Essential Japanese Wrestling Discussion/News

[Jmare007]

I'm sure the money was talking first and foremost. His first year was AJ's biggest money year ever to date right?

Oh, no question. Choshu was the reason All Japan got the upperhand on New Japan after a long time and business was booming. But it's one thing to give a guy like Choshu an obvious (and deserved) big push, and let him do what he does best and another thing is going to the point of completely shifting the way you present your product for perpetuity (well, until Baba's death). Specially when it comes from an outsider.

We all know Baba was very set in his ways, so Choshu coming in, having a huge impact and pretty much making Baba change how he viewed wrestling in such a short amount of time is fascinating to me. Maybe Choshu just showed guys like Jumbo and Tenryu what they needed to see to convince Baba to change (and make the home talent the main focus). Or maybe Choshu convinced Baba himself. I honestly have no clue, but my point is that there's no way there's not an awesome story to tell there.

 

[Kidd Dibiase]

edit

 

[Jmare007]

Daisuke Sekimoto & Fuminori Abe vs Hideki Suzuki & Shinobu - BJW 6/23/19
Sekimoto/Abe v. Suzuki/Shinobu

Very short, but there's fun stuff here between all four involved. I don't think I'll ever get tired of Abe's flashy counters, dude is so slick with them and he always throws a c*nty strike to piss his opponent off. Also, I was at Hideki and Shinobu wearing Abby Jr's ring attire now that they are a part of his stable.

Yuji Okabayashi & Okami vs Takuya Nomura, Ryuichi Kawami & Kazumi Kikuta - BJW 6/23/19
Kazumi Kikuta, Ryuichi Kawakami & Takuya Nomura vs. Daichi Hashimoto, Kamitani & Yuji Okabayashi

The build up to July 21st continues holy shyt at the slap exchanges at the end between Yuji and the young gawd, the ending perfectly illustrated what this feud is all about: the fiery young guy vs the BEAST that is the champion. Kamitani and Kawakami had a low key sick strike exchange too, oh my

 

[SubZeroDegrees]

DDT Peter Pan was today

It wasn't even at Sumo Hall, instead Ota Gym.

Spoiler

Takeshyta got his strap back from Endo.

 

[Jmare007]

Holy shyt, there was no buzz whatsoever for that show, no fukking clue it was yesterday

Even @Ace of the Metropolitan dropped his stanning

 

[TrueEpic08]

I may have asked this a few months ago, but what the hell happened to DDT's buzz? They were killing it a few years ago and now...nothing.

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

Holy shyt, there was no buzz whatsoever for that show, no fukking clue it was yesterday

Even @Ace of the Metropolitan dropped his stanning

No Ryogoku=Not My Peter Pan

Breh they fell the fukk off

It gets legit scary when friggin BASURA leaves the umbrella

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

I may have asked this a few months ago, but what the hell happened to DDT's buzz? They were killing it a few years ago and now...nothing.

• No Dieno
• TJPW losing their aces
• HARASHIMA being too old to be the ace
• Takeshyta is a slog as the ace
• Putting too much focus on DDT Live to the point it's hurting their overall brand because every event looks like DDT Live
• Giving away too many damn shows for free
• It's not as wacky and ranchy as it used to be

No fukkery=No DDT

 

[Jmare007]

No Ryogoku=Not My Peter Pan

Breh they fell the fukk off

It gets legit scary when friggin BASURA leaves the umbrella

Well, they are running Saitama Super Arena on 2020 so they should book a strong card next year at least.


BASARA is the home of Fuminori Abe so they are more than ok in my book

I may have asked this a few months ago, but what the hell happened to DDT's buzz? They were killing it a few years ago and now...nothing.

@Ace of the Metropolitan pretty much nailed it. There's very little OG DDT in today's DDT. And that also goes to legit stars that draw. Only way they've been able to get any buzz in the last couple of year is with interpromotional feuds and they don't even have that anymore.

Takeshyta tanked badly as the ace too, we are in year 3 of him on top and things have go down each year and they haven't found him a replacement or a rival...as Endo has done such as badly as he has.

DDT had two things no other promotions had: 1) a unique mix of comedy, fukkery and legit wrestling. 2) Wrestlers that stood out from the rest because they excelled at one of those three things.

