Black Tiger returns as we look at the year that was in the green ring
Going back to the Puro World, I felt that a look at the promotion that has been #1 in Japan for the last six years was worth a look because they have never taken a hit to their #1 status as they have this year. NOAH has seemingly remained stagnant in every department (product, booking, attendance) as a promotion while promotions like New Japan and All Japan have been taking the necessary steps to build towards their respective futures for the last two years. Throughout, NOAH has been almost tragic in that sense as their younger stars are just as talented (in some cases more talented) than the younger stars in New Japan and All Japan, but they have been kept from that next level in almost TNA-like fashion. Plus, there’s the almost specter of Kenta Kobashi whose health problems have been all too public the last two years while always seeming to make the miracle comeback and continue to perform in the ring well at a time when men of his generation are on the way out. All of this may have reached a breaking point and with 2009 now in sight, NOAH itself is reaching such a breaking point as a promotion.
M.C. Says: NOAH needs to takes steps forward for the sake of their promotion’s future
December 7, 2008 was, for all intents and purposes, the end of the 2008 season for Pro Wrestling NOAH. I’ve been relatively quiet as it concerns NOAH this year, that’s been due to a combo of my job, my increased responsibilities as a husband and hopefully soon-to-be father, and the addictiveness of Lego Star Wars, but also because, honestly, I’ve found 2008 NOAH to be much like the NOAH of 2007, very uninteresting.
Here’s the results for the 12/7 show, courtesy of Xanshin of http://www.noah.puroresufan.com.
1. Atsushi Aoki defeated Akihiko Ito (14:08) with a Cross Armbreaker.
2. Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa defeated Tamon Honda & Takashi Sugiura (11:54) when Taue used the Tsukuba Makiwari on Honda.
3. Takeshi Rikio, Naomichi Marufuji & Mohammed Yone defeated Yoshihiro Takayama, Takuma Snao & Ricky Marvin (16:01) when Yone used a Muscle Buster on Marvin.
4. Mitsuharu Misawa defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima (9:15) with the Emerald Frosion.
5. GHC Heavyweight Title Contendership: Jun Akiyama defeated Takeshi Morishima (8:37) with a Standing Front Necklock.
6. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki (c) defeated KENTA & Taiji Ishimori (31:54) when Suzuki used the Requiem on KENTA (2nd defense).
7. GHC Heavyweight Title: Kensuke Sasaki (c) defeated Akitoshi Saito (25:27) with a Lariat (2nd defense).
The first three matches are your typical NOAH undercard affair; no rhyme or reason for them and the only reason for the match to be happening is to ensure that the wrestlers get on the show. The fourth is nothing more than a special attraction match; nobody in their right mind gives Nakajima a prayer of winning. That’s not to say it had to be that way, if Nakajima wrestled someone like Kobashi, who’d been on the shelf for a bit, then it’d be better received, but Misawa’s been wrestling all year, and was the GHC Champion only a year ago. On the flip side of the coin, it’d also work if Misawa was wrestling someone making a big return to the ring or their NOAH debut, Misawa/Joe might have stunk up the joint, but there was genuine excitement for the match.
The GHC #1 contender match is surprising, not the result, Morshima dropping the fall to Bison Smith in a GHC Tag Titles match more or less told me that he was losing that match. But the length and the method are the surprises. There’s nothing wrong with it, Akiyama/Sasaki is one of the few dream matches that NOAH has left, but I question the wisdom at doing so at Morishima’s expense.
If there’s one match that’s seemingly been done to death, it’s the sixth match. Kanemaru/Suzuki won the titles from KENTA/Ishimori earlier in the year, and KENTA/Ishimori beat them, not once, but twice in the same night to earn this match. That’s four matches in less than a six-month span. And it’s another case of the result not being a surprise.
Which brings us to the main event (and something I’ll be addressing in a bit), It’s another predictable match. Saito has never been more than a mid carder in his whole time in NOAH, and there hasn’t been any significant build up for this match to makes the fans truely care about it. Kensuke wins and nobody cares, because now all eyes are on the dream match of Kensuke/Akiyama.
