Jiji Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 Fale is totally fine in this role. When they elevate him near the top of the card is when it gets problematic. Thankfully, it's been a year since they tried that last. I do enjoy his "Fale Airline" promos too. 11 PM start on the west coast is beautiful. I didn't realize that SSE is a Monday until today. Weird. Everything about the selection of venues and time/date is weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 I just realized, JR will have nothing to say about DBS Jr now that he's not wearing jeans to honor his dad('s all-time worst run) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 God damn, if DBS Jr. had any semblance of in-ring charisma, he'd be a world champion in a major company. He's so fucking good technically at pretty much everything bar high flying, he's huge, and looks good other than the bad dye job. Lance continues to be outstanding. Huge menacing heel who knows how to work the perfect style for his look and simultaneously bring the jerk comedy aspect. So entertaining. Saying that, that result is surprising to me because they had been building up Ishii/Yano for a while now and it seemed they were obviously next in line for EVIL & SANADA. I thought the dome tag match was fantastic, so I'm down for a rematch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Every time Lance hits The Pounce PERIOD I get so happy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 So Kevin Kelly referenced the restaurant commercial that the CHAOS *clap* "HEY!" pose is from. Anybody know if it's on YouTube? Shit cracks me up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Why such an early start today? Opening bell at 5pm JST seems weird for a weekday show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 I love how Zack keeps forcing these guys to wrestle his style of match. Big guys, big stars, whatever. He's taking them to the mat. It's great storytelling that's ran all tournament, and now he's in the ring with arguably the best storyteller in the business. This has been fantastic so far, and they've not really done any "high spots" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 2 minutes ago, Pete said: Why such an early start today? Opening bell at 5pm JST seems weird for a weekday show. No idea but I'm not complaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Holy mother of fuck that counter of the dragon screw near fall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Really smart and sneaky great match, though my guess is you'd have to have seen the whole cup to see how great this was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 It was great. Just fucking great. They turned Zack from midcard jumped up junior to legit contender to Okada in two weeks. Gedo with a hell of a job here. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Otto Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 1 hour ago, Pete said: Why such an early start today? Opening bell at 5pm JST seems weird for a weekday show. It's a national holiday in Japan. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 So that's why there are like a dozen different companies running today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Otto Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Well, it wasn't the result I was expecting, but it was the one I actually really wanted. Wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archibald Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Benefit of writing lots of speculations is that sometimes some of them become somewhat valid and you can quote yourself to look smart: On 2018-03-11 at 7:26 PM, Archibald said: Naito/Zack was also great. At this point I'm not sure which I liked more, Tanahashi/Taichi or this one. I wanted Naito to win, but towards the end I started feeling that Zack really needs this win and thankfully he got it. So whats next? Looks like LiJ/Suzuki Gun will be happening and I wonder how they'll work around Suzuki holding IC title when Naito really doesn't want it. Or maybe Suzuki will drop it to Tanahashi before that? Anyway, more interesting at this point is whats next for Zack. On one hand Ibushi could just beat him in next round, but on the other hand Zack just got a big win and it would feel like a waste to follow that up with big nothing. It was also pointed out during the commentary that Zack avenged his G1 loss against Naito, well he also lost to Ibushi and now is a good opportunity to avenge that too. There is also obvious similarity between what Gedo and Taka are doing for Okada and Zack... so at this point my gut is telling me that Zack is going at least to the finals and it is not out of a question that he main events Sakura Genesis. Additional small detail, conveniently just before Sakura Genesis he will be defending his RevPro title against Ishii. So in relatively short time Zack could be going over Naito, Ibushi, Sanada, Tanahashi and Ishii. If NJPW wants it they can really establish him as a credible main eventer. Thou I hope nobody bothers to quote my other speculations that were obviously shattered during this tournament. So what finals managed to deliver: KES vs Evil/Sanada, Goto vs Juice and Okada vs Zack. And it looks like another 3-way for jr. tag titles is unavoidable... which is a shame. I hope that KES challenges Evil/Sanada for SSE so that we could have Evil/Sanada vs winners of YBs/Golden Lovers match for Sakura Genesis. And yeah, I think that KES winning titles back at this point would be kinda dumb unless Evil is on the shelf for long time and will just come out to get bombed and buried under the chairs in first 2 minutes while Sanada valiantly tries to fight 1vs2, but fails in the end. It is good for Juice that he will get a title shot, but I'm not sure if it is very good for the title itself or Goto. I hope that Juice wins and Goto can be either moved to IC challenger status or to tag-teams with, ideally, Ishii or, less ideally, Yoshi-Hashi for good. Would probably be kinda fitting that he started last year his underwhelming reign by