written deal for two years, the other contract extension was that of Chomei Sugiyama who also singed a two year written deal. 

Nippon Budokan – 16,800 SELL OUT 

(Pre-Show) Senmatsu-gun (Yamura & Khan) vs NEO Prime (Gensai & Toshitara) 

Mabuchi Furusawa vs Atsumori Takemura  

Hiroaki Nakasawa, Crimson Ghost, Tetsuji Nishimoto & Teruki Nakayama vs Senmatsu-gun (Senmatsu, Shimakage, Kamioka & Munkata) 

Emerald Angel, Hachigoro Maeda & Ninja Shunki vs NEO-X (Helikaon, HDR & Miyamoto) 

BHOTWG World Tag Team Championships 

26th Champions The Golden Army (Takayuki 2000 & Hiroyasu Gakusha) vs NEO Prime (Koshiro Ino & Yasunobu Masuno) 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Championship 

49th Champion Sensational Dragon vs MYSTIC Dragon 

BHOTWG World Championship 

Heihachiro Sakai vs Matthew Keith 

Matthew Keith wins his first World Championship

 

OOC: I seem to have lost post PPV notes for April BUT May is a bumper month

 

 

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by ShikariFC

[ShikariFC]

May 

In the fallout of Test of Prophecies the junior tag scene had a spotlight placed upon it with both NEO groups wanting the belts, current champions Senmatsu-gun's PUNK Nasty Club were initially faced with a challenge from NEO X team Rebel Run X, NEO Prime then revealed their new recruits Masakazu Kaima and Reijiri Hiraki who are now operating under the team name of Hit And Run it was then that the junior tag scene was ignited with the announcement that Emerald Angel and Sesnational Dragon would be teaming up to enter the now four way championship match, both remarked that they refused to allow NEO groups to rule all Championships and they would do all in their power to prevent it from happening. Sensational Dragon and Emerald Angel were been called “Junior Ace Team” which was a name that stuck. 

After losing the Heavyweight Tag Championships, Takayuki 2000 and Hiroyasu Gakusha challenge the current champions to a 3 v 3 Golden Army v NEO Prime match at Sword of Destiny. MYSTIC Dragon, after seeing the 4 way tag match assumed he would get off lightly without having to make his first defence when it was announced that his NEO X stable mate Heliakaon will be challenging in what was a keenly anticipated NEO X derby. The final question atleast in terms of the Championships was whom Matthew Keiths first challenger would be, sensationally Hiroaki Nakasawa appealed to Tadiyuki Kikkawa for an oppourtunity to add a fifth reign with the belt to his glittering career in an attempt to break out of the funk he was in, probably forseeing Kikkawa rejecting this proposal he offered to up the stakes by stipulating that if he failed to beat Keith he would never challenge for the BHOTWG World Championship again, Kikkawa accepted and Nakasawas career looked set to change forever one way or another.  

Negotiations were opened at the start of the month with BCG wrestler SUKI, as a Golden Canvas Grappling dojo graduate the intention was that he would fit into The Golden Army stable quite nicely, this would be only the second signing of Kikkawas reign which given the intentions he laid out back in January was quite a surprise. During the month Jin Miyamoto was resigned to a 2 year exclusive written deal. 

Finally, Kikkawa took the rather surprising move of making all of the Sword tour shows free entry, word was that BHOTWG could afford this due to the PPV revenue and that Kikkawa was slightly concerned about the high quality of shows being put on by PGHW and was hoping to stunt their momentum a little. 

Kangawa Stadium 26,566 

(Pre-Show) Aio Bandai & Crimson Ghost vs Ninja Shunji & Teruki Nakayama  

Tatsuya Toshitata vs Hachigoro Maeda 

Takemura & Sato vs Senmatsu-gun (Senmatsu & Shimakage) 

Special Singles Match 

Heihachiro Sakai vs Hiroyasu Gakusha 

NEO Prime (Ino, Masuno & Gensai) vs The Golden Army (Takayuki 2000, SUKI & Furusawa) 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships 

30th Champions PUNK Nasty Club vs Hit And Run vs Rebel Run X vs Junior Ace Team

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Championship 

50th Champion MYSTIC Dragon vs Helikaon 

BHOTWG World Championship 

34th Champion Matthew Keith vs Hiroaki Nakasawa 

 

Widely regarded as the best event under Kikkawas tenure in charge of BHOTWG and to the biggest crowd, Sword of Destiny was a big success. Matthew Keith made his first defence of the World Championship and in the process due to the match stipulation resigned Hiroaki Nakasawa to the fate of never being able to challenge for the top title again, after the match Hiroyasu Gakusha who had won a late announced singles match earlier in the night came out to announce his intention to challenge, the challenge was accepted. MYSTIC Dragon made his first defence in a NEO X derby, Helikaon ran him very close but MYSTIC was able to do enough to take the belt home. Junior Ace Team achieved their goal of preventing all of the belts in the company falling to one of the NEO splinter groups, with Emerald Angel and Sensational Dragon now holding the tag belts they painted the image of a really formiddable team. The Golden Army again pulled a surprise late on and debuted SUKI in the 3v3 match with NEO Prime, Suki signed for the company on a two year exclusive written contract. Hiroyasu Gakusha got a victory over Heihachiro Sakai which later propelled him to a position to challenge for the World Championship.  

