2022 Puroresu General Discussion

[DragonZombie]

Watched Nagata vs Ashino live

Spoiler

Nagata won

Naga Dances 

 

[The Natural]

That's a big deal, Kazuchika Okada as the Rainmaker, January 2012-present day.

[Kropotkin's Beard]

I'm just catching the AJPW show from yesterday, and the undercard has been mostly fun, Rising HAYATO absolutely lighting up Tamura with chops, Aoyagi bros in a good little match with Ryuki Honda & Yusuke Kodama, decent All Asia Tag Match with the Voodoo Murders Juniors vs Takao Omori & Ryo Inoue.

There's then a Voodoo Murders 6 man Tag that turns into a 10 man after Voodoo Murders nonsense and the crowd is really into this for as long as it lasts before MORE Voodoo Murders nonsense. Really fun how into it the crowd were though for the time it lasted.

For the tournament matches, Kento vs Cyrus was pretty much what I expected it to be, classic big man vs smaller man match. Good at what it is though. Enjoyed the main though 

[DragonZombie]

Another old name returns for big event

NJPW "SUPER-FORCE GROUP DECLARATION", 10.10.2022
At Sumo Hall

Here was the 2001 event in link below

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=43356

 

 

 

[DragonZombie]

Japanese wikis for Japan Pro Wres usually are better, while western Wikis have outdated tape trader false narratives and lack of info. Cagematch is alright but it doesn't have everything. 

[The Natural]

Best Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura match by far. Gave it the full five.

[DragonZombie]

Maybe Naito will drag out the old  IC title and beat it up again.

Or maybe Will wins.

[Control]

Semifinals of the Royal Road Tournament:

Spoiler

Kento vs Nagata

Jake vs Naoya Nomura

Thoughts:

Spoiler

These are good matches!
 

Nagata winning would be bizarre, since Outsider vs Heel does not seem like a good idea

Same logic applies to Nomura

So, either Jake or Kento. Neither are very exciting options.
 

Either Nagata vs Jake or Kento vs Nomura seem like the most likely finals.

 

[DragonZombie]

AJPW

The good guys

Edited August 16, 2022 by Blue Dragon

[DragonZombie]

We got AJPW army, evil unit Voodoo Murders, 2 man Evolution (with Nagata), the no name alliance controlled by Ashino. 2 man Nextream.

Total Eclipse may quietly fade away. Or just be Jake.

Edited August 16, 2022 by Blue Dragon

[DragonZombie]

NJPW was very angle low this year. 

[Kropotkin's Beard]

19 hours ago, Control said:

Semifinals of the Royal Road Tournament:

  Hide contents

Kento vs Nagata

Jake vs Naoya Nomura

Thoughts:

  Hide contents

These are good matches!
 

Nagata winning would be bizarre, since Outsider vs Heel does not seem like a good idea

Same logic applies to Nomura

So, either Jake or Kento. Neither are very exciting options.
 

Either Nagata vs Jake or Kento vs Nomura seem like the most likely finals.

 

I think Kento Miyahara has to win because the winner is challenging at the Budokan & Kento almost has to be in that Triple Crown match. He's the beating heart of the company.

It's weird. All Japan is obviously a flawed company but if you ask me today "you can only follow one wrestling company in the world, what is it!" I'm keeping my AJPW.TV sub.

[DragonZombie]

Legacy 2 

https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/prores/4389344/

[Control]

5 hours ago, Kropotkin's Beard said:

I think Kento Miyahara has to win because the winner is challenging at the Budokan & Kento almost has to be in that Triple Crown match. He's the beating heart of the company.

It's weird. All Japan is obviously a flawed company but if you ask me today "you can only follow one wrestling company in the world, what is it!" I'm keeping my AJPW.TV sub.

Such a convoluted way to get Kento into the main event. They could have just left the belt on him!

I wonder if they felt that they had to give Jake a TC win over Kento, so they just got it over with and then figured out how to get Kento back into the Budokan ME.

[DragonZombie]

N.Nomura will be replaced by T.Omori. Covid related.

[DragonZombie]

Tanahashi will go after the Never belt again.

Tama Tonga vs Jay White for the IWGP World HW.

Edited August 18, 2022 by Blue Dragon

[Control]

7 hours ago, Blue Dragon said:

N.Nomura will be replaced by T.Omori. Covid related.

Boooooo! That sucks.

[DragonZombie]

I would had just done Jake bye to the final match.

Is Tajiri still booking? Or is it Suwama? Sometimes I think they will stick with the maybe new booker gets to run AJPW booking mission from now on.

Spoiler

I hope Jake or Nagata wins.

I have no strong interest in Kento.

 

Edited August 18, 2022 by Blue Dragon

[DragonZombie]

Looks like Okada wore red for Inoki, the burning spirit. Seems the defend certification sytem is abolished? And Okada goes straight to the dome.

[dorfus malorfus]

AJPW is the best company because they do all the same stuff that made me slowly come to hate NJPW (same guys on top forever) except in spite of this they're still AWESOME. Kento is like Kawada or Bret Hart or Lyger or Yuki Ishikawa where I can literally watch him wrestle forever and not get sick of it. People always say that about Flair and I don't buy it but when I apply the same logic to Kento it feels REAL. Suwama is like Ishii except really tall and unlike Ishii he works for a company that values him and will give him 50 main event title runs. If only Manabu Soya hadn't gotten hurt at the end of 2012, we would have had a fired up Soya TC reign with defenses against Suwama, Shiozaki and Jun. To paraphrase Frank Sobotka, All Japan was always the best, Zig. Even when it wasn't. 

[DragonZombie]

Only 4 months left. So far NJPW has one Joint show left announced with Stardom, probably their biggest because of two BushiRoad brands on one show. Maybe they might announce 1 more and then wrap it up.  

Guess it's back to being isolated from other big Japanese male promotions next year. 

Next years WK ends the 50 years of NJPW celebration, expected to be fuller dome and Inoki might show up.

 

[DragonZombie]

Okada will be taking a break (maternity leave) because of his newborn child. He requested and demands the abolishment of the defending your certificate system and wants instead the winner of the G1 just auto goes to WK.

He still wants to face Jonah to get his win back in a regular singles match.

[Kropotkin's Beard]

On 8/18/2022 at 10:45 PM, Blue Dragon said:

I would had just done Jake bye to the final match.

Is Tajiri still booking? Or is it Suwama? Sometimes I think they will stick with the maybe new booker gets to run AJPW booking mission from now on.

  Hide contents

I hope Jake or Nagata wins.

I have no strong interest in Kento.

 

From what I've been able to piece together, TAJIRI, Shuji Ishikawa & maybe Suwama are the core booking guys, though I've also heard that Yuma Aoyagi is entirely responsible for Naoya Nomura being back, which implies him having more influence than you'd perhaps expect for a guy of his experience level.

[DragonZombie]

I'm watching AJPW live

 

The apron or sides of the ring now are white and slighty go up to the ring mat but not as much as NJPW's. Also the ropes are black again. Black poles.

Ashino's unit has a name and logo and shirt now. I will post it later maybe.

They annouced some matches for the budokan show.

Finals:

Spoiler

Jake Lee vs Kento.

 

Nagata was weird taking one of Kento's moves and Kento quickly pinned him.

 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Blue Dragon

[The Natural]

Expect Kazuchika Okada to be the outright leader for Dave Meltzer ***** or higher matches. I'd rank the four mentioned:

1. Kenta Kobashi.

2. Kazuchika Okada.

3. Mitsuharu Misawa.

4. Will Ospreay.