[WWF] Asian tour in March, '02

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

World Wrestling Federation, the only "major" promotion in North America, will be touring around East Asia in March, 2002.
The opening card will take place at Yokohama Arena on 2002/03/01. Tour will continue in Singapore on 03/03 and Malaysia on 03/04.

WWF has not done well in Japanese cards without help of New Japan or All Japan. However, because more people have access to their shows via cable and satellite these days, the popularity has grown more than ever.

[Megatron22]

Do you know if they will be wrestling against the Japanese wrestlers?

I know Paul Heymen is one of their executives and he has connections with Michinoku Pro Wrestling and FMW,Mick Foley is connected to almost all of them.

RVD vs. Hayabusa part 2 now that i would like to see.

[samoth]

I doubt they'd do any interpromotional stuff, but if they did I would die a happy man if they did some "phantom" world title switches like Backlund and Inoki did in the 70s...maybe this time with Jericho losing and winning them back from Muta.

I thought Hayabusa was still out of action.

[Megatron22]

He is still out of action but im just speculating.

Mick Foley should come out of retirement just to kick Kanemura's *** again. I have a deathmatch tape between them and Kanemura left that match a loser and with a lot of glass imbedded in his skull.

[Ichimon78]

I hope the WWF "alters" there style a bit to cater to the Japanese fans. I suppose those who will be in attendance expect a WWF style show though, but still puroresu holds alot more appeal to me than WWF ever will. I would be excited to see the matches guys like Benoit and Regal could put on for the Japanese audience.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

WWF had a press conference in Japan on the 18th with Tajiri, Torrie Wilson, Chris Benoit, and Roger Marment, executive vice president of International Business Development. They announced that the main event for 2002/03/01 Yokohama Arena card would be The Rock vs. Chris Jericho. The Rock had a message through video tape to Japanese press. The other WWF Superstars announced to appear are Edge, Big Show, Ric Flair, Tajiri, Chris Benoit, and Lita. Marment said they would only use WWF talents for this card.

They are also planning to have a card in Japan every year. If this March card is successful, they would consider another card for the summer.

[Ayatollah]

Greetings all-- I'm all the way out in Shimane, but I'm keen to head out to Yokohama to see the show. How would an interested party (i.e. me) go about getting good tickets? Are they on sale yet? How much are they?

Or, instead of posting a reply to all of these questions, is there a site somewhere I go for info? I tried wwf.com but they didn't have anything at all (that I could find) about the Asian tour.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Ganso]

I think its sold out already...dont quote me on that though.

[Ayatollah]

D'oh. I think you're right. Spotted the sad, sad news on RajahWWF. Hope the second summer date comes through...

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

• Sho Funaki (9min pin) The Hurricane
• European Heavyweight Title Match: Diamond Dallas Page [champion] (5'37" pin) Haku [challenger]
• Lita (6'26" pin) Mighty Molly
• World Tag Team Title Match: Billy Gunn & Chuck Plumbo [champions] (9'20" pin) Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy [challengers]
• World Cruiseriweght Title Match: Tajiri [champion] (11'38" stick kick) Billy Kidman [challenger]
• World Tag Team Title Top Contender Match: Big Show & Kane (11'08" pin) Bubba Rey Dudley & Devon Dudley
• Intercontinental Heavyweight Title Match: William Regal [champion] (14'41" pin) Edge [challenger]
• World Heavyweight Title Match: Chris Jericho [champion] (20'53" pin) The Rock [challenger]

Shane McMahon and Ric Flair also appeared on the card.

Jericho slapped Keiji Mutoh, who was commentating for a TV program. Naoya Ogawa was also a commentator for another TV station.

[Famine]

It's sad that Vince did not take the oppurtunity to work with any of the promotions in Japan. I believe it's because he thinks "his" wrestling product is more superior than any other.

What surprises me more though, is the fact that no Japanese promotion approached Vince. With the state of wrestling in Japan these days, you would think that one of the promotions would try and strike a deal to trade workers.

Of course, since Vince believes no Americans want to see Japanese wrestlers on RAW or otherwise, you would only expect to see established Japanese stars such as Muhto (and even with his "new" look, they would refer to him as the Great Muto.) and Lyger.

