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danwhobrowses · 2 years

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ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022 - Quickfire Reaction

It's been another wild month of wrestling, continuing on with ROH's second Khan-era PPV.

A stacked card begets a lot of potential to be a great show, doubly impressive when in the middle of G1 and Summerslam season, but can it top Forbidden Door? Let's see

Spoilers for the Show

Zero Hour

It's a little sad that Colt isn't repping Dark Order anymore but good to see him back in a ring. Same for Anthony Henry, the Workhorsemen are a good tag team well-suited for ROH (even though I must admit I love the Wingmen too)

Match was good for getting the crowd involved, Henry did a lovely piledriver and Frog Splash for two different nearfalls but Cabana powers through

I've heard news about the Trustbusters from some AEW Dark spoilers, but for first impressions: good music, good talent in Slim J, probably gonna do well as weaselly midcard heels until they get some muscle

Eli Isom impressed me a lot more this match than he did in Supercard against Gates of Agony

I dunno who this Prince Nana is but buying TBE seems weird to me, is Tully not gonna be a part of it anymore? Seems like it with them being called The Embassy, maybe Tully will just be with Gresham?

I said it at Supercard and I'll say it again, Cage is best when he's just hossing

Zayne (fresh off of BOSJ), Christian and Deppen did really well too, they built Christian's hot tag really well, Deppen did a lot of workhorsing and Zayne undoubtedly was great

How can you not love Willow? Her music is great too

Nice little blend of technique and power in that match

4 matches in 1 hour, you see that WWE?

Main Card

Kicking off with the world title!? That is bold

Love Claudio's new theme music btw, I wouldn't have minded if all of BCC had classical remixes but I get why Mox sticks with Wild Thing, plus Yoots still has a good theme tune

Gresham didn't come out with Tully though, so wonder what that's about? Regal joins commentary too to enrich us more

Classic story of ligament damage vs power

Gresham has struggled with AEW crowds getting him but GOD he is so clean

CLAUDIO DID IT! HE FINALLY WON A WORLD TITLE!

I appreciate the BCC elbows helped transition to the Ricola Bomb, we pushing that BCC agenda and I am here for it, I think I liked that match more than the ZSJ match

Claudio's joy is also infectious, that's an opener!

Glad to see more Dalton, dude is charismatic for years

This is the first I've seen of the Righteous, their music is unique, they have kinda cult energy with a dash of Big Lebowski, I'd happily see more of them

I enjoyed the match more than I thought tbf, lots of charisma, lots of fun, commentary made me grin too, I had predicted Castle and Boys to win but it surprised me that they went 2 title changes in a row

Garcia still rocking the kangol XD And using the Regal colours

Could we possibly just get Regal on commentary like every title match? He's so joyous but also technical, you learn so much

Production has gone up with the PURE rules UI, timer and the rope break bars

Yoots has a great German Suplex, not Takeshita level but still great

It's a very interesting but valid strategy to see Garcia and Yoots work the ears, you don't see it a lot

I was also glad to hear that there's intent towards Yoot not going for a rope break, because his last few Pure matches have had him be the first to lose a rope break and I always felt that feeling like weakness

Loved the submission swapping relating to JAS and BCC too

That is the best PURE match I've seen so far in the Khan era, if it weren't for Claudio challenging Gresham I would've picked Garcia for this, but I wanted that BCC agenda and I'm getting it, Bryan needs to come back so he's next

Dragon Lee. Lawn Darted RUSH. Through a Table!?

This is pure Penta vs Fenix energy in the best way, both have the same kind of builds and mentality

Seriously, no build, no title, and yet this still was a banger

I wonder if Lee will join La Faccion Ingobernable down the line, because I know RUSH and Andrade are facing the Lucha Bros but I see it going into trios, maybe Andrade taking the All-Atlantic title from PAC

Every American one time or another will call Worcester 'War-chester' XD to be fair us Brits do too but we learn quickly because of Worcestershire Sauce

No surprise that Serena vs Mercedes is extremely technical

Match got a little slow in the middle but it was good, really thought though that Serena would be given her due, she's showed up against Shida, Rosa and Mercedes and the ROH women's title did feel like a good fit for her

Lethal sent Singh and Dutt away which is interesting

Joe pulling a Suzuki look as they go straight at it!

Didn't last long, Singh came back to help Pillmanize Joe's shoulder, match hadn't started yet so fair game. But the ref ejects Singh before ringing the bell, which is clever, didn't eject Dutt though when he brought in a pipe (to feint so Lethal could use the belt)

Crowd have been rabid for this match, I was okay about it, the build and the interferences made me less invested

Woof, Fight for the Fallen ain't messing around; Mox vs RUSH, Swerve vs Sterling & Nese, Danielson returning vs Garcia, good stuff

Surprised Dax didn't wear his 'Fight like an 8 year old' shirt, AEW made them to donate to children's heart charity

The pop for the bell ringing wasn't as loud as last time which was a shame

Jay and Dax went 200 miles an hour there, but it looks like it hurt him a bit since they had him checked by medical, post-show reports say it's precautionary which is fortunate

Doesn't stop his capacity for the hot tag though

After the first fall we got some clever psychology from the Briscoes

Cash has a great hot tag too

The camera is looking for something but it's not quite finding it

Is 2 out of 3 no rules? Because I feel like being hit with a bell is a DQ

Everyone's showing some colour now

It's been a good night for clean looking piledrivers

Ref bump seems to be to give the Briscoes a visual win with the Jay Driller, though FTR also had a visual win with the Big Rig after, maybe a part 3 is in waiting? Iron Man maybe?

They did the Revival vs DIY/American Alpha spot with holding hands during a submission

JESUS! Chekov's table from Lethal/Joe comes back for Cash super back body dropping Mark!

Jay Driller just for 2!

SUPER PILEDRIVER

The finish was great, I think I slightly preferred the Supercard match but gosh that was a great match

Oh sure give me FTR vs BCC, I've got a vein to inject it into

Conclusion

This was a great PPV.

I think I preferred Forbidden Door by an inch, but it has to be on a similar level because ROH didn't suffer so much from abrupt endings and injury, but the match quality for Forbidden Door was slightly higher, but it was better than Supercard overall which is a plus.

The matches were all really good, very happy to see Claudio win a world title finally. Khan booked the PPV strongly and hopefully it pays off for him, I don't see how tv companies wouldn't be considering ROH right now.

Hopefully a new chapter will begin.

Results (and Predictions)

Zero Hour: Colt Cabana def. Anthony Henry (w/JD Drake) - Pinfall via Moonsault Trustbusters (Ari Daivari & Slim J) def. Cheeseburger & Eli Isom - Pinfall on Isom by Daivari via Frog Splash The Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun & Toa Liona w/ Prince Nana) def Alex Zayne, Blake Christian & Tony Deppen - Pinfall on Deppen by Cage via Dominator/Big Boot combo Willow Nightingale def Allisyn Kay - Pinfall via Gutwrench Powerbomb

Main Card: Claudio Castagnoli (w/William Regal) def. Jonathon Gresham (w/Prince Nana) (c) - Pinfall via Ricola Bomb - TITLE CHANGE!!! Dalton Castle & The Boys def. The Righteous (Vincent, Bateman & Dutch w/ Vita VonStarr) (c) - Pinfall on Bateman by Castle via Bangarang - TITLE CHANGE!! Wheeler Yuta (w/William Regal) (c) def. Daniel Garcia - Pinfall via Seatbelt RUSH (w/José the Assistant) def. Dragon Lee - Pinfall via Bull's Horns Mercedes Martinez (c) def. Serena Deeb - Submission via Dragon Sleeper Stretch Samoa Joe (c) def. Jay Lethal (w/Sonjay Dutt & Satnam Singh) - Submission via Kirifuda Clutch FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) (c) def. The Briscoes (Jay and Mark) [2-1 Falls]

Fall 1: Briscoes (1) def. FTR (0) - Pinfall on Dax by Mark via Doomsday Device

Fall 2: FTR (1) def. Briscoes (1) - Pinfall on Jay by Dax via Big Rig

Fall 3: FTR (2) def. Briscoes (1) - Pinfall on Jay by Dax via Avalanche Piledriver

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gdwessel · 2 years

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World Tag League 2021 & Best Of The Super Juniors 28 Night 23 - 12/15/2021: Winners of Two Tournaments Revealed; Katsuyori Shibata Announces Match At WK16 Night 1; Ospreay Becomes Warrior Wrestling Champion

The tour-ending Finals for both World Tag League 2021 and Best Of The Super Juniors 28 took place today at Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, and you can see it now on NJPWWorld. Quite a lot of setup for what is to come at Wrestle Kingdom 16 happened here, as we head into the final four shows of 2021 starting next week...

- 12/15/2021, Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan

Minoru Suzuki [SZKG], TAKA Michinoku [JTO] & DOUKI [SZKG] d. Ryusuke Taguchi, Yuto Nakashima & Kosei Fujita (DOUKI > Fujita, Italian Stretch No.32, 6:07)

Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club] d. Tiger Mask IV & Ryohei Oiwa (Ishimori > OIwa, Sudden Death [ELP], 2:31)

Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] d. Toru Yano [CHAOS], Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Master Wato (Sabre > Honma, Referee Stoppage, 9:16)

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata d. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens [Bullet Club] (Tanahashi > Owens, Samson Clutch, 9:25)

Tetsuya Naito & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] d. Great O-Khan & Jeff Cobb [United Empire] (Naito > Cobb, Hurricanrana, 9:30)

Kazuchika Okada & Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] d. Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] (Okada > BUSHI, Rainmaker, 11:32)

World Tag League 2021 Final: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] d. EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club] (YOSHI-HASHI > Yujiro, Naraku, 19:58) - Goto/YOSHI-HASHI win World Tag League 2021

Best Of The Super Juniors 28 Final: Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] d. YOH [CHAOS] (Timebomb II, 38:30) - Hiromu Takahashi wins Best Of The Super Juniors 28

Hiromu Takahashi wins his third consecutive Best Of The Super Juniors, having won last year and in 2018, but was out of 2019's tournament due to his heinous neck injury. This was the longest-ever BOSJ match in the history of the tournament. And really, it's the right call. Hiromu has proven he can headline shows, and be a semi-main-eventer in the Tokyo Dome already. The history and feud between Hiromu and El Desperado adds to the aura of what will surely be the IWGP Juniorheavyweight title match at WK16. YOH, for his part, did himself credit, going through his redemption saga and even getting one over on SHO during the tournament. We'll see when their rubber match comes about. Hirooki Goto wins his 3rd World Tag League crown, whilst YOSHI-HASHI gets his first. All credit to YOSHI-HASHI -- he was never a third wheel on his/Goto/Ishii's NEVER 6-Man reign for the last year, and has finally found a good niche for himself in the company after underachieving for so long compared to others of his Young Lion class (particularly Kazuchika Okada). It's good to see people who work hard succeed even if it takes a long time to do so. Goto/YOSHI-HASHI v. Dangerous Tekkers will be coming soon enough now too. Despite a really down year for NJPW, the Heavyweight tag division has actually fun and interesting to watch in 2021. KENTA appeared via video message to challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi to a No-DQ match for the IWGP US Heavyweight title at WK16, which, OK, sure, sounds fun. KENTA's partner once upon a time, Katsuyori Shibata, appeared in the ring, choking back tears, proclaiming simply that he will have a match on January 4, 2022, and that was all. No details on whom his opponent would be or where on the card this match will take place. It will not be an exhibition match like his 5-minute grappling encounter with Zack Sabre Jr. at the G1 Climax 31 Final. I've said my piece about what I feel about the idea of Shibata returning to wrestling numerous times since April 2017, I'm not going to repeat it here. I just hope he knows what he's doing and he doesn't further damage himself in the process. He's 42 years old at this stage, which by itself isn't exactly a prohibitive factor anymore, but he's not a young man either. Poor Ryohei Oiwa got squashed in under three minutes. We now have a potential three-way challenge for the junior tag titles, between champions Flying Tiger (Tiger Mask IV & Robbie Eagles), Ishimori/ELP and now Taguchi/Master Wato. Be still my beating heart. Will Ospreay has another title belt in his possession, this time whilst actually being champion. (OK he is still RevPro champion as well...) On Sunday in Tinley Park, IL, Ospreay won the Warrior Wrestling championship, in a 3-way match between himself, then-champion Trey Miguel, and Blake Christian. Ospreay proclaimed he will have the title with him at Night 2 of WK16 on 1/5/2022, and is being advertised for Warrior's show in South Bend, IN, on 1/22/2022, against an opponent to be determined. We'll see how long this lasts I guess. You can see Sunday’s show on FITE TV for a fee. The next show is on 12/21/2021, the first night of four for the Road To Tokyo Dome year-end tour. No lineups have been announced yet. Six days' break is the longest gap between shows that we've had in months. Maybe I need a vacation?

#NJPW #new japan pro wrestling #world tag league #Best Of The Super Juniors #njbosj #njwtl #hiromu takahashi #Hirooki Goto #YOSHI-HASHI #Katsuyori Shibata #kenta #Hiroshi Tanahashi #warrior wrestling #Will Ospreay #njpwworld

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leaveharmony · 3 years

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Hi!

Looking for recent NJPW match recommendations <3

My friend and I used to be avid fans but life and work have taken over since the pandemic so we are completely out of it, would love to watch some as we finally can hang out now!

