Into the Indies 03.01.11: Ripped from the Headlines 3
Posted by Ryan Byers on 03.01.2011
I2I once again delves into the latest news stories from the Japanese indies, including ZERO1's big tenth anniversary show and a former TNA performer arrested in Japan!
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that is short of time as of late.
Two weeks ago, I revived a little something called "Ripped from the Headlines!" in which I forego my usual full-show review and instead run down major headlines from the Japanese independents. The past two times that I have tried this, the feedback has been so good that I intend to make it a semi-regular part of Into the Indies.
As a result, here it is again . . . all of the wackiness currently going down in the world of pro wrestling overseas . . . all Ripped from the Headlines!
Perhaps the biggest news story of the past two weeks and the most bizarre stories of the past several years involve the arrest of veteran professional wrestler NOSAWA Rongai.
Rongai, who is pictured above, was born in Chiba, Japan but received his most notable professional wrestling training in Mexico with the legendary Negro Casas. In the late 1990's, he would split his time between Japan's DDT promotion and Mexico's CMLL promotion. More recently, though still being considered an independent "outsider" as opposed to a regular part of the roster, NOSAWA has popped up in the Japanese big leagues. He and his stablemates in Tokyo Gurentai had a lengthy run in All Japan Pro Wrestling where they were a steady midcard heel act. In 2010 and 2011, he had been seen regularly in New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he and fellow indy star TAKA Michinoku flanked freelancer Satoshi Kojima and New Japan junior heavyweight turned CMLL representative Taichi as an "outsider army" of sorts. Throughout his career he has also had sporadic appearances in the United States, the most high profile of which were in TNA in 2004 as part of one of their World X Cup tournaments. He also appeared for Southern California porn-funded independent XPW and Pro Wrestling Guerilla. Rongai's most consistent employers in the United States have been the Insane Clown Posse, who have regularly brought him in for Juggalo Championship Wrestling shows given that he is a huge fan of the Clowns' music (as evidenced by the "Hatchet Man" tattoo on his neck).
However, due to a February 20, 2011 incident in Sendai, Japan, NOSAWA's decade-plus long pro wrestling career is in limbo. Though he was booked to take part in a New Japan Pro Wrestling show later that day, Rongai was apparently intoxicated when he hailed a taxi. The driver, not wanting to deal with the wrestler given his state of mind, supposedly pretended to not know the location of the building to which NOSAWA wanted to travel. Rongai did not take too kindly to this, and, as a result, he allegedly got behind the wheel of the vehicle while the taxi driver was attempting to contact the authorities and drove it for twenty to thirty minutes before police were finally able to apprehend him. When arrested, he was charged with both theft of the taxi and driving without a license. There is currently no word what the legal consequences could be for NOSAWA.
The professional consequences were clear immediately, though. Rongai had been booked to wrestle on shows for Dragon Gate in coming weeks, but those bookings were cancelled by the promotion. Additionally, both New Japan and All Japan issued statements claiming that they would never use Rongai again. NOSAWA himself stated that he would take an indefinite hiatus from professional wrestling while he dealt with the personal problems that manifested themselves during the February 20 incident.
We here at I2I have long been fans of NOSAWA Rongai, as, even though he's not the best pure "worker" in between the ropes, he has always had a unique look and charisma that has made him fun to follow. If he does legitimately have substance abuse issues which caused this incident, we wish him the best of luck in recovering from those problems. Fortunately for him, I have a feeling that the "bans" placed on his future bookings by NJPW and AJPW are more posturing than anything else. Even though Japanese culture is much stricter regarding crime and drug use than society as a whole is in the United States, time does heal all wounds. After all, the man who NOSAWA was to team with in his New Japan match on the evening of his wild ride was none other than former WWE star MVP, who had his own well-documented stint in prison on charges of kidnapping and armed robbery. Besides, it's not as though cutting off a guy's opportunities for gainful employment DECREASES the chances that he's going to become involved in a life of crime.
What promises to be one of the biggest independent shows of the year is scheduled to take place this coming Sunday, March 6 as wrestling promotion ZERO1 is scheduled to run its 10th anniversary show out of the massive Sumo Hall in downtown Tokyo. ZERO1, which was founded by Shinjiro Ohtani and the late Shinya Hashimoto when those two men departed New Japan Pro Wrestling, was originally expected to fold quickly. In fact, some suspected that the promotion was being run by New Japan behind the scenes and that its formation was merely the setup for Hashimoto, Ohtani, and others to make a return to NJPW as part of an invasion angle. However, either plans changed or those rumors were not true, as the company is still here after a decade with only minimal crossovers with New Japan since its inception.
There has been some question as to whether ZERO1 will be able to draw a respectable crowd to Sumo Hall, one of the largest venues regularly run by professional wrestling companies in 2011. Independent group DDT has proven that a small company can fill up Sumo Hall for a once a year show, but it is still unclear as to whether ZERO1 will be able to do the same given that DDT has a stronger regular television show and a bigger cult following than ZERO1.
Whatever the number of attendees winds up being, there is no denying the fact that the company has put together an interesting card with which to celebrate its tenth year. The opener is a match between American wrestler Craig Classic and current indy darling Munenori Sawa with Craig's NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title on the line. The NWA Jr. Title, which was traded back and forth between legends like El Samurai, Jushin Liger, and Ultimo Dragon during the glory days of the New Japan Pro Wrestling junior heavyweight division, wound up on Craig in November 2010 when he defeated Mike Quackenbush, who had an over three year reign after he beat Tiger Mask IV when TMIV was making a rare swing through the United States in 2007. Craig, who has almost inexplicably been a member of the Big Japan Wrestling roster in 2004 and has rarely worked in ZERO1, seems as though he's being brought in for the purpose of dropping the championship to Sawa so that the up and comer from BattlArts can gain some credibility from holding the same title that many all-time great juniors have held. Though I don't know that Classic/Sawa will be a classic matchup, it will be great to see a Sawa championship reign on a major stage, as he is a man who deserves to be elevated.
Speaking of men who are getting elevated, young wrestler Daichi Hashimoto is being instantly elevated, as he is making his professional wrestling debut on the ZERO1 Sumo Hall show and he will immediately be going into the ring against one of the most legendary performers in the history of the sport, New Japan legend Masahiro Chono. Why is Daichi getting such a strong rub right off the bat? The answer is that he is the son of ZERO1 founder Shinya Hashimoto, who himself was one of the biggest stars in NJPW history. Daichi, a 19 year old with a bit of a kickboxing background, is going to have some large shoes to fill in the professional wrestling world. His opponent, Chono, was selected no doubt due to the significant history between he and the elder Hashimoto, as the two of them, along with Keiji Mutoh, had a very tight friendship during their time with New Japan Pro Wrestling, being known behind the scenes as "The Three Musketeers." Chono has a vested interest in making sure that his best friend's son looks like a million bucks in his debut, and I have a feeling that he's going to succeed in that quest.
Though they are the first and third matches on the card, it is the two bouts described above that have captured my attention the most. However, that's not to say that the rest of the show isn't strong. Reigning ZERO1 Champion Daisuke Sekimoto will be defending against ZERO1 trueborn Ryouji Sai, while two other ZERO1 regulars, Masato Tanaka and Shinjiro Ohtani, will be taking on a couple of big name outsiders, as Tanaka locks it up with New Japan's Yuji Nagata and Ohtani steps into the main event slot with freelancer Yoshihiro Takayama.
Best of luck to ZERO1 as they embark on this landmark show.
Looking forward to the next installment of Into the Indies? Keep an eye on 411's Twitter accounts, and you just might see it pop up!
