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Purotopia General Discussion: 2016 Edition


Kevin Wilson

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just wanted to give a +1 to Meltzer's comment that it's time for the Captain New Japan gimmick to be retired.  That gimmick is way past its expiration date.  

 

It's really time for Chaos to destroy Captain NJ, ripping his mask off, dumping water on him, and beating him into a bloody mess all while Gedo is on the mic berating the guy and saying "from now on you are just plain Mitsuhide, do you understand?!!?  Captain New Japan is dead!!" 

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I'm all for Captain New Japan being sent on an American excursion and forced to work Jeff Jarrett's new fed...

 

...Mostly because they don't have TV or appear to be taping shows for DVD, so I'd probably never see any of his Global matches.

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Speaking of things that need to be retired -- Tanahashi's air guitar. I'm sure I've probably said it on here a dozen times how much I loathe it, but it's been a few months since I watched a match of his, so it was just long enough for me to put it out of mind.

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Speaking of things that need to be retired -- Tanahashi's air guitar. I'm sure I've probably said it on here a dozen times how much I loathe it, but it's been a few months since I watched a match of his, so it was just long enough for me to put it out of mind.

 

 

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Full shows or just matches?

 

As far as full shows go I would say Invasion Attack from April and Dominion 7.5 in Osaka Castle Hall were probably the best two shows I've seen since Wrestle Kingdom.

 

Thank you. Shows and matches. Matches the better of the two.

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Speaking of things that need to be retired -- Tanahashi's air guitar. I'm sure I've probably said it on here a dozen times how much I loathe it, but it's been a few months since I watched a match of his, so it was just long enough for me to put it out of mind.

Yeah, that's not going away for a long time. NJPW audiences eat that up big time.

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Full shows or just matches?

 

As far as full shows go I would say Invasion Attack from April and Dominion 7.5 in Osaka Castle Hall were probably the best two shows I've seen since Wrestle Kingdom.

 

Thank you. Shows and matches. Matches the better of the two.

I know you want a brief list, but Senor Lariato updates his NJPW World guide all of the time. The darker the gold, the better he thinks the match.

 

Standouts from this year for me include: Ishii vs. HonmaKyle O'Reilly vs. KUSHIDA in the BOSJ finalKenny Omega vs. KUSHIDAIbushi vs. Honma, Styles vs. Tanahashi from 2/11 (I can't find video for it), Ibushi vs. Goto (3/15, again - can't find video), Styles vs. IbushiShibata vs. Sakuraba, and Styles vs. Okada.

 

Those are all from prior to the G1. My favourites are the BOSJ final and the Honma matches. There's a lot more, but I thought I'd pick the best of the best as you said. People generally seemed to like the Goto vs. Nakamura match for the IC title at Dominion but it didn't do much for me.

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When Yuji Nagata did that "I want to win another IWGP title before I turn 50" angle a few months back, I just assumed that his constant teaming with Captain New Japan would lead to Nagata turning hardcore heel and turning Blue Justice into a heel stable (Blue Vengeance?).  

 

You spend several shows showing Nagata getting more and more frustrated with Captain New Japan's antics and constant losing, finally snapping and destroying the good Captain, beating him so badly that finally CHAOS comes out to stop it, with Nagata getting on the mic and berating a stunned Gedo in a "fake shoot" angle where he voices his frustration over his spot on the card despite his status as a G1 winner and two-time IWGP champ.

 

He gets a title shot at Okada the next month and turns fully heel, sucker punching Okada during the ring intros by drilling him with an ultra-stiff kick to the head, then spiking him on his head with a Wrist-Clutch Exploder as soon as the bell rings and then slapping on the Nagata Lock, forcing the doctor to stop the match as Okada is "unconscious" from the kick/Exploder and awarding the IWGP title to Nagata.  

 

But no, Nagata, still one of the best workers in the world at age 46, is stuck in NOAH as Maybach's masked sidekick.

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This is from two weeks ago. Tenryu is doing his final tour and stopped by Hakata Star Lane for his last ever match in Kyushu courtesy of Kyushu Pro Wrestling. Kyushu Pro is an NPO and does lots of stuff fund raising stuff around Kyushu (their current project is crowdfunding the costs to hold a free show at one of the smaller islands in the area) so that plus Tenryu made for a bigger crowd than usual. Lots of kids and older fans this time around.

