(ALL JAPAN) Discovering and nurturing promising young talent is an urgent task. Aim for the ideal pyramid-shaped system.
21st January 1986 (Issue no.127)
Currently, All Japan Pro Wrestling only has four wrestlers who can be considered "young," including those who have trained overseas. This clearly shows that All Japan's roster is shaped like an inverted pyramid. Conversely, this implies that they should be discovering and nurturing promising talent. I've zoomed in on the problems with All Japan.
Zooming in on the problems with the "stability" if the All Japan team.
Including Ogawa, there are only four young wrestlers.
While it may not be their golden age, there's no doubt that All Japan Pro Wrestling is currently the most stable promotion.
Until the spring of 1959, rival New Japan was the most stable and successful. However, when UWF, Japan Pro-Wrestling, and the Calgary Hurricanes split off and became independent, New Japan lost more than half of its wrestlers, and at one point it was rumored to be on the verge of collapse. The after-effects of that crisis still remain today. There was no internal conflict within All Japan Pro Wrestling. On the contrary, the Japan faction and the International Blood Alliance faction came in, and they ended up with more wrestlers than they could possibly use. In the 1960 World's Strongest Tag Team League, just like in the golden age of Japanese professional wrestling, mid-level and younger wrestlers were assigned to take turns "staying on the sidelines." It was simply impossible to have all of them compete in matches every day. However, while the ring is bustling with activity, if we focus solely on All Japan, the current situation is that the roster is structured like an inverted pyramid.
In November, Tarzan Goto and Toshiaki Kawada departed for their first overseas training trips, and in December, Hiromichi Fuyuki returned to Japan. However, the only wrestler under Fuyuki's tutelage is the newly debuted Yoshinari Ogawa.
Currently, Ogawa is the only one at the training camp in Setagaya. Even including those on overseas training trips, only four wrestlers can truly be called young talent: Goto, Kawada, Fuyuki, and Ogawa.
Tiger Mask's age is unknown, but he's already a main eventer. The only other wrestler in his twenties is Haru Sonoda, who's barely 29. The rest are all in their thirties and forties. It's truly an aging society.
Whether it's a company, a sports promotion, or a school sports club, if it's not pyramidal, there's no future development. To put it extremely, this would mean that All Japan has no future. In fact, if things continue as they are for another ten years, what will become of All Japan? Developing young talent should be the most urgent priority.
Establishing a trainer system is paramount.
Training young talent is not immediately profitable, only incurring significant costs, and it will be several years before they contribute to promotion. However, New Japan Pro-Wrestling had many trainees, so they were able to overcome the crisis by debuting them all at once. Even Japan Pro-Wrestling, which is still relatively new, has recruited and is developing the promising Hiroshi Hase. Fumihiro Niikura, Shinji Sasazaki, and Shinichi Nakano are all in their twenties. UWF, which has effectively gone bankrupt, had seven rookies/trainees. Compared to them, All Japan's young talent pool is incredibly thin.
Giant Baba has states that, "I want to nurture newcomers regardless of promotion", and he has been coaching Hase, whom he plans to entrust his overseas training to Dory Funk Jnr. That's all well and good, but Hase is still a New Japan wrestler. If he were independent in the future, Hase would become a formidable rival to All Japan. Therefore, Baba should focus on discovering and nurturing promising young talent.
What we need to consider here is that UWF, which had no television broadcasts and was in the most difficult financial situation, had many new recruits, while All Japan, which should have been the most fortunate, had few. Excluding the exception of the approximately 2000 applicants for the women's professional wrestling audition, the number of aspiring wrestlers should have increased compared to a generation ago.
Why don't they knock on All Japan's door?
All Japan's newsletter always has advertisements recruiting new wrestlers. The door is open, but...
Shouldn't All Japan first establish a trainer system?
Veteran wrestlers lament that "today's young wrestlers only think about appearing on TV and getting paid well," but you can't generalize like that, as you can see from the UWF rookies. They chose a tough path of their own accord because they wanted to become stronger.
Famous scouts were also actively involved, and Karl Gotch, the epitome of Sparta, was the supreme advisor to UWF. Fujiwara was also known for training new recruits so hard that he nearly killed them. "They still don't run away even though we haven't paid them," Fujiwara himself was surprised. For the newcomers, the appeal was being trained by Gotch and Fujiwara.
Japan (Pro) also had Choshu Riki and Animal Hamaguchi, who were famous for their intense training, and Hamaguchi's skills as a trainer are also well-established.
New Japan has the "Demon Sergeant" Kotetsu Yamamoto.
All Japan lacks such a trainer. At one point, Akio Sato held that position, but after spending a long time in America, they are now practically without a trainer. Baba, with his experience in professional baseball, should understand the drawbacks of seniors giving too much advice. There should only be one authoritative person acting as a trainer for young wrestlers. Establishing that system is the top priority. Otherwise, they risk losing our promising new recruits. It's perfectly fine for the trainer to continue working while also being an active competitor. Hamaguchi trained Ashura Hara, and is currently training Hase. In All Japan, Takashi Ishikawa, who has strong opinions on training methods, might be a suitable candidate.
They could have made Atsushi Onita the full-time trainer when he retired. He's still young, but they could learn together. They could also consider bringing someone in from overseas. There might be a second Fred Atkins out there somewhere.
Of course, they should also actively consider scouting top talent from other sports. There have been rumors about athletes from judo, amateur sumo, and rugby.
Perhaps they should have been more proactive in their approach. However, even in that case, a skilled trainer is still necessary. Simply putting newcomers in a training camp and having senior members occasionally offer advice is not enough to guarantee success.
Unless they hire a trainer who inspires confidence ("I want to be trained by that person"), and increase the number of new recruits to introduce fresh blood, the All-Japan team will only continue to age year after year.
Picture note
The All Japan team faces a major challenge in discovering and developing young talent (the photo shows Ogawa receiving coaching from Dory)
Notes
All Japan were having the exact same issue of recruiting in the 1970s
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