It was an open secret that Shun would leave Dragongate for New Japan but I was still surprised he wouldn't go to Noah since he has been teaming with Team 200x and seemed to get along well. So what if he did go to Noah? Does he wrestle as a heavyweight? Does he join 200x? Is there a power struggle between Ozawa and Shun? If he wrestles as a heavyweight(like I assume he would) how fast does he win the GHC title?
I was watching an interview with Fujinami talking about the JWA before Inoki and Baba left to form their own promotions and discovered that Fujinami was actually closer to Giant Baba than Inoki. It's hard to think about that since Fujinami was Inoki's number 2 guy but Fujinami only joined New Japan because Inoki called him at home and he accepted. So my question is what if Fujinami refused and joined Baba into All-Japan? Baba was the ace of JWA so its not out of the realm of possibilty that Fujinami decides to stay with Baba in JWA and later AJPW. What happens to NJPW, especially in the 80s? In the 80s, Inoki was involved in a financial scandal in which he took New Japan money and invested in some alternate energy company in Brazil. When it was revealed, it aided Riki Choshu and Akira Maeda into leaving New Japan. Choshu went to All Japan while Maeda formed UWF. What happens to New Japan without Fujinami being the ace to carry the company through this time? And what does Fujinami's career look like in AJPW?
I was watching an interview with Fujinami talking about the JWA before Inoki and Baba left to form their own promotions and discovered that Fujinami was actually closer to Giant Baba than Inoki. It's hard to think about that since Fujinami was Inoki's number 2 guy but Fujinami only joined New Japan because Inoki called him at home and he accepted. So my question is what if Fujinami refused and joined Baba into All-Japan? Baba was the ace of JWA so its not out of the realm of possibilty that Fujinami decides to stay with Baba in JWA and later AJPW. What happens to NJPW, especially in the 80s? In the 80s, Inoki was involved in a financial scandal in which he took New Japan money and invested in some alternate energy company in Brazil. When it was revealed, it aided Riki Choshu and Akira Maeda into leaving New Japan. Choshu went to All Japan while Maeda formed UWF. What happens to New Japan without Fujinami being the ace to carry the company through this time? And what does Fujinami's career look like in AJPW?
Misawa has led a grand exodus, taking the top guys midcarders, tag teams, juniors, and even the young boys to start a new company. He has also taken most of the office and has taken All Japan's TV slot. Wrestling in Japan is on the downswing because of the growing mma boom. But not everything is terrible. You have Kawada, Tenryu is coming back and bringing some WAR guys with him, and Muto is joining bringing Kojima and Kendo Kenshin. Also All-Japan's coffers are still full.
The question is what are you going to do to keep All Japan up and running?
It was an open secret that Shun would leave Dragongate for New Japan but I was still surprised he wouldn't go to Noah since he has been teaming with Team 200x and seemed to get along well. So what if he did go to Noah? Does he wrestle as a heavyweight? Does he join 200x? Is there a power struggle between Ozawa and Shun? If he wrestles as a heavyweight(like I assume he would) how fast does he win the GHC title?
Well, with the two top babyfaces roles being filled by Yuya and Oiwa, I feel Shota would be redundant as yet another valiant face. Honestly, Shota has so much potential as a character. He can go full-on nepo baby with the company shoving him down our throats like a delusional heel who thinks he's a face. A tragic "fallen musketeer", who hasn't reach his potential and may never reach it. Or as I would have him, a stiff bad ass. Get rid of the pink gear and hair, dress in the dark colors like gray? Instead of being the next Tanahashi, he should be the next Onita. Have him live up to his roughneck nickname, Shota is willing to fight anyone at anytime, have his matches be the ones with blood, keep his stiff elbows and lariats. I think this would separate him from Yuya and Oiwa and still keep him a face. What do you guys think?
New Japan's next generation are finally able to step up and fill the top positions after a great G1.
Pro Wrestling Noah has finally been pushing their young guys, which seems to have worked.
All-Japan has a potential superstar in Yumi Anzai, whose star power already has All Japan venues increased attendance.
Stardom and dragon gate have been doing good because of good booking and consistently building stars.
I don't think we're quite yet at an overall boom period, but two years from now, we might be, but what are your thoughts.
I was just seeing how a lot of the new NJPW guys like Oiwa and Uemura wrestle a throwback style of that of 80's and 90's wrestling, I was wondering if Noah guys should go back to the more traditional ring-style of Noah. Not quite king's road but stiff hits and a crazy bump every once and awhile. I know this is something that has been discussed before, but now that New Japan seems to be going back to a more traditional style, I was wondering if Noah should go more traditional in order to not look like bargain-bin New Japan.
