A few niggling points:

It's Naomichi Marufuji not Marafuchi and the list of NOAH's hot young talent should include current GHC champ Takeshi Morishima.

Toshiaki Kawada is absent from the list of big Japanese headlining stars of the mid 90's Jun Akiyama shouldn't be there as he didn't really start to prove himself on a major level until 1998. Akira Taue would have been a better choice.

And while NOAH may appear to be the biggest drawing major company in Japan, it is also suffering with stagnant booking and lack of support and drawing power outside of Tokyo. If anything HUSTLE is arguably the biggest drawing wrestling promotion in Japan right now although due to its comedic nature and insistence to call itself "Fighting soap opera" some people try to separate it from the other pro-wrestling companies.

It should also be noted that the rise of MMA played a big part in Japan's pro-wrestling scene's reversal of fortune when the likes of K-1, Pride, Pancrase, etc took off. Something similar has happened in the US since UFC took off.

Finally, I disagree that 1995-1996 was that great as Diesel proved to the worst drawing WWF champ ever and the booking was also anachronistic. Until the nWo angle (which Bischoff pinched from the NJPW vs UWF anglefrom10 years earlier), WCW also suffered from poor booking and reliance on the same old stars like Hogan, Savage,Flair, etc. to draw. ECW was the only true fresh product at the time which booking wise was leaving the "Big Two" in the shade.

Other than that, it cannot be denied that wrestling is unlikely to reach the same scale it did 10 years ago in the foreseeable future.

you are absolutely right that Kawada should have been included but i'm not so sure about Taue.

I know lot of people who will strongly argue the case for Taue. He's not a personal favourite of mine but I do recognise that he was the fourth wheel in that runaway truck that was ruling All Japan in the mid 90's along with Kobashi, Misawa and Kawada. So for me, while he wasn't the draw the others may have been, Taue was certainly  worthy of inclusion in the list of big guns for that period in Japan in my opinion.

 

The point about HUSTLE is a good one and worth further discussion. For my money, i can't take them seriously enough as a wrestling company to warrant their inclusion (but then i get the feeling i'm not supposed to). The judgements about success that i was making were from a quality standpoint of workers rather than booking or financial success which i should have probably made more clear.

HUSTLE is, and no doubt always will be, a huge polarising issue among hardcore wrestling fans as to whether it is legit "wrestling" or not. My argument is that is has worked matches inside a wrestling ring and the "performers" are mostly wrestlers so, for all intents and purposes, it is wrestling as tenuous as the link to it maybe.

It is the same with your point about 95/96 not being that great. I will certainly agree that from a booking and match quality standpoint it can be argued that it wasn't that great but from a quality of personnel standpoint i don't feel that it can.

Absolutely I agree that wrestling was more "star studded" in those days, but I personally would attribute part of that to the fact that this was still the period when "jobber" matches aired all over TV and the perception that every "name" wrestler was somebody. The pecking order was still in place among the "superstars" undoubtedly but to the casual viewer everybody was somebody.

Once that practice ebbed away during the Monday Night Wars with PPV match ups being held on free TV every week, the true pecking order among the "name" wrestlers became more apparent and thus the lower tier "superstars" replaced the nameless enhancement talent. Without being able to rotate random nameless jobbers, the same wrestlers continually losing simply perpetuated the divide and perception of who the real stars are and who are the supporting cast and extras. I would venture that contributes immensely to the lack of ability to create new stars as their role has been determined for them and noticed by the fans from the start, and it is difficult to get out of the starting blocks when the finish line is already blocked from your view by the bigger horses.

That is, of course, not to dimiss the advent of the guaranteed, contract, creative control and backstage stroke afforded to those on top who will manipulate eveyrone at every oportunity to keep their spot, but that has been abane of wrestling since time immemorial.

I can appreciate that NOAH's booking can seem stale but i feel they are building something that will set the standard for japanese wrestling for decades to come. The standard of workers on show at the UK show recently shows how seriously they are taking the european market and their partnership with ROH will yield new programmes.

Again, this is another hot topic among Puro fans and looking at the "Big Three" promotions in Japan, NOAH are the last to elevate younger or fresher talent to the top. They may be biding their time but really, they need to pull the trigger on whatever big ideas they may have for the future before it is too late.

Anyway, good luck with the future columns.

I can't seem to access the site at all DM....

Works fine for me.

good point about the Corino thing MIB, will make a note of that

thanks for the feedback

feel like i'm getting the hang of it now

Apologies Creepshow, I just realised I hadn't read your column this month before now.

Again, you make some very valuable and valid points about the way the impact and believability of moves in wrestling has lessened over the years. I too never understood how the DDT went from being a lethal finisher for Jake Roberts to a transitional move for other wrestlers; or how a Powerbomb from Sid or Nash would finish off any opponent yet it would be kicked out of in every Cruiserweight match in Japan and later the USA. And don't get me started on guys no selling chair shots either...

By the same token it is always amazes me when matches - especially in Japan - are won with a Lariat. In the US and elsewhere it is a simple, basic move and more often a transitional one that carries little threat. In Japan it is a big time, crowd popping finisher with the same gravitas as a Stone Cold Stunner!

I do think a lot of it is a sign of the times and how each successive audience demands more from wrestling as society itself changes. I don't mind wrestlers having two or three finishers as it makes a match that more exciting should one move fail, try another. Unfortunately, in this day and age of mindless 100mph spot fests it seems more is more (as opposed to less is more) and while there is a case for guys keeping until kicking out until they've reached their dying breath, using bigger and more dangerous (and often elaborate) moves kills any credibility.

That's why I like the matches from All Japan in the 90's where they sometimes hit their finisher two or three times to get the win, rather then break out every move in the book or use the aid of as chair or table as they do today. I think this is one of the few things ECW pioneered that maybe shouldn't have been adopted elsewhere.

One of the reasons why I don't like ROH is because they have taken this to the next level just to pop their fans - the ROHbots as they are known - instead of telling a decent story. The ref counts are also too fast killing the drama of kicking out at the count of two.

Just ridiculous!!