Heading back to the Puro World
On Monday, All Japan presented their third show of the year at the famous Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo Hall). The show was headlined by The Great MUTA retaining the Triple Crown titles against Minoru Suzuki resulting in Suzuki’s longtime partner Yoshihiro Takayama making his presence known as well as his intent to challenge for the titles. However, the real story of the show was Naomichi Marufuji engaging in another epic length title defense of All Japan’s junior heavyweight title. Like in his 60-minute draw with KENTA last weekend, Marufuji was successful, but his on-screen goal of 14 title defenses is still a long, long way away. And there’s that tag league tournament thingy coming up too.
P.C. Says: All Japan ran another solid Sumo Hall show, but unlike New Japan’s Sumo Hall outings, it just didn’t have that big show feel
Like him or hate him, Naomichi Marufuji is going to be the star of tomorrow in Japanese pro wrestling that much I am sure of. Whether he is going to be able to become a bigger draw than he is now depends on if fans come to terms with a lighter man being on top as Marufuji may bulk up somewhat, but he will likely never pass the 235-lb. mark and that will be the main test of his drawing power in terms of getting to the next level. However, the events of the past week and a half only prove beyond a shadow of doubt that this is the man that NOAH is going to push to the moon even after abandoning his first GHC title reign prematurely. However, I doubt he’ll make it to 14 defenses of the All Japan junior title as the only way that will happen is if half of those defenses come in the green ring, and I doubt that will happen, but you never know. The reason that Marufuji is going to be the next big star lies in this simple reality of NOAH’s last Budokan Hall show and the All Japan Sumo Hall show I’m talking about: Marufuji participated in Budokan Hall’s first 60-minute draw in twelve years and had a 36-minute successful title defense just nine days later for All Japan at Sumo Hall, a combined 106 minutes in the ring in the two most famous buildings in the Japanese pro wrestling industry in less than two weeks time. I think that says it all.
As much as MUTA/Suzuki may have been an enjoyable main-event—Suzuki going half black and half white was a nice touch—I’m still of the opinion that this match would’ve been better suited as the definition of the term grudge match in the mid-card. I’ll work it like this: say Suwama successfully defends against MUTA back in September and Suzuki still attacks MUTA post-match, but in this case it’s to add salt to the wounds instead of challenging for the title. That would’ve also made MUTA’s “I WILL KILL YOU!†proclamation at Suzuki even more fitting. Plus, considering how Mutoh performs under his alter ego these days, these two would’ve been more suited for a wild brawl instead of a 25-minute main-event title match anyways. It would’ve helped because it would’ve left room at the top for another big match involving All Japan’s newest superstar.
The fact that Suwama was involved in a six-man and wasn’t even involved in the outcome is not the way you’d figure a promotion would book someone so soon after a world title reign, especially if they had big plans for him. I was against Suwama getting the title so quickly after winning the Champions Carnival as the August Sumo Hall show would’ve been a better date as that would’ve allowed for a longer build and more time for the crowd to get behind him, but he got the title. I wasn’t even that pissed when he lost to Mutoh as everyone knew that he wasn’t going to get a legacy reign here and his holding of the title was primarily to make him a player in the main-event scene instead of the company ace—his future destination if this year has been any indication. However, considering Takayama’s run-in, I’m thinking that Suwama/Takayama for the belts wouldn’t have been such a bad idea. Before this show it was simply fantasy booking on my part, but his appearance on this show and likely challenge for the belts makes me think that him challenging Suwama would’ve worked. The match would’ve been a good power match to show Suwama against a bigger opponent than Nishimura or Kea (his first two defenses), as well as it being a lot more symbolic of a title match than MUTA/Takayama could be. Suwama is the future of All Japan and Takayama was involved in the last pre-split Triple Crown title match, it couldn’t get more symbolic than that.
The Kaz Hayashi/Nobukazu Hirai (now known as “Hate†apparently) feud is the best thing that All Japan could do with their junior division right now. For the most part, All Japan’s junior division has relied on outsiders over the past few years—TAKA Michinoku, Chris Sabin, and Katushiko Nakajima—to provide the drama and big matches in the division. And with Shoji Kondo likely to become a heavyweight in the near future (a theory), they do need more homegrown talent to fill in the big shoes the previously mentioned outsiders made with outstanding matches. Hayashi is definitely the guy to have the legend status amongst the younger and less experienced junior wrestlers and thus should be at the top of the division at this moment. The other great thing about this feud is that it’s the first junior feud in All Japan in a while to be getting some press and being made to mean something more than just another duo of juniors putting on a nice display in the ring, but nothing else. This is a legit feud because it is not only in-ring, but out of the ring and a lot of junior feuds in All Japan usually are just in the ring. This gives a chance for more personality to come out (see Hirai changing his ring name a day after Sumo Hall). With Marufuji as champion, I’m going to say that Hayashi getting the win would be a smart move because it transitions the belt back to All Japan with a wrestler of name recognition making the eventual job—the right move in this feud—to Hirai to blow off this feud that much more meaningful because it will be for a belt and not just a singles match.
