Ditch
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I wonder if New Japan's attitude has changed in regards to how much it demands of other promotions now. For instance, they steamrolled almost everyone in WAR other than Tenryu aside from a small handful of token wins, or they'd let a WAR heavyweight beat an undercarder/junior. The UWFi feud is notorious for this. But they were quite a bit more generous with AJ, and NOAH has generally gotten 'peer' treatment. Perhaps NJ knows they won't be better off if the rest of the promotions die? Of course there's also the Yukes angle in recent years; Yukes with their games has incentive to keep other companies attractive. I maintain that NOAH could have done far more with, for instance, the first 6 months of Rikio's reign, giving the young champs proper stables, having more focused booking overall to give pushes rhyme and reason, not waiting so long to give Morishima the title, etc. Baba booked Jumbo Army vs Misawa Army, then Misawa Army vs Kawada Army. Early NOAH had Burning vs Sternness, and sometimes either of those vs WAVE. We didn't get Rikio Army vs X, Morishima Army vs X, and by the time Akiyama won the title in '06 Sternness was an afterthought. By the time Rikio was given Disobey, with the lazy Yone as his partner, it was too little too late. The booking has been abysmal since Misawa's death, and you can't blame haphazard cards on budget woes when there's still lots of consistency tour-to-tour. No, NOAH was never going to replace Misawa, but it still could have done a lot more.
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Thanks! It really came out of nowhere and is due to Alan4L.
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[1996-08-05-NJPW-G1 Climax] Keiji Muto vs Shiro Koshinaka
Ditch replied to Loss's topic in August 1996
That was a mistake, on the 2nd it was Mutoh vs Yamazaki. -
[1996-09-05-AJPW-Summer Action Series II] Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi
Ditch replied to Loss's topic in September 1996
He had two more: the '99 RWTL final and a tag from July 2000. -
I've done a lot of analysis of where NOAH's booking fell short, and summarized/collected it here: http://wrestling.insidepulse.com/2010/01/1...ntable-decline/ That's not to say Akiyama, Rikio or Morishima were ever going to be close to Misawa and Kobashi in terms of the ability to lead the company and draw fans, but Baba did a far better job of giving Misawa and Kobashi good opponents and the trappings of champions. But again, a lot of these details were probably not from Misawa, and they certainly did try to put the title on a number of people over the last six years.
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I agree with this being on par with the 6/7 match. Both are good in similar ways, and the teams just meshed so well. It's funny how famous the MVC was, yet it seems clear to me that Doc & Ace produced better matches in the clutch despite Ace not being the wrestler Gordy was.
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I never understood that mindset, even a little.
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[1996-08-05-NJPW-G1 Climax] Keiji Muto vs Shiro Koshinaka
Ditch replied to Loss's topic in August 1996
Wait, what match a few days later? -
Macho Madness Returns To WWE.....At Least The WWE All-Stars Game
Ditch replied to KrisZ's topic in Pro Wrestling
Next you'll be saying that Savage never did tilt-a-whirl modified facebusters and John Woo missile dropkicks. -
Jado & Gedo have apparently been booking New Japan for a while. You literally could not determine where they took over based on results; their win/loss/push patterns are essentially identical. And they lose CONSTANTLY. But they are maybe an exception since they're small and wouldn't be allowed/tempted to push themselves as headliners. JDW, I've seen lots of things saying that Misawa was not the main booker in NOAH for the last several years (or possibly ever). I'm sure he had a lot of input but supposedly Kobashi and Akiyama were the idea guys. Regardless, I don't think NOAH did a good job of pushing new talent. Tons of mistakes and lost opportunities, and in the current Japanese climate there's no margin of error.
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This segment was terrible. -Both the Horsemen and DoD combined utterly fail despite significantly outnumbering the nWo, and fail so bad that the nWo are able to return to the booth -The set destruction came across as awkward, and now that I know it wasn't planned that makes sense -They wouldn't let Giant finish a sentence, leaving him visibly upset and killing the sense of him being in the fold Really felt sloppy all around.
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I'm just the opposite; this is my favorite FMW deathmatch. More action/better pacing than you got from various singles and 2-on-2 ones, there was somewhat of a match structure as the heels dominate the middle and the babyfaces stage a big comeback, there's plenty of credible nearfalls, and a satisfying finish.
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You do have a point in that lots of guys Back In The Day were able to cut intense promos without making it sound like they thought the opponent was a glorified jobber. Flair was the master: his opponents were the best the world had to offer, and that's why being the champ was so important. It was the undercard brawler/blood guys who just talked trash, and it was appropriate in the context.
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This is silly. Mainstream political rhetoric was WORSE in days of yore, and "I hate yer miserable guts you lowlife scum!" was the wrestling promo template for most of history. Nastiness was with us since Ug told Ur his mother smelled like poop, and it will be with us indefinitely.
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Um, except for the fact that Misawa/Kobashi vs Kawada/Taue went an hour twice in '95 and both ruled, and there were a bunch of great broadways in the '80s, and a couple really good ones in the '00s, soooo...
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I know someone who was front row and said that as best he could tell, the people liked the action but just wanted Benoit to win and were annoyed that it didn't happen. I don't agree with that at all, maybe the front rows had better/more informed fans but it's obvious from the start that the crowd didn't care for the action.
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[1996-08-05-NJPW-G1 Climax] Keiji Muto vs Shiro Koshinaka
Ditch replied to Loss's topic in August 1996
I really enjoyed the last 5 minutes or so, maybe one of the best Mutoh match endings, but the stuff before then was filler. Worked like a TV juniors match in that respect. -
Hey, someone else thought this was way overrated. Glad I'm not alone. The part before Douglas vs Pitbull is utterly forgettable, and the finish is total crap due to Douglas having a weak/anticlimactic finisher.
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I think this was wildly overrated at the time and doesn't hold up. The matwork really doesn't compare favorably with other old-school-style technical matches, it lacks the compelling "babyface struggling to overcome a deficit" story that most ironman matches have, lots of the work goes nowhere, and they rarely seem to be going for the win as opposed to killing time. It's still ultimately a good match, but there are lots of flaws. If it wasn't a Wrestlemania main event title change...
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Howard Brody says it was an elaborate work in his book, and he hates her so I don't see why he would lie about it. But why would Dan keep kayfabe about it long afterwards... hmm.
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The two big WWF '96 matches are yet to come; don't forget Shawn vs Mankind! Here's the Smarkschoice WWF poll results: http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.php?showtopic=46564 Look how much less support things like Shawn vs Diesel and Bret vs Shawn get compared to Shawn vs Mankind and Bret vs Austin. It's really no surprise that the former are struggling when put up against the entire wrestling world in a very strong year.
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Marti Funk (Dory's wife) always struck me as a bit of a head case, but... wow: http://www.dory-funk.com/alljapan.html
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Rotunda is really over among insiders. For instance, Steve Williams in 2001 or so was talking about wanting to do himself and Mike vs TenChono or TenKoji at a Tokyo Dome show, which Steve said would be an incredible match. Which made me wonder how closely Steve watched Mike's matches.
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Just wrapped up. Those last ten or so episodes are not so good. Mediocre undercard acts everywhere, Hardcore TV plugs, boatloads of screwjobs, lots of things that went nowhere, and a very repetitive build to Gertner vs Cyrus (which actually went for like 6 months). Even the one standout match (Mikey/Tajiri vs FBI) ended with interference. By the end it was obvious the promotion was a shell of where it was at the start of the TNN run.
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Sometimes I worry about 'running out', but then someone like you or Will says this and my hope is restored.