Section 1- Results
All Japan: Hayashi retained twice on the tour, first beating Fuchi at the start (it went almost 28 minutes!), then Hiroshi Yamato at the end. Mutoh & Funaki won the tag titles. Kojima and Akebono/Hama also retained at the tour’s end.
Dragon Gate: K-Ness ended Tanizaki’s lightweight title reign on Monday.
New Japan: Nakamura, Sugiura and Devitt/Taguchi retained. Yujiro & Naito won the tag titles, but pinned Anderson rather than one of the Dudleys. Marufuji downed Tiger Mask to become the first-ever junior grand slam winner (IWGP, GHC, AJPW). Tanahashi and Makabe won their respective bouts.
NOAH: Makabe pinned Sugiura in a non-tournament match. Notable tournament results include Takayama/Sano over Sasaki/Morishima (Sano pinned Morishima), and Sugiura/Taniguchi over Makabe/Honma the night before Makabe beat Sugiura.
Section 2- News
Dragon Gate: It would take too much time to write out the unit/stable situation, so instead I’ll just say you should read Monday’s update at DGUSA. Set for 2/7 is K-Ness defending against Pac, and a 3-way 3-man tag.
New Japan: Nakamura defends against Nakanishi on the 2/14 Sumo Hall show for reasons that defy explanation. Also on 2/14 will be Devitt & Taguchi defending against Jado & Gedo, Nagata vs Tajiri, Goto vs Tanaka, and Yujiro & Naito defending against Texano and Terrible of CMLL. Marufuji defends against Devitt on 1/30.
NOAH: Honda, Kikuchi, Izumida, Hashi, Shiga and Kawabata didn’t have their contracts renewed for this year. Kobashi is off the next tour after surgery to fix to nerve damage around an elbow that was affecting an arm/hand, but the surgery might not be enough to fix it. Nakajima returns at the end of the month, and will face Marufuji on February 11th. The February 28th Budokan show is headlined by Sugiura defending against Makabe. The tour ender on the 24th will now have Akiyama vs Marufuji.
Section 2a- Meltzer News
Dragon Gate: They drew a legit 7000 for the year-end show with the hair/mask cage match. I’m still blown away at their ability to overcome both recession and the waning appeal of pro wrestling in Japan.
New Japan: They drew about 20,000 for the Dome show, down from 27,000 last year, and paid attendance was around 15,000. And yet Meltzer says it was considered acceptable, which makes me think that the Tokyo Dome is charging less than it used to.
NOAH: Kotaro Suzuki is out until summer after knee surgery.
Other: Onita announced his retirement for the 5th time. Given that lately he’s been drawing around 300 people for his deathmatches, this time it’s more likely to stick.
Section 3- Shilling In The Name Of
I might not agree with a lot of it, but I admire the effort made to watch a variety of stuff. Most MOTY lists online are really “WWE and TNA MOTYâ€.
The January 4th Impact sucked. It sucked real bad. Real, real bad. No amount of Angle and Styles killing their finishers can make up for it.
Section 4- The ship was already lost before the captain fell
I’d planned to focus on Akiyama, but NOAH seems like a more pressing matter. Let’s run down the tally:
-Kenta Kobashi has nerve damage.
-Akiyama said he might retire this year.
-Misawa is dead.
-Taue is hopelessly worn down and over-the-hill.
-Morishima’s size has significantly reduced his in-ring ability.
-Rikio has degraded significantly as a worker.
-Shiozaki isn’t ready to lead.
-KENTA and Suzuki are all injured.
-A raft of underperforming wrestlers had to be cut.
-NOAH’s youngest heavyweight, Taniguchi, has yet to show enough potential to be considered a likely future headliner.
-Several years have passed since NOAH announced new prospects in the dojo.
It’s difficult to say what happens next, but “nothing good†seems to be the least of it. In 2004 and 2005 there were rumors that New Japan would collapse under the weight of its debt load, and NOAH hasn’t run up those kinds of liabilities, but the death spiral is spinning incredibly fast and shows no sign of slowing. Let’s take a look at how they got here.