One thing that’s noticeably absent from the show is the same thing missing from NOAH for the last half of ’06 and most of ’07: Kenta Kobashi. In my personal opinion, the reason for the lackluster product right now is that they’re just trying to keep the boat floating until Kobashi comes back and saves them again. To say that Kobashi is important to NOAH is like saying that Steve Austin was important to the WWF in the late ’90’s, of course the WWF was smart enough to realize that Austin couldn’t do everything, to they also made stars out of Rock, HHH, Foley, and others, and when Austin missed a year with his neck, they were still covered. That’s what NOAH can’t seem to do, elevate anyone else to help fill the Kobashi void. Kobashi’s return to the ring in 2007 gave NOAH a huge gate and interest in the federation picked back up, but he’s since gone back onto the DL, and they’re floundering yet again.
Kobashi will hopefully be back soon, and if he does, then what NOAH *needs* do do with him is use him to help make a few more guys. As soon as Morishima won the GHC Title in March, Morishima/Kobashi was what people wanted, but they never got it. They did, however, get what more or less amounted to guest star appearances by him, as he’d wrestle in tags and trios matches on the undercard and midcard. NOAH still has the option of Morishima, and also young Go Shiosaki is on an overseas excursion and has been making a name for himself. They don’t even have to win, but if Kobashi, a man with more experience with great matches that just about anyone else, can help give them some rub with a strong performance, then they could very well become big names. Just look at Marufuji in 2006, Kobashi was one of the few big names that he didn’t beat, but the strong showing helped him a lot.
Of course, everything can’t be blamed on Kobashi. Yes, his absense and NOAH’s reluctance to do much with him during his hot comeback didn’t help, but NOAH made their own share of mistakes during the year as well.
1. The GHC Title. When Takeshi Morshima dethroned Mitsuharu Misawa in March, there was a bit of buzz surrounding NOAH. Who would challenge Morishima first? Will NOAH go all the way with him, when will Morshima/Kobashi happen? However, the buzz was over quickly when his first challenger was named: Takeshi Sugiuira. Takeshi Sugiura, who’d only recently graduated to NOAH’s Heavyweight Division, whom NOAH had never shown any interest in giving a sustained push to, and who’s only build to the title shot was pinning Morishima in a tag match. Sugiura pinning him in the tag is fine for at least setting up the match, but NOAH failed to build upon it and do anything else to give the idea that Sugiura would get the win. Morishima won and nobody cared. After Sugiura was Takeshi Rikio, another person NOAH hadn’t been pushing in ages, and also a case with little to no build to the match. Plus it was held on a Friday (not a good day for wrestling in Japan apparently) and drew an abysmal crowd.
When NOAH put the title onto Kensuke it was more of the same. The only thing that Kensuke as champion does is give him bragging rights. Kensuke as champion has yet to draw any sort of significant house for NOAH, and his two defenses against non-contenders like Saito and Mohammed Yone have proven that Sasaki on his own isn’t a huge draw. Yours truely predicted that his only real worth to NOAH is in a dream match with Misawa and a rematch with Kobashi, neither of which required him to hold the title. Am I bitter that Morshima lost the title? A little, but only because he legs were cut from underneath him, and I don’t think that Morshima beat Kensuke would have done much, Sasaki isn’t exactly a giving wrestler in the ring.
2. Tournaments Galore. NOAH’s answer to making tours interesting this year seemed to be in running tournaments. The Global Tag League, the NTV Cup, The Maritius Cup, a six man junior tournament, and now there is talk of a 32-man singles tournament. It’s too much of it and there’s rarely any real fallout. It’s just easier for NOAH to run tournament after tournament to create title matches, than it is to spend the time to build up wrestlers and build up feuds. There’s a reason that KENTA vs SUWA had such a buzz in 2005, because the build up was fabulous and everyone wanted to see the eventual showdown.