Haven’t watched anything since Naito became double champion two years ago lol so there is a lot to choose from!

Thanks 🙏🏼

Ffffff holy shit ok lol. You are asking someone BIZARRELY well prepared for this question because, I have a Hobonichi Techo from last year and this one in which I make note of matches I particularly enjoy. So I’m just going to leaf through those for a second and list them (some are just throwaway undercard stuff that was fun, tag matches and the like...I can provide dates but probably didn’t always note events). Bear in mind that the dates are probably off by a day because it’s a Japanese book and with the time difference I get massively confused lol but it’s a ballpark to help search.

Hiromu vs Yano (New Japan Cup 2020...that one I remember lol)

I didn’t write this one down but related to above, Hiromu vs Ishii was also a banger, and Hiromu vs Okada

Tana/Kota/Wato vs Ishii/Goto/Tacos (I think the context was this was the ad hoc tournament for the NEVER 6 man after LIJ had to vacate Because EVIL)

NEVER 6 man tourney final: Tacos/Ishii/Goto vs Okada/Yano/Sho

Yano vs BUSHI, KOPW 2020

Ishii vs Suzuki (this is noted as being on the 19th of September but I dunno the context)

Tana vs Naito (Ok I think it was G1 and so was match before it and several to come)

Taichi vs Suzuki (I remember this was amazing)

Tacos vs EVIL (I should prolly point out at this time that ‘Tacos’ is YOSHI-HASHI in case that isn’t clear lol, also from G1)

Yano vs EVIL (g1)

KENTA vs ZSJ (G1 and I remember this was hilarious)

Tana vs Tacos (G1)

Taichi vs Ishii (G1)

Tana vs KENTA (G1)

Taichi vs Jay (G1)

There were three matches from this night: Tacos vs Goto, Yano vs ZSJ, and Tana vs EVIL

Ishii vs Jeff Cobb (still G1)

Tana vs SANADA (G1)

Tacos/Goto/Ishii vs Taichi/ZSJ/DOUKI (after G1, no idea of the context but maybe the NEVER challenge, which I remember fondly)

DOUKI vs Robbie Eagles (Pretty sure this was BOSJ)

Wato vs Desperado (BOSJ)

Tekkers (ZSJ/Taichi) vs Great O-Khan / Jeff Cobb (it was very funny)

Robbie Eagles vs Ishimori (BOSJ)

Hiromu vs Robbie (BOSJ)

3 for that day too...DOUKI vs BUSHI, Hiromu vs Taguchi & Robbie vs Despy

Hiromu vs Despy (context missing)

The last fave of the year was apparently...Yano vs Fale lol which I don’t even recall happening

2021:

Shingo vs Jeff (WK)

Fun undercard tag: Tana & Wato vs Shingo & BUSHI (context, Tana and Shingo were squaring up for the NEVER openweight, so all of these undercards building to that were fun)

Tana vs Shingo (NEVER Openweight, I think this was a New Beginning show but not sure)

GOD vs Tekkers and Hiromu vs Sho are both listed here but without context

Tana vs O-Khan (not their WK match, this was much stronger but they’ve only had two so it should be easy to find, 28th of Feb)

Jeff vs Kojima...I don’t remember it at all but I bet it was great

Tana vs Jay (marked at march 15)

KENTA vs Tacos (april 19)

Tacos/Goto/Ishii vs KENTA/Ishimori/Yujiro (this must have been a 6 man defense...just watch all of my CHAOS boys defenses, they’ve all been amazing)

Yano vs EVIL (KOPW trophy, march 28)

GOD vs Tekkers again (feat. Miho! I think this was June 1)

Tana vs Uemura (one of his singles gauntlet matches, June 7)

Shingo vs Wato (random, but july 8th)

Taichi/ZSJ/Suzuki vs Naito/SANADA/BUSHI (no idea, july 17)

SANADA vs ZSJ and Naito vs Taichi, both from july 22)

Tana vs KENTA, july 24

Tana vs Shingo, july 25th Tokyo Dome, I cannot recommend this highly enough, it will probably be my match of the year

That’s the list so far...I hope some of it is to your liking :D

*some additions: the whole Tekkers/GOD feud was very interesting and fun but I’d skip Golden Ace/Tekkers because I found it so hard to get through I was actually drinking by the end. Also the 4 way to determine the first KOPW champion was ridiculous and fun iirc, it was at the baseball stadium show last year...summer struggle? Maybe? Anyway ymmv wrt to like, Kota matches, because honestly a lot of the decisions they made with him = I have basically not watched one of his in over a year, and I’ve been sleepwalking through the matches for that bastard frankenstein title that killed the ones I loved as well 😩

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yabaina · 3 years

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12/12/20　BOSJ FINALS HOLY SHIT GUYS

H. Hello everyone this is BOSJ winner TAkahashi Hiromu. I’m still too high tension, I seriously came here straight from the venue (this is about 30 min after the match apparently), a company car gave me a ride.

H: Aahh… My body hurts all over. It’s okay if I say this right? Ah- but it was so gooood. I mean I have to say it right, this is the purpose of this channel, isn’t it? To communicate, this happiness in real time? What time is it right now? 10 pm? A bit over 10 pm? So I should talk right, since I came all the way. My mouth can still move, even if the rest of my body can’t.

SL: what were your thoughts when you won?

H: Well, in last year’s G1 (?) there was a show at the Nippon Budoukan, but because of my neck injury, I wasn't able to attend… I think the last time I wrestled there was nine years ago for ‘All Together’, it was for a Battle Royale type of thing …(?) And the next time was this, for NewJapan’s BOSJ.

SL: Did you meet/see LIJ?

H: Oh, that. I’m the one who is most surprised I think. When I won two years ago, in 2018, they came all the way to the ring (to congratulate me), so I thought they might come again. But they didn’t, so I thought “ah they must have decided to let me have my moment”. So then I thought “Ah they’ll be there at the backstage panel… I wonder if I’ll cry?” and then of course they weren’t there. “Ah maybe they’ll come when I’m midway through…”, so I spoke for a bit longer, but they didn’t come. “Well then,” I thought “They’re letting me have my moment, and they’ll be there in our locker room. In our room, away from the cameras, they’ll be there.” I chuckled to myself and bravely walked to the room, and there, to my surprise…! Except for my things, everything was gone. I thought “Wow. That’s Los Ingobernables de Japón.”

H: But there was just one thing… This, there was a protein shake in my suitcase. I wondered, “ Oh whose is this?” and when I looked I saw there was ‘Congratulations’ written on it. You know, I don’t know who did this, but this kind of thing, it’s Naito’s thing. “Wouldn’t it have been okay to stay then? It’s okay to say these things face to face..” is what I thought, but I was happy. I think I might keep it without drinking it.

SL: asks about the match?

H: It’s always difficult to remember what I was thinking during a match, but… Rage? . Matches are fuelled by feelings of anger, so I must’ve wanted to expose his real nature, his everything.

I think he had just attacked a vital point (a weak point?). I think that’s what angered me? “Why are you using these tactics when you’re already awesome without them?” So I punched him? I don’t really remember, but next thing I knew I was tearing away his mask, and his face was showing. From that point on… It wasn’t rage… There was nostalgia mixed in. It became super fun/enjoyable, going all out, it felt good.

SL: asks sthg

H: Ah, I haven’t seen the images yet… *starts unwrapping the straw of the protein shake*

SL: Weren’t you supposed to keep it?! *laughing*

H: AH! Ah, that was dangerous! I was really about to drink it.

SL: asks about Desperado’s mask I think

H: Hmm.. well I don’t think I should speak more about it. Like I said in the backstage comments, that guy is El Desperado. With or without a mask, in front of me there was only Desperado. *puts the straw in the protein drink* *drinks* haaah.

SL: ….? So you drank it?

H: *looks down at the drink in his hand* AAHHH! I drank it!! I was too thirsty! Aaah…. But It’s okay I can just keep this once it’s empty. *happily drinks it*. I probably took too long in the backstage comments, so they couldn’t give it in person.

SL: Did any of the LIJ members tell you sthg before the match?

H: Oh right, Naito san told me to do my best. (Ganbatte) He said it lightly. Sanada said nothing but it’s as usual, so it’s okay. I guess never talking much comes in handy in cases like this.

H: *about BOSJ in general* I wanted to win the matches by bringing out everything the opponent had to offer… in that sense, I think Taguchi showed a lot.

(...) (he said a few little things but I’m running out of time sorry)

SL: Your front tooth got chipped.

H: Yeah, I don’t know exactly when it happened but before the match against Robbie I think. I need to take an appointment at the dentist.

H: I don’t know if I’ll be answered but I issued a challenge to the winner of Super JCup.

H: I really want to hold on to this (BOSJ) trophee until BOSJ 28 next year.

SL: Is that why you’re holding on to it so firmly?

H: Hm? Ah, it’s just that my hand fits perfectly here.

SL: What will you do when you go home?

H: ? I’ll sleep? There’s nothing else to do… Ahhh but maybe it’ll be hard to fall asleep. I’m still on a high from the match, even though it’s been two hours now. Let’s go home tho! I kinda want to go home now. I got tired of speaking.

#bosj27 #hiromu takahashi #takahashi hiromu #el desperado #LIJ #hirochan's yt #now we're gonna play 'will Tumblr keep the pics in the righr order or will u have to scream in your pillow'#the way his voice cracked when he said 'from that point on..'#his salt @LIJ #but also the way he was happy while drinking that shake

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puroresu-musings · 3 years

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NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 15 in Tokyo Dome Night 1 Review (Jan 4th 2020)

New Japan Rambo *1/2

BOSJ 27 vs. SJC 2020 IWGP Jr. Heavyweight No.1 Contenders Match: Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Phantasmo ****

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Guerrillas Of Destiny ***1/2

IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Championship Right To Challenge Match: KENTA vs. Satoshi Kojima ***1/2+

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Great-O-Khan ***1/2

Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay ****3/4

IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Double Championship Match: Tetsuya Naito (c/c) vs. Kota Ibushi ****1/2

Photos.

So the first night of WK15 is in the history books, held in front of a socially distanced crowd of 12,689, which is an amazing number given the state of the world at present (I’m in the UK and we can’t even have two people in the same room, so near 13,000 seems mind-blowing!). This is the biggest crowd to have seen a wrestling show in Japan since last years Dome shows, and the biggest major wrestling show held anywhere since March of last year, so it’s quite the achievement. In quick results from a very fun show:

Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, BUSHI and Toru Yano (who never even made it to the ring) were the “winners” of the annual Rambo and will face each other in a 4-way to determine the KOPW champion on tomorrows show. The Rambo was as it always is, which is very forgettable, very long, and not especially very good. After a Japanese Don King (who sings!) introduced Riki Choshu (a guy who, in this very building in 1998, squashed FOUR guys in a row in his “retirement” match), and his young grandson, to the masses for a nice opening, BOSJ winner Hiromu Takahashi pinned everyone’s favourite/most hated douchebag heel, the 2020 Super J Cup winner El Phanatsmo, in 17:46, when he turned CRII into a Frankensteiner and cradle. This was an excellent match that was a great way to start the show. Hiromu essentially played crash pad to ELP’s highflying moves, and seemed to be saving himself for the Ishimori match tomorrow, which he earned with this win.

Next up, the GOD won the IWGP Tag Titles for what must be the 476th time. The match was very good (once it got going), but at 19:18, it felt very long, and the finish and result were lamentable; after a ref bump and prerequisite Jado interference spot, Tama nailed Taichi with his own Iron Fingers From Hell, which allowed Loa to hit Apeshit and win the belts. Honestly, I could have done without this title change. The Guerrillas with the belts just feels like I’ve been transported back in time three or four years, and the Dangerous Tekkers felt both fresh, and like they were just getting going as champions. Whatever. After a video taped Jon Moxley promo, KENTA defended the U.S. Title Right To Challenge Briefcase against the legend that is Satoshi Kojima, in a very good little match. Obviously, Koji was a late replacement for the broken orbital boned Juice Robinson, and honestly, with all due respect to Juice, this was a much better match for it. Even though no one feasibly bought him winning, Kojima was on fire here, showing the world that he does indeed “still have it”, and drove the action throughout. It wasn’t to be though as KENTA retained the briefcase after a Go 2 Sleep at the 14:12 mark. So KENTA will challenge Moxley in the U.S. at some point, which should be a fun match.

Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated the returned-from-excursion Great-O-Khan in my least favourite match of the show. This was far from bad, but realistically, this was the match where I started to lag, as it just wasn’t all that interesting at times. The former Tomoyuki Oka has a very weird gimmick, and his offence is like something from a 1970s regional promotion in the U.S. He isn’t a bad worker, he’s very solid, but this wacky Mongolian gimmick, which I first clapped eyes on at a Rev Pro show what must have been 7 years ago now (it was three, but time has no meaning anymore), is going to need some serious revamping. Tanahashi was his usual great self here, carrying this beyond what it should by all rights have been, and had the babyface fire of a thousand babyfaces. After surviving O-Khan’s Claw based offensive manoeuvres, The Ace scored the win at 17:13 after hitting a High Fly Flow to the back, followed by one to the front, to get the winning three count.

