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The History Of Puroreso and its main stars

The things that hinder me from delving headfirst into japanese wrestling is the fact that I have no idea what matches to watch, where to find out how things are going, and who the top people are.

We all know all about WWF's buyout of everything, the NWA, WCW, ECW, TNA, ROH, etc. but I'd like to get a brief history of Dragongate, NOAH, AJPW, NJPW, etc. I mean I know about the exodus and that stuff but can we get like title histories all kinds of stuff.

I have access to a lot of puresero thanks to some amazing people on here. I've played firepro. I'm a big fan of kiwada kabashi, kenta all the other k people. But I dont really know whre guys like CIMA fit into the picture. What is going on and when a match is big.

I would like to understand this.

WWKD, UWARRIOR, Destor, all the other mofos please help.
Maybe a this day in japanese wrestling or a nightly update by wwkd would help?

Quote:

This "article" was originally posted as an answer to a question on Zach Arnold's Puroresu Power messageboard. It has gone through a few modifications over the years, and was recently pared down into a more cohesive essay-like format. With BOOKERMAN's question in the "Baba as Booker" thread, I figured maybe this could help some newer fans to the puroresu scene on what exactly people mean when they talk about "Strong Style" and "King's Road." Its a rather lengthy read, I know... but I hope its an enjoyable one! http://www.puroresufan.com/bbs/Smile...ult/smiley.gif

First lets talk about Strong Style. It is the most common word used to describe the type of wrestling performed in New Japan, which is the largest federation in the country and second largest in the world. The title "Strong Style" itself describes New Japan's philosophy and the philosophy of its founder, Antonio Inoki. New Japan refers to itself as the "King of Sports," so in their eyes it must also have the strongest style of fighting. New Japan's style isn't static, but over the years has taken elements from other types of wrestling and incorporated it into their style.

Today, Strong style means hard-hitting New Japan matches, basically. It incorporates submission finishes more frequently than "King's Road", as Inoki's vision was Pro Wrestling as a Mixed Martial Art. You are more apt to see a quick cross armbreaker (jujigatame) finish in New Japan, as the move is established as a very dangerous submission that many times results in an instant tap-out. The three different representatives of Strong Style throughout New Japan's existence were Inoki himself, Riki Choshu, and then Shinya Hashimoto in the 1990s. Since Hashimoto left the company New Japan really hasn't gotten a "stylistic leader" or true "ace" at the level of those three men, and as such has been in somewhat of a quagmire booking-wise, though they are pinning their hopes on young superstars Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi to lead the company into the future.

When New Japan first opened up in the 1970s there was a heavy emphasis on a long portion of early matwork, a legacy that lives on today. Inoki would regularly work holds for an extended period of time and then turn it on for a big finish with high impact moves like the dropkick and suplexes. In later years when matwork as the major vehicle for telling stories fell by the wayside, this type of structure often lead to big New Japan matches featuring cursory matwork in the beginning of the match that didn't really play into the later portions, where they seemed to start the "real match" and bring out their hard hitting arsenal. Inoki's vision of pro wrestling presented it as a style of fighting, to be put up against other martial arts disciplines like judo and karate. This lead to him working in many "different style fights" against top practitioners of other fighting styles; worked matches, mind you, that Inoki used to put himself and pro wrestling as a whole over. Inoki would later lose sight of that goal with the later MMA-influence movement that came on the heels of PRIDE's success, but that is another topic for another time. Strong Style took a turn for the faster paced when Riki Choshu turned heel and started up the Ishigundan (Restruction Force). Choshu and his compatriots - hard-working veterans Masa Saitoh and Killer Khan, the young Yoshiaki Yatsu and the little spitfire Animal Hamaguchi - brought rapid-fire double and triple team moves to their matches and a more brisk pace in between periods of inactivity with restholds like the Figure 4 Headscissor.

Another contributing influence to "Strong Style" was the formation of the UWF by breakaway stars like Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido, and the young Akira Maeda. The UWF group stressed more realistic "fighting" in their wrestling and pushed clean finishes (a concept that was directly against most booking in Japan at the time as even tournament finals and title matches often ended in screwjob finishes to protect the wrestlers from losing outright). When UWF verson 1 closed its doors, many of the wrestlers came back to New Japan and ran an "invasion" angle, where their "kick suplex and submission" style really caught on with the fans and began to be incorporated into New Japan matches. A classic match in the tradition of the two colliding styles was Akira Maeda vs. Tatsumi Fujinami from June 12, 1986.

