You never know what you might find... if you go back to the RSPW 1993 archives! Read this, I know it's long but it's interesting and you wouldn't fully understand the last 5 paragraphs or so if you don't read it all... simply exchange WWF in 1993 for Britain in 2003 (which isn't all that different come to think about it, they had Doink the Clown we have some Clown in Spiderman Pyjamas...
)...
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We return to April, 1983, to set the stage for the next chapter in
this story. That's when Akira Maeda debuted in a New Japan wrestling
ring. Maeda was a fairly uncharismatic wrestler and was just too
inexperienced to stand out among all the other guys that were at
their peaks (Fujinami, Choshu, Tiger Mask, Dynamite Kid, etc.).
Maeda had been hand-picked by Shinma as a potential replacement
for Antonio Inoki many years down the road. He'd been trained by Karl
Gotch and had worked in England for a bit as Kwik Kick Lee before
debuting in Japan. When Shinma left the company in late 1983,
Maeda had to fear for his status even more. He used to be mediocre
with the backing of an important person (Shinma); now he was just
mediocre.
Shinma formed the Universal Wrestling Federation in early 1984.
He had wanted to bring in Antonio Inoki has his top star, thinking
that New Japan wouldn't treat Inoki right any more and maybe Inoki
would be pissed at all that had gone down. Well, Inoki was still
protected and overpushed, so he stayed. Maeda got an early chance
to replace Inoki as the lead star of a wrestling company. The group
was going to be another pro-_style_ wrestling promotion. There's some
confusion here, in my mind anyhow, but at some point Akira Maeda had
a tour arranged with the WWF. He won the WWF International _title_
(which had been vacated by Tatsumi Fujinami) from Pierre "Mad Dog"
LeFebvre in MSG. Gary Will reports this date as March 25, 1983.
Something went wrong with the relationship with Vince McMahon and
Maeda spent the remainder of his tour (roughly one month) jobbing
on the undercard. It's this tour which is credited for Maeda's
dislike of the traditional pro-_style_ of wrestling (ie. showmanship)
and would lead to changes in the UWF.
Satoru Sayama agreed to come out of retirement and work for the UWF
in mid 1985. His appearance helped bolster attendance to the point
where he figured he could take over the company. He threatened to
walk unless Shinma was canned. Since all of the other UWF wrestlers
valued Sayama, Shinma bowed to the pressure and left the company.
Sayama, Maeda, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara were left in charge of the UWF.
Bitter at the pro-_style_ of wrestling, Maeda and Sayama wanted to
change the sport to something that was perceived as "real." They
started to concentrate on submissions and mat-wrestling. Maeda
routinely called the other promotions "fake" and challenged all
of their top stars with wrestling ability (Fujinami, for example).
When top stars with limited ability (Inoki, Baba, Andre, for example)
were mentioned as challenges by reporters, Maeda would laugh at the
idea. The UWF had a cult following because of the derisive Maeda
and the star of the show, Sayama. Fujiwara was considered the best
shooter in the company by fans. There were still hokey endings in
matches.
Even though business was very good, even without television, things
fell apart in 1985, when Sayama and Maeda wanted to take the company
in different directions. Maeda wanted to concentrate on submissions
to the exclusion of everything else and Sayama wanted to concentrate
on kicks. They had their in-ring "death-struggle" late in the year,
after which Sayama quit and retired again and the promotion folded.
The remaining UWF stars joined up with New Japan again, with the
idea being that it could be booked as an inter-promotional battle.
The UWF guys were coming to New Japan to show that "real" wrestling
could beat the "fake" stuff.
In the previous couple of years, New Japan had floundered. They had
some luck with the Cobra (George Takano), Kuniaki Kobayashi, Dynamite
Kid and other Junior Heavyweights. But in September, 1984, Riki Choshu,
the hottest wrestler in Japan, jumped ship from New Japan to All Japan.
He took Killer Khan, Masa Saito, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Animal Hamaguchi,
Yoshiaki Yatsu, and some other wrestlers with him. There was lots of
talk of Fujinami jumping too, with the talk being that that would kill
New Japan, but Fujinami stayed with New Japan. Just earlier, Dynamite
Kid and Davey Boy Smith, already one of the best teams in the business,
had jumped from New Japan to All Japan as well. New Japan had problems
and needed something to bring them out of their stupor. Both New Japan
and All Japan still had lots of screwy endings in matches. They still
had a face-heel structure for the most part, too.
Everybody was already excited about seeing Maeda vs. Antonio Inoki.
