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DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
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#Post#: 21083--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; Thinking Factions
By: SheriffLonestar Date: November 23, 2013, 2:35 am
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While WWE has kind of comeback to factions the hard way, a bunch
of new stand out recruits who need to be gotten over quickly,
hey here is The Sheild and The Wyatts and TNA has been tacking
factions from the sublime (EGO) to the overdone, over exposed
and just not over Aces and 8s. New Japan Pro Wrestling has been
taking factions seriously for a few years now. In fact it has
come to the point where factions have become the bread and
butter of the company. There are three main factions in New
Japan, Suzuki Gun led by Minoru Suzuki, Chaos led by IWGP
Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (though in reality
IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada holds sway as the bigger title
holder), and the all Gaijin Bullet Club led by Prince Devitt.
You also have effectively a fourth group of the rest of NJPW who
are essentially the faces of the company led by Hiroshi
Tanahashi. There is nothing new or ground breaking about
wrestling factions as well all know. Even the Four Horsemen
where not the first, but there is something about the aura of
these three groups that lends itself to epic story telling. They
also have reasons to exist within the framework of wrestling
reality that exists in Japan. The main reason for their
existence though has been killer feuds and even better matches.
So let us got to Teisen Hall in Hokkaido for a house show in
July of this year provided by those nice people at Samurai TV.
To make things things easier I have put the match listing here
with the affiliation in bold after the team or persons name.
(1) Tiger Mask IV & KUSHIDA NJPW vs. Takaaki Watanabe & Sho
Tanaka NJPW
(2) Yuji Nagata & Hirooki Goto NJPW vs. Manabu Nakanishi &
Tomoaki Honma NJPW
(3) Rocky Romero Chaos vs. Taichi Suzukigun
(4) Tomohiro Ishii & Alex Koslov Chaos vs. Minoru Suzuki & TAKA
Michinoku Suzukigun
(5) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin Thunder Liger & Captain New Japan
NJPW vs. "The Machine Gun" Karl Anderson, Terrible & Tama Tonga
Bullet Club
(6) Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI Chaos vs. Prince Devitt & Bad
Luck Fale Bullet Club
(7) 3 Army Battle NJPW & CMLL vs CHAOS Special Elimination
Match: Togi Makabe, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Tetsuya
Naito & La Sombra NJPW/CMLLvs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Toru Yano,
Takashi Iizuka, Masato Tanaka [ZERO1] & Yujiro Takahashi Chaos
As you can see that's a lot of factions and a lot of faction
affiliates, but it is worth breaking down what these factions
are about.
Chaos was originally formed out of the desire to bring true
Strong Style back to NJPW. Chaos' leader Shinsuke Nakamura feels
that after the departure of Shinya Hashimoto to Zero One and the
retirement of Antonio Inoki, the old school style of NJPW that
made it the most artistically satisfying company in the world
for a good twenty years died. It is noticeable that one of the
regular guest mercenaries of Chaos is Zero One wrestler and
former ECW Champion Masato Tanaka. While essentially being made
up entirely of heel characters, the group has had a renaissance
this year in its popularity. Partly because of Shinsuke
Nakamura charismatic leadership, partly because of its on going
feud with SuzukiGun and occasional matches with the Bullet Club,
but mostly because of Kazuchika Okada's headline grabbing
success as IWGP Champion. Success will get you that kind of
credibility and as far as the box office is concerned Nakamura
is right and Okada is the future of NJPW, it seems to be in safe
hands. However those pesky Suzukigun guys keep stealing their
thunder.
