The Navigation Log 7.06.08: Celebrating Our (Japanese) Independents

Onto the Navigation Log!

Quick Bits
Before moving onto my salute to Japanese Independents, some quick news from major promotions this week to keep things up to date.

All Japan
-Early in June, a large earthquake hit Iwata in northern Japan that caused a great deal of damage. It has been announced that the final leg of the Summer Action Series will be used to help raise funds for the relief effort. The final show will have a huge main event as Suwama teams with his old rival Osamu Nishimura to challenge Taiyo Kea & Minoru Suzuki for the All Japan World Tag Team Championship. The hope is that this huge match will inject some new focus into the tag scene in All Japan. Suwama now has the chance to become a Quintuple Crown Champion (at least that’s what All Japan is saying) and it’s obvious that the company is putting a lot of faith behind this main event.

-The participants for the All Japan Junior League have been announced and the blocks set:

Block A
-Ryuji Hijikata
-KAI
-El Samurai
-Shuji Kondo
-MAZADA

Block B
-Kaz Hayashi
-T28
-Phil Atlas
-Silver King
-TAKEMURA

Not nearly as impressive a field as say, Best of the Super Juniors, but it works. I’d like Hijikata to win this, but another part of me is pulling for Kondo. Even though Kondo is in no way a junior except maybe in height.

Dragon Gate
Some might argue that Dragon Gate isn’t a major promotion, but they’re too big to be considered an indy fed. Deal with it.

-BxB Hulk and Shingo Takagi had a #1 Contender Match last weekend to determine CIMA’s challenger for the Open the Dream Gate title at the Kobe WORLD for the Dragon Gate Kobe Pro Wrestling Festival. Unfortunately, CIMA’s injury has only gotten worse and so he has vacated the championship. Hulk and Shingo then went on to wrestle a 60-minute draw. Yes, that’s one hour. The two will meet again to determine the next champion at WORLD. Evil Hulk may or may not make an apperance.

-The Open the Gamma Gate story came to an end last weekend as Dr. Muscle, the last surviving member of the Muscle Outlaw’z, upset Gamma and returned the title back to the Open the Brave Gate. Masato Yoshino was under the mask that night and he gave up the belt right away. World-1’s m.c.KZ will face New Hazard’s Genki Horiguchi to determine the next champion.

-Due to Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino’s participation in TNA, former Open the Dream Gate Champion and New Japan legend Jushin Thunder Liger will team with BxB Hulk against Shingo Takagi & Cyber Kong on 7/12.

New Japan
-Here are the blocks for the New Japan G1 Climax Tournament:

Block A
-Hiroshi Tanahashi
-Manabu Nakanishi
-Wataru Inoue
-Giant Bernard
-Togi Makabe
-Shinjiro Otani
-To Be Announced

Block B
-Hiroyoshi Tenzan
-Yuji Nagata
-Shinsuke Nakamura
-Hirooki Goto
-Toru Yano
-Toshiaki Kawada
-Yutaka Yoshie

Very, very, VERY stacked field. My hope is that Inoue doesn’t get completely shut out, but his block has got some huge names that will be tough to overcome. Block B is no lighter. I’d love to see Goto win this as the guy is insanely good, but as I said the field is stacked. The guy I’d really like to see win, but has no chance? Giant Bernard, just on general principles.

-TNA’s Kurt Angle and AJ Styles will be returning to New Japan for two shows in August, on the 15th and 16th. No word on who they’ll be facing or in what types of matches they’ll have but it’s something to look forward to. The two Global Impacts that ran the Angle vs. Nagata and Angle vs. Nakamura were really good and I hope we get a little more of that here. With only two TNA stars going over we might get two matches on the show.

NOAH
-NOAH actually ran a heel turn last week, which is friggin’ awesome. Following a 2/3 Falls match that pitted Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Davey Richards, Atsushi Aoki, & Genba Hirayanagi against KENTA, Taiji Ishimori, Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin Hirayanagi brought a chair to the ring. Suzuki took the chair and proceeded to hit his own partner Ricky Marvin with it. They laid out KENTA & Ishimori as well and it was announced that Kanemaru & Suzuki were going to challenge for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles on the 7/13 show. In response Ishimori has challenged Kanemaru for his GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title at the Budokan Hall show on 7/18. That 2/3 falls match is having major reprecussions. A tag team was broken up and new challengers stepped forward. Also, the rookie and badass heel Hirayanagi got the final pinfall in the match, giving him some added momentum. There’s now also the chance of a Marvin vs. Suzuki match down the line which I wait for with bated breath. I’ve seen these two on opposite sides of each other in the past and it was the finest match I’ve ever seen live.

-KENTA vs. Kensuke Sasaki has been added to the 7/18 Budokan Show as a special attraction.

