Section 1- Important results & Title matches
All Japan: Taka Michinoku beat Kaz Hayashi for the junior title on a show of Taka’s Kaientai Dojo promotion.
New Japan: As touched on last week, they ran the Tokyo Dome with widely disputed attendance. NJ claims 45,000, but Meltzer reports 25,000 with just 10,000 paid… which would be a disaster f true. Tiger Mask 4 unseated Minoru Tanaka to win the juniors title, while Liger downed Kanemoto for top contendership. Liger hasn’t had a title shot since 1/4/00 when he beat Kanemoto in a resounding squash, followed by a six month reign in which he dominated the division and won the 2000 J Cup. Tiger Mask’s reign could be a short one. Yuji Nagata beat his brother in a spar, with the crowd getting behind the little brother. Suzuki won the sleeper battle with Iizuka. Kojima blasted Nishimura with a flurry of lariats, as expected.
The ‘Ultimate Royal’, with two matches at the same time, confused the crowd but did its job of establishing Ron Waterman as a powerhouse. Waterman downed Naruse, Nakanishi and Nagata in just over five minutes combined to win. After that, Masahiro Chono became the clear number one contender by defeating Choshu and Tenzan in consecutive falls to win the Dogfight. More on that later. Finally, Nakamura won the U-30 title from Tanahashi in a match that they went all-out for. Nakamura seems prepared to seal the title, but it hasn’t officially been retired yet.
NOAH: They ran the Nippon Budokan on Saturday. Morishima won his return match, but made it clear he isn’t gunning for either of the big GHC belts just yet. Kanemaru downed Takaiwa, and afterwards it appeared that Takaiwa joined the Dark Agents stable. Takaiwa isn’t booked for the next tour so we’ll see if he joins the roster. Rikio got a high-profile win in the semi-main, pinning Koshinaka. The exchanges between Misawa and Tenryu were said to be crowd-pleasing. The show wrapped up with Kobashi downing Minoru Suzuki for his 13th title defense.
Zero-One: Earlier today (Monday) the AWA title tournament wrapped up, with Omori beating Sato in the final. However, the title is apparently held up until the 23rd when a rematch will take place with a third man in the mix: Kensuke Sasaki, making his rumored debut with the promotion. Sasaki and Zero-One head Ohtani have ties going back over ten years, and the only reason he didn’t enter sooner was bad blood between Sasaki and Hashimoto.
Section 2- Other news & Upcoming matches
New Japan: The first challengers to Nakamura/Tanahashi on 1/30 will be the veteran all-stars of Tenzan and Nagata. Tiger Mask 4 vs Liger is set for Sumo Hall on 2/20, and Tenzan vs Chono seems to be set for some time in the future, though Chono will be in a big tag on 2/20.
NOAH: Marufuji’s next openweight title defense will be on 1/23 against Eigen, who debuted in wrestling 13 years before Marufuji was born! Misawa vs Tenryu is a near-lock for the 3/5 Budokan show, following their clash in the tag this weekend. And last but not least, Kobashi vs Rikio has been signed for 3/5! On 3/6/04 in the Budokan they had a match that was Kobashi’s 7th defense, and Rikio was quite competitive in it. Now it would appear that Rikio is poised to unseat Kobashi, who is the holder of the most storied title reign in some time.
WWE: World Wrestling Entertainment has been making some big noise when it comes to Japan. Their plans include running a PPV at the Tokyo Dome, signing some notable Japanese wrestlers, and in general turning Japan into their #2 market (currently Canada and the UK are higher priority). This is the last thing that Japanese promotions want.
Section 3: Strategy & selling, the backbones of technical wrestling
Often times, submission work is lauded as an end unto itself. Two grapplers take it to the mat and trade holds for a while? Glorious! Four stars! Fun for the whole family! If only it were that simple. No, scratch that; thank God it isn’t that simple. Wrestling wouldn’t be worth following if it was so easy to put on a compelling match.
