VIEW FROM THE RISING SUN
by Masanori Horie

January Wrestling in the Tokyo Area/
1999 Year In Review Part One

Santa Is Jericho
Santa Y2J

From Tokyo, Japan, I'd like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year 2000!!! Thank you very much for reading and supporting View From The Rising Sun every week. Let's enjoy wrestling, and I hope to see all of you very soon! We Japanese don't have Christmas holidays here, and we usually work until December 28, then we have New Year holidays until January 3, and we start to work from January 4. This week's VFTRS is featuring "Wrestling In the Tokyo Area in January" and "Year End Flashback 1999 Part 1: New Japan and All Japan."

Abdullah The Butcher and Masanori celebrate the holidays

Masanori and Terry Funk

Masanori with SantaKind

Wrestling In the Tokyo Area in January 2000

1/1 --- New Years' Day
1/2 (Sun) All Japan 12:30 Korakuen Hall
(1) Heavyweight Battle Royal, (2) Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa, & Masahito Kakihara vs. Akira Taue, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, & Johnny Smith, (3) Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Takao Omori, Yoshihiro Takayama, & Satoru Asako, (3) Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue vs. Steve Williams & George Hines (Jackie Fulton)

Steve Williams will start over as a regular gaijin (foreigner) for All Japan from January 2000.

1/2 (Sun) Big Japan 6:30 Korakuen Hall
(1) Big Japan Death Match Heavyweight title match: Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Tomoaki Homma, (2) Big Japan Tag Team title match: Kamikaze & Shumme Matsuzaki vs. Shadow WX & The W*inger, (3) Men's Teioh & Jun Kasai vs. Abdullah the Butcher & Crazy Sheik (Rico Suave), (4) Mike Samples vs. El Guerrero Del Future, (5) Kiyoko Ichiki vs. Tomoko Watanabe (All Japan Woman Pro), (6) Fantastic & Ryuji Ito vs. Daikokubo Benkei & Masayoshi Motegi, (7) Marcella vs. Chihiro Nakano, (8) Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Yoshinao Sato, (9) Arm-wrestling contest: Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Mike Samples, Daikokubo Benkei, Daisuke Sekimoto

Big Japan's Ryuji Yamakawa, Tomoaki Homma, and Shadow WX worked for Carlos Colon's WWC (World Wrestling Council) shows from December 16 to 19. Yamakawa & Homma lost to Jose Gonzalez (Invader #1) and Maelo Huertas at Acropolis in Manati, Puerto Rico on December 16.

1/3 (Mon) All Japan 12:30 Korakuen Hall
(1) Kobashi & Akiyama vs. Taue & Jun Izumida, (2) Misawa & Honda vs. Omori & Takayama, (3) Hiroshi Hase & Smith vs. Williams & Hines, (4) Masao Inoue vs. Mike Barton (Bart Gunn), (5) Junior Heavyweight Battle Royal

1/3 (Mon) All Japan Woman 6:30 Korakuen Hall

1/4 (Tue) New Japan 3:00 Tokyo Dome
(1) IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team title match: Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Kendo Kashin & Minoru Tanaka (Battlarts), (2) Shiro Koshinaka vs. Satoshi Kojima, (3) Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit), (4) IWGP Junior Heavyweight title match: Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto, (5) Manabu Nakanishi vs. Kenzo Suzuki, (6) Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yuji Nagata (Yamazaki's retirement match), (7) Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Kimo, (8) Scott Norton vs. Don Frye, (9) Goldberg vs. Rick Steiner, (10) Shinya Hashimoto & Takashi Iizuka vs. Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami, (11) Keiji Muto vs. Masahiro Chono, (12) IWGP Heavyweight title match: Gen-ichiro Tenryu vs. Kensuke Sasaki

This will be Goldberg's debut in Japan.

