The 2002 Fire Festival continued today in Osaka, with four more matches taking place. The highlight was a battle of eternal rivals, two men who have waged some classic wars in the past, Masato Tanaka and Kintaro Kanemura. The match went to a referee stop, which is usually a decision reserved for when one guy dominates another, whereas a double non-finish is called a no contest. Not sure what the deal is, but the match lasted close to 16 minutes before ending. A big update today saw TAKA Michinoku cradle King (Samoa) Joe for his first victory in the tournament. Only partial, sketchy results available so far. More later in the Z1 results section.

ZERO-ONE, 7/30/02 (Samurai! TV)
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium #2

1. Kuroge Wagyuta & Fugofugo Yumeji vs. Yoshito Sasaki & Shinsuke Sumiya
2. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Spanky & C.W. Anderson
3. Shinjiro Otani & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Kohei Sato & Ryouji Sai
4. Fire Festival - Block B: Yuki Ishikawa [2] beat Steve Corino [2] (9:02) with a triangle choke hold.
5. Fire Festival - Block B: Hirotaka Yokoi [2] beat Tetsuhiro Kuroda [0] (8:45) by referee stop.
6. Fire Festival - Block A: TAKA Michinoku [2] beat King Joe [2] (6:38) with a cradle.
7. Fire Festival - Block A: Masato Tanaka [1] vs. Kintaro Kanemura [1] went to a referee stop (15:49).
8. Tom Howard & The Predator beat Shinya Hashimoto & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (10:12) when Predator pinned Fujiwara.

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Real-time results of tomorrow's Z1 Korakuen Hall show will be available here at SSS, barring any unforseen circumstances. Looks like a very good show. Check back tomorrow for the usual real-time message on the front page.

ZERO-ONE, 7/31/02 (Samurai! TV)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall

1. Fire Festival - Block A: Shinjiro Otani vs. Masato Tanaka
2. Fire Festival - Block A: TAKA Michinoku vs. Kintaro Kanemura
3. Fire Festival - Block B: Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Steve Corino
4. Fire Festival - Block B: Kohei Sato vs. Hirotaka Yokoi
5. Kuroge Wagyuta & Fugofugo Yumeji vs. Kamikaze & Shinsuke Sumiya
6. Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Naohiro Hoshikawa & Yoshito Sasaki vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Sekimoto
7. ZERO-ONE/NWA/UPW Jr. Heavyweight Title: Spanky (c) vs. C.W. Anderson
8. Shinya Hashimoto, Kazuhiko Ogasawara & Ryouji Sai vs. Tom Howard , The Predator & King Joe

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- Because he'll be sending Yoshinobu Kanemaru and probably some other juniors (there are rumours of a three way six man tag, ala Toryumon, with New Japan vs. NOAH vs. Team 2000 juniors) to New Japan's 8/29 Tokyo Nippon Budokan convention, Misawa has asked New Japan to send three wrestlers to work their 8/29 Nagano Movement Park Gymnasium, which isn't a TV taping, but I'm sure would become one (at least for the NJ involvement match) if guys were sent. Leading candidates right now are Tatsumi Fujinami, Osamu Nishimura and Yutaka Yoshie, who could comprise a six man tag team. Since Fujita is booking the 8/29 show, I doubt these three would have much of a big role on the show anyway.

- Yuji Nagata said he isn't interested in competing for the NWF Heavyweight Title, wanting to focus on his IWGP Heavyweight Title. Doesn't look like we'll see the much expected Nagata vs. Fujita rematch any time soon, as Fujita will be focusing on the new (or old, but newly revived) belt. Fujita is trying to provoke Naoya Ogawa into competing with or against him and for the NWF belt, since it'd make sense for the "ultimate hybrid fighter" to fight over an Inoki title.

- Kenzo Suzuki sent a resounding "NO" answer to KENGO (Watanabe) in reply to his challenge for a match on the 10/14 Tokyo Dome show. Kenzo said it's meaningless unless the main event, which it wouldn't be, and has no interest in such a match right now.

- Kendo Ka Shin made an unannounced appearance in Portsmouth, England, yesterday, competing for the Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) promotion. Ka Shin showed up with, then wrestled Robby Brookside (who competed in New Japan's 1997 Best of the Super Jr. Tournament, where he actually defeated Chris Jericho). Surprisingly, All Japan's junior ace lost to the British star, but his AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title wasn't on the line (thanks to Tom Delves).

- Although not confirmed yet, Mitsuharu Misawa & Takuma Sano are expected to challenge Takeshi Rikio & Takeshi Morishima on NOAH's next tour, I'd guess on the 9/7 Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium show. The winner of that match is then expected to defend the belts against Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga on the "GRAND VOYAGE" Tokyo Nippon Budokan show on 9/23.

- Takashi Sugiura vs. Takashi Uwano on IWA Japan's 8/3 Sapporo Teisen Hall show will now be a PRIDE Rules Match, which I assume means there will be a rounds system, etc.

- Big Japan's Winger is the latest star on the verge of leaving the company, as he is having similar pay disputes to what drove Jun Kasai out of Dai Nihon recently. If they lost Winger, who is currently injured (which would make sense, because Kasai's medical bills weren't paid, and Winger may be in the same boat), they'd have very few stars left. There's talk of the company president, Shinya "The Great" Kojika, who is well over 50 now and probably closer to 60, coming out of his 3/4 retirement and doing Death Matches.

- Team 2000 star, AKIRA, has launched a new official website at http://akira.hmx.dk/ (don't ask me why it's hosted in Denmark). It has a great design and contains much information about his acting and wrestling careers, plus a diary that he often updates.

- I've decided not to bother with Michinoku Pro results for the time being. There simply aren't enough resources online to gather comprehensive results. However, I have made a start on Osaka Pro results, doing all from 10/99 (where the results begin, five months after the company started) to 2/00. Click here to see what I've done so far.

- Thanks again to all daily visitors at not just SSS, but WV!. July, despite not being over yet, has been another record month with over 1.1 million hits and 33,000 unique IPs visiting the domain from 7/1 to the end of 7/29.