Michinoku Pro Wrestling Thread

[gordi]

Thank you, as always, for your kind words!

 

I'm a little tired now, but I want to get this down while it's still fresh in my mind:

 

Since that outdoor show, I've been meeting with Wally almost daily. No complaints there. You know me, I love an enthusiastic and motivated student. Even better, we have been talking (in English) about Michinoku Pro more or less non-stop. Wally seems to know all of the ins and outs of the promotion, in great detail. We've been over (and over and over) stuff like gimmicks, move sets, who is a rudo (heel) and who is a technico (face) and how that shifts depending on the crowds; who is over with the crowd in different towns, who has good ring chemistry, who is getting pushed, which guys hang out behind the scenes, who has some heat with whom... For the most part, everyone seems to get along pretty well, but there are some cliques and apparently not everyone gets along with Delfin and Naniwa. Those guys were both a complete blast at karaoke, though.

 

Speaking of having a blast: I watched that tape you sent me (that terrible South African sci-fi flick, Space Mutiny) with Lance, Orihara, Kyoko Inoue, and Smiley Norman at Lance's place. It went over like Grover! We got into this thing where we were making up funny names for the main character, like "Flint Slabtrunk" and "Brock Ironbeef." Kyoko, in particular, was just killing herself laughing... which is kinda odd since she doesn't seem to speak much English. Hopefully you'll get to meet some of these guys if you ever make it up here. It's almost hard to believe how nice they are.

 

Anyway, Wally brought up today's show in Yamagata at our lesson a couple of days ago. He said they were running a small hall in Kajo Park, where the fans sit on big blue mats around the ring. That's a common set-up for them, and in that situation they usually keep the show short and tight, with only four or five matches including a decent-length action-packed main event. Wally said that the Kajo park shows usually draw a hardcore crowd that likes a lot of variety in their matches, and that they love older guys who were big in the 1980s, and also that they go absolutely crazy for Sasuke and El Samurai.

 

Then he asked me to fantasy-book a card for that crowd, using every wrestler on the roster, and trying to get some of the younger guys some shine without disappointing the more traditional crowd.

 

I figured it would be good to finish off with a high-flying 6-man tag with Samurai leading one team and Sasuke the other, and let them have some moments during the match but have the finish come down to two of the younger guys. Maybe have more of a technical match - a regular tag or six-man - as the semi-main, where you could feature Dos Caras and Kobayashi to please the old school fans, while continuing to build the heat between Caras and Delfin.

 

Kyoko and Smiley had really seemed to crack each other up at the bad-movie party, so I asked Wally if maybe they could work a comedy tag match. He loved that idea. So, we have high-flying, technical wrestling, and comedy... and we have ten wrestlers left, and only one or two matches... how about opening with a 10-man battle royal?

 

We spent the rest of the lesson talking about who would slot where on the card, and discussing finishes and high spots and story lines and so on. Again: This is my job here in Morioka. This is what I'm getting paid for now!

 

I thought that was awesome enough all by itself, but late this morning we headed out to Yamagata in the panel truck, with Kyoko sitting between us. It's a three-hour drive, and we spent about 80 per cent of it talking about noodles, with Wally often translating for Kyoko or I. Yamagata is famous for cold ramen in the summer, and for a soba dish made with chicken stock. Kyoko and Wally spent a long time trying to work out how they could manage to eat both before we headed back to Morioka. The other 20 per cent of the time we spent talking about fruit. They were really, really excited about picking up some cherries on the way to the show.

 

Wally spent a lot of time on his new Nokia 880, with the antenna pulled all the way out, trying to make arrangements with noodle restaurants and cherry orchards in town. He and Kyoko got super excited after his last call, but I couldn't completely understand what he'd managed to set up.

 

We got in around 1, and I helped Biff and Buffalo set up the ring. Biff kept calling me "Flex McStrongpants" so I have to assume that Lance or someone told him about the in-joke. Buffalo was "Base Slabpecs." Biff is already named Biff... so there wasn't much I could do in return.

 

Around 3, they guys got their gimmicks on and we paraded over to the picnic area in the park. There was kind of a soup-kitchen set-up, and we all got little styrofoam bowls of cold ramen and room-temperature chicken soba. It was hotter and more humid n Yamagata than in Morioka, so the cold food was perfect. I can see why getting some was priority for Kyoko and Wally. After our late lunch, Wally took me out to look at some soba fields, while Kyoko and the boys were getting prepped.

