[1/4/18]NJPW Presents: Wrestle Kingdom 12

MightyHealthy

MightyHealthy

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Jmare007 said:
I know, my point is that it should've been "the challenger is white hot, let him run with it because he's gonna draw a fukk ton for us too".

I would understand keeping the belt on Okada if him losing it would mean any risk but Naito is as safe a bet you are gonna get as an IWGP champ at this point. And by doing so you step depending on just 1 guy as your main attraction :francis:
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Been trying to figure out how this makes sense...there's only two ways they could go to make this Okada win pay off.

1. They want to do right by Kota, after having jerked him around in the past.

HE will dethrone Okada, locking himself in the NJPW main event scene, eventually meeting up with Kenny again (which they know is money).
Jmare007 said:
Ibushi gonna step up as the challenger and people are gonna get their hopes up again :mjcry:
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Edit: just saw this post:mjcry:


2. Naito hasn't really changed or grown in the last year. He did a great job pretending he didn't care, but he wanted the Stardust Press to work so goddamned bad, that's really why he lost.

Still, doesn't solve how much it dampens a guy who had the Tokyo Dome packed. Being hijacked, given a co-main event, losing the title shot...it's a redux for his character.

He can't run off to Mexico again. He's 37. It's throwing away money. Throwing away momentum. And for what? You've denigrated his fanbase, giving him that Goto/Susan Lucci runner up vibe, and he can't destroy the IC again.

If Gedo really wants to give Okada every imaginable record, including the only significant one he didn't have by yesterday, most successful title defenses in a reign...whatever. But it also makes it look, as has been pointed out earlier in the thread, like he wants to preserve the spotlight for himself as well.
 
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I'll preface by saying EVERY fukking match was too long. From the battle royale to the main event. Every match on the card could have had 10% or more cut from it and they all would have been better off for it.

Rumble: Really loses all the fun when there aren't random old heads popping in for famous spots. That's like...90% of the fun of these every year. No idea who the Gambino or Kiwi dudes were, hot that Scott Norton wasn't invited back when he was in Japan.

Bucks vs R3K: It was fine, some nasty bumps and strikes. Really points out how meaningless jr titles are in NJ when Bucks are SEVEN time champs and still feuding with Rocky Romero after 4+ years.

Gauntlet tag: Skipped it entirely

Ibushi vs Cody: Brandi
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Cody is still the blandest fukking guy possible, almost a cartoonish parody of an 80s wrestler at this point. Ibushi literally taking headers off the apron for him is something I'll never understand, but such is Ibushi.

LIJ vs KES: Whatever. It's a NJ tag match after 1999.

Goto vs Suzuki: MiSu is washed. He's been a death match on every show since returning to NJ last year. I could go without seeing another of his matches again tbh. Goto wins another mid card nothing title that no one gives a shyt about and will do nothing with it.

Jr Four Way: Lol at how out of place athletically Scurll was. Also wtf at Takahashi being basically absent for 90% of the match despite being the most dynamic and interesting guy in the match. Lots of bad camera work missing spots, and again this is another thing that shows how meaningless junior titles are since in the past year, all four guys have been champ, KUSHIDA and Ospreay twice, and Ospreay/Scurll didn't even have successful defenses before losing the belt. The only other guy to hold the title in the past year was BUSHI, who was in the rumble and not even on the main card with the rest of his stable. Also, KUSHIDA is a 5 time champ. Most of the match itself was fun enough, not nearly as exciting or fast paced or crazy as even my lowest expectations. Someone needs to get Ospreay a fukking mask. He's 24 and has the face of a 45 year old Brit in 1972, and teeth from Austin Powers. :scust:

Tanahashi vs White: Lmao at White's Trent Reznor gimmick. Dude desperately needs some facial hair. This was basically interchangeable with 90% of big Tanahashi matches over the past 5-6 years that didn't involve Okada. I'd have much rather seen Juice in this spot and I think it would have been as good or better.

