2021 Puroresu General Discussion

[Spontaneous]

Drew Parker defeated Ryuji Ito to win Deathmatch Survivor 2021. Cool to see BJPW move younger talent up the card. Tsukamoto-Parker had a fun match earlier in the tournament so I'm looking forward to the title match. 

[Kang]

Cima aims to be the top guy of GLEAT, of course that would just be for GLEAT and G Pro only.

[Control]

You know, AJPW catches a lot of flack for their booking (at least on Twitter), but I'd say they're doing remarkably well with a limited roster. The CC was really good; the plan they came up with when Suwama got COVID (that is, the three-way for the title) worked well; the titles are all on the right people; and the upcoming title challenges and the Oudou Tournament all look solid.

I know a lot of complaints centre around Ashino. Seems like everyone wanted to push him to the moon. And I admit that I don't think he's been handled great. That said, he's a short dude in a company with huge dudes, and it's not entirely likely that the AJ fans were overly familiar with his Wrestle-1 work. Moreover, though Ashino has been good in AJ, he hasn't really been outstanding or anything. Maybe he came off better in W1, but here, I wouldn't say that he's been doing anything in-ring to set himself ahead of the pack.

[Spontaneous]

I think Ashino works better as a face then a heel, his move set seems more oriented that way to me. He was much better in the CC this year than last year.

[Control]

21 minutes ago, Spontaneous said:

I think Ashino works better as a face then a heel, his move set seems more oriented that way to me. He was much better in the CC this year than last year.

I'd like to see him actually do a bunch of suplexes if he's going to keep wearing tights that label him the Suplex Master. I don't think he does more suplexes than Wama, for example.

I'd also like to see him use more submissions than just the ankle lock.

[Spontaneous]

I thought teaming him with Suwama was a good idea that could fall by the wayside now that Suwama is out with covid. I wouldn't expect him to return the moment he is cleared. 

[A.M.B.]

On 6/28/2021 at 10:52 AM, Spontaneous said:

Drew Parker defeated Ryuji Ito to win Deathmatch Survivor 2021. Cool to see BJPW move younger talent up the card. Tsukamoto-Parker had a fun match earlier in the tournament so I'm looking forward to the title match. 

They're finally moving someone up the card and yet there's little competition for him to face if he were to actually win the belt. This was a problem they should have been addressing years ago when they had guys like Daisuke Masaoka having great performances on the spot shows, trying to break into deathmatches, and they just didn't use him anymore for some random reason. Then continued to push Abby and Ito, who even 8 years ago were past their prime. Freedoms somehow made a bunch of stars that Big Japan has lately become dependent on since they have no one of their own. When they booked Fukimoto in that one tournament I found it funny that a guy who wasn't "good enough" to be in Big Japan years back went to Freedoms where he was welcomed, he was allowed to be crazy and got to be where he was undeniable despite his indy scum stench, then when Big Japan can't fill out a tournament they finally use him and book him to go over Ito since they no other new options. Uto, Sakuda, and Ueki were their few projects they were working on and they all left to be Freelancers. Maybe Uto retired? Haven't seen his name in a while. Now they have a few guys like Hyodo, Yuki Ishikawa, and Kamitani to build up, but I wouldn't be surprised if they leave and get phased out after a few years. Kamitani might be their next Ito, but he needs rivals. Also a lot of the new guys are really short, which unfortunately hurts drawing power and being seen as an ace. They may get a run with the title, but they will never head the company if they're too small, which maybe they felt with Sakuda.

Speaking of Uto, was watching a random show from a few years back and Uto was supposed to have a breakout match to be the next challenger for the title but the crowd ends up booing him and chanting kaere or "go home" by the end of the match. Then he attacks Isami post match to show some fire and build up his challenge, but the lighttubes don't break on his spot and the crowd boos him out of the building. I've literally never seen that in all the years I've watched Big Japan. Seems like the crowd wasn't into him compared to his teammate Drew Parker who was busting his ass and felt like Uto was a forced act. I also read an interview said he didn't really want to do deathmatches, but that he was willing to do them since he felt like if you're in Big Japan you need to try to succeed in all areas. Maybe that's why?

