New Japan Pro Wrestling

[SirEdger]

Finally! I'm so happy to see your shows once again. And in our Project nonetheless! Great start!

[Grimmas]

What a beautiful first show. Very excited going forward, too bad Dos Caras didn't make Inoki tap though.

[gordi]

Well, the reviews are in and, thank God, they are mostly positive. One reviewer said that the show was “so well organized from top to bottom” and another called it a “beautiful first show.” Generally the papers and magazines are talking about it like the beginning of a new era… so maybe now I can stop worrying about it and just get to work.

 

We’ll be heading out on the road in less than a week. I’m travelling with the boys this time, and Shinma is staying behind in Tokyo to oversee TV production and advertising. We had a long (and, I think, productive) meeting where we hashed out a rough formula to follow for house shows on the tour, as well as key points to emphasize on TV to build toward the three big shows at the end of the month.

 

The booking formula hews pretty closely to the hierarchy I laid out for Mr. Inoki when I was working to get this job:

 

The Super-Protected:

 

Natives: Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami. Guests for this tour: Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan – Basically never do the job, though they can be on a losing team as long as their partner takes the fall or taps out. If they do lose, it’s only to another super-protected guy, or some kind of schmoz, and it has to be a very big deal. They are always booked to look strong. Almost exclusively work the Main or Semi-Main Event match.

 

The Protected:

 

Natives: Seiji Sakaguchi, Kengo Kimura, and Strong Machine #1. Gaijin Regulars; Canek and Dos Caras – Can lose clean to one another and to the top guys, but only very rarely do the job otherwise. If anyone “under” them in the hierarchy goes over, it should be a very big deal and lead to a sustained push. Can sometimes be called on to do the job in a tag match when teaming with one of the top guys. Always booked to look strong, even in defeat.

 

The “Use Them Well” guys:

 

Natives: Kendo Nagasaki and Umanosuke Ueda. Gaijin Regulars (and "Gaijin" Regulars): The Cobras, Anoaro Atisanoe, and Black Tiger. Guests for this tour: Strong Machine #4, Big Machine, Junkyard Dog, Michael Hayes, Jimmy Garvin, The Barbarian and Haku – Guys who are getting a bit of a push, good-guy visitors we want to get over with our crowd, or heel visitors we want to build up before they lose to our top guys in a big match. They can (and in most cases eventually will) lose to the protected and super-protected guys, but otherwise they will get some wins over lower-card guys, and be booked to look strong and to get their gimmick and personality over.

 

The Kikuchis:

 

Natives: Shiro Koshinaka and Kantaro Hoshino. Regular Gaijin: Fishman. Guests for this tour: Buddy Roberts - “Third man” in Main Event and upper-card trios matches. Work face (or heel) in peril, do the job when needed. When working against mid-carders, young boys, or juniors, they generally get the win. Need to stay strong enough to be believable in Main Event tags while drawing sympathy and doing their share of jobs to the top guys. Not the easiest job in the world.

 

The Puzzle Pieces:

 

Natives: Strong Machine #2, Strong Machine #3, Don Arakawa, and Shunji Kosugi. Gaijin Regulars: Dave Taylor, David Morgan, Black Cat, Enrique Vera – Solid, versatile workers. Can be slotted in almost anywhere on the card. Win some, lose some, play the Kikuchi role from time to time, can be counted on to make other wrestlers look good… Generally among the most valuable but least appreciated guys on the card.

 

The Future Stars:

 

Hashimoto, Chono, Mutoh, Yamada, and Funaki – Still young, still learning and growing, still need to earn their spots… but clearly have the potential to lead the way into the 90s. Will mostly work the lower card, will win a little more often than they lose, will occasionally be given a shot at playing the Kikuchi role further up the card.

 

The Young Boys:

 

Tatsutoshi Goto, Naoki Sano, Akira Nogami: Could still prove that they belong in the future stars category. For now, will lose more often than they win and will be fixtures of the lower card.

 

The Enhancement Talent:

 

Kim Duk, Kim Su-Hong, Hirokazu Hata – Solid hands who are here to make everyone else look good.

 

That basic template makes booking house shows fairly easy.

 

TV is another matter. Thanks to Doriya-Mon, I have been able to watch The Brawl to End it All, Starrcade, and some USWA and AWA TV in the last week or so. It's been awesome, and it has convinced me to push for a change in our TV format. I'll get into that later.

