Section 1- Results
All Japan: Notable Champions Carnival results so far: Kono and Kojima both beat Hama; Funaki over Kea; Hama over Suzuki; Funaki vs Suwama went to a draw.
Dragon Gate: Yamato retained over Yokosuka in DGUSA. Notable results from round 1 of King Of Gate include Gamma over Doi, Yossino over CIMA, and Mochizuki over Yamato.
New Japan: Nakamura and Marufuji both retained on the 4th.
NOAH: Rikio/Yone and Kanemaru retained their respective titles. Marufuji cradled Takayama and Sano pinned Rikio in the opening bouts of the singles tournament.
Section 2- News
Dragon Gate: Team Mochizuki defends the trios belts on Sunday against Yamato, Kagetora & Tozawa. Shisa defends against Tigers Mask of Osaka Pro on the 18th.
HUSTLE: Wataru Sakata is starting a HUSTLE revival on the 30th. It remains to be seen if he has anywhere near the financial backing HUSTLE had.
New Japan: May 3rd in Fukuoka will have Nakamura defending against Makabe, Marufuji against Taguchi, yet another Goto vs Tanaka match, and a tag title 3-way with Yujiro & Naito defending against Nagata & Wataru Inoue and Bernard & Anderson. Negro Casas will defend a CMLL title against Liger on the show. CMLL now has a Samurai TV deal and will work more with NJ as a result. Dojo grad Fale Simitaitoko, a Tongan, debuted and is said to look impressive. He’s wrestling as King Fale. Yujiro & Naito have joined Nakamura’s heel stable, which turned on Bernard & Anderson. Teams were announced for the junior tag tournament, with notable ones being Devitt & Taguchi, Kanemoto & Samurai, Tiger Mask & Davey Richards, and Ibushi teaming with Consequences Creed.
NOAH: This week’s injuries are Nakajima (eye) and Kanemaru (knee). What, was Differ Ariake built on ancient burial grounds or something? Shiozaki vs Marufuji (non-tournament) is set for Saturday. Rikio & Yone defend against Smith & Walker on Wednesday.
Zero-One/Kawada: Their biggest show of the year takes place on Sunday, and is headlined by Kawada defending against Sato. This will be Kawada’s third title defense this year, and he hasn’t appeared on any other shows, so I suspect that Kawada will lose here and shift his attention fully to NOAH. He’s on the entire upcoming tour, for example, and even only doing half of shows after this would be such that NOAH wouldn’t want to have its booking plans complicated by Kawada’s status as Zero-One’s champ.
Section 2a- Meltzer News
All Japan: Their Sumo Hall event only drew 4100, exactly half the claimed number. Nishimura is leaving to enter politics, though there’s a good chance he’ll lose and thus need to return.
Dragon Gate: They drew 7000 for Doi vs Yamato, which was better than AJ and NJ did at Sumo Hall this year but well down from last year and thus a disappointment.
Inoki: I’m just going to copy this verbatim. “When Antonio Inoki met with Hideki Matsui of the Los Angeles Angels after WrestleMania at spring training in Phoenix, he was going to slap him in the face as is his symbol with all the Japanese photographers there. Matsui was up for it, but when the Angels officials saw what was about to happen, they stopped it.â€
New Japan: The NJ Cup was a success business-wise, with two 5000+ ticket sale shows. 4/4 was the first time in a while they sold out Korakuen well in advance, and there weren’t even scalper tickets available. Tenzan is training for a return in the summer.
NOAH: They only drew 900 at Korakuen on 3/20, one of their worst showings there. The show on the 26th with the tag title match did even worse, around 700. The bad news continued on the 28th, with 1500 at a pricey arena in Yokohama. Akiyama is doing an angle (hopefully just an angle) that he’ll retire if he doesn’t win the tournament. Kobashi is talking about coming back, and this year from the sound of it.
Section 3- Is there anything on Pulsewrestling that isn’t about Wrestlemania?
Section 4- Media Corner
I Love The ‘90s: Prelude #2 – Liger vs Sano
Mostly taking place in 1989 but ending up with the first Japanese MOTYC, these four matches were not only cutting-edge action but also stand the test of time and marked the maturing of the greatest junior-heavyweight gimmick ever. Liger starts with the IWGP junior title, but Sano does eventually take it. I won’t say when so as to avoid spoiling the results.
Liger vs Sano, New Japan July 13th 1989.