[gordi]

...and then, the card:

 

They opened with a ten-man Battle Royal!

 

Koshinaka, Terry Boy, Tajiri, Kato Kung Lee, Miracle Man, Gedo, Jado, Biff, Mochizuku, and Orihara.

 

Early in the match, Biff and Kosh brawled out of the ring - but not over the top rope - and into the crowd. Tajiri and Mochizuku brawled out, too, but they went over the rope and were both eliminated. Gedo, Jado, and Orihara teamed up to eliminate Kung Lee and Miracle, leaving Terry Boy in there alone to take a beating. He manged to trick Gedo and Jado into charging him, but he ducked and then he and Orihara were left to put on a bit of a show.

 

 

Just as it looked like Orihara was going to win the Battle Royal, Biff and Kosh brawled back into the ring. Orihara threw Terry boy out, Kosh disposed of Biff, Orihara (unaware) started celebrating... only to take a flying hip attack that sent him sprawling out of the ring, leaving Koshinaka to soak up the cheers of the crowd.

 

It was almost exactly what Wally and I had talked about at our lesson.

 

Naniwa and Smiley vs. Ohtani and Kyoko

 

The story of this one was that early in the match, Smiley and Kyoko got caught up in kind of a "compromising position" and after that Norman kept trying to make it happen again while Kyoko acted all shy and embarrassed... only for them to get caught up in a different "compromising position" after which Kyoko was the one pursuing Norman. It got a couple of laughs out of the crowd, but by far the biggest pop was when Kyoko got Naniwa in the Giant Swing. Crowd went crazy for that spot.

 

 

 

Delfin, Kobayashi, and Funaki vs. Dos Caras, Lance Storm, and Black Buffalo

 

As Wally predicted, the crowd just ate up the long display of technical wrestling between Caras and Kobayashi. After two light-hearted matches, some more serious wrestling came as a nice change of pace. There was also a good brief heat segment between Caras and Delfin where Caras waved Delfin's torn-up mask (from the Morioka card) in his face. Despite his rudo behavior, the crowd still popped when Funaki got caught in the Caras Clutch for the one, two, threeee!

 

 

 

There was a short break, where somebody was selling pears. For whatever reason, they called them "La France." I had two, they were sweet and juicy.

 

El Samurai, Yakushiji, and Kaz Hayashi vs. Sasuke, TAKA, and Togo

 

Again, as Wally predicted, the crowd were rabid for the two masked men. Dueling chants rang out from the opening bell. When they finally faced off, the small crowd went ballistic. After that, though, they ceded the stage to Togo and Kaz, then TAKA and Yakushiji. The latter two put on an incredible show, flying in and out of the ring and all over the hall.

 

 

 

I know I am biased, because it's my local indy, but I really think those two are among the best young workers in the world right now. Yakushiji's bumping and selling are as good as anyone I have ever seen. In the end TAKA did the job, tapping out to Samurai's Chicken Wing Head Scissors combo after about 20 straight minutes of non-stop action.

 

Wally seemed uncharacteristically rushed as we did our clean-up. He kept checking his watch and urging everybody to move quickly. We rolled out of there a little before 10. One of Wally's staff took over the panel truck and Wally and I took somebody's compact car. We drove in a convoy to the edge of town. Wrestlers, staff, a few fans. We ended up at a cherry farm. Wally, Sasuke, and I collected 2000 yen from each person then we filed in to a big open area where a very old couple greeted everybody with hugs and deep bows. A section of the orchard was all lit up, and we were set free to pick and eat as much as we could handle. There was a huge wooden bowl of cherries for anyone who didn't want to pick their own, and endless soft-serve cherry ice cream.

 

Some of the guys even had special masks with mouth spaces cut out, I guess for just this kind of situation.

 

It was almost midnight when we left Yamagata, and it's really late and I'm really tired now... but I wanted to get this down wile it was still fresh in my mind.

[SirEdger]

I think that what I love most about your writing is how you use your knowledge of your surroundings & Japanese culture to improve our reading experience. That's an angle that I would've never thought of approaching myself so it's really cool.

 

And gosh darnit, now, I think I'm gonna order myself Fire Pro Wrestling to use with my PS2. I've waited way too long to play this.

