NJPW STRONG STYLE EVOLVED (aka the US Show)

[Casey]

This show needed Bad Luck Fale and it was obvious.

[EVA]

I thought White/Page was really pretty bad.  Just the ultimate try-hard match.  Two guys who either lacked the confidence or the ability to try to tell a story to that crowd and so they just decided to trade bombs and stupid bumps with no real rhyme or reason to them.  I mean, they took every risk they were allowed to take and still failed to draw the crowd into their match.  They got a little into it at the end, but even that felt more like a recognition of "Oh, this is the finishing stretch, let's cheer" than a culmination of enthusiasm for the match itself.

Also, I feel like if your gimmick is "Switchblade," you either have to throw excellent knife-edge chops or NONE AT ALL.

But, you know, as shitty as the camera work was all night, credit to whichever camera guy was in perfect position to capture the exact moment Page's life flashed before his eyes in close-up after that botched German on the apron.

[Pete]

Apropos of nothing, the Pyramid is a nifty building that didn't look out of place at all hosting an NJPW show. Modern, yet with tons of character like the "MANIACS GET LOUD HERE" sign.

[TheVileOne]

It really did look like a nice venue for them. I bet though they could probably fill up the Long Beach Arena or at least get a decent-sized crowd.

[Jiji]

Hmmm, Milano was practically cringing at how hard some of White's chops were in that match. My read on the crowd's late interest was more a sign of respect for the guys practically killing themselves in order to win the crowd over in an incredibly difficult slot. They were given the diva death slot between two matches the fans most wanted to see. They're not over enough (and probably not capable of yet) to rely on a subtle story in a match. That approach rarely works for wrestlers who aren't over and are working in front of a fading audience that just wanted to see their favourites before going home on a Sunday night. Let's not pretend that Suzuki and Ishii were out there playing out some Shakespearean drama. They beat the piss out of each other and the crowd loved both men from years of high level work. For all the hand wringing I've seen (not just here either) of the main event being too dangerous, Suzuki and Ishii were laying it in hard as hell and it's not exactly safe like a '70s mat classic. 

[matt925]

The venue looked super cool and the show looked great live, but the entrance and concessions were really bad. Everyone had to be frisked to enter (not shocking when 2000 people are wearing bullet club T-shirt’s) so that took forever. 

And then there were only four lines serving alcohol for 5300, with a separate line to get a wristband first. So that was brutal. And they should have had a manager out there organizing and communicating with people because you just had college kids behind the counter dealing with frustrated people. And I could see it coming but there was no communication of when alcohol sales would end so when they shut it off at 8pm sharp they stranded a bunch of people who had been waiting in line for like a half hour. 

But the show was great. Building looks cool as hell. 

[TheVileOne]

I wish they had a better entrance stage for this show as well.  Oh well, baby steps for NJPW US shows I suppose.  Like the G1 Special shows had an actual entrance stage, whereas this one did not, but they had a much bigger arena this time.

[Brian Fowler]

3 hours ago, nofuture said:

 

So, now I know who has me on ignore...

[Michael Sweetser]

This felt like an ROH show to me and not a New Japan show.  Just no atmosphere, completely unlike the G1 Special shows.

The lines were the complete opposite of last time: No line for merch, insane lines for concessions.

[Beech27]

Kenny mentions Ibushi got a concussion during the match, which puts his moonsault tumble and superplex near-disaster in a more harrowing light. (Though maybe he should get more credit for the "nearly" part of the later incident.)

[Jiji]

Real talk Kenny is one of the best promos on the planet. That was fantastic. 

Good call on the moonsault causing the injury. 

[Beech27]

Either caused it, or maybe was a result of it. Concussions do mess up equilibrium, after all, and Ibushi never botches that spot. Still, it's always a little dangerous to speculate about these things, so maybe I shouldn't guess... but I am, a little. And according to Chris Charlton's translation, Ibushi tweeted right after the show "Everything hurts. I might have broken something." This match wasn't nearly as grotesque, but I'm reminded of the Danielson/Nigel headbutt-fest, after which they were told (by someone, I don't remember who) "Great match. Never do it again." It seems they're all pretty wrecked.

