by Dave Meltzer
The Japanese world, as it relates to television, is going to change, much as the American world as it related to television, and then how that related to pro wrestling, changed with the explosion of cable and PPV. It’s too soon to know what those changes will be. The belief is that because of zoning laws and the like, that cable television as it exists in the United States will never be that kind of a force in Japan. The belief is that instead it will be things like small dishes, new companies opening in Japan such as DirecTV and PerfecTV, that will open up Japan to more than just the basic VHF television stations the way television existed in the United States into the early 70s.
Japanese wrestling has flourished with cable and the likes in its infancy, generally because of the stronger print media coverage and larger influence of wrestling magazines on driving the industry, plus, even though the shows air in past-midnight time slots, All Japan and New Japan do impressive ratings and are broadcast nationwide on major network stations weekly, and All Japan Women have frequent fringe time slot television specials on a third major network.
Both JWP and RINGS have monthly television shows on the WOWOW channel, which would be equivalent in the U.S. to HBO, broadcasting the major shows without commercial interruption similar to what would be a PPV special tape delayed a few days. Gaora, a smaller cable station runs Pancrase on a few days tape delayed about once per month, along with fairly regular coverage, but not on a weekly basis, of smaller groups like Michinoku Pro, FMW, Gaea and others. The new 24-hour wrestling and martial arts Samurai! channel, along with numerous pro wrestling related features, broadcasts live and taped cards also from the smaller offices, however that station to this point has incredibly limited viewership and thus far cable and dish penetration in Japan is exceedingly minimal.
Ultimately this will all change and when it does, pro wrestling in Japan in some form will change. The only question is what the changes in television will evolve into being, and how wrestling evolves within that picture.
How this relates to Bischoff and New Japan is Bischoff’s belief that New Japan, as a house show promotion, isn’t ready for whatever changes the future brings and that WCW, with Turner behind them, are major players in that world. Of course, with New Japan being part owned by Rupert Murdoch, one would think whatever advantages Turner has, his rival Murdoch could match.
While a scant few were aware of this for the past two months, Bischoff made it public somewhat in an Internet chat on 2/18 where he vaguely talked about buying New Japan. The question actually related to where WCW would go to get new talent and Bischoff’s answer was, “There is a tremendous wealth of talent in Japan and Mexico. Right now we are looking at either buying New Japan Pro Wrestling or creating our own promotion in Japan to attract new talent as well as expanding our efforts in Mexico. I believe a tremendous amount of talent will come from Japan and Mexico in the next few years.” Bischoff later elaborated on that point in at least two subsequent occasions over the past week.
The reality is, that buying New Japan outright would be next to impossible. However, Bischoff does have a trip to Japan scheduled around 3/20 to either buy into the company, which wouldn’t be all that difficult given the number of different stockholders the company has; perhaps set up WCW running in Japan on its own in a building like the Tokyo, Osaka or Nagoya Dome, a process that would likely be doomed to failure even if WCW was going to break its relationship with New Japan and raid some of its top talent and management.
As in every situation of this type, if Bischoff is given the okay by Turner to spend the money and money is available, there will be more than a few willing people both in management and in the ring that will avail themselves to the money; working with New Japan on major show ventures but increasing WCW’s influence and financial stake in those ventures; or some combination of all of this.
The politics of purchasing the company outright would have to be considered nearly impossible in that majority interest in New Japan, Inc. couldn’t be sold by any one person or company, and in addition, there is no prevailing interest among the major shareholders to sell the company. New Japan is owned by numerous conglomerates, the largest being TV-Asahi, one of Japan’s four major television networks. TV-Asahi is a Rupert Murdoch affiliate and that’s where the trickiness politically lies in the idea that Turner and Murdoch, being huge business rivals, could both have ownership in the same corporation.
The other major conglomerate that owns points in New Japan is Sagawa-Express, which would be Japan’s equivalent to Federal Express in the United States. In addition, there are numerous individual wealthy businessmen that have points in the company as well as numerous veteran wrestlers and front office employees owning stock like Antonio Inoki, Seiji Sakaguchi, Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, Masa Saito, Kengo Kimura and numerous others.
