World Japan – MAGMA03 Battle Spark 11/02/03
By Maffew Gregg on 7 July 2024
World Japan
Twin Messe Shizuoka
Attendance: 1,180 (400)
The last recorded WJ show and what an absolute blinder to go out on in terms of news and drama.
Things continue to go bad. Main financial backer Masaju Fukuda officially pulled out on 9/27 after the 9/6 shoot show disaster which drew only 1,000 fans. He was frustrated after spending so much money to set up the group, and getting big stars from the past like Vader and the Road Warriors, that they couldn’t get any television, and they couldn’t sell tickets. The company also got a bad public image with the death of Giant Ochiai in their gym and the bad reaction to the shoot show.
The 9/24 Korakuen Hall show drew only 650 fans legit. As a desperation angle, tag champs Riki Choshu and Genichiro Tenryu are breaking up to do a singles feud. Tenryu may not be around much longer as the company has cut way back on pay, and many of the Japanese have had their salaries cut back 50%. Reports are that both Choshu and Tenryu, who have been friends for decades, have lost confidence in each others’ ability to run a company and ability to draw, respectively. Yoshiaki Yatsu, who was working as a booker, quit the promotion when asked to take a 40% pay cut
There were people in the office who are eight weeks behind on pay.
The show starts off with newspaper clippings about Yoshi Tatsu’s public comments & resignation regarding Choshu’s financial escapades! That’s ballsy.
In the fallout of Ochiai’s death, Kenzo Suzuki and Yoshiaki Yatsu both left the promotion, with Yatsu, in particular, blasting Choshu in interviews with the media, famously telling Nikkan Sports “Riki Choshu has no idea how independent wrestling works”. WJ’s numerous financial issues also became greater and greater public knowledge around this time; Choshu’s spending had not slowed down, and he continued to make extravagant purchases with investors money, including sending ¥1 million a month to both of his daughters who were studying in the United Kingdom at the time. Numerous wrestlers began to claim they were owed money by Choshu, with Kensuke Sasaki putting up ¥5 million of his own money and canceling his life insurance to help continue to promote events.
I don’t speak Japanese but I’m sure Riki’s comments were “pish-posh, everything’s fine!” before we get a look at the tiny market hall that’s booked for tonight because everything is not fine. Turning the very real financial issues into a wrestling angle is amazingly on the nose and dumb, I love it.
There is some reality as there is an internal dispute regarding power and Choshu having no new ideas to get business going. Even this idea is a copy of Choshu’s own angle that made him a superstar in 1982. They are doing it an angle playing off reality, as on 10/24 in Yaita, Omori went to Nagashima and asked him for his money (since everyone is getting paid late or less then they are supposed to with the thing dying). Nagashima said he didn’t have the money and he and Koshinaka started screaming about how they can’t pay their bills without money and were about to attack Nagashima, when Choshu ran in with a chair, allowing Nagashima to escape. The next night in Shirakawa, Omori saw Nagashima and started choking him until Choshu hit Omori with a chair shot.
Senior Managing Director Katsushi Nagashima is a new character who appears to be a mix of John Laurinaitis and Comical Ali.
After the colossal failure of X1, many WJ events would be promoted and then suddenly canceled just days before; it was later revealed that Nagashima had either lied about booking the venues or not paid the money owed to hire them and when he was unable to secure them, simply canceled the events. The most infamous of these happened on October 22, 2003, when WJ had announced they were running Korakuen Hall; however, it was quickly pointed out that a boxing show was scheduled to take place in Korakuen on that day and Nagashima had once again lied about the booking.
Definitely Laurinaitis.
Genichiro Tenryu & Takashi Uwano vs. The Crushers (Mike Shane & Todd Shane)
The Shanes look even balder and stupider than usual. If they stayed with World Japan any longer they were in danger of turning into the Goons from Popeye.
Shane #1 delivers perfectly acceptable offence from Uwano who is happy to oversell the big lugs’ offence. After several minutes of politeness, Tenryu tags in to give a solid thirty seconds of offence before letting the Shanes work him over because he really is above this. Uwano saves him after a few minutes with some Tito Santana style flying forearms. STO gets two with Tenryu deciding to help by slowing going for a chair on the outside while being unable to stop Uwano taking the Double See Saw Swing for the end at 9:53.
