An occasional series in which, in a bid to further my spotty
knowledge of Japanese wrestling promotions, I watch a recent event and
assess whether or not I'd watch regularly given the time, money and
ability to access.
Promotion: All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW, sometimes AJP)
Event watched: Summer Action Series Day 8, 27th July 2014, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo.
What did I know about the promotion going in?: A lot. Too much. The extracurricular problems of AJPW in 2014 ensures they're as much a walking soap opera as TNA are in the US. Much of what I write here will cover the official history too.
Established in 1972 by Shohei 'Giant' Baba and the Momota Brothers, whose father is the legendary Rikidozan, the company was the pre-eminent name in professional wrestling in Japan during the 80s and 90s. Chances are if you have accidentally seen Japanese professional wrestling from this era, it was AJPW. Home to the biggest homegrown stars and the baddest foreigners, for a while it probably had a claim to being both the biggest and best promotion in the world.
Problems began not long after Baba's death when Mitsuharu Misawa left to form NOAH in 2000 with 24 of 28 AJPW-contracted workers. A period of rebuilding and stability saw the company through the 00s, occasionally working cross-promotional angles with NJPW. After a 2011 incident backstage where two wrestlers got into a real fight resulting in one of them becoming comatose, President Keiji Mutoh stepped down. Mutoh sold his shares and left to form Wrestle-1 in 2012, taking 17 AJPW workers along with him.
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| Nobuo Shiraishi (l) and Keiji Mutoh (r): WAR |
Rebuilding since has been difficult and haphazard, with new owner Nobuo Shiraishi being something of a dick to his staff. Shambling onward into 2014, seemingly bereft of stars, Shiraishi's own company went bankrupt. Jun Akiyama seized the opportunity to call for a corporate restructure with himself as new owner and president.
Given that 85% of the working staff of All Japan left in 2000, it is tempting to consider the Mutoh-era an entirely new company with an inherited name. There was very little direct continuity whatsoever apart from Toshiaki Kawada, who stayed because he really couldn't be bothered dealing with Misawa any longer.
Similarly, the Akiyama era is effectively the creation of a new company with an inherited name and assets. There are strands that touch on the historical underpinning of the once-mighty promotion, but only as many if not fewer than those working for NOAH, Wrestle-1, New Japan and elsewhere.
Given that 85% of the working staff of All Japan left in 2000, it is tempting to consider the Mutoh-era an entirely new company with an inherited name. There was very little direct continuity whatsoever apart from Toshiaki Kawada, who stayed because he really couldn't be bothered dealing with Misawa any longer.
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| Jun Akiyama |
What is the history of the promotion?: Assuming we do consider a continuous lineage from Baba to Akiyama, there is a long and storied history that is almost too much to cover here. Effectively under Baba there was a world title and regional championships, but these were re-organised as the Triple Crown in 1989 and ushered in the most exciting period in the company's history (from my standpoint).
A simple list of every Triple Crown holder in the late 1980s and entire 1990s lists an effective who's who of wrestling: Genichiro Tenryu, Jumbo Tsuruta, Terry Gordy, Stan Hansen, Mitsuharu Misawa, Steve Williams, Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue, Kenta Kobashi and Vader.
This, taken from Wikipedia, says a lot: "With the Triple Crown Championship as the focal point, All Japan sold out more than 250 consecutive shows in Tokyo throughout the early to mid-1990s, routinely drawing houses in the $1,000,000 range eight times a year at Budokan Hall. At the peak of the company, tickets for the next Budokan show would be sold at the live event and completely sell out that night." Needless to say, they don't do that kind of business presently.
If we consider the Akiyama era the beginning of a new chapter then the history is absent. All Japan Pro Wrestling is a new promotion based in Yokohama, where it houses a dojo and its ring trucks.
And how was the event?: We're now two months into the Akiyama era and reports indicate that the crowds are coming back, perhaps proving some sort of boycott of the Shiraishi era rather than AJPW itself. Bristling rather than booming, today's show comes from a 2/3rds full Korakuen and features a defence of the Triple Crown.
The opening match is between masked wrestlers SUSHI and Menso~re Oyaji, who are both slightly built and not much better than your average independent scene cruiserweight (albeit more mat-focused). They're clearly young and the match is only short. However, an apparently Akiyama-led decision comes to the fore in the post-match as Oyaji tears off his mask, later pronouncing a desire to compete maskless and under his real name Yohei Nakajima. His is not a million dollar face but it beats his mask. For some reason SUSHI is annoyed at this decision, but we do not get to see it play out.