Suzukigun are an interesting mix of some NJPW regulars, some
guys not affiliated with NJPW at all and free lancers. Their key
component is that they made their names elsewhere. Wrestlers
like Lance Archer (TNA), Harry Smith (WWE), Shelton Benjamin
(WWE) and Taka Michinoku (WWE, ECW, FMW, Michinoku Pro, All
Japan oh hell everywhere) all call SuzukiGun home and pledge
allegiance to their fearless leader Minuro Suzuki. Suzuki was
initially trained by NJPW but left with his mentor Yoshiaki
Fujiwara to help start UWF International and then on into
PANCRASE. PANCRASE, for those of you who do not know, was one of
the very first MMA companies in the world, and as top grappling
talent Suzuki became a star. He is the only man in the PANCRASE
era to have two clean victories over Ken Shamrock, in short he
is a genuine bad ass. When his body finally failed him and he
had to give up MMA work he returned to pro wrestling with NOAH
and All Japan where his credibility and awesome wrestling
skills, he was perfectly matched to the Kings Road style of NOAH
and All Japan, netted him two Triple Crowns. Onward then as a
freelancer should and he moved over to NJPW and formed
SuzukiGun. Just as Shinsuke Nakamura represents the traditions
of NJPW, Suzuki represents a different kind of tradition, the
rebel, the shooter, the genuine hard case which has been around
NJPW since its inception. SuzukiGun represent the pro wrestlers
who don't quite fit in anywhere else. Of course they are heels
but when Suzukigun and Chaos come together Chaos usually come
out in the popularity stakes. However it does help you see that
NJPW is not a black and white world.
Finally, coming up on the rail, we have a third faction to take
into consideration. That of The Bullet Club which has grown in
membership this year, and in popularity. The all gaijin crew is
a throw back to the early seventies when what World League
tournament (today it is the G1), was split into Japanese and
Foreigners brackets. They are the outsiders, and they have taken
that to the hilt. Prince Devitt's heel turn at the beginning of
the year and his alliance with Anderson has produced some
classic stuff on television and on social media. For the first
time, western wrestling fans can feel truly on top of NJPW feud
just by following Devitt's twitter feed. Judging by what he
posts each morning (random example “I hate Okada, I hate Tiger
Mask, I hate Captain New Japan) you can pretty much predict what
happened the night before, but its his willingness to use his
big mouth that has brought him and The Bullet Club notoriety.
Devitt's insistence that this is truly the rebirth of the NWO is
only tongue in cheek, Bad Luck Fale, Doc Gallows, Matt Jackson,
Nick Jackson and Tama Tonga all use the wolfs head hand sign at
the end of their matches as a tribute to the originals, and
their gang land tactics are getting them great heat not only in
NJPW but also CMLL. Their associate membership of La Comandante,
Rey Bucanero and Terrible form Bullet Club Latinoamerica and all
of this has happened because Devitt used a snappy hand gesture
at the end of an interview one time. Such are classic accidents.
Devitt though has pushed the way the group is promoted himself.
His constant ability to stir the dirt sheets and gullible fans
with his “I want to go to the WWE and recruit someone new for
the Bullet Club” aimed at CM Punk had the dirt sheets and
websites up in arms about his status. He has been doing this for
months now but no one seems to learn, its just Fergal being
Fergal. He is one of the top three draws in the second biggest
company on earth that he was a big part of rebuilding after ten
years in the doldrums. Never say never in wrestling but he ain't
going anywhere right now. He has an IWGP title to win and if he
can't do it then maybe Karl Anderson can. Devitt aims to be the
first IWGP Junior Heavyweight and Heavyweight champion, and
after this year, I wouldn't put anything past him.
This card represents how NJPW are using factions to deploy new
stars, renovate old ones, create feuds within feuds, develop
characters, give some a much needed rest, build others up and
rotate others round. This much talent doesn't come along very
often and when it does something special is going to happen. The
Bullet Club, Suzukigun or Chaos, either way NJPW is the winner
and its fans certainly are. The booking of factions has not been
this good since Cowboy Bill Watt's hung up his Stetson 20 years
ago on the old Mid South Territory. Gado and Jado, New Japan's
architects of resurrection, are just the men for the job.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF76kix2yH0
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