JRV

I love Gedo's thing of extending the hand, then proving he's legit by demonstrating a proper handshake with the ref (before poking his opponent in the eyes anyway).

most Dutch cards have one or two OK matches, a lot of nothing and one or two desolate train wrecks

Sexual chocolate, the silverback.. The Cryme Tyme gimmick & theme.. Kofi's old accent, mon.. It kind of makes Bob Sapp's reception/branding in Japan look playful.

Dude why did it take me so long to check this out?! This is so much fun. "Now.. I like to promote my championship matches, so there will be no 'cash this in' here!"

YOSHI-HASHI's butt text though

Naito/Tanahashi was on some other shit

I like that so much, though. General formulas developed over the decades in accordance with what generally works in front of crowds. Wrestling crowds tend to respond well to well built tension arcs, the simplest of which would be that shine-heat-comeback. What's cool about the Austin thing is it's that old school style where you'll have a general idea for the match, but you're so good you can improvise and start calling things on the fly, when you get a sense from the crowd that they'd pop even harder if you deviated from that original plan.

His elbow's hurt and he's missing Hiroshima, but will return to the series if and when he recovers? Should have never quit studying Japanese after a year Day 4 was fun but I'm also a little saturated now and nothing really jumped out. Obviously things are toned down/simplified a bit for these smaller shows (or is it me) and things felt a bit paint-by-numbers in comparison to standout matches from before. Loved Ishii continuing to visibly lean into everything.. except the fans' desperate hands (http://oi61.tinypic.com/2w3rotx.jpg) and maybe my favorite Rainmaker counter,courtesy of Honma.

That would be dope. How deep/complete is their NJPW archive? I've been kinna itching to watch the UWF feud, for instance. I actually had IW+TV for years and years, but that was pretty broke. Protected WMV files that you couldn't watch anymore after a while.

Shit, I was wondering about that. For a second I was like ".. airco?" but that woulda been the strongest airco in the world. Another funny thing I've been noticing on this tour (maybe I just never noticed before) is there's always like 6 to 8 dudes squatting by the guardrail where the wrestlers walk to the ring, the entire fucking show. Trying to look sideways to follow the matches. I get why they're there but these dudes must have ridiculous neck cramps when they get home. LOL, right! I'd go so far as to say this dude would look bland and out of place IN AN INDY. He looks like he should be working shitty main events with GENTARO somewhere. ps. These daily G-1 releases are straight up murdering my XWT ratio. If I had more than 25 bucks to my name (hard times) I would donate or straight up just go for NJPW World. (Only downside is I'm so used to produced shows that these single hard cam streams take a while to get into.) pps. Jesus, day 5's out already! This capper is on top of shit. Off to get a sixpack while it downloads..

His vision for NXT is not necessarily his vision for WWE, though. He's running it for a hardcore audience. Really, though? He's just picking up majorly experienced guys who know how to work, have very well developed in-ring personalities and are guaranteed to be able to bust out solid matches with anyone, and come with the added bonus of having this "underground superstar" aura they can push, which I'm sure clicks with most casual viewers. On the one hand I think it's super cool to have like, FCW, but with its own (non-local) TV and PPVs, but at the same time it's a total reification (hypercommercial imitation) of independent wrestling which is the opposite of independent, inevitably dumbs down and sanitizes everything, and is making friends of mine post like, screenshots of the first Joe/"Owens" stand-off like it's some groundbreaking shit and NXT is the best thing ever. It's just a way to draw indy fans to WWE, and most of all just sign awesome, crisp, solid workers with years of experience and firmly established ring presence.

Well, if anything, see Doc/Fale as the match to see who's the true #2 in Bullet Club, to make the result interesting at least. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Bliz Cliz (god I hate that ) behaves during this. Honma/Okada and Tana/Naito are gonna be pretty boss.

Nice chance for Vince & WWE to publicly distance themselves from a racist and pretend they're not racist as fuck. Another nice chance for mass media to pick apart one tape where one person said some shit that clearly sucks, instead of constantly tackling systemic institutional and cultural racism that dominates the West.

I thought he mostly made a point to sell the knee, and I appreciated that the taped arm wasn't immediately the focal point but played an integral role. Shibs/AJ is one of my favorite matches so far this year. Naito, though.. This cat is going full Muta, like full weird. I love this storyline so much. He just doesn't give a shit. Comes out with really elaborate attire, but doesn't treat it like anything special and kind of halfheartedly lifts his leg for the ref to check (after very slowly taking off stripper pants which you can just tear off in one movement, loved that continuity). Has spurts of brilliant, lightning fast, left field offense when he's in trouble, then goes back to not giving a shit. At one point he rolled back into the ring and let Fale stomp him. Because fuck it. I don't even know the full backstory, but I am loving it. His matches right now are so original and so different from any wrestling I see.

.. courtesy of Macho Pump

"Yamakawa, you garbage motherfucker.. These people came here to see some good honest shoot style wrestling, and you wanna come in here with the hair pulling and choking, throwing me into chairs and stealing someone's juice box, just because you feel like it? Who the fuck do you think you are?! You wanna introduce bring barbed wire into a Battlarts match? You want hardcore?! I'LL FUCKING SHOW YOU HARDCORE! I'LL DO FUCKING HARDCORE!" https://youtu.be/MsbfL1U4sqQ On the Zangiev tip.. I love this one a lot. We get 1989 goatee Hashimoto, who already looks kind of pissed off and anxious before the match. Zangiev keeps a more open mind at first , but very quickly gets really angry. Besides that scowl (more of a constant look of desperate psychotic hatred) and the back hair, he also has ridiculous effortless suplexes and bridges for days. Both men know that whoever wins this will lose part of themselves in the process. https://youtu.be/tMQXy0_er94

KENTA and Marufuji were juniors well into the 2000s, KENTA a couple years more than Maru

I really loved that little preview video they did at Osaka-Jo with the standout G-1 matches and the crowd's pops for some of them. Got me even more stoked for this and it was interesting to hear the reactions. Especially some of the giant pops AJ is getting, it's nice how he's become established as this giant main-event gaijin superstar.

OMG. I finally manage to watch a big New Japan show without stupidly stumbling into spoilers beforehand, and god god god damn this was a perfect show. Amazing card top to bottom, dream audience and a ridonculous main event that had me bouncing around the room. <3 <3 <3

^ he's cool but I've always preferred blue phanter I popped for shibata's "look ma no hands" rope break from 7.4

why watch something for 20 minutes that bores and annoys you?

did alex riley grow a beard and get interesting to look at, or is that someone else?

Either Super Dragon ate Chris Hero or he just got off a flight and didn't have money to check any luggage so he wore all his longsleeves on the plane

it's ok to hold someone's hand in a handshake

Osamu Matsuda training in his backyard