NJPW The New Beginning 2018

[Jiji]

I'm at the point where I'm not entirely sure he doesn't win. It would be amazing for a lot of reasons:

1. Instantly creates another top star, as he is the one to knock off Okada from his perch. Not Omega, not Naito, not Tanahashi, not Ibushi, not Suzuki, not EVIL.
2. Immediately fucks up the dynamic of LIJ. They've never been shy of wanting to challenge each other and push each other to see who is best, almost like pirates but not quite so literally cutthroat. Now Sanada is the guy with the belt that shines so brightly at him (great line!).
3. It protects Okada's mystique in a way because he's still the guy Omega and Naito cannot beat. It can be an upset and not this huge star surpassing him.
4. As previously mentioned, it builds a symmetry of Sanada being the guy that costs Okada the title twice.
5. It doesn't have to be long-term, in fact I think a 3-4 month reign is just what is needed after Okada's yoke these past ~19 months. Sanada can learn from the run and his eventual defeat and become a top guy without coming off as a Tommy Rich-type NWA champion.
6. That would lead to Sanada transitioning the title to one of the above names that couldn't beat Okada for the title and would add an immense amount of drama to their defence against Okada.
7. Okada can even avenge his loss and recapture his damned belt.

Fucking do it! So amped up for tomorrow night.

[Curt McGirt]

On 2/6/2018 at 8:34 PM, Oyaji said:

AJPW and later NOAH really had a great understanding in how big those kind of elimination tags or captain's fall tags could be in furthering a story.

Thing is NJPW did a hell of a job of it back in the '80s. The elimination tag with old-ass Ueda sacrificing himself for his team was one of the best matches on the '80s set, and then there was the truly stunning gauntlet match. They should bring back the latter as a concept for sure. 

[Archibald]

When initially Okada/Sanada was announced I was a bit underwhelmed, it screamed like a filler defence to me. After some thought I turned a corner on it and thought well, whatever, 90/10 that Okada takes it and I'm okay with that. But as we get more and more stuff with Sanada my "prediction meter" keeps shifting towards Sanada and now it is something like 60/40 in favour of Okada. That whole interview did present him not as someone who wants to challenge and beat Okada, but as someone who wants to be the main eventer. And well, if he "ends Okada" then thats a solid step towards that.

I'm sure that by the time match happens I'll think that this is 50/50 and when Okada wins I will think, but of course, how else could it have gone. Congratulations NJPW, you got me again

[Jiji]

Feel exactly the same way. This whole tour and watching every show on World in the build-up has me excited for something as inconsequential as Gedo/Bushi. That I'm sitting here thinking SANADA is going to defeat God Okada tomorrow night says how well New Japan is booked and how gullible I am (and happy to be in that role in comparison to my apathy with WWE).

[Brian Fowler]

I could be wrong, but I just don't see them stopping now when Okada is one defense behind Nagata and two behind Tana for most in a single reign. I feel like Gedo is bound and determined to make this reign be THE definitive IWGP Heavyweight Title reign.

Although I would love to see if Naito challenges Sanada or really takes the back seat to him.

[Control]

I don’t think anyone could have anticipated Seiya Sanada’s career path.

[GojiColin]

This is the first time in the Okada Era that I've sat down and watched all the New Japan Shows from start to finish, instead of just cherry-picking matches, and the thing that really sticks out to me is how compelling the undercard is. Roppongi 3k vs MiSuzuki's island of misfit juniors, Henare  vs Ishii, Finlay vs Switchblade, hell Gedo's got me interested in a Yoshi-Hashi match, which is a first.  

[Pete]

[Craig H]

Sanada looking pimp as hell.

At this point I just want Okada to beat the record. To come all this way and not would almost be a letdown. The other good part to capturing that record is that we'll be back to where it will be hard to predict when he'll drop the title, which will be nice.

[Jiji]

Sugabayashi trying not to laugh during the Ospreay/Hiromu Q&A is my favourite part of a fantastic segment. Will constantly asking him to eat the chicken is a close second.

Edit: The translator is the same one who got all the fame for her fuzzy pens when translating for UFC's Japan shows.

[Brian Fowler]

On 2/9/2018 at 2:11 AM, Archibald said:

I'm sure that by the time match happens I'll think that this is 50/50 and when Okada wins I will think, but of course, how else could it have gone. Congratulations NJPW, you got me again

So... Yup. I actually thought he had it with the last Skull End.

[Brian Fowler]

Okada vs Ospreay and Okada in the Cup? Interesting.

[Beech27]

I liked that a lot. I'd have loved it if the Skull End didn't look like it does, but if you accept it as a neck crank rather than Dragon Sleeper, it's fine. And anyway, I shouldn't be complaining, since the neck was a consistent focus for both men. I feel like that's been pretty typical of Okada defenses? Don't bother with body parts, I can kick out of your big stuff anyway, and you won't kick out of the Tombstone/Rainmaker combo--especially not after a few weaker lariats. And that... sorta worked. Only sorta, because SANADA was too quick to get hit by those initial Rainmakers--which is pretty impressive, considering Okada was able to use that strategy successfully on other athletic heavies like Naito and Omega. SANADA doesn't have the big head drop finish that so many top heavyweights do, but the Skull End does what it does, and so he went for the moonsault, his biggest weapon. And he hit it! But Okada survived, because that's what he does, and the knee SANADA hurt on his first attempt at the move bothered him again. So, SANADA didn't have the mobility he'd used to dodge the Rainmaker previously. Once he got hit, it was academic, as it's been for everyone else. Really good showing, though. 