[SirEdger]

It's amazing how I'm learning so much about booking philosophy in Japan while reading your series. Seriously, I think this could make all of us better fantasy bookers when it's all said and done!

[gordi]

I can only hope that my ideas about how to book New Japan in 1985 with this roster are realistic and workable. I’m pretty sure that, in this culture at this time, a steady hierarchy is absolutely a key element. I am in no hurry to change that. I think it works well and it is very useful. I am interested in moving some of the pieces around within that hierarchy, though.

 

In terms of TV, the formula so far has generally been to present a handful of matches straight up every week, clipped or in full, with a minimum of bells and whistles. Basically, a straightforward sports-type presentation. There is a hard-core fan base that absolutely loves that. However, after watching what USWA, AWA, WWF, MACW, Lutte Internationale, Memphis, and other promotions do with their TV, it’s easy to imagine how we could do more with ours. Those promoters are masters of the art of building a feud. They use their TV to build up anticipation for the matches on their big cards. I want us to do something similar.

 

In a lot of cases, those other promoters use interview segments to build up their feuds… I don’t know if NJPW can do that to the same extent. Not all of our best wresters are great talkers, and I’m not sure it’s something our fan base is really ready for.

 

What I think we can do is use matches, match clips, and video packages to try and get our fans more invested in the big payoffs at the major shows. Build to the big matches the way the North American promoters do.

 

Inoki and Shinma are still not so sure about using video packages, but I think I have got them on board w/r/t the basic idea of always building toward something. We watched some of the road to Starrcade shows that Lutte and Mid Atlantic ran, and it was obvious how much that build added to the enjoyment and excitement of the matches during the big event.

 

So, here’s our basic plan for TV this month:

[gordi]

Part 1 - The Guests:

 

A lot of our fans are just maniacs for New Japan’s product. There is a core group that we count on to come out every time we are in - or even near - their area. There are a lot of fans, though, who only come out when something special is on offer. On this tour, I think our main draw for them is the large and diverse group of foreign stars who will be touring with us. We can easily use our TV to alert those less hard-core fans to their presence, and to build our guests up as monsters, villains, heroes, or whatever else we want them to be.

 

Hogan and Andre are obviously the biggest draws. Hogan won’t be flying in until the 23^rd, so here’s the perfect reason (and opportunity) to use video packages.: A few clips of him from his previous visits to Japan, and a few highlights from the footage that WWF promoter LowBlowPodcast sent us, and we are likely to be much closer to selling out Kobe, Nagoya, and Osaka.

 

With Andre the key is not to give too much away. We are gonna put him in a couple of comedy-type matches on free TV, but ask the fans to pay to see him in a more serious match. So week one, he can work as Giant Machine in a tag against, say, Arakawa and a partner. Week two, a handicap match against Yamada and Hoshino where the little guys earn his respect... and in week 3 the Cobras can jump Yamada, with Andre making the save, and our Special Tag Match for Nagoya is all set up.

 

Speaking of Machines, putting Eadie and Darsow into that gimmick gets them over almost effortlessly. We’re building to an unprecedented Seven Machines Gauntlet Match in Osaka on the 26^th, so all of the Machines are gonna be made to look strong on TV every week leading up to that.

 

If we position JYD as Hogan and Andre’s friend, he should get over by osmosis. Even without that, it should be very easy to get his humour and charisma across with a couple of semi-squash matches against our lower-card heels.

 

As easy as it’s likely going to be to get JYD and the gaijin Machines over, it’s probably going to be that much of a challenge to get the Freebirds the hate they deserve. Hayes and Garvin are both charming and charismatic, and they will not be able to use their mic skills to turn the crowds against them here in Japan. We’ll have to show them cheating to win on TV to try and get that point across, and we’ll have to hope that it isn’t overkill that we are trying to build Ueda and Nagasaki up as cheating bastards at the same time. I guess the obvious solution is to have them all work together from the start.

 

It won’t be so hard to get Haku, The Barbarian, and Siva Afi over as powerful, near-unstoppable foreign monsters. Not to put too fine a point on it, but one look at them should do the trick. All they need to do is scowl to put some serious fear into whoever is facing them. And, in most cases, all they need to do is put on brightly-coloured clothes and smile to get over as baby-faces. We had been trying to book Haku, Barabarian, and Tonga, but the Tonga Kid jumped to Mid Atlantic. We were lucky to be able to sign Siva Afi as a free agent at the last minute to take his place.

