NJPW Thread (New Japan Pro Wrestling)

[Spens1]

Night 1 of the New Japan Cup is done and my bracket is already in tatters, as is tradition (bloody Gedo )

Chase Owens beat Juice Robinson (how, he's the US Champ and already lacks any real credibility, though it does set up a match and builds up Chase who is getting a bit of a push).

Yoshi Hashi looked like he could lose but Red Shoes was MIA and Yoshi Hashi eventually won.

Taichi beat Honma pretty convincingly.

And of course Ishii beat Nagata but Nagata got a lot of offense. Ishii doesn't have bad matches, ever, against anyone.

[Spens1]

Night 3 has finished with Kota Ibushi pinning IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito to advance in the tournament in what i'd have to say is probably the best 20 minute match this year quiet easily. The match was fast pace, high impact and flowed nicely and told a story (Naito is basically back to being near peak tranquillo, but Ibushi is riding high from his recent return and is determined to go to MSG).

Other tournament matches had Taguchi roll up Tenzan (figure Finlay was meant to pin Tenzan) and ZSJ submitting EVIL (actually this shocked me a bit, i thought EVIL would win this given their recent encounters, but anyway).

The other major match tonight was Hiroshi Tanahashi vs young lion Shota Umino. This match was fantastic, the storytelling in this by both was top notch. Umino, with a limited arsenal (being a young lion, they only use a very limited moveset) was able to take Tanahashi very far, bringing a high amount of energy and was able to hit a good deal of offense (in fact he got the better of Tanahashi mostly) but at the end Tanahashi was able to tap out the young lion via cloverleaf. Even at the end, Umino tried to crawl after Tanahashi (Umino tried to stand up but Tanahashi laid him down, that will play a part in a storyline down the line). What was weird also was Umino's dad was the ref (though nothing really happened, it was just strange).

In the tags. Tsuji got the opportunity to take it Suzuki and looked really good (i think he'll come back and be a big hoss once he gets sent out, also he ain't only 91kg's, thats a lie, dude's north of 100 easily).

Henare ended up being a punching bag for the team of Elgin, Nicholls and Cabana (Henare needs to turn heel, he could easily contort his current character into being heel actually, it wouldn't be that hard, a desire for wins turns him over to the dark side as he's corrupted by Fale and Jay White's words).

Taichi is secretly one of the most intriguing guys in the company, he's like a Japanese Miz, he's not particularly good in the ring but his mic work and character makes him so damn interesting (even if you also hate him to bits).

Narita looked good against Shingo Takagi in his 6 man tag. Also I think with EVIL losing his match, Sanada has a huge chance (at least i hope so, Goto making the semi finals won't do anything for his credibility since he'll do nothing for most of the year after).

[Spens1]

Night 5 and we had Ishii advance against Taichi in a really good match and pretty much has cemented the deal that Taichi is a legitimate threat. Yoshi-Hashi beat Chase, meaning Juice is atm, a massive jobber, at least Yoshi-Hashi is getting that push but he's getting destroyed next round (at least he made the quarters).

A quick recap of night 4 includes Sanada beating Goto in a very good match as well as Suzuki beating Kojima.

Cabana managed to beat Makabe (not happy about this one, given Makabe vs Yano has some GBH implications rather than a stupid comedy match), speaking of Yano, he beat DBS Jr in his round 1 matchup.

[Spens1]

New Japan wtf is you doing?

Ibushi losing to ZSJ after a huge win over IC champ Naito (and the guy i'm presuming they're building up for a title run). Nah we'll just have another round of LOLOKADAWINS (and i love Okada, but keep him far away from the IWGP title, he's been great without it).

Nah we gotta have Okada vs White 4 months after the fact or Tanahashi vs White the very next PPV pretty much. Hopefully this sets up Ishii winning the entire thing but that probably means Ishii loses and Okada wins at Dominion and Naito is basically doing nothing till G1 (then again, he'll probably win it and go into the wrestle kingdom main event).

Naito vs Ibushi is great and in all honesty better than the main event but still, its all sorts of mediocre tbh on New Japan's part if they have White also lose after no defenses.

