Puroresu wrap up #19

[Guest Stuart]

The late Shoichi Arai, who committed suicide the other day.

 

Looking at my archive, it's been exactly three months to the day since my last Puroresu Wrap Up. A lot of people have emailed me asking for more, so I'm obliging. I don't know if I can do these as regularly as I used to, because I have numerous site projects that take a lot of time, so something has to make way. Obviously, I'm not going to write three month's worth of news. That would cause my site to shut down for bandwidth abuse and every message board I post this on to shut down for similar reasons. :-)

 

This issue is devoted to the startling amount of wrestlers or wrestling related men to pass away in the last week. To Davey Boy Smith, to Shoichi Arai (more below), to Big Dick Dudley, to Ben Alexander, to Abe Ford, to George Gordienko, and to Eric Kulas. I fear who we'll lose next. Welcome to Puroresu Wrap Up #19.

 

All Japan: The "SUPER POWER SERIES" finished recently. It was a transition tour of sorts, with nothing of much interest. The nicest looking match of the series, Taiyo Kea vs. Tomoaki Honma, was also the shortest, going just 4:34. Since my last PWU, the promotion has been undergoing a continuous image makeover, with numerous changes to the promotion's fundemental (or lack thereof) structure. Although some say Tenryu is still in control, which he probably is partially, Keiji Muto is clearly calling the shots now. Most of the new signings are related to him, he is the company "ace", his boys are all being pushed hard, and the company is going in a more American direction. Muto is historically fascinated with the American style of entertainment, probably stemming from the success of his Great Muta gimmick over there. Satoshi Kojima, one of his disciples, created a Muta-esque gimmick during the last series called (roughly) Foolish Orphan Zero Knight, which saw him paint his face and do things like biting the opponent's neck. Jinsei Shinzaki also returned to All Japan as Hakushi, his old WWF gimmick. Meanwhile, George Hines (who already had a bald head) and Kaz Hayashi (who didn't) have changed their looks to be pretty much Muto clones. Shigeo Okumura, Kojima's new #2, and Tomoaki Honma, are all undergoing, and I'm not kidding, "clone development" to look like Kojima, with the nose tape, streaked hair, et. al. The group that remains the same as always are some of the All Japan home team members like Kea and Nagai, and the WAR group, who are as plain-looking as you could get and hilariously grumpy. The problem with the company is not just who they employ, but how things are done. They have a lot of good wrestlers, but the cards are structured in a way that minimize the ability of these wrestlers. Let me give you an example from the last tour of how messy these lineups have been. On 4/28, we saw Kendo Ka Shin, Johnny Smith & Abdullah The Butcher vs. Mike Rotundo, The Cedman & Jimmy Yang. You'd have a pretty tough job coming up with such image and style clashes as those here. The most logical main event of the tour came on the 4/29 show, and was your regular six man tag, but had guys who have been adopted as underlings for a certain wrestler. It had Muto, Hines & Hayashi vs. Kojima, Okumura & Honma. But no sooner said than done, and the next day we had Muto, Kojima & Hines teaming up, when Kojima had said earlier that he was totally split from Muto. On 5/10, Okumura teamed with Muto and Hines. We also regularly see members of the heel WAR group teaming with members of the All Japan side, which makes even less sense. Another problem, after watching more of the GAORA TV show, is that many of the tags that look okay on paper, come off as boring or average, because there is no grand ship. What I mean is many of these wrestlers are from the indy circuit and there are so many clashes that prevent these matches being as good as they sound. Other promotions, such as New Japan and NOAH, have guys who were raised through the same or a similar system, who know how to work together, so that even bad wrestlers like Norton or Honda can often be worked around. NOAH's lack of work ethic in general has brought down a lot of their tags though. I'm not sure whether Muto and Tenryu care enough to do it, but they need a total overhaul of the internal system. Right now, we have juniors as #3 jobbers, with the Ka Shin and Hayashi the only two being protected. A very talented guy like Hijikata, who has been with All Japan for a long time now, has not moved up at all, and continues to lose almost every show, because he doesn't have the right friends and/or because he's a junior. If they separated the junior division, like NOAH should, that would be a major step up. As it is, the junior division is very low grade, but All Japan have the money to spend now. They could hook up with Toryumon Japan and already have an agreement of sorts with Michinoku Pro through Shinzaki (oddly enough, Sasuke and Liger/New Japan are also working together, as Tiger Mask's participation on New Japan shows proves). They are supposedly bringing in the legendary Gran Hamada, who will serve as fodder for Ka Shin, but should be able to get a pretty good match out of him, for a show. When the January split happened, everyone predicted New Japan's demise and All Japan's rebirth. All Japan is certainly drawing well, though they haven't gotten a national TV deal (they've had to get a weekly deal on GAORA TV), but their cards from top to bottom are still far below New Japan's and possibly even NOAH's. For the next series, Muto is bringing in Kronik (Adams & Clark) to challenge for his and Kea's AJPW World Tag Team Title. This really disgraces those once-great belts some more, but like NOAH, all prestige is soon going to be out the window, as Muto has a different belief system. Muto also wants to bring The Rock and Hulk Hogan in. Those guys would draw, but what they represent is the opposite of what All Japan represented in the last decade. If only Baba hadn't passed away before his time, things might still be alright.

 

BattlARTS: Yuki Ishikawa's BattlARTS group runs it's restart show at Korakuen Hall on 6/9. Only announced matches are Carl Malenko vs. Rick Mathis, Manabu Sato vs. Daijiro Matsui, and Yuki Ishikawa vs. Katsumi Usuda. The main event should be excellent. The show could possibly have ZERO-ONE involvement, since the companies are working together again. Also, Ikuto Hidaka, who is a Michinoku Pro regular, but technically a freelancer, could be involved. Not sure on Otsuka's status, he seems PRIDE exclusive now. Mohammed Yone is under NOAH contract, so won't be at the show, nor will Ikeda.

