Destiny 4.29.07: Pro Wrestling Love in Nagoya

Posted by Matt Adamson on 04.29.2007

A look at this weeks big puro show as All Japan invades the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium where TAJIRI gets a shot at the Triple Crown.

Getting mail at work isn't usually as exciting as getting mail at home. That is unless you work for 411mania.com. Before I began working here I used to order DVD's and have them shipped to my house. I'd get excited like a school boy on prom night for my DVD's to arrive. Since I began working for 411, I have started to receive DVD's I don't even order, for free, in my box here at work. It's a truly glorious thing to get free stuff. Keep it all coming, readers. If you want to know where to send me free wrestling DVD's, please send me "feedback". So, last Friday I opened a DVD at work called "AJW Dream Rush" and I knew right away what I was in for; some of the greatest Joshi (Japanese women's) wrestling ever to take place. It's a part of the holy trinity of Joshi and the one that I didn't have. The smile on my face drew attention from Samuel Berman who sits in the cube across from me. He looked at me and said, "You got your ROH Fifth Year Festival DVD's didn't you?" You'd think Samuel was excited for something. He loves his ROH.

NOTE: The above paragraph is a tall tale, except that I did receive the Dream Rush DVD and am looking forward to watching it this week. I'll be doing a column on Joshi in the near future at which point I'll try something new. You should also check out Samuel Berman's work here on the site. He is a talented writer who knows his stuff, and that's no lie.

Pro Wrestling Love in Nagoya!

What a year it is turning out to be for the big three in Japan. All of them seem to be running more big shows, and tomorrow All Japan is running their "Pro Wrestling Love in Nagoya" show from the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium which holds 9,500 for wrestling, making this show a big deal. Being the first big show coming off the successful Champion Carnival, All Japan has decided not to rush the Keiji Mutoh push out of the gate and go with one of his alter-egos The Great Muta in a tag title match with Vampiro as his partner. It will be an interesting show as the main event will be wild with Suzuki defending the Triple Crown against the incredibly unpredictable TAJIRI. Now, on with the match by match look at the show.

Nobukazu Hirai & Kiyonari Sanada vs. Ryuji Hijikata & T28 - As usual All Japan puts the rookies on first. There isn't much to be said about either of them at this point so I'll focus on the vets. In the first couple days of the HOLD OUT Tour, Hirai came out looking the most impressive (as far as victories go) and seems to be the guy that All Japan is running with as pulling ahead in the race to be the most successful low card guy. As far as Hijikata goes, it seems as though the guy can't catch a break. Both T28 and Sanada got a lot of exposure on the tour which is good, but I haven't had the opportunity to see any of it. It's hard to predict matches like this because they are focused much more on development and exposure than giving the guys a push or building toward something bigger, but I'm going to have to go with Hirai and Sanada as I believe Hirai is some success in All Japan lately though I have yet to see Sanada wrestle, so I have no idea what their plans may be for him, or if he is even worth the win. Both Hirai and Hijikata are in limbo at all time, and honestly this match could go either way.

AKIRA vs. MAZADA - I want to make it no secret that I am a big fan of AKIRA. I think he's got a great look and a lot of talent. He knows how to move in the ring well and he's a performer first and foremost which makes his matches flashy and fun. The only thing AKIRA really needs is a little motivation. He's got himself a successful acting career in Japanese theater, which is his first passion. If he'd focus that passion into the ring, which is also performance art, just a slightly modified version of it, the guy could be awesome like he was in the early 90's during his reign as IWGP Junior Heavyweight champ. Since a minor parting of ways between NOSAWA Rongai and MAZADA, MAZADA has come across as a jobber to the upper card. While he has had some time away from All Japan, I doubt that is changing any time soon. It's too bad really, the guy is fun to watch and he and NOSAWA need to work as a team most of, if not all the time. I think AKIRA will get the win here.