We’ll start with Puroresu Pulse, issue 24, from March 30th 2005. Kobashi’s epic title reign was over, and Rikio was given the title despite having less than 5 years experience. The difference between his win and Shiozaki’s is that Rikio’s win was planned months in advance, and he was a more experienced athlete when he started wrestling since he spent several years as a sumo. Everyone knew that Rikio couldn’t match Kobashi’s reign, but he’d been a capable wrestler for years and the promotion was strong enough that it wouldn’t be a total bomb, right? Cue his first title challenger… Akitoshi Saito, who had done nothing to earn the shot and who was far from a proven commodity as a singles wrestler.
Not only did it feel like NOAH was feeding Rikio a jobber-to-the-stars rather than a real star, but it also all but guaranteed a lackluster match. When said match dragged on for 25 minutes, Rikio’s viability as a possible new ace was pretty much dead. Rikio’s title reign had two more forgettable defenses before finally coming to an end at the hands of Taue. I’ve discussed the reasons why NOAH failed to get Rikio over as a superstar, and there are plenty of them, but ultimately I blame the way they got his reign off on the wrong foot. For a wrestler with less than 5 years in the business, Rikio needed some help from NOAH’s bookers to make it work. He didn’t get it.
Puroresu Pulse, issue 43, from October 27th 2005 seems prescient, if I do say so myself. At the time NOAH was coming off a successful Tokyo Dome show, they were regularly selling out Nippon Budokan, and the MOTYCs flowed like wine. But I wasn’t sure it would last.
“NOAH’s problems won’t surface for a year or two, or even three, though I don’t expect them to pack the dome again like they did in July. That said, when the problems hit, it won’t be pretty. Let’s hope they make the most of these good times.”
As it turns out, they didn’t. By that point it was apparent that Rikio was no long-term savior, so it would come down to three wrestlers: Akiyama, Morishima and Shiozaki. Akiyama had two title reigns since then, neither of which came close to the potential he seemed to have in the ‘90s. The 2006 reign had just two defenses, one a sluggish affair with Minoru Suzuki, and the other a fun but inconsequential (and low-drawing) bout with Masao Inoue. His 2009 reign was even worse, though apparently that was due to the effects of lingering health and mental issues. Morishima’s title reign came too late, as by 2008 he’d packed on just a few too many pounds and wasn’t as fresh as he was in 2006. Shiozaki’s reign was done abruptly and also suffered from a lack of star power in his challengers. None of them had that ‘leader of a quality stable’ element to generate reliably hot 6-man tags on smaller shows.
Beyond just the ‘future champions’ issue, there was also the lack of depth in long-term prospects. Takayama, no spring chicken, never returned to his 2002-2004 form. Yone and other midcarders were never able to reach a higher level as workers, and most of them went backwards. Sasaki stuck around, but he’s got 24 years worth of mileage and only draws in certain ‘dream match’ circumstances. By 2005 it was clear that Misawa and Taue couldn’t be counted on for good extended title runs, and it was questionable whether Kobashi could have another long run after he’d slowed down so much between 2003 and 2005. Now the company is relying on Sugiura and Marufuji to flesh out the heavyweight division, and while both work hard they don’t have the presence needed of a main event heavyweight.
Puroresu Pulse, issue 104, from March 8th 2007. In the spring of 2007, NOAH desperately needed high-end booking to compensate for the lack of Kobashi and the disappointing Takayama comeback. Instead the booking was especially bad, with a weak Budokan card in March and a nonsensical Sano title shot in April. It’s one thing for a company to struggle when dealt a bad hand, but there’s never an excuse for unforced errors. Put aside that Misawa was a physical wreck and should have been retired rather than taking additional head drops. If he’s going to risk his life, why do it in matches that couldn’t possibly draw, or build towards the future? Why not do something like Misawa vs Shiozaki, which wouldn’t draw any worse and would help give Go some big match experience?
