Month: May 2020

The Premier League won’t rush into a decision, but it looks like it’ll do everything it can to avoid the fate suffered by the Eredivisie and Ligue 1.

Another meeting, and another decision to have another meeting. After four hours of talks on Friday, the 20 Premier League clubs will meet again next Friday to discuss whether and how the 2019-20 season can be brought to a conclusion. This is an entirely reasonable position to hold: it is a fluid situation, and in the absence of firm guidelines from the government, formulating plans and waiting to see if and when they can be put in to action is pretty much all they can do.

If anything, the past couple of weeks have only brought additional confusion. The Dutch league has come to an end after the prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, moved to outlaw all public events until Sept. 1. Dutch clubs had little option but to abandon the season, and while Cambuur and De Graafschap, who occupied the promotion slots, could feel hard done by after positions were frozen with no promotion or relegation and no title awarded, the decision has been generally accepted. Dutch football is different to English football, though, in being far less reliant on television rights.

French prime minister Edouard Philippe made a similar announcement this week, but there seems rather more resistance among French clubs, with potential legal action being threatened over the outcome. The big draw is that a far more lucrative television deal has already been signed for last season, but some clubs are thought to be unhappy at the deal reached by the league for the broadcaster for 2019-20 to pay on a pro rata basis for games that have been played.

Meanwhile, Germany and Italy are preparing for football to begin again, with the Bundesliga hopeful of resuming later this month. While Germany, which has successfully kept the death rate down with an efficient and widespread testing program, is perhaps better placed to start loosening the lockdown, there is little consistency of response, nor correlation between respective death rates and how governments are preparing for a return to something approaching normality.

What can be said of the British government is that it has been very reluctant to ban anything outright, which is one of the reasons it has been criticized for imposing the lockdown as late as it did. What that means for football is that it’s very unlikely there will be any express prohibition on playing matches. More than that, in fact, the government seems keen for football to start up again and it was notable that the statement made immediately after the meeting, affirming a commitment to finishing the 2019-20 season “when safe to do so,” included gratitude to the government.

The prospective date for a return remains June 8, although it’s understood that could change. Much of the discussion on Friday seems to have been less about the specifics of the plan for regular testing and a hygienic environment than about the prospect of at least some matches being played on neutral grounds. West Ham and Aston Villa are believed to have been particularly opposed, while Brighton had already expressed its reservations, but some stadiums are considered unsuitable to play matches with appropriate social distancing measures.

But there are numerous concerns about a restart. That the games would initially have to be behind closed doors is a given, but there are three other obvious issues. Firstly, even if Premier League clubs sourced and paid for tests themselves, it’s impossible to justify players being given priority for testing ahead of key workers. Similarly, security and medical staff can only be allocated to football if there is no greater call for their services elsewhere. And then there’s the players: is it fair for them to be expected to live a quasi-monastic existence, isolated in a hotel or training facility, simply to get the season done, particularly when they would inevitably come in much closer contact with others during games than social distancing guidelines recommend?

None of those are minor concerns, but for now it seems that the Premier League will escape the fate of the French and Dutch leagues. The plan remains for it to return when it’s considered safe enough for it to do so and resources are not needed elsewhere. Quite what form it will take, where games will be played and whether the players will be happy to go along with it are other matters entirely.

NJPW star Tama Tonga sees how the coronavirus has shown the differences between wrestling culture in the U.S. and in Japan.

More than distance distinguishes the wrestling scene in Japan from its America counterpart.

Stateside, WWE and All Elite Wrestling are still performing amid the pandemic. Conversely, New Japan Pro Wrestling has shut down all live shows but is continuing to pay its talent and staff. Tama Tonga, a founding member of Bullet Club and one of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s top stars, expanded upon the difference in culture apparent in New Japan’s approach during the coronavirus compared to that of WWE and AEW.

“There is a different sense of unity in Japan,” explained Tonga, who grew up in America and is a veteran of the United States Air Force, but has spent the majority of his pro wrestling career in Japan. “Here in America, the show must go on. Money needs to come in, so the wrestlers are still wrestling. New Japan stopped holding shows. That’s not just for the safety of the fans, but it’s also for the health of the wrestlers.”

Realism and the fighting spirit are the ethos of Japanese wrestling, while North American wrestling is synonymous with the pageantry of WrestleMania. The business models also differ. WWE cut a significant portion of its talent and staff in April, despite turning a profit in the quarter of its fiscal year. While both are profitable, Tonga explained that the New Japan structure is also designed to protect its talent.

“It’s a different culture in Japan, a lot different from ‘the show must go on’ mindset,” said Tonga. “The majority of our income comes from live shows, which has been cut out, but the company has held onto the staff and reassured us that no one will be let go. The company is more of a family in Japan.”

New Japan star Hiroshi Tanahashi met with the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Hiroshi Hase, who is a former NJPW talent, to discuss the best procedures for pro wrestling during the pandemic. In a display of unity not typically seen in the American pro wrestling landscape, the meeting also included representatives from Japanese wrestling promotions STARDOM, Pro Wrestling NOAH, All Japan Pro Wrestling, DDT Pro Wrestling, World Woman Pro Wrestling Diana and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, and presented an opportunity for the wrestlers to request coronavirus testing kits as well as compensation for lost pay.

“New Japan does its best to look out for the entire wrestling scene in Japan,” said Tonga. “Even Tanahashi going in front of government, that may surprise people in wrestling, but it doesn’t surprise us. He really is our leader. You can see that unity in our roster, too. Our guys go from young to old. This isn’t a factory of young guys that get chopped up and spit out. The mindset around wrestling is different in Japan.”

Known for his athleticism and compelling matches, in addition to some of the most intense, biting promos in all of wrestling, Tonga is one of the industry’s most passionate voices. But he is also one of its most intelligent, and he will have a new platform to showcase that knowledge with the creation of the Tama’s Island podcast.

A new edition of Tama’s Island will drop every Monday, with the premiere on May 4. Tonga will partner with co-host Ross Berman, a New Japan expert intimately familiar with the company’s storylines both past and present. In a crowded field of wrestling podcasts, this has the potential to stand out because it will provide a look behind the New Japan curtain.

Monday’s premiere will take an in-depth look into the creation of Bullet Club in 2013, which will include a special guest in “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson.

“You’re going to hear how it all started from our viewpoint,” said Tonga, who is a Bullet Club original as well as a star of the Guerrillas of Destiny tag team with his brother Tanga Loa. “Behind the scenes, on the bus, in the restaurants—how the name came to be, which names were thrown around, and the ideas we tried that never got to the ring. This is a deep dive into the creation.

“And what better guy to kick it off with than the O.G. Karl Anderson? I was close with Karl before Bullet Club. We were the only foreigners, there were only four of us in Japan—it was Prince Devitt, Fale, Karl Anderson and myself. We all spoke English and hung out together all the time. Our booker saw how tight our bond was, and that’s how Bullet Club really became a thing.”

There is a corresponding Patreon page for Tama’s Island, which includes features like ad-free shows, videos, and a weekly Zoom session every Friday.

“It all started with the Beach Party that was scheduled in April, which was canceled,” said Tonga. “We were doing refunds, and a lot of fans were so generous that they donated their money to us. I was so grateful and thankful, we got everybody on a Zoom call so I could thank them. We got on the call, we chatted for like an hour, an hour and a half, just shooting the s—. That’s how this all started. We want to turn it into a weekly thing.”

“So this is a virtual block party. It will keep you sane during the pandemic, and you’re going to learn a lot about New Japan Pro Wrestling.”

Justin Barrasso can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.