Teflon Turtle

That's informative. Had no idea about that fan club design or name. Obviously, Slayer isn't the first thing that comes to my mind when I see that "S". They didn't create it, but I understand that's been part of their logo for ages. I don't listen to them, but I know enough about them that I'm not about to start proclaiming them Nazis or whatever. There's a decent gulf between them and bands who actually preach hate. I'm still not crazy about the practice of bands using Third Reich iconography or fashion, but I can admit I probably pulled the alarm a tad too soon here.

I don't know that I'll ever understand the insistence on using the SS lightning bolt insignia on clothing designs. Especially since the brand helpfully put two of them in "Diabolus in Puroresu." As a Suzuki fan who would really love getting some of his merch stateside (and I realize this isn't anything that Suzuki himself has designed or released...), I don't see how this design has anything to really do with him beyond using his name/skull motif while also courting unnecessary controversy. Dude ain't German, dude ain't really punk, and I really hope he isn't ani-Semitic. EDIT: Never mind. Their website talks about how it's Slayer-inspired. I'm not much of a metal guy, didn't make that connection myself. Could still do without using that font for "s" if you're going to be putting two of them in something, however. Sticks out, and not in a good way, I'd say.

In re: the Skull End...I think we'd also need to talk about the Paradise Lock. Makes no sense when performed by a guy like SANADA. I never watched much Toryumon, but I was always under the impression that Milano Collection AT's original version was a submission that entailed him holding on to the legs, rather than just leaving the opponent tied up without any other pressure applied (though a quick search indicated that Milano apparently did both versions). But: for the Skull End, anybody who has done any form of legitimate grappling for more than a week or so would understand why the Skull End is nonsense. Why the Paradise Lock wouldn't work is self-evident. NJPW has its share of goofiness from Yano and Taguchi, but it really doesn't fit with SANADA's character or his place on the card. For that matter, it also pains me to see that sort of thing done by a wrestler who otherwise has some great looking offense. Every time SANADA uses either a Tiger or Dragon Suplex, I wonder why that's not at least an occasional finisher for him. Common move in puroresu now, but his version looks great. One last thing: I do get some shameful joy out of the Paradise Lock and Skull End not really working on guys like ZSJ and Minoru Suzuki. It's like a tacit acknowledgment that the moves are junk. I'm glad we're talking about this. I needed to vent.

Welcome. I'm in a pretty similar position: longtime, frequent lurker. Only occasional poster. I think the key for me was just revisiting the perspective that pro wrestling is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby for those of us who are nothing more than audience members. I think if one sits down and analyzes which aspects of pro wrestling they enjoy the most and focuses their time on wrestlers/promotions that check the most boxes, it's easy to trim away some of the fat and "cherry pick" anything you may have missed. We're not required to watch any of this, and there is no test after the program is over. For me: about two or three years ago, I decided that the storylines, production, and camera work on RAW and Smackdown was doing an incredible disservice to a phenomenally talented roster of professional wrestlers. Stopped watching all mainline WWE TV and PPVs, and I got an incredible amount of my time back. I came to find that NJPW offered an extremely high level of in-ring action and athleticism, no "forced" promos (the backstage comments are on Youtube if you choose to watch them, you can still make sense of the shows without the promos, and you aren't held hostage as a viewer by a 20 minute promo in the middle of a broadcast), and camera work/production that allowed matches to breathe and helped convey the story the wrestlers were trying to tell, rather than take away from it. Everything I didn't like about WWE, NJPW got right. Once I figured that out, NJPW became my main promotion. I'll read the board threads here to see if there's anything worth checking out from NXT or AEW, and if there is, I'll spend some time checking that out - again maintaining the perspective that I'm not beholden to anyone to watch the whole program, nor am I required to watch anything every week. I feel you, though. The choices in pro wrestling viewership are just as paralyzing as other choices available to us. I've certainly had those "Man, I've been watching wrestling for almost thirty years and have never properly checked out Nick Bockwinkel, Stan Hansen, or Jumbo Tsuruta matches...I should probably hit up Youtube. But wait...have I gotten the most out of my NJPWWorld subscription this month? There are hundreds of Liger matches..." moments a lot lately.

