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Sphinx

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It seems nutty timing with All Japan struggling to stop people leaving (Go and Kotaro have already fucked off) and Noah only staying interesting-ish because of Suzuki-gun going over. With the situation in New Japan being what it is, having just two of their top four guys, a fully fit Kota Ibushi can break into the main event scene NOW. The last thing Japanese wrestling needs right now is another fed to try and aim at getting the scraps and diluting what's available to All Japan, Noah, Zero One, Wrestle-1 etc, none of whom are exactly tearing it up. It's not a great time for any fed not called New Japan or Dragon Gate. He's a brave man trying to start up right now.

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Are Kensuke Office, SMASH or WRESTLE-1 still going? Let me see:

 

New Japan

Dragon Gate

Zero-One

NOAH

All-Japan

DDT

Big Japan

Michinoku Pro

Osaka Pro

Kaientai Dojo

 

And then you've got all the Joshi promotions, of which I only remember Ice Ribbon and AtoZ (I think) are still going.

 

Mind you, the situation in the UK is even more ridiculous when you consider that there are probably more promotions, and none of them have the profile the major Japanese promotions have. Plus, the UK is roughly two-thirds the size and has half the population of Japan.

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He's either 1. angling for a run in NXT or 2. has major tax problems. I'm convinced 75% of promotions in Japan, especially those set up by established wrestlers (see Sasaki's Diamond Office, Muto's Wrestle-1 or whatever this new Akebono thing is) are just ways to launder money for the Yakuza / escape the taxman. They serve no other purpose that I can think of.

 

If he's just doing it out loyalty to DDT then that's commendable but mental at the same time. NJ don't appreciate being second fiddle. See how long it took Shibata to get out of the doghouse after his comeback. But maybe at this stage NJ will be desperate enough to push him away.


He's either 1. angling for a run in NXT or 2. has major tax problems. I'm convinced 75% of promotions in Japan, especially those set up by established wrestlers (see Sasaki's Diamond Office, Muto's Wrestle-1 or whatever this new Akebono thing is) are just ways to launder money for the Yakuza / escape the taxman. They serve no other purpose that I can think of.

 

If he's just doing it out loyalty to DDT then that's commendable but mental at the same time. NJ don't appreciate being second fiddle. See how long it took Shibata to get out of the doghouse after his comeback. But maybe at this stage NJ will be desperate enough to push him away.

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Are Kensuke Office, SMASH or WRESTLE-1 still going? Let me see:

 

New Japan

Dragon Gate

Zero-One

NOAH

All-Japan

DDT

Big Japan

Michinoku Pro

Osaka Pro

Kaientai Dojo

 

And then you've got all the Joshi promotions, of which I only remember Ice Ribbon and AtoZ (I think) are still going.

I'll try

 

Kensuke Office: dead after Sasaki retired

SMASH: Morphed into Wrestling New Classic then died 2 or so years ago

WRESTLE-1: the old one or the new Muto waste of time?

New Japan; ALIVE

Dragon Gate: Alive

Zero-One: still breathing

NOAH: still breathing

All-Japan: death rattle?

DDT: alive doing well

Big Japan: alive doing wellish

Michinoku Pro: alive/standing still for years

Osaka Pro: dead last time i looked

Kaientai Dojo: alive and still tiny

 

Ice Ribbon; Alive

AtoZ: dead longer than Elvis

 

Barely know anything of Joshi anymore other than someone retires every month. OZ Academy still run, Wave and JWP are still around and Stardom is currently the big one/less small. Not sure if Diana or REINA are still around. there are others, the new ones called SEAdLINNNG (no, really)

 

Other mens

IGF: Inoki crap still have shows

FMW: IS BACK ALIVE

Real Japan: think they're still alive

FREEDOMS: morphed from Apache Army who were a mix of exFMW, WMF and smaller indies.

Tenryu Project; i guess died when he retired in November

Oudou: Akebono's promotion with backing from Motoko Baba starts soon.

 

There's more and more and those that have a show once or twice a year like Legend Pro. Tragic what Puro's become.

