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


The Natural

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On 12/31/2019 at 4:38 AM, The Natural said:

I don't think the following will be popular...I'm wanting Kazuchika OKada to defend the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kota Ibushi and then goes on to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship vs. Tetsuya Naito. Okada's pretty much done everything and Gedo's booked him as the unstoppable Ace making and breaking records. My least favourite option is Ibushi vs. Naito with the risks both do to one another in their matches.

If Okada doesn't win both belts, I'm hoping Naito does versus Okada by beating him at Wrestle Kingdom for the first time of asking. That reminds me of Okada losing to Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 7 and 9 but beating him at 10. 7 was the worst Okada/Tanahashi match by far and 10's the best of the legendary Okada/Tanahashi rivalry. 

I like what you are getting at. I'm hoping for an Okada-Naito final. I think Ibushi- White could but on a great match but Naito-Okada  for both belts is definitely a headlining Dome main event. 

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21 minutes ago, paintedbynumbers said:

the big question is will you be watching live? I believe it starts at 3 am live where I live. It's a chore to get up that early but since it's not a week day it will be worth it. 

I hope to watch Wrestle Kingdom 14 live. 7am start for Night One and Night Two begins at 5am GMT. It's easier compared to WWE PPVs in the early hours of Monday morning 12am till 4am. UFC's main cards tend to be 3am Sunday morning.

Edited by The Natural
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Anybody checked out the backstage comments from the last three “Road to” shows at Korakuen? Don’t know if I’m alone in this but I took Ibushi’s comments as all but promising a heel turn.

As others have said, I don’t see him winning on 1.4 as I can’t imagine Okada not in the main event on both nights. I’m not sure I can see Gedo following through with a turn as Ibushi is a perpetually loved babyface, but the story is there if they want it. They are in desperate need of a big faction shakeup (not to mention a hot angle for 1.6), and seeing Ibushi’s dark side when he’s pushed too far in the ring and snaps, I have no doubt he could brilliantly pull off a dickhead heel character.

I’m not sure where ticket sales are for the dome shows, but last I heard 1.4 is doing much better. If that’s the case, I’m perplexed that Okada would cut a promo basically saying 1.4 is more important and 1.5 is whatever. I get that the storyline is he doesn’t care about the IC title (which is a problem in itself—if he doesn’t, why should we?). But you’re not exactly talking people into the building there, champ. If there’s one big flaw with Okada, I think he’s actually gotten worse with promos over the course of his run.

Last thought on promos—is anybody in wrestling even remotely close to Jay White’s level right now? Even Cody, who’s been crushing it, to me doesn’t come off as natural and real.

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Yeah, I’ve been saying this about Okada’s shit talking of the DGD gimmick for months.  Sure, there are plenty of other potential factors that could be depressing 1/5 ticket sales (unknown main event, 1/4 being more traditional, added expense of two nights), but it certainly hasn’t helped that their top guy has spent the last several months telling fans that none of this matters.  It’s a strange promotional tactic, and the fact that it’s been consistent for a while now suggests this is the story Gedo wants him telling, which...*shrug*

If they had been hard selling the DGD as historically significant for months, instead, the unknown main event might not have been such a deterrent.  Instead it’s like, “Hey, come see a mystery match for something that means jack shit.”

Edited by EVA
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If the numbers earlier in this thread are accurate, with 40,000 on 1.4 and 30,000 on 1.5, that's not bad at all. The first night performing right in line with last year's great number, plus maintaining 75% for a second night would have to be considered a big success, I would think.

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It seems as though "Okada loses because he isn't in the game for both nights" is where things are heading. But, it is a bit strange, as it still seems like they're relying on everyone but Okada to sell the overall idea. For example, Ibushi has been saying that he feels the IC belt, is on an equal plane with the IWGP heavyweight title. He rejects Okada's "silver medal" concept - both belts are gold medals. Everyone but the top guy has talked about why they want both of these championships.

Instead of putting the IC title down, wouldn't it make more sense for Okada to talk about how he intends to prove his/the IWGP champion's dominance by taking the two biggest singles titles for himself? He appeared to be walking back the idea that he didn't want the IC title at all in a recent interview, but it was still pretty vague.

The optimist in me (and don't get me wrong, I greatly enjoy Okada's work) hopes this signals a move away from the "single ace" concept as NJPW moves forward. Okada holding the belt for extended runs is feeling stale - count me among those who feel that his current reign has felt like an afterthought compared to everything else going on in the promotion in the last year, despite Okada still being a compelling wrestler to watch.

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If the attendance numbers turn out to be right, I think they'll be another Wrestle Kingdom over two nights. Be interesting to see how it turns out, if NJPW do another or admit that it didn't work.

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

If the attendance numbers turn out to be right, I think they'll be another Wrestle Kingdom over two nights. Be interesting to see how it turns out, if NJPW do another or admit that it didn't work.

If I'm not mistaken they have said a while ago that they won't be doing another 2-day WK in near future regardless of how this one does.

7 hours ago, Teflon Turtle said:

It seems as though "Okada loses because he isn't in the game for both nights" is where things are heading. But, it is a bit strange, as it still seems like they're relying on everyone but Okada to sell the overall idea. For example, Ibushi has been saying that he feels the IC belt, is on an equal plane with the IWGP heavyweight title. He rejects Okada's "silver medal" concept - both belts are gold medals. Everyone but the top guy has talked about why they want both of these championships.

Instead of putting the IC title down, wouldn't it make more sense for Okada to talk about how he intends to prove his/the IWGP champion's dominance by taking the two biggest singles titles for himself? He appeared to be walking back the idea that he didn't want the IC title at all in a recent interview, but it was still pretty vague.

Okada can't really say that he wants IC title because it is a dig at his previous accomplishments. He won "gold medal" multiple times and defended it for multiple years now and here come two idiots (White pretty much just wants to screw everyone and I think doesn't really care about DGD) who are implying that all of his achievements do not matter because what really matters is becoming first ever double champ, Ibushi even goes an extra mile with his claims that both titles are even. It is a wrestler who was sitting at the top for years being confronted with an idea that actually he is not, and never was, sitting at the top. It is natural that he would be dismissive of it entirely and even called for a fan vote with his "this is bullshit, right guys?" promo at Power Struggle show. Since fans voted in favour of it he is being dragged into it reluctantly.

Maybe it does not provide for the most exciting possible build towards 1/5 match, but I think this is some of the best character work that Okada has done in recent years.

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1 hour ago, Raziel said:

I would guess that's for some sort of ritualistic sacrifice to MiSu or something...

Admittedly, I would love to see that as well as how a Japanese crowd would react to Enzo.

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20 minutes ago, Archibald said:

I suspect that Japanese crowd might not know who he is, but reaction would be glorious on wrestling Twitter.

Watching wrestling twitter's meltdown might be worth it.

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It feels weird that Wrestle Kingdom this year is on a weekend where us Americans finally don't have to play games about how we are going to watch this.   Usually for me work always got in the way and by the time I I could watch it the thing was spoiled to death.  

Now I need to find some good recap stuff because I am not going to pretend that I followed even half of what is happening these two nights

 

Edited by hammerva
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