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NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 *contains King of Pro-Wrestling 2019 SPOILERS*


The Natural

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On 11/3/2019 at 3:52 PM, Raziel said:

So yeah. might make that Mini-Tourny as close to official as you can since that's where they're heading.  Okada/Ibushi World, White/Naito IC night 1, winners for both belts Night 2

Hope it's Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship. I don't want to see Naito/Ibushi for a long time if ever again after THAT Dominion 2019 match.

Be something big for Tetsuya Naito and when you consider he lost to Okada/Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 12, EVERYONE thought he'd win there, he's only ever had one very brief reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

13 hours ago, JetBlack83 said:

I'm wondering if he wins at WK and then we end up with Hiromu/Liger for the belt on Night 2 as his last hurrah? If Liger is going all out one more time I think Hiromu or Ospreay are the two best choices. Should be a hell of a match either way.

Those are the two best options. I want Jushin Thunder Liger to challenge for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in his final match. Let Liger go out as champion, amazing how he hasn't held it for so long letting others instead. Fair play.

Edited by The Natural
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Current cards for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14:

January 4th:

Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. 

Jay White (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.

Will Ospreay (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship.

Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke and Tiger Mask (with El Samurai) vs. Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Ohtani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Ryusuke Taguchi (with Kuniaki Kobayashi). 

January 5th:

IWGP Heavyweight Champion vs. IWGP Intercontinental Champion for both belts.

The two non champions following the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental title matches on January 4 will have a singles match.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Chris Jericho.

Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo (c) vs. SHO and YOH for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.

Edited by The Natural
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3 hours ago, CSC said:

Double title match on night 2 is official.

This will be historic. For that reason, I'd have liked Hiroshi Tanahashi to be involved in it. I know he's not as involved in the main event picture since he beat Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 13, the match feels a tad forgotten about in 2019's best matches. Tanahashi is a legit legend as is Kazuchika Okada.

A question I pose, what happens to the double IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Champion? Does he defend both as a unified champion like the WWE World Heavyweight Champion or separate title defense losing one to free up the other for others?

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

This will be historic. For that reason, I'd have liked Hiroshi Tanahashi to be involved in it. I know he's not as involved in the main event picture since he beat Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 13, the match feels a tad forgotten about in 2019's best matches. Tanahashi is a legit legend as is Kazuchika Okada.

A question I pose, what happens to the double IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Champion? Does he defend both as a unified champion like the WWE World Heavyweight Champion or separate title defense losing one to free up the other for others?

I would say whoever wins the match holds both belts for maybe 3-4 months before they do a 'double title defense' where they have to defend either twice in a night or back to back nights, then they drop one of the belts (probably IC). My preference would be to retire the IC title though and just make it a double championship. There's no shortage of singles titles right now and it would give a lot more meaning to the US title going into those United States shows. That said, given how they book, I think they feel they need each of those titles to main event a city during their tour. The IC title has too much meaning for them, and I think it would leave them without a belt that's strong enough for a guy like Tanahashi or Naito to win and defend.

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It’s kind of amazing to me how badly they’re bungling the build to the Double Gold Dash or whatever they’re calling it.  This should be an easy slam dunk, and nobody seems to care.  Not the fans, not the guys in the matches, except Naito.  Okada buried this so badly at PS, there may be no return.

I think this booking is pretty indicative of how lackluster of a year this has been for NJPW, outside of a good G1.  The first few months when they were scrambling to replace Kenny were pretty interesting, but they’ve been in a rut ever since.  

There has been nothing notable about Okada’s new run with the belt.  The IC belt has been batted around and devalued right at the moment it needed to be peaking in prestige.  The tag titles are as dead as they’ve ever been (and that’s saying something).  Lots of repetitive matchups.  Very few bright spots in the booking (the occasional Shibata teases, the inspired Moxley/Shota pairing, Suzuki/Liger).

Rough year.

Edited by EVA
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Wouldn't say that fans do not care. As for guys in it, Okada shouldn't care because he is above IC title and White has been going on about how being double champ is now his Destino since Destruction tour started so I'm not sure how he could be more into it. Ibushi is fair point, I think he is struggling so far and I kinda wonder if he'll really become part of the "big 4".

Were BotSJ and Destruction tour part of the "rough year"?

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See, I would consider it alarming that over 1/3 of the people polled don’t want to see this.  This is one of the biggest cards they have to play, and a sizeable contingent are like, nah.  And there isn’t really much time left to change anyone’s mind about it.

Anyway, there’s a way that Okada can not care about the IC title that also puts over the DGD gimmick as significant.  What he’s doing buries it.