 

Big Japan: Had chance to watch my first Big Japan of 2002, with the January and February TV shows. The company was in bad shape after all the damage, but trying. They're building everything around Yamakawa, WX, Kobayashi and friends vs. the XCT faction of Kasai, Winger and Hido. This presents many good matches, but Yamakawa is the only definite draw, so numbers have been shakey. They've picked up a little lately, due to the World Extreme Cup concept, which features the "best" of the best U.S. hardcore wrestlers. This year they've separated it (drawing it out to boost numbers) into four groups, with the group matches over four tours, then a big show at Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium to cap things off. April's "SOUTH HEAT" series saw Block A decided. Mike Samples, former gaijin booker, who returned as a shot at CZW (he didn't like CZW and left when they arrived, but is back now), suffered a bad injury and missed most of his matches. They eventually had to do a three way with two falls to decide who would progress. Yamakawa and Tower of Doom (a terrible worker, who's size is his only asset) went through, with Winger eliminated. The next series, "NORTH WAVE", had Block B. The highlight was most likely Shadow WX vs. Hido on 4/29 (they did a screwjob the night before, but had a rematch in the same building the next day), as they really know how to work together. WX won that, which means he finally got his win back from several losses to Hido. However, WX didn't advance, being edged out by Homicide, a highly rated U.S. indy wrestler. Hido won the group, while 2 Tuff Tony was the other man eliminated. The idea seems to be to have one native and one American advance from each group. WX is in another block (D, I believe), so has a second chance. He's missing the next series due to an excursion overseas (America), where he will "discover" himself again. Could this be the return of face-painted, fire-blowing, evil bastard Shadow WX? The "excursion" concept has historically been used to give a wrestler a push when they return, as they "learn" new techniques in America. Not only is he off the next series, but Jun Kasai and Daisuke Sekimoto are injured, meaning we have a very, very weak tour. Block C of the WEC has Kintaro Kanemura (a definite to advance), O.D.D. (a Dudley), Mark Manson (from HWA) and an unknown gaijin replacing Jun Kasai, called Red Viper. The most startling lineup is 5/24 at Nagaoka Welfare Hall, with a main event of Yamakawa & Daisaku Shimoda vs. Teioh & Ryuji Ito. This building seats somewhere in the region of 3,500, but both Daisaku (who has promise) and Ito (who outshined Sasuke on February TV) are young lions who don't do the garbage style. My theory is the original main event here was Yamakawa & WX vs. Teioh & Sekimoto, perhaps with the latter team's BJW Tag Team Title on the line, but the exclusions of WX and injury of Sekimoto prevent this. The only half-strong show for drawing on the next series is the climax at Korakuen Hall on 6/3, but even this isn't all that great for bringing in fans. O.D.D vs. Mark Manson and Kanemura vs. Viper are the two WEC matches, both Barbed Wire Board Death Matches. Kanemura is a draw for the hardcore fans, but the other three are total unknowns. Daikokubo Benkei, who still has the BJW Heavyweight Title, defends against MEN's Teioh. Every company seems to have at least one push that boggles the mind. I think it's the bookers way of, how should I put this politely... getting giddy at the thought that they CAN push someone bad and fans will still show up. Teioh, who isn't close to a heavyweight, pinned Benkei in a tag on the last tour, so presumably he will go down here. Although he lost to Benkei in a title match earlier in the year, I think the plan is to have the phenom young lion, Sekimoto, eventually take the belt. The main event of the show has Yamakawa & Kobayashi vs. Winger & Hido. There's nothing wrong with this match for participants, but there is no concept announced for it. As morbid and vampiric as it sounds, Big Japan needs the gimmick matches to draw. It's their niche, we can find perfectly fine regular wrestling elsewhere. All these guys are nutcases, so this match should be something like a No Rope Barbed Wire Fans Bring the Light Bulbs Death Match or whatever. Maybe they'll come up with something on the day, but that would be even more silly, because they need to announce things *before* the show itself so fans are interested enough to buy a ticket.

 

FMW: Shoichi Arai, owner of FMW until it's recent collapse, committed suicide on May 16th at Mizumoto Park in Tokyo. Arai's body was found by a jogger at 6:20am, so we can assume he died during the night when few people were around. Arai was found hanging in a blue suit and was rushed to hospital, in hopes he could be revived, but it wasn't to be. My long-time friend and fellow FMW fan, BAHU, at his great FMW website (bahufmw.com) has wrote a better biography than I could, documenting Arai's career. Shoichi Arai was originally the ring announcer for FMW and Onita's second-in-command. He was one of the greatest ring announcers I've ever had the pleasure of hearing, with a high pitched and strange voice, with odd dialect. I'll never forget his calls of Onita or Pogo's name, or him counting down to one of FMW's famous explosions. In 1995, Onita sold FMW to Arai. Although I love Onita and his era of FMW, Arai, with Go Ito's booking, took FMW to a new high in the second half of 1995 up until around 2/96 (which is when Quinones got power, which wasn't always bad, but a drop-off from the previous stuff), pushing a youth movement of exceptionally talented young guys like Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and W*ING (Yukihiro/Kintaro) Kanemura. What those guys and others, such as Hido and Matsunaga, would give to the business in those days is like nothing I've ever seen before. Arai stayed behind the scenes a lot, but often made appearances in interviews as the quiet, humble company man. When FMW moved in it's much documented Americanized direction, with FMW vs. Team No Respect the big turning point, Arai became a more frequent on-screen personality and even wrestled at times. He humiliated himself to try and draw interest to his company, with the most infamous example seeing TNR huddle around him and "relieving themselves", which is all the detail you need to know. Arai had several heel turns when Fuyuki got power, because Fuyuki was constantly swerving the fanbase. A mixture of Fuyuki's "entertainment wrestling" not working, departures of top stars (Masato Tanaka, Jado and Gedo), and injuries to guys like Hayabusa and Mr. Gannosuke, caused FMW to plummet massively. They were struggling to draw fans and costs were high. By the time he had to eventually close FMW, Arai was around 300,000,000 yen (US$2,340,276) in debt. He couldn't pay Hayabusa's hospital bill, which got him heat. Clearly, it wasn't his fault. If he had the money, Arai would have paid it gladly, because he was devoted to Hayabusa (Eiji Ezaki), his top star for many years. He had also gone through a divorce and went into hiding, so his life just fell apart. In Japan, suicide isn't seen as much a cowardly thing as it is in the west. To some, it's a honourable way to go out, especially in these trying times, with Japan's never-ending recession. Arai just couldn't take it anymore, he probably saw his life as having nothing left, so after sending notes to his loved ones, killed himself. I can't tell you what a great family guy, etc., Arai was, because I don't know. I can tell you for a fact that he loved his company, FMW, like few others could possibly love their company. He kept his company alive during the worst time in Japanese wrestling history, when not even the big promotions like New Japan and All Japan could always draw good crowds. He did all he could for FMW, but eventually it wasn't enough. In a year, so much related to FMW has crumbled. The company itself has died, Arai has passed away, Kodo Fuyuki contracted cancer, and despite successful surgery, had a panic attack after hearing the news about Arai, and was rushed back to hospital. Hayabusa was crippled, but is fortunately regaining much mobility in his body, and Mr. Gannosuke still can't walk, having had an ankle smashed up earlier in the year. To me, and many FMW fans I'm sure, Shoichi Arai won't be forgotten any time soon. R.I.P. Arai-san.