3. Lack of New Stars: It’s the same things that helped kill WCW. NOAH just doesn’t seem to know how, or care to, make any real homegrown stars. They failed with Marufuji due to the size issue, they failed with Rikio due to him not being ready, and Morishima failed because they woudln’t go all the way. Instead of continuing to try, they seem content to keep brinigng in outsiders like Kensuke and Takayama and foreigners like Bison Smith, Buchanan, and Keith Walker to round out cards. Of course, the day will come (and may already be on it’s way) when Kobashi can’t come back, and Misawa has to hang up the boots. And if nobody can pick up the slack, then NOAH is in trouble. It’s funny, because you’d think that Misawa and Kobashi, who both got pushed at very young ages by Giant Baba, would understand the need for it.
That’s how we got to where we are today. They’re not selling out arenas, and the product’s overall staleness and lack of Kobashi have their fan interest at an all time low. Can they bounce back? Sure. They’ve got Shiosaki waiting in the wings, and they could re-establish Morishima. If the bookers and matchmakers are out of ideas, hence the tournament flood, they could always bring in some new people with new ideas. It’s also not out of the realm of possiblity (although probability is a different story) of Sasaki helping give some rub to a NOAH home grown talent. If NOAH spends 2009 doing the same things as 2008, then things will only get worse.
P.C. Says: NOAH can’t rely on Kobashi anymore because of his health and should be relying on their younger talent
This past weekend marked the final Budokan Hall show of the year for NOAH and was in essence the end of 2008 for Pro Wrestling NOAH. The show itself wasn’t bad, but like many Budokan shows this year for NOAH, the booking left me scratching my head. The first thing that comes to mind is that the Aoki/Ito young lion opener got nearly as much time as the two big heavyweight midcard matches—Misawa/Nakajima & Akiyama/Morishima—combined. Those two midcard matches, and the junior tag title match, are the matches that sold the show as Kensuke/Saito was not what people wanted in a GHC title match I’m sure; how the match itself turned out is irrelevant. What is relevant is that younger guard got plenty of time in the ring on this show with the opener getting fourteen minutes (longer than usual for a match in this position on the card) and the junior tag title match got 32 minutes, which is around the combined total for the two matches these teams had at the September Budokan show to culminate this years NTV Cup. And while 32 minutes may look good and may have resulted in another match of the year candidate from these two teams, at what cost to the rest of the card? Misawa/Nakajima and Akiyama/Morishima were matches that were damaged by this time management even though Akiyama/Morishima may have been due to injury; Misawa/Nakajima on the other hand wasn’t. Nakajima does not come out looking good with this match going less than ten minutes while a Budokan Hall match going around the same amount against Morishima didn’t hurt Nakajima as much because of the big man/little man dynamic there. In this case, people know that Misawa is over the hill and that Nakajima is going to be on the of the next big things in the puro world, so for this match to be a quick sprint instead of something bigger does seem to be a disappointment not only as a much, but in hype as well. Conventional booking logic would have this match go at least fifteen with Nakajima controlling the offense and getting in a lot of offense to make it look like he’s going to pull off the major upset with Misawa eventually winning with a trademark comeback thus transferring the crowd’s sympathy and cheers back to him because of the comeback with the old/young feeling all too evident in this matchup with Misawa literally being twice as old as Nakajima.
There is no doubt that Kenta Kobashi has been NOAH’s biggest draw since the beginning and there is no doubt that NOAH has been going through the motions waiting for him to come back and save them for the umpteenth time. The problem here is that this isn’t just a broken bone or the effects of wear & tear over the years, this was partial paralysis at the beginning and after only about seven months back from cancer. Is anyone else getting where I’m going with this? Kobashi’s health has been a problem since NOAH’s inception and the two-year title reign likely took all the energy his body had left out of it because before and after the title reign has been injury after injury and other health concerns. Through it all Kobashi recovers, comes back, draws crowds, and then leaves again. The problem now is that NOAH has a group of talented young stars who the crowd is beginning to warm to in a big way (Marufuji/KENTA drawing 10,000 paid for their one-hour draw through their own hype alone is proof of that, as well as the reception to Morishima’s title win), but they can’t bring themselves to pull the trigger on any of them as Marufuji’s aborted title reign in ’06 and Morishima’s flat title reign this year is evidence of that.
