Why I Watch, Part One: Puroresu
Posted by Ben Acheampong
on 07/04/2006
The Why I Watch Series
Part One:
PuroresuThe HomecomingWelcome all to what I have dubbed The Benbeeach "Why I Watch" series. For those not familiar with me or in layman's terms anyone who hasn't read my stuff in the past year, my name's Ben and I'm a wrestling fan ("Hello, Ben"). Basically I used to write a pretty good series of unnamed columns about well, whatever the hell I writing about a couple months ago. Well, closer to a year. In about, I'd say, October of 2005, coming off an impressive showing at the first ever ECW Tournament, I'd felt burned out with column writing. Not to say that I didn't still have an opinion on the wrestling product, oh no, no, no. Quite the contrary, in fact, it's just what happens when you go from writing your best work in the span of three calendar weeks, some ten plus columns, which for me was a lot considering previously I had written about four in three calendar months. To make a long story short, I was feeling a tad bit burnt out. Now I know what you're thinking, "Burned out for 8 months!?!" Well, umm, yeah. When I get into something I go in full on and when I leave it's quite similar (I still haven't gone back to Pokemon). It's not that I didn't write columns in the mean time, it's just that they weren't anything I'd say, "There's definitive Benbeeach work." It didn't get my Nintendo of America Seal of Approval if you will. They were more or less just throw away columns that I wrote to make a deadline at a certain site with the initials TWV (hope Doug didn't read that).
Now you might be asking what led to my sudden return to all things column writing. Well, it was a number of things. One, with school finally being over, it's given me a chance to catch up on a lot of wrestling and all things wrestling related. Everyone knows how stressful life can be as a 15 year old and with all the free time on my hands, I thought it best to connect better with my love, wrestling. Things like the resurrection of DX and ROH's Milestone Series that I just finished watching today can make any wrestling fan feel rejuvenated, even with some lackluster ECW shows as of late. But another thing that got me back into the swing of things was seeing all the guys that I came up with in this column writing thing that we do rise to prominence. The Al Boo Boo's and the Degenerate's. To put it in perspective, I read The Friday Night Write and The Struggle for Power #1's respectively the first day they were posted.
But most importantly, if not one person, more than any other, that got me back into this, has to be Jules. That mother f***er (no flame intended). To me, Jules was at this point in time exactly where I should have been. I go to my usual wrestling sites to get my daily dose of wrestling news and whose column do I see, not my own, out of my sheer laziness and inhibition, but I see Mr. Pulp Wrestling's. And I mean everywhere. To the point where I just went "damn!" Mr. Jules, my friend, you've given me the spark to be a new and improved Benbeeach and a better column writer. I'm going to be where I was meant to be: where you are. So I dedicate this series of three, four, or five columns, I haven't decided yet, "Why I Watch" to you, Jules. Hope you and everyone else dig em'.
And so with that long winded rambling about who knows what, I present my reintroduction into the column writing world as a whole. What this is is what I like to call the "Why I Watch" series. It's basically just a series of columns that accentuate all the reasons I love wrestling that I've been able to connect with now that I'm pretty much free time wise. All too often do you stumble upon a column that reads, "The WWE sucks, ROH is overrated, Life sucks, please vote COTM." I don't watch wrestling to nitpick at all the bad and I don't read columns for it either. I'm Positively Page. Enough with the bullshit, now let's get right down to it.
Random HappeningsNone this week; been gone too long to give you my worth nothing two cents about random crap in this column. Already did that enough in the paragraphs previous. All meat in this column from now on.
Except for one thing:
CM Punk debut promo on ECW last night. I've been saying it for years, literally, but I'll say it again. Punk is the future. Punk and Joe. His gimmick can't hit home like most people's can and his ring work, while far, far from flawless, is so effective that it just makes you want to want him to succeed. Go Punker; I'm rooting for you.
Now, onto the good shit!
Why I Watch #1
Japanese PuroresuNo style of wrestling produces the kind of high quality matches that Japanese puroresu does. In Japan, style is dictated by promotion and weight class. The heavyweights of All Japan, the junior heavies of New Japan, the Michinoku Pro boys; each with a sub-style of puroresu that is uniquely there own.
Puroresu is not as artful as lucha libre, it is based more around the primordial conflict of man against man; two equal creations testing courage, spirit, might and skill. The contest is designed to prove who is the worthier of the competitors, and often the match itself is emotionally charged. Puroresu is not simply about wrestling, but about who will show the most heart, who's fighting spirit is irrepressible, and who's courage will remain undaunted throughout the match. The match, much like American pro-wrestling, is a modern day morality play; but with a very Asian spin on it.- "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush
Now while the players in Quack's intro may have changed from King's Road brawlers of NOAH, to the lighting quick high flying, flashy technical grappling, and submission wrestlers of DragonGate, and to the Gaijins of New Japan; the general themes remain the same. You vs. Me. Mano y mano. Who's going to pull it out? Straight tough man.
