Tana/Shibata and KUSHIDA/TaniguchiWhat matches would you guys recommend off the two new shows? I don't feel like watching both shows fully.
The top match on 9/21 was Tanahashi vs. Shibata, which to me, reminded me of Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin for its sense of realism and feel of being an epic match. It was far more physical, which I don’t necessarily take as a positive, and part of me takes as a strong negative. There’s a line between physical entertaining wrestling that tells a story, and just hitting each other as hard as you can and not having them block it. This crossed way over that line. Still, if they had hit each other half as hard and done the same match, it would have still been a match of the year candidate, because of story telling, pacing and execution.
It felt as real and as gripping as any match this year, even being left with serious remorse and guilt after watching it. It’s the exact style that Tanahashi criticized in his autobiography, saying that you can get the crowd with those kind of matches, but then you’ve set a standard that you can’t top. He also noted that while it does appeal to a certain part of the audience, he felt it limited its appeal to that one part of the audience. He favored a more artful style of athletic and psychological wrestling which he felt had more widespread appeal. But the match did also contain those elements, making it a complete classic, topping their G-1 match which was among the best matches of the year.
The story was that since Shibata beat Tanahashi in G-1, that for Tanahashi to win the rematch, he had to fight and beat Shibata at his own game. After the match, that felt far more like a fight, the two went face-to-face and talked to each other, and ended up shaking hands and hugging. It was symbolic in the sense that Tanahashi resented Shibata for leaving New Japan when the company was struggling, feeling they needed him, and then wasn’t happy when he was brought back when the company had started its turnaround. He also didn’t like Shibata’s ring style for the reasons said before. They have history, since they came from the same training class. Shibata had the edge because his father was a pro wrestler, and he was a champion high school wrestler, while Tanahashi was a pro wrestling fan and didn’t have a major athletic background. They even debuted on the same day. Tanahashi was always the better pro wrestler, but at the start, it was Shibata who was given the better opportunities. Ten years ago, the decision was made that Tanahashi, Nakamura and Shibata would be the next generation of Shinya Hashimoto, Keiji Muto and Masahiro Chono, who built New Japan to its highest level of business in its history in the mid-90s. But Shibata quit as the promotion was going down, first to be the top star of a new promotion, and later to become an MMA fighter.
In the ring, after the classic, Shibata whispered to Tanahashi, “Thank you for saving New Japan,” and tears came down Tanahashi’s face
Wrestle Kingdom’s main event will be an IWGP heavyweight title featuring the winners of the two key matches at King of Pro Wrestling.
On that show, A.J. Styles will defend the IWGP belt against Hiroshi Tanahashi, while Kazuchika Okada will defend his G-1 Climax briefcase and title shot against Tetsuya Naito. The press conference to announce the Tokyo Dome lineup is scheduled for 10/14 at the New Japan offices in Tokyo.
Tanahashi had stated before the Wrestle Kingdom show last year that if he failed to beat Okada for the title, that he would never challenge for it again. That was apparently when the booking was for Tanahashi to win the title and defend against Naito at the Tokyo Dome. But the booking changed late, with the idea of elevating the IC title to prominence by having Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura feud over it in early 2014. Tanahashi admitted that he made the statement last year, but he hopes fans understand his attempting to beat Styles and win the title. The match was set up by Tanahashi’s win over Styles on 8/10 at the Seibu Dome in a non-title match, followed by his beating Katsuyori Shibata in what was arguably the best match of 2014, on this past week’s first major show, Destruction in Kobe, on 9/21.
The rest of the 10/13 show will have Nakamura & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Hirooki Goto & Shibata, Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the Never Open weight title, new IWGP jr. heavyweight champion Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Desperado in a title match, Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano vs. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka in a rematch from this past weekend’s big show, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. in the latest of their best of 100 series for the NWA tag titles, the debut of Chase Owens as NWA jr. heavyweight champion, defending against Bushi, The Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & Kushida) defending the IWGP jr. tag titles in a three way against both The Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov) and The Young Bucks, and a special eight-man with The Bullet Club of Bad Luck Fale & Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows & Tama Tonga vs. Togi Makabe & Kota Ibushi & Yuji Nagata & Tomoaki Honma.
While not yet official, on the 9/23 show in Okayama, new IC champion Shinsuke Nakamura, who beat Bad Luck Fale for the title on 9/21, issued a challenge to Shibata. That match now looks to be set up for either a late year show, the Power Struggle show in Osaka, or the Tokyo Dome.
ALL JAPAN
The 2014 Open tournament comes down to Suwama vs. Go Shiozaki on 9/28 at the smaller Osaka Bodymaker Colosseum (that’s the 1,500 seat arena, not the arena New Japan runs for its big shows). The winner would get the next Triple Crown title shot at Joe Doering.
The semifinals took place on 9/22 in Nagasaki before 146 fans (that number is just so sad), with Suwama beating Akebono in 8:24 with a sleeper and Shiozaki pinned Miyahara in 17:18 with the Go flasher.