-NOAH announced that they will run the NTV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Tournament again this year during the Shiny Navigation. No teams have been announced yet, but after the way last year’s turned out especially after the phenominal final two matches, expectations are very high.

4th of July Weekend Japanese Independent Blowout Extravaganza
The idea of being “indy” means something different in Japan than it does in North America. Take music for example. When I hear the term indy rock applied to an American band, I get images of a bunch of scrawny nerds standing on stage singing off key while the scrawny nerds who paid to watch kind of just sway back and forth before going home to blog about how great it is that they know about this awesome, cool band and how they’re geniuses and underrated. Then when they get signed to a contract they’ve sold out. I’ve never been able to get into North American indy music because of this. It feels very much like elitism and that sucks. It was also one of the biggest problems I have against Ring of Honor, where it was so bad that I refused to watch anything from the promotion. The fans came off as so arrogant that I couldn’t enjoy it. That changed once I learned to stop listening to those fans and to just let matches speak for themselves. Part of the reason that I love Chikara is because the fans don’t make it a pissing contest to prove who’s the smarter fan. Chikara made kayfabe fun again. But I digress.

When it came down to Japanese indy music, I liked it more because it was all in fun. The fans didn’t make it some kind of pissing contest and the bands made it clear they were out there specifically to entertain. Hell, half the fun was had by the band itself, usually over the amazement that they had fans. I see a lot of that in the Japanese indies too. Just the weirdness that is inherent with the wrestling business. These guys let their hair down a whole lot more than they do in the majors (NOAH only goes off the wall on Christmas Eve). It’s no coincidence either that more than a few of these companies have inspired Chikara So this is my salute to the independent promotions in Japan, that don’t often get the press that the major leaguers get. Feel free to laugh at the crappy logos I dug up for this.

Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW)
Est: 1995

Championships
BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Champion: Shadow WX
BJW Heavyweight Tag Team Champions: Kengo Mashimo & Madoka

Possibly the most controversial group, if only because of their emphasis on the deathmatch. The company was started by two All Japan alumni Shinya Kojika and Kendo Nagasaki during a period where the deathmatch style of wrestling was booming. Big Japan offered a much bloodier version of the deathmatch, intergrating all kinds of weapons from lighttubes and thumbtacks to cacti and piranhas. Big Japan has had notable interpromotional feuds with New Japan and CZW in America and is responsible for having the use fire in matches banned for Korakuen Hall. That event is demonstrated by Shadow WX in the video below:

I mean really, what did he think was going to happen?

El Dorado
Est: 2006

Championships
UWA World Tag Team Championship: Kota Ibushi & KAGETORA
UWA World Trios Championship: Nobutaka Arya, Toru Owashi, & Takuya Sugawara

El Dorado appeared following the failure of the DragonDoor promotion (d2p). Unhappy performers, the heel group Aagan Iisou being more over than the top babyface Taiji Ishimori, and older stars going over younger talent plagued the promotion from day one and it only survived long enough to produce 6 shows in 2006. El Dorado rose from the ashes, using many of the same Toryumon students as d2p. The new promotion got off to a rocky start as Aagan Iisou feuded with the new group STONED, but injuries started to hamper shows. In 2007 everything was broken down and started anew. Four stables were announced to be headed by Shuji Kondo, “brother” YASSHI, Takuya Sugawara, and Toru Owashi. The four groups were SUKIYAKI (Kondo), Nanking Fucking Wrestling (YASSHI), Hell Demons (Sugawara), and Animal Planets (Owashi). 2007 proved to be a much better year for El Dorado, but the El Dorado curse seems to be coming back. Naoki Tanisaki’s jumping ship to Dragon Gate along with more injuries are cropping back up. Luckily, no matter what happens to El Dorado, they can always say that they lasted longer than d2p.

Michinoku Pro
Est: 1993

Championships
Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship: Yoshitsune
Tohoku Tag Team Championship: The Great Sasuke & Yoshitsune
UWA World Welterweight Championship: Takeshi Minamino

Started by The Great Sasuke in 1993, Michinoku Pro was the first wrestling promotion to not be based in Tokyo, rather in Iwate in the north. The promotion is notable for it’s focus on intergrating a lucha libre-style of wrestling in Japan that has come to be called lucharesu. Michinoku Pro has a long history of many great wrestlers passing through it’s doors including TAKA Michinoku and the current Tiger Mask. It was a revolutionary company that had ties with the WWF at one point when Sasuke was competing for the WWF Light-Heavyweight Championship, but after opening his mouth about how he would only defend the title in Japan the relationship ended pretty quickly. Sasuke has relinquished control of the company to Jinsei Shinzaki while Sasuke concentrated on his new political career in the Iwate Prefectural Assembly.

