El-P Posted March 10, 2019 Report Share Posted March 10, 2019 On 3/7/2019 at 1:27 PM, Boss Rock said: The Taiji match was proof Liger can still go at a high level, he hasn't really lost a step at all. Yeah, excellent match. It's gonna be really special to watch this last year of Liger. Speaking of the 47th Anniversary show, what a card. Apart from the match with the tongans (I'm so over them at this point, and the Bullet Club beatdowns are more played out than an nWo B-Team angle in 98 on Thunder), everything was at worse very good. Sho & Yo vs Bushi & Takagi was great and Ospreay vs White was simply MOTYC to me. Yeah, I was not crazy about White being put in the Omega position, but honestly the guy delivers when put under pression. Considering how young he is and how hard he's been pushed, he's already one hell of a worker. Of course, Ospreay is a total star already and an awesome worker. Really hope they put him in the G1, it would be crazy (funny how one year ago before the insane Mania week indy show fest I was basically an Ospreay hater, either he really progressed, either I just didn't get it then). Anyway, if that's the gaijin scene on top (adding ZSJ) for the next few years, Nj is safe in term of delivering great matches. Excellent job on this show building the NJ Cup too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordi Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 I was a night 6, since Nara Centennial Hall is about a four-minute walk from my place. It is a great building to watch wrestling in. It was the first time NJPW has been to Nara in 15 years. I hope they come back soon. It was pretty nice to be able to walk to a show. Ospreay vs Archer was a GREAT big man vs little man match. I really hope it comes across on video. They had the crowd in the palm of their hands and told a great story in there. Best Archer performance I have seen. Ospreay's selling and story-telling have come a long way in the past couple of years. Loved it. They had me legit marking out at some of the near-falls. It was a fun show overall with a great crowd. Lots of little kids who were super into everything, A handful of other gaijin in the crowd, too. People screaming out taunts for Nakanishi and Kojima in the early matches... Just a good time. Really glad I was able to be there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 Nice to see you back gordi ! I'm avoiding spoilers for the Cup and will probably watch a best-of when all is said and done, no time to watch all that stuff now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiva Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 Yeah, even with skipping through the tags and the undercard, these shows are still a good chunk of time. I can’t imagine trying to watch all the NJPW possible, it seems like a hell of a commitment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 I just watch these when I'm waking up in the morning - the switch to daylight savings time in the U.S. puts them at the perfect time on the east coast to wake up and catch the singles matches (and maybe the last tag match). It's mostly been fun but not must-see, other than a couple of the Day 3 matches - Ibushi-Naito was terrific and Tana-Umino was a really cool showcase for Umino. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordi Posted March 16, 2019 Report Share Posted March 16, 2019 Even though I am on Japan Time, I am usually working when the matches are on. I had to take the night off to go to the show on Thursday. Luckily, my boss understood that this was important to me EL-P, I'll try to remember to spoiler tag anything that requires it in this thread... though, most likely, I will hardly be able to see anything worth spoiler-tagging anyway. Also, reportedly, the Ospreay vs Archer match does in fact come across well on video! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 On 3/14/2019 at 9:09 PM, gordi said: Ospreay vs Archer was a GREAT big man vs little man match. I really hope it comes across on video. They had the crowd in the palm of their hands and told a great story in there. Best Archer performance I have seen. Ospreay's selling and story-telling have come a long way in the past couple of years. Loved it. They had me legit marking out at some of the near-falls. Yeah, I was a huge fan of that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted March 24, 2019 Report Share Posted March 24, 2019 NJ Cup has been a bit of a mixed bag but the semi-finals were awesome. Okada-Ishii in particular is a MOTYC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted March 24, 2019 Report Share Posted March 24, 2019 I thought Sanada-Tana was pretty dull, but at least they put over Skull End, since Sanada relies on it so heavily in singles matches. Agreed on Okada-Ishii, really loved it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted March 24, 2019 Report Share Posted March 24, 2019 Okada/Ishii wasn't quite on the level of their 2016 G1 match, but it was indeed a MOTYC. They match up incredibly well because they seem to cancel out each other's more annoying/problematic tendencies. Ishii's cross armbreaker is the first time I can ever recall him applying a wrestling hold in a match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted March 24, 2019 Report Share Posted March 24, 2019 Loved the final today as well. I'd say it was a coming out party for Sanada, but he's had great singles matches with Okada in the past and it hasn't translated to him being great in other matchups. We'll see, I guess. The Juice-Owens match was brutal, though. Heatless overdone near falls leading to an absurd ending stretch. Tough watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted March 24, 2019 Report Share Posted March 24, 2019 I actually thought Juice-Owens was a vast improvement over their last match. That one felt like a 10 minutes match needlessly stretched out to meet 20+, whereas this one I felt the length was a bit more warranted with Juice's aggression. A bit too much BC shenanigans but it was refreshing to see the face actually overcome the odds and not look like a dink. Really liked the final match. Was similar to the New Beginning match last year where it started off a bit slow but the second act was super dramatic with SANADA looking like he had a legitimate chance of winning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNLister Posted March 27, 2019 Report Share Posted March 27, 2019 Assume this is the best place to mention this here. I've done a free, updated version of the travel guide section from my book Purodyssey. It should have pretty much all you need to know about visiting Tokyo to watch wrestling: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lKQNNq7oPfufX5tOOh-HI6f_An0SCy6o/view Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 