The U.S title match is nothing short of a steaming pile of **** (making Juice look even more medicore). The side titles should be great though at least.

[Spens1]

Night 8 of New Japan Cup and Two absolute bangers but both completely different.

Colt Cabana vs Toru Yano was basically as good of a comedy match as you will see, it belonged in DDT but i was thoroughly entertained and frankly i wish WWE did comedy matches as good as this (because they damn well try), they should take a page out of this cause this was top notch entertainment. Glad Cabana is getting some love as well, he was very over with the Japanese crowd. Good showing as well, i think he could be a great mainstay if he wants to (he'd be doing more with New Japan than with ROH).

The main event though, daaaaaaaaaamn, this was the longest New Japan Cup match this year so far, it went almost 30 minutes (in fact it may have gone over, might have missed the call for 30 minutes). This was an absolute war between Suzuki and Sanada, and the crowd was white hot for Sanada, he got a reaction that's usually only reserved for Tanahashi, Okada or Naito to be honest. One minor gripe is that Sanada's skull end, always ends up with the opponents head popping out or the submission looking like it is ineffective cause it ain't deep enough (something like Cena's execution of the STF, in fact its a similar issue for a different hold). Also selling of the leg wasn't the best given the only thing Suzuki didn't do was chop it off, despite all that, this was an amazing match and one of the best of the entire tornuament thus far (i'd say its this or Naito-Ibushi thus far). Sanada was made to look like a star and a future world champion, New Japan built him up hard. Commentary talked in detail about their past meetings in All Japan in the champions carnival

We have a break till the 20th with Okada vs Ospreay (must watch) and Ishii vs Yoshi-Hashi (Ishii has good matches with everyone).

Hopefully i'm right but we could get a Sanada vs Ishii final, honestly I hope its one of those two who take the entire thing now but we have quarter final matchups still left.

[Spens1]

Into the semis we go (well it was on thursday night).

Tanahashi pinned ZSJ after basically a role up, as ZSJ destroyed Tanahashi for about 80% of the match (i don't get why they'd do this personally, unless they want to put Sanada over Tanahashi because otherwise this is dumb).

Sanada beat Cabana in a competitive but somewhat obvious matchup, Sanada is a surprisingly good comedy wrestler as it turns out, he does a decent job in those types of matches.

On the other side

Ishii vs Yoshi Hashi was the match of the night on its end, a very heavy story in that one, Yoshi Hashi had one of his best matches of his career but Ishii advances in an absolute war.

Okada beat Ospreay in a very solid match but after the Ishii vs Yoshi Hashi match i found it a bit lacking in truth. Again it had some of the same elements as Ishii vs Yoshi Hashi but i wasn't quiet as invested in that.

Tonight we have Sanada vs Tanahashi and Okada vs Ishii, lets hope the two underdogs go through (as is New Japan Cup tradition) and we have a matchup between two underdogs.

[Spens1]

Semi finals of the New Japan Cup and what an epic night of wrestling it was.

Okada beat Ishii in a potential match of the year competitor, proper back and forth where both men looked equal.

Main event was interesting, because this was Sanada's home town (Niigata) Tanahashi worked the match as a heel. Before discussing the match, Sanada got the biggest pop of the year just about from the hometown crowd. Anyway the match was solid, Tanahashi as a heel works brilliantly and they both played their roles really well. Sanada going over Tanahashi is huge though, so maybe that was the reason to have ZSJ lose to Tana. Sanda going over Tanahashi makes me think they're finally comitting to him being in that upper mid card/main event slot.

Sanada vs Okada for the New Japan Cup, i really hope they give it to Sanada. Jay White vs Sanada on paper isn't a barnstormer, but they already have Naito vs Ibushi for the IC title so i think they can put two up and comers for the World title and it not hurting. Also Okada can't take a loss this year and Jay White being defenseless would be dumb given that Tanahashi just lost on his first defense as well. Also, i'm tired of this White-Okada-Tanahashi story, they need to put it on the backburner for now and resume it later on, just give it a rest please, we don't need WWE levels of repeat matches.