When Noah first started, Jun Akiyama and Takao Omori were the two guys picked to lead the company into the future. Akiyama was given the GHC title and put in the ace position, while Omori was given the first match with Shinya Hashimoto after he left New Japan. However, Hashimoto was very stiff with Omori, which led to Omori finishing the match early. This led to Misawa losing faith in Omori and killing his push as one of Noah's top guys. His popular tag team with Takayama ended, and he was push down the card until he quit. He would have stints in World Japan, Zero One, and All Japan but never managed to be a credible top guy. He would be given a triple crown reign as a thank you but it wouldn't last long and he would lose it quickly. Today he still wrestles on the indies, a far cry from the top guy he was predicted as being. My question is if he didn't quickly finish his match with Hashimoto, or Misawa never lost his confidence in him, could he have been the ace of Noah? Akiyama never managed to become the ace, nor did guys like Rikio, Marufuji, or go shiozaki. And the guys who did become the ace wasn't able to stop business from going down. Could Omori had been the guy to keep the company afloat and been a believable ace?
As we all know, All Japan was never the same after the Noah exodus. They lost most of their talent and never was able to regain their former glory. But what if for whatever reason, the Noah exodus never happened.All japan would still have the four pillars, plus Akiyama, and their young guys like Sugira, Marufuji, Kenta, and Morishima. My question is who in later years and current All Japan would be in the promotion. Suwarma would have stayed because he has been vocal of being a fan of All Japan since he was a kid. I heard New Japan was courting Anzai and Miyahara at various times but they both ended up in All Japan. But with essentially all the top Noah guys being the top All Japan guys, do Anzai and Miyahara go to to New Japan? I must admit seeing an alternate All Japan that has Ozawa, Inamura, kaito kiyomiya, Yuma Anzai, and Kento Miyahara, as their top guys, as well as Marufuji, Kenta and Kenoh as veteran acts sounds amazing but maybe wish fulfillment.
What do you think?
It's hard to think of New Japan without Tanahashi, but when muto left for all japan, he asked his pupils, Kojima and Tanahashi to come with him. Kojima accepted while Tanahashi stayed, but what if he left too? Without Tanahashi, New Japan would be in dire straits, Nagata, Tenzan, Nakanishi couldn't become the top guys the company needed because inokism. Shibata would still probably leave in 2005 to try mma and Nakamura, despite being very talented, lacked a personality and was push too soon that the fans rejected him. Who does New Japan go with as their ace to help lead the company out of the "dark ages"? Do they try to rehabilitate Nagata's credibility? Do they go with Makabe, Goto, or someone else?
And as for Tanahashi, he wouldn't be able to do in All Japan as he did in New Japan. Muto's booking leaves a lot to be desired, known for his american sports entertainment outlook on wrestling. All Japan's roster would still be small lacking anyone worthwhile for Tanahashi to feud with. Muto and Kojima are natural feuds but you can't run the same two matches month after month. I fear Tanahashi like other tops guys in various puro companies in the 2010's would be overlooked compare to the guys of the 2000's and 2020's.
What do you think?
Since the "3 musketeers" first came from new japan, I decided to ask you guys what you think of Ozawa, Yoshiki Inamura, kaito kiyomiya.
IMO:
Ozawa: The "Chono" of the group. The most over person in the entire company,helped boost Noah's attendance when he first turned, just came off a feud with Naito, which he won. Sneaky, smart ass, rebel heel, who can go in the ring. The problems are that he is essential the face of Noah and he's a heel. Most wrestling companies want the face of their company to be a face to get young people interested in the product.
Yoshiki Inamura: The 'Hashimoto" of the group, although his connections to Hashimoto start and end with the fact that they are both big guy. Over with the Noah crowd, but was never given the push for the world title, had a run in WWE NXT, which made Inamura "legit" to finally win the GHC title from Kenta. Noah fans were a bit reluctant to rally around Inamura because of the WWE connections, but gradually came around and Inamura got over as a big, respectful underdog. Just lost the GHC title to Shane Haste, which disappointed many fans.
kaito kiyomiya: The "Muto" of the group.The guy picked to be the new ace of Noah, but at the time of me writing this, his star has waned compare to the other two. Despite being the ace, Okada made him look like a jabroni, got booed in his feud with the heel Ozawa, lost to the retiring Muto and started doing his moves that made him come off like a fanboy, and his gimmick of the mad prince wasn't as interesting as it should have been. Still, Kaito is the Noah representative in multi-company matches and is starting to get over again with the fans due to his feud with Masa kitamiya and toning down the muto tribute moveset.
So those are my opinions on Noah's 3 Musketeers, Sorry for any confusing sayings or typos, I'm writing this 4:30 in the morning. LOL