ZIP JAPAN Archive Thread

[TheDenizen]

yeah, sorry about that Senator :P

Anyways, on to new things, ZIP JAPAN presents Future Shock next Friday Sept 28!

Former champs Hanako Yoshii and Daisuke Shimura will both be in competition to earn a shot to reclaim their respective titles!  Danger Daniels returns to ZIP JAPAN after a very successful 49th Parallel tournament to participate in a 4 man Junior Battle Royal!  Fresh off a victory over former Heavyweight Champ Demon Otsu, Yoshihiro Mikasa will do battle with another former champion, GORO!   Saburo Hamada makes his return from injury to challenge Super Scorpio!  Plus the ZIP JAPAN Tag Team and Junior Heavyweight Championships will be on the line!

All this and more!  Next Friday!  Full card posted on the first page of the thread.

[thelodger]

So stoked that Mikasa keeps getting bookings! Big match next Friday!

[Zealot]

Bookings? At the rate he's going, he'll face Doogan for the title on the next show after this one. Deni will just make it a triple threat match. He's super over.

I like to think Blayze lit the fire under his ass during the Z1 Climax tourney promo stuff.

[TheDenizen]

Mikasa is great, happy to keep booking him as long as he keeps winning :P

[thelodger]

Finally in a space for a promo for Mikasa

SPOILER: Click to show

Mikasa is walking out of the gym from his PM workout, excited to get his post workout feast on at the local Hibachi. He is approached by intreprid reporter Hanae Sasaki from local wrestling blog, holding a handheld recorder

Sasaki
(in Japanese)
Mikasa-san, do you have a moment to comment on your upcoming match with Goro?

Mikasa
(also in Japanese)
I'm hungry, I don't want to say something I could not take back.

Sasaki
After a strong showing in the Z1, you have been having high profile matches, you have another one coming up against
yet another former champion, Goro and-

Mikasa
(in English)
-please, I will say this, I am eager for the opportunity. When I came to this country, I have nothing. Now I have 
fans, now I have noise, now I have prestige. I have more than I had six months ago when I was dishonestly cut from
my home promotion. Yet, as a pro wrestler, I still have nothing. I have no title. I have no title shot. I will continue
to mow down the former champions until all that is left is current champions. I will defeat the past, to face the present, because I am the future.

[TheDenizen]

Hey lodger, thanks for doing some RP work for Mikasa, I only wish I had the time to do the same for the rest of the guys.

In any case tonight is the night! ZIP JAPAN Future Shock begins at 9pm EST, hope to see you there!

[TheDenizen]

preshow is live www.twitch.tv/therealdenizen

[TheDenizen]

Another Friday and another successful ZIP JAPAN event in the can. Future Shock was super fun, thanks to everyone who came out and watched the show with me.

If you missed the show, it is currently archived here: www.twitch.tv/videos/316018804

Let's get straight to the results:

SPOILER: Click to show

Mixed Tag Match
- Demon Otsu/Aya Mizuno vs Akira Shinjo/Eun-jin Choi

Aya Mizuno looked vulnerable here, and needed her partner Otsu to save her more than once, but in the end she got the last laugh. Mizuno pinned Choi after a nasty Buzzsaw Kick, avenging her loss at the Fighting with Spirit show.

- Saburo Hamada vs Super Scorpio

Hamada looked strong tonight after returning from his unfortunate concussion injury. Despite Scorpio raining knees on his skull early in the match, Hamada persevered and won a hard fought match after hitting his Perfect Driver in the middle of the ring.

Tag Team match
- Storm of the Century vs Pure HEEL

Man, is it just me, or does Wataru Nakajima always seem to save his best performances for matches where nothing but pride is on the line? Nakajima absorbed an absolutely ridiculous amount of damage in this match, sponging it up and asking for more from both Kobayashi and Kawada. Somehow he still managed to isolate Kobayashi just long enough to nail a massive lariat and pick up the well deserved win.

- Yumi Yamaguchi vs Cutie Booties

A totally dominant performance from Cutie that seemed to stem from her frustration at being CRIT'd so many times by Yumi in recent memory. Cutie introduced her feet to Yumi's face over and over in this one, in a stream of kicking flurries that left Yumi reeling and helpless.

- GORO vs Yoshihiro Mikasa

A breathless and hard hitting match here, these guys clearly wanted to hurt each other from the outset. A crazy number of near falls in this one, which included an excellent mix of brawling, high flying and technical grappling. Mikasa seemed to be on a roll, before GORO stole his finisher and followed it up with an Olympic Slam for the win. No shame for Mikasa here, this was easily a MOTN contender.

Archive match from 2009
- Donnie Doogan vs Jumbo Jinzei

This blast from the past out of the tape library was a great showcase for the brute strength of current ZIP JAPAN Heavyweight Champion Donnie Doogan. He ragdolled his much heavier opponent all over the ring and even got Jumbo up for a Doogan Hammer II on the arena floor. He managed to avoid Jumbo's bulk for the most part and finished him off with a sick Original Doogan Hammer.