[Spens1]

New Japan cup finals and #LOLOKADAWINS (and this is coming from a huge fan of him). **** this ****. they couldn't be more predictable if they tried, i'm so **** tired of this **** matchup, GIVE IT A REST FFS. The match was great but all the joy was sucked out for me with that bloody finish.

Seriously they've done some kind of variation of White vs Okada or White vs Tanahashi since Dominion. You have how many top level stars, give them a chance ffs.

And the worst thing is, if Okada loses, he is back to square one more or less, if Jay White loses, he's a 0 defense loser and a complete geek.

This is some WWE level bull that only seems to be to appease american fans, just do a new japan event, don't americanise the damn product, people love New Japan for New Japan.

Which brings me to that U.S title match, it was an overbooked, waste of time, i'm sorry, 3 guys and Chase still couldn't win, i know he's a jobber but damn you really put him back down at the bottom of the card hard. I mean Juice needed a convincing win but i hated this match with a passion for all its interference.

Fire whoever is doing the American side of things, people want New Japan pro wrestling, not a parody of modern american pro wrestling which is basically what the U.S title was.

[Spens1]

Ok, all raging aside, we have our main event of White vs Okada, White gets massive heat.

Also i'm imagining that Naito vs Ibushi is going to be there (and on paper, its a WK caliber main event, that is as good of a mtach as we'll see this year).

[LLJ]

NJPW has had some strange WWE-style kind of creative booking of late. Or maybe I've not noticed it before and do now. Having said that, NJPW didn't become popular again the past few years by trying to do WWE style bookings and they shouldn't try.

[Spens1]

NJPW has had some strange WWE-style kind of creative booking of late. Or maybe I've not noticed it before and do now. Having said that, NJPW didn't become popular again the past few years by trying to do WWE style bookings and they shouldn't try.

Yeah that's the thing. They're trying too much to do U.S style things with the U.S belt and then they had the weird triple threat (though that was Kenny's idea) Cody Rhodes being inserted into storylines he had no business being near etc.

[Scott Hall]

Watched the heavily promoted Kenny Omega documentary that finally aired on TSN tonight...

Heavily focuses on his relationship with Ibushi and the Golden Lovers storyline and shows footage of them
working on their moves and how they ended up having some animosity before reuniting. Doesn't really say
if they are really gay or not and how they blur reality but there is no mention of Omega having a wife or GF
throughout his life.

They showed footage of him having a match with AJ Styles in 2006 and Styles getting on the mic telling him
hes glad he didn't go to that garbage promotion WWE lol. Apparently Omega was considered a "vanilla midget"
back then by some legends but they didn't say who. Meltzer also gushes all over Omega especially the match with
Okada and takes some pot shots at WWE.

It ends at All In...the thing that stood out to me that I didn't like was something that Disco Inferno talked about
the other day about the fans being heavily comic book nerds now. And in this documentary if you're not a wrestling
fan and you're watching it all you're seeing is hardcore wrestling geeks and skids and people you'd see at a strip
club at 3am. They have this fat chick covered in tats and piercings with purple hair explaining how wrestling works
and what's going on in NJPW and list her as a "culture critic". The behind the scenes of All In and the fan events looked
like a nerd convention.

I've heard some people say wrestling has lost it's "cool factor" but they really need to get back the normal people
demographic they had in the 80's and Monday Night Wars.

[Spens1]

Watched the heavily promoted Kenny Omega documentary that finally aired on TSN tonight...

Heavily focuses on his relationship with Ibushi and the Golden Lovers storyline and shows footage of them
working on their moves and how they ended up having some animosity before reuniting. Doesn't really say
if they are really gay or not and how they blur reality but there is no mention of Omega having a wife or GF
throughout his life.

They showed footage of him having a match with AJ Styles in 2006 and Styles getting on the mic telling him
hes glad he didn't go to that garbage promotion WWE lol. Apparently Omega was considered a "vanilla midget"
back then by some legends but they didn't say who. Meltzer also gushes all over Omega especially the match with
Okada and takes some pot shots at WWE.

