No.278
He always kinda does it, give someone the spotlight and then pull the rug under them. Sucks in the short term but over time it kinda grows and works, sorta.
No.310
he even lost to Sanada at wrestle kingdom and now will probably lose to okada again, gedo wtf
No.314
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
>>311Based Big Dimes Master "Way to the Grandmaster" Wato got a clue, hit the gym, and took a shower. He just closed out a bunch of shows. His feud with Bushi is kinda tepid, but Bushi is trying to help put the kid over. Wato is recovering the confidence he used to have before excursion and botches significantly less than what we saw in the summer and fall. He has been training with the Ace and his physique has vastly improved from the doughy muffintopped Wato he debuted as. Still hasn't become comfortable on the mic, but Tanahashi has sort have got him halfway relaxed when he is in the ring. He even got him through an air guitar bit without spilling his spaghetti.
Wato is coming along. Give him some time and he will become an at least solid midcarder junior. The guys in the back have enough faith in him to keep trying to get him over. In the last series of shows Wato wrestled with the NEVER champion and the Jr champion twice. Unless he becomes a lazy shitter and gives up trying to improve, he should have a long and reasonably respectable career.
No.322
>>317I don't mind his weird gimmick or smurf look, you can get over a seemingly wack gimmick like how edgyblade did but I can't take the name 'Master Wato' or even 'Wato' seriously.
No.323
>>322So what? Should we just start calling him flying space jew?
No.369
since he left LIJ he has now lost to all 3 heavyweights from LIJ: Naito, Sanada and now Shingo. It's over, he's finished. He's not in LIJ anymore and still is in the same position as he was before NJC 2020 as Naito said, the lowest LIJ.
No.380
Why did she do it Bros? Why she do our boy Yoshi-Hashi dirty like this?
https://youtu.be/PjvWNXj3V0A?t=113 No.388
>Minstry of EVIL never ever
Io Shirai should become the Queen of Darkness whenever she returns to Japan.
No.389
>>379>Gets rid of the two most loved belts>Creates a new one nobody wants>Goes from being a well loved face to now being despised>Loses the new belt in first defenseIbushi got done dirty hard.
No.390
Speaking of which
>New leader of stable
>Gains momentum
>Gets a shot at the big one
>Wins the belt and establishes the stable as a top one
AJ Styles (to an extent), Naito, EVIL and now Ospreay, all booked the same. I swear if Ospreay defends the belt once and drops it in his 2nd defense then it will be exactly the same. Terribly predictable.
No.392
>>390Isn't that NJPW since around 1996ish?
No.394
>>393>In the 150+ matches he has had since his debut he has lost exactly three times.I should rephrase that. He as been pinned exactly three times. He has lost in tag matches mainly owing to Jeff Cobb eating a pin.
No.395
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
>>393>Subaru Sheep StranglerBaseado and Tomboypilled
No.398
>>393The inifinite amount of jobs he did as a young lion eternally makes him a jobber, that's how NJPW rolls, no one gets over.
No.399
>>398It is pretty clear they are extremely pleased with him not being a complete failure like most of the recent classes of young lions have turned out to be and so they are grooming him to be the new top heel. Tenzan gave Oka his official seal of approval and let him inherit his signature move the Mongolian chop. You can say what you want about the guy but neither prior and post Henare was he the Jannetty.
As for Jeff Cobb you forget how bad he was looking until recently. World Tag League 2019 or even New Beginning USA he was Jeff Slobb who couldn't work one minute without running out of breath. Yes he has greatly improved since then but he still can't run a singles match longer than five minutes without taking a few rest holds or going out of the ring. He is strong, and tour of the islands is impressive, but the fact is when the chips are down he is(or was prior to henare joining) the designated job guy for the faction because they can't afford to have anyone else lose.
Ospreay is the champ and will have at least one successful title defense. Oka is booked to only lose to the Ace and Okada. That meant to protect those two the team would either need to dominate everyone or let Jeff eat the pins so the faction doesn't break the plot. Now we have Henare who as near as I can possibly tell is just a normal kinda bland guy whose ideas of turning evil is putting on sunglasses like Chono. He might be elevated depending on how hard Ospreay and O'Khan can get UE over with the nips, but he probably isn't going to get there on his own. He is basically there to take some of the pressure of Cobb so he isn't completely buried.
My point being that Gahoole probably hasn't followed NJPW in a while and one match that is booked a certain way can leave an impression that isn't exactly what the broad view shows. It is understandable to be honest. Wrestling is pretty shit across the board and there is so fucking much of it that it is really easy to just take a break.
No.400
>>399>>393You make a fair point on Oka, and he was always one of my favorites from that young lion class. Unfortunately his run in RevPro is largely meaningless to me as such I only go off of his stuff since coming back, which while better than some still has had him lose in his most high profile matches. Him and Cobb are good as members of this faction, but what they are backing up is an absolutely terrible character in Heel asspreay. I cannot get invested in them or care about them because of their association with him. The hotshot booking of the last 2 years has made me disinterested in the promotion, so yeah I haven't been watching every show, but I watch the g1 and wrestle kingdom and follow all the storylines. I don't like the direction they've taken and frankly life is too short to waste it on bad booking. Now excuse me while I go watch Mania for 8 hours
No.401
>>399>half the guys in jewnited empire are job guyswow! great new faction gedo!