From here the show picked up considerably. Okada sought revenge on former protege Will Ospreay, in a fantastic, dramatic outing, that would most likely have been a Tokyo Dome all-time-classic under regular conditions. This went 35:41, which sounds long, but felt half of that whilst watching. It told a great story, and the work from both guys was exceptional. This was less the inventive spot fest of their 2019 G1 classic, and instead was a stiff strike war. It was also the final point of Ospreay eschewing the Junior mantle, and becoming a full fledged heavyweight. Like most Okada matches, this really turned into something special in the last 10 minutes, after Ospreay hit a nasty Brainbuster through the timekeepers table, and stomped the bejesus out of Okada’s face, the newly crowned “Commonwealth Kingpin” escaped a Money Clip, hit Okada with a Tombstone, and his own Rainmaker for a great near fall. Okada dropkicked Will out of the air on a Super Oscutter attempt, which looked great, then turned a Storm Breaker attempt into a Fire Thunder Driver, and hit a stiff Rainmaker, for the first time in A YEAR, to score the win and seemingly awaken the Okada of old. Tremendous stuff here.

And the Double Title Main Event that followed had a lot to live up to, but was another excellent outing. Obviously, with the last few times these guys have squared off being borderline public executions, my heart was proverbially in my mouth on some of the spots here. With the notable exceptions of Ibushi taking a German Suplex on the ramp, which he of course landed square on top of his head for, an insane Frankensteiner off the apron, which saw Naito land very hard on the floor, Ibushi taking a reverse rana off the second rope, and both guys taking signature spots onto their heads, this was, on the whole, the “tamest” match these two have had against one another in maybe 5 or 6 years now. Ibushi hit Kamigoye for a great near fall, but misses a Phoenix Splash. Naito hits Destino, but Ibushi gets the shoulder up. Naito kicks out of another Kamigoye, then drops Ibushi on his head with Valentia, and goes for another Destino. Ibushi escapes and hits a wrist clutch V-Trigger, followed by a third, knee padless Kamigoye to FINALLY win the two top prizes in New Japan after 31:18 of great action. There was a really wacky bit, that only Ibushi could do, after the match, where he seemed to sell being in a “fugue state”, tried to pin Naito again after the match, and sold disbelief when Red Shoes explained to him that he’d won. Naito presented The Golden Star with both belts, then Ibushi’s opponent tomorrow, Jay White, came out in the post match, and cut a promo, promising Ibushi’s reign would only last 24 hours. Ibushi informed Jay that he is mistaken, and that Ibushi will indeed become a God. This was a show built around happy ending babyface wins (in the major bouts), and was a dose of positivity the world needs right now. Bring on Night 2 already.

NDT

#njpw #wrestle kingdom 15 #review #njwk15 #wk15 #new japan pro wrestling #puroresu #wrestling #wrestling review

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wrestlingisfake · 3 years

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Wrestle Kingdom 15 day 2 preview

TBD vs. Jay White - White is challenging for the IWGP heavyweight title and IWGP intercontinental title, against the winner of Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi from last night. In fact several of the matches on this card are major spoilers for yesterday’s show, so I guess the whole thing needs to go under the cut.

Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White - Ibushi defeated Tetsuya Naito last night to become the 73rd IWGP heavyweight champion and the 27th IWGP intercontinental champion. White is using his “IWGP double championship right to challenge” contract to receive this title shot. If White wins, Ibushi’s 24 hours as double champion would be the shortest reign in the history of either championship.

Ibushi was devastated when he was knocked out of the Double Gold Dash last year, and moreso when he lost to White in the consolation match. Ibushi and White met again during the G1 Climax, where Jay beat him again. Ibushi nevertheless won the G1 Climax to earn the “right to challenge” contract. However, the contract is defended like a championship, and Ibushi put it on the line against White...who beat him again. White then elected to take January 4 off and schedule his title match with Naito for January 5. However, Naito decided to spend the 4th defending the title against Ibushi. The upshot is that Ibushi has finally achieved his dream, but he must immediately put it all on the line against his nemesis, who isn’t exhausted from working last night.

Frankly, I’m not sure why they set this up where the 1/4 main event sets up who gets to wrestle White, like he’s the biggest star in this thing. I suppose maybe the idea is that he’s unavoidable so that you’ll worry until the very end that he could ruin everything. Maybe that psychology connects with the Japanese audience. It doesn’t with me. I’d rather just see the best and/or biggest match close the second show, and White vs. Ibushi isn’t it. Their match at Wrestle Kingdom 14 last year was so dull that I lost interest for about 20 minutes. Jay will go for the same cheap heat spots he always goes for, and Ibushi will randomly no-sell or oversell each of them, depending on whether he wants to be Ultra Instinct Shaggy or Ricky Morton at any given moment.

I suppose White-Ibushi matches have been fun, sometimes. I really liked the G1 Climax 2019 final. But personally I was over this feud months ago. I really hope they’ve come up with some new material, or this is going to be a long slog for me. I’m picking Ibushi to win, because I really don’t think they’ll book White to win just to troll the Tokyo Dome. But the bigger problem is, I wouldn’t care if they did.

Taiji Ishimori vs. Hiromu Takahashi - Ishimori is defending the IWGP junior heavyweight championship. Hiromu defeated El Phantasmo last night to earn this title shot. Ishimori won the title from Takahashi on August 29, although they met again in the Best of the Super Jr. tournament on November 15, where Hiromu won. So this is the rubber match.

This match should be good to great, but it feels inevitable that Takahashi will regain the title. That’s not all bad, since he’s a big star and I’m a fan, but the match would mean more if Ishimori had been built up bigger. I suppose the pandemic made that difficult, since there were enough shows (or junior heavyweights) for Taiji to really burn through other top contenders.

I guess I’ll just try to get in the mindset of enjoying Hiromu’s coronation, instead of hoping for a match that could go either way. Then, on the off chance Ishimori actually wins, I’ll be properly shocked. But I’m not betting on that happening.

EVIL vs. SANADA - Welp, it had to happen--after Evil turned on Los Ingobernables de Japon and joined Bullet Club, it was only a matter of time before his tag team partner Sanada finally got a hold of him and...wait. I’m looking at my notes for the Evil-Sanada match from October 17. I’m frankly not sure why Sanada suddenly got mad at Evil two months after winning that match. I’m pretty sure they just ran out of ideas for each guy. Well, the October bout wasn’t as emotionally charged as I wanted anyway, so I’ll take a delayed grudge match if I can get it.

I believe Kevin Kelly commented recently that a win for Sanada here moves him closer to the main event title picture, but a loss sends him tumbling back down. I’d agree with that assessment. Along the same lines, a win for Evil suggests a renewed push for him, whereas a loss would signal that they’re putting him on the back burner for a while. I don’t expect either guy to headline the really big shows, but even on the lesser shows, only the winner of this match makes sense chasing the heavyweight and intercontinental titles.

I’d be in favor of these two brawling all around the ringside area (as much as safety procedures allow) and getting it out of their system. Blow this feud off quickly, so we can get on with new business--Sanada working his way up the ladder, and Evil plotting against his rivals within Bullet Club. I’m picking Sanada to win.

Shingo Takagi vs. Jeff Cobb - Takagi is defending the NEVER title. Cobb beat Shingo in their last singles encounter in September, but Takagi wasn’t champion yet. So Cobb had to beat him again in a tag match in December to set up this match. Of course, in the meantime, Cobb turned heel by joining Will Ospreay’s new stable, the Empire.

You could always count on either of these guys to have a great clubberin’ battle, but Cobb’s heel turn should add a vicious new edge to this matchup. We should get a strong showcase of what to expect from Evil Jeff Cobb, above and beyond what he demonstrated in World Tag League. Accordingly, I think he basically has to win the title. There just isn’t anything so important that it’s worth keeping the belt on Takagi; the most interesting thing he could do right now is chase Cobb. So this is another “feels like a foregone conclusion” match on a card full of them. At least this one should be fairly different from the others.

El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi - Despy and Kanemaru are defending the IWGP junior heavyweight tag team titles. Wato and Taguchi each managed to beat Despy in one-on-one matches during Best of the Super Jr., so I guess they figured they’d make a go of it as a team.

If you’d told me a year ago that a Young Lion would come back from excursion with a bunch of fancy vignettes, and it was all to build to this match, past-me would never have dreamed that the new guy would be the dimmest star of this group. But as it happens, Desperado had an epic star-making performance in BOSJ, Taguchi is a comedy institution in the promotion, and Kanemaru is at least a champion. Wato just hasn’t been booked like a hot new star, and the whole idea of having guys like Taguchi and Hiroyoshi Tenzan coach him just makes him look weaker. You get the feeling this match is designed to help him recover from all that, except that I have no confidence he’ll actually win the big one in the Tokyo Dome. If he loses here, he’s basically Captain New Japan Mark II.

What’s worse for Wato is that I’m not even sure it’s a good idea for him to finally win the big one, not at Desperado’s expense. The drama of the BOSJ final took me from “Oh, that one guy who looks like Skeletor cosplaying El Kabong” to “holy shit El Desperado isn’t fucking around.” They need to run with that, and maybe dropping the tag title is step one. But dropping it to Master Wato? I guess Wato could pin Kanemaru, but still.

To me the best finish for everyone involved is if the champs retain and Wato flips out and turns on Taguchi. But that sort of thing is awfully swerve-y for New Japan, and it’s smarter not to assume it’ll happen every time it’d be a little convenient. So I guess we’ll see what they’ve got. But I feel safe predicting the champs retain and Wato doesn’t get over as a babyface.

Toru Yano vs. Bad Luck Fale vs. Chase Owens vs. BUSHI - This is a four-way match to decide who gets first possession of the provisional KOPW 2021 trophy. Whoever holds the trophy at the end of the year will be the official King of Pro Wrestling in 2021, or something. Yano won the title for 2020, but it’s a new year so we have a new title. The participants here were the final four of last night’s New Japan Ranbo gauntlet match. I gather that the first man to score a fall over any other opponent wins.

This is a pretty oddball lineup so I would imagine this match will just be a lot of shenanigans. All four guys will cheat to win, but Owens and Fale will work together to double-team cheat, so they can be bigger heels than the other two.

Yano originally won the KOPW 2020 trophy in a four-way like this one, by stealing a pin over Kazuchika Okada of all people. So I would think that makes him a heavy favorite to win here. The only question is if the bookers think it’d be funnier for his tricks to backfire when dealing with the massive, extremely irritated Fale. I think I’d rather see Fale defending the trophy for six months, to be honest, but my gut says Yano will win again.

AZM & Saya Kamitani & Utami Hayashishita vs. Natsupo & Himeka & Maika - This is one of two women’s matches to provide exposure to STARDOM, the women’s promotion owned by New Japan’s parent company. In Japan it’s seems to be considered normal for promotions to be all-male or all-female, and for fans to only want to see one or the other on a given event. So I get the impression some New Japan fans have a problem with running Stardom matches on a NJPW show, although I certainly don’t see why. In any case, TV and streaming rights mean that Western fans probably won’t actually see this match; I’m not even sure it will be televised. And I unfortunately know nothing baout Stardom, so it’s kind of pointless for me to comment on performers I’ve never heard of in a match I’ll probably never get to see.

Tam Nakano & Mayu Iwatani vs. Syuri & Giulia - Another women’s match to showcase Stardom. In this case I at least recognize Iwatani’s name from some ROH shows a couple of years ago, but that’s about it. I’m all for getting women’s wrestling some more exposure anywhere you can do it, but unfortunately these matches are aimed at the live audience in the Tokyo Dome, and won’t do much good raising my awareness.

#njpw #wrestle kingdom 15 #jay white #taiji ishimori #other guys but they're spoilers

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bamxxvillexx66 · 4 years

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Make it right (This was requested by @jonationality)

Every night since the Garden incident with Enzo and Big Cass, Marty has been tossing and turning from a nightmare that didn't seem real at first but only got worst as the months went on. The nightmare would start off the same everytime: Marty is at the top of the ladder reaching out for the Ring Of Honor World Heavyweight championship that hung above him. Right as his finger tips graze the gold lining of the strap, Enzo and Cass are fighting everyone from both company rosters below him. Somewhere in the shuffle, Brody can be seen yelling at Marty to hurry up while there is still time left. Just like the real thing, Marty turns to look up at the belt to only to be greeted by Matt Taven punching him in his face.

In slow motion Marty falls down like Mufasa trying to reach out to the ladder and the belt but visual of both fade as he is swallowed whole by the briar patch. Voices of Tama yelling backstage about how the ROH tag belts ain't worth shit, Okada yelling at how disrespectful Americans are is being translated by a translator, Briscoes and Bully Ray asking how the hell wwe rejects was allowed into the building. As the fall almost came to an end, familiar faces showed up saying to each other in a visible whisper "How could he stay?" "He should have came with us." "His time was now and now it's never."

When Marty finally hit the ring mat from his long fall, he laid there sobbing at everything that was true. Since that event, tensions with both companies had been strained severely. Marty sent the talent bookings office text messages and even gave them phone calls about the next time he can come; he got the same soft response that wasn't rude but clearly wasn't pleasant. "Oh Marty-san we would love to have you come back but right now, but we only have room for you in the BOSJ tournament. If anything should happen to anyone or if a spot so happily opened up; we will call you asap." "You're talented and your time will come but right now your purpose is higher than this match young Martin." A voice that was angelic like rang from above as Marty woke up in a cold sweat. He ran his fingers through his semi wet hair and thought about who could that voice be.

