2023 Puroresu General Discussion

[lostinube]

He was a last minute sub for Oleg against ZSJ and the crowd went positively absolutely mild when he came out in his new look.

[blitzkrieg]

NJPW World is getting a long overdue overhaul (https://www.njpw1972.com/159104).

Native apps, search overhaul, and offline viewing seem to be the big bullet points. Changes come with a price increase: from ¥999 JPY to ¥1,298 JPY for Japanese subscribers/current international subscribers and $9.99 for new international subscribers. With the current state of the yen, it'll be slightly cheaper for current US subscribers than the $9.99 for new subscribers.

[dragonzombie]

 

BJW

Takuho Kato will retire. He made his debut back in 2018. He's 25 years old. So goodbye on September 28th.

https://twitter.com/Takuho_bjw/status/1701436183778337214

[TheVileOne]

10 hours ago, blitzkrieg said:

NJPW World is getting a long overdue overhaul (https://www.njpw1972.com/159104).

Native apps, search overhaul, and offline viewing seem to be the big bullet points. Changes come with a price increase: from ¥999 JPY to ¥1,298 JPY for Japanese subscribers/current international subscribers and $9.99 for new international subscribers. With the current state of the yen, it'll be slightly cheaper for current US subscribers than the $9.99 for new subscribers.

Finally, good lord. I've been talking about this for five years. 

The current version of New Japan World looks like it was built for a 2005 audience that just discovered ROH and TNA for the first time.

[ka-to]

17 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

Finally, good lord. I've been talking about this for five years. 

The current version of New Japan World looks like it was built for a 2005 audience that just discovered ROH and TNA for the first time.

Or built for a senior citizen like me. I don't really understand and have never used whatever these improvements are. I go to the website and plug my laptop into the TV with a 10 foot long cord to watch. 

[Web Conn]

NJPW World needs an overhaul I’m happy it is happening but I wish they would upload more content from the aughts. I wanna see some dark days New Japan. Where’s the Brick? where’s the Sapp? I wanna see Rick Fuller’s New Japan run. That is all.

[Horangi]

I remember doing a random attempt to watch every Jan 4th Dome show during lockdown and noticed the Lesnar/Nakamura match missing, which I was oddly interested in as I remember it at the time being the only Brock match that anyone mentioned being decent. 

Sapp fans can rejoice however as Sapp vs Manabu Nakanishi is on NJPW World!

On a completely unrelated note, apparently Kenta Kobashi is coming to one of my local feds in Melbourne that I generally avoid. Naturally I forked out the $120AU to meet him. So excited but know I'm going to say something super dumb haha.

 

[TheVileOne]

7 hours ago, ka-to said:

Or built for a senior citizen like me. I don't really understand and have never used whatever these improvements are. I go to the website and plug my laptop into the TV with a 10 foot long cord to watch. 

It’s mainly about user friendly and accessibility. The way you do it is just fine but if New Japan is serious about building their audience they need to innovate their tech and keep it up to date with today’s technology standards. Just not having its own iPhone app for example has been a huge issue for years. WWE Network and UFC Fight Pass were optimized for mobile phones from day one almost 10 years ago. NJPW World is just now getting it’s first iOS and Android apps.

This means people with smart tvs can now download the app straight to their TVs and watch it straight from the source instead of the 20 steps it takes to Chromecast. 

 

 

 

[Web Conn]

That is gonna be a game changer the mobile apps I’m excited for that. If they can get NJPW World on Xbox I would be super excited cuz now I got to watch New Japan on my MacBook. I’d love for the app to be on Xbox.

[blitzkrieg]

The upgrade probably will mostly mean that I'll spend a lot more time going through the back catalog. I have no problem casting to my tv but it can be a chore finding stuff on the website or going from event to event. As someone that has been only watching New Japan for about a year and a half, I rarely spend a lot of time in the back catalog just because of the tediousness of having to either use the clunky search feature or going page by page through every event from a year.

[dragonzombie]

Wasn't much angles in men's promotions this year, so nothing much for me to post.

[lostinube]

Manabu Soya announced that he got married last year to wrestler Koharu Hinata, who had already announced that she had gotten married and was pregnant last year but never said to whom.

 

[Control]

Kind of amazing that the Saito Bros have defended the GLEAT tag titles seven times.

[Eivion]

Yeah I was surprised when I caught that result on purolove.

