New Japan gets TV deal in US

[Ramo2653]

I'm more shocked by the table full of MGDs at the Switchblade press conference after the match, that's not exactly a high profile beer in the MillerCoors portfolio.

[John E. Dynamite]

I too was not enamored by the Fantasticamania/New Beginning cards. Kind of zoned out and skipped a lot of them. Was the last AXS show Tanahashi/White? That was some good ol' pro-wrestling, at least.

I've never really cared about the Honor Rising cards, but I watched the first of the two and it blew right by. ZSJ/Umino was tight, there were some effective and unexpected finishes in the midcard and both the title matches (Ospreay/Castle and Cobb/Goto) had good work and good heat. The second card was going fine, too (another good unexpected finish) before I ran headfirst into a Jay Lethal Singles Match In Japan Nyquil Kegstand. 

Edited March 2, 2019 by John E. Dynamite

[Curt McGirt]

ZSJ/Tana was the business. 

That is all.

[Ryan]

Did they use their own recordings or just a high def feed of the ROH production crap? Just a curiosity.

[Curt McGirt]

Well hey whaddayaknow? We got a good looking card here tonight in Sengoku. Let's see what's happening. 

JUICE/FALE: This was JIP but surprisingly great. Both guys sold their asses off, Fale looked like a monster, Juicey Boy is still my fave gaijin babyface (though he should probably cut the dreads. This is wrestling though, I'll let it slide). Good heat and the finish was razor-close to Fale taking it. Maybe I'm just happy to watch some puro. Maybe I can't stop saying "FUCK 'EM" after seeing the video Eddie posted again of Fale saying it. Maybe this was just good? Watching Bernard/Nagata from '06 earlier today helped in many ways...

IBUSHI/ZSJ: Immediate dickishness from both guys makes me happy. Rocky Romero says "technical wizard" the second I was thinking about writing it. He isn't liking Ibushi's kicks though, apparently no spell can Harry Potter that out of the way. Ibushi countering lucha with lucha is just perfect, but it leads to Zack pulling some Suzuki on the outside which of course Red Shoes lets too much run for a proper referee. ZSJ is such a petulant twat kicking Ibushi in the chest and then going into torture mode, even using his hold(s) as a pin, it's ridiculous. What a great heel. He even remembers to sell while in control! We should ask that from a lot of other wrestlers, needless to say. Ibushi is clearly the next Chosen One as far as the crowd goes. IF his body holds up. ZSJ gets the triangle armbar and Ibushi goes for the old Backlund lift out of it but no dice, so ZSJ switches it two more times just to remind me of Nakamura on Smackdown. Then we get an INSANE bout of sub/pin stuff on the mat which just makes you go "how". Zack not selling a headkick to go straight into a Half-Nelson Suplex pisses me off but what can you do. C'mon kids, learn something from the other greats, no-selling in the latter rounds is amateur hour. But then Zack slaps Ibushi and he turns into Tenryu so I could be wrong, shit... He hits a lariat at the end of the strike exchange that makes me laugh out loud then we get our Backlund lift into the powerbomb finally. They fuck around some more and it looks like finisher time. Kevin Kelly calls the Pele a "backflip kick" and by god I'm amazed I've never heard that yet. ZSJ gets a last gasp with an Octopus put Ibushi finally puts his ass down with two knees. These guys are great every time. I still wish Zack wouldn't be so stoic facially because he always looks like he's waiting for his breakfast even after he gets kicked in the face, but hey. 

G1 Climax is coming to somewhere in Texas? Maybe I haven't been paying attention to things? Well, anyway, there you go, it was right there on the dang 'ol TV set. 

Naito is out and asks to be next IC challenger, asks anyone else to come out and nobody does (which actually has a moment of real suspense), and Ibushi says "TRANQUILO" and "SI" which is fantastic. Then he announces he's signed with NJ officially and is now the biggest babyface in Japan. Congrats young man, you've done well. 

[Curt McGirt]

Yano/Makabe vs. GOD meant I was taking a shower. Not because it was THAT bad (maybe?), I just needed to take a shower.