Junior Battle Royal
- Yutaro Ichikawa vs Danger Daniels vs ECKO vs Tetsuo K

Fast and furious Juniors action in this match, the first back in ZIP JAPAN for Danger Daniels following his successful run in the 49th Parallel Tournament. It was nearly 20 minutes of high flying chaos before there were 3 rapid fire eliminations. Tetsuo caught Ichikawa in his K Crusher seconds before Daniels eliminated ECKO with a huge Doctor Bomb. Former ZIP JAPAN Junior Champ Tetsuo K quickly stamped his authority on things with a huge Fire Star Splash for the win.

No 1 Contender for ZIP JAPAN Joshi Championship
- Psycho Witch vs Hanako Yoshii

Psycho Witch continues her scary run of dominance over the Joshi Division with this performance, easily handling the best that former Champ Yoshii could dish out. The Witch was pretty vicious, chokeslamming Hanako off the apron to the floor, before rolling her back in the ring and nearly wrenching her head off with a Dragon Clutch. Momoe Ito will have her hands full with Psycho Witch.

No 1 Contender for ZIP JAPAN Heavyweight Championship
- Maki Yoshida vs Daisuke Shimura

Once again, Maki Yoshida has brought himself to the brink, becoming number one contender to the Heavyweight Crown he has never won. He looked positively fearsome tonight, bashing Daisuke Shimura with his head over and over, and securing a huge victory with the second Blue Crush of the match. Another MOTN contender here, Yoshida vs Donnie Doogan should be great.

ZIP JAPAN Tag Team Championship match
- Nails n Grinds vs Green Crush (c)

Great tag team action here, as Green Crush went all out to retain their titles in what was ultimately a losing effort. Nails and Grinds showed why they are the preeminent tag team specialists in ZIP JAPAN; their fluid teamwork, timely double teaming and quick tagging made all the difference tonight. After an excellent back and forth match, Mickey Grinds caught Kaneshiro with his Flowsion -> Darkslide Chokehold combo. NEW Tag Team Champions!

ZIP JAPAN Junior Heavyweight Championship match
- Darkness HAGE vs Johnny Rekless (c)

Johnny Rekless proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that his Title win over Darkness HAGE was no fluke with this dominant performance. Rekless lived up to his name, throwing out crazy dives and flips galore, and never giving HAGE the opportunity to build any momentum. His SuperStar Flipping Elbow proved decisive and heralded Rekless as the best of the new breed of ZIP JAPAN Junior Heavyweights. It will take a Herculean effort to wrest the Title away from him.

All in all a great show, with pretty solid ratings across the board, though I did continue my streak of main events that were the lowest rated match on the card lol. I'd say MOTN was Mikasa vs GORO or the Tag Team Title Match.

I had a really good time tonight, which makes this all the more difficult to announce:

SPOILER: Click to show

I am going to have to put ZIP JAPAN on hold for an indefinite time.

There's a few reasons, but the biggest factor by far is lack of time. I haven't had as much time for Fire Pro recently as I'd like (as evidenced by my sorry lack of promo work for the last like 3 shows running), and I don't see that changing any time in the near future. I'm taking on a new position at my work that is going to require me to put in a lot of hours of training over the next couple of months....I'm currently embroiled in the addictive time sink that is Dragon Quest XI, and RDR2 is on the horizon...plus the NJPW DLC has added a ton of content that I need time to absorb and incorporate into how ZIP JAPAN operates. I want to update every single ZIP JAPAN edit, and I don't want to be running shows with some edits updated and others not updated. Basically, ZIP JAPAN is my labor of love and I want to do it right or not at all.

TL:DR version - ZIP JAPAN is going on a (hopefully brief) hiatus. I'll post here when the time is right for a return. My sincere thanks again to everyone out there who has supported ZIP JAPAN over the past year. It means a lot.

[Deleted]

Breaking News: CAWF Purchases ZIP Japan...
Lol jk :P

[Senator Phillips]

Can't believe I fell asleep right as the Jr Heavy title bout started. In any case, thanks for a great show otherwise, and hope to see ZIP back in action sooner than later.

[TheDenizen]

Hey gang, just a quick update on the world of ZIP JAPAN...

I've uploaded the last show Future Shock to YouTube, link is in the archive on Page 1.

The following edits have been fully updated:

Akira Shinjo (new tag team attire, updated moveset, voices and logic)

Daisuke Shimura (new tag team attire, updated moveset, voices and logic)

Wataru Nakajima (new tag team attire, updated moveset, voices and logic)

Thunder Fist (new tag team attire, updated moveset, voices and logic)

Donnie Doogan (new attire, updated moveset, voices and logic)

GORO (new attire, updated moveset, voices and logic)

Jimmy Nails (updated moveset, voices and logic)

Mickey Grinds (updated moveset, voices and logic)

Kenji Sawada (updated moveset, voices and logic)
Kenzo Kobayashi (updated moveset, voices and logic)

Asano Kaneshiro (updated moveset, voices and logic)

Takeshi Kiriyama (updated moveset, voices and logic)

I've also created one entirely new edit that is 100% complete.

