TNA Bound For Glory 2014: So what are the odds this happens?

[Deleted]

NOAH had KENTA, the biggest non-New Japan star, on their roster until just recently. That plus the New Japan working agreement. Now all they have is Suguira, Morishima and Marufuji...and Zack Sabre Jr.

[pikemojo]

So, again... for a non-Japanese-wrestling-follower... what happened? Back when I paid attention to Japanese wrestling it seemed like AJPW was considered better than NJPW and many NOAH fans would have probably said the same. It seemed like they were both selling very well too when I would watch their shows. I always preferred NJPW ever since their working with WCW. It helped me to know more of their stars even though I didn't understand the language and didn't watch every single event they put on. So, was there a mass exodus of talent? Bad booking? Yakuza ties?

[Deleted]

To avoid going into a small novel about what happened (because that much shit has gone down to bring us where we are), I'll put it like this.

NOAH: Failure to create new stars by constantly having Kobashi and Misawa beat the young talent, Misawa died, Yakuza ties were revealed, fans lost faith, KENTA brought some back and then he lost the title and left so they're left with none of the original big stars and the guys hailed as future stars were never made into big stars because Misawa and Kobashi never made any of them. Basically it's WCW 2001 but instead of the old guys still being there, one of them is dead, one of them went back to All Japan and two of them are retired.

AJPW: Muto changed the style, was a terrible booker, nearly bankrupted the company on multiple occasions, then they sold the company to a guy who is batshit out of his mind, said guy drove away what little fan base All Japan had left by being insane. Akiyama took the roster and split to reform All Japan as...All Japan Pro Wrestling (as opposed to the Japanese "Zen Nippon Pro Wrestling"...no idea why that's legal since it's the same phrase) and things are slightly turning around but they're a shell of a shell of a shell of their former selves.

[pikemojo]

I was actually joking a bit about the Yakuza ties comment. Had no idea it might actually be a legit part of their downfall.

Thanks

[maddog1981]

Didn't NOAH lose their tv for a long time too? Morishima, Go and Rikioh were their next generation guys. Go probably failed the least out of those 3 but he had no one to work with either.

All Japan had a brief time in the mid 00s where they brought in all these WWE releases like Jamal, D'Lo, etc. and had a more sports entertainment vibe. They kind of had something around then but guys started getting signed away. I mean they've been a glorified indy for probably 8 years now.

[maddog1981]

To go a little further. Rikioh bombed as champion after beating Kobashi, then Marufuji bombed as champion. Taue did okay. I think Misawa's big run is where the company really fell apart. I think it did well with attendance but you could feel the momentum getting sucked out of the product as it progressed. I think they were banking on Morishima but he failed after that.

The Yakima thing hurt them but the product was absolutely falling apart at the time too. They went from out drawing New Japan at Dome shows to being on life support in about 5 years.

[Deleted]

Well, NOAH's sad state started when Kobashi didn't drop the belt to Akiyama in 04. He went on to have a meaningless 8 more months with the belt before losing the title to a clearly unprepared Rikio. NOAH had the big Dome show in 2005 and again failed to capitalize on any new fans the Kobashi/Kensuke dream match brought in. 2006 saw them try to elevate guys but the problem is that they were still establishing that the old guys were far superior. When you condition your fans to think the young guys are only gonna win 1 of every 10 with the legends, you're not creating stars.

Marufuji bombing as champion isn't as shocking since he was a throwaway champion to begin with. He got that title shot because Kobashi had the cancer scare. It would have no doubt been the beginning of Kobashi's second reign of terror with the belt had that match happened. Hell, Kobashi losing a Budokan main to Akiyama in 2006 wouldn't have mattered because the biggest show in the history of the company saw Kobashi beat Akiyama. Nothing after that matters.

Morishima didn't fail as champion so much as they had nobody for him to face that was a big draw until Kensuke, who he ended up losing the title to. They didn't hit life support until 2011 or so. They were still running the Budokan into 2010 and doing okay attendances. After that? They sold out the Budokan once and that was Kobashi's retirement and that shouldn't be a surprise.

EDIT: Also, yeah they lost their TV timeslot for a while. That didn't help. Misawa dying didn't help. The Yakuza scandal didn't help.

[maddog1981]

Holy shit! Joe Doering is the fucking Triple Crown Champion?!?! They really have fallen to new lows.

[Deleted]

Just dawned on me that they lost the big Wolves/Hardyz/Team 3D match AND the Bully Ray/Devon HOF induction is pretty much fucked too. LOLTNA

[MT]

Aug 22, 2014 23:38:25 GMT -4 @thedarknight said:

Just dawned on me that they lost the big Wolves/Hardyz/Team 3D match AND the Bully Ray/Devon HOF induction is pretty much fucked too. LOLTNA

They have a back up plan: Flying Elvises for the TNA Hall Of Fame!