What Jay has been talking about plays more like he’s just trolling Naito rather than actually caring (and, again, trolling in a way that buries Naito rather than building up the match).

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There was a reason Ibushi always let Omega talk. If you're judging him on his talking ability, of course he shouldn't be in the top 4 but he's better than most anybody else on the planet from bell to bell and that's what matters in NJPW. I see it as a top 5 pretty soon with Ospreay joining the main heavyweight scene next year. SANADA could also break through the glass ceiling or fuck off to WWE. But I've largely taken the small tours off this year and feel little regret in doing so. Very repetitive and lackluster storytelling, which is something this company was absolutely masterful at from the Tanahashi/Okada feud onward. The main event scene feels like it's adrift and aimless. Throwing these four together feels lame. Ibushi has a clear goal but Okada has done everything multiple times, White's already done everything except beat Ibushi, and Naito is Naito. I dunno, not very compelling especially when the consensus points towards Okada beating Ibushi on the 4th. I'll be watching of course but I have little emotional investment. Like, I love SANADA and all but I stopped watching King of Pro Wrestling before his match with Okada started because I've seen them have so many matches the past couple of years and the result was a foregone conclusion. I used to feel like I was missing out on continuity or something special by not watching damn near most every show and that feeling has completely faded. 

I also don't give a shit about a Hiromu-less junior division, so I may go back and watch the highlights of the BOSJ because of the high praise it got but I am not a fan of Rocky and so much of the good stuff seemed to centre around him. I'll see if I can try over the Christmas break maybe.

Edited by Oyaji
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It's the factions. They're static. Thankfully when Suzuki leaves it opens up a leadership slot, and that's why I'm thinking either SANADA or EVIL bounce from LIJ at some point to lead what remains of Suzuki-gun (Naito's performance at WK win or lose can be used to push this). We've had Bullet Club vs. Chaos vs. LIJ vs. Suzuki-Gun vs. TanaTagu Sekigun for four consecutive years with the only major shakeups being WWE/AEW signings shaking up BC. The Elite leaving should have been the impetus for a major faction shake-up but it wasn't, so... we'll see.

And you should abso-the-hell-lutely watch this year's BoSJ.

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12 hours ago, EVA said:

It’s kind of amazing to me how badly they’re bungling the build to the Double Gold Dash or whatever they’re calling it.  This should be an easy slam dunk, and nobody seems to care.  Not the fans, not the guys in the matches, except Naito.  Okada buried this so badly at PS, there may be no return.

I think this booking is pretty indicative of how lackluster of a year this has been for NJPW, outside of a good G1.  The first few months when they were scrambling to replace Kenny were pretty interesting, but they’ve been in a rut ever since.  

There has been nothing notable about Okada’s new run with the belt.  The IC belt has been batted around and devalued right at the moment it needed to be peaking in prestige.  The tag titles are as dead as they’ve ever been (and that’s saying something).  Lots of repetitive matchups.  Very few bright spots in the booking (the occasional Shibata teases, the inspired Moxley/Shota pairing, Suzuki/Liger).

Rough year.

I was thinking this as well. This is probably the worst time to now do the 2 night WK. The last 4, hell, 5 years would have been good to do it. Just poor timing I guess.

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5 hours ago, Oyaji said:

There was a reason Ibushi always let Omega talk. If you're judging him on his talking ability, of course he shouldn't be in the top 4 but he's better than most anybody else on the planet from bell to bell and that's what matters in NJPW.

Sure, bell to bell matters more, but I don't think that NJPW is entirely about the ring work. Big 4 can't wrestle all the time, sometimes they have to take the mic and hype up whats next. They also might need to participate in some non wrestling events/shows to promote NJPW.

Take Sanada for example. Not a miracle on the mic, but I'd say he connects with the crowd better than Ibushi. Is Ibushi better in the ring? Yes. Is Ibushi more over? Probably at the moment, but I don't think that by that much and if Sanada gets a big win (lets say NJ Cup win and Sakura Genesis win) I wouldn't be surprised if he sailed past Ibushi. And he is much younger.

Naito is 37 years old, but he is printing money, he is not getting pushed out of big 4 till he probably is past 40. White is their top gaijin heel and Okada is their golden boy. If someone like Sanada is to ascend then someone will have to move down a bit (regardless if there is big 4 or big 6) and I think that Ibushi is the person that is most likely to move down.