Keiichi Yamada showed a ton of promise soon after debuting, and in order to get him to the next level he was handed the Liger gimmick, debuting it at the first wrestling show at the Tokyo Dome in April 1989. A month later he won the junior title from Hase. Sano, who debuted on the same show as Yamada, took a bit longer to develop. His first major accomplishment was winning a Young Lions tournament in the opener of the same Dome show as the Liger debut. Heck, it’s almost poetic when you think about it. Yamada won the Young Lion tournament in 1986 to set up his first junior title shot, and Sano did the same three years later. Sano certainly doesn’t look like a guy who spent years running in place as a jobber, hanging right with Liger at the peak of Liger’s athletic ability. By the time it was over, both the booking and the match quality make you want a rematch.
Liger vs Sano, New Japan August 10th 1989.
A more decisive finish than last time, following a tag match where Liger got worked over quite a bit. Having recently watched a massive New Japan 1980s compilation, I’m of the opinion that this feud is the first time the IWGP junior title had a series of top-notch matches. Takada and Hase weren’t true juniors, and Koshinaka wasn’t an elite athlete; those three dominated the division at first. Liger and Sano were comfortable with the style and meshed perfectly.
Liger vs Sano, New Japan September 20th 1989.
Not only did this not air in full at the time, but it was skipped entirely by New Japan Classics. A crime that demands punishment. I want blood! Heads must roll!
Liger vs Sano, New Japan January 31st 1990.
So much about this is pitch-perfect as the end of a feud, something that doesn’t usually fit the way booking is done in Japan. Liger has a new costume that’s closer to the Liger we know and love. They have a better first half than the other matches, then build off the previous finishes to deliver an off-the-charts climax. Sano jumped to SWS a few months later, and we’ll never know if they could have topped this effort, but it might be better that they ended things on a high note. This match is a top five effort in Liger’s storied career, and easily the best for Sano, but only when placed in the context of what came before it.
Section 5- Where will they go from here? Where should they go from here?
Singles titles
All Japan: The first big show after the Champions Carnival is May 2nd at Aichi Prefectural Gym. One would assume they’ll have Hama defend against the Carnival winner there. I just can’t see why they put the belt on Hama, since his cardio and appearance are awful and he doesn’t have some big media/sports presence, so I’m assuming they just want to make the title scene less predictable. In which case, mission accomplished! Now get the belts off him. Anyone would be an improvement, and I could see them going back to Kojima in the same way New Japan had Tanahashi and Nakanishi trade wins last year. I can see Masa Funaki winning the tournament and the title, since he’s gotten his big win over Suzuki and has more than enough credibility and star power. Funaki is a fresh opponent for the rest of the roster and could easily have defenses through fall or winter. Kono is a dark horse, but I think the best he’ll do is losing in the Carnival final.
Dragon Gate: Yamato’s next title defense will be on May 5th in Aichi, likely against the King of Gate winner. Hey that sounds familiar. What, are Dragon Gate and All Japan stalking each other? First back-to-back shows at Sumo Hall, now this. Anyway, I would expect that Yamato would retain there and move on to the Kobe World Hall supershow. They’ve been teasing tension between Yamato and Shingo, and one way to resolve that would be for Shingo to win the tournament but fall short in a title shot.
Another easy scenario comes from Mochizuki beating Yamato in round 1 of the tournament, and if Mochi wins the whole thing he can give the win back in May. If Shingo gets a title shot in May, I’d bet on Yamato vs Hulk in Kobe. If not, then Shingo would be just as likely as Hulk. CIMA challenged in Kobe last year so it might seem weird for him to do it again this year. There’s also a chance we could get a ‘small’ title defense in June, and about two-thirds of the roster would qualify for that one. As has been the case, Dragon Gate is right where it needs to be. They only use venues they can fill, they have a good main event rotation, and most importantly they have a young roster that can easily sustain injuries without the product being significantly impacted. They sure seem like the #2 promotion in Japan to me, though they’re unlikely to be #1 unless New Japan has a major breakdown. Even being #2 is a major accomplishment though.
New Japan: On one hand, all booking signs pointed to Goto beating Nakamura. On the other hand, it would be awkward to have the title change hands at Korakuen twice in a year. I can’t help but feel like Makabe winning at this point would be a “we put Nakamura over everyone else, so now you can have the belt†letdown, especially coming off his loss in NOAH. He has no particular momentum in New Japan, so I would give him less than 50/50 odds of winning. The next title match after that should be June 13th in Osaka, and the only scenario I can come up with for another challenger is a face-turned Bernard. In fact, Bernard could really use a title win after having choked in about a dozen big matches since winning the 2006 NJ Cup, so I wouldn’t be shocked if that happened. NOAH is so shaky right now that I wouldn’t expect a challenger from there.