 

That’s one hell of a list of outside guests. It should help us to draw huge crowds if we use them right. I have to say, I’m really grateful to all the North American promoters who helped us put this tour together.

[SirEdger]

Love your approach; using what the other promotions are doing and adapting it to your market.

[gordi]

Love your approach; using what the other promotions are doing and adapting it to your market.

 

Thanks! I think about it as like a Bruce Lee approach to booking: Examine what everyone else is doing and steal what works for you

 

Part 2 – The guys we want to push:

 

The seven bad guys facing off against the Seven Machines in the Main Event of the end-of-tour show are: The Fabulous Freebirds, The Cobras (George and Shunji Takano), Umanosuke Ueda, and Anoaro Atisanoe. So obviously we are hoping to get all of those guys over as main-event-worthy by the end of the month.

 

Atisanoe is, like The Barbarian, pretty easy to get over as a monster heel because of his look. Where Sione Havea Vailahi is muscular and intimidating, Atisanoe is thick but very solid. Both are very athletic for their size. It’s mostly just a matter of bringing Atisanoe along at the right pace, having him build up some wins, and having him look good and strong even in losing.

 

Putting the Takano Brothers under hoods and having them work together fills the need for an upper mid-card bad guy tag team on the main roster. The Cobra is already over as a junior hwt. heel champion, and his brother is unusually tall for a Japanese man and a pretty solid worker to boot.

 

Ueda has a great look and natural charisma. With a decent sustained push, he could probably draw pretty well in a main event against Ionki or Fujinami.

 

Building up those four guys, as well as Kendo Nagasaki, Mr. Pogo (who is raising havoc in the USWA this month), and Black Tiger will give us a solid core group of main roster heels. That will serve to:

 

- Make us less reliant on foreign talent to face Inoki and co. and Fujinami and co. and the Machines on our big cards.

 

- Allow us to use more foreign faces as well.

 

Also, except for maybe Nagasaki and Pogo, any of those guys could also turn face down the road and be even more over with the crowd.

 

As I said above, we’ll also be pushing The Machines pretty hard on TV this month, building to Osaka. We want to get their combination of Power and Teamwork across as something special.

 

Part 3 – Subtle longer-term booking:

 

With the Tag Fest coming up in February and the Young Lions Cup in March… now is the time to start sowing those seeds. We want to use every opportunity to set up teams for February and get the fans more interested in Hashimoto, Mutoh, Chono, Yamada, Funaki, and co.

[kevinmcfl]

Love how you plan your stuff out and explain your thoughts to us. It helps each and every one of us.

[gordi]

Thanks!

 

In the middle of the tour, I rented out a convention hall in a large hotel and hired a group of student confectioners from a nearby community college to set up an ice cream sundae buffet.

 

We set out little cups with sample-sized standard popular three-topping sundaes like vanilla ice cream with strawberries, whipped cream, and a drizzle of chocolate; chocolate ice cream with hot caramel, pecans, and a maraschino cherry; matcha ice cream with black sugar syrup, sweet soybean powder, and a spoonful of sweet red beans…

 

It was promoted as a voluntary event, but almost all of the wrestlers and a fair number of the staff participated. Everyone took one little sundae cup, ate it, and made some notes on the form we’d provided. Then we directed them to the tables in the back where they were allowed to make their own little sundaes. Most of them stuck to the tried and true, using only two or three well-matched toppings. Then we had the students present a selection of sample-sized gourmet sundaes: Lemon and pistachio; roasted strawberries; caramel apple; shaved chocolate, coconut, and macadamia… everyone was allowed to try as many as three. I don’t think anybody stopped at just one.

 

This was followed by a short break, some tea and coffee, and a quick round of light calisthenics.

 

Then we all sat down for one last sundae. This time it was full-sized. A very rich caramel-chocolate ice cream topped with powdered sugar, maple syrup, honey, hot fudge, caramel sauce, butterscotch, raspberry and blueberry syrups, strawberry jam, crushed oreos, chocolate chips, black sugar, sweet beans, rainbow sprinkles, crushed sweetened pineapple, and several maraschino cherries. Hashimoto and JYD came closest to finishing theirs, and even they barely manage to get half of the disgusting concoction down. We served more tea and coffee and had a little discussion about how this lesson might apply to pro wrestling.

