NJPW STRONG STYLE EVOLVED (aka the US Show)

[Ace]

With the defense against Page and now against friggin' David Finlay, the U.S. belt is the absolute lowest on the totem pole. 

 

[Peck]

I was half-asleep early on but did I hear Josh Barnett drop an F-Bomb in the dead air after the opening match? Don't think they realized their mics were still on.

[Web Conn]

He did he really did.

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

1 hour ago, Peck said:

I was half-asleep early on but did I hear Josh Barnett drop an F-Bomb in the dead air after the opening match? Don't think they realized their mics were still on.

In fairness, the producers were supposed to have cut to commercial.

[Michael Sweetser]

Or Barnett can just, y'know, not curse when he's on a TV broadcast.

[Brian Fowler]

Both things are true. I think they missed the cue to break literally every single time.

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

I don't think I've ever gone to commercial without the curse switch in my head flipping back to "on" whenever I did live commentary. I'd be willing to bet he doesn't get the commercials in his monitor when they're in break, just a static live shot from the hard cam. Plus it's the producer's job to close the mics so they aren't hot when you're at break and they didn't do it. The producer was also cutting JR off and throwing to break in the middle of sentences too. It was really weird to see those kind of mistakes throughout the entire show.

[Robert]

9 hours ago, Oyaji said:

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

Refer to this post on Wednesday.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I loved the main.  The stroytelling was great despite the overacting at certain points.  If they'd trim a few minutes off the finishing sequence I'd have liked it even more.  

Most of the tags were fun.  My favorites being Okada/Ishii vs. ZSJ/Suzuki and LIJ vs. the super babyfaces. 

I did not like the U.S. title match.  What's the deal with Switchblade?  Just so blah..  I mean they tried I guess but ugh.   The only foreigners I like who are on that midcard level are maybe Juice Robinson who has improved a lot and then obviously Cody who has been great. 

The Page, Switchblade,  Elgin,  Finlay,  Killer Elite Squads, etc...    none of them are exciting. There are a hundred dudes in the U.S. indy scene who would be more interesting.  It was refreshing to see Kazarian and Daniels. They would be far more interesting than the bland goofs who regularly tour Japan.  

JR and Barnett were terrible again.  I was going to do Japanese commentary but I thought I'd give them another try.  Big mistake. 

[Jiji]

How dare you lump KES with those others!

[Niners Fan in CT]

KES was okay once upon a time but they're just treading water. 

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Jay White is fucking cringe. That is all.

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

Can't we do a “Knife Pervert“ filter on him please?

[Michael Sweetser]

I heard some of the crowd yelling "Knife Pervert" at White during the match.

The "1.. 2.. SWEEEEET" thing needs to die.

I also ended up on the feed a lot more than I thought I would - the seating got jumbled around from the original seating chart and I ended up sitting right behind Josh Barnett in the front row.  Look for me and Daryl.

[Rehabilitated Rick]

Ok he took a while to blossom but Cody is firing on all cylinders at the moment. I don't think it's a case of WWE dropping the ball but more so Cody proving he deserved at least more of a shot. Not only his character work but his investment in the finer details like buying the weight lifting belts, or changing up his attire every event, or walking around in a suit. He elevates every show he's on. What a character. 

[Brian Fowler]

I find it funny how the ROH crowd still mostly treats him as a face, but even in Long Beach the NJ crowds hate him.

[Jiji]

Team Kenny, man. Bloody Aussies jumped the barricade for what he did to our guy.

[Beech27]

3 hours ago, Rick said:

Ok he took a while to blossom but Cody is firing on all cylinders at the moment. I don't think it's a case of WWE dropping the ball but more so Cody proving he deserved at least more of a shot. Not only his character work but his investment in the finer details like buying the weight lifting belts, or changing up his attire every event, or walking around in a suit. He elevates every show he's on. What a character. 

For what it’s worth, Cody agrees with your read on things. I’m sure there’s good business in not putting down his past (and maybe future) employer, but he’s been really open regarding how much harder he’s worked to make the most of his current opportunity.

[EricR]

I wrote up the show. I really liked Liger/Ospreay and the Sabre/Suzuki tag. Main event was what I expected, with some great peaks, and plenty of stuff that I've seen called "subtle" that couldn't have come off more hammy. But overall it went by smooth (except for White/Page, which took a couple hours). 

http://segundacaida....rong-style.html

[Archibald]

Overall this show felt very similar to me to Honor Rising shows in a sense that it was one match show focused around Bullet Club. Nothing wrong with that, but I'd prefer if we got at max 2 hours of filler before that instead of 3 and a half.

Main event obviously brings up the topic of should wrestlers try to kill each other in every match or should they be more careful considering that they got big matches lined up in next two weeks. Shibata is obviously best example of this, he truly delivered a match that will be remembered for a long time, but on the other hand we don't have Shibata wrestling now. Would it be better if instead of that match he participated in G1 and delivered, potentially, 5-6 great matches? In a weird sense it works as meta story of Kenny vs Cody. One who basically kills himself in every match to get and stay over while another relies entirely on his character works to stay relevant. I think that I'm leaning a bit towards team Cody here, but I understand why some think that what Kenny is doing is what wrestling should be about.

