Question about Fuji and Demolition

[PrimeTyme]

I’m rewatching Survivor Series 1988 and towards the end of the tag team elimination match Mr. Fuji pulls down the rope and causes Smash to fall outside and get counted out. Then he hits Ax with the cane after telling him that he’s the boss. By the end of the match he is aligned with the Powers of Pain.

My question is, why would he turn on his team who at the time were the tag champions and presumably in Kayfabe the team that would make him the most money?

Was any of this explained after?

[lildude8218]

"I made the Demolition. I made them champions. When I made them champion, their britches got too big for them. Their head was swelling up. They thought they know more than the Master. So the Master hunted and searched and I found these two and they will demolish the Demolition and make them suffer like the pigs they are. I did everything for them. I made them work out, run, exercise but they disrespect my discipline and in turn this is what's gonna happen to them. I turn against them, yes, and they will pay."

[XaviersSS2015hair]

I know there have been more significant double turns in history but for whatever reason anytime someone mentions a double turn this is the one that immediately pops in my head.

[chronocross]

I never got that either, and from what I can remember this turn was not hinted at before the PPV.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

I thought this would be asking if Fuji ever wore the S & M gear.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Yeah, the basic explanation was Fuji thought the PoP was the wave of the future.

He thought wrong.

[Jumpin' Jesse Walsh]

It must've been really awkward when Fuji linked back up with them in 1990.

"Hey, so about that whole 'publicly ditching you for a younger team' thing: we're cool on that now, right?"

[Convoy]

I always put this in the same boat as Heyman turning on Lesnar at Survivor Series vs. Big Show.

It was a mixture of A) “my client is getting too independent and popular without my say-so” and B) “the opponent is bigger/badder and will put me in a better position” roughly.

My question is, has a manager ever done this and actually got a better overall client?

[Joe Neglia]

This has a rep as one of those WTH? angles/matches that just didn't make sense. It confused the hell out of the audience, because the way it played out, they thought POP stayed face and helped poor helpless Fuji up after the evil Demos roughed him up and abandoned him.

[Joe Neglia]

Nov 26, 2019 21:23:27 GMT -5 Convoy said:

I always put this in the same boat as Heyman turning on Lesnar at Survivor Series vs. Big Show.

It was a mixture of A) “my client is getting too independent and popular without my say-so” and B) “the opponent is bigger/badder and will put me in a better position” roughly.

My question is, has a manager ever done this and actually got a better overall client?

Sunny? Debatable, but she did keep jumping over to the next champs.

[Tiger Millionaire]

Maybe I'm thinking in a different mindset, but why not do the angle in a title match where Fuji cost Demos the title against the Powers of Pain, and then have Demolition regain the title at Mania?

[thecrusherwi]

Well that plot came from the same mind that thought his exhausted 525 pound client should defend his newly won title against one of the greatest wrestlers of all time minutes after winning the title.

Mr Fuji in kayfabe was a horrible manager.

[PrimeTyme]

Nov 26, 2019 22:07:28 GMT -5 Tiger Millionaire said:

Maybe I'm thinking in a different mindset, but why not do the angle in a title match where Fuji cost Demos the title against the Powers of Pain, and then have Demolition regain the title at Mania?

That’s where I’m at. There was no hint of a turn prior to the show, so why not have them run an angle here and then have Fuji cost them the titles at the next SNME or something.

Even with the too big for their britches reason, this just seems like unsound business to me.

[auph10imitated]

Nov 26, 2019 21:34:39 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Nov 26, 2019 21:23:27 GMT -5 Convoy said:

I always put this in the same boat as Heyman turning on Lesnar at Survivor Series vs. Big Show.

It was a mixture of A) “my client is getting too independent and popular without my say-so” and B) “the opponent is bigger/badder and will put me in a better position” roughly.

My question is, has a manager ever done this and actually got a better overall client?

Sunny? Debatable, but she did keep jumping over to the next champs.

Yeah I would probably say Sunny, Body Donnas (while good workers) were a pretty crappy B team of heels, she dumped them for the more popular Godwinns, and in turn dropped them for the overall better and more popular team of the three in the Gunns

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2019 21:34:07 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

This has a rep as one of those WTH? angles/matches that just didn't make sense. It confused the hell out of the audience, because the way it played out, they thought POP turned face and helped poor helpless Fuji up after the evil Demos roughed him up and abandoned him.

POP were already faces (and pretty over too, IIRC) though. You meant Fuji turning face, I reckon? Given Fuji's actions and how it played out that woulda made way more sense.

It was an awkward turn. I watched that video recently and......yeah, Demolition beating up Fuji didn't get as rousing a pop as I'd remembered at the time.

[auph10imitated]

Yeah it actually felt like a Fuji face turn the way they went and helped him and then put Fuji on their shoulders like a hero, before Demolition ran them off confusing matters even more. The fact was though Demolition was over with the crowd, so they needed a face turn, but this was probably a strange way of doing it.

[HMARK Center]

It happened because the forces of fate and destiny had to conspire to bring about the perfect set of circumstances to allow for Ax bellowing "FUJ THE STOOGE".

[eJm]

Nov 26, 2019 21:23:27 GMT -5 Convoy said:

I always put this in the same boat as Heyman turning on Lesnar at Survivor Series vs. Big Show.

It was a mixture of A) “my client is getting too independent and popular without my say-so” and B) “the opponent is bigger/badder and will put me in a better position” roughly.

Yeah, that one muddled me at the time especially since I could understand the story if Brock couldn't lift Big Show so Paul thought he was useless and not the beast Show was.

But he did. And almost won. So...like...why?

[Aceorton]

For me, the weirdest wrinkle in that Demolition/PoP scenario was that after the PoP turned and helped Fuji, they still had to finish off the Conquistadors, who were at that point de facto babyfaces (and somewhat sympathetic ones since they had lasted till the end when everyone thought they'd be the first eliminated).

If they'd really wanted to go crazy, they should have had Demolition cost PoP the match so the Conquistadors won.

[XIII]

Nov 26, 2019 17:29:54 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

I thought this would be asking if Fuji ever wore the S & M gear.

Fuji Vice II: Leather-San