Masanobu Fuchi, Nobutaka Araya & Kikutaro vs. Miguel Hayashi Jr., PEPE Michinoku & El NOSAWA Mendoza - I'm looking forward to seeing this one. In my opinion, Kikutaro and Nobutaka Araya are the masters of comedy wrestling. I love the way they interact as teammates and it lightens the mood of every show they are on. With Fuchi on their team it will make it that much greater as he will no doubt be rolling his eyes at the both of them and spend the match trying to get the two to work as a cohesive unit before giving up and whooping Kikutaro's or Araya's sorry back side. The Mexico Amigos will be able to work their gimmick heavily into the comedy aspect of this match, taking it to an even higher level of comedy and pulling the best out of Kikutaro. I have complete faith that hilarity will ensue in this match, but there is no doubt that this will be just a comedy squash and Mexico Amigos are going to come out on top.

Satoshi Kojima, Kensuke Sasaki & Akira Raijin vs. TARU, Suwama & Shuji Kondo - This is a pretty big six man tag and while it's nothing new to see from All Japan, it will do it's job and be entertaining while potentially moving certain guys up the card or moving future storylines ahead. I can't help but believe that Akira Raijin is strategically placed in this match to take the job, but in Japan things don't always work out as I see them. Kojima and Sasaki are genuine legends and it would be a huge rub, as it has been in the past for Voodoo Murders to get the upset win over them. That is essentially why I think Raijin, who is a lower mid-card guy is put into this match that would otherwise appear to make complete sense. Suwama will get the pinfall victory on Raijin in the match to further his upward momentum and possibly lead to a potential end to his time in Voodoo Murders. Wouldn't that be interesting? There is a distinct chance that we will be seeing that transition here, but I'm not banking on it.

Katsuhiko Nakajima (c) vs. "brother" YASSHI – AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title - YASSHI has always come across to me as the jobber in Voodoo Murders. With a guy like Kondo in the stable with him, who ran with the title for well over a year, it's possible that they plan was to eventually have YASSHI as the champion. They wouldn't want to create a rift in Voodoo Murders in order to get the title to YASSHI so they had to find somebody adequate to be the transitional champion. In comes Katsuhiko Nakajima from Kensuke Office who is a talented Jr. Heavyweight who the fans love. All Japan made him the champion back in February, but the question is; is Nakajima just a transitional champion for "brother" YASSHI to get the belt from? I sure hope it doesn't go down that way. I have really enjoyed Nakajima since I first saw him wrestle. He is a talented guy who will likely bulk up at some point in his career and make the move to heavyweight. His style is clearly a junior heavyweight version of his teacher Kensuke Sasaki. I hope he has a good long run with the title. I really believe All Japan has more respect for the tradition of their titles than to have a talent like Nakajima only be a transition champion used only to drop the belt to a guy like YASSHI. Here's to that not happening and Nakajima coming out as the clear winner in this one.

Toshiaki Kawada & Taiyo Kea (c) vs. GREAT MUTA & Vampiro – AJPW World Tag Team Title - Vampiro is working with All Japan for the HOLD OUT Tour and of course, as the result of his appearance, Mutoh puts the mask on and becomes The Great Muta, effectively bringing back a gladly forgotten angle that was run between he and Vampiro in WCW in 2000. A lot of the tag champs of the past could be in this match against Muta and Vampiro and I'd say there is a good chance that Muta's team will get the win. However, we're talking about Kawada and Kea being the champions. Strong champions who won the title that had been vacant for over a year. I'm certain All Japan wants to make sure that title regains the strength it once had when guys like Kawada and Taue or Kobashia and Misawa held the title. Kawada is in his ninth reign while Kea is in his fifth reign, but impressive. I think it's going to take a team with more commitment to the titles to take them away from Kawada and Kea. Mutoh has the Triple Crown shot coming up while Vampiro is simply signed on for this one tour. It seems pretty logical that Kawada and Kea are the big dogs in this one.