GOTO/WHITE: A disinterested Kevin Kelly burying Goto as a choker before the match even starts and White gets a chance to yell that he's just a young boy is a burial of Goto that the poor man seriously doesn't deserve. Red Shoes surprisingly does the most actual referee-proper thing he's maybe ever done by not counting White's pinfall because he was abusing Goto on the outside. Well done, sir. These guys have decided to just have a very WAR-esque match where they are smashing and suplexing the shit out of each other and I'm all for it. White playing chickenshit and begging off from two lariats, then throwing a great Uranage after a Gedo foot trip, is pretty smart work and unexpected from Mr. Knife Pervert. Gedo's clearly been working with him. The Flatliner into German is pretty cool too. Shit, he gets lariated into suffering (if not oblivion), and then decides to just flat back suplex Goto right out of the ring with him landing right on his ribs. That couldn't feel good... The Kiwi Krusher (I presume you spell it like that) is one of those moves that has a pointless, extraneous twist to its execution that just doesn't need to be there; it reeks of "different just to be cool". Goto's lariat is much more acceptable. Now they go into your Strike Exchange Portion of the match and boy this is a New Japan Main Event. The series of attempted rebound lariats following is sooooooo silly. JUST PUNCH HIM IN THE FUCKING FACE. They fight for awhile on the top and Goto does a sunset flip powerbomb that should have ended the match -- this is why I have a problem with these things anymore. Goto no-sells/Fighting Spirits a half-nelson suplex and I give up. You know who loses. Why not give Goto a win and have White go after him for a rematch in a battle for respect? He can come back, crush Goto, Goto gets some juice and White gets to look fired up to get back on the hunt. And win on the fucking TOP ROPE POWERBOMB so you have something to counter in the rematch to draw suspense. Hey Gedo, are you hiring? I can help you out with this shit. 

[Curt McGirt]

I saw about thirty seconds of Dragon Lee/Ishimori and had to turn it off after Ishimori got up AFTER A REVERSE FRANKENSTEINER, they did two more finishers with him no-selling and running around... and then he kicked out at two. Get out of here with That. SHIT. Please.

At this point it seems like we need a MUGA for Juniors, where people just hit topes and use matwork instead of fucking Canadian Destroyers.

Edited May 11, 2019 by Curt McGirt

[Elsalvajeloco]

4 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

I saw about thirty seconds of Dragon Lee/Ishimori and had to turn it off after Ishimori got up AFTER A REVERSE FRANKENSTEINER, they did two more finishers with him no-selling and running around... and then he kicked out at two. Get out of here with That. SHIT. Please.

At this point it seems like we need a MUGA for Juniors, where people just hit topes and use matwork instead of fucking Canadian Destroyers.

I saw someone retweet that this was airing on AXS TV and DVR'd it just so I can love this match all over again. I wanted to have babies with this match.

[Curt McGirt]

I just don't get it. I'm half the age of everyone that founded this board and I still agree with them. Wrestling Highspot Crank hasn't appealed to me since I was in high school and all that WCW is STILL cool. This shit is just overkill. 

Enjoy your offspring, who will just hit a series of finishers while rope-running. 

[Curt McGirt]

Note: I have no antipathy to anyone who actually does like what they're doing; like what you like. Read my posts in Jim Jefferies' voice, and you'll probably understand. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

3 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

I just don't get it. I'm half the age of everyone that founded this board and I still agree with them. Wrestling Highspot Crank hasn't appealed to me since I was in high school and all that WCW is STILL cool. This shit is just overkill. 

Enjoy your offspring, who will just hit a series of finishers while rope-running. 

I'm not a big fan of guys like Ospreay (or Ricochet when he was still around), but I think Dragon Lee meshes well with the juniors because he can wrestle and hit high impact moves between the highspots without it looking silly. Moreover, he doesn't seem out of place like most of the CMLL guys they've used on the Fantastica Mania tour in the past. Some of the Cirque du Soleil bullshit does bother me (especially whenever someone lands like Trinity in the Matrix and stares halfway across the ring at their opponent who for some reason is frozen by your gymnastic routine), but I thought Dragon Lee and Ishimori kept the goofiness limited to about 2 or 3 sequences as opposed to the 90% of the match. It doesn't detract from the match at all. So I'm not sure what you're talking about with this one.

[Curt McGirt]

Well, I only watched about 30 seconds and closed it down, so I'll blame it on that. If you saw just that shit in a 30 second span, would you want to go back and watch the whole match? (I'm not gonna argue with those who say 'yes' because that shit is kinda spectacular, but I'm an old soul and think less is more.)

[Curt McGirt]

I could have just hit it at the wrong spot? I'm up to any and all arguments, I can deal.