 

Thankfully, almost everyone seemed to get the point: More isn’t always better, too much of a good thing is still too much, there is real value in moderation… a couple of the boys brought up the concept of Hara Hachi Bu, which basically translates as: Eat Until You Are 80% Full. We talked about how that concept applies to what we do. We also talked about how the standard popular sundaes are popular for a reason, and how that applies... and about how some of the newer flavours that the students presented were exciting to try as well.

 

Overall, I felt like it was a good use of our time and resources. We encouraged the wrestlers and staff to keep the form with their tasting notes somewhere they could see it, to help keep the lesson in mind.

 

There was a lot of ice cream left, and the boys were encouraged to have one more for the road. About a third of them chose one of the standard sundaes, about a quarter of them tried one more gourmet-style sundae,and the rest gave it a hard pass. I think there might be a lesson there, as well, but it might be a little too on the nose to say much more about it. .

[kevinmcfl]

Brilliant! Not to get too personal, but what is your background in. You seem to really know the wrestling game but also how to motivate workers and manage companies. Not to mention a great writer.

 

 

Loved It!

[gordi]

You are too kind, kevinmcfl. Thank you.

 

I hadn't really considered it until you asked me about it, but I do have elements of Pro Wrestling, Motivation and Management, and Writing in my background.

 

In the mid 1980s I used to write for the glossy magazine Wrestling's Main Event, and I was a manager and colour commentator (alongside Mauro Ranallo) on Al Tomko's All Star Wrestling TV show out of Vancouver.

 

In the early 90s I ran the Youth Leadership Development program at the local YMCA on a volunteer basis in exchange for free use of the weight room. I got into performance poetry and one summer I toured across the US, as far south as Flagstaff and as far East as Chicago, reading my poems.

 

In the late 90s I moved to Europe where I taught English, including spending a semester as visiting lecturer in creative writing at the University of Western Bohemia in Pilsen, in the Czech republic. I also coached the local American Football team and helped to run an English language theater company.

 

In the 2000s, I moved back to Canada to take over as Director of a small children's summer camp. I wrote columns about wrestling and MMA for the pop culture website Inside Pulse.

 

Then 8 years ago I moved to Japan to start up a little business teaching conversation skills, travel English and business English. I got really involved with my local indy here, Osaka Pro Wrestling.

 

Looks like leadership, language, and pro wrestling have been constants in my life. I feel like I am a very lucky guy.

 

I've never made much money with any of that stuff... but I guess it is a good background for an armchair booker

[kevinmcfl]

Thanks for the whole story. I probably know the least about wrestling of anyone here but I find this project fascinating and fun. I watched wrestling when I was a kid and probably have watched less then 10 shows in the last 25 years so any guidance you can give me or insights into the wrestling industry would be greatly welcomed.

 

I sit down and write with no real plans and what every comes to mind is what I post. This has lead the USWA in far too many different directions over the last year and think your idea of Super Protected Wrestlers vs Protected Wrestlers and so on has allowed me to get at least a more structured roster for myself. I used the PWI Ratings from 1985 to try and get my roster set and have some very loose plans for the year but anything else you could add would be helpful.

 

Again, thanks for coming over to the 1983 project!

[gordi]

So... Andre the Giant missed out on the ice cream lecture because he was busy with promotional duties, making an appearance on a popular variety show. He was curious about what he'd missed, so I invited him into my makeshift office on the ground floor of the arena.

 

Just as we were wrapping up, Fujinami knocked on my door. With him were Sakaguchi, Kimura, Koshinaka, Hoshino, and Don Arakawa. They were curious about why I had called the sundae seminar. As we started talking, Canek and Dos Caras came into the office, followed a little later by Hogan and JYD, and then finally by most of the young lions and dojo boys. The Double Daves also poked their heads in, but by that time my impromptu office was staring to look like the Stateroom Scene from A Night at the Opera.

 

 

I had about two dozen wrestlers crammed in there, none of them angry, but all of them wondering why I had felt the need to hammer home a point about less sometimes being more and more not always being better. About half of the guys had already met Doriya-mon and were aware that I have a robot cat from the future who helps me with my booking... but I really wasn't sure how the rest of them would react as I opened the fourth-dimension pocket in my desk drawer and he popped out.

