Fire Festival

The Fire Festival is an annual professional wrestling round-robin tournament held by Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX to determine the top wrestler in the promotion, typically contested in late July/early August. In addition to ZERO1-MAX members, it has frequently included outside stars, including 2003 winner Satoshi Kojima, Kensuke Sasaki and TAKA Michinoku.

Since 2002, it has featured two blocks, each with five participants, with the two block winners facing off in the final to determine the overall champion. The 2001 Fire Festival only featured four in each block, but held the same principle. The winner of the tournament is presented with the Fire Sword, which they carry for the following year until the next Festival.

Results

List of winners

*2001: Shinjiro Otani
*2002: Shinjiro Otani
*2003: Satoshi Kojima
*2004: Kohei Sato
*2005: Shinjiro Otani
*2006: Masato Tanaka
*2007: Masato Tanaka
*2008: Masato Tanaka

2001

The 2001 Fire Festival was held from September 1 to September 15, over three weekly events on September 1, 8 and 15; four tournament matches were held at each, including the finals on 9/15.

2TeamBracket
RD1= Final
RD1-seed1= A1
RD1-team1= Shinjiro Otani
RD1-score1= Pin
RD1-seed2= B1
RD1-team2= Tetsuhiro Kuroda
RD1-score2= 17:53

2003

The 2003 Fire Festival was held from July 25 to August 1, with four matches on July 27 being contested in All Japan Pro Wrestling. The winner, Satoshi Kojima, is to date the only "outsider" to win the Fire Festival, representing AJPW.

2TeamBracket
RD1= Final
RD1-seed1= A1
RD1-team1= Takao Ōmori
RD1-score1= Pin
RD1-seed2= B1
RD1-team2= Kohei Sato
RD1-score2= 22:04

2005

The 2005 Fire Festival was held from July 29 to August 7, over five shows.

2TeamBracket
RD1= Final
RD1-seed1= A1
RD1-team1= Masato Tanaka
RD1-score1= Pin
RD1-seed2= B1
RD1-team2= Ryouji Sai
RD1-score2= 23:00

2007

The 2007 Fire Festival was held from July 16 to August 2, over nine shows. Four of the ten participants were determined by each winning a qualifying match on May 27. Four more were determined by fan voting, and the final two were outsiders handpicked by ZERO1-MAX. On July 20, it was announced that Ikuto Hidaka would be replacing Kazunari Murakami, who was forced out of action after just one match due to a head injury, due to finishing in fifth place in the fan vote. In a similar situation to the 2006 tournament, Block A ended in a full tie with four points, leading to a five-way match on August 2 to determine the finalist. The participants and schedule are as follows:

2TeamBracket
RD1=Final
RD1-seed1=A1
RD1-team1=Togi Makabe
RD1-score1=Pin
RD1-seed2=B1
RD1-team2=Masato Tanaka
RD1-score2=19:37

References

* [http://www.puroresufan.com/ddt/z1max.php MAXIMUM Zero]
* [http://www.ajpw.puroresufan.com/results03.php Shining Road]
* [http://www.zerooneusa.com ZEROONEUSA.com]