Essential Japanese Wrestling Discussion/News

[Honga Ciganesta]

Thought there was some overall interest in the G1 thread so a megathread of sorts, link matches, news, results, downloads etc.

Bout to check Omega/Ibushi:

[ame=http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xswt5n]Kota Ibushi (c) vs Kenny Omega - (DDT 08/18/12) - Video Dailymotion[/ame]

Last two NOAH shows had attendences of 800 and 320

 

[TrueEpic08]

Last two NOAH shows had attendences of 800 and 320

They still without a real TV outlet over there? Bushiroad might need to start making offers or something. I'd hate to see NOAH die, but they really have no one to blame but themselves and their booking since inception.

 

[Honga Ciganesta]

Well I know those shows weren't taped at all and I'm pretty sure that their tv deal, or non deal, is the same as ever.

NOAH was my real entrance into Japanese wrestling so it sucks to see them like this but yeah the conservative booking, stop/start pushes of guys etc has been a problem for years now. KENTA pinned Morishima and Saito in tags on those shows so could be that they're finally pushing to make him HW champion material.

 

[Scottie Drippin]

Well I know those shows weren't taped at all and I'm pretty sure that their tv deal, or non deal, is the same as ever.

NOAH was my real entrance into Japanese wrestling so it sucks to see them like this but yeah the conservative booking, stop/start pushes of guys etc has been a problem for years now. KENTA pinned Morishima and Saito in tags on those shows so could be that they're finally pushing to make him HW champion material.

Like seven years too late.

Pretty much the NOAH story was staying on that 90's AJPW booking style and just fukking missing the boat. A year late on Morishima, millions of years late on KENTA, ruining Go for the rest of his career by not pushing him until there was no around making it blatantly fukking obvious why he was getting pushed, depushing Mori and now hoping we care again, etc etc etc.


While on the other hand, NJPW pushed their crop to the moon and are just continually reaping the benefits. And as soon as a guy gets hot, like Naito, they give him a shot. Even when they "force" someone like Okada, he fukking pans out.

Good looks on the Omega/Ibushi link. Kenny's been absolutely killing it.

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

First off im gonna go ahead and five star this thread and rep everyone in it. puroresu brehs tend to just get it that much more than the average cat.

Like seven years too late.

Pretty much the NOAH story was staying on that 90's AJPW booking style and just fukking missing the boat. A year late on Morishima, millions of years late on KENTA, ruining Go for the rest of his career by not pushing him until there was no around making it blatantly fukking obvious why he was getting pushed, depushing Mori and now hoping we care again, etc etc etc.


While on the other hand, NJPW pushed their crop to the moon and are just continually reaping the benefits. And as soon as a guy gets hot, like Naito, they give him a shot. Even when they "force" someone like Okada, he fukking pans out.

Good looks on the Omega/Ibushi link. Kenny's been absolutely killing it.

This post absolutely. After the Akiyama Sterness heel run ran its course i havent liked this promotions direction since (im an Akiyama mark) Kenta should have been on the cusp of being a star almost a decade ago and i feel like only ROH got how big this guy could have been.

I honestly wasnt so into Morishima at first and was never into Go like that. And since that i pretty much stopped even bothering with them. Are they in working agreements with anyone who can breathe new life into them?

 

[Black Thunder]

aint morishima like a boss in noah now or some shyt??

i'd figure kobashi would take misawas spot when he died

 

[Jmare007]

Sad thing is, KENTA is next challenger for Morishima

NOAH's problem was never capitalizing on Kobashi's amazing title reign. They real good for 2-3 years but didn't do shyt for their future and it ended up biting them in the ass. They wasted 2 years when they still had a solid roster and when legends like Misawa, Taue, Akiyama and Kobashi could still go and put new people over (well, Akiyama can still go but he never reached the stardom he was supposed to reach and NOAH missed their chance with him). Then Kobashi had cancer, Misawa died and they have been doing desperate booking since. The crowd turn their backs on them and there's nothing they can do about it to stop it.

They never did a good job creating a new heavyweight star (a must for any puro promotion. It doesn't matter how over a Junior like KENTA or Maru were, they were never gonna draw shyt in a traditional puro company like NOAH). Rikio was a bad choice but there weren't a lot of options either. I don't know if anyone was ready to follow Kobashi's outstanding title run and I have a hard time picturing a young guy who was ready to be champion from 05' to 07'. Once they realized Kobashi couldn't be champion forever and they could use his great reign to create a star, it was already too late.