The confrontation was set up in February, 1986, when Inoki, having
beaten Fujiwara, was kicked in the throat by Maeda. Of course,
neither ego could afford to job and the show, which had sold out in
one day, was headlined by a 10 man tag match with Inoki and Maeda
never squaring off. Meada was pushed around in other matches, with
many ending with screwy finishes.
It was interesting to watch the _style_ clash when the "shooters" from the
UWF faced the wrestlers from New Japan. While there were some submission
moves used in New Japan (the Scorpion leglock, for example), the leglocks
and armbars of the UWF were not used a lot. Yet, they were over when the
shooters used them. Maeda and his guys revitalized New Japan in 1986.
Meanwhile, in All Japan, Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu were the best tag
team in the world. They feuded with Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu.
The matches had little influence from the submission _style_ that was
gaining popularity; there were still screw jobs and a heel-face structure.
Mitsuhara Misawa was doing well as Tiger Mask.
1987 was an unspectacular year for wrestling until late in the year.
Riki Choshu and many of the other original jumpers jumped back to New
Japan late in the year. They were just in time for the New Japan
tag tourney. In the early stages of the tourney, the shooters
(Maeda, Osamu Kido and Nobuhiko Takada) faced Choshu, Masa Saito
and Hiro Saito on November 19, 1987. Late in the match, while
Choshu was applying the Scorpion on Kido, Maeda walked in the ring
and kicked Choshu in the cheek from the blind side. There had been
a lot of heat throughout the match and this was the breaking point.
Choshu, the most popular wrestler in the company, was knocked out
of the tag tourney because of the injury. Maeda was suspended.
Of course, the New Japan office wanted to iron things out and
bring both men back to settle the score over the shoot kick.
Maeda was to be punished first, with a tour of North America being
in the cards (seems funny, that
). He'd also get a salary cut
and have to do the job for Choshu. Maeda refused and quit.
In March, 1988, rumours started that Maeda was going to re-form the
Universal Wrestling Federation. The promotion opened on May 12, 1988,
with Maeda, Takada, and Fujiwara as the only real names. To this
point, the axioms of pro-wrestling were still rigourously adhered to,
namely: (a) but for penny-ante promotions, television is a necessity,
(b) wrestling is boring. Gimmicks, showmanship, characters draw,
(c) main eventers can't job cleanly, especially the top babyface.
In his typical _style_, Maeda decided to buck the established norm
again: no gimmicks, showmanship, or characters, just wrestling; no TV;
clean jobs (of course, not pinfalls -- it isn't "real" for a wrestler
to pinned for 3 seconds, but KOs and submissions) in every match on
the card. Disaster in the making?
The 2300 seat Korakuen Hall sold out in 15 minutes. They sold out
again for their second show. By the third show, they sold out in
6 hours and turned away 10000 more fans the same day. Something
was happening.
Bang! The impact was made on New Japan and All Japan by this time.
Everything became more legitimate. Both groups played down any aerial
_style_ wrestling that they might still have had in 1988. They started
adding all of the submissions moves to the matches. Exchanging holds
on the mat became a regular part of practically every match. Everything
was stiffer.
On November 10, 1988, the UWF sold out a 5000 seat arena in 40 minutes.
Maeda did a KO clean job for Takada in the main event. Takada became
much hotter and Maeda lost no credibility. Takada then wrestled Bob
Backlund on December 22, 1988. He won and became even hotter.
At times, the pro-_style_ wrestlers that try to work shoot matches with the
UWF (Backlund, for example) would try to do pro-_style_ moves. The UWF
veterans would not co-operate or not sell them.
The UWF sold out 21 out of 22 shows, most on the first day. For only
the second time in history (to that point), Budokan Hall (a 15000 seat
arena) was sold out, as were nearby closed-circuit venues. The gates
were over $1-million. And in late 1989, they drew 60000 fans to the
Egg Dome in Tokyo. They would fold in December, 1990, because of
internal problems between Maeda and Shinji Jin, the president and
promoter. Jin was also working with Super World Sports and Maeda
wanted to avoid being _link_ed to a pro-_style_ group. In fact, Jin
had dreams of inter-promotional matches.
Of course, in 1989, New Japan brought back the Junior Heavyweight
division, headed by Jushin Riger. The Jr. Heavies still do aerial
stuff. There's still a heel-face structure a lot of the time in
both New Japan and All Japan, but there's also a competition driven
feud between different sets of wrestlers. The heels don't have to
always cheat to win; in fact, they rarely cheat like their North
American counter-parts. Every match has a clean job finish.
Everybody jobs, some less than others, and often only to people
higher than them in the promotion's heirarchy. But jobbing doesn't
hurt credibility because it's the wrestling that's front and center.
