Boss Rock Posted February 28, 2021 Report Share Posted February 28, 2021 Was surprised (albeit pleasantly) about some of these results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted February 28, 2021 Report Share Posted February 28, 2021 15 hours ago, El-P said: Ishii & White looked like two of the best wrestlers in the world. Which, they are, really. Great match. No idea how Ishii can still go like that, and White honestly looks like a prodigy now. Awesome pro-wrestling period. I went from not liking Jay White at all, & thinking he was mediocre to average at best, to thinking he's the best wrestler in New Japan & that they should build the company around him. I don't know what changed that made him click & connect like that but it's a night & day difference from a couple of years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted February 28, 2021 Report Share Posted February 28, 2021 2 hours ago, Coffey said: I went from not liking Jay White at all, & thinking he was mediocre to average at best, to thinking he's the best wrestler in New Japan & that they should build the company around him. I don't know what changed that made him click & connect like that but it's a night & day difference from a couple of years ago. I remember the Tokyo Dome show where he came back from excursion and face Tanahashi and basically fell on his face. I had no idea who he was and wasn't impressed at all. Then there was a switch with the Juice match (in the US I believe) and the G1 where he was part of CHAOS and being a total dick. From there I really enjoyed his work but year after year he just became better and better and better at every aspect of pro-wrestling, great psychology, great execution, great spots, great facials, great attitude character-wise... He's just a pure joy to watch and he's what, 25 ? A small detail, but the beard has improved his look tremendously, he kinda looked like a kid without it. Speaking of pure joy to watch, Naito vs Ibushi was the great pick-me up moment I badly needed today. I'm watching this and I'm like, this is next level pro-wrestling, which I did not expect considering Naito's injury (it did not show at all, Naito looked awesome here). Two matches in two months, I easily have both at MOTYC (ditto the White vs Ishii match from yesterday). The one thing coming off that Great O-Khan match is : Tanahashi is so fucking good, it's ridiculous, because that great O-Khan guy and his pathetic claw hold (Gedo, get your head out of the lame-ass gimmicks of the 80's territories already and watch some UWF instead for a change) is not gonna work out well. The right guy won, I popped for that finish. The three-way was ok. Going from having Hiromu in single to this is a huge letdown of course, and the new champ is like, ok, good for him, but it's not gonna set the division on fire. Kojima should get a last ride push, there's no way you look at him and think he's 50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted February 28, 2021 Report Share Posted February 28, 2021 4 hours ago, El-P said: IKojima should get a last ride push, there's no way you look at him and think he's 50. Mutoh and Jun already won titles, why not Kojima? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted March 1, 2021 Report Share Posted March 1, 2021 I don't quite understand the love Tanahashi-O-Khan has been getting. It was a fine enough match but not much better if at all than their largely average WK match. O-Khan has a cool move or two but is still pretty dang mediocre. Honestly, the Tenzan match was better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted March 1, 2021 Report Share Posted March 1, 2021 Today's Ibushi-Naito was a simpler and much better version of their WK match. Perhaps being reigned in due to the stage benefited them but I enjoyed this immensely more than the big show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 1, 2021 Report Share Posted March 1, 2021 New Japan announced the heavyweight and IC titles are being combined into a new title to be known as the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted March 1, 2021 Report Share Posted March 1, 2021 I've been seeing lots of people mad at this news. Not necessarily at the merge as much as it is that the title will start a lineage of its own. So, I guess this now makes the NEVER Openweight title the 2nd title in importance? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 1, 2021 Report Share Posted March 1, 2021 Yeah they mentioned Ibushi would be the first champion of the new title, which sounds like it may have been one of those "lost context in translation" things, Also maybe now that the Forbidden Door is open, the US title will be the 2nd title? Once everyone gets their vaccine of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Dunk Posted March 1, 2021 Report Share Posted March 1, 2021 I just need them to get back on AXS or somebody besides ROKU in the States. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted March 2, 2021 Report Share Posted March 2, 2021 On 3/1/2021 at 3:32 AM, Dr. Dunk said: I just need them to get back on AXS or somebody besides ROKU in the States. A channel no one gets vs. a platform that's widely available for free in the U.S., Canada, and UK... Gee, I wonder which one would be better. For all of NJPW's monumental missteps in any market outside of Japan (such as NJPW World still being limited to the web and Fire/Android devices), this isn't one of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted March 2, 2021 Report Share Posted March 2, 2021 5 hours ago, C.S. said: For all of NJPW's monumental missteps in any market outside of Japan (such as NJPW World still being limited to the web and Fire/Android devices), this isn't one of them. The fact that it still won't work on a Chrome book is insane. Even WWE fixed that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted March 3, 2021 Report Share Posted March 3, 2021 20 hours ago, Boss Rock said: The fact that it still won't work on a Chrome book is insane. Even WWE fixed that one. I just tried https://therokuchannel.roku.com/ on a Chromebook and it definitely works. Looks clear and beautiful. You might want to see if any of your extensions are fucking with it or if you have "Protected Content" disabled for the Roku Channel site. (Protected Content is that stupid DRM crap some websites insist on.) Edit: Or do you mean NJPW World? Yeah, I remember not being able to get that to work on a Chromebook either. I think I ended up having to use a phone or tablet to cancel it. What a joke! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 3, 2021 Report Share Posted March 3, 2021 On the flip side, my Xbox One and now my new Xbox Series S have become my defacto New Japan streaming boxes since I can just access the site from the built in browser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted March 3, 2021 Report Share Posted March 3, 2021 16 hours ago, C.S. said: Edit: Or do you mean NJPW World? Yeah, I remember not being able to get that to work on a Chromebook either. I think I ended up having to use a phone or tablet to cancel it. What a joke! Yeah this is what I meant, sorry for the confusion. I have a browser switch add-on that I can watch it with Opera, but still ridiculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted March 3, 2021 Report Share Posted March 3, 2021 3 hours ago, Boss Rock said: I have a browser switch add-on that I can watch it with Opera, but still ridiculous. What is the add-on? It sounds very handy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kas Posted March 4, 2021 Report Share Posted March 4, 2021 Anniversary Show over-delivered. Kojima vs Cobb was really good, O-Khan vs Naito is easily O-Khan's best match so far, and Ibushi vs El Desperado was great (and it only went 20 minutes!). Between the STARDOM show yesterday and the NJPW show today, Budokan had some great shows back-to-back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 5, 2021 Report Share Posted March 5, 2021 Easy to watch, undercard matches were fun but nothing special. Kojima vs Cobb was very good indeed, you watch this and there's no way Kojima is 50 years old. Best match of the show to me. Great O-Khan is better than sleeping pills, he's the death of every form of joy whenever he's on offense. Knee Claw ladies and gentlemen, that's next level godawful offense for 2021. The lesser said about the result the better. I shudder to think this guy is gonna be in the G1... Ibushi's performance in the main event was great, as he had a very good match with Desperado, who's really nothing special at all. Desperado was game, but it was totally the Ibushi show in term of trying to make the most out of a match with zero doubt as far as what the result would be. Plus, it was basically the same dynamic as the previous match with work on the knee to try and get a submission, so the difference was really striking and not in favor of O-Khan at all but it also came off repetitive in a way... So really, for a Budokan show, I'd say it was pretty underwhelming. Running two stadium shows in May sounds like complete insanity in this context. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dav'oh Posted March 5, 2021 Report Share Posted March 5, 2021 I took notes! Don't think I've done that before. Spoiler: My notes are shit! and contain no insight or analysis. To wit: "Zack ate a sammich! Thank you, Zach - that's all we ever wanted from you." "The strapping on Okada's back gives him the world's worst plumber's crack." "Sho getting into Ibushi negative percent body fat territory." "It would want to be the Left Hand of God seeing as it follows the Right Hands of Piss". "Cobb's lost the puppy-fat. Eased up on the heavy squats, too, so he no longer has an arse like a Kardashian." About all that's worth offering up for discussion was: *Love how Jay White is in Full Wanker mode from the moment he steps through the curtains. Easily wrestling's most wonderful shithead. I could believe that he wakes up a wanker and has breakfast as a wanker and brushes his teeth and walks his dog as a wanker and so on through the whole day. And *I have no idea of what a "Juice Robinson" is. I know the NXT redemption story, of course, but that's background more than character. The Beefcake and Savage tribute trunks and the Leo Sayer / Vitas Gerulaitis hair (that's as 'contemporary' as I can get...fuck I'm old) tell me nothing. (The show gets an easy thumbs-up, for the record.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted March 5, 2021 Report Share Posted March 5, 2021 I'm still not sold on O-Khan's gimmick, but I thought he did fairly well. Nothing mind-blowing and I wouldn't give him a title, but he acquitted himself well. Cobb looks like he's in the best shape of his life and it's evident in his match performances. Ibushi-Desperado was really good, as was Ibushi-Naito a few days ago. It seems like a lot of wrestlers are kayfabe shitting on the unified title. Ibushi heel turn coming? While I don't think Okada's 2020 was as bad as most say, per Dave in the Observer he's working through 2 slipped discs (hence the back tape). That probably explains why he's taken it easy in certain matches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kas Posted March 5, 2021 Report Share Posted March 5, 2021 4 minutes ago, Boss Rock said: While I don't think Okada's 2020 was as bad as most say, per Dave in the Observer he's working through 2 slipped discs (hence the back tape). That probably explains why he's taken it easy in certain matches. He seriously needs to take some time off, especially since he's not in the title/main event scene right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 5, 2021 Report Share Posted March 5, 2021 42 minutes ago, Boss Rock said: I'm still not sold on O-Khan's gimmick, but I thought he did fairly well. Nothing mind-blowing and I wouldn't give him a title, but he acquitted himself well. Ok, he had two *good* matches with Naito & Tanahashi. It's akin to having two *good* matches against Misawa and Kawada. Or Flair and Steamboat. There's nothing to write home about. Lex Luger, who got shit on for years and years for being a nothing worker, had two *great* matches against Steamboat & Flair in 89/90. O-Khan is a joke, the gimmick is trash, whenever he's on offense I die a little inside (the fucking claw on the knee, pleaaaaaaaaaase), that's 0-2 for Gedo after the disastrous EVIL main event push. Where the hell are Ren Narita and Shota Umino already ? And please don't give them stupid-ass gimmick either. Okada should definitely take some time off and come back fresh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted March 5, 2021 Report Share Posted March 5, 2021 Trust me, I'm expecting him versus EVIL to suck haha. I wasn't even super high on the last Tana match. The chop match with Tenzan was better IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 5, 2021 Report Share Posted March 5, 2021 Why is Okada even working at all when the injury is this severe? It's stuff like that that can cut a career short. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kas Posted March 5, 2021 Report Share Posted March 5, 2021 Because New Japan wrestlers are absolutely mental. Naito wrestled half of 2019 with double vision and Tanahashi wrestled the entirety of the G1 in 2017 with, I think it was a torn tricep. New Japan really do need to step in and take better care of their wrestlers because these guys will never take a break on their own Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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