Movers and Shakers #6
Posted: 04/13/02
Welcome to Movers and Shakers #6. It was kind of a slow week, with a lot of holdovers from last week thanks to the Champion Carnival. Oh, and I totally screwed up my explanation of the CC. It seems the #1 and #2 seeds of both Blocks advance, with Block A's #1 seed meeting Block B's #2 seed, and Block B's #1 seed meeting Block A's #2 seed. Then the winners of those matches meet in the finals. This becomes relevant later.
Remember, if you have someone you think should be on the list, let me know (try to make it someone not totally obscure-I don't care if your cousin won your backyard fed's hardcore title).
Before we dive in, here are the websites that I consistently use when doing research (yes, I do research these, smartass).
http://www.puroresufan.com/njpw/ --Stuart's amazing Japanese wrestling page is updated daily with news from the big puro feds, and has comprehensive results, rosters, and schedules.
http://www.puroresupower.com/ --Zach Arnold's site covers everything Japan, from the big feds to smaller indies like Big Japan and Osaka Pro.
http://www.wrestling-titles.com/
--Um, just what it says. This site covers pretty much every fed and title you can imagine. Invaluable.
And now, the top of the pops from 4/7 to 4/13.
10. Akira Hokotu (GAEA): Hokuto ended her epic 17-year career on 4/7, teaming with Meiko Satomura to beat Chigusa Nagayo and Ayako Hamada in Hokuto's final match. Hokuto (who you may remember from a stint in WCW in 1997) hit Hamada with a Northern Lights Bomb at 22:51 for the pin and one final victory. It would take pages and pages to list all of Hokuto's great matches and accomplishments, but we'll just say that she was one of the all-time greats of any gender and will be sorely missed
9. Mike Barton (All Japan): The former Bart Gunn surprised wrestling fans by not only making it to the final four of the Champion Carnival, but then trouncing former Triple Crown champion Gen'ichiro Tenryu (who was undefeated in the CC up until that point) in a mere 5:38 with a Barton Cutter. That was as far as Barton would go, however, as Keiji Mutoh downed him in the finals with a moonsault press in 9:50. The week didn't end well either, as Barton, Jim Steele, and the Cedman lost their opening round match in the Giant Baba Six Man Cup to Steve Williams, Mike Rotundo & Yoji Anjo at the AJPW PPV. It's hard to get a read on what All Japan wants to do with Barton-my guess is that at most he'd get a shot at Tenryu's belt (since he already beat him handily), Tenryu would get the win back, and Barton will fade back down the midcard.
8. Billy Kidman (WWF): Not a bad week for the WWF Cruiserweight champ. Not only does he successfully defend his newly won Cruiserweight title against Chavo Guerrero Jr. on Jakked, he's also came to Torrie Wilson's aid as Tajiri was berating her on Smackdown. Wow, a gen-you-ine angle for a cruiserweight, how about that? If the WWF is planning on going full tilt boogie with a CW division, Kidman's not a bad choice for the cornerstone. And a solid PPV match with Tajiri could do wonders for both the Kid and the belt.
7. Rob Van Dam (WWF): It probably seems weird to put Robby here when he lost his match on Raw, and leave out, say, Spike Dudley, who won a match and the European title on Monday. But at this point, winning the European title is about as prestigious as buying a replica belt at Highspots. Rob, however, took a big-step forward in his career as a WWF as he looked king-sized in his match against the Undertaker. I think we all knew RVD was going to do the J-O-B against the Undertaker on Raw, but for a few moments I really thought Van Dam was going to win and was completely marking out (something of a rarity these days). I think Rob looked at the Raw new roster and realized he's going to have to work extra hard to bring the quality wrestling, and so far he's delivering. I can perfectly accept the ending to the Taker/Van Dam match, because it advanced two storylines and Rob came out of it looking great, but I hope he finally gets a clean win over the 'Taker sometime soon.
6. Kendo Ka Shin (All Japan): The former New Japan junior beat Masanobu Fuchi for the vacant All Japan World Junior Heavyweight Title on 4/13, getting the tap out from the former five-time champ with the cross armbreaker in 16:55. Right after winning, Kendo received his first challenge from Kaz Hayashi, and a series of matches between the two could be show stealers. The junior title had been vacant and the division nearly non-existent since Yoshinari Ogawa jumped to Noah in June of 2000. It looks like Ka Shin's going to anchor the division, and even though he's not my favorite junior, he does have the skills and reputation to handle the job.
