Essential Japanese Wrestling Discussion/News

[Singh]

Been watching the past g1 shyt on dailymotion these last few weeks (those ads fukk shyt up but whatever)

I got a decent idea bout dudes

they got some match breakdowns out

Striker is going to do just fine







I'm going to WM31 this year, depending on how this wk9 shyt turns out I might start saving to go to japan for the next one bout to download rosetta stone soon lol

 

[Honga Ciganesta]

Some cool notes on Rikidozan in this weeks Observer

Rikidozan returned to Japan in 1954, and the birth of modern Japanese wrestling is traced to the three straight sellouts at Sumo Hall on February 19-21, built around Rikidozan & Masahiko Kimura battling The Sharpe Brothers for the NWA world tag team championships. The matches aired live on NTV, a network that had just started broadcasting in August. This began a tradition of pro wrestling on the network that lasted 51 years, with Rikidozan’s matches quickly becoming a Friday night staple within the culture. Rikidozan ran what was a thriving wrestling business in Japan for the next decade.

Only about 20,000 people in Tokyo had television sets at that point in time. So most of the viewing of the three matches were by people watching on giant screens in major parks all over the city. It was reported in the newspapers covering the events, that in a city of eight million people, that about 900,000 watched the events between the three nights on giant screens around the city, standing in the parks, congregated so deep they covered the streets, paralyzing traffic. Reports at the time talked of police having to come and order people off trees that they would climb up to get a better view of the matches, for fear the weight of so many people on the branches would cause the branches to break or the trees to fall over. But this was a Tokyo phenomenon at first, not a national one.

Rikidozan was the cultural hero in Japan in the 50s, far bigger at his peak than any wrestler in their own culture in history, even including El Santo. In 1999, when Nippon TV did a list of the 100 most important people in the history of the world, Rikidozan placed one spot above John F. Kennedy, at No. 12. As the years went by, when Rikidozan fought his biggest matches on television, the entire country came to a stand-still. One match with Thesz, for the NWA title, on October 7, 1957, from the old Korakuen Baseball Stadium in Tokyo, did an 87.5 rating, which meant that when the match was on, nearly every home with a television set in the country was watching it. At the time, roughly 16 million Japanese lived in a home that had a television set, and about 14 million watched the match, which went to a 61:00 draw, live. Thesz defended his NWA title against Rikidozan eight times during a three-week tour, with two 61 minute draws and the rest being either double count outs or count out wins for Thesz, including packing outdoor stadiums in Osaka, Hiroshima and Sendai.

That set the stage for one of the biggest matches in Japanese history as Rikidozan, for the first ever in Japan, went to avenge a loss.

The date of May 24, 1963, was the night more people watched pro wrestling on television than any night in the history of the world. It was the live battle on NTV with Rikidozan vs. The Destroyer for the WWA world heavyweight title, which ended with a double count out in the third fall. The ironic thing is that Destroyer was not WWA world champion on the night of the famous match.

By that point in time, virtually every home in Japan had a television. Rikidozan trying to avenge his first-ever loss in Japan, and his challenging for the WWA world title led to the show doing a sellout of 12,000 fans with thousands turned away. The show did a 67.0 rating, which translated to 60 million viewers. At the time, there were less than 97 million people in the country, so for a comparison, that would be like 200 million viewers for a TV show in the U.S., or roughly double the Super Bowl.

More people had watched that match than any television show ever up until that time in Japan. Even today, even though the population has grown, it’s among the most watched shows in Japanese television history.

Johnson recounted seeing the bottle of rice wine and getting into a conversation with Koreans about it.

“That’s Rikidozan, a famous Korean,” the women at the cash register said. “He went to Japan, and after beating all the Japanese fighters, he wanted to return home to Korea a champion. The Japanese were angry, so they kidnapped him and murdered him.”

Johnson found that it wasn’t just a woman who didn’t know history from more than 60 years ago.

A younger assistant joined in, “The Japanese were jealous and ashamed that a Korean was better. When Rikidozan tried to return home to the glorious socialism of North Korea, the cowards stabbed him to death.”

