New Japan Pro-Wrestling (On NJPWWorld and Triller TV)

[DaveyBoy123]

Some quick thoughts on both nights of WK15:

- I liked Night 1 overall. The 1st 2 matches were really entertaining (El P & ZSJ especially)
- The final 2 matches were just great bouts and I think the unpredictability of the Okada-Ospreay result really helped out that match

- Shingo vs Cobb was amazing. You could easily make a case that it was the best match of the entire show!
- I'm a fan of Sanada, but I'm starting to really doubt that he takes the next step. I think we'll find out soon, with him being next in line.
- Fantastic main event. Ibushi has very much deserved this.
- Jay White's post-match presser was perfect.

Just one final thought on Hiromu Takahashi, in general... The 2 bouts he had here were yet another representation of the way I've viewed him previously (at least, post neck injury). He's almost always involved in great matches, yet I always feel that it is his opponent that leaves me more impressed. I thought Ishimori came off near-perfect on their Night 2 match.

So, it begs the question: Is Hiromu a little over-rated, or is he one of the best wrestlers going around because he makes his opponents always look top-notch?

 

[Loonerty]

So, it begs the question: Is Hiromu a little over-rated, or is he one of the best wrestlers going around because he makes his opponents always look top-notch?

I think you've answered it yourself to be honest.

He's almost always involved in great matches

 

[nobbyiscool]

Jay White has disappeared from the roster page.

I didn't want to say it last week before people have caught up, but there was a part of me that wondered while watching it whether this was actually a shoot, and whether White had gone into bat for himself. Cos he's never been hotter than he is right now, and who was going to stop him when he was speaking in English?

I suspect Meltzer's rumour killer around his supposed 7-year contract is bullshit, because a 7-year deal would be absolutely unprecedented in New Japan. Impossible? Probably not after the procession of gaijin that left the company after huge pushes - but the reason it was so easy for Devitt/Balor, Styles, Good Brothers etc to leave is that, up until Styles left, NJPW were only offering gaijin one-year NYD-to-WK contracts. We knew they went to 2 year contracts with The Elite - but a 7-year deal? I'm not buying that.

---

I never did leave my thoughts last week. My over arching thought is how much more watchable WK has become with 6 or 7 well-paced matches over 2 nights. I think we topped out at 15 matches including the rumble a few years ago, with a determination to get everyone on the card, and every meaningless title on the card (including titles like RevPro that aren't even NJPWs!)

I could quibble about guys like Suzuki and Ishii being in the RanBo and not even making the final 4... and I think you could've quite easily manufactured a feud between those 2, cos who wouldn't have enjoyed them beating the s**t out of each other for 10 minutes - but all in all, it was all very well paced.

The highlights over the 2 days were
- Ibushi and White, and White post-match. I said last week I feel like I've been defending the guy one-out for years, cos we saw a little bit of this Jay White in ROH. That was a match I don't think most people thought he was capable of having, and it wasn't one of those infuriating Tokyo Dome main events that goes long just for the sake of supposed big match feel.
- I loved the hell out of SHINGO and Cobb. It was an awesome hoss fight that never got dangerous, which is kind of what I look for in that Japanese strong style now - giving me meaty men bashing meat, not skinny guys crashing skulls. That's as good an example of what 2021 strong style should look like as you'll see.
- I enjoyed Naito and Ibushi more than their matches where they're trying to break each others necks (do they legit hate each other?) - but I'll have more to say on Naito.
- Hiromu isn't capable of having a bad match, and the Takahashi match was great... but man I'm starting to get really over the Hiromu character. It's so over the top and everything outside the ring is so unlikeable. I think he's miscast in LIJ. Part of me wonders if the best fit, and the fastest way to the top would be with The Empire.