Rounding off the month was the Anniversary show, Kikkawa held a press conference two days after Sword of Destiny to announce the venue and card for the show, many were expecting a fairly low key event with multi man tags with some sort of celebration attached for the companies anniversary however there was some surprise when it was announced that the show would be headlined by the World Championship match between Matthew Keith and Hiroyasu Gakusha and in the Semi Final a champion v champion match as the heavyweight tag team champions were to face off against their junior counterparts. 

BHOTWG 54th Anniversary Show 

Ota Ward Gymnasium – 5,000 SELL OUT 

SUKI vs Hachigoro Maeda 

Senmatsu-gun (Senmatsu, Yamura, Shimakage & Kamioka) vs NEO Prime (Kaima, Gensai, Hiraki, Toshitara) 

Champions v Champions 

Junior Ace Team vs NEO Prime (Ino & Masuno) 

Time Limit Draw

BHOTWG World Championship  

34th Champion Matthew Keith vs Hiroyasu Gakusha 

Matthew Keith made a second sucessful defence in the space of a week and a half to round of the first of what will now be an annual anniversary show. Former junior heavyweight champion and former head of the Hinote dojo Stunner Okazawaya passed away a few days before this show and it was announced that at the end of June there would be a memorial show held in his honour

May Game World Round Up 

- Hollywood Bret Starr leaves SWF and joins USPW 

- BCG have another worker walk out, Roku Sotamura  

- TCW hit with a bullying scandal   

Edited June 12, 2023 by ShikariFC

[ShikariFC]

June 

Shiki Saito became the first dojo graduate during the Kikkawa era, a 19 year old heavyweight who came out of the dojo with good brawling skills was debuted on this tour. Junior Ace Team were set to defend their junior tag championships at Inferno Of Purity against former champions PUNK Nasty Club as the champions quest to keep the belts out of NEO Primes or X’s hands continued. A bitter war of words had broken out between MYSTIC Dragon and Ko Minamino, the youngster accusing MYSTIC of being a weak champion who is only holding the belt because Sensational Dragon and Emerald Angel are preoccupied with the tag belts, much to the shock of a lot of people Minamino managed to goad the champion enough into getting a shot at the Championship, a huge opportunity for the 21 year old. The Golden Army and Senmatsu-gun engaged in battles during the tour which was set to conclude with a 4v4. Matthew Keith had enjoyed a good start to life as world champion and for his next opponent he accept a challenge from NEO X’s Atsumori Takemura, along with the junior title that made two surprising challengers, both of them with equally big opportunities.  

Higashiosaka Stadium – 23,590 SELL OUT 

(Pre Show) Crimson Ghost & Aio Bandai vs Shiki Saito & Teruki Nakayama 

NEO vs NEO Match 

Heihachiro Sakai v Tatsuya Toshitara  

NEO vs NEO Match 

NEO-X (Helikaon, Jin Miyamoto & HDR) vs NEO Prime (Michio Gensai, Koshiro Ino & Yasunobu Masuno) 

Senmatsu-gun (Munemitsu Senmatsu, Ieyoshi Shimakage, Chaos Khan & Gonkuro Kamioka) vs The Golden Army (Takayuki 2000, SUKI, Mabuchi Furusawa & Hiroyasu Gakusha) 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships 

31st Champions Junior Ace Team vs PUNK Nasty Club 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Championship 

50th Champion MYSTIC Dragon vs Ko Minamino 

BHOTWG World Championship 

34th Champion Matthew Keith vs Atsumori Takemura  

A solid event though without being anything fantastic, Inferno Of Purity saw both singles champions and the junior tag champions extend their reigns. Atsumori Takemura given a main event opportunity failed to impress and in the fall out of the event questions were asked as to how soon he would get such a chance again. After the main event Heihachiro Sakai came out to the ring to speak to the champion, he told Keith that he had seen the champion grow since winning the title against him back in April but it was time for NEO-X to take the world championship back and he would be the man to do it. MYSTIC Dragon defended against the youngster Ko Minamino and spoke in the ring after the match about the Best Of The Super Juniors line up announcement and the forthcoming tournament. Junior Ace team continue their run with the belts and both will now turn their thoughts to singles competition for the month of July. New young lion Shiki Saito had an impressive first month in ring, despite being on the losing side in the pre show match the feeling amongst BHOTWG higher ups was he had started off his career well.  

June Game World Round Up

- Halfway year awards announced Aaron Andrews best wrestler so far, CWA (Canadian Wrestling Alliance) best company so far, Both match of the year so far and show of the year so far go to 21CW (21st Century Wrestling)

[ShikariFC]

Best Of The Super Juniors

Line Up Announcement

BLOCK A 

VENOM 

MASAKAZU KAIMA - NEO Prime

CRIMSON GHOST

HIJO DEL RELAMPAGO - NEO-X

SENSATIONAL DRAGON 

EMERALD ANGEL 

KAZUNORI YAMURA - Senmatsu-gun

BLOCK B

JIN MIYAMOTO - NEO-X

KOJU MUNKATA - Senmatsu-gun

HELIKAON - NEO-X

MYSTIC DRAGON - NEO-X

REIJIRO HIRAKI - NEO Prime

KO MINAMINO 

EDD STONE - Total Championship Wrestling

[ShikariFC]

July 

July saw a number of contract extensions to kick it off, Ieyoshi Shimakage signing a two year exclusive written deal, announcer Toru Minamoto signed a three year exclusive written deal and Tatsuya Toshitara signed a two year exclusive written deal. It was also decided that the contract of Tetsuji Nishimoto was not to be extended, the 27 year old had been with BHOTWG for 6 years. During the month of July Elemental II took Ko Minamino under his wing as a protégé. 

