The G1 Climax concluded yesterday and I'm glad to say that Tatsuya Naito won the tournament. It was a very good move from New Japan as Naito is one of the brightest up and comers they have. I also like that he beat ace Hiroshi Tanahashi in the finals. By beating New Japan's ace, it definitely shows that Naito and the next generation are coming into their own. My only complaint is I wish Toru Yano did better and Karl Anderson & Shelton Benjamin were used as jobbers. Benjamin is stale and I never got what New Japan saw in Karl Anderson. New Japan could have done a little better booking but it still sounds like a good event.

Also, ZERO1's yearly fire festival round robin tournament ended on August 4th. The winner was the up and coming James Raideen. Raideen has achieved two firsts in the history of the fire festival. He's the youngest winner in history at 22 years old and is the first foreigner or gaijin to win the tournament as he's from New Zealand. Raideen also became the new ZERO1 World Heavyweight Champion due to his victory in the Fire Festival. Raideen is one of the more accomplished wrestlers competing in Japan over the past year. He won the ZERO1 NWA UN Championship in October, the ZERO1 Furinkazan Tag Team Tournament in December, and now both the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Championship & the Fire Festival. I'm glad to see this as Raideen is a talented up and comer & can be a great asset to Z1. Speaking of the WHC, would it kill ZERO1 to make a new belt instead of using an old AWA World Championship? Hell, is it too much to put some tape over the "AWA" letters and write "ZERO1" in black marker?