There are some character or gimmick wrestlers like Jushin Riger or
Big Van Vader or Patriot and Eagle, but the gimmicks have little
to no effect on the wrestling. Submission moves are over like
never before, with submissions more frequent than they used to be.
Most of these changes can be attributed to the success of the
Universal Wrestling Federation in its second incarnation.
What's happening in North America? We're many years behind the
Japanese when it comes to how pro-wrestling is promoted. Most of
that can be "credited" to the WWF, which established a cartoonish
_style_ of pro-wrestling where the heel and face lines are very
clearly established, simple symbolism is never avoided, gimmicks
and characters dominate and actual wrestling is a side-product
of everything. All of this came into being in the interest of
making money, and it did, so it's hard to argue initially. Yet,
one might point out that the National Enquirer makes a lot of
bucks and nobody would ever call it the best newspaper in the
world even though it might have an occasional good article.
Somewhere along the way, Vince lost whatever respect he might
have had for his audience and decided that he didn't have to
compete for product quality at all. Vince could still keep all
of the gimmickry, etc., and run the promotion with guys that can
deliver wrestling on top and he chooses not to. He could let guys
on the undercard work to their potential but doesn't allow that,
lest the "stars" look bad in comparison. Worse yet, Vince's new
idea of pro-wrestling isn't making much many any more either.
Interest in the product is dropping at an alarming rate.
Many people, netters included, joined pro-wrestling fandom after
Vince's change in the sport. As a result, their view of what
pro-wrestling is has little historical insight. To say that
"This is North America. What works in Japan won't work here."
is to completely ignore history and the way that the sport has
evolved in Japan. Of course, when the promotions themselves and
the culture that they are part of don't value history that much
(certainly not as much as the Japanese), that's not surprising.
For the most part, the big North American promotions, the WWF
especially, adhere to there "rules" of promoting wrestling listed
above, namely:
(a) but for penny-ante promotions, television is a necessity,
(b) wrestling is boring. Gimmicks, showmanship, characters draw,
(c) main eventers can't job cleanly, especially the top babyface.
The exceptions to (c) can be probably be listed on one hand.
Screw jobs are still running rampant, except for a select few
top wrestlers who agree to job when it's good for their company.
And for most of them, their drawing power is unhurt by jobbing.
There are some submission holds. Unfortunately, most of them are
"old" holds, the effect of which have been diluted over the years
due to stupid booking. The figure-four and the traditional sleeper
just don't cut it any more. Nobody put any time into developing
any new submission holds. Every year in Japan, they upgrade their
repertoires with a move here and there. The first time Maxx Payne
slapped on the wakigatamae (Paynekiller) that Fujiwara made famous
in the 80s in New Japan and the UWF, the crowd wasn't sure what
the stupid move was. This move is a staple move in New Japan and
All Japan; if anybody slaps it on, the crowd goes nuts until the
victim either gives up or manages to make the ropes or roll over
and alleviate the pressure. Some wrestling promotion here is going
to have to accept that it isn't going to make lots of money for the
next couple of years and just spend that time re-educating the
fans that are still watching. Unfortunately, all promotions could
benefit from one's initiative.
The companies here still put on the same matches at a series of
house shows. In Japan, the touring system has made every house
show important, building to a big event (at Budokan or the Dome, say).
This could easily be done here, especially now when interest in attending
monthly house shows is low. The tour could be of cities in a
couple of states at most. Highlights could air on the TV shows.
They could run their angles, etc., at the house shows and build
up to the PPVs. They'd re-visit the same states infrequently and
maybe interest would be higher when they came.
The question is whether promotional futures should be planned _base_d
on imagination to come up with gimmicks and such, ignoring talent,
or on talent, ignoring gimmicks and such. There should probably
be some combination solution, but what proportions? What gets boring
first: gimmicks or talent?
Can the three "rules" of pro-wrestling be thrown out the window?
No. Certainly, TV is essential to re-educate the public and draw
interest for PPVs on a large scale. The newspapers in North America
show no respect for pro-wrestling (and why should they, Vince?),
unlike their Japanese counterparts, so TV is really the only source
of information for fans. Certainly, though, the necessity of (b)
and (c) can be argued.
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Now whilst some of what he says isn't totally true (more specifically about the face/heel structure, although it isn't as exagerated as in America and especially as it is here, it still exists, as an MSN contact put so eloquently "what the f--k has Chono being doing the last 10 years, Herb?") but it's certainly an interesting read and worth a discussion.
And the point is this is related to British Wrestling's current scene, hence it's inclusion here...
Forum 