It ends at All In...the thing that stood out to me that I didn't like was something that Disco Inferno talked about
the other day about the fans being heavily comic book nerds now. And in this documentary if you're not a wrestling
fan and you're watching it all you're seeing is hardcore wrestling geeks and skids and people you'd see at a strip
club at 3am. They have this fat chick covered in tats and piercings with purple hair explaining how wrestling works
and what's going on in NJPW and list her as a "culture critic". The behind the scenes of All In and the fan events looked
like a nerd convention.

I've heard some people say wrestling has lost it's "cool factor" but they really need to get back the normal people
demographic they had in the 80's and Monday Night Wars.

The only way wrestling is going to become hip, at least in the west, is if companies in America actually learn how to book properly and for a consistent period of time. Since the end of the attitude era, there hasn't really been a mainstream promotion that has booked well at all and they also need to keep their finger on the pulse in terms of pop culture. No promotion has done that for nearly 2 decades besides Lucha Underground and they're underfunded and expensive. If Lucha Underground had more money and could push out a product more frequently. I'd say they'd be a top rated show in their own right.

[Scott Hall]

Watched the heavily promoted Kenny Omega documentary that finally aired on TSN tonight...

Heavily focuses on his relationship with Ibushi and the Golden Lovers storyline and shows footage of them
working on their moves and how they ended up having some animosity before reuniting. Doesn't really say
if they are really gay or not and how they blur reality but there is no mention of Omega having a wife or GF
throughout his life.

They showed footage of him having a match with AJ Styles in 2006 and Styles getting on the mic telling him
hes glad he didn't go to that garbage promotion WWE lol. Apparently Omega was considered a "vanilla midget"
back then by some legends but they didn't say who. Meltzer also gushes all over Omega especially the match with
Okada and takes some pot shots at WWE.

It ends at All In...the thing that stood out to me that I didn't like was something that Disco Inferno talked about
the other day about the fans being heavily comic book nerds now. And in this documentary if you're not a wrestling
fan and you're watching it all you're seeing is hardcore wrestling geeks and skids and people you'd see at a strip
club at 3am. They have this fat chick covered in tats and piercings with purple hair explaining how wrestling works
and what's going on in NJPW and list her as a "culture critic". The behind the scenes of All In and the fan events looked
like a nerd convention.

I've heard some people say wrestling has lost it's "cool factor" but they really need to get back the normal people
demographic they had in the 80's and Monday Night Wars.

The only way wrestling is going to become hip, at least in the west, is if companies in America actually learn how to book properly and for a consistent period of time. Since the end of the attitude era, there hasn't really been a mainstream promotion that has booked well at all and they also need to keep their finger on the pulse in terms of pop culture. No promotion has done that for nearly 2 decades besides Lucha Underground and they're underfunded and expensive. If Lucha Underground had more money and could push out a product more frequently. I'd say they'd be a top rated show in their own right.

Love me some Lucha Underground my favorite promotion in the last 5 years...

I think for it to be hip again it needs to be non PG and more like ECW and the Attitude Era. Some of the cheesyness
and corniness of certain gimmicks and things they do turn a lot of people off.

[Spens1]

Biggish news out of New Japan, Big Mike, Micheal Elgin has left New Japan after his contract expired recently, the former Intercontinental and NEVER Openweight champ hasn't been featured so prominantly since the scandal last year (tldr, covered up a sexual assault supposedly that happened between a student of his and another wrestler/student) which certainly got him heat in the United States, they had to take the NEVER Openweight title off of him once New Japan found out how much the U.S fans really did not like him actually.

On twitter he's teasing going to All Japan and/or Big Japan, which would be a great fit for him (he'd certainly be the #1 gaijin and probably fit into their main event scene seamlessly alongside Miyahara, Zeus and Jake Lee as a the key core guys along with getting high profile matches with Suwama and of course, on the Big Japan side, oh boy, Okayabashi, Daisuke Suzuki and of course, Elgin vs Daisuke Sekimoto (good god).NOAH is going through an expansion sort of phase but would he fit in NOAH (they have wrestlers a bit on the smaller side plus the only gaijin they bring in now and again is Edwards and that is very infrequent).

