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It is weird, though I see that they were previously All Asia champs for about eight months back in 2016, so their appearance is less random than I’d thought.

Them v Kento should be fun.

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So just how fucked up are Gedo's booking plans at this point?

He was probably planning on having Naito drop the IWGP belt to Sanada by now, and then build to Okada getting the belt back in November, but now all of that is fucked up because Naito "deserves" to have a long reign with multiple title defenses, so he's having to keep pushing everything back with every house show tour cancelled.

 

It must be killing Gedo to not have Okada as champ, and now he's going to have to wait even longer to put the belt back on him.

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34 minutes ago, Southside Jim said:

So just how fucked up are Gedo's booking plans at this point?

He was probably planning on having Naito drop the IWGP belt to Sanada by now, and then build to Okada getting the belt back in November, but now all of that is fucked up because Naito "deserves" to have a long reign with multiple title defenses, so he's having to keep pushing everything back with every house show tour cancelled.

 

It must be killing Gedo to not have Okada as champ, and now he's going to have to wait even longer to put the belt back on him.

In that universe what headlines the Dome next January then? Since Okada vs Naito 4 seems like a bad idea. Do they run Okada vs White 2 with Okada trying to get his win back? 

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Results from today’s AJ show, plus the card for May 5 (courtesy purolove.com):

AJPW "ALL JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING RELAY 2020", 30.04.2020 (Samurai! TV/AJPW.tv)
Unbekannter Ort 
ohne Fans 

1. Yuma Aoyagi besiegt Black Menso~re (8:25) mit einem Cradle. 
2. Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto besiegen Zeus & Izanagi (8:46) nach dem Giant Killing von Lee gegen Izanagi. 
3. Jun Akiyama & TAJIRI besiegen Shuji Ishikawa & Yusuke Okada (9:38) nach einem Jackknife Hold von TAJIRI gegen Okada. 
4. Suwama & Hikaru Sato besiegen Yoshitatsu & Dan Tamura (13:02) nach einem Capture-Style Cross Armbreaker von Sato gegen Tamura. 
5. Special Match: Yoshitatsu besiegt Suwama (3:10) durch DQ. 
6. Shotaro Ashino & Yusuke Kodama besiegen Takao Omori & Hokuto Omori (9:27) nach einem Ankle Lock von Ashino gegen Hokuto. 
7. All Asia Tag Team Title: Isami Kodaka  & Yuko Miyamoto (c) besiegen Kento Miyahara & Francesco Akira (24:15) als Miyamoto Akira pinnte (1st defense). 



AJPW "ALL JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING RELAY 2020", 05.05.2020 (Samurai! TV/AJPW.tv)
Unbekannter Ort 
ohne Fans 

1. Izanagi vs. Hikaru Sato 
2. Hokuto Omori & Dan Tamura vs. TAJIRI & Francesco Akira 
3. Zeus vs. Tsugataka Sato 
4. Jun Akiyama & Jiro "Ikemen" Kuroshio vs. Takao Omori & Black Menso~re 
5. Yusuke Okada vs. Yusuke Kodama 
6. Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto vs. Shotaro Ashino & X 
7. AJPW World Tag Team Title: Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa (c) vs. Kento Miyahara & Yoshitatsu

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On 4/29/2020 at 3:39 PM, MavsFan77 said:

In that universe what headlines the Dome next January then? Since Okada vs Naito 4 seems like a bad idea. Do they run Okada vs White 2 with Okada trying to get his win back? 

Gritty vs Minoru Suzuki, BOOK IT!!!!!!

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7 hours ago, Thomas Bugg said:

Watching Nakanishi vs Giant Bernard from the 2008 G1 Climax. Does anyone remember what this SXW was? Google searches are pulling up next to nothing. 

SXW was the TV program NJPW aired on J SPORTS/ESPN in the 2000s if I'm remembering correctly. 

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On 4/29/2020 at 2:02 PM, Southside Jim said:

So just how fucked up are Gedo's booking plans at this point?

He was probably planning on having Naito drop the IWGP belt to Sanada by now, and then build to Okada getting the belt back in November, but now all of that is fucked up because Naito "deserves" to have a long reign with multiple title defenses, so he's having to keep pushing everything back with every house show tour cancelled.

