jdw

All Japan ran 8 series a year: * New Year Giant Series Long series usually from Jan 2 through the end of Jan. * Excite Series Short series starting in mid-Feb and running through either the last week in Feb or first week in Mar. * Champion Carnival Series Long series from mid/late Mar through mid-Apr. From the 70s through 1982 and again from 1991 on, the promotion ran a singles tourney in this series. * Super Power Series Short series from mid/late May through early Jun. Often one of the bigger matches of the year would be at the Budokan during this series. * Summer Action Series Long series through most of July, at times starting in late June. * Summer Action Series II Kind of shortish series in Aug to early Sep. * October Giant Series Long series eating up most of Oct, sometimes starting in late Sep. * Real World Tag League Long series from mid-Nov into Dec. Final card of the year got located at Budokan starting at some point in the 80s, and tended to be the big show of the year. The promotion over time expanded the number of shows at Budokans they ran a year, from 4 in 1988-91 to 5 in 1992 to 6 in 1993 and 7 in 1994. They never added one to the New Year Giant Series. The Budokan cards tended to be the biggest shows of the series. But other big matches would take place on other shows.

It's sent out by e-mail, so responses/voting is done by e-mail. If one wants to send Dave a War & Peace response, they could. I try to keep mine clean. I use to elaborate online at length on some candidates, so there never was a huge desire to send it with the ballot.

"Dave tells me that every wrestler & writer in Japan voted for Masa Saito. So there you go." -Yohe, 09-26-2009 02:02 AM on WrestlingClassics.com Saito got 62 votes, which accounted for 63% of the 98 voters counted as "Japanese Region Voters". "Unless Japanese journalists are just voting for everyone." -jdw One does wish Dave would make his data more transparent rather than obtuse. Not by "naming names", but by putting real numbers and labels to the data. He loves to break the data down into really useless groups that offer next to no insight.

Funaki is one that I would agree, though much of that had to do with the death of the WON MMA HOF. If one wanted to argue he is worthy of being in an MMA HOF, I don't care. As a "pro wrestler", it remains a joke. But there wasn't really a place for his supporters to toss him after Dave dumped the WON MMA HOF.

I always find that pretty suspect. Unless Japanese journalists are just voting for everyone.

http://grantland.com/features/why-wrestling-matters-wwe-vince-mcmahon-mainstream-attention-brock-lesnar-the-rock-jon-stewart People who cover the business sure get hard ons about wrestling being "mainstream".

I'm not sure it was Baba deciding to make Kobashi the clear #2. My recollection from what I was told from someone over there at the time was that business was instantly bad. Then business didn't pick up when Kobashi got the belt, hence Misawa rushing back, less at the insistence of Baba but more in terms of feeling responsibility as the Ace and as part of management to get back. Business was bad enough that Baba put the belts back on Misawa even though Misawa was very clear that he didn't want them back yet - clear in the sense of reading between the lines of Misawa saying when he came back that he wouldn't be challenging for the belt anytime soon... only for Baba to put him in the TC match the next series, and have him win the title. I've usually pointed to that when people start talking about Selfish Bookersawa, or when people re-write history after not haven written about the history at the time either because they weren't asking, or didn't grasp what was being said. But it's as applicable to apply to there being any master plan with Kobashi. The company in 1998 was more than a bit messy. Anyway... Re-reading the point I made in the quoted text, I should try to be as clear as possible. From a structural standpoint of where they ranked in the promotion at the time, Kobashi wasn't really an underdog in that match. Fairly even, with management favoring Kobashi as a "favored son" while Kawada was the prodigal son who spent time in the doghouse. From a storyline standpoint, it was a bit of a mess. Misawa had run the table by the Dome show and was ripe to drop it. Yet they really hadn't done much of anything to build up Kawada other than to throw him into the match. Misawa won the Carny, Kawada didn't even get to the Final of it, and dropped a singles match to Kobashi in it. From an expectations stand point, given All Japan's booking of the Triple Crown over the years, it "was a lock" that Kawada would retain on his first title defense in the match up, especially coming off winning it at the biggest All Japan card ever. Add in Kobashi's Carny win over Kawada, "payback" was all over it. Go figure. Which is why I probed around on "why" at the time.

