Cagematch.net and the Internet Wrestling Community
When I started watching puroresu, I interacted with it the same way I did with movies. Watch a film, catalogue it on letterboxd, write whatever I want to say about it, rate, then see what others said about the same film. This works well for film, not for wrestling.
I soon realized that I had grown out of the way I was watching wrestling for so many years. Wrestling for me is supposed to be an optimized sport, more efficient at providing spectacle, more accessible, sillier... That's why I want my wrestling to look as much like a sport as possible and that's why I now prefer puroresu. It has that sports-like presentation I'm looking after (although sometimes it is still not enough). For example, I hate western crowd chants because I believe they take away from the actual wrestling. I much prefer quiet, reserved clapping and occasional calling out the names of the competitors like the Japanese crowds do, only getting rowdy when they are on the edge of their seats.
It's not just about the presentation, however. It's about how the western internet wrestling community interacts with pro wrestling. Ever since kayfabe was no longer a secret and online forums became a thing, wrestling fans interact with the shoot backstage environment and booking decisions made by promotions, as much as the product and the wrestling itself. I've been guilty of doing this for the majority of my time as a wrestling fan too. The problem with this is that I do not feel enjoyment when consuming media, when all I'm thinking is "this would have been so much better if... What I would do is...", which is the vibe I've been getting from the internet wrestling community since I first participated in it in my early teens, Adam Blampied's "How I Would Book" youtube video series first comes to mind. I a very characteristic examples from my time on cagematch.net in particular, but this extends to the wider IWC.
I always love a good Lariat...
The Yoshiki Inamura situation
Most of the people watching NOAH can tell that Yoshiki Inamura is a wrestler with big potential and that will most likely become a big star. However, whenever his name comes up in conversation, it's followed by "NOAH treating him badly", "NOAH not doing enough with him". If you just google his name, the third is result is a reddit forum post in which the OP is complaining about Inamura losing a lot in a very dramatic fashion. "One step forward, three steps back", they say. Are they right? Do they have a point?
I'm going to open a big pair of parentheses here and provide my understanding of the tropes of puroresu. Being a product of Japan, the junior wrestler and senior wrestler roles play a big part in storytelling. Rookies and wrestlers with few years of experience are expected to lose all their matches to their senior wrestlers, because the seniors are expected to be better. What sets apart the more promising junior wrestlers is the fire and determination they show when fighting in the face of adversity (the much talked-about fighting spirit) and their desire to be better and improve and the fact that they are put in matches with with the bigger stars of the company, who would usually not have any business fighting against them. That's how we get Kobashi's year-long losing streak, yet he still gained the rookie of the year award afterwards (what would the internet wrestling community say if puroresu was more accessible to western audiences then? "noooo they are burying Kobashiiii what is All-Japan's problem???", although admittedly All-Japan would eventually have problems with raising younger stars a decade later due to a multitude of reasons). As a wrestler ages and gains some experience, they are expected to defeat their junior wrestlers. As their wrestling style becomes more fully-realized, you can expect them to have a real chance of beating their seniors too. Once again, what really sets young wrestlers apart in puroresu is fighting spirit and desire to improve, being booked against top stars, even in losing efforts, and succesful and fruitful excursions.
Let's get back to that post. They say that Inamura has been wrestling for five years, which still makes him a youngster by male puroresu standards. They confirm that Inamura was part of Kongoh, the company's most popular faction a couple of years ago. Isn't that in itself a sign of promise from NOAH? The fact that he challenged for championships before completing 5 years as a pro and, in the same promotion, Kai Fujimura who is a 4-year pro is still considered a young boy? Isn't that a sign that the company think Inamura shows promise? I don't know about the 2022 N-1 tourney, but isn't it impressive that at the 2023 N-1, despite losing all his matches, Inamura was consistently getting the loudest crowd reactions because the crowd was so behind him and his matches were the most entertaining on any card he was booked? Doesn't this losing streak get people talking "When will Inamura get his first win? ...", instead of him getting 2 or 3 wins and getting lost in the pack? He was decimated by Sugiura before being sent on excursion?? Don't they think that being sent off by one of the company's living legends is a major sign that people at the top trust that he will develop into a big star? And decimated??? Again, the fact that Inamura displayed a ton of fighting spirit and almost had me fooled even for a second that he could have beaten Sugiura through his explosive comebacks, is a puroresu trope that points to Inamura and says "watch out for this guy".
Again, think of sports. With only a few exceptions, athletes hit their peak after years of participating. They are losing, but are slowly climbing up the ladder and inching closer to the win. That's realistic, that's the sports presentation (AEW take notes, sports presentation my ass). Western wrestling fans create a meta-narrative that runs parallel to the narrative of kayfabe and get pissy when those two narratives don't perfectly align. And the booker is supposed to perfectly predict this meta-narrative and adhere to it with no trajectory adjustments, otherwise the wrestling fan is not satisfied. However, I do not think that this is entirely the wrestling fans' fault. First being "spoiled" by the heights of the attitude era and the monday night wars, then being traumatized by WWE's horrible product for the next two decades, it is understandable that they resort to enjoying wrestling in a way that isn't so dependent on the kayfabe product.
I should clarify that I do not think that promotions have it all figured out, or that they never book badly. I just think that, if someone isn't directly involved in the business and looks to help with running a promotion, or if they don't have an interest in fantasy forum booking, they should either accept the product as-is, or switch to a different promotion. I find no value in toiling over whether a booking decision is bad or not, whether a wrestler deserves their spot or not etc. and on the contrary, it subtracts from my enjoyment of wrestling.
Where do we go from here?
We? This isn't a call for action. This is my personal opinion on wrestling fans and puroresu and my reasons for limiting my participation, primarily from cagematch.net, where I longer dwell, and from the online wrestling community in general. As to how I watch wrestling as a sport, I'm still in the process of figuring that out myself. But, from what I've gathered, Noah's Arkive is great for my purpose, mostly sticking to just the kayfabe events and some backstage ska that fit in with the kayfabe events (thank god puroresu has a lot of that). Plus, if you are looking to re-appreciate pro wrestling in a similar way, I would suggest seeking out sports to watch. I started watching a bit of Grand Sumo in January 2024, and it's given me a whole new appreciation and subtle understanding of some aspects of puroresu psychology (like what to expect to see on tour shows). Plus, Sumo is really fun to watch.
This was a very long rant, yet I feel I still have more to say. This should do for now, though. I am glad that I got all this out of my system and put these thoughts in order, because they have been wandering around in my mind for quite a while now. My place in all of this becomes a lot clearer in my head and I can proceed to enjoy puroresu with a better focus on the things I like about it.
