週刊プロレス No.2207 (from early October, the end of the 5 Star GP)
Obviously, Antonio Inoki’s death is the biggest news story this issue.
He had been sick with a particular form of amyloidosis for some time, and according to 猪木元気工場, his doctor had said at some point that “その日” could be tomorrow, two days from now, a month, a year, etc. and he had ups and downs in 2022. His condition had been on an up and his younger brother talked with him the day before, but in the morning he worsened and “永遠の眠りについた.” His brother says he was sleeping a lot and it seemed peaceful.
The article talks about a video recorded posted to his youtube channel called “アントニオ猪木「最期の言葉」” Recorded about 10 days before his death, describing it as including “猪木らしい素直な思い” with regard to his expressing reluctance to record for youtube in his time of weakness, as well as a plea to stop pollution.
Oddly – the video appears to have since been privated and I didn’t find infomration why (although I did find a mirror).
My notice of “cerulean blue” is not restricted to audio it turns out, as the magazine talks about some 50th anniversary cooperation between New Japan and Inoki, but notes that 「突然の死によって燃える闘魂がセルリアンブルーのリングに還ることは、ついにかなわなかった。」
There’s a page of reactions and condolences from various Inoki-associated wrestlers, mostly notably his 愛弟子 Tatsumi Fujinami’s tearful reaction after a match, and including comments from Riki Choshu, Akira Maeda, Keiji Mutoh, Yuji Nagata, etc.
There’s then a pretty long, or very brief depending on your perspective, look back at Inoki’s life.
He emigrated to Brazil with his grandfather’s family when he was 13 in 1957 (I’ve heard immigration to Brazil was pushed as a path to a success in 50s Japan by which I mean I’ve seen a 1957 Japanese movie where the idea of leaving for Brazil was a major plot element) and worked on a coffee plantation where he was scouted by Rikidozan and returned to Japan to join 日本プロレス in 1960.
Apparently in 1966 he left to join the new 東京プロレス where he served as 社長兼エース and won his first title, the US Heavyweight Championship from Johnny Valentine, but the company folded the same year and he went back to 日本プロレス. From there he teamed with Giant Baba as BI砲, and got married, but was wrapped up in managerial scandal and left the company, founding his own, 新日本プロレス on January 26, 1972. In the 旗揚げ戦 he lost to Karl Gotch. He got his win back within the year to win his first world championship. – Incidentally, I actually have no idea what world championship this is talking about, as the sources I’ve seen including this don’t name it specifically, they just say variations on “世界ヘビー” and this is long before the IWGP name and it doesn’t look like it was NWA. It seems like Muhammad Ali had a championship with a similar red and blue design - so I wonder if maybe it’s one Inoki designed himself that didn’t ultimately catch on…? (NOTE: it seems it was the “Real World Championship”)
Highlights from there include defending against Tiger Jeet Singh, the 昭和の巌流島決闘 match against former 国際プロレス ace Strong Kobayashi, and the famous match against Muhammad Ali that was either extremely boring or a monumental beginning to Japanese Mixed Martial Arts, or both.
Now into the eighties, more highlights: the formation of IWGP in 1980 and the 1983 league tournament to crown the first IWGP Heavyweight Champion ending with Inoki losing to Hulk Hogan via Axe Bomber in a shocking image of Inoki down with his tongue out and stretchered away. Another 巌流島 match. Clashes with UWF. Beat Takeshi invading NJPW. The first pro-wrestling Tokyo Dome show.
In 1989 he won election to the 参議院 and became the first ever 議員レスラー and freed Japanese hostages in Iraq somehow.
His official retirement road started in 1994 but lasted almost four years and included the famous North Korea show, before he officially retired at the 1998 Tokyo Dome show.
He kept very busy from there though with running MMA-inflected shows and organizations like UFO or Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye, and the article diplomatically mentions his influence extended to プロレス界に与えるダメージ being stronger than what it gained from the mixing of pro-wrestling and MMA Inoki was invested in at this time. This leading ultimately to Inoki’s removal from any direct involvement with NJPW, and the video game company Yuke’s purchasing the company.
From there his main involvement with wrestling was through the Inoki Genome Federation, but he left that in 2017, it sounds like due to disputes between family.
Anyway, in other more normal news, the 5 Star GP Finals happened!
Giulia’s column is from before that though, and it’s about Stardom in Showcase, the new anything goes, “超エンターテインメント型プロレス” show brand. Giulia says when she heard 「何でもアリ」 what she wanted to do was a hardcore match.
