Jmare007

The TNT debut can't come soon enough, the level of nitpicking right now is something else. At least when the TV show is up and running the arguments will be a bout stuff that could actually matter

I mean, they did a horrible job promoting a fucking G-1 show, which is mind boggling. But at the end of the day, it seems doing a sellout or 50-60% of building in the U.S doesn't seem to matter to them. Not saying it's a good or bad thing, just that's the state of things at this point.

Doing a bad job at promoting their US shows is the norm for them at this point. It's not like it really matters though.

1) Naito gets his big win 2 years after he should've gotten it. Though in kayfabe, this win is one of the biggest in New Japan history. 2) Naito gets weirdly destroyed by booking and doesn't get any redemption. 3) If 1) happens, then Ibushi would be the one getting the same treatment Naito got at WK 12. 4) If Jay White or Okada are the ones getting both belts it would be too damn funny I think the winner take all angle for both Dome shows is a great idea in itself, one of the best Gedo has come up with in a long time. But with him taking so damn long to pull the trigger on japanese wrestlers he has pretty much booked himself into a corner.

Saikyou Tag League Beautiful tag match. Instead of the typical "big dudes throws little guys around" sort of match that these four could totally pull off, they went the minimalistic route and I fucking loved it. There's so many little things to love about this match. Astronauts gain the upper hand early because they lull Sekimoto and Bodyguard into working holds instead of clashing head on - which they have done plenty of times against Sekimoto & partner -, and only way the big dudes gain control is by doing big dudes things. But they have to fucking work for it. Once they get on top they choke Nomura almost to death, the selling by Takuya was stellar, I legit thought the young gawd was about to pass out. It takes them 10 minutes to hit the first chop, and it's not missed at all, it's that kind of match. This is another sensational performance by Abe btw. Little fucker is the best cotdamn partner on the planet, the way he cheers Nomura on when he's getting manhandled, how he picks his spots to interfere, to hit a stiff strike and to do a cool counter is some next level veteran shit, and dude is 24 years old! He's role in the match is to allow Nomura to stay in the fight and to go into the finishing sequence with a chance to win. And boy, once that final 5 minutes happen... This was right up my alley. MOTYC for sure, not even the tame Yokohama crowd hurt this match.

Very fun match. I think this suffered from a lack of heat from the crowd as Yokohama once again showed they suck, lol. Kamitani has been disrespecting and asking for a fight with Kohei since before he got the Strong Title so this match made sense. Hideyoshi had a fiery performance that Korakuen would've melted over but you can't have the perfect setting every time. I think this was the most "vulnerable" I've seen Sato against a young guy in a can't remember how long, and he did what he always does, just unleash stiff strikes and tries to obliterate whoever is in front of him.

I love when Daisuke focuses on the neck area because he doesn't do as much filler stuff and just goes TO WORK on that body part. This was kinda similar to the 2012 classic between Sekimoto and Yoshihito Sasaki were Daisuke does everything in his power to attack the neck (including a top rope elbow instead of the frog splash and going straight to the STF instead of 1-2 minutes of a boston crab) and his opponent has to crawl back to even things up. Korakuen is hot as fuck as usual for a match like this, still kinda surprised it sounded like the majority of the crowd were women and children instead of your typical hardcore puro male fans. This was fucking awesome and I LOVED they didn't went too long, simple and effective story with a hot crowd will always have my vote.

Kento just gets it man. Instead of having bloated matches he just works around a very simple story and then transitions to a dope finishing sequence were the drama escalates and any flaw the match has is reduced to a minimum because the length is short enough for them not to bother anyone. Another really fucking entertaining match from him that doesn't go past the 20 minute mark. Probably the easiest wrestler to watch back then in Japan that will give you a fun match every time.

It's the kind of match that some people will love and others will hate. I'm kinda in the middle but lean on liking it because it wasn't long enough were the flaws made the match drag. The first half is pretty standard with both of them just clashing against each other until Shuji gets the upperhand. He has an average control segment working the back, strong enough for me to buy the damage and short enough for it not to need Kento to sell like crazy (he still does a very good job at selling though). The second half is just bomb throwing and trading near falls with a red hot Korakuen getting more and more anxious about who's gonna win. They managed to keep building momentum and going for bigger stuff so it felt like the drama was building with each bomb and the finish felt very definite.

A fantastic 13 min. match that told a legit story and had different layers. They took advantage of every minute they had and delivered in spades. Crowd was very good, and it got really into it thanks to Joe's work on top and Kento's good selling. People should definitely check this out.

I think all of these are very much worth a watch vs Joe Doering 4/22 from the CC vs Jake Lee 4/16 from the CC vs Shuji Ishikawa 5/21 (excess + red hot Korakuen crowd) vs Suwama 6/11 vs Shuji Ishikawa 8/27 (the Sumo Hall match) vs Suwama 10/9 (excess + red hot Korakuen crowd) The Triple Crown match against Sekimoto from the year before (5/25/16) is a must watch too, of course