1/4 (Tue) All Japan Woman 12:00 Korakuen Hall
1/4 (Tue) LLPW 6:30 Korakuen Hall

1/5 (Wed) FMW 6:30 Korakuen Hall

Masato Tanaka beat Mike Awesome (The Gladiator) to win the ECW World Heavyweight title at ECW's TNN TV taping at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on December 17. An ECW World Heavyweight title match is scheduled to be held on the Guilty As Charged PPV at Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama on January 9, 2000. ECW announced their PPV schedule in 2000: Guilty as Charged (January 9), Living Dangerously (March 12), Hardcore Heaven (May 14), Heatwave 2000 (July 16), Anarchy Rulz (September 10), and November To Remember (November 5). The FMW-ECW relationship will become steadier and steadier in 2000.

1/6 (Thu) Neo Ladies 7:00 Korakuen Hall
1/7 (Fri) ARSION 7:00 Korakuen Hall
1/9 (Sun) IWA 6:30 Korakuen Hall

1/9 (Sun) Goro Tsurumi 2:00 Komazawa Olympic Gym, Tokyo
(1) Goro Tsurumi, Impostor Atsushi Onita (Toshiyuki Moriya), & Impostor Onita Jr. vs. Impostor Tarzan Goto (Ichiro Yaguchi), Impostor Terry Funk, & Impostor Magnum Tokyo, (2) Devil & Impostor Devil vs. El Comando #1& Impostor Comando, (3) Shoji Nakamaki & Impostor Nakamaki vs. Mr. Pogo & Impostor Pogo, (4) Ryuma Go & Nobutaka Araya vs. Impostor Go & Impostor Araya, (5) Impostor Killer Khan & Impostor Animal Hamaguchi vs. Impostor Don Nakaya Nielsen & Impostor Tsurumi, (6) JRF Lion & Impostor JRF Lion vs. Ultraman Robin & Impostor Robin

1/9 (Sun) JWP 12:30 Korakuen Hall

1/10 --- A public holiday, Coming-of-Age Day
1/10 (Mon) Jd' Woman Korakuen Hall
1/13 (Thu) Jd' Woman 7:00 Kitazawa Town Hall, Tokyo
1/15 (Sat) FMW 6:00 Marronnier Hall, Odawara City, Kanagawa
1/15 (Sat) DDT 4:30 Hiranuma Memorial Hall, Yokohama, Kanagawa
1/16 (Sun) Toryumon 6:30 Korakuen Hall
1/16 (Sun) GAEA 12:00 Korakuen Hall

1/22 (Sat) All Japan 6:30 Korakuen Hall
World Junior Heavyweight title match: Ogawa vs. Kikuchi

1/22 (Sat) ARSION 6:30 Marronnier Hall, Odawara City, Kanagawa

1/23 (Sun) All Japan 3:00 Yokohama Bunka Gym, Kanagawa
(1) Triple Crown Heavyweight title match: Vader vs. Akiyama, (2) Toshiaki Kawada & Taue vs. Omori & Takayama, (3) Misawa & Ogawa vs. Williams & 2-Cold Scorpio

1/23 (Sun) Pancrase 12:00 Korakuen Hall

Hisakatsu Funaki (Pancrase) will fight with Rickson Gracie (Brazil) in "Coliseum 2000" show at Tokyo Dome on May 26.

1/30 (Sun) Battlarts 12:00 Korakuen Hall
1/30 (Sun) DDT Kitazawa Town Hall, Tokyo

1/30 (Sun) PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 5:00 Tokyo Dome
featuring: Nobuhiko Takada, Kazushi Sakuraba, Shoji "Enson" Inoue, Alexander Otsuka (Battlarts), Masaaki Satake, Royce Gracie (Brazil), Mark Kerr (USA), Igor Vovchanchin (Ukraine), Mark Coleman (USA), Gary Goodridge (Canada), Akira Koji, and NWA World Heavyweight champion Naoya Ogawa.

It is expected that DSE (Dream Stage Entertainment), which runs PRIDE, will bring the WWF in June 2000.

