Destiny 4.15.07: ROH and NOAH Sittin’ in a Tree

NOTE: The previous words are mostly all lies. With exception that Matt Short and Mike Campbell are writers for 411wrestling.com and that Matt writes “The Navigation Log” which is tremendous, and Mike writes some very well thought out video reviews for the site. Both writers should be checked out if you haven’t already.

Ring of Honor invades Japan!

There is an awful lot of debate surrounding the validity of Ring of Honor and the ROH title in the scope of professional wrestling. A small wrestling promotion that used to operate exclusively out of the northeastern United States but has, since it’s humble beginnings, spread to the midwest and Europe. While this is a great achievement in Ring of Honor’s quest to be a respected wrestling promotion, their greatest achievement as a promotion happened on the other side of the Pacific. Yes, I said the Pacific Ocean. Halfway around the world from where this growing promotion generally operates in front of crowds of around six hundred to a thousand fans, their title is defended in the main event of a big show at the Tokyo Budokan Hall in front of a reported thirteen thousand fans. That’s right, the Ring of Honor champion, Takeshi Morishima, defended his title in the main event of a Pro Wrestling NOAH show at the world famous Budokan Hall on March 4th 2007 against another NOAH wrestler who tours with Ring of Honor, KENTA.

You may be thinking at this point, “Isn’t this a puro column? Why all this talk about Ring of Honor?” Well, while most may use this as an opportunity to validate ROH as an important world wide promotion, I want to take a look at what Ring of Honor is doing to validate Pro Wrestling NOAH as an important world wide promotion.

Pro Wrestling NOAH since it’s not so humble beginnings following the legendary All Japan split in 2000 has grown from a promotion with a lot of promise due to big names like Misawa and Kobashi into a powerhouse that has begun to outdraw both All Japan and long time top dog New Japan Pro Wrestling. Though NOAH has a short history it came to be the promotion it is today based on the incredible star power they had going in from the get-go. It didn’t take long before things in All Japan started to look bleak and NOAH began to be noticed by some of the All Japan fans who missed seeing their favorite puroresu stars. Around this same time New Japan was beginning to experiment with their product by incorporating Mixed Martial Arts fights (both legitimate and worked fights) into their shows. While the idea was new and innovative to combine the two styles in one promotion, the fans didn’t want to see both. Many of these fans began to lose interest in New Japan and went looking for the best puroresu they could find. Where did they find it? They found it watching legends like Misawa, Kobashi, Akiyama and Taue. These were names the fans could trust to put on a great wrestling show without any of the fluff. Soon New Japan and All Japan began to notice their declining fanbase while NOAH was seeing a steady increase. It didn’t take long before NOAH was considered one of the “big three” in Japan.

With NOAH having risen to heights surpassing their competition in drawing power, there were two major things that NOAH lacked that both New Japan and All Japan possessed. With only seven years under it’s belt, NOAH doesn’t have the history that either of the other two promotions have. They have yet to develop a deep lineage for the Global Honored Crown, the top title in NOAH. Both All Japan with it’s Triple Crown and New Japan with the IWGP have a strong lineage that would be tough to match in such a short time. While NOAH has yet to get to this point with the GHC title, it is making tremendous strides toward achieving that type of depth with champions with legend status such as Misawa, Akiyama, Kobashi, Taue and the current generation of puro stars like Marufuji and Rikio.

The other major thing NOAH lacks that gives All Japan and New Japan notoriety world wide is a solid presence across the Pacific. With the only truly global promotion operating out of the United States, it makes perfect sense to want to have an impact there as a wrestling promotion. All Japan had a working relationship with the AWA and the NWA during the seventies and eighties. They would exchange talent over the Pacific and because of this relationship All Japan made a name in North America. The important part of this is that it lead to Jumbo Tsuruta winning the AWA title and Giant Baba winning the NWA title thus cementing All Japan in the minds of any wrestling fan who has an interest in the history of either of those titles. In the nineties, WCW had a strong working relationship with New Japan. They ran five Pay Per View’s together, three of which took place in Japan, one in North Korea and the other in the United States. New Japan Pro Wrestling and the IWPG title became household names for WCW fans. During this relationship guys like Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Muta and Antonio Inoki were main eventing WCW Pay Per View’s and guys like Masahiro Chono and Kensuke Sasaki were holding WCW titles. This relationship was so strong that they even ran the NWO angle in both companies and featured an exchange of the talent involved in cross-promotional storylines. Even TNA has had a working relationship with New Japan and is currently working on beginning a relationship with All Japan as well.