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He's either 1. angling for a run in NXT or 2. has major tax problems. I'm convinced 75% of promotions in Japan, especially those set up by established wrestlers (see Sasaki's Diamond Office, Muto's Wrestle-1 or whatever this new Akebono thing is) are just ways to launder money for the Yakuza / escape the taxman. They serve no other purpose that I can think of.

 

If he's just doing it out loyalty to DDT then that's commendable but mental at the same time. NJ don't appreciate being second fiddle. See how long it took Shibata to get out of the doghouse after his comeback. But maybe at this stage NJ will be desperate enough to push him away.

Tax/Yakuza almost certainly. plus ego.

 

I doubt Ibushi will be in the doghouse, he's a long way from doing what Shibata did. i think he just wants to pick and choose his dates and not have such a rough schedule. It free's him up to do what he wants, when he wants and i doubt he'll be running his own promotion anytime soon, Linus is spot on.

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I saw some companies called BASARA and Cho Hanabi mentioned on some Japanese round-up show, Cho Hanabi seems to have Onita all over it from the 10 second search I made. The show seems pretty interesting to be fair, that scottish wrestler Viper <3 was on it and I could at least understand her part.

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Why do Japanese promotions keep splitting up? Noah left from All Japan years ago, then a few went back and then others left for Wrestle 1 not that long ago

 

I think Zero 1 split from someone as well, surely from a promotional point of view joining a few of those orgs up and having one champion would add depth, is it just an ego trip from wrestlers, different factions of the Yakazu getting involved or what?

 

 

Seiya Sanada, what's he up to as well, still doing US indies, last I checked he was only 27, was a good wrestler and had alright charisma, surely these companies would be thrown money at him as he has a great look.

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What is it with Joshi feds and stupid names? While we are at it, Sendai Girls (Meiko Satomura's promotion) is also still active.

 

SEAdLINNNG is the worst name yet. Awful.

Was the Sendai revival not just a one off thing?

 

I saw some companies called BASARA and Cho Hanabi mentioned on some Japanese round-up show, Cho Hanabi seems to have Onita all over it from the 10 second search I made. The show seems pretty interesting to be fair, that scottish wrestler Viper <3 was on it and I could at least understand her part.

BASARA's the kind of thing Linus is saying Ibushi's promotion probably will be. it's linked to DDT (who have had others like HardHit & Cruiser's Game) and is run by Isami Kodaka. Cho Hanabi's a new one on me.

 

One that I forgot, and I'm pretty sure is probably dead (though I hope not, because I like Muga) - Dradition.

They had shows last year so they are aliveish

 

Guts World is another one i forgot

 

Why do Japanese promotions keep splitting up? Noah left from All Japan years ago, then a few went back and then others left for Wrestle 1 not that long ago

 

I think Zero 1 split from someone as well, surely from a promotional point of view joining a few of those orgs up and having one champion would add depth, is it just an ego trip from wrestlers, different factions of the Yakazu getting involved or what?

The short answer is ego's/money/power.

 

All Japan split due to the dislike of most of the roster towards Motoko Baba (Giant Baba's widow) and feeling she was holding the company back. So with Misawa (head booker at the time) the majority of the roster started Noah, took the TV deal with them and All Japan have been recovering ever since.

 

All Japan again split due to disagreements over the direction of the company between nutty All Japan owner Nobuo Shiraishi and Keiji Muto. So Wrestle-1 was formed by Muto. Somewhere in all this mess several Noah guys jumped back to All Japan and recently some of those have jumped back to Noah.

 

Zero-1 (or Zero-One as it was or Zero-1 Max as it was for a short time) i'm not sure on the facts of what happened. At first the thought seemed to be that they were an offshoot of New Japan run by New Japan guys Shinya Hashimoto and Shinjiro Ohtani but somewhere along the line they became independent. I've also read Hashimoto was fired and started Zero-1 and took a few guys from New Japan with him.

 

World Japan Pro Wrestling (became Riki-Pro) was also born out of a New Japan exodus lead by Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaski.

 

People always think the grass is greener and they'll be the ones with the next big promotion. In Noah's case they were right for about 6 years.

 

Sanada's been working as a freelancer, last i saw of him he was working with BJW and Wrestle-1. I *think* he had a WWE trial last year

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