The Reality of Wrestling: The New Japan/TNA Working Arrangement

Columns

The Reality of Wrestling: The New Japan/TNA Working Arrangement
By Phil Clark & Mike Campbell

Yeah, Russo may get to book foreign wrestlers again

The results are in. After the wild weekend at Sumo Hall, both world champions still have their belts, the “Royal Road Pair” came out with All Japan’s tag titles, Akebono and Rikishi danced, and Kurt Angle got to wear a Yuji Nagata t-shirt to the ring. All in all, this was probably the most interesting weekend of wrestling that Japan has produced since the last weekend of October that saw three shows go head-to-head on the same day! Still, the big story of the weekend obviously was Kurt Angle’s participation in New Japan as well as Hiroshi Tanahashi’s revelation that he will be back in TNA come spring. These two things have made the rumored New Japan/TNA work agreement official, as it seems to be a yearly thing now with the two promotions. However, this year has more interest along with it considering the fact that in America Vince Russo will be calling the shots.

M.C. Says: Hope for the best

One nice thing about Mr. Clark is that he’s got excellent timing. I move to a new place, have no Internet access outside of my job for two weeks, and when I finally get back online, I have an e-mail from good old Phil wanting me to get up on the soapbox about Kurt Angle going to New Japan and about NJPW/TNA working together. Just remember, Phil, you asked me to do it.

So on 2/18 New Japan runs one of their biggest venues, Sumo Hall, with a relatively weak main event for drawing power, but their semifinal match more than makes up for it. One of the biggest names in the business, and one of NJ’s biggest stars, which make up an amateur wrestling dream team, takes on two big tough gaijin: Kurt Angle and Yuji Nagata vs. Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko. My initial thoughts are that it’s some smart thinking by NJPW. Angle has the legit credibility and the novelty factor to stir interest and draw some fans. And he’s booked in such a manner that it’s obvious that New Japan actually learned something from the Brock Lesnar fiasco.

I’m sure a good number of fans are super excited to see the match. I can’t say I’m one of them though. As Phil can tell you, I’ve had my issues with Nagata’s ring work (although he’s considerably improved from what I’ve seen), and I happen to think that Kurt Angle is a good wrestler, but also the single most overrated wrestler in the business right now. The group of wrestlers who’ve had classic matches with Chris Benoit isn’t a very exclusive club. The booking should be rather obvious to anyone reading this, and I’m guessing NJPW’s goal is to book Angle in a singles match with Nagata or Nakamura at some point in time. The big risk here is Angle’s health, and who knows when/if he’ll be back for that big match. Giant Bernard has worked his way up to being the top gaijin in NJ and while Angle going over him would definitely bolster interest in the big singles match, if he doesn’t come back right away, it could potentially damage Bernard’s credibility.

Not long after the match was announced, IWGP Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi stated that he’d like to head over to TNA again. This has gotten some buzz about the on again/off again NJPW/TNA working agreement being in the on portion again. Honestly, sending guys to TNA is the last thing NJPW needs to be doing right now. They’ve already been raked over the coals multiple times with their working agreements, and TNA doesn’t have the best track record with making the NJ guys look very good. Lyger was squashed by Joe on PPV, Tanahashi beat Styles on a PPV, but only due to interference, and The World X Cup produced some fun matches, but was a waste. Not to mention that TNA’s current head booker was the same guy who booked the Lyger/Guerrera IWGP Jr. Title match in ’99. Of course Angle is probably TNA’s biggest name right now, and I’m sure that NJPW not only had to shell out some big money to get him, but also will be doing something to return the favor. Based on past experiences, I’d advise everyone to just cross their fingers and hope for the best.

P.C. Says: I’ve got a bad feeling about this

Liger getting squashed by Joe was a time thing mostly, last year’s World X Cup being ruined by Nash was very annoying, but I am downright scared of the prospect of Vince Russo booking foreign talent again. Remember this is the guy who was quoted as saying that foreign wrestlers couldn’t get over in America BECAUSE they are foreign. Right, can somebody give Vinnie Roo a copy of Joe/Kobashi, or ANY ROH show from ’06 with KENTA, or the Liger/Joe match or anything from ’06 in TNA with Minoru or PUMA? Trust me, that logic is so braindead that you might as well be taking marching orders from Johnny Ace.