1/30 (Sun) ARSION 4:00 Zepp Tokyo
Queen of ARSION title match

1/31 (Mon) All Japan / Giant Baba Memorial 6:30 Korakuen Hall
(1) Misawa, Kobashi, & Akiyama vs. Stan Hansen, Taue, & Omori, (2) Kawada vs. Izumida, (3) 12-man Royal Rumble, (4) Honda & Inoue vs. Takayama & Kakihara

Year End Flash Back 1999
Part 1 : New Japan & All Japan

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (president: Tatsumi Fujinami) held 136 shows and drew 715,756 fans (average: 5,263) in 1999 (They held 138 shows and drew 649,047 fans [average: 4,704] in 1998) (They will have one more show at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on December 23).

Their three biggest feuds in 1999 were: (1) Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa, (2) T2000 (Masahiro Chono, Super "J" [Jeff Farmer / NWO Sting], Michael Wallstreet [Michael Rotondo], and AKIRA [Akira Nogami]) vs. nWo Japan (Keiji Muto, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, and Hiro Saito), and (3) Atsushi Onita vs. New Japan. Hashimoto lost two consecutive battles against Ogawa at Tokyo Dome, on January 4 (6:58 No Contest) and October 11 (13:10 TKO). Onita had a "Barbed Wire / Electricity / Explosion death match" against Chono at Tokyo Dome on April 10 (16:10 double count out), and Onita, as The Great Nita, lost to The Great Muta (Keiji Muto) in a "No Rope / Barbed Wire / Barricade Mat / Time Bomb / Electricity / Mine / Explosion / Double Hell death match" at Jingu Baseball Stadium in Tokyo on August 28 (13:32).

Jingu Baseball Stadium

Masa Saito had his retirement match against Scott Norton at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on February 14. Fujinami became the new president on June 24. Manabu Nakanishi (Kurosawa in WCW) won the G1 Climax Tournament, which was held with 12 wrestlers at Osaka Furitsu (Prefectural) Gym on August 10 and 11, and at Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo Hall) on August 13, 14, and 15. Gen-ichiro Tenryu beat Keiji Muto (26:32) to become the 25th IWGP (International Wrestling Grand Prix) Heavyweight champion at Osaka Furitsu (Prefectural) Gym on December 10.

In 2000, New Japan's promotional core will be still Muto vs. Chono and Hashimoto vs. Ogawa. Muto was honored as the "Most Valuable Pro Wrestler 1999" by Tokyo Sports newspaper, and Muto vs. Tenryu in Fukuoka on May 3 was honored as "Match of the Year 1999." They are really good at approaching non-wrestling fans and event-goers. This is not only their strong point but also their weak point, because the quality of their big shows and local spot shows is not steady. Another strong attraction is their quality Junior heavyweight division (Jushin "Thunder" Liger, El Samurai, Koji Kanemoto, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Kendo Kashin). It is expected that the "Super J-Cup" junior heavyweight tournament will be held by New Japan, Michinoku Pro (The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, Tiger Mask, Gran Naniwa), Battlarts (Minoru Tanaka), Toryumon (Magnum Tokyo, Cima Nobunaga), and Masaaki Mochizuki in April, 2000.

New Japan's Major Shows in Tokyo in 1999:

January 4 (Mon) 3:00 Tokyo Dome (62,500)
IWGP Heavyweight title match: Keiji Muto beat Scott Norton (19:01)
February 14 (Sun) 4:00 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo (14,000)
IWGP Heavyweight title match: Keiji Muto beat Kensuke Sasaki (28:09)
April 10 (Sat) 5:00 Tokyo Dome (63,500)
IWGP Heavyweight title match: Keiji Muto beat Don Frye (12:16)
June 8, 1999 (Tue) 6:00 Nippon Budokan (13,600)
Best of The Super Junior VI Tournament Final: Kendo Kashin beat Koji Kanemoto
August 15 (Sun) 3:00 Ryogoku Kokugijkan, Tokyo (11,500)
G1 Climax Final: Manabu Nakanishi beat Keiji Muto (14:43)
August 28 (Sat) 5:00 Jingu Baseball Stadium, Tokyo (48,000)
Masahiro Chono beat Shinya Hashimoto (15:45)
September 23 (Thu) 3:00 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo (9,000)
G1 Climax Tag Team League Tournament Final: Keiji Muto & Scott Norton beat Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata (21:32 Muto beat Nakanishi)
October 11 (Mon) 3:00 Tokyo Dome (58,500)
NWA World Heavyweight title match: Naoya Ogawa beat Shinya Hashimoto (13:10)

