Puroresu Pulse, issue 185: A Stocking Stacked With Stuff

Columns

Section 1- Results

All Japan: Kono & Kenzo Suzuki won the tag league, beating Suwama & Hama in the final.

Dragon Gate: Pac retained over Yamato.

IGF: The main event for their Sumo Hall show featured a controversial ex-Sumo wrestler against the gigantic (and awful) Inoki pet project Montanha Silva.

New Japan: Three title matches on the 11th, and all were successful defenses for Kojima, Devitt and Bernard & Anderson (respectively). Also, Tanahashi beat Goto. On the 12th, Kojima beat Goto. Makabe returned early in the tour.

NOAH: Sugiura and Takayama & Sano retained at the Budokan show. Kotaro Suzuki finally won the junior title (under his real name), beating Kanemaru. KENTA beat Marufuji, and Bison beat Yoshie to earn a title shot.

Section 2- News

All Japan: Honda & Kikuchi will be the next challengers for the All Asia tag titles. I have to point something out here. Honda & Kikuchi were 1-7 in the tag league, and their win was against All Asia champs Sanada & Soya. So now they’re probably going to ‘give back’ that one win. Other title matches set for next month include Suwama defending against Kea (who pinned him in the tag league), Hayashi defending against Minoru (Tanaka) and Akebono & Kea defending against Kono & Kenzo Suzuki.

Battlarts/Futen: Ishikawa and Ikeda seem to have patched things up, which doesn’t mean much business-wise but could lead to some great matches.

Dragon Gate: CIMA, Dragon Kid & Ricochet will challenge for the trios titles on the 26th. A 3-way tag match has been added for the 26th, and the winner will either be #1 contenders or new tag champs depending on the result of the tag title match on the 21st.

New Japan: Tokyo Dome card: Kojima vs Tanahashi for the IWGP title, Nakamura vs Shiozaki, Nagata vs Minoru Suzuki, Makabe vs Masato Tanaka, Jeff Hardy vs Naito for the TNA title, Devitt vs Ibushi for the junior title, Sugiura & Takayama vs Goto & Okada, Bernard & Anderson vs Beer Money vs Nakanishi & Strongman for the tag titles, RVD vs Yano (wha?!), Tenzan vs Iizuka, and some junior-focused tags.

They have yet to announce a major show after January 4th. A Sumo Hall show could be added in late February or early March, but if not it could be quite a while based on how their schedule has gone in recent years.

NOAH: Kanemoto & Tiger Mask defend the junior tag titles against Marufuji & Aoki on the 24th. Sugiura defends against Bison Smith on January 15th, a rare mid-tour stop at Osaka Prefectural Gym. Their next major show will be March 5th at Ariake Colosseum.

Section 2a- Meltzer News

NOAH:
-The rumored split seems like it won’t happen, as the factions came to their senses and realized how perilous that would be. However, that doesn’t mean things are happy on the ark, for example the office workers have gone some time without getting paid.
-On a positive note, the move to digital TV in Japan is likely to open things up a bit, and the G+ network that has most of NOAH’s airtime is likely to become a lot more prominent.
-The Budokan show drew 8600, the best of the year despite not having the strongest card. A lot of it was for the Joe Higuchi memorial ceremony.

Section 3- She’s Got Shills That Go Inside My Pulse

Phil’s back to do the current events analysis I’m too lazy to do. Also: a mindboggling reply.

Behold! The roundest of tables.

Also, next year there will be a big vote for the Best of All Japan in the 1980s, along the lines of one earlier this year for New Japan. It is 150 matches in size and so chock full of great wrestling that it threatens at least one, if not more than one, Newtonian law. 15 discs, probably in the neighborhood of 60 hours of content, and it can be yours upon its release for 45 American Dollars. Plus you will be able to participate in the vote! Send questions (suggested subject line “All Japan 1980s”) to goodhelmet at satx.rr.com

Section 4- A Fairly Festive Grab Bag

Meltzer notes from his biography of Joe Higuchi

-He was a wrestler for a brief time in the mid-50’s before becoming a ref in the JWA.

-Besides refereeing, his main role was as a translator and handler for foreign wrestlers. He arranged for their accomodations, acted as tour guide, etc. This was crucial at a time when foreigners were often a third, sometimes more, of the touring wrestlers.

-He became by far the most famous ref in Japan by the time he officiated his last match in 1997. After that he handled financial duties for All Japan and NOAH, plus the figurehead role as commissioner in NOAH.

-Wrestlers loved his work as a ref. Not only did he help smooth over any language issues, but he was also spry when it came to making counts, he wasn’t in the way of wrestlers (unless he needed to be), and he was particularly good at making counts without getting in the way of the countless photographers at ringside.

-He came back for one last match at a 2003 NOAH show that was held in honor of Rikidozan.

Meltzer notes from his biography of Kantaro Hoshino

-He originally wanted to be a boxer, but his lack of reach (he had very short arms and legs) made that dream impossible, so in 1961 he decided to train as a wrestler. I’ll note that punches were probably the best thing he did on offense, and this bit of data explains why. His work ethic and spunky attitude endeared him to both wrestlers and fans.

Here’s Inoki vs Hoshino, New Japan December 5th 1978. I find this match utterly fascinating. Here you have tiny Hoshino, who at this point clearly was never going to be any sort of headliner, getting in a ton of offense on the face of the company. Inoki sells better for Hoshino than he did for any number of hall-of-fame heavyweights, and I’m guessing the reason is because he personally liked Hoshino. Also note take note of those wonderful punches!

