Section 1- Results
Dragon Gate: Yoshino retained the lightweight title against Kness. Shingo became #1 contender, beating Gamma. Kenzo Suzuki has for some reason joined as a member of MO’z.
New Japan: Bernard & Tomko won the tag league, Taguchi retained over Kanemoto, Tanahashi retained over Goto in a highly praised battle, and Togo & Taka retained the junior tag belts against Jado & Gedo.
NOAH: Misawa retained against Joe and KENTA, as expected. Marufuji & Sugiura beat D-Lo & Buchanan to become the new tag champs. Kanemaru won the junior title from Mushiking Terry and then retained against Ricky Marvin. The openweight tag titles are back to being a singles belt after Kawabata defeated Shiga.
Section 2- News
Dragon Gate: A trios title match has been added Sunday’s big show in Osaka, with Mochizuki’s team defending against Gamma, Kanda & NOSAWA. King of Gate is a straightforward 16-man tournament this year.
HUSTLE: Hustlemania will be headlined by HG vs Bob Sapp and Esperanza (Takada) vs Sakata, and also featuring the swan song of Monster C. They’re also running some sort of big show on New Years Eve at Saitama Super Arena.
New Japan: Matches of note for the current tour include Makabe vs Goto on Sunday, Taguchi defending against Wataru Inoue on 12/8, and a Nakamura vs Makabe match on 12/9 to determine who gets Tanahashi on 1/4. Several big matches are already set for the Dome show, including Nakanishi vs Abyss, Bernard & Tomko vs the Steiners for the tag titles, and Angle defending his IWGP title against Nagata. There’s expected to be a junior title defense as well, against someone from the X division.
NOAH: Kobashi’s return match on 12/2 will be he and Takayama against Misawa & Akiyama. Also on that show will be Morishima vs Marufuji, which I would expect Morishima to win (more on that below). Suzuki & Marvin defend the junior tag titles on Saturday against Doi & Yoshino, and I’d give the Dragon Gate challengers better than 50/50 odds to win. Marufuji & Sugiura defend the tag titles on Sunday against Saito & Bison Smith.
Section 3- A shill, an apology
I told Phil I’d help with this column on big puro titles. Then I had to back out. Sorry, Phil!
Phil also wrote about NJ vs TNA. Once again, saving me from having to cover a topic.
Section 4- Ditch takes Manhattan
On the 3rd I took a trip to New York, aided by my friends at the Something Awful forums who were able to procure tickets and pre-show foodstuffs. Even though I saw Misawa live two years ago, I was quite a ways from the ring and it wasn’t a very good showing from the emerald titan. $100 to be front row at ROH would be a steep price normally but I’ve been incredibly frugal over the last year so it was time to splurge. Plus after the price for airfare the ticket was a drop in the bucket.
Considering that the event was two and a half weeks ago I won’t drone on about details you can read from anyone else. Danielson vs Morishima was good but short, Marufuji vs Claudio was good with a surprise finish. There was a bad booking decision before the Joe Higuchi ceremony, which caused a lot of stupidity from the crowd. I was able to get Misawa’s autograph on a magazine for the October ’92 Budokan show (Misawa vs Kawada 1), which turned the head of a NOAH cameraman who was there. Then came Misawa vs KENTA, which is in my opinion the best Misawa singles match since his slugfest with Morishima a year and a half ago. It also topped the Misawa vs KENTA match from 2004, which saw the debut of the Go 2 Sleep, since Misawa gave KENTA a lot more respect. They mostly kept things simple, and the one apparent botch was very quickly covered over. I had my expectations set low for old man Misawa but he brought the goods and I’m glad I decided to go.
After that in the impromptu second main event Necro Butcher asked “is it bad?†and opened his bloody, jagged-toothed maw at me. I had to reply “it’s pretty badâ€Â. That bit of surreality will stick with me more than anything I’ve seen at any wrestling show, and probably anything I’ve seen period for that matter.
Section 5- Steve Corino, King of Gaijin
Next month, Steve Corino will retire from professional wrestling. Will it stick? It might. It’s not as if anyone will be offering him the kind of money that brought Jericho back, but this is pro wrestling after all and he could return.
