Another gift from Ace!

Regardling talk about the WWE one day doing NXT vs. RAW/Smackdown and Triple H's comment that NXT is no longer a "development brand" but a proper brand of it's own, it brings to mind what New Japan is doing with NOAH right now.

It's no secret that New Japan is second only to the WWE in popularity (and probably first in quality) but NOAH, at one time, was up there as well.  However, they've fallen quite a bit over the last few year and losing KENTA to NXT certainly did not help that.  Perhaps relative to that, it's been revealed that New Japan has an unknown financial stake in NOAH and that part of New Japan's booking team has taken over control of that aspect of NOAH.

Enter Suzukigun.

Suzukigun is a heel faction within New Japan.  It's led by Minoru Suzuki (2014 MOTY vs. AJ Styles) and includes Shelton X Benjamin and the Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer) tag team.  Suzukigun came in, talked smack, and Suzuki gave the NOAH champ a pile driver, all of which set up a Suzukigun vs. NOAH PPV where Suzuki and his crew took home all the major NOAH hardware.

An invasion angle sure, but what I like is that it's not ALL of NJPW vs. NOAH but rather a faction within New Japan that's insulting the smaller promotion left and right and basically bullying them around.  The idea here is obviously to increase interest and exposure for NOAH before they ultimately kick Suzukigun back to New Japan.

Personally, I really like how this is set-up.  It brings hard heat to the bullies and it puts the smaller brand in an automatic underdog role.  It also gets rid of the complications of face vs. face that you get with full brand warfare.  I mean, wouldn't it be great if some of the heels on RAW got jealous of the NXT hype and beat some of their guys down, which touches off a minor war?  Seth Rollins could come in, say he made NXT and it's nothing with him gone, and swear to teach the upstarts some respect.  There are lots of angles they could go with.

It could happen.  New Japan puts their IC belt on their most popular wrestler who elevates it to WHC status and now the WWE is talking about elevating their secondary belts with main event talent.  Maybe someone at the WWE is watching New Japan.

By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

One of the top stars in Mexico, El Hijo del Perro Aguayo, reportedly died early Saturday morning after taking Rey Mysterio's 619 maneuver at a AAA show Friday night in Tijuana, Mexico.

According to news reports, El Hijo took the 619 in the trachea trying to avoid the move, causing severe whiplash. El Hijo was placed on a backbrace by paramedics and taken out of the Municipal Auditorium arena to Del Prado hospital.

The Zeta publication initially reported that El Hijo was stabilized at the hospital after losing consciousness. However, local news outlet El-Mexicano.com reported that El Hijo was pronounced dead around 1:00 a.m. local time. Zeta followed up with a headline story also reporting that El Hijo died early Saturday morning.

AAA issued a brief statement early Saturday on Twitter. The translation: "The grief overwhelms our hearts. Rest in peace, El Hijo del Perro Aguayo."

Rival promotion CMLL also tweeted a statement early Saturday morning joining the lucha libre community in mourning El Hijo's death.

El Hijo main-evented AAA's "Rey de Reyes" PPV in a tag match against Mysterio just two days earlier. It was Mysterio's first match since leaving WWE.

A short time before Mysterio's match Friday night in Tijuana, Mysterio tweeted about his scheduled WrestleMania Weekend appearance at "WaleMania" in California this coming week. 

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/Other_News_4/article_83990.shtml#.VQ11o47F-Vo

Rey Mysterious killed a man?  Whoa.

Freak accident.  That report seems to be wrong about the way it happened.  Rey hit a drop-kick and the guy, I guess he lost track of where he was in the ring, his throat/neck hit the ropes during the set-up for the 619.  The video of after he was hit is out there.  It's bad.  I stopped watching.  Manik was on the outside, he knew something was wrong, the guy was just completely limp.  Konan was at ringside, too.  Scary stuff.

VIDEO| Falleció en Tijuana el Hijo del Perro Aguayo

Not really sure how to embed videos on VGC but here is a video that surfaced recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_4-tffjVn4#

Doesn't show the incident but I'm surprised that they didn't stop the match once they saw the guy wasn't responding. Makes you wonder if he was already dead or if maybe they could have done something had they stopped and gotten him help asap.

oh wow. I wonder what kick he used to knock him out. You see people swinging devastating kicks all the time in the WWE. Maybe an ensaguri to the back of the head?

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=921585294553163&set=vb.111116052266762&type=2&theater

https://www.facebook.com/aztecabc

There's a video on FB leading up to it and the aftermath. Rey & Manik knew something was up, but didn't really know the extent of it. You can also see Hijo del Perro bleeding from his eye while Konnan was shaking him. There were two wrestlers who were injured prior to this match which is why it took a while for the medics to arrive. They're also looking into possible manslaughter.

From Yahoo:

"Aguayo Jr. had gotten back in the ring after taking a spinning head scissors where he bumped to the floor from Rey Mysterio Jr. Mysterio Jr. gave him a low dropkick to the back to set up the 619.  It is not clear whether Aguayo Jr. was selling or not when he first hit the ropes to get ready for the 619.  He may have already been injured falling on the ropes, or, while selling, and being positioned badly, when Manik fell into the ropes to set up a double 619 spot, that was when the ropes whiplashed him, although it was likely the first spot immediately. 

Sources who were at Hospital del Prado in Tijuana have said that the initial cause of death was cervical spine trauma coming from when the ropes snapped his neck.

He was already out when Mysterio went for the 619 and Mysterio Jr. saw he was in trouble and didn't hit him.  The belief was he was knocked out and they continued the match, although went right to the finish."

My thoughts are with everyone involved including Perro's family. Rey must really feel devastated.

Damn thats horrible news.

lokking at the video, I think Hijo Del Perro turned the wrong way trying to sell the drop kick and fell onto the ropes hitting them too hard. But I'm no expert and just guessing as a spectator. In any event, it was a horrible video to watch made even worse by the fact that the match went on to a conclusion with a dead man in the ring.