The four-person Iron Road teams were drawn at the Yamashi Building, Iron Japan Pro Wrestling's headquarters, in Tokyo earlier today. The first round matches will take place at Nippon Budokan on January 21, with the next round of matches taking place the following night.
Iron Road is a short tournament that starts with 4 vs. 4 elimination matches in the first round. However, eliminations carry over into the next round for advancing sides. At the end of the road, the remaining members on the last team will fight each other for a shot at the IJPW World Wrestling Championship in the Battle Bash main event at the Tokyo Dome.
The current IJPW World Wrestling Champion is John Scroggs. He will choose his own challenger if he wins Iron Road.
The first night at Budokan is as follows...
*** MAIN EVENT ***
Iron Road First Round Match
Kayoko Komon, Jona Ziesemer, Big Ugly, and KANNON vs.
Paul Cannon, Mercy Monroe, Curt Fleischer, and Lolly Lea
Iron Road First Round Match
Fabulous Adrian Bagglio, Akuma Usami, Miyazaki Bokkai,
and Lainey Boyle vs. Muffin Vanderburg, Nate Narwin, Masuko
Matashichi, and Nobuyoki Katsushika
Iron Road First Round Match
Jackie Walters, Suda Tsukasa, Riddick, and John Scroggs
vs. HATOYAMA, Ricky Doyle, Danjuro Komatsuzaki, and AKIO
Iron Road First Round Match
Ricky Holt, Stan Ward, Hirano Denbe, and Satomi Asano
vs. Killer Komukai, Lorie Koenig, Fujimaro Odaka, and Vera Vicious
Japanese Commentators: Taka Shimura and
“Samurai X” Misao Sakurai
English Commentators: Yo Kurasawa and
Eric O'Flaherty
Iron Road Qualifying Match
Morio Kamisaka vs.
Vera Vicious
Kamisaka dedicated
this match to his tag partner, Michinori Osaragi, who got his neck
broken in May during the World Crown Tournament. He faced a difficult
challenge by taking on IJPW Television Champion and Naraku no Soko
member Vera Vicious.
Iron Road Qualifying Match
Ashley
Thorne vs. Muffin Vanderburg
Thorne
represented Naraku no Soko as she took on gaijin fan favorite Muffin
Vanderburg.
Tag
Team Match
Naraku
no Soko (KANNON and Akuma Usami) vs. Isamu Shinagami and Trista Capra
Naraku
no Soko faced another battle in Yokohama as KANNON and Usami took on
Isamu Shinagami and “The Original Deathmatch Queen” Trista Capra
– two individuals who have declared war on the dark faction, but
have yet to form anything beyond an informal alliance.
Six-Person
Tag Team Match
Doyle
Brothers (Ricky Doyle and Ronnie Doyle) and Suda Tsukasa vs. Dave
Manton, Stan Ward, and Fabulous Adrian Bagglio
At
Iron Road: Sapporo, the Doyle Brothers earned a shot at the IJPW
World Tag Team Championship after beating Manton and Ward, while
Tsukasa continued his Indian summer by defeating FAB for a shot at
the IJPW Television Championship. While Manton, Ward, and FAB came up
short in their number one contender matches in Sapporo, they had a
chance to get a little bit of revenge in Yokohama.
Iron Road Qualifying Match
Nobuyoki
Katsushika vs. J
Murda
Katsushika
defeated J Murda in the second round of the World Crown Tournament in
May. Murda had a chance for revenge, but it was a tall task as he
took on the beloved giant who's itching to get back on top in Iron
Japan Pro Wrestling. Katsushika is one-half of the World Tag Team
Champions and Team Crown holders, but everyone knows he feels
incomplete without the IJPW World Wrestling Championship. Katsushika
hasn't been shy about his intentions to be known as the first Ace of
IJPW.
Iron Road Qualifying Match
Sakura
Shizuka vs. Curt Fleischer
Fleischer
defeated Shizuka at World Crown – Night Seven in a non-tournament
match. Shizuka is the girlfriend and tag team partner of Nobuyoki
Katsushika, and Fleischer has run into him a few times this past year
in some memorable bouts. The rivalry between Fleischer and the Noble
Power couple continued in Yokohama.
Six-Person
Tag Team Match
Ultraviolence
Union (Ricky Holt, Teiji Shintaro and Jun Hageshii) vs. Jona
Ziesemer, El Loco, and Jackie Walters
Ricky
Holt continued his year-long feud with former mentor and legendary
luchadore El Loco, who has had a 2016 to forget. Jona Ziesemer has
had a year to forget too. After one victory over Shintaro in the
World Crown Tournament, Jona has endured a never-ending nightmare
that has seen him get stabbed in the throat with a fork and lose to
Shintaro. Hageshii looked to finally get payback after famously
getting knocked out quickly by Jackie Walters in Iron Road qualifying
in Fukuoka. Hageshii has been seen as the weak link in the
Ultraviolence Union because he's tapped out numerous times to cost
his team the match.
