The Art of Wrestling’s Japanese Vacation
This week: Why NJPW’s Brock Lesnar experiment is doomed to fail
Thanks Hevia! Thanks Jed!
I really appreciated Dan and Shaffer taking over the column while I was away. Hevia’s idea of including some wrestling-themed art in his column cracked me up, and Jed’s columns were particularly well written and thought provoking. It was really an honor to have two such fine writers take over this column for a month. Of course, now that Jed Shaffer has gone out of his way to promote me as one of the few positive voiced in the IWC, the meat of this week’s column is going to be me complaining about Brock in New Japan. Hopefully, Jed has already convinced you not to listen to us, anyway.
I was able to check out the latest InsidePulse columns from Japan by going to Comics Clubs in Yokohama, Tokyo, and Osaka. The Clubs are great: for a set hourly fee you can read Japanese Comics, play video games, read stuff on the internet, and drink all the coffee, tea, and pop you can handle. The toilets there have heated seats, and according to the English instructions they “Rinse your posterior with warm water” for you when you’re done using them. If I had Flea’s or Widro’s money, I’d start a business importing Japanese toilets. Once you’ve used one, you never want to go back to cold porcelain again.
Overall Impressions
Going to Japan was very much like going ten years into the future and a thousand years into the past simultaneously. I’ve already written about their futuristic toilets, for example, and the fashions, cell ‘phones, public transportation, and omnipresent vending machines were all well ahead of what we have here in North America. At the same time, in every city, there are Buddhist monks in wooden sandals and flowing robes living in well-maintained three thousand-year-old temples. Chitose’s mother lives in Japan’s rural south, and there are fishermen there who use the same techniques that their great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfathers have been using for generations, except that this generation can watch TV on their cell ‘phones when they’re on a break.
As David Ditch reported after his trip to Japan, the people are friendly and polite, the streets are clean, and there is no street crime. In fact, not counting the bad guy wrestlers, I only saw one single angry person in the three weeks I was in Japan. A woman was yelling at some teenagers in the Yokohama railway station, and everyone around them seemed visibly shocked to be witnessing such a scene. The politeness there doesn’t seem phony or forced, but rather it feels like something the Japanese people have adopted naturally as a way of coping with living among so many people in such a small area. Many times, a virtual stranger went well out of their way to do something nice for me.
I could go on for pages and pages, but suffice to say that there was scarcely a moment I spent in Japan that was anything less than fascinating.
The State of Wrestling
The Japanese fans are amazing. Whole huge sections of the crowd responded to even the smallest relevant details of a match. They recognized every time a move, hold, or counter was attempted, defended, repeated, reversed, or varied. They got the place and importance of the moment in the context of the larger match, and they were able to pay attention to the minutiae without losing sight of the overall story being told. There seemed to be a real awareness of history, a knowledge of the relationships between various wrestlers, and a willingness to get completely lost in the action. In short, there are many Japanese wresting fans, perhaps even the majority of them, who have an appreciation of the art of wrestling. It was a genuine pleasure to watch live wrestling matches in that kind of atmosphere. These, I felt, were my kind of people.
This may perhaps be the upside of the growing popularity of Mixed Martial Arts in Japan. Fewer people are fans of Pro Wrestling in Japan now than there were in the 90s, but those fans that remain are hardcore fans with a deep knowledge of and appreciation for the finer points of the game. They are apparently willing to pay for the right to watch their favorites, as there is very little Pro Wrestling on free TV but a great deal of it on specialty cable channels. PRIDE and, especially, K-1, have a lot more free TV exposure and consequently draw a lot more mainstream interest. I don’t, however, take this as a sign that Pro Wrestling is dying in Japan.
For one thing, there are two weekly glossy magazines that are entirely devoted to Pro Wrestling, and I found that I often had to go to two or three different newsstands or convenience stores before I could find a copy, since they often sold out on the first day. Also, while I was there the Georgia Coffee company had a promotion where you could get a free IWGP World Champion figurine by buying a can of their coffee from a store called Lawson’s. On the first day of the promotion, I got Inoki and Tenryu figurines. On the second day, I didn’t get anything because all of the Lawson’s in Osaka seemed to be sold out of Georgia coffee. So, yeah, I’d say that Pro Wrestling is still pretty popular over there.