[Jiji]

Yeah, that match was an ordeal and each of them left a part of themselves in the ring that they'll never be able to get back. It's a match to me that transcends wrestling into that rarified air of truly memorable performance art in the ring like some of the best Kawada or Hokuto performances from the early to mid 90s or the Dome match against Okada. It's not something that should happen more than once a year max. I get that a lot of people feel this way about Gargano/Almas. Dave said that match was better than this one on WOR this morning (not finished listening yet but that's what I've read). To me, they're almost different forms of art and there's hardly a comparison. I'm not expecting anybody else to feel this way, as this is just my take. One was a traditional, fantastically worked wrestling match, while the other was experiential; something exceeding wrestling relying on old archetypes of underdog babyface (making OTT concussion faces for half the match but that's another story). 

This wasn't perfect in execution. Kenny broke his face by undershooting the second rope moonsault and landed on Kota's shoulder. Kota broke his brain and botched a moonsault he always effortlessly hits with perfect execution and grace. On first and second take, it looks like Kota was too early for breaking up the Meltzer Driver attempt that led to the table powerbomb spot, so Nick had to kick him (Kota not being in the right spot at the right time... Makes sense with the concussion in hindsight). Even the smoothest motherfucker, Slick Nick Jackson, caught his feet on the rope doing his signature spot of seamlessly transitioning to the apron for the moonsault on Ke-niiii. But it was more than execution. I'm doing a poor job of finding the words to describe my feelings for the match but in my opinion it's the second best match of the decade behind only 1/4/17 because it tried to be something different and succeeded greatly. It brought together and perfected different styles as Dynamite talked about so well earlier in the thread and it wove a beautiful narrative with four unique characters expertly and the story had layers to it like all the best matches do. Tag team wrestling done right has so much more potential for drama than singles and this is an all time great example of it, much like the 95 AJPW classic I go on about and the 96 RWTL final. 

[Michael Sweetser]

I respect the effort they put into the main, but I prefer matches that don't result in hospital trips.  The idea of wrestling is to leave it out there and be able to do it again the next day for the next crowd, not to injure yourselves.  

[Raziel]

I'm kinda "meh" on the show.  Everything was pretty standard NJPW pre-PPV tour stuff except for the Main.  My thing is not even being colored by my ambivilance to the Bucks, but I don't see that transcendence thing or how it was a blow away match people are talking about.  It seemed to me like they were working Match 5 in a King's Road series that started 4 years ago but they're in Match 1 and a lot of the story is being told in supplemental material that I'm not watching.  Not because I dislike Being The Elite, but because I just don't have the time to add watching someone's web show into my schedule.  In a vacuum, or just in what has been shown on NJPW TV, it was just 4 guys over acting stringing spots together and just ramping up and being overly indulgent, doing their own thing in spite of the promotion.  And given how banged up everyone is, putting future shows in jeopardy to put themselves over in this spot.  I don't watch BTE, I don't know that the reason Matt was so overly dramatic toward Kenny is because Cody's been in his ear.  I don't know other than "We were boys" why Kenny won't go full out on the Bucks.  Barnett sure as hell wasn't helping the situation with whatever story *he* was trying to get over, it wasn't what they were trying to tell in the ring.  

 

This also goes to why NJPW needs to work out with AXS to get JR and Barnett the hell off the live shows.  For their faults, Kelly and Callis really push the story of the match (even if it's a little off) and they've gotten better at is since they've been getting clued in more from the office.  The best matches that exist in a vacuum not only have their story, but have commentators putting that story over as the match goes on.  Last night lacked that.

[Jiji]

Jesus Christ, Meltzer says the BOLA 2016 six man tag was better than the main event. His moves lust is OP. 

