Section 1- Results
Dragon Gate: On 8/6, the odd team of Mochizuki & Fujii won the WAR junior tag titles, which will be defended in DG. Magnum Tokyo, Mochi’s partner during the opening rounds, received a broken orbital bone and will be out a couple months. Following that tournament was the round-robin league for the DG 6-man belts. Yoshino was injured during it, forcing the Muscle Outlaw’z team out early. The final, on Sunday, was CIMA/Hulk/Evans beating Do Fixer. The finals show drew a half-full house of 1200 in Sapporo, not a good sign.
New Japan: Some notable results from the G-1 round-robin bouts include Kojima and Bernard beating Tanahashi, Tenzan beating Nagata, Kanemoto holding Nagata to a draw and Liger scoring an upset pin on Nakanishi. Tenzan, Kanemoto, Kojima and Bernard advanced to the semifinals, where Tenzan beat Bernard and Kojima beat Kanemoto. Tenzan pinned Kojima in a fine final match to win his third G-1. For the first time ever the final wasn’t sold out; more on that when I do the show report. Chono & Milano beat Tanahashi & Choshu on the next-to-last night, while Choshu/Akebono/Nakanishi beat Takayama/Chono/Milano the next day.
NOAH: Sugiura & Kanemaru regained the junior tag titles from Hidaka & Fujita on 8/13.
Section 2- News
All Japan: Hase’s retirement match will be a 6-man tag with him, Kojima and Nakajima against Suwama, Taru & YASSHI.
BIG-MOUTH LOUD: Two of the most high-profile new promotions in the last year are gone. First was Kings Road, done in by poor business. Now BML has collapses due to infighting, with promotional face Shibata leaving in order to get more bookings and the two main bosses (Uei and Murakami) splitting over disagreements. Murakami has done some work to separate himself and the BML workers from Uei, which in turn could get them work in New Japan.
Dragon Gate: Mori is set to challenge Yoshino for the Brave Gate belt on 9/26 despite Yoshino’s injury. Yoshino is scheduled to tag with Magnitude against Mochizuki & Fujii for the WAR junior tag belts on 9/17. Magnum’s injury ends his series of matches with Tenryu, though others will step in to replace him. They’ve booked the Osaka Prefectural Gym for November, a big venue for them. Also booked is a Korakuen triple-shot at the end of the year, which means another tournament like last year.
Global Wrestling Alliance: Perhaps the most interesting news item of the year, yet one to be taken with a hefty amount of salt, is the announcement of a Japan-focused quasi-UN of pro wrestling federations. It features NOAH, Zero-One, K-Dojo, BML (or what’s left of it), Kensuke Office, Takayama, DDT, El Dorado and IWA Japan; EWA of Europe; ROH and WLW of the US. Mutoh has expressed some interest in bringing All Japan on board. Misawa and Ohtani seem to be the figureheads at the moment, with Zero-One boss Nakamura as the overall idea man. Their aims cover everything from licensing to training to pensions to crossover titles. I’m very skeptical, since this sounds like the type of hollow press-grabbing concept I’ve gotten used to ignoring in Japan. When ROH of all things doesn’t hype something on this potential scale I’m left to wonder just how much bite is behind the bark.
New Japan: Tiger Mask defends his NWA junior title against Taguchi on 9/24 in Osaka. Tenzan will challenge Tanahashi on 10/9 at Sumo Hall, which is a change from an original announcement of 9/24 Osaka. Also on 10/9 is Kanemoto vs Minoru Tanaka for the junior title, and most likely Nakamura’s return bout. Meanwhile the Tenzan/Chono team has abruptly ended, meaning there won’t be a tag title ‘unification’ match against Nakanishi/Omori. There is talk about a reformation of the Tenzan/Kojima unit in its place, and Tenzan vs Chono is already booked for 9/24. Finally, the NJ Tag League will return this fall.
