Archibald Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 Dragon Lee/Sho was fun. I would have liked if they sold their arms a bit more and couple of catches by Sho looked iffy, but overall was probably my match of the tournament so far. Kushida/Sabin had smart match, but at time Sabin wasn't able to keep up and I don't know. I will be surprised if this will make Kushida's top 4 matches when tournament wraps up. Not sure whats next for Scurll. He again got all of his shit in and was chocked out rather convincingly. And with Taiji now being in Bullet Club I wonder if Scurll will be getting many singles opportunities once this tournament ends. Not that I'd complain about that, not a big fan of his. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godfrey Posted May 20, 2018 Share Posted May 20, 2018 No joke, Scurll might have the worst execution of any submission move ever with how loose his crossface chickenwing is. Hiromu continues to be great though so the match was okay. Him and Kushida are really the only guys I'm excited to watch in this tournament. Tiger Mask, Taguchi, and Kanemaru are all past their due date and the foreign indie guys are fine to good but not that interesting (with the exception of Flip, who I find baffling in his unwatchability). Kind of hoping Sho or Yoh have break out performances to give the division hope for the future. And as a side note, I miss when New Japan plumbed the depths of Japanese indies to fill out the tournament. Where's Big Boss Ma-G-Ma, huh? Where's Gentaro? (I do not remember if those guys were any good.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted May 20, 2018 Share Posted May 20, 2018 You can tell Dragon Lee gets excited when he gets to come over to Japan and work the guys he knows well from their excursions in Mexico. Those matches are always fiery, and Sho was no exception. Marty continues to approach Michael Elgin levels of self-sabotage in terms of how much crazy shit he lets guys kick out of on the way to defeat. I think both guys go into their matches working for GIFs. Like, they think way more people will see the 5 second clip of them tombstoning Hiromu on the apron and think they're awesome than will actually watch the match and find out that not only did the tombstone not win it, but he LOST after that and much more, so....fuck it, do the tombstone on the apron. Neither seem to realize that this *does* in fact have a cumulative effect over time of making you look like a shmuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted May 20, 2018 Author Share Posted May 20, 2018 3 hours ago, Godfrey said: No joke, Scurll might have the worst execution of any submission move ever with how loose his crossface chickenwing is. I take it you have not seen SANADA's Skull End? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted May 21, 2018 Share Posted May 21, 2018 I still remember Sid's Crippler Crossface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.K.o.S. Posted May 21, 2018 Share Posted May 21, 2018 Ah, just noticed the night 3 BOSJ matches from May 20 are on NJ World, but it's only the tournament matches individually, not the whole show. I kept looking throughout the day yesterday but might just have been looking in the wrong place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archibald Posted May 21, 2018 Share Posted May 21, 2018 18 hours ago, EVA said: Marty continues to approach Michael Elgin levels of self-sabotage in terms of how much crazy shit he lets guys kick out of on the way to defeat. I think both guys go into their matches working for GIFs. Like, they think way more people will see the 5 second clip of them tombstoning Hiromu on the apron and think they're awesome than will actually watch the match and find out that not only did the tombstone not win it, but he LOST after that and much more, so....fuck it, do the tombstone on the apron. Neither seem to realize that this *does* in fact have a cumulative effect over time of making you look like a shmuck. I agree with GIFs part. I have been running thru my head this "conspiracy theory" for a while now since nothing else really makes sense. Thou I'm not sure if it is really self-sabotage. I mean, it is to me, to you and few others that I have seen here write about it, but you look at reddit or some other places and you see guys claiming that Elgin/Ishii was their MOTY or at least MOTYC. And crowds pop for that stuff. And more movez you do more likely you are to get high rating from Meltzer which tends to help people financially. And I'd argue that it isn't just Elgin or Scurll. We would be saying same things about Omega if he wasn't one of the top guys which meant that he is usually winning his matches. Imagine if he had 40-50% win ratio, we complain now about him spamming his V-Trigger, but if it didn't end up with him winning? Problem really is wrestling style. I remember someone pointed out in Dontaku thread how fundamentally different White/Finlay was to something like Omega/Elgin. Anyway, my takeaway from third day was that Yoh was better with Tiger Mask than with Bushi, but not by much. So far he really isn't standing out to me and it looks like Sho is the one who might eventually get singles title shot while Yoh will remain as tag guy. But obviously it is still early and things might change. And well I hope that they will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raziel Posted May 21, 2018 Author Share Posted May 21, 2018 55 minutes ago, S.K.o.S. said: Ah, just noticed the night 3 BOSJ matches from May 20 are on NJ World, but it's only the tournament matches individually, not the whole show. I kept looking throughout the day yesterday but might just have been looking in the wrong place. Generally for any tournament not named G1 Climax, NJ World splits it to just the matches no commentary for the small venues (which would be Shizuoka). You're only really going to get the Korakuen shows in full, and maybe the Osaka show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E. Dynamite Posted May 21, 2018 Share Posted May 21, 2018 1 hour ago, S.K.o.S. said: Ah, just noticed the night 3 BOSJ matches from May 20 are on NJ World, but it's only the tournament matches individually, not the whole show. I kept looking throughout the day yesterday but might just have been looking in the wrong place. They always do that for the BoSJ house shows. Hard cam, no commentary, just the tournament matches. They can be fun. Only watched the first one from yesterday but Tiger Mask was really getting the crowd into his nearfalls?? The two shows booked at the Nagoya International Conference Hall Event Hall are marked as Samurai TV tapings so I assume they'll get the full show treatment on World. The mains on those are Ospreay/BUSHI and Hiromu/Taguchi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted May 21, 2018 Share Posted May 21, 2018 Kanemura/Flip was a real stinker. Flip was himself, and Kanemura was clearly giving no fucks about putting him over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted May 21, 2018 Share Posted May 21, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 Hiromu vs Despy is a must-watch and MOTY candidate for NJPW this year. Great hatefest. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archibald Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 Lots of great action, lots of small details, lots of good visuals and lots of character. This match was perfect example of why I watch NJPW. And best part about all of that is that while at times it looked like they legitimately wanted to kill each other it never felt like they were "overdoing" it like Elgin or Scurll with big movez. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E. Dynamite Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 Despy's the most underrated guy on the roster. Good to see him finally get a really-really-good-one on his resume when he's not obscured by Suzuki-gun tags. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 I had completely forgotten this. Also noted a few places on twitter that YOH's singles gear looks a bit Stardust Genius, which fits with his history with Naito, and the LIJ swerve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinit Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 23 hours ago, EVA said: KANEMARU/Flip was a real stinker. Flip was himself, and KANEMARU was clearly giving no fucks about putting him over. FTFY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archibald Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 19 minutes ago, Beech27 said: Also noted a few places on twitter that YOH's singles gear looks a bit Stardust Genius, which fits with his history with Naito, and the LIJ swerve. What is his history with Naito and LiJ? I don't recall anything for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 38 minutes ago, Archibald said: What is his history with Naito and LiJ? I don't recall anything for some reason. Naito focused much of his harassment on YOH(ei Komatsu) when he was a Young Lion, kicking him, making him hold the ring ropes open, etc. Then, at Fantasticamania (billed as his sendoff), Naito invited him to the ring, gave him and LIJ hat, and acted like this was all a long initiation and he'd be invited to join... ... then the group beat him down, left him in the ring, and he vanished to North America. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 5 hours ago, Infinit said: FTFY Um, thanks? Hiromu/Desperado was indeed fantastic. I feel like Hiromu is on a mission to prove he should be the face of the division in this tournament. And one of the downsides of NJPW keeping such a huge roster is that they can hide a great guy like Desperado in plain sight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#BlueJustice Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 Sounds like I definitely need to check out Hiromu/Desperado. I'm a huge fan of Takahashi so it was on my list anyways, but sounds like it was just an awesome match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archibald Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 10 hours ago, Beech27 said: Naito focused much of his harassment on YOH(ei Komatsu) when he was a Young Lion, kicking him, making him hold the ring ropes open, etc. Then, at Fantasticamania (billed as his sendoff), Naito invited him to the ring, gave him and LIJ hat, and acted like this was all a long initiation and he'd be invited to join... ... then the group beat him down, left him in the ring, and he vanished to North America. Thanks, I have fully watched only 2018 Fantasticamania and probably haven't seen that particular moment at all. But now knowing that, I guess that his win over Bushi makes a lot more sense. Sometimes I wonder how many details we end up missing in NJPW shows due to lower card guys usually referencing some obscure, relatively speaking, moments. 6 hours ago, EVA said: Hiromu/Desperado was indeed fantastic. I feel like Hiromu is on a mission to prove he should be the face of the division in this tournament. And one of the downsides of NJPW keeping such a huge roster is that they can hide a great guy like Desperado in plain sight. I don't really understand why he has to prove anything to be honest. Talent, connection with the crowd and popularity in general is there and makes him superior to every other Junior by big margin. If Gedo doesn't see him as the face of the division for some reason then additional few high end matches probably won't change anything. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 There are so many guys who could be face of the Division that Despy gets lost in the shuffle behind Osprey, Kushida, and Hiromu , and the Japanese crowds love the Villain shtick so Marty gets his shots ahead of Despy as well. Taichi going heavy was the best thing ever to happen to Despy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E. Dynamite Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 6 hours ago, alstein said: Taichi going heavy was the best thing ever to happen to Despy. And Taichi. And me. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archibald Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 Desperado had some cool things to say after his victory: "I hide and I run and I lie, too. Do you know why? Because I'm a champion." And other part is a bit longer so I won't quote it, but basically he hopes that all those juniors talking about elevating the division will succeed and then he'll just conquer everything they built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 He's such a good promo. It's a shame he's so good at his undercard heel role and making his opponents look really good, because he could be a legit top guy in the division. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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