MARCH 10
In a move totally unrelated to pro wrestling, but related to a story in last week’s issue, the Rupert Murdoch organization on 3/3 divested itself of all interest in TV-Asahi, which is the major shareholder in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Murdoch sold its financial interests in TV-Asahi, one of the major networks in Japan, to concentrate its Japanese business on what many expect to be the future of Japanese mass communications—satellite television dishes. So whatever political problems it would create for a Turner group trying to buy into a company where Murdoch has key financial interest is no longer the case. Still, from all reports from Japan, there doesn’t appear to be any significant interest in Japan from the major stockholders of New Japan to sell to Americans.
7 – Ken Shamrock Signs with the WWF
FEBRUARY 24
Serious negotiations have gone on this past week to build for an Antonio Inoki and Satoru Sayama promoted show outside the auspices of New Japan at the Tokyo Dome on 4/12 to be headlined by Shinya Hashimoto vs. Ken Shamrock for the IWGP heavyweight title.
New Japan and Shamrock have been negotiating seriously for the past week. New Japan may have contacted Pancrase, which still has Shamrock under contract for four more matches, to buy out his contract with the group for the proposed Dome show. At present time, no other matches for the proposed Dome show have been announced, nor has Shamrock signed a contract with either Inoki’s side company or with New Japan.
Shamrock hasn’t wrestled on a Pancrase show since January due to both UFC commitments and injuries, and his contract from a time standpoint with Pancrase has run out, but Pancrase has claimed he’s got four matches left on a nine match deal. After a bitter dispute over the contract, his position booking the foreign talent and as manager for the American fighters within Pancrase, the two sides split under less than acrimonious circumstances. The dispute came up when Shamrock agreed to work on a proposed Vale Tudo event at the Fukuoka Dome on 12/15, the same day as a major Pancrase show at Tokyo Budokan Hall. Shamrock eventually had to pull out of the match and the card itself was canceled.
Before gaining fame as a shooter in both Pancrase and UFC, Shamrock worked as a pro wrestler in the Carolinas under the name Vince Torelli and did one tour with All Japan while he was really green and basically didn’t have a clue what was going on before gaining pro wrestling fame as one of the top foreign stars with the old UWF and Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi. He became recognized as a top martial arts star after leaving PWFG along with Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki in 1993 to form Pancrase, and helped give both himself and that company major credibility that same year when UFC debuted and he quickly became one of that company’s top stars as well. It is believed, if the negotiated deal is finalized, that Shamrock will work this show and perhaps others with New Japan along with continuing in UFC.
MARCH 3
While there have been bigger stories over the years in wrestling, there has never been a story with as many implications in so many places as Ken Shamrock’s signing with the World Wrestling Federation on 2/24.
Shamrock, 33, signed a three-year guaranteed exclusive contract with the WWF for a low seven figure downside guarantee and signing bonus. In addition, Vince M
cMahon has the option after three years to continue the contract for an additional three years without Shamrock having the option to test himself at that point on the free agent market. The contract is exclusive, ending Shamrock’s participation in the Ultimate Fighting Championship or in any shootfighting events. At least at press time appears to kill what some Japanese insiders were expecting to wind up being the biggest money live match in pro wrestling history—a proposed 4/12 match at the Tokyo Dome against Shinya Hashimoto for the IWGP championship.
Shamrock debuted on Monday Night Raw later that evening at the Manhattan Center, portrayed as a celebrity in the audience attending the matches with his father Bob and wife Tina. They showed him early in the show in the crowd. He was put over as a major star with them talking about him as a superstar from the controversial Ultimate Fighting Championship events and called him a UFC champion and said he was called by ABC-television as “the World’s Most Dangerous Human Being”.
