Puroresu Pulse, issue 88

Columns

Section 1- Results in the form of a shill

I covered New Japan’s big show on Monday. Results and analysis there.

Section 2- News

All Japan: Muta & Tajiri vs Kojima & Hayashi has been added to the 10/29 card.

GPWA: The main event of the debut show will be a 6-man 6-group tag involving young wrestlers. Shelve those dream match scenarios for now, gents.

New Japan: Two items to follow-up on my earlier column. First, Simon Inoki is lobbying for a return to the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show. Second, Tanahashi will not be defending the title at the 10/29 Kobe World Hall show, as he’ll be involved in a tag with Kanemoto against Milano & Minoru. The main event of 10/29 will be a 3 vs 3 vs 3 tag with teams headed by Tenzan, Chono and Nagata. Finally, Simon Inoki has presented the name of Kenzo Suzuki as a potential title challenger.

NOAH: Marufuji’s challenger was never officially announced as Misawa, and now we know why”¦ it’s KENTA. First-round tag title tournament matches for tomorrow are Taue & SUWA (who I dub Team Awesome) vs McGuinness & Williams and Takayama & Sano vs KENTA & Akitoshi Saito. It should be an 8-team field since Honda & Shiozaki were announced as being in the tournament. KENTA & Shibata were planned but something has come up (health is rumored to be an issue) to stop it. Rikio is out with a throat injury.

Section 3- A proper shilling’s worth

Kevin Wilson makes with the puro reviewing.

Section 4- Betting on the future

New Japan took a risk with Nakamura vs Tanahashi headlining the Tokyo Dome last year without the benefit of the IWGP title to add weight to it. NOAH takes a similar risk on the 29th with two young stars; though the heavyweight title is on the line, the young stars aren’t even heavyweights. KENTA has been in some high-profile matches since beating Kanemaru for the title last year, including the show-stealer against SUWA last September, a tag title shot in November, a defense against Marufuji in January, a match with Kobashi in March, a tag war with Rikio & Morishima in July, and an ROH title match last month.

KENTA in the main event is much more sensible now than it could have been a year ago, and certainly given that he has a win outstanding against the current champion he’s ‘earned’ a shot. The relationship between juniors and heavies in NOAH has always been a breed apart because NOAH’s young talent is concentrated in its juniors, so juniors are often ‘stepping up’ and troubling their bulky counterparts.

That doesn’t remove the fact that two men who only nine months ago were in a junior title match will now be in a heavyweight title match. This is completely unprecedented in Japanese wrestling, heck in the history of all major promotions to my knowledge. The junior division has traditionally been about giving small wrestlers something to do rather than about developing future headliners, yet here we are. Whoever wins it’s clear that NOAH expects its juniors to be a major part of its future success. Perhaps Rikio’s failure and Akiyama’s inability to really catch on, along with Misawa, Kobashi and Taue’s mileage, have forced this decision.

Yet I can’t help but think that there was an element of planning involved, when the only scheduled title match to be derailed this year was Akiyama vs Kobashi, where Akiyama would likely have won. Kobashi’s cancer alone can’t explain moving two juniors into the spotlight at the same time. If NOAH can elevate either or both of the Marufuji/KENTA unit into a main-event role it would pay dividends for at least a decade, offering much more main event flexibility and removing stress from the shoulders of the old guard.

For all those potential positives I can’t help but be nervous about the very real potential downside. Marufuji and KENTA have been moved into this role without being given significant decisive victories to go along with their position. Marufuji holds cradle wins over Taue and Akiyama; that marks the entirety of pins on big heavyweight names for both of their careers. Good matches alone do not assure them of drawing power, as demonstrated by the fact that pure NOAH junior matches have never drawn more than a claimed 4000 people on 6/1/04 (please correct me if I’m wrong). It’s one thing to have a David vs Goliath match in Akiyama vs Marufuji, and quite another to have David vs David.

This is leading to an interesting point: NOAH’s 10/29 show could very well dip below the April ‘Main Event Masao Inoue’ show to be the least-drawing Budokan show Misawa has ever been involved with. If that happens it could additionally mean that a NOAH show in the Budokan was out-drawn by a New Japan show in Sumo Hall, quite a change of pace since NOAH has ‘owned’ Tokyo of late. For all New Japan’s troubles, to have them doing better would be egg on NOAH’s face. A lot to risk, but it just might pay off.