Did you feel that on Saturday night?
History was made in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
It wasn’t the more than 1,500 fans who showed up to see Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Scott Steiner headline one of the biggest Border City Wrestling shows of all time: BCW Excellence. It also wasn’t the frantic four way tag team main event which pit Chris Sabin and partner Phil Atlas against Sabin’s former famous tag partner Alex Shelley with Kushida (The Timesplitters), Tyson Dux and Brad Martin of The Syndicate and the team of Mike Rollins and former ROH heavyweight champion Michael Elgin. It wasn’t this being the first wrestling show at the brand new St. Clair College SportsPlex. It wasn’t even commentary by Shane Douglas, meaning the show had an overabundance of wrestling legends with a low opinion of “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
No, history was made in the match right before the main event, featuring Can-Am Wrestling school alumni and former ECW heavyweight champion Rhino taking on All Japan Pro Wrestling champion Joe Doering.
Why was this history being made? It was the first time ever the AJPW Triple Crown championship was defended in North America since its creation in 1989. Doering isn’t just any champion, he’s THE Triple Crown champion.
Held by professional wrestling legends in Japan from Jumbo Tsuruta, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi and The Great Muta to gaijins like Stan “The Lariat” Hansen, Vader and now Joe Doering, the title has never been defended in North America unlike its counterpart, the IWGP heavyweight championship from New Japan Pro Wrestling. Kept in Japan, fans have seen some of the greatest wrestling matches of all time contested for the title. With only 24 recognized champions and a combined 50 official reigns, it’s one of the hardest titles to take off another man. It’s also a title few people from outside of Japan have even seen.
I should preface that things aren’t the greatest for All Japan Pro Wrestling, a company that has been on the downswing ever since founder Giant Baba passed away and a majority of the talent boarded an ark to Pro Wrestling NOAH. From LWOS contributor John Carroll:
All Japan has been in almost a constant state of turmoil since the death of Giant Baba in January 1999. This led to a complicated power struggle centered around Baba’s widow and the top star of the promotion, Mitsuharu Misawa. Following the ouster of Misawa from All Japan’s executive board in May 2000, the entire promotion’s roster essentially walked out of the company in support of Misawa (with the exception of only two native Japanese wrestlers, Toshiaki Kawada and Masanobu Fuchi). The result was most of All Japan’s traditional fanbase following Misawa and all the rest of the company’s top stars to the new Pro Wrestling NOAH promotion.
What was left of All Japan was a shell of its former self. The promotion did rise up from the ashes to a certain extent: a feud with New Japan from 2000 until 2002 kept the promotion alive, and a shocking double-cross in January 2002 saw top New Japan star Keiji Mutoh (aka the Great Muta) defect to All Japan in exchange for almost complete control of the company.
But even the peak years of the Mutoh-era All Japan were a far cry from what the promotion had been in the past. Rather than selling out the famous Budokan in front of 18,000+ fans for their big shows, the 2000s Mutoh-era All Japan had their biggest events in front of announced crowds in the 4000-4600 range at the much smaller Tokyo Yoyogi National Stadium Gymnasium #2.
Things have become even further muddled in this decade. Mutoh stepped down as the President of AJPW in June of 2011, making way for the sale to the IT company Speed Partners in November of 2012 (though not made public until February 2013). All Japan actually looked like they were building up some momentum when they signed a group of five Pro Wrestling NOAH stars, lead by veterans Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, all of whom had quit out of protest to the firing of Kenta Kobashi (the retired wrestler also joined the promotion in a front office role). However, just five months later in May 2013, All Japan had ANOTHER exodus, as Keiji Mutoh quit the promotion due to his eroding power following the sale to Speed Partners. Ultimately 15 wrestlers from the All Japan roster would jump to Mutoh’s new WRESTLE-1 promotion. All Japan’s talent roster had been decimated yet again, their momentum stopped in their tracks before it could really even begin to make a difference.
This exodus, combined with the general craziness of Speed Partners president Nobuo Shiraishi (he once dressed up as the Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and no, the small Japanese executive doesn’t have any wrestling ability) once again saw All Japan’s popularity crater. They continue to hold their big shows in front of embarrassingly small crowds, and though there remains hope that things can be turned around in the future there’s simply no indication we’re anywhere close to that happening.
That doesn’t change the fact that this should have been a monumental moment in professional wrestling. It could have been the launching pad for North America to realize the power and ability of Joe Doering, once known as Drake Brewer in WWE’s Florida Championship Wrestling system. When he won the championship, a lot of folks online said, “Who?” instead of, “It’s a long time coming.” I’ve known about Doering since he worked in Windsor eight years ago. He seemed perfect for the WWE. Instead he was confused for Heidenreich and was too injured to make an impact in FCW. He went back to Japan and remained loyal to AJPW, with hard work paying off. I was wrong about him being perfect for WWE. He’s perfect for Japan.
In the semi-main event behind a group of some of the most exciting wrestlers in the business, Joe Doering proved exactly why he’s the Triple Crown champion. With strength, power and conviction, Doering defeated a seasoned veteran like Rhino in a way very few men have. By the time he whipped the lariat on him, the entire crowd just saw what true power looks like. Doering is every bit deserving of the Triple Crown. It’s now all about the rest of the world to take notice.
That’s what ultimately bothered me about the match. Earlier in the show was the BCW heavyweight champion in a tag match before intermission. While the main event did feature the current IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag team champions, the titles were not sanctioned to be on the line by New Japan Pro Wrestling. The Triple Crown championship was, by none other than Dory Funk Jr. himself. You have the Triple Crown championship, the one title on the line, contested for the first time in North America, and it’s a buffer for the main event? Doering might have dispatched Rhino quick, but there’s no question he looked every bit a main eventer.
It isn’t the best time for AJPW and it’d be unfair to expect Joe Doering to put the company on his shoulders and bring them back to direct contention with New Japan. But Border City Wrestling had a spoil of riches on Saturday night and it included a piece of pro wrestling history. Hopefully this won’t be the last time we see the Triple Crown on North American soil. Maybe the next shot will be remembered as the last match of the night, and the best.
Photos by Brad McFarlin
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