Johnson asked them for more details. None of them knew more than what they had been taught in school.

A young saleswoman, who knew some English, tried to communicate better to him: “Japan steal. Japan kill.”

Apparently, according to the article, the leader of North Korea at the time, Kim-Il-sung, tried to lure Rikidozan to North Korea in the early 60s. His Korean heritage was not a secret there, as he had family members who became well known politicians, so the ruling class of North Korea knew one of its own was secretly Japan’s national hero. The government promised to fund his own wrestling company where he would be the top star, but Rikidozan turned them down. He had become a rich celebrity in Japan, owning night clubs, condos, a high-end steak house and hotels, with his Yakuza backing.

He’s far more famous today in North Korea than Japan, because a book, “I Am a Korean,” about Rikidozan, was released in 1989 and the government required everyone in school to read the book, essentially teaching the propaganda version of the life of Rikidozan. The government sponsored story about the life of Rikidozan was that the Japanese people hated him for being Korean, and eventually killed him because none of the Japanese could beat him, when he was planning on leaving Japan and returning to North Korea.

Got to love the stories the wrestling business throws up

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

Some cool notes on Rikidozan in this weeks Observer









Got to love the stories the wrestling business throws up

Rikidozan was always on the godlike tier to me because of reputation but damn a 67.0 rating in the 50's?!

 

[Jmare007]

How come nobody told me Okabayashi made his return this weekend?

He's getting a title shot in February at Korakuen

 

[TheDarceKnight]

I think I may be a Nakamura stan brehs

That was my first time seeing a NJPW event live. is this a good article for a new jack like me? http://www.cagesideseats.com/2014/10/9/6950741/beginners-guide-to-new-japan-pro-wrestling

That shyt was so fire. Nakamura was really dope. I saw Ibushi one time before in a 3-way match with Low Ki and Prince Devitt. I was sort of pulling for Ibushi to take it. I liked how stiff the match was with the strikes, and it was almost like an MMA fight at first. That might have been my favorite match of the night. It was so stiff but the storytelling was great. I had no idea what the beef between the 2 wrestlers were, but I totally bought into it.

What's the deal with Nakamura's gimmick? Is he supposed to be like a Michael Jackson type of cat?

other thoughts as someone that hasn't really watched Puro at all since the KENTA/Nakamura's feud was the hot thing.

- Bullet club is dope. I wish I'd seen them when Prince Devitt was still there. Did AJ Styles really break 2 necks with the Styles Clash this year? I don't know if that suplex into a neckbreaker that Styles did was a botch or not, but it looked brutal.

- Speaking of Bullet Club, Kenny Omega was dope also. Dude coming out like Michael Douglas in Black Rain. Rocking the perm with the gray hair. I like the hit man gimmick. That One Winged Angel was ridiculous, and so was that deadlift gutwrench sitout powerbomb. I looked up on youtube. This motherfukker hit a fisherman buster where he crossed their legs during the lift, a cot damn Ryu/Ken Hadouken on someone's face, then did an electric chair into a German suplex,



- it was nice seeing my main Marufuji. he looked like he put on some weight since the KENTA feud days. i was hoping to seem him finish with a Pole Shift or Tiger Flowsion but that was a good tag match. All the tag matches were great, and I gotta figure out who some of these guys are. I liked the Young Bucks and reDRagon. The 1st few matches went by so fast I don't remember all the names and everything.

- Sakuraba/Suzuki was great. I'm a die hard MMA fan since the early PRIDE days, so that was just great to watch. Saku at metamoris and now this? Yeah, real pleasure to see an MMA style shoot fight on the card. Seeing Saku apply a Kimura was Both dudes are legends. I wanted Saku to take it, but Suzuki is such a huge legend too. Great match.

- The main event was awesome! I've seen one with these guys before. Okada won the one I saw. Apparently some people don't like Tanahashi? Like he's the John Cena of NJPW? Am I wrong on that? I can't believe he kicked out of the Rainmaker. I thought that was like Burning Hammer status? The build up was so solid in that match. I've never seen a crowd pop for a dropkick like that before.

