Section 1- Important results & Title matches
NOAH- Marufuji defended the GHC ‘hardcore’ title against rookie Go Shiozaki, but only just barely did so within the 15 minute time limit.
Zero-One- Takao Omori defended his United National title against Steve Corino.
Section 2- Other news & Upcoming matches
All Japan- Kohei Suwama will have a ‘singles series’ to jump-start his career. The first opponent named was Vader. Also, the man under the MUTA mask (who will face Mutoh on 12/5) is recently released WWE worker Johnny the Bull. NOSAWA set himself up as the next challenger to the junior title held by Kaz Hayashi. Tenzan showed up at the Tag League opening night to heat up his match with Kawada.
New Japan- I’m breaking this down day-by-day because once again a ton happened. Wednesday: They announced that Yoshida, their newest young lion, will debut in America on 12/12. Also, Minoru Suzuki’s request to defend the tag titles by himself in a handicap match was denied.
Friday: In a huge shakeup, Sasaki vs Tenzan was moved to 12/12. Tenzan’s new opponent on 12/11 was announced as Satoshi Kojima. It was rumored that they might face off on the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show, but apparently that was moved forward. If Tenzan knocks off Kawada on 12/5, it could be a Triple Crown match. Wataru Inoue was announced as Minotu Tanaka’s next challenger to the junior title, on 12/12. Also, Tatsumi Fujinami announced that his long-rumored comeback might happen on 1/4 show. He’s been getting in ring shape throughout the year. His expected opponent would be Tanahashi, who uses several Fujinami trademarks. Shibata was announced as having sustained a back/spine injury due to taking a plethora of brainbusters from Tenryu on the Osaka Dome show. He’s expected back in a few weeks.
Saturday: Harry Smith, the huge son of ‘British Bulldog’ Davey Boy Smith, will debut in Japan in January. Sunday: Kojima confronted Tenzan at New Japan’s tour opener to heat up their match. Also, a new stable was formed with Sasaki, Tenryu, Minoru Suzuki and Yoshihiro Takayama. Sasaki and Suzuki announced that they’d face a team on 12/11 to crown new tag champs. Monday: Sasaki & Suzuki’s opponents were revealed as Tanahashi & Nakamura.
NOAH- Zero-One’s junior champ Takaiwa challenged NOAH’s junior champ Kanemaru to a title (vs title?) match. Three years ago it was Takaiwa who ended Kanemaru’s first title reign.
Zero-One- Hoshikawa woke up from his coma, and will now begin the rehab process in hopes of walking again. Let’s hope he can. Also, Kawada has been booked for today’s show, tagging with Choshu in the main event. Kawada has worked Zero-One in the past, notably last December when he fought Naoya Ogawa to a non-finish.
Section 3- Puro’s effect on the indies
With the death of regional promotions in the US at the hands of Vince McMahon Jr., non-affiliated independents wound up filling the role of putting on regular shows in given areas. From ‘successes’ like ECW to D-tier nobodies, indies have had a big effect in creating concepts and wrestlers now seen in WWE. However, today’s top indies (excluding TNA, which is a different mess) have departed radically from the way they were, and are now shunned by WWE to varying degrees. All signs point to this change having been precipitated by the emergence of puroresu on the internet, and the trading of wrestling tapes that went along with it.
Dave Meltzer and others always covered Japan, but for years Japanese tapes were only traded amongst small circles. Declining ties between Japan and the major US promotions meant less and less mainstream influence for puroresu on the US for a long period of time- especially with heavyweights. While the likes of Sid, Nash and Yokozuna dominated the mid ’90s, the likes of Misawa and Kawada were doing things light-years more advanced. It took a while, but those advancements found their way across the Pacific, and now various elements seen therein are commonplace in feds like ROH, IWA Mid-South, even CZW.
What we’re seeing is the emergence of a very unique community of independent workers who have chosen to avoid the simplistic, play-it-safe WWE style and as such have largely given up on being on an episode of Monday Night Raw. Between those who grew up in the internet wrestling community, and those who were shown tapes by friends and other wrestlers, today’s independent workers are considerably more likely to ape moves and sequences from a year-old NOAH main event than last week’s encounter between Hardcore Holly and Kenzo Suzuki (who’s the rare Japanese wrestler more suited for WWE than anywhere else).
In too many cases we see little more than repetition of the cool moves. Witness the omnipresence of Misawa’s rolling elbow, Ohtani’s facewash, the shining wizard and the ‘burning’ lariat, not to mention standing strike exchanges and pop-up no-selling. But in some cases the storytelling elements, from Kings’ Road-style build to deep continuity to playing off past encounters, creeps in. In fact, there are a handful of wrestlers like “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson who I’d put above any wrestler in Japan for storytelling (but that’s a whole ‘nother column).
Today, US indies serve as a source of talent and cross-promotional help for many Japanese federations. Zero-One’s relationship with the NWA and UPW; New Japan’s LA Dojo family of wrestlers; NOAH’s tie to California’s IRON promotion and Harley Race’s WLW; All Japan’s link to now-defunkt MLW; Big Japan’s relationship with CZW and now IWA-MS; ROH’s use of wrestlers from three major Japanese feds. All these things mean that the US indy scene is in many ways more relevant to puro fans than WWE fans.
The opposite, sadly, isn’t true. While many obscure Japanese promotions like DDT see a fair amount of overseas internet coverage, US indies are essentially non-existant to Japanese wrestling fans (not to mention most of the wrestlers and management). I find this to be one of the greatest tragedies of modern wrestling, because the great melting pot of styles seen in US indies is producing some fantastic pro wrestling that would be better received among the polite wrestling fans of Tokyo than the smarky cynics of Philadelphia.
Next Week: A look at a criminally overlooked storyline, as NOAH has had several jobbers-for-life be redeemed to varying degrees in 2003 and 2004.