Two blocks of seven made up this years Best Of The Super Junior, the tour spanned every region in Japan and threw up numerous first time encounters and memorable matches, it also saw the first TCW talent to spend time in Japan since the IWGP alliance formed, Edd Stone competing in Block B (incidentally by this point both Matthew Keith and Koshiro Ino had appeared for TCW) Unfortunately on Night 6 Crimson Ghost sustained a broken ankle that forced him to withdraw from the tournament, forfeiting his last match which was against Sensational Dragon giving the latter an automatic 2 points.

The final standings of the blocks were as follows 

Block A                                                             

1 Sensational Dragon 10 points                                       

2 Emerald Angel 10 point 

3 Kazunori Yamura 8 points 

4 Crimson Gost 6 points *withdrew night 6* 

5 Hijo Del Relampago 6 points 

6 Masakazu Kaima 2 points 

7 Venom 0 points 

In B Block there was a remarkable situation at the top with MYSTIC Dragon, Helikaon and Toju Munkata all finishing on 10 points, the traditional head to head tie breaker method could not separate them, MYSTIC had lost to Helikaon but beaten Toju, Helikaon had beaten MYSTIC but lost to Toju and Toju had lost to MYSTIC but beaten Helikaon, the decision then came down to who had won their matches in the quickest time which lead to the final standings looking like this, rather incredibly 25 seconds separated first from second 

Block B  

1 Toju Munkata 10 points 

2 Helikaon 10 points  

3 MYSTIC Dragon 10 points 

4 Ko Minamino 6 points  

5 Jin Miyamoto 2 points 

6 Reijiro Hiraki 2 points 

7 Edd Stone 2 points 

Yokohama Stadium – 28,685 

NEO-X (Takemura, Sakai, Sato & Sugiyama) vs The Golden Army 

NEO Prime (Ino, Keith & Toshitara) vs Senmatsu-gun (Senmatsu, Shimakage & Kamioka) 

BHOTWG Debut Of Tsuneyo Yanagimoto 

Tsuneyo Yanagimoto vs Hachigoto Maeda  

Emerald Angel, Ko Minamino, Ninja Shunji & VENOM vs NEO-X (Helikaon, MYSTIC Dragon, HDR & Miyamoto) 

Best Of The Super Juniors Final 

Sensational Dragon vs Toju Munkata 

 

Breaking the record attendance for Kikkawas era at the helm and coming close to selling out Yokohama Stadium, BOSJ XXI would be remembered for Toju Mukatas huge underdog victory, mainly a tag competitor through his career to that point the fact that he won his block by a 25 second winning margin made it all the more incredible of a victory in the final. Members of Senmastu-gun filled the ring in the post match celebrations and this moment was wide regarded as the point in which a growing section of the fanbase really began to warm to the stable. Elsewhere on the card the surprise reveal of Tsuneyo Yanagimoto caused a stirr, a victory in his debut match aswell as sporting a new look to that of his time in EX2010, Yanagimoto had signed a 3 year exclusive written contract the week previous in what was arguably Kikkawas biggest signing to date.  

Backstage Hiroaki Nakasawa was heard from for the first time since losing his title match against Matthew Keith at Sword Of Destiny in May and in the process losing the right to ever challenge for the world title again, speaking to the cameras he spoke about needing a break to reflect upon his loss and the consequences “Not being able to challenge for the most prestigious title in the world ever again is a harsh reality to have to come to terms with” Nakasawa said “moving forward I am stil excited to step into the ring, at 43 years of age I still have a lot to offer, and fans of Burning Hammer can expect to see me working closely with the future stars moving forwards” 

Rounding off events surrounding the years BOSJ final, NEO-X made the addition of Chomei Sugiyama, Sugiyama had struggled through the year and was hoping to give his career a kick start in the red and black.  

 

July Game World Round Up 

- Joey Beauchamp becomes booker at CWW (Championship Wrestling From Wigan) 

- Even more people walk out on SNP (Scottish National Promotions) 

- ACPW (All Canada Pro Wrestling) rise to small size  

[ShikariFC]

August 

Contract renewals in August included Koshiro Ino being locked down for another two years on an exclusive written contract, on the opposite side of things Hachigoro Maeda requested his release, it was heavily rumoured at the time that he had many complaints with booking and his push or lack of it, the request was accepted and the one time junior tag team champion left the promotion midway through August. Takenori Doi left BCG in August and Kikkawa was quick to act and bring him in, Doi, 21 and trained by the BCG dojo came into BHOTWG with two years experience and still widely recognised as a young lion, he came in and slotted into the current crop of young lions, bringing the count to four.  

Heihachiro Sakai was to challenge at the aptly named Summit Challenge, after a failed attempt at beating Keith for the belt back in April it felt like this may be Sakais last chance atleast while Matthew Keith was still the champion, it was also to set up a big NEO v NEO main event. After his historic BOSJ win Toju Munkata hopes to climb his summit and reach the top of the junior heavyweight mountain. With a gradually growing number of new signings on the roster as the year progressed numerous people were vying and fighting for their place towards the top of the card, Summit Challenge was to see a number of special singles matches which may shape the title scene for the next few months. 

In other news a press release midway through the month announced that BHOTWG had come to an agreement with Canadian promotion All Canada Pro Wrestling for young lions to be sent out on excursion, this now gave BHOTWG a choice between Mexico and Canada when it came to excursion selections. 