About 45 minutes into the show, he was interviewed by Jerry Lawler who tried to claim they were best friends and he had taught him all his submission holds with Shamrock acting as if he didn’t know who Lawler was. The segment really didn’t work. Later in the show he was interviewed again, this time by Todd Pettengill, and asked about the two WrestleMania main event matches. At this point Faarooq came out and got in his face and made a disparaging remark about UFC. Shamrock did a wrestling promo back. For some reason, the camera wasn’t on him as he made his comeback and said he’d take him on one-on-one if Vince McMahon would sign the match. This segment didn’t come off as either good nor bad.
Shamrock is going to have to get the mega-push from WWF to justify the contract, so it’s pretty well acknowledged he’s either going to wind up as a major superstar in American wrestling or a flop. There is no in between, and based on his first appearance, there is no hint at all of which it will end up being. It was a positive that the live crowd took to him like a star, popped big for him and the mentions of UFC, and chanted his name during his interview. He does have the look and charisma to be a superstar and has the potential to do great 90s style shoot interviews, particularly since he has credibility coming in as the real deal. But he’s never worked American style pro wrestling at this level.
Shamrock was a name pro wrestler in Japan doing shoot style pro wrestling with the old UWF and Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi and made himself a star in Japan doing worked matches before the days of Pancrase and UFC, so he can do believable style worked matches. He has done American style pro wrestling but is limited in his experience at it, and it would be the best thing from a marketing standpoint for him to not wrestle American style because he’d then be just another pro wrestler, and rather work a UWFI style like a more believable and less acrobatic version of Dean Malenko, with the idea that his image will take him to a higher level. McMahon is taking a huge risk, that will either pay off in the end as a great investment and a franchise player, or a better working more charismatic version of Mark Henry.
The signing ends a pressure-cooker of a week for Shamrock, who was torn between offers from UFC, New Japan, WWF and a potential meeting with WCW. It starts another pressure-cooker, going into the world of pro wrestling and on the road with the natural resentment of wrestlers who have paid more dues and because of experience are for the most part at this point better performers that won’t be making as much money or getting as much of a push. Nevertheless, these are the risks a promotion has to take from time-to-time or they wind up like All Japan Pro Wrestling—a stagnant company that is a slave to workrate with the inability to fill holes when they open because not many can be super workers.
WCW took it with Hulk Hogan, paying him more than any wrestler in history has ever earned, and gave him the world title despite its most loyal fans resenting it because he was the outsider being put over the home team’s superstar and basically telling the most loyal fans the product they love was really not the best. In this case, it’ll cause resentment originally by some fans as it portrays a UFC star as being equal to the top WWF wrestlers on their turf. He also gives WWF a chance to give its product a level of credibility and believability it is sorely lacking and is the foundation of those record-breaking houses in Japan.
New Japan Pro Wrestling held a press conference on 2/19 and announced officially what we reported here last week, that they were running a Tokyo Dome show on 4/12 headlined by Hashimoto vs. Shamrock for the IWGP championship. The announcement was made before Shamrock had signed the proposed four-match contract that would include him headlining subsequent events on 5/3 at the first Osaka Dome show ever, 8/10 at the first Nagoya Dome show, and 11/2 at the Fukuoka Dome.
The immediate interest in Japan for this match was such that comparisons were made to the first Keiji Muto vs. Nobuhiko Takada match, the $6.1 million record-setting gate at the Dome on October 9, 1995 which is considered by many as the biggest match in the history of Japanese wrestling. In many ways, this match, pitting New Japan’s top star against a superstar from the world of martial arts, combat sports or a rival wrestling promotion’s top star, was simply just the latest sequel in the match that New Japan has been the experts in promoting dating back to the legendary Antonio Inoki vs. Shozo Kobayashi match in 1974 and continuing with the likes of Willem Ruska, Muhammad Ali and so many others.