No.563
Well O'khan did the job to Naito. Honestly it was a terrible match. Naito is so broken down everything looked sloppy and slow as fuck. I know they need to try and keep some heat on Naito since he is a draw, but it honestly didn't feel like the right time to bury O'khan. Okada and Ace are one thing, they are consistently portrayed as both strong and skilled and defeated O'khan in matches that were able to elevate Oka as well. This match was just a disappointment in that regard. O'khan had to slow everything down to accommodate Naito's offense and in the end looked like he was getting absolutely devastated by moves that would do little to nothing under normal circumstances.
Even the Henare/SANADA match that preceded the main event was less boring. The only reason that the match got any pop was because Naito was working the crowd hard as fuck and the audience decided to ignore the cheering ban. The audience was extremely energetic the entire night and was expressive. Maybe something really cool happened in Japan yesterday idk.
Honestly Naito was wasted. When they failed to pull the trigger on him years ago when he was white hot they inadvertently buried him. He kept giving 110% in matches that weren't really worth it and in the end he wore himself out. The biggest mistake NJPW has made in the last ten years was wasting their chance to push Naito. Not only did they waste the peak of Naito's work, but they sawdusted Okada forcing him to carry the promotion for so long. Billy Big Gun and Ibushi getting the title, hell even back to the formation of the Elite themselves, can all find its roots in failing to utilize Naito properly sparking the chain of events that has led us here.
No.564
>>563O'Khan losing to Naito isn't a burial, it's jsut the same old 50/50 booking gedo does, where naito got his win back from losing to o'khan in the NJC 2021 first round. Crowd was hot for Naito because it was Hiroshima, his so callled adopted hometown because he likes the local baseball team there. Naito's entire career seems like a botched attempt at creating a main event star so much so it's his gimmick now. That KENTA interference after WK14 was just the cherry on top of the cake, almost like a bad joke. Covid-19 happened and it seemed like the world was also against Naito having his moment of glory. He'll be 40 years old next year so he doesn't have much in him, maybe one or two WK main events at best.
No.566
>>564When your gimmick is you are the absolute dominator who overpowers everyone and only the Ace and the current ace possess the superior techinque and experience to overcome him it is a burial of the gimmick. Naito has been booked so inconsistently for a decade. It is not a good look to have him beat O'khan right now and especially with that match. O'khan could have been saved for something more than a glorified houseshow.
It is exactly this kind of hotshot booking to appease a mark crowd in one location at the expense of long term booking that is killing NJPW. 2016 was the year to pull the trigger on Naito. Kenny didn't need the G1 that year or the WK match. Naito was white hot, but Bushiroad was too concerned over popping the gaijin marks that they ended up squandering him. They killed their own western expansion by pushing the gajin to hard and too fast and giving them the idea that they didn't need NJPW. History has proven the Elite right and Bushiroad fucked themselves in multiple ways all because they didn't pull the trigger on Naito when they needed to.
No.568
This series of matches involving Ospreay and Shingo is terrible, but it has some great wrestling. Whenever Shingo and Will are in the ring together the pace flows as smooth as a goose on laxatives. They can chain wrestle so well that almost nothing looks set up as they flow naturally from one move to another. The offense builds and is exchanged with such fluidity that nothing feels excessive or underwhelming. It is aggressive, fast, and powerful. From the moment the two of them enter the ring it slowly builds to a crescendo and you become very invested in the match.
Right up until someone else tags in or interferes. The other members of LiJ and UE upset the rhythm of the match and kill the crowds momentum. It is good in a way because it is building a lot of heat for their big match, but it just gets frustrating being blue balled like that.
No.569
>>564Naito was the ace of 2020 after he beat Okada at WK14 so losing to him isn't a bad deal. If O-Khan did end up beating Naito then the next thing for him is a title shot and he won't get one against Ospreay and challenging Tanahashi again for the NEVER title is redundant.
No.574
>>571Losing to Yano in that particular type of gimmick match is no shame. YTR's entire gimmick is basically those gimmicks and he does them very well. The whole KoP thing they did last year was basically his reward for being a consistent midcard draw. The Japanese love his comedy and his DVDs supposedly earn a good chunk of merch money for everyone involved and that is why so many of the guys like to get in on them.
>>572I just want Moxley to lose the belt. I honestly can not stand the Elite and the thought of them shitting up another NJPW show just makes me want to cancel my sub again. Same shit with AEW. I tried to watch but every time Kenny or the Bucks are on screen the show turns to absolute dogshit and I turn the channel. I can't get invested in any of the storylines because of this so all I see when I try to watch AEW individual matches online all I see is a bunch of mediocre shitters botching way more than is acceptable and based little nigger's stealing the show.
No.599
Hours out from NJPW's second and final night of Wrestling Dontaku there are two changes to the card. Two players have come down with Corona and so they, and all the people they were scheduled to wreslte and have been training with, have been removed from the card causing everything to change.
