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


The Natural

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18 hours ago, Craig H said:

That's even weirder because it almost necessitates a face turn for White and that dude should be anything but a face. Unless the face is going to be KENTA, which I don't see happening because of his actions against Shibata and now Naito.

I also really, really don't want another "dissension in Bullet Club" angle.

Jay was a pretty good babyface in ROH on his excursion.  I think he could pull it off.  The man's smart enough I think he could do anything.

That said, I want a slow slow burn on this.  Or Jay just realizing KENTA isn't good enough, so he bides his time, leading to Jay kicking KENTA out.

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I'm not really bothered by KENTA attacking Naito like some people. I mean I get why people are angry, but it at least sets up a feud and storyline between the two. To me it's no different than Owen Hart coming out to the ring at the end of WrestleMania 10 and seething angrily while everyone is in the ring lifting up Bret Hart. That didn't spoil the moment for Bret Hart. Naito got the moment. Celebrated, gave his props to Okada. So it happened. I just see the KENTA angle as something extra.

We can at least trust NJPW is going to go somewhere good with this and not fumble the ball. 

Edited by TheVileOne
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Well that was a thoroughly entertaining few nights of wrestling. I decided to take it in manageable chunks and think it was better for it, I feel that maybe some people's perception of night 2 was coloured by fatigue/time zone woes as I found it held up against night 1 favourably.

The flow and variety was great between the junior dashes, strong style, technical wizardry (yes I would have got my money's worth watching Zack and SANADA exchange holds for the whole card), the veterans, the brawling and the epic thrill of championship victory. I echo the compliments for the four-man booth, working seamlessly together, filling in the stories and demonstrating the right level of indignation towards the heels (Rocky at the end of the main event, Chris Charlton barely able to spit out his words at ELP's unnecessary backflip back-rake spot). They have a delightful collection of prick heels to play off too (White, ELP, ZSJ, THAT DAMN KENTA to name a few).   

Jericho/Tana was a pleasant surprise, I guess you can never underestimate what two ring generals can pull off together.

Favourite match is a toss-up between White/Naito for the drama and tip-off that it was Naito's time, White/Ibushi (Gedo getting murdered perfectly) or Ospreay/Hiromu for seeing the crazy man back to 100.

I sympathise on the travel slog @matt925, I spent 10 years travelling as an auditor in various international companies, the last 3 years of that was 3 weeks home, 3 weeks away, with two toddlers at home. Thankfully I'm settled and office-based since emigrating to Oz.

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I was skeptical about NJPW pulling off a two day show, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. My only complaint would be I wish they just kept these giant 8 man tags on the preshow. But it was a really good show back to back and I commend them for pulling that off. They could have easily just anchored the shows with two big matches and scattered filler in between, but they didn't.

Night 1 with Okada and Ibushi. I think if there wasn't a night two and this whole story of Naito reaching the top, Ibushi would have won the title. God that match with him and Okada was something else. I loved when Ibushi got all dark and he just started dropping bombs on Okada. I hope this nasty side sticks around. On night two, Okada and Naito was a great match. I honestly could see either guy winning and it would have been fine. I love when a match is like that. 

As an added bonus we're getting Moxley vs. Suzuki. I hope AEW and New Japan work out a deal. I would love to see them have a match in the states.

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Two thoughts I forgot to post.

I miss Minoru Suzuki's classic Kaze Ni Nare. You don't mess with perfection.

When Kazuchika Okada won the G1 Climax in 2012, it introduced the winner defends the contract inside the briefcase for a IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom inside the Tokyo Dome. Only Hiroshi Tanahashi has gone on to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship defeating Kenny Omega at last year's event. All the other G1 Climax winners lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match.

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3 minutes ago, The Natural said:

Two thoughts I forgot to post.

I miss Minoru Suzuki's classic Kaze Ni Nare. You don't mess with perfection.

When Kazuchika Okada won the G1 Climax in 2012, it introduced the winner defends the contract inside the briefcase for a IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom inside the Tokyo Dome. Only Hiroshi Tanahashi has gone on to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship defeating Kenny Omega at last year's event. All the other G1 Climax winners lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match.

According to Meltzer, the original plan was to have Omega go over in that match.

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6 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

According to Meltzer, the original plan was to have Omega go over in that match.

That's what I heard with Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada at MSG and Okada regains the IWGP Heavyweight Championship

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Moxley/Suzuki is going to be amazing when it happens and I echo the sentiment that Kaze Ni Nare is just perfection. Minoru rolling into the ring with that shit eating grin on his face as the crowd sings is just magical. Really enjoyed the Jr. Heavyweight title match as well from night one. 