 

IWA Japan: On 4/26, IWA ran a Korakuen Hall show. The feature was a tournament to decide new IWA Tag Team Champions. The tournament was won by Shoichi Ichinomya and NOAH's Jun Izumida. It shows you how high on the big leagues these small indies are when they'll give one of their belts to a non-regular guy who's role in NOAH now is largely being in those comedy matches with Rusher Kimura, Mitsuo Momota and Haruka Eigen. I watched IWA's 12/26/00 and 1/13/01 shows a couple of months ago, and got two more of their 2001 shows in the mail recently. It's really weird, because so many of these faces are unfamiliar to me. The best worker in the promotion is Asian Cougar, one of the more impressive flyers on the indy circuit. The only "big" name to really stick out was YUJI KITO, who looks a bit like Ikuto Hidaka and can move well. When I've seen the other stuff, I may be able to comment more.

 

Kaientai Dojo: TAKA Michinoku's Kaientai Dojo may be the biggest disappointment of the year for me yet... and I haven't even seen a show! TAKA said he would import the WWF style. I didn't realize this meant ridiculously short matches. For instance, yesterday's main event at the dojo saw Minoru Fujita (finally back in Japan, but wasted in this promotion) beat Joe Aoyama in barely more than 5 minutes. K-Dojo is drawing crowds of like 40 people in that building, and hasn't ventured outside of it much yet. It may attract a young audience, but Toryumon is doing the same sort of Americanized gimmicks, with longer and probably far better matches.

 

Michinoku Pro: The company continues to base itself around the Sekigun vs. Far East Connection (FEC) feud, with the home team winning too much, including dominating during the recent singles series. Back in the day, Kaientai were always kept strong, which is why that feud worked so well (along with the fact that they had the best "spot" matches ever seen). Sasuke is playing both sides of the fence, as mentioned above, working with hated rivals, New and All Japan. The AJPW connection has mostly been Shinzaki lately, but with Gran Hamada rumoured to face Ka Shin soon, who knows. The company is also using former FMW favourite, Ricky Fuji, who's a very nice guy and popular with many promoters. Besides that, everything is about the same as usual. I have a ton of unwatched Michinoku tapes here, including the show with Muto and Kojima dressing up and Liger appearing. Apparently, El Samurai vs. Ikuto Hidaka from the title tournament MPro ran a few months ago, also made tape, so that sounds like must-see TV.

 

