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Well that happens in almost every match where taping out is teased and eventual ending is finisher getting hit. Like, that didn't stop people from raving about Okada/Omega II despite first 20 minutes being about a leg work that went nowhere, not even a tap out tease.

Well if Juice gets beaten then we can safely assume that whoever won against him ins't wining the tournament either because he is going to challenge for USA title... So champions being in it are bound to remove some drama. I find Okada unlikely because I doubt that they'd start suddenly doing bunch of short (zero defences??) reigns. So White would have to retain in my book and him being 3-0 against Okada is a bit too much. Plus as was already mentioned, if it was Okada/White then fans could really start chanting for Omega since it perfectly fits into Omega/Okada rumours. As for "we sold the tickets, fuck you" thing... Last two G1 finals had sold out in advance as well and we still got Omega/Naito and Tanahashi/Ibushi. So I doubt that they are going to do here a match that couldn't sell tickets. Unlike what some claim, they are thinking about the future. Just not the future you or me might be thinking about and thats why Okada/Tanahashi likely won't happen again outside of G1 for some time now.

So, working with the idea that singles champions (for fun I removed ZSJ as well) are not allowed this is what I came up with: Evil, Sanada, Makabe, Fale, DBS, Finlay, Goto, Tanahashi, Okada, Ibushi, Elgin, Suzuki, Kojima, Taichi, Henare, Ishii I think this is pretty strong field already that can be improved by swapping in ZSJ since I doubt that they'll recognize RevPro title despite it basically being in the hands of NJPW guys for past 3-4 years. So, I don't know, maybe all the champs are in as well, but even without them they can do great tournament.

Has it been confirmed that Naito and Ospreay will be in it? Because if they are then whole thing is loaded and I really doubt that they are going to run any Naito/Tanahashi/Okada/Ibushi matches here considering that they don't run very big buildings for this tour. I mean, I understand why they'd want them in it, but at the same time it basically means that we'll get like 5 upsets. And if every second match is an upset then are they really upsets?

I think it is TK.

I'm doing multiple quotes because I feel like something got mixed up here with how things started about double Dome event and changed into MSG. Well, two things really: 1. They still got lots of time to build up Evil/Sanada. And it is not like Okada/Tanahashi have been shown to be unstoppable, they lost their first match against Fale/White. 2. They might do Tanahashi/Okada vs Evil/Sanada for MSG with Evil/Sanada winning which would help with making it more believable and elevating Evil/Sanada. Like, sure, GL vs Dream Team sounds better and likely would move more tickets, but if Omega doesn't want to do it (or has ridiculous requirements) then Evil/Sanada are next best thing. For starters, I don't disagree that NJPW's idea of "must have lots of white wrestlers on USA shows" is stupid, to say the least. But as a fan of NJPW and long time viewer... I have no desire to see Okada/Tanahashi again. I'm sure that this match will happen again and it will be good and I'll end up enjoying it, but it is not a selling point to me any longer. I think that their rivalry will (or at least SHOULD) become less and less important to overall product. White or no White they have been slowly moving to new era and I feel like Tanahashi/Okada being friends instead of rivals will be their role in this new era. This is also why I think they might do Okada/Tanahashi vs Evil/Sanada. So, you have big USA show that will get more exposure. I think that it should be logical to focus on what is going to happen next and not on what was happening past 6 years, but won't be as relevant in the future. Would Tanahashi/Okada or Tanahashi/Ibushi be a better match? Very likely, but for me there is more interest in White/Ibushi because it is going to be way more relevant to NJPW's future. But Tanahashi/Okada totally should happen in USA because I think lots of people want to see it live. And I think that G1 in Dallas would be good spot for that.

Thoughts: This is likely were we'll get Nagata/Ishii since earlier shows are putting them against each other in tag team matches. Nobody really has any big match announced. White is clearly not defending his title here and not doing any "special singles match" like Okada did. Naito and Ospreay could defend their titles here, but against whom? Same for heavy tags, thou they can in theory do GoD winning on Honor Rising shows and Evil/Sanada winning it back here... Or will they run Ishimori/Liger as main event?

Will update the card as more matches get confirmed. Anniversary Event 2019/3/6: Narita/Umino/Yoshida/Yano/Makabe vs Hikuleo/Chase/GoD/Fale Henare/Nagata vs Yoshi/Ishii Dragon Lee/Taguchi/Tiger Mask/Honma/Kojima vs Taka/Desperado/Kanemaru/Taichi/Suzuki Bushi/Shingo vs R3K for Jr. tag titles Ishimori vs Liger for Jr. title. Goto/Okada/Tanahashi vs Evil/Sanada/Naito White/Ospreay

So, thoughts: Build for Nagata/Ishii restarting. Likely will happen on Anniversary show? I guess R3K will beat Desperado/Kanemaru to officially end their feud. Eagles is back for all these show doing nothing very important. My guess would be that Ishimori/Eagles will be next jr. tag team challengers? Ospreay/Tanahashi vs KES is a weird match. Are they building up Tanahashi for tag team run or are they going to do something for Ospreay here? Like DBS pinning Ospreay to set up NEVER title match at later date? Taichi/Naito teased something about changing things after last New Beginning show. Might Iizuka's retirement match be good opportunity for that? Goto/Cobb II is finally happening. Ospreay/Datlon sounds interesting. I'm not sure if they ever had a match? I like Lethal/Taven feud, but I don't care about Taven's friends. It makes sense for those title matches to happen, but Lethal is not main eventing even RoH shows against those guys and it is no surprise that same thing happened here. I hope that Sanada/Evil retains. I actually started liking Tama's character work, but I really don't need to see them as the champs again. Finlay/Juice vs Briscoes makes sense and doesn't at the same time. They have built some storylines for why Finlay/Juice vs Briscoes feud would make sense, RoH held tournament to determine #1 challenger, Finlay/Juice lost in the finals and now are getting title shot anyway. And it is happening before winners of the tournament will get theirs.

