NJPW General

[Vic Boss 612]

Semifinals of the New Japan Cup are set for Saturday, winners go on Sunday and the winner gets Switchblade at Madison Square Garden for the IWGP Heavy

 

Okada vs Ishii and Tanahashi vs Sanada.

 

I think Okada takes the whole thing including MSG, you never know if they'll go back since they're piggy-backing off of WWE so the ace is going to win the big one for his legacy there.

 

Also on Sunday is Juice vs Chase Owens for the IWGP US Title. I don't question Gedo too often on his booking decisions because even the questionable ones turn out all right (though he does have a weakness when it comes to consistently booking tag team scenes ironically enough), but I think he's really flubbed Juice. He's applied traditional Japanese-style secondary-title booking to Juice and I don't think that works well when you're trying to build a title that can main event shows in the United States and build a star to be synonymous with that title. I like that Chase is finally getting something else to do but I don't like that Juice's US Title competition is not all that strong, especially with that roster.

[Vic Boss 612]

We seem to have the full card for Madison Square Garden.

 

- Honor Rumble: (Only Jushin Liger on his retirement tour confirmed so far, I assume everyone else already not on the card will get on it just for the appearance)

- Title For Title: NEVER Champion Will Ospreay vs RoH TV Champion Jeff Cobb

- Dalton Castle vs RUSHHHHHHHH (I'd normally be a bit more excited for this, but Castle's been wrestling injured since he came back)

- Women Of Honor Title Match: Mayu Iwatani vs Kelly Klein (I think Iwatani is the Champion. She was part of STARDOM's Big Three with Io Shirai and Kairi Sane as far as I know)

- NYC Street Fight Open Challenge: Bully Ray vs [x]

- IWGP Jr Heavy Three-Way: Taiji Ishimori (c) vs Dragon Lee vs Bandido

- IWGP Heavy and RoH Tag Four Way: GoD (c) vs PCO and Brodie King (c) vs The Briscoes vs SANADA/EVIL

- British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr (c) vs Tanahashi

- IWGP IC Title: Naito (c) vs Ibushi

- RoH World Title Ladder Match: Jay Lethal (c) vs Marty Scurll vs Matt Taven

- IWGP Heavy: Jay White (c) vs Okada

 

Wrestlemania weekend is going to be horrifying to keep up with

[MT 915]

3 hours ago, DeJaPon said:

- NYC Street Fight Open Challenge: Bully Ray vs [x]

why.jpg

[Downshift 54]

This topic title looks like "NSFW General".

[Vic Boss 612]

That's the Center

[Vic Boss 612]

Jay/Okada is the only match from the G1 Supercard I really loved. A few others I liked. RoH held the show down, they feel more behind-the-times than WWE does. The audio was really bad, RoH-TV levels of bad.

 

I think the western expansion when it comes to America hit the wall once Kenny left, I'd prefer they scale it back to a few California shows per year. UK is different because Rev Pro seems to utilize the roster pretty well and ZSJ is being put massively over, though I dunno how well that plays to the UK indie base.

[MT 915]

How about that Enzo/Cass debut, eh? Good stuff, right?

[Vic Boss 612]

Dontaku tour had some good matches, new roster member (El Phantasmo) and a teaser for another new roster member going after Juice.

 

Feels kind of same-y right now, though, the roster "rebuild" is probably more of a long-term project. Jay White is more Finn Balor than Kenny Omega (I think Balor only became popular for the Bullet Club in NXT), and the real replacement on the roster for Kenny, Will Ospreay, is being slowly built up to that level instead of rushed to it.

 

Though...

 

... Jericho's gonna challenge Okada at Dominion for the IWGP Heavy

 

BOSJ Roster is pretty impressive

 

Block A

 

Bandido (debut)

Bushi

Dragon Lee (vs Bandido, holy shit)

Desperado

Flip Gordon

Jonathan Gresham :nod:

Marty Scurll (huh, I thought his contract was up)

Robbie Eagles

Rocky Romero

Taguchi

 

Block B

 

Shingo

Sho

Boner

Taka

Tiger Mask

Titan (Not a debut, but hasn't wrestled in the tournament since Balor was on the roster)

Ospreay (huh...)

Yoh (first singles match against Sho since they were Young Boys)

Kanemaru

El Phantasmo (debut)

[Vic Boss 612]

Bandido vs Ospreay happened at today's BOSJ show (Ospreay probably saved Bandido's life on a shooting star press)

[MT 915]

Whaaaaaaaaaaat

[Vic Boss 612]

Oh my fucking GOD, I was wondering who Death Rider was

[Vic Boss 612]

Moxley and Juice had their US Title Match at the BOSJ Final today. The tournament was effing good this year, Robbie Eagles (apparently he's both an Australian draw for NJPWWorld and the his merch is selling to Japanese fans because he's half-Asian) and Rocky Romero (dat armbar) in particular stood out more than I expected they would, and NJPW might be finally utilizing Shingo like they should be. El Phantasmo had a good showing, but he rubs me the wrong way (he's sort of like if Ospreay did more obnoxious Young Buck stuff before that became popular)

 

- Moxley's punches in particular looked a lot better than they did in WWE.

