gordi

One of you is exactly right with the final four prediction. The other two got three out of four correct. Nicely done! The match-ups are indeed in bracket order. So, the winner of Antonio Inoki vs Shiro Koshinaka will face the winner of Riki Choshu vs Blade Runner Sting, and so on.

Murdoch is a very interesting character. He's widely reported to have been a legit card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan... but also widely reported to have been a funny and friendly guy who was easy to get along with.

Japan and Russia as allies in a war with French Canada. Only in pro wrestling! Love it.

That totally had the feel of a classic 80s WWF big card... and then that final segment with a bloody Hogan being hung by a chain, which had the feel of a classic UWF or Crockett angle, which I mean as a compliment. Love seeing The Machines with the straps.

Hacksaw Duggan is hotter than a rattle snake sunning himself on top of a cactus! Oh my business is about to pick up! Bah Gawd, just look at the carnage Good ole JR

Once again showing a fine awareness of what the local crowd wants, with Mike Shaw going over clean and the Bulldogs debuting in Calgary. Nice job.

JWA Press Release: JWA Japanese Championship Tournament, July 1-28, 1985 Japan Wrestling Alliance is pleased to announce the 16 first-round match-ups for our July Tournament: Antonio Inoki vs Shiro Koshinaka Riki Choshu vs Blade Runner Sting Tiger Mask Sayama vs Kazuo Yamazaki Umanosuke Ueda vs Samson Fuyuki Tatsumi Fujinami vs Anoaro Atisanoe Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Siva Afi Adrian Adonis vs Isamu “Carpenter” Teranishi Ashura Hara vs Phil Hickerson Jumbo Tsuruta vs Toshiaki Kawada Shinya Hashimoto vs Tastustoshi Goto Akira Maeda vs Masakatsu Funaki Osamu Kido vs Yoji Anjo Bruiser Brody vs Tiger Mask Misawa Seiji Sakaguch vs Keiji Mutoh Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Nobuhiko Takada Kengo Kimura vs Rusher Kimura So: Who do you think will make the Final Four? What do you think will be the best matches of the first round? We look forward to your feedback! Respectfully, JWA President and Founder, Shohei Baba JWA Vice President, Motoko Baba JWA Managing Director, Hisashi Shinma JWA Booker, gordi

and road trips from Hell really were just part of life for Canadian pro wrestlers in the territory era.

Oh, man! Blue Ridge to Whistler is going too be quite the road trip.

A lot going on here, but honestly I am most excited for the potential Pete Doherty undercard story line

I'm busting with pride to see our young boy Akira wearing gold in America. Horner vs Falk was hilarious. The career vs career match was really dramatic and intense.

Brody getting beat up is not something I expected to see. I love how there are always surprising things going on in these threads.

I agree that Team Baba is the most loaded... but I think Choshu's Army will have an advantage early on because - being a heel faction - they will be the most willing to "help each other out" during matches. Thanks! Everyone was so generous with sending their champs over to Japan, so there are just a ton of fun match-ups this month. I almost did a re-match with Buddy Rose and Kawada, as well... but I really wanna do Buddy Rose vs Mighty Inoue or Isamu Teranishi. I love the idea of matching up two pasty guys who don't look athletic at all but are in fact superior athletes. Like I say, when everyone is so generous about sending talent over, it's not hard to make a lot of fun match-ups. I'd have loved to see something like this (or the Johnny Rougeau Cup, for example) in real life, so it sure will be enjoyable to write it up. In '85 you had the big invasion angle with Choshu going into AJPW. I wanted to come up with some way to get that kind of feel without copying the angle itself... ...and as SirEd says, watching recent Japanese wrestling you see tons of factions. My beloved local indie, Osaka Pro Wrestling, was my biggest influence in deciding to do this. They always did a great job using factions and alliances to add spice to individual match-ups. Having a good heel faction is key, in my opinion.

