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I'm sure that Korakuen will have strong reactions for Road To Tokyo Dome shows, but thats Korakuen, they have strong reactions for everything. And maybe that is one of the problems with NJPW, that they don't have many acts that are hot outside of Tokyo/Osaka. On one hand it makes sense that GoD/Ishimori won't be defending their titles before WK because result would be obvious and you can make a point that neither of them should eat a pin now. On the other hand this makes those trios belts even more irrelevant. They weren't defended on Dominion and they won't be defended here. I think that idea of trios belts is good and it somewhat worked last year when we had extended LiJ/Taguchi Japan feud and few LiJ/Chaos matches for them. I hope that decent team wins pre-show gauntlet and actually does something meaningful with those belts in 2019. NEVER title being in the opener is also weird. But... Jr. tag titles actually had better year than NEVER belt despite being in the hands of same 3 teams all year so on that level I'm happy that they were moved up the card. But sure, Ibushi/Ospreay in opener looks weird regardless of the NEVER title being crap. Maybe fear is that many western fans will tune in only to see two main matches? So they added another match that western fans would be very interested in at the start so that you'd be more likely to watch the entire thing? Random thought.

I think this was one of the best Ospreay's matches in NJPW. Sure, his matches with other juniors were crazy and all that, but this felt to me like Ospreay getting very close to "I get it" territory. It felt like every little thing mattered and match had logical and strong structure. Makabe saving Yano was funny, but then I remembered few years ago Fale and Makabe having singles match at WK and I got scared. Rationalizations on reddit about how 3-way for the tag titles is better because running LiJ/GoD third time in a month doesn't make sense are funny. Like, if YBs wouldn't be inserted then they would have obviously ran different finals match. Nothing was done for trios belts. Weird. Yujiro met Naito twice this year and it looked like crowds were into it both times. Is it just me thinking that there might be something worth looking at? Obviously not a title match, but if Naito has few down months in 2019 then I think doing some short program with Yujiro might actually be cool. You know, like he had with Yoshi and Taichi this year. And crowd was brutal. After this show you wouldn't think that Tanahashi/Omega was going to be the main event. If I remember right last year WTL finals also had dead crowd (with close to zero reaction when Jericho was beating the crap out of Kenny) until Naito/Okada did their thing and finals itself being ok like this year as well.

I think he was solid too. My favourite thing about him was that he really didn't try to take things over like I often see in Callis or even that twitter translations guy who starts shouting his pre-written lines that sometimes sound ridiculously out of place. Excalibur on the other hand knew his role and stuck with it from start to finish. Anyway, watched post-match interviews from yesterday. And well, remember how in WK thread I wrote that NEVER title situation looks a bit similar to Jr. title's situation last year that lead to 4-way? Well, since Zack/Taichi got officially eliminated yesterday... Taichi started asking for a rematch that he never got. Again, it might be just Taichi, but I won't be surprised if he somehow gets inserted into something here.

If they are planning to use Rush somewhat regularly then him beating some low card guys for starters isn't a bad idea. But if Rush is going to appear twice a year then yeah, stupid.

So one more round left, what happened today: Tanga Loa got killed by Chuckie. Jado was likely murder backstage as well. We got 4 teams at the top and conveniently they'll be facing each other tomorrow: LiJ vs KES, GoD vs Ishii/Yano. KES in the finals over LiJ would be super weird so I think it is going to be either LiJ vs Yano/Ishii or LiJ vs GoD. Good thing is that it looks that there is no way that we'll get a 3-way finals. Would they put Ishii/Yano in the finals? It would make sense to put Ishii in multiman tag against Zack and everyone knows that Ishii/Yano can't win this tournament because Ishii already got singles match for WK. On the other hand, who gives a shit about that? Crowd would be way more into Ishii/Yano than in GoD and Sanada/Yano always deliver top stuff. And well, if the plan isn't for GoD to win the entire thing (and if thats the plan then fuck this shit) it probably would be better if they lost "semi-final" due to Yano's fuckery than lost to LiJ that would lead to them facing each other again (with Bucks thrown in) at the WK one month later. And well, if GoD aren't in the finals then they can drop trios belts to someone on the same show. LiJ/GoD is more likely, but I think that LiJ vs Yano/Ishii isn't out of the question.

Well he picked up a win and Yujiro ate a pin so gap between them widened. So yeah, either Page or Gedo are reading this forum. And yeah, if NJPW intends to keep working with Page then Yujiro turning on him last day might be a good thing. Yujiro makes sense more in Bullet Club than Elite and he is a guy that Page could beat convincingly to start moving upwards. Kinda like Trent last year. Chase can be funny at times and I don't mind him in undercard, but at the same time his presence is so small that I wouldn't care one way or another if he was never used again. Best Friends thing is so weird that I don't know where, if anywhere, it is going, but I'm enjoying the journey. Anyway, as for the tag league finals. We got 6 teams that are still alive with GoD at the top. Honestly whole thing looks like a mess to me and I don't think that we can realistically get a scenario with GoD not being involved in the finals. And sure, we all knew that YBs are going to get themselves into WK match, no surprise there. And I'm a wrestling fan who doesn't like triple-threats (not even going to say anything about more people/teams being involved in the same match), but I think that I'd hate it even more if GoD would end up winning the finals and would call out the Bucks. I really don't want either of these two teams as champs after WK and I'd probably take triple-threat over that as long as it means that we are getting new tag team champs, preferably LiJ, obviously. Nobody really cares about trios belts, but they have to take them off somehow, somewhere? Last year they had rather clever path to that with Bushi rolling up Fale, then misting and kicking him in the balls during their singles match that eventually led to Fale getting his revenge and them taking trios belts from LiJ. This year it doesn't feel like there are any hints of something like that. Best case scenario I think could be GoD losing their last two matches to Best Friends and Yano/Ishii which leads to Best Friends/Yano challenging GoD/ishimori at WTL finals and winning.

