NJPW Thread (New Japan Pro Wrestling)

[Spens1]

Davey Boy Smith Jr is no longer with New Japan. Conflicting info on whether that was him quitting or being fired, but he wasn't exactly silent on social media with his feelings about his misuse there, and Archer worked on his own most of the year

Also on the podcast, it appears Juice is done with ROH. He was unhappy working there, and he's not booked going forward. Lanza's unsure what this means for the future of Lifeblood or David Finlay when he comes back from injury

Lanza expanded to say Juice was just one of the many New Japan talent who generally no longer like working for ROH. They feel it hurts their appeal, and a lot of them don't want to do it anymore

Source: Voices of Wrestling

Also note, the rumour about Gedo stepping down as head booker is B.S mostly (even Strigga on twitter said he wasn't sure about the source).

This hopefully is the nail in the coffin for NJPW and ROH's partnership cause ROH is (and has been in my opinion) the worst american promotion for the last 2 years (though WWE probably is worse right now in terms of quality). I'm hoping AEW can ditch AAA (cause that's another dumpster fire of a promotion) and just becomes a part of the current alliance (with Pentagon and Fenix just going between the two promotions in a seperate deal).

NJPW-CMLL-AEW with Rev Pro in Britain would be the best way forward i think (Okada in AEW, Cody in CMLL would be good actually since he can be a good old school heel and of course you can get Omega back to New Japan for several feuds, including Jay White (for the Bullet Club-Elite war) and of course a proper one on one feud with Kota Ibushi).

On DBS Jr, bit sad but not surprised, he has been vocal about not being happy with the promotion and his use (tag guy, mainly been used in comedy matches against Yano for his singles and only had one serious singles match against Ospreay which he did well).

I'd say if he is being insistent on his style, maybe All Japan could work for him or even NOAH (All Japan he may have a chance, NOAH may be tougher since they have some depth there whilst All Japan atm seems like lolkentowins with a side of Jake Lee and Nomura). Maybe, depending on what Josh Barnett has planned, he could be a guy going forward there. He's obviously working for MLW (and he's been really good there). Big Japan would be an amazing fit given the Strong division there (DBS Jr vs Okabayashi, DBS Jr vs Daichi Hashimoto and DBS Jr vs Sekimoto).

With no KES though, the heavyweight tag team division has gone from depressingly bad to alarming. Their is only 2 legit tag teams, one of them may have broken up (EVIL and SANADA) and the other are doing double duty in New Japan and ROH (G.O.D). They need to find

[Spens1]

A Block

Kazuchika Okada

Zack Sabre Jr.

Hiroshi Tanahashi

Kota Ibushi

EVIL

SANADA

Bad Luck Fale

Lance Archer

Will Ospreay

KENTA


B Block

Tetsuya Naito

Tomohiro Ishii

Juice Robinson

Toru Yano

Hirooki Goto

Jay White

Jeff Cobb

Shingo Takagi

Taichi

Jon Moxley



This is the most stacked G1 i've ever seen. Honestly their is two guys i'd consider filler here (Yano and Archer). Everyone else is really good.

My prediction is Naito out of Block B (that's fairly safe) with White and Moxley tied for 2nd.

Block A, who knows, that block is ridiculous, its so stacked its unreal, i'm thinking Ibushi (to set up the KOPW world title match against Okada as well) but here also, ZSJ, Okada himself or even SANADA could come out of the block.

The most notable omission is Suzuki (he is 50 however and that can be rough on an older wrestler). My fear is that Tanahashi is going to be broken by the end of G1.

Glad Cobb is doing G1, i think that confirms he's going to be a New Japan regular (idk he's an upgrade on Elgin).

I'm also hoping for a good G1 from Juice (6-3 perhaps or 5-4 at worst) to get him propelled into the upper mid card.

[Spens1]

So Moxley is not being allowed to work Dallas cause AEW is deciding to be petty pretty much.

'Change the world', you're pulling a WWE move here. For New Japan this is a big blow to not have Moxley there.

The night 1 card is great (Okada vs Tanahashi and Ibushi vs KENTA especially is glorious). BUT no Moxley and no U.S champ, on the U.S show, that will hurt sales.

New Japan will be pissed about this and rightfully so. Moxley as well should be because AEW is just doing sporadic shows and they don't start TV until like september/october.