>2nd Match
>Previously
Kazuchika Okada & SHO vs Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
>Currently
Master Wato & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Taiji Ishimori & Yujiro Takahashi
>4th Match
>Previously
Master Wato, Ryusuke taguchi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Dick Togo, Taiji Ishimori, Yujiro Takahashi, EVIL & Jay White
>Currently
Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Dick Togo, EVIL & Jay White
>5th Match
>Previously
>Removed from card
El Desperado vs YOH
NJPW went out of their way not to name who was sick, but then just spells it out on the card. Also holy fuck Yoh is cursed, Every time he comes back he gets injured or ill.
No.600
>>599Seriously Yoh and Despy were the main event tonight and the have nothing to replace it with. They just straight up canceled the main event with nothing else ready to go.
No.601
The culmination of the Wrestling Dontaku tour on May 4 saw Will Ospreay defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship for the first time in the face of rival Shingo Takagi, seeking the richest prize in wrestling in the very town he made his professional debut.
Though both competitors knew one another full well, the match started with a tense feeling out process, Ospreay showing his ability to send his challenger into the ropes, and to counter a headlock into one of his own, but not to knock Takagi down in the early going. The first strikes were thrown early, Shingo gaining the first knockdown of the match, before Ospreay responded with a boot and the pace quickened toward a standoff and fan applause.
Takagi would score the first big move of the match, a back body drop with high elevation that finally slowed the champion and gave match control to the challenger. Shingo would refuse to allow Ospreay to shift gears, a lariat sending the champion to the floor, where he was sent into the guardrail and apron; when the Brit looked to counter with the same back suplex onto the guardrail that shaped their New Japan Cup meeting, he was reversed and dumped into the apron face first.
The champion found an answer with a suplex to the apron, before both men reached for tables around ringside. With the hardware setup at ringside, Ospreay and Shingo each avoided a precarious situation before Takagi was brought back inside the hard way, a springboard forearm giving control back to the champion. With a backbreaker as setup, Ospreay sought to inflict on Takagi the same shoulder injury that had shaped his own matches over the last six weeks, a straight arm breaker creating a significant opening.
As his challenger roared in pain, Ospreay set to work with strikes and holds that used every inch of the ring for leverage. When Ospreay brought stepping Kawada kicks to his challenger however, Shingo fired up, and wary that the left shoulder wouldn't hold up to the Ryukon Lariat, instead used a DDT to drive Ospreay to the mat as the Fukuoka crowd fired up.
A hard suplex followed at the 15 minute mark, and Takagi took Ospreay into the corner with jabs and chops, but Ospreay countered with a hard open right of his own, before a harsh kick to the spine put his challenger into the Tree of Woe. Elevating Takagi back to the center, a reverse Bloody Sunday led to a two count, and a Dragon Screw wasn't enough to stop Ospreay landing a Street Cutter and then a kick to the left arm that set up a reversion of the Hoverboard Lock, recalling his first matches in NJPW against KUSHIDA.
Takagi perservered however, and though a Blood Fall attempt was countered by Ospreay, the Noshigami connected for two. Whiplash from a heavy wheelbarrow German got another nearfall from the referee. As both men reset to their feet, Ospreay looked to kick the hurt arm of Shingo, but a catch from the challenger saw him power Ospreay through the air, a move that set Shingo into a high speed exchange ending with a sliding lariat as the Fukuoka fans tried to digest what they had just seen.
Ospreay retained enough composure to meet Takagi in the corner with a boot and head trapped kick, before joining his opponent on the top rope. The champion wanted a Stormbreaker and then powerbomb out of the corner, both denied, but an overhead kick set up a spring to the top for the champion and a Spanish Fly for two as the match passed the 25 minute mark.
Ospreay closed in on victory, going big with a Shooting Star over the ropes and second dead center, only getting two each time. Increasingly frantic, the champion kicked his challenger to the ringside tables set up earlier, and went for the 450 that broke Takagi in the New Japan Cup final. Takagi broke the move up however, and as both men fought precariously on the apron, Takagi stopped an OsCutter before connecting with Made In Japan through both tables.
As the match went past 30 minutes, Shingo delivered a second Made In Japan center ring, only getting two, but Takagi's follow up was not forthcoming as Ospreay could not support his own weight. The champion picked himself up in the corner but was met with charging lariats from his challenger; as both climbed to the top, Shingo wanted Stay Dream, and hung onto the ropes to block Ospreay's counter Frankensteiner, but leapt off the top right into an OsCutter.
A second connected flush in the middle, but again only got two from the referee. The pendulum of momentum swinging his way, Ospreay looked for the Chelsea Grin, and then Hidden Blade, Takagi evading both moves and then blocking a super OsCutter to convert into a Takagi style GTR.
Takagi followed with the Ryukon Lariat in spite of his pained shoulder. When a Pumping Bomber was countered with a mid air flip from Ospreay, Takagi found a Takagi style OsCutter, before hitting the Pumping Bomber and going for Last of the Dragon. A pop up DDT was reversed to a backslide however, and the Silent Whisper put the challenger to the mat.
