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NJPW Destruction Tour 2017


Raziel

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Yep, I looked it up. So he's got Tana, Taguchi, Nakanishi, Juice, and Ricochet, and if they wanna show up Yoshitatsu (ha), Kitamura (double ha), and War Machine (that might work out well at least)

Actually I looked up Kitamura cause I've never seen him, and nevermind, that's one hunk of beef to have on your side.

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15 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Actually I looked up Kitamura cause I've never seen him, and nevermind, that's one hunk of beef to have on your side.

Taguchi Japan has somewhat fluid membership, by New Japan faction standards. "Faces who are otherwise unafiliated", more or less, and basically an excuse for Taguchi to live his soccer dad dreams, in ring. 

As for Kitamura, he's worth watching, as a pretty consistent highlight of consequence-free undercard tags, along with the other young lions who are mostly, y'know, actually young. He was a decorated amateur wrestler, who signed up with New Japan after (shock!) a PED suspension, so he's 31 already. And not that I advocate that, and all the harm that can come with, but there's something to be said for a huge jacked guy just wrecking people. What can I say? 

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Man, that Suzuki/Elgin match was a mess.  Which is a shame, because they were doing some interesting stuf in the ring in between all the shenanigans between Suzuki-gun and Taguchi Japan.  It was a much more reined-in Elgin match.  And I usually enjoy some Suzuki-gun shenanigans, bu this was just way too much and a lot of it awkwardly executed.

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On 9/9/2017 at 7:09 AM, MoeCristyV.1.6 said:

Kitamura is awesome.

The new Haku kid needs really much work though. No presence at all.

He's less than a year in and being trained by Fale. Whattayaexpect?

 

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That Suzuki-gun basically treats every match as a lumberjack match hurt it quite a bit, to me. It felt like a thin lampshade over interference that would have occurred even without the gimmick. That said, I liked that Elgin didn't hit ten finishers, and his backfist was awesome. 

Honestly, I'm more curious where Suzuki's reign and the NEVER title itself are headed. He mentions in interviews that it's sort of a nothing title, and commentary openly calls it a flop. So...?

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I think there's good to be said about all of the current crop of pre-excursion young lads (I haven't seen Narita). They know how to train people in a way so they know the basics and yet their natural charisma and characteristics shine through in time. You just know that Tanaka and Komatsu are going to look great when they return. If they poach Takeshita and Higuchi from DDT then the company have a blazing bright future.

Destruction in Fukushima was a bad show, no two ways. Move on.

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I liked ZSJ/Tanahashi quite a bit.  Not as good as their succinct, focused G1 match, but it was never going to be that as a main event.  The opening was maybe too drawn out, but I loved all the business with the straight jacket hold leading to ZSJ getting frustrated and then going after Tana's arm.  The Suzuki-gun interlude was completely unnecessary, though.

I'm generally pro-SZKG shenanigans, but when they're in FIVE matches on the show, it gets to be a little much.  They could drop 4 or 5 guys out of that group, and they'd be better for it.

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I enjoyed the main, though it's no MOTYC. Broadly speaking I did think it was interesting work: Tana brought his dragon screws and submission game, which reminded me of the adage about pressing a pressing team, in college basketball; this also prevented ZSJ from doing the killer version of his alphabet-soup finish, where he used his legs instead of his arms.

What held it back for me was ZSJ falling into some typical indie/strong style exchanges, which are never great showcases for him. I mean, I get what they were going for: In his first big main event, he wanted to prove he was a real MAIN EVENTER, and beat Tanahashi totally and convincingly. Only when that started to slip away did he really focus on the injured arm. But you're a heel, man; just be vicious. Who cares how you win? (I also didn't need the MiSu run in, but.)

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According to Cage Match, they've only wrestled once since 2012, and that was a six-man tag during the G1 this past August.

Tanahashi/Suzuki would make a lot of sense for the IC match at WK.  Have to get the NEVER title off Suzuki first, though.

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15 hours ago, EVA said:

According to Cage Match, they've only wrestled once since 2012, and that was a six-man tag during the G1 this past August.

Tanahashi/Suzuki would make a lot of sense for the IC match at WK.  Have to get the NEVER title off Suzuki first, though.

Not if they give up on the NEVER title and book a unification match. With the US Title now in play I wouldn't argue.

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The IWGP Heavy Tag title match has been changed to a tornado rules match.  Also, a couple matches have been rearranged, as a Suzuki-gun team is now taking most of Tagichi Japan, and setting up for King of Pro-Wrestling's IC Title match, we're getting Tanahashi/Elgin vs. Ibushi/Finlay.

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Lol, you're going to have to be more specific.  There was probably three spots where I questioned Juice's sanity and long-term health.

I would guess you're talking about this:

Spoiler

 

or this:

Spoiler

 

There were a couple others not quite as insane.  Juice looked like he landed on his head/neck after the avalanche One-Winged Angel.  Ditto the dragon suplex Omega squished him with.  Great match, but Juice probably shortened his career a bit in there.

Omega's sell of the Pulp Friction had me fearing Juice broke his (Kenny's) neck.  Nutty match.  Juice would be on RAW if he'd shown a fraction of this ability in NXT. 

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There's a great deal expected of New Japan main events, and when you're in there with Omega... well, he's essentially a made man who bumps like he isn't; and Juice is actually in that position of needing to really mint himself as a main eventer, so he can't get upstaged. Maybe I'm numb to it, but I didn't think anything really looked bad, when compared to Omega/Naito, etc.

Anyway, welcome back Kenny, this was really good. Sold the knee as psychological damage at first, and once he got his footing, Juice was essentially defeated in a 12 minute house show match.

So, the knee. Juice was properly reluctant but methodical, and the figure four on the post was a nice callback to Omega sorta failing to put it on in their G1 match. But then he decides to suplex Kenny off of the apron, for some reason(!?), and of course it backfires. Juice's path to victory was a more grounded approach, and now he's started at artillery war, which he probably can't win.

He doesn't, of course, though he shows really well. His straight left is allowed to stand up against the v-trigger, and although Pulp Friction gets kicked out of, Omega's on that main event god tier, where one finisher essentially never works. And speaking of, Omega has to bust out (for the first time?) an avalanche OWA outtanowhere--call it the Omega Weapon, please?--to put him away for good.

A dud of a tour in many ways, but this match ended it well. I actually really liked most of the show. This crop of Young Lions are really fun; I'm stoked for any Tana/Ibushi interaction; and Trent/Yujiro was... actually pretty good? I think? 

 

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