Current New Japan

[W2BTD]

 

If you needed more evidence as to who was really pulling the NWA/NJPW strings, Jushin Liger currently has one date scheduled in the U.S. next month, and it's for PWS.

 

The NWA/NJPW relationship is tenuous at best right now.

Woof. Conway still coming to Japan to defend the title ?

 

 

Yeah, the stuff for New Beginning is set in stone.

 

Beyond that, I would put the current odds 50/50 at best that the relationship continues. Keep a close eye on how those matches are booked, and remember, KES holding the tag titles means nothing because Archer works several NWA groups regularly anyway and KES has worked several different NWA territories in the past.

 

If Liger retains vs Owens, they cold always book a quickie change when he's in the U.S., but according to Tharpe himself they were told Liger is booked solid and as of right now NWA can't get a date.

 

Obviously Tenzan winning would be a good sign.

[Strand Peanut]

Interesting. I wonder if NJPW is just waiting a bit to see how the NWA shakes out with the split.

 

I have yet to see any Conway in NJPW, do they see any value in him?

[anarchistxx]

Can't believe The Young Bucks are headlining NJPW, albeit it on a more minor show. Still getting the rub from working with Tanahashi. WWE missed a trick by not recruiting them and the Briscoe Brothers - they had their successors to the Hardy Boys/Dudley Boys right there.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Could be wrong, but I think the Bucks turned them down.

[Strand Peanut]

WWE was interested in doing business with both teams at some point.

 

Bucks prefer they're current schedule and income is mostly what I've read.

 

Not sure about the Briscoes. Think there's some myth floating around about why, involving Twitter posts. I think they may have been closer to actually doing something with WWE.

 

If you're not gonna let them talk their talk, not sure why'd WWE want em.

[Mad Dog]

I had heard they packed off after Jay had made several homophobic comments on Twitter last spring.

[Mad Dog]

Sorry I meant 2 years ago.

[Timbo Slice]

Well, if you hear one of the #DemBoys promos from a couple years back, it's because after the tryout, Johnny said they weren't "cosmetically pleasing":

 

[anarchistxx]

 

 

If you're not gonna let them talk their talk, not sure why'd WWE want em.

 

Great talkers, good look [in the sense that they are easily identifiable and stand out], good workers who would have got even better reigned in by the WWE style. Not as if they have a stacked tag division.

[Strand Peanut]

 

If you're not gonna let them talk their talk, not sure why'd WWE want em.

Great talkers, good look [in the sense that they are easily identifiable and stand out], good workers who would have got even better reigned in by the WWE style. Not as if they have a stacked tag division.

I don't think they get to do their own promos in WWE. They lose a lot in character without them. Which is really their distinguishing point. The other tools they bring, I could see WWE finding that in others.

 

Still, WWE did reach out.

 

I think the Twitter thing is a myth. Things like, bringing Bucks and Briscoes to feud and one drops out, OR can't work wednesday house shows, got chickenkillingnight, seem more likely.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Can someone shed some light on what I should expect from Okada? I am not really connecting with him. Sometimes, it helps me to read about what I should look for. I don't feel like his offense really builds to the Rainmaker and I just don't feel the urgency. Tanahashi is one of the best strategists of all time. I understand his intentions in every match and how he believes it will lead him to victory. Okada just seems to hit the same offensive stretch towards the end. He is perfectly fine at everything he does. I just wondering what is that special something I should be looking for.

 

The one big positive I have picked up on is that he is super over with the live crowd even moreso than Tanahashi and Nakamura. They get behind Okada whether he is winning or losing. Tanahashi and Nakamura have no qualms heeling it up and it feels that while they are huge stars the crowd is not always 100% behind and sometime rather root for their opponent. I like that unifying presence Okada has.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Last night, we had a break through between me and The Rainmaker. Between the Ibushi and Nakamura match, I got a much better feel for him as a wrestler and character. Now, granted, he is decidedly fourth on my depth chart of the New Japan Big Four, but I do not think he outright sucks or is boring. He reminds me of a disinterested Barry Windham, a cooler Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura circa 2008 all wrapped into one. Where he is just so graceful and fluid in the ring, his dropkick and that elbow drop are two of the best looking moves in wrestling. Yes, the Tombstone and Rainmaker could have some more impact, but overall he knows his way around the ring. However, much like Orton there is no connection for me until finisher time whether that be the RKO or The Rainmaker. Okada's offense, while pretty, seems like a random mish-mash of moves thrown together willy-nilly because they look cool. There is no real natural connection between moves. I do love that he uses the dropkick like Misawa would use an elbow. It is a high risk elbow and it shows when he misses it at least once a match. The other Orton comparison is he moves so slow in the ring, which I get is supposed to be his thing because he is the cool, cocky punk. He is way cooler than Orton. I love the nickname and the entrance, dude looks like a fucking boss. So I dig that. The problem is much like Nakamura circa 2008, he just is not selling to me that winning the match he is in makes a difference to him. There is no sense of urgency, struggle or desperation. It has just been going through the motions while others are being awesome around him. Now because he is so naturally gifted, he has not gotten in the way of Styles or Suzuki having a great match, but he has not contributed either. I think last night I finally saw two matches where he started to contribute. I have gotten past other people have wonky movesets, but if I am going to invest in Okada he needs to make me believe that winning the match I watch him in means the world to him. That's all I am asking.

[pol]

Okada's aloof character strikes me as similar to Malenko's Iceman gimmick, where it's a kayfabe cover for a genuine in-ring deficiency.