"Lightning" Mike Quackenbush, was one of my favorite independent wrestlers when he was still active. He was diagnosed with cancerous cysts that ran up and down his spinal column; years of lucha bumping? Perhaps, but with a series of surgeries and physical therapies, I'm glad to say he'll be back soon. What that had to do with my column, err, nothing really, but I've got to give you my Indy tidbit otherwise it wouldn't be my column, would it?
Well, actually it had much to do with the column. You see Mr. Quackenbush's main influences were Lucha Libre and Japanese Puroresu. While stumbling upon his site checking on his condition and searching for a CHIKARA DVD, I happen to stumble across his influences section. The piece I read about the grappling style from the Far East touched me so that I was convinced my return to column writing would have to be a something along similar lines. What I see in this form of wrestling is what I think of when I think of pro wrestling.
Now my first memories of wrestling will and always be in the WWE. That's far from a bad thing because everyone knows that the E's been packed with more heartfelt touching moments then I can possibly name. My favorite wrestler ever, period, in life, and for all time is Shawn Michaels and where did he wrestle the majority of his career? Exactly. But that's not to say I don't have influences that far outreach those of Vinny Land and that of his tape library. To appreciate that of which isn't force fed to me by the McMahon powers that be, I often must do what is almost in my own personal philosophy a cardinal sin, and criticize what I see before me here in the states.
You see, most notably the E', in America, pro-wrestling is the current day model of the ancient Greek morality play. Forces that represent the basic concepts of good and evil are pitted against one another and through the twists and turns of the story, one wins out over the other without violating the general parameters of it's nature. Well, that's sometimes. The stories are told in a simple framework, but are often convoluted in execution. When executed well, in simple icon vs. legends matches, your Rock vs. Hogan and Shawn Michaels vs. Hulk Hogan; this is pulled off almost flawlessly. But sometimes, most notably in my favorite era and most peoples' the Attitude Era, American pro-wrestling stepped further away from the outline of the morality play and had become almost formless in its storytelling. Ring wise that is. Japanese puroresu still generally sticks to the concept of the morality play, but it is more influenced by the culture of the East. It is the Asian concepts of good and evil which are applied here and the characters themselves are not as outlandish as they are in pro-wrestling. While many of the traits remain the same like arrogance or disrespect (search Minoru Suzuki in Google), they are more sublime in application. The American version of these same characteristics tends to be over-the-top and in-your-face, while the Japanese take on it is more recessed.
What does that mean in a sense? Well, that Americans tend to be more over the top than other people throughout the world; well, I mean, that's not limited to pro wrestling. That's pretty much proven fact. We've had "wars on terror" dealing with these same ideals, virtues, in some people's minds imperfections, etc. How that somehow magically works its way back into my column is the fact the more reserved style in say gimmick, ring entrance, physique, storylines (which usually don't stray too far from I beat you, you can't beat me), and other intangibles that are held so near and dear stateside go by the wayside for the most part in Japan. What usually is never inhibited in Japan is the product in the ring. Everything rides on the product in the ring. Everything. A flashy smoke filled walk to the ring and a trampoline (go Spirit Squad!) will only get you so far on the King's Road.
It's a silly generalization to say, "Oh well, in Japan they have better matches, so therefore, it's better there, the end," and that's not the message I'm trying to convey in this column. It's not the star ratings that go into the matches because that's a foolish argument, in nature. Is that to say America doesn't produce great matches; of course not. Benoit vs. Angle, HBK vs. Bret, and Flair vs. Steamboat are classics anywhere on any soil. It's everything else in a Japanese match that go along with that to help get it there.
When it comes to loading a match with emotional content, few do it as gracefully as the Japanese. It's necessary to understand the full history of a character to truly appreciate the significance of the story being told. Sometimes just watching on tape or mpeg in Japanese, you can't really begin to understand until later like I did and like many do.