Feel for the fans at Dallas, but not that much given the semi main and main events (seriously, those two matches could headline wrestle kingdom most years as main and semi-main).

[Spens1]

Well its official, Robbie Eagles has left Bullet Club for CHAOS


honestly the factions right now are an absolute joke since CHAOS-Taguchi Japan and Sekigun are one of the same. Like i'm so bored of them at this point and in comparison, only LIJ look remotely decent, Bullet Club besides Jay White and the juniors and G.O.D are a joke or not there and Suzukigun, whilst Taichi and ZSJ are there, Suzuki himself is getting older and didn't even make the G1.

They need to fix the factions ASAP cause they're rather pointless at this point.

[studcrackers]

So I’m goin to the start of the G1 tomorrow. How’s this tourney work exactly?

[Spens1]

So I’m goin to the start of the G1 tomorrow. How’s this tourney work exactly?

There are two blocks. A Block and B Block. So tomorrow will be the A Block matchups and everyone wrestles each other once in that block. Each wrestler wrestles 9 times (as there are 10 wrestlers in each block).

Every time a wrestler wins, they get 2 points, if they lose, 0 points.

The wrestlers with the highest amount of points from A Block and B Block face each other in the finals to determine the G1 Climax winner (with them winning the Trophy as well as becoming #1 contender for the world title at Wrestle Kingdom in January).

The stuff below isn't really important to understand but it may come about later on:

Now if two wrestlers top the block with the same points, then it comes down to the head to head record. If three or more wrestlers are on the same amount of points on top of the block, then its whoever has the most wins over the other wrestlers that they tied with, then its least time wrestled, then its a coin flip.

Also, the undercard will be mainly comprised of tag team matches, don't let that throw you off, these usually build up the story for other matches, the tornuament and even beyond that for the rest of the year.

[Dominator83]

So I’m goin to the start of the G1 tomorrow. How’s this tourney work exactly?

There are two blocks. A Block and B Block. So tomorrow will be the A Block matchups and everyone wrestles each other once in that block. Each wrestler wrestles 9 times (as there are 10 wrestlers in each block).

Every time a wrestler wins, they get 2 points, if they lose, 0 points.

The wrestlers with the highest amount of points from A Block and B Block face each other in the finals to determine the G1 Climax winner (with them winning the Trophy as well as becoming #1 contender for the world title at Wrestle Kingdom in January).

The stuff below isn't really important to understand but it may come about later on:

Now if two wrestlers top the block with the same points, then it comes down to the head to head record. If three or more wrestlers are on the same amount of points on top of the block, then its whoever has the most wins over the other wrestlers that they tied with, then its least time wrestled, then its a coin flip.

Also, the undercard will be mainly comprised of tag team matches, don't let that throw you off, these usually build up the story for other matches, the tornuament and even beyond that for the rest of the year.

They need to have this televised here

Edit: NVM its being televised on AXS. Thank you Mark Cuban!

[improper]

Amazing to me that WWE couldn't do anything with KENTA.

Also wish they'd have had him hit Ibushi with another GTS after their match. Thought that's what they were building up to when he was helping Ibushi up.

[Spens1]

Three nights into the G1 now and its been pretty good.

Last night admittedly i forgot that it started early but i watched Kenta vs Tanahashi so i had to rewatch everything after that.

Tanahashi is looking downright rough. Its time he went down to dad status and maybe thats what Gedo is doing, he did not look good at all. KENTA though is starting to show promise now he's two matches in. The story was the disrespectful outsider going up against the ace/former ace (another one of Gedo's favourite tropes, seriously that should be a book, with Gedo laughing whilst in an Okada pose with okada bucks on the cover). Whilst this isn't Peak KENTA, it at least looked like the KENTA of old, so hopefully this is a sign of KENTA being back. Also i'm hoping for KENTA vs Ishii after this and the never openweight division having some good strong style matches (a core of Ishii, KENTA, Goto and Shingo along with other high flying openweights of Ospreay and eventually Hiromu when he returns would be great).

EVIL beating Ibushi was a shock, i did not expect Ibushi to be 0-2. Then again Naito lost to Yano (then again that isn't a shock since Yano is Yano and Naito was cocky as hell). It was a really good match as well but its Ibushi and EVIL so you wouldn't expect any less.

