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Puroresu General Discussion for 2019


Lawful Metal

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I don't think Jake Lee is ready or even necessarily a guy we want on top. He reminds me of Masayuki Kono who was put into that same position and then just kind of sucked and stayed sucking. Suwama should win the belt and hold it for like two years, he's due for his epic Misawa/Kobashi reign.They can build up Lee, Nomura, and Aoyagi in that time and see who looks like the safest bet. Either way I'm sure Kneto/Suwama will be a hell of a match. Two of the best dudes in the world right there. 

I've said this on these boards a few times but: in 2012, Manabu Soya was *THE GUY* to lead AJPW into the future. Not KAI, not Sanada, not Go Shiozaki, but Manabu friggin Soya. He got hurt at the worst possible time and has been a major disappointment since returning, and of course he went with Mutoh and left AJPW for W-1 anyway. But oh man those matches against Sekimoto and Okabayashi, or against Akiyama and Go...guy was just on another level for those couple years. 

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And here I thought I was Suwama’s biggest booster. I love the big lug, but I don’t think much is served by hot-potatoing the belt off of the far-and-away most popular wrestler in the company.

If there is a NOAH/AJ feud, Suwama or Akiyama would be good choices for grumpy veterans who come in and kick the shit out of NOAH’s new generation. Maybe even have one of them take the belt off what’s his face.

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All Japan has lots of real heavies who could boss around Kaito and the rest of NOAH's 180lb heavyweights (basically all of whom I love, so please don't take that the wrong way), while NOAH can bolster All Japan's pretty vacant junior ranks. Also: Give me Kento versus Nakajima in a battle of former Kensuke Office boys, as well as Kenoh and Akiyama being grumpy as hell at one another. 

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Since Sawa came up a little bit ago, Abe versus Nomura featured his windup baseball punch, and was generally the most BATTLEARTS thing we’ll see these days. Six minutes; hard grapples; (roughly) six headbutts, complete with a Shibata trademark bloodstream; decisive sub win.

I think I’ve watched every heavyweight title match in Japan so far this year, and T-Hawk versus Ashino isn't out of place in that room. Ashino needs a way better entrance song than Fuel if he’s gonna have the Metallica font spelling out “Master of Suplex” on his trunks, but I still like him because his limbwork is often just punching and kicking the offending joint really hard. Not enough of that here, but hey, you want a title match where a guy sells a knee the whole time? Here you go. T-Hawk is maybe ready to be the guy he couldn’t be in Dragon Gate—credit to CIMA for showcasing him—and could actually break out a little if the OWE/AEW thing fleshes out. 

So: Crowd is bonkers; they hit really hard; doesn’t force a half-hour epic; no one can complain about the knee selling. Good times.

 

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Just watched that and a bunch of the January highly regarded matches with a friend tonight and before I pass out I'll say that Ashino found his way to my heart with the giant swing -> stretch muffler (pick up style, baby!) combination. That was a great match. VOW's reviewer gave it 4.75 stars, which is fucking nuts to me but it was great. T-Hawk showed more there than I've ever seen from him (which isn't a tonne admittedly). 

Daisuke Sekimoto has had a lot of good shit so far in January though. LEGEND is accurate.

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On 1/23/2019 at 1:35 AM, FlaeBlazer said:

If you guys haven’t, you gotta watch the Strong BJ vs. Violent Giants tag match from the Sekimoto anniversary show. It’s the best match I’ve seen so far this year.

Not sure about the best, but certainly the most satisfyingly beefy and clubbering filled.

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Yeah, and it's funny(?) that Kenoh's weekly pro wrestling column basically levels those same criticisms while suggesting Kaito's growth will ultimately be stunted by carrying so much weight so early. It's all a little less kayfabe than you might expect.

As for KENTA, Japan hasn't had any grumpy star freelancers in too long, so I'd like to see him in that role. But if he were to go back to NOAH, that would be just one more reason I'd want a streaming service from them. But the present ownership group just hasn't--

Ah. Well, maybe this will be good news. The internet seems pleased for now.

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I think it looks promising considering that they are involved with Power Hall shows and were thinking about bringing Morishima back before he self-destructed. So it doesn't look like it is one of those "what is this thing? Maybe we can do something with it?" acquisitions. Instead it looks like they have been partially investing into NOAH for a while now and are serious about it.  Probably Kaito retiring Choshu is even more likely now. Or Nakajima.

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Guest The Magnificent 7
53 minutes ago, Beech27 said:

Yeah, and it's funny(?) that Kenoh's weekly pro wrestling column basically levels those same criticisms while suggesting Kaito's growth will ultimately be stunted by carrying so much weight so early. It's all a little less kayfabe than you might expect.

As for KENTA, Japan hasn't had any grumpy star freelancers in too long, so I'd like to see him in that role. But if he were to go back to NOAH, that would be just one more reason I'd want a streaming service from them. But the present ownership group just hasn't--

Ah. Well, maybe this will be good news. The internet seems pleased for now.

Kenoh shouldn’t be criticizing anybody’s decision making when he presumably walked into a barber’s and asked for that haircut. 

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