Reputation Suicide: NSBW's Self-Inflicted Plunge Into The Abyss

                              (Written by jom)

     Modern MMA in Japan does not exist without professional wrestling. The JMMA boom of the 1990s and 2000s was built from the ground up by former professional wrestlers, most of whom were trained in the Gotch and Robinson styles of catch wrestling. In the wake of NJPW's Different Style Fights of the '70s and the UWF's nascent shoot stylings of the '80s, these wrestlers found themselves interested in applying their training and philosophies to actual combat, birthing organizations such as Shooto, RINGS, Shootboxing, and Pancrase. Just as the early '90s served as a fertile breeding ground for Japanese independent wrestling groups, that same period saw fervent development in JMMA, signaling even more prosperous times to come in the near future.

    In 1994, Masashi Aoyagi saw the incoming JMMA wave, and decided he would catch a ride. Thus was born "New Stage Battle as Wrestling," also known by the direct translations of New Fighting Wrestling & Shin Kakuto. NSBW was an organization planned to transcend the boundaries of professional wrestling and establish itself as the country's pinnacle of combat sports. NSBW, however, did not do this. NSBW didn't even last a full calendar year. Every step along the path to immortality was just another step onto a rake. Every major move only served to hurt the promotion rather than help it. By the end of its life, most wrestlers weren't even sure what the point of it all actually was. NSBW was the most doomed organization in Japanese wrestling and Japanese MMA history. It's worth looking at why. 

I. Wayward Souls

     A discussion of NSBW can't begin without a discussion of Oriental Pro Wrestling. Oriental Pro was the second attempt at an independent group by Ryuma Go & Masahiko Takasugi, two of the three men responsible for the very first independent promotion, Pioneer Senshi. Like Pioneer, Oriental Pro, while innovative and influential in its own right, was never much of a success financially. By December 1993, the company was in dire straits, as Go had already left the group behind and Takasugi's desire to freelance wasn't particularly a secret. When young aces Hiroshi Itakura and Kazuhiko Matsuzaki faced off in a dojo match to decide the company's fate, everyone already knew what the result would be. Oriental Pro's roster of rookies pledged to follow Itakura wherever he went next.

    That landing location appeared almost immediately. Even a month before the dojo match, Itakura had already publicly declared his intentions to join Masashi Aoyagi's karate dojo Seishin Kaikan as a representative wrestler. Around the same time as the dojo match, Aoyagi announced an upcoming Seishin Kaikan produce show, with Aoyagi booking himself against Itakura in the main event and populating the undercard with the former Oriental Pro roster. Aoyagi also hinted at something larger coming soon, as news broke that Aoyagi was not planning to re-sign his contract with New Japan and would instead be forming his own organization.

    According to some of the people involved in NSBW, Aoyagi wasn't the only one planning to leave New Japan for the new group. Akitoshi Saito was also strongly considering joining his mentor in the new organization, but seemingly decided at the last second to stick with New Japan instead. As such, Aoyagi would be leading the venture without him, signing on Oriental Pro representative Takeshi Tamao to be in charge of the new group's office. For the stranded Oriental Pro workers, this promotion appeared to be the oasis they had been looking for. It wouldn't retain that image for very long.

II. Identity Crisis

    On January 28th, 1994, Masashi Aoyagi formally announced the creation of New Stage Battle as Wrestling, and immediately declared Pancrase as its enemy. The impromptu press conference for NSBW's initial announcement, along with the more formal press conference four days later to reveal its logo and roster (a combination of Oriental Pro workers, Aoyagi's karate trainees, and a handful of young martial artists), contained a litany of statements from Aoyagi that left reporters confused as to what, exactly, Aoyagi was planning to promote. While NSBW was referred to explicitly as a wrestling company, it was talked about alongside shoot organizations such as Pancrase and Shooto. Aoyagi mentioned in passing that he planned to send some of NSBW's roster to participate in the Towa Cup, an openweight karate tournament happening in a few days (whether or not he actually sent anyone I don't know). He even floated the idea to reporters of doing away with a wrestling ring entirely, and instead running shows with an octagon-shaped cage. To many onlookers, NSBW appeared to be setting itself up as a full contact shootfighting organization.