 

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While I am pumped for WK and look forward to the little mini tournamet they have going, I'm not a big fan of how they got there. This all seems like a mis step by Gedo to try to throw everyone off the scent of the double title match all year and it just made everything convuluted. As soon as Naito started talking about holding double gold people started to see the logcial conclusion that the main of one of the nights of WK was going to be for both belts and that it will likely be Naito/Okada. Then Gedo got all cute with the booking and tried to make things feel uncertain but with 2 nights in the dome it was obvious that this was going to be a part of WK so everything just felt kinda pointless. They should have just gone more straight forawrd with it even if it was simply Naito laying the challenge down at the G1 finals while he was still IC champ, have him tell Okada and Ibushi he wants the winner of night 1 main on night 2 to take take both belts, then let White win the IC belt to insert himself into things. 

I agree with the thought that this year has not been a stellar as previous years, there was good stuff though and I'm hoping that next year brings NJPW back up hopefully with the ascension to the top level of some amount of ZSJ/SANADA/EVIL/Ospreay(never thought I would be wanting more Ospreay but the guy has really stepped things up this year, reminds me of Omega as a guy who went from kinda of annoying to this guy is pretty damn good)

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It's had some poor execution, but they're going to do great with the cards they have put together right now. The majority of the top guys are in the biggest match(es) with high stakes, with Hiromu returning for a title match, an attraction Tanahashi match (even if Jericho has overstayed his welcome at this point), Mox (likely), and Liger's retirement. The top of the card is really strong in my opinion. And they have time to get people more into the matches.

This year's DASH really needs to shake things up, though. Mix up the stables, change some allegiances; I am guessing SANADA leaves LIJ, maybe have some CHAOS guys leave to form a new faction? There's 80 guys in there currently. Once the title is away from Okada, I think it'll make things a lot less predictable. 

Hopefully, I didn't just jinx Naito.

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  • 2 weeks later...

the less-than-ideal execution (you can't say it wasn't foreshadowed hugely, this not a swerve) says to me that there was a different plan that was axed along the way.

tango to everyone on the stables thing. a couple of them need to die, pronto.

i was reading my write up of G1 26 and apart from Jay White being on a push we're pretty much still the same as it was. EVIL and SANADA getting gatekeeper jobbed. Naito the bridesmaid. Ibushi will-he/won't-he. Something different lads. You have the talents at your disposal.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got bored of it this year- the only thing that held me this year were the juniors and Taichi's move up the card.

I'll be back for WK, but I unsubbed from NJPW after October- though much of that was AEW/NWA/MLW providing enough good wrestling show that NJPW was overkill.

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I'm starting to think that after all we are getting KENTA/Goto since they did some stuff with them on WTL shows + as I understand they are throwing shades at each other on twitter + Goto had strong booking this year so he probably is getting a featured match on WK card and there are no other suitable opponents for him.

On the positive side I liked their interactions so far and it looks like they have some chemistry and Goto tends to deliver MOTYCs at WK. And Shibata in his corner will add some feels so even if it is not something that I really want I think it is going to be fucking great anyway.

This video is rather edgy and going over the top, but I think it explains rather well what we are getting here:

 

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Interesting Q&A with NJPW President, Harold Meij:

https://www.foxsports.com.au/more-sports/njpw-harold-meij-qa-kenny-omega-relationship-with-all-elite-wrestling-ring-of-honor-wrestle-kingdom-main-event/news-story/542c70d6fc694e872e6e368b44a36dc9

Making Wrestle Kingdom 14 a two day event:

“Our shows, generally speaking, all sell out. Our product is very popular here in Japan. Because 2020 is an Olympic year, so there’ll be more global eyes on the sports and culture of Japan, we thought well, we’re part of the culture of Japan as well. Particularly for the night-life. It’s been said that Japan is very good for daytime tourism but not so much for night-life - there are restaurants and bars and that kind of thing, but not so much other types of entertainment. So even the government is saying let’s look at pro wrestling as a night-life alternative to just restaurants. Because 2020 is an Olympic year, and because the demand for our product has been so great, that’s why we decided next year not to have just one Tokyo Dome day but two. The planning for that was more than a year before that - trying to get the venue obviously, but also deciding whether we want to do it, because it’s a risk for us as well. Can we suddenly double the number of people coming? We have to see how it goes, of course. Anything if you overdo it becomes stale. We want to keep the specialness of it, so I don’t foresee doing it every year - hopefully every so often, that would be wonderful, but we’ll have to see how the fans react the first time.”

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I don't subscribe to Observer so this is a second hand information, but supposedly Dave talked about double Dome and said that both shows are ahead of previous WK when it comes to ticket sales. This doesn't mean that they are going to sell out, but that it probably is going to be close. He also said that tdespite The Elite leaving it looks like they'll have around same amount of foreigners in attendance.

And well, NJPW still has good number of matches to announce (and Liger's final opponent) so maybe they'll actually be able to get double sell out.

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