The Reality of Wrestling: Pro Wrestling NOAH Seven Years Later

The Reality of Wrestling: Pro Wrestling NOAH Seven Years Later
By Phil Clark & Mike Campbell

“Black Tiger” Mike Campbell helps me analyze the promotion with the green ring

With all the stories in Japanese wrestling these days—Tanahashi’s G-1 win, Tanaka winning his second Fire Festival in a row, Rene Dupree going from The E straight to HUSTLE—it was the seventh anniversary of Pro Wrestling NOAH (an event that has already passed by the way) that seemed to be the way to go. When NOAH was formed in 2000, few disagreed with the prospect that this would become one of the big promotions in Japan; hell, it was formed from one of the biggest (All-Japan). However, after the quick (both starting and finishing) push of Naomichi Marufuji to end 2006, it would seem like a good time to look at the promotion with the green ring and see exactly what they have done in the past seven years.

M.C. Says: After its first seven years, NOAH hasn’t changed much

When you really think about it, seven years is a long time in the wrestling business. The statute of limitations on angle theft is seven years, and in a business that’s completely driven by angles, storylines, heel/face turns, etc. if you take any given wrestler and go through his chronology over a seven-year period, you’ll find that it’s quite a long list. With NOAH recently hitting the seven-year mark, it seemed like a good idea to go back and see how much NOAH has changed in the time frame from when they started (and Phil must have agreed because when I pitched him the idea he went for it). And when you really think hard about NOAH as a promotion, and how much different they are in 2007 than in 2000 the answer is actually ‘not a whole lot.’

When NOAH formed, the guys on top were Misawa, Kobashi, Akiyama, and occasionally Taue. Now Kobashi is hurt, and the top guys are Misawa, Akiyama, and occasionally Taue and Takayama. They successfully made one guy into a main event player in seven years. Not that they haven’t tried. Everyone is just waiting for Morishima to finally break out. Rikio and Honda both got extended pushes, but ultimately flopped. A great feud with Jun Akiyama was looking to finally give Kentaro Shiga a nice push, but a shoudler injury and extended absense derailed that. NOAH even tried to emulate the U.S. with a big push for smaller guys, by putting the GHC Title onto Yoshinari Ogawa in 2002 and Naomichi Marufuji in 2006, both flopped. A March 2006 singles match looked to elevate Morishima in defeat, but nothing happened, and when Morishima lost his GHC Challenge this past January, he got a consolation prize in the ROH Title, and aside from headlining a Budokan show with KENTA, Morishima in NOAH has done very little of note. Makato Hashi was another case of someone who seemed to be close, but like Shiga, the injury bug bit him and flushed it down the commode. If you want proof positive of how little NOAH has done to elevate any of their own talent look at their peak as promotion up to this point, the 7/18 Dome show, when they had to bring in Kensuke Sasaki and Toshiaki Kawada in order to bring in fans and put a respectable number in the Dome.

The one big plus is that NOAH has managed to create a great junior division. They started out basically with 3 members and a bunch of outsiders. They’ve since added KENTA, Ricky Marvin, SUWA (who’s since retired), Sugiura, and Kotaro Suzuki. The various feuds within the junior division (most notably the SUWA/Kanemaru/Sugiura vs. KENTA feud) have often been highlights of NOAH tours.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to say this, but it’s worth repeating: NOAH 2007 vs. NOAH 2001 isn’t vastly different. The changes are mostly cosmetic: More titles and more wrestlers, but the promotion and general booking remains the same. Kobashi is out with injury, Misawa is holding the GHC title and basically keeping it warm, and this time there isn’t a fresh champion like Akiyama waiting in the wings. Their shows are still randomly booked six man tags, which can be fun at times, but ultimately are meaningless because they don’t lead anywhere interesting.

If you really want to be honest, it’s not so much of a surprise that NOAH is around seven years later. It’s far more impressive that All Japan not only survived the split, but also managed to successfully reinvent themselves afterwards. Despite my reputation as a ‘Negative Nancy’ I do hope NOAH can turn things around. As dull and uninteresting as NOAH is right now, when things are interesting, as they were in 2004 and 2005, no promotion can be more fun to watch and follow.

P.C. Says: NOAH’s future lies with two people as of now

Thinking about the fact that NOAH is seven years ago, it is interesting yet sad to realize that seven years have in fact gone by. So many pushes executed and abandoned, so many classic matches both from the old and new guard, and still so much to be done.

NOAH has had numerous chances to create new stars, but like most promotions in recent years, it just hasn’t happened at the gate. In the ring it certainly has (for the most part) as the new stars NOAH has pushed heavily since its inception have been Takashi Morishima, Takashi Rikio, KENTA, Naomichi Marufuji, Tamon Honda, Takao Omori, Yoshihiro Takayama, and Jun Akiyama. All of these pushes could’ve probably gone through and created a new generation of financial (as well as in-ring) stars for NOAH; instead, they are basically still looking at the drawing board in terms of star power with drawing power. Akiyama’s initial push was well done (he beat Taue, Kobashi, AND Misawa on the promotion’s first two shows), but ended up suffering the fate that Sting would face after he beat Flair in 1990: a champion with no challengers. Where was the Taue title defense? Where was Takayama, or Omori, or even Kobashi as challengers at some point during Akiyama’s first title reign? The answer was that they were nowhere to be found and after Nagata’s loss to Cro Cop in MMA flushed their match down the sinkhole, Misawa threw in the towel and has him drop the belt to Yoshinari Ogawa—a lifetime light heavyweight—in a shock title change. Akiyama’s second title reign not working out well was all his own fault since by this point he booked his own programs and don’t even get me started on that. It was basically a series of miscalculations or losses after that as Omori was jobbed out and left for Zero-One, Takayama left for MMA and eventually became a freelancer, Rikio’s first title defense was a stinker and lost him all the support he gained in the win over Kobashi, and Marufuji’s title win was another shock one with little build and thus little reason to care attached. In short, it’s no surprise that the first GHC champ is the current GHC champ.

