lostinube

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.

"Fuck you Tsuji!　そして (soshite - and) Fuck you Tsuji!"

"Please don't throw me"

Well, A Block is set. SANADA completed clean sweep despite the possible hilarity of a Chase Owens win. Chase did get to do a Paradise Lock and Skull End to the champ though. And..

They usually keep their shows up on youtube, right? Anyway, the main was action packed. Speaking of packs, a sixpack-less Ibushi looked like a guy who hasn't wrestled regularly in the past two years but also I think he was sick the night before the show.

GLEAT card for tonight. The main event is Ibushi's team vs El Lindaman's team in an elimination match: https://proresu-today.com/archives/224624/ Kyushu Pro will have their anniversary show on Sunday. Minoru Suzuki and Tomoaki Honma will appear. It's in the Kokusai Center where NJPW usually holds Dontaku but 2nd and 3rd floor seats will be free for all comers. https://proresu-today.com/archives/224345/

Main events of the last days are set (this usually plays into who is moving on): 8/5 Umino vs Hikuleo 8/6 Ospreay vs El-P 8/8 Takagi vs EVIL 8/9 Tanahashi vs Naito

NJPW World is going to carry the 8/11 Freedoms show on PPV. It has Despy and Hiromu on it.