Salads

Haven't been watching the tournament but saw a clip of the crowd going nuts for Tavion going over Kenoh so I assume he's doing something right.

Enjoyed this year's G1. The absences this time round on the lower end of the talent scale made up for the departures at the top end quality wise. Has been surprising among all the gloom seeing opinions sway between Umino / Tsuji / Oleg / Kidd / Oiwa / Uemura (/Takeshita?) as to who the next big star will be. Losers: Umino: Injury may be an excuse. Sanada: No injury this time so what is his? Naito: Far from 'done' and he's transitioning to his next form, but the last one was impossible to follow. Lee: but thanks for https://dubz.co/v/ee0047 Tsuji: Okay, so career-wise he's clearly a winner here, and the surprise gene blasters have become a treat but my expectations for him in the ring have been slightly dampened. Somehow his second match against Takeshita ended up being plodding (?) and I repeatedly had the impression that his control segments were primarily random moves while he grabbed himself a breather. Dunno: Great O Khan: Still not a fan. I don't buy anything he does. Tenzan at 53 years old does a Mongolian Chop that puts his to shame. Oddly I found his win over Naito unconvincing because he was so dominant. Nevertheless he did have a good tournament and 2024 judo GOK is an upgrade on the 2023 version. Completely behind him getting a good run here because a) people loved it b) every man deserves a break and c) if he didn't get something this year he would have likely had an uphill struggle for the rest of his career at the rate at which others are progressing. Winners: Ok so I'm looking at Block B and they're all basically winners, aren't they? The Goto resurgence was incredible with the tremendous Takeshita match and him crushing his son into the barricade at Korukuen to great applause while posing with his daughter on his shoulders. The guy has stirred more emotions in 2024 than I can remember him doing in years. The answer to the aforementioned next big star question is clearly Uemura, and as a babyface underdog I have faith that his injury will be appropiately milked later on. 'David Finlay sucks' is now the latest giveaway that someone doesn't watch the product. Hints dropped about Takeshita spending more time in New Japan. Don't quite understand the praise for Boltin, but he seemed to get better as the tournament went on and the Cobb (who is back in form) match at Korakuen was perfect. Both HOT representatives have even dialled back the antics a bit. Kidd: I do wonder how much of his character gets across to non-Brits because to me there's a great authenticity to him. Which isn't to say believability - because the people in real life that he reminds me of aren't that believable! While watching the Brit-off between him and ZSJ, there's a point where he starts running towards the corner preparing a chop to a chest that has already been turned to mincemeat since the first minute of the match and has been targeted consistently since. I hear him ask 'how's your chest?' before impact and I'm transported back to memories of school bullying. It was in a way a much needed bit of representation. So much development compared to last year's 'jump everybody' approach. Still trying to make a name for himself, but this time by just being inventive and living the gimmick. Memorable, character-driven finishes to the matches against ZSJ and Lee. Waiting patiently for Naito. Actually jumping his opponent the one time you think he never would. Destroying Umino. That promo to Tanahashi backstage. Face chants in Osaka. That video I linked to above. What a tournament. Watch this man and be entertained.

You can add Goto v Takeshita from today's show to that list. Great crowd.

Crowd came across well from what I saw of today's show, even though it sounded like the mics were cut when the pin was counted. I'm all in on Yuya being the babyface (was never completely sure what made a white meat babyface white meat) of the company going forward at this point. Umino's cuts a wholesome promo but in the ring is something else. Trying to decide if Umino's matches are good but being let down by a moveset that doesn't entirely suit him or if I just don't like his pants. Shingo/Gabe is a great match worth checking out if you have some no-selling tolerance. Works well as a combo with the backstage comments after, which features a firey promo from Gabe and a good line from Shingo if you're the type to stick subs on. If Lee betrays War Dogs at the end of this G1 then that stable is in even better form than before. I've just finished work and had to stop myself from ending this with 'Kind regards'