I actually think that it's more voters whose "knowledge" is US based but happen to vote for some folks they know or that Dave has pimped over the years. Saito got in as much for having bounced around the US forever than what he did in Japan, which wasn't terribly notable. Dragon was helped by his time here. Doc is an American who spent half his career in the US, and got sympathy illness points. Sasaski is someone Dave pimped, especially after the crop of Japanese candidates thinned (i.e. the locks of Sasaki's generation we all already in and the crop behind him was weak at the time). Hase was someone Dave pimped, and I regularly saw voters who didn't really follow puroresu parrot errant views of him. It was bang your head against the wall stuff. Funaki was frankly the same thing. * * * * * This tends to go to the point some of us have made over the years, and is getting made again here: When Dave hands someone their ballot, he should tell them the region(s) they can vote in. That's not terribly complicated. I might respect Bruce Mitchell or Jim Ross' opinions on a variety of topics, but they flat out shouldn't be casting a vote for wrestlers and promoters who were/are based in Japan. That would apply to probably 98% of the voters when it comes to Mexico. I'll cop to the fact that I shouldn't be voting for candidates from Mexico. It simply isn't my area of expertise. I do ping Jose and Sims most years, especially when there are new people added to the ballot who may be reasonable candidates. But taking their views (which doesn't agree on everything), mixing in my limited knowledge... in the end I'm like the folks who voted Hase in. Why Dave doesn't make this change, along with the age one? Beats me. Doesn't seem like there's much chance of it changing.

Probably the opposite. They made the big jump in the results in 1992, the year they worked in the US a good deal.

Couple of quick notes: * The "missing" show for the final night of the Tag League isn't terribly important in eventually doing a "season set" Classic has it covered: 12/13/82 Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs. Umanosuke Ueda & The Super Destroyer (7:19) Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Harley Race & Dick Slater (17:47) The Funk Brothers vs. Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen (12:30) The Tenryu match got tossed onto the omnibus post-League tv show, while the double main event probably took up the entire TV time of the prior show. I also think the date might be wrong on that Steamer vs Onita match on classics: they were in a tag match on the final night. Not entirely sure where that match would date to. * Carny Good lord... look at all that Carny. Classics just ignored the hell out of it. Could you imagine if Classics aired these complete: 03/25/82 Champion Carnival: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Ted Dibiase (30:00) 03/30/82 Champion Carnival: Genichiro Tenryu vs Billy Robinson (19:39) 04/09/82 Champion Carnival: Giant Baba vs Jumbo Tsuruta (30:00) 04/16/82 Champion Carnival: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Genichiro Tenryu (30:00) Like they pulled stuff out of the 1975 World League? Anyway, getting those in JIP is better than nothing. And the rest of the stuff from Carny looks interesting. It does go to show just how much stuff is still in the Vault.