New Japan: The Tokyo Dome show on 5/2 was a big financial success. Although they claimed 57,500, which is one of their lower listed numbers for the Dome in recent years, this was actually legit, and Dave Meltzer said it's one of their best attendances in the last few years. The big draw was Chono vs. Misawa, which was a huge deal, because none of the other matches were all that great for drawing fans. The semi final, which saw Nagata beat Takayama, is something you'd expect to headline Budokan, nothing bigger. Haven't seen the show yet, but it aired unedited in two parts on BS-Asahi, with both broadcasts having already aired. The tour prior to 5/2, "BIG FIGHT SERIES", demonstrated what has been obvious lately. The company has a lot of injuries and lost three names, but Chono continues to maximize the roster he has, letting the juniors run and booking some good heavyweight matches, to deliver a product that is well structured and still one of the best around. Right now, the title scene is very attractive. Yuji Nagata, the company's best heavyweight and second (arguably first) best worker overall and in the world, holds the IWGP Heavyweight Title, with a long reign hopefully ahead. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan, a proven team in the past, hold the IWGP Tag Team Title and both guys, especially the awesome Tenzan, know how to work a good match. Chono will generally only deliver big on major shows, with some exceptions, but he's been performing better than he has in several years during the past 10 months, because he's now in a position of power, so has more pressure on his back. The IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title is held by Minoru Tanaka, Liger's big project. Liger pushed Tanaka quick when he became more of a regular (he had been working on and off for New Japan since 1999) for the company, but the Inoki-ism led to firstly Naruse, then Ka Shin, both "shooters", being pushed ahead of him. Naruse bombed and Ka Shin left, so Liger, with the reigns again, gave Tanaka the belt back. I like Tanaka, he's an excellent worker and a good champion, but he's missing something. He can have good matches, but has moved into a pretty repetitive formula and hasn't really tried to evolve past it. I think they should switch the belt to Kanemoto, Black Tiger or Liger in the next six months, just for a change. Liger (if not Nagata, then he's the best worker in the world) & Tanaka dethroned Jado & Gedo at the Dome to win the IWGP Jr. Tag Title. This is a great team, but I thought Jado & Gedo should have kept the belts. They held them from 7/20/01 and their title reign worked, in that they aren't going to get heavy singles pushes, but they let us know that THEY were the dominant tag team, so had something there. Both were injured, which may be why they dropped the belts, but I see no purpose in having Liger & Tanaka win them. A better idea would have been to use Jado & Gedo to elevate a team more needing of credibility, for instance Kakihara & Naruse or Shibata & Inoue (Jado & Gedo beat them twice in defenses, the second going almost 10 minutes longer than the first, so some months from now, with the young lions "growing up", they could have taken the belts). Another idea is to have Liger & Tanaka serve as transitional champions for a T2000 team, maybe Kanemoto & Black Tiger. Anyway, those are the company champions and it's the nicest looking list in years. The company is working hard, but there are still problems. Although Inoki has kind of backed away, his influence remains. Bas Rutten, a guy who many rate highly, but a guy who has done nothing in Japan for ages, beat Manabu Nakanishi at the Tokyo Dome. According to Meltzer, the plan is to have Nakanishi get a revenge win over Rutten at a summer show, having Strong Style prevail over shoot-style, but we all know how plans can change in a blink, so I'm a little cautious. Nakanishi's push needs to be more consistent, more like the one he had in 2000 when he didn't deserve it. He's worked hard to become a solid wrestler and the Gotch gimmick is working well for him, so there's no reason to not push him as a main eventer now with Nagata, Chono, Sasaki and Tenzan. Sasaki is being re-pushed as a singles wrestlers, as he'll beat Yasuda on 6/5, but will lose to Nagata on 6/7 at Budokan. Nagata beating Kensuke is a big deal, as Sasaki has won their past three singles matches, with Nagata's only singles win over him happening during the 1999 G1 Climax. Sasaki should perhaps gun for the tag belts and win them after losing to Nagata, while remaining a singles threat. The "BEST OF THE SUPER JR. IX" tour began yesterday, with a strong SXW taping in Yamato. Toru Yano, who is being called a very good dojo star, and is a former amateur star, debuted, losing to his former dojo buddy, Blue Wolf in the opening match. They have a horde of young guys in the dojo, including English wrestler, Neil Faith, who I chatted to over email recently, and he's happy to be in Japan. He's a tall guy, 6'3", and could be a future gaijin superstar. The BOSJ matches saw Naruse beat Inoue, Jado beat Curry Man (Christopher Daniels, representing Michinoku Pro and making his New Japan debut), Kakihara upset Kanemoto (who I still think will win it), and AKIRA pin Tanaka. AKIRA and Tanaka are now 2-2 in singles matches and none of their matches have been anything less than excellent. They're teasing a big push for Kakihara, and he wants to compete in the G1 Climax later this year. The main event saw Chono, Norton & Tenzan beat Nakanishi, Nishimura & Yoshie, with Norton pinning Nishimura. This is Norton's payback for two recent losses (which is a lot for a guy who never used to lose), one in singles to Nagata and one in a tag at the Dome to Hashimoto. However, Nishimura taking the fall is surprising, as I thought Yoshie would. Yoshie needs to be kept strong for his involvement on the NOAH tour climax, but Nishimura has a tag title challenge coming up. Could this be some work to make us think Nishimura has zero chance, then Nishimura scores an upset win to capture the belts with Nakanishi? The entire tour is full of nice matches, mostly from the juniors, but also some good heavyweight stuff, including a mixed match tomorrow that has Nagata, Tanahashi & Kakihara vs. Chono, Tenzan & AKIRA. There is a PPV on 5/28 at Miyagi Sports Center. As part of Chono's movement to let smaller promotions display their talent on New Japan shows, two Jd' (Yoshimoto Pro, a joshi promotion) stars, The Bloody (who I have seen and she's very good) and Sachie (but listed as Yukie by New Japan) Abe going at it. The other match featuring an outsider is called "30th Anniversary Fighting Spirit Match", featuring Nakanishi vs. SPWF founder, Yoshiaki Yatsu. Yatsu is long past being good, but this match serves a purpose, as both men were amateur stars and Yatsu is a deserved part of the 30th year celebrations, as he was a great worker in 1980's All Japan, forming a super team with the legendary Jumbo Tsuruta. Nakanishi will surely win, as the angle seems to be that he can't get an IWGP Heavyweight Title shot unless he beats Yatsu, Takayama and Rutten, so he's hardly going to lose the first of those matches. Next up is a "Tug of War" match. No, not featuring a rope. It sounds like the 45 minute junior "Singles Elimination Match" from March, but I'm not sure if it's elimination format, and I think it may just be six singles bouts, but can't really say. It pits Yuji Nagata, Kensuke Sasaki, Tadao Yasuda, Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Masahiro Chono, Scott Norton, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Tatsutoshi Goto & AKIRA. Each team has two fall guys (Suzuki & Tanahashi for New Japan, Goto & AKIRA for T2000). Since there are six guys involved, this pretty much guarantees that we'll have at least one match featuring two "names". The two BOSJ matches will probably be the highlight of the show, as both, on a good day, could be match of the years. Kanemoto faces Liger in the Block A match. These two have had awesome matches several times before, 1/4/96 being an example. If Koji is winning the group, I say Liger will win here, to get something out of his eventual second place. The other one is a new generation dream match, with Tanaka facing Tiger Mask. These guys have been compared, as both are so good, but I actually think Tiger Mask is better. We'll see here who the better man is, as they'll have chance to outwork each other. The PPV should be a good one, better than the February show anyway. The 6/2 SXW taping already has six matches announced, so mainly just the young lions need to be added. Shiro Koshinaka returns from another injury, this one an internal problem, as he teams with Tatsumi Fujinami and Kakihara to face Chono, Goto & AKIRA. Nakanishi & Nishimura face Norton & Tenzan in a pretty big tag match. Assuming Nakanishi & Nishimura lose the title match in Osaka, this match clearly points to Tenzan losing the fall, to make the challenger team appear as a threat, then him probably pinning one of the two in the title match. If Norton & Tenzan win, that may be a hint that we'll see new champions in Osaka. BOSJ matches on that show have Liger vs. Jado (should be very good), Kanemoto vs. Shibata (battle of the lookalikes, this will have the old punk vs. upstart story and should be good), Tanaka vs. Samurai (should be excellent) and Naruse vs. Tiger Mask (should be decent, maybe better if TM4 can carry Naruse well). 6/3, which is the transition show between the BOSJ group and BOSJ final matches, has a wonderful-looking 2/3 Falls Match, with Liger, Tanaka, Samurai, Tiger Mask & Curry Man (working as a face in New Japan) vs. Kanemoto, AKIRA, Black Tiger, Jado & Gedo. Although no TV taping has been announced, I suspect it may be an internet taping, so if anyone subscribes to NJTV Internet, get your capture card ready! The tour climax is on 6/5 at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. Last year's BOSJ climax was a very good show with Nakanishi vs. Tenzan, Muto vs. Kojima and Liger vs. Tanaka. This show has Tanahashi vs. Bas Rutten, with Tanahashi again playing fall guy for a shooter. It could be worse, like a guy who has a big role, but they need to stop doing this, because Tanahashi is on his way up. However, if this all leads to Nakanishi beating Rutten, it's okay. Sasaki faces Yasuda, who is quickly becoming "that guy", and will win this match to set him up for Nagata. The IWGP Tag Title match, Chono & Tenzan vs. Nakanishi & Nishimura, should be one of those very good, fast-paced New Japan tag sprints, which all teams have adapted to in recent times. And of course, we have the Best of the Super Jr. Final to cap things off, which should be no worse than good.

