sevendaughters

should have stuck my oar in here, I placed top 3 last year! I'd have gone Tantabara by Tal National this year.

new BTE seems to suggest Kenny to AEW.

PREDICTION: Hiromu comes out after Ishimori murders Taguchi

I also wonder how much of this is Meij's direction rather than what Gedo would want given what he has to work with.

hope you're right but it's not like they've made loads of smart expansion moves (Back to Yokohama Arena, Cow Palace)

in the shower I was trying to think of a way forward for NJPW and came up with the following. it's mad because NJPW picked up steam overseas before Omega was even a junior in NJPW but I think many see the company and him as synonymous. however: - cancel Dome 2. you can't do it justice now. it was a bad idea. get rid of it before it becomes a millstone. - get Oka and Kawato back in the first half of the year and ensure neither has a stupid gimmick. I propose the gimmicks of "their actual names". - similarly get Beefy Boy Kitamura back in and put him in the mix on a lower title, say the tag straps with a veteran to guide him. - turn Will Ospreay into the new foreign ace. I'm not a huge fan but while Kenny gets WWE'd to fuck, Ospreay can look cool. - Shingo goes heavyweight. - longer contracts that don't finish right after the Dome. you're stable now, 1 year is bullshit. - while we're chopping wood, maybe this is where we quietly move Honma on and some of the cheeseballs cluttering up Bullet Club - goes without saying but need to try and entice someone to make the jump to them, be that Nakamura or KENTA from WWE, or a domestic player who can work. Nakajima, Aoki, Hino, CIMA, Strong BJ would all be on my shopping list. We're in fantasy realm now though. - nail down Ibushi somehow and push him strongly - ?? - become #1 promotion! undecided on Jericho. he's done well and it works, but also I think hitching their wagon to his star might not be best.

like 2001 again for Vince, two shipwrecks at once

Jan 5 now at Shinkiba First Ring

think when it comes to Tanahashi / Omega / Okada you're talking 3 of the highest level guys in the industry ever and you go for the one you like most and make a post-facto justification. i like Tanahashi more than the other two because he's an old school proper non-geek non-cool babyface who wrestles a coherent and basic style with a premium on a psychology of the type of wrestling I grew up liking (Flair, Hart, Steamboat). if someone said they liked Okada more then I'd be like cool. but that they're clearly waaaaay better? suspect.

so weird but the contract thing every year leaves me feeling miserable about wrestling.

Is this a show I need to see? I watched the first two matches before running out to the football, seems like just basic 'this is who this guy fights next' stuff (which is fine, obv)

to be fair it's Saturday and Sunday which helps. Anyway, I can worry about business later. I loved the show. Hiroshi Tanahashi is the greatest active wrestler.

imagine if match 5 had been Kitamura just crushing the hell out of Goto (or Cody even) in 5 minutes, proper A Star Is Born territory

honestly think double Dome is suicide, total suicide. they probably couldn't do Double Saitama Super Arena. to get 50k over two nights they'd have to sign The Rock or do a serious co-promote

thing is surely New Japan haven't gone so fully HAM for 19/20 if they do not have some serious star power lined up. Tanahashi/Naito on top for G1 Dallas is drawing 6k tops.

Cornette is doing his in character bitch about that modern wrestling thing but to be fair to the old goat Ibushi IS doing a Golden Triangle to absolutely no one when Ospreay kicks him from the apron.

Funnily enough I felt last year like Oyaji seems to now. That the show was good, very good in the wider context of wrestling, but not blow away. But now I am sat here and I am blown away. I can only type this by clinging onto the edge of my desk as the wind of impressedness threatens to blow me clear over county lines. This was a great SHOW. Super main event that no way have I processed but I thought the storytelling of the old man reaching to the new and the new guy taking some of the old man's tools was, after all the cerebrality, easy to follow and made complete sense. I am surprised that Tanahashi went over (no really) because it snaps a long old streak of challengers failing. Really liked Jericho v Naito (won't even say "for what it was") and I hope that this leads to a Naito main event at the Dome that he wins in. Sadly they have diluted the meaningfulness of a Dome main event just as Naito is ready (again) to grab it! Okada v White was joyful. I liked how it was a lot of "remember when I had fire and things weren't so prog rock complicated?" from Okada with the right balance of sneaky shitheel and actual threat from Jay. Not an all-time great match but definitely a good part of the story. Yay shorts! Something of an unceremonial loss for KUSHIDA to the talented but slightly dry Ishimori. I enjoyed the work here as much as anything, with the sub-chasing and big knees, but I think this was the one match that was really affected by time. Cody v Juice was the one I looked forward to the least and it didn't deliver but maybe I was never going to let it? Nope. 3 way tag was fine, just fine. Short but this match never gets time. Sabre Jr v Ishii was the best in-ring all night, quick and crisp, and I liked the reversed-expectation dynamic (Ishii as weird protectorate of British belt and value, Sabre as disdainful and dominant). Will watch this again and thought it was like a cool G1 match. 3 way jr tag was the real intro to Shingo people needed. His aura carried the match and it was a cool ten min. Ibushi v Ospreay was super stuff and yet they didn't go all out. It was the right match to kick things off and get it all hyped and I like Ospreay more and more and will possibly become a fan if drops a couple of goofy things. Missed parts of the gauntlet schmoz because I tried to log on at the same time as ALL OF JAPAN.

ACE OF ALL QUANTUM TIME AND SPACE

I say, in all humility, GO ACE

Dad Bod v Tranquilo a classic of the joyful No DQ garbage match I'll never watch again! Total compliment, btw.

I liked that but it was the first one that I felt was too short.

creepiest thing in wrestling since that time Rick Rude got a woman's pic painted on his pants and he gyrated in front of her

Fine with the brevity for the tags, really. The singles got enough to tell a story too.

fvvkknn loving this show so far great mates!

super opener, loved that back elbow. Desperado music chilling everyone out before it goes mad again.