Puroresu Pulse, issue 110, from June 15th 2007. “NOAH remains functionally retarded.” Misawa’s reign would linger another 8-and-a-half months, as they had to fill the time with a first-ever singles tournament; a first-ever challenge from a US promotion (Joe representing TNA); and they used what looked like and ultimately was Taue’s last shot without the kind of buildup necessary for it to be a good draw and have emotional resonance with the fans. It felt like “Taue is a filler defense” when they announced it, and it was, and it didn’t draw. And by then Misawa’s neck was so damaged that he could have been killed any particular high-angle bump. But hey, Kobashi was on his way back to save the day, right?
Puroresu Pulse, issue 127, from May 10th 2008. Wrong. It became increasingly clear that Kobashi wouldn’t be back as a headliner. On the third Budokan show since Kobashi’s return NOAH came well short of a Budokan sellout, with a dead main event. With Kobashi unable to do more torch-passing, and Misawa’s last reign over, NOAH didn’t have any way of properly transitioning from the All Japan generation to the NOAH generation. They had Kobashi vs Rikio in 2005, and Misawa vs Morishima in 2008, and that was the full extent of NOAH’s old guard leaders making an effort at putting over the new guard. What’s more, both matches were heavily telegraphed and thus anticlimactic, as opposed to something like Jumbo putting over Misawa at exactly the moment when Misawa got hot.
Puroresu Pulse, issue 133, from September 11th 2008. Kobashi goes out hurt, and it goes from Kobashi MAYBE not being up to big matches, to DEFINITELY. To put it in perspective, Sasaki/Morishima vs Kobashi/Akiyama was the first big main event for Kobashi since his 2007 return, and he wasn’t even up for it. I also speculated that NOAH would struggle in 2009 if the New Japan feud wasn’t a focus, and lo and behold there were hardly any interpromotional matches on NOAH events. The feud mostly took place in New Japan. There was no New Japan presence on the December Budokan show. Perhaps that was done because the Kobashi tag was going to do well, but the tag was cancelled with enough time that they could have lobbied New Japan for help. Hell, New Japan would probably have jumped at the chance to do more to set up the Tokyo Dome card!
Puroresu Pulse, issue 139, from December 18th 2008. NTV cancels. Even if NOAH was booked perfectly in 2009, even if Misawa hadn’t died, it wouldn’t have been nearly enough to balance the hit they took. Not only did it hurt their ability to draw, but it was also the end of any hope of establishing wrestlers like Shiozaki outside the remaining wrestling fanbase.
That brings us to the present. Cards seem completely random, with very little cohesion other than a handful of 2-man units. The lack of continuity and feuds means that the roster has nothing to work with. Ditching the slugs will help the bottom line, but booking is still almost nonexistent. They failed to snap up Kawada when HUSTLE closed, which would have been the biggest shot in the arm for the company in 2 years, and a huge symbolic move after Misawa’s death. They bring in an ‘invading’ wrestler to make a title challenge for the first time since 2005, and it’s Makabe, who is really not what one would consider a draw. What’s the possible upside for them at this point? Where’s the light at the end of the tunnel? On the plus side, the huge reaction to the announcement of Sasaki & Morishima vs Kobashi & Akiyama signals that there’s still a significant number of ticket-buyers who are on the sidelines in anticipation of attractive matches. On the minus side, it’s questionable if Kobashi and other older stars will be healthy enough to deliver.
I’ll be blunt: I want NOAH to succeed. I was a huge fan of the company, and just a few years ago I was cheerleading it against New Japan, which at the time wasn’t run as well. I don’t think NOAH will go ‘poof’ like HUSTLE, but rather shrivel up like Zero-One. I don’t think anyone wants that.
NOAH still has a large pool of wrestling fans who will give them another chance if they can turn the product around. That’s a much bigger “if†than it was in 2006/2007, but they still have enough talent to do great things if said talent is properly utilized. Let’s hope for the best that the ark doesn’t take on any more water.
Coming column content: Big in 2009/Big In 2010; a plethora of details about Steve Williams’ career in Japan; Best of 2004 and 2005; GRAB BAG. I am overwhelmed with things to share and shill.
