(NOAH) FEATURED ARTICLE: Now is the time to question Misawaism: "Noah's encirclement" by All Japan & New Japan.

Weekly Pro 10th October 2000

(Issue No. 998)

Is the rivalry between the long-established All Japan and major New Japan wrestling outfits a "Noah encirclement"? Noah, the new promotion led by President Misawa, will finally begin its series of events starting with the Ariake event on October 7th. All Japan announced on the 5th that Tenryu has officially joined them, and the next series will feature a "Triple Crown Championship Tournament." Onita has also been confirmed to compete in the final match of the series, which will be held at the Budokan on October 28th. Now is the time to question Misawaism. 

"NAVIGATION", Noah's first series!

The new major promotion, Pro Wrestling Noah (President Mitsuharu Misawa), is finally starting a full-scale series of events. 

In June, a new promotion called Noah was formed as an independent company from All Japan Pro Wrestling with a group of 25 wrestlers (including referees and trainees) and 18 front-office staff members*. The promotion held the first event of its inaugural series on July 10th at Differ Ariake. Noah has had six one-off events since their "pre-launch two-event series" at Differ Ariake on August 5th and 6th. On September 24th and 25th, they held two consecutive Kansai area debut events in Kyoto and Osaka. The first inaugural series "NAVIGATION" (two weeks = 10 shows in total) will kick off at Differ Ariake on October 7th, and will be Noah's first long circuit. After the series ends, the second inaugural series, "NAVIGATION in NOVEMBER," will begin on November 4th (two weeks, total of 10 events), sandwiched between two events at Differ Ariake on October 22nd and Soka (Saitama) on October 28th. Two consecutive matches will be held at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall on November 15th and 16th.   

For Noah, the three key events in the inaugural series [NAVIGATION] will be at Differ Ariake on October 7th, Yokohama Bunka Gym on October 8th, and Gunma General Sports Center (Maebashi)* on October 9th. The opening match on October 7th at Differ Ariake will be held at the venue, which has already become the popular "Saturday night at Differ Ariake."

The dates of the Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium event on October 8th and the Maebashi event on October 9th completely overlap with three other events: All Japan's Korakuen Hall event on October 8th (starting at 12:30), New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Korakuen Hall afternoon event on October 8th (starting at 6:30 = Tokyo Dome Eve Festival), and the Tokyo Dome event on October 9th. The second match of the series, the Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium on October 8th, will be Noah's first "big city match" held at a major venue in the Kanto area (other than Differ Ariake). The following day, the 9th, there will be a show in Gunma Maebashi, the 11th in Aichi Nagoya, the 12th in Okayama, and the 13th in Hiroshima.  

The new promotion Noah and the long-established All Japan are destined to engage in a "family feud" and in the genealogy of professional wrestling history, they are in a relationship of "family" and "branch family", but the possibility of the two promotions ever having any contact or exchange in any form in the future is close to zero.

After the Misawa Group left, All Japan held two series: the Summer Action Series and Summer Action Series II. At the Nippon Budokan  on July 23rd, Genichiro Tenryu returned to his old ring for the first time in 10 years. The Fukuoka Hakata Star Lane tournament on the 15th, the Ishikawa Kanazawa tournament on the 17th, and the Iwate Morioka tournament (final match) on the 20th were also held as "regional city-style big events." 

The Summer Action Series II in August kicked off a rivalry mode with New Japan Pro Wrestling, with the final match of the series at the Budokan on September 2nd featuring a singles match between Masanobu Fuchi and Masahiro Chono.    

At New Japan's Nagoya event on September 16th, Toshiaki Kawada appeared in the ring in a suit, and the "All Japan Combo" of Fuchi and Taiyo Kea faced Chono and Tatsutoshi Goto in a singles match (Kea won by pinfall over Goto).

New Japan's autumn super event at the Tokyo Dome on the 9th October, will feature a lineup of four matches between New Japan and All Japan, including a singles match (non-title) between Kawada and Kensuke Sasaki. 

The relationship between New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling is effectively a business partnership known as a "competitive rivalry." With New Japan's Shiro Koshinaka teaming up with Fuchi as an "All Japan member" at the Tokyo Dome, it's safe to say the business ties between the two organizations are already in a honeymoon period. 

All Japan will hold a one-off event at Korakuen Hall on October 8th as a "Fan Appreciation Day." New Japan will also hold a pre-event event for their Tokyo Dome event at the same venue on the same day. It's very interesting to see how All Japan's "daytime event" and New Japan's "nighttime event" are working together as a kind of collaborative pre-event. 

All Japan's next series, the 2000 Giant Series (two weeks, 12 matches total), will begin on October 14th at Korakuen Hall and will feature a tournament to decide the currently vacant Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. The eight wrestlers competing in the tournament are Kawada, Tenryu, Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, Mike Barton*, Johnny Smith, Taiyo Kea, and Jinsei Shinzaki (Michinoku Pro). The winners of Blocks A and B will compete in the final match of the series, the championship match, at the Budokan on October 28th.