Nowadays they don't stand out in neither of those categories, so there's very little to buzz about. Not even Andreza the Giant Panda was booked for Peter Pan. Now, they are still doing fine business wise, they are just not the clear cut 2nd biggest promotion in Japan anymore. I'm not even sure who is the 2nd behind New Japan right now, to be honest.

They even acknowledge their current struggles, this was part of the preview for Peter Pan

This show also kickstarts DDT’s goal for 2020, to approach the level of New Japan without sacrificing what makes DDT, well, DDT. During an interview with Yahoo Japan/Weekly Playboy, it was mentioned that DDT’s last peak happened five years ago. Seeds have been planted since then with the new generation of DDT wrestlers. If it takes five years for a new boom period to begin then DDT believes now is the time to strike! If it doesn’t work, then no matter. The show must go on and DDT will do what they can to avoid being repetitive.

-----------------------------


Speaking of tanking at the box office...

Big Japan did 600 people at Korakuen today card warranted a bad attendance but not THAT bad thank Terry Funk they have the July shows sold out at least. I just hope Osaka shows up next week for Nomura vs Okabayashi (who had another very interesting tag on paper today).

 

[Scottie Drippin]

I may have asked this a few months ago, but what the hell happened to DDT's buzz? They were killing it a few years ago and now...nothing.

Their buzz was Kota.

On top of that they always did a great job of maximizing short runs from other people (dikk Togo, Big Shuji etc). HARASHIMA was a proper indie ace, and he had KUDO as his 1-b. KUDO is basically trash now.

Takeshyta is good, but is legit still only 24 years old and has so much to learn about the business. He has good matches with good workers and bad ones with bad workers as he just isn't experienced enough to elevate people. His contemporaries like Irie and Endo range from aiiight to absolutes messes. Sakaguci and Kodaka were failed experiments on top, too. And he keeps on getting the belt back because there is absolutely nothing else.

DDT is basically a one man company and the one man desperately needs help and guidance.

Speedball is doing good things there but they might need to roll the dice and see what happens with him on top? He and Kono might have a good series of big matches between them in them.

In reality they need a steady presence of StrongHearts, Strong BJ, or someone (anyone!) else right now and they need it bad.

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

Their buzz was Kota.

Along with Kenny...sadly. The Golden Lovers push the promotion to new lengths along with DDT being fresh and new. During their come up it was like the And 1 of fukkery. Seeing dudes doing matches in a train and at fukking anime conventions. The main problem with DDT is that it clear as day that they have to tone it down just to double up their dollars. Yet, that fact alone shooing away the core fanbase. DDT needs to get back to the basics:

• Treat each event like it means something instead of it looking like DDT Live (sort of like how the WWE treats each ppv like its a extensive Raw)
• Work on compelling storylines to hide the fact that most of the roster doesn't have the "it" factor
• Continue the AEW relationship (beyond Joshi)
• Bring back the NXT like show to search for new talent (I forgot the name of it but it really did help promote new up and comers)
• Stop giving away free content (the fact that they gave away Peter Pan made them look struggle)

Bottom line, they need to stop settling for 3 to last place in the promotion race. We all know that they will never meet NJPW status but I don't want another NJPW, I want a DDT

 

[SubZeroDegrees]

Holy shyt, there was no buzz whatsoever for that show, no fukking clue it was yesterday

Even @Ace of the Metropolitan dropped his stanning

Breh, I went to cagematch and I saw the results, I like was I thought it was one of the build up shows.

It has ZERO buzz, all of us just use to be hype for Peter Pan.

I just weird how they did this show. Not in Sumo Hall, Not on a Sunday, not after G-1 (but during) and have zero big cross-promotion matches.

 

[The Rainmaker]

DDT show was free online. Tickets were free and there was lots of empty chairs.

They need to bring the ladder back out of retirement and give it the title.

 

[Honga Ciganesta]

With the G1 going on there's a Lucha run-in in this thread

El Adios de Mexico! Rare four way match, Liger wanted to work with the other three. Semi main should be a wild one



Everything good about wrestling in one pic:

 

[stro]

Villano III The 2nd would be a better name, imo