Upon Choshu's return to New Japan in the late 80s and his ascention to the head booker of the company the type of match known not-so-affectionately as "Lariat Puroresu" became the norm. These matches regularly featured repeated hits with a wrestler's signature striking move while the opponent attempted to endure them to show his "fighting spirit." It was not uncommon to see Riki Choshu use 6 or 7 lariats in one match to finish off an opponent, and his disciples like Kensuke Sasaki and Manabu Nakanishi followed suit. Choshu's hand-picked successor Shinya Hashimoto represented "Strong Style" perfectly during his years on top of New Japan in the 1990s. Hashimoto's offense was largely based around hard kicks and chops along with his signature DDTs, but he was able to project an aura of strength and power throughout his IWGP title reigns that had audiences coming to see him and the New Japan product in record numbers. Two matches that perhaps best represent Strong Style in the 1990s are the 1991 and 1995 G1 Climax finals, the first match being the breakout performance by young superstars Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh, and the second featuring Shinya Hashimoto relinquish his reign as "ace" of New Japan Pro Wrestling to Keiji Mutoh.

There is some confusion on the internet and in some circles about just what "strong style" is. Part of that confusion stems from its early usage by Dave Meltzer and others in the Wrestling Observer crowd. They often referred to what we would now call "worked-shoot" and submission style wrestling as "Strong Style," especially in reference to promotions like UWFi and Pancrase. Dave has since corrected himself and noted that it is generally just a refferant to New Japan's style. American Independant wrestlers and announcers also refer to many of their matches as "American Strong Style." To US Indy guys "Strong Style" = "Too Stiff" and features many head-dropping maneuvers more accurately associated with the All Japan style of wrestling, but such attention to detail can't be expected from people who are just using "buzzwords" to cash-in on the small enclave of pro wrestling smart marks who follow the Japanese scene.

This post was also started in an attempt to explain the "Life and Death of King's Road," because the original poster asked about why people claimed that All Japan matches and the "oudou" style was better in the 1990s. My response to his question sums up where this piece is going to go from here nicely, so I have kept it in its original form:

"When people talk about King's Road being better in the 90s... well, King's Road as a style really doesn't exist anymore. All Japan and then NOAH changed the style to emphasize big spots (usually the dreaded "head bump") at the expense of the build that made the King's Road style unique. Once Misawa and friends left All Japan, the promotion began to look more like New Japan stylistically. The big matches after the split (Kawada vs. Fuchi, Kawada vs. Tenryu, Tenryu vs. Kojima) clearly had a "Strong Style" flavor to them with brutal strikes and big moves, but with little struggle to get them off. This is basically because nobody could/was willing to work the old All Japan way of building a match with Kawada."

King's Road is also called "Oudou" and it is the type of wrestling envisioned by All Japan's founder Giant Baba. Like "Strong Style" there were still hard strikes and stiffness, but the matches were built differently with emphasis on a feeling out portion, a middle body working portion, and a finishing run. King's Road stressed stamina rather than mixed martial arts techniques.

You can basically say that King's Road is a logical progression from the US 70s style of wrestling from a build standpoint, but with the ante upped in the big move department, whereas Strong Style is a combination of traditional wrestling with the martial arts. Due to this, King's Road focuses on building a match and struggling for moves moreso than Strong Style, which features more back and forth action with quick transitions. This leads New Japan's matches to tell simple but strong stories that are easily followed by the crowd and fans, whereas All Japan's matches tend to try and delve a bit deeper.

It is my opinion that King's Road was the best style of pro wrestling the world will ever see. It was rooted in All Japan's direction under Giant Baba and through Jumbo Tsuruta, who worked a traditional pro wrestling style with some of the best gaijin (foreigners, literally translates to "outside people") of the era in the 1970s. Whereas Inoki looked to redefine pro wrestling as a style, Baba was content to hone in on the storytelling aspects of matches, using his extensive NWA connections and friendships to bring over the top American wrestlers like Harley Race, Jack Brisco, the Funk brothers, and Ric Flair to battle him and Jumbo. By the early 80s many New Japan fans began to criticize Baba and All Japan for the slower and more methodical pace of their matches, but then King's Road was given a kick in the ass by Riki Choshu and his invading army in 1984. Ishigundan are responsible for significantly speeding up the pace of All Japan matches and incorporating quick tags and rapid-fire multiple-team moves, as well as shifting All Japan's focus from the old native vs. gaijin format to the more lucrative native vs. native programs.