[gordi]

Thanks for the whole story. I probably know the least about wrestling of anyone here but I find this project fascinating and fun. I watched wrestling when I was a kid and probably have watched less then 10 shows in the last 25 years so any guidance you can give me or insights into the wrestling industry would be greatly welcomed.

 

I sit down and write with no real plans and what every comes to mind is what I post. This has lead the USWA in far too many different directions over the last year...

 

 

That's interesting because I haven't gotten that sense at all from what I have read of your stuff. There is always something I love on every one of your shows.

 

That being said, I think that using the '85 PWI rankings is a good idea to help establish a hierarchy if that is something you are interested in doing. I don't think it's completely necessary, but I am pretty sure that the big Japanese companies have almost always booked that way which is why I think I should try to do something similar with my New Japan booking.

[SirEdger]

You are too kind, kevinmcfl. Thank you.

 

I hadn't really considered it until you asked me about it, but I do have elements of Pro Wrestling, Motivation and Management, and Writing in my background.

 

In the mid 1980s I used to write for the glossy magazine Wrestling's Main Event, and I was a manager and colour commentator (alongside Mauro Ranallo) on Al Tomko's All Star Wrestling TV show out of Vancouver.

 

In the early 90s I ran the Youth Leadership Development program at the local YMCA on a volunteer basis in exchange for free use of the weight room. I got into performance poetry and one summer I toured across the US, as far south as Flagstaff and as far East as Chicago, reading my poems.

 

In the late 90s I moved to Europe where I taught English, including spending a semester as visiting lecturer in creative writing at the University of Western Bohemia in Pilsen, in the Czech republic. I also coached the local American Football team and helped to run an English language theater company.

 

In the 2000s, I moved back to Canada to take over as Director of a small children's summer camp. I wrote columns about wrestling and MMA for the pop culture website Inside Pulse.

 

Then 8 years ago I moved to Japan to start up a little business teaching conversation skills, travel English and business English. I got really involved with my local indy here, Osaka Pro Wrestling.

 

Looks like leadership, language, and pro wrestling have been constants in my life. I feel like I am a very lucky guy.

 

I've never made much money with any of that stuff... but I guess it is a good background for an armchair booker

 

Must've been so cool to work with Mauro Ranallo (even though he was still quite young back then). Great to see that wrestling has always been an important part of your life and you're still getting involved!

[gordi]

Working with Mauro was cool, and fun. I'm hoping to bring another friend from that period into this story in February, as an ongoing character.

 

Anyway, I suppose I should explain the thinking behind that dessert discussion. You see, once Doriya-mon got back into this timeline, he and I decided to go 8, 16, and 32 years into the future to check out what NJPW was doing on January the 4th in those years.

 

In 1993, they ran the Tokyo Dome for what I believe was the second time. The crowd was enormous, but kind of subdued. There was some fairly sloppy wrestling, which probably didn't help. Choshu vs. Tenryu (!) and Ultimo Dragon vs. Liger both featured some pretty bad screw-ups, though it was cool to see those match-ups. I really liked Fujinami vs. Ishikawa and The Hell Raisers vs. The Steiner Brothers. Chono vs. Mutoh and Hase vs. Sting were... OK. Overall, I felt the show would have worked better in the Sumo Hall, but on the other hand, you aren't going to fit 65,000 people in the Ryōgoku Kokugikan and it was legitimately amazing to me to see that many people at an NJPW show.

 

In 2001 the whole show was based around an IWGP Heavyweight Championship tournament culminating with Kensuke fighting Toshiaki Kawada (!!). I wouldn't say that there were any great matches on the card, but every tournament match was at least interesting and the in-ring action was very, very stiff. The crowd was over 50,000 and they were really into it, for the most part. I also got a real kick out of seeing Kawada in new Japan.

 

Then, we jumped ahead 16 years. Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe we should have jumped another 8 years, first. Maybe that would have cushioned the shock, somewhat...

 

...but, I really did not like what I saw from New Japan on January 4th, 2017. The attendance was about half of what it had been in 2001. The crowd was pretty hot for a lot of the last three matches... but the things the wrestlers had to do to pop the crowd just about made me weep. The whole show seemed to be big move after big move after big move with almost no subtlety, build, story-telling, pacing... and I hardly saw a single well-executed basic pro wrestling move... and other than some nice body-part work and some struggle to hit finishing moves in a couple of the matches I don't think there was a trace of basic pro wrestling psychology. It went way beyond overkill. I kind of hated it.

