MrCanada Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Obviously the world of Puroseau has been in semi-peril for a couple years now. AJPW and NOAH are starting to fail simply put. NJPW is still doing fine as ever and much like WWE in America will take some cataclysmic event to cause it to ever actually go under, although their numbers are dipping as well. Some people say Dragon Gate is rising as it can draw similar numbers to the big three, but thats more a sign of the other falling greatly and DG rising slightly. It seems a lot of fans are simply spreading out as promotions like Zero1 and IGF are drawing decently and consistently now as well. Some of the strong rumors going around as of late is some sort of AJPW/NOAH merger which obviously has its history, or even NJPW stepping in and sucking up one or both. With recent events in AJPW it seems more and more likely it might not be around much longer (obviously its not going to fold in 10 days or even a year, but the bell seems to be tolling.) For those of you who dont know, here's a little write up I did in my TEW Data thread: Big shake ups in Japan ... For those who dont know apparently Nobukazu Hiraii aka Hate aka Super Hate suffered a stroke backstage at an AJPW event. However as more of the story comes out apparently it possibly stemmed from an actual physical altercation between Hiraii and TARU who were members of TARU's VooDoo Murders stable. AJPW swiftly suspended/fired TARU for his role in the thing and followed that by suspending/firing KONO, MAZADA, & Minoru who apparently did nothing to stop the altercation. This effectivley ends the VooDoo Murderers stable which obviously takes away the main AJPW heel's and it also led to the AJPW Jr Heavy and Double Crown being vacated. Also, in the last day or so, Keiji "Great" Mutoh stepped down as AJPW President and has been succeeded by Masayuki Uchida, which on top of the legitimate medical records adds to the "this is not a work" angle of the whole thing. After Taru's suspension, many people thought it was simply AJPW hoping to take advantage of the situation where Hiraii would eventually return as a super face and eventually take down the VooDoo murders, but with the rest of the stable suspended or fired (its not clear yet) and now Mutoh stepping down it obviously leads one to believe something serious did truly go down. So, I just felt like posting this. haha. I'm not sure how many Japan wrestling fans are out there, but maybe people have their own opinions to share, or someone with way more knowledge then I have can elaborate on the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unregistered Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I admit, Keiji stepping down is news to me, but I don't think this is something that is going to bring an age old company down. It's sad, and TARU getting fired is very much the right move (even if he has said he didn't meen for it to go so far), and Mutoh stepping down is something I'm going to have to go look up immediently. I'm guessing the Yakuza influence in All Japan is way to big right now, and thats why things are being done very quickly. I imagine they wan't to get rid of that dirty element publically as they can, so they don't have the same problem PRIDE did with the Yazuka. Before this I thought they were doing pretty well, wrestling wise at least. Losing there big heel stable isn't good at all, but is something that All Japan can bounce back from. If it can survive the split (Admittedly, Kawada's loyalty and Mutoh's interest probably helped a great deal at that point) but I'm sure they can rebuild again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juggaloninjalee Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I really hope AJPW doesn't go under. Competition is good and I think it would hurt the Japanese wrestling scene far too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 I'm guessing the Yakuza influence in All Japan is way to big right now, and thats why things are being done very quickly. I imagine they wan't to get rid of that dirty element publically as they can, so they don't have the same problem PRIDE did with the Yazuka. If you're in business in Japan, especially the live events business, you will never, ever get rid of the organised crime problem. It's been ingrained in Japanese society since the early part of the last century. Pride's problem wasn't that the Yakuza were involved, it was that someone with a massive set of you-know-whats decided to go public with a ton of information in a Japanese tabloid called Shukan Gendai, running a series of interviews with a bloke called Seiya Kawamata. Kawamata made some terrific statements, openly claiming a link between Pride, K-1, Fuji TV and the Yakuza. Everyone knew it, nobody talked about it. Until then. I don't know anything about Japanese wrestling outside of it's MMA connections, but knowing what I know about Japan, things being done very quickly in this situation probably has nothing to do with the big Y. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unregistered Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 If you're in business in Japan, especially the live events business, you will never, ever get rid of the organised crime problem. It's been ingrained in Japanese society since the early part of the last century. Pride's problem wasn't that the Yakuza were involved, it was that someone with a massive set of you-know-whats decided to go public with a ton of information in a Japanese tabloid called Shukan Gendai, running a series of interviews with a bloke called Seiya Kawamata. Kawamata made some terrific statements, openly claiming a link between Pride, K-1, Fuji TV and the Yakuza. Everyone knew it, nobody talked about it. Until then. I don't know anything about Japanese wrestling outside of it's MMA connections, but knowing what I know about Japan, things being done very quickly in this situation probably has nothing to do with the big Y. I'm not saying that they're getting rid of the Yazuka, I'm saying they're trying to make it look like they are. Just like you said, it's not that we don't know it's all there, it's just not talked about... Because thats what happened with PRIDE. People were happy to just stand by and watch, and as soon as the real info got out, there were issues. Same thing with All Japan now, this was a mob thing with TARU from all I've heard, so All Japan I think is just trying to smooth the waters and at least for appearances sake, at least get rid of the obvious gangster off its roster. Wrestling has always had Yazuka links, but it's just like anything else though in Japan, you do try and keep it quiet or there will be backlash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantabulous Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 Nothing I've read or heard about this suggests the Yakuza has had anything do with the situation or the aftermath. It was strictly a personal issue with Hiraii and TARU that got out of hand. The quick handling of everything after the fact is simply because that's how things are handled in Japan. Muto's resignation as president was almost forced, in the sense that as the president of the company he hadn't made any comment on the situation and was being attacked in the press for not immediately addressing what happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unregistered Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Fantabulous" data-cite="Fantabulous" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="31427" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Nothing I've read or heard about this suggests the Yakuza has had anything do with the situation or the aftermath.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p> I'm happy that yeah having just read more recent stuff, that happily the intial rumor I read wasn't true (about the Yakuza). It wasn't hard to believe though, considering rumors I've read about TARU since he was in (then) Toryumon.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.