-His career highlight was a 72 minute long tag with Inoki against Nick Bockwinkel & John Quinn, which was the longest match in Japanese history at the time. I’ll add that I can’t think of a longer ‘traditional’ tag team match in Japan. He was also chosen as Mil Mascaras’ opponent for Mil’s Japan debut.

-He was chosen to wrestle in the match immediately before the infamous Inoki vs Ali match. Fujiwara & Kido vs Kengo Kimura & Hoshino was done because they could do a realistic match that would hold up for the international media at the event. This was the only pro wrestling match on the card.

Meltzer notes from his biography of Chris Jericho

-While working in Mexico, he became friends with Ultimo Dragon. This led to him getting to wrestle in WAR.

-Paul Heyman, having heard good things about Ultimo, asked Meltzer for a tape with a good Ultimo match on it. The match was one of the Ultimo vs Jericho matches from WAR, and Heyman ended up bringing in Jericho instead.

Here’s Jericho vs Ultimo Dragon, WAR July 7th 1995. It’s the more spectacular of their two bouts, and it’s easy to see why it got him into ECW.

-Eric Bischoff saw Jericho vs Benoit from J Cup 1995, and asked Benoit if Jericho was as good as he looked on tape. Benoit said yes, and Bischoff signed Jericho at the first opportunity (June ’96).

-He was set to be ‘Super Liger’, an evil rival for Jushin Liger, but the debut match for the gimmick wasn’t good and the idea got scrapped. After that he was part of Best of the Super Juniors 1997, and only did a match or two in New Japan from there.

Here’s Liger & El Samurai vs Jericho & Kanemoto, New Japan January 29th 1997. A good example of Jericho’s work in NJ.

Meltzer notes from his biography of Rusher Kimura

-Started as a sumo in 1958, and eventually went to #3 wrestling promotion IWE.

-In 1970 he took part in the first cage match in Japan, which wasn’t advertised. When the match generated a lot of buzz it was followed up with an advertised one later in the year, and soon the cage match became his trademark. IWE worked with AWA, so Rusher faced all their top stars. Even though he wasn’t a particularly good worker, Rusher was the top star because of his personality and tough-guy persona.

-In 1975 IWE started doing co-promorional work with All Japan. The most famous match in the feud was Rusher vs Jumbo Tsuruta, which was the Tokyo Sports Match of the Year for 1976. Here’s Rusher vs Jumbo.

-IWE lost a big TV deal in 1981 and closed soon afterwards. This led to several IWE wrestlers, led by Rusher, doing an ‘invasion’ of New Japan. Unlike with All Japan vs IWE this became the centerpiece of New Japan’s booking, the first time ‘native vs native’ replaced ‘native vs gaijin’. That kicked off a series of such feuds in New Japan.

-After the New Japan vs IWE feud ran its course Kimura became somewhat of an also-ran in the company, and he left to join the first version of UWF. However he wasn’t a fit for shoot-style (to put it mildly) and quickly left to join All Japan, where he stayed until the split in 2000. In the ’80s he was typically a midcarder, but had accepted this role. His last relevant role was as Baba’s partner during the 1989 tag league.

Here’s Baba & Rusher vs Tenryu & Hansen. On paper, the lack of athletic ability (especially for Baba and Rusher) would make this problematic if they went for a proper All Japan-style match. Yet by focusing on simple moves and sticking to a straightforward story, they managed to produce a memorable and very dramatic bout.

-Starting in the early ’90s and through his retirement he wrestled in lighthearted 6-man tags along with other older wrestlers and some low-ranked youngsters. He would follow the matches with a comedy promo. The comedy group was part of the NOAH split, and that’s where he finished his career.

-He retired in 2003 after a stroke.

WON Notes from 1988, via. Loss of ProWrestlingOnly, with some added commentary

-With joshi getting hot, there was some thought given to trying to capitalize on it by adding some men’s matches to #2 joshi fed JWP. Hisashi Shinma, long-time power broker associated with NJ, was part of this. It led to Onita making his pro wrestling return when he attacked JWP ref Gran Hamada. There was a lot of surprise in Japan that Onita didn’t return to All Japan, since he was loved by the Babas. My guess is that he knew his knee injury would limit his in-ring ability too much for him to meet the standards of All Japan (at least for someone his size).

-UWF got one of the highest TV ratings of the year (for wrestling) with a show broadcast on a minor TV station. Maeda came right out and said that they’re real and other promotions are fake. This statement upset Shinma and caused him to leave UWF in favor of starting JWP.

-Hara was fired by All Japan after he kept running up gambling debts which Baba had to pay. Baba refused to pay any more and canned him. It forced them to take a big risk and put Kawada in as Tenryu’s #2. Kawada was seen as ‘too small’. As it turns out doing this gave Kawada enough credibility to be effective as Misawa’s wingman in 1990, even though Baba did quickly pair Tenryu with Hansen in early ’89 and thus somewhat demote Kawada. Ashura Hara is one of the great lost wrestlers of the ‘80s and hopefully he will gain some fans with the All Japan ‘80s set.

-Flair wanted to have a big match against Tenryu in the US, because he thought a hard-hitting Japanese-style bout would help the NWA title in Japan and also get Japanese wrestlers over in the US. However, negotiations fell through.

-New Japan had a slump in late ’88, especially with a mediocre response to the year-ending tag elimination tournament. There were threats that they would lose their TV slot in the spring, which added pressure to the Tokyo Dome debut.

-Terry Funk wanted to have a match with Maeda, I’m assuming because at that point Maeda was possibly the hottest star in Japan, and because UWF brought in Backlund. Nothing came of it.

Next Time: Year-End Stuff!