Note: If you look through the 2001 results, you'll see "Buy" links next to shows. These are external links to Highspots and are an easy, non-intrusive way of finding shows. The majority of 2001 non-SXW/ISM/PPV (which are also there) "Buy" links to TV tapings are to *unedited* satellite versions of shows (2:00 to 2:30 usually, longer for Dome shows), rather than the 60 minute national show, which for obvious reasons are clipped up a lot.

Jun Akiyama returned at today's NOAH show after resting an injury suffered at the Tokyo Dome on 1/4.

NOAH, 1/12/02
Takamatsu Cultural Center
2,200 Fans

1. Haruka Eigen & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi beat Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota (11:45) when Kikuchi used a cradle on Momota.
2. Michael Modest beat Matt Murphy (6:17) with a modified Octopus hold.
3. Jun Izumida & Masashi Aoyagi beat Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone (14:53) when Izumida used a Meteorite punch on Yone.
4. Scorpio beat Richard Slinger (12:18) by pinfall.
5. Juventud Guerrera & Donovan Morgan beat Naomichi Marufuji & Makoto Hashi (16:09) when Guerrera used a Michinoku Driver II on Hashi.
6. Akitoshi Saito & Kentaro Shiga beat Takuma Sano & Kishin Kawabata (15:57) when Shiga used a cross armbreaker on Kawabata.
7. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio beat Bull Schmidt & Bison Smith (8:10) when Morishima used a backdrop suplex on Schmidt.
8. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa beat Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (10:53) when Misawa used a Tiger Driver on Kanemaru.
9. Akira Taue, Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue beat Takao Omori, Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura (24:02) when Inoue used an Argentine backbreaker on Sugiura.

Nobutaka Araya vs. Mitsuya Nagai will be the Baba Cup Final on the 1/14 tour climax. Most people expected Tanaka to be there, but Tenryu's former #2, Araya, advanced. Tenryu himself made short work of Honma and today's show, besides the main event, resembled a WWF show for match lengths. Liger and New Japan young lion, Tanahashi, took on BATT members in the main event, which was originally going to be Kawada vs. Arashi.

AJPW, 1/11/02
Osaka Central Gymnasium
1,500 Fans (Sell Out)

1. Giant Baba Cup - Block B: Kazushi Miyamoto [8] beat Gran Naniwa [9] (8:06) with a back cradle.
2. Giant Baba Cup - Block A: Nobukazu Hirai [11] beat Hideki Hosaka [8] (4:30) with a Rock Bottom.
3. Giant Baba Cup - Block A: Mitsuya Nagai [24] beat Shigeo Okumura [14] (7:16) with the Hyper Knee.
4. Giant Baba Cup - Block B: Nobutaka Araya [21] vs. Masato Tanaka [19] went to a draw (20:00) when the time limit expired.
5. Mike Rotundo beat Yaz Urano (3:07) with a Blockbuster.
6. Genichiro Tenryu beat Tomoaki Honma (2:32) with a brainbuster.
7. Steve Williams, Mike Barton & Jim Steele beat Abdullah The Butcher, George Hines & Ryuji Hijikata (10:12) when Steele used the Turbo Drop II on Hijikata.
8. Toshiaki Kawada beat Arashi (6:06) with an enzuigiri.
9. Taiyo Kea & Hiroshi Hase beat Jushin Thunder Liger & Hiroshi Tanahashi (21:01) when Hase used a northern lights suplex hold on Tanahashi.

When Strong Style Spirit debuted in early-to-mid 2001, I didn't expect it to get such a following. Well, it did. However, with F2S ceasing free hosting next months, I had to pursue other options. The successful option was the largely popular Highspots, who decided to host my sites in this brand new domain. So here it is. I'll be adding some Highspots stuff to pay the bills so to speak, but nothing intrusive like what you see at 1wrestling and many other big sites.

Everything will remain the same. Up-to-the-minute results and a deep and ever-growing archive of information. Recently, two friends of the site, Brandon Thurston and Alistair Nixon, sent in Kenta Kobashi and Toshiaki Kawada biographies respectively, and since they did such a good job, I posted them, rather than write my own. It took a lot of messing around to get everything fully operational, so if you find any 404 or other errors on the page, please email me.

Speaking of which, I also have a new email address. I'm not going to print it in text here, as an anti-spam measure, but it's the "Contact Me" link down the left or stuart AT puroresufan DOT com.

My other site, Wrestling Viewpoint!, is now located at http://www.puroresufan.com (so that is in the root directory and SSS is in the /njpw directory). I know a lot of people have linked to my site(s), so if you have, I'd be grateful if you could update your links, as the F2S URL will be dead in a month. Also, those who frequently visit the site, please update your bookmarks.

Enjoy the content. There is a pretty big All Japan tour show tonight, featuring Tenryu vs. Honma, Kea & Hase vs. Liger & Tanahashi and Kawada vs. Honma.