NOAH: Akiyama’s challenger on 9/9 will be Marufuji. Also on that show will be Shibata & KENTA vs Taue & Shiozaki, along with Rikio & Morishima vs Takayama & Sugiura. Scorpio makes his first openweight title defense in a while on 9/3 against Shiga. The 9/3 show is at the big-ish Aichi Prefectural Gym, and it will be interesting to see how they do without any high-profile matches booked. Izumida caught the injury bug in the form of knee ligament damage, he’s out for a while.
Section 3- Shillzilla returns
The new ‘all things puro’ media site. Enjoy.
Second, I remember the Tenta vs Dungeon of Doom feud. And I care.
Third, The archive of old PuroPulses. Not sure if I’ve linked it here yet. Check out my last trip!
Section 4- Can straw be spun to gold?
On paper, the best booking of the G-1 tournament would have featured Nagata beating Tenzan, finishing first in his block and then downing Kojima in the finals. Nagata has more momentum, more natural crowd heat and is fresh after a long absence from the hard spotlight of his title reign. I’m positive that Nagata advancing would have sold more tickets, though not a huge difference. Whether Nagata vs Kojima would have been as good a match as Tenzan vs Kojima, I can’t say. Since the G-1 final is now New Japan’s biggest show of the year, leaving a good impression in the final might be of paramount importance.
That’s why it’s hard to really grade the tournament. Do you compare it to past years or do you adjust for the weak field? Do you judge it by the action or by the booking? Is the short-term more important than the long-term? Relative to past tournaments 2006 falls short, but I’d say it met or surpassed expectations. The booking had some quirks, as did the matches. The short term fun of Kanemoto and Bernard advancing is dampened by the potential long-term issue of Tanahashi looking like a thoroughly midcard champion, and worse yet an afterthought.
What matters now is where New Japan goes from here. Tanahashi vs Tenzan could be great, with a resurgent Tenzan carrying Tanahashi much like the 2004 G-1 final. It could drag on too long and fall apart, hurting them both and leaving New Japan painted into a corner. If Tanahashi wins I don’t think it hurts Tenzan, who can follow Chono’s “Mr. G-1” path to credibility. Then again it might be best to end Tanahashi’s reign early and wait for him to improve before trying again; Tanahashi’s crowd reactions during the tournament left much to be desired. Then again Tenzan as champ has become almost a joke due to the first four poorly-booked reigns. Then again this might be the last good chance for a meaningful Tenzan reign.
What about Nagata? He’s the only ‘hot’ challenger left after Tenzan unless they turn to outsider Takayama. Do you use Nagata as a token title defense or put the belt on him? If the latter, do you wait as long as possible or do it ASAP in order to inject a spark into the title division? And what the heck do you do after Nagata? New Japan really doesn’t have much to work with at this point. Bernard has been used in about as many main events over the past year as he can be expected to; Nakanishi will never be a strong headliner; Nakamura still has issues connecting with the fans; Chono and Choshu are broken down; Akebono is a novelty act.
The G-1 final has been well-received every year since 2001, yet year after year the company has fallen short in capitalizing on it. In 2001 it was due to Fujita’s injury preventing Nagata getting a title shot at the 1/4/02 dome, coupled with the disaster of the Nagata vs CroCop shoot. In 2002, Chono’s title hunt was overshadowed by Nagata vs Fujita at the October dome show. In 2003, Tenzan vs Takayama was postponed from the October dome in favor of a soon-aborted Inoki-ism tag match. In 2004, Tenzan was shunted aside in favor of a big Chono push and title shots for Sasaki, Tanahashi and Suzuki. In 2005, Brock Lesnar was given the ball.
This year New Japan is taking the proper approach, booking Tenzan vs Tanahashi immediately and prominently. This will be followed by the tag league, meaning that there won’t be a need for more than one defense in November and December. If there’s no dome show on 1/4 then there will be even less pressure to produce another title match. New Japan can potentially stretch the three biggest title matches (Nagata, Takayama, Nakamura) all the way through spring, which would in turn offer enough time to build up additional challengers. Thus despite the weakness New Japan had going into the G-1, they have the potential to turn things around.
It’s certainly looking much better than what Jun Akiyama has booked for himself.
Coming Soon: The trip report!