Dan, Here's a bit of a cleaned up list. I've don't the translations and checked with cagematch.net and my spreadsheet for match times, venues, tourneys and titles. Might use it as you base for the (xx:xx of yy:yy) you often do with original broadcast matches. 03/19/82 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall Genichiro Tenryu vs Takashi Ishikawa (12:03) Mighty Inoue vs Billy Robinson (10:40) Champion Carnival: Giant Baba vs Buck Robley (2:29) Champion Carnival: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Bruiser Brody (6:22) 03/25/82 at Chiba Park Gymnasium Champion Carnival: Genichiro Tenryu vs Bill Howard (7:32) Champion Carnival: Giant Baba vs Alexis Smirnoff (6:14) Champion Carnival: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Ted Dibiase (30:00) Champion Carnival: Bruiser Brody vs Billy Robinson (9:48) 03/30/82 at Niigata City Gymnasium Champion Carnival: Ted Dibiase vs Buck Robley (7:15) Champion Carnival: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Takashi Ishikawa (9:24) Champion Carnival: Genichiro Tenryu vs Billy Robinson (19:39) Champion Carnival: Bruiser Brody vs Prince Tonga (4:17) Champion Carnival: Giant Baba vs Mongolian Stomper (5:19) 04/09/82 at Tottori Industrial Gymnasium Champion Carnival: Genichiro Tenryu vs Mighty Inoue (10:08) Champion Carnival: Billy Robinson vs Mongolian Stomper (11:10) Champion Carnival: Bruiser Brody vs Ted Dibiase (9:59) Champion Carnival: Giant Baba vs Jumbo Tsuruta (30:00) 04/16/82 at Fukuoka Kokusai Center Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen & Jimmy Snuka (14:51) Champion Carnival: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Genichiro Tenryu (30:00) Champion Carnival: Giant Baba vs Bruiser Brody (10:02) 04/20/82 at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium Genichiro Tenryu vs Jimmy Snuka (16:30) Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. vs Harley Race & Ted Dibiase (17:31) Int’l Tag Title: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen (7:38, 4:05, 3:08) 04/22/82 at Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. vs Jimmy Snuka & Bruiser Brody (17:46) UN Title: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Harley Race (13:06) PWF Title: Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen (7:12) 04/21/82 at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium Genichiro Tenryu & Terry Funk vs Buck Robley & Jimmy Snuka (12:13) Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Harley Race & Stan Hansen (12:57) Int’l Title: Dory Funk Jr. vs Bruiser Brody (15:15) 05/14/82 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall Mighty Inoue & Ashura Hara vs Ricky Steamboat & Dick Slater (14:02) Genichiro Tenryu vs Tiger Jeet Singh (5:32) Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Stan Hansen & Ron Miller (10:42) 05/21/82 at Asaka Municipal Gymnasium Ricky Steamboat vs Takashi Ishikawa (12:15) Jumbo Tsuruta & Prince Tonga vs Stan Hansen & Jay Youngblood (7:53) Giant Baba & Genichiro Tenryu vs Tiger Jeet Singh & Umanoseke Ueda (5:37) 07/30/82 at Kawasaki City Gymnasium Int’l Jr. Title: Atsushi Onita vs Chavo Guerrero (7:08) UN Title: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Mil Mascaras (12:01) + (5:00) PWF Title: Giant Baba vs Umanoseke Ueda (7:21) 08/1/82 at Korakuen Hall Giant Baba & Genichiro Tenryu vs Umanoseke Ueda & Tiger Jeet Singh (13:44) UN Title: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Harley Race (15:29) Omnibus – Mascaras 7/21/82 at Nachikatsura Tourist Town Hall Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (17:23) 8/1/82 at Korakuen Hall Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs Great Kojika & Motoshi Okuma (9:35) 07/22/82 at Kushimoto Municipal Gymnasium Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs Rocky Hata & Takashi Ishikawa (11:40) Genichiro Tenryu vs Umanoseke Ueda (4:59) Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Harley Race & Killer Tor Kamata (11:02) 08/26/82 at Kumagai Civic Gymnasium Genichiro Tenryu & Mighty Inoue vs Crusher Blackwell & Rufus R Jones (17:10) Stan Hansen & Ron Bass vs Terry Funk & Ashura Hara (10:35) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Frank Dusek (5:05) 09/02/82 at Tochigi Prefectural Gymnasium Genichiro Tenryu & Atsushi Onita vs Destroyer & Ultraseven (30:00) Terry Funk vs Crusher Blackwell (9:35) Int’l Tag Title: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Stan Hansen & Ron Bass (12:25) 09/08/82 at Yamagata Prefectural Gymnasium Genichiro Tenryu vs Destroyer (12:10) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Ron Bass (8:13) All Asia Tag Title: Akio Sato & Takashi Ishikawa vs Frank Dusek & Rufus Jones (11:49) Giant Baba & Terry Funk vs Stan Hansen & Crusher Blackwell (7:30) 09/11/82 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall Atsushi Onita vs Ultraseven (7:09) Destroyer & Ron Bass vs Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (11:03) Terry Funk vs Stan Hansen (10:54) 09/14/82 at Kariya City Gymnasium Atsushi Onita vs Frank Dusek (12:15) Terry Funk & Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Destroyer & Ron Bass & Crusher Blackwell (13:29) PWF Title: Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen (5:56) 10/20/82 at Aomori Prefectural Gymnasium Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Nikolai Volkoff & Victor Rivera (8:05) Atsushi Onita vs Chavo Guerrero (12:44) Int’l Title: Bruiser Brody vs Genichiro Tenryu (12:14) 10/26/82 at Obihiro City Gymnasium Jumbo Tsuruta & Ashura Hara vs Nikolai Volkoff & Jimmy Snuka (12:08) Int’l Title: Bruiser Brody vs Dory Funk Jr. (11:29) PWF Title: Giant Baba vs Harley Race (12:45) 11/02/82 at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium Atsushi Onita vs Victor Rivera (8:31) Jumbo Tsuruta & Dory Funk Jr. vs Nikolai Volkoff & Dream Machine (12:10) Bruiser Brody vs Jimmy Snuka (5:51) PWF Title: Harley Race vs Giant Baba (12:41) 11/04/82 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall Bruiser Brody & Gypsy Joe vs Dory Funk Jr. & Genichiro Tenryu (13:39) Int’l Jr Title: Atsushi Onita vs Chavo Guerrero (13:17) Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Harley Race & Jimmy Snuka (9:04) 11/26/82 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall Harley Race & Dick Slaterー vs Great Kojika & Motoshi Okuma (10:46 – Non-League) Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. vs Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara (20:00 – Non-League) Tag League: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Super Destroyer & Umanoseke Ueda (7:13) Tag League: Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody vs Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood (10:41) 12/02/82 at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium Tag League: Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Motoshi Okuma & Great Kojika (14:26) Tag League: Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. vs Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood (18:57) Tag League: Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody vs Harley Race & Dick Slater (12:58) 12/09/82 at Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center Tag League: Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood vs Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara (15:56) Tag League: Harley Race & Dick Slater vs Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. (45:00) Tag League: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody (12:24) Omnibus Fukuoka Kokusai Center (taped 12/07/82) Harley Race vs Ricky Steamboat (16:21) Bruiser Brody vs Terry Funk (10:24) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Stan Hansen (9:26) Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan (taped 12/13/82) Tag League: Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Umanoseke Ueda & Super Destroyer (7:19)