The whole of the G1 fitting into one calendar month for £8.07 is a steal. Scattered thoughts from what I've seen (which is very much a minority - thank you for recs from places like this to help me prioritise). Uemura v Takeshita is getting the attention but Uemura's had a good tournament in general, helped by his opponents giving him a lot. His stable, haircut and promos all seemed to make him duller as the year rolled by, which has made him effective at surprising people. English commentator keeps on mentioning 'fundamentals' during his matches but I think he's just a bit of a throwback in general. This is based entirely on me thinking his appearance, moveset and nickname would fit perfectly in one of the classic Fire Pro games. Having good fire but not much personality outside of that also fits him into that mold. I'm expecting the playoff matches between 2nd and 3rd in each group may be there this year so that Takeshita can get a win back over someone before progressing to the finals so he can technically only put one person over without just predictably streaking through everyone else. Not that I necessarily think the politics demand that, but I can't really see the reason for them otherwise. ZSJ is reliable as ever. Finlay is getting it together (sleazier and more aggressive). Umino as always seems best when he's ignoring all of the influences he is accused of having too many of. Not liking Lee but I'm not going to judge him on the match ups he's had so far. If he doesn't work out in New Japan at least his 'I betray everyone' character will help save face. Seconded on Goto still being able to go. I was super high on him when he was starting out so it was cool seeing him win the G1 on his debut. While I have no objection to Oleg and Newman being in this tournament these kind of younger debuts weaken the chance of anyone making that kind of impact in future from the homegrown side. Naito and Tanahashi are two names where it always seemed obvious they would undergo a moveset change in their later years and keep on ruling like Liger did. Don't really understand why they didn't. I keep on seeing Great O'Khan's name come up in match recommendations which is intriguing.

Oh yeah and Jake Lee's nickname is Smart Bastard.

I don't know, being fed lines by terrorists behind the camera can be a decent description of many inexperienced promos. Umino and Kidd had a face off at the press conference so they're likely leaning into it either way. Other press conference notes: EVIL stating 'I will have the worst match every night' and Tsuji giving everyone pudding.

Block B is fascinating - here are how many of their scheduled matches each participant has which have never been done before in singles: Goto 6 ELP 5 Tsuji 2 Cobb 5 HENARE 5 Finlay 6 Narita 4 Uemura 7 Takeshita 9 Boltin 9 Other than Narita and Tsuji, everyone is scheduled for a majority of fresh matches, and I'm not sure that would even be true of Narita without counting matches that took place before they 'graduated'. Anyone subbing up for the tournament who is mad about Ishii not being involved can go back and check out his match against YOSHI-HASHI which has been very well received. Bit surprised Newman went over Yosh. Taichi had a great promo after his match against TJP rallying against being moved aside for younger talent: 'If the youth drew enough on their own you would have made the switch years ago'. Personally I'd like to see that angle played up more. Olds against youth is a classic formula and the motivation rings true with Tanahashi outright stating that was the company's intention. Complaining about younger talents and their comparative lack of ability/accomplishments is usually a heel move but here there'll be fans who agree wholeheartedly. Disband Chaos and the non-WarDogs/HoT Bullet Club seeing as no-one really knows what they are anymore and assemble a Grumpy-Gun as part of the reshuffle.

FYI they've just announced a rematch for this year's Rev Pro anniversary show.

I would draw a link between Takeshita's disillusionment with his AEW career, his recent increase in Japanese bookings and extend that graph to him potentially moving back to Japan but lolno when you remember the money side. Welcome to the Dolph Ziggler zone, Konosuke. Grim that the only former winners in this thing are Naito and Goto, but mad respect that Goto gets top billing in Block B because of that. I'm old school enough that ten man blocks are still massive to me, and it's nice that this gutted roster can have a 20 man selection and still have people mad about who was left out. Those qualifying rounds are a better way of moving on/preserving older names without just having a supposed committee decide that they're too old, and if a newbie wins nice for them to get their moment before they get jobbed out in the league. I'd agree that having Yano in the G1 is never going to be a bad idea for the reasons given, but those reasons would be valid forever and he has to make way at some point. The fact that even in his little qualifying group of nearlymen he clearly has zero chance of success shows how the kayfabe argument for him being there never existed. I've found New Japan discussion to be a bit of a cesspit in recent times so I'd like to echo the second machine-translated-from-Japanese comment I saw on the youtube video announcing the participants: I hope everyone finishes the race safely.