As the new year was approaching fast, a lot of contracts signings was happening and Marty was next in line to see Mr. ROH who told Marty to show up dressing shap. As confused Marty was about this request, he wasted no time putting on his finest suit that can make anyone come out of their clothes on. A few spritz of his favorite date night cologne was definitely enough for him to seal the deal for when he was planning on negotiating the terms of his new contract. Marty looked himself over in the mirror and smiled as he can feel that today was going to be the best day for the rest of his life. "Knock 'em dead tiger." Brody said looking at his tag partner from across the room. Marty blushed at the comment and proceeded to head for Mr. ROH's office. Even though Marty had a feeling things was going to work in his favor, his nerves started up.

Two light knocked ran across the door as Mr. ROH placed a copy of Marty's new contract down on his desk. "Come in" "You wanted to see me, sir?" Marty said slowly walking into the room. Mr. ROH's face lit up as he saw Marty looking snazzy. "Sit me boy, we have lots to discuss." For 25 mins, Mr ROH read Marty all of his perks to his new contract and then slowly brought his ending statement around to the idea of Marty being the global ambassador of ROH. At first the idea scared Marty as he knew that NJPW wasn't taking any calls from anyone affiliated with ROH, but then again he was given a role of power which could make NJPW see ROH has fixed their issues. "Now all you got to do is sign the contract and you will be on the first flight out to Japan, ready to have a meeting with Mr. NJPW." "Why not, what the hell" Marty said grabbing the pen off the table and signed his government name.

The next 24 hrs for Marty was just like how Mr. ROH promised. Marty was on a flight straight to Japan. The kind words from his nightmare started to buzz around his head as he looked out the window. Hours later Marty landed in Japan and was greeted by Masa who was told about Marty's arrival by Mr. ROH. "Masa my old friend; it's good to see you" Marty said hugging Masa. "I miss you soo much Marti-chan!" Masa called a taxi and informed Marty that he will be accompanying him to the meeting as a sponsor and translator. The taxi dropped them off at the hotel and Masa lead Marty to his room that he already brought for him. "You rest up now and at 5:30 pm we will be having dinner with Mr. NJPW so you can discuss business." Masa said as he handed over the room key to Marty.

4:00 pm came and Marty was already dressed but was going over what he was going to say at dinner. His nerves was kicking in as he never personally delt with Mr. NJPW before; only Harold but he had left the company a few months ago. "So you're the new global ambassador for ROH?" Marty can hear Flip's voice echoing in his head. Flip wasn't mad at Marty as the position only seemed right for his older friend. Everyone backstage always told Marty that he was the sweetheart of the company after Bucks left. Dispite many bad management moves on ROH's part and Marty questioning his own fate, he still keep his emotions at check and treated everyone with respect. As reality came back to him, Marty tossed his cue cards and smiled at what he knew what will win the owner of NJ over.

Masa came and picked Marty up from the hotel and off they was to the local pepper pot place. The hostess lead both men to a table in the back. After 20 mins of waiting, the owner Mr. NJPW came joining the boys at the table with his translator. Masa placed the order for food and drinks. Marty couldn't take his eyes off of Mr. NJPW as this was his first time seeing him in person despite being in NJPW for so long. He looked just like the lion mark that greeted him everytime he had a match in Japan. "Masa thank you for bring Marti-chan here and I relieve you of your duties." Mr. NJ's translator said. Masa asked for a to-go order and lefted the table. Marty was confused as to why Masa was asked to leave. Mr. NJPW looked at Marty up and down and started to speak to his translator. "He said he is glad that you came back to Japan and he would like to hear your sweet singing voice. The boys talk about the elite show that Kenny-san and the young bucks had and our favorite episodes are with you singing." The translator said to Marty's suprise. "Um thank you" Marty said unsure of what's happening. The translator told Mr. NJPW what Marty's response was and a warm smile came across his face. "Eat and drink up now and we will go to karaoke after dinner."

At Karaoke Marty and Mr. NJPW was hitting it off well as both men was tipsy. The translator was recording the whole thing watching both men sing silly pop songs. Mr. NJPW knew a few english songs and was cutting loose. Marty hadn't had this much fun in Japan since BOSJ. The translator helped both men out of the karaoke bar and into a taxi. Mr. NJPW was in no shape to go home to his family and Marty's hotel room seemed viable. Both men laughed and giggled uncontrollably as a pop song played over the radio. At the hotel, all 3 men was chatting about wrestling as they walked to the room. Marty unlocked the door and all 3 headed inside. The translator laid his boss down onto the Japanese silk coved bed. "I feel like ROH feels bad about Madison Square garden and our locker room ain't same without the boys." Marty said as he took off his suit clothes. The translator recited Marty's sentence back to Mr. NJPW as he then too agreed with what Marty said. Marty took off his translucent ray ban sunglasses and sat them on the night stand. His greenish grey eyes sparkling in the dim light as he layed his big ass head on the Japanese silk coved pillows. Mr. NJPW never lost his cold lion mark gaze. "Supercard of honor would be a perfect time for the return of NJ's finest wrestlers to duke it out with ROH's." The translator relayed Marty's heartfelt plead and then Mr. NJPW looked Marty into the pits of his soul which made Marty scared as to what his answer might be. "May ROH borrow your most finest wrestlers you have?" He said batting his eye lashes. Mr NJPW responded with a simple "Yes". Both men fell asleep and the translator laid down on the floor.

By mourning time, Marty woke up to a thick contract signed by Mr. NJPW and a note that read: "Had a great time last night and I see wrestling is in your blood. Please accept this renewal of NJPW's working contract as a token of our appreciation for you coming and making up amends with us." Marty jumped up and down in celebration as his charms woo'-ed the pants off Mr. NJPW.

Days later Marty arrived to Mr. ROH's office with the contract in hand as he smiled. "So is it done?" Mr. ROH asked in anticipation. "Yes it is" Marty handing over the contract. "See this is why I picked you!!" Mr. ROH said as his eyes glittered at the big lion mark that stood proudly on the cover page. "Now I leave all future bookings of all up coming ROH shows in your hands; especially Supercard of honor." Marty's face glowed as he thanked Mr. ROH for the opportunity to help the company in a trying time of need.

As Marty left the office his phone was buzzing with text messages from Mr. NJPW's translator. "Please come back to Japan asap because the boys in the locker room can't get enough of your karaoke video and the boss will like to offer your own karaoke set when you comeback." Marty smiled at the fact someone appreciated him for his angelic singing voice.

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andymull · 5 years

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NJPW G1 Block A Breakdown

The big names are among us....

Before deep diving into the contenders lets give the G1 a breakdown itself first for any new viewers who are getting into NJPW starting here.

The full name of the tournament is the G1 Climax, which stands for Grade One meaning the best all compete within it. When it first began the G1 was a single elimination tournament but gradually changed into a round robin format, where the two blocks were introduced and the winners from each block face each in the finals.

For the matches in the block stage of the tournament a win will gain you 2 points, a draw is 1 point and a loss gains you 0 points. If it finishes with multiple wrestlers on equal points then it comes down to their record against each other as to who wins. The final between the two block winners takes place on the final night, with the winner receiving a briefcase with a contract for the NJPW IWGP heavyweight title to be cashed in on their biggest show of the year Wrestle Kingdom always held on January 4th.

What we’ve seen the past few years is that by having the briefcase we then see the winner having to defend it against competitors they lost to during the G1, in a similar way that if the world champion takes part in the G1 and loses during it he doesn't drop the title but will usually have to defend the title to that person after the tournament.

Kazuchika Okada

The reigning, defending champion is again entering the tournament and is definitely one of the main reasons to watch the whole thing, this guy is one of the best ever and your going to get to see him against some of the top challengers in the company. Easily one of the top contenders for the group win.

Zack Sabre Jr

One of my personal favourites here who’s style fits the company and wrestlers involved perfectly. He ran close to winning his block last year after winning the New Japan cup and will be very close this year too, the problem being that this block is STACKED!

Hiroshi Tanahashi

The living legend again enters the G1, hopefully he is able to make it through without getting too banged up again. Im not too sure how well he will do this year and can actually see him not being in contention for the win on the last few nights, which will pain me to see but there comes that time for everyone and hopefully this isnt it but it could well be............or could the Ace pull off another magical run and take it all?

Kota Ibushi

And now we reach Ibushi, my top pick to take it all and cash in at Wrestle Kingdom. With the loss of Kenny Omega and everyone else that has gone to AEW it resulted in a gap appearing in the main event of NJPW shows, and this finally saw Ibushi take that step to committing more to the company to place his-self into an important spot.

Ibushi hasn't been under contract to the company and usually works under a handshake deal, he was expected to follow his friend Omega to the states and AEW but he always has had the dream of being the NJPW champion and this was the time to strike. Kenny was more than happy for his friend to stay in the company and make that jump and Kota then signed a ‘lifetime’ contract with the company. For me that now allows the company to strap the rocket to his back with the safety of him staying all sorted, the first step to his dream begins here by winning on of the toughest blocks in recent history.

EVIL

The Los Ingobernables de Japon member is part of Block A along with his stable mate Sanada, in what will develop into a very interesting aspect of this block. Im not exactly sure as to where NJPW truly see EVIL currently as he has been a tag guy for awhile with Sanada, but also had the privilege to work with Chris Jericho over the IC title. So they do see him as a future singles competitor but dont seem to be close to really letting him go fully on fire by his-self, or will this G1 be the time they do so in a surprise to all and instantly have him a massive threat by winning this huge Block A?

Sanada

Next up is his stable mate Sanada, someone who has had previous experience in the G1 and also recent success in the New Japan Cup having reached the finals in losing to Okada. And that name is where Sanada’s tournament will be formed for me, he has faced Okada multiples times the past year but has yet to defeat the rainmaker. He challenged him last February and lost, as mentioned he reached the finals of the New Japan Cup this year and lost to him then received a title match following the tournament due to his performance and once again lost.

I dont think he is in with a shout of taking this group so the biggest accomplishment for him personally will be to take a scalp from Okada for the first time, if your new to NJPW and are looking to follow someone who is going to develop over the next few years Id place you at Sanada’s feet and tell you to get ready for the ride.

Bad Luck Fale

The General of the Bullet Club relishes the chance at the G1 yearly as he doesn't usually get the high placed singles matches much anymore, so uses this opportunity to have different matches with the top guys and show he can produce on the big stage when needed. And if he couldn't he would have been dropped from the G1 afew years ago.

Lance Archer

The Suzuki Gun member enters the G1 in a strange position, that being down to the exclusion of Minoru Suzuki, I dont think we’ve heard the end of what Minoru thinks of him not being included, dont be surprised if Lance steps down to allow the King to enter. If not, Lance is an ok inclusion he isnt going to be winning the block or most likely finishing with a positive record, but he will be able to have a handful of fun matches like his recent match with Will Ospreay, plus he also receives a killer reception from Japanese crowds.

Will Ospreay

The first of the new entries to the G1, having very recently won the Best Of The Super Juniors tournament he demanded to be placed into the G1 with the heavyweights as he slowly prepares his-self to enter the heavyweight ranks full time.

Will will be all out to have excellent match after excellent match similar to his BOSJ run, I see him being a great inclusion in this years event producing some stunning matches (Okada/Sabre/etc) and seeing him go close in his first year but maybe suffer from knocks from facing bigger opponents in quick succession.

KENTA

And the final entrant to the Block is the return to Japan of KENTA! The former NOAH competitor arrived in the New Japan to stake his place in the G1, it will be very interesting to see what level of performance we get from KENTA after his WWE run as he seemed fairly injury prone at the tail end of his run there.

But, when looking at his entry I think back to other NOAH wrestlers that popped up in recent G1′s and the fun they brought with them, such Noamichi Marufuji and Katsuhiko Nakajima who I really enjoyed back in 2016. I really have no idea with KENTA will end up which means it will be fun to see, I dont think he contends the victory but dont think he ends up bottom of the block either.

And that concludes our breakdown of competitors for Block A and what a massive Block that is.

After looking at all involved it really is the favourites that strike me as the true contenders to win, that being Okada, Tanahashi and Ibushi. I see Ibushi taking the block win as well as the whole G1 in his big to win the heavyweight title, and in doing so will have an excellent match with Okada during the block action.

Block B will be up next and will have some serious trouble in following the names involved here, but, sometimes the story that surrounds a block will be more enjoyable and I feel thats where Block B will thrive....

More to come

Bye for now

Andy

#NJPW #G1 Climax #g1 #iwgp #Kazuchika Okada #Zack Sabre Jr #Hiroshi Tanahashi #kota ibushi #evil #sanada #bad luck fale #lance archer #Will Ospreay #kenta #los ingobernables de japon #Suzuki Gun #bullet club #chaos

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hazyheel · 5 years

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Best of the Super Juniors 26 (2019) Predictions

This is the biggest and quite possibly best BOSJ that we have ever seen. 20 competitions from all over the world, and it is impossible to look away this year. I am super excited for the tournament, and it has been killing me all week that I have to wait. So, for the predictions, I will predict who will advance out of each block, along with some runner ups, and who will win the tournament.