The Shanes looked credible here but only because their opponents could not be bothered to put the effort in. Tenryu looked at the crowd and did what was appropriate.
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yoji Anjo
The graphics call this “WJ vs. LABOR UNION” as the remaining four matches are part of a series tonight, because if there’s one way to settle something definitively it’s via a Best Of Four.
Ishii is proudly brandishing garish WJ red tights so I’m guessing he’s the David Niven in this Bridge On The River Kwai scenario. Both men do their best to bring the intensity and hate with grunting and choking. Ishii does all the work and flies around with top rope elbows but at least that makes sense as poor Anjo is the one having to overcome the evil WJ empire. Nothing sums up Choshu’s failings as a company owner than “booked Anjo as a face.” Crowd cheer but only politely so Ishii takes him over the guard rail and bashes him with a chair for a whole half a pop. Evil stooge Ishii delivers an impressive stalling suplex which gets the crowd oooing. Ishii takes one of his first Land-Neck-First-On-A-German-And-Ignore-It spots that explains why he looks like a human Diglett nowadays. Anjo launches a few protracted kicks before dragging Ishii down with an armbar and instant tap-out at 12:13.
They tried and Ishii got to show some sparks of what would make him amazing years later. But face Anjo? I’d sooner eat a black banana than cheer him.
Koichiro Kimura vs. Masahiko Kochi
Did the opener come in late or something? Both lads are keen to kick the other hard in the leg so this at least sounds pleasantly slappy. Doesn’t matter how hard they kick one another as no-one’s caring. We see shots of the evil WJ rep at ringside to prove someone is watching this show as Kochi takes a jumping Tombstone to crickets. Lord Haw Haw grabs Kimura’s ankle but it doesn’t stop him battering Kochi who decides this match needs to get stiffer as his slaps and enziguris shake the room (boom boom). Kimura swats away further offence to lock in a Boston Crab to scare away Constance Drexel at ringside. Both lads are dripping in sweat as Kimura finally drops Kochi with a powerbomb pin at 9:15.
Wasn’t half bad despite it’s odd placement on the card.
Takao Omori vs. Ichiro Yaguchi
I assumed Ichiro had an implant that exploded if he went further than ten yards away from Onita’s arse. Ichiro pretends to be big and does a bunch of yelling so Omori sends him into the guard rails to shut him up. Japanese table gets launched at Omori, probably out of jealousy because it’s in better shape than him. It’s about now I realise Omori is pulling a Tenryu and letting Ichiro do all the work which is a sign and a half. Chairs are brought into the ring and Omori is fine with that. Until Ichiro launches him with a FIRE THUNDER POWERBOMB onto a pile of them and I don’t think Omori was anticipating that as it went way harder than necessary, like David Wise composing the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack.
Anjo helps Omori with a rope break because he’s a great face. Ichiro fills the time by yelling a lot but no-one responds so Omori breaks a chair over his head instead. It takes Ichiro two attempts to blade because not even blunt objects are trying tonight. This is dragging badly. Five minutes passed between what I typed and this sentence and I missed nothing. All stomping and comfort holds. After taking a piledriver, Ichiro makes a fist-waving comeback to silence. I’d love to have Ichiro’s self-confidence. Omori lands an Axe Bomber but it doesn’t end things before a second one does at 15:40.
Felt longer than your average Crown Jewel show. Look I appreciate Ichiro’s willingness here but he rolled six dice and they all landed on one.
Shiro Koshinaka vs. Riki Choshu
The big question is will Riki eat Shiro alive like he does everyone else? Riki starts off with gentle holds with his usual lemon-sucking expression on his face as the Labour Union are 3-0 up already so there’s not much point continuing. One of those deep metaphors. Hard chops are exchanged followed by THE ASS allowing Shiro to shove Riki into holds he is reluctant to be put into. Riki in the 2000s is as bad as Mil Mascaras when it comes to helping his opponent look good. Superplex by Riki leads immediately into THE ASS with Omori grabbing Riki for further THE ASS. A small brawl breaks outside the ring amongst the WJ and Unionists before Shiro small packages Riki at 9:19 with the production trying to edit around the fact Choshu tried to kick out but couldn’t and the finish looked horrible.
