gordi

That Main Event sounds pretty good!

She arrived at 17:45 on the button. I was ready this time. The plan for November is to run the Tokyo Dome (and then run it again in January, with the debut show in our new Osaka arena in December coming between the two Dome shows. It's not my job to make those decisions. It's my job to fill in the picture. The wrestlers and the agents then fill in the details. I'm good with that. I asked he about the gift tags in my living room. The TV is from Mutoh. The stereo is from Liger. I find it hard not to mark out a little when she tells me that. The CDs are from Gado and Jedo. I talked with them a little about the Classical and Jazz I like, once. I'm amazed how well they remembered. "You like Classical music?" She seems surprised. "You don't look like...." She picks out a CD. "Can I?" It's Szell and Casadesus playing Mozart Piano Concertos. "He does his own cadenza in this one," she tells me. We move into the view room, to go over more of the manual. The love seat is from Wally. Thanks, man. As the slow movement of Concerto no. 21 is playing in the background, Yuka's hand touches mine as we point at the same passage in the handbook. Our eyes meet. I freeze, like an idiot, and the moment passes. She's tired,and she goes home early. I'll see her again tomorrow. It's possible that, if I request that she be my personal assistant, Asahi will take her off of her morning duties, and we can have more late night time together. We decide that we'll bring it up at the next conference call. A hug goodbye, but no kiss. I'm good with that. For now. After the Fukuoka show, we'll be splitting the roster, with the welterweights going Northeast for a trios tournament, and the heavyweights heading Southwest for a tag tournament. At the November Dome show, we'll have both tournament finals matches, to crown new champions, as well as IWGP and welterweight title defenses. There are some promises that SirEdger made that we need to fulfill, as well. I stay up all night working on that, and trying not to think too much about Yuka.

You'll most likely get all of them anyway, but...

I'm assuming Some Other Guy was a corporate representative. He was cautiously enthusiastic about my idea. Asahi Pro wants to emphasize the welterweight division, but of course there's a risk in headlining our first big show with such a match. Mutoh, to my surprise, was really supportive of the idea. He suggested we forgo a heavyweight title defense and maybe put him in a six man or a tag match in the semi-main instead. Some Other Guy figured it would be no problem to have a new belt prepared in time, and we all agreed that a belt-presentation ceremony would be the best way to end the show. The TV production facilities will not be ready for another week, so it was decided that we'd do a clipped re-broadcast of the draft, along with big highlight packages for El Samurai and Kanemoto to hype the Fukuoka Main Event. The Corporate guy (who referred to me exclusively by my family name, but called Yuka by her first name, which I found strange) asked if we could finalize the card tonight, so that it could be published tomorrow. We said we could. Wally stayed on the line to help us. We came up with this: El Samurai vs. Koji Kanemoto - Welterweight Title Unification match Mutoh, Fujinami, and Hase vs. Choshu, Chono, and Sasaki Liger and Sasuke vs. Ohtani and Togo *break* Hogan, Spivey, and Koshinaka vs. Hawk, Norton, and Scorpio Dos Caras, Hamada, and TAKA vs. Jado, Gedo, and Lance Delfin, Naniwa, Smiley, and Yakushiji vs. Kaz, Terry Boy, Funaki, and Black Buffalo Bret and Davey-Boy vs. Nagata and Nakanishi vs. TenKoji vs. The Machines Tajiri vs. Mochzuki It's a lot of six-man tags, but we wanna use everyone on the roster on every big show, as often as possible. It was after midnight when we finished up. "I've missed my last train." Was Yuka looking at me coquettishly? The devil on my shoulder was screaming at me to suggest she could stay at my place, but the angel won: "Can I walk you home?" "I live near Bentencho station. It'll take about 40 minutes. Is that OK?" She's definitely flirting. It's almost a parody: Playful, kittenish... what the hell is going on here? Doesn't she understand how far out of my league she is? About half-way there, she asked me if I drank alcohol. The place she took me to... dudes... it's a video-game bar! You can play for free as long as you are drinking, and the drinks aren't too expensive. "They have Fire Pro!" She grabbed my wrist and pulled me over to a console set-up. The staff all seemed to know her. This will sound like a lie, but it is not: Playing Fire Pro might have been the best part of my day. We played as Kanemoto vs. Samurai in a dome with Red Shoes as ref. It's possible to do that on this game. Yuka took the time to explain the grappling system to me. It's not a button-mashing game, at all. It's timing based. It took a while to get used to it. Just as I was figuring it out, Yuka yelped. "I have to go to work in four hours!" She handed me some cash to cover her drinks, gave me a chaste dry peck on the cheek, and ran out the door, yelling "See you tomorrow at the same time, maybe start your shower earlier!" The staff all laughed at me, but in a friendly way. I played one more game as Togo vs. Liger, payed up, and pretty much floated home.

