Jmare007 Posted July 14, 2020 Report Share Posted July 14, 2020 I'll never stop being surprised when people start talking about Gedo and his "plans". Every time it's proved there was none, it's like fans forget about it because they love the matches and ring quality so much (and because he doesn't spit in the face of fans like Vince does). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kas Posted July 14, 2020 Report Share Posted July 14, 2020 This was apparently said in WON 8 months ago Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted July 14, 2020 Report Share Posted July 14, 2020 59 minutes ago, kas said: This was apparently said in WON 8 months ago HA! touche Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted July 14, 2020 Report Share Posted July 14, 2020 Gedo actually does strike me more as a long-term booker and one who "sticks to the plan" to a fault. I think he's pretty good at building stars and at least seeing things through, he just doesn't always know when to strike when the iron is truly hot. Like when Hiromu was on fire in 2017, he had to drop the title to make sure Ospreay got his time. Or when Okada and Naito looked poised to win at WK 9 and 12 respectively, their crowning achievements were delayed for the sake of a story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cm funk Posted July 14, 2020 Report Share Posted July 14, 2020 I was shocked by EVIL winning, but I love it honestly. I'm a fan of the dude, thought him and Sanada were a great team and, surprisingly to me because at first I thought Sanada was the ace of the team, over time I became a bigger EVIL fan. When they gave him a match with Jericho I knew they had big plans for him. This does feel like a hot shot, but I understand why they did it, and colour me intrigued. BULLETCLUB needed a refresh and with White MIA this made sense. It's a bummer because Jay White had become great in the role, but his character was more of a loner......this makes things interesting whenever he and KENTA are back in action ALSO DICK MF'N TOGO FTW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cm funk Posted July 14, 2020 Report Share Posted July 14, 2020 As far as Naito goes, I love the guy, but it might be a Dalton Castle thing like someone pointed out Also, LIJ are babyfaces and this solidifies that. AND Hiromu is the F'n man......I want to see him vs. EVIL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmare007 Posted July 14, 2020 Report Share Posted July 14, 2020 5 hours ago, Boss Rock said: Gedo actually does strike me more as a long-term booker and one who "sticks to the plan" to a fault. I think he's pretty good at building stars and at least seeing things through, he just doesn't always know when to strike when the iron is truly hot. Like when Hiromu was on fire in 2017, he had to drop the title to make sure Ospreay got his time. Or when Okada and Naito looked poised to win at WK 9 and 12 respectively, their crowning achievements were delayed for the sake of a story. I can buy him having big title matches in his mind in advanced, but the "plan" thing falls apart when you go through what happened in between those big matches. For example, after WK 12, Naito was in limbo for 80% of the time with random IC title reigns and big matches that didn't really build to him "finishing his journey" this year. Like, I can see Gedo going "he won't win at 12 but I'll give him an even bigger win (kayfabe wise) over Okada" with not much else thought out. This has happened to almost the whole roster. Hell, Jay White was able to find his groove after his big title win, not before nor during. Going back to positive stuff, can we get a Togo vs Shingo singles match? pleeaaase? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 14, 2020 Report Share Posted July 14, 2020 7 hours ago, Boss Rock said: Gedo actually does strike me more as a long-term booker and one who "sticks to the plan" to a fault. I think he's pretty good at building stars and at least seeing things through, he just doesn't always know when to strike when the iron is truly hot. Like when Hiromu was on fire in 2017, he had to drop the title to make sure Ospreay got his time. Or when Okada and Naito looked poised to win at WK 9 and 12 respectively, their crowning achievements were delayed for the sake of a story. Gedo is absolutely a long term booker, which is why everyone was a little baffled at this result because it clearly was something that was probably booked to happen much later than now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 16, 2020 Report Share Posted July 16, 2020 Takagi vs SHO was awesome. The tag-team title match was also excellent bordering great, and honestly Taichi is stepping up like crazy. The main event... well... Needless to say it was way too long. I'm really not a fan of american style booking in NJPW with ref-bumps and run-ins galore. It works at times, but when it's in every big Bullet Club match... yawn. Plus, the "Bushi" spot got a totally tedious reaction, with good reasons, and it was total overkill, and made the ending of the match totally anti-climatic one, especially after the downer ending of the tag team match. So yeah, the reveal of Dick Togo was kinda cool (I mean, it's 2020 and he's gonna probably be in some Gedo role, so nothing to be super excited about either), but his spot hurt the ending a whole lot to me. Yeah, no one needs even 25 minutes EVIL matches. That is maybe THE big flaw in NJPW where every title match has to go ridiculously long no matter what because that's expected. 15-20 minutes titles match is ok. The one thing that struck me is that Naito is really not looking healthy at all. Screws up spots left and right. Really looks to be banged up as hell, and that's after months of lay-off... So maybe his time has flown away already and the best thing is to have him be a tragic figure, because the Ace he'll never be at this point (and maybe his character doesn't translate well in that role anyway). On 7/13/2020 at 9:57 PM, sek69 said: Speaking of, there's something ironic about Yujiro getting a push when Pieter isn't around. His act loses so much without her. That's saying a lot about what he actually brings to the table, because what does Pieter do apart from some stripper's moves before the match ? But yeah... No idea who wants to see a Yujiro "push" in 2020... In comparison, Taichi is absolutely fine without Miho Abe (especially now), she just makes the act better. On 7/13/2020 at 5:35 PM, Jmare007 said: Feels like Gedo went "if we can only get 1/3 capacity in every building, I'll just book to get those numbers. When we are at full capacity I'll got back to the big guys"...or something. Yep. And hopefully it is, because I really have trouble buying what he's selling me with this EVIL push. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 16, 2020 Report Share Posted July 16, 2020 28 minutes ago, El-P said: The one thing that struck me is that Naito is really not looking healthy at all. Am I the only one that noticed the camera seemed to be trying really hard to only shoot Tanahashi from the waist up? Seemed like they were trying to hide him limping around (at least until it became part of the match). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 16, 2020 Report Share Posted July 16, 2020 It didn't strike me but it's possible. Yeah, Tana looked shot too honestly but he can still pull off enough and he's so great at selling that he gets by. Naito's super explosive style is really hurting now. The guy should Chono his way into cult figure doing one or two simple moves a match at this point... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kas Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 Call me unobservant but I didn't really notice Naito looking worse for wear. Sure he was a little slow, but I feel he's been steadily slowing down since about 2017. I agree on Taichi, he's stepped up in a big way and really found his feet in the HW division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 17, 2020 Report Share Posted July 17, 2020 He screwed up a bunch of spots during the match, and it's not like EVIl is a guy who works super fast or intense. He gave me the impression of someone who's on the verge of falling apart at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 On 7/16/2020 at 4:05 PM, El-P said: Plus, the "Bushi" spot got a totally tedious reaction, with good reasons, and it was total overkill, and made the ending of the match totally anti-climatic one, especially after the downer ending of the tag team match. It's certainly possible the crowd wasn't into it, but I believe fans have been told not to cheer as an extra precaution due to COVID. They were quiet both shows and would only clap. A couple stuff like EVIL turning on Naito did manage to get an audible reaction though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted July 18, 2020 Report Share Posted July 18, 2020 Looks like Jay is on his way back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cm funk Posted July 19, 2020 Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 Thank god. It's pretty noticeable with all the gaijin gone that the native talent is a bit thin these days with some of the people they're choosing to push/elevate. Jay was on his way to becoming the best all-around performer in the promotion IMO. Definitely one of my "must watch" guys, and I was lukewarm on him during his initial push Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 19, 2020 Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 6 hours ago, Boss Rock said: It's certainly possible the crowd wasn't into it, but I believe fans have been told not to cheer as an extra precaution due to COVID. They were quiet both shows and would only clap. A couple stuff like EVIL turning on Naito did manage to get an audible reaction though. It didn't help that it' obviously wasn't Bushi and everyone was just waiting for the turn/reveal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted July 19, 2020 Report Share Posted July 19, 2020 Yeah that too. Way too big to be Bushi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kas Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 The main event was better than the Naito and Okada matches but man, I thought Hiromu of all people would be able to reign in EVIL and go shorter than 30 minutes but apparently not. Guess we just have to accept that main events aren't getting shorter any time soon. Shingo vs Despy was MOTN and Okada vs Yujiro was a match that happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 All main event *having* to go 30 minutes is a real issue now because it only works when you have guys at the level of Okada, Tanahashi, Omega and the likes. EVIL of all people shouldn't go more than 20 minutes, ever. I guess there was a hundred BC run-ins too ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 2 hours ago, El-P said: All main event *having* to go 30 minutes is a real issue now because it only works when you have guys at the level of Okada, Tanahashi, Omega and the likes. EVIL of all people shouldn't go more than 20 minutes, ever. I guess there was a hundred BC run-ins too ? Near the end, yeah. It also didn't help that LIJ did nothing to stop it. Stables failing to stop Bullet Club is my biggest frustration and is such a massive logic gap. Anywho, the main event was really good and Hiromu looked like an absolute star. EVIL definitely has more presence than Jay as a top heel, but yeah he needs to be kept in shorter matches. Desperado-Shingo wasn't quite as good as the Shingo-SHO matches but still worth seeing. Okada-Yujiro, as Kas said, was a match that happened but probably the best you could do with Yujiro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 Well, sounds like a show I can easily pass. Jay White is ten times the worker EVIL, so the trade doesn't work for me. As far as run-ins, this is something I really dislike about Gedo's philosophy, the way he imported annoying american tropes into NJPW. This is not something I want to see when I watch japanese pro-wrestling, once in a while is ok but when it's in every damn Bullet Club match (and no one never does anything about it) it's really frustrating. Needless to say I have found NJPW comeback underwhelming as all hell thus far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kas Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 Naito did say he wanted revenge, so hopefully that's the next event with Naito winning, and hopefully it's only for the hw title Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 4 hours ago, El-P said: Jay White is ten times the worker EVIL is, so the trade doesn't work for me. Agreed! And I was not the biggest Jay White fan. I did come around on him eventually. I'm not so sure I'll ever come around on EVIL. I just can't take him seriously. He looks like a K-mart cosplayer dressing up for Halloween. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 25, 2020 Report Share Posted July 25, 2020 Jay White tweeted a pic from an airplane not too long ago so I assume he went back to Japan and will be returning as soon as the quarantine time is over. Hopefully he spent the down time at home since New Zealand did a pretty good job managing things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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