If Kobashi is able to make one final comeback—as I believe his next one will be his last—then NOAH is obligated to get as much out of his name as humanly possible before he rides off into the sunset for good. Kobashi’s matches with or against KENTA, Marufuji, and Nakajima is all the rub he’s needed to give them without jobbing to them as there is one and only one man in NOAH that Kobashi is obligated to job to should he make another comeback: Morishima. A Morishima/Kobashi GHC title match should’ve been made for April or July at Budokan because it would’ve been a sell-out or near sell-out by itself and would’ve been the Misawa/Jumbo torch passing match for NOAH, something the promotion hasn’t had yet in its eight-year existence. Not only that, but Rikio’s title win over Kobashi gave him instant credibility and masked the fact that he wasn’t ready or up to the par to be the follow up to Kobashi’s title reign, all things that would become unmasked when his first title defense (against Saito ironically) went down in flames and the title reign never recovered. Kobashi’s tag team with KENTA, his near classic in ’06 with Marufuji and his encounters with Nakajima have all been positive for the younger men because unlike a lot of other aging wrestlers, Kobashi was very generous in all areas when he was in the ring with them. Simply put, Kobashi’s final run should consist of the tour tag matches that filled his most recent run, but with every Budokan shot he’s on feature him in a singles match against the following people in no particular order: Morishima, Taue, Akiyama, Takayama, and Kawada if NOAH could or would want to get him with all of it culminating with his retirement at Budokan Hall. Some may say I’m getting ahead of myself and all that, but this man should be allowed to go gracefully (he deserves it) and even the biggest Kobashi fan or supporter has to realize that his career has been on borrowed time since the title reign ended. This is the best way for him to finish strong and leave a better legacy than any of the other Four Pillars of Heaven. So who gets the retirement match? I’d say Akiyama. Morishima doesn’t need that particular match against Kobashi, Takayama would be good to finish their long running feud, Taue just for nostalgia, and I don’t even think Misawa should get another singles match against Kobashi because it would tarnish the legacy that their 3/1/03 match has in Japan (one billed as their final singles match against each other). Plus Akiyama has more history with Kobashi than anyone as he debuted against Kobashi, they teamed together in All Japan and on the first NOAH show ever and they were the main-event of NOAH’s first supercard as well as the first NOAH Tokyo Dome show. It speaks for itself.
As for NOAH as a whole in 2008, I do agree completely with Mike that they relied too heavily on tournament. The Global tag league and NTV Cup both served purposes, but there was no need for any others and it does expose the lack of creativity or drive within NOAH’s booking as well as devalued to a degree how good the NTV and certain parts of the Global tag league were. The sad part is that in the end, neither tournament accomplished anything (again lack of creativity or drive in the booking department) as the teams in the final of the NTV cup just had their fourth match in almost as many months, and the winners of the Global tag league—Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith—were given the tag belts almost as props and have only recently been booked effectively as a team long after the impact of the tournament win had worn off. What I disagree with Mike on is his opinion on the product, as I do believe that 2008 was the best year for NOAH in the ring since 2005. It’s been the least boring and has seen the ROH imports come into their own in the green ring generating legitimate heat for their matches (The Briscoes in particular). I do believe that the NOAH/Kensuke Office feud was on the best of the year in all of wrestling and provided a spark that NOAH’s product needed, as did the Kobashi/Takayama bad blood whether competing against each other or with each other in six-man tags that normally are a meaningless addition to the card. And of course, the KENTA/Marufuji 60-minute draw has been given mostly positive reviews so far, not on par with their ’06 GHC title match, but sixty minutes is especially tough for two juniors so some slack might be necessary here.