So Chuckie snapped again. I guess the idea is that if you hit him hard enough in the head then he is going to FUCKING KILL YOU. Maybe this angle isn't really going anywhere and this is just a character "quirk" for Chuckie. And I wouldn't complain, I found him rather bland before and he is a bit more interesting now. When teams were announced most of us probably easily identified who is going to be fall guy and who is going to be protected and that most of these teams ain't winning. On one hand surprising thing to me was how well FinJuice and Zack/Taichi are doing, on the other hand I'm surprised how bad Yujiro/Page are doing. Even Makabe/Henare got more points than they. And you know what is even more shocking? Yujiro isn't really a fall guy. Super J-cast twitter has been tracking on who gets pinned and who picks up the wins. And well, Yujiro and Page are almost tied. Yujiro picked up 2 wins out of 3, but was pinned more than Page as well so overall Page is ahead by one fall/pin. There are still 4 rounds to go and things might radically change, but at this point it looks to me like Page is on his way out because even Finlay is looking better than Page.

Weren't there some rumours about Pillman and NJPW? Or am I imagining things now?

Beats Lethal, main events MSG show. On a more serious note this is so weird that I don't know what to think. Since he is exclusive (and due to nature of his work) it probably would make sense to use him sparingly? Like pops up every few months to do crazy shit and sell some tickets? As I said, I don't know, this is so weird that it can either be great or be complete disaster.

I get the impression that PAC is doing what PAC wants to do as far as non-Japan booking goes. He was on RevPro and they have strong relationship with NJPW so I feel like if he wanted he could work with Impact. As for Cage and Morrison, no disrespect intended , but who cares really? I really doubt that they'd sell significant amount of tickets or subscriptions and NJPW has already lots of people that they can work with. And since they are top guys in Impact then obviously Impact would want them protected, which means that NJPW would have to put them over some of their own guys. And you know, that sounds like a headache. I get that they do that with Jericho or even Cody, but Cage and Morrison just aren't on that level.

Well maybe he won't be champ for long.

Kayfabe is dead and all that, but it still feels weird to me that Gabe just declares openly that he wanted to put Street Profits over, but since LAX couldn't lose he decided to make it triple threat that would politically protect LAX*. Like, what the fuck. Just write that Impact got scared that their top tag team might lose to Evolve's top tag team and be done with it. *This is also one of the reasons why I really don't like multiman clusterfucks. Sure, you weren't pinned, but you still didn't win and thats barely better. What matters is winning.

I'd think that same thing with six-man titles will happen as last year, they'll change hand on either Road To Tokyo Dome show or during WTL finals if GoD don't make it. And I really, really doubt that GoD are going to win their Dome match either. It is probably going to be either LiJ team or Young Bucks who walk out with the titles.

Surprise of this tournament to me is how much I enjoyed Suzuki Gun matches with each other. Also I liked DBS vs Zack segments and I remember liking his match against Yano in NJ Cup. Where I'm getting is... I wouldn't mind if he was in G1 next year. Sure, he is not top tier wrestler, but he is better than Tama, Fale and Page. Yoshi is better, but he is so dead as far as momentum goes that probably replacing him with DBS wouldn't be bad deal either. Basically I'd like if next year we had Suzuki, Zack, Taichi and DBS in G1 from Suzuki Gun. Best Friends got along well, but they did some subtle storytelling. You could see Trent looking worried multiple times and Chuck went from his happy mode to "I'm dead inside" whenever he knew that Trent wasn't looking at him. I have no idea where this is going, but it is working for me. Few days I looked at this card and Best Friends vs Dads was match that I was going to skip, but I ended up watching it fully solely due to this angle. Oh and I think that dads (and obviously Young Lions) are mathematically eliminated by now. Elgin/Cobb vs ishii/Yano had a bit surprising finish to me. Felt kinda like a revenge for their NJ Cup match? I'm not 100% sure but it looks they have Elgin and Cobb eat equal amount of pins this year. Thou I haven't noticed, but saw some people writing that Elgin tweaked his knee, maybe that changed match a bit? No idea. Jado poking Tama with a stick in order to get him out of Paradise Lock was top stuff and I think GoD did a new team finisher? Anyway, LiJ/GoD/IshiiYano at the top of the block with 6-2 record. You know what would be cool? Another triple threat for the finals. And I think it is kinda cool that NJPW are doing their dream match up two nights in a row and it is Ishimori who is picking up the wins. I'm 100% certain that he is beating Kushida at the Dome.