Thank you, gentlemen! I am happy you are enjoying this. After the gym, I headed home to have a look at the company manual. As I read about the dress code, the hours, the standards of conduct and so on, my heart sank a little. Also, I fell asleep. I woke up around 17:30, and quickly jumped in the shower. Sure enough, 15 minutes later as I was still drying off, the doorbell rang. I answered with the towel around my waist. It was the goddess with the freckles. Eventually, once I had finished drying off and put some clothes on, I found out that she had come over to go through the company manual with me To my relief, it turned out that the early hours and suit-and-tie stuff didn't much apply to me, as I am in "creative." Once that was cleared up - and, I know this makes me look bad, but I am trying to be honest here - I kind of lost myself in just looking at Yuka. I mean, I basically stopped listening to her and just drank her beauty in with my eyes. Like an idiot. Do you wanna go over to the office, and I can show you?" she asked. Show me what? I wondered, silently. "Gordi?" She brushed the back of my hand with her finger tips, and I almost passed out as the blood rushed south from my brain. She was waiting for an answer to some kind of question. She leaned toward me. "Are you OK?" I literally had to bite my tongue to keep from babbling about how much I love the way she plays with her hair as she talks. "Be professional!" I screamed at myself, silently. "Yeah... office." I managed to stammer. She walked really close to me, her left shoulder brushing against my right bicep. She smelled faintly of vanilla, and maybe chamomile. We were almost there before I noticed that she was carrying the heavy manual and offered to take it from her. "What a Gentleman!" She laughed. There was a lot to learn at the office, and I more or less managed to keep my focus and pay attention. It seemed likely that my job would involve a lot of teleconferencing, which should be crazy considering the various language issues involved. I find it way easier to understand Japanese in face-to-face situations. On the telephone, it's sometimes close to impossible. My first big task was to make some decisions about the booking of the big Fukuoka show. We are running Marine Messe Fukuoka, a brand-new 15,00-seat building near the Sumo Hall in the Convention Center complex. I have a grand total of one idea for the show, but it's a pretty big one: "I think the Main Event should be El Samurai vs. Koji Kanemoto in a welterweight belt unification match, with the winner being presented a new belt: The Asahi Welterweight title." Yuka seemed to be legitimately excited by that suggestion. She pulled out a booking sheet and pushed it into a doohickey attached to the computer. It immediately came up enlarged on the white board. "Nice!" I said. She giggled at me, and wrote "Kanemoto vs. El Samurai, title unification, new belt" in the Main Event slot. Then she got Wally, Mutoh, and some other guy on speaker phone.

Exactly this. It's not so much the style, it's more the worker. It's not so much that Shoot Style Matwork is amazing. Sometimes, it's really not. It's far more that Han and Tamura are amazing at working on the mat, and they happen to be shoot style workers. Maybe I wanna watch Jim Breaks work on the mat. Maybe I don't wanna watch Giant Haystacks do the same.

