Puroresu Pulse, issue 49

Archive

Section 1- Results

New Japan: Lesnar won his matches against Nakanishi and Nagata as expected. Attendance for the shows is under some dispute, but the reception was markedly improved from his debut.

Section 2- News

All Japan: “The question is, what now? He (Kojima) went over Mutoh and Sasaki, the Dudleys don’t work as Triple Crown challengers, midcarders like TARU, Arashi and D-Lo aren’t credible…” – me, last week. All Japan announced that Kojima’s January title defense on the 8th will be against TARU, who is by far the least-worthy Triple Crown challenger ever. It isn’t even close. This probably means no Akebono title shot. Also on 1/8 will be Kondo vs AKIRA for the junior title, and the odd pairing of Arashi & Hayashi challenging for the All Asia tag titles.

In other All Japan news, Kojima won the sought-after Tokyo Sports puro MVP award for ’05 by a comfortable margin. A huge rookie named Kohei Sugiura will debut on 1/3. All Japan will apparently cooperate with a new Kensuke (Sasaki) Office promotion that will also train wrestlers; it will be an irregular promotion like BIG MOUTH. King’s Road is making more waves, going after Taiyo Kea. Finally, there is word that the Dudleys won’t be back after January due to monetary demands.

New Japan: I’ll deal with the Brock Lesnar issue in its own section, but the simple version is that Nakamura replaces Fujita as the 1/4 challenger. Also, Lesnar has come to terms for a full contract with New Japan once he’s clear to sign. Simon Inoki is trying to get Tajiri and is promising a big push if he signs. Lastly, there are likely to be a wave of salary cuts and demotions to part-time status when the yearly negotiations come around next month. Because the only promotion with serious money is NOAH, which only as room for so many and wouldn’t have any use for most New Japan guys, the New Japan wrestlers have no choice but to swallow their pride and take the hit.

Misc: A new ‘fighting sports’ facility will be built in the next few years in the Tokyo Dome area, which includes Korakuen Hall. Essentially it will be Korakuen 2, only slightly bigger and much nicer. This is great news for Japanese wrestling, as it should reduce the price of running the original Korakuen for small feds and it will mean extra tickets for big feds who sell it out. Nicer venue doesn’t hurt either. In addition it will allow for more shows, because Korakuen is run so much and is booked every Friday/Saturday/Sunday year-round. Anywhere from fifteen to thirty million people live within an hour’s train ride of the area so it isn’t too hard to see both venues being sold out regularly.

Misc 2: Kensuke Sasaki has announced the formation of a new Kensuke Office promotion, which will run shows irregularly but more importantly will see the training of new wrestlers. Nakajima’s phenomenal talent and the marketability of the

Section 3- Brock, Fujita, Inoki Office & Yukes gets serious

New Japan had been strongly hinting at Nakamura replacing Fujita over the last few weeks based on speculation that Fujita would get booked on one of the big New Years Eve shoot shows. I thought nothing would come of it because Fujita wasn’t a hot property, but lo and behold K-1 ponied up $300,000 and thus Fujita once again placed shootfighting ahead of pro wrestling. A big factor in this is Inoki Office making the booking and taking a cut of Fujita’s pay accordingly, in large part because it needs cash. Last year it would have caused lots of heavy sighs and head-shaking and “oh that Inoki, what can you do?”. Not this time.

Yukes started off by issuing an apology for the change. Now, wrestling lives and dies based on “card subject to change”, after all that gave us what I think is the best match of the decade to date. But while other wrestling promotions feel no shame when they get screwed over by a wrestler or an injury, Yukes has taken responsibility for not securing Fujita enough. Kudos to Yukes, especially because they aren’t taking it laying down. They’ve verbally berated Inoki Office for the move, and are even considering legal action. Not only does this signal that Yukes isn’t letting Inoki remain the de facto boss, but that they also won’t tolerate the shenanneganry of the last few years regarding Inoki and the shoot promotions. Of course there are reports that somehow Inoki doesn’t call the shots at Inoki Office, but that just hurts my brain.

Brock Lesnar has now distanced himself from Inoki Office, and at a very good time to do so. Sadly for him, 1/3 has been set as the date for the hearing on WWE’s pending restraining order… and the afternoon of 1/3 in the US is the morning of 1/4 in Japan. If Brock must appear in court then he can’t possibly make the dome show, but I’m pretty sure his lawyers can act on their own. The result will be known well before the start of the show, but if Brock is barred from New Japan then the show is as SOL as any big show in memory. Oddly enough this is looking like the Goldberg match where both men turned out to be on the way out, though in that case it wasn’t the main event and it wasn’t cancelled.

What’s the effect of the above? First, if Lesnar is able to wrestle anywhere, he’ll be doing it with New Japan. Second, Inoki Office and Fujita have quite possibly burned their last bridge with the pro wrestling industry. Third, New Japan is in jeopardy of having a meltdown on the night of their all-important last Tokyo Dome show, and at the very least their image has sunk even further below that of NOAH. Fourth, things really have changed for good as far as the corporate operation, and 99% of the problems with the 1/4/06 show stem from the old regime. I anticipate a big move towards profitability for New Japan next year.