Poisonranas were not enough for either man to stop the other, and Ospreay swung for the fences, connecting with Hidden Blade to the back of Takagi's head. This time, the count was only stopped as Takagi's right arm happened to break the plane of the ropes. This time, it was the dead weight of Shingo that Ospreay couldn't lift, but the burning light was still in the challenger's eyes as the match passed 40 minutes. Takagi walked through Ospreay's forearms and delivered blow after blow, but a pop up DVD was still not enough to lay out the champion.
A second Pumping Bomber was countered with a Spanish Fly for two, and now Ospreay felt he could end with Stormbreaker, but again Takagi fought out, meeting a flying knee instead. With both men showing superhuman endurance and power, strikes followed strikes, and Shingo wore a sick grin after being rocked with a hard right forearm shiver. As heads clashed, Ospreay crumpled beneath a Dragon headbutt, and Takagi again wanted Last of the Dragon, but instead took the Chelsea Grin and a Rainmaker from Ospreay.
The champion removed his elbow pad, with Takagi finally downed, and the smack of elbow to skull rang through Fukuoka with the Hidden Blade. Stormbreaker followed, and Ospreay had retained. After a Rainmaker led directly to Shingo Takagi's demise, Ospreay must now look ahead to May 29, and the man who invented the move. Can Ospreay finally vanquish Kazuchika Okada?
No.609
>>599Two wrestlers tested positive for COVID-19. Likely YOH is one of them, not sure who the other is but maybe it's SHO. R3K really have the worst title reigns.
No.614
>>609It is absolutely Yoh and probably Despy because they were set to work that match and Despy is known for his autistic match preperation so he was probably exposed while planing out the match with Yoh.
It isn't even really R3K. Both Sho and Rocky have done well. It is specifically Yoh who gets injured or sick and ends up crashing literally every single push they try to set up. I get that he is a bishonen jr that the femgroids love but for fuck sake if you are so sickly and weak that every time you attempt even the most basic bitch shit you btfo yourself then maybe you aren't fit to be a wrestler. If they want to profit off of Yoh's looks and get him over without risking this fragile little bug, than Bushiroad needs to put him on commentary. Granted Liger, AC, and Miki are already a full CC team, but they frequently bring guests into the commentary settin up angles. I don't see why they couldn't just put Yoh on commentary on the days they don't have an active wrestler slotted in.
No.617
>>614I guess that NJPW doesn't quite work like WWE and if a wrestler is on the shelf, they remain there until they can compete again. R3K is on their 5th reign but in their first 3 reigns, they did not have a single successful title defense. Their 4th reign last year looked like they would finally get a decent run and they defended it twice before Yoh got injured. Now they are on their 5th reign, had one defense but Yoh got the virus now. Hopefully he will recover soon and they won't have to vaccate the titles. So you see, Yoh only has had two strokes of bad luck but their first 3 reigns ending in 0 defenses is just astounding, shit booking for a team that is supposed to be the top of the division.
No.636
Ospreay injured and relinquished the belt. Great start to the new belt's lineage huh lmao, almost as bad as the universal championship. Now that ospreay is out of the way, hopefully it's now O-Khan's time to shine.
No.637
That match was pretty bad, but honestly I thought Shingo took the worst of it. The Made in Japan spot on the tables looked like it fucked Shingo's lower back up really bad. I can't think of any particular spot from that match which would sawdust Billy's neck. I mean if he survived that Scurll New Sakura match with no injuries I can't imagine how this match broke him.
No.639
>>636GOK is great. Guy can work, his mic skills are good, he understands pacing and story telling better than most 20 year veterans at this point. I just don't think it is the right time to pull the trigger on him. While he has the framework of a world champion I think he lacks the legend to back it up. GOK is booked strong, but there is a vague sense that he hasn't really defined himself as a world champ yet. It is something that needs to be cultivated over years, especially in the framework of Japan which prizes seniority and experience so highly. Okada gets a pass for being pushed so hard so young because he is one of the rare nips to have the size to compete against even western heavyweights, the physical conditioning to do those insane 45 minute ironman matches with no stops or restholds, and the willingness to do what is needed.
I love O'Khan, hell I am even wearing his first shirt right as I type this, but I don't think the reaction from the Japanese audience would be ideal at this point and NJPW would have to take the title off of him pretty quick. It is honestly a shame Ospraey is injured because he is the first champ since Evil got the belt that the Japanese audience has been 100% behind. His merch has been selling insanely well and the social media buzz surrounding him is real.
Japan has been pretty tepid towards NJPW during the Evil administration and they completely loathed the Ibushi run. Granted it isn't entirely Ibushi's fault. The new title pissed many people off and making Ibushi take responsiblity for it fucked up any heat he was building. Also Ibushi is great in the chase but lacks the charisma to hold. At best he is a transitional at worst he is a challenger.
Heavyweight Ospreay, for all the western fanbase's crying on twitter, was a success in Japan and was poised to carry the UE to the top heel faction as Bullet Club drifts off into obscurity. He finally got the look, learned how to change his style to emphasis that look, and his character work was for the most part successful in the ring even if the audience reaction to his promos was polite confusion. If he could learn enough Japanese to cut a promo that emphasised his character of a violent stupid low class chav with the thin veneer of civilization leading him to believe he is upper crust compared to the colonials then he would have been Stan Hansen over with the Japanese audience. Japs love to feel like the slighted underdog that beats the foreigner at their own game and humiliates them. Ospreay had almost all the pieces to pull that shit off but now will be out of action for so long his heat absolutely will die off.