So I emptied out that first gym bag, re-packed it for a single trip to the gym, put on an Asahi t-shirt and sweat suit, hung my corporate ID lanyard around my neck, and headed over to the complex to check things out. Everything is clearly marked with signs in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and English. I know it isn't the case, but I allow myself to imagine that the English signs are entirely for my benefit. "Thanks" I say, quietly. each time a sign helps me get where I'm going. There are fit and attractive women with clip-boards, who all seem to be about 26 years old, everywhere. I introduce myself to every one of them. At least three are named Yuka (or Yuki or Yuko). A lot of them use their family names when introducing themselves, so it's hard to be sure. All three possible Yukas are hawt, of course. One of them is pretty in an extremely conventional way, with fake eyelashes and a little too much makeup. One is actually a little too beautiful, with doe eyes, cupid's-bow lips, and a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her button nose. I actually found it hard to keep my composure when talking to her. The third was exactly my type: Pixie-ish, sporty, short-haired, and energetic. She walked me to the gym, and touched me on the arm when we said goodbye. The gym is a dream come true. So many free weights. Squat racks. Heavy dumbbells. Kettlebells. Heavy bags... Smiley was in there. "This place!" He kept saying. "This wonderful, beautiful place." He is astonishingly strong. We worked out together, talking little. I forgot to thank him for the supplements. He crushed me in every lift, going heavier for more reps than I could even imagine doing, and he was still training when I left.

I moved into my new place yesterday, and... Since high school, ever since that Czech exchange student gave me a copy of The Chomsky Reader, I have been kind of a knee-jerk anti-corporate type. And, you know, sincerely. But... as much as it kills me to admit this, it sure seems like corporate life in Japan is going to be pretty sweet for me. The studio/arena/gym/shopping/office complex that Asashi is building across the river from Osaka Castle is just amazing. It's huge, but they are using the space so efficiently. Everything is connected by covered walkways at ground level and at the 3rd-floor level. My place is not so much an apartment as a suite at a hotel on the north-east corner of the complex. I can walk to work in under twenty minutes. That alone makes me incredibly happy. You remember how much I hated those crowded trains in Tokyo. The suite itself isn't huge, but it's still easily the most living space I've ever had in Japan. First time I've ever had a decent-sized kitchen, and this one even has an oven big enough to cook a pizza in! The kitchen, living room (!) and bedroom are all fully furnished and equipped. There are little gift tags hanging off of everything. The big fridge in the kitchen is a gift from Asahi Shinbun newspaper. The little fridge in the living room is from Asahi Beverages, and is stocked with a full range of their products. The damn closet in my bedroom is crammed full of Asahi T-shirts, golf shirts, sweaters, jerseys... the pants, shoes, shirts, and hats all fit perfectly, which is something of a miracle considering my unusual-for-japan size and shape. There is an Asahi gym bag on the floor, packed with shorts, t-shirts, socks, towels, a belt, and gloves. There is a second bag, stuffed with protein powders, creatine, vanadium sulfate (!?), and vitamin packs. That one is from Lance and Smiley Norman. The stereo and TV have gift tags, too... but I can't read the kanji. There is a full rack of jazz and classical CDs, and video tapes of Ghibli, Kurosawa, and Ozu films in Japanese with English subtitles. I don't know how they know so much about my tastes already. It's mind-boggling. Obviously, since I'm writing to you now, I'm already connected to the internet. I think I've got satellite TV, too, but it's hard to figure out the controller. Even the remote for the air conditioning is more complex than what I'm accustomed to. There is a small room with a huge sliding glass door that opens on to a balcony. There is a love seat in the room so I can sit and enjoy the view. Even though I'm facing away from Osaka Jo, I still figure I'm gonna spend quite a bit of time in here. There's also a desk with an ergonomic office chair. On the desk, there is an enormous corporate manual, and a small schedule book. It's already filled in, in a delicate and beautiful script, with dates for TV tapings, live shows, tours, promo events... This evening is entirely blocked off, with only a single word as explanation: Yuka.

Kabuki can draw just for his entrance. Saw him on an Osaka Pro show just a few years ago, and I marked out for it.

