–> “CIRCUIT 2008 NEW JAPAN ALIVE” <--
Hiroshi Tanahashi's ninth win in a row ensured he is in great form still ahead of his Tokyo Dome match with Keiji Muto. Today's opponent was a man he fought in the same building a year ago, Giant Bernard, and despite GBH's best effort, the result was the same, two High Fly Flows making the difference. MVP will still be tag kings going into the 1/4 show, after Makabe & Yano made a successful V4 defense of their IWGP Tag Team Title over Nakanishi & Yoshie, revenge from the G1 Tag League. Makabe landed his top rope King Kong kneedrop on old rival Yoshie, and the GBH team now look on a collision course with either or both of Team 3D or TenKoji on 1/4, the latter team having reached the final of All Japan's tag league today, in which they will face Suwama & Shuji Kondo on Monday. Masato Tanaka scored tag revenge for his singles loss to Nagata in October, that deprived him of ZERO1-MAX's World Heavyweight Title as Emblem bested Nagata & Kanemoto today. Tanaka's big win came following a Sliding D and he made demands for a rematch against Nagata to try and take the belt back to 01, with a 1/4 match seeming possible, moreso if Nagata defeats Takaiwa in his next defense of the title.

RISE's Nakamura & Goto, continuing to bounce back from their G1 Tag League disappointment, won big today by beating Legend's Choshu & Chono, Nakamura forcing Power Hall to submit to a cross armbreaker. Nakamura then made the challenge that the magazines suggested was coming, calling out NOAH boss Mitsuharu Misawa for a fight at the Tokyo Dome. Although a singles match seems unlikely at the present stage, what is likely is a Nakamura & Goto vs. Misawa & X (Jun Akiyama being the leading candidate) super tag match on January 4th.

NJPW, 12/6/08 (WPW)
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium
8,500 Fans - No Vacancy

0. Mitsuhide Hirasawa beat Nobuo Yoshihashi (6:41) with the Hira Bottom.
1. Tomohiro Ishii, Tomoaki Honma & Karl Anderson beat Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & AKIRA (10:10) when Ishii used a brainbuster on AKIRA.
2. Milano Collection AT & Taichi Ishikari beat Minoru & Kazuchika Okada (12:13) when Milano used a super scrap kick on Okada.
3. Low Ki, Jado & Gedo beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito (14:43) when Jado pinned Naito.
4. Takashi Iizuka beat Wataru Inoue (11:39) with a Jigoku Tsuki.
5. Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto beat Riki Choshu & Masahiro Chono (9:34) when Nakamura used a cross armbreaker on Choshu.
6. New Japan vs. ZERO1-MAX: Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka beat Yuji Nagata & Koji Kanemoto (14:50) when Tanaka used the Sliding D on Nagata.
7. IWGP Tag Team Title: Togi Makabe & Toru Yano (c) beat Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie (21:11) when Makabe used a top rope King Kong kneedrop on Yoshie (4th defense).
8. HIGH FLYING STAR going to TOKYO DOME ~prominence~: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Giant Bernard (17:43) with the High Fly Flow.