ohtani's jacket Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Play-by-play Ichiro Shimizu (1972-78) Takao Kuramochi (1976-1990) Kenji Wakabayashi (circa 1985-1995) Akira Fukuzawa (1989-1997) Colour Takashi Yamada (1972~) Hiroshi Tatsuruhama (1972-85) Kosuke Takeuchi (early 90s) Basically, there would be a main announcer and a secondary announcer who worked for NTV and then colour commentators who were sports writers or worked for the magazines. The dates are a bit rough, but somewhere within that ball park. Kuramochi and Wakabayashi are the most famous All Japan play by play announcers and Kuramochi & Yamada the most popular pairing among fans. Akira Fukuzawa often gets the credit for Wakabayashi's work. I'm 99% sure for example that Wakabayashi called Misawa's win over Jumbo, for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJH Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 It was Wakabayashi (with Baba and Takeuchi). The commentators are always listed on screen at the start of the match/footage and it's easy enough to memorise/differentiate the kanji (Fukuzawa shares "sawa/zawa" with Misawa, for instance (again, I can't c&p but...)) if that's important for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Wakabayashi was the one the fans loved and petitioned to come back. He complained on air about the show being cut from an hour to thirty minutes, which I'm sure would endear him to folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 As for Fukuzawa, the less said the better... I'll defer to Hisa here: "No offense, but among the Japanese fans, Akira Fukuzawa was not the most popular announcer. His approach was rather comical and over-reacting (plus, his high-pitched voice), and that contradicted the stiff style of All Japan during that time. His style was somewhat controversial, and Hiroshi Hase, still with New Japan then, once said, "if I meet him in person, I'd probably punch him into the face". So, if you knew the language, there's a big chance you wouldn't enjoy his style. Don't get me wrong, though. He had a lot of fans because of his unique style, but in general, his predecessor Kenji Wakabayashi is a lot more popular and respected." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 OJ, do you know what the hell was up with the early-'90s AJPW trend of having flower girls on commentary? Sometimes on a separate track with either Fukuzawa or Wakabayashi while the other did separate, live commentary that was barely audible underneath? Were they trying to cater to a female demographic or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 I've never heard of that. Can you post an example? Was it a sound-byte where they spoke to the flower girl momentarily or something longer? Perhaps the flower girl was someone of note. Occasionally they had special guest commentators who were celebrities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 This was regularly done on TV up until part of '93, I'd say. I thought it was actually one of the flower girls who appeared in the ring, but maybe it was a celebrity. Of course now despite a bunch of early-'90s TV being on Youtube I can't actually find an example of it, even though it seemed to be every week when I was going through the TV seasons years ago. It was for the full match, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 It was probably either an actress, model or comedian. I found a list of talent that made guest appearances, but nothing substantial. It was a slightly old practice with the networks. AJW would have guests all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 The Japanese Linda Curry ... Thanks for all this by the way. I'm trying to figure out who the guy is that I associate with most of the 80s AJPW stuff. I think it must be Kuramochi but it's entirely possible that it switched to Wakabayashi without me noticing. The switch to Fukuzawa in 1990 threw me off a bit, just so unexpected. Reading those comments, seems like he might be the Japanese equivalent of David Crockett. Of course, naturally, this means that while smart fans might hate him, he is in fact totally awesome. Question: I thought the guy with the low deep voice on a lot of broadcasts was Giant Baba, is this not the case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 Even though nobody else in the world sounds like Baba, AJPW somehow managed to find a guy who did. There are two color guys with deep, gravelly voices. Baba's one of them, I would assume Takeuchi is the other one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 The Japanese Linda Curry ... Thanks for all this by the way. I'm trying to figure out who the guy is that I associate with most of the 80s AJPW stuff. I think it must be Kuramochi but it's entirely possible that it switched to Wakabayashi without me noticing. The switch to Fukuzawa in 1990 threw me off a bit, just so unexpected. Reading those comments, seems like he might be the Japanese equivalent of David Crockett. Of course, naturally, this means that while smart fans might hate him, he is in fact totally awesome. Question: I thought the guy with the low deep voice on a lot of broadcasts was Giant Baba, is this not the case? The main guy in the 80s was Kuramochi. Wakabayashi took over as the lead announcer in 1990. The guy you've been listening to on the Excite Series podcast is most likely Wakabayashi not Fukuzawa. Fukuzawa was a secondary announcer at the time. Wakabayashi started the whole screaming thing, which is why people confuse the two. Fukuzawa took it to an extreme in case you're trying to tell them apart. I didn't mention Baba because I thought you wanted to know who the other commentators were. The colour guy with the gravelly voice was Yamada. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 Cheers, OJ. I didn't want to start a new thread for this but it's another Japanese question not related to the commentators ... How did New Japan and All Japan split up Japan geographically? Was it like the US territories where they each had certain towns or did they run against each other everywhere? Was all the business basically in Tokyo or did they move around? Were some guys bigger stars in certain parts of Japan as opposed to others or was it largely homogenous? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 Japan is a collection of islands so the entire country was the territory (plus Guam and to a lesser extent Hawaii. ) You'd have to study the match cards to determine which company drew better in which prefecture, the cities they ran and the venues they used. I'm not sure which wrestlers were the best draws in which region. For many people, wrestling was Baba and Inoki and they were the draws. New Japan was traditionally the bigger, more successful company outside of the occasional downturn in business. They ran bigger venues in Tokyo than All Japan did. I'm sure there were variances in the different prefectures and how each company drew, but it would take a lot of work to find that info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse Ewiak Posted October 5, 2014 Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 What OJ said. You have to remember, NJPW and AJPW were competing promotions, not two separate territories. So, they both ran everywhere, but Tokyo was always more important, because it is such a large percentage of the country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted October 5, 2014 Report Share Posted October 5, 2014 I'm sure Japanese fans also found Fukuzawa's gratuitous English grating. "ON THE FLOOR~!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted October 17, 2014 Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 On a slightly different note, how often would the PWF Chairman be there? In All Japan's history, there have only been four: Lord James Blears (I think from the start to ... 2000??) Stan Hansen (2000-??) Hase (???-2013) Dory Funk Jr (2013- present) Are they present for every single title bout or just at the biggest shows? What's the deal with the PWF chairman? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 In regards to NJPW vs AJPW venues, the one thing that has always piqued my curiosity is that it is generally accepted and proven that NJPW has been historically a more popular promotion than AJPW yet NJPW never ran the Budokan and AJPW consistently ran the Budokan in the 80s and 90s doing very well in the 90s. Obviously the fact that NJPW could run the Dome speaks to their popularity, but how come their lesser shows are at the Sumo Hall, which is half the size of the Budokan. I understand if AJPW had a contract with the Budokan similar to WWF & MSG, but if NJPW is this powerhouse promotion why would they not at the very least find a 15k-20k arena to run in or actually get the contract for the Budokan? I believe people when they say NJPW >AJPW in drawing and popularity, but the Budokan vs. Sumo Hall is just an inconsistency for me regarding that fact. If anybody could shed more light on this that would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 I thought Sumo Hall capacity was about 75% of Budokan rather than 50%. Didn't NJPW commonly run Budokan a few times per year before things went to hell with shooters? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 I thought it was 9k vs 16k. I will look it up, but could have sworn Budokan was AJPW exclusive. So I was slightly wrong. NJPW never ran the Budokan in the 80s. In the 90s, they ran one show in the summer a year (June time) and occasionally in Feb or Sept. It was clear that AJPW was drawing a lot more frequently than NJPW which was largely playing to smaller arenas except for the Dome shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 For whatever reason, Budokan put a bunch of restrictions on the NJPW shows run there that AJPW didn't have to worry about: no fighting on the floor, a stricter curfew, and a few others I'm not remembering. Sumo Hall was smaller, but NJPW was able to do things like run shows 7 nights in a row and draw well for all of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted August 16, 2015 Report Share Posted August 16, 2015 Anyone know the name of the mustachioed ring announcer? Seems like he was in AJ for years, like a Japanese Howard Finkel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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