Jumbo Tsuruta took the traditional 70s style past the limit as he carried Genichiro Tenryu through the singles feud of the 80s in the absence of Choshu, creating the blueprint match that Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, and Taue (often referred to as the "Four Corners of Heaven") would follow and improve upon in the 90s. This blueprint involved a hot opening segment followed by a slow build to the bigger moves, constant teases of finishers and signature moves, playing off of previous matches and finishes, and telling a story within the context of a match based on the wrestlers' history with each other and their place in the promotion. Tsuruta was able to use the fast pace and adrenaline spurts from the Choshu-era matches and plug them into that formula to keep the matches moving in an age where the audience might not be receptive to two wrestlers working around a headlock or a headscissor for 7 minutes before moving on to the next hold to tell a story. He was able to make that successful shift from using technical matwork to big moves to establish the roles the wrestlers were playing and the story of the match. Tsuruta's feud with Tenryu, culminating in their Triple Crown Title match from 6/5/89, established the formula that he would later build on by feuding with the younger generation of Misawa, Kawada, and Kobashi in the early 1990s.

Misawa and company took Jumbo's and Baba's developed style to the next level by incorporating more dangerous moves and complicated striking sequences, along with the use of adrenaline, or "fighting spirit," attempting to fight through the pain of moves to get in one last hit. With the unfortunate absence of Jumbo Tsuruta, the Four Corners rose to the occasion in the early to mid 90s and All Japan featured the smartest wrestling in the world, matches that were all tied together as one huge story that spanned years, and unravelled more and more with each match. Many people still herald Misawa and Kawada's Triple Crown Title match from June 3, 1994 as the greatest match of all time. To me, the quintessential "Kings Road" match was the last match in the style to truly live up to its full potential, the Finals of the 1996 Real World Tag League.

As time went on (the late 90s), the All Japan style began to focus more and more on those "fighting spirit" segments and the big bumps that would lead to them, desensitizing their fans to the bigger moves and creating a "top this" environment in their big matches that the undercard couldn't match and the main eventers couldn't possibly keep up. The Kings Road of Baba, Tsuruta, Misawa, and Kawada had reached its end. A new "Road" was constructed, but it lacked the depth and storytelling abilities of its predecessor; it was a shell. The top wrestlers still put out contests that nobody else could match, but building more on the spots and bumps took the focus off of the fundamental 70s style build that all of the best All Japan matches had at their heart. The "Head Drop Era" represented a regression in psychology and build, and thus a break with its unique foundation in US 70s style. The perfect evolution of professional wrestling had reached its end and the only place to go was unfortunately down. Probably the last great example of King's Road was Kawada putting on his last better-than-great match against Kenta Kobashi on 6/12/98. Almost symbolically, Kawada lost the Triple Crown in that match as he seemingly lost the war to keep King's Road to Kobashi's "Go-Go-Go" style, even though the war Kawada was fighting was long since over and his style of choice had long since atrophied away.

This is a rather sad place to end an article, but to me that perhaps represents where wrestling in Japan is at this point... in a rather sad place. Don't necessarily let my words discourage you from seeking out current matches from Japanese promotions, as there is still a thriving community of fans that greatly enjoys matches from New Japan, NOAH, and All Japan. I would advise you to also look back to earlier years, as there is a wealth of great matches and great stories that have come from previous decades. I realize that this article has been a little short on match recommendations, but hopefully you can keep some of the information from it in mind when watching matches from Japan from the 1990s. Thank you again for your time and I hope you enjoyed!

-DA

That's a good article I found about the differences between Strong Style (think: NJPW) and King's Road (think: classic AJPW). Helps you realize the differences in styles among Japanese promotions and could help you understand the different psychology of the matches that you might come across. Unfortunately, it doesn't address lucharesu (style that combines lucha libre and puroresu) or garbage puroresu (hardcore, deathmatch style).

I can't give you the best detailed history of promotions though, so I'll leave that for someone else.

Thanks for the info on strong style and Kings Road

http://www.puroresucentral.com/

Check it out. Site has the profiles of virtually every wrestler in Japan.

Search for "puresero" as you put it, on yahoo. Your exact spelling of it.