No.642
Wrestle Grand Slam in the Tokyo Dome is next week but the only match on the card as of now is Okada vs X for the IWGP world heavyweight belt. The road to shows in Korakuen Hall will be from Monday to Wednesday so they'll likely finalize the card then. Though as of now, I guess Okada will likely win the belt and make it as worthwhile as he did with the IWGP heavyweight belt.
No.643
>>639Yeah, O-Khan has a way's to go, though he's future is brighter than anyone else currently.
No.644
>>642Okada is hopefully recovered enough to carry the title, but I doubt it. He was forcing himself in the midcard with two slipped discs for an entire year. To be honest X is probably going to win it. If Okada does take the belt he will likely only serve as a transitional champ while they desperately look for someone to take the belt. Losing Ospreay at this time is a massive blow to the company after two years of fuck ups. He was their young talent poised to carry the company for as long as it took for Okada to recover and the Japanese fans were completely behind him. As it stands now even if X does take the belt all NJPW can hope to do is throw it on a fan favorite as a temporary fix while they look to build someone in the roster up as a legit title holder. Shingo would have been the obvious choice a year ago, but they have spent basically from G1 2020 until now having him serve as enhancement talent for Ospreay and in doing so undermined Shingo's credibility. Suzuki, while a good challenger, is just too old and slow to work as a convincing holder. 2010-2015 Suzuki could have worked as a champ but his cross-promotional work in NOAH put a stop to that and by the time he returned in 2017 his heat had died down. With the travel restrictions, the age of the heavyweight roster, and the audience reaction factored in the amount of potential title holders is extremely limited. At best X would need to be Naito, but that is only a temporary fix as he is honestly slow and busted in 2021. He struggles with every destino and is showing his age. The best they can hope for right now is to slot the belt on Naito to buy time until they can completely rework their booking and give Ospraey and Okada time to recover.
No.645
This has been an absolute terrible show so far. Hopefully the main event can salvage it.
No.650
Noah is pretty good for everything but Mutoh. Fujita's run has been insanely fun. Even the Go Shiozaki match where they literally stared at one another for 45 minutes was fun. The Go match worked the first time because no one had ever done something like that before. To be honest though unless you were watching it live it isn't worth it. Someone watching the VOD now knows nothing will happen for the first 45 minutes so they are likely to get impatient and turn it off as opposed to the live version where I ended up literally sliding to the edge of my seat because the tension kept building, nothing was happening, and I had no idea what was going on. In practice the Tubbie-Oh/Fujita staredown works better if only because it made the point without over stating itself and the casual viewer can watch it without becoming tired and irritated.
Sukuraba has been having some really interesting matches and he has been cutting some insanely funny promos. It is a shame Jun Akiyamna is serving as the anchor for DDT because he would do much better in the current Noah environment. His sardonic wit and hangdog everyman personality would mesh so well with what Noah is doing right now.
I don't know how Marufuji did it, but he managed to pull Noah back from the brink with his booking. My only complaint is that he favors the grandpas way too much at the expense of their developing talent. Nakajima and Kitamiya are both in their prime and have shown the willingness to do whatever it takes to get ahead. Meanwhile Kiyomiya is the best young talent they have and is frankly being squandered. I have heard some rumors of Kiyomiya talking with AEW so we may see him pop up there sooner or later. Tony seems to be testing the waters to find Japanese talent that gets over with the tranny audience so he can poach them.
It is interesting to note that DDT brought Noah in and saved them, but now they themselves are declining. I shoot am sick of fucking Danshoku Dino taking up 1/4 of every DDT show and I can't be the only one.
I am looking forward to the Cyber Fight Festival supercard. The card look great, lots of decent sounding gimmicks, plenty of title challenges, and they are even showcasing the tiny meme promotions under the Cyber Fights brand like Ganbare!. It looks like it is going to be a very long show, but it starts early enough on a Saturday evening burgertime, so I plan on getting drunk, cooking lots of food, and making a thing out of it.
Are you going to watch the Misawa memorial on the 31st?
No.652
Okada tested positive for the corona.
Well just cancel the Tokyo Dome show at this point, they had 1 match to build the entire show up and both wrestlers in that match have been rendered out of action. The new belt is cursed
No.653
>>652They did cancel the Tokyo Dome show yesterday. Also Okada opened last night's event with a promo and he has already recovered.
Speaking of last night's event I just finished the openner. Big Man Tsuji and Shingo jerked the curtain and had an amazing match. It was a short match but one hell of a banger. Tsuji is going to be heading out on excursion soon so it looks like they are setting up his farewell program with Takagi.
No.654
>>653Well damn, i missed out on the recent shows.
>Tsuji excursionProbably Yuya too. But with the pandemic still on, where can they even go? Also there are no new young lions to replace them.
No.657
>>656>he was injured the night before during that exchange with Takagiftfm time zones really fuck with me sometimes.
