Beech27 Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 Yeah, that was tremendous. Maybe... SANADA’s best match? And the crowd seemed more attuned to Sabre’s stuff than others have been. Not that it was the hottest main event ever, but they reacted to each instance of Sabre catching SANADA, and every instance of SANADA powering out—or trying to. And considering they didn’t really fire up for Tana/Okada facing off, I’d suggest that level of reaction is really impressive. Both guys worked the hell out of everything, and the crowd believed it. Maybe SANADA’s intensity and charisma is more apparent in slower matches, for all of his fast-twitch athleticism. I wouldn’t have guessed, but. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenoh911 Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 Oh man that match was a hoot. Feels like SANADA has turned a real corner with the fans and with his in ring stuff. Emphasizing the moonsault and mixing it in with the skull end gives him a terrific set of tools for the closing stretch of a match. Sabre's tourney performance has been unreal. Far and away my wrestler of the year so far, the dude can work with anybody and gets over in every company he shows up to. The degree of difficulty on the shit he does never takes away from the flow of the match, his pacing is too fucking good. I really hope he wins the whole thing, obviously Tana vs Okada would be great but it would undermine the whole story w/Suzuki if Tana won. Would love to see Okada with an opponent that could take him out of his comfort zone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 One other thing, from the undercard: I still hope the plan isn’t another Naito IC title win, as it would feel like a step back for him—both inside and outside of the fiction—but if they're gonna insist on going that way, him treating the whole thing as an elaborate troll is probably the best way. He doesn’t care about the belt—which is ok, because it’s not the point—he just cares about pissing Suzuki off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StretchMediatedHypertrophy Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 As much as people are down on the NEVER Title at the moment, I can't help wondering if the belt might be perfect for Sabre. It can be like the 2K18 Regal TV Title reign. And it would make sense for Suzuki-gun to want to take the belt off Goto anyway, even if Suzuki has bigger fish to fry and Taichi is acting like he does. That said, I don't think Sabre needs the New Japan Cup win to get a shot at that belt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 On 3/11/2018 at 2:50 PM, Brian Fowler said: ZSJ is the slickest, coolest motherfucker. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 "Not dressed Labor Blue or Tory Red, tonight he's dressed in Anarchist black and here's an excessively long named move named after a random Post-Rock album or a comedy bit by a British comedian few outside the country follow closely or some other kooky thing. Oi!" - Zack doing commentary on his own matches. "Series of British insults!" - Marty Scurll off to the side. Numpty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 That's 2 big matches in a row where Red Shoes put a phantom 3-count on the guy who was supposed to win. Terrible. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 El primo de El Hijo de Tirantes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 11 hours ago, Archibald said: Amazing promo work by Taichi: Anyway, time for finals. On one hand Tanahashi should really win it, but on the other hand Zack got a rocket on his ass. Taichi mimicking DBS Jr. is tremendous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 2 hours ago, ComingToAmerica said: As much as people are down on the NEVER Title at the moment, I can't help wondering if the belt might be perfect for Sabre. It can be like the 2K18 Regal TV Title reign. And it would make sense for Suzuki-gun to want to take the belt off Goto anyway, even if Suzuki has bigger fish to fry and Taichi is acting like he does. That said, I don't think Sabre needs the New Japan Cup win to get a shot at that belt. Coming off the NJC, I'd like to see eventual shots from Juice and Taichi at the NEVER title. Establish it more as a Young Gun belt rather than a Brawler belt and Have guys like Ishii and Goto, etc go after the IC title. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 So I was wrong, Sanada losing didn't lock up the win for me. If ZSJ wins Archibald and I will tie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 Fight to the death is the only way to find a true winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 14 hours ago, Beech27 said: Yeah, that was tremendous. Maybe... SANADA’s best match? Oh, this was so far and away his best match, I can't even think of what #2 would be. It was in a different class altogether from anything he's done before. That said, this was ZSJ's match, all the way, and Sanada was along for the ride. But he's looked kinda "eh" in that role many times before, so credit to him for putting it together here. This was one of the rare instances where the great technical wrestler being outwrestled in the opening minutes was presented in a way that made sense and didn't infuriate me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 If SANADA ever puts it all together to go with his athleticism... I mean, I really dug the Osaka match with Okada last month, but that's just baseline Okada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archibald Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 8 hours ago, EVA said: That's 2 big matches in a row where Red Shoes put a phantom 3-count on the guy who was supposed to win. Terrible. I didn't really mind it in Tanahashi/Juice, but here it took me out of a match for a bit and is probably main reason why I don't really feel like it was that great of a match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 10 hours ago, ComingToAmerica said: As much as people are down on the NEVER Title at the moment, I can't help wondering if the belt might be perfect for Sabre. It can