*** MAIN EVENT ***
IJPW
World Wrestling Championship
Riddick
vs. (c) John Scroggs
Riddick
is the current IJPW World Crown holder. He defeated John Scroggs in
the tournament final at the Tokyo Dome in May, and he used that
reasoning when challenging Scroggs to a title match at the Yokohama
Arena. Riddick has kept up a hectic schedule while competing in both
IJPW and Death Trip Wrestling, and fans saw it catch up to him when
John Scroggs knocked him out with a chokeslam in Sapporo during an
eight-person tag team match.
Japanese Commentators: Taka Shimura and
“Samurai X” Misao Sakurai
English Commentators: Yo Kurasawa and
Eric O'Flaherty
Iron Road Qualifying
Match
Nayoko
Kon vs. AKIO
Kon, a student at
the IJPW Dojo, came in needing a big upset against a popular fan
favorite.
Iron Road Qualifying
Match
Takamuku
Arai vs. Hirano Denbe
Takamuku Arai has
continued to make the transition from sumo wrestling to professional
wrestling with impressive results, but the Sumo Hall Playboy drew the
ire of Hirano Denbe – one of the ruthless straight-faced trainers
at the IJPW Dojo.
Iron Road Qualifying
Match
Astro Honami vs. HATOYAMA
These
two junior heavyweights have been a tag team. While they have fought
each other before, the stakes were never higher as these two knew
that a World title shot was at the end of the Iron Road!
Iron Road Qualifying
Match
Lainey
Boyle vs. Isamu Shinagami
Two
former IJPW Television Champions collided! Shinagami lost the belt
more recently and has hit a bump in the road in his battle with
Naraku no Soko. In Sapporo, he found himself against the feisty
Boston Bitch!
#1
Contender for IJPW Television Championship
Suda
Tsukasa vs. Fabulous Adrian Bagglio
Both
of these men qualified for the Iron Road matches at Budokan Hall in
January. In Sapporo, after putting in impressive performances since
the start of the Iron Road, these two men fought for a shot at Vera
Vicious' IJPW Television Championship!
#1
Contenders for IJPW World Tag Team Championship
Doyle
Brothers (Ricky Doyle and Ronnie Doyle) vs. Dave Manton and Stan Ward
Two
hard-hitting gaijin tag teams competed for a shot at the World Tag
Team Championship, which is held by Team Crown holders Nobuyoki
Katsushika and Sakura Shizuka – Noble Power.
Eight-Person
Tag Team Match
Noble
Power (Nobuyoki Katsushika and Sakura Shizuka), Muffin Vanderburg,
and Morio Kamisaka vs. Curt Fleischer, Naraku no Soko (Ashley Thorne
and Vera Vicious), and J Murda
A
preview for the Iron Road qualifiers in Yokohama on December 23,
where we will see: Death Crown holder Curt Fleischer vs. World Tag
Team Champion and Team Crown holder Sakura Shizua, World Tag Team
Champion and Team Crown holder Nobuyoki Katsushika vs. J Murda,
Ashley Thorne vs. Muffin Vanderburg, and IJPW Television Champion
Vera Vicious vs. Morio Kamisaka. Katsushika has had a few memorable
battles with Fleischer this past year, with Fleischer winning the
last one in defense of the World Wrestling Championship. Noble Power
and Thorne/Vicious have fought in the Team Crown Final and in a
Landmine Deathmatch for the World Tag Team titles, with Noble Power
winning both times. Vicious and Shizuka have been locked in a feud,
where Vicious recently successfully defended her TV title against her
rival.
*** MAIN EVENT ***
Eight-Person Tag Team
Match
Ultraviolence Union
(Riddick, Ricky Holt, Teiji Shintaro, and Jun Hageshii) vs. John
Scroggs, Nate Narwin, Jona Ziesemer, and El Loco
John Scroggs will defend the IJPW World
Wrestling Championship against World Crown holder Riddick at Yokohama
Arena on December 23. Riddick defeated Scroggs in the World Crown
Final at the Tokyo Dome in May. Ricky Holt has been in a heated
rivalry with legendary junior heavyweight El Loco, who once trained
Holt. Loco lost their only singles encounter so far. Teiji Shintaro's
stabbing on Jona Ziesemer in the throat still haunts the German man,
who beat Teiji in the World Crown Tournament, but has lost to him in
other encounters. Nate Narwin lost to Riddick in a brutal Death Crown
Tournament match and, while him and Riddick have a lot of respect for
one another, Narwin looked to get revenge. Narwin and Scroggs are
known to hang out together backstage, but their friendship doesn't go
further than that.