There’s some really good stuff here where she talks about how everyone’s tastes are different, and ”プロレスってさ、そもそも定義が難しいもので” so people have a tendency to have the kneejerk reaction that if they don’t like it, it’s not proper pro-wrestling. Like she saw that kind of “allergic reaction” from people in responses to Prominence’s arrival in Stardom. Giulia rejects that reaction however:
ジュリアは思ったんだよね、「それはもったい無いよ!」って。プロレスには無限の可能性がある。スターダムにはその全ての可能性を飲み込めるブラックホールのような力があると思うから。
Giulia’s really cool
Tanahashi’s column is about Mutoh (I think the Wrestle Kingdom retirement road match with both of them in it had been just announced or just started being built towards). They chat about various aspects of Mutoh and Tanahashi’s impressions of him, like they both liked weight training a lot, or what Mutoh’s leaving for AJPW meant for their dynamic between each other. One amusing bit is the interviewer raises the possibility that some have mentioned that Mutoh picked now for his retirement shows as a way to boost the industry in a time when the pandemic is causing it hardship, but Tanahashi says that Mutoh isn’t as calculating as people think, he just does what he wants in the moment and flows with the times that way and that’s what makes him a “天才” and that Mutoh already being branded 天才 is what made Tanahashi take refuge in “逸材” via thesaurus.
There’s a very long interview with El Desperado on the occasion of that match with Jun Kasai and the マイク afterward being so good.
Sounds like he suffered no major injuries thanks to Kasai’s care so his body is recovering fine but he was emotionally wiped after being so amped up after the match and drinking a lot that night and getting a powerful hangover (in contrast to Kasai properly doing weight training and stuff the next day). So Desperado doesn’t want to say “デスマッチをやったぜ” out of respect for the people who actually do it regularly.
An interesting exchange:
ーー: そもそもデスペラード選手は、いつから葛西選手のことが好きだったんですか?
デスペ: わかんない、気づいたら好きだった。
He recounts in 2009 when Kasai won Best Bout, he heard a NJPW senpai say 「デスマッチがベストバウトを取っちゃダメだよな」 and he felt 違和感 about it, although he figured it was New Japan pride rather than prejudice that motivated the comment.
It sounds like what really awakened the idea that he wanted to fight Kasai himself was at some point when Kasai proclaimed 「くすぶってるヤツはオレが闘って目を覚まさせてやる。やりたいヤツは言ってこい。」 or somesuch, and Desperado realized that applied to him. At the time it sounds like Taka Michinoku and Taichi were doing stuff like Shinjuku FACE shows (based on some googling, rough ballpark for time he’s talking about ~2013-2017 I think) and he expressed to Taka he wanted to fight Jun Kasai, and Taka responded “who’d want to watch you fight Jun Kasai?” (although Desperado doubts Taka would remember saying this himself), and so wanting to become a wrestler who could be a viable opponent for Kasai is part of what drove his rise in stature in New Japan after that.
Sounds like their first match against each other was three years ago, but it ended in a double ringout after Desperado broke his jaw.
He says he was surprised looking back at the match to see he was laughing through the pain: もう痛すぎて、カラダが勝手に笑ってた。…後で映像を見たら、笑ってる、笑ってるって(苦笑)。びっくりして、ずっとワッハッハって言ってた。
They talk about Jun’s マイク afterward, where he touchingly implored El Desperado to not act like he was ready to die (「死んでもいい覚悟なんて、捨ててしまえ」) and Desperado says that and the big reaction online about him made him feel the way in which he looks up to Kasai: 「やっぱりオレが憧れた人だもんなっていうのはあった。レスリングで憧れてる人はもちろんたくさんいるけど、人間力で憧れてるのは葛西さんと鈴木(みのる)さんなので。やっぱりああいうエネルギーはスゴいなって」
There’s some really good (but hard to summarize) stuff that follows then about how El Desperado says there’s a part somewhere inside of himself which doesn’t cling to life, that wouldn’t be too put out if his life was all over in an accdient tomorrow, and that part made him feel all right with saying that stuff about being ready to die. But Kasai’s comments showed him that a line had to be drawn, and it sounds to me like Desperado compares it to the kinds of things you say casually and thoughtlessly as a kid, without realizing it can hurt other people, until someone sets you straight and you stop, and in that way Kasai’s words let him let go of that kind of thing.
Sounds like Desperado looked on the internet how best to preserve the rose Kasai gave him and prepared some kind of preservative, and fully intends to give it back to Kasai when next they have a match, whether he wins or loses.
