Jenalysis

To be fair, Booker was the first US Champ WWE had from when they bought WCW. (he had both belts)

That's modern "selling" for you- it's part of what pro wrestling is now. I wish it was different but I don't think it's ever coming back. The Ganso bomb I can buy Tana not being too hurt by it because it looked like an ineffective version of the Last Ride- same as Tana's high fly flow being less effective now when his knee acts up. I was actually mad when the Last Ride didn't finish Tana off, esp since I knew that was it. It's rare for me to get invested mad like that during a match. I'm now hoping he makes the CEO event.

Taichi/Tanahashi might be my favorite MOTY now. Taichi has won me over completely now at this point- and even Miho brought her A-game tonight.

That Elgin/Ishii match was sloppy but fun hossfest.

I thought this would be possible. Isn't this the first offical New Japan east coast card?

Unsure if this is leading to anything- but the fighting game tournament CEO (which is the 2nd biggest in the US after EVO) is going to have an official NJPW presence this year. Previous 2 years Kenny Omega competed (and he's not terrible at fighting games).

Would New Japan be ok with AAA guys against their guys? Bros vs Bucks seems like a great semi-main for the show.

Jr. limit in NJ is 220 and Ospreay is pretty close to that. I didn't have an issue with Ospreay using strength some, esp since Okada showed better strength with the early knucklelocks. I think they're grooming Ospreay to eventually go heavy. I really enjoyed heavy Taichi, and Suzuki-gun does need a legit heavyweight other than Minoru. I kinda expect an eternal Taichi/Yano feud for some reason.

They of course won't put the belt on Ibushi, but Ibushi winning the belt, than Omega winning the G1 would be awesome. In terms of main event heels- you've always got Minoru as well.

I have, but a bit shorter and a decent bit fatter= semipro caber tosser and computer geek

I mean, if Braun ever gets the itch to do more, he's got the example of Cody to look at one day down the line when he's made enough.

Does anyone else really enjoy the Beer City Bruiser? He's fun.

Chase looks really improved in the past few months or so, and I think the crowd was really into the whole Golden Lovers vs Cody.

I'm tempted if I can make it a big roadtip and see some folks in Buffalo as well.

For the blowoff, why not have Shane put the two in a I Quit match where the winner gets a Smackdown contract/immediate title shot, and the loser will never be drafted to that show.

Would Bullet Club work in the US without Kenny, and would Kenny and Ibushi have anyone in their faction (I can see Yujiro joining them- if only so they can have someone to eat pins)? Could even see a three-way split with the Tongans (who would probably be the "real" Bullet cub) , Cody's group, and Kenny's group.

Loved the last ten minutes of that, and glad Suzuki won. Hopefully Tana gets the rest of the year off to recover from injuries.

I enjoy Naito and BUSHI a lot more in these Ingobernables matches than I do their regular NJPW work. (Hiromu doesn't need the help) I'd love to see Rush in NJPW full-time.

Would like to see them try to make Paige a heel manager- I think she could do that role well.

I have a hard time buying that Juice or especially EVIL will ever be as good as or as over as Kenny is, or even Naito.

but Okada is the second King from Tekken. Did find out a while ago that Minoru was the mocap guy for the first King.

When's the next live show they stream?

The end bit with Jericho attacking Naito makes me understand the booking of WK a bit more. You've got Jericho, Jericho-Okada isn't going to have any drama, because we know Okada wins that. Jericho-Naito at least has a bit of drama, and you can't really plan Jericho-Tanahashi because of Tanahashi's medical issues. If they want Okada to break the defenses record, Sanada can take a loss here easily- it won't hurt him at all, then find two more goobers before having Omega beat Okada in the summer. (I don't think there's anything special about anyone in LIJ outside of Naito and Hiromu)

I bought the rope break as Jericho being so gassed he forgot that he couldn't be DQed.

I have to agree, Cody/Ibushi shocked me, and that was the best Bucks match I've seen. My only complaint about the whole thing was the finish to the main and IC, and that was mostly for Naito who deserves better. White also needed to win.