 

So, obviously, that's what inspired the frosty forum. It killed me to think that what we were doing might lead to a world where people think that a match with an Avalanche-style Dragon Suplex as a throwaway move in the middle of the match is what constitutes "Great Pro Wrestling."

 

I had no idea what to expect when Doriya-Mon popped out of my desk drawer. I certainly hadn't expected Andre to call out his name and for the two of them to embrace like old friends. I think Sakaguchi was the only person more surprised than me. Everyone else seemed quite able to accept the presence of a blue robot cat in the booker's desk drawer. Canek seemed particularly delighted by it.

 

We moved out to the arena floor and Doriya-Mon set up a giant screen and projected Wrestle Kingdom 11 on it for everyone to see. Our plan had been to watch the whole thing and then hopefully discuss how what we had seen applied to yesterday's treat talk, but in fact we barely made it half way through before things broke down. We skipped over the New Japan Rumble because Liger was in it and we felt it might be weird for Yamada to see that...the trouble stated with the second match we showed, with the The Young Bucks running and flipping all over the place and Barreta of Roppongi Vice going for a Tope Con Hilo and hitting nothing but floor. There were some dark mutterings of "This is not pro wrestling" from the gallery. About two thirds of the way through the dangerous slop-fest of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match, Fujinami leaped to his feet and kicked over the giant screen. He went on a long, furious rant about catch wrestling and strong style and tradition. He got right up in the face of every single wrestler in the room and, one by one, implored them to keep New Japan from heading down this dark road. I suppose it's just as well that he didn't see the Kenny Omega match.

 

Over the next few days, most of the boys took a moment to speak to me in private, letting me know how they felt. It meant a lot to me. Really, only Mutoh didn't seem to completely understand what we were trying to get at. Probably just as well that he didn't see the main event, either.

[SirEdger]

Wow. Really great dual time stuff!

[gordi]

NJPW New Year Golden Series, January 23^rd, Kobe World Hall - Airing live on Asahi TV

 

Yamada, Funaki, and Kosugi vs. Black Tiger, Black Cat, and David Morgan

It’s just an opening match, but there’s quite a lot going on here. The main purpose of the match is to continue Black Tiger’s slow push toward the top of the juniors division, but everyone in the match has a role to play. Black Cat is there to give Yamada and Funaki some experience working in a Lucha Libre style, Morgan is there to give them a chance to work some European Style, Yamada and Funaki are there to learn and grow, and Kosugi’s main purpose is to let the bad guys shine and help hold the match together. That’s quite a lot to accomplish in just over ten minutes.

 

JYD vs. Don Arakawa

A face vs. face comedy match to help establish Junkyard Dog as a likeable character and help set up tomorrow’s Main Event. After the match, as the victorious JYD is putting on a big show of respect for Arakawa, the villainous trio of Anoaro Atisanoe, Kendo Nagasaki, and Umanosuke Ueda make their way to ringside and start jawing at the Dog in a threatening way. This draws Hogan and Inoki out from the back, and the heels respond with a slow retreat – talking and gesturing all the way.

 

Hashimoto, Chono, and Mutoh vs. The Barbarian, Haku, and Siva Afi

A showcase for the WWF stars that makes them look like huge threats, a chance for Afi to prove himself, and an opportunity for our Young Lions to look brave and strong in defeat. Hashimoto, Chono, and Mutoh give it everything they’ve got but The Barbarian and Haku are simply too big, too powerful, and too experienced for them. Hash and Haku going toe to toe is a real highlight that gets a nice pop from the crowd.

 

The Strong Machines (nos. 1 through 4), and Big Machine vs. Ueda, Goto, Kim, Kim, and Hata

Mainly a showcase for Darsow and Eadie, as all of the heels except for Umanosuke Ueda bump around like rag dolls for The Machines. Ueda gets to look strong by comparison and also he does everything possible to get under Strong Machine #1’s skin. In the end, Strong Machine #4 and Big Machine take Hata’s head off with a Backbreaker Hold/Diving Elbow Drop combination that looks absolutely devastating and seems like something they might be able to use as a signature move in the future.