I won't be making these changes public on the Workshop until after ZIP JAPAN returns to Twitch streaming, but wanted to keep people in the loop on where things stand. :D

Still a long way to go, but progress is being made.

[Senator Phillips]

Very nice! Can't wait to see what you have put together for the ZIP crew.

[TheDenizen]

Another productive day, I've now got all the heavyweights 100% done, as well as about 1/3rd of the Juniors.

Most of the changes I'm making are minor, stuff like picking/assigning 5 new voice samples, adding priorities, shuffling movesets around so that an edit's finisher (or Big Grapple Special) is on SML+MED (for consistency with Okite Yaburis), making tweaks to Flex and Showmanship to ensure that some people are capable of move stealing while others are not, etc (along with lots of testing to make sure I didn't accidentally break anything lol)...but every single edit has had at least one move added/changed, and a handful of guys have received slightly more involved logic overhauls. Only a few edits are actually getting new attires (in fact most of them are listed in my previous post).

[TheDenizen]

ZIP JAPAN Announcement!

SPOILER: Click to show

*camera fades in on a very happy looking Reiko seated in her office*

Reiko: <Hello fans of ZIP JAPAN! I want to thank every one of you for your patience as our organization went through some recent restructuring. However that is now in the past, and ZIP JAPAN will soon be making a triumphant return! During this period of downtime, I'm glad to say that all members of the locker room who had been nursing injuries have made full recoveries, and the entire roster was available to me as I prepared the card for this show...with one notable exception. Jumbo Jinzei, one of our most senior and longest serving talents, has decided to hang up his boots due to chronic health issues. Suki, Tomi and I wish to extend to Jumbo our heartfelt gratitude for his many years of dedication to ZIP JAPAN, and wish him all the best in his retirement.

With that being said, I'm very pleased to announce that our next show, ZIP JAPAN Reborn will take place on Friday November 2, 2018 at 9pm EST, to be broadcast live via Twitch from our home arena in Yokohama!>

*Reiko beams with a wide grin as a card graphic appears in split screen and she begins to outline the matches*

Reiko: <First out of the gate will be the Korean Dream, our own Joshi judoka Eun-jin Choi going one on one with Pretty Evil, Vicki Violence! Next up will be a 6 man elimination Juniors battle royal, as returning fan favorite Justin Starr steps into the ring with ECKO, Minoru Hoshino, Satoshi Iguchi, Tora Katsu and Ichiro Katagiri. This one is sure to be a chaotic encounter packed with dazzling moves, so don't be late! Following that, ZIP JAPAN's resident suplex machine Mr Suplex will square off against the feral intensity of Demon Otsu! Former Junior Champion and legend Darkness HAGE will face the up and comer Yutaro Ichikawa, and rounding out the top half of the card we will see Jin Matsuda in action against the always dangerous Victimizer, GORO!>

Reiko: <Next up will be non-title Tag match as our current Champions Nails n Grinds will be tested against Danger Daniels and current ZIP JAPAN Junior Champ Johnny Rekless! That match will be followed by a triple threat elimination Joshi match featuring Lady Armbreaker Hanako Yoshii, Mistress Poison Aya Mizuno and Yumi Yamaguchi! Then, to determine the Number One contender for Johnny Rekless' Junior championship the dark and mysterious Tetsuo K will square off against the 2017 Super Z Cup winner Saburo Hamada! And to determine the next challengers for the Tag Team Titles, Wataru Nakajima and Thunder Fist, the Storm of the Century, will do battle with Akira Shinjo and Daisuke Shimura, Team Fighting Spirit! Three of these four men are former Heavyweight Champions, so I expect this match to be of the highest caliber.>

Reiko: <Finally, we will close out the show with a massive double main event. Just weeks before her 20th birthday, ZIP JAPAN Joshi Champion Momoe Ito will defend her title against the Black Empress herself, Psycho Witch! And in his first title defense since his dominant performance in the Z-1 Climax tournament, the Muscle Beach Monster Donnie Doogan will go one on one against the Granite Head of Maki Yoshida with the biggest prize in ZIP JAPAN on the line.>

Reiko: <There you have it folks, we've been out of action for a while, but we are coming back with a bang! I'd also like to announce that we are in the planning stages for the 2018 edition of the Super Z Cup, a Junior Heavyweight invitational tournament, so keep your eyes peeled for details in the coming weeks! ZIP JAPAN Reborn will take place on Friday November 2, 2018 at 9pm EST, don't you dare miss it!>

*Reiko bows slightly as the camera fades to black*

[Firehawk]

Very much looking forward to the return of ZIP Japan. It's always a treat and the newly-updated ZIP roster should be awesome to see in action.

SPOILER: Click to show

A salute to the biggest of the big boys in ZIP though. Jumbo's always had a presence, it'll be interesting not having him around anymore.