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NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed 9/30/18


matt925

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3 hours ago, ka-to said:

Totally announcing the show backwards.

Anyone expected that Okada, Tanahashi or Naito won't be on this show? Most likely they'll just have irrelevant multiman tag matches with each other and thats that so I'm not sure if announcing them first would change anything. Nobody is going to buy expensive ticket and possibly plane tickets just to see Okada in 5vs5 match.

Tickets not moving to me suggests that there aren't that many Bullet Club fans in one location. They can sell out All In (and MSG) because people will be flying in from all over the country, but same people are not likely to make 4-5 trips like these a year. As such they probably can't sustain NJPW's current expansion plans.

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3 hours ago, Archibald said:

Anyone expected that Okada, Tanahashi or Naito won't be on this show? Most likely they'll just have irrelevant multiman tag matches with each other and thats that so I'm not sure if announcing them first would change anything. Nobody is going to buy expensive ticket and possibly plane tickets just to see Okada in 5vs5 match.

This is true, but honestly? I was beginning to wonder. I'm broke and won't fly-in regardless, but if I lived there, I A) Would not have bought a ticket yet; B) Probably would now. They're still way too expensive, though.

I also wonder if New Japan's faction-focus really... well, I was gonna say translates, but it's clear that Bullet Club is a merch-mover. What I mean is, I don't really think their are many distinct Bullet Club fans. If people like a New Japan faction, they like the company, and want to see something close to the best the company to provide.

The touring model in the States is just different, too. There's no Tokyo equivalent (and if their were, it wouldn't be Long Beach) you need to orbit--even WWE tries to avoid market saturation, for all the jokes that everything is either in Chicago or Brooklyn--and habitual hometown ticket buying like they're trying to cultivate is a bit of a lost territory mindset.

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There are two issues.  One is NJPW books all tag matches on non-PPV shows, and the US shows aren't PPV's, just "Road to"s, even with the fancy names.  So NJPW is going to use the US title as it's centerpiece for US, and book the names in tag matches.  Couple this with the current US Indy meta booking of every promotion with YouTube/Streaming/DVD's blowing through "Dream Matches" like a Frat house tearing through a Natty Ice keg, along with a lot of NJPW stars (namely, Naito, MiSu, Okada, Ishii, etc) being free to work those indy shows, NJPW has to book serious top level matches to draw, because a lot of people are just gonna see the guys they want to working an indy for a fraction of the price if they guys they want to see are in Tag coast mode.

 

The other issue is faction booking.  US fans worship Bullet Club, namely BC Elite.  However, you can easily see the BC Elite guys on every other indy in the US.  NJPW is going to book the BC Elite guys up top in the US because the US loves BC Elite.  It doesn't jive with normal booking because outside of Golden Lovers and on occasion the Bucks, Japanese fans have moved on from BC and LIJ blew by them.  So regular NJPW watchers are suddenly seeing the heavy pushed factions and guys in Japan dropped down for BC, which we can see anywhere else at a faction of the price.

 

It's kind of a double whammy of while the novelty of NJPW the promotion over here is neat, Indy's have already killed the novelty of seeing the talent, especially in Cali.  Yeah, All In sold out as a "Fuck Vince" show, and how well it overall works depends on if there's a 2nd and the show is good.  Ditto to the MSG show, which while selling out the Garden is big, they did it on Mania Weekend, so it could also be another "Fuck Vince" move from anti-WWE fans, which the card and quality will see if another is viable.

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  • 3 weeks later...

With the dearth of info about the show, they just announced that there will be a dark match at 4:30 featuring 2 of the 4 LA Dojo Young Lions. Pretty much guarantees Shibata will be appearing. I’ll try to get in early for that, hopefully the security isn’t as stringent as it was last time (that show was just 11 days after the parkland shooting, and it’s at a school). 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Just now, Oyaji said:

That main event is going to be nuts. I am soooo ready for that. Why they couldn't announce it a month ago I do not know. 

They gotta start booking Taichi in the US. Give the people what they want! 