Anyway, on to the next. Okada's reign has been incredible--still is!--but the crowd is gonna self-immolate when he loses it.

[Brian Fowler]

Yeah there were a couple of those 2.9's when you could feel the crowd gearing up to explode and then coming back down.

That's 10, ties Nagata. (Also his 23rd overall, just five behind Ace, which given his age, talent, and status, it feels like that one is only a matter of time as well.) One more to tie, two to break the record.

[Archibald]

2 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

So... Yup. I actually thought he had it with the last Skull End.

Same here, I'm kinda happy I guess that moonsault got protected a bit by him hitting a knee and there being something like 2 seconds delay till he covered Okada. And that cover looked like he barely covered him.

Anyone else noticed that Nagata had his All Asian Tag Team title with him? I know that they had started working with AJPW a bit last year, but this looks like another step forward.

I like Jay White more with each show. Like how he currently takes out lower tier guy and instead of pinning him starts torturing him. And by the looks of it I wouldn't be surprised if we got Jay/Juice match in the near future.

I actually expected Bushi to cut Gedo's beard so was a bit disappointed when it didn't happen.

Yoshi-Hashi looked great, well as great as he can look I suppose. But I'm not sure where he is supposed to go from here? Naturally he'll probably be in NJ Cup, but probably will get eliminated in first or second round. I don't know, I don't like him very much, but at the same time I feel like he is being wasted now. Also, I'm probably one of like 4 people on the internet who is looking forward to Naito/Taichi since I enjoyed their match at TakaTaichiMania.

So, Mysterio/Liger at SSE. It is a weird thing honestly. I'm going to say something crazy here, but I think that Liger is bigger star than Omega and Mysterio is bigger star than Jericho. And yeah, their current standings are obviously not comparable to Omega/Jericho and they are past their prime, but I feel that it is really weird that internet, from what I have seen at least, is like "oh, hi Rey" like its no big deal. Weird.

I'm going to admit that I'm just not a fan of flipping around and naturally I don't like Ospreay very much (4-way at WK12 in my opinion was weakest match on the card). But what I don't like even more is juniors doing crazy big moves and no-selling them. And it is natural thing in NJPW that some moves just get no-sold like when Ishii starts ignoring everything. But I feel like most wrestlers manage to build towards it and with their facial expressions (or just body language in general) manage to give the impression that something is going on, that he is getting fired up and his fighting spirit allows him to do what he normally wouldn't be able to do. But here, I think, I saw multiple times Ospreay get him by some ridiculous moves and when the time comes for him to come back to the match he just stands up and starts doing his moves. WIth that being sad I'm happy that he retained, I didn't like that he dropped it to Scurll on his first defence and won it back immediately so dropping it again on first defence would just have been crazy in a bad way to me.

Sanada looked great and their match hooked me like it was supposed to so no complaints there. Goto/Evil was.. there? I can't say anything bad about that match, but at the same time I was never really hooked by it.

So Okada/Ospreay is a thing and probably makes sense all things considered. As for Okada participating in the NJ Cup? At first glance it feels to me like an excuse to give someone a win over him without him dropping the belt. Basically same as Evil's victory at last G1. Will be interesting to see who he is facing once the brackets get released. Or he might get to the finals and lose to Tanahashi and then beat him at Sakura Genesis. Two possibilities I guess?

[Raziel]

Eh, Okada/Ospreay isn't that odd, since there's been several Heavy Champ vs. Junior Champ matches at the Anniversary show over the years.  But yeah, the only way Okada in the NJ Cup makes sense is to set up an extra challenger if Okada takes an early exit.

[Casey]

2 hours ago, Archibald said:

I feel that it is really weird that internet, from what I have seen at least, is like "oh, hi Rey" like its no big deal. Weird.

I'd imagine it's because Mysterio has been doing is thing on the independents for close to 3 years now, whereas Jericho was a regular on WWE television for all of 2016 and a little less than half of 2017 (and on WWE TV 4 months prior to appearing in that pre-taped video).

[Jiji]

Slightly disappointing show but that was more down to my very high expectations. My body gave out at around 3:00 and I didn't want a repeat of the G1 final when I passed out early in the main event only to awake to the last 30 seconds. Even after sleeping for a bit EVIL/Goto still put me back to sleep, but it doesn't sound like I missed much.

That was probably the best YOSHI-HASHI match I've seen. He really brought everything he had and it still wasn't enough. I enjoyed Naito going to put his hat on his fallen opponent only to pull back and spit on him. Wasn't much but as far as Naito goes, it's a sign of respect I guess. Nobody does submission close calls better than Naito. 

