What If: Tatsumi Fujinami left NJPW in 1984?

[elliott]

Loving these "What If" threads. I figured I'd toss out a pretty major Japanese option: What if Tatsumi Fujinami left New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1984? Here's some background from Meltzer's 1996 G1 Climax/History of New Japan WON.

 

In late 1984, Naoki Otsuka, New Japan's leading house show promoter, had a falling out with the hierarchy as well and initially wanted to create his own company using Choshu as the top draw. While that never got started, Otsuka worked together with Baba behind-the-scenes and Choshu, Masa Saito, Animal Hamaguchi, Yoshiaki Yatsu, Kobayashi, Super Strong Machine, Hiro Saito, Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith and a half-dozen others left New Japan for All Japan, changing the balance of power completely. With Inoki's rep in shambles, and almost all its biggest stars walking out, TV-Asahi, which kept the company afloat after the embezzlement scandal, had seen just about enough. It literally came down to Fujinami, who both All Japan and UWF were courting, as to the survival of the company. Fujinami stayed. The network kept the company going, and in 1985, Inoki got a measure of retribution by stealing one of Baba's biggest stars, Bruiser Brody.

 

Can New Japan survive?

 

Does Fujinami become the undisputed GOAT by going to UWF and having singles rivalries with Fujiwara, Maeda, Sayama etc?

 

If he picks All Japan do you put him in a group with Choshu or do you keep the rivalry going?

 

How in the hell can New Japan survive?

[gordi]

I have to assume that if Fujinami left, Kengo Kimura would be gone as well. Without them around, would you be able to convince Koshinaka to make the jump in late '85? Maybe not.

 

So, you've got Inoki on top, and kind of stale in that position. Without Choshu or Fujinami, there is really no immediately apparent challenger.

 

At Inoki's side, you have the 6'5" judo champion Seiji Sakaguchi and the 5'7" ball of awesome Kantaro Hoshino. You could *maybe* run an "Orndorff turns on Hogan" type of angle with Sakaguchi to create a native challenger for Inoki's dominance.

 

If NJPW still controlled the Machines gimmick, you could put a Machines mask on a couple of tall lower-card nobodies to try and get them over (which is a thing that NJPW actually did in 1985). Assuming you could make that work, they could have a run as challengers to the Inoki/Sakaguchi/Hoshino trio, then make a "face turn" and fight all available native and foreign heels on the upper mid card. If it doesn't work, you're really screwed.

 

Speaking of native heels, that could be a relatively strong point of this roster: You've got Umanosuke Ueda in the big blonde brawler role (he'd be a top-5 guy on this roster), Tatsutoshi Goto as a younger poor-man's version of Ueda... You could bring in Mr. Pogo and Kendo Nagasaki as The Ninja Express, you could pair up Kim Duk and Kim Soo Hong as a kind of JTTS Korean duo.

 

The Cobra and his 6'7" brother Shunji Takano could probably handle being pushed to the upper mid card.

 

Don Arakawa and his comedy Rikidozan gimmick is still entertaining, but he's got a mid-card ceiling.

 

Shunji Kosugi and Hirokazu Hata are very useful in a Jr. Heavyweight undercard/JTTS role, but don't offer much upside beyond making others look good. Mexican imports Black Cat and, say, Enrique Vera could help fill out your lower card Junior matches.

 

You've got a ton of compelling, talented recent dojo graduates: Hashimoto, Mutoh, Chono, Yamada (Liger), Masa Funaki, Naoki Sano, Akira Nogami... if you can make it to the 90s you'll be in good shape.

 

Other than Sakaguchi and maybe Ueda, it's hard to see who else could serve as even a semi-viable challenger for Inoki on top.

 

You'd be *absolutely* reliant on bringing in outside challengers. You'd need to book Andre for as many dates as possible, try to get Hogan over a bunch of times... throw money at Brody and Abdullah... and maybe Dick Murdoch, Bad News Allen, Bob Backlund, John Nord, Dos Caras... basically any foreigner with any kind of name value.

 

Without a big name gaijin or two, it would be hard to draw even 3000 fans outside of Tokyo with that roster.

 

I think Fujinami would have done great things in the UWF and maybe his presence could help stabilize things there and keep runaway egos from destroying the promotion.

 

With Choshu in AJPW and Fujinami in the UWF and Inoki stale on top in NJPW with few viable challengers... it's not hard to imagine New Japan heading into 1986 as the #3 promotion in Japan.

[elliott]

If Fujinami was going to leave NJPW, its hard to pick which company I'd rather he wind up in.