Or you could go the other direction and sign, like, Tiger Jeet Singh, Abdullah the Butcher, Kuniaki Kobayashi, and Momota and run a seniors tour.

Chainsaw Charlie (vs Hayabusa in a Mask vs Mask match) Hayabusa (vs Terry Funk in a Exploding Cage Death Match)

Maybe someone can throw him in a barbed wire death match...

Long list of new free agents in the Asahi Pro Thread

And now the news everyone has been waiting for! The following six wrestlers from the Michinoku Pro roster are hereby released to free agency: Biff Wellington (Wellington Wilkens Jr.) Kyoko Inoue Miracle Man (MACH Hayato) (Hayato Najo) Masao Orihara Kuniaki Kobayashi Kato Kung Lee Kobayashi has been offered a position as trainer in the Asahi Pro Dojo. Biff and Kyoko have been offered positions with Asahi Beverages as goodwill ambassadors. All three have expressed a desire to continue wrestling, however, and will accept positions as active wrestlers in other promotions in preference to the jobs they have been offered. The following 16 wrestlers from NJPW have been released to free agency: Tiger Mask IV Hiro Saito Michiyoshi Ohara Black Cat Johnny Ace Kentaro Shiga Mitsuo Momota Kengo Kimura Maunukea Mossman Tokimitzu Ishizawa (Kendo Kashin) Naohiro Hoshikawa Shoji Nakamaki Tarzan Goto Tatsuhito Takaiwa Shigeo Okumura Masayuki Naruse Asahi Pro Wrestling wishes them well in their future endeavors!

Asahi Pro Wrestling Initial Roster, October 1995 Seiki-gun Ishingun Keiji Mutoh Riki Choshu Hulk Hogan (IWGP Champion) Road Warrior Hawk Tatsumi Fujinami (Tag Champ) Masa Chono Hiro Hase (Tag Champ) Kensuke Sasaki Yuji Nagata Satoshi Kojima Manabu Nakanishi Hiroyoshi Tenzan Dan Spivey Scott Norton Dos Caras 2 Cold Scorpio Shiro Koshinaka Lance Storm Super Strong Machine Tatsutoshi Goto Michiyoshi Ohara Jushin Liger (Welterweight Champion) Shinjiro Ohtani The Great Sasuke Koji Kanemoto El Samurai Dick Togo Super Delfin Jado Gran Naniwa Gedo TAKA Michinoku Kaz Hayashi (Trios Champ) Gran Hamada Sho Funaki (Trios Champ) Masato Yakushiji Terry Boy Teioh (Trios Champ) Norman Smiley Masaaki Mochizuki Tajiri Black Buffalo Kato Kung Lee (temp contract)

Asahi Pro Wrestling Initial Roster, October 1995 Seiki-gun Ishingun Keiji Mutoh (IWGP Champion) Riki Choshu Hulk Hogan Road Warrior Hawk Tatsumi Fujinami Masa Chono Hiro Hase Kensuke Sasaki Yuji Nagata Satoshi Kojima Manabu Nakanishi Hiroyoshi Tenzan Dan Spivey Scott Norton Dos Caras 2 Cold Scorpio Shiro Koshinaka Lance Storm Jushin "Thunder" Liger Shinjiro Ohtani The Great Sasuke Koji Kanemoto (NJPW Jr. Heavyweight Champion) El Samurai (TRWW Champion) Dick Togo Super Delfin Jado Gran Naniwa Gedo TAKA Michinoku Kaz Hayashi Gran Hamada Sho Funaki Masato Yakushiji Terry Boy Teioh Norman Smiley Masaaki Mochizuki Tajiri Black Buffalo Bret Hart * Super Strong Machine (Junji Hirata)** Davey-Boy Smith* T2000 Machine (Tatsutoshi Goto)** *(on temp loan from WCW) **(Contract expires after the Dome Show)