Was thinking same thing so came up with this angle: Chuckie runs in to help White against Okada -> Trent runs in too to stop his former Best Friend -> Plot twist, Trent is asshole too and they just pretended that they broke up -> Everyone beats up Okada.

Probably this is going to get lots of coverage (relatively speaking) due to Okada/Tanahashi team-up so everyone showed up and it felt like a really good show. And main event hasn't even started yet.

Would having a match on Evolve really give them more exposure?

Beware, spoilers below, if anyone actually cares about being spoiled with WTL results. Cobb/Elgin defeated GoD and Cobb was the one to pin Loa. Should please those who can't stand that NJPW still prioritizes (or do they?) Elgin over Cobb. In theory this also might be the way to get Elgin/Cobb on the WK tag titles clusterfuck match. Either way I think that Elgin and Cobb are starting to work pretty good with each other, I wouldn't mind if they'd stick together.

Enjoyed it even if I don't care that much about RoH. And it did feel a bit like NWA's videos so I wasn't shocked to see Corgan/Lagana listed as producers. Also, it is probably nothing, but The Elite barely got any screen time? Tag team tiles match wasn't even listed at the end of the episode. As I said, probably nothing, but I guess if you want to you could read it as RoH preparing for post-Elite world.

I had bizarre thought today. Remember how last year they threw Jr. title around 4 people that eventually led to 4-way at WK? Doesn't this remind you of something that is happening now? I obviously mean NEVER title. It looks like Ibushi wins it at WTL finals and Ospreay wants to challenge Ibushi... but Goto might want a rematch... and Taichi might want that as well. You might think that well, what sense does it make? Taichi didn't lose to Ibushi so how he'd want a rematch. Well, last year Hiromu and Kushida weren't defeated by Scurll either, but both of them got into WK match. And regardless of what we think about Goto (great wrestler, but stale and not going anywhere) he always tends to get something decent for WK. If not this then he is going to the gauntlet or pre-show rumble since I don't think that more matches will get added. Just like last year they didn't drop Kushida/Hiromu to pre-show or the gauntlet. Financially I doubt that Ibushi/Ospreay match is going to sell more tickets for Dome, but if it is further teased there and eventually happens as semi-final/final of New Japan Cup? That might be hot main event. I hope it doesn't happen (unless it is for Taichi to get a big WK win) because I don't like 4-ways, but whole thing feels similar, does it not? And you can make a financial argument for it.

I think it was inevitable. WWE is using some of its resources to build up their UK scene and they are not really interested in other promotions taking their talent, selling tickets with them and putting their own guys over them. At first they were allowed more freedom only because WWE hadn't built up their infrastructure in UK, not because WWE thought that this was something that they'd love to be doing. In near future you probably will be able to see NXT UK guys only on promotions that go fully WWE like Evolve. What is surprising to me is that Walter was signed by NXT UK. I expected him to get better deal than to get signed to 4-5th tier WWE show. And wonder how will it work out with OTT? They can't film him now if I get it right? And he is their champion? I hope there is an exception there and he'll be allowed to drop the title at major event, otherwise that is a big fuck you to OTT.

Has anyone done detective work and found out at what point Fenix was injured? I don't know, I liked the match, but this was really a bit too much on "gonna die if this goes wrong" spots for me and I was not surprised that one of them ended up being injured.

Since it looks like I'm only one watching this thing then I guess I might give some status report on how things are going on: I think that on the average matches are okay, none of them are going to enter conversation for MOTY, but it is decent wrestling all things considered. Teams that look good deliver better matches than teams that don't so no surprises there. To me so far best three matches were Yano/Ishii vs Zack/Taichi, Evil/Sanada vs Elgin/Cobb and Evil/Sanada vs Zack/Taichi. Granted many wrestling fans today watch only ****+ matches and don't have time for average matches that might not be significant at all so in terms of significance I'd highlight first and last of my mentioned matches. First one serves as a "road to WK" for Ishii and Zack and last one continues low key feud between Evil and Zack. I actually ended up liking new format. Sure, now there are more matches, but they are doing less shows. What does that mean? Less space for warm up tags. For example, today they did 7 league matches and one special tag between Okada/R3K and LiJ. That makes it pretty decent show since as average as these matches are they are still better than most 10 men clusterfucks that we'd get otherwise and show flows better due to that. I'm so far pleasantly surprised by Taichi's booking here. Sure, Zack is someone NJPW is seriously investing in so when they got to lose you can be sure that Taichi is going to eat it and when they win then Zack has to pick it up. But taking that in mind I think that Taichi is getting about as strong booking as possible in such situation. Some people wondered if he won't end up like Yujiro after losing NEVER title so quickly, at the time I think that is very unlikely.

So you are surprised that there actually might be some racist wrestling fans?

Watched vod matches from yesterday and surprisingly Makabe/Henare picked up a win. I guess they ain't doing 1-12 run with them after all, good.