 

Fujinami was awesome working against all the UWF guys in the NJPW vs UWF feud. The one Maeda match was a classic of course. We never got a singles match against Fujiwara in the 80s. Getting the opportunity to have multiple singles matches against those guys, great Sayama, as well as young Takada & Yamazaki would have been awesome, Fujinami was already a great pro style mat worker as well as one of the most gifted athletes of the late 70s & 80s so it is pretty easy to imagine him being able to adapt well to the shoot styles concepts UWF was figuring out. Also, UWF 1.0 was much closer to BattlArts than RINGS. It is definitely an environment 1984/85 Fujinami would have excelled in. Actually, Fujinami would have been the most established drawing card in the company (you could argue for Sayama here I suppose) so you can presume he would be able to exert at least some influence on the stylistic leanings of the new promotion/style. I guess the point is, Fujinami in UWF working 20ish minute singles matches regularly with Fujiwara, Maeda, Sayama, Takada, Yamazaki & Kido would have been phenomenal.

 

On the other hand, jumping to All Japan you've got Fujinami vs Tenryu, Hansen, Jumbo. Do I even have to go on? Holy fuck. Fujinami vs Prime Hansen? Holy shit. Does Baba keep Fujinami separate from Choshu or is he part of the Army? Instead of Choshu/Yatsu vs Jumbo/Tenryu, is it Choshu/Fujinami? Or is it a 3 team feud with Fujinami & Kengo Kimura (assuming he jumps to) in the mix with what we got? Fujinami vs Baba. As much as I love the idea of Fujinami doing shoot style, he was one of the (at worst) 5 best wrestlers of the 80s already in reality. One of the things that made Fujinami so great at is peak was his athleticism. Fujinami's tope might be the most spectacular signature spot of the 80s and I can't imagine he'd be doing that against Maeda in UWF1.0 or any of his fantastic rope running spots. As I said above, Fujinami was one of the best all around athletes of his generation, so I'd almost hate to see a stripped down/slowed down version of him. It definitely helped Sayama's work. But its hard to imagine a better version of 1980s Tatsumi Fujinami that the one that existed in a pro style setting. I just close my eyes and imagine him hitting Stan Hansen with a tope and I can't help but think that Fujinami in All Japan would have been the best. Although his inevitable serious of 60min draws vs Jumbo would have been disappointing. But maybe he gets the AWA title run instead of Jumbo giving us Fujinami vs Bockwinkel, Martel, & Hennig as well as the aforementioned All Japan guys and previously unmentioned All Japan guys like Giant Baba (still had plenty left in the tank in 85), Ashura Hara, the next generation guys (Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi), all the great gaijin like Terry Funk, Terry Gordy, etc. Shit, 1988 Fujinami vs John Tenta would have been great.

 

I'm generally happy with what we got. But FUCK, some of these matches would have been incredible.

 

What would you rather watch in the mid-late 80s? Fujinami vs Fujiwara or Fujinami vs Hansen?

[elliott]

Also, awesome job gordi laying out where NJPW would be if Fujinami left. I look at that company and see almost no hope with Inoki, Hoshino & Sakaguchi on top in 85 and no one to bridge the gap to the 3 Musketeers era. Presumably Fujinami in UWF makes them a bigger success which either smooths ego issues or at least builds a successful enough company that they would just kick Sayama to the curb and go forward.

 

If Fujinami jumps to All Japan, does he stick around with Yatsu or jump back with Choshu?

 

Although the UWF guys jumped back in relatively short order and Choshu was right behind them, you have to wonder just what shape NJPW would be in and whether those guys would want to jump back. If Fujinami jumps and they lose TV, they're fucked. Inoki wasn't Hogan in 1995 or anything, but this wasn't his peak as a draw so I'm not sure how that company draws. Maybe if Fujinami jumps to UWF, not only does that promotion stay afloat, but maybe Choshu jumps there (I dunno if his issues with Maeda go back to their original time together in NJPW).

 

I know gordi said you either turn Sakaguchi or build around major foreigners, or both. And yeah, I imagine Brody & Abby would both come in. But I"m not sure how successful that option would be with Choshu in AJPW and Fujinami in UWF or AJPW. Isn't it basically a nostalgia company at that point? Yeah you go after Hogan & Andre for as many dates as possible, but this is all in the middle of WWF expansion/Rock n Wrestling so you aren't getting those guys regularly.

 

Really Inoki's only move is throw as much money at Jumbo as possible. 84 was a little too early to build a promotion around Tenryu. If NJPW held on until 86, maybe you go after Tenryu and bank on Tenryu vs Inoki to reignite your promotion.

[JerryvonKramer]

The matches with Yatsu, Jumbo, Tenryu, Hansen, Baba, Flair, Martel, Terry, and Dory Funk Jr would all be worth it.

[ohtani's jacket]

Inoki would have found some way to keep New Japan afloat, he was that big a bullshitter. Fujinami would have spent a few years in UWF or AJPW and then come back to challenge Inoki. Inoki would have had to try to pull a few foreigner draws to compensate for the lack of natives but he would have managed it. Fujinami in UWF is more interesting than AJPW if you enjoy grappling. If you like standard pro-wrestling then AJPW is your ticket. There's a chance they would have had him tag with Jumbo and Tenryu vs. Choshu and Co. That makes sense given the lack of strength on the babyface side against Choshu's army.