And... once again this should be taking place a couple of days in the 1995 future... but I have time today (was planning to go to a picnic, but it's raining), and I figure some people might like to know who is gonna be available in Free Agency. So: The Asahi Pro Wrestling Draft Special presented by Asahi Beverages, on Asahi TV We start with quick video packages for: Mutoh, Fujinami, and El Samurai. Then we cut to the TV Studio, where those three men, wearing suits, are seated at a long table, stage left of a central podium. At the podium, dressed to the nines, is Kiyoshi Kodama (host of Asahi TV's hit game show, Panel Quiz Attack 25. After a few words from Kodama, we cut back to Video packages for Choshu, Chono, and, Kanemoto. Back in the studio they have joined us, seated at a matching long table stage right of Kodama. They are dressed more casually. There are notebooks, microphones, and bottles of various Asahi brand teas on the tables in front of the wrestlers. The dapper Kodama explains the rules of the draft: - The first 20 picks will be televised. - The first four picks will be welterweight wrestlers. - The next four picks will be heavyweight wrestlers. - The next two picks will each comprise a heavyweight tag team. - This will be followed by a welterweight tag team. - The remaining eight picks will be free choice. - The team of Choshu, Chono, and Kanemoto will make the first pick. There is an ad break, featuring ads for Asahi Super Dry beer and some kind of "super-hydrating" sports drink. We return. The heels are on the clock. With the first pick of the 1995 Asahi Pro Wrestling draft, Ishingun choose Shinjiro Ohtani! *video package plays. Ohtani sits at the heel table* Mutoh, Fujinami, and Samurai are deliberating. With the second pick of the 1995 Asashi Pro wrestling draft, Seiki-gun chooses The Great Sasuke. There is a murmur in the crowd. Jushin "Thunder" Liger is still available. Will the heels grab him? *video package plays. Sasuke takes his place at the face table. There is heated discussion among the wresters at the Ishingun table. They seem to reach a decision. With the third pick, Ishingun selects: Dick Togo! There is chaos at the Seiki-gun table as the face contingent celebrate Liger's continued availability. After a brief video package of Togo highlights, there is another commercial break. When we return, Liger is already seated at the Seiki-gun table. A longer video package of Liger highlights is played. Things continue like that, as follows: Pick 5: Kensuke Sasaki to Ishingun. Pick 6: Hulk Hogan to Seiki-gun Pick 7: Road Warrior Hawk. Pick 8: Hiro Hase Pick 9: TenKoji (Tenzan and Kojima) to the heels Pick 10: Saikyo Yaijin (Nagata and Nakanishi) to the good guys Pick 11: Jado and Gedo Pick 12: Delfin and Naniwa And after our final commercial break, we return with the free choice rounds: Pick 13: Scott Norton to Ishingun Pick 14: TAKA Michinoku to Seiki-gun Pick 15: A visibly shocked Kaz Hayashi is drafted by the heels Pick 16: Dos Caras is drafted by the face team, to the delight of the crowd Pick 17: 2 Cold Scorpio Pick 18: Free Agent Danny Spivey is a surprise pick by Seiki-gun Pick 19: Terry Boy Pick 20: Gran Hamada Kiyoshi Kodama closes out the show by explaining that the rest of the draft results will be printed exclusively in tomorrow's Asahi Shinbun newspaper, and reported exclusively on TV Asahi's evening news broadcast. We close with an extended video package of all of the picks, in reverse order.

