NJPW Thread (New Japan Pro Wrestling)

[LLJ]

It was a million times better than the Bret-Shawn Ironman Match in 96

[Spens1]

G1 Special just finished and the mad men did it. Its happening

Spoiler:

Tama Tonga pulled the trigger and kicked out of half of bullet club, everyone from the Elite as well as Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi. I'm amazed that both Yujiro and Chase got kicked out actually, thought they'd remain in Bullet Club. Interesting that King Haku was there also, not that he will be full time. Either way Tama Tonga getting that singles push.

Will be interesting to see where Fale falls in this (speaking of which why the hell wasn't he here). They're light in numbers though so they'll need members (unless they go full LIJ and have 5 members).

Main event was a solid match, pretty brutal overall but good. Too much nonsense with Brandi and the bucks though, could have done without that.

Semi main was great, JR got better when he got whooped I wasn't even mad, i was like good, you deserve it for being that bad at commentary. Chaos is in shambles though, not only did they have no one out there for him but he lost his title, meaning that the faction has absolutely no titles. wouldn't be surprised if he jumps factions in a bit (after a CHAOS civil war).

Which brings me to another point, the commentary was bad, really bad, like monday night raw bad, pay Callis and Kelly to do all axs tv and english commentary in the states please (assuming you can't lure Mauro to leave NXT).

Junior Heavyweight title was nuts, i mean I'm pretty sure Hiromu and Dragon Lee both concussed each other badly and under normal circumstances, they'd both be out for months. They nearly killed each other but i'll be damned if it wasn't a good match.

Rest of the show wasn't of any real consequence i thought, Cobb had a nice showing and i really hope he signs full time with new japan, because he could be a solid presence in that upper mid card (i'd take him over Elgin that's for sure).

[improper]

Man, NXT really dropped the ball on Juice Robinson. That gimmick they gave him was just godawful and stupid and gave him zero chance to get over.

They really screwed up on Sami Calihan too.

Gotta be the two biggest failures in NXT's history, right?

[Spens1]

Man, NXT really dropped the ball on Juice Robinson. That gimmick they gave him was just godawful and stupid and gave him zero chance to get over.

They really screwed up on Sami Calihan too.

Gotta be the two biggest failures in NXT's history, right?

Well Callihan came in as a big deal, the gimmick didn't help but he admits he was complacent, not sure what they where doing with Juice though, given how good he is now.

[improper]

Well Callihan came in as a big deal, the gimmick didn't help but he admits he was complacent, not sure what they where doing with Juice though, given how good he is now.

I think the main issue with Callihan is that WWE just doesn't mesh with what he does well. He's brilliant at playing the violent psychopath. He's basically what Dean Ambrose should be but isn't because WWE is PG and crazy actually means wacky.

As for Juice, I guess I kind of get it, because he didn't really make the leap until he went to NJPW.

Still, though, seems like they really dropped the ball with two super talented guys by giving them the worst gimmicks imaginable. They were potential stars who got enhancement talent gimmicks.

[Scott Hall]

I loathed Sami Callihan when he was Solomon Crowe in NXT thought he was absolutely terrible
then when he was interviewed in Network specials he came off as the biggest geek.

Then the whole baseball bat incident with Eddie Edwards I thought he was even a bigger chump...

I just watched TNA for the first time last week in 6 months but it seems like he's finally found his niche
as a nut job which he naturally seems like. Hard to take a 5'8 guy as a bad ass seriously though

[improper]

Hard to take a 5'8 guy as a bad ass seriously though

I think it helps that he stiffs the hell out of people and is willing to take a beating. It's also easier to sell a smaller guy as tough if he's crazy.

[Ruzious]

I loathed Sami Callihan when he was Solomon Crowe in NXT thought he was absolutely terrible
then when he was interviewed in Network specials he came off as the biggest geek.

Then the whole baseball bat incident with Eddie Edwards I thought he was even a bigger chump...

I just watched TNA for the first time last week in 6 months but it seems like he's finally found his niche
as a nut job which he naturally seems like. Hard to take a 5'8 guy as a bad ass seriously though

If I was a talented pro wrestler with a family, Sami Callihan would be the last guy I'd want to work with.