Nippon Budokan - 16,800 SELL OUT

 

(Pre Show) Aio Bandai & Shiki Saito vs Takenori Doi & Teruki Nakayama 

Emerald Angel vs Reijiro Hiraki 

The Golden Army (SUKI, Gakusha & T 2000) vs NEO-X (Helikaon, Miyamoto & HDR) 

Masakazu Kaima vs Tsuneyo Yanagimoto 

BHOTWG World Tag Team Championships 

27th Champions NEO Prime (Ino & Masuno) vs NEO-X (Takemura & Sato) 

Gonkuro Kamioka vs Mabuchi Furusawa 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Championship 

50th Champion MYSTIC Dragon vs Toju Munkata 

BHOTWG World Championship 

34th Champion Matthew Keith vs Heihachiro Sakai 

After a fantastic main event Matthew Keith celebrated retaining his World Championship in what was his fourth defence of an ever increasingly impressive run with the belt, just as the streamers were about to reign down upon the ring The Golden Army slid in and took out Keith and the NEO Prime members in there with him (Toshitara and Gensai) the World Championship lay in the ring with all four Golden Army members transfixed up on it, after a short time it was Furusawa who picked it up, raised it above his head and with that the main event for Quest Of Heart was set. Toju Munkata was unable to complete his fairy-tale as he fell short of winning the Junior Heavyweight Championship, backstage he was confronted by Tsuneyo Yanagimoto who challenged for the title, MYSTIC telling him that he had only been here five minutes and should learn some respect before stepping up to him, he would instead allow Yanagimoto to prove himself at Quest Of Heart against a NEO-X member of his choosing. Koshiro Ino issued a challenge backstage to any overseas talent to face him 1v1 at Quest Of Heart, Ino had been disappointed with the relationship with TCW so far and wanted to see more foreign talents in BHOTWG. 

August Game World Round Up 

- SWF rise back to large 

- FEW (Fantastic Entertainment Wrestling) open in Mexico  

- FCW (Freedom Caribbean Wrestling) rise to small  

- SWF to air third TV show “SWF on TV!” 

[ShikariFC]

September 

Big contract renewal news to start the month as Emerald Angel was resigned to a four year exclusive written contract. Pretty Okakura featured across the tour in dark matches and was signed on a years deal at the end of the tour, the junior heavweight was a former EXODUS All Asian Junior Heavyweight Champion as well as a tag team champion in the promotion. Koshiro Ino was informed his wish was granted and he would face “x” at Quest Of Heart, all the information that was offered about “x” was that he worked for TCW. Across the tour Furusawa managed to pick up some wins against NEO Prime in warm up tags and held some real momentum going into his match against Matthew Keith. MYSTIC Dragon after rebuffing Tsuneyo Yanagimotos challenge sought to bolster his legacy by going after the Junior Tag Championships teaming with his stable mate Helikaon to face Junior Ace Team. 

Kobe Football Stadium - 26,333

 

(Pre Show) Ko Minamino & Aio Bandai vs Takenori Doi & Shiki Saito 

Hijo Del Relampago vs Tsuneyo Yanagimoto 

Hiroaki Nakasawa & Pretty Okakura vs The Golden Army (Takayuki 2000 & SUKI) 

NEO vs NEO Match 

NEO-X (Sugiyama, Sakai & Miyamoto) vs NEO Prime (Gensai, Toshitara & Masuno) 

Special Singles Match 

Hiroyasu Gakusha v Munemitsu Senmatsu 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships 

31st Champions Junior Ace Team vs NEO-X (MYSTIC Dragon & Helikaon) 

Ino vs “X” 

Koshiro Ino vs Joshua Taylor 

BHOTWG World Championship 

34th Champion Matthew Keith vs Mabuchi Furusawa  

 

The just over 26 thousand in attendance at the Kobe Football Stadium witnessed a shock in the main event as Mabuchi Furusawa submitted the former champion Matthew Keith and won the World Championship, the question had been asked in the past if Mabuchi could ever go near reaching the heights of his father Hanshiro, he may have silenced that question on this night. Backstage in the main events fallout NEO Prime threatened to implode, Keith was immediately chased down by an irate Koshiro Ino who couldn’t believe that Keith had lost NEO Prime the belt, Keiths tag team partner Tatsuya Toshitara rushed to his aid at which point the other members of NEO Prime had to rush in to prevent it getting physical. NEO Prime were also reeling from an earlier loss to a NEO-X team as the constant war between the two stables continued, NEO-X leader Heihachiro Sakai commented that he would speak in the ring during the next tour and it would be something everyone would want to hear. Junior Ace Team (Sensational Dragon & Emerald Angel) continued their hold on the junior tag division as they defended against NEO-X, MYSTIC Dragon aside from failing in his attempt to become MYSTIC two belts also saw Tsuneyo Yanagimoto pass his “challenge” and most likely make himself #1 contender.  

 

September Game World Round Up 

- TCW rise to big 

- SAISHO rise to small  

- TCW end agreement to accept workers on excursion from PGHW 

- Pablo Rodriguez sings exclusively for SWF  

- Edward Cornell signs exclusively for SWF

 

[ShikariFC]

October 

The month began with Kikkawa chasing new signings entering into contract talks with Dean Waldorf and Marv Statler who were collectively known as the ring generals, PGHW had been losing money each month and were unable to compete with BHOTWG contract offers. Tadiyuki Kikkawa had been pleased with Edd Stones participation in BOSJ and Joshua Taylor the previous month and was said to be planning on TCW involvement in the end of the year extravaganza that was Night Of The Burning Hammer, Kikkawa had moved the event back to the end of the year as he felt that it was best having the promotions showpiece event rounding off the year. Munemitsu Senmatsu was singed to a 4 year exclusive written contract extension. 

