Boss Rock

Only watched the tag title match, Shibata's return, Hiromu-Desperado, and the main. From what I've read about the rest of the card, that's all probably anyone needs to watch.

Boring pick, but I think it has to be Misawa or Kobashi.

Jumbo or Kawada. Kobashi, Misawa, and Taue were looking like world beaters as well, but Kawada seemed the furthest along at this point and Jumbo was still playing a huge part in helping establish them.

I lean Jumbo. The Pillars were already very good but still coming into their own. Jumbo really helped make Misawa in those matches and was always a killer in tags.

Up until very recently I would have said Shingo 100%. Consistently had the highest peaks of any NJPW wrestler and for a good chunk of the year, pretty much any wrestler. But then Bryan went to AEW and had 4 MOTYC's over the course of 4 months. I keep thinking his time off after WWE should hurt his case, but I find it harder and harder to make that argument.

Toss-up between Hiromu, Shingo, and Ishii. All three were were consistently delivering in what was a very rocky year both in terms of business and in-ring presentation. Hiromu not participating in the G1 hurts his case, but he did give EVIL easily his best match of the year while nearly everyone else struggled. Ishii had impressive showings in the NEVER trios scene along with his usual singles work, and Shingo was doing great work against both juniors and heavies.

Kobashi. He was a bit formulaic at this point, but hell if it not only didn't work, but that he didn't knock it out of the park every time.

I think A.J. or Tanahashi. Both guys had feuds that were good but maybe not great (A.J-Okada, Tanahashi-Nakamura), but had terrific G1's. Tanahashi's rematch with Shibata also stands out.

Probably Kobashi. MOTY with Misawa and excellent title matches against Kawada, Jun, and Taue.

Kenta Kobashi. Hokuto comes very close, but Kobashi's peaks against Hansen (twice), Williams, Kawada, and the RWTL final are pretty insurmountable. The absolute peak of his dynamic offense.

Gotta go with Ospreay. Taguchi, Cobb, El Phantasmo, Eagles, Ibushi, Okada, Tanahashi, Sabre, Dragon Lee, Bandido, Archer. Pretty wide range of opponents and he had great matches with all of them.

Okada or Omega. Even outside of their trilogy, both had great G1 runs and MOTYC's against other opponents (Shibata and Naito). Kenny also has the Ishii trilogy and U.S. title run while Okada gave Cody his best match up to that point.

Toss-up between Kenny or WALTER. I don't know if WALTER had a single match below 3.75, but Kenny had some pretty ridiculous peaks and an excellent tag run with Ibushi.

A.J. or Chris Hero probably. Hero probably had the longer list of matches but A.J. arguably had higher peaks.

Not a fan of the finish, but yeah this was a hoot.

Happy New Year!

Count me among the Marufuji fans, ha.

Yep, went through a flaming table doing a reverse superplex on Andrade. Dynamite was pretty good. Not quite everything landed though. Punk-Moriarity wasn't as good as I expected and the promo with MJF was hit-or-miss. The Superkliq-OC segment was also a bit awkward.

Wrestler of the Year I'd probably go Kenny.

I still lean Shingo Takagi given his number of high end matches and being active all year. But Bryan's versatility against a number of opponents gives him a run for his money.

I think the Easter Egg house style description is a bit of an over-generalization and really only applies to a handful of matches if that, even. It may just be some folks looking more deeply than others and looking for things that might not even really be there.

Yeah the story is that he started dating another woman and thus tried to end the relationship, resulting in the stabbing. Apparently his recovery and comeback played a big part in crowds getting behind him.

I know Taichi had had an affair years ago that caused controversy, but I don't think he was punished. Neither was Shibata when it was revealed he had an affair in 2017 (interestingly enough they broke the news that Okada got engaged to his-then fiancee on the same day, likely to draw attention away). I do recall the news TAKA had an affair, but had no idea that's what caused his absence.

Bout time.

Great show and cowboy shit.