June 26, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Birth of NOAH, Vince Russo quits WCW, tons of news

Mitsuharu Misawa announced officially the formation of his new promotion, Nippon TV officially announced cancellation of the All Japan television show and Toshiaki Kawada talked about attempting to go to New Japan were highlights of the aftermath of the All Japan split.

Misawa held his press conference on 6/16 at Diffa Ariake, the new building in the Ariake suburb of Tokyo, which was built specifically for pro wrestling to replace Korakuen Hall as the small show mecca in the Tokyo area and which, ironically enough, has its first show on 7/1 booked by the All Japan promotion.

Misawa portrayed his split publicly using the 1972 analogy of when Shohei Baba left the failing Japanese Wrestling Alliance, which had been the dominant promotion for nearly two decades and was the group of Rikidozan, to form All Japan. He said he was unable to make changes from the traditional approach favored by Motoko Baba. He compared it to Shohei Baba attempting to modernize pro wrestling with the formation of All Japan.

Current subscribers click here to continue reading.