[gordi]

Thanks, SirEdger!

 

Meibutsu culture (special local food culture) is maybe my favourite aspect of life in Japan.

 

Almost any city, town, region, or island you might visit in Japan is "famous" for one particular food or another. My wife is right into meibutsu, and so are many of my students. and friends. If I am going to, say, Nagoya, then various students might recommend Sekai no Yamachan tebasaki (a kind of dry spicy chicken wing, my students know that chicken wings are one food from Canada I miss over here) or Yabaton misokatsu (pork cutlet in miso sauce, because my students know I love rich-tasting food) or a tiny restaurant on the peninsula south of the city where they serve huge deep-fried shrimp (that particular recommendation was from a student who lived in Nagoya for several years).

 

It gives me something to look forward to, wherever I'm going in Japan. Now I go to Nagoya at least once a year, to feast on tebasaki and misokatsu. I can get those dishes in Osaka, but it's not quite the same. I pretty much had to include some version of that in writing about North East Japan. I'm really glad to know that at least one person is enjoying it.

[Matt D]

No, this is a lot of fun to read; maybe my favorite PWO thing since GWE ended.

[elliott]

No, this is a lot of fun to read; maybe my favorite PWO thing since GWE ended.

 

Gordi and Dex are KILLING it.

[gordi]

Thank you, gentlemen,

[Jesse Ewiak]

Yeah, this is really cool stuff. And it works since the way 95% of fans in the US even heard of M-Pro back in those days, especially before Barely Legal '97, was either reading the Observer or random tapes they got.

[dexstar]

The action shots are treeeeeemendous

[Wahoos Leg]

I completely dig the presentation of this

[gordi]

I got to book another show! Wally has me teaching Jado and Gedo now, and for our second lesson he had us book a card for the show in Daisen one week out from the big Title Tournament show in Akita. Daisen's a smaller city in Akita Province that more or less borders on Akita City, so obviously he wanted us to put something together to hype up the big show on the 25th.

 

The card for the 25th is already set:

 

1) Kyoko Inoue vs. Shiro Koshinaka - Tournament Alternate match

2) El Samurai vs. Super Delfin - Tournament round 1 match

3) The Great Sasuke vs. Shinjiro Ohtani - Tournament round 1 match

4) TAKA Michinoku, Dick Togo, Jado and Gedo vs. Gran Naniwa, Sho Funaki, Shiryu, and Yakushiji - 8-man tag match

*break*

5) Kuniyaki Kobayashi, Norman Smiley, and Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Lance Storm, Masaaki Mochizuki, and Dos Caras - 6-man tag match

6) Tournament Finals Match, winner to be declared the first-ever Tohoku Region Welterweight Champion

We looked over the card. Gedo pointed out that the match before the break is generally booked to be a very exciting semi-main-event type of match to send the crowd into intermission hyped up, and that there are usually only two matches after the break. The idea is apparently that the second-to-last match would provide some sort of contrast to the main event without overshadowing it or burning out the crowd for what was coming up.

Most of the time, Gedo and Jado kind of struggle with English. When talking about wrestling or drinking, however, they are damned near fluent.

I though it was odd that Samurai and Delfin (usually booked as technicos) and Sasuke and Ohtani (usually booked as rudos) were facing off in the first round. I wondered if maybe we should build up some heat between them. Jado laughed off my suggestion. "They are fighting for title belt," he explained, "It is enough reason. Don't need to hate."

That being said, we decided to go with a six-person tag as the Main, featuring all of the participants in the Title Tournament. Then we booked a fast-moving tag match featuring some of the younger guys as the barn-burner before the break. Gedo and Jado volunteered to pull curtain-jerking duty in another tag, but wanted to book it as a showcase for their heeling. Finally, we filled out the card with two more six-man tags, one fast and entertaining, the other hard-hitting and technical. It took longer than you might think to work it all out, but it was fun.

The next day we took an early train to Daisen. The guys slept on the train, but I have never been able to do that.

After the ring was set up, a few of us headed out for a sake brewery tour. I understood less than half of what was being said, but it was still pretty interesting. There was a large guy in the tour group who apparently used to be a sumo wrestler. I watch sumo, but I didn't recognize him. Jado gave him some free passes to the show, but he didn't seem all that excited to get them. Maybe that was just his poker face, though. He offered to buy us some drinks, but the guys had to work that evening so we sadly had to turn him down.

