The Puroresu (Japanese Wrestling) thread

ThePott

The NJPW TV deal is with Roku on the Roku Channel on their streaming devices.
https://twitter.com/njpwglobal/status/1357343387368648710

Agent Coulson

Streaming is they way to go however I won't be buying a Roku device to watch it I already have enough streaming devices I don't need another one.

ThePott

In theory, you won't need one. I have a firestick and the Roku Channel is available as an app so you should potentially be able to get NJPW through other sources instead of just having the Roku TV Device.

EDIT- Not sure if you strictly can get the Roku Channel app, I had a US VPN turned out without realising it when I opened the app. You could possibly sideload it to a device but may need a VPN. Couldn't get the apps on a UK Firesick at least. While there is a Roku Mobile App you need to connect it to a Roku device to work.

LineOfBeauty

I have absolutely no idea what that channel is. Some TV is better than no TV I guess though? It's a real shame about Axess TV, they had a solid audience and, for a lot of that audience, those clipped shows was their only point of contact with NJPW.

ThePott

I don't know if it's technically even a channel it's like a digital channel available on the Roku Streaming device and as an app in some territories. It reminds me of like a Pluto TV from having a quick look at it. As a device Roku is pretty popular but whether many use the channel or if many are going to be drawn to NJPW by it, it's hard to tell. I think it might entice some more casual NJPW fans into checking it out but whether it is likely to bring in new fans, who knows. Although certainly at the right time with the AEW crossover.

LineOfBeauty

Enjoyed the Dragon Gate show from Korakuen Hall today. Though some issues with the live video meant I had to hold off til the VOD was up. The semi main of Natural Vibes vs Ben K, Kagetora and Shuji Kondo was essentially the main event guy that the main was an extended angle. It was really good though, I had it at **** Natural Vibes presented their new 2021 look, I'm on record as a mark for dance routines in my wrestling (and celebratory air guitar routines for that matter), though Susumu didn't look overly enthused doing it.

Masquerade and R.E.D is always a great match, they've got it down to a tee.

The main event angle was pretty great, we got Dragon Kid pinning SB Kento (first fall Kento has taken since joining R.E.D), we got the set up for 2 big singles matches at the next Korakuen, and then the forkation of a unit consisting of Dragon Kid, Yamato, Ben K and Keisuke Okuda. Great stuff and man that's a powerhouse unit in so many ways. Ben K has been, for me, the stand out wrestler on this tour, a treat to have him back.

RollieFingers

That is some powerhouse unit indeed, every member is top class. Ben is quality alright, I'd like to see a Bensuke Twin Gate run at some stage.

The multi-man offence from Masquerade is so good, like you said the multi-mans are always great, you can set your watch by them. Excellent stuff and the small bit we saw from Kaito and Shun was really good too.

Yeh Susumu did not look too chuffed haha, U-T's new look is slick, fits in nicely and definitely good to have the dance back!

Some big singles matches on the horizon, especially looking forward to the Dream Gate and DK vs SBK. The best promotion of 2020 has had a fantastic start to 2021.

Agent Coulson

I liked Mox's interview with Kevin Kelly this week.

RollieFingers

Hiromu vs SHO from today was pretty good, thought it went a bit too long though. The tag match was way too long for a DQ finish. The rest of the show was just there really, but I did enjoy the Young Lions trying to stand up to Suzuki.

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

Hiromu vs SHO from today was pretty good, thought it went a bit too long though. The tag match was way too long for a DQ finish. The rest of the show was just there really, but I did enjoy the Young Lions trying to stand up to Suzuki.

I swear I had to switch off after that semi main tag. Furious. Pure WWE crap. A nonsense match filled with comedy, dull middle section and the God awful finish. 30 minutes of nonsense.

I went back and watched the main a few hours later. Really good, **** though there is something to be said for shortening title matches across the board in the company. And now with Phantasmo the next challenger we can expect more nonsense in that match too (he's definitely winning it).

LineOfBeauty

I'm really trying to remember a Bushi Road era IWGP Heavyweight Title match I liked less (excluding EVIL because that's far too low a bar) than Ibushi/Sanada today. The match had no heat going into it, a routine title defence for Ibushi, it went way too long again, it was sloppy. It did nothing to discount the belief that Sanada does not have the necessary charisma to carry these long singles main events. *** 1/4

Naito challenging for the IC Title makes no sense but I don't care so long as it leads to the Double Title being split.

