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NJPW 2020 NJ Cup


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Jingu Stadium, Yokohama Stadium, or back to the Seibu Dome (whatever the current sponsor name is) could work with social distancing. Baseball is allowing 5000 fans right now and are looking to increase in August. 15,000+ would be half full.

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Asides of Evil stopping Okada back then he also had a match against Jericho and challenged Ibushi for briefcase last year at KoPW. He did lose more than he won in these last couple of years, but its not like he wasn't doing things. Sanada got lots of focus last year and we all kinda thought that he is about to explode, but asides of Sanada who else you'd say could have moved up the card this year? And Sanada's push kinda feeds into Evil's push anyway.

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To address something said earlier about how being a Naito fan must suck: Gedo gives us plenty of opportunities to cry ourselves to sleep on the mountains of LIJ merch we've been Tranquilo'd into buying. My initial reaction was that this torpedoes all of the fuss around the Double Gold Dash and Naito's years-long story...but 2020 is nothing if not the year of extenuating circumstances. Add to that: Naito was never going to get a reign with double-digit defenses like Okada or Tanahashi. That's not who he is, character-wise. He's got something unique next to his name in the NJPW history book instead, which feels right to me. As a Naito fan, though...I do hope he gets another run at the top after we skip back in to the correct timeline.

It does feel weird to get what I asked for, though - in my mind, NJPW had two major problems (along with other smaller things that seem nitpicky when contrasted with what's wrong with other promotions): their factions felt stale and needed to be shaken up, and their roster was far too solidly stratified. It was getting to the point where I was getting concerned that New Japan was running the risk of having another "lost generation:" wrestlers who could be elevated weren't being fully showcased at the expense of needing to keep Okada at the very top, with a very small, solidified group of wrestlers around him who could conceivably take the championship away. There was no real variance to the main event scene, and outcomes were obvious.

However, New Japan has excelled with seemingly establishing a "next man up" attitude among their wrestlers. I can't be too mad at the title switch when EVIL has gotten to show more personality in 48 hours than he has in the last three years. As pointed out a page or two back, this opens up a ton of new story possibilities. When I first saw Gedo walk out during the finals of the Cup, I thought the surprise would be that they somehow managed to illegally smuggle Jay White in to Japan, and were going to have him interfere in the main event. This decision makes the return of the missing BC members far more interesting, and allows for the possibility of more new challengers to step up in to main event territory.

SHO and Shingo put on another great one, which will probably be lost among the title changes in the top two matches. For my money, Shingo is right there with Ishii in the category of "not at the top of the card, but is actually the best pro wrestler on planet Earth." 

It was mentioned that this feels like an end to the golden age of NJPW that started in the early 2010's. I've had that same thought, but we may need to go even further. I'm thinking that most of the traditional NJPW system will look different from here on out, depending on how long the world takes to recover from COVID-19. If international travel will be difficult for years to come, they're going to need to get comfortable elevating Young Lions without them going on excursion first. I also don't know if I see the current crop of top guys like Okada/Naito/Tanahashi/Ibushi making it to "dad status." Pro wrestling is hard on the body regardless of the style one wrestles, but I don't know if it will be possible for them to stick around like Nagata/Kojima/Makabe (and others) have done. Okada is still a young guy, but it looks to me like he's starting to go more slowly in his matches. Whether this is a conscious decision to prolong his career, or something necessitated by injuries already, I can't say. As entertaining as the NJPW style is now, it's not out of the realm of possibility that it will prove to be a meat grinder. 

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I haven't watched the show yet (really want to see Tanahashi/Ibushi vs. Sabre Jr./Taichi and Shingo/SHO). I didn't expect EVIL to join the Bullet Club and go on to beat Naito to win the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships. Shame Naito's never had a definitive run with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Well, the start of his second counts. If it's a choice of EVIL or SANADA, I'd pick EVIL (I can't get into SANADA) though there's better options in Tomohiro Ishii, Shingo and Takahashi holding the top two singles championships. Be interesting to see how it works out.

When Tetsuya Naito became the first man to hold both titles at the same time at Wrestle Kiingdom in January, I wondered whether it would stay that way, Naito would have to vacate one or lose one inside the ring. Combining them feels like a NJPW version of the famous AJPW Triple Crown but by splitting them, you can do what NJPW's done in the past, one tour is headlined by the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the other for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. NJPW's done that by building up the Intercontinental Championship's prestige to allow them to do that, doubly so when compared to WWE's IC.

Edited by The Natural
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I want to talk about the Tag Tile match for a minute. It was fantastic and it was a great showing of heeling by Tachi/ZSJ. I am happy that Tachi and ZSJ are the champs, they deserve it and it was the outcome I wanted going into the match that said I was so disappointing and mad at them by the end. The destruction of Tanahashi was fantastic heeling and the selling by Tana was equally as great. I went from kinda excited from when Tachi hit the Iron Fingers of DOOM on Ibushi that the title change might happen to thinking to myself "How can Tanahashi come back" as ZSJ just dragon screwed him to hell. They were able to take me from wanting to see the Suzuki-gun team win the belts to hoping Ibushi/Tanahashi could come back, the end of that match was a fantastic performance by ZSJ/Tachi and Tanahashi.