In the case of Shamrock, they had the first New Japan world champion’s opponent who fit into all three of the perfect rival categories at the same time. To make things even hotter, it was announced that they were retiring the old IWGP heavyweight title belt and designing a new belt, valued at $90,000—making it the most expensive title belt in pro wrestling history. The strap would first be on public display on 3/27 at New Japan 25th anniversary party at Keio Plaza Hotel, and would be worn to the ring by Hashimoto for the first time in the title match. They also announced Great Muta vs. Masahiro Chono in some sort of a stipulation match, perhaps along the lines of if Chono wins, Muta has to join the NWO, and a J Crown title defense by Jushin Liger against Great Sasuke. In addition, Naoya Ogawa, three-time world judo champion and 1992 Olympic silver medalist in judo, is expected to sign his New Japan contract sometime this week and make his pro debut on the card.
Tickets for the show were announced as going on sale on 3/10 and even though the top and bottom prices, 30,000 ($270) yen and 5,000 ($45) yen, are typical for the Dome, the mid-level prices were increased. The sellout, which was considered more of a question as to how fast as opposed to if it would, would set the all-time record gate.
On Monday night—actually Tuesday afternoon in Japan, the Japanese media and New Japan were stunned to find out the news of Shamrock appearing on the WWF Raw show. Technically it is not 100 percent out of the question that the match won’t take place, although realistically there is almost no chance. To book Shamrock, New Japan would have to book him through McMahon. The original price and contract New Japan sent Shamrock, and most believe would probably have included an IWGP title reign (he would join only Hulk Hogan and Big Van Vader as Americans to have held that title), would have to be renegotiated and approved through McMahon. With New Japan being tied to WCW and having no business relationship with WWF, it would make maintaining that main event almost an impossibility.
Forgetting about money and the WCW politics, McMahon would almost surely insist on Shamrock not losing, which means he’d have to win the title or do a screw-job, the latter which would be totally unacceptable in Japan in such a match. The IWGP title reign appeared to have been part of the original plan. However, that would mean a WWF wrestler would be holding the IWGP title, the sister organization of WCW.
For McMahon, who still has designs on promoting in Japan, it would be in his best interest to negotiate to have Shamrock do the New Japan dates. Even losing in this high profile of a situation still makes one a bigger mainstream star in Japan than never having played in the big game. And this is the biggest game of all. Shamrock is already a wrestling superstar in Japan, but if he were to headline four major Dome s
hows in one year, even if he were to lose once or twice, he would become a far bigger attraction for McMahon in Japan if WWF wanted to promote there, than he would be having never been put in this position.
The word is McMahon indicated to Shamrock he would negotiate with New Japan for him to keep the dates, but preliminary word from New Japan is that they aren’t interested in negotiating with McMahon. However, it leaves New Japan with a Dome show, one that wasn’t on the books to begin with and was specifically put together in the last two weeks when Shamrock contacted them a few weeks back and expressed interest in working for their promotion, and no main event.
By late Tuesday, the word out of New Japan is that they believed that had been double-crossed by Shamrock and were looking for a new opponent for Hashimoto. Dan Severn’s name came obviously to mind, and under other circumstances, a Hashimoto vs. Severn match would be a good draw in Japan. However, Severn would come in under the present circumstances with the feel of being a substitute main eventer and some feel it would be better to go in a different direction, such as using a K-1 champion like Peter Aerts or Andy Hug, but politically with K-1 and New Japan rivals in that they are both promoting several Dome shows this year, that would also seem a political impossibility.
This past October, New Japan had planned a Dome show around Antonio Inoki vs. Royce Gracie, but was unable to get Gracie to do pro wrestling business (ie. the job) and the entire show, which was also almost a guaranteed sellout, was canceled.
The belief is that Shamrock will debut with the WWF in a non-wrestling role at WrestleMania with much of the speculation backstage at the Raw tapings that he would wind up as a guest referee for a submissions only match with Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin, which would lead into some sort of an angle to build to his debut in the ring. The Pettengill interview hinted as such as they asked Shamrock about the match and he refused to pick one or the other as a winner. He’ll likely be training with Tom Prichard in Connecticut for whatever style of work it is WWF envisions they want him doing.