Essential Japanese Wrestling Discussion/News

[Jmare007]

This is pretty much where I'm at. I don't buy into the gimmick I guess

I can relate to that. Every time I do watch the guy I feel he's playing a part instead of just wrestling. He doesn't feel natural to me. But then again, I think I saw 1 match of his after the Juice one so I have no clue if he has gotten any better in that regard.

 

[3Rivers]

I can relate to that. Every time I do watch the guy I feel he's playing a part instead of just wrestling. He doesn't feel natural to me. But then again, I think I saw 1 match of his after the Juice one so I have no clue if he has gotten any better in that regard.

Yup. Hence my "Jaysuke Euromura" joke. I'm sure its unintentional with the haircut/colors but I feel like i'm watching someone cosplay Nak without all the little quirks that make Nak stand out. It's too big of a jump for me to see him leave as a young lion babyface kid and return as a switchblade wielding cheating heel(with the same babyface)

 

[DoubleJ13]

Dave going hard as fukk about this

 

[Jmare007]

Dave going hard as fukk about this

TAICHI IS JUMPING SHIP DAVE

 

[The Rainmaker]

NXT champion Taichi

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

Yup. Hence my "Jaysuke Euromura" joke. I'm sure its unintentional with the haircut/colors but I feel like i'm watching someone cosplay Nak without all the little quirks that make Nak stand out. It's too big of a jump for me to see him leave as a young lion babyface kid and return as a switchblade wielding cheating heel(with the same babyface)

He would look weird as hell with facial hair though so idk. If theyre grooming him to be top gaijin then they have a LOT of work to do and fast. You cant work on Gedo's usual pace with this.

 

[Beautiful Bobby Eatin]

NXT champion Taichi

Theyll cheer him ironically and HHH will run with it

 

[stro]

Omg did you see the update on the Meltz "NJ workers are unhappy" story? He named the wrong guy (and wrong company he was from) as the guy focusing on international stuff making people mad, who is now getting hate mail and death threats.

 

[Jmare007]

Daisuke Sekimoto & Hideki Suzuki vs Kazuki Hashimoto & Yuya Aoki - Big Japan Saikyou Tag League 9/24/18
Daisuke Sekimoto & Hideki Suzuki vs. Kazuki Hashimoto & Yuya Aoki

Shockingly, this match has a proper start, no early jump on the big boys by Kazuki and his partner First few minutes we get some interesting mat wrestling from all four participants, but the c*ntiness can't be held for long. Aoki and K-Hash do what they do best and start smacking the shyt out of their opponents, which of course leads to Sekimoto getting pissed off and firing back. Aoki's hot tag that led to the finishing sequence was pretty dope, sadly he was off the mark in a few exchanges and it came off like a botch or uncoordinated. Still, Korakuen didn't give a fukk and rallied behind him so he could get the upset. A typical 12 minute fun tag special from the best division in the world

Okami vs Party Boys - Big Japan Saikyou Tag League 9/24/18
Okami (Daichi Hashimoto & Hideyoshi Kamitani) vs. Kota Sekifuda & Tatsuhiko Yoshino

Once again Okami showing their versatility, this time they gotta play the bigger, powerhouse team and they pull it off nicely, specially because Party Boys do a good job as the fiery highflyer team. Really liked some of the little things Daichi did in this - like throwing a shytty kick to Yoshino when he was down and couldn't stop the tag to Sekifuda, or him blocking Yoshino's body punch after he had already tricked Kamitani with it - and Kamitani is getting better and better as a "hoss" type of wrestler, he's getting meaner each month and I like that. Another fun tag in Korakuen

Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe vs Ryuichi Kawakami & Kazumi Kikuta - Big Japan Saikyou Tag League 9/24/18
Kazumi Kikuta & Ryuichi Kawakami vs. Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura

This is why I love the Strong division. If the first match I posted was "big guys vs fiery little/young guys" and the second one was "hight flyers vs hard hitters", this was "four motherfukkers beating the shyt out of each other" it's the perfect setting for someone like Kawakami, who shines when his only job is to take punishment and dish on his own. The main story was him and Nomura trying to prove who could slap and hit the other the hardest, and man, Kawakami DOES NOT let the young kid get the best of him, he fukking destroyed dude, loved how even Kikuta was like :"aye breh, stop hitting the kid, let's do our next move next". Abe is as always on point with his flashy reversals, kicks and overall disrespectful attitude. The final sequence is Strong BJ at it's finest, with a finish that you can only get in this promotion. Not quite MOTYC level, but ANOTHER fun tag to watch, and it's 11 minutes @trick you should check these 3 matches, none of them are elite or "can't miss" level, but I think you are gonna have enjoy spending 30 minutes watching them, same for @3Rivers.


@SubZeroDegrees @Scottie Drippin Sugi vs Nakajima is already on XWT, so it should be up on RealHero or other places any minute now. If you find the match online somewhere, @ me

Omg did you see the update on the Meltz "NJ workers are unhappy" story? He named the wrong guy (and wrong company he was from) as the guy focusing on international stuff making people mad, who is now getting hate mail and death threats.

So a random dude started to get death threats from neckbeards all thanks to Dave crappy reporting? I'm amazed at how clumsy he continues to be when writing about Japan.

