Jmare007

Yeah, the editing hurt this imo, specially because every move and second counts with these two so 4 minutes missing out of a 10 minute match is not a minor thing. Still, what was shown was fucking awesome. Loved the sense of urgency since the bell rang, the strikes were brutal and you get the sense that the match can end at any moment. A worthy rematch from the one of the best match from 2018. I hope we get to see this in full once BJW Core is up and running again.

Violent Giants (Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama) defend the AJPW World Tag Team Titles against the BJW team of Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi One of those matches were your expectations are sky high and they are fully met and even surpassed. 26 minutes of a fucking war between four dudes that do not care one bit about the other team. This was worked like an interpromotional match should be, with the home team from a smaller promotion having to fight from underneath all night and having to reach deep just to reset the action to a leveled playing field. Suwama and Shuji are perfect as the dominant champs, it's not easy to make Strong BJ look like underdogs, specially on a long match, but they dominated them for 3/4 of the match and not only it made sense, but it was compelling to watch. Daisuke - the man who's celebrating his 20th anniversary on this show - is the face in peril, and as his matches from the previous week against Sato and Hama showed. he's awesome at selling the beating with his facial expressions and body language. With Sekimoto only trying to survive the onslaught, Yuji is left as the savior of the team and boy does he show up, we get EXTRA FIRED UP YUJI, the strikes, the suplexes, the lariats are all done with such passion and intensity that you can't help but love this dude. Still, Violent Giants are not to be fucked with so Okabayashi's hot tag doesn't have a lasting effect, the timing of their cut offs were perfect every single time, to the point Korakuen was booing Suwama every time he was on top because he was spoiling their fun. At some point to whole crowd boos them because they want Strong BJ to comeback so bad but Shuji and Suwama are just too damn good. Strong BJ's struggle to stay in the fight is so well done by both team that when they reach the "double German suplex" spot you are rooting for it like a little kid. The ending is so satisfying you legit feel like There's excess in this match but I had zero problem with it. The two times there's blatant no selling because of a fighting spirit spot was either still sold (Yuji acting on instinct, barely standing) or was a set up for a comeback (Shuji getting crushed by Daisuke's lariat). And all the nearfalls were fitting for an interpromotional title match, besides almost all of them were credible and well done, Korakuen was going nuts at some of them. And even with all of that, they find the time to do do little things like Suwama's desperate attempt to avoid Yuji to gain momentum on the ropes, or Shuji refusing to get suplexed, and Strong BJ's selling of the beating and moment. Yes it's only January but this is match of the fucking year by far, and best the thing I've seen in like 7 months and probably more.

Cien Almas is better than Mil Máscaras and no one ever complained about that one

A back and forth "beat the fukk out of each other" 15 minute match. Not much more to it, pretty damn dope. Some of the exchanges were absolutely brutal. Sato did not give one single fuck about Daisuke's well being. Good crowd too. I love how Sekimoto had this match and the next night he stole the show with Hama. He's the best.

Holy shit, Double Talk Dave at it's peak

I'd love for Excalibur to get the announcing gig for AEW, he's fucking awesome. I do wonder how he'll do without cursing though, he's pretty good at that and works for what he does in PWG. What's wrong with Excalibur? What's the difference from having "Booker T" or "JBL" on commentary? Legit question, English is not my first language and Excalibur being the name of a famed sword does not strike me as worse than other wrestling names.

Coming into the match, Hama has beaten Sekimoto and Okabayashi with the Ookido press (just a simple splash) in the build up to this, so Daisuke and Korakuen know he has to avoid that shit like his life depended on it. I love how Sekimoto sells the big moment from the get go, he makes you feel like he's gonna have his work cut out for him, and indeed it is. It's basically 15 minutes of "how the fuck is Daisuke gonna pull this one off?", with Hama doing a great job as the big fat ball of lard that can't be moved. There's a couple of incredible nearfalls that had Korakuen going insane, and the last few minutes with the whole place rallying behind the champ was just the cherry on top. Loved this match, Sekimoto was such an awesome underdog, his facial expressions were incredible. Legit MOTYC.