Penthouse does make a lot more sense of where I read about Snuka.

It's entertaining.

The key things to remember between Original Broadcast NJPW/AJPW and Classics NJPW/AJPW are: * Match Length Original often would have JIP. Classics tends to have more complete matches. * Video Quality Classics are always newer than Original Broadcast, so you're usually going to get better quality. * Matches Covered Original Broadcast is always going to have more stuff that was not aired on Classics. Occasionally you'll get an entirely new match that was shot at the taping by never aired originally. Some singles match in the 1985 AJPW Tag League was like that involving Choshu. But it's pretty rare.

I also wouldn't equate these 90s tournaments with the coverage that the ones have gotten in the 00s and 10s. Different beasts, and different coverage.

Again, we don't have any great insight into him sticking with something he set his mind on. We don't really know how far into the future he plotted stuff out. It's clear that he had elements of 1993 blocked out in Carny '93 and coming out of it. But everything through the rest of the year? Not terribly clear. I am talking on a more macro level, such as when to pull the trigger on a certain guy going over against the ace. See Jumbo, Tenryu, Kawada, Kobashi, etc. There is reason to believe Misawa was rushed because of Tenryu's exit. There isn't a lot of evidence that Baba had a long term plan of when Kawada or Kobashi were going over Misawa. Or that he plotted out a grand storyline for it. Shit just kind of happened over time. Trigger on Tenryu going over the Ace Jumbo? It's hard to see that there was a key long term plan there. Tenryu "won" their first singles matches after they split up. Jumbo won the third a year later, but not in a really dominating acey way. Jumbo got the pin in the 4th won. It really had nothing to do with long term planning: Jumbo just unified the Triple Crown, and based on that Baba was going to finally let him pin his rival to confirm that Jumbo the Unifier was the Ace. Now, did Baba at that time know he'd be putting Tenryu over for the belt two months later? We could say probably. That he would go back to Jumbo later in the year. We could say probably. But 1989 almost certainly wasn't plotted out by Baba back in 1987. Was it generally plotted out in 1988 at the time of their singles match that year? I'm not sold that it was. We see booking and storyline in All Japan from how it happened, not how it probably was planned out in the long term.

