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NJPW The New Beginning 2018


Raziel

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5 hours ago, alstein said:

Would Bullet Club work in the US without Kenny, and would Kenny and Ibushi have anyone in their faction (I can see Yujiro joining them- if only so they can have someone to eat pins)?

 

 

You can't underestimate how popular Cody is with the type of fans who are deeply into Bullet Club.  Marty is really blowing up right now, too.  I think BC would be just fine in America with those two representing it.

My guess is the Bucks reconcile with Kenny and continue the Elite, but Marty proves to be ever the villain and sides with Cody.

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I have only one gripe about Omega/White, which is that it took two Blade Runners for White to win it. Why water down the new guy's new finisher that soon?

But I loved the spot with the world's tiniest kickout, where Jay barely raised one should about an inch off the mat. I'm sure it was confusing for the live crowd, which is a drawback, but it showed that Kenny could have won the match, without having to hit the OWA, if only he'd bothered to take that pin seriously.

The confetti during the post-match hug was hilarious. I mean, it was great, but what's the kayfabe explanation for that? "Let's have this ready just in case they hug?"

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On 1/9/2018 at 5:00 PM, Brian Fowler said:

I'm figuring we end up with yet another "new" group with The Elite becoming a separate entity from BC. Kenny, Bucks, maybe Hangman... And maybe Ibushi.

 

On 1/9/2018 at 9:19 PM, Brian Fowler said:

That's why I figure you keep Marty and Cody with Fale/Hijos del Haku/etc, to make sure the American Bullet Club money keeps pouring in.

There's a very good reason not to do this next part (it would mean no original BC members left) but you could also theoretically split Fale/Leo/Tama/Tanga off as G.O.D. while leaving Cody and Marty with the others. After all, more factions seems to be NJPW's number one booking plan.

I think you keep Hangman with The Elite just to keep the numbers up and throw ROH a solid and keep their six man champs together. 

 

13 minutes ago, EVA said:

You can't underestimate how popular Cody is with the type of fans who are deeply into Bullet Club.  Marty is really blowing up right now, too.  I think BC would be just fine in America with those two representing it.

My guess is the Bucks reconcile with Kenny and continue the Elite, but Marty proves to be ever the villain and sides with Cody.

Looks like I was wrong on which way the Hangman goes

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17 minutes ago, MapRef41N93W said:

The confetti during the post-match hug was hilarious. I mean, it was great, but what's the kayfabe explanation for that? "Let's have this ready just in case they hug?"

They fire it off after every(?) title match, or at least every title change, when the winner poses with the belt. But since Jay had to cede the ring before he could celebrate, they never used it. So that’s why it was there. That the guy responsible for triggering it thought “This is a win!” and also hit Kenny’s music is awesome, though. They very heavy handidly wanted to signal it’s a triumphant moment.

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19 minutes ago, MapRef41N93W said:

The confetti during the post-match hug was hilarious. I mean, it was great, but what's the kayfabe explanation for that? "Let's have this ready just in case they hug?"

It honestly didn't cross my mind because of how engaged I was in the angle. I guess they could explain it away saying White didn't get his moment alone in the ring post-match. 

Edit: stupid slow awkward thumbs. 

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I think it would be wise to figure Flip Gordon into the big BC reshuffle.  He’s gotten a lot of screen time on BTE the past 6 months, so obviously the Bucks like him a lot and it’s only a matter of time before they get him a shot in Japan. Seems like a no-brainer to be the junior for the Elite.

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For sure. He should be their fall guy and a way better Chase Owens (not that there isn't a place for the Chase Owens' of the world). I can get behind a stable of Kenny, Kota, Bucks, and Flip.

One thing I take away from the Omega interviews with WOR is how much creative freedom the top guys seem to get not just in putting together their matches but also big angles and direction. Gedo giving these guys creative licence allows for super long term stuff with minute details like what we've got with the Golden Lovers in NJPW that would be hard for a booker overseeing everything to keep their finger on the pulse.

Now, if this were another promotion, Kenneth would SWERVE Ibushi in no time. I would cancel my NJPW subscription immediately. Don't fucking do it. DON'T.

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14 minutes ago, EVA said:

I think it would be wise to figure Flip Gordon into the big BC reshuffle.  He’s gotten a lot of screen time on BTE the past 6 months, so obviously the Bucks like him a lot and it’s only a matter of time before they get him a shot in Japan. Seems like a no-brainer to be the junior for the Elite.

Plus Cody, Hangman and Marty hate him (kayfabe in BTE) it's perfect.

Oh man I can't wait for the next couple BTE eps.

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I was disappointed with all of the empty seats for Saturday's show but, according to Cagematch at least, Sunday's show drew ~300 more people. I thought going from two long established natives in Tanahashi and Suzuki to two foreigners would mean a significant drop in attendance but nope. 

They're a little less than 3000 short of an 8000 capacity building. That's surprising. 

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Apparently last year’s stand alone, headlined by Okada/Suzuki, drew 5500. So getting close to that on back to back days is still pretty good, considering White isn’t super established yet. (I also think this kinda hurt the match a little. They seemed to want to portray that Kenny is still “better” in defeat by having him control a lot of it, and get the crowd behind the new kid, but they just wouldn’t bite. It was an encouraging performance for him, even still, so I’m hopeful there can be a hook here, and that he won’t be footnoted totally by The Embrace.)