I don’t know if that was supposed to be the end but it doesn’t matter because no-one cares. Well except for the crowd but they knew what they were getting themselves in for. All 400 of them.
You can tell wrestling is fake because the Labour Union won 4-0.
Overall: Like a long Monday morning shift after being told on the previous Friday the plant is shutting down. Hilariously miserable and desperate as Samurai TV finally gives up on broadcasting WJ shows as all the excitement was occurring off-camera.
That’s the end of anything to watch and recap with regards to WJ but the company would continue until July 2004 so here’s the relevant news updates as the company walks the Green Mile:
November 10th
NOAH: The biggest angle on the show saw Shiro Koshinaka from WJ show up and issued a challenge to Mitsuharu Misawa, which may take place on a 12/6 show in Yokohama.
December 1st
The company’s death watch continued, as all 21 company employees had their contracts terminated as of 11/20. Nagashima has said the company will continue and do its four scheduled shows in December, and promised that a big name would be announced for those shows. The last show on the books is 1/5 at Korakuen Hall. Kensuke Sasaki and Genichiro Tenryu have officially quit, after the company was behind in paying them. It looks like Shiro Koshinaka will wind up in NOAH, and reunite with Mitsuharu Misawa, as they were a tag team in Mexico when both were breaking in. Takao Omori will wind up in Zero-One doing the outsider gimmick. The betting line at this point is Sasaki will go back to New Japan. Katsuhiko Nakajima, the 15-year-old karate guy who is Riki Choshu’s personal protege that they were grooming for superstardom, will make his pro wrestling debut on that final show.
December 17th
The company ran its December shows, drawing an announced 1,250, which means probably half that, for the 12/3 show in Okayama that they needed to do well. Kensuke Sasaki, who was announced as not being on the tour due to his broken hand, ended up working and teaming with Jinsei Shinzaki over Takao Omori & Yoji Anjo in one main event, while Riki Choshu & Ichiro Yaguchi beat Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka when Choshu pinned a bloodied up Otani after three lariats.
December 20th
Kensuke Sasaki held a press conference on 12/17 to confirm he’s done with the company and announce he was returning the WJ title.
January 12th 2004
Katsuhiko Nakajima, 15, became the youngest Japanese wrestler to work a main event, losing to Tomohiro Ishii in his worked (well, at least supposed to be his first worked match) pro debut on the 1/5 Korakuen Hall show before about 1,000 fans. It was the second match for Nakajima, who debuted in September on a shoot show. Nakajima set the Japanese record for youngest debut, at 15 years and 5 months, in that match, breaking the record of Masakatsu Funaki, who started with New Japan at 15 years and 11 months. The stories that 1/5 would be the group’s last show turned out not to be the case. They are struggling through at least a few more as they announced shows on 1/10 and 1/11 in Sapporo, billed as WJ vs Z-1
January 19th
The 1/10 show in Sapporo was canceled because of heavy snow as the flight from Tokyo that a lot of the wrestlers came on couldn’t land in Sapporo with the airport runway closed. They had to fly back to Tokyo. Then the plane, when Sapporo got things cleaned up, flew back, but it was too late to run a show. They ended up running both an afternoon and evening show at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. on 1/11 at Teisen Hall and drew an announced 1,310 and 1,150 respectively. Riki Choshu worked again, I guess because he had to, doing two WJ vs. Zero-One main events, one with Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii over Shinya Hashimoto & Naohiro Hoshikawa, and the second with Choshu & Ichiro Yaguchi losing to Hashimoto & Hirotaka Yokoi. This was the final show on the schedule. General Manager Katsuji Nagashima said they will run some shows in March in the Tokyo area. The original owner, Masaju Fukuda, who pulled out of putting more money into the company in October, is expected to have a press conference announcing his departure. Choshu & Nagashima will attempt from there to keep it alive.