 

Two days later, on 6/7, there is a stand-alone show, like there was last year with the excellent 6/6 PPV. This is called "BATTLE ZONE 6-7" and takes place at Tokyo Nippon Budokan (the real one, not the 4,000-seat Budokan Hall). There are two outsider matches, both of which I'm looking forward to. ARSION presents Mariko Yoshida, Michiko Omukai, Rie Tamada, Ai Fujita & baby A vs. Lioness Asuka, GAMI, noki-A, Fabi Apache & Bionic J. With so many involved, this should have some time to run with and be a good match. DDT (Dramatic Dream Team) presents MIKAMI & Takashi Sasaki vs. Poison Sawada JULIE & Hebikage. I watched DDT's February PPV recently and was impressed by how the product is presented. There are certain things I don't like, such as Takagi's WWF worship (just when you think "WHAT!?" couldn't be more annoying, Takagi has taken it to Japan), but the cast of characters is impressive. Super Uchu Power has a weird voice that I could listen to all day. Sawada is some freaky guy, who does the funniest dance ever seen, as has mind control powers. Showa wears a Destroyer-esque mask and does an old style gimmick, full of Cobra Twists and Octopus holds. MIKAMI is the best worker in the company, an incredible high-flyer who you could best compare to Marufuji. Sasaki is only a step behind, a very polished wrestler with a lot of ability. Asian Cougar also works there as well, so it's an entertaining indy. In a weird match, Rutten faces Naruse. The story here is that Naruse was a fighter in RINGS, but given how phased down he's been in the junior division, it's odd to see him in a high profile match. This hints a push for Naruse in BOSJ, maybe second place in his group, but he has no chance here. Nakanishi faces Takayama in a hard-to-pick match. On one hand, Nakanishi lost to Rutten and will probably lose his tag title challenge, so needs to win. On the other, Takayama lost to Nakanishi's friend, Nagata, at the Dome, so this could be his payback. Takayama plans to work often in New Japan, since he's a freelancer, so I don't know. The best choice for New Japan would be to have Nakanishi go over, but it's a tough one to predict. The main event is a match I'm looking forward to, as Nagata defends his IWGP Heavyweight Title against Sasaki. Even when Sasaki wasn't as good as he is now, these two worked together very well. However, their match last October was a big disappointment, because they had to work a lame fake PRIDE style, which is just not what these two excel at (though Nagata does it very well). If this is a "pro wrestling" match, which I think it will be, it could be a great way to finish the show and Sasaki's best match since his bout with Kawada. The tour after that is a very long one, which will be grueling for the wrestlers (over 20 shows), called "SUMMER FIGHT SERIES" (usually called "SUMMER STRUGGLE"). The big shows are both titled "SAPPORO FIGHTING SPIRIT MEMORIAL DAY", and take place on 7/19 and 7/20 at the Hokkaido Sports Center in Sapporo. They ran this building on 2/1, with a bad show (but good Nagata vs. Nakanishi main event) and it was just over half full. The building seats 12,000, so they need big matches to try and bring in 24,000 fans over two days. It sounds absurd that they're running two shows here, but take into account that this is replacing what was a Sapporo Dome show last year, so it makes more sense. One of these shows will probably have Kazuyuki Fujita's return. Fujita wants to become more of a wrestler and less of a PRIDE guy it seems, and plans to form a team with Takayama and gun for the tag belts. If Fujita works a regular schedule with New Japan, I'm not really opposed to a push, as I quite like him, but he should put over Nagata at some point, to strengthen Nagata as a singles wrestler and set up a long-running program between the two. There's talk of Frye challenging Nagata for the belt at one of these shows as well. A win over Frye would be a very good boost for Nagata, because Frye has regained a lot of credibility from his shoots. Frye, who used to be a terrible in-ring worker, but a good personality and heel, improved a lot in the ring before leaving New Japan, so I think a match with Nagata could be really good. Frye is another guy who could boost the tour system if he was willing to work full-time again, because he's a well known figure and would add some steel to whatever faction he sides with (probably Team 2000 again). I don't want to see him win the belt though, because Nagata is far better. The 7/20 show also has a NEO Ladies match, yet another joshi promotion given chance to show it's stuff on New Japan shows. An idea would be to have the 7/19 show on PPV and 7/20 a full TV-Asahi taping, or vice versa, since there would be way too much footage to compress into WPW I think. This year's G1 Climax will be separated into two parts. I'm not sure why, other than to give them fancy names. The group stages, which run from 8/3 to 8/8, will be called "BATTLE TYPHOON G1 CLIMAX", while the finals on 8/10 and 8/11 will be called "FINAL HURRICANE G1 CLIMAX". Favourites to win the tournament, IMO, are Fujita, Tenzan, Nagata and Nakanishi. I'd say one of the first two to set either up as a challenger for the belt (assuming Fujita doesn't have it by then). Unfortunately, after that we have the G1 World again. It couldn't possibly get any uglier than last years. Could it? Giant Silva and Singh are said to be in Mexico until August, but G1 World is in September, so this could be their "triumphant" return and maybe "feature" their "eagerly anticipated" match. On the other hand, Singh's contract expires in August, and in a perfect world he would be dumped. Dan Devine, if he's kept on, should be a good addition to the tournament. A match with Frye may be the best we could hope for. Scott Hall is also sadly a possibility to return, with New Japan again playing rehab clinic for this schmuck. Then there's Goldberg, who is leaning towards joining New Japan (probably a major show-only contract, since they couldn't afford him for tours) or PRIDE. On one hand, I don't want to see him anywhere near New Japan, but on the other, he has the aura of a strong fighter, rather than some sports-entertainer clown, and would help New Japan sell out the Tokyo Dome in October with a match against Ogawa, Fujita, Nagata or someone similar. From the "Oh God no!" file, Joanie "Chyna" Laurer will be on the Dome show as well, facing Shinobu Kandori. Hey, it could always be a New Japan wrestler, and Kandori has a history of taking business into her own hands. In the perfect world, this would be a doublecross by Inoki to establish Kandori as the "super strong" female icon instead of Chyna. There's an unnamed tour from 10/6 to 10/12, which may lead into the Dome show. Not to be confused with the February "FIGHTING SPIRIT" tour, the "FIGHTING SPIRIT SERIES" runs from 10/19 to 11/4. From 11/22 to 12/10, the "G1 TAG LEAGUE" series will run. Not sure if they'll run a junior version this time, but hopefully they will, as they have the connections to bring in some good outside teams (Sasuke & Tiger Mask and MIKAMI & Sasaki for example). On 12/15, a stand-alone show takes place at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. In 2000, they ran the same building around the same time, with a cool concept stemming from the T2000 vs. G-EGGS series in October, which T2000 won. As a result, Chono and Tenzan were allowed to book the show and put G-EGGS (Nakanishi, Nagata & Yoshie) in the opening match against Iizuka, Hirata & Suzuki. What was more humiliating was that the next match was one of those regular young lion bouts, with Inoue pinning Shibata. Chono booked all his guys in big matches. In a match to determine who would be in the 1/4/01 IWGP tournament, Kensuke Sasaki hilariously beat T2000's Michiyoshi Ohara in SIX SECONDS with a lariat. Then, T2000's AKIRA challenged and failed in an attempt to grasp the Jr. Title from Tanaka in an exceptional match. Finally, we had an all-T2000 main event for the IWGP Tag Title, with Tenzan & Kojima beating Chono & Goto. A concept for this year's show would be nice, although knowing Inoki (if he decides to BUTT in), it's anyone's guess what this could be. Finally, New Japan runs it's traditional 12/23 Korakuen Hall show, where awards are handed out. Last year, there was a established star vs. young lion theme for the show, and it was very entertaining.