beating Juice and will end this underwhelming reign by losing to Juice. If Goto ends up winning I'll just shake my head in disbelief. And you gotta give Gedo some credit. I, and I think most of people watching, would just have gone with easy and safe Tanahashi win for obvious storyline that fans would buy. But Gedo decided otherwise and it will be interesting to see how things unfold in next couple of months. With strong booking that Zack and Ospreay are getting, one would think that NJPW UK show should happen at some point? Yes I know that they do crossovers with RoH and RevPro, but surely there is more money in full fledged UK show than in those crossovers? But whats next for Tanahashi? It would make sense that Okada, after beating Zack, would call out Tanahashi for Wrestling Dontaku match where he would break his record and in theory it could set up Okada/Ibushi match for Dominion. But at the same time it sounds a bit mean to have him lose two big profile matches in a row. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 I really don't know where they go with Tana. I mean, the good part is he's Tanahashi and he'll make anything good (except Jay White, I guess) abd he's credible winning or putting over almost anyone. At some point you feel they have to run back him and MiSu and him and Okada, but both are occupied right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Hell, I really didn’t expect that. And a tap, no less! I thought maybe, if Sabre won, they could play up that Red Shoes didn’t want to wait too long to call for a stoppage again, but no. Clean as can be. And better for it. Zack looks like a really viable threat. And then, yeah, Tanahashi or Ibushi... there are options, assuming Okada wins. The story with Tana is easy, and Omega needs to demonstrate he can watch and support as Ibushi (has the chance to) pass him by again, already. Though maybe they’ll have tag titles to worry about instead. Who knows; I sure don’t. It really is amazing that Okada’s title run has so much left. But as for today, that was so good. Tanahashi couldn’t force his style on the match, and couldn’t hang with Zack’s. Interesting to see such a seasoned main eventer lose largely because of a pretty big error at the end. (And that fact doesn’t diminish Zack’s win at all, because he created the circumstances.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archibald Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 At the end it looked like Tanahashi wanted to beat Zack with his own move (that bridging cradle pin that I'm sure got another name), but instead got countered into submission that took out Naito earlier in the tournament. I'm sure that Okada will attempt to do something similar and will get locked into same submission too, but he will escape, because he is the champ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 2 hours ago, Evil Otto said: It's a national holiday in Japan. The New Japan Cup Final is a national holiday? Whoa! Fantastic final and tournament for ZSJ, tapping four of NJ's heaviest hitters. Also loved the Little Buddy Mic Battle with TAKA vs Gedo at the end. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 It's Vernal Equinox Day, somehow that actually is a holiday in Japan. Oh, um, JUST TAP OUT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 Main event was great. I think I preferred the SANADA match but not by much. Was it not a bit weird that Zack started by working over Tanahashi's neck instead of the more obvious targets? It's not like he's above such things. Don't serve that man warm beer after a match btw. Was a weird feeling in that I wanted Tanahashi to win to see him go out on his shield trying to stop Okada from breaking his record but when he went up for the second high fly flow I was dreading that it would connect. Great booking and if they give Tanahashi a rehab win over an upper midcard type, they can absolutely have Okada call Tanahashi out. Rest of the show was kind of there. The crowd wasn't really into much else. Even the Suzuki/Naito interactions didn't get huge reactions as one would expect. Don't be shocked if Goto retains over Juice. I could see Goto holding onto the belt for the better part of the year to avoid just repeating last year's series of events and to try and shed Goto being a complete goober (it's too late!). Juice is the guy who needs that belt and probably who the belt needs to get out from the rotation of tuff guyz. Well, we have the dreaded tie in our prediction table. Time for Archibald and Fowler to fight to the death. Or you two could do a predictions for SSE as a tiebreaker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archibald Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 2 hours ago, Oyaji said: Well, we have the dreaded tie in our prediction table. Time for Archibald and Fowler to fight to the death. Or you two could do a predictions for SSE as a tiebreaker. Plane tickets, bitches. But sure, SSE predictions sounds like cheaper alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StretchMediatedHypertrophy Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 12 hours ago, Archibald said: With strong booking that Zack and Ospreay are getting, one would think that NJPW UK show should happen at some point? Yes I know that they do crossovers with RoH and RevPro, but surely there is more money in full fledged UK show than in those crossovers? The fact that Suzuki and ZSJ wear the Rev Pro belts in NJPW tells you quite a lot I think. It's a long relationship at this point; UK market is pretty saturated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 8 hours ago, Oyaji said: Well, we have the dreaded tie in our prediction table. Time for Archibald and Fowler to fight to the death. Or you two could do a predictions for SSE as a tiebreaker. I wager 50 quatloos on the newcomer. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 In a stunning upset, Pete wins. Archibald and Fowler both owe him an ugly t-shirt from WWE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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