To me lately Big Japan really lacks that "tamashii" they love to advertise, and reading Kasai's book had even more of a depressing effect on me. Last year when they were crowd funding it kinda hit me that if my favorite company from 2005-2015 were to close, I wouldn't be devastated, since Freedoms does what they do better. They didn't crowd fund/pay bills for the talent that carried their company like Kasai, Ishikawa, Kawakami, Yoshihito, and more, but now want us to crowd fund because of Covid. Maybe I'm harsh, but it was hard for me to care. They probably won't fold for a long time though, just like when people on this board wanted Z1 to fold over a decade ago so we could see their talent have better competition in NOAH and wherever else, BJW folding would make Freedoms a lot better but it likely won't happen, and they'll probably spawn a spin-off promotion instead anyway.

I watched Tsukamoto vs. Hoshino from February and it was so boring and lifeless, even besides the quiet crowd, it just felt like such a poor effort. Tsukamoto is now their champ, and even when he was first getting into deathmatches and needed that star making, breakout match, he never really had one. Then he left the company, got all bloated, and has seemingly fallen into a championship role by attrition. I can't say I've ever looked forward to a match of his. Before that was a mid 40's flabby Fujita and it was so sad juxtaposed with a young, prime Toru Sugiura killing it as Freedom's champ. Anyway, I'll stop my rambling thoughts/roasting of this company, but their booking decisions and deathmatch philosophy continue to baffle me.

[Spontaneous]

3 hours ago, A.M.B. said:

They're finally moving someone up the card and yet there's little competition for him to face if he were to actually win the belt.

BJW has done this to themselves, as you said. I honestly expected Ito to win because of how terrible their booking is.  I'll at least give him this one. They have a long road ahead. The best death match last year was two young guys killing each other and Kobayashi in their empty dojo. Yet Sakuda went freelance and Ishikawa isn't given opportunities. If Drew loses to Tsukamoto then they are really in for it.

[Belgian_Waffle]

AJPW tends to excel at long, sssssllllooooowwwww builds, so I wouldn't be surprised if Ashino gets his day in the sun after Jake. His getting two shots at Suwama during the same reign make me think they've got something invested in him. Most likely he'll probably be used the way Zeus has been where he'll always be around to challenge Jake, Aoyagi and Nomura (when he returns) but never quite be the centerpiece of the company. 

[The Natural]

 

[Belgian_Waffle]

Very general question: are NOAH fans invested in the jr title scene at all? I only follow NOAH distantly but it seems like pretty much since Ishimori won the title from Kondo (so after Kanemaru, Suzuki and Aoki all detected to AJPW) the title and jr tag titles have fluctuated back and forth from Harada to Kotoge to YO-HEY to HAYATA etc (I'm sure there's some names I'm forgetting)...I know all these guys are talented but are/were any of them especially over? Has the NOAH jr division kind of become a similar entity to the AJPW Jr division where it's solid but just not especially exciting to the fans? Seems like ages since a Marufuji or a KENTA type has lit the division on fire. 

[Ryan]

It's probably hard to gage based on the limit on live crowd reactions for so long and empty arena stuff. My money's on HAYATA being the most over member of the roster, when they run in Gordi's place.

Edited July 2, 2021 by Ryan

[Kang]

Suwama will be back on the 11th day this month. 

[matwarz]

Sadly BJW shot themselves in the ass years ago. There was an obvious peak when Takashi Sasaki was dm champ and they had a bunch of great undercard stuff. They could have had a great gaijin chase with MASADA and eventually thrown their stock behind Kasai. 

Unfortunately they have been retreading the same ground for years now. The BJW style of death match is paint drying, most of the guys are long past it and they refuse to put stock in potential division carrying guys like Violento Jack or Nomura.

Of course, the way they run their business is the reason they are still in business, but it’s still pretty depressing when I think about how good BJW was several years ago.