 

NOAH: Misawa's booking continues to puzzle many, with April's GHC Heavyweight Title win for Yoshinari Ogawa over Jun Akiyama the worst decision he's ever made. Virtually every wrestler, outside of a few, on the roster would be better champions than Ogawa. This goes to show you how much Misawa plays favourites and why his booking has been so bad in recent times. His other projects, the Takeshis (Morishima & Rikio), are dominating the tag division, but their push is actually working pretty well now, because they're such monsters. The current tour is very boring, with the usual rehash of six man tags and very little effort until the big shows. The lowlight is the continued push of Ogawa, who actually pinned Taue in a six man on the tour opener. Yes, this builds to the title match, but the idea of Ogawa pinning Akiyama and Taue really disgusts me. Even scarier is that a few days later at Korakuen, Taue choked out Ogawa in a tag match. What makes this scary is that, unless something happens in the next few days, this makes Taue the winner going into his title match with Ogawa on 5/26, meaning that using the traditional booking logic, Ogawa would pin Taue, probably with some lame cradle, after a bunch of weak offense. The big shows to look out for are 5/25 and 5/26, both at Sapporo Media Park. Usually, NOAH delivers well on it's bigger shows, as there's more effort. 5/25 has the semi finals of the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title (which was vacated by Marufuji due to his injury) Tournament. Hashi faces Kanemaru in a match that could surprise many and be very good, as Kanemaru is world class and Hashi has improved a ton. The other should be a lot of fun, with grumpy old Kikuchi facing spunky KENTA. Kikuchi will stretch KENTA to Hell and back, probably winning after a few scares. Kikuchi vs. Kanemaru is the most likely final and would be very good. NOAH's junior division is thin, yet constantly delivers such good matches. 5/26 has the final, along with two other matches announced. Of course, there's Ogawa vs. Taue, a pitiful main event. The other has New Japan's Yutaka Yoshie vs. Takeshi Morishima. Given that Morishima pinned Yoshie in Nakanishi & Yoshie's failed challenge for the GHC Tag Team Title last month, Yoshie may win here. That'd be a good deal for New Japan, as Yoshie is a glorified fall guy who has only been moderately pushed for ages now, and he'd be beating a NOAH tag champion. This would set up Yoshie vs. Rikio, battle of the sumos, with Rikio winning that one. Morishima vs. Yoshie won't be a very good match, but will be very stiff and more interesting than Taue vs. Ogawa. On 6/2, NOAH has what I believe is a stand-alone show at Differ Ariake. Then there's a "wrestler's meeting" show at Korakuen Hall on 6/12, titled "THE TRUTH". Jun Akiyama is booking this and it's going to be almost all singles matches. In other words, this may be the most interesting non-major NOAH show in ages. The highlight is the main event, which has Akiyama facing the much misused Takao Omori. This will be Omori's final appearance before a long-term excursion to America. One can only hope that Misawa will finally push him in singles when he returns, but it's hard to tell. With No Fear splitting, Takayama is likely to be prioritized in singles. When NOAH started, the logical follow-on from Kobashi vs. Akiyama, which they were setting up in All Japan and went ahead with in NOAH, would have been Akiyama vs. Omori. These two "grew up" together in wrestling, with Akiyama eventually leaving Omori behind. However, Omori had a big 1999, winning the tag belts with Takayama, then got that shocking 7 second win over Akiyama in the 2000 Champion Carnival. Instead, Omori served Misawa Nescafe Lite, while Misawa likes Nescafe Gold, which Ogawa makes to perfection, so got totally buried, including an 8 minute loss in the #1 contender match against Taue recently. How absurd is it that Ogawa is carrying the top title, while Omori is losing all the time? After "THE TRUTH", NOAH's next tour, "ACCOMPLISH OUR SECOND NAVIGATION" runs from 7/5 to 7/26. Due to the Football World Cup (5/31 to 6/30) in Japan, there are a lack of shows in June.