 

It must be killing Gedo to not have Okada as champ, and now he's going to have to wait even longer to put the belt back on him.

I've kinda fallen off the wrestling earth for a bit, but I had always figured Naito would get a decent run--not for sentiment, but because it seems to make financial sense. He's been the most over guy in Japan for a while now, and so the argument has always been that either 1) He's as over as he can get, and no championships will help, or; 2) Maybe his fans are really, really ready to commit now en masse, now that he's been committed to. More tickets, more merch, etc. Without weighing in on which seems more likely, I feel like you'd at least want to see what business does with him on top. If it flounders--the money was in the chase after all--then you can see if SANADA (or whomever) is ready, and Okada is ready as a safety net. Although this...

On 4/29/2020 at 3:01 PM, Oyaji said:

Does Okada have any big matches left? Ibushi rematch?

...is definitely a concern. I feel like Ibushi, and then heavyweight Ospreay, will be the answers. Although, they've really tried to paint SANADA as his generational rival, so maybe that. (Without engaging in AEW or other cross-promotional ideas.) 

Edited by Beech27
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Okada has Moxley as a big match still, Ibushi rematch, Ospreay, and then it gets cloudier. ZSJ is getting to a point where he could have a Dome match with Okada, Shingo could be built up easily, and they could build off of the last Taichi match to make another go at that as being a big match. Jericho rematch maybe? And if they're up to it there are inter-promotional matches that would add more options.

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BJW has canceled their events for May and will be starting up a crowdfunding campaign for survival. ?

Quote

Dainippon Pro Wrestling has decided to postpone or cancel the tournament during May. While entertainment cannot be held, we will carry out crowdfunding for the survival of Dainippon Pro Wrestling. Even if everyone is in a difficult situation, we would be grateful if you could just visit the site once it is published. Thank you. #bjw #Dainippon wrestling

 

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I've been having this feeling that NJPW is in a bit of an odd spot for a while, even before COVID-19 hit.

They're by far my favorite promotion, but the roster has been clearly stratified for a while now. To me, it's rather unclear how they're going to break out of that. Their current highest echelon is so good, I feel they might be hesitant to elevate other Young Lions/lower-tier guys as quickly has they have previously. (Well...relatively. The returning Okada is probably the most extreme example out there.)

People are pointing to SANADA. He's popular, but I don't really buy the idea of Okada selling him as a rival yet. Isn't Okada something like 7-1 against him? It still seems like there's a gulf despite SANADA finally picking up that win. Is he truly next? By the time NJPW is ready to really start moving on from Okada being a level above everyone else, it may be too late. Rock and a hard place.

But, it's also seemingly correct that there's not a whole lot left for Okada currently. Agreed on Moxley. There's probably more that he and Ospreay could do, Ibushi also. Finally, I think it would be a shame if we didn't get a big Okada/Takagi match as alluded to above. In my mind, that's about it.

As far as other potential directions: it might be too soon for this also, but I'm getting curious about why Naito/Ospreay have been kept pretty distant from each other in terms of big singles matches. I don't know if Ospreay's quite at that Omega-esque level where he'd be entrusted with a Tokyo Dome main event, but it seems like when NJPW keeps upper-tier guys separated, there's usually a significant reason behind it.

 

Edited by Teflon Turtle
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w/r/t Naito on top, I was at New Beginning in Osaka and holy moly were there ever a lot of people wearing Naito and/or Ingobernables gear! KENTA had his pockets of supporters throughout the arena, and Nakanishi got a huge goodbye pop and people were there for Mox v MiSu and Hiromu v Lee... But it was at least 75% Naito supporters and they were all wearing hats and shirts and jackets... That's 8000 people sporting his merch!

Dude will definitely make them some yen if he's still on top when all this is over. (Assuming it's not just an Osaka thing).

Edited by gordi
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5 hours ago, Horangi said:

SXW was the TV program NJPW aired on J SPORTS/ESPN in the 2000s if I'm remembering correctly. 

And it had that awful widescreen aspect ratio, did it not? There were some really good B show level tag matches on it though that were absolutely worth watching. 

... 

Welcome back, @Beech27? You were  missed! How have you been?