A good example of this is the finals of the 1994 Super J Cup tournament. The Super J Cup in 1994 is considered by many to be the single greatest pro wrestling tournament of the twentieth century. I would suggest getting your hands on it as it really is witnessing history, whether it be the debut of Hayabusa or the dethroning of Liger. It really is what wrestling is all about. In the finals, this match featured Chris Benoit against the Great Sasuke in a bout to crown the top Junior Heavyweight in the world. Part of the story was that of the dominant Benoit crushing the top contenders as he made his way to the finals, just as he did the year before, only to lose to Jushin "Thunder" Liger. Underdog Sasuke fought his way just to get to the tournament, gaining recognition for his small independent organization in the process, and upsetting heavy favorite Jushin Liger to get to the finals. That alone is enough to charge the audience. But there is something more to this match, not evident at first. In the early 1980's, the most talked about junior heavyweight feud was the one between the original Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid. Tiger Mask, the anonymous masked man skilled in gymnastics and martial arts, versus the muscled foreigner in Dynamite Kid, a powerful brawler and mat technician. The finals of the J Cup '94 was a retelling of that feud. The Great Sasuke, hooded native of Japan, trained under the original Tiger Mask and was known to use the greatest moves from Tiger Mask's arsenal. Sasuke faces off against Benoit, the protege of Dynamite Kid; physically his duplicate and prepared with all of Dynamite's signature holds.
Essentially, Benoit/Sasuke '94 was an updated version of Tiger/Dynamite '82. Without knowing the history behind it, some of the impact of the match is lost. This is the nature of puroresu storytelling; there are always two stories being told. It adds a sense of grandeur to the matches it works in, making it less sport and more religious experience. Ok, religious might be a stretch, but blame Quackenbush for that. But I can understand his enthusiasm for it. That's the kind of thing I would have never known had someone not pointed it out to me. Then rewatching it and seeing a collection of Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid's, it hits me like, "Wow, that was great." And considering Liger got to book every J-Cup that ever took place, I have to tip my hat to him.
Feuds like Misawa vs. Kawada. It's one of those feuds that in wrestling lore shouldn't be read on the internet, but rather passed down from generation to generation. The major story goes that Misawa and Kawada were the aces of All Japan Pro Wrestling. Period; no wrestlers were greater than them. Their tag teams always went to the finals of All Asia Tag Team Championships. They always were finalists in Round Robin tournaments. They were the ishh. But Kawada for some weird reason could never ever pin Misawa. I'm not talking for two or three RAWs in a row. I'm talking like five or six years. The matches these two produced, especially one that pops into my head at around the 1994 mark and is what many people consider the greatest match of all time. For me, that might be a little bit of a stretch, but at the time, it was Flair-Steamboat, Hogan-Andre, and Gotch-Hackendschmit all rolled into one. In storyline terms, think Raven and Dreamer without Beaulah, and the Summer Camp and the nest, and Kimona Wanalaya, and well okay, don't think Raven vs. Dreamer. But it was that kind of emotion all packed together in a marquee with these two guy's names on them. What I appreciate is that it never deviated to stealing of one's girlfriend, the prison matches in Punjabi, India, or being crowned King of anything. It was all done in the ring. When Kawada finally defeated Misawa in singles competition with not one, but two folding powerbombs the likes of which makes Misawa having ribs that function somewhere between miracle and falsehood, it brought half a decade to rest in three seconds and an entire dome of Japanese men and women in mass hysteria, some in tears and others in disbelief, to their knees. This is the beauty of Puro; that emotion isn't an intangible, it's a given. And it's all in the way it's booked.
Like for instance by little short men in Red and White half lion and tiger costumes.
I rule at segues because that brings me to Mr. Liger, Mr. Yamamachi if you want to get technical. There are only a handful of people that, to me, embody what it is to be a pro wrestler and more importantly, a Japanese junior heavyweight. While Liger, the man, the myth, and the legend, is a shit load more flashy than your typical junior heavyweight grappler, in Japan or abroad; his character from his ring gear, modeled after the popular Anime cartoon, to his breath taking and, at the time, innovative moves (inventor of the Shooting Star Press people), his was/is a legacy the likes of which may never be succeeded by any wrestler, heavy or junior heavyweight. It is often said it is impossible, by many, to make emotional connections and exude charisma through a mask. And to this I say, "Perhaps maybe in a distant time, but I think Tiger Mask and Mr. Wrestling's I and II might beg to differ." But if it was before, it wasn't after Liger. He is a legend, all 5'6" of him, in every sense of the word.
One of the things I respect about Liger so much, is his willingness to give back and "do the job" to the young up and comers that he wants to leave the business to. From the KENTA and Marifuji's to the Koji Kanemoto's to the American Dragon Bryan Danielson's to the...Samoan Submission Machine Samoa Joe. No one to me exemplifies the spirit of Puroresu like Joe does. Now, I don't want to bite anyone's ear off with clichéd Samoa Joe appraisal because that was my job last year, not this year. It's not hard to tell where Joe gets this influence in his work from; partly from his own unique personality, partly from his previous work in Japan with Pro Wrestling Zero-One and his apprenticeship to fallen Puro Hero Shin'ya Hashimoto, and maybe the biggest of all, his opponents, most notably, the person who to me is the very definition of Puroresu. While not holding the nickname of Mr. Puroresu, that belongs to another one of Joe's idols, Genichiro Tenryu, but there is no one that pops into my head when I think of Japanese wrestling like Kenta Kobashi. To get into the history of Kenta Kobashi is to write an entirely new column (which I plan on doing eventually).
