The Rise And Fall Of All Japan Pro Wrestling: transcript

if the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince humankind that he does not exist then the greatest trick modern new japan have pulled is convincing people that they are the be all and end all in japanese professional wrestling and always were but while new japan today stand head and shoulders above every other promotion in the land of the rising sun that wasn't always the case as for the latter part of the 20th century they enjoyed a compelling rivalry with all japan pro wrestling the two promotions battling it out to see who would reign as japan's top dog all japan was the bigger of the two promotions from day one and would battle njpw for the top spot for the better part of 30 years from the barber versus the world yes through the saruta tenryuu dynasties to the hallowed four pillars of heaven all japan became a byword for incredible wrestling fighting spirit and the breathtaking but highly hazardous kings road style but all good times must

end eventually and where all japan once ran sold out shows at budakan hall and inside the tokyo dome and shattered attendance records it now battles for relevancy in a wrestling world that is all but passed them by all japan's fall was drastic but how did things go so wrong for such a respected and at times untouchable promotion i'm ross tweedle from coltaholic.com and this is the rise and fall of all japan pro wrestling join us [Music] [Applause] the jwa pro wrestling's initial success in japan is pretty much all down to one man ricky dozen a korean japanese sumo competitor ricky dozar made the switch to pro wrestling in the early 1950s and quickly became a phenomenon combine the popularity of peak hulk hogan steve

austin and the rock and he gets something close to what ricky dozen was in japan quite simply a mega star and treasured national hero ricky dozan established the japan pro wrestling alliance in 1953 and alongside wrestling and promoting he started training a new generation of pro wrestlers inside the jwa dojo alongside the legendary karl gotch the most notable jwa dojo class commenced in 1960 and would feature ricky dozens greatest ever pupils rookie sensation antonio enoki and the six for 10 former professional baseball player shohei giant baba after ricky dozan's tragic death in 1963 baba became the undisputed star of jwa with enoki firmly in his shadow enoki would promptly go on an excursion to the usa then would join tokyo pro wrestling in order to forge his own path until

returning to the jwa in 1967 after tokyo pro went out of business with barbara and enoki as the two biggest homegrown draws in the country especially when teaming together as b.i cannon business ticked along nicely for the jwa enoki wanted more though attempting a hostile takeover of the promotion in 1971. but was promptly sacked when the takeover failed undeterred big gin tony said sod this and formed new japan pro wrestling in 1972. unfortunately for the jwa 1972 would only get worse when barbar decided not to renew his contract and split off to form all japan pro wrestling with ricky does and sons without the two biggest stars in the country carrying the load jwa folded in 1973 all japan takes off in the wake of barbara andanoki leaving jwa there was a mass exodus of talent with many hitching

their wagons to all japan due to barbar's immense popularity at the time coupled with all japan signing a tv deal with nippon tv barbara established the pacific wrestling federation as all japan's governing body and after beating the likes of bruno samartino bobo brazil and others barbara was installed as the first ever pwf world champion he held that belt for over five years because of course he did despite the pwf title sitting as all japan's main championship for 15 years it advised for attention with a number of nwa titles due to a firm partnership between old japan and the nwa mirroring the relationship ricky dozens jwa enjoyed with the american government body this partnership paved the road into japan for many top american stars with the likes of the funk brothers bruiser brody and stan hansen reaching mega star status due to their work in all japan as the promotion followed the ricky dozen book in

philosophy of japan versus the world something that certainly struck a chord with domestic audiences in the wake of the second world war the partnership between ajpw and the nwa went two ways with barbara himself ending jack briscoe's year-long nwa world title reign barbara would go on to have three reigns with the 10 pounds of gold even though he would only hold it for a couple of weeks across all three of those reigns it all helped to further build the legend of barbara as an all-conquering japanese hero as all japan entered the 80s barbara was still riding high as the promotion's unchallenged top star but he had an eye on the future pushing his students jumbo saruta and his protege all japan's junior heavyweight at sushi anita with the three having successful excursions in the states a rite of passage for any would-be japanese star before returning to take all japan into a new era whilst

anita would eventually retire due to multiple injuries before being reborn as an absolute head case with a ponchons for explosion barbed wire death matches tenryu and jumbo slowly rose up the ranks to the main event position whilst an agent barbara stepped down the card in order to focus more on the organization's booking and behind the scenes business the rise of the king's road throughout the 80s all japan remained in contention to be the top promotion in japan while njpw had bigger gates and the groundbreaking junior heavyweight division setting it apart all japan still boasted some of the biggest stars in the country as gaijin like the road warriors and stan hansen reached demigod status all japan started to attract some of the best of new japan's native stars over to the blue and red side with ricky choshu and hiro saito crossing over to rob's shoulders with the likes of masano bufuchi whilst barbara oversaw the development of his greatest students but