Edited by Sublime
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I'm kinda disappointed that EVIL wasn't trotting his Six Man belt around too so he can brag about having 3 titles at the same time, with the added benefit of sticking it to LIJ.  I mean, I know it's only the 6 Man belts, but still....

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Regarding the Main Event, character wise this was match Naito was probably going to lose. EVIL has been by his side for years, knows what makes Naito tick and knew exactly what he was doing by turning on him the day before the match. Naito when he is angry and impassioned is when he is at his most vulnerable. We've seen it multiple times, if he is not tranquilo he will make mistakes, he will lose focus on what makes him a winner. Evil played him perfectly he mad him mad, he made the match more of a brawl he brought out the emotions, it was a perfect game plan. 

I was saddened by the result, I've talked on here before about my Naito fandom and how he was the first wrestler in a long time that made me care if he won or lost, but I'm not mad at the result and not just because it made sense in the character sense or that I like EVIL and was happy for him. It opens up more storylines interesting ones and it was unexpected but not out of the blue. EVIL has been shown that he was on the verge of breaking out for years, the past three years he has been in double digit points in the G1, hanging in there with the top guys and scoring wins here and there and now he has completed his rise. 

Also BC needs firepower they are completely hampered by the current environment, all their normal names are out for an unknown amount of time, adding EVIL helps and as champ gives the group legitimacy while it is depleted. White/GoD/Fale/KENTA/ElP all gone for who knows how long, without additions they were dead in the water and it would have greatly hindered the booking of NJPW, I want to see how this is going to play out.  Also the other promotions in Japan better hope they have their guys locked down cause NJPW might be looking to poach some folks to flesh out the cards going forward. I think at the very least we're going to see some inter-promotional participation in the G1 this year. 

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11 hours ago, Jiji said:

. Low key sad I won't hear the women and kids shout "IIIIBIRUUU" anymore though.

When the Cup came through my hometown last year, there was a young family (mom, dad, and 5 or 6 year-old daughter) sitting next to me. Very friendly people. The daughter was just cute as a button and had a very little-girl voice and she indeed yelled "IIIIBIRUUU" over and over and over again during his match (BUSHI EVIL SANADA vs Taichi Davey Boy MiSu). I was delighted by this and laughed right out loud every time she did it. That, in turn, made her mom laugh too. Nothing to do with the wrestler, actually, more that I was imagining that the little girl was cheering for the abstract concept of evil. 

I'll miss that too, is what I'm saying.

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1 hour ago, Beech27 said:

I missed this at the time.

I saw this doing rounds in some places and I'm not sure if it actually means anything. Theories about LiJ breaking up have been around for last 2-3 years. Maybe someone actually said something to Dave, but this might as well have been an educated guess.

Looking at the cards and post match interviews it sounds like we might get tag titles rematch.

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5 hours ago, Sublime said:

I want to talk about the Tag Tile match for a minute. It was fantastic and it was a great showing of heeling by Tachi/ZSJ.

Felt the exact same way. I wasn't following puroresu during Tanahashi's prime, so I missed out on his ascendance and time at the top. I've been going back through his past matches on NJPWWorld recently, and found myself surprisingly invested during the tag title match.

ZSJ/Taichi have been on a tear, for sure. But, the feeling of mounting dread that built up as they kept at Tanahashi with the double-team dragon screws was something else. Really good, effective work by all four wrestlers in the match. Much as Ibushi seems destined for more singles gold, I kind of want the Golden Ace team to stick around for a while.

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That tag title match was a roller-coaster for me. At first I was sure that Tanahashi/Ibushi were retaining, but when Taichi hit Ibushi with iron fingers I started believing that they have a shot and since I'm big Taichi fan I was happy, for a moment. Then they started maiming Tanahashi and my mood shifted again and I really wanted Tanahashi to recover and beat these two assholes.

Edited by Archibald
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38 minutes ago, Teflon Turtle said:

Felt the exact same way. I wasn't following puroresu during Tanahashi's prime, so I missed out on his ascendance and time at the top. I've been going back through his past matches on NJPWWorld recently, and found myself surprisingly invested during the tag title match.

To be fair his ascendance happened during darker times for NJPW so you didn't necessarily miss out on too much though his G1 final against Nagata in 07 and his defense against Goto in 09 are well worth checking out. 

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My man ZSJ with the superior tekkers and Suzuki-gun with the superior teamwork for the win, earning the Brit’s first native gold.

EVIL has a bit of an Awesome Kong vibe going with the new gear but it’s definitely an improvement and I loved the Milano interaction, the delicious super fan heartbreak. And poor lad Hiromu. Rehabs to get back to his boys and he’s the only one properly backing up Naito.

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