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NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling 2018


Archibald

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So it looks Charlton is back for color at KOPW.

Is Don Callis done? He missed G1 Finals, the entirety of the Destruction tour, and now King of Pro Wrestling. Missing G1 Finals and King of Pro Wrestling means he missed probably 2 of the 4 biggest shows of the year. When was his last appearance anyway? Dominion?

I know he has Impact duties but it’s been a while. Maybe NJPW figured it would be much cheaper to just throw Charlton or Warzecha or Rocky in the table with Kevin, than to bring in Callis for minimal appearances through the year. I really hope he’s back for at least Wrestle Kingdom.

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Seems like Don's done, yeah. I enjoyed him but he was certainly an acquired taste.

Chris Charlton -> newest member of LIJ? I really enjoy Charlton on commentary and his podcast. I get that he's got a teaching gig, but it would be neat if he could get signed on full time to be Kelly's colour man.

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11 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Seems like Don's done, yeah. I enjoyed him but he was certainly an acquired taste.

Chris Charlton -> newest member of LIJ? I really enjoy Charlton on commentary and his podcast. I get that he's got a teaching gig, but it would be neat if he could get signed on full time to be Kelly's colour man.

I really want Don to call WK just to see him call the main event. Omega and Tana are his two favorites and he always roots for them in all their matches. 

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4 hours ago, Oyaji said:

Well, dammit. Shingo it is then. His working in the junior division will be absurd seeming as he's the same height and nearly the same size as EVIL.

Should they just get rid of the junior division? I know it's an institution at this point, but it probably does more harm than good at this stage. The majority of juniors seem eager to shed the label these days.

Well limit is, if I'm not mistaken, 100kg and he is below that. And well, ACH looks bigger than other juniors as well, but they have no problems with booking him as a junior.

Edit: another possible name that has been thrown around is Ayato Yoshida. NJPW certainly is interested in him and this might be a way to give him solid direction. Thou he is taller than Shingo even if he doesn't have as much weight, for now.

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Hypothetically, how many tickets would a WK with a Cody vs. Jay White main event sell? I’m honestly wondering just for the lols.

Also with Omega/Tanahashi on top, how many tickets do you actually expect WK 13 to sell? Last year with Okada/Naito and Alpha/Omega, they were close to a sellout.  Is this the year?

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14 minutes ago, sevendaughters said:

if WK is as I expect it (Omega-Tana, Naito-Jericho, Okada-Jay) then I see 38000 paid. Maybe a little more as it is on a Friday. It was 35000 this year.

How many paid is a sellout? I know that they give away about 8k comps to sponsors. 

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Just now, FlaeBlazer said:

How many paid is a sellout? I know that they give away about 8k comps to sponsors. 

I'm not 100% on this because of historical layers of bullshit regarding sellouts and the different ways they can set-up the stage but I feel that a true paid sellout would begin with a 5.

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3 minutes ago, sevendaughters said:

I'm not 100% on this because of historical layers of bullshit regarding sellouts and the different ways they can set-up the stage but I feel that a true paid sellout would begin with a 5.

No chance that it would be that. That would mean that there were 15,000+ empty seats for WK12 which obviously isn’t true. It looked pretty packed with a smattering of empty seats.

I think Meltzer said last year that with the setup that they run, the most NJPW can put in the building is like 46,000.

I think the historical bullshit Dome attendances from NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, etc. really makes it seem like the capacity is higher than it is. We probably have never gotten a legit sellout number for a Tokyo Dome show ever so we really don’t know.

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UWF claimed 60000 for the first Dome show and sold a legit 40k on the first day. It had a more rustic stage set up but just feels 'bigger' when you watch it. The stadium holds 55000 when set up for a ball game.

I can believe there were 15000 empty/unused/covered seats at WK12, but artfully covered in the most part.

Either way, I think this will continue the modest upward trajectory but not be a super no vacancy full house.

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26 minutes ago, sevendaughters said:

UWF claimed 60000 for the first Dome show and sold a legit 40k on the first day. It had a more rustic stage set up but just feels 'bigger' when you watch it. The stadium holds 55000 when set up for a ball game.

I can believe there were 15000 empty/unused/covered seats at WK12, but artfully covered in the most part.

Either way, I think this will continue the modest upward trajectory but not be a super no vacancy full house.

We’ll see. I don’t think it sells out this year but I think next year is the year.

Every report did say WK12 was close to sold out. I know somebody who was there and he said there were a few empty sections in the upper deck but it was close to full. Remember NJPW has a big stage setup that blocks like 1/4 of the stands as well as some of the floor. 

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27 minutes ago, Archibald said:

I have no idea where I heard it and maybe it is something I made up myself and forgot about... but I believe that I have read somewhere that with NJPW's set up they can fill in around 42 000 people.

It’s definitely more than that. There were 43,000 people in the building for WK 12 and it wasn’t completely full. It was close to full though. I think Meltzer said like 46,000-47,000 is the most they can put in there.

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Quote

There is new regime in charge, not just Harold Meij as the new President, but also others that he’s put in key position. The new people in charge for the most part don’t have any background in wrestling so there are things like some things said and etiquette that are different. They’ve replaced popular long-time officials that the wrestlers trusted and respected. The question a lot of wrestlers are asking is why a company that was on such a major business upswing has gutted the business team in charge during that upswing. Obviously the idea is to expand the business outside of Japan, but there is concern.

This excerpt from WON has got a lot of people in a tizzy.

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8 hours ago, Archibald said:

Naito dropped some hints:

I don't think that it really narrows anything down. Shingo is still at the top of my predictions list.

I still think it's Pac until it's not. He's not "off the grid" and it looks like he's at least taking bookings. Neville is a dude cast aside by his company in favor of a piece of shit, he wasn't given the respect a king deserves, etc.

Pac seems as "ungovernable" as anyone else out there.

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2 hours ago, FlaeBlazer said:

This excerpt from WON has got a lot of people in a tizzy.

Assuming that Dave's insiders in NJPW are The Elite then it means that they don't like it?

Either way it is very abstract stuff. We don't know who is replacing who and what are they really going to do. For example if some guy responsible for putting merchandise in shops got replaced... I don't really see why he needs to have wrestling background?

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If I'm not mistaken Ryogoku shows aren't easy sell outs for them. I think only Okada/Shibata was full house, every other show asides of G1 finals (they were held there I think?) in recent years had some tickets unsold. I doubt that they are going to match last year, but I guess doing 7 000 or something like that would be fine?

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4 hours ago, Archibald said:

If I'm not mistaken Ryogoku shows aren't easy sell outs for them. I think only Okada/Shibata was full house, every other show asides of G1 finals (they were held there I think?) in recent years had some tickets unsold. I doubt that they are going to match last year, but I guess doing 7 000 or something like that would be fine?

7,000 would be terrible for them. All the Sumo Hall shows since 2016 have drawn 9,000+.

I’m pretty sure that 10,000+ is considered to be a completely full house which they don’t get often. They get it for the G1 Finals and they did for Okada/Shibata.

9,000+ is still considered to be a sold out building though so the fact that they aren’t even close right now is concerning. Maybe the show will have a good walk-up attendance.

 

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