The Puroresu (Japanese Wrestling) thread

ERG89

Ali Bomaye wrote:

the Bucks waltz out to book themselves in the tag title match at WrestleKingdom, despite only joining the tour on the final night. This was stupid even by NJPW's own standards in setting up title challengers.

That's why the fans booed them not for spending time with their families.
Think it's a great card on paper despite that.

ERG89

Despite some ropey booking at times I'm surprised at how many angles I enjoyed in this video of 2018. I'm a total mark for Dad bod/Eddie Izzard/Alpha Male Chris Jericho tho

ERG89

https://twitter.com/njpwworld/status/1073923105842556930?s=19

Amazing on so many levels

CastorTroy

Seeing the comments on the camerawork is good. If it was WWE, that one move and reaction would've involved multiple camera shots zooming in and out quickly and repeatedly

Lithium93_

Ibushi/Ospreay

to be the opening match at Wrestle Kingdom 13.

ERG89

Tag match is very good. Imo it was probably better than the Bucks vs Golden Lovers, the last 10 minutes or so just leaves a dumb grin on your face.
You can watch it in English on YouTube too but it has a lot of Chris Charlton shouting over Kevin Kelly.

sky88

Phenomnal match I really think ibushi/osprery will be insane. Can't wait for it

Don't like Charlton on commentary at all

ERG89

New IWGP Heavyweight Champion Jay White.
Kota Ibushi says he's entering the New Japan Cup and not leaving; as I said elsewhere he's a freelancer so he works where he wants. So I expect him to wrestle with AEW.

gerrybbadd

ERG89 wrote: »

New IWGP Heavyweight Champion Jay White.
Kota Ibushi says he's entering the New Japan Cup and not leaving; as I said elsewhere he's a freelancer so he works where he wants. So I expect him to wrestle with AEW.

Wow, huge news. How do we rate him here lads? I think he's grand, just not amazing. He certainly seems to have

Tanahashi's

number anyhow

sky88

id be the same as you gerry hes good but not near top level yet hes young enough to grow into more of a performer

Somedaythefire

I think for his age he is brilliant. Great at playing his character too. I think he'll grow into one of the best in the world.

Clegg

So WK 13 was essentially Tanahashi's swansong. Normally I'd say it's a mistake to hotshot your heavyweight title just one month after your biggest ppv of the year. But since Tana is possibly the greatest ever, a short term reign for one last memorable moment is fine.

Jay White probably wasn't ready to headline Wrestle Kingdom. Now it's a great opportunity to start building him up.

sky88

id say if kenny was staying he would have retained at wrestlekingdom

ERG89

2019 New Japan Cup Brackets:

3/8:

Manabu Nakanishi vs. YOSHI-HASHI

Tomoaki Honma vs. Taichi

Juice Robinson vs. Chase Owens

Yuji Nagata vs. Tomohiro Ishii

3/9:

Mikey Nicholls vs. HIKULEO

Kazuchika Okada vs. Michael Elgin

Will Ospreay vs. Bad Luck Fale

Toa Henare vs. Lance Archer

3/10:

Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito

EVIL vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shota Umino

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. David Finlay

3/11:

Togi Makabe vs. Colt Cabana

Hirooki Goto vs. Sanada

Satoshi Kojima vs. Minoru Suzuki

Toru Yano vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.


Night 3 is by FAR the best night. Winner of the tournament faces Jay White in MSG.

47th Anniversary show card on March 6th:


LIJ(c) vs Roppongi 3K for the Jr Tag Titles.
Liger vs Ishimori(c) for the Jr Heavyweight Title.
Naito, Evil, Sanada vs Goto, Tanahashi & Okada.
Ospreay vs White in a non title match. This would normally to be Jr. Champ vs Heavyweight champ but Ishimori vs White doesn't make sense; Ospreay vs Okada did last year when you see where Will is now & how he got the NJPW gig.

sky88 wrote: »

id say if kenny was staying he would have retained at wrestlekingdom

Its a pity he didn't stay on for another few months; all he seems to be at now is BTE & playing video games until May.

ERG89

https://twitter.com/reasonjp/status/1103536498098331648?s=19

Jushin Liger will be retiring next January at one of the 2 Tokyo Dome shows. Didn't exactly embarrass himself against Ishimori in terms of performance.

sky88

especally gutted ill miss scrappermania now

Somedaythefire

sky88 wrote: »

especally gutted ill miss scrappermania now

You just gotta go to Wrestle Kingdom now.

RollieFingers

The anniversary show was really good, Ishimori vs Dragon Lee should be great.

ERG89

https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/status/1103769897644027928?s=19

Oh my

RollieFingers

Ishii vs Nagata was a great main event for night one, hard-hitting, Nagata is some man for 50.

ERG89

RollieFingers wrote: »

Ishii vs Nagata was a great main event for night one, hard-hitting, Nagata is some man for 50.

Really enjoyed that too, the other ones were ok. See some people praising Juice vs Owens but felt it was a bit of a slog; hard to take Chase seriously as he was a job guy for a long time and with the greatest of respect to him he needs to invest in new gear as his current one is a bit small for him.
Looking forward to tomorrow's show and will watch today's one later on tonight.