There have been a couple changes to this year’s lineup before we get into things. First off, El Desperado broke his Jaw at TAKA Taichi mania a few days ago and won’t be able to compete. Next, Flip Gordon had some issues with his visa, so he also will have to back out. Those are two big hits to the field this year, but they are being replaced by Ren Narita of the young Lions and DOUKI, a guy on the Japanese and Mexican Indy scenes. I know nothing about him apart from that, but hopefully he is good.

So, for Block A, I think that Shingo Takagi has to get the win coming out of the block. He is undefeated in New Japan so far, and while I don’t think that he will stay that way come the tournament, he is one of the biggest threats in the Block. I picture him strong arming his way through the bracket, beating down anyone in his way. Coming in second and third in that block will probably be Dragon Lee and Taiji Ishimori. The two just came off an intense feud and great match, but I think we need a bit more diversity in the junior scene in the coming months, so Ishimori can’t win here. Lee is the champion, so he will do well, but its doubtful that he will move past the block.

In the B block, Will Ospreay probably has the most likely chance of winning. He made a heavyweight debut at Wrestle Kingdom, beating Kota Ibushi for the NEVER Openweight Championship. Since then, he has beaten several heavyweights in the New Japan Cup and tag matches, including powerhouses Bad Luck Fale and Jeff Cobb. I just don’t see him losing much to the junior division anymore. This is probably his last BOSJ before he moves up, so he deserves this sendoff. I think second will go to El Phantasmo because he has just debuted, so he should do well, while third will probably be Ryusuke Taguchi because of his recent large wins in the New Japan Cup, and a big main event against Taichi at the TAKATaichiMania show a few days ago.

The finals should be very exciting between Takagi and Ospreay, but Ospreay should win here. Like I said, he is moving to the heavyweights soon. I know people normally put their opponents over when they are on their way out, and Ospreay most likely would lose his title match, but considering that he is moving to the heavyweights, he has to get a big win over the division before he heads up. Should be an awesome match though.

So, those are my predictiosn for BOSJ this year. The loss of Desperado and Flip were painful, but I am excited to see a new face in DOUKI, and young lions are always fun in these tournaments. I still think this will be a great tournament, and although I predicted that Ospreay would win, I will be cheering my boy Bandido on to victory every step of the way. You can do it Bandido, because I believe in you, and I am very important on Tumblr. In my mind.

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lostinyourears · 7 years

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Fire Pro Roster Recap #3 : Thunder Pro Wrestling Retsuden

Figured I’d knock this one out since it seemingly has the smallest roster of the console releases for this series. This one is probably one of the last ones I would recommend because it’s rough and earlier edition of Fire Pro. While on the SNES the series became more polished and pretty much perfected the formula by the last few iterations on SNES. This would be the only Fire Pro game on the Sega Genesis and because of that is fairly unpolished and as said above has a small 12 man roster.

Since most of these were also featured in the first game of the series I will be copying the bios over and will designate those entries with an asterisk which will make future entries easier because I already have a real life photo of them and a written bio.

Akira Maeda (*) : A wrestler who worked for many companies and is credited with being one of the pioneers of the shoot style. He worked for NJPW, Japan UWF(Which he co-created and was a promoter for) and he was even featured on World of Sports working for all 3 of those companies in the 80′s before 1991 rolled around Akira Maeda would found the wrestling promotion Rings, that would later shift focus in 1995 and become an MMA promotion.

Antonio Inoki (*) : Oh boy! Inoki, how can I sum up such a massive and important career in a paragraph? Truth be told I can’t for him or any of these men, but here we go. Inoki is one of the most important wrestlers ever and is credited with the invention of the enzuigiri. When Inoki started down the wrestling path he train with Karl Gotch in old school catch wrestling. Inoki would name his own style of wrestling ‘Strong Style’ which is still used today by many Japanese talents.

Inoki is also credited as being a forefather of the modern MMA boom. Inoki use to fight people from around the world who all were trained in different fighting arts. Many of his fights were scripted, but still showed the world was interested in that kind of competition. Also, he fought Ric Flair in North Korea which drew 150,000 and 190,000 people for the two day event and is still the biggest wrestling show in recorded history.

I could go on for ages about Inoki as he has a long intriguing history. He ontop of the above listed things also was : founder of NJPW in 1972 which came about after Rikidozan’s(The original Japanese Wrestler/Promoter) Japanese Wrestling Association went defunct having NJPW/AJPW spring up in it’s place. Inoki owned NJPW out right until he sold the company to Yuke’s in 2005. Inoki is also a politician in his home country of Japan where he was elected to positions twice. That’s all for Inoki, if you want to know more feel free to look him up. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t books about the man who has a huge legacy.

Bam Bam Bigelow : Bam Bam first worked smaller promotions before working for WWF in the mid 80′s before going to NJPW from 1989-1992 where he would form a dominant tag team with Vader, the two even capturing the IWGP Tag Titles. After his stint in NJPW he would go on to work for all 3 of the major US Promotions in the 90′s WWF, WCW and ECW. Most notably headlining WM XI versus linebacker Lawrence Taylor in what may be the highest profile match to ever include a non-wrestler. He was also a main event talent in ECW helping lend credibility to the 3rd player in the United States wrestling scene.

Genichiro Tenryu (*) : Genichiro like many wrestlers actually started in a different Martial Art. Sumo, which is of course very popular in Japan. Tenryu started his sumo training at the young age of 13 and would continue down that path for another 13 years before shifting his focus to the Puroresu ring. He would then be scouted by Giant Baba of AJPW. Tenryu would be sent over to Texas where he was trained by Dory Funk Jr and Terry Funk. In the early 80′s Tenryu would team with Jumbo Tsuruta collectively called “Kakuryu” (鶴 = kaku = tsuru (the “tsuru” in Tsuruta) + 龍 = ryū in Tenryū).

Tenryu would go on to become one of the most decorated players in AJPW history. The Tokyo Sports awards, a non partisan award for japanese wrestling achievements would give Tenryu Best bout/MOTY award an astonishing 9 times and call him MVP of the year 4 different times.

Hulk Hogan : A man who doesn’t need an introduction or an explanation, but just in case you’ve had the 80′s erased from your memory. Hulk Hogan is easily considered the biggest draw in the 1980′s wrestling scene. Main eventing several Wrestlemania’s, the only wrestlers of the 80′s who can rival him in North America would have to be Ric Flair. He would go on to reinvent himself in the mid 90′s and become a focus of WCW programming when he was the 3rd man in the stable NWO.

Jumbo Tsuruta (*) : Another huge star for AJPW through the 80′s. Jumbo as mentioned above was a stellar tag team with Tenryu. He also had 7 MOTY’s from Tokyo sports and captured nearly anything of note in AJPW. He would sadly die in the year 2000 after complications from a kidney transplant, just short a year after his retirement in 1999. Though he hadn’t been in serious competition most of the 1990′s where he mostly worked 6 man tag matches that were comedic in tone.

Jushin Thunder Liger : Arguably the greatest Cruiserweight/Junior Heavyweight of all time. Jushin Thunder Liger has done almost anything you can name. While he never worked in AJPW, he had done pretty much everything you can in NJPW including being one of two men who have won BOSJ on 3 separate occasions. He also worked in several North American companies : TNA, CMLL, WCW and most recently a one off match in NXT in 2015. In the early 1990′s he was one of the most beloved wrestlers by WoN who voted him best Technical/Best High Flyer/Most Outstanding All 3, 3 years in a row. 1990-1992. You’d have a hard time finding many more wrestlers more decorated than Liger.

Kensuke Sasaki : A mega star of Japan who started in the business in 1986, before taking an international excursion which is common for young guys stars of NJPW to do as a way of gaining skills outside the Japanese ecosystem. When he returned to Japan in the early 90′s he formed a popular tag team with fellow wrestler Hiroshi Hase the two having a great series of matches with the Steiner Brothers who were in Japan and worked with NJPW through WCW as well. Kensuke is one of two men to ever hold all three major Japanese Heavyweight titles : IWGP(NJPW), Triple Crown(AJPW) and GHC(NOAH). He also founded his own promotion Diamond Ring which he ran from 2005-2014 when it closed it’s doors. Sasaki has retired, his last match was in DDT in 2015 though his official retirement happened before that.

Riki Choshu (*) : Riki Choshu innovated a move that would define early 90′s wrestling in the states and most don’t even know it. That move being The Sharpshooter or as Riki Choshu called it : Sasori-gatame.

Riki Choshu is also credited as being the first ever traitor heel in Japan. Turning on his friend Fujinami after being snubbed for the inaugural tournament for the IWGP Heavyweight championship in 1983. Riki Choshu is also one of the few people to do a clean sweep of the G1 Climax where he won every match in the tournament he had.

In 1998 Riki Choshu would retire, his final card he wrestled 5 matches in one night and won 4 of them. After his retirement he would focus more as a booker at NJPW where he spent most of his career. He has moved a decent amount post 2000 and even had a deathmatch in FMW shortly after his retirement. He has wrestled sparingly in the years since, but not full time.

Stan Hansen (*) : You can’t talk gaijin(Japanese for Foreigner) and not mention Stan Hansen. The cream of the crop when it comes to American assholes in Japan. The man’s career started with a very good case of ‘turning Lemons into Lemonade’ when he accidently broke Bruno Sammartino’s neck via a botched powerslam. The bookers and Hansen rolled with it and instead claimed the break came at the end of one of Stan Hansen’s destructive lariats.

Stan Hansen would leave WWF shortly after that and have a brief run in NJPW where he participated in the first ever G1 Tag League with his partner Hulk Hogan.

He would move over to AJPW where he would make his name winning anything he could get his hands on. He also was awarded MOTY 3 times by Tokyo sports vs great talents Kawada, Giant Baba and Tenryu. He would also win Most Outstanding Foreigner in 1982 and most popular wrestler in 1980. He by no means invented the lariat, but many credit him with it’s incredible popularity in Japan.

Super Strong Machine : Super Strong Machine is an old school 80′s talent who is most known as a tag team competitor having 3 reigns with the IWGP Tag Titles. He had an excursion like many NJPW talents where he played a native character in Stampede wrestling named Sonny Two Rivers in 83/84, before coming back to NJPW where he wrestled mostly as Super Strong Machine though in various points in his career he wrestled without a mask as just Junji Hirata his real name. He still works in NJPW as a trainer, his last match was in 2014 and most of the 2000′s he worked in tag/trio matches. I did a spotlight on him which you can find here.

Big Van Vader : If Stan Hansen isn’t the most important and over villainous gaijin in NJPW. Starting in AWA in the mid 80′s, his career didn’t really take off until he made his way to Japan in 1988 when he pulled a MitB, Inoki had already had a grueling match with Riki Choshu, but Vader appeared and challenged Inoki, who accepted and was quickly slain by Vader. The pro-Inoki crowd went crazy and rioted which got NJPW banned from the Sumo Hall that had been their home arena for a year or so.

From this giant debut Vader would go on to become the first ever gaijin/foreigner to win the IWGP Heavyweight championship. He would also win the tag titles with Bam Bam Bigelow in the same time period of the early 90′s. Vader would also have famously one of the most stiff brawls ever when he and Stan Hansen collided as the two big monsters of AJPW/NJPW at a crossover show.

He would have success in WCW after this and have a less than memorable run in WWF, the less said about that the better. He would come back to Japan working in both NJPW and NOAH. He retired in 2006 before coming back in 2011 where he has wrestled sporadically every year since.

How’s it play? Awful, the first few SNES games are this unpolished, but have larger rosters. The latter half of the SNES Fire Pro games are polished and have bigger rosters and even the first game on TurboGrafx-16 had 16 people on the roster.

The thin roster, unpolished gameplay and look leave this as perhaps the weakest entry on any console. While oftentimes Fire Pro is the best option for a wrestling game on any given system, I don’t think that’s the case with this Sega Genesis/Mega Drive entry in the series which is the only Fire Pro game for the system compared to the 6+ on the SNES the last 2-3 of which are great.

#MegaDrive #SegaGenesis #Sega #BigVanVader #SuperStrongMachine #StanHansen #RikiChoshu #JushinThunderLiger #KensukeSasaki #HulkHogan #FirePro #RosterRecap #JumboTsuruta #BamBamBigelowe #GenichiroTenryu #AntonioInoki #AkiraMaeda

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junker-town · 6 years

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Wrestle Kingdom 12 was a wrestling storytelling event of the ages

The story is just as important as the match itself, and Wrestle Kingdom 12 told some beautiful tales.

Stories are important. No matter the context or setting, the story of a thing can often tell you more about than what that thing is actually doing. That’s definitely true in wrestling, where the stories in and around a given match lend so much meaning and context that a well-executed story can sometimes be more valuable and complete as an experience than what actually happens inside the ring.

New Japan Pro Wrestling have become masters of the storytelling art in professional wrestling, and that art was on full display at Wrestle Kingdom 12, the promotion’s biggest show of the year. From start to finish, there were cohesive stories that were easy to follow, and it made for compelling viewing all night long. The storytelling took an already high technical level of wrestling throughout the card and elevated it to a level that’s going to make this show a tough one for any promotion to beat this year, and Wrestle Kingdom 12 is going to go down as an utterly fantastic night of wrestling.