Miracle Man and Kato Kung Lee vs. Jado and Gedo

True to their word, my new students heeled it up like crazy in this one. Miracle, in particular, just sold and bumped for them all over the arena. The sumo guy was there, ringside, accompanied by a much younger woman. He was laughing his gigantic ass off at Jado and Gedo's antics.

Gran Naniwa, Terry Boy, and Yakushiji vs. Mochizuki, Orihara, and Black Buffalo

Another showcase match, this one allowing Terry Boy and Yakushiji to show what they can do on offense for a change.

Terry Boy got to show us why he got that name, throwing some Terry Funk type punches and getting the win with a spinning toe hold on Mochizuki. Naniwa was a little unhappy with being in the second match on the card, and barely tagged in. "He is young," explained Wally.

We booked Kaz and Funaki vs. TAKA and Togo as the pre-break match with the hope that they'd really heat up the crowd. They absolutely came through. They just chained so much stuff together: Fast, crisp, and smooth but somehow without it seeming too co-operative or slick. There's an almost psychic level of connection when some of these guys are in the ring together, something like how a great point guard just knows where his teammates are on the court without even looking. Does that make sense? I felt privileged to see this match up close.

During the break, the boys came out from the back (everyone not involved in the main event) and took pictures with the sumo guy and some of the other fans.

[gordi]

Kobayashi, Smiley, and Tajiri vs. Dos Caras, Lance, and Biff

Now that it had been pointed out to me, I could pretty easily see how they were working this match as a contrast to what was coming in the main event. Presumably, the main was going to involve a ton of high spots and a big finishing sequence, so instead of that these guys worked a lot of simple basic strikes, some technical mat stuff, and a bunch of character work. I could see how, maybe, if we'd put Kaz and Funaki vs. TAKA and Togo on right ahead of the main, it might have detracted from it rather than allowing it to stand out. It really impressed me to see how these guys can adjust their style based on what role they are playing on the card.

There was a fair bit of talk in the ring before Samurai, Delfin, and Koshinaka vs. Sasuke, Ohtani, and Kyoko got underway. Presumably, it was mostly hype to set up the tournament in Akita. The match built slowly to a kind of frenzied climax, with everyone hitting their finishers only for their teammates to save them from the pin... except it was always Kyoko saving Ohtani and Sasuke. They never quite seemed to have each other's backs. Koshinaka, Samurai and Delfin, however, kept working together and in the end it was that combination of factors that allowed the technicos to get the win. Koshinaka and Kyoko brawled out into the crowd and out of the arena. A miscommunication led to a collision between Ohtani and Sasuke. Samurai caught the stunned Sasuke with a DDT. Delfin grabbed the distracted Ohtani from behind and hit the Delfin Special. Sasuke got up in time to maybe break up the pin, but... he did nothing. Samurai and Delfin celebrated together in the ring. Ohtani and Sasuke left without even looking at each other.

So, maybe Gedo and Jado didn't completely write off my suggestion after all.

After the show, the former sumo wrestler pulled out two small wooden casks of sake, and busted the tops open with a wooden hammer. His female companion passed out little souvenir sake cups and the big man filled them up with a bamboo scoop. It was delicious. I drank a little too much.

Lance, who had passed on the sake, ended up driving me back to Morioka. On the way, we listened to that Sense Field CD I burned off of you. It's hard to say if he liked it or not.

[SirEdger]

Great show again, man. Really my most entertaining read of this project every time.

[Grimmas]

Seriously this is freaking art. I wish more people were reading this. Man you should put this on wordpress in a blog or something too, it's freaking great.

[Gutenberger]

I'm reading and enjoying every second of it, even though my knowledge of japanese wrestling is basically not existent. But this is just so much fun!

[gordi]

So this time I drove out to Akita with Biff, Lance, and Smiley Norman, in a fairly new Honda Civic. Biff drove, Lance rode shotgun, and Norman and I sat in the back. The big joke was that we couldn't let the fans see Smiley riding with two rudos, so every now and then Biff would yell "Kayfabe!" and Norman would have to duck down or cover his head or something. Biff was driving so he mostly chose the music: AC/DC and Metallica.

