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The Navigation Log 3.30.08: Puro at WrestleMania

March 30, 2008 | Posted by Matt Short

Last weekend was Easter and this weekend is WrestleMania Weekend? Damn being a Sunday guy really puts you in a tough spot. No one wants to read about Japanese wrestling when they’re celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ or making the final plans for the biggest professional wrestling PPV of the year. It’s hard being a puro columnist. As such, let’s see if I can bring the two together this week…

Onto the Navigation Log!

Global Tag League Update
The Global Tag League got under way Saturday evening (Japan time) at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Of all the opening cards NOAH has put on in the past, this has to be one of the most impressive I’ve seen in awhile. The show featured a lot of great talent along with two Global Tag League matches to close out the show.

The biggest news from the undercard was the return of Ricky Marvin. Marvin went down with a broken foot at the end of 2007 which caused the recent series of GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag title defenses in Dragon Gate. Marvin quietly made his return on Saturday in a six-man tag match, teaming with Akira Taue and Shuhei Taniguchi against the team of Masao Inoue, Junji Izumida, & Ippei Ota. I’m fine with the quiet return. As popular as Marvin is with the Japanese crowds his return isn’t even close to the level of Kobashi, Rikio, or even Kensuke Sasaki coming back to compete in NOAH. It’s a great boost to the Jr. Heavyweight division though, as it has been somewhat light with Kanemaru on top and most of the juniors still being dojo boys. Atsushi Aoki gets better each time he goes out though and expect he’ll definitely be in line for a shot at the GHC Jr. Heavyweight title once his trial series is over.

Speaking of the dojo boys, they’ve been doing quite well for themselves. I mentioned last week that Akihito Ito was going to tag with KENTA in a big grudge match with Kensuke Office wrestlers Katsuhiko Nakajima & Ryuji Yamaguchi. The NOAH team won the match, but it was Ito who scored the pinfall. Taniguchi scored the fall in the Marvin return match as well. Meanwhile, all the rest of them Aoki, Ota, and Hirayanagi have been performing well and making a good account for themselves. I’m glad to see the rookies working hard to earn their spots.

Onto the Global Tag League results then. First up, we had Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima taking on D-Lo Brown & Buchanan. The obvious happened here as the Kensuke Office team went over RO&D. Sasaki hit a Northern Lights Bomb on Buchanan for the win. I have no problems with this; the right team went over in a solid match that went over 20 minutes. The next match featured GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Morishima & Mohammad against Takeshi Rikio & Jun Akiyama. Rikio and Akiyama won this when Rikio pinned Yone with the Muso. That makes me cringe a bit. Morishima didn’t take the pin, but at the same time he was still on the losing side. I have a feeling this is going to happen a lot more when they go up against teams of top challengers. If they have Morishima pinning every potential challenger to his belt in tag matches it makes it hard to you know… make believable challengers.

So right teams that have scored points look like this:
Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima – 2 points
Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio – 2 points

Stay tuned!

Puro and WrestleMania
In case you’ve forgotten WrestleMania is tonight. Wooo! Thus, to keep in theme with this massive event and stay on topic with Japanese wrestling I’m going to take a look at past Japanese stars (and guys representing Japan despite their actual heritage) who have appeared on the biggest stage in wrestling.

WrestleMania III
Up until WrestleMania III you didn’t get any Japanese wrestlers on the card. But on this night, legendary wrestler and manager Mr. Fuji debuted at WrestleMania. Sure he’s Hawaiian and half-Japanese, but it’s good enough. He was in the corner of “Cowboy” Bob Orton and The Magnificent Muraco taking on the Can-Am Connection of Rick Martel & Tom Zenk. This brief match opened the show and to be honest isn’t all that memorable especially when it’s on the same card as Steamboat vs. Savage and Hogan vs. Andre. Also on the card was Little Tokyo, a midget wrestler who competed in the mixed tag match featuring Hillbilly Jim, The Haiti Kid, & Little Beaver vs. King Kong Bundy, Little Tokyo, & Lord Littlebrook. While that is the first case of a Japanese wrestler on a WrestleMania card, let’s look ahead to less embarrassing moments.

WrestleMania IV
Mr. Fuji returned this year, leading Demolition to tag team gold against Rick Martel and Tito Santana of Strike Force. It was better than midgets getting squashed by Bundy anyway.

WrestleMania V
Fuji was still the guy to go to for WrestleMania only he was actually competing in a match this year. He joined The Warlord & The Barbarian to take the WWF Tag Team titles from Demolition after Fuji turned on them. Ax and Smash wouldn’t be stopped though and Fuji took a Demolition Decapitation for Demolition to retain.