No.658
>>636Shits bad. Ospreay posted his X-rays and he has ruptured discs and his spinal cord is severely compressed. He is one bad bump away from severing his spinal cord and Hayabusaing himself. Honestly he should probably retire, but he doesn't know how to do anything but wrestling. Either Ospreay completely stops the flipping shit and packs on as much muscle as humanly possible to strengthen his back or he is, for all intents and purposes, a dead man.
He is back in England now to rest and will likely vacate the RevPro title. From his tweet this morning and the fact RevPro pretty much exists as a farm league for NJPW they are probably going to hotshot the RevPro belt onto Shooter before he returns from excursion.
>>654NJPW has three or four young lions at the moment who have yet to make an in-ring debut. They had a special on NJPWworld a couple of months ago showing them in training. None of them are big men, but they are all very young. Depending on who is mentoring them at least one will get on gear and fill out by the time they make their young lion debut.
No.661
>>658Damn, he's toast. Likely all the bumps he took over the years added up. Not a surprise since people have been saying that he'll end up like Dynamite Kid eventually and looks like it's finally happening.
No.662
>cuckime
No.673
>>672Bro I don't know how to break this to you but he is the new Goto
No.675
>>672>Lineage founded with a championship match between twink jr Ibushi and jobber jr Desparado>Inaugural champion loses on 1st defense>2nd champion is autistic jr fraudchad who who is made of glass>2nd champion's spine is literally trying to eject itself from his back>Title vacated3rd champion will be either:
A) another jr and 1st time champion.
or
2)The greatest IWGP HW champion of all time and the booker's pet project he spent a decade nurturing.
Gee, I wonder what Gedo should do?
First 3 champions being Ibushi, Ospreay, and Shingo may be the worst starting lineage to any "top" title of all time.
No.682
>>675I wish someonw would just toss that belt in the trash already
No.683
>>682When they debuted it my first thought was
>Oh it is specifically designed to match Will Ospreay's ring gear.And then they immediately threw it on him. It isn't that bad to be honest. Most belts take a period of time to get used to and learn to appreciate. The problem is the old HebbyQ was so beautiful and so iconic, that literally every other promotion in the world had tried to emulate it at least once.
To me the biggest tragedy was the loss of lineage. Every other lineage out there is filled with absolute stinkers and only a few bright shining stars. The Hebby Q was truly the annals of the kings of puro with only a few blackmarks that in a way served to elevate the legends by contrasting their reigns. The only thing I can compare it to was the GHC Hebby Q until Suzuki got his hands on it. When Ibushi announced that the IC lineage would be mingled all I could think of was
>So Fat Fuck Fale, "big" Mike Elgin, and MVP are now the equivelent to the likes of Inoki, Vader, Choshu, Mutoh, Chono, Tenryu, Lesnar, and Okada?The IC was great in its own way because of how it was basically the Nakamura belt. It was the perfect title for the guy who was famous for not giving a fuck in the ring outside of the biggest shows of the year where he would pour his heart and soul into three or four glorious matches a year. It was a secondary title for secondary players. The Hebby Q however was the heart and soul of the promotion itself. The men who wore that strap would sawdust themselves in house shows just to uphold the honor and prestige it represented. Hell to this day, even without wearing the strap, Okada kept working despite desperately needing to take basically the last year and a half off to recover. He kept working because he felt that having worn the strap for so long he had the responsiblity to appear in as many shows as possible and uphold the honor of a former champ. I mean he has basically sucked for the last year and a half since he just can't go without extreme pain, but he did it anyways. Because he had to honor those that came before him, and those he believed would come after him.
The only thing good about putting the new strap on an injured Okada is that he will probably insist on ending the experiment and splitting the lineages again. He was clearly very displeased with the decision Bushiroad and booking made to unify it and, coupled with the fan outrage, he is probably the only one who can kayfabe splitting them without it looking awkward.
No.692
>>683>To me the biggest tragedy was the loss of lineage.Yes, that's the biggest reason everyone hates the new belt. You can say that the new belt is a 'continuation' of the old one but really it doesn't feel like it at all. Getting rid of the IWGP Heavyweight Belt was honestly be one of the worst decisons I've ever seen a wrestling company make.
Personally, I kinda agreed with Naito in that the IC belt also lost its place in recent years. With Nakamura it was ok and Naito's first reign too but after that, well it had its history sure but always felt second rate when placed with the IWGP Heavyweight belt. I can get over making a new title to 'unify' the belt, but I would've just done what WWE did before, unifying the WWE title and the Big Gold Belt but simply making the big gold belt inactive and continue on the main WWE belt.
No.698
Oh neat, Miho Abe is back as Taichi's valet.
No.699
Based ZSJ calling out NJPW for being shit right now and desperately needing to elevate their quality of matches unless they want NOAH to overtake them. I know he is a heel in kayfabe and a shoot commie, but that promo was 100% truth.
>The only thing worse than having to drink a ZIMA after a match is not having a ZIMA to drink after a match
No.716
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>>699I'd say that dangerous tekkers are now babyfaces. At least they were in the feud with GoD and in this promo. I know ZSJ is a skinny, self professed vegan commie soyboy but damn over the years he has grown on me. Still not a huge fan but i'll rate him above the other brits and gaijins I've seen.