New Japan in Osaka
I got to see three live wrestling events while I was in Japan. I was at the final show of NOAH’s Winter Navigation tour on December 4th in Yokohama, at the Real World Tag League Finals in Tokyo on the 5th, and at New Japan’s show at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium on the 10th. Sadly, tickets for the Indy Dream card at Korakuen Hall were already sold out before we got to Tokyo, so we missed that one.
Anyway, we arrived at the show carrying a favorable predisposition towards New Japan. Before going overseas, Chitose and I had written letters to NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, and Weekly Gong, the promoters of the Indy Dream card, to see if I could get press credentials or at least free tickets. New Japan were the only company to bother writing back. Even though their answer was a very politely worded “No!” we still appreciated them taking the time. This kept us in a forgiving mood when we were placed at the back of a long and serpentine queue, to wait for the doors to open, which they eventually did about a half hour before show time. It took a hilariously long time for us to find our seats, too, as the Prefectural Gymnasium seems to have been designed by a big fan of labyrinths, and at first there were no staff people available to direct anyone to their seats.
None of this really detracted from the atmosphere in the building, which was positively electric. Before the show began, New Japan paid a very moving ten-bell tribute to Eddie Guerrero. All of the wrestlers gathered around the ring, there was a short speech and a video tribute to Black Tiger. The whole crowd stood respectfully as the bell tolled in his memory. Many of the wrestlers looked to be fighting back tears. They weren’t the only ones.
1. Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Hiroshi Nagao: This match was based entirely around textbook, classic psychology, as the smaller Taguchi went relentlessly after his bigger opponent’s knee before tapping him out with a Crab Hold. This match proved to me, beyond a doubt, that it takes more than good psychology to make an interesting match. This match was so slow and so boring that at one point Chitose leaned over to ask me if these two guys were actually professional wrestlers. This was a very weird way to open the show, as it didn’t exactly heat up the crowd.
2. Hirooki Goto vs. Akiya Anzawa: This was more was kind of similar to the opener, except they used arm psychology instead of knee psychology, there was about ten times as much energy and intensity, and the match had a nice, hard-hitting, Pro-style vs. Shoot-style type of feel to it. In the end, Goto’s experience prevailed as he forced Anzawa to tap to a Cross Armbreaker.
3. Naofumi Yamamoto vs. Hiro Saito: In contrast, the young lion Yamamoto triumphed over the far more experienced Saito in the third match of the evening. This match was longer than the openers by about two minutes, but it felt like the shortest match of the three. The crowd really got behind Naofumi, and everyone popped when he hit his Backdrop Suplex and bridged nicely to get the pin.
4. Jado & Gedo vs. Sangre Azteca & Safari: This Puro vs. Lucha bout featured the first big disappointment of the evening. After a fun and fast paced opening, the match was stopped prematurely when Safari legitimately injured his arm by landing badly after a dive from the top turnbuckle. The referee just stopped the match cold instead of allowing the wrestlers to improvise an ending. I would guess that there was some fear that language difficulties might have made it impossible to work something out on the fly. Here’s wishing Safari a speedy recovery!
5. Matt Morgan & Mark Jindrak vs. Osamu Nishimura & Toru Yano: This match brought the first pleasant surprise of the evening, as the WWE cast-offs did a great job in what turned out to be a very entertaining match. The Big Foreigners really made an effort to connect with the crowd, and it paid off with them getting a huge response. There was even a small group in one section who were waving American flags and chanting “USA!” Morgan is pretty well over as a gaijin giant, and he looks like a monster in the New Japan ring. Jindrak in particular has stepped up his game. He’s dropped some of his excess bodybuilding muscle and he seems to be more athletic than ever. When Morgan put Yano up on his shoulders and Jindrak made flapping motions with his arms to indicate “I’m going to fly now!” I sincerely believed that Yano was too high above the mat for Jindrak to hit his famous dropkick. When he nailed it, planting his feet into his opponent’s chest, the whole crowd went ballistic. It was unusual to see a foreign team getting cheers in New Japan, but Morgan and Jindrak earned their accolades with some very good wrestling and effective audience interaction.
