{"id":115983,"date":"2021-03-27T20:19:19","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T01:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=115983"},"modified":"2021-03-27T20:50:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-28T01:50:29","slug":"fann-new-japan-needlessly-adds-domestic-violence-angle-to-will-ospreays-victory-celebration-that-could-cost-them-fan-trust-and-loyalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/03\/27\/fann-new-japan-needlessly-adds-domestic-violence-angle-to-will-ospreays-victory-celebration-that-could-cost-them-fan-trust-and-loyalty\/","title":{"rendered":"FANN: New Japan needlessly adds domestic violence angle to Will Ospreay&#8217;s victory celebration that could cost them fan trust and loyalty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-674520388\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>I want to preface this column with my mindset writing this. Traditionally, I\u2019ve been of the opinion that, when I evaluate a wrestling company, I want to figure out who they\u2019re \u201csinging for\u201d &#8211; that is to say, who is the true audience, who might come along for the ride, and how that should really inform the booker\/promoter as they seek to make money.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, with moves such as the foray into the United States with New Japan\u2019s \u201cStrong Style: Evolved\u201d show, coupled with the opening of the L.A. Dojo, I feel the U.S. fanbase has had more influence than ever in the company\u2019s history. Additionally, the company has attempted to cultivate strong female fans both in the United States and Japan, which also demands a better evaluation and execution of storylines to grow and maintain that base.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2021\/03\/HeadshotFann2020_160pix.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-115990 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2021\/03\/HeadshotFann2020_160pix.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"187\" \/><\/a>Last weekend&#8217;s New Japan Cup final between Shingo Takagi and Will Ospreay was great. The post-match angle, howeverk set the stage for what should be a not-surprising negative reaction by some of that aforementioned fanbase.<\/p>\n<p>Similar to the hiring-that-wasn\u2019t with Marty Scurll, pulling Bea Priestley into the Ibushi-Ospreay angle as a victim of Ospreay\u2019s storyline assault is in bad taste. Additionally, any of the scores of female fans featured during crowd shots, or women used as the faces of their ad campaigns during match lulls on New Japan World, have to at least side eye the promotion. There is no upside to the angle, for either fanbase in either country.<\/p>\n<p>When Bushiroad, the parent company of New Japan Pro Wrestling and Stardom (its Joshi sister promotion) spent the last two Wrestle Kingdom shows having the top women of Stardom in dark matches, the prevailing thought was that this was a great way to give the women a platform to show their skill. However, when you don\u2019t film the matches it makes no sense &#8211; either at the time and even more so while writing this. Such is the level of divorce between men&#8217;s and women\u2019s wrestling historically in Japan.<\/p>\n<p>So when you have women on the New Japan proper show, you will only see or hear Miki Motoi\u2019s color commentary and occasionally promote items during breaks. At no point in my memory has Motoi been featured as a target of ire or torment like her male colleagues specifically because there is no upside to such boorish behavior. In terms of ring talent, Bea Priestley was the first female second in years to be there as a woman who\u2019s wrestling and not utilized as eye candy a la Pieter Rabbit with Yujiro or Miho Abe with Taichi.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, any of Bea\u2019s interactions during matches have been those of a wrestler that can use moves\/holds outside of the view of the ref &#8211; not in any way a non-combatant a la Motoi. So given that role, what\u2019s the &#8220;out&#8221; for this storyline? Will Ibushi fight for Priestley\u2019s honor and either beat Ospreay or, in an even sillier option, get sucked into some sort of ruse that results in Priestley being \u201cin\u201d on the abuse? Does Priestley get a chance to get revenge in a one-on-one intergender match in New Japan, of all places?<\/p>\n<p>The fact that there was more emotional weight in the \u201che punched the highlights out of her hair\u201d scene between Knives Chao and Todd Ingram in &#8220;Scott Pilgrim vs. The World&#8221; &#8211; which, by no means is a high bar to clear &#8211; than Ospreay and his girlfriend in a main event, title match-setting angle at the end of the New Japan Cup is also ridiculous.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-284703944\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>What is the impetus? That Ospreay is \u201cthat focused\u201d on the IWGP World Heavyweight Title? Didn\u2019t just winning the New Japan Cup prove that? There was no need to use Bea Priestley as a throwaway element in a match that already would\u2019ve been seen as a huge main event, given the history of the wrestlers involved.