Destiny 6.17.07: Who Is Number One In Japan? (Part 1 of 3)

Posted by Matt Adamson on 06.17.2007

Answering the age old question of which Japanese promotion is ICHIBAN!

I hope some of you have decided to go on the pizza only diet like I have (not) done. I enjoyed my transcontinental pizza from Chicago by the way, not that anybody cares, but it was fantastic, loaded with the major food groups and flavorful like none other. I also had the opportunity to watch RAW in real time this week (it is tape delayed for the west coast) on a friends satellite. What a great show! Since I don't really get the opportunity to share my thoughts about wrestling on this side of the world's biggest body of water very often, I'm going to take that opportunity now.

Everybody is talking about the WWE tri-brand draft that took place on Monday. The big moves involved Bobby Lashley to RAW (as if he weren't already on the show every week), Mr. Kennedy to RAW, Chris Benoit to ECW and Ric Flair to Smackdown. While most focused on the obvious Lashley and Benoit moves as well as the explosion of Vince McMahon, the big news to me was the drafting of Ric Flair. The significance of this move is due to the fact that Smackdown now boasts a very middle heavy roster with the loss of Kennedy, King Booker and the injury of the Undertaker. What else does Smackdown boast? The big gold World Heavyweight Championship belt, the one designed to look like the one made famous by Ric Flair in the mid-late 1980's and early 1990's. With the Main Event scene of Smackdown looking like it will have Batista, Khali, Edge and maybe Kane and Mark Henry, I can easily see Flair finding a spot in there to get one more shot at a title reign before his upcoming retirement. I'm a huge Flair fan as most wrestling fans are, so I'd love to see this, and it would allow for somebody new to take it off him afterward. What I would love to see is for Flair to win the title at the Great American Bash as more of a throw back to the old school that he made during the 1980's. Well, that's my take on things and I'm excited for Flair on Smackdown. Now, onto the more pressing issue…

Who Is Number One In Japan?

Since I started writing for 411mania.com back in March, I have received countless numbers of emails asking the same question. What pro wrestling promotion is the biggest in Japan? Well, I'm here these next three weeks to do my best to answer that question. There are a couple things that must be considered before I get going on this. First is to define what I mean by "biggest". There are three different ways to look at this, first is popularity, second is influence on Japanese culture, and third is history. So, instead of trying to figure out which of these issues is more important when answering the question of who is number one or "biggest", I've decided that popularity is what I will base most of my overall decision on. I'll also discuss some of the influence and history, but ultimately, after having gone through my emails, most people specifically said, "Which company in Japan is more popular?" So that is what I will focus on, but I will include history and influence in this as they are both important. Another consideration that must be made is that this is in no way the definitive answer to this timeless question. I know that some people will argue with my final answer and that is well and good. If you agree or disagree with my assessment, please email me at [e-mail]. I'll be expecting some opposition.

It's no secret that there are three major players in professional wrestling in Japan. New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH. Each of them can make a case for being the biggest promotion in Japan, but there can only be one. Hopefully I'll be able to make an argument that is solid enough to force you all to believe it. You should now insert my "evil laugh" here. Here's how it is going to work. The column will be split into three rounds over three weeks. In rounds one and two the promotion I choose will be awarded 1 point. Round three, which will be based on current popularity will be worth 2 points, because frankly that's how most people see "biggest". The first round topic will be the history of all three promotions.

A Brief History

The histories of each of the major promotions in Japan are very different. One is old and immersed in tradition, while another is a staple of Japanese culture. Trying to decide who is the biggest reminds me a lot of a thread I recently read in the 411 forum. It was about English football (soccer) club teams. The thread went on to have several posters list the ten biggest club teams in England. I've only recently gotten into watching football, but I knew who was in the Premier League and to me that was all that mattered. Boy was I ever surprised when teams such as Leeds United and Nottingham Forest were listed in the ten biggest teams list by most of the posters. Leeds is a team in the Championship League of The Football League, which is essentially a glorified minor league (AAA equivalent for you baseball fans). For them to be among the biggest just blew me away. That was until I read some about Nottingham Forest. They were in the league under Leeds United. This made them essentially a AA ball club. My point? Just because a promotion has a history does not make it the biggest and just because a promotion is big does not mean it has any pop culture value. Most importantly, just because the promotion has some pop culture value or a deep history does not mean it is the most popular. Now, onto the history of each promotion.

