Destiny 7.15.07: The TNA/All Japan Relationship

In other news, I am absolutely thrilled to know that Ryusuke Taguchi has done what many thought impossible and ended the Kanemoto/Tiger Mask/Minoru/Liger controlled IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title stronghold. He managed to beat Minoru last week and broke that stronghold that should have been broken years ago. Now we have Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Milano Collection AT to look forward to, which will be awesome. Until that time comes, we have a new man on top and if all goes well, like has been happening lately in the heavyweight division in New Japan, things could really be changing. I never thought I’d be so glad that New Japan has nothing to do with the Inoki’s.

Taking vows or taking advantage? The TNA/All Japan Relationship

Throughout the history of professional wrestling, smart American pro wrestling companies have developed relationship with Japanese companies to exchange talent and help them develop into better wrestlers. Traditionally with few exceptions, the American company comes out ahead in these particular arrangements. Usually the U.S. company sends their star over to Japan where he or she is able to focus on their in-ring skill and usually they come out the better for it. Japan only fares temporarily as they typically just benefit from the presence of the gaijin who come to learn, but once they are gone, so is the buzz. There is a rare occasion where a Japanese wrestler is sent to the states to develop the entertainment aspect and in-ring ability, and it truly helps them a great deal (see: Sasaki, Kensuke). This concept has grown considerably within the independents as of late, but traditionally North America. sees much less Japanese talent than Japan sees of North American talent.

In reality there is only truly global promotion operating out of the United States, so it makes perfect sense for TNA 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 led 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 that 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. Without a doubt the WCW/New Japan relationship was the best relationship two promotions have had anywhere in the world and both benefited greatly as a result, as did the fans. TNA has had a relationship with a Japanese promotion as well. They were working with New Japan a little over a year ago, but that relationship was spotty at best and did little for either promotion.

All of that brings us to where we are today as TNA and All Japan Pro Wrestling have seemingly begun a relationship, but who has and will get the better end of the deal? So far it’s course has been very short as only a couple months ago, The Great Muta made his appearance on TNA, sparking rumours that he was there to discuss a talent exchange relationship with the TNA big wigs. Many were skeptical at first with Tomko and Angle working shows with New Japan and IGF in Japan. Would TNA be tying up loose ends, or are these appearances separate from their TNA contract?

Thing began to get more clear when All Japan announced their lineup for the Jr. Heavyweight League at the beginning of June. They announced that Chris Sabin would be involved in the tournament that would take place at the end of June and end on July 1st. This kind of stuff happens all the time so I personally thought nothing of it. I kept my eye on the tournament and when the final came, it was Chris Sabin standing tall. Still, I wasn’t convinved that TNA and All Japan really had a relationship. I figured at this point that this was All Japan’s way of saying, “Hey, we’ll put your guys over really good if you work with us.” It was an excellent way to send a message if there wasn’t already an agreement in place and it made Sabin (in my mind at least) look like the real deal. Like I said before, I still wasn’t convinced.

Things began to really change in my mind last week as it was announced that SUWAMA would be working some dates with TNA. Needless to say I was excited. I was extremely excited about this opportunity to possibly be able to see one of my favorite wrestlers in the world on TV here in the States. Despite my excitement being cut into small edible pieces because it turned out he was only working house shows. It showed me that All Japan was willing to send young talent to TNA. This was a good sign, but why send Suwama for house shows only? Well, come to find out he was there to convince Scott Steiner to make the trip to Japan for the big August PPV in Sumo Hall. That’s right, All Japan let’s SUWAMA go to work a couple house shows while All Japan gets to use veteran Scott Steiner on their biggest show of the year. The TNA fans are getting ripped by this deal so far. Wait a minute, what deal? Oh, it still seems possible that TNA and All Japan indeed do not have a relationship, though they seem to have some kind of agreement. I’m not convinced yet as a TNA fan that I’ll be seeing anybody from my favorite promotion in the world on TNA Impact anytime soon, but I sure hope things get to that point. It saddens me that SUWAMA didn’t end up on TV, so my plea to TNA and All Japan is this… Please bring All Japan talent into TNA. Bring Voodoo Murders and some of the heavyweights. Starrcade 1995 was awesome because of the Japanese presence there. Why not bring something similar back, but to a smaller scale? It would certainly make this fan and writer very very happy.

What can be expected out of the future of this possible relationship? Well, I can almost guarantee that we’ll be seeing the likes of Angle, Steiner and Christian working All Japan’s big shows. We might see an appearance by a couple of the All Japan Juniors for the World X Cup if it happens. Both of those ideas would be great, but hopefully it just means better things for both promotions and more unique matches and personalities for us fans to enjoy.

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.