Don't know if anyone was watching live night two but there was some issues with the stream for the longest time which was kind of disappointing. Had to find another way to watch it, but at least World got my $10 for the month so I don't feel guilty.

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3 hours ago, Archibald said:

I'm not sure how much credit we should give to these Dave/Omega interview that sounds more and more like Omega just talking stuff that makes him look good.

How does "I balked at going over Tanahashi and Maining MSG because Gedo wouldn't let me Main the Dome against Ibushi so I did a tortured held down artist gimmick for the build" make him look good?

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To be fair, if you believe it - the plan was supposedly:

  • Retained against Tanahashi
  • Retained against Okada at MSG (clean or another 60 minute draw)
  • Double Gold Dash at the 2020 Dome shows, with IC Champion Okada vs Naito, and Heavyweight Champion Omega vs G1 Winner Ibushi
  • Night 2 would see Naito vs Omega, with Naito going over

That does make Omega sound god tier, and gives him everything he wants. Could have still went to AEW, too - might have been an even bigger star by then (now), too. He kind of left on a super flat note this time last year.

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23 minutes ago, Sublime said:

I have a hard time believing Okada wasn't walking out of MSG as IWGP Champ regardless of who he was going against. 

Isn't that what Dave originally reported too? Now he's contradicting himself if he did due to either Omega or NJPW feeding him new information. 

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interestingly - to my mind, at least - the G1 briefcase was a McGuffin to get us to the real weekend main event of Naito/Okada without the sigh of obviousness and feeling that it's all been done before. I doff my cap.

I also feel Ibushi's double loss will be redeemed at some point.

future directions all seem interesting. what are they going to do with Jay and Sanada? is this a faction thing?
Kenta is a good first defence and now it looks like they were really just building him for this since the G1. poor Goto. now the bridesmaid's bridesmaid.

as ever they have some megatalents just spinning their wheels in EVIL, Shingo, and Ishii. now Naito is on the double title you can't even see 2 of them making a token challenge. time to do something with the tags (this is my usage of this phrase in 2020, see you next year!)

 

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18 minutes ago, sevendaughters said:

 

I also feel Ibushi's double loss will be redeemed at some point.

If Jericho is foreshadowing when he says he wants someone to open the forbidden portal my guess is that Ibushi will be the one to beat Jericho and get an AEW title shot 

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1 hour ago, Casey said:

To be fair, if you believe it - the plan was supposedly:

  • Retained against Tanahashi
  • Retained against Okada at MSG (clean or another 60 minute draw)
  • Double Gold Dash at the 2020 Dome shows, with IC Champion Okada vs Naito, and Heavyweight Champion Omega vs G1 Winner Ibushi
  • Night 2 would see Naito vs Omega, with Naito going over

That does make Omega sound god tier, and gives him everything he wants. Could have still went to AEW, too - might have been an even bigger star by then (now), too. He kind of left on a super flat note this time last year.

I find it hard to believe that they were going to give Omega 18 months title reign and that Okada was going to be supporting character in this double gold storyline.

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Naito revealed that he was all kinds of fucked up last year. For about 6 months he was performing with double vision and dizziness, which was apparently due to right oblique muscle paralysis. I have no idea how your right oblique being paralyzed could cause you to have what sounds like a traumatic brain injury, but whatever. Anyway, he said he had surgery and is fully recovered now. This may partially explain why he looked so run down last year. Now his knees being beat to hell is another story.

Holy shit though, that sounds so incredibly dangerous to be wrestling without being able to see and being dizzy. I'd like to think though, that he had to have recovered from that though...I hope.

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Finished watching (most of) Okada/Ibushi. Pretty much formula. The only thing that was new was when Ibushi went all hard on Okada which would have been interesting if he kept it up, but he got Tombstoned on the apron and went back to normal after that. Maybe it was the brief fast forwarding I did but at least this one didn't seem to overstay its welcome. Some of these long matches, I really wish someone would just put them on 2X speed and put "Camptown Races" or fucking circus music over them, it would be far more entertaining. 

Edited by Curt McGirt
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Jay White delivered again on night 2, Gedo's involvement in the finish was executed weak but it didn't ruin it for me. Ibushi was playing off his defeat from the previous night with clutching the wrist, that was cool.

KENTA is so good as a heel, it's great to see and Goto has always been one of my favourites, Oh and I love KENTA using the LaBell lock.

I haven't seen much if any of Moxleys AEW matches but the ones I have seen in NJPW are really good. He seems to be enjoying himself as I would think New Japan would be second to AEW. This match with juice was really good and different from their night 1 matches. 

I'll probably finish the 2 main events tomorrow. I've been watching 2 3 matches at a time of night . I don't really have 5 hours to watch it all at once plus I wont start to dose off near the last 3 like night 1.

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