[improper]

Night one of the G1 was really good. No MOTY matches, but several great ones.

All five tournament matches are worth watching.

[improper]

Anyone else here watching the G1? I think Omega/Naito was my favorite match thus far, but there have been a handful of really great ones.

[improper]

Watching the G1, you can't help but think how good a WWE tournament in a similar fashion could work. Two blocks, ten to twelve wrestlers in each, they all face each other each week on Raw/Smackdown. It could be absolutely incredible, given the talent WWE has under contract.

It's a real shame nothing like that will ever happen because Vince hates both tournaments and wrestling.

A King of the Ring tournament formatted like the G1 could be amazing, though.

[Spens1]

Well i'm not sure about the 2 block thing because G1 is hell on earth for wrestlers but i certainly think they should bring back king of the ring (maybe have one week just be KOTR instead of raw and smackdown) with the winner becoming #1 contender for a world title of their choice (much like the rumble winner gets a shot at mania for a world title).

Also on G1 itself, its been a bloody fantastic tornuament thus far, the one who has impressed me the most hasn't been Kenny or Naito (those two you almost expect it as they're two of the three best wrestlers in the world alongside Okada), but its Hangman Page, his match against Okada, good god this guy can go. He had an amazing match against the ace. Nevermind the Marty Scurll run, i think a Hangman Page run with the ROH world title may help that title in ways it hasn't been helped in years. That match may also be my favourite so far, alongside Naito-Ishii (due to the story there) and Kenny-Naito. I liked Kenny-Goto a lot but a bit too much outside stuff (like its good in doses, but they seem intent on going full ECW with it, they need to calm down a bit).

Tama Tonga from an in ring standpoint needs to up his game, especially tonight against Omega, everything else is there, legit everything else, he's probably the purest heel in the company right now, its just that ring work, hell Fale has had a better showing (like his match with Tanahashi was genuinly very good and he didn't even get carried, he was doing a lot in it).

[Spens1]

Ignore that post. Just watched night 6 and Tama did indeed step up, he looked crisp as hell against Omega. Bullet Club trying to outdo Suzukigun with the outside interference. Also rip Red Shoes, though it was always going to happen, pretty sure Fale and Tama are going to do terrible, but they have both picked up big wins i guess (Fale against Okada and Tama against Juice). Tama should have a US title shot and honestly, i'd be ok with Tama Tonga as U.S. champ. They got themselves DQ'ed and nearly where about to end Omega's G1 before the Elite ran into make a save, Tama promised to kill them (which leads me to believe that they're going to run intereference on all these matches, i also think that they may be the reason Omega doesn't progress out of this block, then again its probably that Omega-Ibushi will end up as a draw as they both die and Naito takes his place there).

Goto-Ishii was magical, big hoss brawl, who doesn't love that.

Juice vs Naito was a classic Heel vs Face fight, with Naito exploiting that hand and it clearly playing into the match (took 2 Destino's to take down Juice of all people, he might need a new finisher, or maybe he'll just need to hit stardust genius).

I really REALLY enjoyed Sanada vs ZSJ in the 'anything you can do, i can do better'. It was good because both are somewhat submission type wrestlers (not a fair comparison as ZSJ is the best submission based wrestler in a long long time).

Ibushi got rolled up again against Yano at least he didn't lose in less than a minute though. Imagine that being the way you lose your undefeated streak, i swear if Ibushi committed he'd be at the top of the company with Kenny, i think the key to Kenny signing a 3-4 year deal is Ibushi, sign Ibushi somehow to a long term deal (idk, offer him high 6 figures to low 7 figures) and Kenny would stay for the rest of his career basically.

Anyway, Henare looked great, i think its almost time for him to join up with the Bullet Club OG's (which commentary was talking up and honestly, i could see it happening, him, Jay White and Hikuleo all are likely additions to the faction).

Hangman pinned Finlay, not that it means much really (Finlay needs an excursion, legit he needs to go to Mexico, the in ring aspect is fine, its the charisma and other things, something that Mexico seems to work wonders for).