Omega eclipses Alpha

In November, legendary WWE superstar Chris Jericho made a shocking appearance at the end of the NJPW Power Struggle show to issue a challenge for Kenny Omega’s IWGP United States Championship. What seemed at first to be a friendly contest between one of the all-time best in the industry and one of the current top stars quickly became a much more heated rivalry when Jericho assaulted and bloodied Omega in December, eventually turning this match into a No Disqualification bout that is incredibly rare in Japan.

With Jericho seeming offended that people felt Omega’s star had eclipsed his own, he seemingly became unhinged. Declaring himself the “Alpha” of professional wrestling, he and Omega had a fiery and physical press conference confrontation, and had a massive war of words in the buildup to this match. Once both men were in the ring, it was little different — Jericho attacked Omega before the bell even rang while he was getting good luck hugs from his Bullet Club and Elite partners the Young Bucks, and his early flurry of attacks once the bell did ring seemed to keep Omega on the back foot.

In fact, the shocking aggression of Jericho would be a hallmark all match long. At one point, he repeatedly mashed Omega face-first into a chair hung up in the corner ropes, going several strikes past the point of Omega’s forehead being busted open and bleeding. And that was after a brutal attack that saw Jericho counter a tope dive out of the ring to drive Omega into the announce table, then put him into the Walls of Jericho on the ruins of the table before assaulting him with remains of the announcers’ equipment, including throwing a monitor directly under Omega’s belt.

But Omega’s athleticism couldn’t be denied, and the defending champion finally started to make his presence felt with his own offense. Jericho’s incredible veteran ring presence let him pull out several incredible counters to Omega’s varied and normally impactful offense, but eventually Omega started hitting his patented V-Trigger knee strikes, and started trying to hit the One-Winged Angel finisher that no one has yet kicked out of. Jericho rolled through the first one in a beautiful counter to lock in a Walls of Jericho that nearly forced Omega to tap out, then hit a second one a little too close to the ring ropes, allowing Jericho to grab one to force a break.

But after countering an attempted chair-aided Lionsault from Jericho, Omega put down that same chair and hit the One-Winged Angel once more, this time driving Jericho into the chair originally meant to end his title reign, and there was no doubt as to the result of the move this time around. It was a massively impressive win from Omega, beating a cagey veteran that had him on the ropes so many times. The win only added to a legacy for Omega that’s fast approaching legendary status, and added all the more value to the IWGP United States Championship that he’s helped establish since becoming it’s inaugural champion last summer. Overcoming such a wild and driven Jericho on the biggest stage

Los Ingobernables de Japon show a new side

The Tetsuya Naito lead Los Ingobernables de Japon faction in NJPW made their impact by being a disruptive, corner-cutting, and incredibly aggressive group of men who weren’t afraid to attack anyone in their way, even if it was against the rules. Heck, breaking the rules almost seemed to be an encouragement to them at times, as we saw when Bushi, Evil, and the then-debuting Sanada continuously interfered on Naito’s behalf when their leader faced and — thanks to their help — beat Kazuchika Okada to win the NJPW Heavyweight Championship in April 2016. That’s not even mentioning the rampant disrespect Naito showed to the IWGP Intercontinental Championship belt when he held it as the champion, something seen as utterly loathsome in Japan.

But recently, they’ve been starting to turn over a new leaf. When Tetsuya Naito won the G1 Climax to earn this Wrestle Kingdom main event spot — the first he’s had after a fan vote stripped him of the main event the first time he won the G1 — and an IWGP Heavyweight Championship opportunity against hated foe Okada, Naito’s focus has earned the respect of the fans more than ever before. He’s even started pulling out his old high-flying Stardust finisher in recent months, something we hadn’t seen from him since before he became one of wrestling’s premier bad boys.

This match really helped cement Naito’s turnaround, as we saw a very different side to him. Yes, he still used his signature tranquillo tactics to slow the match down to his advantage at times, and he focused heavily on the injured neck that’s plagued Okada over the last six months. But this time, that wasn’t an underhanded move — he wasn’t dirty about it in any way, instead using the injury to execute a smart gameplan. Naito wasn’t cutting any corners this time; he wanted to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on his own merits, forcing Okada to bring out an aggressive side of himself that we rarely see.

This is the fourth time that Naito and Okada have faced off with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on the line, including two such matches last year that the pair split wins in. They’ve learned a lot both from and about each other in that time, and that was on full display in this match. Not only were they countering so many of each other’s best moves, they were both pulling out all kinds of new tricks to keep each other off balance.

This match was very much about the evolution of both wrestlers, though the drive of Naito to be the absolute best in New Japan Pro Wrestling had him pushing Okada to the absolute limit. This match was Naito at his very peak, and after a brilliant late series of finishers and counters, Naito hit an absolutely devastating Destino finisher — but just a hint of his former arrogance came back in that crucial moment, and instead of going for a cover that could have won him the match, he went for a second straight Destino. Okada had just enough left in the tank to counter it into a leaping Tombstone Piledriver, while Naito had nothing left to resist the follow-up Rainmaker clothesline, allowing Okada to finally put him away to retain his title.

Naito walked away with plenty to be proud of, though. Yes, he’d failed in his mission, but he showed everyone who watched just how good he can be. He even earned words of respect and praise from Okada and his manager Gedo as he walked away from the ring, something you don’t always see after a match like that. We’ve seen a new side of Naito, and where he goes next will bear close scrutiny.

Naito wasn’t the only Ingobernable to show a different side, either. After two years of using underhanded tactics to beat their foes, Evil and Sanada let their skill do the talking during the World Tag League tournament in 2017, ultimately beating the tournament’s Bullet Club representatives, the Guerillas of Destiny in a straight-up battle of wills to earn a match against the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Suzuki-gun representatives Davey Boy Smith, Jr. and Killer Elite Squad. That will was put to the test when KES jumped them before the bell, with Evil eating their Killer Bomb finisher just seconds into the match. Archer and Davey Boy dominated for almost all of the first ten minutes of the match, utterly pounding Evil into the mat before turning their attention to Sanada, and even to the Young Lion ring attendants at times.

Finally, though, the Los Ingobernables members made an opening for themselves, with Evil managing to assert himself into the match before Sanada finally got to start showing off his athleticism. And once the powerful duo really got rolling, that was it for the once-arrogant KES — Smith and Archer had lost their momentum, and Sanada and Evil were able to show just why they make such a good tag team. Sanada’s overwhelming athleticism and Evil’s surprising explosiveness spelled doom for the Killer Elite Squad, and Los Ingobernables de Japon came away hold the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship title.

This was truly the best of the super juniors

New Japan Pro Wrestling always makes headlines with their Best Of The Super Juniors tournament every year, but Wrestle Kingdom 12 put on a display in an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match that topped anything we’ve seen in that tournament in years, and it was a story unto itself. NJPW’s three biggest stables were represented, with the Bullet Club’s Marty Scurll coming in as the defending IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, Chaos’ explosive aerial artist Will Ospreay, and Los Ingobernables’ always-odd Hiromu Takahashi filling three corners of the four-way matchup.

The fourth man was, of course, Kushida, the defending BOSJ winner and one of the most successful junior heavyweights in recent NJPW history. While all four men have been NJPW Junior Heavyweight Champions in the last year, Kushida has been at the heart of it all, with an amazing months-long war against Takahashi, before battling with Ospreay and Scurll over the last half of the year ahead of this match.

If you came into this match expecting something high-paced and exciting, that’s exactly what you got. They were flying at full speed almost from the moment the bell rang, and none of the four men let up for even a moment until it ended.

.@WillOspreay is doing @WillOspreay things #njwk12 ➡️ https://t.co/8n90d75Nfk http://pic.twitter.com/GWliYbIoDc

— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 4, 2018

But it wasn’t just about the high-flying moves, though, because the sheer aggression between these four men — with Kushida and Takahashi renewing their rivalry and two of the top English stars in Scurll and Ospreay battling once again — came out in some truly eye-opening ways.

THEY JUST DON'T STOP. #njwk12 ➡️ https://t.co/8n90d75Nfk http://pic.twitter.com/iaCLGpQBlK

— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 4, 2018

Hiromu sends KUSHIDA flying! #njwk12 ➡️ https://t.co/8n90d75Nfk http://pic.twitter.com/RhTAFa0N11

— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 4, 2018

The Tokyo Dome is going ballistic for @TIMEBOMB1105! #njwk12 ➡️ https://t.co/8n90d75Nfk http://pic.twitter.com/9u2YvKBWUN

— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 4, 2018

.@KUSHIDA_0904 has a sunset bomb of his own! #njwk12 ➡️ https://t.co/8n90d75Nfk http://pic.twitter.com/jh1R0CxRTz

— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 4, 2018

The action just wouldn’t stop. There were so many near-falls that were either fought out of or desperately broken up at the last moment. All four men looked incredible — Scurll was at his villainous best, Ospreay was showing new dimensions of of toughness and drive that we haven’t seen from him before, Kushida was pulling out all the stops to stay in the match, and Takahashi was constantly fighting his way into the center of the match and making huge impact after huge impact on the proceedings.

It was almost a shame that it finally had to end. The story the match told in among the frantic pace of all the action was fantastic — Scurll getting more and more desperate as he realized he was facing three elite wrestlers, Takahashi looking to reclaim the belt that he’d held so jealously after winning it a year ago, and Kushida realizing he had to take a step or two up to stay relevant in a rapidly-improving division of NJPW.

Above it all, however, was Will Ospreay. Over the last two years, he’s been on a rapid ascent in the wrestling world, and at Wrestle Kingdom 12 he may have taken his biggest step yet. He was knocked down and put on the ropes so many times throughout this match, but he constantly found ways to dig deep and fight through. He wasn’t just doing the ”flippy shit” that put him on the map — Ospreay was fighting tooth and nail all throughout the match, including pulling out some incredibly physical counters and smart moments that we haven’t typically seen from the young Englishman. It was fitting, then, that he would finally break his years-long drought against Scurll, hitting a huge Oz Cutter springboard stunner on the defending champion to win the pinfall and become a two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, and assert himself as the man to beat in the division.

The Bullet Club rises, the Bullet Club falls

For years, one of the biggest rivalries in NJPW’s junior heavyweight tag team division was the Bullet Club’s Young Bucks against Rocky Romero. Whether it was part of Forever Hooligans or Roppongi Vice, Romero constantly found the Bucks in his way, and he and the Jackson brothers put on some absolutely tremendous matches. Now mostly retired from the ring, Romero is leading Roppongi 3K, the young tag team of Sho and Yohthat’s taken NJPW by storm, winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on their first night back in Japan after more than a year away from the company.

With the Bucks looking to win the Junior Heavyweight belts for a record seventh time to cement themselves as arguably the best junior tag team in Japanese history, they had to get past the man who knows them best once more. Rocky Romero’s team stood in their way, and the Young Bucks were eager to get one over on their old rival again. They went to work fast, riling up Sho and Yoh, then using an injury to Yoh to take out Romero himself with a running powerbomb on the entrance ramp while the attention was on the fallen tag champion.

.@MattJackson13 ruthlessly disposes of @azucarRoc! #njwk12 ➡️ https://t.co/8n90d75Nfk http://pic.twitter.com/LQoNa9Z68g

— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 4, 2018

That back injury to Yoh, and one that Matt Jackson would suffer several minutes later, would become the story of the match, with the Bucks doing everything they could to add to Yoh’s misery, while smartly keeping the top-shelf talent of Sho outside the ring, knowing that with Yoh hurt, Sho was the much bigger threat to them in this match.

YOUR BACK ASPLODE. ➡️ https://t.co/8n90d75Nfk http://pic.twitter.com/RzV8WjydfJ

— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 4, 2018

But Yoh kept fighting out of whatever the Young Bucks threw his way, and every time Sho got into the ring he did significant damage to the Bucks, especially to Matt’s own injured back. Roppongi 3K had answers to most of the Bucks’ tricks thanks to Romero’s coaching — but the Bucks had a few more tricks up their sleeves that Sho and Yoh weren’t ready for. After Matt blasted Sho out of the ring, the fourth Sharpshooter that Yoh found himself in during the match was the last one. The youngster’s hurt body finally overriding his near-bottomless will to keep fighting and tapping out to give the Young Bucks their seventh IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship win.

That kind of in-ring storytelling was on display again as another Bullet Club member, Cody Rhodes, took on Kota Ibushi. This was a match about the arrogance and deviousness of Cody against the heart and passion of Kota, and it played out in every part of this match like chapters in a book. Cody and his wife Brandi took every advantage they could by hook or by crook, with the former Ring of Honor World Champion frequently attacking Ibushi’s surgically-repaired neck, while Brandi distracted him at every opportunity.

Ibushi never stayed down for long, though, pulling out one brilliant counter after another to keep Cody off-balance and do as much damage as he could. But that all seemed to be at risk after Cody hit a jaw-dropping Cross Rhodes — his finishing maneuver — off the ring apron, driving Ibushi’s head onto the floor.

