Archibald

I felt like second episode was noticeably weaker. Presentation is still great, but I don't really see a hook at the moment. They have built Tim Storm/Nick Aldis rivalry rather well and I wanted to see how it ends. I got that in first episode. Cool, no complaints there. But whats next? It looks like they are building towards James Storm/Nick Aldis match? James is obviously much better in the ring than Tim, but if I wanted good matches I would be watching something else. I don't see much story there and it looks like James Storm/Eli Drake for Nation title is the end game there anyway. I look at the talent that they showcased so far and there is nobody* that I'd want as the next rival for Aldis. This goes back to my earlier post about wanting Briscoes in this. They got a story with NWA and Aldis that wasn't resolved in RoH, they are good promo and great in the ring (even if it sounds somewhat contradictory to what I said about James Storm) so I feel like Briscoes could really take this show to another level. *I'm sure that someone is going to bring up Kingston, but I don't see him as main event guy and it looks like he'll be dealing with tag teams anyway.

Maybe NJPW World+? You can buy each separately or you can buy both of them for cheaper price?

This should really be group retirement with all of them hanging up their boots asides of Taguchi.

Updated the first post with new announced matches. Looking at how things are shaping up I think it is likely that we'll get Ospreay/Ishimori Jr. title match here as well.

Yeah, but they didn't have scheduled defence then. It is weird logic, but they are being somewhat consistent.

I don't object to Archer becoming USA champ, even if the means were not ideal and it is likely going to be a short reign. I'd probably have Juice win it back before WK and have Juice/Mox III at WK. Will/ELP was what probably everyone expected it to be, but I found ELP doing certain moves a bit too much. Feels like he was killed a bit here.

So if AEW dies few years later... Dragon Gate will be able to run a Dragon Gate/Cima reunion tour like they did with Ultimo now?

Besides that I think that TMIV never really got "over enough" that he could function without the gimmick.

Doesn't look like NJPW/CMLL relationship has been hurt by the recent drama involving Rush and Dragon Lee. In fact, this year we get one more Korakuen show so I guess we could say that tour is slowly growing bigger?

I have watched most of the material from NWA and I really like the character of Aldis. You can see that he is an asshole who pretends that he is good guy. He talks all nice and good, but at some point something flips and he shows his true self and this happened at the post match promo here as well. Its all good to put the spotlight on Storm when you know that you'll get something back from it as well, but if the host wants to give some spotlight to Camille? Fuck that, talk about me and about this great man that I just defeated. That being said, when the bell rings he still underwhelms. I didn't really like how low blow was brushed asides as Storm simply being desperate. I get that it shouldn't be a heel turn, but it probably still should have gotten more attention. Hopefully Storm keeps appearing and some heel that he'll feud with will bring it up. I didn't really get Josephus here. During the intro he was still shown in the robe so I expected to see more of his "kingdom of Josephus" stuff than what I got here. I know that he is not good in the ring and probably not a draw, but he still was major (and entertaining!) character during the early days of this NWA so it feels like he should get more than he did here. I wanted more of Kingston/Homicide and Wild Cards because to me it looked like their segment was cut abruptly. Sure, Josephus and Storm crashed in, but I wouldn't expect them to just silently go away because some other dudes are fighting in the crowd. Other than that I liked it a lot. Probably best 1 hour of wrestling that I saw in a while. But you know what I really, really want? Briscoes. If I'm not mistaken NWA split with RoH on good terms so I hope they can make some deal and have Briscoes appear on these shows and continue their war against NWA.

Some things about Jr. tag league: No Dragon Lee. It doesn't mean that NJPW is done with him, but at the very least it looks they are going to wait a bit till making their next move. Nothing from RoH, I don't think that it means much because RoH is having their UK tour during this time and they probably need everyone they have for it. No LiJ team, does it mean that Hiromu is actually not coming back or they simply don't want to put him into league straight after his return? Sounds like the finals will have some variation of Birds of Prey/R3K/Bullet Club teams or a triple threat like last year.

Road to shows will have Jr. tag league, participants: Main Power Struggle will show matches: White/Goto for IC title Ishii/KENTA for NEVER title Naito/Taichi, winner probably faces White/Goto winner Okada/Yoshi vs Ibushi/Tanahashi Jr. tag league finals

NJPW has added profile for him: https://www.njpw1972.com/profile/56893 I think they wouldn't do that if they weren't thinking about bringing him in for more shows.

So that Ospreay/ELP match... On one hand Ospreay/Hiromu or Ospreay/Liger sounds like a bigger match than those with ELP there. And Ospreay with Eagles failed to take tag team titles away from ELP and Ishimori. So logically thinking Ospreay should probably retain? To me in this case only sound argument is that maybe if Hiromu is back NJPW doesn't want to put Ospreay against him due to predictable crowd reactions. But then there is other stuff that only recently "clicked" with me: In 2017 RevPro created British J-Cup. Basically their version of Super J-Cup, but with UK indies twist and well, not as good. Anyway, point is that Liger wins it. Probably because it sounds cool and it kinda gives it some prestige that their inaugural winner is Liger. In the meantime ELP becomes a regular in RevPro and RevPro holds another British J-Cup in 2018. This time ELP beats Liger in semi-final and wins the whole thing. In 2019 he joins Bullet Club and participates in BotSJ, loses three times and "avenges" each loss on following shows. After Aus show where he defeated Rocky, in post match interview he actually calls out Liger. So with all that happening Liger announces new Super J-Cup tournament in USA. ELP wins it and again calls out Liger. Ospreay/Liger and Hiromu/Liger are cool sounding matches that would function as "passing of the torch" moments, but then... do they really need to be passed anything at this point? On the other hand it looks like ELP's push has been deliberately linked to Liger so him being Liger's last opponent kinda makes sense, no? Like, am I insane in thinking that this is actually ELP's "story"? Now granted there are two obvious flaws here: 1. NJPW hasn't really done anything to show this ELP/Liger connection so it is very likely that I'm just reading too much into this. 2. ELP is getting strong push, but at this point getting one of the marque matches for WK sounds too much, no?

If the problem was mental health or anxiety then why the hell people kept it all hush hush? I understand that maybe you don't want to say it because it is personal information, but by being silent they opened up doors for various crazy rumours that now won't go away.