Jay White running away from Suzuki (and because White is such a heel, Suzuki worked this match face, probably the only time i think i've seen that).

I missed the first two tag team matches to be honest but the first one was lelgin and young lion vs Sho and Yoshi-Hashi (i did see the end as the young lion got beat by a dragon suplex, yikes)

second match was LIJ vs Fale and Tanga Loa which i didn't see any of).

[improper]

Well i'm not sure about the 2 block thing because G1 is hell on earth for wrestlers but i certainly think they should bring back king of the ring (maybe have one week just be KOTR instead of raw and smackdown) with the winner becoming #1 contender for a world title of their choice (much like the rumble winner gets a shot at mania for a world title).

Well, certainly WWE would probably have to do it differently, at least somewhat.

What I would do is make it a post-Wrestlemania tournament that takes up the bulk of time on Raw and Smackdown for ten weeks or so. Each week, you get the matches from one block on Raw and the other on Smackdown (with any NXT or free agents brought in randomly placed on one or the other), then it culminates in the King of the Ring PPV where you have the semi-finals (top two guys from each block) and the finals (winner of the previous two matches), along with other matches to fill out the card, some of which could be inspired by rivalries that cropped up during the tournament. The winner gets his title shot at Summerslam.

Doing one match per week would minimize the wear and tear on the wrestlers and it would also provide a legit reason to actually watch Raw and Smackdown, assuming they took the thing seriously and let the wrestlers actually work great matches.

WWE could even do more than ten per block. Could do twelve or fourteen since each guy only has to work one tournament match each week. You'd still be able to do all the little running storylines, though, as a week isn't really long enough to heal up from nagging injuries, as we constantly see in the NFL.

[Spens1]

Well i'm not sure about the 2 block thing because G1 is hell on earth for wrestlers but i certainly think they should bring back king of the ring (maybe have one week just be KOTR instead of raw and smackdown) with the winner becoming #1 contender for a world title of their choice (much like the rumble winner gets a shot at mania for a world title).

Well, certainly WWE would probably have to do it differently, at least somewhat.

What I would do is make it a post-Wrestlemania tournament that takes up the bulk of time on Raw and Smackdown for ten weeks or so. Each week, you get the matches from one block on Raw and the other on Smackdown (with any NXT or free agents brought in randomly placed on one or the other), then it culminates in the King of the Ring PPV where you have the semi-finals (top two guys from each block) and the finals (winner of the previous two matches), along with other matches to fill out the card, some of which could be inspired by rivalries that cropped up during the tournament. The winner gets his title shot at Summerslam.

Doing one match per week would minimize the wear and tear on the wrestlers and it would also provide a legit reason to actually watch Raw and Smackdown, assuming they took the thing seriously and let the wrestlers actually work great matches.

WWE could even do more than ten per block. Could do twelve or fourteen since each guy only has to work one tournament match each week. You'd still be able to do all the little running storylines, though, as a week isn't really long enough to heal up from nagging injuries, as we constantly see in the NFL.

i'd argue 10 per block is too small for even new japan given the names that aren't participating (Cody, Bucks, Taichi etc) but for raw and smackdown they'd absolutely need 20 if they were to do a similar tornuament.

They just need King of the Ring though, maybe start with 32 of the best wrestlers and go from there, certainly it would be a good month or so of wrestling.

[improper]

i'd argue 10 per block is too small for even new japan given the names that aren't participating (Cody, Bucks, Taichi etc) but for raw and smackdown they'd absolutely need 20 if they were to do a similar tornuament.

They just need King of the Ring though, maybe start with 32 of the best wrestlers and go from there, certainly it would be a good month or so of wrestling.

I'd think 32 would just be too much in a tournament of that style. That's sixteen weeks or matches, effectively four months. I think 24 is about as high as you could go and still have it be reasonable. That's three months, which would be the perfect amount of time to kick it off shortly after 'Mania and have it done in time for King of the Ring to be the end-of-July PPV that precedes Summerslam.

And yeah, I'd still call it King of the Ring, just with a different format. It's still a tournament, and arguably one that would give someone a much better claim to the title King of the Ring than the normal tournament ever did.

