lostinube

The Road to Destruction finally kicks off tomorrow but in the meantime NJPW World is putting up stuff like Despy vs Daisuke Sasaki and the GLEAT Junior match with Hiromu in it, possibly because it might end up being the set up to a Hiromu/Minoru Tanaka match. They were even putting the AEW shows up faster than normal.

Tam with the important stuff: what should the official meltear fandom name be?

SBK(ento) and Takuma showed up at the end of the GLEAT/AJPW show.

GLEAT and AJPW at Korakuen Hall

Just wanted to point out that as a recently as 2021, someone was still using a Leather Face gimmick in Japan. Here, he wrestles in a bar.

Stardom is under the Bushiroad Fight umbrella.

So there will be a first time winner this year. Two first time semi-finalists (Australia and Spain). Sweden have finished third three times and England once. Japan is out so fu-- um, go Australia, maybe.

Don't forget that today's show starts 3:00 PM Japan time.

The finals are set:

Ibushi looked OK, not great, in the GLEAT ten man - he could still do things but didn't seem as crisp. One thing he definitely looked was gassed by the end of the match. I don't think three weeks is going to help with that. Also, Ospreay joining Callis would ruin the United Empire, which is still a thing in New Japan.

It was definitely the worst of the four, especially after Finlay/Ospreay which had the most heat.

Semi-finals are set:

Ohtani is still in a wheelchair and undergoing rehab. They had a charity show for him in May where he made an appearance: He also delivered a message to Sugiura prior to his match with Jake in June. Takayama had a tracheostomy and then complications from that and was hospitalized in April for pneumonia. But he was discharged and is at home presumably. He is bed-ridden. https://ameblo.jp/takayama-do/

Going into the last match, the Japanese commentary team were saying how "this group has someone in, this group has someone in but..."

Mentai Kid vs Genkai vs Nozaki

Main event of the Kyushu Pro 15th Anniversary show: Mentai Kid (champion) vs Genkai vs Kodai Nozaki

The field is set. Tomorrow in Funabashi is

OK. So Kaito was wrong (no one saw the Hikuleo express coming). Okada and Ospreay. Finlay clinches it with a win over Eddie. Unfortunately EVIL over Shingo despite LIJ actually coming out to stop the shenanigans. One more night to go!

KAIRI gave a press conference yesterday. She kept mum on if she was going to the WWE but the "as soon as this week" thing is put to rest as she said she will go on an indefinite hiatus at the end of September and will fulfill any appearances she has already booked. https://karensensei.substack.com/p/kairi-holds-personal-press-conference

KAIRI is going to be taking an indefinite break after this September. I think there were rumours going around that she was re-signing with the WWE but who knows. I mean, the blog that I'm linking to has a transcript of her press conference and they were reporting that she might be going. English translation of the transcript of her press conference: https://karensensei.substack.com/p/kairi-holds-personal-press-conference

I've been generally lukewarm on Nozaki but thought he did really well last night. Genkai and Mentai Kid are the forever rivals of Kyushu Pro and Kodai emphatically pinned both of them: Ending sequence was Genkai has Mentai Kid up for something, Kodai SPEARS Genkai out of his boots and then he debuted a new finisher, similar to Takagi's Last of the Dragon, the Heavy Tank Driver on Mentai, puts Genkai on Mentai and pins them both. And then Genkai carries Mentai out to the back in a sign of things to come. Since he's already just beaten the two big names of Kyushu Pro I'm thinking that he's going to get a bunch of outside challengers and perhaps that will open more roads for him.

Went to the show. The number seems believable. As I said before, they gave away tickets for the 2nd and 3rd floor sections the day of but they sold out the floor tickets prior. They didn't utilize the whole floor space like NJPW and Dragon Gate do (for Dontaku and Final Gate respectively). They didn't fill up all of the 3rd floor, which were available right before the show started but the 2nd floor , which people had to line up for in three waves in the morning seemed completely full.