6. Takashi Iizuka & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Yutaka Yoshie: Despite losing the bout when he tapped to Nakamura’s Fancy Dan Cross Armbreaker, Yutaka Yoshie was the star of this match. He got in very nearly every conceivable big fat guy pro wrestling spot. He managed to be funny and threatening at the same time, which isn’t easy to do, even if you are 160 kilos and wearing a hot pink singlet. Fujinami is pretty much New Japan’s version of Ric Flair. He’s not quite what he once was, but he can still go and the crowd is still into him, and he still deserves everyone’s respect. Nakamura is looking more and more like he’s going to be a big star in the very near future. He was impressive in this match, and he’s been signed to face Lesnar at the January Dome Show.
7. Koji Kanemoto vs. Minoru: This was the match of the evening, and I’d expect it will be featured on several “Best of 2005” compilations. Minoru used to be known as Minoru Tanaka, and he also wrestled under a mask for a while as Heat. He and Kanemoto are former tag team partners, and they have also been rivals since Kanemoto beat Minoru to win the 2002 BOSJ Tournament. To the best of my knowledge, Minoru had won every one of their subsequent singles encounters, but tonight was to be Koji’s night as he reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out the Tiger Suplex Hold to pin the younger man. The two men have tremendous ring chemistry, and I highly recommend checking this match out if you get a chance. As a bonus, Minoru inexplicably does the HHH water-spitting trick on the way to the ring.
8. Jushin “Thunder” Lyger vs. Tiger Mask IV: This was the second big disappointment of the evening. I’d been looking forward to seeing Lyger live for years, and now I can say that I have… but just barely. The match went less than five minutes. At first I thought that Tiger Mask was injured, but Stuart from Strong Style Spirit has speculated that TM is being punished for his attitude problems by being jobbed out in short matches. Whatever the reason, I could have used more than four minutes of Thunder. At least he finished the match with a sweet, old-fashioned Avalanche Style (top turnbuckle) Brainbuster.
9. Riki Choshu, Yuji Nagata & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Masahiro Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tatsutoshi Goto: This was a good, solid, thirteen minutes of wrestling fun. Choshu’s hatred of ChoTen was taken to hilarious extremes as he constantly interfered whenever they were in the ring, laying in stiff kicks as if he were being paid by the bruise. Tanahashi worked his ass off, ChoTen were their usual excellent selves, and Nagata got the pin on a surprisingly over Goto with, of all things, a Shining Wizard.
10. Brock Lesnar vs. Manabu Nakanishi: This was the night’s final disappointment, as the match turned out to be nothing more than a glorified four-minute squash. Brock sold next to nothing for his fellow former Amateur Wrestling star. He did nothing to connect with the crowd, and behaved as though he expected people to cheer him just for showing up. Virtually the entire crowd was pulling for Nakanishi, and there was an audible groan when Brock got him in position for The Verdict before five minutes had even passed.
The Japanese press and Strong Style Spirit both reported this to be a hot match and a real crowd-pleaser, but that simply wasn’t the case. I’ve made the match available for download on the InsidePulse forums, on the Other Wrestling board, so you can decide for yourself what kind of match it was. There are at least two points during the match where applause seems to have been dubbed in in post-production. When the crowd yells, gasps, moans, and chants for Nakanishi, that’s all real. When you hear people actually clapping, I am all but certain it’s been dubbed in after the fact. This is particularly obvious when Brock does his monster pose for the first time, as I remember the crowd kind of booing him at that point. I am sure that no one was clapping. There is also a hilarious interview with Brock after the match where he answers the Japanese reporter’s questions in broken English, making himself look like a complete tool.