Also hearing alongside those two, Impact could be on the table with a 6 figure offer (main event heel perhaps, cause they can't really bring him in as a face, also given they're more a canadian company nowadays, that would be perfect given they wouldn't have to worry as much about working visas for him). MLW is always an option as well given they're very open to working with anyone and are flexible. Of course though, don't forget the WWE, they've been getting everyone after all, it is a possibility that he could be in talks with them, back in 2015 he did go to a tryout whilst he was ROH champ (which between that and the minor league baseball tryouts also soured relations between the two parties). If Elgin does move to WWE though i think he will struggle given the lack of personality which you really need to have in spades (especially to overcome the disasterous main roster booking).


As much as i don't have much time for Elgin as a personality, he was a damn good wrestler, however, hopefully this means that they bring over Jeff Cobb in full time (i'm serious, pull the trigger and bring him in as a full time New Japan wrestler, he is a better version of Elgin in many ways).

Teruaki Kanemitsu has also left New Japan, the young lion suffered a neck injury a few years ago and despite recovering, it looks like his neck hasn't really recovered so maybe he wants a career elsewhere or if he's retiring from wrestling altogether (then again if he was i doubt they'd release him). Its a shame because now both of the two most promising wrestlers of that class (Kanemitsu and Kitamura) are now released due to injuries.

[Spens1]

Well RIP Jay White. His main event career is over, CHAOS is a mess still, Bullet Club isn't really credible anymore (their one main event threat). In saying that amazing main but really. the singles New Japan matches (NEVER, IC, British Heavyweight & World Titles) where the only matches really worth watching.

Naito and Ibushi MOTN in all honesty, 20 minutes only but good god what a 20 minutes. Ibushi i think has been established as that #4 guy.

ZSJ also getting a win over Tana is huge, a submission victory at that, Tanahashi looked like he was crying at the end. He got killed.

Jay White though becomes the 2nd 0 defence champ (other one obviously being Tanahashi). He's all sorts of stuffed. Obviously he took a rainmaker and kicked out (only one or two people have done that).

The ROH side was a mess and New Japan should end the relationship (especially after that dumb Enzo & Cass angle).

In saying that, we now return to our regular scheduled broadcasting. Naito is winning G1 and he's taking the title, as it is written (well if he loses again then even Japan would turn on Okada).

[Spens1]

https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/43037?showCards=1

Goto is going to die pretty much, I'm sure they'll have Jay White absolute brutalise Goto, maybe even Goto gets a DQ win because White goes overboard (suspension angle, wouldn't be the worst idea for Jay White tbh, theirs nothing for him atm).

https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/43569?showCards=1

Ibushi vs ZSJ is a very good start to the IC title reign of Ibushi.

On the other hand, the Juice vs Fale match, if Juice wins, cool but it doesn't do a whole lot really, if Fale wins, then Juice is even more stuffed than he is now.

https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/43043?showCards=1

I'm strangly enough, looking forward to Cobb vs Taichi (Taichi on the mic has become one of the better guys in the company). Also the Jr Heavyweight title match should be great, glad to see some of Inoki's influence (80's Inoki) is there in the heavy pushing of the Jrs. New Japan should just take Bandido full time and same goes for Dragon Lee mostly.

https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/43044?showCards=1

EVIL vs Ishii should be insane (potential MOTY) and Sanada vs Okada will be a damn good match.

We're getting the long build i think this year, LIJ vs CHAOS is going to be the major feud it looks like heading into the summer and latter half of this year.

Ishimori is apparently wrestling against Ospreay, Lee with a mystery partner (then again, its probably El Phantasmo)

[WRau1]

Wow, I guess i didn't realize that Jay White is only 26yrs old. That's insane.

[Spens1]

Wow, I guess i didn't realize that Jay White is only 26yrs old. That's insane.

He is super young, he's going to be a major guy for the next 10-15 years.

[LLJ]

Wow, I guess i didn't realize that Jay White is only 26yrs old. That's insane.

He is super young, he's going to be a major guy for the next 10-15 years.

He is literally NJPW's home-grown gaijin, they trained and groomed him since he was but a baby in wrestling terms, so they're committed to him it seems and he seems to think of NJPW as home. Obviously this title reign was just to give him a short experience in the main event picture. There were some awkward moments but overall it seems to have been a good experience for him and he had 2 decent matches with top guys.