    Many of the pro wrestlers were just as confused as the reporters. While they had heard that NSBW would be leaning more towards shoot style, the majority of ex-Oriental wrestlers had been left in the dark regarding how far Aoyagi planned to take it. Some of them took this as their sign to bow out on the project and try their luck at finding work elsewhere, but the majority felt that they had no other option. They had pledged to stick with Itakura, and Itakura, at least for now, planned on sticking with Aoyagi, so the rookies stayed as well. 

    As the first show approached, however, Aoyagi decided that he wasn't done confusing his roster or the reporters, as he signed up to appear on the WWF's Japan Mania Tour. Publications such as Shu Pro were quick to point out the conflict of interest in Aoyagi, a man trying to present his new organization as the toughest and most legit fighting group in the country, working a tour for the WWF, the Sports Entertainment company. Aoyagi's explanation for this wasn't much of anything either, as he simply stated that he had no reason to reject the opportunity. For the wrestlers, this felt like another sharp left turn on the path towards understanding what Aoyagi expected of them. In hindsight, it was the least confusing development these wrestlers would have to deal with over the next few months.

III. Reality Check

    Following the conclusion of NSBW's first show on February 18th, Aoyagi held a press conference with Satoru Sayama, the former Tiger Mask and founder of Shooto, to announce that the two organizations would be working together for a "full-scale conflict" between their fighters. For many of the reporters there, the actual intended content of the press conference was less interesting than the fact that Sayama would be appearing at a wrestling show for the first time in nearly 10 years, along with what many assumed would be the end goal of this alliance, a match between Aoyagi and Sayama (which both men agreed sounded like a good idea, leading Aoyagi to say it would "probably" happen later in the year).

    For NSBW's roster, this announcement of "NSBW vs. Shooto" fights was a nightmare scenario, one that only a few seemed to grasp. As one former employee explained, in a pre-PRIDE world, many people just couldn't understand the gap in fighting ability between pro wrestlers and MMA fighters, and most assumed the wrestlers would at least have some chance. NSBW's roster also attempted to level the playing field just the tiniest bit, sending a handful of the former Oriental Pro workers to a boxing gym for training, which the wrestlers promptly abandoned as they had zero interest in learning boxing. With the first fight between boxer-turned-wrestler Jun Kikawada and rising Shooto star Yuki Nakai booked for NSBW's next show, all anyone could do is hope that the NSBW wrestlers would put in a good fight.

    187 seconds.

    187 seconds is the combined runtime of all four fights to occur between NSBW and Shooto. Kikawada's 27 second tap-out set the tone for what would be a slaughter, as NSBW's chosen fighters were completely outmatched in every way against the Shooto fighters. To call the proposed "conflict" a failure on NSBW's part would be an understatement. This was a misstep of nuclear proportions, where over the span of a single week NSBW's reputation was ripped apart and burned to a crisp. The Shooto disaster would remain a dark cloud hanging over NSBW's head for the rest of its life, and, to this day, is probably the thing people remember the most about it. It was pro wrestling's first attempt at proving its strength against MMA, and it couldn't have gone any worse.

    It was also, in my opinion, only the second worst decision made by Masashi Aoyagi. The worst of them all would come a month later. 

IV. Phantom President

    On the same show where Yuki Nakai demolished Jun Kikawada, SAW practitioner and former RINGS fighter Koichiro Kimura made an appearance backstage to challenge Aoyagi to a match. In Kimura's own account of events years later, he said that he only joined for the opportunity to wrestle Aoyagi. NSBW chose to use their hot new prospect immediately, and the match between Aoyagi and Kimura would be set for April 4th, main eventing in Korakuen Hall to start NSBW's second tour, "Phoenix Championship '94."

    Nobody seems to really enjoy talking about what happened in that match.

    Aoyagi, in an interview later on, would only state that there was a "difference in direction" between the two. Kimura gave more details on what led to the affair, stating that Aoyagi invited Kimura into his locker room 30 minutes before the match and told him something that made Kimura so angry, he forced everyone else out of the room and cursed Aoyagi out before deciding "Fine, I'm going with it." One other NSBW wrestler recalled that the Kimura/Aoyagi match is where wrestling in NSBW "stopped being fun."

