Essential Japanese Wrestling Discussion/News

[TrueEpic08]

Brehs. EVIL had a terrible ROH excursion. This is the only requirement towards a young lion getting the belt now. Yall better not act like this when SHO gets his in 2027.


Seriously though, as someone who actually likes EVIL, what the actual fukk? He makes NO sense in Bullet Club and unless he eventually pulls a Switchblade and betrays them to go to Suzuki-gun, which is low key more depressing, I dont see how this turn made sense over SANADA. But Hiromu getting the title shot while SANADA has said nothing after being beat by EVIL in the tourney semifinals and being betrayed by his tag team partner shows what they think of him. Terrible Gedo booking.

I didn't even mention the LIJ shyt. These dudes have portrayed as essentially closer than brothers, yet Naito gets screwed harder than Adriana Chechik and Hiromu's the only one who gives a fukk? I don't even like SANADA, but his mere involvement would have improved this by leaps and bounds (hell, there's even a readymade story for him defecting and joining the Bullet Club, given that he's a perplexingly popular non-trueborn that they refuse to anything of note with).

I don't know if any of you have been milling around other boards, but I'm astonished by how many people are defending this shyt (even using Okada and Jay White as support. This ignores, of course, that Okada had an awesome match to win the belt and that Tanahashi had literally beaten everyone and set a fukking defense record before Okada's challenge, as well as the fact that Jay White didn't find his groove until long after he dropped the IWGP belt and still isn't that good). For me, all I could think was "Ogawa/Hashimoto" (despite those matches being much better and drawing better ratings and houses than Naito/EVIL, of course. But it was also the beginning of NJPW murdering interest in the product with a booker's obsessive nonsense if you believe the ratings/house drops over the course of that feud, and this gives me some of the same vibes I got from watching Hash get beaten into the dirt over and over again to everyone's dismay). No one pays attention to the history, so they can't see something that might actually drive a crowd away when it's right in their faces.

There have actually been plenty of matches worse than this in 2020, but this legitimately made me not want to watch NJPW for a while. I'm not the biggest Naito fan and I might be overreacting, but fukk it. This was awful.

 

[Jmare007]

@TrueEpic08

People ignoring Gedo's booking because they love the matches and the company in general is something that has been going on for 5+ years. At this point I don't think it will change unless the company goes to the shytter business wise, and no one wants that to happen.

I wouldn't go that far in terms of how bad this move was. Not now at least. Making your product shyttier by forcing a push no one wanted is never a good thing. But if this shyt only lasts 1-3 months, it wont really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Let's wait how the G-1 shapes up, how it does business wise and then what's the status of the company heading into Wrestle Kingdom. If anything, Gedo's pattern is that he will go back to normal and this angle will be an anecdote.


I'm all for making fun and shytting on EVIL being the chosen one, but the sky ain't falling...at least not for the time being.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

 

[Toe Jay Simpson]

He might just be a transitional champion like Jay White

Gedo gonna do the right thing and put that belt back on Okada

 

[THE 101]

Ya'll are fukking drama queens...i swear to God

 

[Bryan Danielson]

I don’t have a problem with EVIL being champ but I also don’t have the NJPW baggage that a lot of y’all have


I don’t know this “Gedo Booking”

 

[The Rainmaker]

Ya'll are fukking drama queens...i swear to God

Wasn't you who made the Puppy Battle Royale thread? Talk about crying about something insignificant.

 

[THE 101]

Wasn't you who made the Puppy Battle Royale thread? Talk about crying about something insignificant.

I wasn't writing dissertationn whining about I'M NEVER WATCHING AGAIN

 

[TrueEpic08]

I love how any extended explanation of one's thoughts is a "dissertation" on here. As if it's a burden to read a couple hundred words on a subject. Just comedy.

@TrueEpic08

People ignoring Gedo's booking because they love the matches and the company in general is something that has been going on for 5+ years. At this point I don't think it will change unless the company goes to the shytter business wise, and no one wants that to happen.

I wouldn't go that far in terms of how bad this move was. Not now at least. Making your product shyttier by forcing a push no one wanted is never a good thing. But if this shyt only lasts 1-3 months, it wont really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Let's wait how the G-1 shapes up, how it does business wise and then what's the status of the company heading into Wrestle Kingdom. If anything, Gedo's pattern is that he will go back to normal and this angle will be an anecdote.


I'm all for making fun and shytting on EVIL being the chosen one, but the sky ain't falling...at least not for the time being.

Yeah, I know that Gedo will shake things up and then pull back to an Okada reign and that BC nonsense has been a part of NJPW main events on and off for 7 years now (SEVEN YEARS ), but this one just felt different. If this all happened and the match was really good, then I could at least say that, despite everything, EVIL showed and proved, and that didn't happen. Instead, we got a middling and dull match for the first 25 minutes, then a festival of poorly timed, poorly executed bullshyt as a finish to put over someone who at no point has shown he's on the world title level (and I don't hate EVIL, I just think he's pretty definitively a midcard guy). That's not the kind of thing I remember happening in NJPW much at all over the years. The sum total of everything and how poorly thought out it seems to be is what's throwing me.

