The Rise And Fall Of All Japan Pro Wrestling
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- čas přidán 12. 06. 2022
- NJPW today stand head and shoulders above every other promotion in the Land of the Rising Sun, but that wasn’t always the case. As for the later part of the 20th century they enjoyed a compelling rivalry with All Japan Pro Wrestling. From the Giant Baba vs. the world years, through the Tsuruta/Tenryu dynasties, to the hallowed Four Pillars of Heaven, AJPW became a by-word for incredible wrestling, fighting spirit, and the breath-taking (but highly hazardous) ‘King’s Road’ style.
Ross Tweddell examines The RISE And FALL Of All Japan Pro Wrestling
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Cultaholic provides video coverage of professional wrestling - including WWE (including WWE Raw, WWE SmackDown, NXT and 205 Live), AEW, IMPACT Wrestling (formerly TNA), NJPW, ROH, and more with daily news updates, reviews, lists, highlights, predictions, reactions, podcasts and much, much more. - Sport
Would love more videos on the history of Japanese Wrestling
Lucha libre and British wrestling also
If u knew the history you would understand why NJPW is so shit now
Yes. I would like to know what went wrong to the revival.
Same. This has truly opened my eyes as a fan of wrestling. You got to truly respect the wrestling heritage in Japan.
@@demichaelgalloway9456 yeah but now they wrestle sex dolls, mfs kept kayfabe, heels dealt with death threats and attempted murders just for ppl to wrestle the invisible man and sex dolls
"The Four Pillars of Heaven" is the most powermetal fucking thing i've ever heard
Just wait until you hear about the
"The Four Pillars of Hell"
4/20/24
You didn’t hear about the “miracle violence connection”
So that's where AEW got their four pillars from? I thought it was original at first, but I guess not.
@@Bigunk-hc2ri ehh that one isn’t as cool 😅
@@btmbino2994 never saw a steve Williams suplex huh?
All Japan reminds me of the AWA that had ownership that didn’t want to change from what made them successful even though the world around them changing.
Hmmm i hear you but strongly disagree but its all good
@@wkmalory gotta reason or just disagree?
I mean really, the same thing happened to Pro Wrestling NOAH, Misawa had no business being in the ring in the 2000's and sure, no one was over at his level, but still dying is not an all right alternative.
Nah All Japan would still be on top if we could clone Baba. He's the best booker ever. He never fell off. Just died
The two big differences was Baba was actually doing really good business at the time of his death and All Japan's Business was actually doing quite well, it's not like Baba had a star like Hogan, if Baba had Tanahashi or an Okada, he probably would have pushed them, not hand them over to another promotion like Gagne did with Hogan.
Between Misawa, Kobashi, and the Jr division Noah took off and for a couple years had NJPW shaking in their boots. Misawa's death really hurt prowrestling... let alone Noah.
Njpw was a mess until last 10 years, cause of the MMa crap
@@petesmart1983 this is true. Inokism about killed them. Which is why Noah was the #1 promotion in the 00s. Nothing you said disproved my statement. So???
Noah also had collusions with the mafia
@@imoutotrash390 in Misawas death. That has mostly turned out to be in part to the investors who took interest in the company following the transitions of power in the vacuum left by Misawas passing. Which is pretty par for the course for organized crime. They tend to move in when there are power vacuums
Thank you for giving context on why. I'm way too invested in the fucked up aspects of Japan. Like can we talk about yo-hey being champion in a company where he was discarded
I'd love to see something on the Joshi boom of the 90s and the CMLL/AAA "relationship".
The GAORA SPORTS channel uploads regular AJPW content from the early-to-late 2000s, and it is still enjoyable.
Joseph Motecillo also does a video essay series called "Walking the Kings Road" which is definitely worth a watch.
Yes
Yes give us more on CMLL and AAA
I would love a video on the cold war between AAA and CMLL
Yup. Shinobu Kandori and Akira Hokuto storyline where they beat the hell out each other. Then, they form a tag team and gain respect for each other.
Ikr same with me it also made me learn about the great muta even more
So basically, it all traces back to one event: Giant Baba's death.
FACTS dude giant baba death was the start of the downfall of ajpw as a whole.
Yeah
Baba may not have known, but what he should have done before his passing was sell off enough of the company that no one person had full control thereafter. If, after his passing, Mrs. Baba held 45% of the stock, rather than 85%, it would have been possible for the remainder of the board to overrule her decisions if they felt unanimously that she was in error, which from the sound of things could have resulted in Misawa never leaving and the company remaining together.
@@cliffordjackson3 And Japanese Pro Wrestling as a whole until the 2010's.