Additionally, Atsushi Onita has been confirmed to make a special appearance (card details yet to be determined). For Onita, an All Japan alumnus, this will be his first show in his parent home ring in about 16 years, since his retirement match on December 12th 1984 (Showa 59). 

Noah's inaugural series [NAVIGATION] and All Japan's [2000 Giant Series] have been holding shows across the country at close range. Noah's Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium event on October 8th will clash perfectly with the aforementioned "day and night doubleheader" between All Japan and New Japan at Korakuen Hall, and the Gunma Maebashi event on the following day, the 9th, will also be a direct showdown between All Japan and New Japan in a "dome rivalry match" on the same day and at the same time. All Japan's three consecutive matches in the Tohoku area on the 16th, 17th and 18th (Fukuoka, Iwate, Miyagi) will be closely matched with Noah's Morioka event on October 20th. Ten days after Noah's Nagoya event on October 11th (October 21st), All Japan will hold the fifth round of the series at the same venue. Additionally, on October 28th, the day of the final All Japan series at the Budokan, Noah will hold a one-off event in Soka, Saitama. This will be a rival event where Noah will attempt to break the Budokan's 16,000 person capacity.

As a practical matter, even if the promotion itself has split into two factions, with Noah and All Japan competing for so-called "All Japan fans," fan sites are not being forced to choose between the two using the same logic. and it seems that at this stage, the long-time regulars are taking the stance of supporting both the old and new promotions. 

All Japan's next 2000 Giant Series will feature a full line up of eight foreign wrestlers, including Hansen and Williams, who are "affiliated with All Japan." Tenryu, who had previously been in a freelance position as a "special participant," announced at a press conference on the 25th that he would officially join All Japan. It was also decided that he would also participate as an All Japan member in the "New Triple Crown Champion Tournament" to be held during the series. Depending on the results of the matches at the Tokyo Dome event on October 9th, there is a possibility that New Japan wrestlers will participate in the Nagoya event on October 21st, and it is highly likely that the "rivalry mode" between All Japan and New Japan will continue as is. However, it is still up in the air as to whether

Tenryu, who has officially joined All Japan Pro Wrestling, or Onita, who has been confirmed to appear at the Budokan event on October 20th, will take part in future rivalries with New Japan Pro Wrestling.

In response to Onita's statement that "if that's Baba's wish, I'll fight New Japan as All Japan's vanguard," New Japan responded coldly, "Our business relationship with Onita is over." Noah, which was formed when most of the wrestlers from All Japan moved there, is somehow less newsworthy when compared to the unexpected rapprochement between All Japan and New Japan.

The buzz in the ring was that Jun Akiyama, who had transformed from blue tights to white at the "Pre-launch" event at Differ Ariake on August 5th, was the new star. He disrupted the He disrupted the "internal ranking" of the promotion and formed an impromptu merger with Yoshihiro Takayama of NO FEAR. He is forming a "third faction" after the Misawa and Kobashi groups. Also, with the de facto disbandment of NO FEAR, Takao Omori's position was left up in the air, but he has responded with some hesitation, joining Kobashi's group. In Kyoto on the 24th, he took part in the main event, a six-man tag match. During their All Japan days, regular members of the "Family Army" undercard, such as Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Jun Izumida and the younger wrestlers Makoto Hashi, Takeshi Morishima and the newcomer, Takeshi Rikio, have already comfortably broken into the ranks of top wrestlers. 

No one can deny that the basis of what makes Noah unique is the All Japan style. If "cheerful, fun, and intense pro wrestling" is the royal road*, the pro wrestling philosophy that supported All Japan's "Four Heavenly Kings era," then what Noah aims for can be seen as adding "free thinking" to this "bright, fun, and intense pro wrestling." 

It was "suppressed power" that propelled the former Four Heavenly Kings of Wrestling -- Misawa, Kobashi, Kawada, and Akira Taue - to the status of undisputed main eventers. The four wrestlers, who had no voice within All Japan*, achieved great success as professional wrestlers by silently asserting themselves in the ring. Misawa, the president who founded Noah, is still stepping into the ring at the same rhythm as he did in his All Japan days. To put it simply, his principles as a producer have become extremely vague. All Japan is tightening it's "encirclement of Noah" by co-operating with New Japan. What Noah needs now is producer Misawa's "free thinking" and the bold implementation of that thinking.  

Notes

Front office staff members: Including a niece of Baba's

Differ, Yokohama Bunka Gym & Gunma Sports Centre: Differ and Yokohama no longer exist, and Gunma Sports Centre is now "ALSOK Gunma Sports Center". 

Mike Barton: Bart Gunn

Royal Road: Coined by the wrestling media, not Baba. 

No voice: This does not mean political voice, this means that Baba didn't like them to give interviews or speak on the mic too much. 

Picture blurbs

All Japan are currently recruiting freelancers who can start immediately, while Kakihara, who has just left Noah is said to be returning to All Japan. Weekly Pro noted that this was at this stage, only a rumor.