Sunday, November 5, 2017

Pro Wrestling; New Japan Pro Wrestling 2017: It's not all gravy




I have to say, this has been the best year all around for New Japan Pro Wrestling that I've seen since 2012. A little history for me. I've been a fan of Japanese pro wrestling since I saw a match from WCW that had a guy in a ninja outfit coming to the ring for a match. When he took his hood off he revealed face paint underneath. This is all before the match even began. When your a child in the 1980s and a real life Japanese ninja shows up in a wrestling ring you become an instant fan. Fast forward to a little later and someone out of an anime pops up to wrestle than that guy becomes another instant favorite.



Back to near today I wasn't able to watch Japanese pro wrestling like I could watch WWE, TNA, ROH or many other promotions. Around late 2008 that changed thanks to YouTube and Dailymotion. I saw someone had some old Japanese wrestling online so I started watching. Then I saw something marked as taking place in 2009. I hadn't watched any near current Japanese wrestling since the mid-1990s. So I started watching guys named Tanahashi, Nakamura, Bad Intentions, and some punk looking  European kid named Fergal. There was also the relationship that TNA Wrestling had at the time with New Japan. So being able to watch the product myself was cool to me. My first big show that I watched on a slight hours ago delay was Wrestle Kingdom V. From that January 4th , 2011 show I hooked again on Japanese wrestling. No longer having to watch someone elses tapes I could watch whatever show they had when I wanted to.


The guys that I grew up with in Muta (Mutoh), Liger, Ultimo Dragon, Tiger Mask I, Dynamite Kid, Pegasus Kid, Black Tiger II, Sasuke, Chono, Hashimoto, Choshu, Fujinami, Vader, and Hase were all gone or old. There was anew crop of guys who were old or just new to me. I had missed more than 15 years of Japanese wrestling so catching up matches and wrestlers in only heard about was a big deal to me. Seeing all these new guys and all the foreign wrestlers in New Japan made it something I wanted to invest my time in. Now years later we're on the verge of a next evolution coming to New Japan Pro Wrestling.


This years Wrestle Kingdom was a great show. The New Japan Cup was a great tournament. The G1 Tournament will go down as one of the best of all time. The different shows throughout the year all had at least one good to great match on the show. There are so many positive from NJPW this year but I'm going to focus on the negatives. There are plenty of people who won't tell the things I'll point out but you'll see that the problems will only help NJPW in the future if they are prepared for them.


For all the talk of the good shows people ignored the truly important shows. I'm talking about the Lion Gate Project shows. These are the shows featuring the young boys working with veterans to improve themselves. Young boys are basically rookies or trainees learning and hoping to become the next generation of stars in Japanese wrestling or outside of Japan. Many people who have worked all over the world have come through the NJPW dojo as young boys and gone onto super stardom. New Japan has been using this year to bring its last class of Young Lions into the public eye in a more prominent role.


The system they have is similar to what you see WWE do with their NXT program. The difference being that they have been doing this for more than 30 years. New Japan has been producing talent and refining their system long before WWE and the resulting talents is a who's who in pro wrestling. The problem is they aren't producing as many new talent as they should be. Specifically when it comes to Japanese talent. The company is called New Japan Pro Wrestling after all. If they are to keep their positive momentum going they need to keep produced talent but specifically Japanese talents.





I say they need new Japanese talents because even though they have more foreigners working in the company than anytime in their history that's not a good thing. The initial appeal of Japanese wrestling was seeing how the Japanese do pro wrestling. You have a similar thing in Lucha Libre in Mexico. You want to what Canadian wrestling how Canadian is it if half the roster come from Brazil. That doesn't make any sense and its the same thing in New Japan. I love that their is more attention and respect paid to foreign markets by having foreign talent in the company. But if the trend kept going in three years the majority of talent in NJPW would be foreigners.


You might not see this as a problem but to NJPWs bottom line this is a huge problem. Think about how hard it already is for them to keep talents away from World Wrestling Entertainment. If they keep going down this road that will only make it easier for WWE to steal their talents. New Japan would train and develop that talents. Then WWE would come in with their big time money and sign them away to big money deals. Remember pro wrestling is based on making money. When your WWE money is no object. New Japan cannot allow itself to get into a spending war with WWE, they can't win.

Their biggest star right now is Kazuchika Okada. He's the current Heavyweight Champion. He was recently named as the best wrestler in the world for 2017. You think WWE is somehow unaware of this these facts? Do think they will not at some point try to bring him to their company. If for no other reason to take away one of the big money drawing stars of the company away. Taking money out of your competitors pocket does not always mean putting money into yours. It's a business that is cutthroat on many sides. New Japan is very aware of this. Okada just turned 30 this past November. I expect that next year will be his last year in New Japan and in 2019 he will be competing in WWE. I said it here first and don't be surprised when it starts looking like that more and more next year.


Last year WWE brought in four of New Japans biggest stars into the company around the same time. New Japan has to be aware that a similar thing can happen again. It can happen every year because WWE has the money to spend to make it happen every year. Knowing this as a possibility means talent and talent acquisition are very important to NJPWs business success. When people say Okada won't leave I laugh to myself. He's already made himself a legend in the company. He knows that there's only so high he can go in the company. He can't keep working that style past 35 years old in the company. He's see's what his friend Shinsuke Nakamura is doing in WWE. If WWE bring him when he's only 31 years old he'll have at least ten years to make himself a great WWE Superstar. Nevermind that he's a 6'2, 240lbs Japanese man nicknamed "The Rainmaker". Yeah, that guy won't like making any of those WWE millions will he? That's why he hasn't spent his private time learning English, right?


The relationships that NJPW has with Mexican company CMLL is great for both companies. The relationship NJPW has with British company RPW is great for both companies. The relationship NJPW has with ROH is great for both companies. New Japan has many great working relationships with companies outside of Japan. But, where are the girls? Are there no women wrestlers in Japan? Where's their relationship with a Japanese ladies pro wrestling company. I know there is one unofficially but their going to need to make an official and do it fast.They don't want to have the reputation of being the only company where women have no place in their programming.



One major gap in their programming that may not seem like a big deal but is really huge for them is kids. While fans in my age group love what is happening now in the company I don't see it as great for younger kids. Kids need some characters they can connect too. They need someone they see and say to themselves, I want that costume for my Halloween party. I mentioned that ninja and anime character earlier remember. In Japan these kinds of characters are vital to the fabric of the younger audience. One day that younger audience will be adults. Out of those adults will come the next generation of NJPW stars. They'll need those boys and girls to someday carry the banner for NJPW. If New Japan is not establishing those characters now than someone else will?


Now you see that as much as we rave about New Japans wrestling being the best in-ring wrestling there are still problems. New Japan wants to compete against WWE in markets outside of Japan. That's admirable but unless they start preparing the groundwork now that fight will be very short term. They still have to face companies with Japan by the way. All Japan, Pro Wrestling NOAH, and DragonGate can get hot with the right circumstances. At one point DragonGate was the hottest thing in Japanese wrestling and I saw all the things I mentioned happen to them. Now names like Swan, Gargano, Ohno, Crews and Tozawa all work for WWE. But they made their names and honed their skills in DragonGate on DragonGates dime. Don't think WWE don't remember this either. The landscape looks good for New Japan Pro Wrestling in the short term. I just hope that they show more attention to the long term. You cannot expect a company with the resources of WWE to stay on the down-slope forever. And when it turns we'll see what that does to the popularity of New Japan Pro Wrestling.



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