- I liked the brawl, and Mox not being used Japanese furniture lead to some physically painful looking moments

- Letting Juice kick out of Dirty Deeds was cool shit, then doing a lifting spike Dirty Deeds to finish him off was sick

- Needs some better tights though

- I'm hoping this another Cody situation where Juice wins the title back from him and it propels him into having a long-ass reign with the US Title. I usually don't criticize Gedo too harshly because he gets it right a lot, but I think he mis-read Juice Robinson with the US Title, I would've booked him with a long-ass reign right off the bat whereas Gedo's got him progressing through each step of becoming a top Champion and hopefully if and when he wins it back from Moxley he can have a near year-long reign to cement the title as his

[Vic Boss 612]

Addendum:

 

Ospreay v Shingo was one of the best matches of the year so far

[Blackjak 57]

Plan to watch the Finals sometime today.

 

But holy shit. Holy shit. Suzuki tweeted that he wants to face Moxley. Holy shit. I need this in my life.  

[Vic Boss 612]

Juice and Moxley post-match backstage promos (spoils obvs)

 

 

 

"I speak the language of violence"

[Blackjak 57]

How did you manage to post that in a way that the link doesn't work both as something that auto-converts to the video and as something you can click on? We actually have to copy and paste it in a browser to watch it... what are we, savages? 

 

 

Also, awesome promos from both

[Vic Boss 612]

3 hours ago, Blackjak said:

How did you manage to post that in a way that the link doesn't work both as something that auto-converts to the video and as something you can click on? We actually have to copy and paste it in a browser to watch it... what are we, savages?

 

Happens to me all the time on here :p

[MT 915]

Fixed it.

[Vic Boss 612]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww SHIT

 

Dominion spoilers

 

Moxley's in the G1

[Vic Boss 612]

Guys guys guys guys

 

Shibata came out and then pointed to the stage for three minutes and then KENTA/Hideo Itami came out and then Shibata got on the mic and presumably said "I can't murder anyone in the G1 this year so I found someone to do it for me" and now KENTA's in the G1

 

Moxley, Shingo and KENTA, this G1 gon' be great

[Vic Boss 612]

Dragon Lee/Ospreay

 

Oh god, that Suicide Dive

 

Naito/Ibushi

 

STOP TRYING TO BREAK EACH OTHER'S NECKS

[Vic Boss 612]

OH MY GOD THESE G1 BLOCKS

 

A Block

 

Okada

Tanahashi

Ibushi

ZSJ

Ospreay ( )

KENTA ( )

Sanada

EVIL

Lance Archer

Bad Luck Fale

 

B Block

 

Naito

Ishii

Switchblade

Juice

Yano

Holy Lord Taichi

Shingo ( )

Goto

Jeff Cobb ( )

Moxley ( )

[Vic Boss 612]

It's interesting that the Observer rewinds are finally spilling into the NJPW dark ages and it sounds like Inoki wasn't just promoting wrestling and MMA together in a bizarre mishmash, he was trying to job out the wrestlers and the promotion to his MMA guys to put them over instead because he had some involvement in booking for K-1 and Pride too

[MT 915]

New Japan to open American wing: New Japan Pro-Wrestling Of America

[Vic Boss 612]

Kind wish they'd stay doing just what they're doing. This stuff kinda died once Kenny left

[Garlic Junior 136]

Without AEW it's not gonna take off imo

[Vic Boss 612]

Yeah. The Elite leaving RoH gutted them, and CMLL's experiencing some backstage turbulence right now that might harm that relationship, so they don't exactly have as strong of international ties as they did before too.

[MT 915]

Surprise!

[Garlic Junior 136]

I am EXCITE!

 

@Death Rider Mox dude do you have that Amazing Red v Osperay match? I can't find it anywhere and have trawled like 20 WWE2K videos in the process ?

[Vic Boss 612]

@Garlic Junior I think it's in Part 3

[Garlic Junior 136]

My man

[Vic Boss 612]

[Vic Boss 612]

Watching parts of the Wrestle Kingdom Press Conference. Ospreay started pushing that the double-title tournament wasn't that popular with the Osaka crowd and said him and Hiromu should be in the main event of one of the shows instead, and goes off how he's been put in every match and every tournament when they need someone to have a big moment.

 

And then Jay White comes out for his press conference with Naito, interrupts the press conference introduction to absolutely bury Ospreay, mentioning he hasn't won any of the tournaments he's been in put in and his big wins are limited, and tells him to stop whining about having to work so hard and just stop taking the opportunities if you don't want them.

 

Fucking natural heel. I don't know if this is going to lead somewhere (it would tip off that Jay White is winning the double titles, and I don't think that's gonna happen at the Dome), but that felt so natural that even if they're not, they should start going that direction.