SANADA said he hadn't shown everything to Okada in their press conference and as great as the match was, I don't think he showed anything beyond what we've seen from him. I wanted an extra layer either through a new move (as Beech mentioned, he does not have a head drop type of big move) or show some real desperation and emotion. I guess that avalanche GTR thing was new, but this was more or less the typical Okada IWGP title defense formula, which admittedly is great. So as great as it was, I wanted just that little bit more from SANADA. 

I was in and out of the junior match but I didn't love it. Archibald did a good job of detailing what was wrong with it. They have a way better match in them. 

Nagata had easily the best match from Kitamura's trial series. That was so much fun. 

[Curt McGirt]

On 2/9/2018 at 6:12 AM, Control said:

I don’t think anyone could have anticipated Seiya Sanada’s career path.

Yeah, remember this kid? 

I had no clue he was even in New Japan until AXS started airing episodes. Shows how out of the loop I was

[Beech27]

As an aside to the main event business, it’s cool that they’re keeping Naito a focus with singles feuds, even though he doesn’t have a belt—and I’m kinda stoked for heavyweight Taichi?

Also worth noting, amid the BC schism, that Jay’s still needling Okada. Could be we’re headed for more than one stable shakeup...

I don’t think they can sell me on Makabe as an IC challenger, and Goto/Evil was a bit of a dud. So, that’s two title scenes I’m a bit meh on at the moment. But there’s so much talent that’ll turn around, and the Cup will provide something novel.

[TheVileOne]

I loved Bushi's Venom attire and taping the hair from Gedo's beard to the tongue. Overall, a really fun show.  Sounded like Gedo was smack talking to Bushi in English during the match.

Despite being two-time champs, Roppongi 3K seem to lose and get dominated a lot. Regardless, it was a fun extended beatdown by Suzuki-Gun with some nice back work.

Yuji Nagata is almost 50 and he can still go hard and look like a freaking badass.

Sanada/Okada was a badass main event. I think I might've liked that match even more than Okada/Naito at Wrestle Kingdom. 

[EVA]

To me, Naito/Yoshi and Okada/Sanada were both cases of two dudes at the top of their game absolutely masterfully working the crowd into a frenzy for their opponent, but the opponent not really upping their game in any significant way.  You still end up with a great match, but one that leaves me still kinda cold on the other guy and isn't likely to catapult them to bigger things, like I imagine they intended.

It really would help Sanada out tremendously if Skull End didn't look like absolute shit.  It really is the Cena STF of NJPW.  At various times in that match, Okada seemed to be wrestling to stay IN the move rather than to get out of it.

On the bright side of shitty submissions, Naito probably made Yoshi-Hashi's dumb butterfly lock look better than anyone ever.  Probably one of the best extended struggle and tap-out tease sequences I've seen in a long time.  That crowd was REALLY buying that Naito was going out to the freakin' butterfly lock for a minute there.

[Jiji]

Naito in Tanahashi's cloverleaf hold in the G1 block decider was even better than today's performance. Why is the butterfly lock dumb though? It's basically an inverted sugar lock, the move shooters would put wannabe wrestlers in back in the territorial days to torture them into not wanting to come back.

Reading over people's reactions at the F4W board and people were incredibly high on SANADA's performance, so maybe it was just me and my overly lofty expectations for him. Even if it's just another step forward and he doesn't break out in earnest until maybe sometime next year or in the G1, I suppose having a good performance like this in a big match (and big sellout well in advance) helps his cause. I just believe that he has that extra gear in him to be one of the best instead of really good. Maybe it's a story or evolution that needs to play out over time rather than in one match but I hope there's more from him.

What do they do with YOSHI-HASHI? He doesn't really serve much of a purpose now and clearly the company is never going to get behind him in a substantial way. Would he be better off going to All Japan or NOAH at this point? I mean Miyahara has made Yoshifuckingtatsu relevant, so I could see him being a decent upper midcarder in one of those promotions but I'm guessing he's not in a hurry to leave behind that NJPW money. Either way, he is just one of many guys that are "just kind of there" in an already super bloated roster that could use some new blood in some ways.

Edit: I forgot to mention back in my initial reaction post... Osaka is not the hotbed it once was in terms of crowd reaction, is it? They were pretty good in the main event and the junior title match but overall I was unimpressed. Better than the last big show there but over the past handful of shows there they really haven't added to the matches. One clear cut exception being the EVIL/Okada G1 match where they made a top shelf match into a classic. 

[Control]

50 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Yeah, remember this kid? 

I had no clue he was even in New Japan until AXS started airing episodes. Shows how out of the loop I was

He was clearly talented when in AJP, but he had really vanilla offence and a face personality to boot. Would have thought a guy like that would be lost in the shuffle of W1 and TNA and then freelancing but now he’s main eventing NJPW.

Is he officially signed with the company, or still a freelancer?

(Just remembered that BUSHI and Taichi are originally AJP guys, too)

[Curt McGirt]

Is Ishii still stuck in six-man purgatory or what? He should be knocking heads with Suzuki (okay, not literally) instead.