I'm lumping these two things into one thread because they literally happen right after each other. NEW JAPAN ROAD 2019/2/21: Uemura/Liger vs Eagles/Ishimori Tiger Mask/Henare/Honma/Makabe vs Tsuji/Narita/Kojima/Nakanishi Umino/Nagata vs Yoshi/Ishii Sho/Yoh vs Kanemaru/Desperado Taguchi/Goto vs Taka/ZSJ Ospreay/Tanahashi vs KES Yano/Tenza/Okada vs Taichi/Suzuki/Iizuka HONOR RISING Night 1 2019/2/22: Narita vs Scurll Umino vs ZSJ Gresham/Liger vs Eagles/Ishimori/ Henare/Honma/Finlay/Juice vs GoD/Briscoes Taguchi/Yano/Makabe vs Cheesburger/Delirious/Cabana for trios titles Ospreay vs Dalton for NEVER title Cobb vs Goto for RoH TV title Lethal/Okada/Tanahashi vs Taven and his friends HONOR RISING Night 2 2019/2/23: Tsuji/Narita/Umino vs Cheesburger/Delirious/Cabana Henare/Gresham vs Taka/ZSJ Scurll vs Eagles Ospreay/Goto vs Dalton/Cobb Shingo/Naito vs Taven and Taven's friend Lethal vs Taven's friend for RoH World title Sanada/Evil vs GoD for tag titles Finlay/Juice vs Briscoes for RoH tag titles

One more thing about White... remember how Block A last year didn't have many top guys? That basically means that White can have fresh matches against Goto, Ishii, Sanada, Naito, Ibushi and ZSJ. Ospreay is surely an option as well. He also has enough stuff done with Finlay/Juice to warrant another Juice match or maybe even LifeBlood vs Bullet Club feud due to "clashing ideologies". Basically Jay being at the top opens up main event scene. So I'd say that his reign shouldn't be short. Obviously if it tanks financially then he should get swapped.

Yeah, it makes sense. But then, we thought that something similar was going to happen with Naito and Omega. And yet their entire "feud" was contained in G1.

I did that and for some mysterious reason Gedo didn't change his plans. Anyway, I started running scenarios in my head based on what I have read from reactions and what I think myself: 1. Should White's reign be long? Some people think that he should drop it during MSG, which is clearly crazy, while some say that maybe at Dominion. I wonder, should they maybe wait it out till KoPW? Kinda like how AJ won the title, but wasn't really drawing people in so they did a switch there for Tanahashi. 2. Okada got a huge boost from feuding with White and for this type of story it would be natural if Okada ends up beating White for the title. But... what will happen when Okada will win the title back? Will we get another long reign with fans not really caring that he is the champ? 3. So if Ibushi is signed... and wins NJ Cup... should White beat him? I'm not sure if The Elite fans will ever accept him (partially due to taking Omega's spot and partially due to having completely different wrestling style) and they'd surely be behind Ibushi so if White wins then he'd get lots of heat. I'm just unsure if that heat would translate into anything tangible.

https://old.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/apfx9e/impact_viewership_on_pursuit_12_000/ I know that Impact keeps going every time someone says it is dead, but how low can they get before someone finally pulls the plug?

Good thing then that most of the time he is told to win.

White vs Barnett in a MMA fight.

Tell to Brock or Reigns that wins and loses do not matter.

Heard from some places, that might be as reliable as that "Kitamura resigned with NJPW" story, that Ibushi signed for 2 years.

Yeah, but you know, they both will be in the Cup and on opposing brackets so thats what everyone will be speculating about. Kinda how last year we had Tanahashi/Naito and before that Tanahashi/Omega. And then upsets happened and we got radically different things.

Old article that I think is relevant to whole USA shows thing: https://spoilerfreewrestling.com/njpw-la-dojo-wrestler-training/ Key quote from Kidani: We are unlikely to ever get a main event between two Japanese guys in the USA.

Because they have their own vision of what USA shows should be. It is not about ticket sales. Well to an extent, obviously if sales tank then they'll have to adjust.

Yeah, sorry, that was really bad word choice on my part.

I think he might have mixed up this forum with reddit or twitter that is infested with heart broken Omega fans.

So working from the bottom: R3K will challenge LiJ for tag titles. I think everyone saw it coming and it probably makes sense that they'll win those titles back on Anniversary show when last year they lost them on Anniversary show as well. I just hope that they have something figured out for whats next because, while matches are still good, I don't need to see more LiJ/R3K/SZGN matches. I liked when Tama started hitting everyone and everything with kendo stick. I think he even threw one camera operator from the stage? Either way it looked great. Ibushi is back and he talks like he wants to stay. I hope he is not working and actually ends up signing with NJPW. I thought that Taguchi/Ishimori was literally perfect match and is my MOTY at the moment. I liked every single thing about it from start to finish. It probably kills Taguchi as challenger going forward, but nobody expected him to win it ever again either way. Main event was great as well. I thought that Styles Clash set up was a bit weird, but other that than I loved everything else. I doubted that White would win due to them going very far with "Rainmaker shock" callbacks, but it did happen after all. I'm still sceptical about "Omega would have retained" story, because everything in this storyline makes sense since White's return. So, obvious NJ Cup final now is Ibushi/Okada, but last couple of years we got different finals and winner than what looked obvious.

Not sure about Tenille, I think during Tag Wars they said that she isn't cleared yet so who knows when she'll be ready.