You'd have to leave people out if you only did twenty-four or so, for sure, but that's the nature of these things. Thirty-two guys is basically everyone worthwhile on Raw/Smackdown/NXT. Twenty to twenty-four at least cuts it down a bit and makes it seem like making it into the tournament means something.

At any rate, this is all pretty irrelevant since, as I mentioned, Vince hates both tournaments and wrestling.

[Spens1]

Saw a post on wreddit, talking about Gable in New Japan and honestly, if any wrestler were to make the jump, i'd say it would be him and Crews. Both are basically jobbers more or less and don't really feature on TV at all, both are good wrestlers (Crews is a high flyer who is strong as hell, super smooth whilst Gable is the best mat wrestler on the roster and a legit olympian). I know its cliche to say 'oh, they'd do better in japan' but these two i can safely say would do better (Gable suffers from a lack of height, Crews from a lack of mic skills, both of which they'd get away with in Japan).

[improper]

Saw a post on wreddit, talking about Gable in New Japan and honestly, if any wrestler were to make the jump, i'd say it would be him and Crews. Both are basically jobbers more or less and don't really feature on TV at all, both are good wrestlers (Crews is a high flyer who is strong as hell, super smooth whilst Gable is the best mat wrestler on the roster and a legit olympian). I know its cliche to say 'oh, they'd do better in japan' but these two i can safely say would do better (Gable suffers from a lack of height, Crews from a lack of mic skills, both of which they'd get away with in Japan).

Main problem with Crews is he has no personality. They really needed to keep him around in NXT and give him a good heel run to find his character, but sadly he got called up for literally no reason other than to seemingly be enhancement talent, which is nuts on a roster that has so many guys already doing nothing on the undercard.

Gable could be a star in the Shawn Michaels mold. Amazing technical wrestler, but he's also got some personality and can cut a decent promo. Just a major ball drop by WWE with him.

[Spens1]

watched night 10 and they made a huge mistake not having Sanada beat Omega. I'm sorry but that crowd, damn Sanada was over. Also storyline wise it would have made sense, beating both Ibushi and Omega and then doing something Naito couldn't do (beat Omega) in the G1 would have been a hell of a story for KOPW (where there is no title match as of right now).

Who is Omega going to lose to, ZSJ? come on, what nonsense is this, i like ZSJ but he isn't a main eventer, at least Sanada is believable enough (and even he isn't a main eventer, but i'll be damned if he hasn't been wrestling like one).

Assuming Naito wins the block (after Ibushi vs Kenny go to a time draw, kind of like Goto sneaking in) and winning the tornuament, it would have been an inbuilt storyline that if Sanada won, he'd face Naito at WK.

That aside the match was great, Ibushi vs Ishii though, i'm sorry that was on another level. That was a Wrestle Kingdom level match, watch it and watch Ibushi probably get banned from another Arena

Juice also was able to get his first win this tornuament which is good, so he won't be defending against Yano at least.

Tama honestly had a good match with ZSJ (credit where its due to ZSJ) but if you're going to get yourselves DQ'ed, at least mess up ZSJ massively, like do a full on assault not just attack him once, like put him through a table or something.

Goto vs Naito was actually not that good, surprisingly enough. Thought their tiredness showed.

[Spens1]

As for my early WK predictions so far

WK14:
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs Tetsuya Naito

Naito is the most over wrestler and it fufills his prophecy (and he doesn't have to beat the Ace in Okada to do it)

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs Kazuchika Okada

Okada is the only one of the big 3 that hasn't fought Jericho, it would make sense for this to be here.

IWGP U.S. Championship: No clue, I don't think Juice is going to be champ by this point, i think he loses to Tama Tonga or one of the half a dozen people he's lost to this G1.

NEVER Openweight Championship: Hirooki Goto (c) vs Tomohiro Ishii

Seems like the default matchup at this point.

IWGP Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks (c) vs Guerillas of Destiny

Think this is going to be an ongoing storyline going forward.

Obvious omissions are Tanahashi (who could be in the NEVER or U.S. title scene, or could even fight Jericho to be honest), Makabe, Fale, EVIL and Sanada (who both i'd imagine will play significant roles).