The lowlights:
- Everything to do with The Empire. I'll admit off the top that I'm having a hard time with Ospreay since #SpeakingOut. What he and Bea supposedly did to Pollyanna is gross, and a couple of promoters have supported that story saying that venues were going to cancel if she was booked. I fell in love this year... it was with local wrestling company MCW. And it was because of Brooksy vs Slex (who've both signed with ROH when the pandemic is over) and Ospreay vs Dowie (who've both been cancelled). So that's rough
- But even aside from all that, I thought the match with Okada sucked (unpopular opinion alert). If you take away Ospreay's flashy moves and wrestle a "heel style", there isn't much to him. And the Okada story over the last few years is bizarre - it's like he's a babyface trying to push the crowd as far as he possibly can before they boo him out of a building. His version of the million dollar dream sucks, and building the match around what was clearly an ineffective move was idiotic.
- More on The Empire - we criticise WWE for booking matches they can't get out of all the time, hence 50/50 booking, DQs and distraction finishes. But this classic Gedo booking is no better. You put the big shiny new thing in a big spot... only to have them lose. (see also: EVIL, the whole second half of 2020.) Why put Ospreay, O-Kahn and Cobb in big matches to have them all lose? The Dash spot with Tenzan did nothing to rehab them IMO. For all the problems I have with Ospreay as a person, I would still recognise that the booking here sucked - if they want to push him, is there really that much harm in having Okada lose?
- My final bit on The Empire is just how disappointed I am for Robbie. I think there's a good story to tell with the Birds of Prey when Robbie can get back to Japan, where he's confused about what happened, confused that Ospreay never spoke to him, and while Robbie would obviously lose pretty handily in an Ospreay match, he could then branch out into an excellent feud with Cobb.
- El Phantasmo sucks, and he'll never not suck. Again, it's Robbie related more than anything - they were in the same place at the same time as the gaijin junior heavyweights in Bullet Club trying to fill a hole... and cos Robbie and Will had a great match here in Australia resulting in Robbie joining CHAOS he got left behind. He's better in every conceivable way than ELP... but I guess the ELP push is at least partially at the behest of their British partners?
- LIJ have reached that point where I think they've jumped the shark a little in NJPW. Hiromu doesn't fit. I just can't get into Sanada at all. They've never made BUSHI look important. It's holding SHINGO back at this point. And they completely screwed up 6 years+ of amazing long term booking when EVIL beat Naito in October(?) The way around it, I thought, was pretty simple, in that you just should've had Naito beat EVIL... but in a deep cut from a few years back, Naito beats up the IC title, spits on it, spits on EVIL, and gives him the belt saying "this is all you're worth." You've split up the belts again, and you've tied up a loose end around Naito and the IC title. *, you can literally make the IC title mean nothing, cos it means nothing as part of the double championship anyway - have SANADA beat him at WK, who then does the same thing to the belt (cos LIJ all hates it.) I just think Naito came out of WK/NYD in a really bad spot, and I don't think he looked particularly motivated across the whole 3 days. An apathetic Naito is as clear as the nose on your face, and it makes him really hard to enjoy. (You can rehab the IC title later on if you want, or you can just get rid of it.)
- The Master Wato gimmick is ******* death.
- NYD doesn't really seem important any more. Hasn't since the Omega/White confrontation probably. Yeah, it set up all the feuds going forward, but there was nothing there to write home about. The lack of anything around Jay White other than him eating the fall added to my theory that his promo the night before may have been shoot. I was speaking to my New Japan-watching friend the other day who thinks they would've kicked White out if he was leaving, but I actually really disagree with that - as soon as White is kicked out, you're creating a storyline around the leadership of Bullet Club between KENTA and EVIL. And with EVIL having Dick Togo alongside him, they probably needed more time for Gedo to establish a relationship with KENTA. (Of course, they may never pull the trigger on this storyline if the plan is for KENTA, and thus Gedo to end up on the losing side.)


I now it looks like I've written much more negative than positive, and I have - but it's only cos I got ranting about the negative stuff. The 2 nights were both really good nights of wrestling... it's just some of the booking things that s**t me.

 

[Cleavy]

let's reminisce...

 

[The Casey Cat]

let's reminisce...

Where it all started too before EB copied/expanded it to WCW.

 

[RossFC]

Mox showed up at New Japan Strong and took out Kenta.

Also tonight Ospreay and Kojima had a brutal NO DQ match.

 

[Cleavy]

did they really need to switch the NEVER title on to Tanahashi?

 

[Cleavy]

February 26th episode of NJPW Strong

 

[nobbyiscool]

Interesting that it's happening in the US...

 

[RossFC]

Jay White has returned and he attacked Ishii.

 

[TradeDraft]

Jay White has returned and he attacked Ishii.

