Boss Rock

Surprisingly good show. Not to say I thought it would be bad, but really everything delivered for the most part with the exception of the main event which was still solid. Hiromu's return was terrific. Was disappointed there was no Shibata angle after KENTA-Ishii, but his involvement in the main event makes he believe he's at least going to be in a tag match at WK. The crowd was surprisingly not that into the idea of a double title match.

Glad to hear some of the matches delivered, the Junior Tag League is usually the far superior tag league ha.

NOAH drew over 5000 fans in Ryogoku today, which seems like a pretty big turnaround for a promotion that was struggling to stay afloat the last few years.

It's definitely a peaks and valleys type of promotion and the fall is always its lowest period. There's usually some interesting WK developments (as I'm sure we'll get here), but yeah the year really peaks during the G1.

Hasn't been confirmed on New Japan's site, but Wiki is saying Ospreay-BUSHI at Power Struggle. So...possible Hiromu return.

Greatest trios match ever. Weaves the narratives of the October encounter flawlessly with a near 60 minutes of action without once feeling like it's overstayed its welcome. And Kawada flipping off Fuchi may be the greatest visual in wrestling history.

Really liked their match last year and the sequel did not disappoint. Whereas the first match felt like an exhibition showcase, there was more of a sense of struggle here as it was a title match. That's not to say there weren't awesome spots like you'd expect from these two, but everything felt more logical in their setup. It also helped that this match was quite a bit shorter than last year's, which helped keep the action moving at a brisk space and greatly reduce the amount of downtime. Would really love to see a third match between these two in AEW. ****1/4

Excited for the Cena WWE title matches. I don't recall much of the first one but the LMS is very good and adds to Cena's BITW resume for 2007.

I thought Omega-Janela was a lot of fun. Agreed that it went too long, but I actually thought it started slow and only got better. I've never thought Janela was this excellent wrestler or anything, but he seems like a creative dude, can do workratey stuff, and plays a good sleazeball.

The fall stretch from KOPW to WK is usually NJPW's down period in terms of booking. They haven't done a title change post-G1 since 2014, so there's never any doubt what the main event is going to be. Not to mention apart from a few developments at Power Struggle, it's pretty much just the two tag leagues. The Junior tag league can be entertaining but the Heavyweight tag league is always a hard skip

All hail the new U.S. Champ. I love Juice but it's time for something new. Overall a good show. Suzuki-Liger was good even if I was a bit disappointed by it not being a wild, chaotic brawl. Junior HW title match was probably MOTN the night and thankfully the overbooking didn't ruin it. Ibushi-EVIL was really good and for a match where the winner wasn't in any doubt, they made EVIL look like he could pull it off. Ditto for the ME. Pretty much what you'd expect from the Okada-SANADA formula but there was a bit more learned psychology and they moved a bit quicker this time around. Overall good show.

Oh I mostly feel the same, I'm just having fun.

That's sort of how I feel at the end of the day. If they weren't going to imitate guys like Kobashi badly, they'd find someone else to imitate badly.

Low Ki Blessing: Hugely innovative, tremendous striker, great mat worker, lots of intensity, worked fast but knew how to make things count. Curse: Wrestlers who watched him decided kicks and working fast was all that was needed to be a good wrestler.

Anywho, Sasha-Becky was great. Really thought Sasha should've gotten the win here, but Becky is the ace so I get it. The tornado tag was awesome as well.

Take a hot character against a failed babyface. Seriously, how do you screw that up?

Kenny Omega vs. Toru Yano (G1 Climax 27) https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x76krtc

Daniel Bryan Blessing: All-time great wrestler who could get over and stay over despite whatever booking had been thrown at him. Curse: He basically broke Vince McMahon into thinking all babyfaces should lose matches to gain audience sympathy.

I really wish they would just stick with two-person booths. Put Tom and Corey on one show and Cole and Nigel on the other.

Very good, competitive workrate match and honestly one of the best Page singles matches I've ever seen. PAC came off like a big star here and continued to carry himself as a potential top heel while Page was valiant in his comebacks. The match went a bit longer than it needed to (especially when it came to PAC's disrespectful stomping segment) but it was a good showcase for both while leaving the door open for a continued feud. ***3/4

While not the fast-paced, brisk affair you'd expect from most opening matches on a TV broadcast, Cody being such a huge star made this the obvious match to go first. Guevara is a bit generic as a flippy dude but he has such a punchable face and comes off as such an asshole that it was easy to get behind Cody. And while Cody's offense has always been rather weak, he acquitted himself well here, especially with the springboard cutter (despite it being an odd move to pull off midway through the match). And apart from said cutter, the pacing was overall pretty good and they did a good job building to the bigger spots. ***1/2

Really liked this a lot. Nyla is still green but she has all the potential in the world. It seemed like she sold a bit too much from (Riho's forearms should have been shrugged off like nothing), but she also did a good job imposing her will and beating Riho down. Riho meanwhile is a terrific babyface and her comebacks did a great job getting the crowd behind her. A bit too long maybe, but still a really strong match to crown the first champion. ***3/4

I never watched during the Monday Night Wars, but from what I HAVE seen of Nitro, I totally got that feel, all the way down to the intro. Love the aesthetic.

Shame they couldn't fit that match on the broadcast.

Really digging the build to Cody-Jericho thus far. And when it comes to wrestlers' looks and the expectation of them looking like athletes, I get it but at the same time I look at how Bobby Eaton and Jerry Lawler had the most unimpressive physiques of any wrestlers I've ever seen and that didn't stop them from becoming huge stars.