SEM 05/03/2007

I love this card because it’s packed with talented wrestlers and seems fresh because it avoids the typical NOAH fare. Kotaro Suzuki and Ricky Marvin have really good showings as does KENTA against one Ted Dibiase Jr. What I love about this show is that it allows for the young guys to have the opportunity to shine which is something that many of you know doesn’t happen very often in puro these days. The main event is the only match that really lacks anything especially new or interesting, but Bison Smith is fun to watch and it is really just nice to have some different faces at the top of the card.

Here’s the card…

1. Ricky Marvin vs. Akihiko Ito
2. Kotaro Suzuki vs. Tsutomu Hirayanagi
3. Go Shiosaki vs. Daniel Cross
4. Bryan Danielson & Taiji Ishimori vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki
5. KENTA vs. Ted DiBiase Jr.
6. Bison Smith & Joe Legend vs. Takeshi Rikio & Ippei Ota

Some Older Mail!

I got quite a bit of email about the lovely “Who is number one in Japan?” series I did. I want to remind everybody that in the first part of the series I tried to make a statement regarding that saying that my assessment was in no way definitive or that all my information was perfect and that a lot of the numbers would be worked, but I did my best in that. Here are some of the emails I received…

This first one comes from Jason.

I enjoyed your Who is Number One In Japan article this week. I had always been wondering and it’s nice to see that at least there is some information out there pointing to somebody other than New Japan.

I couldn’t agree more. New Japan has been on the downhill slide and hopefully their disputed fall to NOAH will give them a little kick in the pants. The next email is from Edgar…

With all due respect Matt, I don’t buy it. I don’t believe the 7/18/05 NOAH Tokyo Dome show drew 62,000.

I believe most place were reporting 52,000 fans in attendance, which seems more plausible after having seen the event and seen large areas of the Tokyo Dome crowdless.

You are completely right. I knew that the show did less than the reported 62,000, but I couldn’t find an approximate number to work with. The basic idea however was to show that NOAH outdrew New Japan that year in the Dome. With an attendance of 52,000 that truth still stands. Thank you for that information. The next is parts from a very helpful email that would have been nice to use in my research. It comes from 411’s Ryan Mancuso…

I’m sure you realized the numbers you were dealing with were worked numbers. The fault that I find in your research is that you don’t know how much of exaggeration each company uses. From what I seen, NOAH seems to be one of the biggest exaggerators out of all these companies. I’ve seen NOAH house show in Kochi where they claim 1,800 but when I saw a wide shot photo of Kobashi’s match it looked like they had 500-600 in the crowd. From what I read on boards, Kochi isn’t the only place where that kind of exaggeration take place with them. All of those Budokan shows that they claimed 15,000 or more was an exaggeration because the max capacity for any show at the Budokan is 14,000. Those Korakuen shows that they claim 2,100 was really in the range of 1,400-1,600. Don’t get me started on shows outside of Japan, a NOAH rep saying Rey De Reyes drawing over 50,000 is LOL worthy from me.

Thanks for reading and keep up the good work

Thanks for writing Ryan, I appreciate it. This info would have no doubt been included in my original columns on this, because like I said in the first one, that my assessment is not definitive. I don’t even really believe it entirely because of things like what you wrote here. I wanted to try my very best to answer the questions I get from readers. If your information changes anything to any readers minds after having read my assessment, great! However, I think the entire system is flawed and in a perfect world, if it were equally flawed, my assessment would be about as close to the truth as anybody could actually get. I do appreciate this information though. I too laugh at some of the ridiculous claims of 2,300 in Korakuen when there isn’t enough room for that many people in that building. It’s all really funny, but I did my best to come up with an answer with the information I had. The next email comes from Rick…

It must have given you a headache to put together all this information for your column. Puro is so typically full of shit that it’s scary. Thanks for trying though and I’d have to agree with you considering how dire everything in puro seems these days. Noah seems to be the only company making any waves. Keep up the good work!

Thanks, I appreciate being appreciated. Yes, it took an excruciatingly long time to put the series together because I had to triple check all my information. I’ll keep doing my best. This last email is from John Ferrigno…

I am writing to tell you how much I enjoyed your series of articles on who is the most popular wrestling promotion in Japan. It was refreshing to see the answer actually be the product that is, in my opinion at least, the best of the bunch. All the promotions have their strong points, but I feel that NOAH is the complete package: Great established stars, some of the hottest young prospects in all of wrestling, terrific matches, even some good comedy at times. NOAH is easily my favorite promotion and it was great to see them be rewarded for all the hard work they do with a lot of popularity from the fans.

With all the work NOAH has done to become a force in puro, it’s nice for them to be rewarded by an increased fanbase. I agree with NOAH being the complete package. They do an excellent job and they also have my favorite tag team in the world, Ricky Marvin and Kotaro Suzuki. Thanks for reading, I’m glad you enjoyed it.

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