On the subject of Night Of The Burning Hammer, NEO-X leader Heihachiro Sakai challenged NEO Prime to end their war at the event, in a 4 v 4 match with the losing group disbanding forever, NEO Prime in the midst of a potential civil war were seen to be in a weak position and backed into a corner, NEO Prime accepted the challenge and hoped this would unite the group once more after the Ino/Keith fallout.  

Mabuchi Furusawas first defence was decided to be the leader of Senmatsu-gun Munemitsu Senmatsu, after his singles win at Quest Of Heart he managed to force his way to the front of the queue. Finally during the tour Crimson Ghost returned from an injury sustained during BOSJ. 

Osaka-jo Hall - 16,800 SELL OUT

 

(Pre Show) Shiki Saito & Teruki Nakayama vs Takenori Doi & Aio Bandai 

Hiroyasu Gakusha vs Hiroaki Nakasawa 

Rebel Run X vs NEO Prime (Tatsuya Toshitara & Masakazu Kaima) 

Pretty Okakura & Junior Ace Team vs Senmatsu-gun (Yamura, Munkata & Khan) 

NEO-X (Sakai, Helikaon & Takemura) vs NEO Prime (Keith, Gensai & Hiraki) 

BHOTWG World Tag Team Championships 

27th Champions NEO Prime (Ino & Masuno) vs The Ring Generals  

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Championship 

50th Champion MYSTIC Dragon vs Tsuneyo Yanagimoto 

BHOTWG World Championship 

35th Champion Mabuchi Furusawa vs Munemitsu Senmatsu 

 

Furusawa made his first defence against Munemitsu Senmatsu in a strong match though nothing out of this world, Senmatsu had been growing increasingly in popularity since the fans started taking more to Senmatsu-gun. Furusawa edged closer to going into Night Of The Burning Hammer as the World Champion, the question as to whom his final challenger would be before that night was soon answered as a video message appeared, initially quite cryptic it was revealed that at Shimotsuki at the end of November, Mabuchi Furusawa would be challenged by three time TCW World Heavyweight Champion Aaron Andrews!  

MYSTIC Dragon held off another challenge taking him to four defences, as a member of NEO X he would be hoping to represent the stable in the final NEO war at Night Of The Burning Hammer but how would that interfere with his title? That was the question leading into Novembers frozen tour. Dean Waldorf and Marv Statler came into BHOTWG with a bang and won the tag titles, meaning the pair have won tag gold in BHOTWG, NYCW, PSW, PGHW as well as a run with the COTT tag belts. Elsewhere across the card NEO Prime had a much needed good night including Matthew Keith leading them to victory in a 3v3 earlier in the card.  

October came to end with WLW attempting to make BHOTWG look stupid on many of their tour shows, WLW commentators openly taking shots at the product and BHOTWG wrestlers, as well as other underhand remarks. Tadiyuki Kikkawas vengeance would be swift and would set up a wild start to November and also in the process cause one of the biggest incidents in modern Japanese wrestling history. 

October Game World Round Up 

- WLW take shots at BHOTWG during tour shows (backfired) 

- PSW to debut show “PSW Crash TV”  

[ShikariFC]

OnDem x Burning Hammer Of The Wrestling Gods

Burning Hammer Of The Wrestling Gods are pleased to announce a partnership with internet subscription service OnDem, the partnership will see OnDem broadcast tour highlights in a deal signed for a year. BHOTWG CEO Tadiyuki Kikkawa had the following to say "I am delighted to sign this deal and in turn make BHOTWG accessible to the world" The deal now makes tour highlights viewable globally and Kikkawa would elaborate on what this means to him and the promotion "BHOTWG should be at the forefront of professional wrestling and this deal along with the partnership with our friends at Total Championship Wrestling will put more eyes on us globally than ever before" 

 

[Scottie]

I’m loving the TCW crossovers! It keeps things nice and fresh (and in a way that the default game World almost never does). The format is super easy to digest - well done!

[ShikariFC]

On 6/24/2023 at 12:51 AM, Scottie said:

I’m loving the TCW crossovers! It keeps things nice and fresh (and in a way that the default game World almost never does). The format is super easy to digest - well done!

Thank you! theres a few things ill address come the end of the game year mainly to do with the game mechanics of things like the alliance and how im trying to work around them

[ShikariFC]

November 

November was to start with the culmination of a chain of events that would shock the Japanese professional wrestling scene, after WLW (World Level Wrestling) had decided to take some digs at BHOTWG, Tadiyuki Kikkawa acted quickly and opened up the BHOTWG bank account and went on a sensational raid of WLW, including referees, road agents, their main announcer, the core of their roster with the exception of people with strong loyalty to WLW who would not be budged by money. The total list of signings were as follows... 

- Eagle Kawasawa who was a major star in WLW 

- Americana a WLW star & tag team champion 

- Panda Mask II a WLW star 

- Shogun Watoga a WLW star & one of the promotions brightest young talents  

- Akio who was well known & another one of the promotions brightest young talents 

- Necromancer who was well known 

- Frankie Dee who was wrestling under the name White Angel who was well known 

Ontop of these names BHOTWG also signed lead WLW announcer Isei Deushi, both of their referees and a road agent. Leaving WLW with not much more than their young lions and a handful of workers too loyal to them to leave (Masa Kurata the main name) Kikkawa had so far operated with a fairly modestly sized roster where pretty much everyone got ring time across tour shows at the very least, there were questions about how that would work going forward now with the addition of 7 in ring talents.  