That's your first problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by redoneja (Post 2160982)

http://www.puroresucentral.com/

Check it out. Site has the profiles of virtually every wrestler in Japan.

I know this site but have no clue where to start.

I know about the ditch as well. So i mean I have all the stuff at my disposal just no idea where to go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by U-Warrior (Post 2160989)

Search for "puresero" as you put it, on yahoo. Your exact spelling of it.

That's your first problem.

lol

anything CHIKARA is gold, especially for a good laugh.

That is a very nice read by the way.

I have a bunch of FMW tapes. Fucking INSANE matches. Onita vs MR. Pogo was a hot feud.

Chikara is not japanese wrestling... but i do enjoy it.

Personally, I'm a fan of AJPW before the split with NOAH. Here's a list of a few matches I'd check out if you can find them (I use full names the first mention of a wrestler, then just their last name).

Harley Race v Jumbo Tsuruta 6/11/77

Flair v Jumbo Tsuruta 10/9/81

Jumbo and Genichiro Tenryu v Stan Hansen and Ted Dibiase RWTL '86

Tenryu v Jumbo 10/11/89

4/19/90

Jumbo v Terry Gordy 6/5/90

Gordy v Hansen 6/8/90

Jumbo v Mitsuhara Misawa 9/1/90

Toshiaki Kawada v Dr Death Steve Williams 6/1/91

Misawa v Gordy 6/1/92

Jumbo v Kawada 10/24/91

Kawada v Hansen Champions Carnival 92

Kawada v Akira Taue 9/9/92

Misawa v Hansen 5/21/93

Gordy v Kenta Kobashi 5/21/93

Misawa v Kawada 5/1/98

Kawada v Kobashi 6/12/98

Kobashi v Misawa 10/31/98

Misawa v Kawada 1/22/99

Kawada v Hiroshi Hase 5/22/99

Vader v Misawa 5/2/99

I don't really have much to offer in the way of NJPW or NOAH. I have a few lists and databases of matches that I've obtained but their on an external hard drive so I can't get to them now. There are some matches mentioned in the article I posted from New Japan that I'd check out. If you're into the junior/lucharesu style, try to find some J-Cup tournament matches or some Best of Super Juniors tournaments.

oops, thought you were talking about indy's in general. I watch some New Japan stuff from time to time. I like seeing how some of the guys the WWE cut fare today (Giant Bernard, Tomko etc..)

Also, you may notice that the recommendations I've posted tend to be matches comprised of a handful of guys. That's just because I think they help illustrate the King's Road style, in terms of a each individual match being a small part in a larger story. And most are just damn good matches.

Wiki these promotions

NJPW
AJPW
NOAH
ZERO-ONE
FMW
MICHINOKU PRO
WAR
DRAGON GATE
OSAKA PRO
DDT
BIG JAPAN

I actually broke out an old FMW tape recently. Mike Awesome, Tajiri, Onita, Mr. Pogo put on some fucking brutally violent matches.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gertner (Post 2161046)

I actually broke out an old FMW tape recently. Mike Awesome, Tajiri, Onita, Mr. Pogo put on some fucking brutally violent matches.

You should check out Big Japan.

Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Nakamura from 8-7-2005 looks awesome but I can't get the one i have to work :(

12-10-06 looks good too.

I have an FMW DVD that has alot of matches between FMW vs ECW. I'm not a huge fan of the deathmatch/hardcore style but this was good stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by U-Warrior (Post 2161049)

You should check out Big Japan.

Yeah, i have a couple Big Japan tapes from ebay, most notably, Big Japan Bardwire Bloddy Best. Fucking brutal, although I found FMW to have better wrestling.

Quote:

Originally Posted by redoneja (Post 2161054)

I have an FMW DVD that has alot of matches between FMW vs ECW. I'm not a huge fan of the deathmatch/hardcore style but this was good stuff.

I have a tape that is purely Onita vs Mr. Pogo with tons of matches between them. Wow, just amazing.

Backstories in puroresu would be sort of hard to explain. NOAH is more competiton based (think ROH), so there aren't many stories to explain, but more like rivalries (KENTA/Marufuji for example.)

NJPW is mainly competition based too, but with a bit more of a story aspect. NJPW has been really good the last couple years, post Lesnar.

AJPW is in the same boat as NJPW, just not quite as good.