4.5/5. Awesome show.

 

[JohnB]

So Cody Hall joined the Bullet Club

 

[The Rainmaker]

Okada lost again

Damn you, Jado and Gedo, you're burying him

 

[TrueEpic08]

That was my first time seeing a NJPW event live. is this a good article for a new jack like me? http://www.cagesideseats.com/2014/10/9/6950741/beginners-guide-to-new-japan-pro-wrestling

That shyt was so fire. Nakamura was really dope. I saw Ibushi one time before in a 3-way match with Low Ki and Prince Devitt. I was sort of pulling for Ibushi to take it. I liked how stiff the match was with the strikes, and it was almost like an MMA fight at first. That might have been my favorite match of the night. It was so stiff but the storytelling was great. I had no idea what the beef between the 2 wrestlers were, but I totally bought into it.

What's the deal with Nakamura's gimmick? Is he supposed to be like a Michael Jackson type of cat?

other thoughts as someone that hasn't really watched Puro at all since the KENTA/Nakamura's feud was the hot thing.

- Bullet club is dope. I wish I'd seen them when Prince Devitt was still there. Did AJ Styles really break 2 necks with the Styles Clash this year? I don't know if that suplex into a neckbreaker that Styles did was a botch or not, but it looked brutal.

- Speaking of Bullet Club, Kenny Omega was dope also. Dude coming out like Michael Douglas in Black Rain. Rocking the perm with the gray hair. I like the hit man gimmick. That One Winged Angel was ridiculous, and so was that deadlift gutwrench sitout powerbomb. I looked up on youtube. This motherfukker hit a fisherman buster where he crossed their legs during the lift, a cot damn Ryu/Ken Hadouken on someone's face, then did an electric chair into a German suplex,



- it was nice seeing my main Marufuji. he looked like he put on some weight since the KENTA feud days. i was hoping to seem him finish with a Pole Shift or Tiger Flowsion but that was a good tag match. All the tag matches were great, and I gotta figure out who some of these guys are. I liked the Young Bucks and reDRagon. The 1st few matches went by so fast I don't remember all the names and everything.

- Sakuraba/Suzuki was great. I'm a die hard MMA fan since the early PRIDE days, so that was just great to watch. Saku at metamoris and now this? Yeah, real pleasure to see an MMA style shoot fight on the card. Seeing Saku apply a Kimura was Both dudes are legends. I wanted Saku to take it, but Suzuki is such a huge legend too. Great match.

- The main event was awesome! I've seen one with these guys before. Okada won the one I saw. Apparently some people don't like Tanahashi? Like he's the John Cena of NJPW? Am I wrong on that? I can't believe he kicked out of the Rainmaker. I thought that was like Burning Hammer status? The build up was so solid in that match. I've never seen a crowd pop for a dropkick like that before.

4.5/5. Awesome show.

-Nakamura's gimmick is basically a reflection of who he really is (like all good gimmicks): an art school weirdo with legit MMA credibility and skills. Japanese Danny Brown is actually pretty accurate when you think about it. Funny thing is, he used to be a serious black trunks-styled guy until about 4-5 years ago.

-Okada was woefully underutilized in TNA during the first half of his excursion (enough that NJPW pulled him out and sent him to CMLL in Mexico after he initially came back). It was after that excursion that he developed the Rainmaker gimmick.

-Yes, Tanahashi is Cena with better wrestling skills essentially, and is disliked because people (older fans and more nostalgic types, mostly) see him as a guy whose a bit too preening and sports entertainment for Puro (he idolizes Shawn Michaels, and has many of the same problems Shawn had with certain segments of the crowd). His rebuttal (which I posted earlier in this thread) is that he wanted to be the vanguard of a style of Puro that appealed to all potential audiences, which is why he wrestles the way that he does (it's a bit more involved than that; find my response if you want to know more). He's still extremely popular though, and the good thing about all of this is that he knows how to play to that segment of the fanbase far better than Cena does, which makes for interesting dymanics in some matches of his (the classic match he had with Minoru Suzuki a couple of years back was actually built around the "preening and soft" perception that some fans had of him).