 

We got to talking about entrance themes, and decided to kill time by making a list of the top 5 worst possible entrance theme songs. Our final list was:

 

5: You’re Having My Baby by Paul Anka

4: This Guy's In Love by Herb Alpert

3: MacArthur Park by Richard Harris

2: Muscrat Love by Captain & Tennille

1: Please Mister Please (Don't Play B-17) by Olivia Newton John

 

By the time we arrived in Akita, My face actually hurt from laughing too much.

 

Kyoko Inoue vs. Shiro Koshinaka - Tournament Alternate match

 

This was a fast, violent match. Kyoko charged straight at Kosh as soon as the bell sounded, catching him off guard and pounding him down. Kosh made a comeback with hip attack after hip attack, but Kyoko kept kicking out, yelling, and going back on offense. After about 7 minutes of back and forth, she caught him in a torture rack and then dropped him straight down with a sick Burning Hammer for the finish. So, if either of the next two matches proved to be inconclusive, Kyoko Inoue would be in the main event fighting for the right to be crowned the first-ever Tohoku Region Welterweight Champion.

 

 

El Samurai vs. Super Delfin - Tournament round 1 match

 

They wrestled this one in a pure face vs. face style, with clean breaks, handshakes, and dueling cheers from the crowd. They started out with mat work, exchanging and reversing hold after hold, then went into high-flying mode where Delfin took a clear advantage, hitting a suicide dive to the outside and a top-corner diving elbow drop for a close near-fall. After nailing El Samurai with a tornado DDT, Delfin played to the crowd... but in so doing he lost focus on Samurai, who popped up and caught Delfin in a Kido Clutch for the victory.

 

The Great Sasuke vs. Shinjiro Ohtani - Tournament round 1 match

 

Lance and Biff came out and stood with me at the back of the hall to watch this match. On the way up, Lance had opined that a heel vs. heel match is the hardest thing to get over with a crowd, because they have no-one to cheer for. On the other hand, as much as Sasuke clearly enjoys playing rudo, and as good as he is at doing so, M-Pro crowds still obviously love the guy to death. In Akita, they expressed that love by boo-ing everything Sasuke did with great enthusiasm and volume. This apparently drove Ohtani to go crazier and crazier in trying to win some boos of his own. Feet-on-the-ropes, handful-of-tights, behind-the-ref's-back classic pro wrestling shenanigans ensued. Lance and Biff were both openly marking out, which is not something I had expected to see.

 

Then: As Ohtani tried to regain his bearings outside the ring, Sasuke went for a flying side kick from inside... and landed head-first on the floor with a sickening thump. Lance and Biff sprinted over to ringside, while I made a bee-line for the dressing room. I grabbed TAKA, Togo, Gado, and Jedo and hauled them out to see. Sasuke seemed to be having real trouble getting to his feet. Ohtani seemed to be legitimately freaked out. The referee was counting to twenty, very very slowly.

 

TAKA spoke to Gedo in Japanese, He turned to me. "Sasuke is really hurt. Should we put Inoue or Ohtani in the finals?" The ref was still counting. I had no time to think.

 

"Ohtani."

 

TAKA and Togo sprinted over to where Ohtani was standing, and yelled at him to get back in the ring. He protested. The grabbed him and hurled him from the floor, between the ropes, back into the ring, just as the ref reached 19. Ohtani gestured furiously at everyone and refused to let the ref raise his hand.

 

TAKA Michinoku, Dick Togo, Jado and Gedo vs. Gran Naniwa, Sho Funaki, Shiryu, and Yakushiji

 

Presumably, this had been booked to be a fast-paced, high-risk match but, gauging the mood of the crowd, they changed things up and kept the action in the ring. Toward the end of the match, Sasuke made his way to ringside, with his arm around Ohtani, and the crowd went absolutely mental. Yakushiji got distracted by the commotion and was rolled up for the pin, leading to the unexpected sight of a bunch of rudos standing triumphant in the ring as the crowd, on their feet, chanted for Sasuke.

[gordi]

Wally found me during the break and told me that, since the guys would be going on to the next town I could get a ride back to Morioka with the concession stand girls. That sounded good to me.

