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NikkySan

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This last part was actually on the first page of daves newsletter so in hindsight I should have started the whole article with this bit first.

l have been following this business for more than 17 years now and there are times that I think i’ve Seen everything well i woke up last Sunday morning this afternoon was over found out i’d Seen nothing simply put the ALL JAPAN WOMEN’S promotion puts on the most entertaining show and the best wrestling that I’ve  ever seen 

Infact nothing even comes close there are no words to convey the atmosphere and action that the promotion delivers or just how effective Chigusa Nagayo and dump matasumo are while admittedly the live crowd which attends their events is hardly a democratic cross section in fact 90 percent of the crowd is teenage girls but to their audience these girls are over

To the point that a U.S. fan would have to see it live to even have a concept of what I’m trying to say Dump is the best heel in wrestling and whoever is in second place isn’t even close as for Chigusa the reaction she gets not only can’t be duplicated by any wrestler in this country (hulk hogan certainly comes the closest and at his best isn’t half as good)

You’d probably have to use Madonna or Bruce Springsteen at their peak for comparison the crowd literally lives and dies with every move she makes we saw the crowd literally crying at one point in the show and then in the main event we saw a 50 min match of nothing but high spots and a crowd which never let up for a three hour show 

I’m bringing this up because I am voting Chigusa for wrestle of the year (although I will vote for hogan as best babyface with Chigusa in second place because I respect that hogans appeal is more broad based and he has better drawing power even if Chigusa reaction live blows the hulkster away)

with the exception of hogan there is nobody more important to their promotion than Chigusa probably nobody besides hogan more responsible as an in ring personality for marketing income than her and there is no bar none better worker male or female in this business.

AND THATS IT

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From the newest WON

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Not sure what will happen but we do know that Emma is actively looking to continue her career and has publicly said she’s looking for indie dates after 2/1. Emma, who will go by Tenille Dashwood, her real name, was in talks with Stardom to start when her non-compete ended, but negotiations have fallen through as her asking price of $2,000 per match, plus first class tickets and full creative control weren’t thought to be economically or business prudent by that company

 

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WON MARCH 1991 TOKYO KORAKUEN HALL

This Sunday was a unique day in that All Japan Women had a show at noon and Jwp had a show at 6:30 pm both cards were not only sold out but had standing room only in every conceivable spot the All Japan card  literally had people hanging from the rafters including several people hanging from a ladder in the back 

Jwp announce it’s crowd at 2,500 and All Japan 2,500 which looked ligit the Jwp show which didn’t sell out in advanced was priced from $37 down to $22 while All Japan’s pricing was $47 down to $18 

The afternoon show was excellent and the evening show was also very good but two cards in one day is just too much wrestling I hadn’t seen AJW in korakuen since 1987 the heyday of Chigusa Nagayo and Dump matasumo and things have changed 

Very few of the girls are still around because they get rid of the girls when they hit their 26th birthday noriyo tateno who was one half of Jumping bomb angels and in the wwf at one  time had her retirement match this afternoon 

Bull Nakano was a star then now the world champion and the lone main event hold over from the Chigusa era it’s all new fans Chigusa drew the teenage girls who dressed like her wore her fan club jackets and screamed over her like Madonna 

But it’s different now many credit the upswing in the AJW group to the time period last summer when Aja Kong and Bison kimura were working for Universal since Universal is a lucha group it mainly draws the hardest core fans

Because  it’s names aren’t familiar to the general public, women’s wrestling was always stigmatised in Japan as something for women to watch in 1987 even though I saw a card that was better than anything The men’s promotion were doing 

(and better than just about any card I’d ever seen in armerica) there were few male fans there and almost no hardcore fans one subscriber who went was amazed at how good the card was but still said it was something for girls and I doubt he went back 

The stigma is gone the crowd was a young crowd about half hardcore male fans there simply to see great matches and half the teenage girls who screamed and cried over their faves are gone as are the concerts.

It’s just wrestling now and these are the most expressive hardcore fans around. JWP was formed in 1986 and has always gone after a different audience it tried to attract  males a time when AJW attracted very little

While there were people who attended both shows I’d guess the number was very small JWP attracted a much older crowd men in business suits with wife’s and girlfriends they weren’t manical about the show although there was heat

There were hardcore s in the balcony but not packed to the level of AJW.

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WON SEPTEMBER  1992 JAPAN TRIP V

MOST UNIQUE SHOW - JWP television special in your wildest dreams or most drug induced crazed state you could never imagine something quite like this TV Asahi one of the four major networks in Japan got this crazy idea a few months back about doing a Clash of the Champions for insomniacs.