Desperado says that his maskmaker made a white mask out of special blood-absorbent material, so that blood would complete it: 「血で汚れて完成します。」
Desperado makes a mahjong metaphor and says that being given main event even though it was Taka and Taichi’s anniversary show was like “裏ドラが6枚ぐらい乗ったような感じで(笑)” I get what you’re putting down, デスペさん! (the ura-dora get revealed only after you’ve gone out - so it means the mahjong went good and then super worked out good on top of that)
Near the end of this very long but very good interview, Desperado says that he and Starlight Kid talked about it and they don’t want to just team for the one eight-person tag match at Historic X-Over - they want to get that over with, and if there’s no joint NJPW/Stardom show after that, they’ll want to team at a TakaTaichiDespe show and Desperado thinks their opponent should definitely involve the wrestler strongly associated with mixed-tag matches… Rina Yamashita! Yes, please do that!! I would like to see that match!!!
Kenoh’s column is about him losing the GHC Heavyweight Championship to Kaito Kiyomiya. He says it went just like the company expected - with the pro-wrestling superstar Keiji Mutoh retiring, the plucky new rising superstar inherits his move and gets put on a path to be a new superstar. Kenoh thought he would disrupt “そんな予定調和の美しいストーリー” but in the end he helped further it: ”オレ自身がその一部になっちゃった”. But he lost fair and square. He also mentions some pride in the contents of the match - for example, it was under 30 minutes when the trend nowadays is for top-level matches to go on really long. (the interviewer points out that if Kenoh held out longer it would have been longer - ”うるせーっ!”). This makes Kiyomiya the 6th GHC Heavyweight Champion in 2022 (geez).
When asked his goals, Kenoh deadpans first that he wants to focus exclusively on his youtube channel. But that was a joke and he wants to challenge Kiyomiya at the New Year’s show, win, and close it by challenging Mutoh. And there’s 新日本で一人だけ闘わないといけないヤツ…
There’s a short feature on Tenryu Project - I’m not very familiar but it sounds like it’s Genichiro Tenryu and his family’s promotion, known for especially hard-hitting rough bouts, started in 2010, and they’re having their first Korakuen Hall show in two years, amid Tenryu’s continued recovery from health issues, and his wife’s death.
(Ever since I learned what Tenryu’s entrance music was, I’ve had to put on Rainbow Goblins when he comes up, out of respect)
Comforting to remember Atsushi Onita will always be out there somewhere, exploding.
The history column is about 国際プロレス. Apparently it ran from 1967-1981, and those years can be divided up into a money-rich first 7 years and a “国際らしい”、”カネはなかったが真の支持層を熱狂させた” second 7 years.
Anyway I didn’t really pay attention to the details (this issue is taking quite long enough as it is) but it sounds like this match, or that day’s who Korakuen show, stands out as a particular 国際プロレス highlight.
There’s an interview with Yuki Mashiro of Ice Ribbon, as she has announced she’s retiring from wrestling at the end of the year. She says she had thought she’d limit it to 3 years when she started, and though she loves pro-wrestling still and there were times she figured she’d keep doing it, she’s 21 and there’s plenty of other stuff she wants to try to do, like perhaps pursuing a medical career or traveling the world. She says she’s already decided her final opponent, and it’s someone she loves very much, the person she’s meant in life who most looked after her, who she trusts and respects as both a wrestler and a person, and who she’s glad to have met thanks to starting pro wrestling. But she’s not saying who it is yet.
Fortunately, since I’m so behind on these – her last match was with Suzu Suzuki.
She’s overcome with some adventurous spirit when talking about how she wants to try travelling overseas even though she can’t speak English:
当たって砕けろっていうか、私、当たって砕けたいんです!砕けて、心折れるけどその度に何か得るものはあるし自分自身成長できると思ってます!プロレスでも心がボリボリ、バリバリ折れましたけど、そのたびに負けたくないなって思ってきたので。私、少年なんです、冒険したい!
Her story through her career has been well covered by Shupro (I know she was one of the Ice Ribbon wrestlers high on my radar thanks to the magazine) and they have high praise here: 笑ったり号泣したりブチ切れたり。プロレスを知らずに始めたヘナチョコで摩訶不思議な21歳はすごくプロレスラーしてたなと思います。
Next there’s a joint interview with Miu Watanabe and Yuka Sakazaki from TJPW, as they both have shots at singles titles coming up.
They talk about the summer tournament and about Miu’s standout performance in it, and the expectations of cracking through the barrier of the 3 first generation wrestlers built up from it. Yuka says there’s expectations in wrestlers other than them to be the future of the company, but there’s also a sense that they need to dig in their feet and be strong as the present of the company, and that today isn’t the goal, the path can’t be too smooth for that future wrestler to break through.