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Finally getting around to Tana/MiSu. The head bump Tanahashi takes off the seated dropkick late on in the match was unreal disgusting. The first dropkick counter Suzuki hit was gnarly, much like the one against Goto, but Tana lands on the side of his head from the dropkick to his knee.

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The replay makes it seem less dangerous. A testament to how great Tanahashi is.

I feel like the dynamic of this match is far more engaging and gripping than the Okada title match from last February because of Tanahashi's injuries playing right into Suzuki's wheelhouse and Tanahashi trying to hang onto his status as a top guy in the company if not the ace. Suzuki also did a great job of keeping the crowd into the submissions by transitioning from the knee bar to heel hook first and then putting on more pressure with the figure 4 second. Awesome match so far.

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I feel they'll do Kenny v Kota as face v face, maybe with the dynamic playing more on their home base of support. Like they'll be cool with each other, maybe not actively running buddies, no longterm Golden Lovers plan, but they'll get into a situation where they have to put their, er, feelings to one side and have a match. End of G1 blocks or G1 final would be good.

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6 hours ago, EVA said:

Can we all stop for a minute and take note what a fucking stooge Kevin Kelly is, literally standing up out of his seat so he can hand it to Cody?

He knew about the four-pronged attack and plan D was actually plan K for Kevin. 

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Well that was one long wrestling weekend.  Overall I liked both shows, but I wouldn't mind if we got a bit less of those mult-tag matches or if they had a bit more meat to them. I'm not looking for a lot, stuff like Yoshi-Hashi trying to attack Naito after the match while he just keeps walking away is enough for me, but I feel like nobody else aside of LiJ really does this. Anyway, now to get a bit more detailed.

I'm probably second person in the world who liked previous Sanada's mask, but at the same time I really, really like his new look. I especially like that his mask has visible lips and they look very tight and shut which works very well with his "man of few words" character. And I thought that his interactions with Okada were pretty cool. In another thread I wrote that I see it 90/10 in favour of Okada, now I'm at 80/20 probably.

Suzuki again showing that he can still go when he wants to, amazing match. I saw some people saying that they'd want to see this Suzuki all the time and not the one that we saw last year with constant run-ins and cheating, but I don't know. But then, matches like this wouldn't be so special if Suzuki wrestled like this all the time. Important part I think is to find a balance for when it is okay for Suzuki to cheat and when he really should do it on his own. Clearly they failed to find it in NOAH, but it looks like they are doing it better now. It also does give certain edge to his character, he cheats not because he has to, but because he enjoys messing with you. You got his juniors chased away? Tough luck, now you'll just get ripped apart by Suzuki, maybe getting screwed by Taichi would have been better end.

Suzuki also had that RevPro tag-team belt that he won with Zack. Once his IC run wraps, can we please get Suzuki/Zack tag-team in NJPW? PLEASE?

There is also a bit of meta story here when we compare to what happened last year. Okada was in similar situation against Suzuki in Sapporo and Gedo was thinking about throwing in the towel, but Okada managed to prevail. Tanahashi didn't. Same event, same place, new ACE prevails, old ACE fails.

I liked Young Bucks/Ropongi match, but did I miss something or Matt's back problems started out of nowhere? I know that he had problems during WK match, but if we take this match in a vacuum then it looks weird a bit, maybe he should have tapped his back or something to make it a bit more clear? Anyway, minor gripe, I hope that we will be getting third match in near future.

Jay looked better against Omega than he did against Tanahashi, but he still has ways to go and I'm not sure if giving him Page is really smart decision here. From what I have seen Page is really mediocre wrestler and I suspect that Jay/Page match will just die on whatever show it is placed.

So, Golden Lovers are back. I wrote my big theory in WK thread about how maybe Naito should become tag-team ACE and well just look at possibilities :D Naito/Rush vs Evil/Sanada vs Golden Lovers vs Zack/Suzuki vs Tanahashi/Juice. Please make it so :D

Obviously big story is BC break-up and my initial theory was that Cody probably should become new leader since he is bigger heel than Omega ever was and now he is basically a face. But more I think about it more plausible for me looks that new leader might be... Tama Tonga. Tongans (and Chase + Yujiro) weren't around, Tama made that tweet about this not concerning BC and in his Day 1 post-match interview he basically said that he can't follow who he does not respect and maybe it is time to change things.

Now when you put them next to each other, Omega/Cody/Tama, Tama obviously looks a bit out of his league here. But on the other hand being a BC leader is really not working for Omega and Cody can't  always be in Japan, plus he probably wants to get back to WWE at some point. And how long can they keep Omega around? Anyway, point is that Tama is "small enough" for NJPW to lock down and control (I don't mean anything nefarious by this) and if this transition ends up working they'd have a leader for next few years easily. Plus I think that Tama speaks some Japanese too?

We obviously would have big match quality drop with Tama if he would replace Omega, but then, is Tama any worse than Cody? I don't think so. So if things have to change then I'd throw my chips rather with Tama than with Cody.

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I like Cody's angle so far. He's appealing to what Page and the Bucks want individually, rather than outright trying to sell them on Kenny being the worst. All the while, his actions and expressions in-ring demonstrate him to be more myopic and selfishly power-mad than that. The tension between how he acts and what he says is great, and he's pulling it off really well. This also sounds like the Bucks are going heavyweight, which... yeah. Suddenly the tag division could be loaded, and really important.

 

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