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For me best part about production was on first night when Suzuki Gun started their usual all out brawl and camera guys had no frigging idea what they should be showing. I guess it shows that we take many things for granted without realizing that some of that stuff isn't easy to pull off. Oka's new gimmick is a bit weird to me due to Mongolian Chops. I would get it in Japan since Tenzan is still somewhat relevant there, but at the moment I don't recall anyone really using it in the west. So to me it feels a bit strange that he is going to do that move a lot. And when he returns he is probably getting different gimmick? Feels like it is being done backwards. I don't like that Zack doesn't sell Toombstones. Suzuki/Ishii was a bit underwhelming due to already stated reasons. I'm not sure if others follow RevPro (and I do it only as long as it involves NJPW guys), but their next big main event is Ishii/Walter. Probably winner takes on Suzuki. Oh, and the poster looks absolutely great: One last thing, Suzuki Gun are taking over RevPro. I won't be surprised if in near future Desperado will win their cruiserweight title. And it looks like it is working out better than what happened when Suzuki Gun invaded NOAH. Which brings me up to crazy speculation land: is NJPW thinking about buying RevPro and setting up their own UK promotion? Probably not.

NJPW released short promo videos for each participant. They are not translated, but you can kinda get the idea due to visuals chosen. Few that I found interesting: Goto is pretty much presented as a national hero since he is only Japanese guy that holds heavyweight title. This could be an interesting angle I guess if it wasn't Goto and I will be a bit surprised if he ends up getting more than 6 wins. Jay White had "I will show you my... CHAOS" words in his video. I suppose this gives some more credibility to "White beats Okada on opening day" theory. If I got it right they played up on Okada and Yoshi-Hashi returning at the same time in WK and how one ended up as a star and another as a jobber. I think this also could be an interesting angle if it wasn't Yoshi. His video also received a ton of dislikes (2x more than likes while every other wrestler got very few dislikes) and I know how it doesn't represent anything, but at the same time I wonder if he isn't going to get some go away heat.

If I'm not mistaken they are friends.

Well SCSA isn't an angel himself.

Caristico should really find a friend or two because Volador Jr. clearly can't be trusted.

Weird time for Kenny, finally wins the big one and immediately stuff about racism and sex offenders starts. But I'm unsure about whole situation to be honest. Should registered sex offenders be black listed from wrestling? I understand black listing them from work around children, but wrestling? Because if they are black listed from wrestling then I honestly don't see much reason why they couldn't also get black listed from working at McDonalds either. Basically where I'm going is... what should be done with registered sex offenders? Should they be jailed for life? Because it looks like nobody really wants them around. And yeah, probably not appropriate topic for this thread.

Only stupid smarks don't like Taichi.

I think they'll just get Chase or Yujiro for the tags.

Then in 2020 Atlantis cashes in his mask and puts someone over really hard that could potentially launch some long term rivalry for his son (something that AAA should have done after Triplemania instead of going with Wagner/Son program, but probably thats what Wagner wanted), only question mark is his health and would he be able to carry couple of big feuds in next two years. Considering how much "premium time" Park's son got I expect Atlantis Jr. to be permanent main eventer unless he is really terrible.

I'm not sure if RoH crowds are ready for a white meat babyface.

Problem with YBs as champions is that they wrestle a lot elsewhere and usually appear only on big NJPW shows while NJPW is clearly building towards smaller titles main eventing smaller shows. I'm not sure if I remember right, but I think that Desperado/Kanemaru now have longest jr. tag titles run in last few years which is partly due to YBs winning and losing those titles 2 times a year. And I'm still mad about YBs controlling 90% of the Dominion match till injuries started so if they win again then I'll get mad again. You don't build up someone for strong G1 by having them lose badly two matches in a row. Okada being "protected" from other titles is interesting, but it probably makes sense only if he is not winning the G1? Because otherwise he'd obviously just ignore those potential title matches in order to get ready for briefcase defence at KoPW and WK main event. Besides, it is not like you have to take a title shot. Elgin defeated Omega last year in G1 but we never got a rematch between them for US title so Okada might as well say that he is not interested in US title and move on, would probably even be good for his character to show that he is entirely focused on getting back "his" title and won't be distracted. Which does not mean that he should be constantly involved in title defences or chasing, he can still do some side stuff like what Tanahashi did with early Bullet Club. I mean, Okada beats White on first day, says that he is going to win G1 and does not care about any other title. White gets mad for being not only defeated, but also for being disrespected in this way that can continue building up towards something.

If White loses then, if I'm not mistaken, A Block wouldn't have any singles champions since Juice, Omega, Goto and Ishii (RevPro) are in B block. Thou I suppose it is possible that Suzuki will beat Ishii in upcoming SSE: UK shows, thou I think that is not very likely and that they are probably building towards another Ishii/Zack match which could be set up in B Block as well. Anyway, point is that A Block might become rather dull if no title matches could be set up there.

