Riki Choshu In NJPW:Late '87 - Early '88

[carpetbeggar]

I've been asking this at a couple forums trying to find an answer, but no one seems to know what was going on with Riki at this time. I'm postivew someone here will know.

So during Vader's debut on 12/27/87 he first came out with Saito, Choshu and the the Takeshi Puroesu Gundan entourage. against Fujinami and Kengo Kimura. Choshu seemed pretty ****ed off even at his tag partner Saito and pushed him away and refused to shake his hand, etc. Just acting like a badass. What's the story behind this?
Didn't he turn heel back in '83 against Fujinami?
It just seemed like he just turned heel by the way he was acting and the crowds response to him.
The crowd was super hot for this and threw a bunch of garbage in the ring when Riki first tagged in. After Riki and Saito won Riki got a match with Inoki right after. Inoki beat the crap out of him and one of Riki's ring crew came in to stop it and Riki beat the tar out of him. Who was that?
After this Vader comes back out and has his debut match with Inoki and basically squashes Inoki. This is the card where the infamous riot took place which ended up getting NJPW banned from the arena for a couple of years.
Now I know the fans weren't too happy with Takeshi Puroesu Gundan which was headed by the Japanese actor Takeshi as he was trying to bring more "entertainment" to Japanese wrestling. Sort of like what was happening in the WWF at the time. I guess the fans didn't want Puro going that route and I don't blame them.
Anyway my question is what did Riki Choshu have to do with all of this?
What did he do to get all of the crowd heat and why was he not friendly with Saito in the tag match?
Add to this about a week later when Inoki had his rematch with Vader, Vader had Inoki hanging from the turnbuckle and Riki runs out and attacks Vader, ignores Inoki and runs back to the dressing room. Saito, who was in Vader's corner for the match and Vader were like "what the hell!?" after this.

It's times like these that I wish I could understand the Japanese language. Overall though Japanese wrestling was awesome back then in the 80's and early 90's. Just great stuff. And for people who say Japanese fans and crowds are too tame and quiet, watch the Riki Choshu, Masa Saito vs. Tatsumi Fujnami, Kengo Kimura match from December 27, 1987. They are off the hook. One of the hottest wrestling crowds I've ever seen anywhere.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

I believe it was TV Asahi that wanted to use Beat Takeshi, a comedian. Unlike today, Japanese fans didn't want to accept the celebrity involvement.

It was Choshu's first singles match against Inoki since his injury caused by Akira Maeda earlier in the year. Fans wanted to see Inoki vs Choshu, not Vader.

Apparently, Fujinami was asked to job in Vader's debut match but refused, so they had to change the planned booking. Fujinami & Kengo Kimura were supposed to face Vader & Saito, but the guys in the Takeshi Puroresu Gundan grabbed the mic and challenged Inoki, saying that "we brought this guy to challenge Mr. Inoki. He is the one who should be facing Vader tonight." Vader was replaced by Choshu, who didn't like the idea. Of course, the fans hated it and started throwing just about everything into the ring when the match started.

Choshu pinned Kimura to win the match, grabbed the mic, and begged the audience to let him challenge Inoki. Inoki won via DQ when Hiroshi Hase did a run-in. Another reason to anger the fans.

In Inoki's second match of the night, he did a clean job to Vader in another short match. Even more reason for the audience to cause a riot. They actually tried to set the building on the fire.

All Japan was already banned from Ryogoku Kokugikan because Baba signed a former yokozuna Hiroshi Wajima earlier in the year. New Japan, because of this riot, was banned from the building as well.

It just wasn't a good year for New Japan.

Jahno.

[carpetbeggar]

Ok it all is starting to make sense now. I didn't realize that was Riki's first matches since Maeda's kick on him.
Was Choshu aligned with Masa Saito during this time or did they just team up for that match?
I ask because when all this is going on Saito seems to be trying to calm Riki down and trying to shake his hand like he wanted to be friends with him or something. It seems like Choshu wants no part of Saito as he slaps Saito's hand away when Saito offered it to him and kept pushing Saito away pretty aggresively.
Also what was the story during the second Vader-Inoki match where when Vader has Inoki hanging from the turnbuckle by his feet Choshu runs in to save him and attacks Vader then runs back to the dressing room. Saito who seconded Vader at this time seems to have no clue as to why Riki did that, as did Vader.
Basically I don't understand Choshu's and Saito's relationship during this timeframe. Was the tag match between Choshu and Saito against Fujinami and Kimura the night "everything went down" as far as the riot, Vader's debut against Inoki, the short Inoki-Choshu match, etc., the only time they ever teamed up?

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Saito had always been Choshu's mentor since the Kakumeigun days. However, he also became a "wrestling advisor" for TPG while Choshu was out with injury.

I can't remember clearly about the second Inoki-Vader match (from 1988/01 at Kourakuen Hall, I assume). I guess it was just a "follow up" for whatever happened in December.

By late February, Choshu and Saito were teaming again.

BTW, TPG actually had an audition with Saito as one of the judges as well as some training sessions. Super Delfin, Gedo, and Jado were originally with TPG.

Jahno.

[carpetbeggar]

Thanks Hisa for your input as it is helping me make sense of all that I've watched so far.

Did Choshu and Saito have many matches against each other during this time period before they started teaming together again?

Another thing I was wondering is when Saito seconded Vader to the ring he wore a black or brown jacket with yellow stripes as did all of the ring boys that were with Saito and Inoki, and Fujinami's guys wore the red and white gym gear. What was the difference?

Also was Saito responsible for traveling with Vader, teaching him about the Japanese style and culture, translating and watching over him while they weren't wrestling?
I assume Saito had a good command of the English language by this time due to all his years working in North America. Was him and Vader close outside of the ring?

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

I don't remember Choshu and Saito facing each other during that period.

Not sure about Saito's relationship with Vader, but I'm sure he helped Vader a lot since he spoke some English.

The red & white gear was for New Japan, and black & yellow was for "Japan Pro-Wrestling", another promotion headed by Choshu. It was right after Japan Pro split from All Japan and came back to New Japan. Japan Pro as a company no longer existed when after the split from AJ but they continued to be billed as the Japan Pro guys. I don't remember how long it went on, but eventually, the goup dissolved and merged back into New Japan.

Jahno.