[Beech27]

For better and worse, New Japan's model is (and has been for a while in all Japanese promotions) that there is no relevant tomorrow, when it comes to big shows. You spend a tour or more building up to one match that really matters, you go crazy, and then you get a week or more off, a week or more of mixed tags, and then maybe another big match a month later.

Ideally, the simulated violence would be simulated, but I don't think we can rewind that tape, stylistically. Some of the loudest pops of the night were weathered old men taking turns drilling one another, for no reason other than that is what they do, have always done, and will do until they retire too late. This is all kind of disturbing, if you think about it too much. Not to be banal, or dismissive, but it is what it is. And I loved Okada/Shibata too much to pretend I'm not a part of *waves hands at all of this, rather than calling it a problem*.

And the main, for all that it was flawed, had a lot of very real emotion to go with the athleticism and danger. I have invested in every snippet of vaguely canon narrative, watched all these guys for years; so yeah that matters, and perhaps demands too much of a viewer. But this was a match for those viewers, even if it was also a cable branch extended to more casual viewers; and I certainly felt rewarded, and I'll be thinking about the match for a long time.

[EVA]

I think even the much-lauded narrative aspects of the main event were a little wonky.  Like, in the middle of the match, they did a really long bit based around Matt dithering on whether or not to put Kenny though the table, despite the fact that MATT is the one who introduced the table and was gung-ho about using it on Kenny in the first place.  Later, Kenny dithers on finishing Matt off with the OWA, despite the fact that he appeared more than willing to give Matt the OWA *through a table* earlier in the match.

[Jiji]

He didn't exactly go all out for the table OWA, though that's a valid criticism.

And as much as I love Omega, he did ham it up too much at points with his facial reactions. As I said earlier about his promo style, less is more for him in talking and acting. He should be past the over the top anime character stuff at this point. Dave and Bryan talked about how they had a tough time seeing the details of the story from their location, so it's not like more subtlety would really hurt the live experience if turning it up to 11 wasn't working to full effect. 

It's not perfect but the ambitious approach to the match and the concept of what wrestling is and can be is exactly what I am after. It's not refined yet but maybe it can be. Perhaps a rematch for the Cow Palace show, though I don't know if they should go back to it so quickly. It would allow for the Bucks to split up in time for All In if that is indeed the match they're going for. 

[Infinit]

15 minutes ago, EVA said:

I think even the much-lauded narrative aspects of the main event were a little wonky.  Like, in the middle of the match, they did a really long bit based around Matt dithering on whether or not to put Kenny though the table, despite the fact that MATT is the one who introduced the table and was gung-ho about using it on Kenny in the first place.  Later, Kenny dithers on finishing Matt off with the OWA, despite the fact that he appeared more than willing to give Matt the OWA *through a table* earlier in the match.

I took all of that as moments of clarity in the fog of war.

[Ace]

1 hour ago, Oyaji said:

Jesus Christ, Meltzer says the BOLA 2016 six man tag was better than the main event. His moves lust is OP. 

We've known that since Dragon Gate came to the US.

 

[Beech27]

In which Cody says his problems with Kenny are “handsome guy heat”, that backing up Randy Orton in Legacy should have taught him never to join a faction, and he could be the best wrestler in the world if he only had to wrestle once a month, or got to plan his matches spot-for-spot in the performance center. (It rules.)

This is also great.

 

[Jiji]

He needs to win Most Improved in the next Observer awards. It's crazy how far he's come and how perfect he is in this role. 

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

The main event was way too long. I feel like they could have cut the match in half, would have been able to tell the same exact story, and it would have been more effective.

The rest of the card just felt dull. I really wish people didn't feel the need to make title matches go 20+ minutes, because White and Page went for far too long for what they are capable of doing.

[Brian Fowler]

I liked the main a lot, but I'm not sure it's in my top five matches so far this year.

Granted, most of that list involves Tanahashi or ZSJ or both.