-The Rainmaker is very protected, the most protected finish in wrestling by far. Only Tanahashi (if I remember correctly) has ever kicked out of it, and both times weren't direct kickouts, but situations where the strike would either logically be weaker or where Tana had time to recover. Other than that, the Rainmaker is pure death when its hit. Promoters could learn something from looking at how Jado and Gedo have built that move.

As for the results: does the world really need to see Cody Hall in the Bullet Club? Really? This is starting to get nWo () levels of watered down. Also, I'm quite interested to see what they do with this Okada losing streak storyline. He's Gedo's golden boy, so his loss (which baffled me when I saw it) will more than likely lead to something interesting. Wait and see, I guess.

 

[3Rivers]

-Nakamura's gimmick is basically a reflection of who he really is (like all good gimmicks): an art school weirdo with legit MMA credibility and skills. Japanese Danny Brown is actually pretty accurate when you think about it. Funny thing is, he used to be a serious black trunks-styled guy until about 4-5 years ago.

How/Why did he go from the more serious look to the swagged out version we see today?

 

[JohnB]

-Nakamura's gimmick is basically a reflection of who he really is (like all good gimmicks): an art school weirdo with legit MMA credibility and skills. Japanese Danny Brown is actually pretty accurate when you think about it. Funny thing is, he used to be a serious black trunks-styled guy until about 4-5 years ago.

-Okada was woefully underutilized in TNA during the first half of his excursion (enough that NJPW pulled him out and sent him to CMLL in Mexico after he initially came back). It was after that excursion that he developed the Rainmaker gimmick.

-Yes, Tanahashi is Cena with better wrestling skills essentially, and is disliked because people (older fans and more nostalgic types, mostly) see him as a guy whose a bit too preening and sports entertainment for Puro (he idolizes Shawn Michaels, and has many of the same problems Shawn had with certain segments of the crowd). His rebuttal (which I posted earlier in this thread) is that he wanted to be the vanguard of a style of Puro that appealed to all potential audiences, which is why he wrestles the way that he does (it's a bit more involved than that; find my response if you want to know more). He's still extremely popular though, and the good thing about all of this is that he knows how to play to that segment of the fanbase far better than Cena does, which makes for interesting dymanics in some matches of his (the classic match he had with Minoru Suzuki a couple of years back was actually built around the "preening and soft" perception that some fans had of him).

-The Rainmaker is very protected, the most protected finish in wrestling by far. Only Tanahashi (if I remember correctly) has ever kicked out of it, and both times weren't direct kickouts, but situations where the strike would either logically be weaker or where Tana had time to recover. Other than that, the Rainmaker is pure death when its hit. Promoters could learn something from looking at how Jado and Gedo have built that move.

As for the results: does the world really need to see Cody Hall in the Bullet Club? Really? This is starting to get nWo () levels of watered down. Also, I'm quite interested to see what they do with this Okada losing streak storyline. He's Gedo's golden boy, so his loss (which baffled me when I saw it) will more than likely lead to something interesting. Wait and see, I guess.

Man i would have Okada keep losing till he goes full blown heel and cheats to win the title, forms a new stable with Chaos & Suzuki Gun disbanding. I'll also have Nakamura form a face group to fued with Okada's group kinda similar to how GBH disbanded.

 

[TrueEpic08]

How/Why did he go from the more serious look to the swagged out version we see today?

It was a gradual shift that happened over the course of late 2008-early 2009 (damn, it's been that long?). He switched from trunks to black leather pants, grew his hair out (though he didn't adopt the cut you see today until late 2011 or so) and started relying on knee strikes and straight punches for offense. The attitude came gradually over the course of 2011-2012 between his New Japan work and stints in CMLL, as he started shaving the sides of his head, gesticulating weirdly and generally being an eccentric in and out of the ring. It's been quite the transformation to observe.