<\/p>\n<p>When you look at WWE\u2019s current \u201cHead of the Table\u201d storyline with Roman Reigns and his family, it would have been easy during Jey and Jimmy\u2019s in-cage dialogue with Roman to have either Jimmy\u2019s wife Naomi (an actual wrestler) or Jey\u2019s wife (non-combatant) show up and Roman slap them. WWE, despite all of their ridiculousness, knew that would be a bridge too far and didn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n<p>When AEW had Jade Cargill and Shaq lead up to their match with Cody and Red Velvet, Cody could\u2019ve, like Dusty 30-plus years ago, slapped his opponent\u2019s female counterpart and blamed her for being in the ring. Shoot, a few weeks ago Randy Orton did a similar move (RKO vs. Os-cutter) to Alexa Bliss in her \u201cGoddess\u201d role, but that was dismissed as WWE silliness. However, in the case of the Bliss-Orton feud there is consent by both parties to be in the feud. Ospreay-Priestley was presented as a one side (Ospreay) doing something to prove a point without the other person\u2019s (Priestley) permission. And that opens the door to see New Japan as the promotion in the wrong.<\/p>\n<p>For the last ten years, New Japan has enjoyed, for better or for worse, the reputation as the \u201canti-WWE option\u201d in North America. That branding can help give them gain a foothold in the United States. Whether it was teaming up with Ring of Honor to show that they\u2019re about the \u201cpure\u201d nature of professional wrestling, or the placement domestically of their non-wrestling focused storylines in the periphery of the lower card, at no point did something of the nature of the Ospreay-Priestley angle sneak its way to the main event. The closest was the \u201cI can love him better than you\u201d three-way feud between Cody, Ibushi and Omega, but that stayed in the U.S. via Ring of Honor and was never spoken of again after the triple threat IWGP title match.<\/p>\n<p>The matchup of Ibushi and Ospreay itself should have been the treat for fans who already had to deal with a post-Speaking Out Ospreay push. Now it\u2019s not only marred with this silliness, but also creates the \u201cit\u2019s just wrasslin\u201d defense force. There wasn\u2019t a need to have Ospreay yuck it up in the post-match promos about \u201csingle life,\u201d or to by proxy give the rest of the stable the heat. Especially considering that in the past year in the real world, during this pandemic, domestic violence cases against women nationally in Japan have jumped from 20,189 in 2019 to 82,643 in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>In storyline, it\u2019s cheap and crass; out of storyline, it again points a light on the company deciding to make this asinine decision with Ospreay. At no point does this read as Will going into business for himself; it seems more in line the company had an angle and they executed it with either a tone-deaf attitude towards their fanbase, the current issues regarding domestic violence in Japan, and the lack of an out for what happens next.<\/p>\n<p>If this is the plan, my hope is that Bea Priestley gets more out of this than being a footnote in a really ill-advised angle.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>(Rich Fann is a Pro Wrestling Torch columnist. His editorials appear regularly here at PWTorch.com and also longer-form articles exclusively in the PWTorch Newsletter once a month. He joins Wade Keller for the new weekly &#8220;Everything with Rich Fann&#8221; VIP-exclusive podcast and also has been a long-running cohost of the &#8220;PWTorch East Coast Cast&#8221; with Travis Bryant. He appears regularly with Sean Radican on his &#8220;Radican Worldwide&#8221; VIP podcasts, too. Follow him on Twitter @rich_fann)<\/em><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-597450532\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-342333833\"><div id=\"pwtor-3180175296\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>I want to preface this column with my mindset writing this. Traditionally, I\u2019ve been of the opinion that, when I evaluate a wrestling company, I want to figure out who they\u2019re \u201csinging for\u201d &#8211; that <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/03\/27\/fann-new-japan-needlessly-adds-domestic-violence-angle-to-will-ospreays-victory-celebration-that-could-cost-them-fan-trust-and-loyalty\/\" title=\"FANN: New Japan needlessly adds domestic violence angle to Will Ospreay&#8217;s victory celebration that could cost them fan trust and loyalty\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,6514,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-fanns-take","category-opinion_stafftakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-27-at-8.15.37-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115983"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115991,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115983\/revisions\/115991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}