    The end result of the "match" was Koichiro Kimura winning via referee stoppage on a kneebar after three rounds of domination. Aoyagi seemed to protest the ruling at first before congratulating Kimura on the win, only to then announce that NSBW would be "temporarily disbanding." This, however, was not true, at least according to the NSBW offices. As soon as publications started to report on this announcement, Tamao made a statement that NSBW would be operating as usual, and that the statement had been a mistake made by "wrestler" Masashi Aoyagi. While Aoyagi had indeed only been a wrestler on paper, he was also already established as the figurehead of the company and the man behind the idea, in the same way Tenryu was positioned as top dog in relation to WAR's actual president, Masatomo Takei. Calling Aoyagi just a roster member seemed to publicly imply that Aoyagi had overstepped, and Aoyagi would return that gesture in due time.

    Aoyagi and Kimura faced off one more time, 19 days later. This match was less eventful than the last, but once again resulted in Kimura's victory, and led to Aoyagi declaring that if he lost to Kimura one more time, he would retire on the spot. That third match would never happen. Starting in May, Aoyagi began to refuse all NSBW bookings. Aoyagi spent that month wrestling for the WWF, only willing to appear at ringside for that month's NSBW Korakuen show, where Itakura practically begged Aoyagi in a post-match promo to "take care of the company." In June, Aoyagi vanished from the public eye outright.

    Aoyagi finally reappeared for the promotion in July, working three shows before skipping the tour's final event to appear in FMW. Those July shows ended up being Aoyagi's final appearances in general. Soon, members of the "Aoyagi Faction" in NSBW followed suit, with Shigekazu Tajiri, Yuichi Fukaya, and Yoshiro Ito all leaving the company to follow Aoyagi. Koichiro Kimura personally invited Aoyagi to appear one last time, at the September 24th Korakuen event, for one last "grudge settlement" match between the two. Aoyagi never responded. After Kimura's match on the show (the only NSBW show to receive a video release), Kimura took the mic and declared to the audience "You are all witnesses. Masashi Aoyagi has run away from NSBW. He will never come back."

    Most people seemed to know at that point that it was over.

V. Wasted Time

    NSBW lasted less than two months after that final Korakuen show. Attendance had been down (or, more accurately, had never been particularly up), and wrestlers were less interested than ever in appearing for the group. Even as NSBW worked out a deal with WAR and Kimura brought in some of his SAW trainees, it seemed nothing could prevent what many were viewing as inevitable.

    On November 16, 1994, NSBW ran the final show of their "DD Spirits '94" tour in the Matsusaka City General Gymnasium in Matsusaka, Mie. They reported to Shu Pro an attendance of nearly three thousand people, but, having seen enough photos from the show, I just can't say I buy that number. NSBW ran this show as a special "all card Barbed Wire Cage Deathmatch" event, where every match on the show happened surrounded by a barbed wire cage. Reportedly, the only person to actually utilize the cage in a match was Hideo Takayama, better known as BADBOY Hido. Every other match was worked as if the cage never existed at all.

    After the show, Hiroshi Itakura told the audience that he would be leaving NSBW, which many understood to mean he would be joining WAR. Kimura shook hands with Itakura before taking the mic and claiming that NSBW had another tour booked for December. While some on the roster did believe Kimura when he said this, many of the wrestlers could already feel that those December shows would never come to pass.

    The final instance of NSBW existing in any sort of manner would occur on a Shooto show on January 21, 1995. In the second fight on the card, SAW fighter and NSBW wrestler Shingo Shigeta was announced as representing the promotion, before being completely pummeled and losing in a minute to Shooto's debuting trainee, Enson Inoue. Weirdly, it makes complete sense to me that NSBW's final mark on the world of combat sports was one of their guys being fed to Shooto's most famous fighter in his debut. It's the most appropriate way for that story to end.

    You tend to find mixed feelings from NSBW guys regarding their former home. Referee Matsui, for example, looks at NSBW somewhat nostalgically as the company where he made his debut. Certainly, the one thing you can give the promotion credit for is that it debuted some awesome wrestlers, ranging from SAW's Shingo Shigeta and Fumio Akiyama, to Oriental Pro trainee Masahiko Kochi, to the former boxer Hiroshi Osumi, later known as FMW's Shinjuku Same.

    However, the majority of interviews I've found from former NSBW wrestlers make me think they'd rather not remember those days. As said by Keisuke Yamada, "it was a complete waste of a year. I gained a lot before then in Oriental Pro, and I gained a lot after in IWA Japan. I gained nothing in NSBW."