31, 2019 Report Share Posted March 31, 2019 The NJ Cup was amazing. So many great matches, from the very first rounds with Ishii vs Nagata, Ibushi vs Naito, Ibushi vs ZSJ, Suzuki vs SANADA, Tana vs ZSJ, Ospreay vs Okada and then just awesome semi-finals and final. Ishii vs Okada was just a MOTY level match, Tanahashi vs SANADA was one of the smartest match I've seen in a long time (Tana is brillant, he's up there with Misawa) and then the awesome final, another MOTYC. Despite Omega leaving, NJ is still ridiculous in term of big match quality. This whole stuff was really designed to make SANADA go up to the next level as a single star and it worked. Now let's see how he does in the G1. Ishii is still the greatest wrestler ever not getting a major title. (I did not enjoy the run-ins and bullshit in Juice vs Owens, their first match was much more enjoyable; if there's one thing I dislike about Gedo's booking, it's the old american influence in a japanese context; and really the Bullet Club is beyond tired as an act) Now, Okada in a packed MSG, that's gonna be something... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childs Posted April 1, 2019 Report Share Posted April 1, 2019 I enjoyed the NJ Cup quite a bit but thought the final was a dreadful bore. It was built on the worst cliches of the company's main-event style, from the uninteresting opening matwork to the 10 minutes of counter-fu at the end. Okada and Sanada are too similar -- athletic, theoretically charismatic guys with lots of shitty offense. Just didn't work for me at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartMark15 Posted April 2, 2019 Report Share Posted April 2, 2019 The MSG card really cements that ROH didn't sell out anything. NJPW definitely did the heavy lifting in terms of drawing power. That being said, the top three matches look like a whole lot of fun. I've enjoyed both Okada-White matches, and both pairings of Naito-Ibushi and ZSJ-Tanahashi have shown a lot of chemistry in the past. Hoping production can really capture the scope and scale of performing at MSG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted April 2, 2019 Report Share Posted April 2, 2019 Okada's entrance at MSG has a shot of being the best of the whole weekend. As much as I bitch and moan about the same shit being booked over and over again, seeing him have a hero's welcome and being immensely over, with everyone wanting to see him get the belt of White, will be really fucking fun to watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted April 2, 2019 Report Share Posted April 2, 2019 BTW, not that anyone would care at this point but Elgin is out of New Japan. His contract didn't renew and it ended in March. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted April 2, 2019 Report Share Posted April 2, 2019 8 hours ago, SmartMark15 said: The MSG card really cements that ROH didn't sell out anything. NJPW definitely did the heavy lifting in terms of drawing power. That being said, the top three matches look like a whole lot of fun. I've enjoyed both Okada-White matches, and both pairings of Naito-Ibushi and ZSJ-Tanahashi have shown a lot of chemistry in the past. Hoping production can really capture the scope and scale of performing at MSG. Agreed. I couldn't care less about most of the ROH side (apart from PCO/Brody and Rush & Bandido, but they aren't exactly "ROH" kind of talent) but the big time NJ stuff at the Garden should be amazing if anything else in term of atmosphere and image for NJ. Just hope Gedo won't americanize Okada vs White too much with run-ins and shit. Jeff Cobb vs Ospreay should be an awesome match too, and at this point I really hope Cobb works more and more in Japan. Especially since... 7 hours ago, Jmare007 said: BTW, not that anyone would care at this point but Elgin is out of New Japan. His contract didn't renew and it ended in March. Oh I care. He's probably my least favourite gaijin in the company, if not my least favourite guy in the company (he sure was the worst worker in last year's G1 I thought), so him going away is a good news. Hope he lands back in ROH or NXT (aka places I don't follow). Hope Cobb gets his spot and works G1. Now that would be a terrific new element in the mix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiva Posted April 2, 2019 Report Share Posted April 2, 2019 Yeah, Cobb for Elgin is basically the most drastic jump in quality that I can think of. Wonder if Elgin gets offered an NXT deal or if AEW take him on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Enthusiast Posted April 7, 2019 Report Share Posted April 7, 2019 On 4/2/2019 at 6:09 AM, Stiva said: Yeah, Cobb for Elgin is basically the most drastic jump in quality that I can think of. Wonder if Elgin gets offered an NXT deal or if AEW take him on. He’s pretty toxic in the states. Best bet is that he just runs a school and maybe works for one of the lesser Japanese companies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDuke Posted April 7, 2019 Report Share Posted April 7, 2019 Michael Elgin was wresling at my local indy show on Friday night, and then last night he was wrestling in Halifax. I was surprised when I heard that as that meant he wasn't in the New York area this weekend, but if he is considered toxic in the US indy scene that makes more sense now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Enthusiast Posted April 7, 2019 Report Share Posted April 7, 2019 1 hour ago, TheDuke said: Michael Elgin was wresling at my local indy show on Friday night, and then last night he was wrestling in Halifax. I was surprised when I heard that as that meant he wasn't in the New York area this weekend, but if he is considered toxic in the US indy scene that makes more sense now. He had zero bookings last Mania weekend, as well. I think the last major booking he had in the states was with AAW in early 2018, and that was basically because he got Naito in to work that show. The crowd turned on him and that was that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiva Posted April 7, 2019 Report Share Posted April 7, 2019 8 hours ago, Zoo Enthusiast said: He’s pretty toxic in the states. Best bet is that he just runs a school and maybe works for one of the lesser Japanese companies. And wouldn’t you know it, seems like he’s being offered an NXT deal in WWEs attempt to tie up anyone that isn’t AEW bound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted April 7, 2019 Report Share Posted April 7, 2019 4 minutes ago, Stiva said: And wouldn’t you know it, seems like he’s being offered an NXT deal in WWEs attempt to tie up anyone that isn’t AEW bound Cool. Keep him from AEW, iMPACT and MLW, thank you very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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