They scheduled a live television special from 1:30 to 5 a.m and wanted small groups in Japan that don’t have television to combine well politics and scheduling being what they are only one group agreed to it the new JWP so at about 1:20 am after wandering from one television studio to another in downtown Tokyo for more than a half an hour myself an John muse and wrestler Sean waltman 

Who had an 8:30 wake up call for a long road trip The next day found the studio this was a journey that included stumbling into CNN headquarters in Japan and seeing highlights of the Republican convention and somehow finding Antonio Inoki office at a television network and being detained by security speaking nothing but Japanese (well it’s their country)

Who were wondering what exactly we were doing wandering around an office building at 1 a.m. the studio was pretty much like any TV wrestling studio those of you who remember Memphis wrestling in the 70s in many of the territories will fondly recall There were about 115 clinical insane people at the studio (they must have been since nobody left early there was a rumour they were all being held at gunpoint)

An overflow of magazine reporters in the lobby down the hall watching on television and a cast of about nine or ten celebrity commentators from the sports entertainment world including the legendary Chigusa Nagayo herself with her eyes shut an head on the table fighting to stay awake and it was only 1:20 a.m.

The show began with an introduction of the nine women on the show and it was time for the opener Big Bad Devil Masami Who is like a cross between Jim duggan , Road Warrior animal, Ric Flair,Joanne Weston and Dump Matsumoto and still not at all unattractive 15 year veteran who dates back to the original boom era of women’s wrestling with the Crush Girls.

She teamed with Mayumi Ozaki a tiny women against Dynamite Kansai who those of you recall the WCW PPV show from Phoenix in 1991 will remember miss a and her partner was sometimes model Cutie Suzuki they went out there and had one hell of a 25:00 match with topes brutal guardrail and stiff work and chair shots highlight being Masami pressings Suzuki overhead walking around the ringside stopping in front of a half a sleep Chigusa Nagayo yelling at Nagayo and dropping Suzuki on the table basically right in her lap.

Masami has more ring savvy than any of the AJW although I wouldn’t go so far as to say she is one of the top five female workers today , then came the 30min commercial mania if you ever thought the delays in the clashes were bad you never would again the only comparison I could come up with was for the few of you who may have lived in Texas during the early 1980s and attended the Dallas Sportatorium cards during the days when they had to revive certain wrestlers in order for them to do a coherent interview 

The second match didn’t in the ring until about 2:45 a.m. with the relatively normal looking plum Mariko wrestling the Boirshi Kid Who is a teenager dressed like bozo the clown I was just glad Vince McMahon or Antonio Pena wasn’t watching because they’d steal the gimmick for sure they went 16min it wasn’t too bad then another singles match with Hikari Fukuoka (Who was really good) against Sumiko Satio (Who has great potential) and the put on a great 20min match doing every move in the book.

Finally at about 3:50 A.m. it was time for the main event on Only Give Up Battle Royal which means the only way to be eliminated is via submission, this was the best battle royal I’ve Seen since those classic Los Angeles and San Francisco Battle royals of the late 70s 

I think there were four topes, Masami did a press slam on her partner in the opener Ozaki and dropped her over the top rope where she took a bump on the floor the guard rail took a major beating at one point Masami was destroying some of the women in the grandstands even Chigusa was wide awake for this one 

Kansai did a dive though the ropes and missed and went straight into the guard rails Boirshoi kid did the asai moonsault at about 4:05 a.m. try to put yourself in my shoes for a second it’s 4:05a.m. On a Monday night you’re in a foreign country where nobody speaks your language you’re watching this unbelievable Battle Royal and some women dressed up like bozo the clown is doing the Asai  moonsault 

It was 10min of mind blowing action before anyone was eliminated Plum Mariko ended up winning in 20:05 by Eliminating Fukuoka after they went back and forth for a few minutes although that is probably the least important aspect of the show.

 

 

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I feel like a fish out of water comedy about American wrestling nerds getting into wacky adventures wandering through downtown Tokyo at 1 in the morning to find the secret women's wrestling show would be a huge hit at Sundance.

It's also a good thing this was 1992 Sean Waltman. I imagine this quest ending way more horrifically if it was 2002 Sean Waltman.

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WON SEPTEMBER  1992 JAPAN TRIP V

BIGGEST CHANGE  - The audience at AJW shows 

The AJW group years back used to draw an audience that was close to 90 percent teenage girls I recall in 1987 the first time I saw the group live that the workrate was exceptional but the audience was there for Chigusa mania as the building was filled with young girls dressed like Chigusa Nagayo with haircuts like Chigusa Nagayo and screamed and cried like crazy when Chigusa Nagayo was being brutalised by Dump Matasumo.

No hardcore wrestling fan would be caught dead in the building even though it actually had the best hardcore action of any of the promotions Women’s wrestling was cultural stigmatised as simply something for teenage girls it’s new era with all the new stars and a totally different audience.

 The last time I saw the women at Korakuen in March 1991 the audience was split 50/50 between the teenage girls of before and the hardcore fans who got into the group because of the charisma of Aja Kong and the realisation and appreciation of just how good the matches and wrestling really are.