Minoru Suzuki vs. TAJIRI – Triple Crown - I'll start by saying that a countout victory over Suzuki during the Champion Carnival does not mean that TAJIRI is going to win the Triple Crown. Minoru Suzuki is the nemesis to All Japan and the fans want him to lose the belt badly. If All Japan was smart they would have him lose it to one of their heroes (Kawada, Sasaki, Mutoh or Kojima). TAJIRI is not a hero to the All Japan faithful. He is an upper-card guy who the fans enjoy, but have more fun laughing during his matches than being entertained by the actual wrestling. This match is more about Suzuki getting his revenge on TAJIRI for stealing the Triple Crown belts during the Champion Carnival than it is about him winning the title. Don't get me wrong, it would be fun to see TAJIRI pull out the upset win and get the Triple Crown, but look for this match to end with TAJIRI passing out to Suzuki's sleeper hold.

So, there we have it. Tomorrow's big show looks to be interesting and I'm sure that it will help further develop certain angles that All Japan is working toward. What I'm the most intrigued about is where they are planning to take Suwama if indeed the rumours are true and he is set to leave Voodoo Murders. If they go ahead and move forward with that, this could really turn out to be an interesting show. I think the big six man he is in is likely to be the match of the night unless Suzuki and TAJIRI decide to be a little unpredictable and wrestle rather than chase each other around like I imagine might wind up happening. Next week I'm going to discuss the happening from this show as well as a few other things going on around the world of Puro. It'll be a little different than any column I've done before (unless of course I change my mind as I often do and write about something else) so check it out.

Catching up with Puro!

This is the part of the column where I will recommend a relatively recent puro show (within the last couple years). I realize that this is nothing new, and that I'll be recommending quite a few shows that people have already recommended numerous times throughout the recent history of the beloved/despised IWC. I hope you take my recommendation seriously and hunt down these shows and expose yourself to puro (please, don't be an exhibitionist) and find out what you're missing. You can typically find most of these shows from anywhere between $3 and $8 USD at a variety of places online.

All Japan 7/22/07

This is two partial shows from the GAORA TV tapings of the Crossover 2006 Tour. The show is significant as Kojima is finally unseated as Triple Crown champion by Taiyo Kea. It's a really emotional match and Kea really did a great job of proving his worth as champion from this match alone. He gained a lot of respect from the All Japan faithful for his tribute to Baba at the end. I also recommend it because there isn't a match on here that isn't entertaining. Suzuki vs. YASSHI is fun and unusual, while the rest of the matches all keep up a pace and are fun throughout. Usually these DVD's of All Japan Banquet (the name of the TV show on GAORA) are full of matches I could go without seeing with one or two good one's thrown in, but this one is an exception to the rule and makes for a nice DVD to have in your collection.

Here's the card:

1. Keiji Muto, AKIRA & Ryuji Hijikata vs. Minoru Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai & Katsushi Takemura
2. Taiyo Kea vs. Satoshi Kojima
3. Minoru Suzuki vs. "brother" YASSHI
4. Taiyo Kea & D-Lo Brown vs. NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA
5. Keiji Muto, Satoshi Kojima & Kaz Hayashi vs. TARU, Suwama & Shuji Kondo

Actual E-Mail!

I really appreciate being written, it shows me what people think of the column and that they are actually reading it all the way through. I appreciate every single reader and honestly want to know what you think. If you think I should be doing something differently, maybe I haven't even though of it before. Trust me, I'd love to know.

This week I received a couple of great emails that I want to share and interact with. The first one is long, so I'll break it down. It's from Andy Chandler who hits the nail on the head in every part of his email. His email will be in italics while my interaction will not.

Hey,

I'm really liking your columns. 411 needs MUCH more puro discussion.
How MVP
can be the best wrestler in a week when Yuji Nagata wins the IWGP
Heavyweight Title is beyond me.

Thanks, I'm glad you like the column. I would agree that 411 needs more puro coverage and that's exactly why I'm here. You should check out as much of Matt Short, Ryan Mancuso and Mike Campbell as you can. Short writes a great column about NOAH called "The Navigation Log" if you haven't already checked it out, I highly recommend it. Mancuso and Campbell write video reviews, and I am certain that the more puro that gets read, the more you'll see on the site. Also check out Buy or Sell. It's like Fact or Fiction for us Indy/Puro/Lucha fans. Mancuso and I did one a couple weeks back that went really well.