Agreed. Both wrestlers did a great job there. For me, the smartest "small moment" of the night was White repeatedly prying on Naito's left leg in order to escape the full nelson/neck crank he was in. It didn't look like Naito reacted to it too much, but it led to White getting a break of the hold shortly after. I can see how some could say that the match could've been trimmed a bit, but personally I don't have a problem with Switchblade control segments and a great story was told. Thoughts concerning the rest of Night 1: There was a bit of the usual Ospreay excess in the Jr. Heavy title match, but that very well could've been the match that had me the most emotionally invested (at least tied with White/Naito). Hiromu doesn't look like he's really lost a step. I'll be interested in seeing if Ospreay truly transitions to heavyweight full-time this year, or if he'll try to work his way back to get that elusive win over Hiromu. For Ibushi/Okada: I didn't have much of a problem with the first portion of the match. I think you need a bit more of a subdued or technical opening in order to give Ibushi going in to dead-eyed murder mode more impact. It was a great match top to bottom, though I did cringe a little at Ibushi doing a self-spike on the backflip kick. As someone else mentioned previously, they got me on the V-Trigger. I bit on Ibushi coming back after that. One wonders how much longer Ibushi can be kept away from the IWGP heavyweight title after the year he had. I haven't been watching much WWE in the last few years, but it has been really interesting watching Moxley since he left. He has consciously eliminated a lot from his WWE run (rebound lariat...), but the influence of working what's overall a lighter North American style for years can still be seen (the amount of daylight visible between him and his opponent when he throws his knee strikes, as was also pointed out by @Brian Fowler). I don't mean that to much degrade what Mox had done post-WWE, though: he's been pretty captivating since he left.

It seems as though "Okada loses because he isn't in the game for both nights" is where things are heading. But, it is a bit strange, as it still seems like they're relying on everyone but Okada to sell the overall idea. For example, Ibushi has been saying that he feels the IC belt, is on an equal plane with the IWGP heavyweight title. He rejects Okada's "silver medal" concept - both belts are gold medals. Everyone but the top guy has talked about why they want both of these championships. Instead of putting the IC title down, wouldn't it make more sense for Okada to talk about how he intends to prove his/the IWGP champion's dominance by taking the two biggest singles titles for himself? He appeared to be walking back the idea that he didn't want the IC title at all in a recent interview, but it was still pretty vague. The optimist in me (and don't get me wrong, I greatly enjoy Okada's work) hopes this signals a move away from the "single ace" concept as NJPW moves forward. Okada holding the belt for extended runs is feeling stale - count me among those who feel that his current reign has felt like an afterthought compared to everything else going on in the promotion in the last year, despite Okada still being a compelling wrestler to watch.

I agree that it has been a mistake that NJPW hasn't tried running Chicago already. I'm struggling to understand why they've avoided it this far. But, when this recent US expansion was announced, I think New Japan stated that they had touring regions identified (one of which looked like the Midwest/Upper Midwest), but would only tour one region at a time. What small part of me is still an optimist is holding out hope that they just didn't want to deal with the logistics of traveling in the northern US during winter. *crosses fingers for back-to-back Milwaukee and Chicago dates during warmer weather*

With the exception of the NWO shirts, I'd say our taste in what wrestling merch we'll wear in public runs pretty similar (I'm not knocking the decision to wear NWO merch, I just haven't got any). I've got a purple version of the classic Macho Man "sunglasses" shirt that I've worn to a variety of different cities, music festivals, wherever. I've probably gotten more (positive) comments and compliments on that shirt than just about any other piece of clothing I own. At the very least, a stranger or two is good for an "OH YEAH!" each time I wear it. Other than that, most of the stuff I own is NJPW-centric, or Elite-era Bullet Club shirts. I admit I occasionally feel a bit self-conscious wearing anything Bullet Club out, due to some of the stigma attached from certain segments of wrestling fandom. But, so far I haven't had any negative real world interactions with people over it. I wore an Okada shirt to a very loud venue, and a very, very drunk person got quite curious about it. I count myself kind of lucky that she wandered off in a daze before I had to shout "HE'S A JAPANESE PRO WRESTLER!" over the band.