Dragongate is insane. They have more "stories" than the big three in Japan, but nothing like you'd see in America for the most part. They also have large chunks of their roster split up into stables (check the Real Hazard thread for info on that.)

DDT and Hustle are just hilarious, and are geared more towards story and entertainment. Unfortunately, being in Japanese, it isn't always easy to follow. Still, they are amazing.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is, it's hard to explain the back history, so if you're watching older stuff, do it mainly for the quality of the match, or, a series of matches (IE, the matches Nagata/Tanahashi had over the past 2 years in NJPW.) Besides that, you're best bet may be to just "start fresH" and follow it. Depending on the company I can give you a decent amount of recent info so you're not totally lost.

Likewise, also use the puroresufan.com network, as they have good sites fo the major feds.

Dragongate sounds really interesting. have followed AJPW NJPW and NOAH the most so far. Would like to learn More about DDT and Hustle.

Yeah I have to learn japanese. (any recommendations for this would be cool too)

If you want to learn Japanese, take classes. Also, as odd as it sounds, watch J-Dramas. THere are some really fucking good Japanese dramas out there, and most can be torrented off of d-addicts.com. I'd really suggest taking a more formal approach to learning it though. It's not as hard as you'd think, but it takes time.

Also, can't help you out too much with the history in Hustle or DDT. I watch them when I can, but not enough to really give good info on it.

like I don't really have money for a class right now. Are there any good cds to download?

what is the best j drama? and.. I guess watching anime isn't really going to help as teh subs are tottally different from what they are saying

Rosetta Stone is probably your best bet for learning any language.

damn I'm going to have to delete a lot of stuff to make room for rosetta stone.. :(

Yeah, if you want to learn on your own, Rosetta stone is the way to go...

J-Drama wise, it depends what you like. "Ikebukuro West Gate Park" is amazing (although the first episode is long, and it's all character intro, so it's hard to get into at first.) "Tiger and Dragon" is probably my favorite. It's hilarious, and it's about a member of the Yakuza who wants to quit and do Rakugo, which is like a style of theater/comedy story telling.

Everyone seems to love Great Teacher Onizuka, and in the same vein, Gokusen is really good (the first season.) Trick is a pretty good show too. A lot of people like Hana Yori Dango, and I'll admit, it's really good, despite being a chick show.

Eh, I'll just post some links, you an check them out if you want.

IWGP: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Ikebukuro_West_Gate_Park
Tiger and Dragon: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Tiger_%26_Dragon
GTO: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Great_Teacher_Onizuka
Gokusen: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Gokusen
Kurosagi: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Kurosagi
Trick: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Trick
Hana Yori Dango: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Hana_Yori_Dango
Akihabara@DEEP: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Akihabara%40Deep
Sexy Voice and Robo: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Sexy_Voice_and_Robo

I dunno, J-Dramas can be pretty awesome, and are usually more entertaining than half the shit on tv here.

http://d-addicts.com/forum/ is the actual torrent site by the way.

d-addicts is not working at this time.

could i find streaming links at todou? I have like no room on my hard drive until I get my 500 gb one back.

WTF? I give you a good site, and you fuck it up and break it. Douche'.

I don't know about todou. I know there's a site called aznv.tv which streams a shitload of Asian movies, dramas, anime, etc. You need to pay to get full access but it's really fucking cheap ( I think like 10 bucks for 75 streamed hours.)

Paying for stuff is not an option atm.

None of these are going to have subtitles are they.. :(

really considreing deleting an assload of music and getting the rosetta stone.

Eh, 5 to 10 bucks isn't that much.
Everything on azn.tv has subtiles./
Nearly everything on D-addicts does too, although some of them are soft subbed.

yeah 5-10 bucks isn't taht much but how would I pay for it without a credit card? and to open one of those you have to have more. sucks.

Actually, they use paypal.

If you want an idea of the type of stories that (used to) go on just wiki Misawa and then read through the articles on Kobashi and Kawada. They should lead you to Jumbo, Baba, Mutoh, etc etc.

Ok let's say i watn to follow the dragongate's main stables feud from the beginning what are the key matches?

Storylines, and alliances change so much, that it would take way too long to make a timeline of matches.

If you watch one match, watch Dragon Kid vs Darkness Dragon 2/3 falls, from Toryumon.

DragonGate USA has profiles of every faction thats ever existed, going back to the beginning of toryumon I think. Read that shit.