During the break, people kept coming over to give me small presents. Literally dozens of them, often from people I barely even know. I was, and still am, a little overwhelmed. I guess Morioka is going to miss me, too. Super Delfin, Shiro Koshinaka, and Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Dos Caras, Jado, and Gedo We'd wanted Delfin to play "face in peril" in this match, but he'd insisted it would work better if Kobayashi played that role and he got the hot tag. Gedo had made a suggestion, and after some thought, I had agreed to it. They essentially no-sold Delfin's "house afire" performance, then dealt him some very stiff strikes in the the heel corner. That led to another mask-ripping performance from Caras, which the crowd cheered wildly. An obviously frustrated Delfin fled backstage, covering his face. Naniwa met him there, and took him outside to talk. I guess we'll see if the light's going to go on for him, too. El Samurai vs. Kyoko Inoue Kyoko came to the ring accompanied by her former tag team partner Takako Inoue (no relation). Samurai was accompanied by... Hayabusa!! The FMW stars got a very warm welcome from the North East crowd. Haybusa was still on crutches, his injured leg very heavily taped up. For the first ten minutes, Sammy was reluctant to really engage with Kyoko, relying on grappling and staying away from heavy strikes and bombs. As usual, this enraged the Joshi star, who demanded that El Samurai give her his best. At around the ten-minute mark, Haybusa got up on the ring apron to cheer Samurai on, only to have Double Inoues knock him to the floor and go after his taped-up leg. Samurai dove out of the ring to save his injured friend and from that point on it became a violent, heated battle. When Hayabusa climbed into the ring to help El Samurai celebrate his successful title defense, the crowd just lost it. I'm sure the after-party was really emotional. I wanted to see how Lance and Kaz were handling what had happened. I was deeply curious to see if Delfin would show, and how he would behave. I genuinely wanted to be there, but I had to ride the private bus to Tokyo with Giant Baba. It was time to prepare for the Asahi Pro Wrestling Draft Special TV show.

(Note: It's October 9th here in Japan. I'm writing this up today because I have time, and I may not have time tomorrow. This show should take place on October 10th, which is a sports holiday in Japan, the anniversary of the opening of the first Tokyo Olympics. A lot of schools hold their undokai, or sports festival, on October 10th My 5 year old daughter has hers tomorrow, which is why I might be busy). the Appi Ski Resort Convention Hall is packed. Lots of families, presumably coming here together after their children's undokai. I guess it is kind of ironic. This might be the last-ever Michinoku Pro show, and we've got an amazing crowd in a gorgeous building. Maybe it's not ironic. Maybe it's a proper goodbye. Wally thinks, and I agree, that we have no choice but to seize this opportunity. It's gonna change everything, though. I've only been here a month or so but I already know that I am going to miss Morioka, and the community atmosphere of the M-Pro crowds, and the relaxed travel and work schedule, with guys that I really feel are becoming friends... But, this is our one shot at the big time. Like Wally says, we basically have no choice. We have to take it while we can. Word has gotten out, inevitably in such a small community. Yoko showed up in Appi with - I don't wanna be mean, but - the weeniest-looking dude imaginable. The guy literally has a comb-over, and his hips (though narrow) are wider than his shoulders. She keeps walking past me, with him, and looking at me like, "Ha!" I'm gonna miss her, too. Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Masaaki Mochizuki This is the match we were most anxious about. The whole show is being taped for broadcast, and as the opener, this match is gonna set the tone and either draw viewers in or drive them away. The two young guys had shown good chemistry time and again in tag matches... but this would be the first singles match for either of them in Michinoku Pro. We needn't have worried. They worked a tight, stiff sprint and Tajiri in particular busted out some crazy submission moves. The crowd ate it up and it looked just fine on tape. Norman Smiley, Kato Kung Lee, and Miracle Man vs. Black Buffalo, Masao Orihara, and Biff Wellington The energy as a little lower in this one, and I think that some of these guys are worried about their future. There is just no way we can carry everybody over to the new roster, and probably a couple of these guys are going to be looking for work soon. It's kinda tough to think about it, and I'm sure it's harder for them than it is for me. Gran Naniwa, Kaz Hayashi, Sho Funaki, Terry Boy, and Masato Yakushiji vs. The Great Sasuke, TAKA Michinoku, Dick Togo, Shinjiro Ohtani, and Lance Storm Oh, boy. Something crazy happened in this one. Lance, who prides himself on being a light and safe worker, caught Kaz coming off of the ropes with a simple back elbow... but he really caught him. Knocked Kaz loopy. There was a split-second where you could see the horror on Lance's face as he realized what had happened... then, thinking quickly, he whipped Kaz into his own corner and challenged TAKA to tag in. We'd suggested that Naniwa should put TAKA over in this one, but with this being a TV card and with the egos involved there was some concern that, say, Sasuke might demand that he get the win or Naniwa might refuse to do the job... but the match built to a lighting-quick four-minute sequence where, after a dive train had cleared the ring, TAKA and Naniwa faced off one on one. Naniwa got one near pin, then two, then a third... but TAKA fired back and hit a Michinoku driver near the corner, and got the classic heel pin with both a handful of tights and his feet on the bottom rope. After the match, backstage, with everyone congratulating Naniwa on his performance... well, you could almost see the light-bulb flashing above his head. I think the kid is finally getting it.