RollieFingers

Night two was ok, enjoyed Okada/Elgin and good to see Ospreay advance. Big step up in quality for night three with Naito/Ibushi and ZSJ/Evil, looking forward to watching it later!

RollieFingers

Ibushi/Naito was unbelievable, what a match. Two of the very best, that sit-out tombstone on the apron was insane.

ERG89

Umino vs Tanahashi was outstanding, you don't often see the care put into a match that well outside of big occassions. The outcome was always predictable but the story was so well told it did not matter, that near fall cradle was just perfect.
Evil vs ZSJ was great; those 2 have great chemistry. Real strong chain wrestling & Orientiering with Napalm Death still looks as painful as it sounds. Ibushi vs Naito was very good too. The sitout tombstone and in particular Tiger Driver 91 made me audibly gasp.
I confess I've skipped day 2 & 4 so will need to go back to catch up on them.

RollieFingers

ERG89 wrote: »

Umino vs Tanahashi was outstanding, you don't often see the care put into a match that well outside of big occassions. The outcome was always predictable but the story was so well told it did not matter, that near fall cradle was just perfect.
Evil vs ZSJ was great; those 2 have great chemistry. Real strong chain wrestling & Orientiering with Napalm Death still looks as painful as it sounds. Ibushi vs Naito was very good too. The sitout tombstone and in particular Tiger Driver 91 made me audibly gasp.
I confess I've skipped day 2 & 4 so will need to go back to catch up on them.

Ibushi/ZSJ round two will be sweet! Didn't miss much on nights 2 or 4 really, Goto/Sanada is of course worth checking out, and Suzuki is always must watch for me. Looking forward to round two!

RollieFingers

Enjoyed Taichi/Ishii in round two, turned out to be a really good match, one of the best I've seen with Taichi involved. Kind of surprised Chase didn't progress against Yoshi Hashi.

ERG89

Loved Taichi vs Ishii; seemed to have a fair few Kawada references in it; the meaning of some went over my head.
Went back and watched the other nights.
Okada vs Elgin was fantastic; hopefully the latter has a better 2019; the allegations were legally dismissed but those situations aren't stuff that wash away easy. Sanada vs Goto was pretty good but I expected a bit more out of it. Hopefully Sanada vs Suzuki will be good as I'm not looking forward to Yano vs Cabana. I wish DB Smith Jr got through instead of Archer to face Ospreay as they had good chemistry in recent matches I felt; even if Smith is currently residing 4 inches from the sun with his current tan.
Will did his best against Fale in the first round; who is like a great big ball of quicksand these days but the Archer match today was fun.
Haven't seen Okada vs Nicholls yet but the latter needs to show a bit more than he did vs Hikuleo.

RollieFingers

ERG89 wrote: »

Loved Taichi vs Ishii; seemed to have a fair few Kawada references in it; the meaning of some went over my head.
Went back and watched the other nights.
Okada vs Elgin was fantastic; hopefully the latter has a better 2019; the allegations were legally dismissed but those situations aren't stuff that wash away easy. Sanada vs Goto was pretty good but I expected a bit more out of it. Hopefully Sanada vs Suzuki will be good as I'm not looking forward to Yano vs Cabana. I wish DB Smith Jr got through instead of Archer to face Ospreay as they had good chemistry in recent matches I felt; even if Smith is currently residing 4 inches from the sun with his current tan.
Will did his best against Fale in the first round; who is like a great big ball of quicksand these days but the Archer match today was fun.
Haven't seen Okada vs Nicholls yet but the latter needs to show a bit more than he did vs Hikuleo.

Ospreay/Archer was sweet, he got some air on that chokeslam. Thought Okada/Nicholls was average enough.

Suzuki/Sanada should be great, really looking forward to it, they threw a few hard forearms at each other after the tag match. Struggling to predict a winner really. Ibushi/ZSJ speaks for itself, tasty weekend ahead. Ishii and Yoshi gave a nice little preview too.

Who do you fancy to win the whole thing? Okada or Ibushi? I would love to see Suzuki win the cup

ERG89

RollieFingers wrote: »

Ospreay/Archer was sweet, he got some air on that chokeslam. Thought Okada/Nicholls was average enough.

Suzuki/Sanada should be great, really looking forward to it, they threw a few hard forearms at each other after the tag match. Struggling to predict a winner really. Ibushi/ZSJ speaks for itself, tasty weekend ahead. Ishii and Yoshi gave a nice little preview too.

Who do you fancy to win the whole thing? Okada or Ibushi? I would love to see Suzuki win the cup

Want Ibushi to win it and then win the title but he'll either lose to Okada in the final or lose at MSG.
Think Okada will win it and could beat White as he's 0-2 vs him already.
Nicholls already needs a boot the hole for the neverending headlock spot in the Okada match. That wasn't a house show; it was the New Japan Cup against one of the biggest names in the company & I feel he left no impression.

RollieFingers

ZSJ does it again, wasn't expecting that!