Current New Japan

[KawadaSmile]

Fans will love him, but I think it's not really the best idea to not do anything with him (and it from the looks of things, they'll have around 4 months to give him a big program for WK) after he was largely responsible for giving a HUGE attendance spike at the biggest NJPW event of the year. They might not be able to reproduce that, with the treatment they gave him, and I doubt Omega/Tana would get close, either.

[Migs]

1 hour ago, Boss Rock said:

Yeah, I can sort of see him as a Bryan where no matter what they do the fans will still love him. And agreed that there's no real point in waiting when it should have been done already.

I think ultimately, they think Omega is more valuable as a gateway guy into the US. And thus, they needed to pull the trigger on him now and make Naito wait. 

[Jmare007]

1 hour ago, KawadaSmile said:

Fans will love him, but I think it's not really the best idea to not do anything with him (and it from the looks of things, they'll have around 4 months to give him a big program for WK) after he was largely responsible for giving a HUGE attendance spike at the biggest NJPW event of the year. They might not be able to reproduce that, with the treatment they gave him, and I doubt Omega/Tana would get close, either.

We gotta wait and see if Tana keeps his title shot though, he's already called out Okada and he might just lose that match. Tanahashi vs Omega sound a lot more compelling than Okada vs Omega V but with Gedo's lazy ass it's not out of the question.

Still, would Kenny vs Tana and Jericho vs Okada (or a rematch with Naito) be enough to finally get 40k paid at the Dome, or even the same attendance as this year? We are 4 months away but right now it doesn't feel like it could. I feel this was a perfect time for an interpromotional feud were they could give Okada or Naito a big angle and match to wrestle in, but sadly there's no other promotion for New Japan to work with right now. All Japan could produce some great matches and interesting stories but I have a hard time picturing that sort of feud making any difference drawing wise in 2018/19.

 

[Boss Rock]

2 hours ago, Migs said:

I think ultimately, they think Omega is more valuable as a gateway guy into the US. And thus, they needed to pull the trigger on him now and make Naito wait. 

That's my thought as well.

[El-P]

Well, the G1 was a complete joy to watch from start to finish. I kinda got burned out in the beginning of the second phase (the fact I got sick as a dog didn't help either), but the regular amount of very good to great matches every day kept me going. The final wasn't as great as Naito vs Omega last year (then again, what is ?), but still a terrific match and story with Tana winning again (credit to Ibushi though, although I'm not always the biggest fan of his stuff). I don't think I've watched that amount of pro-wrestling from the same roster in such a concentrated form without getting bored (almost, well, Elgin was right there). I do think I need quite a break though, if only because I've been saturated with so much great stuff.

But yeah, Naito should have won !

[Microstatistics]

Tanahashi winning is an interesting booking decision and one I didn't see coming. I thought they were surely gonna do Omega vs. Ibushi for WK. And Naito not even reaching the semi finals is sort of disappointing. 

[Childs]

30 minutes ago, Microstatistics said:

Tanahashi winning is an interesting booking decision and one I didn't see coming. I thought they were surely gonna do Omega vs. Ibushi for WK. And Naito not even reaching the semi finals is sort of disappointing. 

There is no semi-final. He had a good chance to win going into the last day of the block. I don't really get all the angst over Naito. He's clearly in the top mix and will remain there. But I'm not sure it does him or the company a huge amount of good if he's pushed into the clear No. 1 role. Being somewhat of an outsider is part of his character. I mean Choshu, the leading rebel of a past generation, was rarely the top guy. 

[Jmare007]

38 minutes ago, Childs said:

There is no semi-final. He had a good chance to win going into the last day of the block. I don't really get all the angst over Naito. He's clearly in the top mix and will remain there. But I'm not sure it does him or the company a huge amount of good if he's pushed into the clear No. 1 role. Being somewhat of an outsider is part of his character. I mean Choshu, the leading rebel of a past generation, was rarely the top guy. 

