58 minutes ago, Kadaveri said:

Except that was just made up by fans to justify giving her abuse. That was actually the first time Brie had ever injured anyone (debuted in 2006), whereas Meltzer's been warning people to enjoy Ospreay is gonna be "the next Dynamite Kid" with how often he injures himself.

If it was Morgan kicking Brie in the face rather than the other way about, there's no way she'd have gotten so much shit. It's all because of who she is and what she represents in the eyes of certain fans. She's not a 'proper wrestler' so she must be terrible and a hate figure. She's never actually injured anyone prior to that as you said.

 

The Ospreay spot was a pretty dumb one to do, especially given that he didn't even pin him afterwards.

I've started watching the show. I did like the gauntlet and the Ibushi-Ospreay match was pretty good until or despite the finish.

Ospreay has done that elbow strike before. I really hate it, he slaps his thigh, it's an extremely unnatural movement and he seems to concuss people every time he does it. If he was reckless with conventional strikes, I'd probably be fine with it but this shit just looks horrible.

It wasn't just the concussion to Liv. Brie was botching things left and right when she came back.

6 hours ago, Kadaveri said:

Except that was just made up by fans to justify giving her abuse. That was actually the first time Brie had ever injured anyone (debuted in 2006), whereas Meltzer's been warning people to enjoy Ospreay is gonna be "the next Dynamite Kid" with how often he injures himself.

Except it wasn't, she almost killed herself on a dive like a week before and crushed Zelina Vega with a knee to the face a few weeks before that. The Liv incident was like the third thing in about a month she was involved in.  

Ospreay had (has?) a rep for taking dangerous bumps where he lands on his head or neck, which while not great, is different than hurting other people. 

You can make the argument I suppose that Brie was just rusty since it was her return from a long layoff, and AFAIK she didn't have any previous issues.

 

In New Japan news, New Year's Dash sure seemed less eventful than prior years. They confirmed matchups people were expecting based on pushes, but there wasn't any major "AJ gets beaten out of the Bullet Club" angles. 

I feel like the last big angle they did was the return of SZKG. Lately it's been more about setting up the matches for New Beginning. But the show didn't look all that good overall.

Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi SHOCKINGLY rejoining Bullet Club didn't set the world on fire.

There was something hilarious about the six man titles being the only ones not changing hands at the end of the day. 

I'm more excited about the Fantasica Mania shows than anything else at the moment.  Watching lucha in Japan is like the wrestling equivalent of mixing chocolate and peanut butter. 

5 hours ago, Boss Rock said:

I feel like the last big angle they did was the return of SZKG. Lately it's been more about setting up the matches for New Beginning. But the show didn't look all that good overall.

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.

53 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

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.

I think Jun is going to be at the show, so we can hope!

I won't go too in-depth with my thoughts or anything, but I will say I loved the opener. Ibushi/Ospreay was a fucking BLAST of a match - by far the most well-rounded, complete Ospreay performance I've seen.

Old man Jericho's glam rock face paint is still horrendous, but I've dug this New Japan gaijin reinvention. It's been an awesome chapter to tack onto his career, for sure.

And that main event was tremendous. Again, Omega is someone that loses me with his longer performances. The thirty-five knee strikes that amount to nothing (when they all look & sound so wicked that one killing knockout shot would suffice just fine) just grate me. But he kept my attention the whole way through here. I thought Tana brought his A game also, and together they told a fantastic story. Loved it.

Callis wasn't consistently strong with his commentary or anything, but I loved his line about Gedo's turn - calling him a monkey swinging from branches, not letting go of one until he has a firm grasp wrapped around another one. Good stuff.