more on them in a minute choshu's arrival in particular helped change all japan's style as his no-nonsense approach to enoki's shoot fight inspired strong style blending with barbara's emphasis on traditional nwa style in-ring storytelling forming the foundation for the spectacular and often really really really dangerous kings road style that took all japan to new heights business remains strong but as the nwa slowly fell apart in the states barbara split from the organization this split from the nwa meant that barbara would have to focus on more homegrown talent but could still rely on foreign freelancers like hanson terry gordy and every other barrel-chested bad boy who could punch people as hard as humanly possible indeed barbara doubled down on all japan practically cutting the promotion off from the rest of the wrestling world so they could focus solely on themselves as part of the split from the nwa all japan unveiled a

new main prize the triple crown comprised of the pwf nwa international heavyweight and the nwa united national championships all japan's ace jumbo seruta would be the first man to hold all three unifying the titles after beating stan hansen in now positioned as the top stars of the organization jumbo and tenryuu would trade the triple crown before tenryuu would butt heads with barbar eventually leading an exodus from all japan in order to form the short-lived super world of sports promotion with a glasses company of all things as the super rich new promotion partnered with the wwf amongst others tenryu's exit would anger barbar so much that he decreed that tenryuu would not be allowed to step foot in an old japan ring for as long as babar was alive and in control of the organization he was the chosen one and to that point the only japanese wrestler to have ever pinned barbar in all japan

a feat that would be accomplished by only one other man the timing of tenryu's exit could not have been worse as despite his position as all japan's ace jumbo seruta would also start to move down the card due to failing health luckily for all japan there was a boom period on the horizon due to the four aces they had up their sleeve the four pillars of heaven the four pillars of heaven the four pillars would come to exemplify barbara's book in philosophy and would pave the king's road with blood sweat and many broken bones you had the permanently pissed off dangerous k toshiyaki kawada a man with about three teeth and a love for kicking people harder than an angry alan shearer shira there was the underrated judica akira taway a giant of a man who would chokeslam anything that moved the super babyface kenta kabashi a man the size of a bus who would take everything you

threw at him only to rise up and send your head to the moon and the jewel of the entire promotion mitsuharu mazawa pound for pound the best wrestler of his generation and certainly in the conversation when it comes to goat talk mizawa had spent the latter half of the 80s wrestling as the highly influential tiger mask ii after all japan had bought the rights to the gimmick from new japan but his popularity exploded when he unmasked mid match to dish out elbows left right and center barbar noticed the massive support mazawa was gaining from the audience and booked him to face jumbo seruta in singles competition deciding at the last minute that the emerald sensation would go over the former triple crown champion jumbo wasn't sure if losing at that time was the right move and allegedly sent a message asking if he could lose by disqualification a rarity in japan to which barbara bluntly replied no it turned out to be a wise move by barbar with the four pillars leading the way

all japan hit their highest heights commercially and critically with singles and tag matches involved in the four heralded some of the greatest matches of all time indeed if you subscribe to mr dave meltzer's opinions no crop of restless have had any more five-star matches than mizawa and kabashi with the pair's matches against the holy demon army of taway and kawada in the mid 90s the purest examples of the king's road style soon storylines became secondary and even though new japan was at this point the clear number one promotion in the far east all japan was the critical darling known for putting on the undisputed best matches in the world the king's road style enthralled and influenced many but as the matches went longer and longer an audience fever increased the style became increasingly more dangerous to the point where it could be summed up as drop each other on the head as much as possible in a 40-minute period all you have to do is look at kawada's ganzo bomb misawa's

tiger driver 91 and kobashi's awe-inspiring burning hammer to see exactly what i mean outside the four pillars he had foreign stars like dr death steve williams johnny ace and gary albright all contributing whilst giant barbar and jumbo ceruta still laced up their boots to compete in multi-man matches lower down the card lending their star power but staying away from the spots reserved for the new generation business was so good at this time that all japan sold out over 250 consecutive shows in tokyo alone with all japan running the buddha can multiple times a year they would sell out the next show while the current one was taking place fans flocking to buy tickets and relive the experience all over again despite his preference for running buddha khan and korikan hall barbar relented and ran a rare tokyo dome show in 1998 drawing over 58 000 fans despite the wrestling boom having cooled off somewhat as compared to years

