I’m firmly in the Wrestle Kingdom should only be one day camp. Same for Wrestlemania.

41 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

The crowd was surprisingly not that into the idea of a double title match.

I think it was the way they've done the angle, where they just had everyone say they wanted it until... well, they just sort of agreed. There's no impetus for it, other than WK is two days and Naito said it'd be a cool idea. 

I also think they're in a bit of a corner here - by far the most interesting night 2 main event would be Naito-Okada, since they've successfully kept them away from each other for two years. But then it feels like they've just put Ibushi in the Naito space where they're waiting too long to pull the trigger.

7 minutes ago, Migs said:

I think it was the way they've done the angle, where they just had everyone say they wanted it until... well, they just sort of agreed. There's no impetus for it, other than WK is two days and Naito said it'd be a cool idea. 

I also think they're in a bit of a corner here - by far the most interesting night 2 main event would be Naito-Okada, since they've successfully kept them away from each other for two years. But then it feels like they've just put Ibushi in the Naito space where they're waiting too long to pull the trigger.

Yeah I do think the execution hurt it, especially with Naito just walking away when he probably should have run back and attacked Jay. And while I think they absolutely need to do the thing with Naito, it almost feels like it's Ibushi's time now instead.

Terrific show. The undercard was stronger then usual thanks to cool junior matches involving the luchadors, then Naito & Taichii can have a very good match in their sleep, and the big matches all delivered. In a way, I thought the junior tag team league final was the lesser of the "main events", as it was indeed very good but nothing special. Hey, here's Jericho, this guy is on top everywhere. Also, Suzuki vs Takagi will be all kind of awesome.

Ishii vs KENTA was just MOTYC material. Ishii is simply brillant and one of the greatest wrestler ever. KENTA has never looked better since he came back to Japan, it's kinda shocking to think he was that NXT guy. WWE is such a great company at killing talent.

Bushi vs Ospreay wasn't great, but it was very *fun*, and I take that over some overlong, overthough, over toasted epic. The poison kiss was a stroke of genius. The post match with Hiromu was awesome in every way.

Goti vs White was great. I'm all for a Goto vs KENTA match at WK now, as he really has delivered in big matches since the G1. It really looks like Shibata wants to do one more match, but after the G1, the talk was absolutely not, so who knows. Still pretty cool to see him interact.

I'm intrigued about this two days WK. It has the potential to be crazy, because no one delivers great long cards without any dead times like NJ. 

The World Tag League is pretty much the least of NJPW's tournaments these days, isn't it?

The old boy teams of TenKoji and Nagata and Nakanishi, as well as Evil and Sanada and Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa are all actual tag teams  in my eyes, but three quarters of the teams in the tournament feel more like two guys thrown together or at best two stable mates thrown together. Suzuki and Archer look like the most interesting of those, and I guess Yano and Colt make sense as a comedy team... though I feel like Cabana kind of detracts from Yano's act. 

I have been enjoying the highlights and clips I've seen so far, though. Haven't felt the need to track down any full matches yet. 

8 hours ago, gordi said:

The World Tag League is pretty much the least of NJPW's tournaments these days, isn't it?

The old boy teams of TenKoji and Nagata and Nakanishi, as well as Evil and Sanada and Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa are all actual tag teams  in my eyes, but three quarters of the teams in the tournament feel more like two guys thrown together or at best two stable mates thrown together. Suzuki and Archer look like the most interesting of those, and I guess Yano and Colt make sense as a comedy team... though I feel like Cabana kind of detracts from Yano's act. 

I have been enjoying the highlights and clips I've seen so far, though. Haven't felt the need to track down any full matches yet. 

The only full match I've really enjoyed at an "I'd recommend that" level was the intra-Suzuki-gun match from Sunday's show. That was a lot of fun.

I've watched the Cabana/Yano matches, and they've been reasonably fun. Some funny finishes, but the body of the matches have been merely okay.

Agreed that NJ could use a couple more of these teams to become regular entities and really gel. Maybe Finlay and Juice? Or Ishii and Yoshi-hashi? It also always feels like a missed opportunity that they don't pair ZSJ and Suzuki for the tournament, since they've been so great together in Rev Pro.

When even Dave "Would have been 5* in the Tokyo Dome" Meltzer can't be bothered nor excited about something NJPW, you know it's totally skippable. 

I've long thought that they need to just merge the two tag divisions to add some much needed depth.

Mox vs Archer? Oh hell yeah!

I would love if AEW would give Archer a proper shot at US stardom. Guy has been awesome this year.

Agreed. I would very much like to see a Darby Allin vs Lance Archer David vs Goliath match.

So, reportedly, for Liger's Retirement Match on night 2 of WK, he's going to face Hiromu Takahashi &  Ryu Lee and his partner is going to be...

...

...Naoki Sano! That's kind of beautiful, in my opinion.

So Okada was named to be one of the people running with the Olympic Torch in 2020, so that was cool.

I think Mutoh is too.

I guess NJPW doesn't do any testing...

Getting ready for the World Title main event run, brother.

Japan didn't have the rash of drug deaths that US wrestling did, so there was never a big push for testing there.  

18 hours ago, C.S. said:

I guess NJPW doesn't do any testing...

 

The PED diet is pretty much mandatory in puro. All seems to indicate that they don't destroy themselves with them, they just do it with the bumps they take.

18 hours ago, C.S. said:

I guess NJPW doesn't do any testing...

Looks pretty gross

Wasn't he taking part in the body building-thingy they were doing a few weeks ago ? I never got the whole veins sticking out from everywhere appeal...

59 minutes ago, El-P said:

Wasn't he taking part in the body building-thingy they were doing a few weeks ago ? I never got the whole veins sticking out from everywhere appeal...

Yep. Ibushi came in 2nd. Sho took 1st place. Pieter came in 3rd! Ishimori was 4th, Tanahashi, who apparently organized the show and was inspired by CMLL's bodybuilding contests - which I had no idea were a thing - came in 5th.

It's not so much that being all veiny (a/k/a vascularity) is a desirable look in bodybuilding in and of itself so much as it is an indication that the bodybuilder's bodyfat percentage is very very low, which is something the judges reward. Bodybuilding hasn't really been about building an aesthetically pleasing physique since the 1970s. It seems to be very much about combining freakish size with extreme leanness now, with proportions and pleasing lines given far less consideration. Not sure what NJPW's judging criteria might have been. 

1 hour ago, El-P said:

Wasn't he taking part in the body building-thingy they were doing a few weeks ago ? I never got the whole veins sticking out from everywhere appeal...

I generally think Ibushi is pretty hot as well, but this isn't it

A crippling blow for the roid-infested (lol) NJPW?

This company's U.S. strategy has been bizarrely incompetent from the jump.

- NJPW World is only available on Fire Stick (and I assume Android devices), but not Roku, AppleTV, PS4, etc.

- NJPW America (or whatever it's called) is announced, but there are no plans for U.S. TV broadcasts. What?!

- Sticking with the DOA ROH instead of aligning with AEW.

Unpopular opinion: NJPW doesn't understand the U.S. market, has no idea what it's doing in that regard, and things like Jericho-Omega were happy accidents instead of a defined strategy for making inroads in the U.S.

Also their TV partner in the US got bought out by Impact (they would set themselves on fire before working with Impact again) and they clearly don't feel it's worth the cost to run on PPV here either.

Yeah, that US expansion is such a headscratcher so far.