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Puroresu General Discussion for 2018

Kevin Wilson

By Kevin Wilson
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Ryan

Ryan

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I'm not sure that was even filmed. It's not on their streaming site or any other place out there, so I doubt Samurai aired it either. Was a smaller show overall.

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Kang

Kang

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Not much AJPW news these days but Suwama seems to want to make the world tags open for any fed and weight. It might not happen anyways. So whatever.

Also BATT is returning at Pro Wrestling Masters.

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Some random thoughts based on recent ajpw.tv viewing:

  • People think Nomura needs to lose the flab, but I find it endearing and am not down with body shaming
  • Indeed, Nomura is awesome, but he really needs to add some impact to his moves and lose that spear/pin combo he uses as a finisher. I get that he's basically low man on the totem poll for heavyweights (still not sure if Aoyogi counts as a HW or not), but he's been around long enough to have something more credible.
  • I'd totally be down with seeing Nagata challenge for the TC. The fans fucking love him, and he's still got enough gas in the tank. It'd be pretty easy to setup, too: just have him punk out Nomura or Aoyogi and demand to see their boss afterward, or have an 8-man tag with all of NEXTREAM on one side wherein Nagata picks up the win.
  • The junior division really needs a couple of guys who aren't just little shit-kickers. Tajiri and Ultimo kinda fit the bill, but all of them are, overwhelmingly, kinda similar in their little shit-kicker-ness. A good flippy-dippy guy and maybe a junior powerhouse type would really add some variety to the proceedings.
  • That said, Koji Iwamoto is my favourite of the bunch right now, and I'm hopeful that he gets the title. Sweeper needs something.
  • Jake Lee vs Miyahara from July 1st was a disappointment, because they just wrestled each other like any old opponent. Jake Lee has vowed to beat Miyahara, and Kento should have some sort of emotional reaction to fighting his former teammate, but really it was no different than Kento vs James from last month. Which is to say that it was totally fine, but that I expected much more.
  • So, that said, I'm not sold on the idea of giving Jake the belt anytime soon. He really needs to prove that he can have great singles matches against not Miyahara. Maybe a good showing in the Oudou tournament will convince me.
  • I'm not sure who's going to win the TC match between Kento and Zeus. I think booking-wise Kento makes sense--he hasn't had the belt too long, and he's far-and-away the most popular guy in the company. Zeus, though, is awesome, and long overdue for a title reign. He also really seems to be more popular than ever before. He had an amazing CC run of high-quality matches, and he beat all of the main-event level guys (Suwama, Akiyama, and Marufuji), though he consequently lost to all of the midcarders.
  • If Zeus doesn't win, they should probably just give Kento another epic reign. I just don't see the point of having the belt on anyone other than Zeus, Lee, or Kento, and as I said, I don't think Lee is ready.
    • would have preferred, honestly, that they held off on the Zeus challenge until later in the year. Have him win the Oudou tournament, for example, and then challenge in October, win, and carry it through to the CC or something.

 

Thoughts specific to Kento & Suwama vs Zeus & Jake, 30 minute draw (7/5):

  • The match was great--best AJ match since Kento/Marufuji. I dunno well it would hold up as a stand-alone match, but it was great as what it was: a showcase of AJ's four biggest native wrestlers (given that Akiyama now only moonlights as a main eventer).
  • Zeus, Miyahara, and Suwama all have such big personalities: I think it was good for Lee to learn a bit from them. His character is less clearly defined (at least for someone like me who doesn't understand Japanese). He seems to move between plucky babyface and straight-up heel, which is a bit of an odd balancing act. I get that they're trying to make him this generation's Kawada, but he hasn't really smoothed out the edges of that act yet.
  • Kento and Jake's interactions in the tag match were, in this regard, a thousand times better than in their singles match, with a couple of spots where they really just unleashed on each other.
  • Pretty swell spot near the beginning when Lee backed off of Suwama after a rope break, and bowed to show his respect, and Suwama just kicked him in the guts and shrugged.
  • There are people who think Suwama is bad at wrestling. Have they seen him in, like, the past five years? He's one of my favourites for sure.
  • Zeus did an amazing job of hyping their upcoming TC match. Also, when he couldn't find any supporters at ringside, he actually located some Zeus fans in the cheap seats and dragged Miyahara over to them so he could pummel him in a friendly environment. I found this incredibly endearing.
  • I really wish that I could get the promos at the end of the match translated. Suwama took the mic and the first two things he said elicited raucous laughter from the crowd. Like, I guess Suwama has sick comedic instincts or something.
  • Also, post-match, Miyahara did like the James Brown "can't go on! can't go on!" thing and got his belt and almost slinked off stage without speaking, before, like, moonwalking into the ring and giving an exhaustive and shouty promo.
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Belgian_Waffle

Belgian_Waffle

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I think having Zeus win would be a neat abrupt end to yet another short little Miyahara title run. That being said, if Zeus wins they better be ready to go HARD with Zeus for the year and not hot potato the belt around again. Guy has been positioned as the secondary ace next to Miyahara for so long, it would be a shame to make him finally winning the belt feel like a token reign or a novelty. 