Foreign wrestlers are becoming more and more popular in America for two reasons: tape traders and the fact that more of them are being booked in America. Tape trading has been going on since the mid-90’s and it all had to do with Japanese wrestling. However, e-Bay has made tape trading even easier. Not only that, but a number of different video sites selling Japanese wrestling events (IVP Tapes and Golden Boy Tapes to name a few) have made a lot of Japanese wrestlers well-known in the underground of pro wrestling fandom. That fandom is what has convinced any Indy promotion looking to make a name to bring in talent from Japan for exposure in the U.S. Ring of Honor has done this better than any promotion in the U.S. as they’ve been bringing in Japanese talent since their inception in 2002, but they’ve been starting to send talent to Japan. Bryan Danielson got media attention for his Match of the Year with KENTA last September and had probably the most successful first run of any foreign talent in Japan in recent memory (Bob Sapp doesn’t count). Also, the Briscoe Brothers had a short run with NOAH’s GHC Jr. tag titles and got to defend them in a losing effort at Nippon Budokan, the MSG of Japanese pro wrestling. The peak—as of now—of ROH’s contribution to giving Japanese wrestlers and their own International exposure came this past weekend when NOAH’s Takeshi Morishima won the ROH world title. More on that later.

My fear with Russo booking New Japan’s talent is a mix of my own admiration of Japanese wrestling and the fact that I’m a fan of a lot of New Japan guys and the Liger/Guerrera title change from ’99. Now Mike alluded to this earlier, but I’m going to go more into detail. Liger came to America after winning the IWGP Jr. title in late-1999 and was booked to lose the belt on a WCW show to Juventud Guerrera. Now most people are probably thinking, “Juvy and Liger in ’99, I’m there!” Normally, this would be true, but the match itself went 5 ½ minutes and Juvy won after cracking a tequila bottle over Liger’s head. Liger won the belt back before the year was out (from Psicosis because Juvy was injured) and New Japan never recognized the title change. Ugly, ugly stuff. And New Japan’s current world champion signed up to work with this guy!

The Reality is it really depends on how TNA decides they want to use New Japan’s talent. If they decide just to use them in novelty and dream matches on PPV’s, then fine. However, if they actually want to do angles and feuds, watch out. Because that is where Choshu and Simon may want to take a moment and re-think if they want to do this, especially with their world champion being one of the people that will be used by TNA coming up. New Japan already got what they wanted with Angle and if they would pull out of the agreement, they might still get Angle for the big singles match with Nagata or Nakamura because I doubt TNA is going to tell Kurt Angle that he can’t wrestle one match somewhere else; especially if that match is purely a dream match. I am glad that Tanahashi is excited about coming back to TNA because he did make an impact last year with the Orlando crowd (more for his EXPLOSION! match with Roderick Strong than his PPV match with A.J. Styles), but whether or not that crowd will remember him or care is another question entirely. My advice to Simon (as if he’ll listen): sleep on it, at least for one night before making anything long-term official.

PLUGS
It’s been a long time coming, but I have to give another link to my #1 fan Dave Ditch for once again showing people the best parts of wrestling history in The Puroresu Pulse

This week’s “FUCK YOU!” goes to:

RING OF HONOR
People will question how I can use Morishima’s title win as an example of something positive and then flip it the proverbial bird; let me explain. This reminds me of when I had the same reaction to Marufuji’s GHC win and Minoru Suzuki’s Triple Crown win back in September: love the win, but hate the timing most of all. Do I have a problem with Morishima winning the ROH Title? Of course not. I’m glad that a Japanese wrestler finally got the gold, if not KENTA, why not Morishima? I admit that I haven’t seen enough of Morishima to love him as much as other Internet fans (Dave Ditch and Zach Arnold are prime examples) and from what I have seen I do like this guy and think he is a very capable brawler. What I hate is that Ring of Honor took what may turn out to be the best moment in the history of their company and translated it into a three-defense title reign. Homicide did not deserve that, period. If it turns out that Homicide, like Joe, is going to become exclusively TNA, then fine, I get the change. But even then, they could’ve run it out for a little bit more than what we got. Plus, there are now rumors that Morishima may defend the ROH belt at NOAH’s March 4 Budokan Hall show. If that’s the case, then why not have the title win come at Budokan, at least then Homicide’s title reign could be separate from all other ROH title reigns and have one thing that the epic reigns of Joe and Danielson didn’t. Still, since it doesn’t look like Morishima won’t be getting the GHC belt for a while, it’s good that he has some gold on him. Maybe it’s the fact that this reminds me of the Benoit/Guerrero moment at Wrestlemania XX and makes me remember how puzzling booking followed up another awesome moment. The thought of an ROH title match at Budokan does ease my mind a bit about this title change because that would do great things for ROH’s reputation in Japan with two shows there this summer. Hopefully, since it looks like Morishima will be a heel, ROH will use Morishima as someone who can elevate whoever ends up beating him for the title (if that person is from ROH). My guess is Roderick Strong or Nigel McGuinness.