Jericho vs Omega: Surprised me for sure. Jericho having learned his lesson that he couldn't keep up with AJ and instead doing a brawl instead of "see how I can still keep up with the youths" was a good call, and hopefully he gives Kenny some of his check for making him still look legit by taking horrible bump after horrible bump. It was a good change of pace and definitely more of a WWE style brawl than NJ style brawl, but much better than I anticipated.

Okada vs Naito: LOLOKADAWINS. Holy shyt. That's fukking hilarious. I wish I could get into Gedo's brain and figure out where he's coming from to have Naito be the hottest guy for the past 2 years, give him a 2 month reign only to immediately drop it back to Okada who then went on to have the longest reign of anyone in company history....and then get smashed again in the main event in the Tokyo Dome where he's significantly more popular than anyone else on the show. It's genuinely baffling at this point. And to me, it seems like Okada has graduated from stoic ace to acting like doesn't give a shyt at all and would rather be taking a nap somewhere. Also those pants.
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Feels like a whole lot of status quo coming out of this. Bucks are Jr. Champs again. Ospreay is Jr. Champ again. Okada and Tanahashi won and are still champs. All the mid card titles flip flopped aimlessly with no one really benefiting from winning or losing them. The big winners coming out of this are obviously Omega and Jericho, both who had their stocks raised industry and worldwide. This was probably on par with WM last year: An overly long show with some decent matches, a surprising match or two, and nothing of note coming out it.

Okada has done everything he can do. There's nothing more for him to do than break the defense record. He's been on top for 6 years now, has defeated everyone in the company except Jericho. He's retired legends. There aren't any legends left for him to beat or have the torch passed to him by like Tanahashi had. Announcers were comparing him to Inoki and Jumbo multiple times during the match. He's fukking THIRTY. He's got another probably 15 years of high level shyt. Maybe spread that shyt out a little, Gedo. fukk.
 
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TrueEpic08

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Stray thoughts about the top three matches at WK:

-Something quite telling happened during the main event: Naito hit the second Destino and went for the cover as the crowd was going absolutely insane, seemingly for Naito finally getting his redemption for the WK8 snub and beating Okada on NJPW's biggest stage. Then Okada kicks out and, instead of any type of excited roar, the crowd actually just quiets down a bit and never really hits that level again for the rest of the match. Almost as if they watched their hopes for Naito winning the match die with that nearfall.

If that doesn't tell you that Okada winning was the wrong decision, I don't know what will. Apparently Gedo has a plan for Okada and Naito over the next year, but there's something to be said for striking while the iron is hot. Naito is the hottest thing in New Japan right now (and it actually doesn't seem to be that close. He was comfortably the most over guy in the building last night) and there's no reason why he needed to get sacrificed at the altar of Okada AGAIN, even if it is in the service of a long-term storyline. Sometimes its just someone's moment, last night should've been Naito's.

Also, the match really wasn't that great. It was good, but really wasn't into it the way I have been into other NJPW main events. And, really, it was because of Okada, not Naito. Maybe I'm officially beginning to feel some Rainmaker fatigue, I dunno. I'm certainly not into him starting his comebacks by doing WWE midcarder shtick and ending with...the usual Okada finishing run. Dude needs something new fast, at least to keep my interest.

-Omega and Jericho had an amazing match, just about the best match they could have given Jericho's age and wear. It was really smart to build the match around not only the hatred between the two, but the fact that Jericho really couldn't keep up with him, and had to rely on age and dirty tricks to keep the advantage. Omega was only able to overcome that when he started to use those tricks against him and prove that he was not only the better wrestler, but could beat Jericho at his own game.

Jericho was just awesome; best match he's had in at least a decade, and maybe even longer. Props to Omega as well for giving his body to make that match great (maybe a little too freely with all those headshots he took). Co-MVP award for the night goes to these two guys.

-Tanahashi looks about a million years old, and desperately needs to take a few months off. He was moving like an 80 year old man during his entrance; the company can't keep riding him like this when he has at least two debilitating injuries that need surgery/serious rehab. But this IS Japan, where you need to damn near literally die to take time off for anything, so :manny:.

