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Puroresu General Discussion for 2020


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Wu and Ito are cheap pay wise, so maybe AJPW can sign them to full contracts next year. If they decide to stay around that is.

Wu trained in the AJP dojo under Kaz, so he is a Mutoh era AJP trueborn.

Ito is 5 foot 11, so that's good. Glad he dropped the Kevin Owens look.

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9 hours ago, lostinube said:

Yeah. Otsuka but listed under his other name of Otoko Sakari.

Otsuka used to come in and work shows at Osaka Pro as Otoko Sakari. It's a sexually aggressive comedy gimmick where he wears a fundoshi - a kind of ass-exposing traditional Japanese underwear - and spends much of the match trying to either stick his ass in his opponents face or pull his opponent's face into his ass.

profile_otokosakari.jpg

I once went to an Osaka Pro Halloween party dressed as Otoko Sakari

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On YouTube they are listing a Dragon Gate show as streaming at 6am EST this morning. Are they actually doing another free empty arena show?

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On 4/2/2020 at 8:40 PM, Belgian_Waffle said:

Glad to see people still remember and re-watch that Nagata/Yasuda match. I'm not the biggest fan of Nagata in that period myself (I prefer the older, grumpier Nagata of around 2007) but he carried Yasuda to a whopper that night. It's kinda ironic that the best Nagata match ever was his classic with Taue from around the same time---a match which is much less a showcase for Nagata than it is for Taue, and Taue being a guy who on paper has a lot of Yasuda's setbacks in terms of being an awkward, gruesome troll but was a genius at working around his own physical limitations. 

Sir, can you guide me in the direction of said Nagata/Taue match?

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Tomorrow’s no-audience AJPW show:

1. Black Menso~re vs KAI
2. Koji Iwamoto & TAJIRI vs Yusuke Okada & Hikaru Sato
3. Takao Omori vs Chikara
4. Yoshitatsu & Francesco Akira vs Izanagi & Shigehiro Irie
5. Jiro "Ikemen" Kuroshio vs Giani Valletta
6. Jun Akiyama & Takashi Sugiura vs Hokuto Omori & Dan Tamura
7. We Are ALL JAPAN: Suwama, Kento Miyahara & Zeus vs Shuji Ishikawa, Jake Lee & Yuma Aoyagi

 

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They will probably declare a state of emergency for Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka tomorrow so I don't know what the status of even empty arena shows will be for the next month. The governors of each area will have the power to dictate what is and isn't essential etc.

Edited to add: AJPW has cancelled all of their shows for April, including the kick-off to the Champion's Carnival that was supposed to happen tonight.

Edited by lostinube
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I'd previously enjoyed seeing 2AW get around the "no large gatherings" rule by being incredibly unpopular.

Anyway, some AJPW newz from today's show: Jiro Ikeman said that he isn't leaving for America until he wrestles in the Champion Carnival, and Shotaro Ashino showed up to say that he's making AJ his primary battleground.

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4 hours ago, Control said:

and Shotaro Ashino showed up to say that he's making AJ his primary battleground.

Excellent news for both. He's tremendous from the little I've seen of him. 

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Man, his NJPW/WAR run from '93-'99 was spectacular. The IWGP matches with Mutoh in '98/'99 were hidden gems of that era where the focus is almost always on the juniors. Had some tremendous Dome epics, including one of Hogan's best matches. All Japan prior to his defection is great too, like him murdering Isao Takagi like he owed Tenryu money. Is there a bad stretch in his career? One of the best even if sometimes his matches you'd think would be amazing disappoint occasionally. He always worked a more Strong Style in that there's a lot of strike based offense, not a lot of cooperation, less North American style psychology and more based towards things feeling like a fight. His work vs. Choshu in '86/'87 in those tags was fucking great. Jumbo got nastier and upped his tempo but Tenryu was at home throwing bombs with Ishingun. 

