The Reality of Wrestling: The Global Pro Wrestling Alliance (GPWA)

The Reality of Wrestling: The Global Pro Wrestling Alliance (GPWA)
By Phil Clark

Here today, gone tomorrow?

One of the more interesting stories of 2006 in the world of Japanese pro wrestling was the formation of the GPWA (Global Pro Wrestling Alliance), a group of wrestlers and owners of promotions who came together with many aims in mind. These aims included preventing clashes of promotions’ events on the same day—a common occurrence in Japanese pro wrestling, talent exchanges amongst the promotions, “super shows” with participants from all of the groups’ member promotions, and the possibility of a fund for retired wrestlers (baby steps towards a union). While all this seems good, the GPWA hasn’t made a whole lot of waves in the year since their first event. At this point, the question of whether it has been a wasted exercise has to come to mind.

P.C. Says: Use it or lose it

The GPWA was a good idea. I say was because they haven’t done much with their first year as a group. Not only that, but a lot of the members of the group have conflicting interests. I am referring to the freelancers of the group. These freelancers are: Kikutaro, MAZADA, Magnitude Kishiwada, Minoru Suzuki, NOSAWA, Shiro Koshinaka, Tadao Yasuda, Takaku Fuke, and Yoshihiro Takayama. If you look at the group, a lot of these guys have wrestled for two of the promotions—New Japan and All Japan—that aren’t a member of this group.

The other conflict of interest I believe comes with the fact that NOAH has seen the most action from this group when it comes to talent exchange. Yeah, we’ve seen Zero-One MAX wrestlers in NOAH this year, Murakami got a quick win over Marufuji—someone NOAH has seemed to be grooming for stardom as of late, KAIENTAI Dojo has participated in NOAH this year, as well as ROH participants (yes they’re part of it too). However, if you look, the multitude of participants from NOAH to these other groups has been non-existent minus ROH. Not only that, but more highprofile participants on all sides could probably benefit everyone involved and maybe even help NOAH spice up those extremely meaningless undercards for their big shows.

On that topic, these “super shows” they keep talking about haven’t exactly defined the term supershow. The three shows that have been under the GPWA banner—the 11/14/06 Korakuen show and the two-day Differ Cup this year—have been more about letting the young lions of the group’s various promotions gain exposure. I have nothing against this and do think it’s a good thing (like New Japan’s Wrestleland off shoot or SEM in NOAH), but if the purpose of the group was to make an impact and actually put on multi-promotional supershows, then you have to input an actual supershow with the shows that are dedicated to the young guys. This way, people will have more inclination to keep watching because these young guys aren’t going to be able to draw much by themselves, but as part of the whole big picture, it is a great idea. In other words, I’d like to see the GPWA try to put together a big Sumo Hall show next year at some point. They have names (Misawa, Morishima, Murakami, Ohtani, Tanaka, Omori, Takaiwa, TAKA, Sasaki, Nakajima, and the number of other wrestlers from the already mentioned promotions and ROH and Europe that could participate. As a special event type of thing instead of a big show from a big promotion, that would be part of what this group was created to do.

The fund for retired wrestlers is a nice idea in theory, but in practice it’s never been attempted to the point that it’s actually worked or even gotten off the ground. Plus, if this group has only run three shows—all in small arenas with under 2,500 seats—how much money that would be coming in isn’t a big mystery. Plus, who’s going to be in charge of the fund? Who’s got the blueprint for how this is going to be handled and executed? The answer to those two questions is: nobody. The idea is simply that, an idea. It hasn’t been explored as of yet and if it has than the Japanese press hasn’t picked up on it yet, which makes me think it hasn’t been a bullet point yet as the Japanese media has been pretty good at picking up wrestling stories in the same way America’s Internet rumor mill keeps no wrestling secrets secret.

I like the potential of the GPWA; it almost seems like a Japanese version of the old NWA. However, it hasn’t fully lived up to that standard and doesn’t seem dedicated to doing so. I am aware that all of these promotions have their own welfare and future to worry about. However, if they all came together and agreed to form this group, that must been they had a collective thought in mind right? If not, what exactly was the point of all of this? I think a weekend of shows—one at Korakuen, one at Osaka #2, and one at Sumo Hall with the big names—would be a shot in the arm for this promotion and could be a thing that they could do every now and again to show that they aren’t a regular touring promotion (not their intention), but they are at least dedicated to doing what they set out to do. If they’re not going to do this, or anything that could rejuvenate the basically dormant group, then just shut it down.

The Reality is this group may already be dead. One thing in Japanese pro wrestling is for some groups to just stop running shows and eventually people will just stop caring. All Japan’s attempt at an offshoot—King’s Road—is an example of such a thing happening. Maybe the fate of the GPWA has already been sealed. I’d like to think that the group still has a chance even though I’m not feeling that vibe at all. I’d like to think they have a chance simply because it is a great idea and the goals set out in the initial announcement are all things that the business itself needs and could’ve been one more example of Japan having the right idea in the wrestling business (something more and more American fans are accepting). However, they may have bitten off more than they could chew with this venture. Still, that photo of all the members together was still one of the better moments in WRESTLING for 2006 and still resonates (at least in my mind) over a year after it took place.