I didn't get the Golden Lovers vs BC match. So this feud has been building since like November. The big angle was a month ago, the big blow off grudge match is in a week, yet this match looked more like an unimportant flippy indy juniors match than it did build up to a big grudge match. Where was the hate? where was the aggression? There's just a disconnect for me between the violence, contempt and hatred shown in the angles and the graceful, aerobatic displaces of athleticism that have been the matches on this feud.

 

The hate you're looking for right now is between Omega and Cody. Lovers/Bucks was built entirely as an issue of respect and somewhat around who's the best tag team, with the Bucks making the jump to heavyweight. No strong personal issues between them and Omega at this point.

 

 

I was talking about the Lovers vs Cody and Page match in particular....

 

 

I didn't get the Golden Lovers vs BC match. So this feud has been building since like November. The big angle was a month ago, the big blow off grudge match is in a week, yet this match looked more like an unimportant flippy indy juniors match than it did build up to a big grudge match. Where was the hate? where was the aggression? There's just a disconnect for me between the violence, contempt and hatred shown in the angles and the graceful, aerobatic displaces of athleticism that have been the matches on this feud.

 

The hate you're looking for right now is between Omega and Cody. Lovers/Bucks was built entirely as an issue of respect and somewhat around who's the best tag team, with the Bucks making the jump to heavyweight. No strong personal issues between them and Omega at this point.

 

 

I was talking about the Lovers vs Cody and Page match in particular....

 

 

Oh. I see the point there, but as you noted they are building to the singles match on ROH's PPV and I just didn't expect a whole lot of fireworks in advance of that match. As I noted, its curious that a NJPW semi is being used to further a storyline with its next big match in another promotion, but it certainly met expectations given that.

Someone has to make a gif out of Lance Archer terrorizing that little baby. Making a baby cry = OLD SCHOOL !!!! (the dad was an asshole though, as he was enjoying it.)

That was incredible. What a heel!

 

https://twitter.com/jmaynard8888/status/980361245458022400

Haven't really been keeping up with the Road to Dontaku shows, but took the time to watch Ishii-Henare and White-Finlay. The former was a great hossfight and awesome coming-out party for Henare and the latter was honestly one of the best NJPW matches this year. Still reserving my full judgment of Jay until the G1, though.

Only caught the second half of Juice-Goto, but was really good stuff. That being said, the prospect of Elgin and Taichi challenging sucks.

Naito won the IC title again. How the hell is that not lazy/repetitive booking?

 

Remember when people were saying him losing at WK was fine because he was working with Jericho?

Naito won the IC title again. How the hell is that not lazy/repetitive booking?

 

Remember when people were saying him losing at WK was fine because he was working with Jericho?

 

Judging by Jericho’s physique at the Saudi show, I’d guess we won’t see him again until WWE comes calling again for a couple month run.

Heard some pretty harsh critiques about that main event match, saying it was actually one of the worst ones out there due to it being absurdly boring and due to Naito being asbymal in his performance.

 

It's almost as Okada's record-breaking title reign isn't that interesting and Naito winning was the wisest move.

 

Naito won the IC title again. How the hell is that not lazy/repetitive booking?

 

Remember when people were saying him losing at WK was fine because he was working with Jericho?

Judging by Jericho’s physique at the Saudi show, I’d guess we won’t see him again until WWE comes calling again for a couple month run.

 

 

Well, he did comeback

 

He attacked Naito today to set up an IC Title match for Dominion. It's just a shame how they did nothing with their most over guys for 5 months to set up this encounter with Jericho, hell their whole confrontation was completely forgotten until today. At least the promos and build should be really fun, I expect a ton of fuckery.

 

Bigger news though was that Okada will be defending against Kenny Omega at Dominion for the 2 year anniversary of his reign. It's gonna be a 2 out 3 falls with no time limit (it's gonna be "the first 110 minute 8 star match ever!"). I'd be shocked if Omega doesn't win the big one, but I was already shocked by what Gedo did at WK so we'll see.

I'm excited for Dominion but I'm still disappointed with how Naito's been handled. It's one of those things where yes, the company is still doing great business with Okada on top (although slow ticket sales for G1 Special may be proof they're over-saturating the U.S. market), but I can't help but think they could be doing even better with Naito as the ace. Not to mention the fresher angles they could be doing instead of rehashing Okada-Tanahashi one more time and putting the IC title back on Naito. I've also still enjoyed a lot of the matches even if they're not quite firing on all cylinders as last year when they seemed to be putting on an arguable MOTYC every other month.