Haven't got an excuse not to have seen ZSJ vs Riddle considering it's up on YouTube. Heard good things. If it is indeed Matt's last match with the company then it's a decent average for his two bookings I guess.

Agreed. I also love the 'even though like 90% of the time that move’s been absolutely fine' excuse. Firstly, that's a completely unacceptable safety success rate for any move, let alone one that targets the head/neck. Secondly I don't think he's performed the move on-air as many as ten times in order to get that statistic. So either he had to make a number up and chose one that incriminated himself further, or he practised the move backstage and wasn't deterred by all the previous times he hospitalised someone. If it counts as close enough, I'm still recovering from the one Kobashi took off the entrance ramp. He probably is too.

Yeah I think everyone had that nanosecond 'hey!' reaction seeing that result before coming to terms that becoming Goto 2.0 probably isn't a priority for Zack at the moment if we assume that Naito isn't dropping anytime soon. My sub isn't active at the moment but I'm hopeful for the new and improved HOT Narita I keep hearing about considering I never rated any of his Shibata Jr stuff.

Seconded. Seems like Cobb has been working semi-hurt for ages so good to see him work a proper main event singles match. Uemura / Shingo was a good match too but Uemura is exciting because of his potential and the crowd here were excited for what Tsuji is now. Great noise for the size of the crowd. No way someone would group him with Umino and Narita if they started watching the product today. Side note: Starting to really appreciate how much a protruding belly helps a splash. The bigger the bulge the less Jeff's standing moonsault looks like a cute flex.

News appears to be breaking (I'm trusting translations on this) that Yutaka Yoshie has sadly passed away after his match today. Found this out in the middle of writing a post for the New Japan tour thread where I had mentioned his name (will remove it in case seen as disrespectful). I liked him in the few G1s with him I saw but I'm largely in the dark about his performances after leaving New Japan.

Thanks because I'm lost without the recs. I'd already seen Atlantis Jr vs. Hechicero which I enjoyed (the latter has proper 'this guy's a pro wrestler' energy, something which I keep on referring to while wanting a way to articulate better). Lucha is 100% blind spot for me and I feel like a filthy casual doing it wrong by watching these guys work singles matches in Japan. I wonder how much appeal this kind of thing has to regular viewers. I assume not a lot but maybe there's a Dragon Gate in ROH element to some of it where they're playing the old hits to a new audience and its fresher for it. They went long. I was a bit down on the match afterwards because some of the transitions were a bit weird and there were often sequences which were not as smooth as we're used to. Felt like they were too green to be working a half hour match in the semi-main. Then I remembered that despite them being heralded as NJPW TNG these guys had been back from excursion for less than a year, and Yuya has very little singles experience so yes of course they're green and they did well. Good match to see them flesh out their movesets, but noticeable that Yuya doesn't have a character yet. The impressive bit was that the haircut wasn't even the spiciest part of the post match. On his way out Yota went over to Okada who was with the commentary team and gave him an earful about the way he left the company. Perfect fit for LIJ.

Often when watching big ZSJ matches I wonder where or when we're going to be able to see this kind of thing once he hangs up his boots. This match was that dialled up to 11 with Bryan also seeming like one of wrestling's irreplacables. Things of note: Zack's facials having to do a bit more work than usual, and great strikes. Thanks to the Natural for linking to the backstage comments because they put each other over great. In that interview Zack articulates a) what is special about this pairing b) what his angle is for him wanting the title and c) why he's staying with New Japan (ie principles). The latter would've also been the reason why him leaving would be sadder than the others, so grateful viewing for me. I don't think the cage match is going to be divisive. Plenty you can nitpick, but it's a classic! I saw an interview with Clark Conners recently talking about how him/Drilla didn't grow up watching Japanese wrestling and how they're still basically doing straight American stuff. This was a rare chance to do a particular type of American wrestling in Japan by people who probably understood how much freedom the territory gives them and that another chance might not be forthcoming. All the feelings you want to get - jeopardy, entrapment, escalation and discomfort. Cage was used well, the teams worked as teams and an appropriate finish. Memorable as hell, and everyone is better off for being involved.