Miu says her drive to do well in the tournament was born from fighting generation-mate Arisu Endo in the first round and wishing that she could have met her much later in the tournament instead. She and Arisu feel like kids still compared to Yuka feeling like a sister, or mom, or grandpa to them. And kids gotta 頑張る.
They both talk very highly of the atmosphere in TJPW for the wrestlers. And Yuka says those good vibes arose naturally, as people who loved the place joined and contributed their own love.
Yuka describes her challenge against Shoko’s Princess of Princess Championship as a bit of a complex to show strength as TJPW’s current status quo, brought on by Miu’s threat to that (and Miu’s victory over Shoko).
Talking about Miu’s championship shot, she’s very anxious about the prospect of potentially having to go overseas (Yuka, speaking as her mother, says she needs the experience), and she’s worried that Alex Windsor seems large and hard to pick up and swing around, but she has to.
Yuka says she’s glad to have foreign wrestlers in TJPW showing that it’s a good and worthwhile market and brand despite the visa difficulties and the like, and the wrestlers are like part of the family or a homestay.
Miu says she say her マイファイト from her last interview and felt bad about her English so she immediately went out to buy an English book from a book store, but not knowing what would be helpful to talk to English wrestlers, she just read a little in the store and left without buying anything… but it’s one step forward!
Yuka sagely says that there’s enough shared in pro-wrestling that you can naturally get by somehow with body language and feeling, so it’s okay.
Miu: 「ハローは言えます!じゃあ大丈夫ですね」
Looks Like Jun Kasai shared a “ディープな” kiss with Effy in GCW.
(warning: blood)
There’s an article on a pro-wrestling-related radio station that’s lasted for 30 years, ラジプロ! That’s neat! I would probably have read it more carefully if this issue weren’t already like… very full of stuff I’ve spent lots of time on.
A particularly touching Inoki tribute was Minoru Suzuki’s - he hasn’t said anything public, but at the end of a show, all he had to do was point at the sky, and mime 1, 2, 3, with the crowd filling in the voice right on cue for Suzuki’s silent ダァー! (Inoki’s catchphrase)
Mutoh’s column is about AJPW on the occasion of it’s 50th anniversary celebrations. Mutoh ended up leaving NJPW to run AJPW for 10 years in the wake of Giant Baba’s death. He says in the time before that, his impression of AJPW was of course, Baba, as well as Jumbo Tsuruta and American wrestlers. He says NJPW and AJPW were a bit like Russia and the US at the time so they didn’t interact much, but when he interacted with Tsuruta there was a little bit of a bond since they’re both from Yamanashi Prefecture (he says he doesn’t publicize it but he similarly feels some kindredness with Shingo Takagi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru for example, for the same reason). He says he left to run All Japan because he felt he could freely do pro-wrestling there in contrast to the MMA-inflected direction that New Japan was going, and also out of ambition for the 一国一城 factor of being able to run it and be the main attraction. He says the strength of the name of AJPW was still very high and that was a major strength, but it became a weakness too, since it opened up complaints about not living up to the name, or Mutoh’s AJPW not matching what AJPW should intagibly be.
The editor’s Eye Column is about the Stardom 5 Star GP and specifically highlights a triangle of three 黄金世代 wrestlers who stood out in their matches with each other in the tournament: Saya Kamitani, MIRAI, and Suzu Suzuki. It says the 黄金世代 term first came up around a pivotal 10/3/2020 Goddess of Stardom match, and even as a generation is building up with wrestlers with short careers and bright futures in their 20s, there’s already been big accomplishments like Kamitani’s white belt reign and MIRAI’s tournament win, but the generation above, like tournament finalists Giulia and Tam, and champion Syuri, don’t have any intention of ceding the spotlight just yet.
The final column is about Suzu Suzuki’s perspective on Stardom’s 5 Star GP. I really like the dynamic she expresses here, where she entered the 5 Star GP just to go after Giulia and work out those complex emotions from her departure and absence, and she’d go through even such a huge tournament just for the chance to do it, but as it turned out she ended up glad for the wait before their match together, since she got to learn about the place Giulia left for, and the surroundings of the current Giulia, not the Giulia in the past. And she found that Stardom is full of interesting wrestlers to fight, being especially struck by how the 生え抜き wrestlers fought especially hard amidst the crowd of entrants.
She sounds very very happy about freelancing, about her rapidly rising star power, about wrestling constantly all the time, and getting to do lots of her beloved deathmatches.