Agent Coulson

Looks like they might just be heading for a US Bullet Club vs Japan Bullet Club.

https://twitter.com/JayWhiteNZ/status/1359880541416288256?s=20

RollieFingers

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

I'm really trying to remember a Bushi Road era IWGP Heavyweight Title match I liked less (excluding EVIL because that's far too low a bar) than Ibushi/Sanada today. The match had no heat going into it, a routine title defence for Ibushi, it went way too long again, it was sloppy. It did nothing to discount the belief that Sanada does not have the necessary charisma to carry these long singles main events. *** 1/4

Naito challenging for the IC Title makes no sense but I don't care so long as it leads to the Double Title being split.

Yeh the main wasn't the best, thought it started off ok but fairly quickly started meandering. Wasn't anywhere close to the G1 final.

And I agree Naito going for the IC makes no sense. The driving force behind being a double champ now wants to split them?

I enjoyed the NEVER six-man but yeh New Japan is very up and down lately. No DG this weekend so will try catch NOAH Destination instead, it's a decent if not mind-blowing card.

Agent Coulson

FinJuice teaser at the end of Impact's No Surrender.

Agent Coulson

Muta teasing to defend his new NOAH World Tile in Impact who NOAH have a working relationship with.

https://twitter.com/TNAmarkFrmIndia/status/1361324121011929088?s=20

RollieFingers

Interesting timing from Mutoh, curious to see how this will work considering the relationship with New Japan. NOAH are in desperate need of some gaijin talent though so they will want to continue the relationship for sure. Tony definitely has eyes on booking that Muta/Sting rematch now

So you now have working relationships between AEW and New Japan, plus IMPACT with New Japan & NOAH as well as MLW and Dragon Gate, without even mentioning AAA and all the Joshi promotions. Love to see it! STARDOM and DDT need to get in the mix.

RollieFingers

RollieFingers wrote: »

Interesting timing from Mutoh, curious to see how this will work considering the relationship with New Japan. NOAH are in desperate need of some gaijin talent though so they will want to continue the relationship for sure. Tony definitely has eyes on booking that Muta/Sting rematch now

So you now have working relationships between AEW and New Japan, plus IMPACT with New Japan & NOAH as well as MLW and Dragon Gate, without even mentioning AAA and all the Joshi promotions. Love to see it! STARDOM and DDT need to get in the mix.

Could ROH be added to the mix?

https://twitter.com/Marq_Quen/status/1361404001535819778?s=19

https://twitter.com/MATTHARDYBRAND/status/1361409645559046144?s=19

RollieFingers

The funny thing being of course that Ring of Honor and New Japan already have an existing relationship way preceding all of this inter-promotional stuff but it's ROH so you'll struggle to find anyone who cares!

RollieFingers

Word is that WWE refused to give Kairi Sane permission to wrestle for STARDOM after she asked to to appear on the upcoming tenth anniversary All Star Dream Cinderella show, which seems incredibly petty if true, would have been cool to see her back. It's a cracking card co-headlined by a Wonder of STARDOM championship hair vs hair match between Giulia and Tam Nakano and a World of STARDOM championship match between Utami Hayashisita and Saya Kamitani.

RollieFingers

Hiromu out injured for six months. That absolutely sucks, first Naito, now Hiromu, LIJ having no luck at all.

There is a few options to take the title, I'd like to see Despy or ELP personally.

Agent Coulson

Marty Scurll is backstage at NJPW Strong tapings trying to get a deal to work with NJPW.

LineOfBeauty

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Marty Scurll is backstage at NJPW Strong tapings trying to get a deal to work with NJPW.

He'll likely succeed too given how NJPW has ignored Speaking Out and the strong (comparatively speaking for a gaijin junior) reactions he has always received in NJPW and he has guys in Ospreay and ZSJ that will probably put in a good word for him too. Plus with the Hiromu injury they'll want as much star power as they can get as soon as they're able to get him into the country.

That being said, I'd not touch that guy with a stick.

Agent Coulson

NJPW keeping there push outside of Japan going.

There is talk again today that they are still in talks with a US TV Network in addition to the Roku deal.

Since November 2009, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and CMLL have enjoyed a unique and prosperous working relationship. This relationship has seen CMLL stars travel to Japan every January for the annual Fantasticamania tour as well as competing in New Japan rings on a frequent basis, and NJPW prospects developing in excursions to CMLL in Mexico. NJPW remains deeply proud of the strong bond it has with CMLL.

