Puroresu Pulse, issue 66

Archive

Section 1- Results

Dragon Gate: Despite Tenryu canceling out due to injury, they drew a good (if not exactly know) crowd to see Susumu Yokosuka beat Ryo Saito for the Dream Gate title. Other title-related matches had BB Hulk pinning Shingo Takagi to become Susumu’s first challenger, and Yoshino retaining against Jack Evans. The Blood Generation feud has led to some interesting results. Doi/Gamma beat CIMA/Fujii for the name, but promptly dropped it and the new stable (Doi/Gamma/Yoshino/Magnitude/Tanisaki) will be called the Muscle Outlaws. Maybe it’s just me but that’s awesome. CIMA got help from Magnum and Mochizuki, so now there seems to be a stable of original Toryumon stars.

New Japan: Tournament round two results included Albert over Choshu, Nakanishi over Sai of Zero-One, and Tanahashi over Tenzan.

NOAH: The company claimed an attendance of 14,000 in the Budokan, a number I doubt but which nobody has disproven yet. Results were academic: Akiyama over Inoue, Kobashi over Marufuji, KENTA over Ishimori, Misawa/Ogawa over Suzuki/SUWA.

Section 2- News

All Japan: The Triple Crown plan seems to be first a Suwama challenge, then Kea. For some reason that makes me strongly suspect Kea going over Kojima.

Dragon Gate: Well, the trios titles are in limbo. Blood Generation is in shambles and Magnitude is out hurt, so I imagine we’ll get a tournament before long. Yokosuka vs Hulk will happen on 5/7, along with Doi vs Dragon Kid with the winner getting a title shot against Yoshino. An interesting 8-man takes place on 5/10 as Doi/Tanisaki/Yoshino/Gamma face CIMA/Fujii/Magnum/Mochizuki. Jack Evans has been added to Blood Generation, and there’s a chance Matt Sydal will do the same eventually.

New Japan: The tournament concludes this weekend. Nakanishi vs Albert will take place on Friday, Nagata vs Tanahashi on Saturday, finals on Sunday, then the winner versus Lesnar on Wednesday. In other news (which I’ll cover in detail below), Tatsumi Fujinami pushed to have Choshu and Simon Inoki removed during New Japan’s shareholder meeting. Yukes denied his request and there’s a strong chance Fujinami will resign over it.

NOAH: Akiyama has nominated Kobashi as an opponent for one of the remaining Budokan shows this year. It sounds like the proposed December Budokan show won’t happen, by the way. Akiyama vs Kobashi is a near-certainty, and I honestly don’t know who else they have lined up for July. KENTA nominated Sugiura for his next challenger, a logical choice given Sugiura’s win over KENTA in a title match three years ago. Morishima & Yone are heading to Europe and will defend the tag titles on the jaunt.

Section 3- Fujinami’s failed coup, New Japan’s TV deal & New Japan’s future

I was all set to avoid writing about “the business end” this week. I got a great puro-centric Q&A with Mike Quackenbush, I spoke with Jimmy Yang, and there are who knows how many great matches to extol in the All Japan Archives. Then New Japan had to go and have their shareholders meeting, leading to Fujinami’s revolt. And I simply can’t ignore it.

I figured that things would settle a bit with Yukes in charge, Choshu not being quite as overbearing, and the Lesnar lawsuit dying down (now all the way to ‘dead’). Instead, Yukes continued to clean house and get a firm grip around Antonio Inoki’s throat, something that appeals to me quite a lot. Fujinami has taken things to such a degree that there could be next to no front-office continuity from a year, between Yukes firings and assorted people quitting. Fujinami’s status as someone who’s an Inoki man yet not an Inoki stooge placed him in a certain limbo from the beginning and made his role somewhat difficult to describe. The new blog http://blog.livedoor.jp/strongstyleblog/ from the webmaster of puroresufan.com goes into more detail, and though the text can be tricky (try copy/pasting it into a blank file) it’s well worth the read.

There are a lot of scenarios that can play out here. If Fujinami stays, shuts his mouth and takes his paychecks he’ll have no political stroke yet wouldn’t be fired because of his value. If he leaves, he could retire, or he could try the hypothetical MUGA promotion with ex-New Japan wrestlers and employees as was speculated several weeks ago. Either way if Fujinami goes then his value goes with him, a value that includes a deep relationship with many wrestlers and connections to some vital local promoters. The MUGA fed would likely be another addition to the ranks of the C-level feds, nothing that would seriously impact the scene, but it would look bad for New Japan to have yet another breakaway promotion caused by political drama.

The situation goes beyond Fujinami. Yukes has created the impression that it’s dissatisfied with a number of things about New Japan’s practices and non-wrestling employees, so additional heads may roll. Yukes will probably not hire replacements from within the wrestling community, in hopes of not having similar mistakes return. Problem is, this isn’t just another acquisition. Pro wrestling is a business unlike any other, especially in Japan where ties to the underworld effect everything from venues to promoting shows to funding. How can a publicly-held corporation deal with the unwritten rules, contradictions and seediness associated with the wrestling industry? Maybe Yukes is tougher than I give them credit for and will make it work, and maybe better than ever. But there’s one potential problem even Yukes can’t overcome.

In a few months New Japan will have to renew its contract with TV Asahi, its broadcast TV partner. As with the US, wrestling has special hurdles to overcome on television. It’s that much worse in Japan where ratings fluctuate more and networks are sometimes overeager to make changes. Asahi has already shown some dissatisfaction in the past and made changes to reduce the amount of money it gives New Japan. What New Japan’s ratings are, I don’t know. What they’re expected to be, ditto. What I do know is that internal turmoil and half-full major venues won’t inspire confidence. Again there are some potential benefits; if Asahi approves of Yukes’ housecleaning measures they might be more NJ-friendly than before. The reason why I bring this up is the huge downside potential of the NJ/Asahi renegotiation falling through.

Simply put, the chances of any other major network giving New Japan a deal in Asahi’s stead are slim to none. Pro wrestling just isn’t a prime-time ratings draw. The best New Japan could do on cable is ESPN-I, which is more on par with something like Fox Sports Net in terms of ratings and importance. Samurai TV is always there but then they air even the tiniest feds. If New Japan loses Asahi, they lose their top means of mainstream exposure and one of their key revenue sources. I don’t have to go into the problems that would create.

No matter what happens, New Japan is in the middle of the most dramatic change in its history. It’s a top-to-bottom catharsis the likes of which would usually take a decade to unfold. The potential end results run the gamut from salvation to rapid decline, though thankfully out-and-out closure is less likely than Yoshie doing a shooting star press. If Yukes can keep Asahi on board this year and find competent office replacements then New Japan will have ridden out the worst of the storm. If not, things will get very ugly.