@@dilbert719 But also Misawa wasn't the most level headed guy either, he had no business wrestling in the late 2000's, that was a factor in him dying at the time that he did.
I’ve spoken to a number of older fans in Japan, and several younger ones. Old guys not only seem to think that All Japan is still the biggest, and sometimes even that Giant Baba is still completing. Younger guys often don’t even know what All Japan is. It’s really weird.
That's my exact same experience too.
Fun Fact: Johnny Ace aka John "People Power" Laurinaitis was a big star in AJPW
Which amazes me
To be fair, between him creating the Cutter and being a pretty good wrestler overall, it's not really surprising.
NJPW doesn’t try and convince anyone that they are the only promotion from Japan. The openly acknowledge other Japanese promotions all the time. They’ve run shows over the past year that have included wrestlers from other promotions including their recent BOSJ tournament. They also frequently allow their contracted talent to wrestle for other promotions as well. Satoshi Kojima, who is was trained by NJPW, won multiple titles with the company and is one of the trainers at their Dojo is currently the Pro Wrestling Noah champ.
If you enjoy NJPW do yourself a favor and take a bit of time to seek out matches from other promotions. There’s a ton of great, recent content on CZcams from other promotions.
Glad you said this. He clearly just didn’t know what to say for his intro
They just uploaded a match featuring misawa
And, kojima just won Noah GHC recently right?
Yeah lmao, it's not that new japan try and do anything, it's that the general public is just more ignorant about japanese wrestling.
@@sportingvoodoo3126
Completely correct.
But that is what happen when you think "wrestling" is synonymous of "wwe".
I genuinely love these style of videos. I know they take a lot more time and research and I hope you keep getting enough views for this to remain viable. To the entire team who worked on it, thank you.
Ross said on the most recent podcast they're currently writing an FMW one
I don’t even like ProWrestling anymore, and I’m loving all of these videos. Pretty impressive.
Rest in peace, Mitsuharu Misawa
@Azphalazl Seprimanium FACTS.
And Jumbo, and Hashimoto
@@scottbreon9448 Them as well.
@Goodb0b and Antonio Inoki
ajpw is like watching old men wrestle. rikidozan , giant baba , misawa etc all wrestle with little to no athleticism and little to no high level grapple and submissions like Daniel Bryan or bret hart . njpw is better
90s All Japan and 2000s Ring of Honor are easily my favourite eras of excellence in all of wrestling
Thank you Ross and cultaholic I really enjoyed this. Their history is so convoluted.
It's Ironically sad to me what happened to All Japan when Baba died is pretty much what happened to Pro Wrestling NOAH, when Misawa died a decade later.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Gave a lot of interesting information to fans like me who maybe don't know all that much about the storied history of Japanese pro wrestling. Very well done, and a great presentation by Ross. 👍
Never in my life have I seen a wrestler more over with a crowd than Kobashi was the AJPW fanbase in the late 80s/early 90s. They didn't just pop for his big moves or his promos, it was a constant roar from start to finish. If he was selling they willed him to get back up and win, if he was on offence they were cheering because they were so damn happy that their hero was giving the other guy a pasting.
I strongly recommend that new fans check it out because there is literally nothing else like it in wrestling since.
This brings back memories lol. When I was a kid we would exchange/buy recorded VHS tapes of NJPW, All Japan, etc. This was a bit before the 2000's back when internet was slower for most of us and downloading a video literally took hours. There was no western coverage of Japanese wrestling in medias and you could only truly find good info about it on kinda obscure discussion boards. This was before Google, back in the "Webring" days. I had a friend who was really into strong style and pretty much introduced me to it. He had many contacts on discussion boards, mIRC or ICQ and they'd send each other tapes by mail. Just think about it for a second, this huge chain of hardcore wrestling fans who would trade and spread tapes recorded on Japanese TV!!!
Seeing Hulk Hogan doing moves I'd never seen in WWF/WCW really was the decisive moment for me. He was faster, more technical, sold pretty well and overall delivered much better performances. I was like "The hell, he can do this?!". I realized Japanese pro wrestling was more hard hitting, more real and you really had to be tough to endure the beatings over there. The Stan Hansen lariats were seemingly the same as clotheslines in terms of looks, but in terms of physicality they were way more brutal. Over time I ended up discovering a whole other world of pro wrestling that I could barely get a glimpse of whenever those guys visited WWF or WCW, and unfortunately they were reduced to jobber roles in many instances. You never would've seen "Hakushi" feuding with the Undertaker... Yet in Japan it happened and it was awesome!
All Japan was #2 at some point but never really beat NJPW, but it came quite close at some point for sure.
