Just a couple of questions...

[BHK 0]

So I've never watched puro before, i've always watched North American Wrestling.(mostly the big three, with some indys and ROH/TNA in there)

 

However, the other day I downloaded Benoit/Sauske from the 94 J-cup finals and became slightly interested, and I'm looking to download/get some of tapes of more matches. I jsut have a couple of quesitons first.

 

1) What makes puro different from the North American style of wrestling and why is it better to you(if it is)? I could see some differences in the one match I watched but jsut wanted clear answers

 

2) What are some reccomend/must-have matches?

 

3) why do puro matches go by dates instead of the card they were on like North American matches?(this is more personal curiosity than anything else, I jsut always wondered)

 

4) Does the commentary being im Japanese take away from the match at all? the purpose of commentators is to add to the match, obviously if you don't know Japanese they can't.

 

Those are all of the questions I can think of right now. Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Glad to see you are getting into Puro.....best of luck and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

1)Puro is different than North American wrestling as in the psychology. In Puro(or at least good puro) guys sell injuries from matches they have had years ago aka. more logical selling......other things that they do is that the workrate or in-ring work is usually a lot better. This proves true in the Jr work(like the Benoit/Sasuke match you were watching) and falls into different work like All Japan 90's work for example.

 

2)Click here

 

3)I have never really heard of a reason why they do this and I really don't know if that even exists. I am pretty sure that all of their shows do have a name, but I don't know if they maybe don't translate into English as easy as they just use dates. Maybe someone else here that knows could be of more assistance it would be helpful.

 

4)I think it might take away from it some(as in making the psychology a little harder to understand) but it is easily made up as you start to watch more and more puro(as you start to understand it more) but the best advice I can give for this is to read as many internet reviews of stuff as you can. These people usually have the understanding of puro if they are writing about it, and understand the psychology better than a noobie could anyway.

 

I hope I answered everything you wanted to know. Feel free to ask more if you like or have anymore questions.

[Guest momoracci]

1) What makes puro different from the North American style of wrestling and why is it better to you(if it is)? I could see some differences in the one match I watched but jsut wanted clear answers

 

First off, there's several different styles of wrestling in Japan, so overgeneralizing it as "puro" isn't accurate. In terms of the 90's stuff (since I don't watch today's wrestling), All Japan's main event matches typically involved a heavy emphasis on striking interspersed between bigger offense, playing off past meetings and finishes, and a generally frenetic series of near-falls down the stretch. The NJ Juniors matches usually busted out all of the stops towards the end, too, but the build would largely be filled with (often pointless) matwork after a fast opening sequence. With Joshi (women) you get a mixture of lots of different traits from other styles (some good, some bad - both intrinsically unique and otherwise) but once you get into it, it's about as fun as pro-wrestling gets in my book.

 

3) why do puro matches go by dates instead of the card they were on like North American matches?(this is more personal curiosity than anything else, I jsut always wondered)

 

All Japan ran a series of tours, with a big show at the end as the climax (e.g. Misawa/Kawada 6/3/94 was the cornerstone of the Super Power Series '94 tour). With Joshi, the names of the cards are more prevalent - Dream Rush, Dreamslam, Big Egg Universe, etc.

 

4) Does the commentary being im Japanese take away from the match at all? the purpose of commentators is to add to the match, obviously if you don't know Japanese they can't.

 

I actually think it's more fun when you can't understand much of the commentary - it forces you to interpret what's going on rather than being told outright. Besides, many of the moves are called in English anyway, so it's not a big deal for me...

[Coffin Surfer 0]

) What makes puro different from the North American style of wrestling and why is it better to you(if it is)? I could see some differences in the one match I watched but jsut wanted clear answers

 

Momoracci covered it well, but I'll give my take as well. Alot of pre-Choysu All Japan isn't that different from what you see in 80s U.S wrestling. It's really the same heavyweight style it's just for the most part the matches in All Japan tended to be smarter and more advanced. Truth be told this probably had more to do with the quality of workers and motivation than an actual difference in style.

 

Of course All Japan's wrestling style kept evolving throughout the 80s and 90s until it produced a style so complex and demanding that only a handful of guys in the world(namely Misawa,Kobashi, Kawada and Taue) could work it properly. It's different from U.S. in that the strike exchanges are more meaningful and far more complex. The matches began to be built entirely around signature moves with all the excess fat cut away. The long term selling became more advanced and smarter...etc. The finishing runs got stretched out further and further, and in some cases make up more than half the match.

 

Sadly, submission holds gradually lost meaning until they were nothing more than wear down holds for the big bombs. And around 97, the style began to deprogress into head drop a thons.

 

The Juniors and Joshi have done been covered well.

 

With the New Japan heavies you have a much larger emphasis on submissions and mat work than their peers in All Japan. To be honest I don't like New Japan heavies too much, and someone else might be able to help you more in that department. I do enjoy alot of the early 90s New Japan tag matches though which oddly enough bares a resemblance to what Baba's boys would be doing in tags later in the decade.