Ospreay beating SANADA, to me a is a headscratcher. SANADA probably is the next one to be elevated to the main event status (Okada, Naito, Ibushi and White as the big 4 right now) once Naito gets his big title run (Naito as well is a major injury waiting to happen to some extent, same with Ibushi). Ospreay is just coming into the heavyweights and lost to Archer. In saying that, absolutely tremendous match between the two (MOTN). I know Ospreay is having the best year out of everyone but low key SANADA has been putting on clinic after clinic (against Okada twice, ZSJ and now this match against Ospreay). To me he'd be the obvious pick to have as the long term #2 to Okada once Naito and Ibushi go down the card (in about 3 years most likely once both get one or two world title runs each).

Archer is 2-0 Then again he beat Fale and Ospreay so far so no biggie i guess. I can't see him winning many more. Still, Archer has actually been really solid, DBS Jr may be the best thing to happen to Archer's career in years. Also, not as bad as i expected it to be, not even as bad as EVIL vs Fale, it was a passable match and for a big man vs big man, actually solid wrestling occured.

Okada vs ZSJ was good and ZSJ is now on 0 points and hillarity has ensued. Okada's selling was on point and i thought ZSJ would beat Okada again but Okada about eeked out a win here. Honestly the fact that this match had only 12 minutes and was this good tells you what you need to know, longer doesn't = better. They had a great match and did what they needed to do in 12 minutes and i didn't feel they needed anything longer. It was a great fast paced match. ZSJ is either top notch at selling, or he sustained an injury in that match.

[improper]

I loved that Naito/Yano match. Yano throwing a fit when he saw that Naito was going to wear a t-shirt for the match was hilarious, and I love how the t-shirt played into the finish. It was a perfect comedy match.

[improper]

Make sure you guys check out the Ibushi/Ospreay match from night five. MOTY contender right there, unsurprisingly given that it was a match between two of the best in the world.

Those two are absolute madmen with some of the bumps they take.

[improper]

Add Moxley/Ishii to the list of matches to watch. That was fantastic. Moxley has been awesome in this tournament.

[Spens1]

NIght 7 finished and good god Okada vs Ospreay was incredible. Tonight was probably the best night out of everything so far.

Ibushi vs Sanada was also a really good match in its own right (then again it had Ibushi and Sanada so to be expected). Ibushi is starting to get momentum whilst Sanada has had a pretty bad G1 so far results wise.

KENTA's ring rust is gone as him and EVIL had a barnstormer of a match, also he's got Okada next (i imagine he'll win that to be honest). He's already on 8 points after just 4 matches as well.

Even Tanahashi vs Archer was solid. Archer may be having his best run in his entire career at the age of 41 to put it into perspective. Not a fan of the finish however unless this leads to Suzuki-gun murdering tanahashi at some point (ZSJ, Archer, Suzuki himself all have gripes with tanahashi).

Fale vs ZSJ on the other hand Fale getting counted out, REALLY. Match wasn't bad though for the time it went.

[Spens1]

Well G1 has been absolutely insane (Ishii vs Moxley, Okada vs Ospreay, Ibushi vs Ospreay, Ishii vs Naito, Takagi vs Moxley etc). The quality this year is off the charts thus far and we still have some huge matchups to come.

In other news, for the super J cup, we're going to have TJP appearing in the tornuament (returning to the company he started off with really, as he was trained in the first iteration of the L.A dojo). Dragon Lee and SHO will also participate, so it should be a fairly competitive field this year.

I'm hoping its an annual tornuament since it gives the juniors a bit extra other than BOSJ (if BOSJ is the juniors G1, then Super J can be their New Japan Cup).

[Spens1]

Night 9 finished and

1. Peak LOLOKADAWINS (seriously, the last 4 years i swear he's not been champ for all of about 5 months, its a bit too much now and now he's getting an over the top g1 run, after this, Naito as champ for 15 months, then Sanada for the rest of 2021 and then Ibushi, then maybe Okada again, he needs to have some IC, US, hell, even tag team runs before they go with him as world champ again)
2. Seki-Gun is way too strong at the moment, the rest of the factions are peasants right now in terms of booking (Suzuki-Gun and Bullet Club especially). Is something happening with these factions or are we just getting piss poor booking of them for the rest of the year (seriously the faction booking is making me irate cause its absolutely terrible in that regard).