It is interesting to note that All Japan—a promotion traditionally nonchalant with its junior division as far as character and creating stars in the division is concerned—has become really game about creating a junior division. My guess is that they’re finally wanting to compete with NOAH and New Japan in that department as those two companies’ junior division have really blown All Japans’ away for the majority of All Japan’s existence. It’s only been as of late that All Japan has joined the table in terms of creating a legit junior division using those outsiders to help begin the process and has now begun to push their own talent as the symbolic heirs to the division in the hopes of helping it continue to thrive.
The Reality is…there is still so much All Japan could do with their Sumo Hall shows. NOAH has been able to get away with running Budokan shows below their potential for years because of their name value in that building, but even they’ve taken the hint that they have to change it up and put on shows more worthy of public interest, proof of which was the double title match between Marufuji & KENTA that drew better than their world title match two years ago. New Japan’s comeback has been mainly due to their almost gung-ho want to put on stacked shows in the bigger arenas—Sumo Hall, Aichi, Yokohama Bunka, Osaka Prefectural—as well as Korakuen Hall, which only seats around 2,100 for New Japan shows. New Japan’s October 13 Sumo Hall show was probably the best example of this, being followed by an All Japan Sumo Hall show and a NOAH Budokan Hall Show, as it featured the likely climax of the New Japan/Zero-One MAX feud with its biggest match—Yuji Nagata Vs. Masato Tanaka—becoming a reality, a Mutoh/Nakamura title rematch, a Tenzan/Izuka blood feud likely coming to a head in a grudge match that almost acted as a third main-event, Hiroshi Tanahashi’s New Japan farewell, and Hirooki Goto in a high profile singles match. That is a lot for one card, but it’s just an example of what New Japan has been trying to do with all of their major cards for the past two years; another plus to Riki Choshu being back in charge of the booking. What All Japan has failed to do with their Sumo Hall shows is use their roster to the fullest. Where New Japan tries to put all of their big stars in big matches, All Japan will usually stick a good amount of their top stars in meaningless undercard six-man tags instead of using their roster and its drawing power to its fullest. Let it be known that All Japan has done a good job in the last few years at rebuilding their promotion’s stature—being able to run Sumo Hall again is a sign of that—while their potential for bigger attendances and bigger & better shows is still left as only potential instead of reality.
This week’s “FUCK YOU!†goes to:
K.J. NOONS
This is long overdue, but with EliteXC’s demise still in the news, I’m going to take it upon myself to shovel a little more dirt on the proverbial grave of ProElite’s baby. The potentially major rematch between K.J. Noons and Nick Diaz will now likely never happen, as Diaz appears to be heading back to Japan while UFC could still be in his future. As for Noons, he’s a free agent and that’s about it. Noons was stripped of his 160-lb. title when he failed to answer EliteXC’s ultimatum of making the fight with Diaz happen. The main thing this came down to was Noons’ disgruntlement with being paid less than Diaz should the rematch take place; while I can understand that disgruntlement with Noons being the champion, but Diaz is the bigger name and bigger star and as such will usually get the bigger payday as this isn’t boxing where the champion will usually get paid more than the challenger no matter who is involved. Considering the fake controversy surround Noons and Diaz’s ever faker confrontation in Hawaii and the fact that their first fight ended with a doctor stoppage, the lack of a rematch simply because Noons wouldn’t bend really burns my ass. What Noons failed to realize—and is incredibly dumb for not realizing it—is that the public was beginning to come around to him after his devastation of Yves Edwards despite that being only Noons’ ninth pro fight. A second win over Diaz would’ve pushed Noons over the top and would’ve given him a bigger bargaining chip when EliteXC folded—as even back then that was a likelihood despite the financials not being as public—and thus make more money since that was his main problem. I guess my main grip with Noons in this situation is that MMA is supposed to be a legitimate sport—like football, boxing, baseball, etc.—and like any legitimate sport the main goal is to see who is the best. Noons is supposed to be the best of this promotion’s 160-lb. fighters and he won’t fight a man who has rightfully earned a rematch. I’m sorry, but what the fuck is that? This sounds like a coward’s way out of having to fight Diaz again as well as going against a principle that Dana White—love him or hate him—has been going on since he took over UFC as there have been nothing but competition amongst the weight classes that UFC puts in the cage. Even Kimbo Slice rises above Noons based on these actions because of the events surrounding Slice’s last fight. Slice, the product of many things wrong with MMA and wrong with making stars in general in this country, was to fight Ken Shamrock, but Ken suffered a minor injury the day of the fight and the Florida State Athletic Commission wouldn’t allow him to fight. What did Slice do? Did he bitch and moan and back out? Did he ask for more money at the last minute to fight like Bob Sapp did to K-1 in ’06? No, he fought against a guy he had no clue about and probably didn’t even know his name until they told him prior to his fight. The fact that Slice got taken out in almost record time is irrelevant against his demeanor before and after the fight. He was what Noons couldn’t have been any less of concerning the Diaz rematch: professional.