What about match itself? I enjoyed it, wouldn't call it greatest thing like some people are saying and it probably isn't even my MOTY at the moment, but it was a good main event that deserved to close this show. Will it go down as a classic? I really doubt. @Raziel earlier wrote that it felt a bit like Kings Road match 5 while being their first match and I think it is rather good description. I watch BTE and follow various Bullet Club related things so I think I understood pretty much everything that was happening, but then I was watching it together with couple of casual friends and they understood bits and parts here and there. I could explain most of the stuff to them since it is not rocket science, but then I got thinking, will anyone asides of people like me, who follow Bullet Club closely, be able to fully experience this match again? I mean, what do you need to do if you want to experience it yourself instead of getting told what it is about? Watch 150 Being The Elite episodes that have various bits and details here and there while most of the stuff is irrelevant, but probably nobody remembers now which video contains which relevant hint? Watch lots of matches from various promotions? It really isn't a small story, yet only very small and minor part of it was told in this match. I don't know, to me it feels that as time goes on it will be harder for people to understand why this match mattered in a grand scheme of things. Or maybe someone somehow will manage to collect everything in 3 DVDs and a make a profit.

Anyway, I wrote earlier in the thread that Jay White is headed for greatness, but I'm not so sure anymore. His match was scary and bad at the same time. Sure, bookers shouldn't have booked two green guys in semi-main event and they probably shouldn't have given them 25 minutes, but at some point talent also has to take responsibility. Especially for those scary botches that could have ended very badly. But icing on the okay was when Jay got hit by his next challenger. At that time I had a flashback to some old Omega interview where he said that he wants to make this belt as strong or stronger than IC belt and I started laughing. Jay isn't going anywhere anytime fast with such high quality opponents like Hangman Page and Finlay while the belt itself is now de facto least "prestigious" title in the promotion. On the positive side now at least I will have to stop bitching about Goto and NEVER title being worthless.

Speaking about Goto, should he get his mouth busted in every match? It looked like something clicked there and for a moment we got Wrestle Kingdom version of Goto instead of what we usually get.

[Jiji]

Fowler and Archibald are still tied with each of them getting only one prediction wrong (Archibald had Okada winning the tag and Fowler had ROH six man champs not losing on a NJPW show). 

This is a... Draw?!... 

[Archibald]

Fight Forever!

[Beech27]

Watched Page/White again. I saw someone on twitter (can't find it, unfortunately) say it was precisely the sort of match you'd expect from these younger guys, who (maybe) grew up on NOAH (and the indies who copied the style) at its head droppiest and apron suplexiest; only neither guy yet has the stature to make ~dangerous~ backdrops and chop exchanges matter to a crowd like this. Not that their influences matter, really, but it's interesting to me as someone who did arrive as a wrestling fan during that time, and (for better and worse) latched on to lot of work like that. (This is my last parenthetical.) 

What matters, I guess, is that it was a difficult spot, and they couldn't quite overcome it. Maybe they'd have been better off going shorter and smarter, not really trying to go epic for a crowd that was collectively saving itself. Meltzer, after all, had "broken" that the Golden Bucks tag was changed to a 60 minute time limit, which must have told a fan base that was already expecting fireworks that they were really going to get a show.

I'm not ready to give up on White, though. He's 25, and already a very good promo. When speaking, he gets his character... even if I'm not sure I do. That is, he likes to divide people, play them off one another, and he looks like a darksynth/slasherwave concept made flesh. I get those parts, but I'm not sure how they tie together. Still, his pressers have convinced me he has a sense of something whole, which is important; and I think he's on to something with consistently sudden/snap offense. Obviously the match quality isn't there yet, and taking over for Omega only makes it look worse. Defending against Finlay seems like a real step down, because it is. But maybe rock bottom will prove the solid jumping off point he needs. They work well together, after all, and the crowd will be hot for it. If nothing else, New Japan clearly thinks highly of him, so he'll get chances; and Gedo has a pretty good track record when it comes to pushing the right people.

I'm a little less high on Page, though he's only one year older. Admittedly, a lot of that has to do with his flipping lariat and shooting star shoulder block, both of which I would probably cringe at even if they looked great, and his rarely do. I'm far from the most anti-moves person there is; I'm just not sure how excessively flippy offense fits with a no-nonsense, redneck executioner gimmick. Playing Cody's henchman, an accomplice who is more than happy to aid in decapitating guys with a chair, fits that way better. So perhaps the assumed schism--and the role I think he'll have after it--will work better for me. Although the penis-centric Joey Ryan storyline is probably the biggest thing he'll do this year, so... maybe not.

[grilledcheese]

1 hour ago, Beech27 said:

darksynth/slasherwave concept made flesh.

I am beyond thrilled that I'm not the only one that sees this. GosT or Carpenter Brut should book him as the star of their next video.

[TheVileOne]

I thought White and Page had an average midcard match that would've been better earlier on during the show but maybe not the co-main event spot. I still think both are solid talents with a lot of potential.

But, I wasn't expecting the belt to go from Kenny Omega to Jay White anyway. I figured Omega would've been challenging and possibly even beating Okada for the title after their second match ended in a time-limit draw. 

Quote

Main event obviously brings up the topic of should wrestlers try to kill each other in every match or should they be more careful considering that they got big matches lined up in next two weeks. Shibata is obviously best example of this, he truly delivered a match that will be remembered for a long time, but on the other hand we don't have Shibata wrestling now. Would it be better if instead of that match he participated in G1 and delivered, potentially, 5-6 great matches? In a weird sense it works as meta story of Kenny vs Cody. One who basically kills himself in every match to get and stay over while another relies entirely on his character works to stay relevant. I think that I'm leaning a bit towards team Cody here, but I understand why some think that what Kenny is doing is what wrestling should be about.

Sometimes I do wish Omega would slow it down a lot more and save his body lot more for the more transitional tag team matches. I recall even in some of the smaller shows when he was tagging with the Bucks, he'd still take some scary bumps.