The Puroresu (Japanese Wrestling) thread

Cherry_Cola

Might get to watch it all before work then. Sickened I'm not gonna be there! GF hooked me up with the sick LIJ baseball jersey and baseball cap though! Her dad has a corp box at the Dome so I'm sorted for next year at least!

Lithium93_

Jerichoholic wrote: »

Think it starts at 7am actually

Could be their pre-show?

Jerichoholic

The Rumble is on first, it's a very long show usually.

8 am start here.

https://www.cbssports.com/wwe/news/njpw-wrestle-kingdom-12-card-matches-date-start-time-ppv-price-wrestlers/

Ali Bomaye

Rumble starts at 7. Main show starts at 8.

Lithium93_

Used to staying awake for wrestling, but getting up early, it's a first, but it'll be worth it.

A Rogue Hobo

Gonna sign up to NJPW World tonight. Usually download the show the next day but I'd like to check out some of the old Dome shows. Does anyone who's subscribed before, is it similar to WWE Network in that the show is available on demand from the start once it starts? Not back in work til the 8th so the chances of me waking at 7am are slim to none!

Jerichoholic

I don't think it works like that, it goes up within seconds of it ending alright.

ERG89

https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/948396957801893888

Cool

Jerichoholic

That's it?

Was hoping it was going to be a New Japan game like Wrestle Kingdom. Very disappointed.

Agent Coulson

Is there a NJPW World app for consoles or Apple TV?

Agent Coulson

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Is there a NJPW World app for consoles or Apple TV?

No.

I'm watching it through the web browser on my Xbox.

Jerichoholic

It's on Apple TV I believe

Jerichoholic

Jerichoholic wrote: »

It's on Apple TV I believe

Crap, sorry. I meant to say I was only talking about consoles.

A Rogue Hobo

Jerichoholic wrote:

Was hoping it was going to be a New Japan game like Wrestle Kingdom. Very disappointed.

Easier said than done. Mid-tier independent game publishing companies like THQ don't exist anymore and I would imagine Yukes (presuming they still even exist or have they also been absolved into 2k?) have an exclusive deal with 2K which rules them out. You basically have small independent studios and then the AAA companies like Activision, 2K, Ubisoft etc. There are no middle companies anymore. NJPW outside of Japan is still pretty niche. It'd be a huge risk for any company to a) invest the time and money to build a brand new 3d wrestling engine from scratch and b) negotiate a licensing deal that all parties are happy with and c) Go into this venture knowing theres a high chance you're only looking at one market that the end product will be available in.

If anything this is a conservative but intelligent move by NJPW, it's dipping their toes back into this area of merchandising that doesn't make them fully committed or accountable if it flops, but also Fire Pro is a much loved/respected wrestling game in that part of the world so on the flipside, if it goes great, they can then shop around to other companies in the future and be able to prove there is a demand for this type of game and also because there is a demand for it, we know what we want for our licensing deal etc.

Btw I dunno if you've ever played it but Fire Pro Wrestling while it looks and is relatively simple, is better than any WWE game the last decade or so. They keep it basic but more importantly, get the basics right, something the 2K games dont do which is all glitz and glam. Matches flow, competitive and logical AI that will wrestle a certain style depending on the character. Highly recommend trying it.

Jerichoholic

I was sure it would be made by a Japanese developer, they've made plenty of Japanese wrestling games in the past so since NJPW has never been this popular overseas, it would make a lot of sense to do one now more than ever. I have Fire Pro on Steam alright, the second it was released.

brianregan09

Fire pro is class be great if they put a good story mode in it though , and I hope it's as customizable as the Ps3 one , where you more or less had all the WWE lads on it anyway

Lithium93_

Alarm set for 7:30 tomorrow morning :pac:

Agent Coulson

I won't get home from work till 9;30 am so will miss the first couple of hours

gerrybbadd

Stole this from reddit, could be useful to some folks here

With Wrestle Kingdom 12 less than 32 hours away (Thursday, 2AM EST), learn how to get signed up to watch live or VoD after the show! Includes step-by-step registration guide, notes on the service, cancellation help, and schedule through March!