I couldn't agree more with your home grown talent column. One of the
things
I love about Japanese wrestling is that there is a hierarchy of
wrestlers
that the young lions have to work their way up. By the time they get to
the
top they are strong and respectable. Everyone in the main event seems
to
have earned their place there.

It's always nice to see somebody earn their place. The guys who do manage to earn their place in North America like Ric Flair, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho are all amazing to watch and have never gotten to the point with the fanbase that guys like Cena and Batista already have. Regardless of how much we see of the guys who earned it, they never seem to get old.

I wanted to ask you what you thought about Japan having lots more tag
matches on their cards than American companies? Personally, I think
it's
great. Seems like a tactic that WWE should employ. It would get more
wrestlers onto the shows and stop them giving away big singles matches
for
free. It's a good way to have two people interact before a PPV match
without
having silly skits and brawls.

I hear people talking about how there are too many big matches on free TV
and
how they should do more squash matches. I don't see North American fans
accepting that. The solution? Copy Japan. It's working for CM Punk.

Thank you. Keep up the good work etc.

Andy


I think this idea could add a lot of balance to the product in North America. It seems to be more of an exception to the rule here though. Random pairings can provide an interesting way to build more than one feud at a time. TNA could benefit from this more than WWE could because of their time restraints, and they seem to be learning it as I've seen more and more of this lately from them. In the WWE they need to have that aspect as it almost entirely absent. I remember a few months ago I went to a RAW taping and there was an eight man tag for the main event. I loved it because it was a tag match building a singles match. If they ran 4 out of 6 tag matches on each show to build PPV matches, I think those PPV matches would have a much bigger, more important feel to them than they do now with so many being given away for free. The bonus, it's still a big match, just not the big match.

Thanks again for writing Andy. This next email is from Matt Short, author of The Navigation Log. Matt writes:

Nice column again this week. About Mushi-King Terry, I agree that the gimmick isn't very special and he probably shouldn't be getting title shots. NOAH's US site jokingly says that Terry "rivals Tiger Mask" and I get the impression that all he's meant to be is NOAH's version of Tiger Mask and get kids interested. And I'm sure the only reason he's getting the title shot is because of his win over Rocky Romero last month. But he appears so infrequently on the tours that in some ways it doesn't really fit.

Terry is never going to get the belt, but my own interest in him is the man behind the mask Kotaro Suzuki. He's come a long way through the Jr. ranks in NOAH and from the reactions that he gets at live events he's got the crowd's approval. Put him in any match with Ricky Marvin and you've got gold. He and Marvin had a great match on opposite sides of a tag match that had Suzuki deliver one of the sickest tombstones I've ever seen. The biggest problem with the Terry gimmick is that it limits him a lot. I like Terry, but I like Suzuki as himself more.

Matt Short

I love the fact that you live in Japan. Must be nice to be a fan of puro and get to see it live and interact with others about it. I like your analysis of Terry here. I hope that the Terry gimmick is something that comes and goes quickly and doesn't cause him to lose any credibility down the road. That kind of this happens over on this side of the Pacific all the time and it's a shame. Hopefully he'll get his show someday without having to wear the Terry mask.

Will Work 4 Feedback

Like I've said so many times before, I want your feedback, it's important to me and I'm always looking for ideas. Feel free to shoot me some and you too can get your words immortalized on 411mania.com.

Lastly, I would like to encourage everybody to read Andy Clark's "The Shimmy" every Monday. Not only is it a great column, but I also write a small sub-column at the end of "The Shimmy" titled 500 Good Words. I touch on a variety of subjects from referees, to Nick Bockwinkel to the new ECW. For the last 4 weeks and potentially for a few more I've been doing a series on Champion vs. Champion matches. I took it all the way back to the 1940's and Lou Thesz and have made it up to 1985 this far. It's a lot of fun and a great wrestling history lesson. Feel free to look up the last four weeks of The Shimmy and start from the beginning. Andy Clark gave me my first shot on here (as did Andy Critchell who wrote 500 Good Words before me by recommending me to Clark. He deserves a huge thank you as well) and I can't thank him enough for that. Until next time.