Just think of the draw at the Tokyo Dome or MSG with another World Summit of Wrestling. From what I remember that card that was held in Korea drew over 120,000 over a 2 day event. You can't deny the money that would be involved. Hopefully this Asia tour will open the doors to this idea.

[Mikey Freedom]

The more I look at that card, the worse it sounds....

Anyway, I have put such ideas up for discussion on other wrestling sites. I think a worldwide PPV, showcasing the very best that wrestling can offer, from the biggest companies in the world would be a mega-money show, and also a dream one. Know what happened? I got laughed at for suggesting it!

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Those people who bought the ticket for WWF card weren't expecting Japanese products. According to Nikkan Sports, when Shane greeted to the audience in the beginning of the card with a Japanese translation, people booed because they didn't want translation. They simply wanted pure WWF stuff. So, I don't know if there's any point of having Japanese promotion(s) working together with WWF.

They paid for WWF expecting to see WWF. Whether their Japanese expansion continues to be successful or not, I don't know.

[El Gran Kurtisimo]

With some careful promoting, I believe a interpromotional card in Japan would work well for the WWF.

1) The WWF would have to get semi-big names to appear of the card facing their wresters.

2) The WWF would have to go over on almost every single WWF match.

This way the WWF will still be giving the Japanese public the "WWF Attitude" that has become somewhat popular there, plus they will gain promotional respect by going over Japanese stars. maybe it'll work, maybe not.

The fact is that the WWF needs to make their tours in Japan work to appease their investors stateside. With the slipping rating the WWF is going to need to increase their International earnings. The arena was not full for their show even though it sold out to scalpers. Scalpers won't make the same mistake next time. I think the WWF knows this.

I also think a carefully booked interpromotinal feud, or "Invasion" if you weeeeeeel, would work well for the WWF stateside too. Here's a scenario:


Raw debuts the on Monday, with Jericho having dropped the title on that Sunday. The online press will not have gotten word of it as of yet due to the time difference. Have the WWF fly a copy of the match over to the Raw Broadcast.

Raw is proceeding as planned like nothing happened and everyone expects Jericho to win no problem. Don't even have JR MENTION the tour on the program, like he hasn't with this tour. Then someone runs down in right after, say, Booker T beats up Sho Funak.

JR says that he has just received a tape from Japan marked "urgent". And then he reveals how the WWF has been touring Japan, so he wonders what this is all about. BTW, he is saying this on an open Mic too so the whole live audience can hear it. Vince MacMahon comes out to see what this is about too. Video is shown of the WWF roster in the back watching monitors because they want to know.

The Titan Tron starts playing the Tape of Jericho vs. Muto, starting from 3/4 through the match. Enough to get the live WWF crowd into it, but not so long as to make the crowd watch a 30 minute match on the Tiatan Tron. The match ends with Jericho taking a Shining Wizard (as seen in WWF Raw, its one of Muto's finishers) to the DOME and Muto getting the pinfall over his unconscious body.

JR is stunned, Lawler is stunned, Booker T is stunned (Booker and Sho stayed out to watch the tape), the crowd is stunned., Funaki is jumping up and down because he is so happy.

JR starts going crazy like the world just ended, selling this as a HUGE blow to the WWF.
Vince is stomping around and decks Funaki.

The entire WWF roster comes out to the ring wondering what the hell is going on.

On the Titan Tron Muta Holds up the Undisputed Titles. Show Ends

You think people will tune in for Smackdown? Which will be live on Thursday to allow the WWF talent to come back. HELL YEAH.

Or, alternate ending, Muto wins the titles and while everyone is ringsode watching the titan tron, he puts on an NWO T-shirt. The show ends with an OH MY ***! from JR.

It would be a risk, but the only way it would work is if the WWF dove into the angle with both feet. You can't test the waters with something like this or the fickle American audience won't buy it and will demand to see more boobies.

The possiblities are endless if the angle is done right.

(I'm sorry if the post seems a little condescending at times, but I copied and pasted parts from a post I made in a non-puroresu forum)

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

TV Tokyo, that was to broadcast the 3/1 Yokohama card, has cancelled the program due to a problem with a program production. Perhaps, it has something to do with Mutoh's involvement, which WWF didn't like? I'm not sure. Anyway, TV Tokyo is still trying to negotiate with WWF to air the show.