#Sign-up Process:

1. Go to https://njpwworld.com
2. [Select the 'EN' option](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/360224081070522370/397475180689096715/unknown.png) at the top. Once the page is translated, click the 'Sign Up' button.
3. [Enter the Email address](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/360224081070522370/397475720827502593/unknown.png) you want to be associated with your NJPW World account. That address will receive a [confirmation email (split Japanese/English)](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/360224081070522370/397476178803556372/unknown.png) with a confirmation link.
4. Once you click the confirmation link, you are sent to a [profile setup](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/360224081070522370/397476367392047106/unknown.png) page. Click 'Confirm' once you are done, then click it again.
5. You will be taken to the (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/360224081070522370/397476712289533956/unknown.png) section. Select the option you want 'PayPal' or (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/360224081070522370/397476775380123658/unknown.png), then you will be taken to a payment setup page. Follow the steps and enter your info.
6. You are done! You now have access to NJPW's archives and liveshows for the month of January (and beyond!)

#Notes on NJPW World:
1. Pre-paid credit cards are very finicky. I've heard cases where they work but going off personal experience they have never worked for me. A real credit/debit card is recommended.
1. 10-20 minutes before the show (pre-show, in this case), a golden banner will appear on the front page with Japanese and English commentary links for the show.
1. The payment period for this service starts on the first of every month. This means, regardless of when you sign up, you will be charged when you first join and at the turn of the month.
2. The searchbar function is broken and still has not been fully-integrated into English. If you want to find a specific show/match, use the (https://njpwworld.com/series) tab which is sorted by most recent, or use NJPW's extensive 'Tag' search. You can access these pages from the 'Menu' drop-down menu from the top-right.
3. After a show has concluded, the VoD is available within 30 minutes on most occasions.
4. Your subscription for the month of January will get you Wrestle Kingdom 12, New Year's Dash on January 5 (the RAW after Wrestlemania equivalent), the New Japan/CMLL co-produced Fantasticamania shows in mid-January (three shows), and two back-to-back New Beginning PPV shows on January 27/28th.
6. Unlike in the West, companies in Japan do not own their tape libraries. Large chunks of New Japan's library is owned by companies they no longer have deals with, so there are large gaps in the tape library. New Japan has promised to expand the archives in 2018 and every new show gets on World, but as-of-now there is not alot of pre-2012 material on the service. YouTube, Dailymotion, Rutube, and other means will have to suffice for some of it.
7. New Japan works with a lot of other companies. Most times, the work of New Japan stars in promotions such as RPW and RoH gets added to NJPW World though with a region lock most times. They also stream a lot of CMLL shows, and if you want to watch those you can find a proxy to bypass the region lock.

# Membership Cancellation:
* Follow [this link](https://njpwworld.com/withdraw/confirm). This is the membership withdrawal page. There is an option to delete your account, but deleting your profile page does not end the membership. FOLLOW. THAT. LINK.

#Schedule through March:

January:

* Wrestle Kingdom 12 (Jan 4)

* New Year's Dash (Jan 5): RAW after Wrestlemania equivalent. Usually one title match (NEVER Trios Title) but it is usually the most story-heavy show of the year and sets the stage for the next several months/year.

* Fantasticamania (Jan 19, 21, 22): Co-produced, mostly non-canon tour between CMLL and NJPW. Light-hearted, more comedy, not for everybody.

* The New Beginnings in Sapporo (Jan 27, 28): Many of the titles will be defended, with the remainder being defended in Osaka (unless a title is defended more than once). Initial post-WK feuds will be settled and the undercards will set up the story for New Beginnings in Osaka. The cards are not out so which of the two is bigger has yet to be determined.