The main problem is that Misawa (or Kobashi or Akiyama) is just not the booker that Baba was. Who knows what Baba had in store for Taiyo Kea had he not died, or Akiyama for that matter, or any of the lower card new talent that was around when Baba did die back in 99? Misawa had plenty of established talent on board when NOAH started, but it seems he just didn’t have the patience to spend the company’s first years establishing a roster of new stars, as the only people to have decent heavyweight title reigns were Misawa and Kobashi. This is not to say that everything Misawa did with NOAH was all bad—it was promotion of the year in 2005 and was the best wrestling promotion in Japan in 2004 and 2005. However, as everything seems to be coming full circle, it seems that all of the good Misawa done for and in his promotion has proven to be a quick fix leaving one thought: hopefully this Morishima thing doesn’t f*ck up, huh?

Creating a junior heavyweight division was probably the smartest thing Misawa could’ve done in NOAH. In Baba’s All-Japan, the junior heavyweight division was basically Fuchi, Kikuchi, Rob Van Dam, Furnas, and Kroffat wrestling in the opening matches. Granted these matches did get the fans into the show and was a smart use of the under card, but past that, career development was nowhere to be found for any of these guys. In fact, Kikuchi & Fuchi would achieve their greatest fame as older men while Van Dam, Furnas, and Kroffat would achieve their greatest fame in the U.S. Misawa could’ve made the same mistake and done nothing with his light heavyweights, but he didn’t. Instead, he took a lesson from New Japan and saw that pushing your juniors as something more than just another part of the show could pay off dividends. NOAH’s junior division since about 2002 has been the best part of NOAH’s tours and has been the make or break matches for whether their big shows are just one-match shows or great shows as a whole. Not only that, but it has been the focal point of two of Japan’s best feuds of the past five years: the New Japan/NOAH juniors feud of 2002, and the KENTAfuji/NOAH juniors feud of 2003-2004. Simply put, NOAH’s junior division is the new incarnation of what New Japan’s junior division was in the mid-90’s.

In talking about NOAH’s seven years, it would be a bit over cynical of me not to talk about the matches and moments that made you forget all of the bad going on within the promotion at the time. Think the Misawa/Takayama matches, think Akiyama’s first title win (sorry Mike), think Kobashi and Akiyama killing each other at the first Dome show, think Sasaki and Kobashi overkilling each other at the second Dome show, think KENTA/SUWA, think EVIL LIGER, think Nagata’s invasion in ’03 and that match with Taue; what happens inside the ring is what matters most and in the case of NOAH, there greatness in that sense can’t be denied, especially considering that they were the only promotion that didn’t suffer from 2003-05 while World Japan folded, Zero-One became an Independent, All-Japan was still struggling, and New Japan nearly imploded. NOAH stood tall above all others; they’re losing the lead (may have already lost it), but what is done can’t be taken away. Proof of that is that they have the last four Tokyo Sports Match of the Years.

As I’ve referred to within this column, NOAH’s future rest squarely with two men: Morishima and KENTA. First and foremost, they are the only two of NOAH’s “new stars” that hasn’t been tainted in any way with a botched title reign or push. Morishima’s tag-team prowess had already been established before his last tag title reign and KENTA’s only title reign—GHC jr. heavyweight champion—was a good one from build to title win to the reign itself. Hell, his title loss clocked in around **** with yours truly. These two main-eventing Budokan in April for the ROH title was a signal that they’re the future because it was voted and seemed like the logical main-event regardless of a title being on the line. These two are the two best wrestlers in their respective weight divisions at this moment making it almost too clear that they should be in a spot to become the future flag bearers for NOAH, something that could very well happen (and probably should) in 2008. Stay tuned.

The Reality is NOAH’s hold on the number one slot is fading within Japan. New Japan is having their best year in years, and All-Japan seems to have re-found their form. However, with All Japan, I’m going to wait and see if it lasts. Since the exodus of nearly 90% of their roster in 2000 to form NOAH, All-Japan has basically seen an image change every year: in 2001 it was the feud with New Japan that produced some classics; in 2002 it was Mutoh’s All-Japan with expensive foreigners doing next to nothing for the promotion; in 2003 it was the feud with Zero-One that saw some sparks of greatness, but the lack of a Hashimoto/Kawada title match in the year left it all feeling flat; in 2004 it was all Kawada as little else within the promotion mattered, but the seeds were being planted; in 2005 it was all Kojima with the torch being passed and sports entertainment being given a light touch proving to be the key to putting on an entertaining product; and finally in 2006 it was a return to Sumo Hall, Hase retired, and a whole lot of fun throughout the year. NOAH has persevered through all of that smelling of roses with high Budokan attendances, two great Dome shows, and great wrestling throughout. While the attendances are going down, those within the promotion are hoping that it is a phase with Kobashi and Misawa’s careers now being more obviously heading towards their conclusions. However, New Japan and All Japan regaining their form is a signal to NOAH that they need to kick it back into gear (the big cards need to have a big card feel, etc.). Marufuji winning the world title wasn’t kicking it back into gear, but it was a step in the right direction—and got them Japan’s consensus match of the year—and could’ve worked better under different circumstances. A new boom could be heading Japan’s way with pro wrestling and NOAH had better hope that they won’t be left in the dust because of the big three, they’re the only one with no lineage and nothing to look back on for help with mistakes or successes. That guy in the green tights might be wrestling in New York this November, but he can’t hold that belt forever.

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