For NOAH to improve in 2009, they simply have to run with their younger talent. If you look at New Japan and All Japan (mainly New Japan), you’ll see that the improvement of both promotions has been the younger talent being given opportunities to shine with the older talent doing their part to not only help themselves, but also help the younger talent and thus help the product in the process. In NOAH’s case they’ve been willing to push the younger talent, but have also been too willing to cease such a push if immediate results aren’t achieved. Again, the problem is that immediate results rarely happen in pro wrestling and when they do they are short-lived and things are back to the drawing board soon enough; this is something that products of Baba’s long-term booking should understand. One final thing that would be worth NOAH’s time to attempt would be the rumored scenario of a weight gain for Naomichi Marufuji to a more heavyweight weight. This was cited as the main problem with Marufuji’s first title reign on the perception side and it would help his standing as far as a long term push towards ace goes (it worked for Shinsuke Nakamura in New Japan to a degree). The main downside to this would be how it could effect Marufuji’s in-ring performance as his style is more highflying and a weight gain may hamper it; or he could end up like Shinjiro Ohtani and stay the same great performer, but heavier. I would go one step further and propose the same thing for KENTA as his style is based more on strikes and thus would be an even more effective one in the eyes of the audience when facing heavyweights if he were a heavyweight; it also would have the double positive of not risking possible hampering of his style as speed is only a component of his style and not the base of it. Plus, if you thought the Go 2 Sleep was an effective finisher, imagine a slightly heavier KENTA being able to do it to Morishima without as much strain.
All in all, Go Shiozaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima (if he stays), KENTA, Naomichi Marufuji, Takeshi Rikio, Takeshi Morishima, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Kotaro Suzuki all need to see a higher standing within NOAH by this time in 2009 or else the prospects of this promotion in the second decade of the 21st century are not going to be about thriving, but surviving.
The Reality is…I don’t believe NOAH is #1 anymore in Japan. Yes, they are the only promotion that would even think about running Budokan Hall as even New Japan or All Japan run Sumo Hall for their biggest shows. But in terms of product, tour business, and direction of the promotion, I would say that New Japan has been the new #1 in Japan since early this year. From a product perspective, New Japan has probably been #1 since Lesnar and the Inoki’s were given the boot because that allowed Choshu to recapture the creative drive that produced New Japan in the 90’s and so far Liger, Jado, and Gedo have continued to let the creative juices flow since taking over the booking duties this year. But most importantly, New Japan’s big shows (Sumo Hall or otherwise) have made the transformation from “will they do a good attendance?†to “how good of an attendance will they do?†and that speaks much louder than another bland NOAH Budokan show with a so-so attendance and a promotion unwilling to move on past Kobashi. New Japan and All Japan have been rectifying past mistakes in the past years by not making them again when that opportunity has come about. Instead they are creating the next generation of stars by simply pushing the people that are coming up and the crowd likes, as well as the guys who are already established as the best in their promotion, but are still considered the young guys because they’ve never been given that first big push or have and were cut out at the knees before set push could get going. In short, NOAH was without a doubt the #1 promotion in wrestling from 2003-2005 and continued to sustain the #1 standing in Japan, but as they were able to keep the stature as top dog they began to get lazier and lazier not preparing for the future with the same drive that had gotten them to the position they were in. In short, NOAH has forgotten where they came from. NOAH in a sense is an extension of Baba’s All Japan as the majority of NOAH’s roster was made up of the men who left All Japan with Misawa in 2000 to form NOAH. And despite doing a number of things that Baba never did or did with less of an effort than other things, what Baba always had his mind on was the continued survival and even thriving of his promotion through constant elevation of talent through the stages of the card and their career by proxy from young lion curtain jerker to established veteran main-event or upper card wrestler with no one ever being immune from that progression performing like a proverbial assembly line through the years. If NOAH truly wants to get back to the time where the green ring meant the best wrestling that money could buy, they should think on that. And think hard.
PLUGS
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