 

Hopefully Dominion acts as a sort of reboot for the last few months.

Heard some pretty harsh critiques about that main event match, saying it was actually one of the worst ones out there due to it being absurdly boring and due to Naito being asbymal in his performance.

 

It's almost as Okada's record-breaking title reign isn't that interesting and Naito winning was the wisest move.

i more ways than one he wiill brake all records if he holds on untill dominion including Kobashi record he wil have the longets run in the history of modern Pro wrestling in any promotion two whole years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Svr3d8quDo

Him struggling with the mask is hilarious. It's like he's transitioned from "cool dad" to "drunk uncle".

I am not looking forward to a 90-minute Okada/Omega match.

I wouldn't even want to watch a match that long with some of my favorite workers of all-time, let alone the video game wrestlers of this generation. Good God, can you imagine how many knees Kenny can throw out in a longer-than-an-hour match!? How many Rainmaker or One-Wing Angel attempts there will be? And Meltzer will praise it like it's a new religion.

 

At some point in a match, and that point varies depending on the participants involved and the story of the match, near-falls stop being believable and just turn into "OK, this is dumb now, just end the match." We saw it with Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar when the match started and they both had their SPECIAL meter full & flashing. Putting 20-30 minutes of work that gets no-sold later before the finisher spam fest won't make it any better.

Him struggling with the mask is hilarious. It's like he's transitioned from "cool dad" to "drunk uncle".

 

 

Jericho never was a "cool dad".

 

He does turn into "drunk uncle" though, which is awesome. I guess he must have binged after he got back from that awful show last weak.

I am not looking forward to a 90-minute Okada/Omega match.

 

I'm curious, honestly. But I appreciate attempts at greatness, even if they might end as excess.

The issue with such a match is that it'll never gonna get a fair shake from all the people already prepared to hate it. When you look at things with a filter, there's no way around it, you're gonna see what you want to see anyway. I wasn't a fan of their first Tokyo Dome show match, watched in full post-hype mode. Then later in the year I went and watch the other two (that had been praised to the Moon by Meltz) and I suprisingly loved them (and believe me, I was not going in with any positive preconception, and tried to do away with any negative ones). If I'm going by the big Omega matches of last year (including this year's Dome show), I absolutely go into this one expecting something excellent at least. If I'm going by the latest big Omega matches, I fear some overlong fuckery. But haters gonna hate anyway.

The issue with such a match is that it'll never gonna get a fair shake from all the people already prepared to hate it. When you look at things with a filter, there's no way around it, you're gonna see what you want to see anyway. I wasn't a fan of their first Tokyo Dome show match, watched in full post-hype mode. Then later in the year I went and watch the other two (that had been praised to the Moon by Meltz) and I suprisingly loved them (and believe me, I was not going in with any positive preconception, and tried to do away with any negative ones). If I'm going by the big Omega matches of last year (including this year's Dome show), I absolutely go into this one expecting something excellent at least. If I'm going by the latest big Omega matches, I fear some overlong fuckery. But haters gonna hate anyway.

 

Well said.

 

I'm expecting at least a third of the match to be unnecessary padding and the other two-thirds to be best in the world-level stuff.

I am not looking forward to a 90-minute Okada/Omega match. as him as

will this Happen since new Japan will never go over 60 as much as Gedo Love NWA style as he himself has said in a tweet maybe go up to 63 like older NWA Title matches did but that is up in air overall

I actually wouldn't be all that surprised if they don't go more than 60 and are just using the "no time limit" stip to ensure that the match will have a definitive winner. But there's probably still a good chance they get super ambitious and go longer.

Yeah, Joe-Punk III had a "no time limit" stip and some fans were expecting that to go very long, and it ended up being shorter than the previous two matches, which were draws.

I am legit looking forward to this. I am not sure what they will do with it, but if they try to go big and long and epic I am sure there will a lot in their to appreciate (even if it isn't necessarily my favorite thing on the whole. Plus, if they go 90-120 and Meltzer gives it 10 stars wrestling twitter will be a raging tire fire for a few days and that is good for a laugh or the security that I am not missing anything important. If they go shorter and just do something different with the 2/3 falls that is probably going to make for a match I like better, so great. These big epic modern New Japan classics aren't necessarily my favorite thing in the world, but I still enjoy both these men all the same.

from a match structure standpoint, Okada and Omega cannot do much more than they did already.

That is the crux of why i do not think the next match will go as long