Rise: Baba...and then the Pillars.
Fall: Baba Dies. Misawa leaves.
90's All Japan was THE shit. To this day i wonder if they would have kept rolling strong if the NOAH Exodus never happened.
Nowadays, they might not even be the 5th most well known japanese company (NJPW, NOAH, DDT, Stardom and Dragon Gate all seem bigger than All Japan today).
DDT, stardom, and espically dragon gate get less attendance than ajpw. Apart from stardom there all on there last legs
@@petesmart1983 post pandemic all japan was pretty much fucked. Dragon gate and stardom while more niche consistently outperform in similar venues as all japan
@@petesmart1983 You are factually wrong, sir.
I think we often forget how wonderful Ross' oration is when he isn't bouncing around screaming at everyone.
Good job that man. 👍
Awesome video. I've always been so intrigued by Kawada staying with All Japoan, supposedly because his relationship with Misawa had deteriorated so dramatically at that point.
Even long before the exodus there were stories that they never really got along.
As great as Kawada was in his prime he was always kind of in Misawa's shadow imo.
It is believed that Kawada and Fuchi both owed Motoko Baba or AJPW money.
Don’t blame him. From what I know Kawada mostly chased Misawa so with all the top guys leaving he could finally be alone at the top. I love Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi so much
Giant Baba is just an interesting person to look at. This why I clicked.
Miyahara is one of the absolutely best wrestlers in the world in the last 10 years. Great video !
Thank you for this video, the four pillars of heaven completely changed everything in the wrestling world for me at the time. At the time, I imported All Japan Wrestling feat Virtua for the Sega Saturn, and in my opinion, probably the best pure wrestling game ever (with the most painful looking moves)
Beautifully done boys.
If you are younger or have just never seen AJPW from 80s and 90s, do yourself a favor and find some to watch. Its incredible and by far the BEST period of ANY Japanese Wrestling Promotion.
Thanks for this video. I was just thinking about what happened to the company. I hear a lot about NJPW nowadays, but nothing about All Japan.
Ross said on the most recent podcast they're currently writing an FMW one
This video and the fmw one are probably the best wrestling documentaries I've watched in ages. Cultaholic have come along way baby. It's good to see.
Wow. I only started learning about All Japan in within the last 2-3 years honestly, same with Pro Wrestling Noah since I've been more of a New Japan fan since 2018's Wrestle Kingdom 12. Still, it's a shame that All Japan is essentially just "another company" nowadays. Hopefully things can get better for them with some more time.
NJPW is deffo No 1 with NOAH claming no 2 with there current big owners who also own DDT and a Joshi (female wrestling) promotion so you could say combined they are no 2 as well. After that I feel like Dragon gate and Big Japan are kind battling for no 3 or 4 with other promotions like AJPW and Zero 1 etc.
NJPW from 2013 or so onward has been the closest thing to 90s All Japan in terms of match quality we have gotten since then. Just consistently putting out 4-5 star matches like it's nothing. What the Four Pillars of Heaven did in those 10 years was unreal. Wether against each other or against any high profile guy like Dr. Death, Stan Hansen, Jumbo Tsuruta or Jun Akiyama.
It parallels the NWA in the US which is now just "another company" as well. (Fitting as Stan Hansen took the AWA title to All Japan on a tour from which he didn't return and the AWA title could traceits legacy back to the Lou Thesz NWA reign. The same Thesz who lost the NWA International Title which would become part of the Triple Crown. It's tenuous, but New Japan and NOAH both can lay claim to part of that lineage through All Japan.)
So 2022 was the 50th anniversary of NJPW? That's cool
Well documented and nicely illustrated! Would love to see a similar video about the rise of the Japanese indy style birthed by Toryumon in the early 2000s.
To me Mitsuhara Misawa and Kenta Kobashi are the greatest pro wrestlers of all time. Period. Misawa can rest easy knowing the landmark his legacy has created.
Great video. Really well done and very interesting. Great job Ross and editors!
Always love anything on Japanese wrestling these guys do, thank you very much
Ross said on the most recent podcast they're currently writing an FMW one
Really interesting video with the dulcet tones of Ross as a bonus! Good work from all involved. That's worth a rewatch just to try and take it all in!
Classic All Japan is probably the favorite promotion of your favorite wrestler
Also just not true at all
Especially if your favorite wrestler is Eddie Kingston.
John Cena is a big fan of classic AJPW as well. And he’s done tributes to it in some of his matches.