 

The blonde restaurant girl from the Morioka outdoor show after-party had made the trip up to Akita as well. She saw that I'd been standing, so she invited me to come sit with her. In fact, she put me in her chair and sat on my lap. She stayed there for the rest of the show, pulling cans of beer out of a huge shopping bag and handing them to me one after another. I enjoyed the rest of the show with one hand wrapped around a cool beer and the other pressed against her warm firm stomach. I was about as happy as it's possible to be.

 

Kuniyaki Kobayashi, Norman Smiley, and Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Lance Storm, Masaaki Mochizuki, and Dos Caras

 

Lance and Smiley started this one out with classic chain wrestling, then tagged in Tajiri and Mochizuki, who just kicked each other as hard as possible, then Kobayashi and Caras put on an old-school mat work clinic. Lance and Norman came back in for some rope-running, then more kicking from the young Japanese guys... but this time Mochi really caught Tajiri with a good one, then tagged Caras, who finished Tajiri off with a sitout power bomb.

 

 

Tournament Finals: Shinjiro Ohtani vs. El Samurai, winner to be declared the first-ever Tohoku Region Welterweight Champion

 

 

I don't think I can categorically say that this was the best match I've ever seen live. I've seen some pretty great matches. Still, this was... top twenty-five, at least. Maybe the best live atmosphere I have ever been a part of. The crowd was so intense from bell to bell. It felt like when Misawa made his entrance at the Budokan, but somehow sustained for 17 minutes. Ohtani, TAKA, Togo, and Inoue were ringside screaming for Ohtani. Delfin, Naniwa, Koshinaka, and Kobayashi were in El Samurai's corner. Nobody interfered, though, and once again they kept the action inside the ring... until the sixteen-minute mark, when Samurai hit a huge plancha to the rudos on the outside, charged back in and took Ohtani down with a Frankensteiner, then nailed a gorgeous bridging German to take the win and the belt.

 

 

The Great Sasuke made his way to the ring, under his own power, and presented the new belt to the new champion. Delfin and Naniwa raised El Samurai up on their shoulders and paraded him around the ring.

 

There was a fairly lengthy, very formal ceremony but I missed the end of it because I really had to go to the toilet. Too much beer. When I came out of the can, the concession stand girls were waiting for me, but Blonde Restaurant Girl (real name: Yoko) swept over and grabbed me and dragged me out to her car, which is bright yellow, covered in 小室ファミリー stickers, and crammed full of stuffed animals.

 

 

She continued to sip beer while she was driving, she smoked, and she blasted Techno J-pop the whole way back. All of those are huge red flags but if I'm going to be honest I have to admit that I was already under her spell and pretty much everything she did just served to turn me on further. We made six or seven stops on the way back, and at every stop she picked some small thing out and I bought it for her. I also paid for gas.

 

She took me right to my apartment. I don't remember her asking for directions or anything. "Bye-bye kissu, kudasai!" She was somehow sweet and demanding simultaneously. She tasted like stale tobacco and fresh beer. I really didn't mind.

[gordi]

On a personal note, thanks very much to everyone who has taken time to give feedback. I am really enjoying writing this, and it's genuinely gratifying to know that people are also enjoying reading it. Much appreciated.

[Matt D]

I have to admit that it's all the commentary and between the scenes stuff that's the big draw here. The action and the screencaps are good, don't get me wrong, but it's the meta-narrative that's over the top great. I think that's true of the project as a whole right now. When the 1984 one dropped, a lot of the appeal in reading was how people moved the pieces around. With this 95 one, it's all of the creative presentation styles. You wouldn't think something like this would have a real sense of "mood," but it absolutely does.

[gordi]

Thanks, and I agree that it's cool how a lot of the promotions are written up in different styles. I get a little kick every time someone posts a new "chapter" to their story.

[SirEdger]

Love the bit in which Taka and Togo asked you who to put over. Really subtle touch there.

[gordi]

Thanks, SirEdger. My character is slowly but surely becoming the booker man.

[gordi]

Dudes, I am not quite sure how to express this, but I really think I have somehow become part of the Michinoku Pro Wrestling booking committee. Wally still refers to it as an "English Lesson" but recently we have been getting together almost daily in his office with Jado, Gedo, and occasionally other wrestlers (so far Sasuke, TAKA, Koshinaka, and Black Buffalo have all participated) and we always and only talk about upcoming Michinoku Pro shows and events, in a mixture of Japanese and English.