All Japan Pro-Wrestling (president: Mitsuharu Misawa) held 120 shows and drew 388,620 fans (average: 3,239) in 1999 (They held 124 shows and drew 426,550 [average: 3,440] in 1998).

Shohei "Giant" Baba, 61, died of liver trouble from intestinal cancer on January 31. He had 5,759 matches over 38 years. Tomomi "Jumbo" Tsuruta had his retirement ceremony at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on March 6. He is doing research in sports physiology at Portland University in Oregon now. "Giant Baba's Retirement Show" was held at Tokyo Dome on May 2 and drew 65,000. Misawa became the new president on May 7. Misawa and Johnny Ace, gaijin (foreigners) division coordinator, have tried to do more "New Japan-ized" bookings, but they are still pressured by Mrs. Motoko Baba, and they haven't been able to free themselves from their conservative stance. Their heavyweight division (Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue, Kenta Kobashi, and Jun Akiyama) has been one of the greatest quality drawing cards in the world today. Kobashi and Akiyama were honored as the "Best Tag Team 1999" by Tokyo Sports newspaper. All Japan is very strong in the Tokyo area, but they have killed other metropolises, such as Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka (they drew 3,050 on November 30, then New Japan drew 6,700 on December 10), and Fukuoka. Their biggest subject is to approach non-wrestling fans and event-goers.

Vader (Leon White) beat Misawa (12:12) to become the 24th Triple Crown Heavyweight champion at Nippon Budokan on October 30. They have announced their seven Nippon Budokan dates in 2000 (February 27, April 15, June 9, July 23, September 2, October 28, and December 9). These shows will revolve around Vader, and Johnny Ace will try to link All Japan and WXO in 2000.

All Japan's Major Shows in Tokyo in 1999:

March 6 (Sat) 6:00 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo (16,300)
Triple Crown Heavyweight title match: Vader beat Akira Taue (12:51)
April 16 (Fri) 6:30 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo (15,300)
Champion Carnival Tournament Final: Vader beat Kenta Kobashi (19:11)
May 2 (Sun) 3:00 Tokyo Dome (65,000)
Triple Crown Heavyweight title match: Mitsuharu Misawa beat Vader (18:07)
June 11 (Fri) 6:30 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo (16,300)
Triple Crown Heavyweight title match: Mitsuharu Misawa beat Kenta Kobashi (43:40)
July 23 (Fri) 6:30 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo (16,300)
Triple Crown Heavyweight title match: Mitsuharu Misawa beat Toshiaki Kawada (21:58)
September 4 (Sat) 6:00 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo (16,300)
Five Single Matches:
Jun Akiyama beat Takao Omori (24:29)
Vader beat Mitsuharu Misawa (7:21)
Kenta Kobashi beat The Gladiator (Mike Awesome) (19:09)
Mitsuharu Misawa beat Yoshihiro Takayama (18:11)
Akira Taue beat Hiroshi Hase (15:11)
October 30 (Sat) 6:00 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo (16,300)
Triple Crown Heavyweight title match: Vader beat Mitsuharu Misawa (12:12)
December 3 (Fri) 6:30 Nippon Budokan, Tokyo (16,300)
World Strongest Tag Team League Tournament Final: Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama beat Akira Taue & Stan Hansen (20:15 Akiyama beat Taue)
Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama