Destiny 4.22.07: Home Grown Talent
Posted by Matt Adamson on 04.22.2007
Think the WWE is pushing it's home grown talent too hard? Well, read my column and see how they should be doing it, by taking tips from New Japan Pro Wrestling. Also, a look at this coming week's big puro show by Pro Wrestling NOAH.
Workplace ribs are always a lot of fun, especially when you aren't the one being ribbed. Such was the case this week as one of 411's top writers; Mathew Sforcina became the victim of a series of classic office ribs by none other than Scott Rutherford. As many of you know, 411Mania.com main U.S. office is located on the 30th floor of a rather tall office tower, which is an important piece to the puzzle. So, I arrived slightly before Sforcina and saw a sign that read, "Elevator Out of Order." Being slightly too lazy to climb stairs I thought I would hit the button anyway and see what happened. The elevator arrived and I decided to get in, knowing that it may stop at any time, but I had my copy of Ric Flair's "To Be the Man" which I had been reading with me and a good excuse why I never made it to work. So, come to find out there was nothing wrong with the elevator and that everybody else had done the same as I had. However, about twenty minutes later (ten minutes late to work at that), Sforcina arrives at work panting as if he'd run a marathon. Everybody is standing there watching him as he says, "darn elevators!" We erupt into laughter as he makes his way to his desk. From the look on his face I'd guess that he was too exhausted to care about the laughing. When he got to his desk he opened his top drawer and packing peanuts were filling that drawer. He checked the other drawers and they too were full to the top with Styrofoam packing peanuts. The office was in full hysterics as Sforcina, still too tired to care, closes the desk drawer, punches out and takes the stairs all the way back down. I'm guessing he was having a bad day.
NOTE: Everything in the above paragraph is a string of lies, except of course that I am reading Ric Flair's book at the moment which is a decent read for sure. Also, I really doubt Sforcina is that daft and encourage you all to read everything the guy writes, it's almost always worth your time. That Rutherford guy is a good read as well, as you all should well know by now.
Mr. IWGP regains his crown!
For those of you living under a rock, or that didn't read my column two weeks ago, there was a big show for New Japan on April 13th. The main event of that show had Hiroshi Tanahashi defending his IWGP title against Yuji Nagata. It was a very dramatic match which was very apparent as the typically mellow and respectful Japanese crowd came unglued. They booed Tanahashi as he focused on Nagata's knee. It was clear that the crowd was firmly behind Nagata. In uncharacteristic fashion there were many signs in the crowd, all displaying love for Nagata. Lots of hard hitting moves and a variety of near falls made this match a potential classic according to many of the fans who were among the 5,700 who attended the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium on that night. After everything was finished, Mr. IWGP Yuji Nagata regained "his" title, the International Wrestling Grand Prix Heavyweight Championship. That's the number one professional wrestling title in New Japan Pro Wrestling and arguable in all of Japan and people are saying it has come "home".
While it's great that Nagata won the title, and while I really think that it was the best thing for the fans, New Japan and the business of professional wrestling in Japan, I don't want to focus on the pros and cons of his winning the title or what it will do for puro. I want to use this match as evidence that working your way through the system (working the indies and for other companies) isn't always the only way to go and that a case can be made for the importance and quality of homegrown talent.
The idea of a company producing home grown talent is a relatively new concept in pro wrestling. In North America it's another one of those controversial issues which, in the case of the WWE has lead to several undeserving performers getting pushed quickly up the card, while others who have worked hard for years elsewhere end up treading water. We've seen guys like a green Batista main event WrestleMania at which time he won the World Title while guys like William Regal prove over and over that they have more talent than Batista in every way, yet they tread water partly because they weren't home grown. In Japan, New Japan has acted in the same way as the WWE does in North America. The Inoki New Japan Dojo has produced some of New Japan's biggest names however there is one difference. Those home grown talents that the New Japan Dojo produces are often deserving of their push because their training has resulted in great discipline and skill. There are no two better examples of this than the two men who participated in the main event of that April 13th show, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yuji Nagata.
Yuji Nagata went straight from being a successful amateur wrestler to joining New Japan in April of 1992. He started off training at the Inoki Dojo where he spent a very short 5 months. He made his debut in September of that same year in a match against another young lion, Hiroyoshi Tenzan. It didn't take long for the fans to take notice of his skill due to his unusual shoot style that he learned from UWF-I's Kazuo Yamazaki. After a good run in New Japan, Nagata made his way to North American where a cross-promotional relationship sent him to World Championship Wrestling. In February 1997, Nagata made his debut as a heel. He had a decent feud with Ultimo Dragon and along with Kensuke Sasaki, nearly won the World Tag Team titles. In mid-1998, Nagata returned to Japan. This is when his career really took off. He was able to work his way into a tournament final for the then vacant IWPG Heavyweight title. While he was unable to have a run with that title at that particular time, he did get a good run with Manabu Nakanishi as his partner as IWGP Tag Team champs, a title they held for just under one year. In 2001 Nagata became the winner of the G1 Climax tournament. The peak of his career would come on April 5th 2002 when he defeated Tadao Yasuda for the IWGP title, which he would hold for the third longest reign in history (just under 13 months). He would break the all-time record for successful defenses of that title during this reign as he secured 10 successful defenses before losing the title. He would continue to wrestle for New Japan. In March of 2007 he would win the New Japan Cup becoming the first to win both the G1 Climax and New Japan Cup. Less than a month later he would win the IWGP title for the second time.
Hiroshi Tanahashi didn't begin wrestling as an amateur until he attended college. Soon after that he would begin his career as a pro wrestler by entering the New Japan Dojo where he was trainer and pushed to the limit daily. It was clear to many that he was a talented young man with a lot of potential for the future. In October 1999 Tanahashi made his debut for New Japan against Shinya Makabe and immediately was viewed as a major player in the future of New Japan. He had many successful matches over the next couple years as he gained more and more respect from the fans and the media for his obvious talent and look. In November 2002, his career and life would nearly come to an end as Tanahashi was stabbed in the back by his ex-girlfriend, TV Asahi news reporter Hitomi Hara. This would put Tanahashi out of action for a while, but he would be back. The stabbing got national media attention and the return of Tanahashi to the ring proved to be anticipated more than had been expected. Four months after the stabbing, Tanahashi returned to the ring to face Manabu Nakanishi. From here it was obvious to New Japan management and the fans that he was a huge star. He would soon win the new U-30 Open Weight title, which he would hold for the duration of that titles existence when he won the IWGP title by defeating Giant Bernard in the tournament finals for the title, which had been vacated when Brock Lesnar refused to defend against Tanahashi. 270 days later, Tanahashi would lose that title to Yuji Nagata.
That brings us to where we are today, on the heels of Mr. IWGP regaining "his" title. Moments after Nagata won the title, it was apparent how important him winning it was to the fans. Despite the popularity of Tanahashi, the fans wanted Nagata to win back the title for the fans. That however is not the biggest story here. The fact is that both of these guys are home grown New Japan talents who have rarely worked outside of the promotion that raised them up. But what separates these two from the likes of John Cena and Batista in North America. Why are the fans in North America crying about how home grown talents get pushed to the top at the expense of those who had to work the indies, while in Japan they are celebrating the fact that two home grown talents are on the top?
It's a simple answer really. As you can see from the storied careers of both Nagata and Tanahashi, they both had to put in a lot of time and effort before they made it to the top. Tanahashi, despite being stabbed and as a result receiving a ton of media attention, still took early seven years before he got a run at the top of the business. For Nagata the quest was even longer, almost 10 years before he became Japan's number one guy. They may be home grown talents, but it's clear that despite being home grown, that New Japan knew that for the fans to respect them and for each of them to have a long lasting spot at the top, that they both had to earn the right to be there. This is something both of them have no doubt accomplished through their hard work and through the patience of the fans and the company.
Comparatively, the WWE doesn't see things quite the same way. Currently, the top baby faces in the company are surrounded by the controversy of being home grown talents. While an argument can be made that Cena spent some time in the SoCal indies during the early part of this decade, the promotion he worked for was more or less an unofficial breeding ground for the WWE. Once Cena made his WWE debut in 2002, it took him a mere 3 years before becoming the top guy in his brand. It only took a year for the fan base to begin to resent him and the fans began to prepare to celebrate HHH, a guy that not only wasn't home grown, but earned his spot at the top long ago, winning the title at WrestleMania 22. A lot of people, including myself disliked the fact that a home grown guy was getting such a huge push over guys who had earned the right to be in the position he was in. Batista is a similar story; He won the World title the same night Cena won the WWE title and had his debut around the same time Cena had his. The fans at the time celebrated his victory, but earlier this month, the fans chose The Undertaker as the one they would cheer in the main event of WrestleMania. It was an issue of respect and I felt the same way. Let's give the title to a guy who has earned it, not some guy who had it handed to him without years of working for it, as if it was planned that way from the beginning.
I'm getting tired of seeing guys in the WWE getting the main event handed to them. With Kennedy now winning the Money in the Bank, it seems as though this trend is just going to continue, but thankfully across the mighty Pacific Ocean, there is a company that sees the importance of earning your spot despite being home grown. New Japan really showed me the other side of the developmental system and how useful and impressive it can be, but only when done correctly. Just because a guy is a home grown talent doesn't mean he shouldn't have to do as much work as they guys who had to bleed and sweat their way through the indie circuit just to get pushed down the card in favor of these home grown guys. It's a shame that WWE hasn't learned to do what New Japan showed me on April 13th that they do so well.
Catching up with Puro!