The junior heavyweight question was answered when it was revealed that Toju Mukata would get a second chance at doing what he couldn’t do back in August and that’s to take the title off of MYSTIC. Towards the end of the tour Crimson Ghosts frankly horrific luck intensified, he picked up a torn rotator cuff just as he was being pushed up the card somewhat, he had been paired with White Angel in a tag team called Holy Ghost, ontop of this surgery proved unsuccessful and added to his projected time away, he would be out for over a year. 

Higashiosaka Stadium - 19,849 

(Pre Show) Aio Bandai, Shiki Saito & Ko Minamino vs Akio, Americana & Teruki Nakayama 

Eagle Kawasawa, Pretty Okakura & Tsuneyo Yanagimoto vs Shogun Watoga, White Angel & Necromancer  

NEO-X (Sakai, Helikaon, HDR & Miyamoto) vs Senmatsu-gun (Senmatsu, Khan, Yamura & Shimakage) 

Koshiro Ino vs SUKI 

Tag #1 Contender Match 

The Golden Army (Takayuki 2000 & Hiroyasu Gakusha) vs NEO-X (Takemura & Sato) vs Hiroaki Nakasawa & Takeori Doi 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Championship 

50th Champion MYSTIC Dragon vs Toju Munkata 

BHOTWG World Championship 

35th Champion Mabuchi Furusawa vs Aaron Andrews  

Furusawa successfully defended against TCW’s Aaron Andrews, after the match Matthew Keith appeared on the rampway which caught most by surprise, he was already to feature at Night Of The Burning Hammer, he would go on to tell the crowd and Furusawa that the champion would once again be showing why that title was called the WORLD championship... as he would next defend it against none other than his twin brother Greg Gauge. MYSTIC Dragon lost his grip on the junior title, maybe with one eye on the upcoming final NEO battle, Toju Munkata fulfilling his dream of reaching the top of the mountain after winning the Best Of The Super Juniors earlier in the year. The Golden Army would face The Ring Generals at Night Of The Burning Hammer, an interesting point to come out of the tag team #1 contenders match was that immediately after the event it was announced Takenori Doi would be going out on excursion with NYCW (New York City Wrestling) with whom BHOTWG had just partnered with. On the undercard new talents to the BHOTWG roster featured heavily, most coming in from WLW had settled well.  

November Game World Round Up

- Lucha Ryujin (Mexico) rise to small 

- EILL adopted a hostile attitude towards OLLIE 

- Rokuemon Matsushita & Suguru Emoto quit BCG 

- Steve Frehley leaves USPW and joins SWF 

- BCG rise to medium 

- Randy Bumfhole leaves SWF and joins USPW 

- EILL to send developmental workers to FCW 

 

[ShikariFC]

December 

The final month of the year and the build up to the end of year spectacle that is Night Of The Burning Hammer, the first time the event has been in December, one of Kikkawas first changes when he took over the company. Outside of BHOTWG in Japan a situation had been brewing in PGHW (Pride Glory Honour Wrestling) who had been leaking money for the whole year, in an attempt to arrest this they reduced their production values and live event experience, whether this would work or not time would tell as entering into December the promotion was in negative funds. PGHW were not the only Japanese promotion struggling financially, SAISHO between April and September had just about made a profit each month, though since then they had been losing money and were, at the time of writing, just about above 0. Talk began in the dirt sheets towards the end of November about the status of Matthew Keiths contract, whilst initially BHOTWG didn’t foresee any complications as we moved into December it transpired that Mexican promotion EILL (Empresa Internacional de Lucha Libre) had put a sizeable offer for Keith on the table, midway through the tour it was announced that Keith had signed a lucrative 3 year exclusive deal which would make him the second highest paid on the roster, as details emerged after the fact Kikkawa would reveal that he wasn’t certain that Keith would sign as EILL had made a very strong offer. In other contract news Ninja Shunji signed a years extension on a written deal. 

The legends tour itself bought the usual preview tag matches, other details about Night Of The Burning Hammer dripped down through the month, a special “IWGP match” was announced which would be a 3v3 match with wrestlers from TCW featuring side by side with BHOTWG talents. Kikkawa announced a press conference for after the event where he would be making a special announcement regarding 2021. The current longest reigning champions, Junior Ace Team, would face what looked to be their biggest challenge yet as they would be defending their championships in a 3 way tag match.  

Right at the end of the tour injury struck again, the time Helikaon landed on the shelf with a torn rotator cuff, surgery did prove completely successful and greatly reduced his time away, though he would still spend 3 months away, this also meant the pack had to be shuffled for the final NEO battle. 

Kobe Football Stadium – 30,000 SELL OUT 

(Pre Show) Aio Bandai vs Shiki Saito vs Teruki Nakayama 

(Pre Show) Gonkuro Kamioka wins Burning Rumble

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Championship  

51st Champion Toju Munkata vs Panda Mask II 

NEO-X (Sugiyama, Sato & Miyamoto) vs Senmatsu-gun (Khan, Shimakage & Yamura) 

IWGP 3V3 Match 

Joshua Taylor, Munemitsu Senmatsu & Bash Street vs Akio, Flying Jimmy Foxx & Hiroaki Nakasawa  

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships 

31st Champions Junior Ace Team vs Hit And Run vs Yanagimoto & Okakura  

NEO Final War – Loser Disbands 

NEO-Prime (Keith, Ino, Masuno & Toshitara) vs NEO-X (Sakai, MYSTIC Dragon, HDR & Takemura) 