Akiyama, keen to bridge the old to the new, has invited company legend Dory Funk Jr. to be the Jack Tunney figure of the PWF sanctioning body. It's a great show of class from an industry that continually makes these kind of lovely gestures to figures that helped frame the present.
What nobody on earth needed, however, was a six-man tag match including Dory Funk Jr. (age: 73) fighting alongside Osamu Nishimura and Yutaka Yoshie against recently-deposed Triple Crown champion Takao Omori, Ultimo Dragon and the 60-year old Masanobu Fuchi. Naturally, Funk Jr. gets a great reception. The match, however, is awful. Funk Jr. is an old man and moves like one. I do respect what they're doing here and it's not like it's a regular thing.
A trio of tag team matches provided the show with a broad overview of the state of AJPW's midcard scene. Kengo Mashimo and KENSO of the heel unit Dark Kingdom took on Hideki Suzuki and Zeus (not that one). Dark Kingdom are quite a cheaty bunch pitched halfway between Wrestle-1's DESPERADO unit and perhaps Suzuki-gun (of which Mashimo is a former member). It's a decent match with decent if not outstanding wrestlers. Zeus at least lives up to his name in terms of his appearance, which is closer to that of a bodybuilder than a typical Japanese wrestler.
Familiar faces appeared in the next match, as company leader Jun Akiyama and fellow stalwart Yoshinobu Kanemaru took on two members of the Xceed stable (led by the presently-injured star Go Shiozaki) - Kento Miyahara and Kotaro Suzuki. Former NOAH wrestler and Kensuke Sasaki protege Miyahara has had an image overhaul that puts him nearer to NJPW ace Hiroshi Tanahashi, though the hair is nowhere near as wild.
In a relatively short but thoroughly decent match, Miyahara submits Akiyama in centre-ring with a triangle submission. It's ballsy stuff, as well as completely against the grain of promotions in Japan where often the owner is a star wrestler not to be trifled with. Akiyama's achievements stack against pretty much anyone's, so for Akiyama to offer himself up as sacrifice shows a real display of faith in the new guys. For what it's worth, in my short exposure to them, Miyahara and Suzuki look very adept and it will be interesting to see how much weight is placed on their shoulders.
The All-Asia Tag Team Championship is on the line next. Won by Team Dream Futures (Shigehiro Irie and Keisuke Ishii) on a DDT show (covered on this blog), the pair have been central to a working relationship between a company considered one of Japan's most conservative (AJPW) and one considered among the most far-out (DDT). As far as this has gone from my perspective, it has been fruitful, with Irie and Ishii being good workers for AJPW to use, whilst DDT gets to feature a known and respected title on its shows.
They defend against two more members of the Dark Kingdom faction: Mitsuya Nagai and Takeshi Minamino. The quartet are an odd-looking bunch. Irie is a chunkier guy with a green mohawk. Ishii is smaller and favours pink attire. Minamino wears a vest and has a ridiculous greaser quiff. Nagai looks like an extra from Rashomon. It's a fine, if slightly overlong, defence, punctuated by interference.
The semi-final is for the Junior Heavyweight Championship, contested between defending champion Atsushi Aoki and freelancer Hikaru Sato. For the first half is relatively quiet, with two men exchanging control by way of strikes and basic holds and submissions, the pace much slower than you'd expect for a Jr Heavyweight match in 2014. The second half ups the ante with some nice exchanges and catch segments, but it never really caught fire. Aoki looks a worthy champion, but Sato - barefoot, save for kickpads - seemed relatively boring aside from having a very hard kick.
Funk Jr. returned to the ring in Texan formal attire to preside over the main event, a Triple Crown defence by Suwama against tag partner Joe Doering. Doering has had far more luck in Japan than in the USA: rejected by TNA after working three matches in the middle part of the last decade, Doering ended up at WWE's former developmental promotion Florida Championship Wrestling where he would spend four months jobbing to the current Bray Wyatt, Bo Dallas, Low-Ki, Curtis Axel and Big E Langston.
Doering, a Canadian, is a big hoss - billed at 6'5" and just shy of 300lbs (I'd guess lighter but not by much) and is mustachioed like Silas Young of Ring of Honor, who just so happens to be related to ex-AJPW legend Stan Hansen. His attempts to cultivate a visual connection to those great overseas workers of yore is probably a clever step, not least because his previous bleach blonde look was not great. In his 8th year with the company, Doering has held the tag titles four times with four different partners (including Keiji Mutoh and tonight's opponent Suwama).