For those who aren’t familiar with him, he’s a vociferous former ECW champion who became a mainstay in Zero-One, even to the point of being on the booking staff. His exploits have been chronicled on numerous shoot interviews and in sporadic, epic posts on his blog. Last month he answered my long list of questions and after too long a delay I bring them to YOU, the loyal PuroPulse reader.
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Q: Were you into Japanese wrestling before your first trip to Zero-One? If so, what wrestlers were you most into and how did they influence you?
A: Huge. I was a big All Japan fan. Jumbo, Baba, Hansen, I loved them all. I was a New Japan fan also but All Japan was my favorite. I used to get tapes before I got into pro-wrestling in 1994 from a old friend and fell in love with not only the Japanese styles but the way that it was treated so seriously.
Q: Having spent a lot of time with Hashimoto, what do you think made him so special?
A: Not a day goes by where I don’t miss Hashimoto-san. From the moment I met him and Yoshiyuki Nakamura we had a bond. All three of us loved wrestling and I think Hashimoto understood that I respected the Japanese culture and styles and wanted to make Japan my career. In the beginning days of ZERO-ONE I would spend a good 6-8 hours a day hanging out in the office with him and Nakamura. Here was this huge star that people were scared of but in reality he was a big teddy bear that loved to laugh and play jokes. Usually Guillotine LeGrande was his favorite guy to rib. He just loved Chuck and I think he would have had him on every tour doing anything to be around him.
Q: How were you able to become part of Zero-One management?
A: On my second tour Hashimoto and Nakamura were already having problems with Rick Bassman (UPW promoter who supplied most of Z-1’s US talent). Bassman would tell them stuff that they knew wasn’t true and they didn’t know where to go. It was a shame because there were times when Hashimoto was ready to fire The Predator and Tom Howard, who are great guys and were over huge when we first started, because of Bassman. Luckily, Nakamura trusted my opinion and asked me to help out with the booking and booking Americans.
Q: What happened in 2003 when there seemed to be a Zero-One gaijin invasion of NOAH, but then it stopped?
(Background: On the April 2003 show with Kobashi vs Honda, they seemed to tease Kobashi vs Predator/Terkay, and Akiyama/Saito vs Corino/Howard was the semi-main. Howard and Corino wrestled the last three nights of the tour. Kobashi vs Chono was already in the works as Kobashi’s next defense)
A: I tend to blame myself for this even though Nakamura told me that NOAH already had a deal in place for them to work with Chono and New Japan. The original idea was for me and Tom Howard to challenge for the GHC tag team titles and then Predator would have wrestled Kobashi for the GHC title. I imagine that the gaijin were the lead in for an eventual Tanaka/Otani invasion or even a Hashimoto/Misawa singles match, which would have been huge then.
The second night we were there, we wrestled and beat Misawa and Kikuchi (who was great to us). I was so hyped to wrestle Misawa that I couldn’t sleep the night before. I had imagined all the huge bumps I was going to take for him and wanted to take everything to show him how much I loved his stuff in All Japan. But when we got in there I don’t know if he had an off night, or the match didn’t matter to him, but he spent maybe 2 minutes in the ring with us. I was crushed. I wanted to wrestle him so bad but he wasn’t into it. And then after during the interview with the press I told them he was lazy and that I waited all my life to wrestle him and this is what he brought. Most of it was a shoot because I was so disappointed but thinking of it from his mindset, me and Tom weren’t a team he wanted to be in there with and we were over as babyfaces that night for some reason.
The next day Nakamura called me and told me that our GHC title match for Ariake was cancelled and it was a non-title match now and that I was down in 10 instead of 25. I apologized to Misawa (who blew me off! haha), and Hashimoto.
Q: What do you think caused the Japanese fans to take a liking to you?
A: I really don’t know to be honest. All I wanted to do was get over with them and show them that I had respect for not only them but the Japanese pro-wrestling scene. I let them know that I wanted to be there and not wrestling in the States and I think they liked that. Plus I learned how to speak Japanese so that when I am in the ring all I do is speak Japanese, which they always find funny.
Q: How would you compare the “smart” fans at Korakuen Hall with the “smart” fans in places like ECW Arena? Is Korakuen your favorite place to wrestle?