That's pretty much where I'm at regarding who to keep. I like ELP and it'd suck for him to go when he has just broke out in the heavyweight division like he has but with his background and age I can't begrudge him for cashing up considering his ceiling with the company. He turned down AEW last year so at least we can assume he's going to be doing what he wants to do. Your mention of Cobb was interesting to me because although I've always rated him and think he's valuable on account of being so unique among the roster, it made me realise that I'd close to forgotten about him which shows how he has been downplayed this last year. I assume he's going. I was actually under the impression that they'd already started focusing on younger guys / other foreign options since around 2022 in anticipation of future losses. Successfully, judging by the number of people who are of the same 'if the War Dogs stay then we're good' mentality. A lot of relatively unproven foreign names added to the midcard at the time for a company with no money so now if a group of the more established names leave it doesn't look too bad. Bad news: EVIL was favourite to win even before there was a mistake made on the company website showing him as the current champion.. Good news: They kayfabed it majestically:

One of those match-ups for which adding the 'in Japan!' clause for the rematch triggers in me a feeling of escalation more commonly seen with 'in a steel cage!'

The show with UE vs BC is the last match for Will as a New Japan contracted wrestler. If we take that to mean it's the cut off point for annual contracts then it's notable that the top three matches are ELP/Hikuleo defending their titles, ZSJ getting his 'home' soil rematch and a main event featuring ten(!) foreign talents. None have been announced for dates beyond this point, so chances are it'll be the last time to see some of those names in the company. I've been assuming the worst ever since Tony Khan singled Zack out for praise during Wrestle Kingdom.

This is all about my promo style preference so not a judgement on the man, but it's good to see Bryan like this hyping a match without any forced smile/laugh and only a fleeting appearance of his raised 'grr I'm intense' promo voice. The guy's smart and he loves to lie so just sit him down and let him do what he loves I'll buy it all.

I don't mind that idea for SANADA, but Naito going over would be one of those pro wrestling moments where predictability is best. He's their top draw, hasn't had the top title in three years and is beginning to break down. 'We're going to do the roll call properly this time' is the biggest incentive they have to get fans back into attending live post-pandemic and I don't think it's the time to play around with that expectation. Agreed totally on ZSJ. He isn't a draw in any meaningful way currently and nothing says making a connection to the Japanese crowd like George Michael references and Argos observations in your move names. Saw the promo vid for Ospreay v Zack and Will is the one that looks like the star. Will say however that he has been making good progress in terms of his style/aggression recently in addition to his physical transformation. Was also impressed that he's now comfortable enough to make jokes in Japanese. If he has managed to be at least halfway fluent that's a big standout factor for him and if he can communicate the personality we know he has through that then it's very encouraging.

The main event actually managed to get a million viewers which was better than I think anyone expected, as was the news that NJPW's revenue is now almost at pre-pandemic levels. Will be going to Royal Quest III tomorrow. Bit of a downer in that the show was announced too late and held too soon after the AEW/RevPro shows to do a decent gate seemingly, and my read of the main event is that they're doing the match while they can before both guys leave the company / my wrestling viewing life but should be good graps. They've said they'll continue to do UK shows so upside is that hopefully next time it'll be a smaller venue and I can afford better seats. Initially thought it would be my first time seeing Eddie but then remembered I already had at All In but it consisted of someone pointing to the other side of an arena asking me if I could see him with me repeating that I couldn't, before saying that I could just to get them to stop asking, then seeing a light next to him that identified the area I should be looking at which was my entertainment for the next minute or two. Quite a few Rev Pro guys on the card but I'm not complaining because apparently I'm useless at appreciating up and coming talent (thought nothing of Gabe on the card last year, now he's one of my favourites) and having experience of shelling out for trans-continental flights it seems a financial miracle that it's worthwhile to fly half the roster over for a show like this.

New Japan dropped Naito v Zack from last year's Royal Quest on youtube if anyone's in the mood for a match where a top crowd and top wrestlers are reunited after years apart and everyone has a lovely time.