I don't buy it. NOAH could've been progressive and started the wheels turning as far as change in the industry by having KENTA and Maru, their two most over home brewed products, pick off the old guard (who were properly fukking old) and started a transition from the veteran love fest that is puro (specifically the Kings Road style they imploy) to something which more effectively reflected the era.
For KENTA and Maru to be successful 5-6 years ago, NOAH would have to change it's whole philosophy and try to be Dragon Gate lite.
There's just no way 2 guys who were known juniors and who don't look like legit heavyweights were going succeed in a traditional puro promotion. Main reason being that their fan base is also very old school and traditional and are not gonna spend money on those kinds of wrestlers, no matter how over and popular they are. Give KENTA the belt and crowds are gonna start chanting "Akiyama" the same way they were chanting "Misawa" when Marufuji got the push.
Nowadays it doesn't matter because the fan base is so small and so loyal that even if you put a guy like KENTA on top, it won't make much of a difference.
Instead they held on forever, just waiting for some heavyweights who they didn't fukking have aside from Morishima and Go (who they completely fukked up) to show up. They made all the wrong choices. Misawa and Co wanted to recreate the nearly decade long processes that made them stars instead of looking what they actually had on their hands and rocking with it.
Completely agree. NOAH's booking was beyond moronic for 6-7 years straight.
They didn't take advantage of Kobashi's reign and didn't build for the future when they should've.
The pushes for Rikio and Maru were desperate moves that were gonna fail anyway and on top of that they were fukked by stupid booking. Anything that came after that were band aids that couldn't stop the bleeding.
With Maru's win over Taue, near victory over Kobashi, and W over Akiyama in 2006 they had something. I don't know what the gate or ratings were like, but the crowds were flipping a shyt...and after Misawa won the strap they didn't even have that anymore as he transitioned into a listless title run where he only actually tried in one match.
Nah man, they didn't have something. The crowds were awful (at the time) for that Maru reign. Misawa got the belt because the crowds were chanting for him and because they got desperate...without Kobashi and with Akiyama - for whatever reason - not wanting to step up, old broken down Misawa was the only one who could carry them to at least mediocrity.
Could they had a little more patience with Maru? In hindsight, yeah...maybe. But you are talking a bout a company that was selling out Budokan and that suddenly was having record low numbers. If they stayed with Maru they needed a 180° change and that wasn't gonna happen. It's just naive thinking they would have.
Morishima, Marufuji, KENTA, Go, Suigara, Akiyama, and the invading Kensuke being the guys trading the title is the absolute best NOAH could do. What the hell is KENTA adding to the company being JR champ in 2009? Or Jr tag champ with Kanemaru in 2011? Just re-treading old territory. Any time he got into the ring with a Takiyama or Kensuke there used to be a palpable excitement because maybe, just maybe, this is the time when he got it done. But after so many years of teasing and never pulling the trigger, how can they expect people to care?
Again, I agree that they booking sucked ass and didn't help matters.
But believing a Jr. like KENTA was going to mean ANYTHING to them as a champ is just naive. Being over does not mean you are gonna draw, and that's the case with him in a traditional promotion like NOAH. You are mixing crowd reaction of hardcore fans to the ability to attract more casual fans.
fukk, New Japan had fans going apeshyt for feuds like Ogawa/Hashimoto and
some products of Inokism. But at the end of the day, it was a clusterfukk and almost destroyed NJPW.
Both Maru and KENTA were having a properly handled transition to the main event scene in 2006. Both had close matches with Kobashi, with Bashi even breaking out a Wrist-Clutch Burning Hammer to put KENTA down. Maru beat Taue. They went to a 30 min draw with Rikioh and Morishima. Maru wins the belt...then Maru loses the belt and becomes an occassional main even jobber for the rest of eternity and KENTA goes onto to bullying juniors...again.
Those pushes didn't stop just because breh, they stopped because they weren't doing anything beyond their hardcore fans.
Look, could NOAH have helped Maru and KENTA with decent booking? fukk yeah. But there's no evidence whatsoever that it would have translated in successful business. In fact there's only evidence of the contrary.
), create the Global League and trying to find new heavies.
Rainmaker Sake!!!