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/wrestling /guests /Talbot |
| Guest Columns | Matt Talbot |
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JAPAN + WRESTLING = FUN? You know what. I have only been watching wrestling since early 1998. Yes, I am one of those new fad fans and, even though I do not consider my fandom to be a passing fad, I have never seen much of what the Internet writes about. I did not grow up a Hulkamaniac. I never saw all those 60 minute bouts with Ric Flair. I have no idea of the matches that Mil Mascaras or Satoru Sayama did. I grew up wrestling wise on the three minute match, the run-in DQ, and the incompetent story line. So, when I first heard of Japanese Wrestling, I was taken aback. There were so many people endlessly praising some dude named Liger and some guy named Misawa. They talked of their psychology, their move inventation, and their constitution. The people spoke of 20 30 40 minute matches. It would take about three Raws to make a 40 minute match, so I was impressed. I went to as many Japanese Boards as possible and checked out the websites of these weird AJPW/NJPW/BJPW/FMW federations. My expectations rose and rose and rose until they were unreachable. The Internet kinda does that to a person. Finally, I was able to get my hands on some wrestling. Over a period of time, I received Best of NJ Juniors, Misawa: The Early Years, All Japan Jan '99, Misawa vs. Kawada, and Super J Cup '94. I was excited out of my boots to see all of these tapes and quickly got down to watching them. My point is this: American "wrestling" is so vastly different from Japanese "wrestling" that it was hard for me to enjoy them on any level. A lot of Japanese Wrestling has to do with what has not been done in the match and the capacity of the wrestlers to do moves. The big question is whether the wrestlers will do their moves at certain times. Something like: Should Misawa bring up the TD '91 to put down the tough opposition that is Toshiaki Kawada? In American wrestling it is not as much a question of the path that the match will go down as it is a move count. "Hey look at that Powerbomb and that Piledriver and that plancha. Man, that was a cool Diamond Cutter." So, the whole match is to see who can do the more and cooler moves. Indeed, Japanese Wrestling was so foreign to me, that I did not enjoy it much at all on my first go around. It seemed to be way to much repetition of moves or restholds. Even people that I had been told were high flying were not (OK, just Liger). It seemed like lots of dead time and then a Fisherman's Buster for the win. I had to learn to enjoy Japanese Wrestling, which was an extremely odd thing to do. Over time, though, I did learn to like their wrestling and the effects were grandiose. See, the repetition is trying to set up counters later on in the match, so it makes it look like the wrestlers are learning from each other or they are used as a contest. Kawada will slap Misawa and then Misawa will return the favor and they will go back and forth for a while until Misawa just absolutely drops Kawada with the mother of all slaps. The repetition is used to build up patterns in the minds of the viewers. Then, I started to somehow enjoy the restholds. Unlike America, they are not really used as restholds. They are used to work on a body part, like the arm or the head, so as to weaken that body part. American wrestling had made restholds all but useless in my mind. Whenever I saw Meng slap on that hammer lock, I would just switch over to Raw. In Japan, though, they have this purpose to help increase the "pain factor" on a certain part of the body. They also do cooler submission holds, too. Instead of the armbar, I saw this move where Kendo Ka Shin flipped his legs up and threw the other wrestler over into the armbar. It was hella cool. And there was this other move where one guy had the other wrestler sitting down. He stopped the other wrestler's legs in place, wrapped one arm around his head and the other around his arm and twisted the guy about 90 degrees. It looked like it could break the other wrestler in half if applied at 100%. I had to unlearn all the tenets of American Wrestling, like waiting for the run-in DQ or that restholds are unimportant. Several months later, I watched the tapes over again and was so drawn into them that it was amazing. There is this match from 1998 between Mitsuhiro Misawa and Kento Kobashi that is simply great. Few words could describe the level of this match. At one point, Misawa double underhook powerbombs Kobashi off of the apron onto the ground below and at another point Kobashi does a regular powerbomb on Misawa onto the turnbuckle. Misawa's head bounces off of the turnbuckle extremely sickly. The best thing about the match is not that the moves were great or stiff, but it was the ending. The ending also showcases how I had to learn to appreciate Japanese Wrestling on a different level. See, at the end Misawa puts Kobashi down with three of the stiffest F'N forearm shots that I have personally ever seen. At first I thought that that was a dumb way to end it. Earlier, Misawa had used his awesome finisher the Tiger Driver '91 (sans Space Flying), but Kobashi had kicked out!?!?! The Internet had taught me that the TD '91 was the end all and be all of finishing moves. Kobashi, though, kicked out, which had the desired effect on me. I thought, "what would it take to beat Kobashi?" So, when I first saw the forearms, I thought that it was really dumb. Three forearms are bigger than the TD '91?!?!?! I wrote about this is a column a little while ago, but the wrestling in Japan is not dependent upon the finishing move like American wrestling is. Later, when I rewatched the matches and I saw the ending, I went insane. It made sense to me, because those forearms would have destroyed anybody. Ken Shamrock, Paul Wight, Keichi Yamada, I don't care who it is, because those are Misawa's forearms and they are licensed weapons. While there is a small chance to kick out of the TD '91, nobody, but nobody, could have survived that right left right barrage. Just a little tidbit on how I had to learn to enjoy Japanese wrestling on another level. I guess the moral is that for people like me, who have not been watching wrestling for that long, it might not be so good to "waste" over 100 dollars on video tapes. Instead of jumping into the deep end and attempting to float, try to dip your feet with some ECW first. Something like that. Also, another side effect of rewiring my wrestling brain is that Monday Night seems a lot less important all of a sudden, but since I do not have a dependable supply of Japanese wrestling, it is all that I have. It has kind of ruined Raw and Nitro for me, because my standards are just too high. I am too lazy to relearn all those great run-in DQ lessons. That leads me to sudden nervous breakdowns and bawling, 'cause Baby I'm gonna leave you come this summer, no I'm just rambling, I do hear it calling, though, baby I know I know I know I'm never never never never gonna leave you baby baby baby baby baby (Cue awesome guitar playing). Anyway, if you have any comments, complaints, concerns, or questions, or just wanna regulate about how Liger/Sasuke from J Cup '94 is sooooooooo overrated then, by all means, please e-mail me. Matt Talbot freelance Mail the Author |
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