A typically seen ‘main event’ formula starts with submissions, then moves on to impact moves, then leads to the finishing sequence. Many these days are proficient at filling time at the start and creating a blow-away finale, such that you forget how utterly meaningless the outset was. That’s not to say a feeling-out process is meaningless, nor does it mean that every match needs focus on a body part. Rather, matches need more depth than just building from little moves to big ones over the course of twenty minutes. That’s where strategy comes in. It only makes sense for a wrestler to have a gameplan, and said gameplan can turn ‘filler’ sections into something compelling.
The easiest strategies typically arise out of pre-existing (especially fresh) injuries, worked or not. A fan of US wrestling knows that Benoit had major neck surgery; a major fan of Japanese wrestling knows that Mutoh’s knees are more machine than man. The continuity of Japan (see issue 13) helps quite a lot here, as an injury can come up in matches for months and years at a time, enabling the injury to re-appear without a lengthy amount of work, which in turn lets wrestlers progressively build on past battles. If an injury is established enough it can be touched on briefly, then brought up again later on at a crucial moment without confusing the crowd in the slightest.
Other strategies can be almost as easy to convey to the crowd. For instance, attacking a body part in order to prevent a finisher. In Japan you’ll see this most often when lariat-users have their strong arm targeted, a theme seen ever since Stan Hansen established the move as a death blow. In a tag match, the weak man on a tandem gets isolated because he’s least able to fight back. Rock ‘n Roll Express-style tags are easier when someone weak is being bullied, while a strong wrestler with an explosive moveset waits on the apron.
Smart wrestlers will know enough to focus on established injuries and related moves/holds, rather than just going through the usual moveset. A strategy that makes sense on a kayfabe level is one the crowd can get into. The context of a hold can mean the difference between putting the audience to sleep and putting them on the edge of their seats. For instance, there are times when Flair will go after an opponent’s arm for several minutes despite there not being a particular reason (ie. injury) to do so; his Raw match with Hurricane last year for instance. Anyone who’s watched a significant number of his matches knows that he has nothing to build towards, as he inevitably attacks the legs for the figure-four. The arm work is eventually forgotten, becoming time that could have been used towards setting up what happens in the rest of the match. Similarly, the crowd *immediately* knows what’s going on when Flair goes after a leg because that sets up the figure-four.
Naturally all the brilliant, chess-like technical work in the world is meaningless if it isn’t sold. Having a body part assaulted for several minutes only to recover all at once is no different than Hulk Hogan coming back immediately after taking a beating the whole match. Hogan did many things, but helping the cause of technical wrestling isn’t one of them. Not only does it relegate the submission work to filler, but it also means that the viewer is almost better off for having ignored it. Similarly, if something is sold well through the body and finish of the match, those who do pay attention are able to enjoy the match that much more. One match receiving a lot of praise for 2004 that fits this is American Dragon vs Homicide from Ring of Honor’s April 24th show, where both picked a body part to focus on and said body parts were a factor right to the end. Even better was Doug Williams vs Christopher Daniels from 3/22/03, where the injuries were used for transitions in brilliant fashion.
Sadly there are wrestlers like Kawada who were in countless MOTYCs in years past but no longer are, due to a dwindling willingness to sell logically for an entire match. One armbar doesn’t need to be sold twenty minutes later, nor should a handful of kicks to a leg. Selling should be proportional to effort. Of course there are far more instances of limb work being dropped all at once than oversold, but it happens.
Look at how the layers build on one another: having a strategy —> having a logical strategy —> having a logical strategy that impacts the entire match. In the end it rewards those who pay attention by adding meaning to otherwise forgettable moves. Thoughtful technical wrestling leads to matches where what a wrestler does in the early stages plays a role in the finish, rather than just who happens to do the last big finishing move. At times having an appreciation for the finer points of technical work can lead to enjoying things less, but I’ve found that my very favorite matches only get better as I understand what makes them great. Said matches having come from Japan is why I do this column in the first place.
Next Week: The implications of WWE in Japan.
