Archibald

Random thoughts: Upper left bracket looks kinda weak. I hope that Ishii wins it. Lower left bracket has some interesting stuff. White beating Okada here would make sense if they want to postpone Naito/Okada rematch, but that match is happening at Okada's home so it sounds very unlikely that he'd lose there. I feel like Nagata getting a win over Suzuki here is plausible considering that Okada/Suzuki is kinda done to death, Suzuki/White doesn't make much sense, while Nagata would be fresh and interesting match for both of them. From another side we got Juice as clear favourite. White/Juice probably makes more sense than Okada/Juice. Upper right bracket looks stacked. I feel like first two matches are here only to set up a tag title match and neither of the guys will advance far. It probably comes down to Sanada/Ospreay and winner of that likely wins the entire thing. Lower right bracket I think is for KENTA to take. He'll get some heat back by beating Karl, Yoshi and Goto (I think he beats Evil) before putting over Sanada or Ospreay in a heated match. But since it is happening at Sanada's hometown I'd think that Sanada/KENTA is more likely, crowd will likely go nuclear for all the bullshit and KENTA's stalling.

Winner gets to challenge for Naito's double gold. Brackets:

As expected Anniversary show is one match show. Everything else is tags with previews for NJ Cup matches.

Marty is going to show Young Bucks how to book yourself.

Either case Naito is probably not losing till Dominion, even if then, so Tanahashi and Ibushi have to be occupied with something.

I think that people calling wrestling "performance art" just want to do whatever the hell they want without being limited by rules and conventions that were set up by previous generations.

Because he is on AEW's payroll. On a more serious note... nah, thats all I got, just wanted to make an outdated joke.

Best part of the match was ending sequence when Tanahashi dragged himself to the top and it really did feel like he might not make it. Obviously GoD had nothing to do with it. Golden Ace vs Tekkers, Golden Ace vs FinJuice. We should be getting at least couple of fresh matches out of this.

I think the fact that they are doing 8 shows in the same place in one month (7 in February and 1 more in early March) makes people picky as well. Anyway, it doesn't matter much.

Reminds a bit of WWE, no?

Anniversary show is sold out so it is entirely possible that we don't get any additional big matches there. 4 Korakuen shows are doing well as far as tickets go, but I think that it is rather interesting that what, from my observation, wrestling internet thinks is hot and what Japanese audience thinks is hot often does not match. Shingo/Ishii headlined show is doing lowest numbers from the 4 shows.

Figures we could use a new thread for upcoming 4 Korakuen shows and Anniversary show. I'm just going to list key matches (in my opinion of course) here. Anniversary show so far has only one match announced, if something cool is added then I'll update this post. Tiger Hattori retirement show on 19th: Cabana/Yano/Ibushi/Tanahashi vs White/Fale/GoD Goto/Ishii/Okada vs Sanada/Shingo/Naito New Japan Road on 20th: R3K vs Mega coaches for Jr. tag titles Shingo vs Ishii for NEVER title New Japan Road on 21th: Taguchi/Cabana/Yano vs Bushi/Evil/Shingo for NEVER trios titles Ibushi/Tanahashi vs GoD for heavyweight tag titles Nakanishi retirement on 22th: Nagata/Kojima/Tenzan/Nakanishi vs Goto/Ibushi/Tanahashi/Okada Anniversary show on 3rd: Naito vs Hiromu

My understanding is that main issue is lack of growth in Network numbers. They can start charging for PPVs, but it won't attract new customers and might (probably would) lose some subs due customers being angry about them now charging extra for same content.

Both signed with NJPW before signing with AEW.

How was the attendance?