Jmare007

I don't think there's real solution in today's climate to the problem of balancing who gets to work (and have the best match possible) and when they get to work. I think the fanbase is way too spoiled nowadays so you either get the injury bug like they have or they get shitted on for rotating talent "too much" and not showcasing *insert your favorite wrestler(s)* enough. You also have guys like Danielson begging to work more because they feel their bodies get more accustomed to bumps if you are doing it regularly instead of sporadically. And he gets an "undisclosed" injury (concussion?) after taking it easy for 6-8 straight weeks and "finally" going all out on the PPV match.

Yup. Technically he was the first talent off the show due to injury, lol.

Ok, this is ridiculous. Now Ishii got injured. Put everyone on a bubble until Sunday, can't take no more chances anymore https://twitter.com/njpwglobal/status/1540107440380735488

Yuta is booked for another match at Forbidden Door and I'm positivo Danielson said his replacement was for both matches.

The only thing that makes me sorta doubt it's Claudio is that he should've showed up last night if he was the replacement to build some hype. Maybe it's an awesome wrestler that wouldn't create that much buzz (which, to be fair, goes in line with a lot of Tony's reveals) so I could see him being Gresham, Thatcher or even Busick.

That promo should've been made by Regal and they should've made the announcement of who is the replacement. As it stands, I think Danielson's segment hurts more than helps. As a fan that wanted to see him wrestle both shows I ain't paying to see this mystery hand picked wrestler (even if it's Gresham, Claudio or Thatcher) and I'm left just as puzzled as to what he has. Considering he spoke about his brain functioning I still think it was a concussion but we still have no fucking clue when he might be back. All in all, that was a bummer to start with that could've been saved with an actual replacement that could've interacted with ZSJ instead of that useless faceoff from the ramp with a guy he's gonna wrestle with who knows when.

Yeah, the show sold out and it's gonna do another 1 million dollar gate so if anything, future joint shows will just be special TV shows.

I agree, If Danielson is "just" gonna be out 2-3 months then there is no need to continue to put doom & gloom on your TV. Which is why I think it's either really bad news or they might work an angle with the JSA to kayfabe injure him to explain his absence. Then again, if it's truly a concussion, they can't do anything physical (to the point of doing an angle around it, at least).

Bryan Alvarez, who first reported that Danielson would be back "in 1-2 weeks" after his injury, now is saying Dragon "probably won't wrestle for quite some time", missing the PPV and Blood & Guts. If this is true, I wonder if he's gonna make an appearance because his issues are serious. If it's a normal injury I don't think he should be cutting a promo about it, AEW has had enough bad news. So he's either in bad enough shape he feels the need to talk about it or maybe the are doing a Cody and making an angle to explain his "quite some time" absence? Fuck man, I hope Alvarez is dead wrong again

SRS reporting Bruce Prichard is the new head of talent relations after Laurinatis is on a "administrative leave".

Was it ever confirmed if Danielson's injury was a concussion? Dave (who has had direct contact with Bryan in every major news he's involved in) has been very quiet about it. I think I read that PWInsider reported it wasn't a concussions but that was on a random news site so they could just be making shit up and putting the Insider name on it.

C Blocks looks kinda interesting but I think I'ma just skip this G-1 (except the Finals)

This Vince news and discussion going to shit because of the word "Stephy" is internet board arguments 101, I guess PWO ain't exempt from them

Oh shit ,they aren't starting with Vince. Wasn't expecting that. EDIT: Lmao I missed it then?

And motivated by thousands of fans bowing and chanting his name for 5 straight minutes. It's gonna be a wild sight, for sure

People on the board knew about this Vince situation months ago and should've been aware when the WSJ journal article was going to come out. So it's possible more/other people knew what was coming and that it could hurt the stuck, so they sold before that could happen.

LOL

That sounds like a horrible plan (from a fans perspective), why not just book a strong card and try to sell some PPVs?

ZSJ officially called out Danielson to a match at Forbidden Door. If they are doing Page vs White (vs Cole??), does Okada miss this PPV or is he thrown in a multi man tag?

Keith Lee can't work 6 tournament matches in 1 month? for real??

Oh, and White's promo after Dominion was outstanding.

A lot of the logistics issues should be more solvable now that it's just 6 matches per wrestler for the tournament. You can book around that and not have people work the entire 6 weeks tour. I feel New Japan has long gave up on putting any kind of effort on giving fans new exciting things and are just like WWE, just do the bare minimum and be content with it. And AEW's booking philosophy is predicated on the fact people can go in and out of the card (or up and down) so taking 3 weeks out, pre taping some stuff, show up on week 4 and then go back to Japan to finish the tour doesn't seems like an impossible feat. It's not like Keith Lee, Miro, Eddie, PAC, Andrade, etc. will be on TV weekly doing must see or important stuff anyway. All of them will have 1 big match then either not be booked or do filler matches or promos . I don't think it's an impossible task to get them to work the G1 if you actually put some effort and try to make it work. Same could be said for other promotions (in and outside Japan) too, NJ just refuses to even try shit out.

What a shitty lineup for the G-1 I'm done with this company until they book Miro or Danielson. They have nothing I'm interested in at this point, they refuse to do anything compelling with their own roster (I gave up on this like 3 years ago, but it continues to be an issue) and can't even take advantage of their working relationship with other promotions. SMH. Also at Okada having a nothing title reign when people thought he was a safety valve to right the ship after the damage they took during the pandemic.

I get the HBK comparison, I don't take it literally. Michaels has a huge portion of wrestling fans that legit consider him one of the greatest of all time and smaller number of us that think of him as overrated (varying from "!he's good but not all time great" to "he wasn't that good after The Rockers"). Cole certainly feels that way. He gets very big responses by the paying audience and has a reputation by (I think) the majority of fans as a world class worker. And then you have a smaller number of us that find him overrated and overpushed. I continue to say I'm an old man yelling at clouds when it comes to him because I just don't "get it" with him, while at the same time admitting I'm in the minority feeling that way. RE: O'Reilly. I think he's fine but personally I can't get into anything he does in the ring as a singles. His strikes are mostly cringe worthy to me so when he's supposed to be this weird mix of badass and a goof I'm left very cold with him as a performer as I don't buy him as a badass at all (early 2010s Eddie Edwards effect) and his goofy stuff is not very interesting. His match with Darby was the first singles KOR match I've really enjoyed in years.

I felt the battle royal was booked the way WWE would. Basically get rid of fan favorites/bigger stars early or don't even include them (Jericho, Page, PAC, Malakai). Then stack the odds against a babyface so he can put a valiant effort before losing. Didn't feel hyped about any of the Final 4 winning either. Not great, Bob.