 

Project X/Onita's FMW: Onita's revived FMW unfortunately doesn't seem to be a full-time group, but is running quite regularly. Their launch on 5/4 caused Korakuen to overflow with fans wanting to see the OLD FMW back in action. The show was a mix of the old and the new, with Onita and Fuyuki's agreement meaning guys from both sides can work. This appears to be a happy medium, as we now have the "new" FMW in the form of WEW and the "old" FMW with Onita's FMW. For example, Gosaku Goshogowara is working under his real name in Onita's FMW, while he continues to be Biomonster DNA in WEW. FMW's next show will be on 6/2 at Koshigaya Katsura Studio in Saitama. The opener has Ichiro Yaguchi & Shinigami vs. The Shooters. Then, in a BattlARTS match, Katsumi Usuda faces Manabu Sato (a good rookie). Kaori Nakayama's retirement countdown sees her face former Jd' wrestler, Drake Morimatsu. Shoji Nakamaki faces Nise (Fake) Onita, fun for the family there. There's a tag match featuring Kanemura and GENTARO (a good indy wrestler), although I'm not positive who their partners are. Tetsuhiro Kuroda faces Yoshito Sasaki, who as part of the Onita/Hashimoto alliance, is getting release from ZERO-ONE to work the show against his fellow former FMW compadre. The main event is an interesting one, with Onita, Ricky Fuji, Goshogawara & Chocoball Mukai vs. Mr. Pogo, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Tomohiro Ishii & Masaru Toi in a No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight Tag Death Match. Mukai in a barbed wire match is BIZARRE. He epitomizes everything Fuyuki strove for with his entertainment wrestling concept, so seeing him in old FMW/Onita's environment is strange. Won't be a good match in the traditional sense, but should be an interesting one.

 

Toryumon Japan: Toryumon ran it's 5th anniversary show in Mexico on 5/11. They're running a Japanese one on 7/7 as well. The show was surely an entertaining one, having several cool matches. One I really want to see was a T2P match, with Jun Ogawauchi, Junya Fukumasa, Takuya Sugawara & Kinya Oyanagei beating Syachihoko Machines #1, #2, #3 and #4, using a four way submission for the win. These T2P guys are unbelievably creative, so this match was probably an awesome spectacle. Hisamaru Tajima debuted, losing to Toru Owashi. These two are "Power Fighters". Yes, Ultimo's latest project is a batch of heavyweights! Ryo Saito, Anthony W. Mori & Second Doi beat Condotti Shuji (Shuji Kondo), Pescatore Yagi (Takayuki Yagi) & Berlinetta Boxer when Ryo used a German suplex hold on Boxer. In the UWA 6 Man Tag Title match, Toryumon Japan's Crazy Max trio of CIMA, Don Fuji & TARU © beat T2P's Milano Collection AT, YOSHINO (Masato Yoshino) & Brother Yashiini (Stevie Brother Tsujimoto) in 3 falls. The final fall saw Milano lose, but only by DQ, to Fuji, thus keeping the T2P guys strong. The main event was a weird one, because it only featured one Toryumon guy. It saw Atlantis, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Villano III & Villano IV beat SUWA, Bestia Salvaje, Dr. Wagner Jr. (who I wish would return to New Japan soon) & Apolo Dantes. SUWA wasn't involved in any of the falls, Rayo pinning Villano IV for the win.

 

UFO: Inoki plans to run a UFO restart Tokyo Dome show on 8/8. That piece of news shows what a destructive mind this man has. He owns New Japan and knows that company has enough problems drawing, yet he's going to provide competition not just indirectly to New Japan, but DIRECTLY, because NJ has it's last day of G1 Climax group matches on that day, running at Hiroshima Green Arena. The positive is that this may be his compromise to keep much of his Inoki-ism out of New Japan and separate. There are rumours of Naoya Ogawa vs. Rickson Gracie and Naoya Ogawa vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. The first match would be a huge draw. Not sure how much Nogueira would draw opposite Ogawa. Ogawa would win either match, with the opponent paid to take a fall. Kazuyuki Fujita and Tadao Yasuda are also rumoured to work the show. I can see at least one New Japan guy working the show. Since UFO is totally worked, we can only hope that whoever was brought in would be given a win. Maybe Nagata could finally avenge his losses to Mark Coleman, since I'm sure Inoki would love the IWGP Heavyweight Title defended on such an event.