Ok fair enough I've only heard him say something a few times but I think recently I heard him take a shot again on the law radio I think .Meltzer doesn't usually shyt on the numbers, for the most part (at least, not that I've heard lately. Payouts, on the other hand...), but on how they evaluate house show draws. Basically, the A-circuit headliner (almost always Cena) gets a massive advantage in attendance and gross figures due to the cities and venues that circuit runs compared to the B-circuit (whose most notable headliner last year was Daniel Bryan). So, for example, when he discusses attendance figures at house shows and how they're used as criteria for evaluating talent, he's usually getting at WWE-borne hypocrisy and willful blindness about how the whole deal works (notably, that evaluating draws can be skewed by the fact that cards aren't finalized when tickets go on sale, so "drawing" can't really be ascertained in any concrete manner). This isn't to say that the figures are good in any objective or comparative manner, but from what I hear, that's often not Meltzer's greatest concern with the house show deal.g
Like @Jmare007 said, comparing NJPW's house situation with WWE's really can't be done, because the way in which they do their circuits are almost totally different.
I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it is interesting that Tanahashi only started getting all of this acclaim within the last 2-3 years, which coincides with the beginning of the most recent influx of great talents into the company. Whether that says more about what was around Tanahashi or Tanahashi himself, I don't know. But it is interesting to think about.
Wrestle Kingdom’s main event will be an IWGP heavyweight title featuring the winners of the two key matches at King of Pro Wrestling.
On that show, A.J. Styles will defend the IWGP belt against Hiroshi Tanahashi, while Kazuchika Okada will defend his G-1 Climax briefcase and title shot against Tetsuya Naito. The press conference to announce the Tokyo Dome lineup is scheduled for 10/14 at the New Japan offices in Tokyo.
Tanahashi had stated before the Wrestle Kingdom show last year that if he failed to beat Okada for the title, that he would never challenge for it again. That was apparently when the booking was for Tanahashi to win the title and defend against Naito at the Tokyo Dome. But the booking changed late, with the idea of elevating the IC title to prominence by having Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura feud over it in early 2014. Tanahashi admitted that he made the statement last year, but he hopes fans understand his attempting to beat Styles and win the title. The match was set up by Tanahashi’s win over Styles on 8/10 at the Seibu Dome in a non-title match, followed by his beating Katsuyori Shibata in what was arguably the best match of 2014, on this past week’s first major show, Destruction in Kobe, on 9/21.
The rest of the 10/13 show will have Nakamura & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Hirooki Goto & Shibata, Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the Never Open weight title, new IWGP jr. heavyweight champion Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Desperado in a title match, Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano vs. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka in a rematch from this past weekend’s big show, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. in the latest of their best of 100 series for the NWA tag titles, the debut of Chase Owens as NWA jr. heavyweight champion, defending against Bushi, The Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & Kushida) defending the IWGP jr. tag titles in a three way against both The Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov) and The Young Bucks, and a special eight-man with The Bullet Club of Bad Luck Fale & Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows & Tama Tonga vs. Togi Makabe & Kota Ibushi & Yuji Nagata & Tomoaki Honma.
While not yet official, on the 9/23 show in Okayama, new IC champion Shinsuke Nakamura, who beat Bad Luck Fale for the title on 9/21, issued a challenge to Shibata. That match now looks to be set up for either a late year show, the Power Struggle show in Osaka, or the Tokyo Dome.
ALL JAPAN
The 2014 Open tournament comes down to Suwama vs. Go Shiozaki on 9/28 at the smaller Osaka Bodymaker Colosseum (that’s the 1,500 seat arena, not the arena New Japan runs for its big shows). The winner would get the next Triple Crown title shot at Joe Doering.
The semifinals took place on 9/22 in Nagasaki before 146 fans (that number is just so sad), with Suwama beating Akebono in 8:24 with a sleeper and Shiozaki pinned Miyahara in 17:18 with the Go flasher.
I really can't love that style of match it makes me cringe .Tana/Shibata was good but I don't think it touched their G1 match. Pretty perplexing rating from Dave. I was kinda the opposite to him, I loved the stiffness but I wasn't really gripped by the story. His thoughts:
Maybe I should watch again
I felt the same way.I really can't love that style of match it makes me cringe .
In short:Can anyone make a summary of the downfall of AJPW?
brehs who are the top 5 Japanese wrestlers today?
@Beautiful Bobby Eatin
@Jmare007
@Honga Ciganesta
@TrueEpic08
@Miracle Violence
Alittle stiffness is fine but they went inI felt the same way.
What would Kentas ranking have been ? It feels like he's viewed in wwe bigger than he was in Japan , idk if it's the right correlation but it's like tna grabbing dolph and making him a top star ( which could work i guess like Christian cages run )
Haven't kept up with much besides New Japan and some Big Japan, so I couldn't name names you don't already know (Nakamura, Okada, Tana, Sekimoto, Ishii)
Well, they're not really doing that, are they? Dude is on NXT feuding with a midcard tag team after allWhat would Kentas ranking have been ? It feels like he's viewed in wwe bigger than he was in Japan , idk if it's the right correlation but it's like tna grabbing dolph and making him a top star ( which could work i guess like Christian cages run )