Osaka Pro
Est: 1998

Championships
Osaka Pro Singles Championship: Tigers Mask
Osaka Pro Owarai Championship: Kanjyouro Matsuyama
Osaka Pro Tag Team Championship: GAINA & Zero
Osaka Pro Battle Royal Championship: Takoyakida

Luchresu beyond the pale. Started by Super Delfin in 1998 as a regional promotion in Osaka. Much like the Kansai region it hails from, Osaka Pro boasts a great deal of weirdness as it becomes a great blend of high-paced action and comedy. A good portion of the wrestlers are masked and the company has been a staple of Osaka wrestling for ages,

Pro Wrestling ZERO1
Est: 2001

Championships
ZERO1 World Heavyweight Championship: Masato Tanaka
NWA Intercontinetal Tag Team Championship: Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara
NWA Intercontinetal Lightweight Tag Team Championship: Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara
NWA United National Heavyweight Championship: Kengo Mashimo
ZERO1 International Junior Heavyweight Championship: Ikuto Hidaka
ZERO1 United States Championship: Ricky Landell
WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship: NOIZ
HCW World Women’s Championship: Hikaru

Named for the year of its founding, ZERO1 was started by New Japan stars Shinya Hashimoto and Shinjiro Otani. Hashimoto was the star attraction of the company until he gave up ownership in 2004. ZERO1 has got working relationships with several companies, big and small. They’re currently involved with New Japan. ZERO1 is most famous for its Fire Festival Tournament to go along with that laundry list of titles. An interesting note that I’ll point out since I started this talking about music: the WWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion NOIZ is actually representing a band I saw a lot in Japan, called NOIZ. Small world, huh?

KAIENTAI Dojo (K-DOJO)
Est: 2002

Championships
Strongest-K Championship: Yuji Hino
Strongest-K Tag Team Championship: TAKA Michinoku & Handsome Joe
UWA World Middleweight Championship: Boso Boy Raito
WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship: NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA
Independent Junior Heavyweight Champion: Kota Ibushi

Started up by TAKA Michinoku after his departure from the WWE, the company focuses on training and promoting a more American style of wrestling. They even employ a big Titantron-style entrance ramp. The company sports a wide variety of wrestling styles, intergrating everything from lucha to MMA in their productions. K-DOJO has been gaining much more recognition thanks in part to their good relations in other countries. They’ve made particular in-roads in the US with sending stars to work with Chikara.

HUSTLE
Est: 2004

Championships
Hustle Hardcore Hero Championship: Tadao Yasuda
Hustle Super Tag Team Championship: Team 3-D
(Note: Both titles have been ignored since their creation)

While a lot of other companies focus on the silly while retaining a lot of the athleticism, HUSTLE goes balls to the wall with madness. The premise is simple: The Hustle Army defends the purity of the sport of professional wrestling from the Monster Army’s Generalissimo Takada, (who is in no way related to star Nobuhiko Takada). The company puts the concept of sport entertainment over all else, turning into what looks like a cracked out version of the WWE. The promotion was initially owned by Dream Stage Entertainment, but following some yakuza related scandals, an angle was run where Generalissimo Takada bought the company for 1 billion Monster Dollars. It was a grand move, showing off just how deep his pockets were. Hustle is no stranger to the strange. YouTube phenomenon Razor Ramon Hard Gay is a top star, Great Muta has fathered a child by poison misting a woman’s crotch, and MLB star Warren Cromartie has wrestled a match for them. There have also been unsubstanstantiated rumors circulating that 411 Wrestling Zone boss Larry Csonka is on Generalissimo Takada’s pay roll. Though it is very convienient that we never hear about the many crimes of the Monster Army in the Tuesday new report…

Dramatic Dream Team (DDT)
Est: 1997

Championships
DDT KO-D Openweight Championship: Dick Togo
DDT KO-D Tag Team Championship: MIKAMI & Tanomusaku Toba
DDT Ironman Heavymetal Championship: Michael Nakazawa
DDT Extreme Championship: Masa Takanashi

Just as focused on sports entertainment as Hustle is, though with a little bit of a darker twist, DDT is one of the most popular independent promotions in Japan. Sanshiro Takagi started the group in ’97 focusing on the entertainment side of things while mixing a wide variety of wrestling styles. The promotion gets a lot of attention for the Ironman Heavymetal title, which is very similar to the WWF’s 24/7 Hardcore title. Something about a title that has been won by ladders, dogs, and inanimate objects amuses people. DDT does have it’s serious side as it boasts stables and hardcore matches. DDT is well worth a look.

That concludes this rather abridged look at the Japanese independent scene. If I left things out, I apologize as I’m on vacation and forgot to email my notes to myself. If you ever get the notion you want to go looking for matches from any of these groups, remember YouTube is your friend.