The "new" all japan...

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Well, with some solid financial backing and the addition of Mutoh, Kojima, and Ka Shim, AJPW looks to be attempting some kind of resurgence movement to become something again, but is there really hope? Mutoh seems to have sunken into niche as "selfish lazy guy" and while we finally did get a Kawada title win, he's injurred and once again it's probably going to be fought over by Tenryu and Mutoh for a while. Kojima is reportedly still good, but aside from a rematch with Kawada (the match with Kawada from the NJ/AJ best of 5 series was great) he doesn't have very much material to work with. Is there anything the company has to offer right now that is worth checking out?

[Guest Stuart]

Right now, there isn't really much to look for. The only matches that has really left me saying "I want to see more" this year were Tenryu vs. Kojima (their two best healthy workers) and Honma vs. Tanaka (all 7 minutes of it was as good as Muto vs. Kawada and their Rainbow show a week or so later was better than Muto vs. Kawada). As of this post, my recent viewing has been 9/1/01, 9/15/01, 10/6/01, 10/27/01, 12/8/01, 12/22/01, 1/12/02, 1/26/02, 2/9/02, 2/23/02 GAORA TV shows and the 2/24/02 PPV. I've yet to see the April PPV, but two March shows are on the way to me. The wrestlers that impressed me most from the TV were undercard guys like Okumura, Hijikata, Honma, Tanaka (before he understandably jumped to ZERO-ONE), Kea (but he is still lacking in quite a few departments) and Hosaka. There wasn't much beyond that, including Johnny Smith, who looks beat down and past it (but maybe he'll bounce back and prove me wrong) and the horde of gaijin they use (Steele and Barton are okay, but without Tenkoji, Liger/Nishimura, etc., to carry them, real boring). Nagai is not very good, and I don't really get the current hype, there's so much rookieness for an alledged good wrestler. Those mentioned above are all a lot better than Nagai, who, besides some occasions, is more comparable to Araya. Kawada had a VERY disappointing 6 months. I don't know whether he just doesn't care anymore or whether he can't do it anymore, but his match with Araya should have been better, just because Araya was hungry for a good match, but Kawada wouldn't go with it and just kicked Araya repeatedly. The Arashi match was terrible, Kawada couldn't carry it, and the Anjo match wasn't good either. The Muto match was about ***, which is "DUD" for such a high profile encounter that, if both guys worked hard and as good as they could, would be way higher. Tenryu is still good and even when he dogs it, outworks half the roster. The other thing is a total lack of structure. If you're followed the results, there have been teams like "Ka Shin, Johnny Smith & Abdullah The Butcher". Muto, Tenryu and Kojima have their cliques, yet keep teaming with members of other groups, killing the purpose. It's one big mosh of styles, which is why many "on paper" good four/six man tags don't come off nearly as good as they look. Call me biased, but I'm being very objective when I say this, but New Japan shows are still far ahead of All Japan shows in terms of how they're structured, how well the matches come off, and how they're worked. NJ tags tend to go as long as they might be interesting (ie, 7 minutes for Yoshie vs. Goto), whereas you have matches like Varsity Club vs. Anjo & Cedman going 18 minutes, unbearable to watch. Also, NJ tag teams have been taught how to keep the matches moving (see Tenkoji), while tandems like the Varsity Club slug around for 20 minutes. AJ is best compared to NOAH right now, good matches here and there, but not real sense of consistency. If they refine the roster (specifically the gaijins they use), AJ could be a major threat, but for Japanese male promotions alone, they rank quite low right now, behind NJ, Toryumon Japan, T2P (when it actually runs), Michinoku Pro, and maybe both NOAH and ZERO-ONE (depending how these recent shows with Battlarts assistance turn out).

[Guest wolverine]

Why is it that there's hardly any NOAH coverage or discussion here, or anywhere for the most part?  From what I've seen of it last year, it wasn't very good, but I'd sure as hell would rather watch that than the garbage that All Japan is producing.

[Guest MrDanger]

I pretty much agree with Stuart

 

All Japan has potential to be a fairly decent promotion, the problem is that Tenryu is absolutely clueless when it comes to booking tours, the weird teams Stuart commented on just reek of minor league indyness and very rarely produce good matches.

 

All Japan could have really built something following the signing of Mutoh and co. A potential mock All Japan vs New Japan feud was crying out to be booked, instead Mutoh and Kojima have broken out into different factions, Tenryu's WAR buddies are still being pushed and Taiyo Kea continues to have no direction at all.

 

There's still potential there but it's never going to be realised while Tenryu is in charge.

[Guest Stuart]

Why is it that there's hardly any NOAH coverage or discussion here, or anywhere for the most part?  From what I've seen of it last year, it wasn't very good, but I'd sure as hell would rather watch that than the garbage that All Japan is producing.

The problem is, there isn't an awful lot to talk about. Since AJPW has a relatively "new" roster, there are still things to discuss until it totally stagnates (which it's already starting to do). The two interesting things (I don't necessarily mean that in a positive way) are Ogawa holding the GHC Heavyweight Title, a total disaster, and Wild II holding the GHC Tag Title. They're an interesting case. They bored me to death last year and Morishima, who had great potential before he got fat, regressed. However, they've improved a little lately and have the big man monster aura locked down. It's interesting to see how huge Misawa is pushing these guys, with consecutive title match wins over Omori/Takayama, Vader/Scorpio, Nakanishi/Yoshie and Akiyama/Saito. It's admirable how hard he's trying to elevate them, and it's working to an extent, as they seem to have a following. The problem remains that **1/2 seems to be their "high end" right now, which is what I rated their recent Budokan match with No Fear. Haven't seen their other title defenses yet. Morishima vs. Vader was fun, but mostly standing on the spot and beating each other silly, with Morishima able to match Vader for a while. Other than that, well, there are some factions, but the undercard is lacking. The juniors like Marufuji (now injured), Kanemaru, Asako, KENTA, Kikuchi (yes, still) are really entertaining, especially when they work against each other or Liger, who knows how to work with these guys so well. Midcard has guys like Ikeda and Sano, who are not being utilized effectively. If Marufuji got Ogawa's push as Misawa's #2 and if guys like Ikeda, Kanemaru and Sano were #2's that made TV frequently, match quality would boost up. Instead, it seems Ogawa is on TV every week, and he's more frustrating than ever before.

 

There, I talked NOAH. Instead of top (insert number) lists, I should do what M2J over at Toryumon USA does, performance charts and grades!

 

Liger: A++++++++++++++++++++++

Ogawa: Z-------------------------

[Guest MrDanger]

On bright spot I suppose is the fact that Akitoshi Saito might be seriously injured (I know it's in bad taste), I really don't understand why Misawa continues to push this worthless slug. Kanemura should now be evelated into Akiyama's full time no. 2 and Saito be relegated to comedy matches once he returns.

[Guest Jubuki]

Tanaka/Honma was as good as Mutoh/Kawada?

 

I didn't realize Tanaka & Honma were capable of that much asstacular wrestling.  I don't like them, but damn...it takes some doing to suck that much.