 

Sakaguchi and Hoshino vs. Atisanoe and Nagasaki

The heels attack before the bell and manage to keep the advantage for almost ten minutes, until Hoshino uses his speed and guile to finally make the hot tag. Sakaguchi goes on a great house afire run that gets interrupted when The Barbarian, Haku, and Siva Afi make their way to ringside. At first, they don’t get involved but their mere presence is enough of a distraction that the heels get the advantage back. Eventually, Haku trips Hoshino up as he’s running the ropes and this enrages Sakaguchi to the point where he flies out of the ring and attacks all three men. He actually manages to hold his own against them for a bit, but while he is out there Nagasaki blasts Hoshino with the Green Mist and Atisanoe flattens him with a huge Samoan Drop for the 1, 2… 3!

 

Barbarian stays outside brawling with Sakaguchi while Haku and Afi head into the ring to join in the beat-down on Hoshino. Inoki, Fujinami, Kimura, and Koshinaka rush the ring to make the save and we go into the break with all ten men brawling to the back while the doctor checks on Hoshino in the ring.

 

*** Break ***

 

Fujinami, Kimura, and Koshinaka vs. The Freebirds

Doing variations on “heels play the numbers game, faces run in for the save” three times on one card is a lot, I know. We are trying to ameliorate that by spacing it out (once in the undercard, once before the break, once after the break) and escalating it from jawing to mild interference to blatant interference. The main purpose of this show is to build to tomorrow’s show in Nagoya and then to the show in Osaka on the 26^th, but we still need to put on a good show for the crowd here in Kobe at the same time.

 

Anyway, The Cobras accompany The Freebirds to ringside, and Shunji Takano grabs the mic and announces that since Fujinami, Kimura and Koshinaka are cheaters and couldn’t stop themselves from interfering in the last match, they are here to watch the Freebirds’ backs.

 

They proceed to blatantly interfere and cause havoc while rookie referee Red Shoes Unno struggles to keep order in the ring. When the face team somehow still manages to regain the advantage, Ueda and Atisanoe make their way to ringside to participate in the chaos. As things begin to get completely out of hand, all five Machines rush the ring and a huge brawl breaks out. In the chaos, Hayes and Garvin manage to catch Koshinaka in a Double DDT and Red Shoes make the count to give the bad guys another win.

 

 

Hogan, Andre, and Inoki vs. The Lucha Libre Legends (Canek, Dos Caras, and Fishman)

After all of that cheating and heeling, it comes as a nice change of pace to finish up with a match wrestled cleanly and filled with shows of mutual respect. Obviously, nobody is going to go over the team of Hogan, Andre, and Inoki in a New Japan ring, but the Lucha Libre Legends get a ton of shine… including the biggest spot of the night when:

 

Canek picks up Andre the Giant and Slams him!

 

It’s an amazing feat of strength that brings the Kobe crowd to their feet. Canek sells the herculean effort as having done damage to his back and knee. Dos Caras and Fishman try a double pin on the supine Andre but he presses them off, sending Dos Caras flying out of the ring and leaving Fishman to eat a dropkick from Inoki and a big Axe Bomber from Hogan for the 1, 2…3!

 

Afterward, all six men gather in the ring to play to the crowd. Andre makes a big show of putting Canek up on his shoulder and carrying him to all four corners to wave at the appreciative fans.

[kevinmcfl]

I was unsure of what to expect here as I know so very little of Japanese wrestling but I truly enjoyed the show. The mix and Americans and the explanation of all the roles involved plus your descriptive writing style made this very fun for me. Keep up the great work.

[SirEdger]

Damn, didn't expect to see Canek body slamming Andre. I've only seen very little of him (meaning his appearance in the 1997 Royal Rumble Match) so I'm wondering if Canek really was that strong of a wrestler?

[LowBlowPodcast]

I believe that Canek slammed Andre before... regardless... a great show with some stars from all over the world. Great stuff and really makes it worthwhile to send our guys to Japan.

[gordi]

 

Around the four-minute mark then again at the very end.

 

Canek was, kind of, the Cesaro of the 80s

[agentofenton]

This is another wildly creative addition to the game. I am thoroughly enjoying your elements to this. The well written formats, the thought process and all around respect for the business is wonderful to read. Amazing stuff, I am looking forward to what could be next.

