Jmare007

What better test than a sold out Osaka crowd for Jay White?

Welp.

And in typical Tokyo Sports fashion, the interview has a fuck ton of kayfabe in it "I want to face him again. But I need time away, and not just from New Japan" can mean a couple of totally different things. I guess we'll see on Tuesday if he's WWE bound or not.

The first 20 minutes of this are worked very smartly. Every exchange was compelling and every transition for one of them to work on top made sense. Loved Kento's work on KAI's head and his selling of the leg was really good considering KAI didn't spent much time working it. The challenger was great throughout this match, sold well, showed great fire when he had to, the crowd was really behind him and every cut off he made was well timed. The last 8 minutes is like Miyahara flipped a switch and forgot to sell, I think his matches should never have leg work because his whole offense is based on his knee and speed and he clearly does not care about changing it up when it comes to final sequences thing was, it was a really dope 8 minutes. Korakuen lit, KAI doing awesome and Kento just knowing when to hit his stuff for maximum effect. Had he actually sold near the end this could've been amazing, but just like Omega/Tana, the positives far outweigh the negatives and the match was still awesome and worthy of an early MOTYC nod.

Some Korakuen magic to start 2019. The match itself isn't some out of this world action. It's a very basic tag match with some sloppy exchanges from Omori and Nomura (who needs to get better at striking, is the only thing lacking on his repertoire) but Korakuen is fully into it so everything they do is elevated ten fold. The last few minutes are fucking awesome, so when you have a good enough build up with a hot crowd and you give them a very good finish, the match becomes a lot more special than it seemed it was going to be. I liked Nomura as the FIP and Aoyagi as the flashy guy that came in to turn the tides or make a key save. Black Menso~re kept things fresh too, as Omori can barely move at this point so a dude like Menso was needed. The crowd fucking loves Nomura and I'm still all in on him.

I hope they can get a good interpromotional feud going after All Star Battle. I pray Akiyama, or anyone really, is able to convince Meji (or whoever) to do a a fun program.

Last year (the last couple of them tbh) was long as hell too. But a week between shows #1 and #2 makes more sense.

Its gonna be a long ass tournament if they are starting the G-1 in early July.

One thing I believe from the Sportskeeda report is that WWE's offer has some sort of deal in regards of Omega's gaming career/hobby. Xavier Woods being a lead in selling him on that idea.

Two back-to-back Dome shows for next year (Charlton confirmed there would be two WK shows, I suppose they are both in the same building) sounds insane to me The Dallas show in the American Airlines Center is huge too. Will AEW be ready to help by that point?

I mean, Being the Elite is their "TV show" so to speak. I don't understand the fuzz about BTE being a big part of everything this group does. It makes sense. I get if people get upset about rovert being confrontational and talking down to people, but I'm sure a lot of us still understand most of what Cody/Bucks and company do and book without following they youtube show religiously. Will we miss context on some stuff? Of course, but that can be said about every single promotion in the world if you don't follow their build up/weekly content.

38k paid is an awesome number. Very interested in seeing if White was able to pull it off performance wise.

I don't think it's a big deal at all. I'm just pointing out Omega is not full time with New Japan, which I've read a lot these last couple of weeks. He's far from that, New Japan has no issue giving him a light schedule so he has a lot of margin to work somewhere else, like AEW, if needed be. PS: I'm more offended by people not watching Big Japan's Strong Division than not checking Being the Elite. At least Big Japan has the best dojo going

I mean, Kenny is not even full time now. He wrestled less than half of what Okada did for New Japan last year, for example. ps: holy shit at this thread

I think that was reported by rajah so who knows how much weight thar rumor has.

"Favored gaijins to a lot of fans" is an exaggeration, imo. There's a number of New Japan fans that either don't care or are beginning to resent The Elite guys a little bit. But regardless of that, my point was how important they really are for New Japan besides Omega. Cody has been used mainly for the US shows, which have been horribly promoted with lazy, "house show" cards that have had problems selling tickets (mostly due to bad promotion, imo). He isn't really a player at all in their local product, which people tend to forget but still is their bread and butter and their main focus. The Bucks fill a spot in the tag division, sure. But they are very part time in Japan and the tag division is just "there" for the company anyway. Same could be said about guys like Scurll and Page. They are very replaceable if needed be. I wouldn't call losing them "gutting" NJ. But the most likely scenario is that AEW and New Japan will work together though so this whole discussion is moot

How woulc this move "gut" New Japan? Omega is the only guy that really matters for them, and he already works part time. And they've been working on a replacement for him this past year with White (whether it actually works, it's another subject). Where is Charles anyway? I haven't read a post from him in months.

GOAT interviewer and one of the best TV personalities period. He was still awesome at 75. RIP Mean WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO bag gawd Gene

I don't think this will happen - and I hope it doesn't because I believe indy wrestling really needs him now more than ever - but I think AEW's biggest get right now would be Joey Janela (in a creative/talent role).

Cena is back on SD and had an interesting segment with Also, D-Bry's challenger for the Rumble is

Miz should never be a babyface. I loved their interaction after Bryan's turn though, Miz constantly wanting to hear D-Bry admit he was right all along and DB trying to move along the conversation was awesome. Those two are gold no matter what, but a face Miz after a Bryan feud would probably die a death fast.

They should just re air this on Tuesday. Fantastic 10 minutes and character building.

Eh, I think is the perfect match to begin Ospray's "graduation" to heavyweight. He's pretty much facing the last Jr. prodigy who made the jump successfully to the big boys division for a belt that will require him being more of a tough guy instead of a flippy guy. Granted, the match is gonna have a bunch of insane flippy stuff - that I'm looking forward to watch, first Ospray match I'm excited to watch in a long ass time - but I think it's a compelling first step if the plan is to make Will a player with the heavys. If it eventually fails, oh well, I'm glad they are giving it a shot with such an unique match up.

After TLC it seemed they were going for a Ronda vs Charlotte vs Becky main event for Mania. I understood the "concern" about Asuka/Becky pointing into another direction (that's just how WWE has trained fans to think), but considering they have 2 more PPVs before WM, they have more than enough time to book around Lynch doing other things in January.

I hope he gets a singles match with Truth, I'm really intrigued on what they could do on a two segment match.