Jmare007

Block A is fucking bonkers, good lawd. Block B is wide open for the finalist, maybe KENTA is the favorite? Not sure, could see a number of people going to the Finals. Not gonna watch a lot of matchups from this group but I can't say it won't be interesting at least.

The story here is MiSu absolutely knows he's above Big Japan and certainly above Takuya da Young Gawd. So it's on Nomura to make this worth your time, and he quickly does. Kicking MiSu in the face and establishing he's here to fight. And fight they do. Loved MiSu laughing, having a good time and beating the shit out of Takuya. It was basically "oh so you wanna fight, aight then". The difference in elbows was massive, really liked how that played a big part in MiSu never really losing control of the match. At the end of the day, the kid is not ready to go toe to toe with Satan himself...yet. But he sure will try to make the most of it: he actually won the slap exchange Would LOVE to see Astronauts facing MiSu and someone else so we could see Abe and Suzuki go at it. He did stood up to him during this match... For someone that doesn't know Nomura, this will be a fun little match. For us that have been following him since day 1, this was a blast

I know he calls them out, I just don't remember if he calls out only the doctor or the entire company when it happens. If he usually just calls the doc, then I don't see the big deal with the Matt Hardy thing when it comes to Dave.

Does Dave only blame the doctor when stuff like this happens in UFC or other wrestling companies? I legit don't know/remember.

I agree that EVIL getting a short reign was most likely planned from the start. I don't think he'll be a lot in the main event scene once the full roster is back. He'll continue to have token title challenges every year and that's about it. He'll be this generation's early 2010's Makabe, with an even more stacked roster. Yano winning KOPW is hilarious. The resume of Ws this man has, bah gawd. In more important news, MiSu is facing Takuya Nomura tomorrow in Big Japan.

I also read the put up an execution vid?? Fucking gringos, man smh.

Daisuke Sekimoto & Kohei Sato vs Astronauts (Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe) - BJW Tag Title match 08/10/20 For a crowd of 300 that couldn't chant because of Covid, you ain't getting much better than this. And when it comes to the in ring acting, this is not for the faint of heart, as Abe and Sato do EXACTLY the type of sick shit they did to each other last year: shoot headbutts, full force heatbutts and a whole bunch of closed fists to the forehead I loved how this time it felt like Astronauts were ready for the occasion, they are still the underdogs but this time around they aren't treated like the two disrespectful young kids. They are a legit threat and are treated as such, with Sekimoto and Sato chocking, striking and stretching them to gain control, but not being able to contain them. The last 10 minutes or so are vicious with a bunch of stiff striking sequences and some dope counters. It was everything I wanted it to be. If this had a red hot Korakuen it would be my MOTY easily...it didn't had that so I'll just say it was a fucking awesome match

You can vote now on the stipulations (except SHO vs Sanada as they both had the same stip in mind)... Kazuchika Okada (1 vs 3 handicap) vs Yujiro Takahashi (Lumberjack with Leather Belt) SHO vs SANADA (Submissions Match) Toru Yano (Two Count Pinfalls) vs BUSHI (Five Count Ringouts) Satoshi Kojima (Finishers Only) vs El Desperado (No Finishers Allowed) https://www.njpw1972.com/79018

Productivity will go to shit though, at last I know mine will. Champion's League has taught me for years how to watch a big game and sill do work but having games from 1 pm on it's gonna be a big test. If they kept getting worse it would be news. It's kinda fucked up that only negative news about WWE are taken seriously. Every time something that's not horrible is reported it's normally waived off. And I'm someone that doesn't even watch the product anymore but I feel in this forum is almost impossible to get anything but negative shit about the company

And btw, live sports have BOMBED in the ratings since the comeback (and after the opening games) so I wonder if the doom and gloom about the TV audience will slow down a bit...of course it wont

If the KOPW "title" was already meh, the participants of the tourney are...wow Okada Yujiro Sho SANADA Yano BUSHI Kojima El Desperado I guess they could make some refreshing matchups, but the inevitability of Okada winning (or an Okada/Sanada finals) makes this gimmick even more head scratching. You could book all these guys in cool matchups without the need of this moniker.

I only watched SD because of Bryan, now that he's gone I ain't watching. I'm happy Big E is finally getting a chance in singles competition though

My thing with RAW Underground is that it works much better as a youtube clip show. That's how I saw it and laughed my ass off at the fuckery. I'll continue to do that because there's no fucking way I'll be tuning in weekly just to watch like 10 minutes of funny wrestlecrap.