 

[THE 101]

He would look weird as hell with facial hair though so idk. If theyre grooming him to be top gaijin then they have a LOT of work to do and fast. You cant work on Gedo's usual pace with this.

I like Jay White more than most on here. I feel like he's slowly beginning to grow into his persona and his work has stepped up, but he's obviously got quite a bit to go. But he's still real young, so I think it's unfair to write him off in the way some are.

But for me the real long term top gaijin is Osprey. He's moving up to heavy and he's already operating at a high level and the Japanese fans love him. Only thing that will hold him back is if his body breaks down, but he's been noticeably toning down the dangerous spots and is working a bit more sensibly, particularly since he nearly killed himself against Marty Scurll.

Hope he wins the NEVER openweight next month and defends it against Ibushi at the dome.

 

[WaveMolecules]

Saw jay white at the ROH show where adam cole got kicked out of bullet club. His match against ospreay was probably the match of the night.

Cant buy him with that face

 

[Jmare007]

@Scottie Drippin @SubZeroDegrees it's here

Takashi Sugiura vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - GHC Title match, NOAH 10/4/18 (match starts at the 84:50 mark)
https://www.bilibili.com/video/av33663166/

Only 22 of 29 minutes are shown, the edits are noticeable in the early parts, but it doesn't seem like that much was cut, so impressive editing job.

I don't think a NOAH ring has seen such a heel performance like the one Nakajima gives since SUWA brought the fukkery for his match against KENTA more than a decade ago. Holy shyt brehs. I know I had to watch this match after seeing Nak's new gimmick and look at the Diamond Ring show a couple of months ago, and boy thank Terry Funk I did
I don't wanna spoil much, but I'll say this has two parts. The first one has Nakajima being a slimy heel, tricking Sugi to gain every advantage he could, he doesn't do that many heavy strikes, he just controls the match by being an opportunistic a$$hole. I love the way Sugi gets back in control, it just makes so much sense when you look back at how his opponent was getting the best of him and what he does to finally get the upperhand. Once Big Boss Sugi gets his hands on the challenger, we get the first real demonic strikes, a barrage of elbows and some running knees that had no regard for Katsuhiko's well being dude is so vicious Korakuen Hall goes from booing Nakajima to cheering him on, but the challenger ain't no corny babyface, he's a fukking a$$hole so he cheats to get in control again.

And then brehs...and then....Nakajima goes full I'm talking Shibata vs Okada levels of demonic. I'll just leave it at that. The final comeback that leads to the finish lacks the drama it seemed they were aiming for, but I thought it had the right intentions behind it.

GO. WATCH. THIS. :

 

[THE 101]

I see Meltzer reporting in this week's Observer that Don Callis might be done as an announcer in New Japan.

And that Lanny fukking Poffo is being considered as a replacement

 

[DoubleJ13]

On Dave's new radio show, he brings up the NJPW stuff and expands on it. Between reiterating his report from the Newsletter, he adds a lot more.

• He says the people he is hearing from about unhappiness are across the board in the company, including the top Japanese talents. It's not just the Elite that he's talked to about it, and it's a vast majority of guys that are unhappy. Not everybody, but a lot of them.
  
  
• He notes that Tama Tonga is one of the guys mad on Twitter about it, though he heard back in July when Tama got disciplined for his language and the incident with the fan that he was angry at the office about their reaction to it.
  
  
• He mentions that at the time of the G1 Finals, nobody on the BC Elite side wanted to leave NJPW and they were planning on staying but now it's more up in the air. He says that the decision was basically a done deal and now is being reconsidered.
  
  
• He thinks that if the internal reaction is to lash out against the report and guys who are talking to him as opposed to fixing the issue, then it's only going to get worse. He insinuates that he thinks the issue is bad enough that if it continues that it's got even the top guys thinking about options "except Tanahashi".
  
  
• Talks about how some of the Japanese talent is bothered by the company hiring a lot of foreign top executives who don't have experience in wrestling.

Dave really going to bat this hard for his boys?

 

[TheGodling]

Dave gotta stop with the bullshyt and explain what the vague denominator "top Japanese talent" means. He says "except Tanahashi", so does that include Okada? No way in hell is anyone thinking for a second that he'll leave NJPW. Ibushi? Could be depending on how much Omega is in his ear, but he's being built up as a steady main eventer. Naito? If anyone has a legit case being pissed about his booking, it's him but that's about it. Suzuki, Ishii, Goto, Sanada, Evil, etc? Are we still talking about "top" talent or just including the entire roster. Not holding anything against those guys' talents but where does the "top" end? Also, I highly doubt any of them are clamouring for a WWE Roster spot like that except maybe Sanada who still got a long career ahead of him.

And what other talent could possibly think of leaving? Juice Robinson who walked away from NXT? Zack Sabre JR who is having the run of his career and knows 205 Live is waiting for him? Jay White who is getting a monster push as the top gaijin heel? At best you could argue Will Ospreay but only because he doesn't have a very specific reason to stay and not because there's any real incentive to work with the E.

So who does that leave? Oh right, the Elite who have been shoveling these "rumors" to Dave...