*** UPCOMING "BIG EVENT" SCHEDULE*** JWA Festival of Champions: June 11th, Aichi Pref. Gym - Eight Title Matches JWA Middleweight champion Black Tiger vs Nobuhiko Takada NWA Canadian International Tag Team Champions Rick Martel and Gino Brito vs Tatsumi Fujinami and Shiro Koshinaka North American Champion “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan vs Siva Afi AWA American Champion Lex Luger vs Kengo Kimura UWF World Tag Team Champions The Road Warriors vs Ashura “Fighting” Hara and Yoshiaki Yatsu ***BREAK*** JWA Tag Team Champions The Giants vs Riki Choshu and Akira Maeda JWA Champion Tenryu vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara NWA World Champion Ric Flair vs Jumbo Tsuruta JWA Festival of Champions: June 18th, Kyoto Pref. Gym - Seven Title Matches and Faction Wars I JWA Middleweight champion Black Tiger vs Naoki Sano Continental Tag Team Champions The Nightmares (Danny Davis and Ken Wayne) vs The Blonde Outlaws (Umanosuke Ueda and Tatsutoshi Goto) AWA American Champion Lex Luger vs Ashura “Fighting” Hara NWA World Tag Team Champions The Fabulous Rougeaus vs The Tiger Masks (Sayama and Misawa) Faction Wars I: Choshu’s Army vs Inoki Federation – Choshu, Maeda, Adonis, Atisanoe, and Hickerson vs Inoki, Fujiwara, Sakaguchi, The Cobra, and Kawada ***BREAK*** JWA Champion Tenryu vs Rusher Kimura JWA Tag Team Champions The Giants vs Don Muraco and Bad News Allen NWA United States Champion Terry Funk vs Jumbo Tsuruta JWA Festival of Champions: June 21st, Tokyo, Ryogoku Kokugikan - Seven Title Matches and Faction Wars II AWA Southern Champion “Playboy” Buddy Rose vs Mighty Inoue JWA Heavyweight Champion Black Tiger vs Dos Caras AWA American Champion Lex Luger vs Yoshiaki Yatsu Continental Heavyweight Champion Bruiser Brody vs Bam Bam Bigelow Faction Wars II: Team Giant Baba vs Fujinami’s Family – Tsuruta, Hara, Sayama, Misawa, and Takada vs Fujinami, Kimura, Koshinaka, Sting, and Kido ***BREAK*** JWA Tag Team Champions The Giants vs Abdullah the Butcher and Umanosuke Ueda NWA United States Champion Terry Funk vs Bad News Allen JWA Champion Tenryu vs Don Muraco

Choshu's Army Riki Choshu: JWA’s top heel, but has a lot of fans. Explosive, innovative, and charismatic. Akira Maeda: Shoot style pioneer. Hard hitting, technical style. Larger than life character. Adrian Adonis: JWA’s top gain heel. Great brawler, bumper, ring general, and tag worker. Rusher Kimura: Former sumo wrestler and former ace of IWE. Cage match specialist. A little past his prime but still a very capable brawler. Good on the mic. Umanosuke Ueda: Background in sumo and with the IWE, but is purely a brawler. Has a great sleazy look. Bam Bam Bigelow: Fierce look and unusual athleticism for a man his size give Bigelow the potential to be a truly great monster gaijin heel. Anoaro Atisanoe: Powerful and massive monster heel. Siva Afi: Kind of a poor man’s version of Jimmy Snuka, in the ring. Can work Shoot Style. Black Tiger: Current JWA Middleweight Champion. At his best, he is the perfect fusion of British, Mexican, and Japanese junior styles. At his worst, he can be sloppy. Great at bumping, stooging, and working the crowd. Isamu “Carpenter” Teranishi: Another former sumo wrestler and IWE mainstay. Very good on the mat and makes the people around him look better (hence the nickname). Despite his scientific wrestling style, works best as a heel. Yoji Anjo: Shoot Style specialist with a background in judo and muay thai. Doesn’t mind fighting dirty. Can work in the Middleweight division. Tatsutoshi Goto: Bleach blonde heel. Can work in the Middleweight division. Akira Nogami: Cocky technical wrestler. Can work in the Middleweight division. Currently on loan to Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Phil Hickerson: Big, nasty heat magnet. Good brawler and tag team wrestler. Currently on loan from Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Respectfully, JWA President and Founder, Shohei Baba JWA Vice President, Motoko Baba JWA Managing Director, Hisashi Shinma JWA Booker, gordi

Fujinami's Family Tatsumi Fujinami: Beloved star and gifted worker. Ready to break out from under Inoki’s shadow. Can work in the Middleweight division. Can work Shoot Style. Kengo Kimura: Fujiwara’s regular tag team partner. Makes the people around him better. Super Strong Machine: Steady, reliable power wrestler who really shines as a tag team partner. Currently on loan to NWA Lutte Internationale. Blade Runner Sting: Muscular, athletic, and charismatic young power worker. Has almost limitless potential. Currently on loan from NWA Lutte Internationale. Dos Caras: Mexican wrestling legend. Usually works as a heavyweight despite his smaller size. Very popular in Japan. Able to adjust his style to match up with various different kinds of wrestlers. Can work in the Middleweight division. Shinya Hashimoto: Great striker and power worker, being groomed as a potential future ace. Already has a strong grasp of ring psychology. Can work Shoot Style. Keiji Mutoh: Very flashy and athletic. Being groomed as a future star. Already quite popular with the fans. Masa Chono: Charismatic. Being groomed as a future star. Can work in the Middleweight division. Kantaro Hoshino: Past his prime but still wildly entertaining. Very small but also very quick. Boxing background with the great punches to show for it. Can work in the Middleweight division. Currently out injured with a broken fibula. Osamu Kido: Solid basic wrestler, good on the mat. Not much personality. Can work Shoot Style. Can work in the Middleweight division. Shiro Koshinaka: Charismatic and entertaining. Often works as the third man in trios matches with Fujinami and Kimura. Can work in the Middleweight division. Gran Hamada: Lucharesu pioneer. Still in the midst of a very long peak period. Great high flyer. Can work in the Middleweight division.Can also work Shoot Style. Keiichi Yamada: Gifted athlete at the start of what could be a legendary career. Exciting, athletic, and innovative style. Already has a strong grasp of ring psychology. Being groomed as the future ace of the Middleweight division. Shunji Kosugi: Solid technical wrestler, very good at making others look good in the ring. Can work in the Middleweight division.