Awesome video 💯 I'm a big AJPW fan I love going back and watching some classic All Japan shows from the 90's and I enjoy the Muta era of All Japan as well I still have hope that one day to see this beloved promotion rise from the ashes to return to the Kings Road 💪 ... Please do more videos on Japanese Wrestling 🙏
Ross said on the most recent podcast they're currently writing an FMW one
This was really well done!! Kudos to all the cultaholic crew for a great job done!!
I would love to see the rise and fall and rise again of NJPW
Lol nope I seen that video before and that fall part really didn't make any damn sense to tell you the truth. I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to merge pro wrestling with mixed martial arts shoots in the early 2000s. Any one of us could have managed New Japan Pro wrestling while they were at their weakest during that time.
same
Amazing vid. Super informative
Great video
Learned some stuff I was unaware of, I had some knowledge of AJPW, but not much past Baba's passing
Great to see big wrestling channels talking about different companies
That's one hell of a saga! Great video Ross (and editors!)
Great job lads, loving the smooth Rossilicious narration
Fascinating video, I've been excited for this one ever since Ross mentioned that he was working on it on the podcast a couple of months ago!
This was wonderful to watch , Thank you Cultaholic , makes me love Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 even more. Amazing history.
Well done Team Cultaholic and Ross on the voice over. Really enjoying the documentary style series’
70’s/80’s All-Japan is the best wrestling ever put to tape. It’s legitimately sad to see how they’ve fallen.
The 90s was also dope
Great stuff, I'd love to see more videos like this. Both historical and those that cover the Japanese behind the scenes information.
Ross said on the most recent podcast they're currently writing an FMW one
Here from the podcast, great to see AJPW expert Ross in action!
90s AJPW has some of THE BEST matches EVER !!! Ill fight you dammit ! LOL !! But for real they had legendary matches . Some of the best of all time . Watch Joseph Monticello vids on here if your new to AJPW . Walking the Kings Road series. You wont be disapointed I promise
Also had the greatest womens company too and some of greatest womens wrestlers like nakano, monster ripa, AJ Kong etc
@@petesmart1983 AJW and AJPW actually don't have anything to do with each other, as far as I know.
@@Wurzelknecht interesting . They were on the same shows . Cool to know as i only ordered tapes and filled in the blanks on youtube and what not best i could . thanks
@@Brando-Lee3725 Yeah it's really just a similar name. Wouldn't surprise me if they did a cross promotional show here and there as AJW did a lot of cross promotional stuff in their prime, both with other Joshi promotions as well as some men's.
@@Wurzelknecht that makes sense . thanks
Great video and a great narration by Ross, would have loved to hear Maffew do this and see how many names he couldn't pronounce though!
I remember reading about this back in PWI back in the early 2000s as the years went by I always wondered what happened to AJPW and ironically would look all over CZcams for a video explaining the decline and finally have one...good job.
Fascinating video. I grew on Houston wrestling and knew wrestling in Japan was big. This video gave me my first more in depth experience than anything I've ever seen on Japanese wrestling.
Happy anniversary misawa, rest in peace
Thank you so much for making this! I'm still new to Japanese wrestling but I always knew about All-Japan. I had always wondered what happened to AJPW. Now I know.
Ross said on the most recent podcast they're currently writing an FMW one
Big fan of classic AJPW so I appreciate the hell out of this video, especially the accuracy. Great job guys!
I'm glad that there's a video on All Japan, shout out to Kento Miyahara for holding it down
I met Kobashi-san years ago during the Pro Wrestling NOAH European Navigation tour fan event. He's actually a lot shorter than you'd expect and a remarkably humble person.
It’s fascinating to me that arguably even STARDOM has surpassed AJPW these days.
Based on pretty much every recognized metric of business.
You making assumptions about women’s wrestling does not change that.
@@michaelsinger4638 bruh. You're getting into an argument with an incel. You're completely right and he has clearly never watched a STARDOM ppv in his life (I mean, he seriously just compared joshi to WWE). But no matter what you say, nothing will change his mindset
@@bryrobinson5609 japanese women's wrestling was always pretty fucking good (just look at AJW in the 80's-90's) and is now doing high attendance numbers and making money. Hell, Stardom is almost bigger than NOAH too
@@hib6076 As a WWE fan, comparing Joshi to Sports Entertainment is insane. And I'm a guy who enjoys sports entertainment and old school NWA Professional Wrestling. But when I see Joshi Wrestlers in places like Stardom and Tokyo Joshi I am blown away by the raw talent, physical prowess, and athletic capabilities of those women. Comparing North American wrestling to any form of Puroresu is simply stupid, it's apples to oranges.
I don't know if you could even say "arguably". Look at the amount of world famous talent that is in, or has come from Stardom in the past 10 years compared to AJPW.
