Kang Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iowanole Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 1 hour ago, D.Z said: Did you catch the event? If so, how was it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 I missed the live stream and the replay is not yet up on AJPW.tv. managed to completely spoil the results, though. Happy with who won, though I’m not sure what to do with Kento from here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kang Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 3 hours ago, iowanole said: Did you catch the event? If so, how was it? Good show. Very good main event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Ape Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 FUN FACT: Zeus is the first Korean to hold the TC. There have been Koreans who held some of the titles pre-unification (Choshu, Ohki, Rikidozan of course), but never the full boat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belgian_Waffle Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Love it. Great results from all three title matches. Ishikawa pinned James in a. six man where Keiichi Sato was on the losing team and didn't get pinned so I assume they're going with Zeus vs Ishikawa as the first defence. I'm not worried with what to do with Kento, he can have long tag title reigns with young partners while different guys hold the TC and then keep collecting TC reigns along the way whenever they need to build up a new challenger to put over him. But yeah Zeus has been his rival since the beginning so this feels like the culmination of something. Restate what I said about I hope they don't hot potato the belt off Zeus. Cool to see it was Aoyagi and not Nomura who got the big pin over Jun...wonder if this means he's going heavyweight after all. He's a much more plausible future ace than Nomura or Jake Lee, in terms of in-ring skills. Now let's just wait for Yusuke Okada to come back with an instant main event push and start knocking heads around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Well, Yasuke Okada is billed as 5’7 and 180 lbs, so I dunno what kind of main event push he can get in AJPW. Aoyagi is 6’1 and they’ve been booking him as a heavy at least since his return. Very excited for Ishikawa v Zeus. That’s a beefy match and I haven’t seen any previous encounters (if there are any). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 AJPW with a very sexy card to close out the August tour (courtesy http://puroresuspirit.net/) Quote All Japan Pro-Wrestling “2018 SUMMER EXPLOSION”, 8/26/2018 [Sun] 15:00 @Nagareyama Kikkoman Arena in Chiba () Black Menso~re & Black Tiger VII vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Keiichi Sato () Atsushi Maruyama, TAJIRI, KAI & Naoshi Sano vs. Masanobu Fuchi, Osamu Nishimura, Ultimo Dragon & Hikaru Sato () The Road to Royal Road: Suwama & Dylan James vs. Joe Doering & Gianni Valletta () The Road to Royal Road: Kento Miyahara vs. Yuji Hino () Asia Tag Championship Match: [105th Champions] Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi vs. [Challengers] Takao Omori & Isami Kodaka ~ 1st title defense. () World Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: [47th Champion] Atsushi Aoki vs. [Challenger] Koji Iwamoto ~ 5th title defense. () The Road to Royal Road: Jun Akiyama & Yoshitatsu vs. Jake Lee & Ryoji Sai () Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match: [61st Champion] Zeus vs. [Challenger] Shuji Ishikawa ~ 1st title defense. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Beyond running the dojo (he's still doing that, right?) and painting Godzilla figures at said dojo, does he help with booking the junior division at all or do Gedo/Jado do that too? Btw, I sometimes forget how incredibly awesome those two were in Team No Respect. Was watching a li'l bit of FMW recently and boy did I hate them as a youngster getting into Japanese wrestling (stop cheating against my beloved Hayabusa! Why is your hair and gear so shitty!?) but I've come to respect them so much now. And indeed the hair and gear combo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E. Dynamite Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 7 hours ago, Beech27 said: If anybody wonders why he only worked one match in Sept. 1996, Liger had brain tumor surgery and it barely slowed him down. There is none greater. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 7 hours ago, Oyaji said: Beyond running the dojo (he's still doing that, right?) and painting Godzilla figures at said dojo, does he help with booking the junior division at all or do Gedo/Jado do that too? I always come away from the few english language interviews he does thinking he's too old school/humble to say for sure. He'll just talk about how he loves to work hard and help the younger wrestlers, which could mean a hundred different things. Quote Btw, I sometimes forget how incredibly awesome those two were in Team No Respect. Was watching a li'l bit of FMW recently and boy did I hate them as a youngster getting into Japanese wrestling (stop cheating against my beloved Hayabusa! Why is your hair and gear so shitty!?) but I've come to respect them so much now. And indeed the hair and gear combo. Back when they were getting back together, I sought out the two of the matches the Golden Lovers had against them, and yeah both were really fun. (Although one ends with Jado getting hurt, and the match being stopped.) One team wants to do pretty moves and smile; the others just want to punch and stomp and scowl. As simple a formula as there is, but it works. And you see why GOD gets away with so much profanity when you watch vintage Gedo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterCopperpot Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 I thought Gedo booked the heavies and Jado booked the juniors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iowanole Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 On 7/29/2018 at 3:26 PM, D.Z said: Good show. Very good main event. Where can I see this event? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevendaughters Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 question for the quorum: ignoring platitudes such as 'it tanked business' etc., what do we think of Inokism era New Japan? necessary move that paid off? stupid hubris? bit of both? i sort of feel that the whole area needs a rethink and a recontextualisation away from the 'Yukes/Tanahashi saved New Japan' story, which is a good story, but not quite true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 What is true then? I think with the rise of PRIDE, they pro bank had to do something but they fucked up a lot going back to how they handled Hashimoto vs. Ogawa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevendaughters Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 I think it's partly true but complex with, as you say, the threat of MMA, the fragmentation of the scene, the gap between generational stars, there's more to it. But really, what I'm trying to push here is that I think from the perspective of sitting down and watching a show actually quite good and interesting and that too many people simply accept the story as told. It's not like they forgot how to work or booked overly dumb angles or went full WCW 2000. It's just the booking was weird and it hurt business. But there's lots of gold like Bas Rutten kicking ass and Takayama on top and Minoru Tanaka being great, just for a start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Being unfamiliar with the era besides Hash/Ogawa, what are the great matches from that era? I didn't even know Bas was IN NJPW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iowanole Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 3 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said: Being unfamiliar with the era besides Hash/Ogawa, what are the great matches from that era? I didn't even know Bas was IN NJPW. That makes two of us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Shit, he was in BattlARTS too? https://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=8012&page=4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Kensuke Sasaki's renaissance as happy dad trainer with Hokuto and Tenryu was my favourite thing about Japanese wrestling before checking out in 2006. He certainly has a dark past with what little is known surrounding Gompei's death for sure, but he looked for atonement it seemed in becoming a loveable lug/family man/wrestling dad to Nakajima and the Kensuke Office young boys. Watching him do comedy with the Florida Express guys in DDT was surreal and incredible. Nakanishi and Nishimura (Gotchism~!) going 60 minutes with Cho-Ten was another one of my favourites. I really dug the two babyfaces at the time and, yeah, Takayama in NJPW was fantastic. I was mostly a NOAH guy after 2002 but fucking loved young Tanahashi and loathed overpushed, bland if not technically magnificent Nakamura. Shibata as the black sheep was right down my alley too. There was plenty to like even with the shitty booking at the top for sure. Heel Liger in CTU, for instance. The interpromotional feud amongst Noah and New Japan's junior divisions was another bright spot. Remember that awesome lil dude from Osaka Pro, Takehiro Murahama? Was never a Nagata guy until his recent grumpy old man routine, so I revelled in his horribly booked run at the top. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 15 minutes ago, Oyaji said: The interpromotional feud amongst Noah and New Japan's junior divisions was another bright spot So many thousand times YESSSSSSSSSSS I might be more familiar than I thought -- the top of the card is more what I meant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevendaughters Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Bas Rutten v Carl Malenko in Battlarts is really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 17 minutes ago, Oyaji said: Heel Liger in CTU, for instance its been a while, but I remember the feud with Apache Army being pretty fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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