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New Japan gets TV deal in US


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Watched Okdada/Omega II & IV. Thought I had the G1 match recorded but apparently not. Thought the draw was great with nice callbacks to the first match, and I dug just how utterly exhausted they were at the end still trying  their damnedest still to put one another away. Unfortunately, I got very little of the 2/3 falls match. It had its moments, but it never managed to really draw me in the way the first two matches did.

Also 5 or so matches from this year's dome show. Ibushi/Ospreay was good though that elbow before the final move brutal. You could tell already Ibushi was pretty much knocked out. Kind of wish Ospreay just pinned him right there. Juice/Cody was a decent little match that probably would have worked better elsewhere. Okada/White was damn good. It was refreshing to see such a straight forward heel/face dynamic with the crowd completely behind the idea of Okada kicking Jay's ass. Jericho/Naito was a good brawl and possibly the most I've enjoyed Jericho's recent NJPW matches. Omega/Tanahashi was fantastic and possibly my MOTY. Loved how everything built and how big of a dick Omega acted like throughout so much of it until Tana gradually caught up to him. It might be the best Omega has looked to me from what I've caught of his big NJPW matches. 

Edited by Eivion
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Kind of loved Tanahashi/White. It felt a bit like something out of US in the 80s with Gedo as a heel manager picking his spots and White as a smug prick. I loved how proud of himself White was for avoiding all of those Slign Blades. It was interesting to see such a different style done and accepted in NJPW.

For years I've kind of accepted Liger couldn't really go anymore with the lack fo talk of any of his matches. Liger/Ishimori convinced me I'm an idiot and am now wondering what good Liger matches I have missed. For a guy on the verge of retirement Liger looked he could still go at a solid level for a few more years at least. 

Okada/Ishii was so damn good. Loved seeing Okada lean so much into ishii's style of match at times.

Tanahahsi/ZSJ was good fun though it felt like ti would have been better received in Japan. Loved the finish with Tanahashi having nowhere to go. Ibushi/Naito was damn good with a few nice crazy moments. White/Okada felt like a combo of the Tanahashi match and the Okada dome match. Unfortunately the crowd was weaker than either of the previous matches and it dragged some. Even with that it was good, just a tad disappointing.

Ibushi/ZSJ was unsurprisingly great. These two just have wonderful chemistry. Dug Zack focusing on the neck so much along with poking the bear one too many times and pissing off Ibushi as a result. Ibushi just casually kicking Zack as much as possible while Unno tries to pull him away was wonderful. 

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Not sure why it was this match, but watching Chase Owens in that tag match with Jay White against Goto and Yoshi-Hashi I get it now. He had a lot of little mannerisms that really popped out to me which established his character. On the other side, it always seems like Yoshi looks like his head is in the clouds like he's not really wrestling which takes me out of it a bit.

I'm excited to watch the G1 matches as they go on.

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EVIL/Ishii was great and shows EVIL will a worthwhile torchbearer of the top NJPW bruiser eventually. Sanada/Okada honestly didn't do too much for me. Was probably  abit too logn for what they brough to the table though I do like the general story they mentioned of the matches getting gradually longer as Sanada pushes Okada more and more each time they face off.

Tanahashi/White was great once again. They just went full throttle from the beginning, never really slowing down with any filler. Loved Tanahahsi nearly taking it using White's own bs cheap move against him. Juice/Moxley was a good brawl though also dragged a bit. I think they could have easily lost 5 minutes to create something a bit tighter. Still it was good seeing Juice so fired up and Moxley as just a mean bastard at at times. Shingo/Ospreay was fantastic. Was impressive seeing all that action actually paced out rather well. Kind of wish that Spanish Fly ended it though I did love that Ospreay essentially went for overkill to make Shingo was dead considering what Takagi had already survived.

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I just heard from one of our old mods, sprewellrimz, that his friend that does graphics for New Japan on AXS got laid off. If word of cancellation doesn't come out soon, I would be sorta shocked. AXS TV Fights just got cancelled today and MMA has been a staple on the channel since the HDNet days.

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1 hour ago, Ace said:

NJPW's contracted with them until January 2021. It's also apparently one of the highest rated things that AXS carries. 

 

 

LFA's deal they signed in December 2017 was suppose to run through 2021 too. 

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3 minutes ago, Archibald said:

Yeah, I think that Anthem doesn't really care about what is and what isn't high rated, but they have their "vision" and they'll try to implement it.

Ed Nordholm's little statement shouldn't fill anyone with confidence either. It sounds like right now the plan is to play it by ear over the next couple weeks (they're doing another set of tapings for WOW), but beyond that, who knows what the fuck they plan to do? With Adam Swift being ousted, I doubt anyone in New Japan is particularly happy since he was the one who made the push for them in the first place. 

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The question then becomes what is NJPW's US strategy if they lose AXS.

My prediction- NJPW does something with the NWA if ROH doesn't shape up fast.   There's history there, the NWA would likely be reasonable, and NWA affiliates a lot with Southern indies, which would be good for excursions- you'd probably get more work associated with the NWA as you would with ROH. 

I wonder if the Rock N Roll signing is more than just Gedo and Chase wanting to stooge for Ricky and Robert.

 

 

 

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34 minutes ago, alstein said:

The question then becomes what is NJPW's US strategy if they lose AXS.

It depends on when they lose it. You would hate to lose your TV deal right before WrestleKingdom and the dome shows are the last shows on AXS. You would want that to be the beginning of a new TV deal and the hook to bring in viewers after they see those big events. 

If you're New Japan, you're hoping Smackdown on Fox, NXT on USA, and AEW on TNT all take off because that would make finding a new deal somewhere much easier. From there, I mean some of it possibly would depend on where they land. If they land on a WarnerMedia owned station, it makes working with AEW something they would have to think about it. Otherwise, if it's on the same level as AXS in terms of the numbers of homes, nothing should affect the partnership with Ring of Honor or how they run shows in the U.S. now.

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7 minutes ago, Archibald said:

I think the question now should be not "who NJPW picks as their USA partner" but "does NJPW even need USA partner now?". If they can now do 10-15 USA shows a year on their own then what exactly do they gain by partnering with RoH, Impact or NWA?

I think the only upside is if you wanna send younger guys to have experience outside the New Japan system and people who want paydays between tours or won't be included much on certain tours (for example, some of the heavyweights during the BOSJ tournament before the finals card and Dominion when everyone comes back).

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55 minutes ago, alstein said:

the NWA used a couple of NJPW folks for the Crockett Cup (think it was Nagata+Tenzan, was GOD in that tournament?)

 

It was Nagata and Kojima. G.o.D. were wrestling on the Dontaku tour that day.

55 minutes ago, alstein said:

I don't think you'd need a relationship to send folks to work- I mean, Rocky+R3K worked a NC Indy after the first night of the G1.

That's the whole purpose though with someone like Rocky likely working as sort of a liaison. Guys can still work random indy dates or during Mania weekend, but the NJ office would obviously like consistency and also know where their guys are if they're not working a New Japan card. I would imagine it's a much easier time getting a couple dates working on RevPro cards, working on the War of the Worlds tour, or working on an Arena Mexico card cleared than some show where some wrestler is eating lightbulbs or some shit in the middle of nowhere.

Edited by Elsalvajeloco
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11 minutes ago, alstein said:

El Desperado disagrees with your last statement.

I think he would agree considering he got hurt and hasn't worked since. Plus, that was in Japan on a card put together by other New Japan wrestlers.

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