.@CodyRhodes delivers a nightmarish CROSS RHODES! #njwk12 ➡️ https://t.co/8n90d75Nfk http://pic.twitter.com/LNDh1jLSRC

— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 4, 2018

It looked like that would be it for the match — Kota beat the referee’s 20 count to return to the ring by slimmest of margins, and seemed completely out of it for several minutes, but Cody’s next attempt at a Cross Rhodes saw Ibushi dig deep to find an escape out of nowhere, sending Cody face-first into the corner padding. Cody kept Ibushi on the ropes for a short time, but you could tell the momentum was shifting, and Kota started looking for his Kamigoye knee strike finisher as Cody started to turn to more and more desperate attempts to finish the match. He would finally catch Cody off-balance and hit Kamigoye cleanly, leaving Cody face-down on the mat — but Ibushi decided that wasn’t enough, deciding to add an exclamation mark and show off his athleticism in the face of all the damage he took in the form of a huge Phoenix Splash to put Cody away.

In the end, the story of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 12 was one of triumph. It was a fantastic show on a technical level, but every match told a clear and concise story. We didn’t even touch on everything in great detail, because there’s simply not enough time or space to go over everything.

But when you look at Omega’s tenacity, Naito’s drive, the juniors’ passion, the Young Bucks’ mission to take down an old rival, and Cody’s arrogance, and you add it to things like Hirooki Goto’s honor beating Minoru Suzuki’s unhinged aggression and Hiromu Tanahashi proving that the former ace can still beat a young upstart, and you have such a complete storytelling experience that even if you somehow didn’t enjoy the technical product, it’s almost impossible not to understand and appreciate the full range of the story on display in NJPW’s biggest event of the year.

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puroresu-musings · 4 years

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NJPW G1 CLIMAX 30 Day 5 Review (Sept 27th, 2020, Kobe World Memorial Hall)

Yota Tsuji vs. Gabriel Kidd ***

A Block

Taichi vs. Yujiro Takahashi **1/2

Jeff Cobb vs. Minoru Suzuki ***1/4+

Kota Ibushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii ****1/4

Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi ****1/2+

Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White ***3/4

photos.

This was one of the strongest cards of the tour on paper, and whilst it didn’t exactly reach its lofty anticipation, it was still a great show which was a breeze to sit through. Gabriel Kidd defeated Yota Tsuji in the prerequisite good Young Lion opener with his impressive Butterfly Suplex, which then gave us a match I was dreading in Taichi vs. Yujiro. However, I’m pleased to say that whilst this wasn’t especially good, it certainly wasn’t bad, so thats a definite plus. The crowd were into this late in the game, before Taichi hit a low blow, then scored the win in 11 minutes with the Gedo Clutch. The win makes Taichi undefeated thus far, but I can’t believe that will last much longer. Especially seeing who he’s got coming up in the rest of this thing. Hey, does anyone remember when Shelton Benjamin went on that inexplicable undefeated streak in 2014?

Minoru Suzuki defeated Jeff Cobb next in a match up that, whilst very good, was something of a disappointment (a theme will occur). It was very short for starters (9:24), and Cobb, who really hasn’t looked all that great in this tournament so far, sold for pretty much the whole match. Which is something he does entirely too much for my liking. I mean, he’s a big, athletic guy, who was a legitimate Olympian, and could probably shoot kill most guys in most locker rooms, but spends most of these matches getting his arse handed to him. I mean, fine when you’re talking about Suzuki, but would Dr Death have bumped all over and sold 80% of a match for Taichi? Would the Steiners? Or Kurt Angle? Anyway, you get what I’m saying. I just think he needs to come across more as a badass shooter rather than... whatever he is now. Which is literally “just a guy”. Regardless of my gripes, this was a good match (even if there were a few ‘clunky’ aspects), which Suzuki won after locking in a choke then transitioning to the Gotch Piledriver.

After a brief intermission it was time to go to war as Ibushi took on Ishii. These guys have had three matches previous to this, all of which were absolutely fab, so expectations were high. This was an excellent, heated, hard-hitting battle, but for various reasons, it couldn’t hit the heights of their previous bouts, and the most obvious reason being that it’s incredibly hard to have an absolute blow-away classic in the current environment. Literally, there’s only been one in my book; the Naito/Tanahashi match from last week, and that’s it. Regardless, they still had a great match, beating the hell out of each other for 15:41 with hard chops, kicks, forearms headbutts and Lariats. Just as we’d all hoped they would. Ishii started chopping Ibushi in the throat, so Kota hit those scary throat punches in retaliation, then landed on his feet on a German attempt and scored a near fall with Boma Ye on the originators bestie. Ishii counters Kamigoye with headbutts, then a Lariat. They exchange hard strikes, Ibushi hits a high kick, then Kamigoye to take the 2 points and render Ishii winless in this G1. They continued beating each other up in the post match.

Next up was a rematch from the best match of 2019, when Shingo Takagi sought to avenge his BOSJ Finals loss to Will Ospreay. This really was a fantastic bout, but obviously couldn’t reach the heights of their match last year, but was easily MOTN, in the top 3 of this tournament so far, and amongst the best in the pandemic era. These guys work amazingly well together and it produces fairly amazing results. Their counter sequences alone are a thing of beauty. Ospreay got a near fall after a Corner to Corner dropkick and Shooting Star Press, before Shingo battled back with a Pumping Bomber and Made In Japan for near falls of his own. The Rampage Dragon hit his old Stay Dream middle rope Death Valley Bomb, but Ospreay kicks at 1. Shingo obliterates him with a Pumping Bomber which garners a near fall, and Last Of The Dragon follows, allowing Takagi to get his win back at the 22:03 mark. This was a really great match, and, look, people were tying themselves in knots trying to explain how Ospreay’s match with Ishii last week wasn’t very good (it was excellent), and I fear that these sort of views are because of how these people feel towards Ospreay personally. I’ve always tried to remove the person from the matches (I’ve often loved a Michael Elgin match, despite him being fundamentally loathsome in many regards), and thats my philosophy here. I get he’s a very divisive character, but he has great matches consistently. Anyway, thats all I have to say about that.

And in the main event, Jay White once again pinned Okada in a really good, though ultimately disappointing, encounter that couldn’t hope to follow its predecessor. Honestly, this Okada Cobra Clutch storyline is doing nothing for me. It’s even more alienating to me then the red-headed balloon bandit nonsense he had going on 2018. I understand the story they’re trying to tell; that Okada has ‘retired’ the Rainmaker in order to make this Cobra Clutch/Anaconda Vice thing his primary finish, and its all building to him using the Rainmaker again later down the road, but I just honestly don’t care. It just ruins the flow of his matches. You could work dramatic sequences around avoiding or getting out of a Rainmaker, or even trying to hit it, but this submission just isn’t hitting the same notes as far as I’m concerned. I’ve said since January that Okada just seems lost at sea when he’s not champion, and this is as glaringly obvious now as its ever been. White however has looked great since his COVID induced hiatus, and he looked really good in this one. This was marred slightly by too much Gedo involvement, who kept distracting Okada throughout. After Okada hit a Rolling Rainmaker, he locks the Clutch on for maybe the 7th time in the match, which prompted Gedo to distract Red Shoes whilst Jay hits a low blow (we’ve seen a ton of these in this G1 already, by the way, and we’re only five days in!), then tries for Blade Runner, but again gets caught in the Clutch. Dear Lord. White counters into a Sleeper Suplex, then hit Blade Runner to take the decisive win at 18:48. I mean, in terms of wins over Okada, this is almost as decisive as it gets. Switch Blade cut a promo in the post match, taunting the crowd and proclaiming the G1 to actually be the “Jay1″.

NDT

#njpw #g1 climax 30 #review #g130 #kazuchika okada #jay white #shingo takagi #will ospreay #kota ibushi #tomohiro ishii #minoru suzuki #jeff cobb #taichi #yujiro takahashi #new japan pro wrestling #puroresu #wrestling review

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wrestlingisfake · 5 years

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Best of the Super Jr. preview

This is New Japan’s annual junior heavyweight tournament--if you’ve heard of the G1 Climax, it’s basically like that, but ony for wrestlers under 100 kilograms (220 pounds). The tour runs through fifteen dates from May 13 to June 5.

BOSJ is a round-robin tournament with two blocks of wrestlers. Each wrestler will face every other wrestler in his block in a one-on-one match. For each match, 2 points are awarded for a win, 1 point for a time limit draw, and 0 points for a loss. (Double disqualifications and double count-outs are rare, but I believe both participants get 0 points in those outcomes as well.) The wrestlers with the highest scores in each block then face one another to determine the winner of the tournament. The tournament winner earns a trophy and the right to challenge Dragon Lee for the IWGP junior heavyweight champion at the Dominion show on June 9. (If Lee wins the tournament, he gets to select his challenger.)

This year’s tournament is expanded from 16 men to 20, and for the first time every show will be streamed live on New Japan World with full English commentary. Most shows will feature five matches from one block with filler in the undercard, but the ones on May 22, 23, 24, and 26 will feature ten block matches, and should be pretty action-packed.

We’ll take a look at the participants and some highlights after the cut.

A Block

Dragon Lee [CMLL] - The current IWGP junior heavyweight champion, who won the title at G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden. Lee specifically wants to hold the title until he can defend it against Hiromu Takahashi, who was injured in a successful title defense against Lee last year.

Jonathan Gresham [ROH] - A submission specialist, this is Gresham’s first BOSJ. Like all the first-timers from outside New Japan, he’ll be looking to make a good impression to earn a spot on future tours.

Marty Scurll [ROH] - One of the ROH trios champions. Over the past 18 months Scurll went from being Bullet Club’s key junior heavyweight, to breaking away with the Elite, to remaining in ROH while the rest of the Elite left to found AEW. I get the feeling he’s waiting out his contract to leave, and I suspect that will cause him to be booked with a lower score this year.

Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables de Japon] - The absolute unit of the junior division, Takagi gets people wondering if he’s really making weight. He jumped from Dragon Gate to New Japan last year to help fill in with LIJ after Hiromu Takahasi was sidelined. Since then he has never been pinned or submitted, which makes him a favorite on paper to win this thing. If someone can beat him in this tournament, it’ll be big news. If he can go undefeated, it’ll be even bigger news.

SHO [CHAOS] - One half of Roppongi 3K, the IWGP junior heavyweight tag team champions. Sho is the shy quiet one who wears gold. After the Young Bucks left the junior tag division, R3K kind of got stuck wrestling the same two teams endlessly, so I’m looking forward to them in singles action.

Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] - He’s been BC’s main junior since the Elite exodus, and a dominant force as Kushida, Scurll, Ospreay, and Takahashi have fallen by the wayside. A strong pick to go all the way.

TAKA Michinoku [Suzuki-gun] - He's one of the “Indeed!” guys from the WWF 20 years ago. Taka mainly seconds Zack Sabre, Jr. these days, so I expect him to pick up a few wins but mainly put over the rising stars.

Tiger Mask [Hontai] - The fourth and longest-running performer of the role based on the Tiger Mask manga. Tiger is the veteran of this field, having debuted in 1995. It’s hard to imagine him scoring many wins in this block.

Titán [CMLL] - One of a handful of CMLL guys who regularly come in for New Japan tours. This is Titán‘s first BOSJ since 2013. He hasn’t had much of an impact in New Japan yet, and I don’t follow CMLL so we’ll have to see what he’s got.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru [Suzuki-gun] - I mean, he’s pretty much just the guy with the whisky bottle from Suzuki-gun and that’s about it.

B Block

Bandio [ROH] - A rising star from the Mexican indie scene, who was plucked from obscurity to headline last year’s All In show. Bandido was a lock to go to AEW, but he chose to sign with ROH instead because of the opportunity to go to New Japan, so you have to figure BOSJ is a dream come true for him. Another newcomer with a lot to prove.

BUSHI [Los Ingobernables de Japon] - He was LIJ’s resident junior until Hiromu Takahashi joined, and then he spent most of the past year being Robin to Shingo Takagi’s Batman. My main interest in Bushi is that he sprays poison mist and Rocky Romero hates on him in color commentary.

DOUKI [Suzuki-gun] - A last-minute replacement for El Desperado, who broke his jaw in a match on May 7, Douki works for small promotions mainly in Japan and Mexico. The story is that Suzuki-gun’s Taichi hand-picked Douki as a hired gun for the group. There’s very little info on him, which makes him a pretty cool wild card for the tournament.

El Phantasmo [Bullet Club] - A Canadian wrestler who just came in from Rev Pro in the UK. ELP got a hot start with a series of “coming soon” videos throughout the New Japan Cup and a flashy debut at Wrestling Dontaku. He should do very well. He might even win.

Ren Narita [Hontai] - One of the Young Lions, the rookies in black trunks who pull double duty as the ring crew and opening match jobbers. Narita is a late substitute for ROH star Flip Gordon, who ran into work visa issues. Here’s the interesting bit: In theory a young boy should lose every single block match, but Flip was probably supposed to get several key wins, which can’t be re-booked without altering the layout of the entire tournament. So if there was ever a time for Ren Narita to score an upset, it’s gotta be now.

Robbie Eagles [Bullet Club] - An Australian, Eagles has been brought in for a couple of tours, particularly when Taiji Ishimori needs a tag team partner. It’s not clear yet where his level is in the pecking order, but we’ll soon find out.

Rocky Romero [CHAOS] - The coach of Roppongi 3K and my pick for the best guy on the English announce team. Rocky’s great, but as a wrestler he’s been largely a comedy prelim guy since the original Roppongi Vice broke up. I’d love to see him get a big run, but I’m not counting on it. Rocky’s dream scenario for this tournament is a three-way tie between Yoh, Sho, and himself.

