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NPW Strong and other USA shows


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Doesn't seem like too many ppl saw or are talking about this fun show.  Enjoyed the Factory 'invading' NJPW, and (ha) proving their superiority over the LA Dojo.  I wonder how the pay works on a show like this with sooo many ppl booked in multiple trios-plus matches?  Lawlor-Yuji was strong until the finish kinda missed the mark.  Nice to see Scott Norton, but in his condition being a cornerman would have sufficed.  I thought this Bullet Club-Empire bout was fun.  I skimmed the Street Fight to try and catch (maybe my favorite current wrestler) JONAH's highlights.  I don't think I care for plunderfest tornado brawls anymore.  I mean generally, and I know there are specific performers who can make these things work.  Jay White and Shooter Umino, as would be expected, was excellent.  So too Ishii and Suzuki (nice to see Eddie Kingston there) and Mox-Ospereay until that unbelievably bad finish.  That referee fucked up hard.  That was far too good (MOTY conversation worthy) for such a boneheaded miscue.  What could he possibly have been thinking? 

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I expected a fuck finish to keep Ospreay strong, my gut says they booked it like they did the finish of ZSJ/Ospreay so he has something to whine about. I was much more bothered by the visible spot calling from both men + Moxley's "hidden blade" not being so hidden. But that's on FITE's choice of camera shots more than anything. Production was bad. Crowd was great, that was a healthy attendance! Felt like Korakuen, 2,000+ at least, right?

Jay White's the best heel in the world, he's a shit eagle among mere shit birds. Shooter (and Claudio) needs to join the Burger King Kid's Club cause he's got a lot of natural charisma but his offensive is dumb and he looks like Tanahashicito. Surprised they're still putting Juice over. I dunno about JONAH. Ishii & Suzuki put on one of those old-men master classes where there were almost no bumps and it still felt like they went through hell.

Buying my tickets for the D.C. show now, that card is ludicrous.

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9 minutes ago, John E. Dynamite said:

I expected a fuck finish to keep Ospreay strong, my gut says they booked it like they did the finish of ZSJ/Ospreay so he has something to whine about. I was much more bothered by the visible spot calling from both men + Moxley's "hidden blade" not being so hidden. But that's on FITE's choice of camera shots more than anything. Production was bad. Crowd was great, that was a healthy attendance! Felt like Korakuen, 2,000+ at least, right?

Jay White's the best heel in the world, he's a shit eagle among mere shit birds. Shooter (and Claudio) needs to join the Burger King Kid's Club cause he's got a lot of natural charisma but his offensive is dumb and he looks like Tanahashicito. Surprised they're still putting Juice over. I dunno about JONAH. Ishii & Suzuki put on one of those old-men master classes where there were almost no bumps and it still felt like they went through hell.

Buying my tickets for the D.C. show now, that card is ludicrous.

Have you been following his Impact run?  He's had some nice squashes and bouts with Josh Alexander and PCO.  He's also cutting some quality promos - he's so clearly above most everything on their shows.  His apparel could use to improve, but I kinda like the 'fat boy' vibes.  I can't speak much to whatever he's doing in NJPW Strong.  If this is any indication, I'm not missing out.  I ffwd this match stopping to see some of the big spots.  

Yeah, the visible spot calling in the Mox-Ospreay bout was a bit much - mostly on Mox of what I saw (one really bad one).  I didn't catch the Blade, I always miss those (thankfully).  I mean, I get the idea of a fuck finish for Ospreay to have something to complain about, but it didn't seem to work here.  If that was the idea there was no need for him clearly tapping to try and save the ref's fuck-up.  Like there's no angle where that ref doesn't see a shoulder come up.  Granted there's a chance Ospreay was the real offender, but it certainly doesn't look like it.  This ref has stood out to me as doing unnecessary and really bad animated stuff prior, so I'm guessing he needs to clean up his act.   

The production was amateur, but better than the average and awful looking NJPW Strong TV.  I don't agree with the earlier post about the lighting.  This was lit fairly well.  I also feel less inclined to complain if the lights are in a high enough position, that the cameras aren't shooting directly into them - a classic early ROH/Indy move.  Granted some of the operators around ringside were clearly not top of the class, but all in all from what I expect of domestic NJPW it was better.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmmm, TJP seems to be growing his hair out a bit.  Given the shenanigans post-match, if this is leading to a mask vs. hair match with Mascara Dorada down the line, I'm fully on board with that idea!  Even if it doesn't go that far, Dorada needs an angle like this to get people more invested in him, so I'm happy to see that, at least.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Evil Otto
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Capital Collision was a wonderful show to attend. The undercard held up its end of the bargain (O-Khan is o-ver) and TMDK vs. UE had the show cranked up to a level it never dipped from. Main was more than solid, Ishii vs. Kingston was a true dream match, and the MVP, obviously, was Rocky Romero. Minoru Suzuki punched his bump card way more than I thought. Very pleased with the booking. I was on the road by 10:15. Again, wonderful.

Edited by John E. Dynamite
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Yeah this was a fun show.  Final 4 matches more than delivered and that is all I was hoping for.   Granted I haven't watched very much of New Japan in the last 3 years  so while most people see the main event as another bullshit low blow thing with Juice winning the title it didn't bother me.   Plus Ospreay getting fucked two times in a row on pins works for me.    Although I have to say as of right now Bullet Club Juice Robinson isn't working for me.  First of 'Rock Hard' Juice Robinson is a terrible name ?.     Plus the look is just so strange from the Flamboyant persona.   It really comes off as more of an Aces & Eights cosplay then a Bullet Club thing.   I will give this version of the Club credit I didn't think it was possible to be an obnoxious as the Young Bucks Bullet Club version but boy Jay White is doing a good job.  Complete with doing most of this chops and forearms with the 2 Sweet sign

I was completely confused why the Great O-Khan was so incredibly over but that he was because my dumbass thought it was Gedo doing this gimmick which made no sense given his last couple years.