Suwama, to a degree the company ace, has recently reversed a decision to both wrestle and be part of AJPW's front office by turning his back on the latter role. He's a reliable hand with a fine all-around style in his fourth reign on the Triple Crown. This reign proves to be his shortest as Doering puts Suwama on his back with a pretty cool looking spinning sitout powerbomb to become AJPW's sixth non-Japanese champion. It's not a bad match all told, but for contrast: had it taken place as part of this year's NJPW G1 Climax as of the end of Day 9, it would likely be in the bottom half of all matches completed thus far.
The crowd respond warmly, Funk Jr. raises Doering's hand and Suwama congratulates the victor too.
What did you think?: Let me start with caveats. No company after two incredibly significant losses of talent just over a decade apart is going to have a completely awesome roster packed with studs. It's still early in the Akiyama era and many of the awful blows meted out by the previous owner have yet to be fully recovered from.
It's a reboot starting from almost complete capitulation and credit is due for Akiyama trying to do the groundwork rather than tilt the needle. Yes, the Triple Crown is in its third discrete reign in the two-month long Akiyama era (Takao Omori won the title after Akebono vacated through illness, who then dropped to Suwama) but the backstage politics of wrestling sometimes manifests itself on screen. Besides, the match in which Omori won the vacant title against Jun Akiyama was really fine.
With that in mind, it wasn't a bad show at all. Whatever has been going wrong with AJPW, they have always, like a lion protecting her cubs, found a way to protect the Triple Crown. Joe Doering might not be Misawa class but for one who is and for two he's much better than Akebono or Ryota Hama. He's a company guy who can mix it up a bit: it's nothing to do with reaching out across the Pacific at all. It's a measure of respect afforded to one of the few convincing heavyweights they've got.
The midcard contained some interesting guys and some blander material. What was refreshing that aside from four competitors, there was nobody here that I'd seen working in other promotions recently. There's a sense of trying to develop something singular to the AJPW brand as of 2014.
Now what should happen, from my perspective, is the transmission of what that brand is and why it is important. The show was not distinct enough to stand out on its own merits, with only the constant reminder that this was AJPW by utilisation of the iconic logo in the corner of the screen.
Would you watch again?: Yes.
I feel duty bound toward AJPW in the way that many US wrestling fans felt saddened by TNA despite its years of protracted public awfulness. I feel this in a way I probably wouldn't have felt during the first and second roster walkouts because this particular reboot seems to come very much from the soul of its new owner, keen to right the wrongs of a businessman who did not seem to understand the industry he had bought into.
The return of Shiozaki, alongside 6-8 other talents, can potentially keep me interested in AJPW's major shows in much the same way that NOAH can. As much as I would love to see those two promotions reconcile their differences, it is as unlikely as to say that it will never occur. So for now All Japan must power through with reverence for the good aspects of their past by linking to the few things going for them in the present. So far, so good.
A simple list of every Triple Crown holder in the late 1980s and entire 1990s lists an effective who's who of wrestling: Genichiro Tenryu, Jumbo Tsuruta, Terry Gordy, Stan Hansen, Mitsuharu Misawa, Steve Williams, Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue, Kenta Kobashi and Vader.
This, taken from Wikipedia, says a lot: "With the Triple Crown Championship as the focal point, All Japan sold out more than 250 consecutive shows in Tokyo throughout the early to mid-1990s, routinely drawing houses in the $1,000,000 range eight times a year at Budokan Hall. At the peak of the company, tickets for the next Budokan show would be sold at the live event and completely sell out that night." Needless to say, they don't do that kind of business presently.
If we consider the Akiyama era the beginning of a new chapter then the history is absent. All Japan Pro Wrestling is a new promotion based in Yokohama, where it houses a dojo and its ring trucks.
And how was the event?: We're now two months into the Akiyama era and reports indicate that the crowds are coming back, perhaps proving some sort of boycott of the Shiraishi era rather than AJPW itself. Bristling rather than booming, today's show comes from a 2/3rds full Korakuen and features a defence of the Triple Crown.
The opening match is between masked wrestlers SUSHI and Menso~re Oyaji, who are both slightly built and not much better than your average independent scene cruiserweight (albeit more mat-focused). They're clearly young and the match is only short. However, an apparently Akiyama-led decision comes to the fore in the post-match as Oyaji tears off his mask, later pronouncing a desire to compete maskless and under his real name Yohei Nakajima. His is not a million dollar face but it beats his mask. For some reason SUSHI is annoyed at this decision, but we do not get to see it play out.