[Elsalvajeloco]

3 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Well, I only watched about 30 seconds and closed it down, so I'll blame it on that. If you saw just that shit in a 30 second span, would you want to go back and watch the whole match? 

Yes because if matches are defined by 30 seconds out of context and aren't less than a minute total, then 99.5% of the matches that have ever happened sucked ass.

[Curt McGirt]

True that

[Ramo2653]

Jesus what a terrible outfit Tana wore on this week's episode. I dug the Taichi/Cobb match, that's probably the best Taichi's looked in the ring in matches I've seen of him and I already loved his stalling and other character stuff. The other matches were fine. I'm just not that into big match Okada. I can see that's it's a good match but I'm not really invested in him.

[Jenalysis]

Taichi's really stepped it up in the ring since going to HW.  He's got the heel shtick still, but if you hate that just fast-forward until he chucks the pants.   I like that he added the stretch plum as he now has a finisher he can hit on anyone.   NJPW has been adding submission finishers a lot lately- Juice got one as well with the Tenzan crab, and Narita's been using a Scorpion Deathlock.

 

[Curt McGirt]

Man the Moxley/Juicey Boy match was FIRE. Those two pasted the shit out of each other, at the same time utilizing great pacing, gimmick work (I am the table my ass), selling on both sides, and just telling a hard-ass story of a hard-ass dude running into a promotion and taking what he wants. Great stuff. 

Tanahashi continues to impress in his old age too. As far as Shingo/Ospreay goes, I came in the first time and they were already in your Traditional New Japan Strike Exchange right at the end of the (30 minute) match before a bunch of finisher kickouts so I'll refrain from a review of the replay. 

[Peck]

It may not have been a 5-star classic but Moxley/Juice might have simply been the most entertaining match I've seen in a few years.

[Archibald]

I don't know shit about TV timeslots, but this sounds like a good thing?

https://www.sescoops.com/njpw-on-axs-tv-moving-to-different-night/

[matt925]

5 hours ago, Archibald said:

I don't know shit about TV timeslots, but this sounds like a good thing?

https://www.sescoops.com/njpw-on-axs-tv-moving-to-different-night/

I’m curious to hear Dave or someone’s thoughts on it. They spin it well, much better to have quick turnaround right? But I’m pretty sure Saturday is even more of a death slot than Friday, and before they had new japan anchoring their mma night and they said they were very pleased with the results. 

Id like to hear an experts take. 

[Curt McGirt]

- The Mox/Umino match was fun, though they should have showed all of the interview post-match

- Kojima/Shingo was really fun. Shingo is ugly enough for me to get behind him if he holds back on the overkill and it's nice seeing Kojima in his last gasp. 

- Speaking of last gasps, Jericho potatoing the shit out of Okada the entire time was great. I can't stand Okada and his damn match pattern, so him getting cancelled for the most part by getting hit directly in the face over and over again (albeit by a stupid fucking Christian conspiracy theorist weirdo) entertained me. And them doing the Bret Hart small package finish was quite the breath of fresh air. 

[John E. Dynamite]

15 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

(albeit by a stupid fucking Christian conspiracy theorist weirdo)

Figured if we were gonna shit on Jericho it was going to be because he helps a guy who writes songs about murdering Muslims be even semi-famouser. Hopefully the Khans have outlawed any Stuck Mojo jokes from making onto TV.

[Curt McGirt]

Boy did Ibushi/Naito leave a bad taste in my mouth. They should take a screencap of Ibushi vertical from that DDT response to the attempted Kamagoi, put an "=" next to it, and then put a picture of a dead Misawa next to that and hand it out to the fucking wrestlers in the locker room. If they had ended the match one move after the suplex on the apron, it would have worked just fine and nobody else would have cared. Instead their pride and ignorance is gonna lead them to a premature demise. 

[Eivion]

Been slowly catching up on AXS recordings. Big three matches I saw this week were Nakamura/Ibushi, Shibata/Ishii, & Omega/Okada I. Dug all of them to varying degrees. Nakamura/Ibushi is the type of match that makes you wonder how Ibsuhi hasn't already been an IWGP champ. Shibata/Ishii was a battle of pure bad ass will. Only thing I didn't like was the shoot headbutts. Okada/Omega was a mostly fantastic, but felt like a match that went an 5-8 minutes longer than needed. Even with that feeling quality never fell down much for me.