All Japan Pro Wrestling - All Japan is one of the two oldest currently operating promotions in Japan having been founded in 1972. It was founded by Shohei "Giant" Baba who had gained a good deal of fame wrestling for JWA, which was Japan's first pro wrestling promotion. They would achieve early success because of Baba's involvement in the promotion as well as their being members of the NWA. This allowed for them to bring top American talent to Japan which helped establish them as a top promotion in the world. Their top title at first was the PWF Heavyweight Title, which would later be unified with the NWA United National Title and the NWA International Heavyweight Title to form the Triple Crown. Some of the wrestlers who have held the PWF title and the Triple Crown are: Giant Baba, Harley Race, Stan Hansen, Genichiro Tenryu, Jumbo Tsuruta, Riki Choshu, Billy Robinson, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue, Kenta Kobashi, Terry Gordy, Steve Williams, Vader, Keiji Mutoh (Great Muta), Satoshi Kojima, and Shinya Hashimoto. In the year 2000 they suffered a major blow when a large percentage of their talent followed Mitsuharu Misawa to start Pro Wrestling NOAH. Since then they have declined in popularity, but have recently begun to regain some of it with their shift to a more sports entertainment based product featuring one of Japan's most interesting stables, Voodoo Murders.

New Japan Pro Wrestling - New Japan is the oldest currently active promotion in the nation of Japan, but only by a couple months. Like All Japan, New Japan was founded in 1972 after Antonio Inoki had failed to take over JWA. He was quickly fired which gave him the opportunity to start a promotion of his own. At the time of his firing, Inoki was one of the most recognizable figures in puro, having been Rikidozan's disciple and being one of the top names in JWA. It wouldn't take long for New Japan to become very popular on the back of Inoki. Throughout most of it's existence, New Japan has been considered the most influencial and important promotion in Japan, mostly due to Inoki in the early days, which included a legendary boxer vs. wrestler match with Mohammed Ali. New Japan's governing body for championships is the Internation Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP). Some of the champions over the years have been: Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Vader, The Great Muta, Shinya Hashimoto, Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono, Kensuke Sasaki and Yugi Nagata. In 2005 Inoki began to lose influence over the company and was bought out. While they had already seen a downward shift in their popularity, this move catapulted that. As of early 2007, Inoki's name was completely removed from any current going on in New Japan.

Pro Wrestling NOAH - The history of the promotion known as NOAH is rather short but full of drama. NOAH really should be called Pro Wrestling MOSES as really it began as an exodus of talent from All Japan Pro Wrestling in 2000. Once Giant Baba had died and left the company to his wife, Mitsuharu Misawa and many other wrestlers became dissatisfied with All Japan and all at once they left the promotion. It didn't take long for NOAH to gain some serious status with their talent being so great. Some of the names to leave All Japan for NOAH on the first day were Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Jun Akiyama, and Yoshinari Ogawa. This split allowed guys like Akiyama and Ogawa to shine like they never had before under All Japan. Over the last seven years NOAH has continued to grow.

I know those histories are really brief, but I'm only writing a column here, not a book. You can see through these histories that really, NOAH's history has no shot at competing with New Japan's and All Japan's. Both New Japan and All Japan have been around for around the same amount of time, however I have to give the nod here to New Japan. They started strong and had some of the most newsworthy and important happenings in puro including the Inoki vs. Ali fight and the trip to North Korea where Inoki faced Ric Flair during a three day Wrestling Peace Festival that drew around 350,000 total fans. They have been the most high profile promotion in Japan without question while Inoki was in control, there is no doubt they get the nod as "biggest" if history was our only deciding factor.

Next week I'll be discussing the cultural influence of each promotion and weighing them against each other. Keep in mind, the current popularity of the product is what ultimately will lead to my decision.

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 (of course not in the naked way, unless that's your bag) 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. So, here is my recommendation.

AJPW 04/07/2007 – Champion Carnival Final

This particular DVD will always have a warm spot for me as it was the first thing I covered in this column. The DVD itself features some of the most important matches of the Carnival this year as well as the final match between Keiji Mutoh and Toshiaki Kawada. The infamous TAJIRI vs. Minoru Suzuki match is on here where TAJIRI steals the Triple Crown. It's a really great DVD to begin to understand the storylines currently or recently running in All Japan. It also features two tags involving Voodoo Murders. I can't think of a more complete way to rediscover All Japan or simply discover it for the first time.

Here's the card…

1. TARU, Kohei Suwama & RO'Z vs. Akira Raijin, Kiyonari Sanada & T28
2. Champion Carnival - Block A: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Toru Owashi
3. Champion Carnival - Block A: Keiji Muto vs. Taiyo Kea
4. Champion Carnival - Block B: TAJIRI vs. Minoru Suzuki
5. Champion Carnival - Block B: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Satoshi Kojima
6. Miguel Hayashi Jr., Pepe Michinoku & El NOSAWA Mendoza vs. Masanobu Fuchi, Nobutaka Araya & Nobukazu Hirai
7. Shuji Kondo & "brother" YASSHI vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Ryuji Hijikata
8. Champion Carnival - Final: Keiji Muto vs. Toshiaki Kawada

This Is The End

So, that's all I have this week. Next week I'll be continuing my study on who is the "biggest" in Japan. Also, you should check out the 411 Fantasy Drafts that have recently been done. I was involved in both and they were a lot of fun… aside from being raped in the WWE version where I represented Smackdown! Also, make sure to check out the Shimmy and my mini column contained within that column. Until next time.