I've been waiting forever for BATT to come back. Any idea who the lineup will be? Hase, Kea and Don Frye I hope? 

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6 hours ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

I think having Zeus win would be a neat abrupt end to yet another short little Miyahara title run. That being said, if Zeus wins they better be ready to go HARD with Zeus for the year and not hot potato the belt around again. Guy has been positioned as the secondary ace next to Miyahara for so long, it would be a shame to make him finally winning the belt feel like a token reign or a novelty. 

I've been waiting forever for BATT to come back. Any idea who the lineup will be? Hase, Kea and Don Frye I hope? 

I’d love to see another Zeus/Doering title match, and Zeus/Ishikawa as well. I think whoever has the title at the end of the month should probably ride it out until next year’s CC.

BATT is gonna be all the originals w Muto in a non-wrestling role. So, the dudes you mentioned plus Shinzaki.

edit: fucked that up. BATT is Hase, Kea, Ohtani, and Shinzaki. No Frye, Muto in sidelines.

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24 minutes ago, Beech27 said:

 

I remember liking Morishima, but my memory of his last run was: never got the torch handed to him, got injured, came back super fat and never quite as good. Am I wrong? I was never deep into NOAH.

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Beech27

Beech27

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He got a GHC title win over Misawa before he was 30, which seems about the brightest torch NOAH could give--though I'd say you're right that they never committed to him as ace. They tried Rikio, famously, and after that I'd suggest they'd already committed to a longer game with Marafuji. He also did have off-and-on injuries that led to diversions as mostly a tag guy, went from effectively fat to something more, and retired because of diabetes complications and general burnout. So you could argue NOAH was right not to make him the guy, or that he'd have been more motivated to stay fit and healthy if they had. Hard to say.

But! If he's got his health issues sorted, and found some passion... he's still just 39 and was once capable of real MOTY level work. He'd be an asset to any promotion or Japan's pretty thin freelancer pool. His comeback is a singles match on a self-produced card, so he's not easing in with an eight-man tag or the like, and it doesn't really give us any indication where he'll look to work. And he looks the right amount of big. (I swear to god, though, if he works with NOAH, and those NOAH-working-with-WWE rumors are true, and we get Bryan/Morishima in 2019, after both looked done...)

 

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Beech27

Beech27

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That ROH run was one of the few times in my pro wrestling fandom that someone crosses over into "I cannot buy them losing to anyone, and barely want to see them even sell" territory--just tremendous. And I'd also forgotten that the second of his GHC reigns was so long--which suggests he had a little more of an ace period than I thought--though I do remember loving the match where KENTA won it from him. Not surprisingly, they always had great chemistry.

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Ryan

Ryan

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Morishima lost a shit ton of weight before he originally left. I don't know if he put it back on before he was forced to retire or not. I don't recall so. When he was in various factions and heel stuff. He had a blood issue suggesting diabetes as well as problems with his liver for the reason he originally retired. He was also all banged up.

takeshi-morishima.jpg

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Kang

Kang

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08e693d0e4ba704133feb8513cdb89d9.jpg

Morishima worked multiple regular  jobs in Tokyo as in pizza store clerk, security guard and care giver. He went to the November 7 AJPW show and decided to come back, he said the real reason he left isn't his disease but his mind. 

Currently retraining his body.

Also Riki Choshu might retire. He feels pain working out.

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Raziel

Raziel

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6 hours ago, Dragonzombie said:

 

Also Riki Choshu might retire. He feels pain working out.

I hear that happens when you get north of 100.

 

All kidding aside, amazing he's still trying to go at 66.

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Jiji

Jiji

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Choshu has to be one of the most influential wrestlers in Japanese history after Rikidozan, Inoki, and Baba. He changed the style from the plodding mat work of the NWA to the more upbeat, strike based strong style NJPW is known for. Did the same for AJPW even more noticeably. He eventually became a self parody but he was awesome in the '80s. That 1984 match against Inoki was perfect and their characters just bled through in everything they did. Choshu, the chaotic usurper, in perpetual movement against the stoic figure of the establishment in Inoki, who relied on counters. 

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lostinube

lostinube

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Choshu just wrestled this past weekend at the Kyushu Pro anniversary show. He can still throw a credible lariat at the very least.

At last year's anniversary show, Chikuzen Ryota announced that they would run the Kokusai Center for their 10th anniversary, a place only run by Dragon Gate and NJPW right now (everyone else tops out at Hakata Star Lanes). Those DG and NJPW shows do between 5 to 7 thousand. Kyushu Pro usually does 1500 at Star Lanes and did 2000 here but it was also during one of the worst rain storms in recent memory and trains were stopped and roads closed.

 

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