No.825
Glad to see Shingo get the strap but the match was kind of underwhelming. Okada just can't go anymore. Shingo looked like he had to power down on his offense so that Okada could handle it, but even Okada's offense looked weak and sloppy. Also they buried the Rainmaker. Despite Okada nailing it multiple times, with the wrist control that kayfabe used to make it so powerful, the Rainmaker did little to nothing with even Shingo using it to little effect.
The entire card was underwhelming to be honest. Despy going over to retain was nice, but the match was shit. Yoh can't work for shit and, other than him being a pretty boy, I can't understand why they constantly push him. ELP and Ishimori came in after the match to challenge SHO and YOH for the Jr Tag Titles, but I don't see R3K dropping them despite both SHO and YOH losing their matches tonight. Ishimori may be decent but ELP is a shitter among shitters as well as Canadian. I have never see more than one ELP mark and it was a child with a sign in English so more than likely they were a plant. If NJPW wants to capitalize on the YOH marks then the Jr Tag title is the absolute ceiling on what can reasonably be accepted with his talent. It is a shame that SHO is tied in with such a shitter because he is actually good. I would honestly like to see SHO put on some mass and get a shooter gimmick which would work with his amateur experience.
The Ibushi vs. Cobb match was pretty good, but it is clear that without Ospreay the UE faction is dead in the water. They had to put over Ibushi to set up this Shingo vs. Ibushi rivalry, but that seems more a function of the fact they had to rework the main event scene now that the guy they were setting up to be the top heel is broken. I have said it before and I will say it again, Ibushi is great in the chase but sucks to hold. NJPW would be foolish to have Ibushi wear the strap again after he tanked the ticket sales as hard as he did before, but there really isn't anyone else who is capable of challenging Shingo at the moment so we are stuck with the conclusion to the next PPV event being one with a foregone conclusion.
LiJ went over the Trekkers in their six-man tag match which is just terrible considering that the same LiJ six-man tag team got completely humiliated by YH/Goto/Ishii the other day ago when they when all three submitted at the same time. I can't help but wonder if this is related to the promo that ZSJ cut when he shit on both the booking and one of NJPW's biggest sponsors. Heel or not the booking committee more than likely didn't appreciate hearing that and likely decided to abort the push they seemed ready to give the Trekkers. Miho Abe didn't show up after making such a deal out of her return so I am inclined to believe my conjecture is correct and they are being punished for Zach's loose tongue.
Speaking of Zach shooting on ZIMA they seemed to have noticed and taken offense since there were bottles there for the post match promos for the first time in a good long while.
No.827
>>826The belt was too big for him so Tsuji had to hold it on him while he cut his promo. Also the Japanese NJPW store sent out a mass email to what I assume is all their customers apologizing for running out of Shingo merch and saying they still had a few pieces of his stuff in stock but it was almost gone.
No.828
>>827wew, maybe things can be salvaged after all
though I still wouldn't put it past gedo to have ibushi beat takagi as fucking retarded as that sounds. Though I feel that it wasn't in the plans for Takagi to hold the belt so I kinda doubt he'll be a long term champion. Hopefully they can see how much fans love him so that he can have a long reign. Also if he beats ibushi, I'm excited to see the kinds of matches in store. I feel like Naito will surely toss his name in the hat at some point. Also since Tanahashi beat Takagi for the NEVER belt, I feel that Takagi could put out a challenge to Tana and I hope so, their match for the NEVER belt was great, my MOTY so far.
No.832
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>>828I think the biggest thing to get over with hotshotting the belt on Takagi is that he spent eight months or so being Ospreay's personal jobber. They used him to build up the new HebbyQ CHADspreay as a legitimate powerhouse who can mow through the most aggressive wrestler on the roster through sheer power while tanking his powermoves. The only upside is that HW Ospreay was built up so strong in Kayfabe that he may as well have been a seperate person from flippyshitter Ospreay. This leaves them a little whiggle room to say
>Well of course Shingo Takagi lost to Heavyweight Ospreay, he was the strongest guy in the company until all his lightweight injuries caught up with him.As for Naito they absolutely will book him in at least one angle but the chance of any sort of extended program or Naito going over are slim to none. They guy is broken and old. He hasn't been able to pull off a clean Destino in over a year. He can start a match strong, but five minutes of work and you will notice him slowing down. He struggles with the most basic shit he would have had no problem with three or four years ago. Naito is very rapidly entering Tanahashi territory, the only difference is Tana has figured out exactly how to work a match he can do at reasonable speed without looking like shit to cover for his age, injuries, and weakness. Granted that one match he does every time nowadays is amazing and people will show up to watch it, but it isn't going to work as a main event draw.
The future of NJPW is not too bright. I can honestly see them pushing GKO into the main even scene prematurely in a desperate bid to buy time while they wait for Kidd, Yuya, Ren, and Big Man Tsuji to go/return from excursion. Ren will return first and hopefully Shibata can beat some of his charisma and toughness into Ren so that he is able to immediately legitimize himself and escape the undercard.
Speaking of LA Dojo I was not a fan of the idea at first, seeing as little more than a shallow attempt to court the American audience and expand into North America. Now, with the relative collapse of RevPro into a joke of a promotion, it seems a viable option for getting a young lion out of Japan and away from the Japanese audience's eyes so that he can season himself and shape his future character. Shibata himself can still move and he is able teach his charges what it takes to make wrestling believable, while hopefully helping them avoid the mistakes that sent him into an early retirement.