 

I mean, I know life in Japan is full of surprises, but...

 

Yesterday, we were talking about what things might potentially look like a year or two down the line.

 

Right now, The Great Sasuke and El Samurai are obviously the top two guys. It would be surprising if that were to change any time soon, as long as Sasuke doesn't actually crack his skull or anything. Thing is, though, while Sasuke is enjoying working as a rudo, he's still the most beloved guy on the roster by a long shot. And, while Samurai is a pretty good fit as the company ace right now, he might be even better working as a dominant bad guy than he is as a scrappy, come-from-behind good guy. I could easily see either or both of those guys turning some time in the next couple of years.

 

In terms of the rest of the upper card, TAKA and Togo seem like they could be the future of the company if we build them and they grow over the next couple of years. Like Sasuke and Samurai, both can work technico or rudo, but based purely on physical size Togo works well as a bully and I could see TAKA playing a great under-dog role.

 

Ohatani clearly has a future as a top heel, maybe sooner than anyone had expected.

 

In my opinion, Delfin and Naniwa are both best suited to dong what they do as as upper-card good guys. Neither their look nor their shtick would be suited to working heel. It would be nice if they could be a little more giving in the ring, and that is something that we all figure we need to work on in the coming year. (And man, is it crazy to type "we" in this kind of context).

 

Koshinaka, Kobayashi, and Dos Caras are all well-positioned as upper-card veterans, All three are willing to work anywhere on the card, against anyone, and I'm pretty sure that if we asked Kobayashi to put, let's say, Orihara over clean in the middle of the ring he wouldn't even blink. Hopefully some of that will rub off on Delfin and Naniwa eventually. Kobayashi needs to be protected in tag matches because of his health issues, but other than that these guys can all still go and if we can keep them around they should be able to provide the glue for us for at least a couple more years.

 

In terms of the younger guys, both Tajiri and Mochizuki definitely stand out because of their hard-hitting style. Black Buffalo has a real mastery of the basics and the little things and looks like he could be a top hand eventually.

 

Kyoko has apparently had no trouble getting over as a woman tough and fierce enough match up with the boys. Both she and Dos Caras are having trouble getting boos... but it's hard to think how the match-ups might work if we turned both of them face.

 

The big question at the meeting was why I'd gone with Ohtani over Kyoko in Akita. Was it because she's a woman? In the heat of the moment, I had not quite realized how crazy it was that the boys turned to me for the answer then. However, my thinking had been pretty clear: If Sasuke was hurt, most likely Samurai was going over. If Kyoko didn't get a shot in Akita after beating Kosh clean, then she'd have to be the obvious choice to face Samurai in his first title defense at the Second Anniversary Show at the Appi Ski Resort Convention Hall on October 10th. I figured that, at this point in their careers, Kyoko was a bigger name and a more intriguing match-up.

 

Everybody seemed to accept my reasoning. Kyoko Inoue was going to be the first challenger for the Tohuku Region Welterweight Belt. I had one more idea, for a couple of special guests we could maybe bring in. Wally loved the idea.

 

Eventually, we settled on this card:

 

Main Event: El Samurai vs. Kyoko Inoue TRWWC First Defense. With * Special Guests *

 

Super Delfin, Shiro Koshinaka, and Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Dos Caras, Jado, and Gedo

 

* Break *

 

Gran Naniwa, Kaz Hayashi, Sho Funaki, Terry Boy, and Masato Yakushiji vs. The Great Sasuke, TAKA Michinoku, Dick Togo, Shinjiro Ohtani, and Lance Storm

 

Norman Smiley, Kato Kung Lee, and Miracle Man vs. Black Buffalo, Masao Orihara, and Biff Wellington

 

Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Masaaki Mochizuki

 

Everyone is pretty happy with that card. It's going to be broadcast on "Champs Forum" on tape delay. We are all hoping that the ten-man tag will be a great showcase for what Michinoku Pro can do. I pushed a little bit to get Lance included in that one, because I think he deserves a chance to shine.

 

The meeting over, I went to check my email. I had one message. It was from Yoko, asking if I had time for drinks and karaoke.

[Grimmas]

Just to let you know, don't let lack of comments deter you. There are no comments, because this is insanely great and there is nothing to add. I love this project and this thread is one of the reasons for sure.

[gordi]

(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.