NOAH: It seems obvious that Sugiura won’t win the singles tournament and will face the winner in June or July. I have no idea where they’ll want to go with the tournament, since the old veterans really don’t need any buildup to be a threat to Sugiura and the younger wrestlers (Bison/Marufuji) have zero momentum going in. Regardless of who wins, NOAH has a good lineup of fresh opponents to go after Sugiura depending on how long the reign lasts. To my knowledge the only person in the tournament he’s beaten in singles is Bison.
There’s a lot of speculation surrounding the use of Kawada. As long as Kawada is the Zero-One champ it would be awkward for him to challenge for the GHC title, and even more so for him to win it. Even if he moves to being in NOAH full-time (which I doubt), they’d still want to have several months between Kawada’s eventual Zero-One loss and his challenging for the GHC belt. I think they would be well-advised to slow play Kawada, focusing on ‘dream tag’ matchups after the tournament. Then if he leaves Zero-One he’d be in position to take the title from Sugiura, which would likely culminate in a Budokan-friendly Kawada vs Shiozaki bout. That scenario would give Shiozaki plenty of time shake off his ring rust and get back in form. But for all we know everyone on the roster except Sano and Saito will get hurt and then they’ll do a best-of-eleven title match series.
Friendly booking advice
All Japan: They had wrestlers grouped into stables fairly well last year. There was Gurentai, Voodoo Murders, Kojima’s F4, the Suwam/Kondo unit, and the generic ‘everyone else’ default led by Mutoh. This year there’s no F4, Suwama/Kondo is done, VM has lost its most credible member (Doering), and Gurentai lost Takayama. The only addition is the Akebono/Hama “SMOP†team. VM is a pointless stable with zero impact and bad matches, Gurentai is now little more than a Minoru Suzuki star vehicle, and SMOP is relegated to the secondary All Asia belts. My suggestion is to turn Kono (who they want to push) and make him the focus of VM, give Suwama a clear stable with Kondo, Soya and/or Sanada, and a young junior or two, and ship NOSAWA to the arctic circle. Last but not least, ALL LARD WARRIORS ALL THE TIME.
Dragon Gate: I’m not much into the shows anymore but I’ll be darned if I’m going to tell them to fix what ain’t broken, with the possible exception of shorter main events and doing more to protect finishers. And maybe adding some credibility to Deep Drunkards… nobody there is a real threat to Yamato. Perhaps Mochizuki?
New Japan: I think they really need to pull the trigger on some people. Goto and Makabe keep choking in title matches; Bernard chokes in general; Tanaka is on a treadmill; Yano hasn’t progressed in years. It can’t just be Tanahashi and Nakamura all the time, no matter how consistent the booking is. I really think two months would be enough time to build up Bernard, or possibly even three months if they have a title match in July like they did the last three years. Even though Bernard has had reasonably high-profile singles bouts with most of the headliners over the years, it would still be much fresher than if Goto or Makabe won and defended against the usual suspects. Plus, Bernard would be able to face the entire roster, whereas Nakamura can’t face other heels like Tanaka.
NOAH: What can you even do when like a third of the roster is out? Can’t do much in the way of constructing stables when many of the guys touring right now won’t be there the instant the IR list starts shrinking. Perhaps they can get an outline in place for when the stars return.
It should be obvious at this point that Disobey is a huge failure. They either need a new leader or to get split up, probably the latter because Rikio and Yone seem to bring out the worst in each other. Kawada is going to be an important part of the company, but he isn’t full-time and thus would be dicey as someone in charge of a stable; still he’d be an improvement as Disobey leader. Sasaki leading the “Kensuke Office & Morishima†faction works okay. I would have Takayama & Sano take Aoki under their wing due to Aoki’s shoot-style aspects, and throw in a scuzzball loss-post like Ogawa or Masao Inoue. Sugiura needs to have a unit, which would include… um… uhhhhhhh… hm. Maybe he can be the one to take over Disobey with a “whip them into shape†angle. They can round things out with an Akiyama & Marufuji unit, adding on Ishimori & Marvin. A returning Shiozaki could either lead the ‘everyone else’ army, or have his own stable that makes use of eventually-returning wrestlers like KENTA, Taue and Taniguchi. However they do it, this mix-and-match booking style has got to go. There’s no direction, and that leads to little motivation in undercard tags. Hell, there’s no motivation *anywhere* on a lot of NOAH cards.
Next Time: Enough big happenings are scheduled that I might be able to do two “current events†columns in a row! But I might have to do some Grab Baggage.