On 8/15 I’d guess the pendulum has almost completely swung as the crowd being close to 90 percent hardcore male wrestling fans as the unique atmosphere, it no longer exists there is little crying (although there was some but the few remaining teenage girls) at the emotional climaxes less of the streamer throwing and on the financial downside the hardcore fans aren’t going to buy nearly the amount of gimmicks that the teenage girls audience did.

However Korakuen was overflowed with about 2,300 fans in a building that seats 1,860 and the belief probably true is this group of hardcore fans will be more loyal.

HARDCORE WRESTLING FANS 

given time to be exposed to the product (and keep in mind, this will take years to accomplish but ultimately would be successful) will accept women's wrestling provied the women are better than the men. If they aren't as good, or even are just as good, people aren't going to buy it for anything more than a very short period as a T&A show because all things being equal, our society always treats men's athletics as superior to women excpet in the few sports (gymnastics and figure skating come to mind) where the women have the physical ability to outshine men in. If they are better, they'll be respected for it and eventually they'll have an audience because wrestling is probably the only contact sport.exhibition/entertainment/whatever in which women at the top level because they have great flexibility, are lighter and thus have more endurance, can outperform men in

 

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Follow up on the Emma thing from this week's WON

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Just a clarification on Tenille Dashwood’s booking price, the $2,000 per show figure was for shows outside North America, for Europe, Japan and other markets. For North America the rate being quoted is $1,500 per show, plus round-trip airfare, hotel and ground transportation (on the indies promoters are expected to provide hotels and ground transportation, an expense that talent in WWE has to pay for on their own). That isn’t unusual for talent asking for bigger money booking fees for overseas shows since the travel is harder and you can often miss a day of regular bookings because of it. She’s also asking for a 50/50 split between her and the promotion for autograph and picture money and asking for 100 percent of her own other merchandise money (also consistent with most guidelines). She also asks for creative control, the ability to approve her opponent and do her own finishes, which in regular indies isn’t a deal-breaker since any top guy is basically going to have the right to approve that, but for some of the companies that run full-time and do storylines, that has been them balk. They are also asking for a 50 percent deposit ahead of time, which is also consistent with what most top stars on the market do unless they are working for a promoter they have a developed a long relationship with

 

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The issue is, in my mind, she isn't a 'top guy'. I mean if she gets that much money more power to her, no harm in asking, I just can't think of any indie promotion with a prominent women's division that has $1,500 (or $2,000 for Japan/Europe) plus transportation for a WWE midcarder. Not to mention her other demands.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Speaking of, who/what is Kris Wolf exactly? She's been popping up on my Twitter TL as that account that is always tweets WWE gifs keeps liking her tweets.

She seems like another Japanophile.

I saw some clips of one of her matches with Sumie Sakai in ROH and it was bad.

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8 minutes ago, Edwin said:

Speaking of, who/what is Kris Wolf exactly? She's been popping up on my Twitter TL as that account that is always tweets WWE gifs keeps liking her tweets.

She seems like another Japanophile.

I saw some clips of one of her matches with Sumie Sakai in ROH and it was bad.

 

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17 hours ago, Edwin said:

Speaking of, who/what is Kris Wolf exactly? She's been popping up on my Twitter TL as that account that is always tweets WWE gifs keeps liking her tweets.

She seems like another Japanophile.

I saw some clips of one of her matches with Sumie Sakai in ROH and it was bad.

She is an oddball gaijin Stardom picked up and trained 3 years ago. She weird and goofy but fun.

Not sure she would qualify as a Japanohphile, but before Stardom she was teaching English in Japan so she has been living there a while and likely assimilated somewhat. Really though she seems like the type who was little odd even before living there.

Only saw a tag match with Sakai and that bit of terribleness seemed more on Sakai than anyone else. Kris has better work in Japan though still nothing great.

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On 12/7/2017 at 12:12 PM, Edwin said:

Speaking of, who/what is Kris Wolf exactly? She's been popping up on my Twitter TL as that account that is always tweets WWE gifs keeps liking her tweets.

She seems like another Japanophile.

I saw some clips of one of her matches with Sumie Sakai in ROH and it was bad.

While whether you like her wrestling or not is a personal choice, I think this long article will answer just about any question about Kris.

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Wolf's ringwork is decent but unspectacular, imo.  I find the gimmick very polarizing.  She has some charisma and seems a decent fit for Stardom, but she looks like the least intimidating wrestler ever, and the profanity and obscene gestures seem like an overly calculated attempt to be shocking.  I feel like I'm watching a teletubbie try to get away from his image and be be taken seriously for more adult roles by swearing on-camera for no reason.

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1 hour ago, Keep Calm, Akira Hokuto On said:

...obscene gestures seem like an overly calculated attempt to be shocking.  I feel like I'm watching a teletubbie try to get away from his image and be be taken seriously for more adult roles by swearing on-camera for no reason.

This. I just read she's a YouTuber.

If anything, that and her over-the-top look-at-me gestures are her hoping to go viral and make it as an internet celebrity.

Shame...

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