In Brock’s defense, he undoubtedly had a lot on his mind that night, what with the threatened WWE lawsuits and all.
InsidePulse Forums
If you haven’t already signed up for our forums, maybe now is a good time to take the leap. It is quick and easy, and it doesn’t cost anything. Forum members, including many IP writers, get to interact with each other on a variety of topics, including Pro Wrestling. Just click here to get started.
If you’re already a member, click here to download the match. It’s in .wmv format, so you’ll need a window’s media player or some suitable replacement to watch it. Thanks to pgi86 from the DVDVR boards for capping this match!
Why I Think the Brock Lesnar Experiment is Bound to Fail
Brock has incredible physical gifts, and he is a talented wrestler. I don’t think that anyone can reasonably dispute that. I do not, however, believe that his heart is in Pro Wrestling any more. In Osaka, he carried himself like someone who didn’t really want to be there, doing what he was doing. Admittedly, there were mitigating circumstances that night, and Brock may show some of his old fire in the future, but I’m not holding my breath while I wait for it. I think he’d really rather be a football player, and I also believe that Brock thinks that Pro Wrestling is somewhat beneath him these days. To put it another, smarkier, way: Brock thinks he’s above the business now. New Japan hasn’t done anything to assuage this situation by bringing Lesnar in under special circumstances and giving him the Bill Goldberg push. I can’t see Brock being motivated by anything other than trying to get himself over as a huge star, and I don’t think that’s the kind of motivation that’s going to lead to a lot of great matches.
Even if I’m completely wrong about this, and I may very well be, there is another reason that this experiment is going to fail: Nobody asked for this. Throughout the history of modern Pro Wrestling, the biggest stars have always been those wrestlers that fans themselves decided that they wanted to see. More often than not, when a promotion decides to force a wrestler down their fans’ throats, the plan backfires. Hulk Hogan got over with the crowds in the AWA while Verne Gagne was trying to push Nick Bockwinkle and himself as the promotion’s biggest stars. Bret Hart succeeded as WWF champion while Lex Luger was on the receiving end of a gigantic, and failed, push from the WWF. It was the fans who demanded, and received, Steve Austin and Mick Foley in the main event. Eric Bischoff tried to bury Ric Flair, but the fans wouldn’t buy it. Ironically, the fans only accepted The Rock after the WWF abandoned their attempts to force him down everyone’s throats as a “Blue Chipper.” I’m sure you can all think of your own examples of wrestlers who worked for years to get over with the fans before finding success.
Bill Watts and Verne Gagne are the most obvious examples of promoters who ran their business into the ground by trying to push their own sons as major stars. I am sure we all can come up with other examples of promotions that have to suffer because the people in charge want to keep members of their own families on top.
Nepotism is not as big a problem in Japan, but shortsighted booking certainly has been a problem there recently. Rikio’s GHC run was widely considered a failure, which is no real surprise considering that he was never completely over with the NOAH fans in the first place. Antonio Inoki is gone from New Japan, but they are still paying the price for him indulging his MMA fetish by pushing Sapp and Fujita to the top of the promotion when the fans weren’t exactly screaming to see them as champions. If New Japan had brought Lesnar in as a regular wrestler, allowed him to build up a fan base slowly and steadily, and finally pushed him once he was established as a star in the fans’ eyes, it might have worked. Brock Lesnar might have found his motivation, and the Japanese crowds might have accepted him as the new face of NJPW.
Instead, I think that there is a real danger that Brock will prove to be in this only for what he can get out of it, the fans are not going to get behind him, and the promotion is going to have to hit the reset button on this one fairly soon.
I would be very happy to be proven wrong in this case.
The Pride New Years Eve Saitama Super Arena Show (Lineup cut and pasted from Puroresu Power)
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ikuhisa Minowa: Former UWF-I and New Japan Pro Wrestling star Kazushi Sakuraba is also one of the greatest, most creative, and most exciting MMA fighters of all time. He’s been on a losing streak lately as he is getting older and he keeps fighting much heavier fighters. I like watching Minowa fight, too, but I’ll be pulling for Sakuraba to get back to his innovative and winning ways in this one.