This is like saying in 2013-2014 that Daniel Bryan doesn't need the belt to be over, and given that he was the ultimate underdog. it fitted that he kept coming up short and shoved aside by booking. 

I don't think people want Naito to have an Ace run with 300+ days with the belt and be THE guy. I think people want to see him get his coronation after 3 years of turning things around character wise and becoming the most over guy in the company (and a legit draw). The fact that his moment has been delayed twice already - and most likely thrice seeing how things are going - because Gedo wanted to give Okada basically a 3 year reign (with a 70 day "vacation") doesn't help either. It's not like Naito is/was doing interesting stuff without the belt that would make the wait worth it. He's just "there", either recycling angles and feuds (like his last IC title run) or simply without a direction. The "angst" comes from seeing this dude doing something interesting, as so far there have been no signs of anything being there for him besides finally getting the top belt.

[Childs]

I just feel like Naito's character draws energy from being the provocateur and the guy chasing.

Don't get me wrong, I would've put him over Okada in the Dome. But I didn't see a compelling reason for him to win this G1. 

I don't see him on a quest the way Bryan was, because he's already a top-line star who's won plenty of big matches over the years. But I admit he's not a personal favorite, so I'm not viewing the booking through that prism.

[Jmare007]

36 minutes ago, Childs said:

I just feel like Naito's character draws energy from being the provocateur and the guy chasing.

Don't get me wrong, I would've put him over Okada in the Dome. But I didn't see a compelling reason for him to win this G1. 

 

I didn't either, I think most people didn't. It just goes back to what I said, there's nothing compelling for him to do right now besides finally getting the belt. Any fantasy booking scenario that puts him in an interesting angle or feud requires stuff that Gedo has never done or people/companies that don't work for New Japan and doesn't seem likely they will in the immediate future.

So a lot of us just want him to get the title so his arc can move forward and see were that goes (I don't think him winning the G-1 was the way to go for that to happen tbh, he could've won it at KOPW or Power Struggle). His character is a provocateur, imagine the fuckery it would generate if he tried to do to the IWGP belt what he did with the IC strap, a bunch of fun stuff could come out of that. You say he draws energy from chasing, but he hasn't been chasing anything since January and given nothing interesting to do in the meantime. And this is the most over guy in the company we are talking about...

 

[El-P]

I just wanted Naito to win because he's my favourite character (and worker maybe too) in pro-wrestling today, but honestly, yeah, he didn't need to win this G1. I've gotta say I love the way ZSJ finally beat him using the damn Michinoku Driver. That was perfect. Kevin Kelly talking about a women in the front row was bawling at that moment was pretty cool too.

[Migs]

6 hours ago, El-P said:

I just wanted Naito to win because he's my favourite character (and worker maybe too) in pro-wrestling today, but honestly, yeah, he didn't need to win this G1. I've gotta say I love the way ZSJ finally beat him using the damn Michinoku Driver. That was perfect. Kevin Kelly talking about a women in the front row was bawling at that moment was pretty cool too.

That was also by the far best ZSJ match I've seen. If he can work like that regularly, he's very interesting to me as a top guy.

[El-P]

I have really loved ZSJ's journey during the G1. He's a joy to watch and he's such a great douchebag. Him acting frustrated as hell with SANADA was tremendous, as was his reaction to finally winning with the MDriver, which he had failed to do until that point. 

[benjaminkicks]

I still believe that Naito will be the champion by the time the next G1 rolls around. I think he'll beat Omega sometime in the Spring or at Dominion. Then Okada will win the G1 and we'll get Okada/Naito at WK 14. 

I get that Naito fans are tired of waiting, and I agree that his path since losing at WK this year has been somewhat unfocused, but I don't think that equates to being given "nothing interesting to do in the meantime". I quite enjoyed his programs with Taichi, Suzuki, and Jericho, but people seemed to be upset that he went back to the IC title, which they think he's above now. Was Nakamura above the IC title in 2014 and 2015 when he was arguably the most popular guy in the company? I understand that the IC title is considered lower than the IWGP title in terms of importance, but the IC champion still headlines plenty of shows and gets many opportunities for big time singles matches. 

