The ghc title situation

[Guest PlatypusFool]

Just read this, from the results from NOAH's 4/7 Tokyo, Ariake Colosseum rally, from Zach Arnold at puroresupower.com:

 

"In the GHC Title Match, Yoshinari Ogawa defeated Jun Akiyama in 4 minutes, 20 seconds. Akiyama hit two successful exploders on Ogawa, and on the third attempt, Ogawa did a modified small-package on Akiyama's third exploder attempt for the quick 3-count win."

 

What in the heck is this?! This kind of thing may work for an undercard WWF title in America, but not for the main heavyweight belt of a Japanese company. This comes especially at the dawn of the NOAH / NJPW, which Akiyama will play a huge part in, no doubt. Has Misawa actually gone mental? Are there any positives to this?

[Guest]

They may have taken the title off of Akiyama so he can defeat Nagata at some later date for the IWGP heavy weight title. If not, I don't think there is any way of explaining this besides the fact that Misawa has actually gone crazy.

[Guest]

Ughh....this is one of the most god-awful booking decesions I have ever seen. I was pretty damn happy too, after Nagata beat that piece of crap Yasuda for the IWGP title. First of all, I don't know if Misawa has been hanging out in America or what, but I have no idea where he is getting these ideas from. Secondly, OGAWA SUCKS. He is Misawa's coffee boy, no more, no less. Stuart called him the "Japanese X-Pac"....and that about hits it on the head. The guy has a great arsenal of eye-pokes, maybe he should go chill with the nWo.....or maybe he already has been. Thirdly, he beat Jun Akiyama, one of my favorite freaking wrestlers. Foruthly, Jun just COMPETED IN THE TOKYO DOME MAIN EVENT IN FRONT OF 50,000 PEOPLE, and now he just lost to a TALENTLESS HACK. And does Misawa honestly think that Ogawa will draw as champion? It's like putting the title on Test or something.......Ugg....the strange thing is, I somehow knew that Ogawa would end up champion somehow.......let's just hope Kobashi some how miraculously heals....which he won't.

[Guest]

I live in Japan, but haven't actively followed the Japanese wrestling scene in several years.  Anyway, while flipping through cable last night, I accidentally caught the tail end of the live broadcast of this show (midway through the GHC tag title match...can't believe those hacks kept the belts)  Soon I saw the main event, of Jun Akiyama vs Some Dude I've Never Heard of Before.  He reminded me of a mini Bret Hart, with the shades and greasy hair.  Akiyama held up his hands for the number "5"...I thought maybe he was doing some King Kong Bundy five count gimmick, but then the announces said he was proclaiming that the match would be over within five minutes (I guess that was some kind of running gimmick he had)

 

Ogawa actually had the offense for the first minute or so, but Akiyama soon took over.  They went to the floor, and Akiyama hit some wicked move where he stood on the apron while Ogawa was on the floor, places his knee against Ogawa's head and jumped, ramming Ogawa into the guard rail.  They went back in the ring, did some offence, Ogawa got a couple schoolboy pins for near falls, but nobody was buying it.  Akiyama regained controlled, hit two exploiders, and told the crowd he was going to finish him off.  Ogawa blocks the third, hits and inside cradle, ref counts three.

 

Akiyama was in shock, and the crowd popped big (probably because of Akiyama's five minute gimmick being upheld in such a completely unfathomable way), but all I could think of was how much American fans would shit upon a main event like this.

 

Still, a Hogan small package victory in under five minutes would probably be a lot better than what you're actually going to get at Backlash...

[Guest Jubuki]

Any fan in their right mind who wanted to see the company stay in business and succeed long-term would shit on that main event.  It's going to do nothing but shoot them in the foot, which is the last thing the wrestling scene over there needs.

[Guest]

One more thing:  50,000 fans my ass!  That arena was very dark, but when the flash bulbs were popping you could see empty seats everywhere.  I wouldn't be surprised if the actual number was closer to 5,000.

[Guest goodhelmet]

Man, it's bad enough the U.S. product has been absolute crap lately but now I can't even look to Japan to get a solid dose of quality action. Yasuda? Ogawa? An injured Kawada? Not exactly the kind of guys you want to promote your product.