Hiroshi Tanahashi has answered the wishes of President Sugabayashi and will challenge mentor Keiji Muto for the IWGP Heavyweight Title at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th! Tanahashi and Muto have a storied history, with Tana unable to defeat the man he has looked up to, but earlier this year in the Champion Carnival, battling him to a time limit draw. The next logical step would be to defeat him, but logic doesn’t always work and Muto will look to defy any patterns like he did when he deprived Nakamura of a revenge win in October. The 1/4 show will both be a live PPV and have a TV Asahi special, running for 90 minutes from 1AM hours after the event finishes.

NJPW “WRESTLE KINGDOM III IN TOKYO DOME”, 1/4/09 (WPW/PPV)
Tokyo Dome

1. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Keiji Muto (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Tanahashi has cancelled all of his TNA appearances, which is probably for the best given how “well” he was being positioned on cards there. He will compete on all shows on the upcoming “CIRCUIT 2008 NEW JAPAN ALIVE” as the center point, with two big singles matches on the two major shows - against Bernard in Aichi (one year after he defeated the gaijin ace in the same building) and against Makabe in Osaka.

NJPW, 11/22/08 (SXW)
Chichibu Miya Memorial Gymnasium

1. Ryusuke Taguchi & Yujiro vs. Low Ki & Jado
2. Riki Choshu & Masahiro Chono vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Tomoaki Honma
3. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson
4. HIGH FLYING STAR come back to FUJISAWA!: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Hirooki Goto & Tetsuya Naito vs. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka & Gedo

NJPW, 11/23/08
Mie Prefectural Sun Arena Sub Arena

1. Mitsuhide Hirasawa vs. Takashi Iizuka
2. Riki Choshu, Ryusuke Taguchi, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito vs. Low Ki, Jado, Gedo & Tomoaki Honma
3. Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto vs. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii
4. HIGH FLYING STAR come back to ISE!: Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Togi Makabe, Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson

NJPW, 11/24/08
Hyogo Prefectural Budokan

1. Kazuchika Okada vs. Takashi Iizuka
2. Riki Choshu, Ryusuke Taguchi, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito vs. Low Ki, Jado, Gedo & Tomohiro Ishii
3. Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma
4. HIGH FLYING STAR come back to HIMEJI!: Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toru Yano, Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson

NJPW, 11/25/08
Kyoto KBS Hall

1. Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono & AKIRA vs. Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii & Tomoaki Honma
2. Shinsuke Nakamura, Hirooki Goto & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson & Low Ki
3. HIGH FLYING STAR come back to KYOTO!: Yuji Nagata, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito vs. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Jado & Gedo

NJPW, 11/27/08 (SXW)
Hiroshima Trade Center

1. AKIRA vs. Takashi Iizuka
2. Ryusuke Taguchi, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito vs. Low Ki, Jado & Gedo
3. Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto vs. Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson
4. HIGH FLYING STAR come back to HIROSHIMA!: Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono, Yuji Nagata & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii & Tomoaki Honma

NJPW, 11/28/08
Matsuyama City Community Center

1. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Takashi Iizuka & Tomoaki Honma
2. Riki Choshu & Masahiro Chono vs. Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson
3. Shinsuke Nakamura, Hirooki Goto & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii & Low Ki
4. HIGH FLYING STAR come back to MATSUYAMA!: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito vs. Togi Makabe, Jado & Gedo

NJPW, 11/29/08
Tex Port Imabari

1. Wataru Inoue, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito vs. Jado, Gedo & Tomohiro Ishii
2. Riki Choshu, Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Takashi Iizuka, Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson
3. HIGH FLYING STAR come back to IMABARI!: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Hirooki Goto & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Tomoaki Honma & Low Ki

NJPW, 12/1/08
Tokushima Municipal Gymnasium

1. Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Takashi Iizuka, Tomoaki Honma & Low Ki
3. Shinsuke Nakamura, Hirooki Goto, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito vs. Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson, Jado & Gedo
3. HIGH FLYING STAR come back to TOKUSHIMA!: Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii

NJPW, 12/6/08 (WPW)
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium

1. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & AKIRA vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Tomoaki Honma & Karl Anderson
2. Milano Collection AT & Taichi Ishikari vs. Minoru & Kazuchika Okada
3. Ryusuke Taguchi, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito vs. Low Ki, Jado & Gedo
4. Wataru Inoue vs. Takashi Iizuka
5. Riki Choshu & Masahiro Chono vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto
6. New Japan vs. ZERO1-MAX: Yuji Nagata & Koji Kanemoto vs. Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka
7. IWGP Tag Team Title: Togi Makabe & Toru Yano (c) vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie
8. HIGH FLYING STAR going to TOKYO DOME ~prominence~: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Giant Bernard

NJPW, 12/7/08 (Samurai! TV)
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium

1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Jado & Gedo
2. Koji Kanemoto, Tiger Mask & Kazuchika Okada vs. Milano Collection AT, Minoru & Taichi Ishikari
3. Riki Choshu, Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue vs. Masahiro Chono, Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA
4. Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Takashi Iizuka & Tomohiro Ishii
5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Low Ki (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
6. Wrestle Kingdom Duel for Existence ~tempest~: Hirooki Goto vs. Giant Bernard
7. Wrestle Kingdom Duel for Existence ~sublimation~: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Toru Yano
8. Wrestle Kingdom Duel for Existence ~prominence~: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Togi Makabe

Finally, the Complete Players vs. Ookami Gundan in a battle of reuniting trios has been made official for the 12/26 PREMIUM show at Korakuen Hall.

PREMIUM, 12/26/08 (Samurai! TV)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall

- PREMIUM VIANDE ~ Ookami Gundan vs. Complete Players: Masahiro Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito vs. Masato Tanaka , Jado & Gedo

PREMIUM’s Boxing Day offering features the reunion of the Complete Players! Yes, after many years, Masato Tanaka, Jado, and Gedo reunite against a trio yet to be named. The Complete Players developed a good track record as a unit, starting in FMW, before breaking away during the company’s dying days and even running their own independent show. They will be joined in reunion by Chono, Tenzan, and Hiro Saito, who may end up as opponents for the Complete Players. The interviewer brought up Tanaka being opposed to Jado and Gedo’s GBH boss, Makabe, and they called this a separate venture, though noted that Makabe probably wouldn’t second them to avoid a dispute.

Meanwhile, Jado & Gedo completed the signing ceremony for their 12/7 shot at Yujiro & Naito’s IWGP Jr. Tag Team Title. Both teams put pen to paper, and old dog Kantaro Hoshino showed up promising to enforce sanctions against GBH like he did to Gedo on 9/21 when he tried to interfere in the Muto vs. Makabe match. Hoshino got really angry at the two today and ended up trying to attack them. Gedo said he would prepare a seat for the elderly at ringside for President Hoshino. Naito, who was quiet for the duration, talked about Jado & Gedo’s reputation as a world class tag team, and called it past talk, saying the time of NO LIMIT is here. He and Yujiro plan to overcome this challenge and dream of making their first Tokyo Dome appearances on January 4th.

Nakanishi & Hirasawa returned to ZERO1-MAX again for a couple of matches recently.

ZERO1-MAX, 11/15/08
Kurihara Takashimizu Sports Center

- Manabu Nakanishi & Mitsuhide Hirasawa beat Shinjiro Otani & Shito Ueda (13:20) when Nakanishi used an Argentine backbreaker on Ueda.

ZERO1-MAX, 11/16/08
Iwaki Municipal Gymnasium

- Kohei Sato & Ryouji Sai beat Manabu Nakanishi & Mitsuhide Hirasawa (13:54) when Sai used the Nachi Waterfall on Hirasawa.