New GHC Jr. Champion!

Bit of a surprise at the pre-Christmas SEM show where Zero-One MAX's Tatsuhito Takaiwa defeated Takashi Sugiura to win his second GHC Jr. heavyweight title!

SEM "SEMFul Gift in Differ '06", 12/23/06 (G+)
Tokyo Differ Ariake
1,300 Fans
1. Taiji Ishimori beat Ippei Ota (9:23) via pinfall.
2. Kotaro Suzuki beat Atsushi Aoki (12:11) with a modified Tombstone Piledriver.
3. SUWA beat Tsutomu Hirayanagi (7:20) with the FFF.
4. Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Kiku-san Hansen (4:47) with the Deep Impact.
5. Mohammed Yone beat Ricky Marvin (10:23) with a Muscle Buster.
6. Takeshi Rikio beat Shuhei Taniguchi (11:37) with the Muso.
7. Naomichi Marufuji beat Go Shiosaki (15:25) with a modified reverse cross armbreaker.
8. Takeshi Morishima vs. KENTA went to a draw (20:00) when the time limit expired.
9. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tatsuhito Takaiwa beat Takashi Sugiura [C] (22:31) with the Takaiwa Driver to become the 12th champion.

WWE Armageddoon 12/17/2006

Five weeks of PPVs in a row, and the best one definitely came last!

Inferno Match: MVP VS Kane
Funny how the flames only rise when Kane is on offense? I REALLY enjoyed this match! And give credit to MVP for that finish where his lower back was lit on fire! Both men did a good job with the psychology of avoiding the fire as well as pulling of some fun near misses from both men almost getting burned! The first Inferno Match in over seven years, and they did it right!
Match Rating: ***1/2

WWE Tag Team Championship – Ladder Match: Paul London & Brian Kendrick [C] VS William Regal & Dave Taylor VS MNM VS the Hardy Boyz
Now this is what you call a GOOD BAIT ‘N’ SWITCH!!! ALL YEAR LONG I’ve been waiting for that one WWE match that would keep you on the edge of your seat and stand out as a clear Match of the Year candidate, and THIS WAS IT! It was great that they were still able to stick to the game plan after the horrific incident that happened to Joey Mercury. The live audience was heavily backing the Hardys, but I was supporting London & Kendrick as they need the rub more, and was awesome to see them retain their titles here after taking the beating of a lifetime here.
And give much respect to EVERYONE in the match for taking it to the next level and delivering my pick for WWE MATCH OF THE YEAR RIGHT HERE!
Match Rating: *****!!!!!

The Miz VS The Boogeyman
I’ll be damned, Miz actually pulled a wrestling match out of Boogeyman! Boogey is still green as moss, but give Miz credit for getting the most offense ever on the guy, as well pulling some decent spots out of him before falling to his double-arm chokeslam.
Match Rating: *

WWE US Title: Chris Benoit [C] VS Chavo Guerrero
This was the match they should have had the first time around! A very strong showing from both, and even though it would have been better without the Vickie Guerrero interference, it still didn’t effect the outcome when Benoit was able to counter a roll-up into the Sharpshooter to retain.
Match Rating: ***1/2

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Gregory Helms [C] VS Jimmy Wang Yang
I gotta agree with JBL that this match did not deserve the “boring” chants from the audience that it got. There haven’t been a lot of cruiserweight title matches lately, but this was definitely a solid one. I liked the modified facebuster Helms used to win the match with, but I wonder if that was supposed to be the closer as hitting the Shining Wizard after Yang missed the corkscrew moonsault would have been more natural looking.
Match Rating: **1/2

Last Ride Match: Ken Kennedy VS The Undertaker
Crowd was heavily more into this than the Cruiserweight title match even if it was mostly just a big brawl. Though why Undertaker still had to win after taking the bump off the entrance set was beyond me. Maybe they want to stretch this feud up to Wrestle Mania 23 where Kennedy will end ‘Taker’s streak?
Match Rating: *1/2

Ashely won the Naughty or Nice Diva Lingerie Challenge, beating Layla, Krystal Marshall and Jillian Hall. The only reason Ashley won is to give her a push as she's doing Playboy, but the crowd vote clearly voted Layla the winner.

King Booker & Finlay VS WWE Champion John Cena & World Heavyweight Champion Batista
TNA wanted WWE’s attention, and I guess they got it since Batista did a muscle buster and a botched Black Hole Slam! The WWE champion and the world heavyweight champion dominated most of the match, with Booker & Finlay only able to get an advantage after cheating, but it still didn’t do them much good as the face team rallied back and Batista pinned Booker with the Batista-bomb for the win. This match basically was all about Batista getting a rub from John Cena as Cena played up the weak link for a bit before giving Batista the hot tag to clean house, and Cena more than gave props to Batista after the match.
A good tag match, but seriously, THAT was the main event of the PPV?
Math Rating: **1/2

Overall: I think this was definitely the strongest PPV WWE have put on in a while, which is saying a lot after that debacle of an ECW PPV a few weeks back. Why they couldn’t come up with something for ECW like they did tonight will forever be a mystery.