People get carried away with wrestlers they like. Not just guys at Baba's level, but we can include stuff on every GoaT candidate. Their most vocal supporters will wax poetically, other vocal supporters will run in to join in, while others just kind of roll their eyes at the over the top nature of it. No doubt people or matches that I've waxed on have had the same reaction. Baba was ripped for ages in hardcore circles, going back to the early days of the WON. It kind of was a meme that he wasn't any good, got over because of his size and look, and that Inoki was the good worker. There were cracks in that in the 90s, but it's not like a lot of good Baba stuff was in circulation... at least in the sense of widely watch. Something like Baba-Destroyer wasn't flying out of the tape sellers shelves like Dream Slam. Overtime, more Baba became available via Classics, as did more Inoki. More examples of Baba younger, and more examples of Baba in the 70s where he started slowing down by still had good/smart matches. Then more stuff was not only was available, but dvd's and the interwebs made it easier to access cheaper and quicker, while also increasing the circle of people talking about it. So Baba got rethought. A chunk of it was by people who weren't tied to the old hardcore meme, and part of it was people who were familar with the meme but checking out that 60s and 70s stuff that hadn't been out there before. "Baba was good" became a valid point to make. Did the biggest Baba lovers go overboard on it? I don't think that was the case when people first started to make the point. We might have praised the shit out of something like Baba vs Billy as a great match, but I don't recall any of us saying Baba was a Top 10 Worker All-Time. It seemed more than we were trying to get across that there was a decent amount of evidence that Baba could work, or in the case o that match that Billy wasn't the bland vanilla worker that the old hardcore memes also like to claim. But it was far from over the top in putting over the workers as GoaT's.

Again, we don't have any great insight into him sticking with something he set his mind on. We don't really know how far into the future he plotted stuff out. It's clear that he had elements of 1993 blocked out in Carny '93 and coming out of it. But everything through the rest of the year? Not terribly clear.

Baba typically finished the Angles he started, because frankly he ran very few angles. What Baba didn't do was finish "storylines" that he started. He really didn't think in those terms. But for angles, he did tend to finish them. Misawa elbowed Jumbo. Jumbo got pissed. It set up a singles match. They had a singles match, and everyone was happy with how it turned out. Tenryu knocking out Hansen was an angle. The payoff was a singles match. That he didn't have a finish to the Misawa-Jumbo storyline, or the Hansen-Tenryu storyline... that's just kind of his mentality. He tended to be open ended on storylines. Part of that sprung, as I said, from coming out of the 60s and 70s when your "angles" tended to be contained to one series, then the next batch of gaijin would come in. Dealing with a closed crew, and native vs native within that crew (as opposed to the external IWE in the 70s) caused a change in narrative. We tend to add that Misawa & Kawada failed in the 1990 & 1991 Tag Leagues before winning in 1992, and that Kawada & Taue failed in 1993-95 (all to Misawa & Kobashi) before finally winning in 1996 as great narratives. The reality is that Baba didn't sit down in 1990 and block out when Misawa & Kawada were going to win, or in 1993 when Kawada & Taue were going to go over. We see narrative from how it *happened* over the years, not necessarily how it was planned or scripted. On the other hand... One benefit from avoiding hot shot booking is that sometimes stories like Kawada & Taue can kind of evolve. You look up as a booker and go, "Hey... we haven't done this. That might work here and have some payoff." Or it just happening without much thought being given to it by those doing it.

COR, DCOR, DQ, DDQ. Last week I watched a 2/3 fall tag match. Flair pins Baba in the first. Flair beats Jumbo with a COR in the second fall. Next week's show had a tag with a DQ finish. Common. New Japan did too.