Febuary:

* The New Beginnings in Osaka (Feb 10): The end of The New Beginnings tour, usually headlined by the Intercontinental title, and featuring all the titles not defended on the previous two New Beginnings shows. Osaka is one of the hottest crowds in Japan, and usually gets great cards so this may be the best show of the tour.
* Honor Rising (Feb 23, 24): A two-night collaboration between NJPW and RoH in the mecca of pro wrestling, Korakuen Hall. A few titles from both companies will be defended in interpromotional battles. The shows are mostly inconsequential, mostly, but the style is not a rapid departure from traditional NJPW the way that the Fantasticamania shows are so these are usually decent spectacles.

March:

* 46th Anniversary Show (Mar 6): Lower-level title defenses (NEVER, Tag, Jr Tag, Trios) with a special main event. Historically, the Heavyweight Champion and Junior Heavyweight champion collide in the main event. Last year, it was Kazuchika Okada vs Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) in a non-title match. Who knows what it will be this year.
* New Japan Cup (Mar 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21): New Japan's first big tournament of the year. 16 heavyweights in a single elimination tournament to determine who takes on a singles champion of their choice at Sakura Genesis, NJPW's first A-level show after Wrestle Kingdom. Last year the first two nights split the first round, at four matches a night followed by one match headlining the next four houseshows (released on VoD), with the Semi-Finals and Final shows containing the last three matches which are broadcast live. There are 9 shows this year rather than 8, so the format may be different.
* Strong Style Evolved (Mar 25): NJPW coming back to America for another show. NJPW has made it a large goal of theirs to expand into the West, so this show may be surprisingly loaded.

Ali Bomaye

I'm really excited to see Jay White tomorrow. I've barely seen any of his matches, apart from the one he had in OTT, but it's just the intrigue of him having such a big spot in his first proper match back in New Japan. He cut a great promo at the Fan Fest earlier.

I've been really looking forward to the Jericho vs Omega match since the two angles they did. I have no idea what's going to happen in this one, just hope it lives up to the hype and that it'll be a bit of a bloodbath.

I'm also interested to see how Cody vs Ibushi will fit into the storyline set up between Omega & Cody last Summer and the future Omega vs Ibushi match that they seem to be clearly building to.

I was looking through a few matches on njpw world over the Christmas and saw a Naito vs Okada match from March 2012 that I didn't know existed, and it was great. So hyped for their match tomorrow. I'll be very surprised if Naito doesn't win, but I'm sure it will be thrilling. Very excited to see how they work the match and what counters they come up with, especially since Okada has started using the Cobra Clutch in the build up.

I haven't enjoyed any of the Goto vs Suzuki matches from this year, but with a motivated Goto and the promise of no interference I'm hopeful. If Shibata does come out to raise Goto's hand after the match that'll be a great moment.

Four way for the Junior title should be nuts, Jr tag match should be really good. Hopefully Sanada and EVIL win the tag titles and New Japan actually does something interesting with those belts. The gauntlet should be a bit of a mess, the match will at least be interesting to watch to see team awkward in War Machine & Elgin.

Lastly, I notice that Yiujiro Takahashi isn't on the main show, so I wonder if Pieter will make an appearance on the pre show or not at all.

Can you watch with English commentary when it goes VOD or only if watching live?

Lithium93_

Deleted User wrote: »

Can you watch with English commentary when it goes VOD or only if watching live?

Think you can get both options live and VOD.

Nicked from Gerry's post above.

1. 10-20 minutes before the show (pre-show, in this case), a golden banner will appear on the front page with Japanese and English commentary links for the show.

Lithium93_

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Think you can get both options live and VOD.

Nicked from Gerry's post above.

Cheers, yeah just wondering if the option will be still there when watching it on demand though. I'll find out tomorrow evening anyway haha.