Well there is always the question with older guys how long can they really go before cashing in. La Park still manages to deliver when he wants to, but on the other hand we got Atlantis who is only couple of years older and it looks like small injury fucked him up badly that he now does only bare minimum in his every match. Sooner or later La Park is bound to break down, especially with some of the crazy spots that he is now doing. If he doesn't lose mask now then you kinda have to ask when would be better time for him? Would people still care as much about La Park/Rush II next year? And from what I have seen Rush is his best opponent so there really aren't many viable alternatives for him to get these crazy matches going with big potential payout. I think that one thing many are kinda ignoring in these discussion is CMLL itself, I assume that Rush isn't going to pay for La Park's mask and CMLL might be unwilling to do it either if they can't lock down Rush for good. I remember there being some discussion about financials side of last Triplemania and if AAA actually earned anything from that show due to Wagner's mask and thats something CMLL might also be cautious about, especially since La Park probably wants more money than Wagner got, even if by 1$. Last thing, why call it Mexico MOTY? This whole thing has been pretty great and, in my book, can be easily considered feud of the year regardless of country or promotion.

They are in problematic situation since in Japan they can't giving as good booking for US title as they did when Kenny held it. Personally I thought that Kenny's matches were not that good for the most part, but he was placed high enough on the card to make it look like a big deal. Now since White is the champ it sits firmly as, most likely, weakest of all 5 singles titles. So while I like certain bits about White I can't deny that his title run has been somewhat cold. And all that would be okay, to an extent, if NJPW didn't want this title to be "main title" once (if?) they get to run proper USA promotion. So what happens is that cold program from Japan gets booked like hot program in USA and well nobody, naturally, gives a shit about it then. And I wouldn't say that White is really responsible for that. I think same would be the case if other wrestler held it. It worked for few months with Omega only because he is Kenny Fucking Omega and not because there is some connection between that title and the fans. And since now RevPro titles are being added to the mix I can't see situation improving. As for the video. Yeah, it made Cody look like a big deal. Others, well, they usually struggle to do good promos and character work as is, but when it was so sharply contrasted against Cody... they kinda looked like jobbers. Exception being YBs who did their own thing and Haku who appeared for like 2 seconds only.

That sounds like random speculation and sure, it is possible that someone in Sinclair office had this idea for 2 minutes, but it is so out there that it probably has 0% chance of actually happening. But you never know, maybe people that matter at Sinclair are even more petty than Vince.

Probably his heel persona - I don't watch your indie darlings nor puroresu, nerds.

Well ace is still the ace regardless if he holds the title or not.

And people like a good underdog. He is not on the same level as Okada and Tanahashi, but he is close enough that him winning A Block wouldn't be ridiculous (like if White won it) so I'd assume that if some fans want to see surprise winner then they are going to gravitate towards Evil. To think that before his return lots of people had already written him off and expected him to be a jobber in undercard matches.

I watched post match interviews and stuff with Taichi was interesting. I'm not sure if this thread is more appropriate or G1, but maybe it makes sense to post it here since most likely nothing concerning G1 will come out of it. Basically if I got it right NJPW got a bit of shit from fans for including Yoshi-Hashi into G1 instead of Taichi and Taichi called bullshit on that saying how company isn't putting fans first and are just playing favourites again. He didn't actually name Yoshi-Hashi, but looking at Japanese comments it is clear who he is talking about. Sure, Taichi is heel and all that so he talks shit, but Yoshi-Hashi has been rapidly approaching jobber status for a year now and I kinda wonder if he won't start getting booed due to all these circumstances.

No idea, but if he is then it would make even more sense.

Everyone expected that this whole story was basically about MSG trying to get more WWE dates, but probably nobody expected RoH to get dumped so fast and hard. On one hand everyone understands that WWE is way bigger than RoH will ever be, but on the other hand rich people usually don't like when they are made to look like a joke. Like how Obama probably shouldn't have made a joke about how Trump will never be the president of USA. I don't expect anything major to happen, but I really wouldn't be surprised if long term Sinclair starts paying more and more attention to wresslin business.

Hopefully Flip flips off the deck as well. Bad jokes asides, looks ok? I'd guess that on one side we will get Lethal/Scurll and on another Briscoe/Briscoe.

Plot twist: on first day Taichi assaults/injuries Yoshi-Hashi and replaces him in G1.