 

[quackhell]

I gotta be honest watching 63 year old Onita stagger around bleeding, getting blown up and set on fire really just seems sad more than anything.

[matwarz]

Abby wasn’t far behind. The footage of Onita fumbling around for the mist and Abby plonking himself in the bombs is the nutshell of everything wrong with dm now.

It’s sad because if Onita just found a new guy to endorse and a crop of younger guys took a few steps back to the days of violent nrbwire and street fights, that stuff could really draw and rile up fans again.

On the upside, the explosions were as promised!

Edited July 4, 2021 by matwarz

[Spontaneous]

Yet people got riled up when Tsukamoto said light tubes are overplayed. DM scene is so top heavily age wise and the need to imitate every crazy spot someone else does until it means nothing.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

On 7/1/2021 at 8:33 AM, Belgian_Waffle said:

Very general question: are NOAH fans invested in the jr title scene at all? I only follow NOAH distantly but it seems like pretty much since Ishimori won the title from Kondo (so after Kanemaru, Suzuki and Aoki all detected to AJPW) the title and jr tag titles have fluctuated back and forth from Harada to Kotoge to YO-HEY to HAYATA etc (I'm sure there's some names I'm forgetting)...I know all these guys are talented but are/were any of them especially over? Has the NOAH jr division kind of become a similar entity to the AJPW Jr division where it's solid but just not especially exciting to the fans? Seems like ages since a Marufuji or a KENTA type has lit the division on fire. 

Welcome to modern Jr. wrestling in companies that have “heavyweights”. All the guys who would’ve been a lock to be juinors are packing on the pounds to be heavyweights, and you got the heavy’s working more like juniors, so whatever specialness there was is gone. I would go so far to say that the resurgence of Stardom, and woman’s wrestling in general has taken away from the concept of a lightweight style. The women are filling that gap for a lot of today’s fans. Only Lucha has kept the highflying lifestyle alive for men in the world. We also still have indies, but on a major scale outside of Mexico, it’s not there anymore.

Edited July 5, 2021 by LoneWolf&Subs

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Where can I watch the FMW-E show? Is there a streaming site it's on? I'm morbidly curious/want to see what kind of shape Onita may be in for the possible Moxley match. 

[Kang]

15 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

Where can I watch the FMW-E show? Is there a streaming site it's on? I'm morbidly curious/want to see what kind of shape Onita may be in for the possible Moxley match. 

google puroresuhotchpotch.

[A.M.B.]

On 7/4/2021 at 7:18 AM, Spontaneous said:

Yet people got riled up when Tsukamoto said light tubes are overplayed. DM scene is so top heavily age wise and the need to imitate every crazy spot someone else does until it means nothing.

Well now I like the guy even less. Any link/remember what this interview was from?

[Spontaneous]

8 hours ago, A.M.B. said:

Well now I like the guy even less. Any link/remember what this interview was from?

The link I was given doesn't work anymore unfortunately. I don't blame him for saying it, BJW's biggest show of the year, Ryogokutan, the venue doesn't allow glass and is still good. He didn't back it up in the ring with his two title matches, especially while Toru Sugiura was on such a great run in Freedoms. 

[Spontaneous]

All Japan Pro Wrestling’s Black Menso~re and Shuji Ishikawa have tested positive for COVID-19.

https://journalismstudentblogging.wordpress.com/2021/07/07/notes-news-and-updates-from-ajpw-dg-jto-ddt-njpw-bjw/

[Control]

8 minutes ago, Spontaneous said:

All Japan Pro Wrestling’s Black Menso~re and Shuji Ishikawa have tested positive for COVID-19.

https://journalismstudentblogging.wordpress.com/2021/07/07/notes-news-and-updates-from-ajpw-dg-jto-ddt-njpw-bjw/

Fuuuuck. I’d say they can’t catch a break, but it’s not like they’re the only company dealing with this stuff.

[Kang]

Suwama is recovering but food tastes weird to him. The fever he had was worse with his asthma (I mentioned his asthma years ago on SSS affecting him in life). He aims to recapture the Triple Crown again.