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NJPW King of Pro Wrestling 2019


sevendaughters

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OK, can i tell my neato story?

I went to NYC this weekend to see Wulfpeck at MSG, and when we got back to the hotel, there were tons of New Japan guys just milliing around while I tried not to totally fanboy and bug them after their work. I think they were all going out on the town. I did let out an excited "OH MY GOD, THAT'S HIROSHI TANAHASHI!" when the ace came in. I should have at least taken 10 seconds of his time for a picture, but I wanted to leave him alone.

I also figure Gedo didn't want to hear me fanboying over his booking while he ate his continental breakfast.

I don't know if it was all of them - never saw Ibushi, never saw Okada - but a bunch of them were getting on a tour bus and leaving together when we checked out of the hotel.

'

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3 minutes ago, jstout said:

I also figure Gedo didn't want to hear me fanboying over his booking while he ate his continental breakfast.

You didn't want him to walk up and scream "WHO ARE YOU?!" like he did at Excalibur that one time when Bullet Club was coming to the ring? That was tremendous.

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So that Ospreay/ELP match...

On one hand Ospreay/Hiromu or Ospreay/Liger sounds like a bigger match than those with ELP there. And Ospreay with Eagles failed to take tag team titles away from ELP and Ishimori. So logically thinking Ospreay should probably retain? To me in this case only sound argument is that maybe if Hiromu is back NJPW doesn't want to put Ospreay against him due to predictable crowd reactions.

But then there is other stuff that only recently "clicked" with me:

In 2017 RevPro created British J-Cup. Basically their version of Super J-Cup, but with UK indies twist and well, not as good. Anyway, point is that Liger wins it. Probably because it sounds cool and it kinda gives it some prestige that their inaugural winner is Liger.
In the meantime ELP becomes a regular in RevPro and RevPro holds another British J-Cup in 2018. This time ELP beats Liger in semi-final and wins the whole thing.
In 2019 he joins Bullet Club and participates in BotSJ, loses three times and "avenges" each loss on following shows. After Aus show where he defeated Rocky, in post match interview he actually calls out Liger.
So with all that happening Liger announces new Super J-Cup tournament in USA. ELP wins it and again calls out Liger.

Ospreay/Liger and Hiromu/Liger are cool sounding matches that would function as "passing of the torch" moments, but then... do they really need to be passed anything at this point? On the other hand it looks like ELP's push has been deliberately linked to Liger so him being Liger's last opponent kinda makes sense, no? Like, am I insane in thinking that this is actually ELP's "story"?

Now granted there are two obvious flaws here:

1. NJPW hasn't really done anything to show this ELP/Liger connection so it is very likely that I'm just reading too much into this.
2. ELP is getting strong push, but at this point getting one of the marque matches for WK sounds too much, no?

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Big breaking news:

https://www.f4wonline.com/new-japan-news/jon-moxley-njpw-kopw-due-travel-issues-us-title-declared-vacant-294791

Jon Moxley can't make the show due to Typhoon Hagibis. IWGP United States Championship vacated. Juice Robinson vs. Lance Archer to determine the new champion on the show.

Edited by The Natural
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2 hours ago, The Natural said:

Big breaking news:

https://www.f4wonline.com/new-japan-news/jon-moxley-njpw-kopw-due-travel-issues-us-title-declared-vacant-294791

Jon Moxley can't make the show due to Typhoon Hagibis. IWGP United States Championship vacated. Juice Robinson vs. Lance Archer to determine the new champion on the show.

Ugly it's worked out that way, would be a shame if this is the last of the Death Rider in NJPW. Maybe Juice vs Moxley happens at WK now.

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5 hours ago, ComingToAmerica said:

Ugly it's worked out that way, would be a shame if this is the last of the Death Rider in NJPW. Maybe Juice vs Moxley happens at WK now.

Would've been cool if they made it a determination match for "interim" US champ, similar to what Pancrase used to do. So Mox would stay "official" champ until they got him back into the country.

Then again, this is an awfully convenient way to get the title off a guy who may or may not ever come back again, without him dropping the title in the ring. Of course I'm not saying they planned it like this way, but it shook out in an interesting manner.

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I don't object to Archer becoming USA champ, even if the means were not ideal and it is likely going to be a short reign. I'd probably have Juice win it back before WK and have Juice/Mox III at WK.

Will/ELP was what probably everyone expected it to be, but I found ELP doing certain moves a bit too much. Feels like he was killed a bit here.

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Stripping Jon Moxley because he can't make the event because of a fucking natural disaster preventing him from getting to Japan instead of stripping him of the belt when he was injured and couldn't defend it is a UFC level blunder. 

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It's part of the rules in NJPW. If you're a champion, and you can't make a scheduled defense, you're stripped of the belt. It happened to Togi Makabe a few years ago with the NEVER title, because he got sick.

 

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Just now, Ace said:

It's part of the rules in NJPW. If you're a champion, and you can't make a scheduled defense, you're stripped of the belt. It happened to Togi Makabe a few years ago with the NEVER title, because he got sick.

 

OK but Moxley was actually sick and had a MRSA infection when it would've made more sense to strip him of the title when he was sick and couldn't work due to the infection.

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23 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

OK but Moxley was actually sick and had a MRSA infection when it would've made more sense to strip him of the title when he was sick and couldn't work due to the infection.

They stripped someone because they missed a scheduled show due to a funeral.  The rules are if you get injured/sick and don't have a defense, you're good.  If it's scheduled and you miss, automatic strip.  That's been the way the promotion has handled it since 1972. 

 

The only exception is if you get hurt and know you're going to be out for months (Chono, Hiromu, etc), then you give it up without a scheduled defense.

Edited by Raziel
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Seems like an odd flimsy and counter-intuitive rule, but whatever.

All things aside, I'm glad Lance Archer won the belt. Dude was due for a run like this and I think he can big a dominant heel champion for guys to chase after right now. Now that he has the US title, I'd have him hold it for a while, well past Wrestle Kingdom.

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