earlier barbara would still wrestle into his 60s but his health was deteriorating and on january 31st 1999 shohei barbara died of liver failure from complications relating to colon cancer at just 61 years of age given his state this is something of a national hero in japan there was a considerable public mourning in the wake of barbara's death with over 28 000 attending a memorial service in his honor in april of 1999. with barbara's death mizawa was promoted to all japan president after earlier being made head booker but all things would soon turn sour the exodus barbara's widow motorko barbara wanted mitsuwo momota ricky dozenson and a longtime wrestler who had risen to become vice president to become president in full but all japan board member jumbo seruta used his considerable influence to get mazawa in

the seat before jumbo himself was forced out of the company with no severance package mizawa and motorko barbar clashed frequently in a quiet power struggle with the pair have never seen eye to eye motorco allegedly disagreed with giant barbar making mizawa the ace of the company in the 90s and despite motor code being majority shareholder of ajpw with an 85 controlling stake most of the company privately sided with mizawa the two would clash more frequently as 1999 wore on with mazawa wanting to change ajpw's direction and push younger talents like jun akiyama whilst motorko wanted to honor giant barbar's legacy and adopt a conservative approach to ajpw's future realizing that the company was then on a downswing mizawa approached nippon tv at some point in 1999 and informed them that he would be leaving old japan and was confident that the locker room would

follow nippon tv who owned the other 15 of all japan sided with mizawa but wanted to keep everything hush-hush for a year so there was enough distance from giant barbell's death before the split was to take flight in the ring it was business as usual with vader getting in on the triple crown action and naturally belting people very hard and dropping them on their bastard heads but behind the scenes it was becoming more fraught with each passing day with box office business starting to drop after mizawa was unable to make proposed reforms to all japan contracts in order to provide health cover and injury pay as well as stock options for contracted players he was removed from his position as president by the old japan executive board in may 2000 mizawa allegedly tried a peaceful transition and wanted motorko to give a public blessing for mizawa to leave and start a new company due to his respect for giant barbar and due to the

recent death of jumbo seruta but motorko refused and did not give a public blessing to mizawa's exit later saying that mizawa took no responsibility and abandoned his duty in a written press release mizawa's ousting was revealed by the press on june the 12th and on june the 13th an emergency meeting was held by the all japan non-executive board with kenta kabashi akira taway mitsuo momota yoshihiro mamota the oldest son of ricky dozan and kenichi oyagi the managing director of all japan all formally resigning from their positions the fallout was quite simply catastrophic toshiaki kawada and masafuchi stayed loyal to old japan but the rest of the contracted locker room and the majority of the front office sided with mizawa and departed the company with triple crown champion kabashi forfeiting the title as a result to put this in perspective imagine if

during the ruthless aggression era the undertaker and triple h remained with wwe but eddie jericho angle brock edge mysterio cena and every other major name departed it would have spelled certain doom for wwe mizawa held a press conference to announce the creation of pro wrestling noah named an allusion to the biblical story a new promotion that would allow wrestlers to move forward in a modern style nippon tv cancelled all japan's slot which it had held for 27 years and announced they would be airing noah instead and as they still had that 15 stake in all japan they had the veto power to keep ajpw from ever being on a new network quite simply all japan were buggered mazawa's exit was very similar to how giant barbar split from jwa and started all japan back in the 70s and time would tell if all japan would meet the same fate as the jwa

pro wrestling love noah's start was rocky but they eventually found their groove with mazawa kabashi tauwai yoshihiro takayama and juna akiyama putting on clinics while junior heavyweight stars kenta and now michi marafuji blazed their own paths they would soon grow into the number two promotion in the country as for all japan after the noah crew wrestled their final contracted shows and officially departed and after stan hansen retired from in-ring competition it was rebuilding time motorco barbara announced the unthinkable gennichiro tenryuu will be returning to old japan for the first time in 10 years despite gian barbara saying tenryuu would never step foot in an all japan ring again after his decision in 1990 even more unthinkable all japan ended a full-on cross-promotional partnership with new japan where new ace kawada would defeat