First show of the year and we already have a good ol' sub 13 minutes 6 man tag that will make you smile at how fun it is. This was mostly Okabayashi being a fucking beast and having dope exchanges with Suzuki and Nomura, which is exactly what you want to see. For some reason, Abby Jr. has taken a "mentorship" role for Moon Vulcan (Suzuki and Uto) which is hilarious because those two are now using chairs and low blows - they also did it on the 12/30 show - and you can tell they have no clue how to actually pull it off, just pure fuckery. I died at Yuji beating the fuck out of Nomura outside the ring and the chopping Abe to death when he tried to save his buddy, my man Yuji was not fucking around this night

I hope it's DEAN so we can get Daisuke Sekimoto and the strong division in AEW

What about AEW makes it impossible to stay on topic and not ruin the threads?

CIMA drawing like a madman in Japan with Stronghearts and now he comes to AEW. He's just awesome.

Haven't heard WOR but I'm reading Dave confirmed AEW wont be working with New Japan. Someone can confirm? EDIT: lol

I get your POV as a fan. But re: the bolded, I'm not sure working WWE = bigger star to the japanese audiences, but it does = more opportunities given by japanese promotions. There's countless examples of that, even for completes flops it has meant a boost in status or more leeway to do whatever the hell they want (like going freelance and/or getting financial backing to start their own little promotions). I understand your disappointment as a fan though.

Eh, it's not like KUSHIDA had a lot more to do in New Japan. Even a failed WWE run will give him a higher status in Japan once he returns. Shit, guys like KENSO and Yoshitatsu milked their WWE stints to this day to a way bigger effect than they should. KENTA got a Sumo Hall main event an permission by WWE to do it. I like this move for him to ne honest.

What better test than a sold out Osaka crowd for Jay White?

Welp.

And in typical Tokyo Sports fashion, the interview has a fuck ton of kayfabe in it "I want to face him again. But I need time away, and not just from New Japan" can mean a couple of totally different things. I guess we'll see on Tuesday if he's WWE bound or not.

The first 20 minutes of this are worked very smartly. Every exchange was compelling and every transition for one of them to work on top made sense. Loved Kento's work on KAI's head and his selling of the leg was really good considering KAI didn't spent much time working it. The challenger was great throughout this match, sold well, showed great fire when he had to, the crowd was really behind him and every cut off he made was well timed. The last 8 minutes is like Miyahara flipped a switch and forgot to sell, I think his matches should never have leg work because his whole offense is based on his knee and speed and he clearly does not care about changing it up when it comes to final sequences thing was, it was a really dope 8 minutes. Korakuen lit, KAI doing awesome and Kento just knowing when to hit his stuff for maximum effect. Had he actually sold near the end this could've been amazing, but just like Omega/Tana, the positives far outweigh the negatives and the match was still awesome and worthy of an early MOTYC nod.

Some Korakuen magic to start 2019. The match itself isn't some out of this world action. It's a very basic tag match with some sloppy exchanges from Omori and Nomura (who needs to get better at striking, is the only thing lacking on his repertoire) but Korakuen is fully into it so everything they do is elevated ten fold. The last few minutes are fucking awesome, so when you have a good enough build up with a hot crowd and you give them a very good finish, the match becomes a lot more special than it seemed it was going to be. I liked Nomura as the FIP and Aoyagi as the flashy guy that came in to turn the tides or make a key save. Black Menso~re kept things fresh too, as Omori can barely move at this point so a dude like Menso was needed. The crowd fucking loves Nomura and I'm still all in on him.

I hope they can get a good interpromotional feud going after All Star Battle. I pray Akiyama, or anyone really, is able to convince Meji (or whoever) to do a a fun program.

Last year (the last couple of them tbh) was long as hell too. But a week between shows #1 and #2 makes more sense.

Its gonna be a long ass tournament if they are starting the G-1 in early July.

One thing I believe from the Sportskeeda report is that WWE's offer has some sort of deal in regards of Omega's gaming career/hobby. Xavier Woods being a lead in selling him on that idea.

Two back-to-back Dome shows for next year (Charlton confirmed there would be two WK shows, I suppose they are both in the same building) sounds insane to me The Dallas show in the American Airlines Center is huge too. Will AEW be ready to help by that point?

I mean, Being the Elite is their "TV show" so to speak. I don't understand the fuzz about BTE being a big part of everything this group does. It makes sense. I get if people get upset about rovert being confrontational and talking down to people, but I'm sure a lot of us still understand most of what Cody/Bucks and company do and book without following they youtube show religiously. Will we miss context on some stuff? Of course, but that can be said about every single promotion in the world if you don't follow their build up/weekly content.