February 2nd
Riki Choshu appeared on the 1/25 show in Fukuoka doing a WJ vs. Zero-One six-man teaming with Tomohiro Ishii & Takashi Uwano over Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka & Tatsuhito Takaiwa when Choshu pinned Tanaka after a lariat. Even though on paper, the WJ squad is far weaker than the Zero-One team, the company felt because of that to keep the program going, the WJ team had to go over.
March 1st
Kenzo Suzuki, who formerly worked for New Japan and WJ, is training in OVW. He was told by Laurinaitis that he would be starting after Mania on the Raw crew using “Kenzo” as his ring name. He hasn’t wrestled in OVW, but said he enjoys going to the tapings every Wednesday night and studying what makes U.S. fans react
March 8th
WJ ran its first show in several weeks on 3/1 at Korakuen Hall. They are so depleted that only one WJ wrestler, Riki Choshu, was in the main event, and it drew very poorly, although I didn’t get a number. (note: cagematch reported 1,320) Choshu teamed with Yoshiaki Fujiwara of Zero-One to beat K-Dojo’s Taka Michinoku & Kazma in the main event. Match was said to have been poor. Shinya Hashimoto was at the show, but couldn’t wrestle due to his shoulder problems, but congratulated Choshu on keeping the promotion alive.
March 15th
At HUSTLE-2, Riki Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii of the nearly dead WJ group beat Zebraman (Kazuhiko Ogasawara) & Naohiro Hoshikawa in 5:45 when Choshu pinned Zebra with a lariat.
Representing a nearly-dead company in another company is as mid-2000s Puro as it gets. And yes, Ishii wore the WORLD JAPAN tights. Choshu sadly would not.
April 12th
Katsuhiko Nakajima, the 16-year-old that WJ was trying to market as a child prodigy, has quit WJ. He hadn’t been getting paid. He made the decision to return home and practice karate. He has said he is still interested in doing pro wrestling. He also had a falling out with teacher Riki Choshu
June 7th
Even though Riki Choshu is working regularly for Zero-One, he also ran a WJ show on 5/27 at Korakuen Hall, doing an NWO like angle where Kintaro Kanemura spray-painted a symbol for independent wrestling on Choshu’s back
Oh this needs more detail. Post-FMW Kanemura was wrestling for lots of indie companies but specifically for the Fuyuki Army which became a stable of sorts as he challenged other indie companies and had a small but loud fanbase. So Riki being willing enough to have Kanemura challenge WJ and call them an indie company is a hell of a thing to admit, but it also got WJ some airtime on TV so officially at this time in history: hardcore fat-boy Kanemura was a bigger draw than Riki Choshu.
This would result in WJ’s contribution to the final Fuyuki Army show which was also a complete fucking disaster and long story for another day.
July 26th
WJ has folded again, although wrestler Tomohiro Ishii will be promoting an indie show on 8/19 at Korakuen Hall using a lot of the wrestlers
Riki Choshu would form a much smaller and much less exciting promotion called Riki Pro (of course) that would bring back the WMG Tag Titles they couldn’t be bothered to finish creating the first time around. I attempted to find a picture of the tag title belts to see what they looked like properly finished but there was only four recorded shows so I couldn’t find any by the time this post was due.
Riki Pro would run from 2004-2010 but Kensuke Sasaki would not be a part of it as he was too busy working for any company that would pay him enough to dig himself out of the financial hole WJ had put him in.
So was watching all of World Japan worth it?
Well it’s always worth watching wrestling for the wonderful BOD, of course. There were a handful of sweet matches involving the likes of Sasaki and Tenryu even though both of whom have about a million other matches that are easier to find elsewhere.
Such as Sasaki’s return to NJPW and his Penance match with Nagata in one of the most brutal and hate-filled matches I’ve ever seen.
So if we had to suffer through several months of non-payment, empty arenas and a dead trainee to get this match then I’d say that yes, World Japan was worth it.
Fuck you.
Next week: Dan Severn’s autobiography.