[The Natural]

Edited September 22, 2023 by The Natural

[lostinube]

Whew. Tsuji/Ospreay was great. Dude is ready. Next up for Will is ZSJ at Royal Quest. They did a little comedy as the two spoke Japanese to each other before switching to English and then Will trying to sneak attack at the end.

Also, dust off those shirts, Kanemaru for some reason turned on J5Gs and joined H.O.T. Is it a long con (that also cost TAICHI his KOPW belt)? Why turn Kanemaru now and not at the IWGP title match (which will be a lumberjack match)?

[Evil Otto]

Yeah, Ospreay/Tsuji was an outstanding match, one of the best of the year from New Japan.  It also felt like a true passing of the baton, especially with Ospreay's genuine praise towards Tsuji after the match.  Tsuji doesn't necessarily look like a guy who would have such crisp execution on moves, but he's always on point, and some of the stuff he pulled out in this match was absolutely brutal (in a good way).  

The final three matches were all pretty much stellar.  Great O-Khan really stepped up and redeemed himself last night, and I wonder if that was the intent (behind the scenes) going in.  It seemed like a bit of a test for me ("if you can't have a good match with Shingo...."), and if so, he certainly passed.  The IWGP tag title match was also quite good, but had a lackluster finish.  

Edited September 25, 2023 by Evil Otto

[dragonzombie]

Katsuhiko Nakajima will terminate his contract with Pro Wrestling NOAH at the end of Sept. His last two matches with NOAH while not contracted is in Oct.

He is 35 years old, so he still has many years to do whatever in whatever other promotion in the future.

https://www.noah.co.jp/news/4980/

In the end he never became the guy to lead NOAH like others thought on the defunct Puroresufan boardz.

[Curt McGirt]

Sheeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyiiiiiiiiiitttttttttt. Nakajima ANYWHERE will be awesome. 

[Control]

Weird, right? 
 

There isn’t anything that’s “up” from NOAH but NJPW, and they certainly don’t need the extra dudes. I can always hope he decides to take a demotion and go to AJPW.

[Curt McGirt]

Of course I want him in AEW. He seems like a guy who would do something weird like go to All Japan, or show up against Suzuki in MLW, though. Can't see brother in WWE since they already have their Japanese quotient filled (one mid/top guy, one jobber). 

[Control]

Less interesting than the Nakajima news:

This highlights that, including Black Menso-Re, AJPW only has six juniors.

Anyway, no filler in the tournament, at least.

[Teflon Turtle]

On 9/24/2023 at 10:22 PM, Evil Otto said:

Great O-Khan really stepped up and redeemed himself last night, and I wonder if that was the intent (behind the scenes) going in.  It seemed like a bit of a test for me ("if you can't have a good match with Shingo...."), and if so, he certainly passed.

It did have a bit of "these two need to redeem themselves after that 'MMA' thing with the gi" feel to it, for sure. Meaty men bumped meat, and it was fun. Also, I think it helped contrast a problem I've had with O-Khan since his return from excursion. There is room for comedy and weirdness in NJPW, but I don't think he's the dude that needs to be providing it. A wrestler of his size and look should, in my opinion, be more about the clubbering than anything else. A lot of the goofier stuff he does should be left behind, I think. On top of that: it may be just personal preference, but he'd benefit more by being more straightforward and taking some of the looser-looking stuff out of his offense.

Tsuji continues to cement himself above the rest of the "musketeers." I've probably written it before, but I really hope NJPW is listening to the crowd responses he has been getting. The problem I had with the match with Ospreay is that it felt like the second or third match in a series already. I think some of the spots could've been left in reserve for future matches...unless Ospreay really is getting ready to head out. 

I like the Bishamon team. It always feels good to see Goto and YOSHI-HASHI doing well in the spot they carved out for themselves.

 

[lostinube]

When Tsuji countered the Stormbreaker and then hit the short Gene Blaster I actually thought they went and did the damn thing.

I haven't watched much WWE recently so I'll just assume that Tsuji has more curb stomp variants than Seth does.

[Octopus]

Give me Nakajima…

vs Daisuke Sekimoto

vs RUSH

vs Jun Kasai

vs Minoru Suzuki

vs Zack Sabre Jr

vs Ishii

vs Pentagon Jr in a bloody lucha brawl

vs El Desperado

(I know some of these happened before, but I want them again)

 

Edited September 27, 2023 by Octopus