Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

NJPW Iizuka retirment and Honor Rising 2019


Archibald

Recommended Posts

I'm lumping these two things into one thread because they literally happen right after each other.

NEW JAPAN ROAD 2019/2/21:

Uemura/Liger vs Eagles/Ishimori
Tiger Mask/Henare/Honma/Makabe vs Tsuji/Narita/Kojima/Nakanishi
Umino/Nagata vs Yoshi/Ishii
Sho/Yoh vs Kanemaru/Desperado
Taguchi/Goto vs Taka/ZSJ
Ospreay/Tanahashi vs KES
Yano/Tenza/Okada vs Taichi/Suzuki/Iizuka

HONOR RISING Night 1 2019/2/22:

Narita vs Scurll
Umino vs ZSJ
Gresham/Liger vs Eagles/Ishimori/
Henare/Honma/Finlay/Juice vs GoD/Briscoes
Taguchi/Yano/Makabe vs Cheesburger/Delirious/Cabana for trios titles
Ospreay vs Dalton for NEVER title
Cobb vs Goto for RoH TV title
Lethal/Okada/Tanahashi vs Taven and his friends

HONOR RISING Night 2 2019/2/23:

Tsuji/Narita/Umino vs Cheesburger/Delirious/Cabana
Henare/Gresham vs Taka/ZSJ
Scurll vs Eagles
Ospreay/Goto vs Dalton/Cobb
Shingo/Naito vs Taven and Taven's friend
Lethal vs Taven's friend for RoH World title
Sanada/Evil vs GoD for tag titles
Finlay/Juice vs Briscoes for RoH tag titles

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, thoughts:

Build for Nagata/Ishii restarting. Likely will happen on Anniversary show?

I guess R3K will beat Desperado/Kanemaru to officially end their feud.

Eagles is back for all these show doing nothing very important. My guess would be that Ishimori/Eagles will be next jr. tag team challengers?

Ospreay/Tanahashi vs KES is a weird match. Are they building up Tanahashi for tag team run or are they going to do something for Ospreay here? Like DBS pinning Ospreay to set up NEVER title match at later date?

Taichi/Naito teased something about changing things after last New Beginning show. Might Iizuka's retirement match be good opportunity for that?

Goto/Cobb II is finally happening.

Ospreay/Datlon sounds interesting. I'm not sure if they ever had a match?

I like Lethal/Taven feud, but I don't care about Taven's friends. It makes sense for those title matches to happen, but Lethal is not main eventing even RoH shows against those guys and it is no surprise that same thing happened here.

I hope that Sanada/Evil retains. I actually started liking Tama's character work, but I really don't need to see them as the champs again.

Finlay/Juice vs Briscoes makes sense and doesn't at the same time. They have built some storylines for why Finlay/Juice vs Briscoes feud would make sense, RoH held tournament to determine #1 challenger, Finlay/Juice lost in the finals and now are getting title shot anyway. And it is happening before winners of the tournament will get theirs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had random thought about RoH Night 2 main event. Juice/Finlay can't win... so are they going to allow Briscoes to close the show and cut some promo? Nothing against them, but that doesn't sound like something that would go over well. And well, they are teaming up with GoD night before.... And Tama defeated Juice back in G1... and Juice needs a match either for Anniversary or for MSG shows and he doesn't have a clear challenger at the moment. So maybe run in by Tama that leads to title challenge?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, sevendaughters said:

his kani-basami counter to Rainmaker was worth price of admission alone. wouldn't have minded if he'd done a proper ceremony and shook off his decade long kayfabe mental illness, but also it was kind of cool they stuck with it to the close.

Him teasing the Blizzard Suplex was great too.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, alstein said:

Also interesting who got the iron fingers in the end- won't be surprised to see those pop up again.

 

It'd be awesome if they just fell out of Miho's shorts during an entrance or something

"That's where I left those!"

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, sevendaughters said:

his kani-basami counter to Rainmaker was worth price of admission alone. wouldn't have minded if he'd done a proper ceremony and shook off his decade long kayfabe mental illness, but also it was kind of cool they stuck with it to the close.

I kinda liked that it ended how it did, makes his retirement feel unique. And yeah, that counter looked good, surely there are other guys who could do it?

As for Taichi. On one hand it is a bit weird how this iron fingers thing is treated like something that matters, on the other hand it kinda hints that there is more to come for Taichi. So thats good in my book.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

God damn that Iizuka retirement match was perfect from beginning to end. I enjoyed that way more than anything on the New Beginning tour. Perfect match and Taichi's Iron Mic (insert Tyson joke) from Hell is going to bring him to the top. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven’t followed ROH in over 6 years, but I’ve got tickets to the MSG show, and I live 20 minutes from Korakuen, so I decided to check out all 3 shows this weekend. Jumbled thoughts on my way home, since this thread isn’t getting much love.