 

The Great Kabuki is still around, celebrating 50 plus years in wrestling. One thing about Kyushu Pro is that since they do lots of community stuff, they have lots of comedy matches. Question: When did walking the ropes become a Japanese wrestling comedy staple? Yes, that is a missed photo of Kabuki blowing mist into the an old man mask.

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A lot of Kyushu Pro gimmicks are Kyushu/Fukuoka related. Part of Batten Bura Bura's name means "however" in Hakata dialect. He had a "feud" with a local TV personality who brought out Kyoko Inoue to wrestler for her.

 

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Every breath you take...every move you make...I'll be watching you.

 

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That's Ryota Chikuzen (I think most famous for being Makai No. 2). His trunks are adorned with the pattern of a famous souvenir cracker you can buy in Hakata that also comes with a mask that has the same pattern (he wears one coming to the ring). He's also the boss of Kyushu Pro.

 

Hey, think something is going to happen to Minoru Fujita?

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Tenryu did most of his wrestling with Fujita. I think Arashi was in the ring longer than Tenryu. Chikuzen got the win for his team. Tenryu said thanks after to the match though no one understood what he said.

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That wasn't the main though. The main was Gen Kai versus Mentai Kid for the Kyushu Pro title. Mentaiko is another souvenir food from Hakata. It's a kind of spiced fish roe. The kids love the Mentai Kid although he's basically like a CAW come to life with all your basic junior moves (he whipped out a falcon arrow at one point). He also ate two pedigrees on the way to...the win. Haha.

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And of course swag was bought.

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something that occurred to me the other day: with both Takeshis now retired, is Akiyama the only active wrestler with big title match wins over Misawa and/or Kobashi? I know Ogawa pinned Kobashi in a captain's fall match to promote their 2004 title bout but that doesn't count. 

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Depends on how generous you are being with the word "active" since Vader still does spot indy shows. Uhh that's all I can think of, those two mostly lost to themselves or Kawada in big singles matches that weren't in the Champion Carnival.

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Full shows or just matches?

 

As far as full shows go I would say Invasion Attack from April and Dominion 7.5 in Osaka Castle Hall were probably the best two shows I've seen since Wrestle Kingdom.

 

Thank you. Shows and matches. Matches the better of the two.

I know you want a brief list, but Senor Lariato updates his NJPW World guide all of the time. The darker the gold, the better he thinks the match.

 

Standouts from this year for me include: Ishii vs. HonmaKyle O'Reilly vs. KUSHIDA in the BOSJ finalKenny Omega vs. KUSHIDAIbushi vs. Honma, Styles vs. Tanahashi from 2/11 (I can't find video for it), Ibushi vs. Goto (3/15, again - can't find video), Styles vs. IbushiShibata vs. Sakuraba, and Styles vs. Okada.

 

Those are all from prior to the G1. My favourites are the BOSJ final and the Honma matches. There's a lot more, but I thought I'd pick the best of the best as you said. People generally seemed to like the Goto vs. Nakamura match for the IC title at Dominion but it didn't do much for me.

 

Cheers for the help pal!

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Anyone been keeping up with All Japan lately? I'd say from maybe June to now the matches and crowds have increased significantly and Xceed has really been putting on great stuff.

Can you recommend some matches, please? I've been thinking of watching the odd recent All Japan match and this would be helpful. Glad to hear they're starting to put things together again.

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Of the matches I've been able to watch these were some that stood out.

 

- World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Kotaro Suzuki © vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (7/8/15)

- Captain's Fall: Suwama ©, Joe Doering & Atsushi Aoki vs. Go Shiozaki ©, Kento Miyahara & Yohei Nakajima (7/8/15)
- World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Kotaro Suzuki © vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (7/28/15)
- World Tag Team Title: Go Shiozaki & Kento Miyahara © vs. Joe Doering & Atsushi Aoki (7/28/15)

Go had a really good TC defense against Zeus a while back in Osaka as well. The whole group has been working pretty hard.

 

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