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As Oyaji says, Tenryu was pretty consistently great throughout his long career, but I'd argue for '88 - '89 as his highest peak. You've got the all time classic singles match vs Jumbo, the tag with Kawada vs Gordy & Hansen, and his short-lived but incredible tag run with Hansen. I might extend it back to '86 so we can include the all time classic tag with Jumbo vs Choshu & Yatsu.

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14 hours ago, Oyaji said:

Man, his NJPW/WAR run from '93-'99 was spectacular. The IWGP matches with Mutoh in '98/'99 were hidden gems of that era where the focus is almost always on the juniors. Had some tremendous Dome epics, including one of Hogan's best matches. All Japan prior to his defection is great too, like him murdering Isao Takagi like he owed Tenryu money. Is there a bad stretch in his career? One of the best even if sometimes his matches you'd think would be amazing disappoint occasionally. He always worked a more Strong Style in that there's a lot of strike based offense, not a lot of cooperation, less North American style psychology and more based towards things feeling like a fight. His work vs. Choshu in '86/'87 in those tags was fucking great. Jumbo got nastier and upped his tempo but Tenryu was at home throwing bombs with Ishingun. 

Oh man that Arashi match was good. Was Arashi good for a while? Also, it reminds me of when I used to love Wada (instead of kind of hating him like I do now).

Anyway, I'd certainly say that the last decade of his career isn't great, especially when viewed in comparison to the rest of his career. Obviously, he's real old, but his mobility gets super limited and he doesn't seem as intimidating. Also, I straight-up think that Misawa broke him in their singles NOAH match.

Basically, pants Tenryu isn't the best Tenryu.

Anyone remember that bizarrely great Tenryu vs Omori match from the short-lived Fighting of World Japan promotion?

There any good random WAR matches worth checking out? Generally when we speak of Tenryu in WAR, the matches that get named are from the WAR vs NJ feud, but I'm wondering if there are any outstanding matches with Tenryu within the promotion itself.

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Random? I haven't seen a ton of WAR and maybe these are too obvious, but I remember being really pleasantly surprised by the singles matches against Takada in '96 and just loving the Fujiwara match from '97. I've heard people saying that Mutoh vs Tenryu '96 was Mutoh's best ever. 

Within the promotion itself? Was Nobutaka Araya a WAR regular?

Edit: this one strikes me as particularly random!

 

Edited by gordi
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Tenryu vs. Hara, the "ear juice" match. One of the most violent things you will ever see. 

And yeah, Araya was a WAR lifer. 

EDIT: I was actually thinking of Yatsu, and both matches were actually in SWS. So WAR but not WAR. 

 

EDIT II: Check out 15:45 in the Yatsu match. It's kind of plodding, albeit super stiff, and then THAT happens. The whole match Yatsu kind of had worked the ear so maybe this was a cumulative thing? I don't know what the juice is. 

Anyway, point being, Tenryu could work singles against lower card guys like Hara or sorta-beens like Yatsu and have great matches. I'm sure there's a great Takashi Ishikawa or Araya solo match with him out there.

Edited by Curt McGirt
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This is one of my favourites:

Hansen punches the ring post a few times and Kawada tries to fucking murder Mossman.

 

EDIT TO ADD: oh shit this Tenryu vs Nakano match is weird and awesome.

 

Edited by Control
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Nakano was the ultimate UWF underdog, so I am immediately watching that. Ty, ty, ty.

edit: EW, DEAR GOD! THOSE HEADBUTTS! And just like the Takagi match, Tenryu gave so much to Nakano, more than he usually got in UWF. Perfect for what it was.

Let us not forget his amazing stable during the initial rise of Kensuke Office. That was the coolest shit. Kensuke as the top guy, Tenryu as his grumpy, lumpy grandpa, Nakajima as one of the best young boys, and Hokuto with kendo stick being bad ass on the outside. Bless them.

Edited by Oyaji
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OK, I quite enjoyed the following match:

It's Tenryu & Araya vs Yamazaki & and unrecognizable, to me, Takashi Iizuka. Features an amazing spot where the cameraman is focused on the in-ring action between Araya and Iizuka, so gets completely bowled over by Tenryu, who has run over to Yamazaki's corner to pelt him with a chair.

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