I could talk for hours about NOAH's problems, if they were a US promotion the ammount of hate they'd get would even surpass TNA

Anyways, some news:

-DDT claimed 10,000 people at the Budokan. If true, that's huge news as it shows that the "Peter Pan show" name is a real draw. They will roll the dices once again next year as they'll have a double header at Sumo Hall. And Takagi said he wants the 20th anniversary show to be at the Tokyo Dome.

- Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi will challenge Omori & Soya for the AJPW Tag Titles.

-It seems Daichi Hashimoto will make his New Japan debut at WK in January

-Read a couple of days ago that New Japan made an offer to a guy who competed in the Olympics, no clue if it was a wrestler or judoka though.

 

[TrueEpic08]

Like seven years too late.

Pretty much the NOAH story was staying on that 90's AJPW booking style and just fukking missing the boat. A year late on Morishima, millions of years late on KENTA, ruining Go for the rest of his career by not pushing him until there was no around making it blatantly fukking obvious why he was getting pushed, depushing Mori and now hoping we care again, etc etc etc.


While on the other hand, NJPW pushed their crop to the moon and are just continually reaping the benefits. And as soon as a guy gets hot, like Naito, they give him a shot. Even when they "force" someone like Okada, he fukking pans out.

Good looks on the Omega/Ibushi link. Kenny's been absolutely killing it.

Yep. NJPW rebuilt in exactly the same way that we see NBA teams rebuild: They cleaned EVERYONE out after the Lesnar debacle and the sale to Yuke's, put the belt on Tanahashi, and rode him, Nakamura and the other young guys on the roster like there was no tomorrow (and, thanks to PRIDE and Inoki's hard-on for throwing his best wrestlers into shoots, which ruined Yuji Nagata, there really WASN'T a tomorrow. New Japan was in a really bad way in the early-mid 2000s before Gedo and Jado got the book). And look where they are now: Easily the biggest and best Japanese promotion out. AJPW were forced to basically do the same thing after the NOAH exodus and losing their NTV slot. It took them a while (a LONG while...) but they're also starting to reap the benefits of riding their youth a little (though only having GAORA, the B sports channel, as their only real affiliate isn't helping. New Japan, by comparison, has a slot smack on TV Asahi, the second biggest channel in the country).

Meanwhile, NOAH got weighed down horribly by the legacies of Misawa and Kobashi, which assured that Akiyama was never going to be the guy. They tried to make Yoshihiro Takayama the guy, but then he immediately decided that he wanted to get his face rearranged by Don Frye, so that didn't work out. Kobashi did his thing, but then that had effects on the people that came after him (Rikio never had a chance...). Marufuji's reign was marred by light heavyweight bias and an all-time stupid booking decision in the history of wrestling (What? You mean putting the LH heavyweight champ against another light heavy at your one of your biggest venues ISN'T going to draw? Then you're going to punish HIM for your stupidity and the fact that fans didn't believe him as champ? Nah....) and by the time Morishima got the belt, he was fat, out of shape and couldn't work the matches that got him to the apex (By the way, he still can't).

*Deep breath*

So this is 2008, which means that there's one more huge problem to detail: Misawa fukked his neck up in his first 2007 title defense (against Morishima, of course...) and worked through it, which resulted in him breaking down, not being able to work like he could and eventually contributing to his death years later. But Kobashi's there, rig...oh wait, he has cancer. But you can still fall back on Akiyama, rig...oh, right, he has herniated discs in his back that are threatening his career and cut short his '09 title reign. Morishima's problems were detailed, and add to that that they murdered any momentum that he had left by jobbing him to Kensuke Sasaki in 2008.

What else...Shiozaki. They gave him the Misawa memorial reign in 2009, long before he was actually ready to main event (and if you don't believe me, watch his match with Tanahashi at WrestleKingdom IV. The difference in star quality is so evident I actually felt bad for the plain b*stard), then proceeded to cut him off at the knees for Sugiura's horribly boring title reign ( 581 fukkING DAYS. fukkING TORTURE. NO WONDER THEY'RE ONLY ON AN OBSCURE PREMIUM CHANNEL) and then, when he got it back and WAS kind of ready, cut him off AGAIN for Morishima.