[MJH]

I'm hardly the most frequent watcher of New Japan, but Okada's moveset has always struck me as very head-and-neck focused (as are his finishes, thus it makes sense). He's cut out some of the flashier submissions, which is probably a good thing given they're hard to transition out of and his matches needn't be littered with Milano-Collection-ATisms, but that odd bit of flashiness does suit his gimmick, at least to me. As does his aloofness: I needn't mention stoicness in regards to top Japanese guys, and I've found his mannerisms to be a nice balance between stoic and cocky.

[ohtani's jacket]

I don't see how Okada is aloof. He's not an all-time great worker, but he's hardly what I'd call aloof. Malenko wasn't able to inject any personality into his matches only subtle behaviour. Okada doesn't have that problem.

[Fantastic]

So, New Beginning was today:

 

 

The Young Bucks won the three way to capture the IWGP Junior Tag title belts - not surprised, The Bucks are hot.

Anderson and Gallows regained the IWGP tag titles from Shibata and Goto - losing on their first defence, which begs the question as to whether they are planning singles pushes for Shibata and Goto?

AJ Styles defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to become the IWGP Heavyweight champion - quite surprising, I thought Nakamura was going to be the one to unsurp Tanahashi's reign and to set up a match between him and Okada at some point. I guess NJPW feels that AJ Styles is the quintessential foreign talent and a great draw for the International audiences, given NJPW World's International presence.

 

So, for maybe the first time in forever, the NJPW champions role call is dominated by foreigners. In fact, not one native talent holds any of the "original" belts!

 

 

 

[Coffey]

 

Are the Bullet Club even over enough still, at this point, to give them all belts? It feels like it ran its course months ago, when they was trying to push that sloppy fuckin' Bad Luck Fale.

 

[Fantastic]

 

Are the Bullet Club even over enough still, at this point, to give them all belts? It feels like it ran its course months ago, when they was trying to push that sloppy fuckin' Bad Luck Fale.

 

 

 

AJ, Anderson, Takakashi and The Bucks definitely are. I do agree that Fale is something of a lost cause, he bombed spectacularly in his brief feud with Nakamura and should never have had that run with the IC title. I'd like to see them condense the group. Omega can split and do his own thing as Junior Heavyweight champion. Tama Tonga isn't getting anything out of being with them. Cody Hall's presence in the group is bizarre. Anderson and Gallows are most effective as an unaffiliated tag team. Fale is... well Fale. So, basically the guys holding the belts are over, but the group on a whole is getting stale.

 

[Coffey]

I agree with all that, my dude. Well said.

[tim]

That show's booking was as hideously awful as anything WWE did last year. Complete garbage booking.

 

Ibushi/Honma was really great though.

[pol]

Thumbs slightly up show for me.

- Honma/Ibushi was a good but not very good match, which was disappointing given what both are capable of. I thought the match suffered a lot from not having Ibushi work a sustained heat segment on Honma. They must have known Honma would be a huge crowd favourite in Osaka, so there's no excuse.

- The Junior tag was my favourite of all the multi-team matches these guys have had. I'm still ready for an end to the car crash matches and a sustained feud between two of these teams, though.

- Omega/Taguchi was really fucking bad. Sooo boring. I like the idea of The Cleaner gimmick and I get that it's supposed to be over the top, but Omega comes off too much like he's playing a character for my liking. I'm glad they're doing something with Dorada, hopefully those matches are a bit more interesting.

- At the start of the tag titles match the show was really starting to feel like a drag to me. Other than the aforementioned match nothing was bad, but so many tag matches that were no better than average and that had no real consequences really started to take it out of me. That said, they got me back by the end and the finishing stretch was great until the wrong guys won.

- I feel like AJ and Tanahashi have this problem in their matches where they never seem to quite kick it into high gear. I thought this was the best of their series thus far, though. I really thought from the way they worked the opening 5-10 minutes that they were going 40-50. Given that they only went 26 the way they paced this is mystifying, unless they brought it home early because of how fucked up Tanahashi was which doesn't seem like the Japanese way. I did think the working of holds and methodical heel work from AJ was really very good though. Very old-school, 80s NWA title match feel, which was very cool, just a shame it lacked a satisfying final third. Tanahashi doing the 2nd rope senton after spending the previous 5 minutes getting his back worked over was uncharacteristically stupid on a psychological level. I'm not really a fan of the AJ win here; it devalues the drama of the WK9 main event and postmatch when Tanahashi just loses the belt in his next defense anyway, plus I'm so fucking done with the Bullet Club.

Color me pretty skeptical about NJPW booking going forward. I guess these double shot shows make sense from a business perspective but they are kinda a chore to sit through so that kinda sucks too.

[Mad Dog]

I think the AJ win was obvious here. They were worried about him drawing at the Dome so they put the belt on Tanahashi and ran a safe main event. The belt is back on AJ so that Okada can finally beat him for the belt after the losses last year.

 

Okada will win the New Japan Cup and challenge and win the belt in April or May.

[tim]

Sounds very, very, very uninteresting.

[Shining Wiz]

It was actually a pretty solid show.

 

Except for Goto and shibata losing the tag belts. That was stupid.

[Mad Dog]

Have I ever mentioned on here how much I hate Karl Anderson as a singles wrestlers. He's one of those guys that always has to get all of his shit in no matter what kind of impact it has on the quality of the match. I think he's a really good tag worker though.