Puroresu Pulse, issue 53

Archive

Section 1- Results

Dragon Gate: A Dragon Kid vs Yoshino title match ended in a run-in DQ, so they’ll have a rematch on 2/5.

NOAH: A good crowd (legitimate number unknown but said to be at least near-sellout if not sellout) saw Jun Akiyama use his recently favored running knee attack to pin Taue and win the GHC title for the second time. KENTA retained the junior title over Marufuji in a crowd-pleaser. Akebono & Rikio did a brutal stacked splash off the turnbuckles to crush Izumida and win that tag. Team Misawa beat Team Sasaki in the 6-man.

Section 2- News

New Japan: Leading off, Nishimura, Takemura, Yanagisawa and Naruse are gone from New Japan. Yoshie is likely to bounce between All Japan and/or New Japan as a freelancer, and there isn’t any burned bridge between he and New Japan. Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka haven’t re-signed and could go the Yoshie route. Tenzan hasn’t signed but is quite close, ditto Junji “Strong Machine” Hirata. El Samurai had his offer increased but could still reject it (I’m guessing he’d retire). Hiro Saito hasn’t signed and could retire. New Japan is having a debut for its biggest (size-wise) prospect in many years on Saturday, Mitsuhide Hirasawa. Finally, they’ve signed Black Tiger vs Tiger Mask 4 part 3 for the 2/19 Sumo Hall show, a junior title match of course.

NOAH: Akiyama has offered three options for his first challenger. One is a junior heavyweight, due to the rise in popularity and stature of the division. Another is Kobashi. A third is a round-robin tournament. The first defense will be at the Feb/March tour-ender at the Budokan, and since the tournament won’t be happening on such short notice that narrows things down. KENTA has made a vocal challenge for a title shot for his part. Kobashi remains focused on a Sapp match.

Section 3- Akiyama’s best chance… and his last?

2001 was NOAH’s worst year from any standpoint you like. Kobashi was out, while Misawa and Taue wereclearly a step below where they were just three years prior. All Japan was in a resurgence and All Japan vs New Japan dominating headlines, so it was difficult for Misawa to (as expressed in the form of a NOAH tour name) Navigate the Evolving Gift of Oceans. Or something. Akiyama had been a can’t-miss prospect ever since his debut and contributed mightily during the glory days of the ’90s. In 1998 he started to break out as a serious title contender, reaching the Champions Carnival final, beating Hase at the Tokyo Dome show and coming close to taking the Triple Crown from Kobashi. 1999 didn’t do much for him, but he did get a push in 2000.

Following a decent Misawa vs Takayama match in April 2001 to crown Misawa as the first GHC champ, it came time for Misawa to pass the torch in full to Akiyama as the post-Kobashi ace. On 7/27/01 Akiyama went over Misawa at the biggest NOAH show to date without Kobashi on the card, packing the Budokan primarily on the importance of the main event. After that things got somewhat bleak. The first title defense against Tamon Honda drew a horrible TV rating and a small crowd. The second defense against Vader was much improved but needed a strong undercard to sell out the 12,000 seat Differ Ariake Colliseum. Third defense against Nagata headlined New Japan’s 1/4/02 Tokyo Dome show, and it was a heatless letdown.

Kobashi’s ‘first’ return on the awesome 2/17/02 Budokan show gave the promotion a slight shot in the arm, but two months later it was back to Ariake Colliseum for Akiyama vs Ogawa despite another loaded undercard. From NOAH’s debut shows where Akiyama got falls over Misawa, Taue and Kobashi, through the Akiyama title reign, a period in which Akiyama was pushed more than ever before, Akiyama only managed to be a draw for over 15,000 fans one time. Sure, by today’s standards the reign wasn’t all bad, but that’s when you compare it to the Ogawa disaster, the Rikio disaster and Taue’s token reign. Akiyama was supposed to be the one to replace Misawa as the leader of the debuted-in-the-90s generation and pack the Budokan regularly, but as it turned out he couldn’t adapt to the main event role nearly as well as he played the underdog.

Misawa’s decision to push Ogawa as a main-eventer was a head-scratcher but it never would have happened if Akiyama lived up to expectations. Two years later Akiyama was pitted against Kobashi in the main event, but even with the best undercard (to that point) in NOAH history they only sold 20,000 tickets to the 7/10/04 Tokyo Dome show. In the time between Akiyama’s loss to Ogawa and his win over Taue on Sunday, Akiyama was a good hand and a top name but he didn’t manage to generate the kind of buzz or ticket sales one looks for in an ace. The crowd NOAH drew on Sunday was as much about Taue’s last hurrah and the Akebono vs Kobashi tag as it was about Akiyama’s title shot.

I don’t think Akiyama’s status has changed much in the last four and a half years. Great expectations are lowered, ‘Main Event Akiyama’ is now a known quantity, and he has demonstrated the ability to have more than passable matches in this role. Thus his crowd heat is about the same: good but not great. On the plus side NOAH is in much better shape than 2001, with access to plenty of good GHC challengers and the ability to slap together Budokan-filling cards several times a year. Other puro promotions are in the tank. Since Akiyama will get help from better challengers and hotter lead-in bouts he won’t have to be superman to hold up his end of the bargain. That means Misawa can give Akiyama a long reign and figure out where to move the title well in advance and plan accordingly.

As I said some time ago, NOAH’s future depends on the Akiyama/Rikio/Morishima trio. Rikio bombed out. Now it’s Akiyama’s turn to see if he can be a solid champion if not a proper company ace, though job number one is *decisively* topping Rikio’s run. If Akiyama can do that much he’ll have a good shot at future reigns, but if not I don’t think Misawa will be patient or particularly forgiving. Unlike Tenzan I fully expect Akiyama to pass or fail on his own merits. By July we should know how meritorious he really is.