Section 1- News
All Japan: Kojima nominated Albert for a Triple Crown match on 7/26. Why they’re waiting five months for Kojima’s first defense is beyond me, though at least Albert has shown a lot of effort and isn’t as bad a challenger as you might think.
NOAH: Speaking of a long time for a first defense, Scorpio and Doug Williams won’t put the tag titles on the line until 6/18 in the UK, against Minoru Suzuki and Marufuji. Tenryu has voiced a desire to institute a 6-man tag title along the lines of the openweight title, with a more unorthodox operation than other titles. This would fit with NOAH’s inclination towards ‘random’ 6-man tags, which have produced some surprisingly good matches in the past. A ‘superteam’ of Tenryu/Akiyama/Kobashi seems to be in the works along with this.
Section 2- Tokyo Dome reconsidered
Over the months I’ve hammered home one point probably more than any other: that Japanese promotions shouldn’t run the Tokyo Dome as often, if at all. Three things have happened to largely change my mind.
First off, New Japan head Kusama spoke to the media about the claimed 5/14 attendance of 35,000- the lowest of any wrestling show in the venue’s history. He stated that this was the ‘actual’ attendance, and that more people were there than came to the 1/4/05 show where 46,000 were claimed. For most sports/fighting/wrestling companies who don’t legitimately sell out the Dome, inflating the numbers is par for the course. Kusama acknowledged this to his credit. Live reports bear out the crowd size being larger than 1/4/05 (where the claimed attendance was clearly wrong), and 35,000 seems reasonable for the claim. That isn’t to say that 35,000 full-price tickets were sold, and tales of heavily-discounted tickets are floating around, but it’s a start.
Kusama also mentioned that New Japan used a cheaper set-up for the show, with less seating. This was a nod to the fact that they weren’t going to sell out the show, and they responded accordingly for business purposes. It would appear that they’ll do this for future Dome shows. Once again it’s an act of humility, and it could cast a bad light on others who use run Dome and use normal oh-we-really-sold-it-out PR tactics.
Secondly, Zach Arnold has reported that Kusama and others use the Dome with full knowledge that it’s bigger than they need and on the expensive side. According to his sources, the Tokyo Dome is one of the few venues who aren’t connected with the Yakuza. As such there isn’t the usual Yakuza-imposed restrictions (ie. skimming) on getting back all the money generated for the show, meaning that it can be possible to undersell the Tokyo Dome and still make a better profit than packing the house at other large arenas. Last but not least, if it’s a matter of choosing between making about the same profit cleanly, versus needing to further ingratiate yourself to the Yakuza… the choice is clear.
Finally, NOAH’s ticket sales since announcing Misawa vs Kawada and Kobashi vs Sasaki have been stellar; it could legitimately sell out, especially with matches including Rikio, Akiyama, and outsiders like Tenryu, Fujinami, and others yet to be announced. They also were given a longer prime-time TV slot. Granted, NOAH might not ever get two dream matches on a card again, but the fact that they’re doing so well means that it’s great press for NOAH and Japanese wrestling as a whole. With Misawa vs Kawada alone they were assured a better draw than last year’s show, so it makes logical sense to book the Dome once Kawada’s on board. Hopefully NOAH will put Rikio in a tag match rather than force one of his GHC defenses to compete with the superfights.
Of course things do change.
Section 3- Inoki rears his chin
Little things like profits, long-term booking considerations and swallowing your pride for a change apparently don’t appeal to Antonio Inoki. Inoki came out this week and blasted Kusama over the low Tokyo Dome attendance, which of course was more an admission of facts than an actual decrease. Kusama fired back about having balanced the books and maybe filing a lawsuit if Inoki goes through with his plan to have Kusama removed from his position. All that nice stuff I said about Kusama’s Tokyo Dome changes could be what gets him canned. That’s puroresu.
Next Column: Japan drops the ball on US indy talent