I'd say (if I'm being really honest with myself as someone who has converted to watching NJPW almost exclusively and has been a fan for a long time) that things have been different...maybe a little strange, even...but not yet necessarily worse or stale. The in-ring quality is still very, very good, but I think we're seeing different guys deliver some of the best matches this year, and some are doing so in ways that differ from 2016-2018 NJPW. While Okada, Ibushi, Naito, and Jay are now the big four, I'd say the best matches this year have been delivered by guys like Ospreay, Shingo, and Ishii. Jay has been great, but he very conspicuously works an "anti-Omega" style despite being in Omega's spot (or so many have theorized). He's even commented on that to some effect - for a while, he was placing emphasis on the fact that winning is all that matters and the fans' ability to enjoy how he wins is irrelevant. Given that we've had a few years of Okada/Omega epics, seeing a guy like Jay White doing what he's doing at the top of the card feels foreign, even though Jay White is very, very good at his job. I think it's worth noting that some the G1 matches feeling different may have been out of everyone's control, Ibushi being the most obvious example. Nothing he did (except maybe for the final) in this year's G1 matched the heights of his 2018 G1 matches with Ishii or Tanahashi, but that likely seems more due to injury than anything else. Some quick thoughts on the Power Struggle show itself, since that's why we're here: - I'm extremely excited about the prospect of a healthy Hiromu being back full time, extremely nervous about the continued tease of Shibata returning, if that's what they're going for. - I've never really seen BUSHI in a spotlight role. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed his match with Ospreay. - After seeing Okada address the double-title concept and hearing the crowd's reaction to him, I think there's a very real possibility that Okada wins on the 4th and defeats the IC champ on the 5th. If the match on the 5th is for the IWGP title alone, that will be the giveaway in my opinion. If both the IWGP heavyweight and Intercontinental are up for grabs in one match on night 2, I'm less certain.

I'm a little late to the party on this, as I (clearly) don't post much. But, I think you both are getting at a good point that's worth discussing. i'm just going to pretend the whole rugby thing didn't happen. To me, the thing about Jay White that doesn't always get explicitly pointed out is just how rapid his improvement was. If you go back to watch his first "Switchblade" singles match against Tanahashi and proceed onward, you can see him improve almost every facet of his game in each subsequent singles match he took part in. I'd say this is a remarkable achievement in a promotion like NJPW, where most of your matches outside of big tournaments or singles title matches will be multi-man tags. To look at that first match, and then look at the confidence level the guy has now in terms of both in-ring and character performance...it's a huge leap in a very short time. I'm not necessarily sold on any "best in the world" talk for Jay White yet, but he's putting himself in some rarefied air with respect to how good he's gotten in such a brief period.

I used to post here ages ago, have lurked for years, and came back to comment on this show. First, though: I want to compliment the analysis above. I didn't really consider this aspect during the main event, but I feel it's a spot-on breakdown of the story that was told. Great work by Naito. - Part of me finds it hard to comment on Okada. At this point, I feel it's silly to deny how great he is. But...I (along with a bunch of others) have reached the same conclusion in drawing comparisons to Randy Orton. To me, Okada is what Orton could be if he cared enough to consistently rise to the occasion and use all of his potential. In addition, it's hard to root for him based on how easy he makes all of this look and how seemingly invincible he's portrayed to be. I also couldn't help but think that Okada v. Naito is something of a puroresu equivalent to the Yankees/Red Sox relationship in baseball. Naito's championships will come...probably...but we may be waiting a while. (If something crazy happens at New Year's Dash, I await mockery.) - I thought Jericho/Omega was better than it had any right to be. Jericho has absolutely nothing else to prove in pro wresting, but he decided to go for it anyway. As far as portraying a character and understanding how to play to and manipulate a crowd, Jericho is one of the best of all time. Quite possibly the hands-down best. I am an Omega fan, but it's hard to deny the excesses that others call out. But, y'know...if one of the big "callback spots" in your Tokyo dome co-main is shooting cold spray down your pants...well...God bless Omega for being his unique, goofy self for our entertainment. If pro-wrestling is supposed to be fun to watch, I had fun here. - I will sing the praises of Minoru Suzuki until the listener shoos me away. The guy is note perfect in his role and character, and is an utterly unique personality in a field full of them. I'm not a fan of the Suzuki-Gun stable as a whole, or how they're used (the constant interference is tired and tiresome). But Minoru himself, I could watch all day. I wish I could comment on every match, but it's late...or too early. I'll leave by saying the Young Bucks and RPG3K put on a fantastic opener, and I loved it. It was my match of the night until the main event. I think the Bucks understand the type of audience they're in front of wherever they perform, and can calibrate their act accordingly. -