5. Satoshi Kojima (All Japan): Another New Japan refugee, Kojima scored his biggest All Japan win by beating Taiyo Kea on the 4/13 AJPW PPV to become the #1 contender to the Triple Crown (currently held by Gen'ichiro Tenryu). Kojima looks to unseat Tenryu and also avenge a loss he suffered at the last PPV. However, given the booking style in All Japan, it seems doubtful Kojima will get the belts on his first try. He's still very good in the ring, and Kojima in main event matches is still a very good thing.
4. Yoshinari Ogawa (Noah): In the upset of the year (Or bad booking decision of the year. Toh-MAY-toh, toh-MAH-toh.), Ogawa defeated Jun Akiyama in only 4:20 on 4/7 to become the third GHC Heavyweight Champ. For you non-puro fans, this would be tantamount to William Regal winning the WWF World Title, although to be fair to Regal he's a lot more talented than Ogawa. A variety of theories have been offered to explain the booking: blatant favoritism (Ogawa is a regular tag partner and second of booker Misawa), Misawa punishing Akiyama for not being a large draw, using Ogawa as future canon fodder for a New Japan guy, or perhaps just an all-out effort to make Ogawa a top guy. Well, whatever the reason, we have to recognize his achievement. However, the piss-poor reaction to the win and his less-than-promising first title match (against Akira Taue-P.U.) keep Ogawa from reaching the top 3.
3. Keiji Muto (All Japan): Keiji beat Mike Barton in the finals of the Champion Carnival to win the tournament, capping off an amazing comeback as he won his last 4 CC matches. He now joins such luminaries as Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta, Mitsuharu Misawa, Stan Hansen, and Toshiaki Kawada on the list of winners. This accomplishment would normally be good enough for at least #2, but the finals against Barton (which didn't even go 10 minutes), well; people weren't exactly calling it a classic. And there was that matter of losing the Triple Crown match to Tenryu at the PPV, which keeps him at #3.
2. Shocker (CMLL): The most electrifying man in lucha libre finally makes an appearance on the charts. I'm been waiting to put him here for weeks, but he's been frustratingly absent from Galavision in recent weeks. Thankfully, that trend was altered when he successfully defended his CMLL Light Heavyweight Title against the nefarious Dr. Wagner Jr. Shocker and Wagner, maybe pissed about not being in the Best of the Super Juniors, decided to bust out a total New Japan juniors style match. Wagner was merciless going after the leg, which Shocker sold like a champ (for most of the match, anyway). Shocker eventually pulled out the close win after 15 minutes of great psychology and selling. Shocker's just soooo great right now, bringing the wrestling skills and buckets of charisma. If we were choosing year-end awards right now, he'd be my Wrestler of the Year in a nanosecond.
1. Gen'ichiro Tenryu (All Japan): Granpa Tenryu wins the vacated Triple Crown for the Third Time, beating Keiji Muto with a brainbuster in 19:38. Tenryu's week had started off poorly, getting trounced by Mike Barton in the Champion Carnival semis, but rebounded quite nicely by beating Mutoh for the second straight time. His first challenge will come from Satoshi Kojima, and I don't expect Kojima to win it at this stage of the game. With a limited number of viable opponents, it looks like we're in for another lengthy Tenryu reign.
And now a few bonuses:
Well Wishes of the Week go to Kodo Fuyuki: Fuyuki announced his retirement this week due to being diagnosed with intestinal cancer, and will undergo surgery on 4/18 to determine if the cancer is as dangerous as it appears. Fuyuki was planning to wrestle Atsushi Onita in an exploding barbed wire death match, but those plans have obviously been scrapped. In fact, Noah quickly put together a retirement show for Fuyuki, as he will team with Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa against Tamon Honda, Masao Inoue & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. Our thoughts are with Fuyuki and we wish him the best of luck (special thanks to Puroresu Power for the story).
Wheeler and Dealer of the Week-Mitsuharu Misawa: Misawa made a lot of headlines this week, but none of it was for anything he did in the ring. First, the Misawa vs. Masahiro Chono match was made official this week for New Japan's 30th anniversary show (this would be similar to when Hogan and Flair finally met in the ring, and is also probably a few years too late), and an impressive 5,000 tickets were sold within 5 hours after the match was announced. Also, Misawa quickly put together a five-match retirement card for Kodo Fuyuki in which he will participate in the main event. Last (and least), Misawa the booker made headlines by making Yoshinari Ogawa the GHC heavyweight champ, proving he's either on crack or smarter than all of us put together.
No Movers and Shakers next week as we instead will have the Backlash PPV Preview up for you. It doesn't look like anything major will happen anyway, but if anything does I'll note it to the 4/28 edition. That'll do it for now-watch your head on the way out.
Joe Gagne
bwo@infi.net