The "one of the best in the world" talk seems like a reactionary take from people that are noticing Kento just now because Dave has been pimping him so big this year because he got to see him live. I know Meltzer has been watching his top matches for quite a while now but just like he did with Tanahashi in 2011, he has turned in up a notch this year so more people a getting his eyes on Miyahara. I wouldn't call 2019 a great year from him, at all. In fact, a lot of people that have followed him closely have soured on him a bit, I'll get to that a little bit later. It could also come from people that have been on the "Kento is really fucking good" for a long time train that are finally seeing him get his due, so they just push the narrative too. Even though I haven't followed his whole career nor watched everything from dude in the last 4-5 years, I've seen a lot and enough to be confident in saying you could make a good case for him being a top 5 in the world in 2016 and 2017, with the latter year being his best case for a BITW argument. But Kento is very much a wrestler from this Era in terms of ring style. He does flashy, high speed stuff and tends to shrug off the work from the first half (or 1/3) of a match because he wants to speed things up and get into a higher gear for the last 10 minutes of his matches, were he will hit a lot of moves, do reversals and trade a lot of nearfalls with his opponent while the crowd gets hotter and hotter. That is a formula that works, but that to me has suffered from two things: 1.- Shit does get old after a while. It's rare watching Kento have a match that goes away from his formula. And while that's not a bad thing in itself, I think this particular formula doesn't lend itself from so much repetition, specially because... 2.- His matches have gotten longer. One of the things I truly appreciated from Kento when I started to really follow him more (2016) was that his matches, while mostly following this formula, were mostly worked in 15-22 minutes. Which made it waaay easier for me to forgive/forget flaws, as what Kento does suits a sprint way better than any other type of match. Now it's more common to see him do longer stuff, and the more "epic" he tries to make his matches, the more they drag imo. There are exceptions of course, like the Shuji Ishikawa match from 2017 at Sumo Hall (a top 3 singles MOTY from 17'). Now, a lot of fans don't really care for excess in their wrestling , and if that's the case, there's very little NOT to like about Kento. And if you are fairly new to his work, I don't think his repetitiveness or flaws will hit nearly as hard as if you've been watching him for long. He has a shit ton of charisma and he clearly looks up/idolizes Tanahashi, as it's pretty evident he's taken a lot from his persona/character. Specially late 00's cocky/asshole young guy (next Ace) Tana. I've lost count how many of Miyahara's matches have fuckery involving Kohei Wada and I never get tired of it because they just make it entertaining to watch.

Nah.

Exactly, the only one that sounded like he belonged in the ring with him.

AJ was great in that segment, set that stunner up perfectly with the whiny heel mic work.

Stone GOAT getting that pop at the Garden warmed my heart. I laughed my ass off at Seth raising the belt and getting the weakest "wooo" from the crowd I can remember

Dave saying Vince/creative had nothing for Shane as the reason he hasn't been on TV was hilarious. Even more so because Shane was on jury duty and I'm pretty sure Dave could've gotten that info if he had asked EDIT:

Y'all gotta stop with this "I don't follow BJW much" in every match thread were y'all actually really like the matches. Get to it and follow them, Strong Big Japan is great!

Strong Heavyweight Title match I mean, what else would you expect from this match other than also being a contest of two dudes trying to send the other one to hell via vicious strikes? Chop vs Kick. Lariat vs Elbow. Fired up dude vs stoic dude. Normal voice vs reptile. It's basically the same match Sato had with Sekimoto in January but with Yuji. So yeah, it's pretty fucking great!

My oh my one of those matches that just stays in it's lane because there's no need for it to be anything else. Basically four guys beating the shit out of each other and trying to out do their opponents in every striking department for 16 minutes. Daisuke/Elgin are the hosses and Nomura/Mochizuki are the smaller guys whose kicks and slaps are fucking vicious. I need more Mochizuki in Big Japan to be honest, because of course he fits perfectly here. Elgin once again is showcased like a beast and does well in this role, he continues to feel special like he did in the Sekimoto match the day before. Young Gawd has another good performance here, showing fire, resilience and most importantly, the most stiff and disrespectful slaps in the biz . All four guys looked great here, very good tag match. Loved Sekimoto imploring Nomura to keep fighting in the end.

Didn't like the fact that commentary was way over the ring mics, it took away from the sound of these two beating the shit out of each other for play by play that didn't really add much imo, though I understand it was more aimed for someone that doesn't know about the story between these two. But anyway, the match is pretty good though, specially considering WALTER''s ridiculous schedule before this encounter. Still, I was disappointed the first 5 minutes with WALTER working the neck were just complete filler and didn't matter at all, they made me think we were gonna get one of those "struggle for every move" type of Strong BJ matches. Now, there is some of that in the here - which were the best parts imo - but it takes a backseat over trading big power moves.

I know continuity very rarely matters in WWE (unless it's convenient) and that this didn't even happen on TV/PPV. But Bryan said he was going to do something he hadn't done before after he lost the tag titles, what if lying and putting up this show for Roman was that thing?

I'm sure Bryan will be available after Survivor Series, hang in there Metalik!

When the match was announced I was legitimately curious about which side of Sekimoto we were going to see: the minimalistic one or the excessive one. Turns out we got both. First 20 minutes are just these two taking turns clubbering each other with chops, elbows, and a couple of big moves. It felt a little plodding as there really wasn't any other story besides them trying to out-macho the other one, but the strikes were fucking vicious and it felt like a big fucking fight. The last 5-6 minutes they go all the way with the excess, they just hit big move after big move with fighting spirit, no selling and nearfalls. And I get it, this was a big marquee match that gave Big Japan their biggest Korakuen Hall gate in 9 years, so if there was a match were they could go all out, it was this one. And to be fair, Korakuen ate it up. It's just not the kind of stuff I love to watch anymore, though I can't deny I was entertained by it. Major props to Big Japan for making Elgin feel like a HUGE deal here, the match really had a special feeling about it. All in all, it kinda was the match I expected to be honest, it would've benefited by being 5 minutes shorter though, imo. I'm positive most people will like it more than me, I'm not fond of ratings but would call it a 4 stars match

Seems every week there's a "what I think Dave was trying to say" topic that blows up on Twitter or the IWC. 1.- Dave says something which can be interpreted in different ways or that it can't be fully understood because he can't get his point across. 2.- People get pissed or just troll him because they want to prove a (mostly biased) point. 3.- Dave responds, which leads to more fuckery 4.- All hell breaks loose. Rinse and repeat, every single time.