[joeg]

Odds of a title change at the MSG show?

[Jmare007]

1 hour ago, benjaminkicks said:

 

I get that Naito fans are tired of waiting, and I agree that his path since losing at WK this year has been somewhat unfocused, but I don't think that equates to being given "nothing interesting to do in the meantime". I quite enjoyed his programs with Taichi, Suzuki, and Jericho, but people seemed to be upset that he went back to the IC title, which they think he's above now. Was Nakamura above the IC title in 2014 and 2015 when he was arguably the most popular guy in the company? I understand that the IC title is considered lower than the IWGP title in terms of importance, but the IC champion still headlines plenty of shows and gets many opportunities for big time singles matches. 

I'm just speaking for myself here but I don't think Naito is above any belt, I wasn't upset about him winning the IC belt as much as annoyed that he was back to doing the same shit he was doing before WK.

Nakamura made that belt into something important, but he also got fed up of that being his new ceiling (booking wise) and went to WWE.

 

[benjaminkicks]

59 minutes ago, joeg said:

Odds of a title change at the MSG show?

The timing for the MSG show is weird, cause it'll either be right before or after the Sakura Genesis show, where the winner of the New Japan Cup will get a IWGP challenge. Because of this, I doubt we get a title match at Supercard. 

[Boss Rock]

My thing with Naito isn't just that he was at his hottest and was the biggest reason for the attendance surge at WK 12. It was that the story leading up to that was perfect for him to win. It all went back to getting rejected by the fans after winning the 2013 G1 and losing the WK 8 main event to Tanahashi, Nakamura, and the IC belt. So after his brief title run that was again foiled by Okada, he gets revenge for everything that happened to him. First, he wins and disrespects the title that took his main event. Then, he defeats Tanahashi (the guy who's shadow he was always in) and rejects the notion of a fan vote to take a possible WK 11 main event from him. He defeats Tanahashi again 4 years to the day after he won the 2013 G1 and wins the tournament again. And this time, he has the entire crowd's love and support. The only person left in his way was the guy who beat him at WK 8: Okada. That was brilliant storytelling and they completely blew it.

So while I wanted him to win the G1 this year, I sort of agree him winning wouldn't have been quite the same if they had just done the damn thing when they were supposed to.

[benjaminkicks]

The full cards for September's Destruction tour have been released:

Road to Destruction (9/7)

Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens

Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin, David Finlay & Ayato Yoshida vs. Bad Luck Fale, GOD & Taiji Ishimori

Toa Henare vs. Beretta

Hirooki Goto & Gedo vs. Taichi & TAKA Michinoku

LIJ vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI

Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi

Road to Destruction (9/8)

Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura vs. Ren Narita & Yota Tsuji

Ayato Yoshida vs. Chase Owens

Bad Luck Fale, GOD & Taiji Ishimori vs. Togi Makabe, Michael Elgin, David Finlay & Toa Henare

Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI

LIJ vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku

Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & Will Ospreay

Kazuchika Okada & Beretta vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson

Road to Destruction (9/9)

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura

Bad Luck Fale, GOD & Taiji Ishimori vs. Michael Elgin, Ayato Yoshida, Shota Umino & Ren Narita

Hirooki Goto & Gedo vs. Taichi & El Desperado

LIJ vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & TAKA Michinoku

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare vs. Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI

Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Beretta & Will Ospreay

Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi

Destruction in Hiroshima (9/15)

Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & KUSHIDA vs. Rocky Romero, SHO & YOH

Bad Luck Fale vs. Toa Henare

Michael Elgin & Ayato Yoshida vs. KES

Beretta, Chuckie T & Will Ospreay vs. Kota Ibushi, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens

GOD & Taiji Ishimori © vs. Juice Robinson, David Finlay & Ryusuke Taguchi-NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship

Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano & Gedo vs. Taichi, Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

LIJ vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., TAKA Michinoku & El Desperado

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI & Jay White

Kenny Omega © vs. Tomohiro Ishii-IWGP Heavyweight Championship

Destruction in Beppo (9/17)

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yota Tsuji vs. Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi & Yuya Uemura

David Finlay & Ren Narita vs. Toa Henare & Shota Umino

Takashi Iizuka vs. Ayato Yoshida

Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Will Ospreay, Rocky Romero, SHO & YOH

Super Best Friends vs. KES

EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Juice Robinson vs. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Jay White

Hirooki Goto © vs. Taichi-NEVER Openweight Championship

Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki

Destruction in Kobe (9/23)

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura

Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. SHO & YOH

Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado

Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Ryusuke Taguchi & Ayato Yoshida vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi Super Best Friends vs. KES

Juice Robinson, David Finlay & Toa Henare vs. Jay White, YOSHI-HASHI & Will Ospreay

Tetsuya Naito, EVIL & SANADA vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr. & TAKA Michinoku

KUSHIDA vs. BUSHI-IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Tournament Semi-Final

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada-IWGP Championship Certificate Match

[benjaminkicks]

Also, Hiromu Takahashi has officially vacated the Junior title, with a tournament to crown the new champion being comprised of KUSHIDA vs. BUSHI and Ospreay vs. Scurll, with the finals at King of Pro-Wrestling in October.

Even more also, the first matches for the September 30th Long Beach show have been announced:

IWGP US Heavyweight Title: Juice Robinson vs Cody

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles: The Young Bucks vs Guerillas of Destiny

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title Tournament (Semi-Final 2): Marty Scurll vs Will Ospreay

[Boss Rock]

Interesting that they're doing Okada-Tanahashi at Destruction and not KOPW. So Jay is most likely getting a certificate shot against the winner. While I still expect Tanahashi-Kenny to me the WK program, Okada or Jay stealing it wouldn't entirely surprise me.

And them breaking the Destruction tradition of the heavyweight title not being defended makes me mad when they could have perhaps gotten the Okada title defense record out of the way BEFORE WK 12. Although if the Fale '16 match was for the title and he defended against maybe Suzuki last year, that would have only put him at 11.

[Jmare007]

There's zero chance Jay White gets that title shot if Kenny Omega is still champ. They are not doing a gaijin vs gaijin title match on the biggest show of the year when they don't really have a hot angle or feud to put on top of it and sell tickets.

[Tetsujin]

They made Tanahashi win the G1 because there's no other superstar on their roster who could afford to lose at the main event of WK against Omega ('cause I can read Gedo's mind, he's thinking about "hey let's give our top gaijin a WK main event victory; here we go USA expansion!"):

-Naito is super duper over and the fans will not forgive another big loss at the main event of WK for him.

-Okada is Gedo's big project and noup, he's not gonna job against a gaijin at the Tokyo Dome.

-Ibushi, you know, hasn't sign anything and probably never will. Too risky.

-But yeah, Tanahashi is their perfect choosing. He's someone they can trust in both match quality and drawing power. Also, he's not the Ace anymore, so he can make the job with 0 problems.

So yeah, I can see Omega/Tana as our WK 13 main event pretty clearly. It's funny how NJPW is giving more and more to Omega when he's going to leave them and going to WWE sooner than later...

[WingedEagle]

Why does it feel like a lock that Okada is winning the case?

[Childs]

1 hour ago, WingedEagle said:

Why does it feel like a lock that Okada is winning the case?

I hope not. Don't want to see the G1 story undercut like that, and Tana-Omega on the big stage is more intriguing than Okada-Omega V. On the other hand, if Tana finally beats Okada again, that would  actually add fuel to his challenge.