I was starting to get a little tired of Minoru Suzuki playing the greatest hits on the indies but this match against Brody King felt different because he worked on a body arm that made the usual chop and forearm fest weaker.   Plus he was bumping way more than usual  

Also cool to see that Lio Rush is expected to come back and wrestle.  I figured this latest retirement was an actual one 

Edited by hammerva
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I liked the first half of Eddie vs Ishii better than the second half, but I didn't hate the back half or anything. Eddie's chops looked better early but he sold Ishii's more and thus made it seem like Ishii was the stronger striker. Then he used the abrupt arm attacks not to chip away at him but just to crack the door open a tiny bit so he could offset that advantage in the striking. I'm not a fan of delayed selling in wrestling though I know it's been a thing for decades, but Eddie is one guy who can almost, almost make it work for me. When he was dragging himself back to his feet to maybe, maybe duck a clothesline and hit something (and then getting nailed anyway), that's the kind of selling he can do better than anyone wrestling today. But yeah, full emotional commitment to the moment from both guys which is more important than just about anything else.

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Couple weeks behind on Strong so I decided to knock those out this morning. Let's not talk about me being behind on BOSJ.

05/14/22

6 man tag was good. I forgot that Coughlin graduated. It's just DKC and Kevin Knight left now right? Wonder if they'll get a new US class. Couglin doing big strong man things.

Handicap match with Rosser vs. WCWC was a match. But an ANGLE~! at the end leads to Rosser shaving his head and Lawlor chewing his (Rosser's) hair. This sets up a loser leaves town match for the Philly show from the 15th. Can't find spoilers too easily so I'll just wait until the match airs.

Glad that they addressed Hikuleo sticking around in BC while his brothers got kicked out. Jay faces him in the third match here. Jay is doing Jay White things (stalling, making the crowd wait etc) and it's great. Has he ever talking about his influences? He doesn't wrestle like someone that came up in the NJPW system so it stands out compared to the rest of the roster. Granted big matches usually end up hitting the same beats because that's just their style but there are some fun parts in there.

Anywhoo, Jay takes a beating and it's great. Jay uses nefarious tactics to take over and control. 

05/22/22

Starting off with Dickinson vs. Narita! Time limit draw. Good match. 

Solow/Comoroto  w/ QT vs. Connors/Fredricks good tag match with QT doing just enough cheating to keep it interesting but he's neutralized by the young lion that came out with Connors and Fredricks. QT gets on the mic after the match and the crowd is booing him so much he can barely speak. QT is OVER~! QT sets up the match for Philly which I assume will be aired on Strong at some point. 

6 man tag for the main event, O-Kahn/TJP/Henare vs. Brody King/Taylor Rust/Mascara Dorada O-Kahn is over like rover in this arena. LOL and Brody pulling Rust out of the ring and to the back but leaving Dorado alone with UE so TJP took his mask again. We're getting that hair vs. mask match at some point eh?

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  • 4 weeks later...

I implore you to watch Lawlor vs Rosser as soon as you can.  

It was beautiful pro wrestling.  The ART of wrestling on full display.  

Believable, intensely physical, emotional.  

Spoiler

On that note, if you're not tearing up following the conclusion of this match, you might want to consider a new hobby.  

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

On the one hand: AWESOME. OTOH, I have no earthly idea what they're thinking by booking such a tiny building. Three years ago they literally sold out MSG... I get that anything smaller than that would be a disappointment, but come the unearthly hell on.

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  • 1 month later...

They uploaded the DC show from May on their YouTube channel. It was my first New Japan show I've seen since WK14. I enjoyed most of what I saw. I plan on reupping my subscription to NJ World in a few months when I'm ready to commit to following New Japan again. I haven't followed closely since before the Shutdown and I think I can really get hooked like before the shutdown. New Japan strong has alot more Gaijin for me to get familiar with and I like how some of the Strong talent is mixing with the main roster guys.

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Speaking of New Japan Strong, one of the best one hours of content I've seen in quite a while was the September 11th episode.  Every wrestler on this show, expect for Kevin Blackwood whom I simply don't know well enough, is really top-shelf when it comes to making their opponent look great.  So, wouldn't you know it, every match is great to really great.  

Macara Dorada vs. Misterioso was fun to watch for many reasons, one notable one being that Misterioso clearly wanted to show he could hang with Mascara Dorada, so they didn't really hold back.  Robbie Eagles vs. Kevin Blackwood was easy and smooth; Eagles has really become an outstanding all-around wrestler, and considering Blackwood has a discernible theme and video when he makes his entrance, I'm assuming NJPW sees a lot of potential in him.  The match you really need to go out of your way to see, though, is Aussie Open vs. West Coast Wrecking Crew.  I don't know if it even went over 10 minutes, yet it's near perfect.  In retrospect, WCWC are kind of where Aussie Open were a few years back...meaning that soon enough, WCWC will be fucking awesome.  If you have access to New Japan World, I assure you this match will not disappoint.  It will be overlooked at the end of the year, but it's a real gem.  

 

Edited by Evil Otto
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

I just bought tickets for Battle in the Valley in San Jose next month. After the 2 tickets I bought there were 195 tickets left. It’s a 3,000 seat venue it’s gonna be packed in there I can’t wait.
 

I’ve always wanted to go to a New Japan show and I have family in San Jose so I pulled the trigger. Mone Vs Kairi is gonna be crazy live. 

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I wonder what they will do with the Strong belts? Oh well, maybe less belts to worry about. Kinda makes me think the TV belt was made to replace it.

I've read Mercedes help sold some tickets for Battle in the Valley.

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