The Iizuka retirement was superb. He and Tenzan were marvelous this whole last tour building to Thursday night. The crowd was DESPERATE for him to come back out and speak, chanting for him long after the live feed ended. While it wasn’t a storybook ending, I’m happy the company let him go out the way he wanted. It also contributed to whatever is happening with Taichi, a guy I didn’t give a shit about before the Naito feud, so I’m loving that as well.

Marty remains over in NJPW without the rest of his peeps, and is a pro at working to his spot on the card. I feel like he’s gradually toned down all the egregious stuff people give him flak for, and has gotten a lot better. Very much looking forward to seeing him in a bigger spot in the Garden.

This was my second time seeing Shota Umino live, and I really think he’ll be a big star in a few years. Taking out TAKA got the people invested from the opening bell, and Zack gave him just the right amount.

Never heard of Gresham before. He had a decent showing both nights, although it was weird seeing Zack, who normally ties guys with amateur credentials in knots, being outclassed. I guess it works in a non-canon bubble. Don’t know if this comes across on TV, but Gresham definitely needs to tighten his stuff up. His lockups are L-I-M-P, which is extra jarring following a young lion match.

Ishimori getting flash pinned by Liger, and his reactions to it, were so on point. He continues to be my favorite thing in NJPW right now coming off that match with Taguchi.

GoD oddly had a lot of Japanese fans pop for their win, which was weird to me. But it sets up a title vs. title match at MSG, so that’s something.

More Jeff Cobb, please.

Ospreay did his best, but Dalton Castle looks like Randy the Ram out there. Brother is what, 32, 33? I’ve never seen him live, so I was quite taken aback.

The Briscoes remain the most believable, most pro wrestling thing in ROH after all this time. They are in the vein of a Stone Cold where they can flip the switch on and they never do anything to take you out of what you’re watching. They work the apron in tag matches so well, which stands in stark contrast to other top guys, like Okada with that doofus gaping mouth face he does when he zones out during these 6-man tags. It’s a crime they never got a WWE run.

Jay Lethal wasn’t exactly in there with a phenomenal worker in TK, but he just looked lost at times. The fact that he’s your company ace is offputting. I know it’s 2019 and he’s had a career arc, but I can’t take him seriously as champion. I still hear his mom screaming “GO HYDRO!” from the bleachers.

The less said about The Kingdom, the better. I guess some day I can tell my kids I saw Matt Taven wrestle in Korakuen Hall.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bad timing (as if there ever is good time for injury...) for Finlay, was just starting to get some momentum.

But okay, obvious big news is tag titles vs tag titles match at MSG. I thought that Brody/PCO would defeat Briscoes at their next show, but now I think it is going to be GoD vs Briscoes since they laid out things here rather convincingly. And it is a bit of a downer, GoD having a featured title match at MSG hurts my soul.

Like I understand the reasoning here, they want Evil and Sanada in NJ Cup without belts to make them more "believable" winners. But for me it is 2018 all over again, Sanada/Evil win tag titles at WK, it starts to look like we'll get stronger tag division as a result and few months later everything goes back to shit. Fucking GoD will have a featured tag titles match at MSG while bigger stars will probably do nothing of importance in some 5vs5 multiman match.

Briscoes are okay and GoD have actually improved a lot, but if someone asked you to book RoH/NJPW supershow then I'm sure that literally nobody (well asides of those people who actually have power and decided that it sounds great) would have booked this match.

On a more pleasant news Ospreay in post match comments kept calling out White for non-title match at Anniversary show, but I think they haven't announced anything about it yet? And commentary team put Cobb over strong... and Ospreay pinned him in tag match. I think that Cobb/Ospreay is possible for MSG? Maybe also title vs title match?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gresham is actually quite snug on most of what he does since he usually wrestles on smaller shows. Seek out his work that doesn't turn into a comedy fest out of boredom because he is literally good at every single part of wrestling. Character, striking, all styles of mat work, flying(450 and ssp with ease) and general grappling. He just happens to be really short.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I much rather have had EVIL/SANADA vs. Briscoes than have to suffer GoD sleepwalking through another match while the Briscoes do the heavy lifting.  How those two lazy fucks keep getting pushed and tag belt runs in a work rate heavy promotion I'll never understand.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe the Briscoes can carry them. Plus, it will be in a full MSG, if any building can get them to try harder it's that one, but we'll see. Just put in Hikuleo, at least he'll try.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...