iwgp heavyweight champion kensuke sazaki in non-title action in front of a sold-out tokyo dome the relationship between the two companies would last until 2002. with new japan icon keiji muto shockingly defecting to all japan after the january 4th tokyo dome show with satoshi kojima and kendo kashin following suit during all japan's 30th anniversary party in september 2002 motor kobar instated muto as the new president and transferred all barbar family stock to him allegedly angering tenryuu who felt he should have taken over rather than new japan's fabled musketeer this period under mutto was known as the pro wrestling love era with the missed master aggressively hunting down merchandising opportunities and forging cross-promotional relationships in order to repair all japan's financial state and remind the japanese audience that all japan were still a force to be

reckoned with the working agreement with new japan was restored and we finally had a champion versus champion dream match where triple crown champion satoshi kojima defeated hiro yoshi tenzan for the iwgp heavyweight championship this partnership would foster the cross-promotional wrestle kingdom one in 2007 taking place at the traditional january 4th new japan pro wrestling tokyo dome show while all japan would also forge a relationship with a growing tna in the usa surprisingly all japan would even work with pro wrestling noah with muto wrestling in the famed green ring whilst mizawa would return for several ajpw matches in 2004 this partnership would eventually see kawada and mizawa have one last high-profile clash in 2005 in a noah ring despite muto negotiating a new tv deal pushing the likes of suama and joe doring and even battling for the number one spot with the ever-growing

noah and a battered post enochiaism new japan all japan was simply no longer the force it once was muto's work was admirable but he would step down as president in 2011 taking full responsibility for a backstage fight between yoshi kazutaru and nobukazu hirai which caused hirai to suffer a stroke muto would sell the promotion in 2012 for 200 million yen about 1.7 million dollars when adjusted for inflation before leaving altogether in 2013 following disagreements with the new owners speed partners corporation after they removed muto's long-time right-hand man masayuki uchida from his position as all japan's president with speed partners nobuo shiraishi installing himself as president despite having no background in pro wrestling muto allegedly tried to buy back the company but when that failed he led an exodus of talent to form wrestle one and

all japan was once again in crisis with fans turning out in their droves wrestling simply wasn't as big as it was in the 80s and 90s or even in the early 2000s with the tragic in-ring death of mizawa in 2009 and the yakuza scandal that rocked noah like it had fmw before it outside of the die hards wrestling was on life support in japan and would remain that way until new japan's resurgence a few years later all japan today all japan's ownership basically became a confusing hot potato after the muto scandal first in 2013 all ajpw shares were moved from speed partners to shiraishi's red wall japan corporation with the company name changing to zen nihon pro wrestling systems shiraishi then stepped down as president but would remain owner of all japan then a year later shiraishi changed his mind and wanted out fifth pillar of heaven jun akiyama took over

as president after returning from noah a year earlier then shortly after the company changed names again to all japan pro wrestling kabushiki geisha and relocated from tokyo to yokohama in layman's terms akiyama formed a new company with the original all japan founded by barbara in 1972 legally and technically dead after shiraishi's bungled ownership akiyama had the ips the belts all the good stuff that you want but officially this was a whole new company but it was still called all japan are you still with me please say you are hello under akiyama all japan started to yo-yo dramatically with big stars joining big stars leaving motorko barbara returning to inject some money into the promotion before leaving after clashing with akiyama as she once did mizawa akiyama eventually steadied the ship with all japan becoming a steady good if not unspectacular promotion

inking new tv deals and launching a streaming service this new old japan is under no illusions as to where it stands in the current pro wrestling landscape cementing itself as something of a japanese super indie rather than try a tna circa 2010 and go head first into a war with the uncatchable new japan pro wrestling akiyama's goal as president was simply to keep the company alive and he achieved that handedly before stepping down from the position in 2019 and ultimately leaving all japan for ddt pro in 2021 but with the average attendances hovering around the 600 mark all japan is simply just another promotion in a crowded landscape rather than the groundbreaking force it once was in all japan's defense they have successfully built several new stars in recent times most notably kento miyahara who at 33 is already a five-time triple crown holder they still do well whenever they run corricon hall and they are

celebrating their 50th anniversary this year a feat which seemed improbable after the great exodus of the year 2000 and for most of the last 20 years if we're all honest however with each new president every sale of family silver and reimagining of the product all japan decreases in size and in relevance and it will surely take a miracle now to boost them back to the top of the japanese scene so here's to you all japan pro wrestling with your legendary matches and fighting spirit refusing to die after mizawa and company left you in the dust may you once again scale the mountain and regain your past glories but preferably in a far far safer way than walking the king's road once again