Maybe it will end up being more akin to the short Nakanishi/White reigns, but this really did feel like an Inokiist era decision to me. I hate to be that guy, but if this exact same match and this exact same finish happened in a WWE ring, a lot more people would be shytting on it (probably because, unlike us, most NJPW fans are still willing to give Gedo the benefit of the doubt).

 

[Jmare007]

but if this exact same match and this exact same finish happened in a WWE ring, a lot more people would be shytting on it (probably because, unlike us, most NJPW fans are still willing to give Gedo the benefit of the doubt).

No doubt about it. Then again, we could say the same shyt about every lazy (or downright bad) move Gedo has done in the last 5-6 years. And it makes sense in a lot of ways. 1.- Puro is graded on a different curve, that's just a fact. 2.- the newer you are to the product, of course you either care less or are more willing to let this kind of thing fly. Specially when you come from watching WWE for so long.

 

[Legal]

@TrueEpic08

I'm all for making fun and shytting on EVIL being the chosen one, but the sky ain't falling...at least not for the time being.

All facts. In fact, I'm about to throw something wild out there, but I think it makes sense.

Now isn't the time for Naito to have an extended run with the title.

No matter how you look at it, business for this year is going to be down for NJPW. Probably way down. Even though they're trying to be cautious, they're probably not going to have full crowds back in the near future. shyt, being able to run shows period is a bad week of new cases, and a couple of bad tests on the roster from getting shut down again. I think what drove this decision was getting the belt off of Naito during a period where they can't capitalize off of him being champ to their full extent.

For all we know, Evil could be eating a Company Man/Take One for the Team run with holding the belt during a guaranteed down period so none of the big names have to have that as a criticism against them (because we all know wrestling fans are reasonable with how they equate a company's health and success with top stars).

Either way, brehs are out here jumping out the window with all the doom and gloom.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

All facts. In fact, I'm about to throw something wild out there, but I think it makes sense.

Now isn't the time for Naito to have an extended run with the title.

No matter how you look at it, business for this year is going to be down for NJPW. Probably way down. Even though they're trying to be cautious, they're probably not going to have full crowds back in the near future. shyt, being able to run shows period is a bad week of new cases, and a couple of bad tests on the roster from getting shut down again. I think what drove this decision was getting the belt off of Naito during a period where they can't capitalize off of him being champ to their full extent.

For all we know, Evil could be eating a Company Man/Take One for the Team run with holding the belt during a guaranteed down period so none of the big names have to have that as a criticism against them (because we all know wrestling fans are reasonable with how they equate a company's health and success with top stars).

Either way, brehs are out here jumping out the window with all the doom and gloom.

Former Young Lion and now Jr/Openweight level brehs like me appreciate your leadership in this thread breh



Salute

 

[Jmare007]

All facts. In fact, I'm about to throw something wild out there, but I think it makes sense.

Now isn't the time for Naito to have an extended run with the title.

No matter how you look at it, business for this year is going to be down for NJPW. Probably way down. Even though they're trying to be cautious, they're probably not going to have full crowds back in the near future. shyt, being able to run shows period is a bad week of new cases, and a couple of bad tests on the roster from getting shut down again. I think what drove this decision was getting the belt off of Naito during a period where they can't capitalize off of him being champ to their full extent.

For all we know, Evil could be eating a Company Man/Take One for the Team run with holding the belt during a guaranteed down period so none of the big names have to have that as a criticism against them (because we all know wrestling fans are reasonable with how they equate a company's health and success with top stars).

Either way, brehs are out here jumping out the window with all the doom and gloom.

I mean, you could make a case that now it's not the time because his time was years ago. Now should be Ibushi's time. But regardless of that, I think the whole point of giving Naito the huge double title W was for him to finally get his run out of the way.

If this year is not the time? Are we sure next year will be? What if he gets injured? What about a guy like Kota? or Shota's big return?

I never thought Naito needed a long 1 year run with the main belt (even when I bytched and complained about him getting fukked 3 years ago), I don't think he needed that now. But he needed SOMETHING, and this ain't it. Sure, if he gets it back in August or September, this EVIL thing doesn't really matter but hell man, can we just move on from this dude getting his due by actually giving him his due?


And sure, choosing EVIL as the "champion that will gt 1/3 of the interest when we can only fill 1/3 of every building" during a pandemic is 1 way of doing things. But considering all the possibilities, it sure as hell feels like one of the shyttiest moves they could've made

 

[Legal]

Former Young Lion and now Jr/Openweight level brehs like me appreciate your leadership in this thread breh



Salute

Sheeeit, I'm barely US Title levels in the Puro game.

I just listened to all my OGs in this thread

 

[DaylitoJames]

Look at what you done Gedo

Your booking has us puro brehs divided