I got it at my newstand here in LA County. It wasn't, and still isn't, some massive specialty/niche driven newstand. It just was a good newstand in the era. Got my wrestling mags there as well in the 80s. If you're saying that the Village Voice was available in major metros across the nation, then that's my point: most of the people in the country lived in major metros by the 90s. New York and Los Angeles along accounted for 10% of the country's population. I also said "national out there". I was reading the WON at the time the article game out. I had not read about Snuka and Nancy in the WON by that point. Dave certainly hadn't covered it in any detail in my time of reading up to that point. Yet here I was reading about it in the Village Voice. Who cares. It wasn't my point. It was outside the wrestling bubble, which someone up above claimed was where the story lived. The Village Voice had more readers than the WON, anyway. So even if it was in the bubble as someone claimed, it got more coverage in the article than it could have gotten in the bubble. Again: so what. Neither did the Von Erich's story, though it would pop back up from time to time in different local papers. The point is that the story got out there, beyond the bubble of Wrestling Insiders, and even beyond the locality of the original fanbase. No one is claiming it was on the CBS Evening News, or that 60 Minutes did a piece on it. On the other hand, we've had the discussion here about the 20/20 piece and it's impact on folks knowing that Wrestling Is Faker Than Fake. Major television show that did very good ratings doing a piece on pro wrestling at a time when it was "hot". But we have a number of folks on this board who state, quite believably, that it was something that they never heard about at the time, and only came across years later online. Outside the wrestling bubble on a major show in a major era in a time where there was many less options tv watching, yet lots of people didn't see it. My point with that would be, and has been, is that the story of wrestling being fake was out there nationally. It's not my fault that people missed it, but it doesn't take away that it was out there to be seen. Parse my posts. See if you can find me saying it was "well known". It was out there. * * * * * As a side note, Bix did a solid job of finding articles in 1983 on both the death and the January incident. It really brings home how actively people didn't give a shit in chasing it. Not just law enforcement, but also the media when wrestling got hot the following year with Snuka still in the promotion. If it was a fairly easy case for law enforcement to chase, it was just as easy for the media to chase. Pretty appalling.

In ring, absolutely. The main events were often great-all time great matches. The overall booking of the promotion, unless outside forces were pushing his hand, was disappointing relative to the main event talent. Kurosawa showed more creativity in 90 minutes of Rashomon than Baba did in 30 years of All Japan. I won't hold Baba's uninteresting booking against him in the GWE poll. He'll rank really high for me. As will a lot of his disciples. I like them as workers. I wish they had a Riki Choshu type booker. I don't wish they had Choshu. I liked the contrast. 6/9/95 meant something because there has been a delay. If Choshu were booking, Kawada would have gotten a pin on Misawa before Misawa even won the Triple Crown. Jumbo would have jobbed to a bunch of younger guys in the 1992 Carny. What Choshu did was cool for New Japan for a good stretch. What Baba did for All Japan was good for stretch. The contrast is nice.

Who is burying Baba's booking? We're just saying that the actual *booking* wasn't the greatest thing since sliced bread. I've got the 20 year online rep of being All Japan Fanboy #1, along with eating plenty of shit for the evil influence that I've had on creating a generation of ditto heads following my lead to create an All Japan Hegemony as the greatest wrestling ever. So... When All Japan Fanboy #1 is willing to admit that certain elements of All Japan weren't God's Gift To Pro Wrestling, perhaps there's something to it. I asked him who said it so we might get some insight into what it's all about. It's certainly not from me. Even with the positive things that I've said about Baba over the years... I haven't tossed out something like that. I'm not sure how I'm suppose to address a question releated to an opinion that's not mine, or quite mine. I'm sure MJH can point to what he's talking about. Links are good, and what not. Then the rest of us can take a look at it. My thoughts on Baba, if I haven't tossed them out enough over the years? He was a very good worker given his limitations, very smart in his work, and often a lot of fun to watch. I've called him a smarter version of Taue, and that's not comparing him to the version of Taue that I like less than most these days, but the version of Taue that I've pimped the shit out of. Praise.

In 1985, Choshu jump. In 1987, Choshu jumped back to New Japan, and Tenryu went opposite of Jumbo. In 1990, Tenryu left and they elevated Misawa. In 1992, Jumbo got sick and in 1993 they moved Kawada over opposite of Misawa. What happened is that every 2-3 years, Baba was faced with one of his top guys leaving or going out. It forced him to change his program, rather than him coming up with a way to freshen up things while everyone stayed around. In 1995... 1996... Kawada didn't leave, Misawa didn't get sick. Faced with a stale roster, the book just went along stale. One can go back and look at 1989 and 1992 before he was forced to make changes. As each of those years went on, and went into the next year, they were pretty stale. Baba wasn't a great booker. He wasn't a bad one. Solid for the most part over a long run, and very good at reacting to change. But things tended to get static, which isn't terribly surprising since the 1960s and 1970s of his prime were static eras. It was easier to do in those years when the gaijin were the "opponents" and they were changing from series to series. Increasingly static roster make static booking kind of stand out if things don't change over a few years.