(JAPAN PRO) PRO WRESTLING REVIEW (August 1972)
August 1972
What will happen on television?
Television broadcasts of professional wrestling are attracting attention, with the live coverage of Japanese professional wrestling ending on May 12th (with the World League) after eighteen years, due to Giant Baba appearing on NET*. As a result, live coverage of Japanese professional wrestling is now broadcast only on NET (Monday evening at 8pm).
Nippon Television will begin a new program, "Taiyō ni Hoero!" (starring Yujiro Ishihara) on July 21st after broadcasting live Japanese pro wrestling matches from the US (Fridays at 8pm), "Wrestling Championship Special". This program was quite well received, and achieved a viewer rating of around 15%. Incidentally, with the start of some new programs on Nippon Television, and ahead of the program reorganization period starting in October, it is thought that there may be considerable changes in the wrestling broadcasts of each station. NET has been holding out since the Summer Big Series (held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on July 24th) and has been broadcasting Japan Pro Wrestling twice a week. It will be a double-feature show, on Mondays as usual and on Fridays as Nippon Television broadcasts. On July 28th, Nippon Television's "Taiyō ni Hoero" and NET's live broadcast of Japanese Pro Wrestling from Korakuen Hall will collide. It is a temporary measure, and the plan seems to be to have only one show on Fridays from October. It is said that it is difficult to switch to a single show all at once due to issues with sponsors and local network stations. NET, which has been broadcasting alone, has also saw its viewership ratings for Mondays and Fridays drop by 12-13%.
It seems that the aim is to maintain the strong image of wrestling on Fridays, but as the number of shows is not growing, each station is likely to make a move when the programming is reorganized in October. When Nippon Television announced the cancellation of the Japan Pro Wrestling season, they made a statement to the effect that they are interested in broadcasting pro wrestling, and that it is not impossible to consider broadcasting other promotions. There are also moves within the station to resume the broadcasting of pro wrestling tours, and some are talking about broadcasting from October. In that case, the target would be excluding Antonio Inoki’s New Japan Pro Wrestling. There is no other way. On the other hand, there are rumors that New Japan Pro Wrestling is actively lobbying Fuji Television, which has never aired a wrestling show before. It is true that Mitsuko and her husband* make notable appearances on Nippon Television's programs. However, there are problems for Nippon Television to decide to directly air New Japan Pro-Wrestling as a regular program.
TBS (Sunday 6pm), which shows International Pro Wrestling, seems to have received some back-up from International Pro Wrestling to change the broadcast date and time, but this is unlikely to go as planned. The monthly restructuring will be of interest to fans hoping for an increase in wrestling programming, but they will have to wonder what will happen to the wrestling broadcasts.
NOTES
NET: Later TV Asahi. Japan Pro left the network due to competition from American wrestling being broadcast.
Mitsuko: Mitsuko Baisho, Japanese actress who was married to Antonio Inoki from 1971 to 1987.
Picture caption read: "Baba and Sakaguchi, the two biggest aces of Japanese professional wrestling"
*Sakaguchi: Seiji
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