Cheers!

Give me three or four days to tell the tale, please. All will become clear. Talent situation will be sorted out.

Asahi Pro Wrestling signs Danny Spivey

So, my whole life has just been turned upside down, in the most awesome way possible. The last three days have been non-stop meetings between Wally, Sasuke, and... Giant Baba!! (And two extremely rich older guys from Tokyo). I was able to sit in on most of it, along with Gado and Jedo, and as far as I can tell, this is what is going down: Baba has been through a recent health scare. He is thinking about his future and wants to secure his legacy. He wants his wife, Motoko, to take over as owner after he's gone, but he's kind of worried that her stubborn adherence to tradition might drive some of the younger guys to leave and start their own promotion. Apparently, L.B.P. is out as All Japan's booker, and some new guy named Bierschwale is going to take over. I don't think it's the NASCAR driver, but who knows... If I understand correctly, he wants to do things in a less traditional way, and Baba is hoping that will help keep guys like Misawa and Kobashi happy. The two rich guys are (again, if I understand correctly) the heads of Asahi Brewing and Asahi Broadcasting. The companies are, as far as I know, unrelated except for the shared name. Asa hi means morning sun, or sunrise, in Japanese. It's a popular name. Asahi TV broadcasts the NJPW TV show World Pro Wrestling. They are worried about Inoki, who has reportedly gone a little nuts and wants to either turn NJPW into an MMA promotion or scrap New Japan and start something new. SirEdger has reportedly stepped down as booker, though the story is that he's busy with other commitments, rather than frustrated with Inoki's vision. If Inoki is serious about going Shoot Style, well... good luck competing with UWFi on that front! At the same time, Asahi Brewing is looking to get into Pro Wrestling in a big way, mainly as a means to promote the various vitamin drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, and health teas made by their soft drinks division. I may not have all the details correct, but it sounded like the two Asahi Corporations had been on the verge of buying out All Japan before Baba had his health scare. Faced with his own mortality, the gentle giant decided that he couldn't go through with it. However, he had another idea: If they could buy out New Japan, they could ensure that it would remain a pro wrestling company and allow Inoki to pursue his Martial Arts dreams under another banner. He wants to keep New Japan - or something very similar - alive in order to ensure that All Japan has competition and doesn't grow complacent. With SerEdger out of the picture, they also needed to pursue another booker... and that led them up here, to the North East. They want to buy out Michinoku Pro, then make Inoki a Godfather offer. They want to merge our promotion with New Japan under the Asahi Pro Wrestling banner. They want to offer a combination of nostalgia for the old days and more modern, fast-paced action. They want to tell stories, develop characters, mix in a bit of comedy. They want to run a weekly two-hour TV show with highlights from the tours along with a few promos and sketches. They want everything to build up to a monthly big card that will also be available on closed circuit at movie theaters throughout Japan. They want more of a family-friendly product, which is why they came here first, rather than going to the far more poplar UWFi or FMW promotions. They are already renovating a huge facility in Osaka, with a massive gym, an events center, a 16,000-seat hall, a 900-seat hall, and a TV studio complex. They want Wally to be in charge, and they want to give me the book. We have two days to decide.

This thread is fascinating. Thanks for doing this.