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12 hours ago, Boss Rock said:

Caught the Chaos 8-man tag from yesterday and the Ishii-SHO interaction was something. I know it's only to fuel the NEVER 6-man match, but man would that be an awesome G1 match if it weren't for Yujiro.

Thought the stuff in the actual title match was real fun, too. I'm sure that's a match we'll get down the road.

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3 hours ago, Migs said:

Thought the stuff in the actual title match was real fun, too. I'm sure that's a match we'll get down the road.

Oh yeah, today's match was a hoot. Thought the Junior Tag Title match was solid but it's a shame to see Hiromu go from getting such a strong push in the summer to losing the title, not getting a G1 spot, and taking the pin here. Like I know he'll continue to get a strong push down the line, just really wanted him in the G1.

Based on the released schedule, A Block looks like it'll come down to Okada-Ospreay and B Block will be between EVIL and SANADA.

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  • 3 weeks later...
14 hours ago, sek69 said:

Changes afoot per the NJPW english site, Harold Meij is out as CEO to be replaced by NJPW America CEO Takami Ohbari.

 

This was pretty unexpected, at least to me. Is this because NJPW are not happy with how their American expansion is turning out? 

This also makes me think - was it Meij who was resistant to partnering with AEW? If so, the two biggest non-WWE companies might actually start partnering.

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https://wrestlingworld.co/rumors/reason-why-ceo-harold-meij-left-njpw/ Per Dave, Meij had some pretty big ambitions for the U.S. expansion and NJPW as a whole, hoping to get revenue to $100 million. With COVID and the lack of a TV deal putting a nix on that, maybe that's why he's leaving.

Some are also speculating he was the biggest opponent to a working relationship with AEW. But I also don't see them doing that while still working with ROH.

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At this point, I'm not even sure that the ROH working relationship would be the biggest hurdle in an NJPW/AEW working relationship but more the fact that NJPW has a working relationship with CMLL and AEW with AAA. ROH has lost so much steam ever since The Elite guys have left to create AEW that I don't know honestly if it's worth the hassle for NJPW to keep that going.

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A couple small details about Evil's presentation have really stood out to me.  As a now former IWGP champion, his block matches are always well positioned on the card.  They'll typically be behind a Naito match as he's the current champion, or a marquee affair like Tana/KENTA today, but will generally be high on the card because of that status.  

Similarly, when firing up the NJPW app on Firestick, he's now in the opening graphic along with Okada, Naito, Tana, Ibushi and White.  

I wasn't a fan of his brief run with the belt this summer and am not sure it'll result in him becoming a meaningful part of the top of the card rotation, but you have to admire their effort to position him that way even after dropping the belt.

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10 hours ago, Boss Rock said:

Had no idea it was just 9 shows, so yeah that makes sense.

Yeah, they're doing two joint shows at the beginning and end of the tournament, and otherwise alternating. Guessing that means, like the G-1, there will be 5 tournament matches in each of the separate shows, with an opener and maybe a tag match with the WK main eventers as a closer.

Makes sense for both tournaments, as I can't imagine they want to import guys for these, and both tournaments usually rely on a number of foreign talents to build out the roster. I was trying to figure out how they'd get to a decent number of teams for World Tag League without using the stars that normally get that tour off, and this solves it. (Although man, that tournament could be a real dog this year.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not too shabby. Tana vs KENTA, White vs Ibushi, Suzuki vs Shingo, all great matches on paper. Hopefully they do something different for EVIL vs Naito because the same old-shit again is tired. Okada vs Great-O-Khan kinda looks like a do-or-die for the character though... As long as we get an awesome Okada vs Ospreay at WK, it's fine.

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17 hours ago, Boss Rock said:

Power Struggle lineup is set. https://www.njpw1972.com/83143

WK is also two nights again. Wonder if one of those nights is Naito-Hiromu and the other is Naito-Ibushi.

Sanada beat Naito during the G1 so they might do Sanada for the white belt on night one and Kota for the heavyweight on night two.

Naito vs EVIL just seems like something we need to get through to get to the more interesting stuff. Talk about eating your vegetables.

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4 hours ago, FMKK said:

Sanada beat Naito during the G1 so they might do Sanada for the white belt on night one and Kota for the heavyweight on night two.

Naito vs EVIL just seems like something we need to get through to get to the more interesting stuff. Talk about eating your vegetables.

Vegetables have nutrition. Naito-EVIL is like being forced to eat a pack of plain rice cakes.

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On 9/29/2020 at 6:37 PM, Boss Rock said:

https://wrestlingworld.co/rumors/reason-why-ceo-harold-meij-left-njpw/ Per Dave, Meij had some pretty big ambitions for the U.S. expansion and NJPW as a whole, hoping to get revenue to $100 million. With COVID and the lack of a TV deal putting a nix on that, maybe that's why he's leaving.

Some are also speculating he was the biggest opponent to a working relationship with AEW. But I also don't see them doing that while still working with ROH.

To put a bow on this, he rubbed a lot of the non-native talent the wrong way and the Elite guys (the Bucks especially) felt that they got disrespected by him on their way out. He clearly didn't think they were worth making money offers to keep, and I personally think he may have been more than a little salty that their company succeeded in the US and his by and large has not. 

I think the pandemic made people at Bushiroad realize it might not be best for business to have a guy in charge who's antagonistic towards a company that could help them out in the US market. 

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I'm a little curious how they're going to shoot angles for 2 nights worth of WK given the calendar.  No Destruction of KOPW tours this year and BOSJ/WTTL can set up title matches in those two divisions but not necessarily more.  So we've presumably got 

1) Naito vs. Ibushi

2) Okada vs. Ospreay

3) Hiromu vs. BOSJ winner

4) ZSJ/Taichi vs. WTTL winners

5) Evil vs. White

6) Tana vs. KENTA or Moxley around the US Title seems like a possible direction.

But, again, that's over 2 nights.  Lot of gaps to fill there.  What do you do for the top of the card on the second?  Even if they want to, treating the Dome like a New Beginning/Destruction tour where you've got a couple big matches every night will be tough this year because they unified the IWGP & IC Titles.  

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