3 General Questions

[Van Hagar]

I have three general questions that should be easy to answer for the expert

1) I don't exactly get Japanese Tours, do they do several show every so often or tours every so often or something else?

2) I was reading JWA history and why was Inoki's matches banned from certain networks or Baba's matches blocked from certain networks when they were in the JWA?

3) What is the best Japanese style match and where can I buy it from?

[Peru-Yakuza]

1) I don't exactly get Japanese Tours, do they do several show every so often or tours every so often or something else?

A "tour" means about 15 days of shows, the last show generally being the most important, when the title matches are held. Then comes a period of rest for about two weeks, then the next tour starts. Stand-alone big shows (such as New Japan's Dome shows) are sometimes inserted in breaks between tours.

Independents usually don't do tours (at least not out of Tokyo DF and surrounding areas) because they don't have the money to pay transportation and other expenses.

2) I was reading JWA history and why was Inoki's matches banned from certain networks or Baba's matches blocked from certain networks when they were in the JWA?

For competition reasons. At the time the only two leagues were JWA and IWE. IWE had TBS (Tokyo not Turner) all to itself, while JWA coverage was split among NET (now TV-Asahi) and NTV. To prevent the same matches from being shown on both networks, they decided to split the talent.

3) What is the best Japanese style match and where can I buy it from?

That is up to you.

[Brandon]

1) At least for the major promotions, they'll do a tour of about 10 to 15 shows that lasts about three weeks (sometimes more sometimes less), then take about a week and a half off and go back on another tour again. Some promotions, like New Japan for example, will sometimes do special shows that may happen right after a tour ends, but aren't considered part of the tour. (New Japan's Budokan show on 6/7 last year is an example of that after their Super Junior tour ended on 6/5. Their Tokyo Dome shows are also not part of their tours.)

2) NTV had a deal to show Baba's matches; NET (which became TV-Asahi) had a deal to show Inoki's matches. And thus after JWA went down, Baba's All Japan was shown on NTV and Inoki's New Japan was shown on TV-Asahi.

3) That's kind of like asking what kind of food is best.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Originally posted by Brandon
2) NTV had a deal to show Baba's matches; NET (which became TV-Asahi) had a deal to show Inoki's matches. And thus after JWA went down, Baba's All Japan was shown on NTV and Inoki's New Japan was shown on TV-Asahi.

After Inoki was expelled from JWA and started New Japan, NET lost its star for the program and was allowed by JWA to air some of Baba's matches. Of course NTV did not like this. I'm not sure about the true story, but I heard that it was NTV that talked to Baba about starting a new promotion. Just about half a year after Inoki started New Japan in 1972/03, Baba left JWA and started All Japan with a help of NTV and the Funk Family in 1972/10.

That left JWA with Kintaro Ohki (KIM Ill) and Seiji Sakaguchi as its top stars. In 1973/02, while Ohki was touring overseas, Sakaguchi and Inoki ha a joint press conference and announced the merge of JWA and New Japan. However, Ohki and few others refused the idea. In 1973/03, Sakaguchi, Kengo Kimura, and Masashi Ozawa (Killer Khan) jumped to New Japan. This resulted the cancellation of JWA TV program by NET, which started airing New Japan. Soon after, JWA closed.

Although JWA closed down, the promotion still existed on paper and billed as doing joint promoting with All Japan. One of the reasons for this was because Baba wanted to have an extra vote in the NWA to deny New Japan's membership application. After New Japan was accepted and became an NWA member, Baba dropped the JWA name.