be like the 2K18 Regal TV Title reign. And it would make sense for Suzuki-gun to want to take the belt off Goto anyway, even if Suzuki has bigger fish to fry and Taichi is acting like he does. That said, I don't think Sabre needs the New Japan Cup win to get a shot at that belt. Feel like Juice should be the one gunning for the NEVER belt. Could be his big win of the year, and it could establish him, especially if he won it after 20+ mins of Goto just destroying him. Going from Goto to ZSJ to Juice at WK could also work though, and Juice has been elevated some during this tourney as well, I'd say he's at least at the henchmen level where EVIL/Goto are now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 1 hour ago, Brian Fowler said: If SANADA ever puts it all together to go with his athleticism... I mean, I really dug the Osaka match with Okada last month, but that's just baseline Okada. Fale is and always will be baseline Okada. I would say that SANADA's best match to date is still probably the G1 match with Tanahashi from 2016. Not just a carry job and it really was a sign of things to come and what probably still lies ahead. This is a close second though and to call it a ZSJ match is somewhat fair and somewhat not giving SANADA justice for working something very different for a Zack match and in a way that completely made sense, didn't come off mid '00s indie exhibition-like, and quite smartly played on both men's characteristics. Easily the smartest match of either man's careers from what I've seen. They've both had better (if you haven't seen it, watch the ZSJ matches with WALTER from PWG late last year and EVOLVE early this year), but not many. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archibald Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Frankly I wouldn't mind if he wrestled against others somewhat similar to how he wrestled against Zack. Everyone expects from him very athletic stuff because he can definitely do it, but at the same time I feel like in this match everything looked a bit better because when he did his usual spots they really looked "wow, what was that" in the context of the match. So I wouldn't mind if Sanada was a bit more technical in his matches and did his flashy stuff only to signal a change in pace, similar to how Okada often uses his dropkicks. Besides, being slower and more methodical would also suit his character I think. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 His skull cold as his heart of ice and his expression of staring blankly at all things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 Card for the final show tomorrow: Shota Umino vs. Tetsuhiro Yagi Tomoyuki Oka vs. Taichi Toa Henare, Michael Elgin & Togi Makabe vs. Tanga Loa, Yujiro Takahashi & Bad Luck Fale Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Takashi Iizuka & Minoru Suzuki Chuckie T & Kazuchika Okada vs. Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi New Japan Cup 2018 Final: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. Lots of future matches being set-up in the undercard. I dig Oka vs. Taichi. KES vs. CHAOS in a tag title contenders match. Juice vs. Goto for the NEVER. BUSHI/Hiromu vs. Kanemaru/Desperado and Naito vs. Suzuki. Okada has four title matches set up at this point: winner of the cup final, loser has a strong case too, Ibushi, and Suzuki down the line. It was looking pretty bleak for credible challengers after SANADA's loss but some inspired booking and tremendous match quality the past month plus has really changed that around. Right now, I'm finally going back and catching up on the undercard tags from the past week. LIJ/Suzuki-gun at Korakuen night 1 was so much fun! Awesome character work from the two leaders and good work from everybody else. Suzuki/Naito could be a real threat for MOTY and Sumo Hall is always down to go crazy for Naito. We'll probably get full cards for both Long Beach (yeesh, they really put that off) and Sakura Genesis (April 1st) Thursday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 It’s interesting to see them running back Ibushi/Owens vs Okada/Taylor, considering Okada’s teams don’t lose often, and this configuration just did. Granted, it was Owens over Chuckie, but yeah, it’s a chance for Ibushi to make his case too. If nothing else, him and Chase have been a fun team. I expected to just focus on how not Golden Lovers it was, but that hasn’t happened at all. Excited to see Taichi notch his first heavyweight win as well. Of course the main will be awesome, and either man would make a compelling winner. Still thinking it’s Tana, and that he’s challenging Okada, which will be insane. And yeah, it’s stunning how much Okada could still do, though the crowd is growing increasingly hungry for someone to beat him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 The lack of Miho Abe on this tour is disconcerting. Oka is Tenzan's bastard son, right? Guy has a cinder block for a skull. Taichi trolling to start with that smug look of superiority makes me grin from ear-to-ear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 13 minutes ago, Oyaji said: The lack of Miho Abe on this tour is disconcerting. Oka is Tenzan's bastard son, right? Guy has a cinder block for a skull. Taichi trolling to start with that smug look of superiority makes me grin from ear-to-ear. I almost wish it had ended with that single leg crab right at the start. Looked so brutal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 Taichi may have the best superkick in the era of superkicks. It's just that he hits it about 5% of the time he goes for it. I really think Henare is good and going to be very good but the Maori warrior gimmick... I don't think it has long-term legs. And holy shit did Yujiro almost just kill him with that backdrop over the top rope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 You know, I'm starting to come around to @Casey's view. Fale is so much fun. I also dig this 2 am start time. I got home from work almost right at bell time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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