Section 1- Results
All Japan: Voodoo Murders beefed up its ranks in the process of wiping out RO&D, as Bull Buchanan and D-Lo Brown turned on RO&D to join VM. Kea and Taka will join the ‘regular army’.
Dragon Gate: Yokosuka retained his title over King Shisa, who turned heel and has reverted to his Pentagon Black persona. Pentagon joined Muscle Outlaw’z. I still love the apostrophe-z. Mochizuki & Fujii retained the WAR junior tag belts against Magnitude & Yoshino on the same show. I still love the name Magnitude.
NOAH: Marufuji naturally retained over Nigel in ROH.
Section 2- News
All Japan: Mutoh will be Minoru Suzuki’s first challenger for the Triple Crown.
Dragon Gate: Kanda is cursed; he’s already out with a busted eye socket. Mochizuki vs Pentagon and Mochizuki/Fujii vs Magnitude/Pentagon for the two sets of WAR titles are in the works for November.
New Japan: The upcoming tag league will feature ten teams, including junior tag champs Jado & Gedo, 2000 league champs Nagata & Iizuka, ‘team workrate’ Akebono & Choshu, plus mystery partners for Tanahashi and Chono. I anticipate one of those being Nakamura. The 10/9 card will feature Takayama & Minoru Suzuki vs Nagata & Yamamoto.
NOAH: It’s worth noting that according to Meltzer, the attendance for NOAH’s 9/9 Budokan card was around 90% full, very good for Marufuji in the main event and an iffy undercard.
Section 3- Waiter, there’s a shill in my soup
My God, it’s full of stars. I mean entrance music.
Dean Rasmussen has started uploading a variety of puro from smaller ‘80s promotions. There will eventually be 75 matches there, covering a lot of styles, everything with DVD quality. Worth a look.
Section 4- Back to basics
It seems like yesterday that I submitted the first PuroPulse, which was designed to ease newcomers to my columns. Now I feel comfortable ranting at length about puro-politics and referencing semi-obscure title matches. For those of you who are new or somewhat new to the Japan scene, here’s some hits from the past.
First column (linked above): who I am, what Japanese wrestling is, what the promotions are. This holds up, though the champs are all changed many times over and I stopped covering Zero-One much.
Second column: all about tours and a brief wrestling-oriented geography lesson. I reference various venues and prefectures all the time.
Third column: the difference in Japanese media coverage, puro kayfabe, the influence of shootfighting and the very distinct ringside sights of Japan. Shootfighting keeps showing up in puro because it’s covered and watched by the same people.
Fourth column: Japanese hardcore, and the importance of Westerners on the birth of pro wrestling in Japan. Gaijin remain an integral part of puro.
Fifth column: important websites to visit. They remain important. Also, a cursory glance at the subsets of Japanese styles.
Sixth column: puro history, from Rikidozan to Rikio; from JWA to NOAH; from all-for-one to free-for-all.
Six-and-a-half: the first of many posts about New Japan’s management woes. This is still a major issue and is behind the dramatic change in the product over the last two years. The Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003 show referenced here eventually led to the massive PRIDE scandal, as Japanese Mafioso connected to PRIDE attempted to deep-six the show.
Issue 13: how Japan grows its superstars. The importance of continuity as opposed to storyline-driven pushes remains vital to understanding the product.
Issue 19: the evolution of All Japan’s style, and a plug for my fandom of Jumbo Tsuruta. A year later I started up the All Japan and NOAH media pages, so that all of you can see the evolution for yourselves. Issue 60 goes into more depth on the topic of Jumbo. Issue 70 is a plug for Destroyer.
Hashimoto Special: after the tragic death of Shinya Hashimoto, I discuss why he was so important. Daily Puro will feature several of his matches.
My first trip to Japan part 1, part 2, part 3, and pictures!
Issue 39, Issue 40 and Issue 44: my take on several All Japan classics. Most are available at the All Japan Archive.
Issue 46: New Japan sold to Yukes, my reaction to what I still consider the Show Of The Year, and New Japan announces an end to dome shows. The 1/4/06 New Japan show was the last pro wrestling show at a dome in Japan, and it might be a while before the next.
That pretty much covers it besides the last few months. If you’re new, or have only recently started perusing my ponderings, those links should provide plenty of background on various and sundry Nihon topics.