I can’t be the only one that thinks it’s hilarious that NJPW pulls ZSJ out of PROGRESS Wembley, completely fucking over their plans, just to put him in another filler LIJ vs. Suzuki-gun tag. At least Ospreay was pulled to do something important.

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2 minutes ago, EVA said:

Trying to think of a good reason to sit on that main event until the last minute.

It’s not like there was any storyline impetus for it at all that they had to wait for. 

Also they’ve announced a 60 minute time limit for this like they did for Lovers/Bucks at SSE so you know that shit is going down. They’re going all out in this match.

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The ROH show in Vegas at the Orleans Arena is set up for 6,000 so they are gonna have close to 4,000. ROH could have their 3rd or 2nd biggest drawing show on Friday.

I wonder how many tickets Golden Lovers vs Ishii and Okada is gonna move?

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That main event has got me interested in this much more. I'm interested in Cody/Juice but I'm really glad that is not closing the show. Think it's going to be an entertaining show at least. Always like to see ACH working NJPW shows hope he gets on more regularly the juniors need more talent cycling through. Similarly nice to so SCU on it also, would like to see them in the Tag League this year.

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What if the main event is a setup for Okada/Omega V at KOPW? Considering that they will only have 8 days after this show before KOPW, they will probably want to announce a big main event to sell out Sumo Hall on such short notice.

It’s either this scenario or Jericho/EVIL, I think.

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A wild Jericho will appear and Kota will turn on Kenny. He can go all BxB Hulk and stop dying his hair and go goffic.

That all makes more sense than Okada challenging for the belt when he just lost a briefcase match like a week ago.

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2 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

A wild Jericho will appear and Kota will turn on Kenny. He can go all BxB Hulk and stop dying his hair and go goffic.

That all makes more sense than Okada challenging for the belt when he just lost a briefcase match like a week ago.

Not gonna lie, Ibushi shouldn’t be a heel. You know full well that he would be unanimously cheered against Kenny in Japan so there’s no point. Kenny is the natural heel here. Also him turning on Kenny and then losing at King of Pro Wrestling would be a waste of a payoff. They just wrestled like a month ago. I wouldn’t be a fan of them doing that. I seriously doubt with how long Gedo sits on stories that they will blow their load on that story this early.

Kenny’s big win over Ibushi should happen at a huge show like Wrestle Kingdom or Dominion.

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Of course, but that still makes more sense than Okada challenging after pinning Kenny in a tag a week after losing his chance for a title match. Ishii will eat the pin because that's what the Ishii's of the world do. It's likelier somebody comes out and challenges Omega, because Jericho vs. EVIL probably isn't happening at KOPW now that they're strongly suggesting ZSJ vs. EVIL as a prelude. I don't think White vs. Tana can be the lone marquee match for a Ryogoku show but I'm not worried about it. They're doing last minute builds, so let's just wait and see rather than endlessly speculating. I mean, you could be watching Taichi matches instead of this! TAICHI. Or W*ANG. 

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3 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Of course, but that still makes more sense than Okada challenging after pinning Kenny in a tag a week after losing his chance for a title match. Ishii will eat the pin because that's what the Ishii's of the world do. It's likelier somebody comes out and challenges Omega, because Jericho vs. EVIL probably isn't happening at KOPW now that they're strongly suggesting ZSJ vs. EVIL as a prelude. I don't think White vs. Tana can be the lone marquee match for a Ryogoku show but I'm not worried about it. They're doing last minute builds, so let's just wait and see rather than endlessly speculating. I mean, you could be watching Taichi matches instead of this! TAICHI. Or W*ANG. 

Fuck it, just feed Naito to Kenny again. It would be nice if that Naito/Suzuki match served some sort of purpose. 

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6 hours ago, Oyaji said:

because Jericho vs. EVIL probably isn't happening at KOPW now that they're strongly suggesting ZSJ vs. EVIL as a prelude.

Yeah, feels to me like at KoPW we might get Evil/Zack and at PS Jericho/Evil. Would be kinda funny if Evil ended up beating two guys that earlier defeated Naito. And that obviously could lead to a big match. Or alternatively we are just going to get Jericho/Naito II which is way less interesting.

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