A bit of a rant on couple of points. Okada/Tanahashi: yes it feels wrong for Tanahashi to lose again this soon, but I don't think that it would make sense to chalk it up on Okada's self doubt since their match is happening on last day. By that point Okada should be either back in the game or gone from the running. It would make more sense if their match was happening on the opening day. And well, here is the thing, if Okada is eliminated either due to Tanahashi winning or them drawing again then it kinda asks for another Okada/Tanahashi match down the line. Because it is not the same to lose random G1 match and semi-final match. It probably would be better if Okada won to reaffirm that he has moved past Tanahashi. If we look at the entire Okada's career once he returned he was in one big story arc: becoming the new ace. At one point AJ provided something different with "you are still young boy from TNA" story, but that was more of a temporary distraction before he moved back to Tanahashi. Some time ago one of my problems with Omega was that while I felt that his matches were spectacular he never really did for me much in terms of story/character since "who is better" plot that he had with Okada is very simplistic that anyone can have. But slowly his "change the world" idea started getting shape via US title and match with Jericho, eventually we got a rift in Bullet Club that started with Adam Cole and shifted to Cody (while I think that they dropped the ball with whole BC drama story and I have very little interest in Omega/Cody II I can't say that it wasn't an entertaining premise), but most importantly he got back with Ibushi that resulted in some heart warming moments and we all are eagerly awaiting for their clash. And what he did once he won the belt from Okada? Immediately started talking trash about Japanese wrestlers. Sure, LiJ guys immediately went back at him asking where he is during Kizuna Road if he is such a hard worker. But well, thats the point isn't it? So moving back to Okada. For most of the career he either fought Tanahashi or sat on his throne and awaited for next challenger. And it looks like he is bound to continue either his fight with Tanahashi or sitting on the throne. And I feel like he has hit the ceiling here, he needs new storyline that would be personal, because while he has great chemistry with Omega in the ring, there isn't anything between them in terms of story that couldn't be easily replicated with other wrestlers. I think it is a problem that despite being featured at the top of the card for almost all of his career he still isn't most popular wrestler in the company. And it looks like Gedo's solution to that is: keep doing same thing. And Gedo sure likes to stick with his plans, but I'm not sure if that is always a good idea. I remember last year there were some people complaining that he didn't gave Omega the main belt after their WK match broke the internet. And you look at it back now and I think you kinda have to wonder what could have been? Sure, people are saying that their latests match was greatest match ever, but despite getting critical acclaim... it feels like it had much smaller impact than their WK match. So maybe Gedo should have thrown away his long term plan and tried to catch the lightning in the bottle after WK11? We can't know for sure obviously, but I'd guess that Omega winning the title last year would have been bigger deal than him winning it now. And it goes back to Naito as well. Plan was for Okada to break all the records so it didn't matter that their biggest crowd in years was ready for Naito's victory. As a result Naito now is in weird place. Like, when I write about scenarios where Naito might win the title at KoPW or get to the finals I realize that this is a bit of fan fiction and that 10 time more likely outcome is Naito/Jericho II at WK13. Anyway, I see lots of people writing about how they are probably saving another Okada/Naito match for 2020 (if I'm not mistaken) since then it will be on weekend and they'll attempt to sell out the dome, but... if Naito already started cooling off due to this weird booking then how over will he really be for 2020 WK? I think that if Naito's entire 2018 will end up being about 2 matches with Jericho then that boat has likely sailed and Naito is not getting another WK main event unless people get bought by WWE or injuries happen. So yeah, I would be surprised if White ends up in G1 finals, but at the same time if it happened I'd think "Gedo doing Gedo things" so probably it has a chance of happening. One more thing. I really don't like the "business has been growing with Okada as the top guy so it is fine" argument, because it completely ignores Nakamura's work with IC title, Bullet Club's formation, Omega and The Elite, Naito and LiJ or how Tanahashi has been working almost in every possible position during all that. tldr; Gedo's long term plans might suck, Okada has been booked into the corner, Omega's coronation should have happened earlier, Naito is fucked, Tanahashi is still the ace.

I'm sure that someone is going to post full list of announced matches, but few initial thoughts; 1. It might be just me and I didn't count it, but it looked to me like Makabe got lots of semi-mains and 2 main events I think. I'm fine with Makabe being in G1, but this might be a bit too much. On the other hand it speaks volumes about A Block wrestlers I suppose since they need to place Makabe so high on the card to sell tickets. 2. Jay White also got lots of good spots and he is semi-final on the last day against Evil hinting that he will probably stay alive till last day(s). I like him, but he still needs to improve and I wonder if him getting strong first G1 won't piss some people off since he is already divisive a bit. 3. Okada/Tanahashi is main event of the last day. I'm sure it will be great match, but this sounds terribly boring. Unless it indeed turns out into some hair vs hair WK match, but if not then it really is hard to get excited about it. 4. B Block on the other hand opens up with Omega/Naito. First thought would be that if Naito wins then he probably takes the title at KoPW, if he doesn't win then he makes the finals. 5. Obviously Omega/Ibushi on the last day. Naito and Zack are also on the last day so I think it is possible that Omega/Ibushi results in a draw, Naito gets his win back from Zack and moves to the finals. But if he wins first match against Omega then that sounds a bit redundant. 6. B Block looked stronger on paper and announced schedule hasn't really changed that.