The Inoki Federation Antonio Inoki: President and founder of NJPW. Iconic living legend. More or less invented Shoot Style. Yoshiaki Fujiwara: Shoot Style pioneer. One of the world’s greatest grapplers, and trainers. Seiji Sakaguchi: 1965 Japan Judo Champion. Inoki’s long-time second. Masakatsu Funaki: Fujiwara disciple, being groomed as a future Shoot Style star. Can work in the Middleweight division. The Cobra: Former NWA and WWF Jr. Heavyweight champion. Big bumper. Can work in the Middleweight division. Kuniaki “Tiger Hunter” Kobayashi: Long-time rival of Tiger Mask Sayama. Can work in the Middleweight division. Aggressive style. Animal Hamaguchi: Former bodybuilder has the strength to match up with heavyweights and the athleticism to match up with juniors. Can work in the Middleweight division. Mighty Inoue: Has a mix of European and Lucha Libre styles picked up on foreign tours. Solid mid-card veteran, and excellent tag team wrestler. Can work in the Middleweight division. Naoki Sano: Recent NJPW Dojo graduate works a very aggressive and physical style, and works hard to incorporate different styles of wrestling, such as Lucha Libre and Shoot Style. Can work in the Middleweight division. Toshiaki “Dangerous K” Kawada: Tenryu protégé is already one of the stiffest and most intense workers on the roster. Has the potential and work ethic to become one of the best ever. Can work in the Middleweight division. Samson Fuyuki: Late bloomer got his start in 1976 with IWE, but he has yet to reach his peak. Yoshinari “Rat Boy” Ogawa: Has a sneaky, cerebral style. Can work in the Middleweight division. Kazuo Yamazaki: Throws great kicks and is very good working from underneath and selling. Can work in the Middleweight division. Can work Shoot Style.

JWA Press Release: JWA Factions as published in Asahi Shinbun Team Giant Baba Giant Baba: President and founder of AJPW and JWA. Living legend. Jumbo Tsuruta: Former Olympic wrestler. One of the best pro wrestlers in the world. Genichiro Tenryu: Former sumo wrestler. Current JWA Heavyweight Champion. One of the best in the world. Tiger Mask Sayama: Lucharesu and Shoot Style pioneer. Can work in the Middleweight division. Can work Shoot Style. Incredibly popular. Tiger Mask Misawa: Gifted young star being groomed to eventually follow in the footsteps of Baba and Jumbo. Can work in the Middleweight division. Nobuhiko "Esperanza" Takada: Young star with huge potential. Very good striker. Can work in the Middleweight division. Can work Shoot Style. Adept at mixing Shoot Style with other styles. Yoshiaki Yatsu: Former Olympic wrestler. Powerful and legitimately tough. Excellent tag team worker. Masanobu Fuchi: All-around talent with a good mix of brawling and mat wrestling. Can work in the Middleweight division. Ashura "Fighting" Hara: Former rugby star and IWE veteran. Tenryu’s frequent tag team partner, and friend. Takashi “Onomi” Ishikawa: Former sumo wrestler, with a high-power style. Good tag team worker. Shinichi Nakano: A decent technical wrestler with a judo background. Shunji Takano: The Cobra’s tall and athletic brother. Hirokazu Hata: The Barry Horowitz of the JWA. Can work in the Middleweight division.

I'm pretty sure that's going to start happening quite soon Yeah, AJPW was already running an "invasion" type angle with Choshu's group in '85. I'm hoping the "factions" angle will let me capture some of the spirit of that without copying it outright.

Thank you very much. That's exactly what I am striving for. With that stacked roster, I should be able to have some high-flying, some brawling, some shoot style, some technical wrestling, some classic chain wrestling, some out-of-control action, some stiffness, some storytelling, some heeling and stooging, some pure entertainment... it's fun to figure out who will fill each role on a given card. If you look at old NJPW cards from '85, it was pretty common to have gaijin wrestlers in 75 per cent or more of the upper mid card and main event matches. In AJPw around the same time it looks like one of the top two matches was Choshu's Invading Army against AJPW guys and the other top match was usually gaijin vs native. Thanks. I enjoy writing it up that way. I'm not a big move-by-move recap guy.

Hope y'all enjoyed those match-ups. Andre and the Freelancers add a great deal to my cards, it's really fun to book shows with them around. I've been trying to book shows full of matches that I would want to see, so it's nice that you guys like those match-ups as well.

Classic set-up for the tag team match. Should be a good one,

I'm hoping you have big things planned for Terry Taylor, I wonder who he might get on his side to help, and I wonder who will replace him in the Sensationals. Nice story-telling!

Love the show of respect from the Fabs! OMG, Botswana Beast, and Humongous! What a trio! Perfect 80s territorial monster bad guys.

Just saying: They might wanna pay a visit to Uganda