Great video! I’d love more of this kind of thing in the future
Ross said on the most recent podcast they're currently writing an FMW one
It's common these days for old school fans of wrestling (people that go back further than 92 especially) to blame ECW for a lot of what they don't like about modern wrestling, and there is definitely truth in that opinion; but i have long believed 90's all japan style did as much, or more damage to professional wrestling as anything else. It was video game wrestling.
I used to love New Japan Pro Wrestling and favorite era of Pro Wrestling is : 1987-2010 (WWF/E)
I actually saw an All Japan show in 2011 when I went to teach English in Japan. It was...sad. I'd been a fan of Japanese wrestling for years before that, and it was surreal seeing just 200-300 people in attendance in a tiny arena with a handful of random American wrestlers like D'lo Brown on the card.
In 2024, their should be an AJPW+CMLL combined annual PPV events.
Same with NJPW+AAA.
90s ajpw is my favourite wrestling and I have loved this video thank u rossy drip drip
FINALLY!!! Thank you! I’ve been asking for this one for years!!
Fascinating video. Thanks for the history lesson, Ross!
Anyone who has this belief that the Japanese wrestling scene is always respectful and serious, cases like this are far from uncommon. It's no less farcial or underhanded than North American.
Japanese wrestling is probably worse and more comparable to Mexican than American wrestling
@@petesmart1983 they all have there darkside regardless from what region or country American wrestling also does dont potray it as a lesser evil.
Anyone who claims that is woefully ignorant of Japanese culture. They have whole phrases made up to describe cutthroat business tactics done behind a thin veneer of suits, smiles and that classic Japanese stoicism. Hell there’s a reason why so many Yakuza have managed to infiltrate plenty of big business corporations. Making money is a whole lot easier with a 3 piece suit and a plaque with your name on it compared to guns and drive bys.
Great job with this, really enjoyed it.
Great job, beautifully done!
Videos like this is why I am here. Thank you guys.
Love content like this. Great work!
We don’t deserve you Ross❤️ fantastic work sir
Thanks for this, Japanese wrestling has so much interesting history that not many people know about
ALPW 2002 was my favorite year from the organization. At one point it look like they'll be around for a long time
Man, what a good video. This was entertaining and very informative!
Thank you for this wonderful video.
As a regular watcher of AJPW. I think you did a great job
I always really like hearing about all Japan in the 90s and the Four Pillars of heaven and the precursor to them as well .
of classic wrestling it is my favourite era because it's just Big meaty men many murdering each other with horrific looking moves YEAH FUCK YEAH.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5
Very informative and in depth reporting. I feel interested to watch some Japanese Wrestling now.
Ross said on the most recent podcast they're currently writing an FMW one
Great video Ross.
Amazing video. Very interesting
Yo Cultaholic, please do more videos about Japanese Pro Wrestling & other Japanese Promotions such as Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, Inoki Genome Federation & of course Pro Wrestling Noah. I would love to see an entire huge video about the history of New Japan or that of the life, career & legacy of Rikidozan or of the likes of Kenta Kobashi, NJPW's living legend Hiroshi Tanahashi, NJPW's Three Musketeers & All Japan's 4 Pillars of Heaven to name a few.
How about also videos about Mexican Lucha Libre organizations like AAA & CMLL and Mexican stars like El Santo, Mil Mascaras & Blue Demon or of British Pro Wrestling also.
Loving these types of videos from you Cultaholic. Keep it up dudes👍
Ross said on the most recent podcast they're currently writing an FMW one
@@kylethompson8949 I'd love to see that.
Excellent work guys!
I'd love to see a rise and fall of CMLL. Here in Mexico, AAA completely took over as the top top
very good ross, love your work
I still watch all Japan on CZcams. Lovely video and Lovely that its Ross and not Sam
For those wondering, there's a pretty interesting Rikidozan film that came out around early/mid 2000s.
This was very good, I love AJPW, but it gets pretty murky after 2000, this is a great way to get the whole story.
Baba's body reminds me of ET--Big huge chest and really miniscule arms!
Spectacular video!
Love that jeremy clarkson impression ross
I enjoyed that. Well done, fellas.
Ross is truly the Kiiiiiiiiiing of cultaholic
Nicely done.... 🙌🏽🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
All Japan was the greatest wrestling ever. No promotion will ever touch the quality and excitement of their 80's and 90's matches.
Fantastic stuff here, truly.
I agree! A beginners history of Japanese wrestling would be most welcome 👍
Ngl I was expecting Jack the Jobber for this one. With the vhs n dooe beats.
It has been awhile for me n Cultaholic vids.