No.833
>>832Honestly I never liked how Ospreay would beat Takagi. Takagi is a beast amd Ospreay never overpowered anyone ever. But in their matches it always looked like Takagi would have to hold back so that Ospreay could get his shit in to appear stronger.
>The future of NJPW isn't brightI can see that. Their big stars of the past decade: Tana, Naito and even Okada to an extent are reaching their limits. Jay White is the only top guy right now that could go on for the rest of the decade since he is still young and ospreay is fucked, out of the picture for the foreseeable future. O-Khan is their only prospective Japanese star but it is way too early to put the strap on him now. Sanada could have been a player but they've booked him to be Goto 2.0 so far. At least he is still over with the fans. Problem is they don't have a hot new Japanese babyface to carry the company like Tana or Okada did so NJPW are kinda screwed in that regard for now.
No.834
>>833Oh and I completely forgot about Ibushi lmao. But they fucking buried him so hard with the new belt, i can't see him recovering from it anytime soon. Also he was a shit champion.
No.845
Excerpts from Shingo Takagi's recent interview with Pro Wrestling Weekly
>Gaijin wrestlers of today are a waste of money. Naito agrees, Hiromu and Bushi agree, SANADA doesn't care.
>The issue with Gaijins of today is they are nothing like the Gaijins that used to come, the Hulk Hogans, Vaders, Scott Nortons. America can no longer produce men of that caliber. All the Gaijins we get are selfish loud mouths that are hard to work with and bring their political issues to us thinking we give a shit.
>Jay White once tried to get us to support some black guy that died, Goto told Jay to shut up, every Japanese wrestler but Tanahashi began to laugh.
>As for AEW, look, I understand we are going through a rough time, the Chinese disease has benched half our roster, our new main title is not so popular with the fans and even brought a bad reputation of being cursed thanks to Ospreay. Our ticket sales have been so bad even our little sister company Stardom beat us. But I assure you I would rather die on my feet fighting to bring the popularity back to NJPW than to let some cunning fox like AEW absorb us
>You see, AEW is like a Fox while WWE is like a wolf, with a wolf you can see the danger coming, but with a Fox they steal from behind your back and attack you when you least expect it. That's not good for our company and the Japanese people.
Shingo ended the interview talking about his love for Japan in general
>Japan is a beautiful place and our people forget about how amazing it is, I want to remind them of that. Japanese pride is my top priority. People like Tanahashi, who are too nice and would sell us out to make some foreigner happy, are not welcome. This is Takagi Shingo's New Japan and I will bring it to the top.
No.858
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>>853I like the fact that Shingo is an ethno-nationalist who holds his beliefs because he understands that it is in the best interest of his people, but Goto is just a straight up racist who thinks you aren't actually a human if you aren't Japanese.
It is like the bell curve meme.
No.880
>>270lmao a year ago this dude was the world champ. Now he is getting outwrestled and made to look like a complete jabroni by fucking Yoshi-Hashi.
No.881
>>617>R3K's 5th reign with the tag belts end in their 2nd defense as they lost the belts to Ishimori & PhantasmoSeriously, fucking break them up already. 5 title reigns but only 4 successful defenses. Teams with only 1 or 2 reigns have had more successful title defenses than R3K. So much for being the premier tag team of the Jr.s, they can barly even hold the belts. Break them up and let Sho have his singles push and let Yoh do whatever he wants as well.
>>880Evil, damn, I don't think I've seen anyone in NJPW get buried as hard as he has.
>Win the NJC>Betray LIJ>Become double champ>Biggest heel in the companyAnd since then
<Can't win matches without Dick Togo<Lose the belts almost instantly<Lose the rematch as well>Starts some shit with Jay white eluding mutiny in the bullet club<It's fucking nothing, nothing came off of it<Lose to Sanada at the WK15<Lose to Yano for the gimmick match trophy<Stuck in tag matches without any big singles match in months<Bullet job squad outwrestled by Yoshi-hashiWhat the fuck, seriously did he fuck Gedo's wife/daughter or something, Evil's at the worst he's ever been.
Not to mention his fiancee left him. I can't even see a road to salvage him. A good showing at G1 or even a title reign still won't do enough unless he completely revamps things like how he did last year when he betrayed LIJ. What a waste.
No.882
>>881>Not to mention his fiancee left him.Speaking of Io Shirai she disappeared from the E for a few months and went back to Japan. Now that she is back pics have been popping up with her and the rest of the E Japs at some baseball game. All the other Japs have asian boyfriends/girlfriends with them. Even fucking Saray who just got to the WWE not to long ago is snuggling up to Akira Tozawa while they pose for pics. Everyone except Io, who is in the arms of a guy with an emoji covering his face. That emoji guy has very blonde hair, very pale skin, and is tall and cut.
EVILetty got buried so hard his fiance left him for the BWC.
No.883
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>Goto jobbing to 3rd gen boomer
How much lower can he go?
No.908
Hiromu's back and gets an instant title shot against robin eagle