BHOTWG World Tag Team Championships 

28th Champions The Ring Generals vs The Golden Army  

BHOTWG World Championship 

36th Champion Mabuchi Furusawa vs Greg Gauge 

A record crowd for the Kikkawa era saw the year come to a close with many talking points. In the main event Mabuchi Furusawa continued his reign in what was widely regarded as his best defence yet against TCWs Greg Gauge, many imagined he would be left to celebrate after the match however the appearance of Kinnojo Horri lit up the crowd, Horri had spent most of the year injured and it was still thought he was some way off returning, he told Furusawa that his days with the championship were numbered, he mocked Furusawa for having “exhibition matches” against TCW talent rather than proper defences, Horri didn’t put a date on his challenge but it was clear that in 2021 Horri would step into the ring to face Furusawa. In somewhat of a surprise The Ring Generals (Dean Waldorf & Marv Statler) successfully defended against Gakusha and Takayuki 2000 of The Golden Army, this really solidifying them as a big deal. Much talk before the event revolved around the NEO final war, NEO-X had suffered the loss of Helikaon to injury and on paper it seemed they were at a disadvantage, it was however NEO-X that won after 22 minutes when Heihachiro Sakai pinned Koshiro Ino, NEO-X now rebranding as NEO reverting to the classic black and white colours, the obvious question after this was what would become of NEO Primes members, where would they end up? BHOTWG after this only had three active stables which seemed low. Junior Ace Team continued their grip on the junior tag team division despite finding themselves in a three way defence. The IWGP 3v3 match saw Joshua Taylor return to Japan after his appearance earlier in the year and also saw Bash Street and Flying Jimmy Foxx come over, Bash Street impressed and it was expected that he may return again. In the opener Toju Munkata made his first defence against Panda Mask II who had settled nicely into life with BHOTWG after his move from WLW with many others in November, it was a great match however the talking point came after the match when Senmatsu-gun members filled the ring apparently to celebrate with their stable mate only to viciously attack him and leave him down and not looking like a champion at all, this got huge heat in the arena as the crowd had really warmed to Senmatsu-gun in recent times. Senmatsu-gun also had a victorious member in the Burning Rumble in the pre show, Gonkuro Kamioka winning, SUKI had the most eliminations during the match.  

December Game World Round Up 

- CWA (Canadian Wrestling Alliance) rise to big 

- GSW (Grimm SoCal Wrestling) rise to small 

- PGHW stabilise financially due to reduction in production values  

[ShikariFC]

Burning Hammer Of The Wrestling Gods 

End of Year Announcement

Shortly after the conclusion of Night Of The Burning hammer Tadiyuki Kikkawa addressed the gathered press to discuss numerous issues relating to how the year of 2021 would look for BHOTWG

First up was the restructuring of the event calendar which in turn encompassed all of what was to be announced today with numerous new events and some existing ones changed around

January

New Years Flame - New event to the calendar which would open the year
Fighting Start Tour 
BHOTWG Fighting Start 

February

Warrior Globe Tour  - Warrior Globe & its preceding tour would now be an international event, in 2021 it would take place in both Canada and USA 

BHOTWG Warrior Globe

March

Syndicate Tour

BHOTWG Syndicate Of Fire - New event

April

Prophecy Tour

BHOTWG Test Of Prophecies

May

Fire Dream Cup

BHOTWG Fire Dream Of The Immortals - Event moved from its traditional spot in March, the event will also host the final of The Fire Dream Cup, a new knockout heavyweight tournament to take place across the month of may 

BHOTWG Anniversary Show 

June

Hammer Tour

BHOTWG The Warriors Hammer - New event

July

BOSJ Tour

Best Of The Super Juniors

August

Summit Tour

BHOTWG Summit Challenge

September

Quest Tour

BHOTWG Quest Of Heart

October

Harvest Tour

BHOTWG Burning Harvest - New event

November

Frozen Tour

BHOTWG Shimotsuki

December 

Legends Tour

BHOTWG Night Of The Burning Hammer

Kikkawa introduced a number of new events and some talking points to go with it. First off the introduction of New Years Flame, the event was intended to be a clean break for the start of the new year, basing new feuds and challengers and it was thought that the event would each year host a surprise of one description or another. The start of the year was to experience the most upheaval and change overall as February would see the BHOTWG roster move abroad for the best part of a month, Kikkawa spoke with excitement about the opportunity to extend the burning path to overseas markets. 2021s Warrior Globe tour would start in Canada and conclude in America. 

Later in the year would see the introduction of the Fire Dream Cup, a new elimination format competition for heavyweights, Kikkawa had the following to say "Right from the moment I took control I wanted to create a tournament to compliment the BOSJ for the heavyweights, though rather than a league format this will be a knockout tournament which will hopefully give us some exciting match ups" there was some speculation as to whether the tournaments winner would go onto challenge the world champion, something which Kikkawa would neither confirm or deny. 