[gordi]

NJPW New Year Golden Series, January 24th, Nagoya, Aichi-ken Taiikukan - Aired on tape delay

 

 

Chono, Mutoh, and Shunji Kosugi vs. Black Tiger, Akira Nogami, and Enrique Vera

What surprised me about this one was the performance of Akira Nogami. I’d pretty much slotted him in as a lower-card job boy who lacked the potential star power of guys like Yamada and Funaki. He was stellar here, though: bumping around like crazy for Chono and Mutoh, showing real fire when fighting back, and really taking it to Kosugi when he had the opportunity. Black Tiger got the victory with a flying knee drop on Kosugi, but in my book Akira was the real star of this match.

 

Hashimoto and Funaki vs. Goto and Sano

We’d hoped for this to be a hard-hitting showcase match for Hashimoto, but unfortunately he connected a little too squarely with his spinning heel kick early in the match, leaving Goto legitimately dazed. So, the burden of carrying the match fell on Funaki and Sano’s shoulders and once again they put on a semi-shoot-style clinic, just stiffing each other all over the ring. In the end, Hash hit a DDT on Sano and tagged in Funaki who finished thing off with a cross armbreaker.

 

Sakaguchi, Strong Machine #4, and Big Machine vs. Canek, Fishman, and Black Cat

The first of our Three Special Trios Matches was worked in a clean, strength and power vs. speed and technique style, with a lengthy test of strength/bridge-out segment between Sakaguchi and Canek being the big mid-match crowd-pleaser. The American Machines once again finished things with that nifty backbreaker hold/elbow drop combo (that they later told me they had first seen performed by the Moondogs). Black Cat ate the pinfall.

 

The Strong Machines (nos. 1, 2, and 3) vs. The Freebirds

The second trios match was pure old fashioned face vs. heel action. Just when it looked like The Machines were going to take the win Anoaro Atisanoe, Kendo Nagasaki, and Umanosuke Ueda made their way to ringside to create a distraction, drawing Strong Machine #4, and Big Machine out from the back… and once again in the chaos Hayes and Garvin hit a double DDT to get the pin, on Strong Machine #3.

 

KImura, Koshinaka, and Hoshino vs. The Barbarian, Haku, and Siva Afi

Another match-up of speed and technique vs. strength and power, as the Japanese team fought bravely against their larger opponents. They almost had it won when Kimura nailed Siva Afi with a leg lariat and sunk in the triangle scorpion lock… but Haku and the Barbarian interfered to break the hold. After that the Pacific Islanders trio dominated the remainder of the match, finishing Hoshino with a backdrop/power bomb combo.

 

*** Break ***

 

Special Tag Match: Andre the Giant and Keiichi Yamada vs. The Cobras

We put a fair bit of effort into setting this one up on TV, having Yamada earn Andre’s respect and then having Andre save Yamada from a Cobras double team. The effort paid off as the live crowd was pretty hot for this match. Of course Yamada worked face in peril and Andre eventually got the hot tag. How else are you gonna book this one?

 

Special Singles Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dos Caras

This was a straight-up technical battle. They worked every single hold as a huge struggle, telling the story of two experienced grapplers trying to find holes in each other’s defenses. They stuck mainly to mat work and grappling throughout, throwing in a couple of dropkicks around the 24 minute mark and a few throws after that. About 28 minutes in, Fujinami caught Dos Caras in the figure four leg lock. After a huge struggle, Caras managed to reverse it… only for Fujinami to reverse it again and regain the advantage. In desperation Dos Caras rolled under the ropes and he and Fujinami flopped to the floor outside, still locked in the figure four. The two men took their time getting back in the ring and locked up once again… only for the bell to ring as the thirty minute time limit expired. The two competitors, exhausted, met in the middle of the ring and shook hands warmly.

 

Main Event: Hulk Hogan, Antonio Inoki and Junkyard Dog vs. Anoaro Atisanoe, Kendo Nagasaki, and Umanosuke Ueda

This was, unsurprisingly, worked face vs. heel style all the way. We got the outside interference stuff over with early in the match as the Freebirds and Cobras came out to cause trouble and the Machines ran in and drove them away from ringside.

 

After that it was a lot of JYD working FIP. He took an incredible beating, culminating with Nagasaki blasting the Dog with his blinding Green Mist. However, rather than going down for the count, Dog became enraged, lashing out blindly and fighting his way around the ring until he miraculously managed to get a hot tag on Hogan. After that, Hogan and Inoki cleaned house, tossed Atisanoe and Ueda out of the ring, flattened Nagasaki, tagged in JYD and lifted him high above their heads… and slammed him down onto Nagasaki where JYD got the 1, 2… 3!