jesseewiak Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 New Japan Pro Wrestling - No Inoki-ism, No Problem Wrestling World 1998 Preview While the Western wrestling world convulses over the Montreal Screwjob, the weird ending to Starrcade, and rumors of more jumps and screwjobs, Japan is a relative ocean of calm, even with recent shake-ups to the largest promotion in the nation – New Japan Pro Wrestling. When one of the 'Narikin' (new rich) rising from the rise of the Internet, Morino Takuma shocked the world by coming out of nowhere with what has been reported as a 'Godfather offer' to take total control from the ownership group previously headed by Antonio Inoki during the hot Tokyo summer. While Inoki is still on contract, his power over the booking of the promotion has quickly dissipated, now largely contained to his own matches and storylines. In addition, while kingpins Riki Choshu and Jushin Liger have kept control of their divisions, rumors have seeped in that Takuma is listening both to other members of the locker room and even former writers for the various newspapers that largely cover the news and promote the various wrestling shows that happen on the island nation. Now, the yearly tradition of the January 4th Tokyo Dome show is coming up, so let's go over the main matches. Kensuke Sasaki © vs. Keiji Mutoh – IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match This has been a match penciled in for months, even before Takuma's takeover of the company as Sasaki is Choshu's 'boy' and Mutoh is still seen as the companies top star, even if he is seen as somebody who isn't consistent enough to be the Ace of the promotion. However, with the change of ownership, it's unknown how much faith remains in Sasaki after getting the push of a lifetime since this summer and some think Takuma will go with the known commodity of Mutoh while others believe Takuma will allow Sasaki to have his 'run', then go form there depending on the results on the balance sheet. The actual match was set-up after Mutoh submitted Sasaki to win the IWGP Tag Titles, then an angle during the Tag League where Muto & Chono continually talked about how they wanted to ruin Riki's retirement by taking the title off his protege at the Dome. vs. Genricho Tenryu vs. Shinya Hashimoto – WAR vs. New Japan Super Battle With the MMA vs. wrestling matches largely thrown out with Inoki's loss of power, New Japan has turned to it's other well of money drawing ideas – invasions. However, this time, it's largely an invasion of one man, as Tenryu, after teaming up with his rival Choshu at the big show in October, said he had come to New Japan with the stated goal of winning the IWGP title. As you'd expect, a New Japan stalwart like Hashimoto wasn't happy about that, and there we go. Not exactly the twists and turns that you'd get on an episode of Nitro or RAW, but it works. Antonio Inoki vs. Riki Choshu – Final Power Hall in Tokyo Dome In a way, this has been overshadowed by Inoki's announcement he'll retire later this year at a Dome Show, but if you're Riki Choshu (or anybody not named Inoki), you're used to 'The Chin' overshadowing you at the worst possible moment. Choshu's spent the end of the year facing opponents from his past, and Inoki officially made the challenge at the big October show and was the first match announced for the Dome. The TV has focused on this as the 'main event', but is unlikely to end the show, owing to the standard of work needed to keep the fans happy. Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Don Frye - Mixed Martial Arts Match Pre-takeover, the big rumor was Judo medalist Nayoa Ogawa to come in and go over Frye, but with the de-push of MMA and Inoki-ism under the new ownership, the move was to focus on New Japan wrestlers already under contract, including Fujita, who has some MMA background. Frye has done well playing a jerk heel, so he's likely to stick around, at least for the time being. This is a rematch from Frye's debut, and highlights of that have played to build up the feud. Shinjiro Otani vs. Jushin Lyger - IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match A pretty straight forward match, as Liger has pinned Otani twice in tag team situations, then made the official challenge for the title. Otani's also been teasing a full heel turn, including teaming up with Takaiwa & Kanemoto for most of the Tag League tour, even though he refuses to be as heel-ish as they are, so far. Hiroshi Hase, Yuji Nagata, and Tatsumi Fujinami vs. nWo Typhoon (Masahiro Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Scott Norton) Hase's return to New Japan was considered the first big political masterstroke by Takuma as rumors are he personally met with Baba and Hase to talk about his plans for the future of the company and why he needed Hase to be the bedrock of the upper midcard for the near future. Both men were seemingly so surprised and moved by the argument that Hase announced he'd be taking more of a backbench role as a MP while also moving to New Japan full-time. Since returning to the NJPW ring in a special tag match in October, Hase has been teaming up with rising star Yuji Nagata and even finished in third place in the Tag League at the end of the year. The actual match was largely built-up thanks to Hase & Nagata defeating both nWo teams (Chono & Muta and Tenzan & nWo Sting) during the Tag League and several six man matches, including long-time star Fujinami. It's also widely rumored this match was built to allow Chono to continue to recover from his continual chronic injuries, before possibly kicking back into high impact single matches starting in the spring of '98. Other Matches The Bull Powers (Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima) vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Yutaka Yoshie Akira Nogami & El Samurai vs. Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa Junji Hirata, Kengo Kimura, and Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Mr. Wallstreet, nWo Sting, and Rick Titan Kazuo Yamazaki & Kendo Kashin vs. High Voltage Quick Picks: Kensuke Sasaki © vs. Keiji Mutoh - IWGP Heavyweight Title Match Genricho Tenryu vs. Shinya Hashimoto Antonio Inoki vs. Riki Choshu Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Don Frye - MMA Rules Shinjiro Otani © vs. Jushin Lyger - IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match Hiroshi Hase, Yuji Nagata, and Tatsumi Fujinami vs. nWo Typhoon (Chono, Tenzan, and Norton) The Bull Powers (Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima) vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Yutaka Yoshie Akira Nogami & El Samurai vs. Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa Junji Hirata, Kengo Kimura, and Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Mr. Wallstreet, nWo Sting, and Rick Titan Kazuo Yamazaki & Kendo Kashin vs. High Voltage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hashasheen Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 <p>Interesting period choice. I'm a nostalgic sucker for AJPW given the great tribulations they and their philosophy went through, but there's no doubting at this point in time that NJPW had the more overall complete roster and offered much more variety. </p><p> </p><p> I don't know how deep into the game you are at the moment, but perhaps you could have Antonio Inoki and his "MMA" stalwarts set up UFO like he did IRL, to feed away a lot of those kinds of wrestlers and make the game a little bit more difficult for yourself. </p><p> </p><p> Also not sure that bringing Hase back was a good idea. His reasons for departing don't seem as easy to gloss over as buying out Inoki and company (since most people don't know about the byzantine ownership breakdown that NJPW was under by the early 2000s)</p><p> </p><p> Still, it has a great deal of potential and I'm interested.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jesseewiak Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Hashasheen" data-cite="Hashasheen" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="45098" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><p> Interesting period choice. I'm a nostalgic sucker for AJPW given the great tribulations they and their philosophy went through, but there's no doubting at this point in time that NJPW had the more overall complete roster and offered much more variety. </p><p> </p><p> I don't know how deep into the game you are at the moment, but perhaps you could have Antonio Inoki and his "MMA" stalwarts set up UFO like he did IRL, to feed away a lot of those kinds of wrestlers and make the game a little bit more difficult for yourself. </p><p> </p><p> Also not sure that bringing Hase back was a good idea. His reasons for departing don't seem as easy to gloss over as buying out Inoki and company (since most people don't know about the byzantine ownership breakdown that NJPW was under by the early 2000s)</p><p> </p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> For the moment, Inoki will stay with NJPW but he's Inoki so once his scheming fails, he may go off on his own. Depends on whether I can set-up and model the possible IGF/UFO organization on it's own well enough. </p><p> </p><p> The truth is, Hase was part of the New Japan roster in the mod and I'd already done a couple of months of booking before realizing his actual history at the time (I thought he didn't jump to AJPW until 99 or 00 for some reason). </p><p> </p><p> So, once he gets overused per IRL obligations for a few months, I'll honestly be dropping him to a guy who wrestles far less (basically major shows + G-1) and go from there. Kind of screws up a long term booking plan I had, but I'll work around it. </p><p> </p><p> Thanks though - I'm actually looking to book NJPW fairly realistic, with of course, changes to avoid the dark times and go from there.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hashasheen Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 <blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="jesseewiak" data-cite="jesseewiak" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="45098" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>For the moment, Inoki will stay with NJPW but he's Inoki so once his scheming fails, he may go off on his own. Depends on whether I can set-up and model the possible IGF/UFO organization on it's own well enough. </div></blockquote> I think you can use CVERSE's INSPIRE as a model for the product. And you'll certainly be able to shift out the likes of Fujita and others. Heck, a Choshu/Sasaki jump to AJPW could also be to your benefit in creating more stars...<p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="45098" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><p> The truth is, Hase was part of the New Japan roster in the mod and I'd already done a couple of months of booking before realizing his actual history at the time (I thought he didn't jump to AJPW until 99 or 00 for some reason). </p><p> </p><p> So, once he gets overused per IRL obligations for a few months, I'll honestly be dropping him to a guy who wrestles far less (basically major shows + G-1) and go from there. Kind of screws up a long term booking plan I had, but I'll work around it. </p></div></blockquote> Solid, yeah. I'd suggest just changing him to semi-active + occasional and then bowing him out by 1999. <p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="45098" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div><p> Thanks though - I'm actually looking to book NJPW fairly realistic, with of course, changes to avoid the dark times and go from there.</p></div></blockquote> No worries. One thing I'll be curious about is how you piece things together post-Inoki. The main event scene was pretty log-jammed by the early 2000s, with multiple generations of main eventers and potential main eventers around. The New Japan Dads of IRL were especially damaged by the chaos and the wealth of superstars the company had to offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martel123 Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 <p>Quick Picks:</p><p> <strong>Kensuke Sasaki ©</strong> vs. Keiji Mutoh - IWGP Heavyweight Title Match</p><p> Genricho Tenryu vs. <strong>Shinya Hashimoto</strong></p><p> <strong>Antonio Inoki</strong> vs. Riki Choshu</p><p> Kazuyuki Fujita vs. <strong>Don Frye</strong> - MMA Rules</p><p> Shinjiro Otani © vs. <strong>Jushin Lyger</strong> - IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match</p><p> Hiroshi Hase, Yuji Nagata, and Tatsumi Fujinami vs. <strong>nWo Typhoon</strong> (Chono, Tenzan, and Norton) </p><p> <strong>The Bull Power</strong>s (Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima) vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Yutaka Yoshie </p><p> Akira Nogami & El Samurai vs. <strong>Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa</strong></p><p> <strong>Junji Hirata, Kengo Kimura, and Kuniaki Kobayashi</strong> vs. Mr. Wallstreet, nWo Sting, and Rick Titan</p><p> Kazuo Yamazaki & Kendo Kashin vs. <strong>High Voltage</strong></p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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