TNA Turning Point 12/10/2006

Good God, watching the pre-show, I really hope they DON’T turn Abyss into a babyface, cause the last thing I want to see is Abyss jobbing to Tomko or ANYONE because he goes soft.

Ron “the Truth” Killings & Lance Hoyt beat Serotonin (Kazarian, Maverick Matt & Johnny Devine) when Killings pinned Kazarian with the scissors kick.
Killings & Hoyt make a good team, as long as Hoyt doesn’t dance. And at least Serotonin weren’t squashed this time.
Match Rating: *

Paparazzi Championship Series Elimination Match: Senshi beat Jay Lethal, Alex Shelley, Sonjay Dutt & Austin Starr
- Dutt eliminated Shelley with an Arabian Clutch
- Senshi eliminated Lethal with a dropkick
- Starr eliminated Dutt with the 450’ splash
- Senshi pinned Starr with an inside cradle.
Good time given to this one, and it was good to see Senshi is still being taken seriously in TNA.
Match Rating: ***

Inter-gender Bikini Contest: Eric Young beat Miss Brooks with Robert Roode
Is this really the only way they could get Roode on PPV? And so much for Ms. Brooks willing to take it all off to win. She didn’t even wear anything remotely revealing.
Remember everyone, this is TNA, and TNA IS WRESTLING! Could have fooled me.

How fitting that they follow it up with a Dumb to the Xtreme segment.

X-Division Title: Christopher Daniels [C] beat Chris Sabin with the Best Monsault Ever
Special Referee: Jerry Lynn
Well, this was really weak for a PPV match in my opinion. Sabin losing to the BME? Way to bury the guy after putting on a career performance against Senshi a while back. I guess it doesn’t help that the attention is being focused on Daniels/Lynn now instead of Sabin/Lynn. Once again TNA’s booking ruins the ending to a potentially good match.
Match Rating: **

Pointless in ring segment with baseball players. Crap like this needs to be kept on Impact!
Remember, TNA IS WRESTLING! Last time I heard anyway.

AJ Styles beat Rhino with a schoolboy roll-up.
I didn’t like the way the match started as a fight in the back before making their way to the ring and finally starting the match. Where was the security to break them up there? But the match at least got good once they got it into the ring with a really strong showing from Rhino. Than TNA had to go f*ck up the ending again with Styles faking an injury that even the medic couldn’t catch, and when the referee is about to call the match a no-contest, or award it to Rhino, Styles sneaks in a roll-up and the referee counts it anyway? Like Latisha would say in the segment that follows, ONLY IN TNA.
Match Rating: *1/2

Hi everyone, we’re TNA. And TNA IS WRESTLING. You can tell by just how desperate we are to be noticed by the big leagues, right?

Flag Match: LAX with Konnan beat AMW with Gail Kim
Hernandez = Money. The sooner they put him in a singles match with Joe or Abyss, the better. Fun match, and the screwy ending actually made sense for a change. So now they are finally going to break up AMW? Good is all I can say.
Match Rating: ***1/2

So they have a ton of security to try and stop James Storm from doing an interview, but no one was around to break up the Rhino/Styles brawl earlier? Yeah.
Hey TNA, if you’ve really got a million dollars to burn, why not spend it to properly promote your talent instead of leeching attention from others? How about this, you actually DO get WWE’s attention, than they raid your talent and bury all of them like what they always do. TNA IS WRESTLING, remember?

NWA Heavyweight Title: Abyss [C] with James Mitchell beat Sting & Christian Cage with Tomko when he pinned Sting with the Black Hole Slam.
Nothing outstanding, but at least Abyss pinned Sting to retain the title. Christian didn’t look to bothered about losing though. Again, DO NOT turn Abyss face!
Match Rating: **

The Rematch: Samoa Joe beat Kurt Angle with the Kokina Clutch
I was into this one, and I liked the reversals out of each others submissions they did. This was definitely better than the Genesis match. Than, TNA had to f*ck things up again by having the referee bumped, Angle going for a chair, leading to himself taking the chair in the face, leading to Joe locking on the Kokina Clutch for the tap out. Say what you want. This was NOT a clean victory for Joe, and the winning like this does NOTHING for him.
Match Rating: ***1/2

They really wasted too much time with the in ring segments as well as backstage stuff which they have to throw in between EVERY match on EVERY PPV.

