Jenalysis

I'm kinda concerned about the Bullet Club stuff ending- I could see that driving things down- I just don't see the Lovers being as hot in the US as they are in Japan.

Wonder if El Antichristo is still around and Chavo Jr. is still around to be his tag partner.

Wondering if the disappointing news rumor was just the return of Bone Soldier instead of any Kitamura stuff. 1 Bone Solider is like -2 Kitamuras.

if it works for Nak, maybe they should have just gotten Yano instead.

if All In becomes successful, could Cody try to do more shows and try to steal the NJPW relationship from ROH? That might be for the best right now, if Cody has any sort of booking ability.

Haven't they established that NJPW refs won't count pins on wrestlers who are applying offense? I remember that being mentioned at least once on commentary. The Lovers vs Cody/Page is also a must-see. Very good Memphis-in-Japan style match.

If you're going as well as Minoru is , and are as over, your age doesn't matter. You could even do title vs title, and then have Naito beat Minoru after a short reign.

Minoru could credibly beat Okada.

I think the crowd was dead for ZSJ because the Jr.Heavy match tore the house down and the Golden Lovers are just one bloodbath away from being the modern day Fantastics. I think if Cody really bloodied up Ibushi and Kenny at some point, you'd start getting AJW women's-level crowd reaction. I liked Okada/ZSJ a lot though, even if I want Okada to lose. Okada's great, still fun to watch- and he had some neat stuff he showed here as well, and he really makes these matches good- he deserves to be the ace and all, but I want to see him lose- just because of that. This was Okada ace by the numbers a bit where he wrestles his opponents style and beats him.

Omega, it seems like he isn't as hot as he was a year ago. I mean, he's still over in the US and Japan, but it just doesn't seem to be the same. I still think he's the most credible threat to Okada so a 4th match needs to happen at some point, I just hope they don't take too long to go there. Having Ibushi win the G1 while Omega's champ would be fascinating as well. Does the fujoshi fanbase in Japan swoon over Omega like they do Ibushi?

having Taka as a hypeman really helped put the whole ZSJ package together- Taka is lowkey incredible as a mic worker, and combine that with how NJPW makes ZSJ have a real weakness (most obvious in the Ibushi match where it was pretty much striking vs submissions) makes NJPW Zack really compelling to watch. I'm interested in seeing ZSJ and Minoru eventually turn on each other.

do you also not watch ROH because of its association with Sinclair?

Finlay and Juice both came off much better at color than Callis, who is annoying. Kelly's nothing special but he never hurts things.

Kinda expecting Hiromu to be heavyweight in a year. He's already close to Ibushi's size.

Really smart and sneaky great match, though my guess is you'd have to have seen the whole cup to see how great this was.

Feel like Juice should be the one gunning for the NEVER belt. Could be his big win of the year, and it could establish him, especially if he won it after 20+ mins of Goto just destroying him. Going from Goto to ZSJ to Juice at WK could also work though, and Juice has been elevated some during this tourney as well, I'd say he's at least at the henchmen level where EVIL/Goto are now.

It wasn't NJPW that did anything other than give him a narrow opportunity. Juice being Juice is what made it work. He had the unique charisma and developed the skills to make it work. The best thing ever to happen in the past 17 years in pro wrestling has been the revival and slow global expansion of NJPW. If it can bring up a viable 2nd American promotion (or if NJPW becomes it)- wrestling will be back to where it was in the late 90s. It's going to take years of greatness to do this. They don't have to beat WWE, they just have to be a viable place for Americans to become stars and financial success the level of Omega and Juice. I may not think Omega is as great as the rest of the internet thinks he is, but he's done more for pro wrestlers in general than I think anyone realizes right now. I hope to tell him that in a few months.

Mutoh seems like the best comparison, though I can't see Tanahashi ever leaving NJPW except as part of some sort of agreed loan similar to how Nagata is used. I don't see Tanahashi getting another run with the belt for the next few years given the strength of NJPW's top and upper midcard unless they want to not have Okada break the defenses record. That's another unique factor, NJPW is a lot stronger talentwise now than when Mutoh/Fujinami were in their early 40s.

If Tana loses vs Okada, I can see him getting a few months off to heal up and coming back as a special attraction, especially since the top of the NJ card is getting crowded. He's too big a star to ever just be a dad.

Juice/Tana delivered. Great story match, very good wrestling match. Juice deserves to be over Elgin in the pecking order after this (well before this too, but Juice really impressed tonight).

ZSJ/Ibushi was about what you'd expect, would have preferred a pinfall end to a stoppage end though. Good solid match. Sanada/Yano was fun.

losing to Yano's bullshit doesn't make you weak- it just means Yano outsmarted someone again. I have a soft spot for Yano pulling rabbits out of his hat, and I think the Japanese fans enjoy it as well. DBS dominated the crap out of Yano in the match, he just got outsmarted. I kinda wish they had flipped Archer and DBS, but that's because I like DBS more than Archer, and it's easier to buy Archer as stupid. And yeah, Taka's hypemanning is awesome- and learning about ZSJ's politics means I'm now pulling for ZSJ to win the whole thing. Want to see him get his big break.

The last 20 years part throws out a lot of the best work of Michaels, pretty much everything pre-1st retirement. His post-retirement run was good but nowhere near as good as anyone else mentioned.

I'd argue Rey and Eddy both deserve a spot on a top 4 list over Angle, Benoit and HBK. (and both are/were Americans). Rey easily, Eddy it's closer.

Chase really has improved in the past few months or so. I enjoy seeing him now. I didn't mind Elgin/Ishii, even if I knew it was sloppy, but calling Taichi/Tana bad is criminal. Taichi/Tana is my current fav non-WK match of 2018.