[Vic Boss 612]

Digging this year's World Tag League so far. All 16 teams are in the same block so very show is 7 tournament matches and then a Wrestle Kingdom main event build-up match. It's a skippable tour regardless, but I like that least almost every match on almost every card matters for something.

[Vic Boss 612]

Low-key the best part of this tag league has been KENTA's after-match promos. He has a spicy relationship going on with the camera, pretends that Ishii/TOMO and Goto/HIRO are boyband members, gets them confused because TOMO and HIRO still spells out Ishii's name, brings up their twitter beef but corrects himself when he pronounces twitter the Japanese way ("Tweet-er AH, I mean Twih-ter") and then ends every promo by making fun of how ugly Yoshi-Hashi is.

 

We're currently in the phase where KENTA got jealous of camera-kun because he was talking to Yujiro alone (Kenta at the time was getting his ass beat by Goto), and now camera-kun's asking about KENTA hanging around Pieter all the time.

[MT 915]

Liger will be missed (yes I know this isn't NJPW, but I don't care)

[Garlic Junior 136]

Got NJworld and didn't realise it had access to original Los Ingobernables matches in CMLL.

 

Omfg proper asshole heel Naito is amazing!

[Vic Boss 612]

That was a baller few weeks. Naito, Rush, Sombra/Andrade, La Mascara and I think Marco Corleone (he subbed in when someone got hurt for a little while)

[Vic Boss 612]

New Beginning in Sapporo last night, Ishii vs EVIL and Goto defending the NEVER against Shingo. Strong style as fuck

[Psycho666Soldier 283]

I liked both of those matches more than most of Wrestle Kingdom.  I actually have those two and the New Year Dash matches right next to each other under Okada/Naito, Ospreay/Hiromu and Okada/Ibushi.

[Vic Boss 612]

Shingo is just about as perfect of a NEVER Openweight Champion as you can have. Big enough to work the strong-style heavyweight tough guys, fast enough/Dragon Gate enough to work Juniors. I hope this is a long-term division placement for him.

[Psycho666Soldier 283]

Spoiler

Wholeheartedly agree.  I was thinking while watching that the way he moves, it makes sense why they started him in the Junior division.  I honestly want to see him run roughshod over his opponents until Wrestle Kingdom, though I would accept him dropping the belt to whomever pins him in the G1.

 

Only to get a rematch at WK where he gets it back.

 

[Vic Boss 612]

The only thing is that he's an outsider, so I dunno if he'll hold either title long enough to truly cement himself as the top NEVER guy because of that. At the least I don't think he's a Wrestle Kingdom title-winner because that's usually for dojo products (Shibata was the last "outsider" to win the NEVER Title, but he was a dojo product who left and then finally got re-accepted back into the fold later, so it's not quite the same)

 

ZSJ calling Will Ospreay "Billy No-Brains" always gets a good chuckle out of me

[Vic Boss 612]

Ishii/Goto/Eagles vs Hiromu/Shingo/EVIL from Road To New Beginning Feb 4th was p. gud

[Psycho666Soldier 283]

Hiromu and Ryu Lee had another terrifying classic.

 

In other news, water is wet.

[MT 915]

Highly enjoyable Mox/Suzuki match, has me dying to see them go at it again.

[Psycho666Soldier 283]

Mox/Suzuki is one of those matches that I could pick out imperfections, but it added to the vibe of the match.  Really unique feeling, and a wonderful clash of personalities I didn't know I wanted so bad, yet felt so right.  One of my favorite matches of the year so far.

 

Watching Naito/KENTA now 

[Psycho666Soldier 283]

Well, fucking hell.

 

Spoiler

As a match, I felt it was a bit dull in the first half with some shining moments.  But the ending stretch was excellent.  That blood, though.  I hope Naito's ok, because I was terrified for him when I first saw that blood spill.

 

I think my top matches go Hiromu/Lee, then Moxley/Suzuki, followed by Naito/KENTA.  The first half had some good bouts that didn't stand out, but these last three were gold.

 

Hell of a tour in general, really.  Maybe the first time I've been hyped for all of the big New Beginning shows.

[Vic Boss 612]

I felt that lariat that Suzuki stayed standing up for in my soul

 

There's a point early in the match where Mox stiffs Suzuki with a forearm and you could see on Suzuki's face that he wasn't expecting it, and then he cracks Mox back and it's fucking ON. Love that shit.

 

I'll get to KENTA/Naito a bit later, but that match feels way bigger than it should be because of the promos they've been cutting on each other. KENTA's become promo-gold, and they're kind of petty mirrors of each other (both left and came back with attitudes, both don't take shit seriously, both use psychological warfare and/or passive aggressive comments to mock their opponents)

[Vic Boss 612]

The Anniversary Show and the New Japan Cup were cancelled because of coronavirus fears