WrestleMania VI
Much more success this year for Mr. Fuji as he lead The Orient Express to a victory over The Rockers. The only native Japanese wrestler in this match was Akio Sato, who had been a successful tag team wrestler in All Japan during the 80’s. His partner Tanaka was Hawaiian. This match jumpstarted a prolonged feud between The Express and The Rockers that carried on for about a year.

WrestleMania VII
Mr. Fuji again led Demolition (this time the Crush and Smash combo) but this time they were facing a pair of Japanese wrestlers. Tenryu & Kitao were two former sumo wrestlers and Tenryu was a former Triple Crown winner in All Japan. The Japanese contingent killed Demolition in about 4 minutes. Tenryu would continue wrestling, but Kitao would go on a diatribe later bashing wrestling after apparently shooting on Earthquake. Don’t fuck with sumo wrestlers is the moral of the story I guess.

WrestleMania IX
One of the worst WrestleManias ever? Some think so and they’re probably right. The main event featured Yokozuna challenging Bret Hart for the WWF Championship. Yoko wasn’t Japanese, but Samoan but that sort of thing hasn’t stopped the WWE in the past from billing guys to be from place they’re not actually from. Yokozuna defeated Hart but the big story was Hulk Hogan coming out after the match to challenge the evil foreigner and take the title back.

WrestleMania X
Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji kept on rolling into this round. Yoko would be defending the WWF Championship against Lex Luger and Bret Hart on the same night. Jim Cornette was also in the Japanese corner this night as Yokozuna made it past Luger only to fall to Hart later in the night. Fuji also managed Demolition’s Crush is a losing effort against Randy Savage.

WrestleMania XI
Fuji and Cornette teamed up again, fielding Owen Hart and mystery partner Yokozuna to challenge The Smokin’ Gunns for the WWF Tag Team Championship. The odd pairing of Yokozuna and Hart were successful and put down The Gunns.

WrestleMania XII
The alliance that had been formed the year prior was shattered between Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette. Cornette fielded the team of Vader, Owen Hart, & The British Bulldog to take on Yokozuna, Jake Roberts, & Ahmed Johnson. Team Cornette would win, but it’s very much worth pointing out Vader, a legendary gaijin monster in Japan.

WrestleMania XIV
A banner year for Japanese stars at WrestleMania: a singles match! TAKA Michinoku defended his WWF Light-Heavyweight Title against Aguila aka Essa Rios. This was a solid and fun little match but was pretty damn short. TAKA was really under appreciated in his WWF run as he has shown with his immense popularity and mic skills in Japan.

WrestleMania 2000
TAKA Michinoku and Funaki were both involved in a massive Hardcore Title brawl near the top of the card. It doesn’t really matter buy I think Funaki may have won the title sometime during the match. Either way, I’ll just say again how under-appreciated the Kaientai guys were during the WWF tenure. Because it’s true.

WrestleMania XX
A Cruiserweight gauntlet match featuring Ultimo Dragon, Funaki, Tajiri, and Jimmy Wang playing a yakuza bodyguard would have to be really memorable right? Wrong. Does anyone even remember Ultimo Dragon’s stay in the WWE? Didn’t think so. It’s a shame because the guys in this match could have done something great.

WrestleMania 21
Another sumo wrestler came to the WWE for the WrestleMania treatment. Too bad it didn’t benefit the rest of us as the match resulted in Big Show wearing a sumo thong. Yes, Akebono and Show had a sumo wrestling contest and the less said about it the better.

WrestleMania 23
No Japanese wrestlers on the card BUT Mr. Fuji was honored with a Hall of Fame induction. And as we have seen through this little retrospective, he has been a huge part of the WrestleMania tradition for years. A fitting way to end this little look down memory lane.

So what can we take out of this retrospective? That while Japanese wrestlers have not often been on the winning side of WrestleMania matches (or often been represented in ways that are respectful to their culture) there is a fairly good tradition of them participation on the biggest show of the year. And there have been some legitimate legends from Japan taking part with the likes of Tenryu and Ultimo Dragon. So rock on you crazy puro stars!

I’m wrapping things up early but I’ll leave you with a classic match from the old Toryumon promotion. In a Mask vs. Mask match it’s Dragon Kid vs. Darkness Dragon.

Mascara contra Mascara: Dragon Kid vs. Darkness Dragon

Enjoy the show tonight. Peace!

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Matt Short

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