 

ZERO-ONE: Hashimoto thinks booking American-style will draw fans. Bringing in fresh gaijins may, but running regular screwjob endings will do nothing but turn them away. The current tour, "GENESIS 2002", is split into two halves. The first has already finished, and had some interesting shows, with some good attendances. They ran a PPV on 5/3 from Matsuyama City Community Center, with 3,450 looking on. Gerard Gordeau, who has been protected a lot by ZERO-ONE, surprisingly lost to Steve Corino, who hit him low, then rolled him up for the win. Wataru Sakata, the former RINGS guy they're building up, beat Tatsuhito Takaiwa. It's sad to see Takaiwa as fodder after how good he's gotten. However, ZERO-ONE is going to be introducing a Jr. Title soon, so that may be built around he and Hoshikawa. In what was undoubtedly the match of the night, Otani & Tanaka beat BattlARTS' Ishikawa & Usuda, Otani using a crab hold to make Usuda tap at 16:42. Then came the lowlight of the show, with a main event of OH Gun (Hashimoto & Ogawa) against Howard & Predator. There's nothing wrong with the match, as it's logical (they built Howard and Predator up by having them beat Otani and Tanaka in singles), but they had the guts to run a no contest ON PPV! Not even McMahon would do something so absurd. Ogawa was choked out by Predator's chain, which led to the NC. Ogawa has been a little more giving lately, actually taking the Tenzan Tombstone Driver on 5/2. Maybe Hashimoto is getting into his head and convincing him to be more of a wrestler or something. The no contest no doubt caused a lot of discontent from the fans. That concluded the first half of the series anyway. The second half begins today, 5/19, at Ishikawa Industrial Exhibition Hall #2. Most interesting match on the undercard has Tanaka vs. Usuda. Tanaka is being pushed, but only steadily, so Usuda could get revenge for the tag loss here. I'd pick Tanaka though. The semi final should be awesome (and this is a Samurai! TV taping), with Otani vs. Takaiwa. Takaiwa is the guy Otani took on as his tag partner, with the two forming a good team and dominating the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title for a while in New Japan. With Otani bulking up, they were kind of separated, but now the 2000 Best of the Super Jr. Final pairing takes place again. Being the heavyweight and more highly regarded wrestler, Otani will win, but this should feature some great wrestling. The main event is being pushed as Ogawa's first ever six man tag, with he, Hashimoto & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (an elite faux shooter team) against Howard, Predator & Corino. I don't think this will be a good match, but could be interesting. Again, Ogawa is allowing himself to be involved in more conventional pro wrestling concepts, and is working a mid-sized TV taping for ZERO-ONE. He and Hashimoto must be very close now. 5/21 is an "eh" show, with a rematch from earlier in the year, pitting Otani & Tanaka vs. Native Blood (Navajo Warrior & Ghostwalker). We could see an upset here, unless Otani & Tanaka win two in a row. Corino faces Fujiwara, a style clash waiting to happen. 5/22 at Zepp Sendai is a little better. Highlight will be Otani vs. Corino, which could be a fantastic match. Unfortunately, this is just one of two shows not being taped on the tour, and those two are the only Z1 events in it's history to not be aired on TV (unless plans change). Main event has Hashimoto & Fujiwara vs. Howard & Predator. Whoever loses the six man in Ishikawa will win here. The tour wraps up at Korakuen Hall on 5/23. Hoshikawa faces Hidaka in what could be a great match. Their bout in Z1 last year was said to be disappointing (still haven't seen it myself), so hopefully this will be better. In an odd match, Takaiwa faces Sabu. Takaiwa will probably work very stiff, and unless plans are to bring Sabu back regularly, Takaiwa will win. Kohei Sato & Ryoji Sai vs. Wataru Sakata & Hirotaka Yokoi is next, with two of Z1's young prospects against two former RINGS guys. Semi final has Otani & Tanaka vs. Howard & Predator. As I said above, there were singles matches with these guys, the gaijin winning both earlier in the tour. Either Otani & Tanaka will get revenge here, or Howard & Predator will continue to be built as threats to OH Gun. The main event has Shawn Hernandez, recently of Double Iron Sheik fame in All Japan, facing Hashimoto. Kind of a weak main event for Korakuen, but the show should draw a healthy number. The shows aren't great, but at least Hashimoto is trying to establish a company, rather than using a ton of UFO has-beens. He is bringing in a lot of gaijin, while also trying to develop his own batch of natives. Hashimoto is also trying to bring in Riki Choshu, who left New Japan in April.

 

Miscellaneous: Here is the upcoming schedule for the rest of May, straight from Nikkan.

 

5/19: New Japan, NOAH, ZERO-ONE, Michinoku Pro, Toryumon Japan, Osaka Pro, International Pro, SPWF, Eagle Pro, JWP, GAEA, Jd' & ARSION. Very busy day, imagine having all this to choose from.

5/20: New Japan, NOAH, Michinoku Pro & ARSION

5/21: ZERO-ONE, Big Japan, Toryumon Japan, SPWF, Kaientai Dojo, LLPW & ARSION

5/22: NOAH, ZERO-ONE, SPWF & ARSION

5/23: New Japan, NOAH, ZERO-ONE, Big Japan, DDT, Kaientai Dojo & ARSION

5/24: New Japan, Big Japan, ARSION & r (I kid you not, a show by a company called "r" is listed)

5/25: New Japan, NOAH, Toryumon Japan, Osaka Pro, Kaientai Dojo, JWP & ARSION

5/26: New Japan, NOAH, Osaka Pro, GAEA, Osaka Pro, All Japan Women & IWA Japan

5/27: World W*ING Spirit

5/28: New Japan, Pancrase, Kaientai Dojo & ARSION

5/29: New Japan, Big Japan, All Japan Women & ARSION

5/30: New Japan, Kaientai Dojo & ARSION

5/31: DDT & ARSION