As for why? Well, NJPW had been trying to push him as their next "guy" since about 2003 (when they found out that he was the only guy that they had that could take an MMA fight and not completely embarrass himself) and it never really stuck. They kept pushing and pushing him, and they kept watching as Tanahashi eclipsed him in popularity and became the cornerstone of the promotion that he was supposed to be. The austere prodigy gimmick wasn't really working, and even the early stages of his CHAOS gimmick only worked so well. So, on an excursion to CMLL, he decided to indulge a bit in his weirder side, and you see the results from that decision.

Dude's probably the most popular guy in the promotion due to his style and charisma, and is likely only out of the IWGP Title scene by choice. It'll be interesting to see where he goes next.

 

[Jmare007]

Damn breh you broke it down perfectly. I couldn't get into Nakamura for the longest time, was actually annoyed he got all those pushes when he never really clicked as a main guy. But then he unleashed the Swagamura gimmick and everything changed

I don't think Okada needed the losing streak/redemption storyline at all. If this was any other promotion people would be shytting on this decision.

Bullet Club status to me. I just hope Cody can really learn during this stint in Japan.

 

[3Rivers]

It was a gradual shift that happened over the course of late 2008-early 2009 (damn, it's been that long?). He switched from trunks to black leather pants, grew his hair out (though he didn't adopt the cut you see today until late 2011 or so) and started relying on knee strikes and straight punches for offense. The attitude came gradually over the course of 2011-2012 between his New Japan work and stints in CMLL, as he started shaving the sides of his head, gesticulating weirdly and generally being an eccentric in and out of the ring. It's been quite the transformation to observe.

As for why? Well, NJPW had been trying to push him as their next "guy" since about 2003 (when they found out that he was the only guy that they had that could take an MMA fight and not completely embarrass himself) and it never really stuck. They kept pushing and pushing him, and they kept watching as Tanahashi eclipsed him in popularity and became the cornerstone of the promotion that he was supposed to be. The austere prodigy gimmick wasn't really working, and even the early stages of his CHAOS gimmick only worked so well. So, on an excursion to CMLL, he decided to indulge a bit in his weirder side, and you see the results from that decision.

Dude's probably the most popular guy in the promotion due to his style and charisma, and is likely only out of the IWGP Title scene by choice. It'll be interesting to see where he goes next.

Sounds like quite the transformation to watch. Dude can clearly control the crowd through his mannerisms/facial expressions. Seems like he has the Japanese style worker mentality with an American wrestler style charisma. I had no idea what he said post match at WK9(until I read the translation) and I was still hyped

 

[TrueEpic08]

I don't think Okada needed the losing streak/redemption storyline at all. If this was any other promotion people would be shytting on this decision.

Bullet Club status to me. I just hope Cody can really learn during this stint in Japan.

No, of course he doesn't need it, and it could easily end up a total wreck (they really should've done the "passing the torch" moment last night, if that's what they're going for). However, Jado and Gedo have done so much good work since they got the book that they deserve the benefit of the doubt. Also, remember two other things:

1. Okada is Gedo's boy, so he won't deliberately screw him over in any way.

2. One of the greatest of all time had his career kickstarted by a year-plus long losing streak; they're a completely different animal in Japan.

So, we'll see.

The Bullet Club really need something to do though, they're getting into bloated and toothless nWo territory at the moment. I mean, Cody Hall? Really?

 

[Jmare007]

No, of course he doesn't need it, and it could easily end up a total wreck (they really should've done the "passing the torch" moment last night, if that's what they're going for). However, Jado and Gedo have done so much good work since they got the book that they deserve the benefit of the doubt. Also, remember two other things:

1. Okada is Gedo's boy, so he won't deliberately screw him over in any way.

2. One of the greatest of all time had his career kickstarted by a year-plus long losing streak; they're a completely different animal in Japan.

So, we'll see.

I know the intention is for this storyline to take Okada to new heights as the Ace of the company. But it was still an unnecessary decision.

Gedo's done a good job since he got the book but he has also made some important mistakes that tend to get overlooked because the in ring work is considered so damn good and by comparison, New Japan booking is miles better than any other big promotion in the world.

And Okada's journey has nothing to do with Kobashi's. Both stories are completely different. Not saying it wont work - it may very well help Okada - but that was a bad comparison.