[ShikariFC]

End Of Year Awards

2020

 

Wrestler Of The Year – Aaron Andrews (TCW) first time winner  

Company Of The Year- Total Championship Wrestling

Team Of The Year – Jack & Ricky DeColt (CWA) 

Match Of The Year – Edward Cornell vs Adam Matravers (21CW) 

Show Of The Year – TCW Psycho Circus  

Young Wrestler Of The Year – Robby Griffin (CWA) 

Veteran Wrestler Of The Year – Jack DeColt (CWA) 

Female Wrestler Of The Year – Lauren Easter (CWA) 

Most Improved Company – Supreme Wrestling Federation 

Independent Wrestler Of The Year – Funakoshi (BCG) 

Manager Of The Year – Drake Young  (CWA) 

Announcer Of The Year – Duane Fry (SWF) 

Colour Commentator Of The Year – Emma Chase (SWF, currently unemployed) 

Referee Of The Year – Doppo Ibu (SAISHO/PGHW/BHOTWG) 

OOC - CWA really cleaning up on these awards! the only mention for BHOTWG is one of the refs

[ShikariFC]

End Of 2020 Continued 

 

Biggest Fanbases In Japan 

United States Pro Wrestling

Burning Hammer Of The Wrestling Gods

Pride Glory Honour Wrestling 

World Level Wrestling

Black Canvas Grappling 

Biggest Fanbases In World 

United States Pro Wrestling

Supreme Wrestling Federation

Total Championship Wrestling 

21st Century Wrestling

Burning Hammer Of The Wrestling Gods

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by ShikariFC

[ShikariFC]

BHOTWG 2020 Review 

Current Champions

BHOTWG World Champion - Mabuchi Furusawa 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Champion - Toju Munkata 

BHOTWG World Tag Team Champions - The Ring Generals (Dean Waldorf & Marv Statler) 

BHOTWG Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships - Junior Ace Team (Sensational Dragon & Emerald Angel) 

Top Five Events

Sword Of Destiny (May) 85

Summit Challenge 5 (August) 85

Quest Of Heart (September) 82

BOSJ Day 2 (July) 81

The Burning Path V (January) 81

Top Five Matches

Sensational Dragon vs Emerald Angel (Fire Dream Of The Immortals, March) 91

Matthew Keith vs Heihachiro Sakai (Test Of Prophecies, August) 88

Matthew Keith vs Hiroaki Nakasawa (Sword Of Destiny, May) 88

Junior Ace Team vs Helikaon & MYSIC Dragon (Quest Of Heart, September) 87

Emerald Angel & Elemental III vs Sesnational Dragon & MYSTIC Dragon (The Burning Path V, January) 86

 

 

[ShikariFC]

A Year In The Books! 

So that's a year done! thanks to everyone who's replied or liked the posts! I wasn't sure how many people would read or how long I would carry on posting but I have been enjoying tidying up the notes id made into this format, I'm well into 2021 on the save so I've plenty of months of the new year to post, which I think I will do! Just wanted to post about some things that happened through the save to this point and add some ooc context to a few bits that went on/are going on

Use Of The Editor/ Excursions

Both of these topics sort of blend into one, the game does not do the excursion system well at all, I've played BCG into the 2030's in the past so I already knew this, so what I've had to do with the two workers that start off in Mexico is edit their pop up and up til they started getting bookings (had to up their Mexican pop to 40) the next problem I had was one of my own making, when I began the save I didn't activate Europe, not really realising BHOTWG had a European affiliate for excursions, so Masaya Hara was doing nothing, I had to get CWW to hire him so he has something to do, and again along the same lines when I sent Takenori Doi to America I bumped his pop so he would get booked. Whilst I love the excursion system IRL it really just doesn't work on the game, I have toyed with the idea of setting up a developmental company and call it something like "Tokyo City Wrestling" and maybe just using excursions for the odd worker. 

Finances

So generally every promotion in the world just banks money - I have set up a few future economic crisis's to try and negate this a little bit. PGHW for a while were losing 6 figures a month and I at one point thought id be buying them out for them to be my developmental but they lowered all their production values and such and ended up turning it around. SAISHO are losing money each month but its usually 500/600 dollars a month and its not going to cause a problem for a long time. FCW look like they are going out of business within the next game year. 

Matthew Keith Contract

I wasn't expecting anyone else to offer a deal, least of all EILL, after they made the offer he was listed as preferring their deal, I offered again and then it said he was seriously considering both at which point I just left it down to the game, in hindsight its a good thing he did sign as the heavyweight division at the top end of the card for a company of BHOTWG size isn't the best and Keith its probably the top performer, if not top second. 

WLW War

So id been thinking of some ideas for narratives to run along side the regular title matches etc and this fell into my lap once I saw the news items that they had tried to sabotage shows. In reality it didn't really have any effect on WLW, I couldn't take their top guy (Masa Kurata) cause of his loyalty, I guess in reflection I could have signed him anyway and he would have prioritised bookings with BHOTWG but id rather have had him exclusive. After gutting their roster, taking announcers, refs, road agents it didn't really effect them, they lost about 5 points at most of their shows and within a few weeks they had replaced the key staff. 

Changes To Calendar

From a story perspective I liked the idea of a new owner wanting to put his stamp on things, from a game perspective cause every single event was set to highly regarded atleast it was causing me problems every month with workers being unhappy if they were left off the card so by adding some new stuff that balances that out a little bit. Also the addition of a heavyweight tournament just seemed to make sense. 

Signings

So I've tried in the main to not go OTT with signings. Within Japan the people id really want have loyalty preventing exclusive deals. I was pleased to get Furusawa though its taken A LOT to get him from unimportant to well known. I'm having the same problem with Okakura and Yanagimoto. Overseas stars I've resisted the temptation to sign Youngman, I did it on my long term BCG save and he turns into an absolute beast, same for Wolfsbaine. Into 2021 I have made one American signing, someone whom is a bit of a more outside name when it comes to the usual TEW indie guys, or at least I think so anyway. 

Graphics/Mods

Im running a couple of future worker mods (hence Shiki Saito) and also just wanted to say the usual thank yous to the graphics makers of the forums

Edited July 11, 2023 by ShikariFC