-Too big a stage too soon for young Jay White. First half of his control segment was the dullest thing I could have imagined; I rag on Cody control segments a lot (because they're often terrible/sleep inducing), but I don't think he ever put on anything this boring in his life. Lots of aimless punch-kick nonsense. Back half of the match was better for him (and better overall), but he's gonna need some time to fit into the gimmick and figure out what he wants to do with it.

I mean, it's WrestleKingdom, you're never wasting your time by watching it, but the booking can be really frustrating at the most inopportune moments. Great event though, even given some of my issues with the matches.
 
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DaylitoJames

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TrueEpic08 said:
Stray thoughts about the top three matches at WK:

-Something quite telling happened during the main event: Naito hit the second Destino and went for the cover as the crowd was going absolutely insane, seemingly for Naito finally getting his redemption for the WK8 snub and beating Okada on NJPW's biggest stage. Then Okada kicks out and, instead of any type of excited roar, the crowd actually just quiets down a bit and never really hits that level again for the rest of the match. Almost as if they watched their hopes for Naito winning the match die with that nearfall.

If that doesn't tell you that Okada winning was the wrong decision, I don't know what will. Apparently Gedo has a plan for Okada and Naito over the next year, but there's something to be said for striking while the iron is hot. Naito is the hottest thing in New Japan right now (and it actually doesn't seem to be that close. He was comfortably the most over guy in the building last night) and there's no reason why he needed to get sacrificed at the altar of Okada AGAIN, even if it is in the service of a long-term storyline. Sometimes its just someone's moment, last night should've been Naito's.

Also, the match really wasn't that great. It was good, but really wasn't into it the way I have been into other NJPW main events. And, really, it was because of Okada, not Naito. Maybe I'm officially beginning to feel some Rainmaker fatigue, I dunno. I'm certainly not into him starting his comebacks by doing WWE midcarder shtick and ending with...the usual Okada finishing run. Dude needs something new fast, at least to keep my interest.

-Omega and Jericho had an amazing match, just about the best match they could have given Jericho's age and wear. It was really smart to build the match around not only the hatred between the two, but the fact that Jericho really couldn't keep up with him, and had to rely on age and dirty tricks to keep the advantage. Omega was only able to overcome that when he started to use those tricks against him and prove that he was not only the better wrestler, but could beat Jericho at his own game.

Jericho was just awesome; best match he's had in at least a decade, and maybe even longer. Props to Omega as well for giving his body to make that match great (maybe a little too freely with all those headshots he took). Co-MVP award for the night goes to these two guys.

-Tanahashi looks about a million years old, and desperately needs to take a few months off. He was moving like an 80 year old man during his entrance; the company can't keep riding him like this when he has at least two debilitating injuries that need surgery/serious rehab. But this IS Japan, where you need to damn near literally die to take time off for anything, so :manny:.

-Too big a stage too soon for young Jay White. First half of his control segment was the dullest thing I could have imagined; I rag on Cody control segments a lot (because they're often terrible/sleep inducing), but I don't think he ever put on anything this boring in his life. Lots of aimless punch-kick nonsense. Back half of the match was better for him (and better overall), but he's gonna need some time to fit into the gimmick and figure out what he wants to do with it.

I mean, it's WrestleKingdom, you're never wasting your time by watching it, but the booking can be really frustrating at the most inopportune moments. Great event though, even given some of my issues with the matches.
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I feel like Jay White's new "Switchblade" gimmick is just like how Omega was first given his "The Cleaner" gimmick when he joined Bullet Club.... didn't make too much sense at first and seemed hella weird but eventually he developed the gimmick by adding mystique and different forms to the gimmick now "The Cleaner" moniker is well known to fans worldwide and I believe Jay White can do the same.
 
TrueEpic08

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@Jmare007 @Beautiful Bobby Eatin @Honga Ciganesta @3Rivers @Don Ibiza Ibrahimovic @Ace of the Metropolitan @MightyHealthy

Work's largely kept me out of the New Japan loop, so maybe one of you guys (or the other puro followers on the board, apologies for not tagging y'all) can explain to me why Gedo thought it was a good idea to rehash what was a kind of unnecessary storyline when it first happened (the Okada/Tanahashi WK9-10 story) in a context which renders it even more pointless, stupid, and possibly damaging to the company.
 
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