(ALL JAPAN) After Hours NOW
4th September 1984 (Issue No.57)
Tiger Mask will make his debut in All Japan Pro Wrestling on August 26th, and The Tiger will make his fully-fledged comeback to wrestling in UWF on the 29th. It will be interesting to see the competition in terms of popularity and ability, but the individual personalities of both promotions are likely to have a major influence on this.
What kind of fights will Sayama and the new Tiger Mask show in the series* that starts later this month?
All Japan Pro has chosen La Fiera, who is "violent and skilled in aerial combat," as Tiger Mask's opponent. Tiger Mask has been undergoing intensive karate training, and it looks as if a Tiger Mask will be born whose main weapons will be kicks and aerial techniques.
On the other hand, there is The Tiger. He said, "We'll be cutting down on aerial combat and focusing on kicks and submissions." This is likely because there is an intersection between the new martial arts that Tiger is aiming for and the professional wrestling of UWF's Fujiwara-Gun.
All Japan Pro is planning to make Tiger Mask soaring gracefully, but The Tiger is refraining from flying. It is unclear how this will affect their popularity is a tricky question as the techniques a wrestler uses are also a statement of his character.
Both the debuting Tiger Mask and the returning Tiger are aiming to be new characters, so it will be interesting to see what techniques they will use, but one thing they both seem to have in common is that they both place great importance on kicks. It is somewhat ironic that kickboxing is starting to be rediscovered in Japanese wrestling, now that the craze for kickboxing in Japan has died down, but the appeal of pro wrestling is the ground fighting and the aerial combat. So it comes down to whether it's Tiger Mask with kicks plus aerial combat, or The Tiger with kicks plus ground fighting.
Notes
Series: An old fashioned way of saying "tour". Misawa didn't like the term, and thought it outdated, and didn't like the word "Tour" either, so he used to use "Navi" when speaking about being on the road with Noah.
Comments
Post a Comment
Spam will be deleted immediately