TNA going to Japan

gimmick

New Japan and Total Nonstop Action (TNA) will go to war on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome! President Sugabayashi and Tiger Hattori held a press conference last night to discuss the 1/4 show, and the president announced that after Kurt Angle defeated Brock Lesnar for the IWGP 3rd Belt, New Japan had asked TNA to return it. TNA offered no response, so New Japan sent Hattori to speak with Jeff Jarrett about it. This is where sides agreed that the best way for New Japan to regain its property would be in the form of a war with TNA at "WRESTLE KINGDOM IN TOKYO DOME II" on January 4th, 2008. Sugabayashi outlined his intention to have the IWGP belts defended on the show, as well as TNA's X Division Title. Depending on other matters, the 1/4 card could become a complete confrontation war between New Japan and TNA. Sugabayashi wants the IWGP 3rd Belt back and acknowledged the abnormality of having two titles with practically the same name. Kurt Angle will return to New Japan, holding the title Brock Lesnar left with. But who will step up to the plate and risk his company's name to try and take down one of the world's most famous pro wrestlers?

This has the possibility of being huge. It could be a shot in the arm that TNA needs to bring it up a notch.

Bubs101

ANgle had a match with Lesner??

ShawnRaven

Yeah earlier this year, but wasn't there some hiccup with it in the sense that it was a non sanctioned match or something and Angle wasn't really the titleholder?

VR!

fatal

Bubs101 wrote:

ANgle had a match with Lesner??

June the 19th as far as I can recall.It was a good match.
check it out here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cRZowCxszbM

Yeah it was a good match when it wasnt expected to be what with Lesnar training for MMA.

Mr.Nice Guy

gimmick wrote:

This has the possibility of being huge. It could be a shot in the arm that TNA needs to bring it up a notch.

I don't really see how that's the case. Who is this going to appeal to exactly? It sounds like a pretty desperate move on the part of TNA to me.

rossie1977

it will appeal to the asians, they love american wrestling, especially joint-promotion shows (if TNA plan to go that way)

WCW managed to pull in 340,000 people over 2 days for shows back in 1995

ShawnRaven

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

I don't really see how that's the case. Who is this going to appeal to exactly? It sounds like a pretty desperate move on the part of TNA to me.

Not really all that desperate when you think about it. WWE did it for years and got a lot of really good exposure out of it. They did it all through the 80s right up until 1990 with their joint outings with Super World Sports.

TNA could easily do it with some of their guys like Joe, Sabin, Shelley, Styles and of course, Daniels (anyone order a curry?!)

VR!

a-hole

this will be brilent for bosting tna's japanese market but i cant see too many americans getting hyped for it as japanese wrestlers arnt that well known by comin wrestling marks, unless hes fasing brock then they have 2 names thatll sell world wide

gimmick

^ Seriously dude, learn to spell.

Cross promotions have worked very well in the past. ROH are coming off the back of a hugely successful two date tour in Japan. Whether that will benfit them in the states remains to be seen, but they have opned their market to Japan which can only be beneficial.

i cant see too many americans getting hyped for it as japanese wrestlers arnt that well known by comin wrestling marks

Thats just wrong. There are not too many wrestling fans, and not just the yank variety either, who havent heard of Jushin Liger, Kenta Kobashi, Mitsaharu Misawa, Akiyama, Naomichii Marufuji, KENTA, Akira Taue, Keiji Mutoh.

If TNA can tap into that market, they will at very least get good house show figures from tours over there which can only be good for them financially.

One way or other I couldnt care less, as I dont rate TNA as a pronotion, but at least they are trying something.

a-hole

actually if you watched tna when they brought in Jushin Liger,KENTA, and others the croude reaction wasnt that big, and you cant compare them to roh because (and i love roh and tna when i say this)they are a smaller hardcore based promotion with smarter fans who research wrestling a lot more

Double C

KENTA was never in TNA. But yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you on that one. I think there would be quite a big number of American wrestling fans that would be completely oblivious to Japanese wrestling. Maybe that applies more to WWE fans, but they do make up the majority.

I'll be keep to see how this transpires. Could be good for TNA.

ShawnRaven

I think he might have been confusing with KENTA's ROH stint.
VR!

Double C

Hardly, the ROH croude (sick) went apesh*t for KENTA!

Mr.Nice Guy

As a-hole said this isn't going to get your average American wrestling fan interested in the slightest. TNA ought to focus on putting their energies into utilising their talent effectively. It's not like they have a talent shortage.