But the brief cliff notes version is that Kobashi wasn't some highly touted amateur wrestling recruit like Misawa or Akiyama. He walked up to the All Japan Dojo as a young kid and proceeded to lose his first 63 matches. Never once complained, never once fussed. Think of any wrestler you know of considerable skill, the humblest of wrestlers, and asked them to lose 63 times. For Christ sake's, Mikey Whipwreck won the ECW Championship without ever using an offensive maneuver other than a school boy. Ranting aside, Kobashi had the attitude that would one day make him a legend of the squared circle and one of the greatest, if not the greatest, wrestler of all time.
In early All Japan, Kobashi exhibited more of the "burning spirit" than any other wrestler on the roster. While the actual term is hard to explain, it's more or less just the ability to get up from long beatings like any other resilient wrestler you can think of. But with years of working and working and proving and proving himself, he was able to capture Japan's top prize on numerous occasions while never really being the ace of Japan. With years and years of advancing up the card, Kobashi became more and more the enduring figure of Puroresu that I now see him as.
Putting his body on the line night after night and day after day took its toll on Kobashi, and after the NOAH split (when company president Mitsuharu Misawa split from All Japan to form Pro Wrestling NOAH), Kobashi's knees were in such bad shape that during a return match, they gave out. With his (second) return, Kobashi was finally given the opportunity and the recognition he deserved with a two year reign as GHC (Global Honored Crown) Heavyweight Champion. After finally being defeated by a person so below him I wont mention him by name, Kobashi was given legendary status in Japan and was named its top draw.
Kobashi would make his excursion to the Untied States to take on Samoa Joe at the oddly titled Joe vs. Kobashi ROH show in October of 2005, widely considered the best match of Joe's career and in ROH history. It's no coincidence that the x-factor in all of this was Kenta Kobashi. You see Kobashi's story isn't that much different from that of any hard luck story. It's...and I hate to say it, but it's damn similar to that of John Cena (100 simultaneous X' boxes clicked). Hear me out; take away the gimmick, the sneakers, jeans shorts, chain gang, spinner belt, and all that crap and look at Cena the wrestler. Now for all intents and purposes, John Cena is a marginally good wrestler at best. Kobashi is light years ahead of him in terms of working, but Cena's story is that he's not always the biggest, strongest, or most superior grappler, but the one constant is that he has is a heart bigger than most and will never give up and is always try to pull it out. He doesn't have the flashiest of move sets. Now while his Burning Hammer and Half Nelson suplexes are sights to be hold, his main finisher is nothing more than a simple Lariat. Not a big wound up JBL Clothesline from hell either, we're talking one hand on the back of the head, the other arm brought across the chest, in what can't be more than a 4 foot difference. Simple, yet effective. Still better than the F-U. Now here in America, we've taken this type of feel good character and effectively shitted on him, for life. But in Japan, they eat that shit up.
Point being if you've never seen a Kenta Kobashi match in life, do so. Search YouTube or what have you and type in his name. One match versus Doctor Death Steve Williams comes to mind where Kobashi takes his Back Drop Driver, basically a back drop Suplex that has its attacker drop his or her opponent vertically on their head at a 79° angle, the kind of move that you really only see in Japan or on the Indy's and should really kill normal men as the one's I've seen Kobashi take look more to be in the 90 range. But the fact that Kobashi can, would, and did get up and come back for more is what makes him and Puroresu what it is. The greatest form of professional wrestling on earth.
Author's note:
It's come to my attention that in between the time this column was originally written and when it was posted that Kobashi was discovered to have a tumor in his kidney during a routine medical examination on June 19, 2006. As of July 2, 2006, no operation has been done and it is unknown whether the tumor is cancerous. Ring of Honor announced that Kobashi was in negotiations to return to the US to face Samoa Joe, but that due to the tumor, chances are he will never be back in the United States. I'd like to send my deepest condolences to Mr. Kobashi, Pro Wrestling Noah, et cetera.
I'm sure Kenta will have no problem's giving that tumor all the Burning Spirit he's got. Here's to more Kasageri chops to come. Get well soon, Kenta.
Now, I know this was far from one of my best columns; in fact it took a lot of help from Mike Quackenbush to even get this to be a column. This didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted, but I'm slowly and steadily working my way back to being the columnist I once was and know I can be again. Thanks for reading. Leave as harsh feedback as you want. Trust me I need it.
And I guess for the first time in a long time, the biatch is out!
Copyright © 2005; TheWrestlingVoice.com & Douglas Nunnally.
All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer & Privacy Statement
