Golden Lovers are definitely my pick for tag team of the year. Not a single bad match yet and these makeshift teams they've been facing have been better than the majority of NJPW's actual tag teams.

I'm not too keen on Ibushi/Ospreay being for the NEVER Openweight Championship. For the past few years, it's served as New Japan's tough guy belt with the likes of Ishii, Goto, and Shibata competing for it. If you take that aspect away, it's just another secondary title with nothing to distinguish it.

Yeah, when I think of "tough guy", Ospreay is the last person I think about. 

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.

I dig the match overall and if anything, the title should be made into a proper openweight belt that both juniors and heavies can compete for. Would certainly give more for the juniors to do.

On 12/17/2018 at 8:50 PM, WingedEagle said:

Night 2 main event is required viewing, 

And the last 2018 New Japan match is yet another awesome one. What a year, really.

NJ should lock Ospreay under a fat contract, the guy is gonna be a huge gaijin star for them in the futur if they do.

15 hours ago, El-P said:

And the last 2018 New Japan match is yet another awesome one. What a year, really.

NJ should lock Ospreay under a fat contract, the guy is gonna be a huge gaijin star for them in the futur if they do.

The possibilities for him as a HW are easily what most excite me about NJPW heading into G1.  A Never title run, challenges to other belts, the NJ Cup and a G1 run are all on the table.  Fres matches that on paper all look incredible.

On 12/27/2018 at 2:00 PM, WingedEagle said:

The possibilities for him as a HW are easily what most excite me about NJPW heading into G1.  A Never title run, challenges to other belts, the NJ Cup and a G1 run are all on the table.  Fres matches that on paper all look incredible.

He's also gotten better by pretty big leaps in the last year in lots of ways - even the matches he's had already could be a step up by the time of the G1.

Predictions for WK:

Ibushi
BUSHI and Shingo (although RPG3K winning wouldn't surprise me)
Ishii
EVIL and SANADA
Juice
Taiji
Jay
Naito
Kenny

 

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?

Running the American Airlines Center is really ambitious. WWE can't fill it for Raw or Smackdown, or the last couple of PPVs, and they've moved to a smaller building for house shows.

OTOH, I don't watch New Japan, so am I allowed to comment on this issue? Other threads have me a bit confused...

I lived in the Dallas area for many years and I never met a person who has watched NJPW...except one dude who bartended an arcade. 

This is just a theory that I did not come up with so am not 100% on the specifics so take this with a grain of salt.

American airlines center while owned by the city of Dallas, is ran by Center Operating Company which is owned by the dallas mavericks who are in turn owned by Mark Cuban who also owns AXS tv which is what NJPW runs on in the states so the theory is that they have got a deal through their association with AXS to run the arena.

In terms of filling it? I think they are banking on it being G1 show (an actual one this time not just in name only like g1 special) and a lot of fly-ins to make a crowd.

10 minutes ago, Richeyedwards said:

American airlines center while owned by the city of Dallas, is ran by Center Operating Company which is owned by the dallas mavericks who are in turn owned by Mark Cuban who also owns AXS tv which is what NJPW runs on in the states so the theory is that they have got a deal through their association with AXS to run the arena.

Great point, didn't even think of that. And yeah, since it's the only G1 show in the US, I imagine there will be a ton of fly-ins

13 minutes ago, Richeyedwards said:

This is just a theory that I did not come up with so am not 100% on the specifics so take this with a grain of salt.

American airlines center while owned by the city of Dallas, is ran by Center Operating Company which is owned by the dallas mavericks who are in turn owned by Mark Cuban who also owns AXS tv which is what NJPW runs on in the states so the theory is that they have got a deal through their association with AXS to run the arena.

In terms of filling it? I think they are banking on it being G1 show (an actual one this time not just in name only like g1 special) and a lot of fly-ins to make a crowd.

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

Quote

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

Started 14th july last year, the first japan date they announced was 13th july 7 days after the us date, not implausible that they do the opening night there, WO has it down as being the opening night too I think it would be much better to make the tourney go a month just for the sake of the wrestlers health.

33 minutes ago, Richeyedwards said:

Started 14th july last year, the first japan date they announced was 13th july 7 days after the us date, not implausible that they do the opening night there, WO has it down as being the opening night too

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

Not sure what the more notable part of the show was for me, all the titles changing or how decisive the finishes were. It's such a breath of fresh air after seeing how WWE hesitates to the point of missing the window on nearly everyone while New Japan goes out of their way on their biggest show to say "these are the important motherfuckers now". 

Granted, some of it was kind of by necessity to write out folks like the Bucks/Cody/maybe KUSHIDA, but they didn't leave any doubt who people should get behind in the coming year.

Speaking of KUSHIDA, holy shit that super realistic mask that little kid wore during his entrance was nightmare fuel.

You don't say. First I simply didn't understand what was happening !  I hope the WWE rumours about KUSHIDA don't end up being true. What a waste of talent to see this guy Gran Metalliked in the pits of 205Live hell of irrelevance.

Two Dome shows sounds insane. With all the taks about should WM be done over two days, now NJPW is actually doing it. Fuck, what if I went to celebrate 30 years of being a pro-wrestling fan ? 

Can't wait to see the angles from today's show giving hints of the new directions for 2019.

Really liked the show a lot. Tanahashi winning was cool but it also seems strange considering everything over the last three years seemed to emphasize that Tanahashi was not the guy anymore. Still, there are some interesting directions they can take with this. But while I'm fine with the prospect of Jay challenging and I think he's improved tons since last year, I don't exactly like the idea of him with the top belt. And Naito-Taichi I guess is OK for a preliminary title feud, but we better get the Taichi who actually does stuff and doesn't just stall and rely on the same interference spots for 10 minutes.

From the New Year Dash show, I really want to see Ishii vs Nagata & Naito vs Taichi. Kushida doing jobs left and right doesn't look good considering the rumours. The Bullet Club is like nWo B-team at this point. I'd still want more Chase Owens though. White vs Tanahashi should be interesting in showing how far White has got in a year, but White has no business getting the IWGP title for now.

Kushida has confirmed that he's leaving NJPW at the end of the month.

 

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

Kenny Omega also taking some time off NJPW, per Tokyo Sports.

Honestly, I think he did his best to make as much non-WWE money as possible in the last couple of years. He was the central figure in the NJPW US expansion, was pushed as Okada's top rival and *the* top heavyweight, and if he truly makes the jump to AEW/WWE, all of that seemed to be for naught.

If he goes to AEW, cool: he's 100% going to be the top pushed guy there. If he goes to WWE, their production is going to cover a lot of his weak points - his promos in the past few years were Ambrose-levels of bad and I doubt he wasn't in control. At least he goes 100% all the time.

Considering that AEW was meeting with ROH & NJPW for a possible work agreement, after reading Kenny's comments about him needing to step away from NJPW, I'm starting to lean towards the possibility he'll accept WWE's offer. I know that I shouldn't read too much into this and it's only speculation but realistically, what does he have left to prove outside of WWE? I mean, of course, being in the AEW venture with his Elite buddies is great and all but he might kick himself if he eventually turns down WWE. He might not get that same offer next time around, if there's a next time around.