Some great matches but some of the results where stupid. Tanahashi is broken as hell and it shows, SANADA on the other hand legit looks like Ace like material (and he would be the ace if Okada wasn't there already and only 30) almost and most likely a good shot at dark ace the way he's going (he got more cheers than Tanahashi). At this point Kojima legit looks better than Tanahashi, there is no way he should be in the G1 (its not doing him any favours unless he wants to end up more like Tenzan). Also If Okada didn't lose here, then wtf are you doing for KOPW and who is Okada losing to (the only logical choice i could think of here is a loss to Ibushi to set up KOPW and/or maybe Sanada for destruction cause if he wins G1 lord help us).

My personal pick is either Ibushi vs Archer (Ibushi can get a good match out of anyone) or Sanada vs Tanahashi (which was really good in fairness). EVIL vs ZSJ deserves a shout. The main event for me actually took way too long to get going, that first 10 dragged on forever and i knew then we were in for a long night (if not a draw), of course it picked up in Okada fashion but there was no need for such a slow first 10 given the match would go just under 30 minutes.

ZSJ is also out of the tornuament as is Fale i believe and Sanada is on the brink unless he runs the block and results go his way (so if we hit peak Gedo, Sanada is going to tie on points), a bit of a surprise that ZSJ is on 2 points and failed to beat Okada, not sure what on earth they're up to with him (I'd have him win the U.S title to be honest at some point in the near future) cause he should be built up but i guess he's already made.

Wasn't a fan of the booking for Fale and Ospreay cause it was just screwy, let Ospreay carry Fale (or attempt) to a good match without the nonsense. Ospreay, other than Ishii and Ibushi, has had the best track record of been able to carry anyone to good matches.


So tonight, good matches,quesitonable decisions but we'll see what fever dream Gedo has cooked up for final night (looking like Naito vs Ibushi/Sanada/Okada finals).

[Spens1]

GEEEEEEEDDDDOOOOOOOOO

Either Gedo is going to have Naito have a 6pt G1 (in which case i'm probably going to zone out for the rest of the year to be honest) or he's going to outgedo himself and have like 6 peple tied cause B Block main event i believe is Naito and White (that has to be a case where both are on 10 and 12 points to either gets them the block). I'm certainly not a fan of how they booked it (Moxley practically squashed him, the guy who is meant to be your #2, i know Moxley is moxley but damn you spent most of 2019 building up Naito again).

Moxley can eliminate 4 people in one go (Naito, Cobb, Takagi and Taichi) if he wins the next match, so chances are cause it is Gedo, Yano is winning and Mox is losing to everyone from here on out to get him out of the equation(i like Moxley, but it has to be white or naito getting out of the block, since Goto entire existence is suffering at this point). I mean it does set up an intriguing title challenge potentially with Moxley and Naito down the line if Mox drops the US title.

Also basically everyone minus Moxley (10pts), ishii and Juice (6pts each) are on 4pts. Everyone is having a terrible G1 in block B.

I can kind of see what Gedo may be trying to do if Gedo gonna Gedo (Moxley loses out on finals cause he loses to Juice, Naito beats White to get to the finals as the sole person on 12 or maybe he has the tiebreaker against Juice).

The only other way, which would be a cop out, would be Okada challenging Naito cause he wants the IC title.

[improper]

Is it just me, or is Lance Archer just Baron Corbin if he weren't a complete piece of sh*t?

[Spens1]

Is it just me, or is Lance Archer just Baron Corbin if he weren't a complete piece of sh*t?

Think that would still be a complete insult to Archer cause Archer thus far has been very good. He's probably amongst the best 6'8+ wrestlers in the world (if not the best).

[studcrackers]

Ishii has been the mvp of the tourney for me so far. aside from Toru Yano of course

[Spens1]

Ishii has been the mvp of the tourney for me so far. aside from Toru Yano of course

Ishii may be the MVP of new japan in general, the man doesn't have a bad match ever.

I wish they'd give him even a token world title run with like one defence cause he's probably the best wrestler in the company ever (besides Chono) to have never won the big one.