A: As different as the two places are there are similiarities. Both fans wanted you not to give 100%, but 125%. You bring your A+ game to those places and it brings the best out in you. I love Korakuen and we and CW always say that Korakuen is our home away from home.
Q: You wrestled Tajiri in ECW and Tajiri had the crowd’s support, yet when the rematch happened in Zero-One the roles were reversed. What was that like?
A: Crazy huh? You would think that Japanese fans would have been all over me and cheered him but something happened when the music hit. But in all fairness, Tajiri called it. He said that he thought the people would crap on him so its fun to go in there with no plan because you don’t know how the fans are going to react. You go from making a match to playing chess out there and I love that.
Q: P-Force: why so short-lived?
(Background: this was a stable with Corino and Yoshie, who went with a very pink color palate as a combo, including Steve’s hair)
A: Good question.I think it was a combination of many things.Yoshie was a freelancer and Nishimura-san was opening up MUGA and they are tight. I think he wanted to go there. Plus with New Japan loaning us Nakanishi the office had to act quick to get the rub for him and Omori. I hated the idea of the gimmick at first but then I liked it because it was different. And before you ask it was my idea for me to highlight my hair in pink, but Masato Tanaka’s idea to dye it all!
Q: There has been a lot of discussion about the use of high-impact moves and stiffness in wrestling after Chris Benoit was found to have significant brain damage from concussions. In light of the Benoit situation and tragedies like what happened to Hoshikawa, not to mention your ear, what’s your take? Is it a matter of wrestlers needing to hold back, is it just part of the risks of the business…?
A: Hold back, no.A union, YES. Not a union where we force promoters to pay a certain amount for everyone but a union where we all make sure that we have medical and mental insurance. I was there when Hoshikawa got hurt and it was heartbreaking. He was my friend and I was out drinking with him two days before and now he only sometimes recognizes me. But its not Takaiwa’s fault either, it was just a miscommunication and it lead to disaster. Takaiwa and Hoshikawa are best friends and I saw Takaiwa break down and cry because he feels responsible. This business is not ballet. People get hurt and it is a hazard of the business. It is just a shame that it happens.
Q: Who is on ‘the list’?
A: Ahhh, you would have to wait for the book! But let me see who made it today: Chris Berman from ESPN. He is as annoying as Jim Ross putting himself over.
Q: With your retirement coming up at the end of the year, what would be your dream finalie?
A: Me, CW Anderson, & Ricky Landell vs. Takao Omori, Masato Tanaka, & Shinjiro Otani.
(Landell is Corino’s top disciple)
Q: Looking back, what were your favorite matches in Japan and elsewhere?
A: Japan: Me vs. Tanaka in 2003 for the Z1 US title, Me & Kojima vs. Otani & Tanaka in Fukoaka, Me & CW vs. Tanaka & Tajiri, and me vs. Omori-AWA tourney.
US/Europe: Me vs. Ricky Landell from last Friday (October 5th), Me vs. Dusty at Living Dangerously, and a bunch I can’t think of.
Q: Fans overseas tend to only see matches from big cities like Tokyo and Osaka. Is there much difference between those crowds and ones in more rural areas?
A: Oh yeah but just like the States the people are different in the country towns then in the cities but they are respectful everywhere. I love the country towns because old school wrestling and comedy is actually new to them.
Q: Who on the Zero-One roster should we keep an eye on for the future?
A: Sato, Sai, and Sasaki are the new 3 Musketeers if you ask me. They are so good and I have watched them from day one.
Q: Do you have any advice to puro fans thinking of taking a trip to Japan?
A: YOU HAVE TO DO IT. Japan is a wonderful country and if you love Japanese pro-wrestling it is worth it. Most companies are very open to let foreigners have special access to the shows and wrestlers and you will meet wrestlers with no egos. You can’t go wrong.
(I’ll add “do it if you canâ€Â. It’s not exactly the cheapest vacation)
Q: Anything else you’d like to say to the readers?
A: Thank you for everything and thank you for watching me even if you didn’t like me. I loved EVERY moment of my career and I appreciate it.
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My thanks to Steve for such a voluminous amount of answers!
NEXT TIME ON PUROPULSE: Kobashi’s return! More on the NJ vs TNA supershow! Results of All Japan ‘90s poll! Possibly some additional things!