I predict with some confidence that this will be a flop and have zero effect on their rating.

Mr.Nice Guy

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

As a-hole said this isn't going to get your average American wrestling fan interested in the slightest. TNA ought to focus on putting their energies into utilising their talent effectively. It's not like they have a talent shortage.

I predict with some confidence that this will be a flop and have zero effect on their rating.

Its not about weather or not its going to flop its about building relations with the Japanese Federations. You know WWE have opened offices there. This is still a country were you can study professional wrestling in collage. ONly good will come from it. But dont expect fireworks. Good move by TNA if you ask me. All they got to do now is fire Russo .

Mr.Nice Guy

Dre as in Dray wrote:

Its not about weather or not its going to flop its about building relations with the Japanese Federations. You know WWE have opened offices there. This is still a country were you can study professional wrestling in collage. ONly good will come from it. But dont expect fireworks. Good move by TNA if you ask me. All they got to do now is fire Russo .

What good will come from it? Will it boost their ratings, boost their PPV numbers? I doubt it. And what if one of their guys gets injured? Sounds like a lot of hassle to me with little to no pay-off.

ShawnRaven

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

What good will come from it? Will it boost their ratings, boost their PPV numbers? I doubt it. And what if one of their guys gets injured? Sounds like a lot of hassle to me with little to no pay-off.

In a shocking turnaround, i would have to side with MNG on this one. But WCW in 1994 were on a similar level with TNA now. When they tried a joint Japanese/American PPV in Starrcade 94, it really did nothing for WCW, and they were in midst of eating up WWE's former talent as well.

It will give them a little more publicity, but nothing more is likely to gain from it.
VR!

Fozzy

TNA are actually doing really well on tv in Japan at the moment, it's why Samoa Joe is getting his shot at the GHC Heavyweight Title in NOAH later this month. The word coming out of New Japan's show on Monday was that there was going to be some cross-promotion with TNA soon, and this seems to be the result of it

The January 4th show is New Japan's version of Wrestlemania. This is more of a deal for New Japan than TNA. If TNA were bringing in New Japan guys for an American ppv then I'd agree that it wouldn't really help them much. But this is more about helping New Japan, and I'm sure they'll do very well and be able to reach out to a new audience of Japanese TNA fans with it. TNA will probably win over a few New Japan fans too, as it'll be a show booked by New Japan with their LOGIC and not by TNA

Devitt for the X-Division title!

Just to explain about the IWGP title Angle holds, Brock held that title when it was the top belt in New Japan. The head guy in the promotion, Antonio Inoki, defected and set up a new promotion called IGF. But he held the rights for the actual physical IWGP belt, so he was able to have Brock defend it in IGF after New Japan had stripped him of it, cos Brock never gave the actual belt back. New Japan crowned a new IWGP champ themselves and now relations have become more amicable between Inoki and New Japan

a-hole

Deleted User wrote: »

All they got to do now is fire Russo .

they dont just need to fire him they need to tie him to a pole and fist his body on live rats and magets

ShawnRaven

a-hole wrote: »

they dont just need to fire him they need to tie him to a pole and fist his body on live rats and magets

Here's the thing, Russo is gone, then what? Let Dutch Mantell do it all by himself? TNA would be a lot worse.

VR!

Fozzy

New Japan announced during the week that Christopher Daniels, Rhino, Senshi and Ron Killings would be competing on the New Japan show on the 11th of November. They announced the matches with TNA involvement today:

Tiger Mask IV vs Ron Killings
Toru Yano vs Rhino, in what is being billed as the Spear vs the Gore
Fergal Devitt & Minoru vs Christopher Daniels & Senshi, in what is being billed as the Junior Division vs the X-Division

Good on Fergal! This will probably be his most high-profile match to date

ShawnRaven

Daniels should come out as Curry Man!
VR!

MikeHoncho

Thats brilliant news for Devitt. Hopefully he can impress and raise his profile a bit. Would love to see him in ROH or TNA in the future. He is the most talented gut to come out of this country in years.

flahavaj

validreasoning! wrote: »

Daniels should come out as Curry Man!
VR!

Ha, i was hoping they'd announce the Curry Man Vs Daniels dream match I've always wanted to see!!! He's hot and spicy you know.:D

ShawnRaven

Yeah.... i've heard he taaaaaastes greeeat too!
But i wouldn't know from personal experience

VR!