You know what, fukk it. They deserve what they get.

Edit: Jmare got the other side of the problem as well. They had no heavies to push other than Misawa, Kobashi, Akiyama (who was always pegged as tier two beneath the former guys) and Morishima (read above). When all of that fell through, and Shiozaki's development didn't go as planned, they were fukked badly.

 

[Jmare007]

Add that to the fact that the only star NOAH had that could put Go over big was Kensuke Sasaki (a star by default given puro's horrible state in the last few years)...and they never did it

Maru's reign wasn't gonna work regardless of how it was booked. Granted, they made the most stupid decisions with him, but a Jr. Heavyweight in 2006 wasn't gonna do shyt for them no matter what they did.


I loved Sugi's reign, tons of great matches. But how in the fukk they didn't take the belt from him after their 3rd or 4th DISASTER in attendance, I'll never know.

 

[TrueEpic08]

Add that to the fact that the only star NOAH had that could put Go over big was Kensuke Sasaki (a star by default given puro's horrible state in the last few years)...and they never did it

Maru's reign wasn't gonna work regardless of how it was booked. Granted, they made the most stupid decisions with him, but a Jr. Heavyweight in 2006 wasn't gonna do shyt for them no matter what they did.


I loved Sugi's reign, tons of great matches. But how in the fukk they didn't take the belt from him after their 3rd or 4th DISASTER in attendance, I'll never know.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Jmare007 again.

I got you in the future, though.

On the bolded, easily the funniest part of his reign: He was facing MiSu in Differ, drew about 4,000 to a 10,000 seat arena, if that, and got damn near crickets coming out. MiSu, the de-facto heel, comes out, gets deafening cheers.

I know that this would happen regardless, but that was pretty symbolic of his reign and NOAH's state altogether around then.

And I don't hate Sugiura or anything as a wrestler. He just never had a chance with that reign and the bookers helped NOTHING by making it so long.

 

[Scottie Drippin]

The problem with Go is that they fukking IMMEDIATELY saddled him as Kobashi 2.0, and then tried their best to recreate Kobashi not winning a match in his first two years by having him drop any and every fall imaginable. Even with their massive Jr/Hw bias, he dropped falls to KENTA It's fukking outrageous how much more at home Go looked in the ring with the NJPW guys, especially with Tana. He needs to move to NJPW as soon as he possibly can, as he'll never be a good fit for NOAH's antiquated King's Road shyt.

You alluded to my point on Morishima. By the time he got the belt, his best days were already behind him. Kudos to Gabe getting the title run that NOAH missed out on by having him job to Misawa when there was no reason for him to win.

And excellent point about the Maru/KENTA match, but don't forget that they almost intentionally sabotaged the rest of that show with a stupidly weak card.

As for their working agreements, Marufuji is damn near a freelancer at this point as he seems to have spent most of these past few years (when not injured) winning the JR titles in AJPW and NJPW, as well as winning BOSJ and competing in this G1. Go and Suigara did some shyt abroad with NJPW as well, but that's been about it. With Maru beating Tana in the G1 that's probably a lead in for a title defense coming up shortly.

 

[Jmare007]

On the bolded, easily the funniest part of his reign: He was facing MiSu in Differ, drew about 4,000 to a 10,000 seat arena, if that, and got damn near crickets coming out. MiSu, the de-facto heel, comes out, gets deafening cheers.

I know that this would happen regardless, but that was pretty symbolic of his reign and NOAH's state altogether around then.

I remember that


Ariake has the worst fans in the world though. Like, there's not ONE fukkING MATCH I remember seeing at either Differ or Colloseum that had a good, heated crowd, ever.

I get why they do shows in Differ (they own the building so they don't lose money there) but the obsession they had with Colloseum, when they had a smaller and better building like Sumo Hall available is just another move by NOAH.