PTH2009

so the US fans have to feel our pain watching at PPV at 2am in the morning

A Rogue Hobo

Jerichoholic wrote:

I was sure it would be made by a Japanese developer, they've made plenty of Japanese wrestling games in the past so since NJPW has never been this popular overseas, it would make a lot of sense to do one now more than ever. I have Fire Pro on Steam alright, the second it was released.

There hasn't been that many, if any, since the fall of mid-tier publishers a few years back as I said. The two most recent I can think of were the ps2 Wrestle Kingdom games were by Yukes (and essentially Day of Reckoning clones) which I'm guessing they can't do now because of 2K (that's just an educated guess btw, they may will be free to do so). And the second one probably came out around ten years ago at this stage? A decade is a lonnngggg time in the games industry. Before that, you're going back to the King of Colloseum games by Spike (who do Fire Pro) and the All Star games (by Square Enix) both on ps2 and before them? Probably Dreamcast era?

Hopefully Square Enix give it a bash in the future. But I wouldn't hold out hope seeing as they're trying their best to compete with the big boys pumping millions into Tomb Raider, Hitman and Final Fantasy games and way overshooting the mark with their sales projections on every one of those titles so they need to sort of improve their financials a bit.

ERG89

2K seem relentlessly unwilling to create a new engine for their game (despite fans & reviewers lamenting it every year) which kinda shows how much work it would take to do.
For NJPW it's unlikely they could get someone to do it & take the risk on a title would make a small amount of money. Wrestling ain't a big deal now like it was when you had WCW, VPW & WWF games on the N64.
I imagine very few companies would show interest as a wrestling game is far out of most people's experience now as nobody does sports games beyond EA & 2K. Even the TNA game was fair bare bones as there was only so much you can do with a budget although they nailed the graphics and counter system imo.
Fire pro wrestling world is there already & I can see the crossover between the fanbase already on the workshop.
I'd love a good wrestling game as the WWE ones are so dated I bought one last gen & none this as it just looks like a copy and paste job.

Ali Bomaye

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Can you watch with English commentary when it goes VOD or only if watching live?

Yeah you sure can. Though a lot of the times they don't make it obvious which link is for the English commentary.

Jerichoholic

ERG89 wrote: »

2K seem relentlessly unwilling to create a new engine for their game (despite fans & reviewers lamenting it every year) which kinda shows how much work it would take to do.
For NJPW it's unlikely they could get someone to do it & take the risk on a title would make a small amount of money. Wrestling ain't a big deal now like it was when you had WCW, VPW & WWF games on the N64.
I imagine very few companies would show interest as a wrestling game is far out of most people's experience now as nobody does sports games beyond EA & 2K. Even the TNA game was fair bare bones as there was only so much you can do with a budget although they nailed the graphics and counter system imo.
Fire pro wrestling world is there already & I can see the crossover between the fanbase already on the workshop.
I'd love a good wrestling game as the WWE ones are so dated I bought one last gen & none this as it just looks like a copy and paste job.

WWE games are so lazy now it's pointless even looking at them. As you say TNA made one and they are nothing compared to New Japan now. I reckon EA could make something worthwhile if they incorporated a few feds into it. I wouldn't be surprised at all if something NJPW was announced at some stage, Namco have them in Tekken and in Yakuza too.

ERG89

Jerichoholic wrote: »

WWE games are so lazy now it's pointless even looking at them. As you say TNA made one and they are nothing compared to New Japan now. I reckon EA could make something worthwhile if they incorporated a few feds into it. I wouldn't be surprised at all if something NJPW was announced at some stage, Namco have them in Tekken and in Yakuza too.

TNA were on US TV every week though & had ex WWE names like Kurt Angle, Booker T & Christian. I'd like to see more wrestling games be made instead of playing ropey No Mercy mods. I have Fire Pro World but only a laptop that I try not to overwork with gaming.
EA did something like that to an extent with a very good MMA game but nobody bought it....
I'd like Platinum to have a go but it'd probably be too out there by them.

Anyway another obligatory YouTube video.

Jerichoholic

TNA never had this much hype going for them though.