I don't think they are arguing Vince promoting skills (I hope that's never in question tbh), they are putting into scrutiny his creativity and that even when business was booming, it was never something he actually came up with (I guess the biggest argument here would be him pushing the Austin vs authority angle that was incredibly successful, to the point Vince was never able to move past that). And as he has gotten older, he hasn't been able to adapt like he used to. Even in the case of Kofi and Becky, while he did change course and went with the hot hand(s), he wasn't able to capitalize. Specially with Becky.

Vince might start streaming "house shows" from the PC via Zoom and charging $5 to see them.

Holy shit at that profit. They've had like a 6 year run were they product is atrocious (for the most part), they've lost a significant % of their core audience (let's not even bother talking about casuals lol) and most of the traditional metrics for a wrestling business are either way down or at the very least not very good....and they keep making a fuck ton of money. Yes, having such a bad product, alienating their fanbase every chance they get and treating most of their talent like shit can't be sustainable. But it's amazing how even though they've done everything wrong when it comes to wrestling, they keep getting away with it. At this pace they might fuck around and strike gold once again with a hot angle (by 2026 maybe? lol) that revives their product before actually having their empire crumble

I commend Gedo for trying to boost the tag division but of all the places that need a boost, a tag division that has meant very little to New Japan for most of the past 30 years is kinda frustrating when other holes feel way more important. I'd be all in for a crazy heel Ibushi run though, that sounds fucking awesome. Shota has prodigy written all over him, imo. I'd be really surprised if he isn't Okada's replacement (as Okada was Tana's). Hiromu will most likely be Naito/Nakamura status: a major player with IWGP (other) title runs under his belt but not THE focus. Both are in completely different stages of their careers though, Hiromu is getting close to doing everything as a Jr. and probably make the jump to heavy -specially nowadays when that jump isn't that big of a deal-, probably taking a next step in his career at 31. I'd be the first to admit that Shota is not as sure a thing as Okada was, I think anyone watching him as early as 08'-09' knew dude was going to be the next Ace, Didn't matter what his run TNA was or how lackluster his comeback matches were, as soon as he was legit back from excursion it was obvious (at least to me) he had next. To me, Umino is by far their most promising prospect and the one New Japan sees as the next Ace, he's only 23 and has probably two more years before taking the leap.

WCW didn't have a guy like Shota ready to get take over as the next Ace though. I hope Gedo doesn't wait till 2024 to pull the trigger on him after he returns.

This whole KOPW "title" that isn't really a title/belt sounds like a whacky idea Inoki would come up with so he could main event shows defending that shit I'll never understand why Gedo is so adamant in New Japan not working big feuds with other Japanese promotions anymore. We all know NJPW would come out on top anyway, it's the easiest way to have new and refreshing matchups all over the card, you can get young people over -shit, that's how Okada showed he was a prodigy in 09'- and you can give main eventers something important to do besides chasing a title (he could've done it with Naito 2-3 years ago, he could do it right now with Okada). Specially now when there's so many companies in dire need of a boost, there's no question a lot of them would be glad to work and lose big feuds and matches against New Japan at this point. And Okada wouldn't need a fuckery King of Pro Wrestling "title" when he could just beat top guys from other companies and continue to establish that NJ is the "King of Sports".

He'll always be La Nariz to me.

Will it begin with this one? Bryan was saying he wanted Metalik to get more chances when he appeared on Backstage like a month ago. ()

Well I call them gringos and I'm not Mexican (most of south american call people from the U.S gringos) but that's whatever. I call them gaijin because it's way easier to write and at this point it's become a wrestling term *shrugs*

A 30 minute draw is a hard match to get into, specially when you already know the result, much of the enjoyment depends on how compelling the action is and how both wrestlers are able to keep any sort of drama near the end. Well, I wouldn't say this was very dramatic - not in a "who will win?" way at least - but holy fuck was it compelling to watch. The first 10 minutes is basically these two working like mad men just trying to lock and get out of head scissors, then Abe tries to get slick with some striking but it quickly goes back to good ol' mat wrestling. There's some bursts of energy exchanges but everytime one of them did it, he ended up A LOT more tired than before they went it, really liked that kind of selling. By the 20-22 minute mark both guys are exhausted and you can feel it. Some of the counters are dope as fuck and Abe continues to show how amazing he is at such a young age, him going for a desperation dragon screw was beautiful. Isami still rules everytime I see him work a regular match (and 2020 has been a great for him in that regard). If you liked stuff like Bryan vs Gulak and want to see different performers excel at that style for a extended period time (no doubt this is better suited for 15-20 minutes tops though), for sure check this out.

Anything that 's remotely good will be attributed to Bryan, no doubt about it

Let's see if Bryan is able to convince Bruce and Vince into any of his ideas. Considering he has a baby on the way and that he shouldn't risk getting Covid at the PC, it seems like a good alternative to have him in the writing team.