How New Japan can get out of their rut

[Guest Black Tiger]

Anyone who follows current New Japan can see that their booking is very good right now. They have their best worker on top as IWGP Champion, The Kanemoto vs Tanaka feud is red hot right now, and they are developing great talent like Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Shinya Makabe.

 

For whatever reason, New Japan's is doing terrible gates and is unable to draw, what are some things New Japan can do to get out of this rut their in?

 

1. Bring back Shinya Hashimoto, and Shinjiro Ohtani.

 

Hashimoto makes occasional appearences now, Hash is the biggest draw of the 1990's and its been long enough where his losses to Naoya Ogawa won't impact his drawing power.

 

Ohtani was possibly the top Junior in New Japan, he is right up there with Lyger interms of putting on great matches.

 

2. Don't push or de-push a wrestler based on their shootfighting record.

 

One of the key reasons New Japan is down right now is because of their moronic decision to put the IWGP Title on Tadao Yasuda, because of his 12/31/01 shootfight win,

 

Yugi Nagata got slaughterd on the same show and was de-pushed until April, only until April because of Yasuda bombing as IWGP Champion

 

3. Don't let Antonio Inoki have any say in title changes.

 

This one will never happen, in the last year Kazuyuki Fujita, Tadao Yasuda, Masayuki Naruse, and Kendo Ka Shin were all champions because of Inoki politics. They all bombed, and replaced perfectly legimate champions

 

If anyone has anyother ideas lets hear them.

[Guest BionicRedneck]

"1. Bring back Shinya Hashimoto, and Shinjiro Ohtani"

 

I don't really see the point in bringing Hash in full time. I havnt seen Ohtani in a long time since he stopped wrestling in NJPW, but hasn't he bulked up a lot (In an attempt to be a heavyweight)? Will that affect his performance working the Junior style? If not, bring him back, coz i don't think anybody wouldn't want to see Ohtani wrestle.

 

"2. Don't push or de-push a wrestler based on their shootfighting record."

 

Right. No NJPW should be competing in Shoot matches anyway. If they lose (Like Nagata) it takes a long time to regain what they had.

 

"3. Don't let Antonio Inoki have any say in title changes."

 

I would go as far as to say don't let Inoki have any say in NJPW, but thats not goin to happen.

 

I think if NJPW just keep making steady progress and making new stars like they are, then they should be OK. If however they put the belt on somebody like Giant Silva, Scott Norton etc. then it could spell the end. The IWGP Title has been disgraced enough in the past. I think that in the long-term Tenzan Vs Nagata would do big buisiness.

[Guest Black Tiger]

Nagata's next title deffese is against shootfighter Bas Rutten. Rutten has defeated Nagata's buddy Manabu Nakanishi and Young Lion Hiroshi Tanahashi to build him up. I see no reason to put the IWGP Title on Rutten.

 

When Fujita was IWGP Champion, he held the title for close to a year and made two title deffenses, because of his shootfighting commitments, if Rutten wins it will be Kazuyuki Fujita all over again.

[Guest CED Ordonez]

I definitely agree with keeping belts away from the shoot fighters. Keeping the belt on Fujita would have been like giving Rock the Undisputed Title for the past year. With very little appearances and defenses by the champ, people stop caring about your "big belt" and it hurts your business.

 

I a bit was glad when Fujita was stripped due to injuries, but then of course we get the poor drawing champion Yasuda before the IWGP title finally fell into the hands of Yuji Nagata.

 

I'm definitely up for Minoru Tanaka and Koji Kanemoto's feud. The fans are into it and Tanaka and Kanemoto are two great workers and can bring the goods to the table. It's the way New Japan's business should be handled.

 

Of course, Inoki's love of shoot fighters is the equivalent of Vince's love of big men, so we have the upcoming Nagata vs Bas Rutten title bout. Ugh, I only can hope Yuji rightfully wins this one.

[Guest Black Tiger]

hasn't Ohtani bulked up a lot (In an attempt to be a heavyweight)?

Its not so much he "bulked up" as he "gained weight". I haven't seen him recently but his bulk looked to be about on par with Fuyuki, right down to the gut, the last time I saw him. I personaly wouldn't care if he was a junior or not, I'd rather he was but the divisoin is fine on its own it has a pretty large roster with a varied amount of styles and a red hot feud over the title. The only wrestler I think it could use would be Tatsuhito Takaiwa, only because his power wrestling style would be a welcome change.

 

The only complaint I have is the Jr tag divison, Tanaka is already Jr champion and Lyger needs no titles, why not use up and comers like Naruse, Kakihara, Makabe, etc for the Jr tag division

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Why not bring in Hash full time? Wasn't the whole point of Zero-One to do some type of Invasion angle? I know it's happened too many times to really matter (All Japan and now NOAH) but there's no point to spending all that time creating on off-shoot promotion only to use the momentum to pitch Hash/Ogawa as a tag-team. I mean, again, wasn't another point of Zero-One to shake off the Ogawa-related loser stigma from Hashimoto? How can they expect people to forget about that if he's tag teaming with the guy?

 

And Rutten is supposed to be a good worker, or at least decent/carryable. Nagata carried Fujita to something good, I see no reason why he can't pull it off again, and maybe this would help get rid of the negative vibes lingering from his shoot debacle.

 

I don't get why they don't just start pushing Tenzan in singles. You'd think taht after Tenjoki broke up they'd take the hint and just push him in singles, but now he's back with Chono and it's '96 again, apparently.

[Guest Black Tiger]

Tenzan is a bigger draw that Nagata, (Tenzan vs Yasuda drew over 6,000, Nagata vs Yasuda drew 3,000)

 

There are really no teams for the tag titles right now because of how well established Tenzan and Chono are. The main candidates for winning the titles are:

 

Sasaki and ???

Nishimura and Nakanishi

 

Sasaki is teaming up with young lions right now, Nishimura has a lot of health problems right now

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Tenzan is a bigger draw that Nagata, (Tenzan vs Yasuda drew over 6,000, Nagata vs Yasuda drew 3,000)

 

There are really no teams for the tag titles right now because of how well established Tenzan and Chono are. The main candidates for winning the titles are:

 

Sasaki and ???

Nishimura and Nakanishi

 

Sasaki is teaming up with young lions right now, Nishimura has a lot of health problems right now

Well, a lot of that can be attributed to Tenzan being protected from the shooters and the Filipovik debacle especially, I think, hurt Nagata's drawing power immensly. However, for the time being, Tenzan is the bigger draw, so why not build him up as a challenger for the belt? Chono is feuding with Takayama, and he's supposedly forming a tag team with Fujita, right? Why not have them beat Tenzan/Chono to advance the feud and give Takayama some credibility since he's been jobbing since "invading" NJPW. If they don't want the shooters getting the straps, there's always Hashigowa to put the titles on, since, like I said before, they don't seem to have anything else for Hashimoto to do.

 

I figuer after they get the tag belts onto someone else, Tenzan can begin a major singles push and eventually be the guy to dethrone Nagata for the title. He's a solid worker, a good draw, and is really over with the fans. I hope he wins the G1 Climax to kick things off.