Jumbo Tsuruta could rise from his grave and have a match with old man Tenryu and fans would be like

 

[Black Thunder]

so from what i've gathered, tanahashi has supposedly either tied or gotten the most iwgp title runs of all time (6), so njpw is saying that tanahashi is better than mutoh/muta, chono, inoki, fat ass hashimoto, vader, hansen, hogan, fujinami, kensuke, choshu??

get the fukk outta here

 

[Scottie Drippin]

so from what i've gathered, tanahashi has supposedly either tied or gotten the most iwgp title runs of all time (6), so njpw is saying that tanahashi is better than mutoh/muta, chono, inoki, fat ass hashimoto, vader, hansen, hogan, fujinami, kensuke, choshu??

get the fukk outta here

Well Hansen was AJPW not NJPW, and aside from Vader (who didn't stick around) and Mutoh if I was building a promotion I'd take prime Tana over the primes of anyone else on that list. Let's not act like 90's NJPW dudes weren't getting royally shytted on by Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Taue, Hansen, Gordy, Williams and eventually Akiyama. If the NJPW heavies had to come up in a company with those brehs they'd be upper midcarders at best with the odd run thrown in there. The biggest moments for NJPW heavies in the 90's came from piggy backing off the shoot-style stuff of Takada and Maeda.

I'm not even a huge Tana (Nakamura is that dude), but his consistency is ridiculous, and putting the belt on him only leads to good main events, which is why he's gotten it so much.

 

[Black Thunder]

Well Hansen was AJPW not NJPW, and aside from Vader (who didn't stick around) and Mutoh if I was building a promotion I'd take prime Tana over the primes of anyone else on that list. Let's not act like 90's NJPW dudes weren't getting royally shytted on by Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Taue, Hansen, Gordy, Williams and eventually Akiyama. If the NJPW heavies had to come up in a company with those brehs they'd be upper midcarders at best with the odd run thrown in there. The biggest moments for NJPW heavies in the 90's came from piggy backing off the shoot-style stuff of Takada and Maeda.

I'm not even a huge Tana (Nakamura is that dude), but his consistency is ridiculous, and putting the belt on him only leads to good main events, which is why he's gotten it so much.

breh njpw had the biggest crowds in the history of pro wrestling back to fukking back

Collision in Korea was the largest professional wrestling pay-per-view event ever that was jointly produced by World Championship Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling. It took place over a period of two days on April 28th and 29th, 1995, but did not air in North America until August 4, 1995,when WCW broadcast a selection of matches from the show on pay-per-view. The event was the first PPV from a North American wrestling promotion to be held in North Korea, and holds the current record for the largest attendance for a wrestling event with a total of 340,000 people in attendance over the two days.

NJPW's Hidekazu Tanaka was the ring announcer for the show, while Masao Tayama and Tiger Hattori refereed the matches. Commentary for the WCW pay-per-view presentation of the event was provided by Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay and Kazuo Ishikawa.
Results


Pyongyang Sports Festival

Pyongyang, North Korea at Pyongyang Stadium

----------------------------------------

April 28, 1995 drawing 150,000 ($7,500,000)

Yuji Nagata beat Tokimitsu Ishizawa (4:28).

Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto beat Manami Toyota & Mariko Yoshida (8:34) when Nakano pinned Yoshida.

Hiro Hase pinned Wild Pegasus (10:10).

Masa Chono & Hiro Saito beat El Samurai & Tadao Yasuda (8:06) when Chono pinned Samurai.

Too Cold Scorpio beat Shinjiro Ohtani (2:37) when the referee stopped the match due to Ohtani's excessive bleeding.

Kensuke Sasaki pinned Masa Saito (8:34).

IWGP Champ Shinya Hashimoto drew Scott Norton (20:00).

----------------------------------------

April 29, 1995 drawing 190,000 ($8,500,000)

Hiro Saito pinned Yuji Nagata (5:29).

Black Cat pinned El Samurai (4:56).

Wild Pegasus pinned Too Cold Scorpio (6:22).

Scott Norton & Masa Chono beat Akira Nogami & Takayuki Iizuka (8:40) when Norton pinned Nogami.

Road Warrior Hawk pinned Tadao Yasuda (2:21).

Rick & Scott Steiner beat Hiro Hase & Kensuke Sasaki (11:51) when Scott pinned Hase.

CMLL Women's Champ Akira Hokuto pinned Bull Nakano (8:04).

Antonio Inoki pinned Ric Flair (14:52).


i aint see hide nor hair of tanahashi doing anything even remotely close to them numbers