Good call with Ospreay. I think it would benefit them to avoid too many similarities between those two and the Okada/Omega series, as Ospreay needs to be his own man and not mirror somebody else. He should probably beat Okada sooner rather than later to be presented as a true threat to the crown of ace/Being Kazuchika Okada title, something desperately needed. While it was nice they finally had SANADA get his win last year, the rematch was pretty disappointing and I don't think people buy SANADA as That Guy right now, due to a combination of him losing too many times in his big matches and not really being quite as good as required with a variety of opponents. 

Edit: I suppose it's not a great sign that I forgot I watched the entirety of the New Beginning series... And it even featured Mai Boi Taichi prominently. 

Edited by Oyaji
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2 hours ago, Oyaji said:

And it had that awful widescreen aspect ratio, did it not? There were some really good B show level tag matches on it though that were absolutely worth watching. 

... 

Welcome back, @Beech27? You were  missed! How have you been?

Good call with Ospreay. I think it would benefit them to avoid too many similarities between those two and the Okada/Omega series, as Ospreay needs to be his own man and not mirror somebody else. He should probably beat Okada sooner rather than later to be presented as a true threat to the crown of ace/Being Kazuchika Okada title, something desperately needed. While it was nice they finally had SANADA get his win last year, the rematch was pretty disappointing and I don't think people buy SANADA as That Guy right now, due to a combination of him losing too many times in his big matches and not really being quite as good as required with a variety of opponents. 

Edit: I suppose it's not a great sign that I forgot I watched the entirety of the New Beginning series... And it even featured Mai Boi Taichi prominently. 

I've been well. Just the usual things, really: Job promotion = self-pressure to check email and phone all the time + dropped cable (so no passive wrestling viewing) + other hobbies + general busy life things = I fell a little behind, and I've always been such an "all or nothing" viewer that I didn't really know how to just keep up. But! The old matches thread is a treat, as were all the Tenryu classics posted here. And of course I've watched all of Ibushi's '19. 

Anyway, I think Ospreay can differentiate himself from Omega by leaning into the "second coming into his own" trope over/combined with the "foreign ace" trope. Basically, play off of the fact that Okada brought him to the dance, and has helped him along. 

You could probably main event a smaller show with KENTA, also. And, if we really, really want to read too much into things, New Japan's English language podcast just tweeted a link to and talked about Okada/Karl Anderson from the G1 finals. 

I'd really like to see Shingo, as others have said.

 

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Yeah, Shingo is a beauty but I think it would take a good year of slowly graduating him from below where Ishii is to credible main event threat with enough wins to make it work. He's really incredible but if I recall correctly the Korakuen show headlined by Ishii vs. Shingo didn't sell out and it's NJPW in Korakuen which is almost always a sellout. 

Has Karl Anderson ever had a singles match that approached the level of greatness that was the G1 final? Seems like an anomaly rather than a glimpse of "what could have been" when you look at the rest of his career. He strikes me as a pretty charismatic (in the comedy way, not the "good" way) super solid hand but nothing spectacular or worthy of a big push when so many ahead of him are significantly more talented. 

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He had a title challenge against Tanahashi in 2013 that I remember being really good. Still, that was prime Tanahashi, doing his domineering ace thing to get the other guy massively cheered. I'm not saying anyone could have a great match in that context... but the context is still awfully strong, and a lot of people could take advantage. My gut inclination is that Gallows and Anderson get a good-not-great auto-pilot run with the tag belts, but I wouldn't be totally shocked if they tried to see if there was any singles sizzle left.

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5 hours ago, gordi said:

w/r/t Naito on top, I was at New Beginning in Osaka and holy moly were there ever a lot of people wearing Naito and/or Ingobernables gear! KENTA had his pockets of supporters throughout the arena, and Nakanishi got a huge goodbye pop and people were there for Mox v MiSu and Hiromu v Lee... But it was at least 75% Naito supporters and they were all wearing hats and shirts and jackets... That's 8000 people sporting his merch!

Dude will definitely make them some yen if he's still on top when all this is over. (Assuming it's not just an Osaka thing).

I'd imagine it's a Hiroshima thing too based on his Carp fandom.

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