Emelianenko Alexander vs. Pawel Nastula: Alex is the bigger brother of the PRIDE heavyweight champion, the unstoppable machine Fyodor Emelianenko. Nastula is, I believe, a Polish Judo champion. I assume he’s being fed to Alex as part of the campaign to build him back up after Cro Cop kicked his head off at Final Conflict 2004.
James Thompson vs. Giant Silva: Yes, no fooling, the former Oddity is now a MMA fighter. He beat American Sumo Wrestler Henry “Sentoryu” Miller at Total Elimination 2004 in a real freak show match. Thompson is a huge British guy, who will tell you himself that he’s still got a lot of learning to do.
Free-weight match: Ken Kaneko vs. Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett: Kaneko is an actor, and Bennett has gone public with his opinion that fighting an actor is shameful. Freakshow match #2.
Middleweight Title Match: Vanderlei Silva vs. Ricardo Arona: The 1st Match of the Night candidate. “The Axe Murderer” Silva lost to Brazilian Top Team member Arona at Final Conflict 2005 back in August. This is his chance for revenge, and it’s also Arona’s chance to take Wanderlei’s belt. No one with any sense agrees with my theory here, but I think that Silva let himself lose in August so that he wouldn’t have to face his Chute Box Teammate “Shogun” Rua in the tournament finals. Rua went on to beat Arona decisively, and I’m looking for a Silva to re-establish his dominant position in PRIDE with a victory here.
Emelianenko Fedor vs. Zulu: Zuluzinho is a 390-pound monster who also holds a freakshow victory over Sentoryu. Fyodor is going to kill him. This will not be pretty.
Mirko Cro Cop vs. Mark Hunt: Potential FOTN #2. Cro Cop’s left leg is the deadliest weapon in MMA. Mark Hunt, at 5’10” and 250, is like a real life Samoa Joe. If Mirko doesn’t end it early, it could turn out to be a very exciting heavyweight bout.
Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Naoya Ogawa: As a former judoka, I’m very much looking forward to seeing these two former Olympic medal-winners square off. I hope that they both wear the Gi, and I hope that they have a secret gentlemen’s agreement not to just throw punches, because I’d very much like to see some world-class judo action in the PRIDE ring. I like Yoshida, and I think he showed great fighting spirit in his match with Wanderlei Silva at Final Conflict 2003, but I might be pulling for Ogawa in this one. While I was in Japan, PRIDE TV had a feature on the master of the STO where they showed him visiting the grave of Shinya Hashimoto and paying his respects. That was enough to make me an Ogawa fan, even though I never really liked him as a Pro Wrestler.
Yuki Kondo vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura: Kondo is one hell of a fighter, but I haven’t seen enough of Nakamura to judge whether this is yet another MOTNC.
Makoto Takimoto vs. Sanae Kikuta: Beats me.
2005 Lightweight Tournament Finals: Takanori Gomi vs. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai: This is a definite MOTNC. Gomi is one of the most exciting fighters to ever follow in Sakuraba’s footsteps, and Sakurai is a yet another former pro wrestler as well as a former SHOOTO champion. His nickname is pronounced “Ma-Ha,” Both men fought great matches on the way to the finals.
2005 Welterweight Tournament Finals: Dan Henderson vs. Murilo Bustamante: I’ve been a huge mark for Henderson ever since watching him fight valiantly in a 3rd round loss to the much larger “Minotauro” Noguiera at PRIDE 24. Bustamente fought very well in the tournament leading up to this match, so I have no choice but to make this my unprecedented 4th potential Match of the Night Candidate.
So, even though there’s no Minotauro, no Shogun, and no Rampage on the announced card, and even though everyone’s favorite announcer Bas “El Guapo” Rutten has reportedly quit PRIDE, I’d have to recommend that you get this on PPV, instead of whatever crap WWE or TNA are offering in January.
Next Week:
Pro Wrestling NOAH and All Japan live!
THANKS FOR READING!