Akiyama, keen to bridge the old to the new, has invited company legend Dory Funk Jr. to be the Jack Tunney figure of the PWF sanctioning body. It's a great show of class from an industry that continually makes these kind of lovely gestures to figures that helped frame the present.
 |
| Dory Funk Jr. |
A trio of tag team matches provided the show with a broad overview of the state of AJPW's midcard scene. Kengo Mashimo and KENSO of the heel unit Dark Kingdom took on Hideki Suzuki and Zeus (not that one). Dark Kingdom are quite a cheaty bunch pitched halfway between Wrestle-1's DESPERADO unit and perhaps Suzuki-gun (of which Mashimo is a former member). It's a decent match with decent if not outstanding wrestlers. Zeus at least lives up to his name in terms of his appearance, which is closer to that of a bodybuilder than a typical Japanese wrestler.
Familiar faces appeared in the next match, as company leader Jun Akiyama and fellow stalwart Yoshinobu Kanemaru took on two members of the Xceed stable (led by the presently-injured star Go Shiozaki) - Kento Miyahara and Kotaro Suzuki. Former NOAH wrestler and Kensuke Sasaki protege Miyahara has had an image overhaul that puts him nearer to NJPW ace Hiroshi Tanahashi, though the hair is nowhere near as wild.
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| Kento Miyahara |
The All-Asia Tag Team Championship is on the line next. Won by Team Dream Futures (Shigehiro Irie and Keisuke Ishii) on a DDT show (covered on this blog), the pair have been central to a working relationship between a company considered one of Japan's most conservative (AJPW) and one considered among the most far-out (DDT). As far as this has gone from my perspective, it has been fruitful, with Irie and Ishii being good workers for AJPW to use, whilst DDT gets to feature a known and respected title on its shows.
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| Ishii and Irie (Team Dream Futures) |
The semi-final is for the Junior Heavyweight Championship, contested between defending champion Atsushi Aoki and freelancer Hikaru Sato. For the first half is relatively quiet, with two men exchanging control by way of strikes and basic holds and submissions, the pace much slower than you'd expect for a Jr Heavyweight match in 2014. The second half ups the ante with some nice exchanges and catch segments, but it never really caught fire. Aoki looks a worthy champion, but Sato - barefoot, save for kickpads - seemed relatively boring aside from having a very hard kick.
Funk Jr. returned to the ring in Texan formal attire to preside over the main event, a Triple Crown defence by Suwama against tag partner Joe Doering. Doering has had far more luck in Japan than in the USA: rejected by TNA after working three matches in the middle part of the last decade, Doering ended up at WWE's former developmental promotion Florida Championship Wrestling where he would spend four months jobbing to the current Bray Wyatt, Bo Dallas, Low-Ki, Curtis Axel and Big E Langston.
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| Joe Doering (r) |
Suwama, to a degree the company ace, has recently reversed a decision to both wrestle and be part of AJPW's front office by turning his back on the latter role. He's a reliable hand with a fine all-around style in his fourth reign on the Triple Crown. This reign proves to be his shortest as Doering puts Suwama on his back with a pretty cool looking spinning sitout powerbomb to become AJPW's sixth non-Japanese champion. It's not a bad match all told, but for contrast: had it taken place as part of this year's NJPW G1 Climax as of the end of Day 9, it would likely be in the bottom half of all matches completed thus far.
The crowd respond warmly, Funk Jr. raises Doering's hand and Suwama congratulates the victor too.
What did you think?: Let me start with caveats. No company after two incredibly significant losses of talent just over a decade apart is going to have a completely awesome roster packed with studs. It's still early in the Akiyama era and many of the awful blows meted out by the previous owner have yet to be fully recovered from.
It's a reboot starting from almost complete capitulation and credit is due for Akiyama trying to do the groundwork rather than tilt the needle. Yes, the Triple Crown is in its third discrete reign in the two-month long Akiyama era (Takao Omori won the title after Akebono vacated through illness, who then dropped to Suwama) but the backstage politics of wrestling sometimes manifests itself on screen. Besides, the match in which Omori won the vacant title against Jun Akiyama was really fine.
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| Takao Omori |
The midcard contained some interesting guys and some blander material. What was refreshing that aside from four competitors, there was nobody here that I'd seen working in other promotions recently. There's a sense of trying to develop something singular to the AJPW brand as of 2014.
Now what should happen, from my perspective, is the transmission of what that brand is and why it is important. The show was not distinct enough to stand out on its own merits, with only the constant reminder that this was AJPW by utilisation of the iconic logo in the corner of the screen.
Would you watch again?: Yes.
I feel duty bound toward AJPW in the way that many US wrestling fans felt saddened by TNA despite its years of protracted public awfulness. I feel this in a way I probably wouldn't have felt during the first and second roster walkouts because this particular reboot seems to come very much from the soul of its new owner, keen to right the wrongs of a businessman who did not seem to understand the industry he had bought into.
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| Go Shiozaki |
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