Ryusuke Taguchi [Hontai] - ONe of the NEVER trios champions, and the coach of “Taguchi Japan,” which is basically “anybody teaming with Taguchi that wants to pretend he’s their coach.” His ass is both an indestructible weapon and his secret weak spot somehow. Taguchi kinda drops the comedy bullshit for BOSJ, but even 50% serious Taguchi is still pretty wacky.

Will Ospreay [CHAOS] - Ospreay recently had a run as the NEVER openweight champion, and was starting to move up into the heavyweight division before he lost the title at Madison Square Garden. As long as he can still make weight, it makes sense for him to pursue this opportunity for junior gold, but it’s not clear yet if this is a retreat from the heavyweights or an attempt to do both at the same time. Ospreay’s great but he runs himself too hard, too fast, and this would be a bad time for it to catch up to him...

YOH [CHAOS] - Sho’s partner in Roppongi 3K, the IWGP junior tag team champions. Yoh is the pretty one who looks like a male model and wears silver. He feels like the star of the team, and this could be an opportunity to make it official.

All right, let’s quickly run down some key matches I’m looking forward to...

May 13

SHO vs. Shingo Takagi - After months of their respective tag teams feuding, the Dontaku tour really played up the idea that Sho is obsessed with beating Shingo. Now they’re going to get a chance to go at it one-on-one.

Dragon Lee vs. Taiji Ishimori - A rematch of their great title bout from Dontaku. It’s time for Ishimori to get a win in this series, unless they just want to close the book on him chasing the title this year.

May 14

Ren Narita vs. DOUKI - As luck would have it, I guess Flip Gordon and El Desperado were slated to be each other’s first opponent, so now we get to see their replacements go at it right away. This will be my first look at Douki, so I’m real curious what he’s got.

May 15

Marty Scurll vs. Taiji Ishimori - The Bullet Club vs. Bullet Club match I didn’t get to see last year, when these were the two juniors in the group, and the group was embroiled in civil war. I guess that issue doesn’t matter anymore, but I still want to see the match.

May 16

Will Ospreay vs. Rocky Romero - A Chaos vs. Chaos match. These guys have been the foundation of Chaos’s junior roster for years, but Ospreay came up just as Rocky was drifting down, and they’ve never met in BOSJ before. I dig the idea of Rocky pulling his “sneaky style” on a guy from his own faction that ain’t got time for that shit--it’s basically the junior equivalent to Kazuchika Okada vs. Toru Yano.

Robbie Eagles vs. Ren Narita - If Ren is gonna score a win in this block, it’d probably be here, against an expendable prelim guy that would never have been booked to pin Flip Gordon in the original plans. I don’t have my heart set on it happening, but it will be interesting to see if they can work around not doing it.

May 19

El Phantasmo vs. Robbie Eagles - The real Bullet Club vs. Bullet Club match of the tournament. Both of these guys are just holding Ishimori’s water until they step up. Phantasmo needs to squash Eagles hard if he’s gonna be a title contender, but Eagles can’t just lay down for that.

May 22

YOH vs. Rocky Romero - Will Yoh be able to stay a step ahead of his coach? Will Rocky be able to bring himself to cost Yoh 2 points in the tournament? I expect some big drama in this one.

Will Ospreay vs. El Phantasmo - I don’t follow the British scene so I’m not clear on the backstory between these two, but it’s definitely there. I’m counting on some intense flippy violence here.

May 23

Rocky Romero vs. Ryusuke Taguchi - It’s coach vs. coach. The alliance between Chaos and Hontai has led to some overlap in the roles of these two--in eight-man tags they often call “plays” for their teammates. There was some talk a while back that they agreed the winner of this match would be the one and only coach going forward, but I’m not sure if they’ll follow through with it. This should be some quality comedy nonsense.

Dragon Lee vs. Shingo Takagi - One’s champion and the other is (so far) undefeated. One put Hiromu Takahashi on the shelf, the other took his spot. This could get real interesting, especially if Shingo has managed to avoid a loss up to this point.

May 30

Rocky Romero vs. BUSHI - Listen, I’m a Rocky Romero mark, okay? He is furious that Bushi even exists, and complains about him constantly on commentary. It’s like Corey Graves and Elias! Or Corey Graves and Booker T! Or Corey Graves and Bayley! Or Corey Graves and Renee Young! Except it’s actually going to culminate in a match! This match!

May 31

Shingo Takagi vs. Taiji Ishimori - I have a pretty good feeling that this one match is going to end up deciding the A Block--it’s a pick-’em and it would make sense as the main event.

June 3

Will Ospreay vs. Ryusuke Taguchi - The last day of B Block doesn’t have any super obvious feature match but I could see Ospreay needing these last two points to win the block over Phantasmo.

El Phantasmo vs. DOUKI - Likewise, I don’t see this as a top attraction--ELP is a clear favorite to win--but it could be more important in determining who gets mathematically eliminated.

June 5

I’ll come back around later to preview the finals. At this point, though, it’s real hard to predict who will make it to the end. The logical favorites are Shingo, Ospreay, Phantasmo, Dragon Lee, and Ishimori. But it’s not like the main event of a stadium show is riding on this, so they could surprise everyone with a big run from Sho, Yoh, Taguchi, or Bushi. Hell, Douki could unmask and turn out to be Michael Nakazawa or something, and go 10-0, and it wouldn’t knock the earth out of its orbit or anything. Anything could happen, which should make this a fun time.

#njpw #best of the super juniors #bosj

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thenotoriousgib-blog · 7 years

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Wrestlers of the Year So Far (#100-76)

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on this project, basically spending every minute of my free time watching wrestling to have the most accurate half-year wrestling report. It’s very much imperfect, but I felt the need to still share it.

The ranking is based entirely on my ratings for matches I’ve seen throughout the year. Every match I have at ***+ gives an individual wrestler points weighted by how many stars it gets. Then I add everything up, rank it, and do a little write-up on my thoughts. Any tiebreaker is broken by my personal opinion of which wrestler is having the better year.

I’ll address some questions you might have along the way:

Why Is _______ Not on the List?

This could be for a variety of reasons. As much wrestling as I consume, I can’t watch everything, and unfortunately I’m very much behind on some promotions I love. I’m massively behind on promotions like Stardom, wXw, and CWF Mid-Atlantic so a lot of wrestlers I really like - Io Shirai, Ilja Dragunov, The Carnies, Kairi Hojo, The Ugly Ducklings, etc. missed the cut because I just haven’t been able to watch enough of their stuff this year.

Why Is _______ So Low/High?

There are wrestlers I really like who aren’t as high on the list as they would be if I wasn’t making use of my star-rating-based rankings. There are also wrestlers that I don’t like much at all who are on the list because they’ve still been in a number of matches I liked. The list is biased towards wrestlers who work a lot of places and have consistently good-to-great matches, even if the matches aren’t always MOTY category. Consistency matters, and number of matches matters.

Before I start the countdown, I’m gonna throw out some honorable mentions who just barely missed the list: Toni Storm, Oney Lorcan, Io Shirai, Jay White, Kassius Ohno, Kairi Hojo, The Authors of Pain, Alexa Bliss, Hirooki Goto, Frightmare, LuFisto.

100. Ethan Page: Page has come a long way for me in the past year. I used to not be able to stand All Ego at all, but he’s improved quite a bit. He’s a great character worker who gets good heel heat, and he’s progressively getting better in the ring. His matches still aren’t always my cup of tea, but I think part of that is also how he’s been booked.

99. Rocky Romero: I love RPG Vice so I’m happy they’ve had a good enough year for Rocky to make an appearance. It’s gonna be interesting to see what Rocky does now that RPG Vice has split up for Trent to make a singles run in New Japan. I hope he doesn’t get left behind because he’s a very solid tag wrestler.

98. Penta El 0M/Pentagon Dark: Penta is one of my favorite brawlers in the world, but his 2017 hasn’t been my favorite. He’s honestly underwhelmed me a decent amount as a singles wrestler this year (his stuff with his brother Fenix is still *kisses fingers*). I’m hoping maybe I’m just missing some of his standout matches and his stock will be up for me later in the year because he’s such a charismatic performer.

97. Bayley: The WWE women’s division has struggled a bit in 2017. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of story developing and the women often have just kinda been thrown together seemingly at the last minute. Bayley’s still managed to have a solid year in the ring despite her character being booked rather terribly. Her feud with Charlotte wasn’t always great in build but it had some very good matches.

96. Jimmy Havoc: Havoc’s had a solid year but not as good as many of the other big PROGRESS guys. Still, his brawls with the likes of Pete Dunne and Will Ospreay in the company have been phenomenal. Hardcore wrestling isn’t always my shit, but when I’m in the mood, Jimmy does the job very well.

95. Martin Stone: The Guv’nor is one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world, in my opinion. He’s worked really well as a developmental guy in WWE while still having dope matches in the UK and southern indies. It seems he’s gonna be on NXT in a slightly larger role now so I’m hoping more people pay attention.

94. Sammy Guevara: Guevara’s a guy I want to see more of. He made this list because he’s made appearances in quite a few multi-man spotfest matches that I’ve enjoyed. He’s a fun, young wrestler who has a ton of potential. I’d really like to see where he goes from here.

93. Jason Kincaid: “The Gift” is one of the most unique wrestlers I’ve ever seen, and I need to seek out more of his matches from this year. He’s lowkey been one of my favorite EVOLVE wrestlers for a minute and impresses me just about every time. Watch out for him.

92. Chris Jericho: Jericho’s getting up there in age and is more limited in the ring than ever, but he can still put on an occasional show if he wants to. From an in-ring standpoint he’s no longer the best in the world, but he still reinvents himself enough through his character work to stay relevant.

91. Raymond Rowe: Hanson didn’t make this list and Rowe did because Rowe has more singles matches that I’ve seen. War Machine is a really fun tag team of big boys that I wish had a bit more competition. They’re perfect for New Japan and ROH but I don’t need to see them wrestle the Bucks, TenCozy or Guerillas of Destiny ever again.

90. Shinsuke Nakamura: Nakamura barely made it on this list despite being rather underwhelming in WWE. Since the Zayn match he’s never felt like too much of a big deal like he should, at least when he’s actually in the ring. Nakamura’s still great, but I’m hoping he finally puts together another standout match later this year instead of coasting on “fine” matches.

89. Mark Haskins: To be honest, I’m a bit surprised Haskins made the list. I’ve never been a huge fan of his. Something just doesn’t connect. I think a lot of his matches are good, but they never really reach the next level for me.

88. Moose: Moose made it here on the small amount of TNA/Impact/GFW I have seen, as well as some indie appearances. He’s still not really at his full potential yet, but he’s improving steadily.

87. Austin Aries: The Neville/Aries matches were some of the biggest highlights for the WWE cruisers this year, and that’s all I really have to say about Aries. He was rock solid in his role, and I’m hoping he can continue to be rock solid back in the indies or wherever he signs next.

86. Jushin “Thunder” Liger: A lot of people were disappointed with Ligers’ final BOSJ run but I didn’t mind. I thought it was cool to see Liger put over all the younger guys (except Taichi) in his final tournament. Liger’s another guy that’s lost a step or two but can still go when he wants. He’s having a nice, consistent year.

85. Hallowicked: Hallowicked’s run as Grand Champion might be one of the best things in indie wrestling that not enough people were paying attention to. It’s easy to get caught up in behind-the-scenes drama or Quack’s crazy ideas when talking about Chikara, but they still have some great, underrated wrestlers and Hallowicked’s at the front of the pack.

84. Randy Orton: Orton got here because he had some solid matches while he was in the Wyatt Family and was actually interesting. Since Mania he’s basically been a wet fart to me, aside from the second Jinder match.

83. John Cena: Cena being this high was a big of a shock to me considering he hasn’t done too much all year, but when Cena’s in the ring at this point, it’s usually pretty special. The Styles match and Elimination Chamber stand out of course, but he also had some really good TV matches.

82. TK Cooper: Cooper’s one of the most improved wrestlers over the course of this year. It sucks that Visa issues got in the way of further impressing people. Can’t wait to see him in BOLA.

81. Ryan Smile: Smile stood out on a bunch of the British shows I watched at the beginning of the year, but I’m massively behind on my UK content so I haven’t seen him in a bit. He’s still very solid.

80. Mustafa Ali: Ali should be the one to dethrone Neville as cruiserweight champion when the time comes. WWE probably doesn’t know what they have with Ali, but here’s hoping they figure it out. He’s a champion.

79. Finn Balor: Finn’s done good work since returning from his injury but he’s lacked much direction by no fault of his own. Here’s hoping he gets a bit more of a push soon.

78. Dolph Ziggler: I hate Dolph Ziggler but he’s been in enough decent matches to coast by to this list. I hate it.

77. Dezmond Xavier: Xavier’s a younger guy who’s impressed me a lot on a variety of indie shows that he’s been on. Scarlet & Graves is a really fun tag team and Xavier’s doing great work pretty much everywhere.

76. Austin Theory: Theory’s a guy that impresses me when I see him, but I’m waiting for that standout match where I say, “Wow this guy is GREAT.” Theory’s young so he has plenty of time to do that, but right now he’s on the bubble.

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