Unfortunately, the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic prevented Fantasticamania from taking place in January 2021. However, New Japan Pro-Wrestling would like to reassure fans that its relationship with CMLL is unwavering, and that CMLL will continue to be the exclusive business partner for NJPW in Mexico.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling is proud to issue this joint declaration with CMLL to reaffirm our mutual commitment. There is plenty more to come from NJPW’s partnership with CMLL in the future, and we appreciate your support.

https://twitter.com/njpwglobal/status/1365119754411724802?s=20

RollieFingers

I enjoyed Mox vs KENTA, it was a good hard-hitting contest but considering the buzz going into it things seemed to die down a bit by the time the match came around. I think that's on New Japan more than anything, their promotion for the match was pretty average and the Strong set isn't one of the better looking empty venue settings.

I was expecting a KENTA win to be honest but the win does keep Moxley looking strong heading into Revolution. Ren Narita getting a huge victory over Chris Dickinson was good. Speaking of young lions, they need to get Shooter Umino back on the scene, could play into the Mox story nicely.

Agent Coulson

They wouldn't let Kairi wrestle at the event however they let Io sent her congratulations with the NXT belt beside her.

Agent Coulson

Mox vs Kenta was a grand I was hoping for more however it is another match that I think would have been a lot better with a live crowd.

It must be so hard to wrestle in front of no one and not have a live crowd to feed off.

LineOfBeauty

Enjoyed Mox/KENTA. Really enjoyable 14 minute match. I went 4 stars on it.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, day 1 of Castle Attack this morning was awful. No other word for it. Awful. The undercard sucked. BC nonsense all night because the theme of the show as BC/Chaos. Honestly nothing topped 3 stars, til the semi main and the main event was honestly just bad.

Empire match was the best match on the card til Ishii/White. ***

This is a running theme for BC members but I don't like Tanga Loa. Not in the good way either, the BC heavy stuff has driven my interest in NJPW into the ground over the last year. He's cutting these wacky mid match promos that are so OTT that even Shawn Michaels would cringe at them. Yoshi-Hashi smacks him with 4 superkicks, he no sells them then does a dumb sell for the 5th one. If this was your local indie then OK, who'd care, but it's a singles match for NJPW in Osaka Jo Hall. A distraction finish too. We slate WWE for this all the time, here in a big show singles match it deserves every bit the same amount of criticism. Gimmick or not this guy isn't at the level. *3/4

They did the Gabe special with the Goto/Tama Tonga match rolling into the previous match. Short match here. **1/2

Yano/Chase a nonsensical mess. If only the 4th turnbuckle pad counts then why is Yano stopping Chase removing the 2nd one? Ah, a complete mess! *

White/Ishii was excellent. It wasn't as good as their G1 match, but it had a solid story, the interference didn't inhibit it too much and the work from both guys was really good. ****1/4

English commentary were even playing on that drinking card meme going around for the main event of this show. I suspect if you did the drinking game you're probably still incapacitated. Awful. Half an hour of awfulness. EVIL drags everything down. The problem is that for 60% of the the match he's a solid worker, but his work isn't good enough to overcome the 40% of nonsense that comes with him. Maybe the Japanese crowd are into this stuff, but his rise to the top has coincided with the drop off in western fan interest in the promotion and I don't think it's a coincidence. An Osaka Jo main event, even with limited capacity, shouldn't look like this. Moments of solid work, but nowhere NEAR what an NJPW main event on a major show should be. **

LineOfBeauty

They're doing Ibushi/Despy on 4 days notice at Budokan Hall? What is happening with this company? It's just dumb. You can talk about not wanting to burn off big matches in the Covid era, but we've no idea when this will be over and, aside from the super hardcores of the western audience, they're burning people off.

NITRO95

Seems they are running more shows to compensate for the smaller crowds. Depending on how the NJ Cup turns out Sakura Genesis should be a decent show. Having looked at the NJC brackets I think we'll get a Final Four of EVIL/Naito & Ospreay/White

RollieFingers

You really don't know what you're going to get with New Japan these days do you?

Like you said LOB the first night was brutal, it was actually painful to watch the majority of the action. But then Ibushi and Naito pull out an absolute banger on night two and you remember why you love it in the first place.

As far as Ibushi and El Desperado goes, it really seems to be splitting opinions. Meltzer is getting a bit of stick on Twitter for not liking it. I can see both sides but as a huge Despy mark I'm looking forward to it, and considering Covid and Hiromu's injury I don't think it's the worst way they could have gone.

As for the NJC I like the lineup, some big names gone in the first round. Naito/O'Khan and Okada/Shingo are the standouts for me.