Posted February 2, 200619 yr comment_4435773 It seems like every fed in Japan has offshoots these days, is there any clear way of explaining who's tied to who? Japan's starting to look like the territory days where there was a zillion promotions all affiliated with a larger group. Also, am I correct in placing the big 3 Japan feds as NOAH>All Japan>New Japan? I know AJ had some problems, but from what I can tell they've started to rebound and NJ has hit the skids hard.
February 2, 200619 yr comment_4435900 Depends on who you listen to. NOAH gets the biggest gates of the year at Tokyo Dome (1 time per year) and regular large attendance at Bukodan Hall. New Japan is sliding but still does good tour numbers. All Japan is just above indy level. ECW at their peak is AJPW now. Tim
February 2, 200619 yr comment_4435947 It's roughly like this: 1. New Japan 2. NOAH - just barely behind New Japan, they see bigger crowds for the Dome Shows but New Japan probably still wins when you take the entire gates for the years. 3. All Japan - there's a huge gap here, there's probably a bigger gap between All Japan and NOAH than there is between Zero-One and All Japan. then Dragon's Gate, Zero-One, Hustle etc. are just indies and I'm not sure of how they fare. Zero-One is probably the top indy though.
February 2, 200619 yr comment_4436184 Supposedly NOAH makes a bigger profit than New Japan these days, and they seem to draw better too. If NJ grosses more per year, than it's because they're running bigger venues, so there are more tickets available. But as far as the percentage of tickets they're selling, NOAH is probably better. If they ran bigger venues more often, they'd beat NJ in gross I believe. Dragon Gate is probably #3. I don't know any specific numbers, but based on what I've seen, they draw a lot better than AJPW. But AJ runs bigger venues than DG, so it might be another NOAH-NJPW comparison. As for spin-off promotions, Zero-One started as Hashimoto's promotion when he was "retired" in New Japan. They eventually brought in Omori/Tanaka/Otani, and then Hashimoto cut his ties to the promotion, leaving those 3 and others. They don't draw well at all, and their product is AWFUL, but somehow they stick around. Big Mouth Loud is a shoot-style spin-off from NJPW, with Shibata and others. King's Road is a faction from AJPW. Dragon Door is Ultimo Dragon's new promotion, after he was forced to leave Toryumon/Dragon Gate. Then there's Osaka Pro, led by Super Delfin, which was a spin-off of Michinoku Pro. Kind of funny considering how small-scale Michinoku Pro was at the time of the split. These promotions aren't really affiliated with any others though. Zero-One I believe was backed by New Japan early on, but not anymore. The rumour was that DSE was backing Zero-One MAX lately, but I haven't heard much more about it.
February 2, 200619 yr comment_4436248 I think a lot of the confusion can be blamed on Kensuke Sasaki popping up on everyone's show at some point. Is he a free agent not under contract to any promotion or what? His freelancing gives the impression that the promotions are somehow working together.
February 2, 200619 yr comment_4436268 Freelancing is a popular option in Japan. Kawada, Sasaki and Tenryu are all high profile freelance guys that will work for anyone.
February 2, 200619 yr comment_4436543 Sometime in the spring of last year. I think the Champions Carnival marked his start as a free agent.
February 2, 200619 yr comment_4436857 That's about right. It's also made it easier for him to appear at the July NOAH Dome show and G-1 because he didn't have to clear anything through Muto.
February 2, 200619 yr comment_4437153 I think Kawada is actually under contract with DSE and they dictate what outside bookings he can take. And to make things even more confusing Kensuke Sasaki is opening up a dojo and going to start running his own shows.