White was never Leaving NJPW

 

[nobbyiscool]

I realised yesterday that, for like the 3rd or 4th year in a row, I forgot to unsubscribe before the end of Jan.

I haven't been watching much of the New Beginning tour, but I've been watching all the Jay White stuff. * he's good. And I especially love it when scummy heel commit to looking like absolute scumbags. Just that hair and beard makes you want to punch him in the face. And part of the beauty of it is that he's a size where you think you could.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Anyone else forget to unsubscribe from World after January watching the New beginning shows? I didn't watch much of the "road to" shows, but I watched night 1 from Hiroshima last night.

It was mostly a fun event that moved quite quickly - but just the same old s**t bringing it down.

I was literally laughing out loud as the first match was about to start. Suzuki vs Young Lions = certain death for someone. Then the Lions took a page from the Suzuki-Gun playbook and jumped them before the bell! I popped huge

I'm not huge on BUSHI, and the match with Master Wato was, at best, just a standard 3 star match. But I think it was Wato's best performance since his excursion.

The BC vs CHAOS match was just there. It's one of the "same old s**t" criticisms - you see these 8-man or 10-man faction tag matches and, regardless of the bodies in the ring, you feel like you've seen it a hundred times. At least Yano did something a bit different at the end. (Different by the standard of these repeated tag matches, not by Yano standards!)

The Naito match was s**t... I can't remember ever going off a wrestler more quickly for in-ring reasons. (There's been plenty I've done immediate 180s on for outside the ring stuff!) I know the whole tranquilo stuff is meant to represent apathy and carelessness - but it doesn't mean you have to actually be lazy.

Now... the worst thing on the show. More of the same old s**t. The most egregious slap in the face to people that have committed to watching your show... a Guerillas of Destiny match that must have been at least 30 minutes. This took all the steam out of a show that had been trotting along really well up til this point.

Which meant I was a bit up in the air on the main event. I mentioned after WK that there's just something about Hiromu that I'm not enjoying. I don't know if it's the overt Shinsuke rip-offs, I don't know if it's because we've seen him wrestling the same 3 since he returned... I dunno. But with that "something I can't put my finger on" along with going after the tag title match, I knew watching that it was a good match, but was such a chore to watch.

 

[Peter Sidorkiewicz]

I unsubscribed. I like the product but yeah it’s needs fresh matchups, new people with titles.

Not looking forward to Naito beating Ibushi for the IC title. I like the idea of separating the IC title from Ibushi so he just holds the main belt but they got to make another star to hold the IC title. Not go with Naito again.

Ospreay would of been better to challenge for IC title.

 

[Nunez]

Finjuice debuting for Impact this week!

 

[nobbyiscool]

Finjuice debuting for Impact this week!

Couldn’t give a s**t about either of them.

Finlay never really officially did an overseas tour did he? Or did he disappear to the UK and I just didn’t notice?

In any case, AEW are getting KENTA and the Good Brothers through this talent exchange; NJPW are getting to use Mox on American soil; TNA get... FinJuice and Private Party...

 

[Nunez]

Couldn’t give a sh*t about either of them.

Finlay never really officially did an overseas tour did he? Or did he disappear to the UK and I just didn’t notice?

In any case, AEW are getting KENTA and the Good Brothers through this talent exchange; NJPW are getting to use Mox on American soil; TNA get... FinJuice and Private Party...

Plenty of people do thankfully.

 

[Loonerty]

Couldn’t give a sh*t about either of them.

Finlay never really officially did an overseas tour did he? Or did he disappear to the UK and I just didn’t notice?

In any case, AEW are getting KENTA and the Good Brothers through this talent exchange; NJPW are getting to use Mox on American soil; TNA get... FinJuice and Private Party...

Uh and Omega.

 

[Nunez]

Uh and Omega.

Who?

 

[RossFC]

 

[Cleavy]

 

[Cleavy]

Spoiler: Result of Moxley vs KENTA

Mox wins

 

[RossFC]

Spoiler

 

[nobbyiscool]

Spoiler

*!

Totally forgot this was on - I was meant to watch it then unsubscribe. I did neither

 

[Cleavy]

NJPW to unify IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental titles

NJPW will be unifying the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships into a new title, according to a report from Tokyo Sports. The report quotes

www.f4wonline.com

not sure if good or bad. thoughts?