So, with all of these relationships between North American and Japanese wrestling promotions, where does NOAH fit in? Until recently, nowhere. Since it began running, NOAH has had little to do with other Japanese promotions much less promotions across the world’s biggest body of water. Then Ring of Honor began to grow and be noticed internationally. With a traditional style that includes a focus on in-ring work as opposed to angles and storylines, ROH was the perfect match for NOAH, but would a promotion drawing fifty thousand people to shows in the Tokyo Egg Dome be interested in working with a small regional promotion in the United States that draws a thousand fans on a good night and doesn’t even have a TV deal? Well, the answer would be yes as several ROH wrestling including Low Ki and BJ Whitmer had toured with NOAH before, but nobody was prepared for who it would be that would start the talent exchage from NOAH to Ring of Honor. That man was Kenta Kobashi.

On October 1st 2005 the relationship between NOAH and ROH was cemented when Kenta Kobashi wrestled Samoa Joe in front of over a thousand fans in New York City in what would thought of by many to be the 2005 match of the year. Not only did this match gain ROH a lot of recognition from fans in North America, but it also exposed quite a few fans to the greatness that is Kobashi and Pro Wrestling NOAH. Since that night NOAH has sent over more talent including KENTA and then GHC champ Naomichi Marufuji who defended his title at ROH’s Glory by Honor V. Even though their relationship is with with an indy, NOAH was beginning to make a name in North America, but it would only get better for both NOAH and ROH. In Mid-February, Ring of Honor would bring Takeshi Morishima to tour with them for a few shows that month. He had worked for them before in a small bit at Glory By Honor V, but during this tour with ROH he would go on to defeat Homicide to win the ROH title. He would finish his tour defending the title once against BJ Whitmer and wrestling in a tag match with Nigel McGuiness against Samoa Joe and Homicide before returning to Japan and NOAH as the Ring of Honor Champion.

Word began to spread around the internet that Takeshi Morishima was the new ROH champion, but many didn’t know who Morishima was. As people began to explain that he wrestled for Pro Wrestling NOAH, those same people would ask what NOAH was. The big moment I described earlier in this column happened a few days after this ROH tour and many fans of ROH and NOAH were shocked that the ROH title would be defended in the main event of a Budokan Hall show in front of thirteen thousand fans, but it happened. As people discussed this, wrestling fans new to ROH began to perk up with curiosity about NOAH. Basically you see what I’m getting at. NOAH’s relationship with ROH has created a buzz in the IWC and for the first time really made NOAH into a promotion where North American fans who don’t follow puro are beginning to take notice. While I’m certain that ROH and NOAH will continue to work together, it is a relationship that benefits both promotions and hopefully will put NOAH in a position with North American fans like the one that New Japan and All Japan had when they were involved in their working relationships. It can only do wonders for ROH and really, I think most wrestling fans would agree, that is a good thing.

Catching up with Puro!

This is the part of the column where I will recommend a relatively recent puro show (within the last couple years). I realize that this is nothing new, and that I’ll be recommending quite a few shows that people have already recommended numerous times throughout the recent history of the beloved/despised IWC. I hope you take my recommendation seriously and hunt down these shows and expose yourself to puro (please, don’t be an exhibitionist) and find out what you’re missing. You can typically find most of these shows from anywhere between $3 and $8 USD at a variety of places online.

Dragon Gate – WrestleJam 2006

Have you ever wanted to get into Dragon Gate but didn’t know where to start. Do you like ROH? Well if you answered yes to one of or both of those questions, let me recommend Dragon Gate’s WrestleJam. It is a fairly new show, or series of shows, from about September of 2006 and features a lot of really fun matches with a lot of guys you might be familiar with. Some of the ROH guys who made the trip for this series of shows are: Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans, Jimmy Rave and Matt Sydal. I really enjoyed every match on the DVD and the last match in particular was just a lot of fun. Anybody who appreciates ROH will be entertained solely on the reactions Austin Aries and Jimmy Rave receive from the usually quiet Japanese fans. So indulge yourself with some Dragon Gate and never be the same again.

Here’s the card:

1. Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino & B-Boy vs. CIMA, Jack Evans & Roderick Strong
2. Akira Tozawa vs. Genki Horiguchi vs. Jack Evans
3. ROH Tag Titles: Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong
4. Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Roderick Strong
5. Susumu Yokosuka vs. Austin Aries
6. The Turboman, Magu-yan & Turbo-yan vs. Naoki Tanisaki & Gamma
7. Masato Yoshino & Jimmy Rave vs. Ryo Saito & Dragon Kid vs. CIMA & Don Fujii vs. Matt Sydal & Strong

Dudes, I got some mail!

Matt Short, writer of “The Navigation Log” which you all better be reading as well, was kind enough to shoot an email my way. It’s great to hear from somebody in Japan as they really see things from a different point of view and his email shows just how true that is.

Hey Matt,

Matt Short

Thanks for the email Matt. It’s really funny to think that FUNAKI of all people is that recognizable in Japan. I’m really hoping Jordan learns a lot while there and improves like Albert (Giant Bernard), Buchanan, Rosey and Tomko clearly have. An interesting tidbit on the perspective of Japanese fans is always appreciated and welcome. And yes, I’m a fool for forgetting to mention rice in my last column. Clearly I need to visit Japan.

See how easy it is folks?