NEW GHC Heavyweight Champion!

Mitsuharu Misawa became the 11th GHC champion as well as the first man to hold the title 3 times when he defeated Naomichi Marufuji for the title on Sunday in front of a sold out Budokan Hall! His first defense is expected to be against Takeshi Morishima, who entered the ring and challenged Misawa for the title after his victory.

NOAH "Great Voyage '06", 12/10/06 (NTV/G+ Live)
Tokyo Nippon Budokan
16,800 Fans - Super No Vacancy
1. Tamon Honda, Junji Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi beat Kentaro Shiga, Kishin Kawabata & Mitsuo Momota (14:13) when Izumida used a schoolboy on Momota.
2. Masao Inoue & Daisuke Ikeda beat Yoshinari Ogawa & Ricky Marvin (12:16) when Ikeda used a brainbuster on Marvin.
3. Takeshi Morishima beat Go Shiosaki (4:45) with a backdrop.
4. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi beat Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi (15:56) when Hashi pinned Taniguchi after Akiyama used the Exploder.
5. Akira Taue, Mushiking Terry, Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Aoki beat SUWA, TARU, Shuji Kondo & "brother" YASSHI (15:02) when Taue used the Ore Ga Taue on SUWA.
6. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Takashi Sugiura & Yoshinobu Kanemaru © beat NOSAWA & MAZADA (26:06) when Kanemaru used the Touch Out on NOSAWA. (1st defense)
7. Takeshi Rikio, Mohammed Yone & KENTA beat Yoshihiro Takayama, Minoru Suzuki & Takuma Sano (22:44) when Rikio used the Muso on Sano.
8. GHC Heavyweight Title: Mitsuharu Misawa beat Naomichi Marufuji © (25:32) with an avalanche-style Emerald Frosion to become the 11th champion.

V2 for Tanahashi, next stop, Tokyo Dome

V2 for Tanahashi, and he now goes on to defend the title against Taiyo Kea at the Tokyo Dome in January.

NJPW "CIRCUIT 2006 FINAL ~ NEXT PROGRESS" 12/10/06 (WPW)
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium
9,500 Fans - Super No Vacancy
1. NEW JAPAN DOJO SPIRIT: Yujiro beat Tetsuya Naito (6:42) with a crab hold.
2. New Japan vs. CTU Challenge Singles: Tiger Mask beat Prince Devitt (9:27) with a Tiger suplex hold.
3. New Japan vs. CTU & BROTHER: Minoru & Milano Collection AT beat Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue (13:00) when Minoru used the Minoru Special on Kanemoto.
4. New Japan vs. GBH FUSION Tag: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii beat Takashi Iizuka, Naofumi Yamamoto & Ryusuke Taguchi (13:25) when Tenzan used the TTD on Taguchi.
5. New Japan vs. BLACK FUSION Tag: Masahiro Chono, Giant Bernard & Jushin Thunder Liger beat Riki Choshu, Yuji Nagata & Takashi Uwano (9:49) when Bernard used the Bernard bomb on Uwano.
6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title - Mexican Rules: Jado & Gedo © beat Negro Casas & El Texano Jr. (9:19).
- Jado used the Crossface of JADO on Texano (6:40).
- Jado used the Crossface of JADO on Casas (9:19) (1st defense).
7. IWGP Tag Team Title: Manabu Nakanishi & Takao Omori © beat Togi Makabe & Shiro Koshinaka (17:17) when Nakanishi used the Hercules Cutter on Koshinaka (1st defense).
8. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi © beat Shinsuke Nakamura (22:44) with a Dragon suplex hold (2nd defense).

ECW December to Dismember 12/03/2006

The Hardy Boyz beat MNM after Jeff Hardy hit the Swanton Bomb on both MNM members
Balls Mahoney beat Matt Stryker with the Ball Breaker.
Sylvester Turkay & Elijah Burke beat the FBI when Turkay pinned Mamaluke with a muscle buster.
Daivari beat Tommy Dreamer with a roll-up hooking the tights.
Kevin Thorn & Ariel beat Mike Knox & Kelly Kelly when Ariel pinned Kelly with an STO.
ECW World Title - Extreme Elimination Chamber Match: Bobby Lashley beat the Big Show [C], Rob Van Dam, Test, Hardcore Holly & CM Punk to win the title.
- RVD eliminated Punk with the Five Star Frog Splash
- Test eliminated Holly with the running boot.
- Test eliminated RVD with a diving elbow drop on a chair off the top of the chamber.
- Lashley eliminated Test with a spear.
- Lashley pinned Big Show with a spear to win the title.

*Sabu was attacked backstage and replaced with Hardcore Holly
* WORST PPV OF THE YEAR.