Normally I will take this opportunity to recommend a DVD of a recent show, but this week I'm going to do a few quick picks and discuss the big upcoming NOAH show from the Budokan Hall in Tokyo. While every show NOAH runs at the Budokan is a big show, there is something lacking in this show that made me not want to cover it as my main subject for this week's column, but I still find any big show to be important. So, often like those wrestlers who aren't home grown in a WWE developmental territory, this show gets pushed down the column in favor of a discussion about a couple home grown guys. Wow, sometimes there just aren't words to describe the level of irony that can exist.
This is certainly the biggest show of the week this week but there is something about it that doesn't grab my attention like say the All Japan show that will be taking place next Monday called "Pro Wrestling Love in Nagoya" featuring Minoru Suzuki vs. TAJIRI (I'll be discussing this show in my column next week). There really aren't any solid marquee matches on this show and while there are three titles on the line, I really don't feel as if the challengers for two of the titles really stand a chance of winning. The only matches I am looking forward to are mid card matches. So, here's a match by match look at the NOAH show at Tokyo Nippon Budokan on April 28th.
Junji Izumida & Makoto Hashi vs. Mitsuo Momota & Tsutomu Hirayanagi – This will be your typical NOAH opener. Basically a comedy match that doesn't hold a candle to anything involving Araya or Kikutaro. My pick will be Momota & Hirayanagi by comedic means, or not since they will fail at funny as always.
Akira Taue, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Shuhei Tangiuchi vs. Kentaro Shiga, Kishin Kawabata & Joe Legend - Another typical low card match for a NOAH show. I think that Taue's legacy speaks for itself and his team will get the win, not that team Shiga isn't capable.
Mohammed Yone, KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs. Bryan Danielson, Daniel Cross & Ted DiBiase Jr. - This match was potential to be awesome and even greater potential to lead to greater awesomeness down the road. All six men in this match can work well and work hard, especially given the guys they are working with. The guys who are the least talented are capable of being carried by the tremendously talented they are in there with. I'm going to go with the Americans winning this one.
Yoshinari Ogawa, Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Bison Smith, Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue - This is a very typical mid-card NOAH match. There isn't really a lot that can be said. I always figure that if that's the case and Ogawa is involved that he will get the win, there is no exception in my mind about this match.
Naomichi Marufuji, Ricky Marvin & Ippei Ota vs. CIMA, Susumu Yokosuka & Dragon Kid - This should be tons of fun. A bunch of talented high flyers in here, but one team in my mind is clearly head and shoulders above the others. While the guys from Dragon Gate will put on an extremely entertaining match, Marufuji and company are going to walk away the winners.
Tatsuhito Takaiwa (c) vs. Mushiking Terry - GHC Junior Heavyweight Title - A couple of reasonably entertaining guys, but I can think of at least a half dozen guys on NOAH's roster that I'd rather see fighting for the Junior title. While the kids really like Terry, I don't see what is so fantastic about the guy that earns him a title shot. Takaiwa is walking away from this one as champ.
Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio (c) vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura – GHC Tag Team Title - I always want to believe there is going to be a title change at a big show, and while this one is the most likely of the three title matches to feature a change, I'd bet against it. I will bet however that the match will be less than exciting.
Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs. Takuma Sano – GHC Heavyweight Title - Something about Sano getting a title shot with the spotty record he has doesn't set well with me. He competed for PRIDE and lost each time out. He wrestled for Battlarts and held their title, but the guy isn't World Title material. He's a good enough worker to make this an interesting match but he isn't going to win. If he does, I'll be extremely surprised and disappointed.
Getting email is superb!
I did receive some mail this week once again. One particular bit of mail came from none other than 411's Mike Campbell who responds to my column last week where I said, "Later that afternoon I saw him talking to 411 wrestling video reviewer Mike Campbell, he explained to Mike that Jushin Liger was the greatest Jr. Heavyweight of all time. Mike needless to say, disagreed."
Mike wrote:
I would *never* disagree with that statement :)
Nice column by the way. Although, not to be the sort of person you're describing in the opening paragraph, NOAH did have a little working agreement with Pro Wrestling Iron in 2003. PWI didn't have anywhere close to the exposure that ROH has.
Mike
Indeed Mr. Campbell, I know you would never disagree with that sort of statement. Liger is arguably the greatest Junior Heavyweight of all time. However, that statement was intended to be a complete lie, so I had to say something completely absurd.
Also, I am aware of the relationship NOAH had with Pro Wrestling Iron, but due to the lack of media PWI gets, coupled with how few people even know of that promotion, I deliberately neglected to include it in my column. I believe that NOAH has had a relationship with a promotion run by Harley Race as well. Thanks for your email.
Send me something superb!
Well, that's it for this week. I know it was a bit long, but hey if you made it down this far you should really consider gaining something from your efforts and send me an email, I'll post it, I promise. Maybe I shouldn't have promised. Too late. Until next time.
