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NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17.


The Natural

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Confirmation today the winner of the NJPW G1 Climax no longer puts the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at the Tokyo Dome on the line which was introduced in 2012. This will be the first NJPW Wrestle Kingdom in three years to be on the 4th of January only and not over two nights.

Edited by The Natural
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The certificate papers are done away with.  The winner of the G1 no longer has to defend this right to the WK title shot.

Whoever wins in the IWGP World HW match faces Okada at the dome.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Belt looks like a giant ring (as in the kind you put on your finger). 

Really don't see the point in having a Young Lion title. Isn't that the point of them being Young Lions, that they have to build their way up to being title contenders? It smacks of a participation trophy. Everyone gets a gold star! 

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So I guess the focus on younger wrestlers will be a long term goal based on those brackets. Maybe Narita will take the tournament. If they’re going for younger guys it’s gotta be him, Finlay or O-Khan but O-Khans booking seems to almost put him above this kind of title since he can hang with the big boys pretty well already.

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6 hours ago, Sublime said:

So I guess the focus on younger wrestlers will be a long term goal based on those brackets. Maybe Narita will take the tournament. If they’re going for younger guys it’s gotta be him, Finlay or O-Khan but O-Khans booking seems to almost put him above this kind of title since he can hang with the big boys pretty well already.

IWGP World, Tag, US, Jr. Tag, and NEVER Openweight belts are all held by gaijin, so I think a native has to win. If an established dude wins, it's gonna be a heel that can be overcome - i.e. not ex-champs like EVIL who shouldn't be losing to Ren Narita at the Dome or whatever. So that leaves O-Khan, KENTA and maybe Taichi and Khan's the youngest. So yup. Having done the math, I like the pick.

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They allowed cheering at the 10/16 show in Nagaoka. The main event was SANADA and TAICHI with SANADA winning at 14:57. Toshiaki Kawada was on commentary for the second half of the show. TAICHI went up to him after and said that Kawada isn't quite retired so before he's really done let's have a match.

Edited by lostinube
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Taichi vs SANADA was really great, and is exactly the kind of match I hope this TV title keeps on producing. Taichi is so good, the boat has probably sailed on world title challenging Taichi unfortunately but his development over the past few years has been a joy to watch. Sub-15 minute SANADA without Paradise Lock is so much better.

I doubt Kawada comes back for one more based on the translation of his post match comments, but if he ever did it'd have to be against Taichi. Never say never I guess...

For WK, nothing super interesting so far... I'm guessing KUSHIDA was meant to be in the 4 way instead of Wato. Wato has been quietly improving, though you wouldnt really know based off English commentary (which I've finally given up on...)

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On 10/11/2022 at 6:43 PM, The Natural said:

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D'oh. The bracket is finally truly busted as Yano beat O-Khan due to

Spoiler

The Great Muta appearing after the lights went out and misting O-Khan. Muta/O-Khan at Wrestle Kingdom? O-Khan teamed with Muta on one of the NOAH shows but then Muta misted him after the match.

In the other match, Ishii naturally put Narita through hell before falling to the youngster. The Korakuen crowd was solidly behind Narita.

YOSHI-HASHI all the way.

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Narita and Ishii was fantastic, as I was hoping it would be.  Sky's the limit with Narita, I reckon.  

Even though his greatness has never been in doubt, I think Ishii still needs to be acknowledged for his impressive gatekeeping and star-making work this past year in matches with not only Narita, but also Clark Connors and recently, Yota Tsuji.  All significant, historical matches in that regard.

The cheering makes a massive difference, obviously.  It also reveals some interesting things. I found it intriguing that the fans seem to really like United Empire, despite the fact that they, at the very least, lean heavily towards being heels.  

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Was busy this weekend and didn't get to see much of anything but the TV title semis are Zack/EVIL and SANADA/Narita. Not sure where they go with that. SANADA/Zack has been done to death. It feels like it's too early to put Narita over SANADA right now. So I guess SANADA over EVIL?

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My gut feel is Zack vs Narita final with Shibata on commentary to see the guy he had his exhibition return against his disciple/official return match opponent.

If Narita can go clean over Ishii, surely it isn't a stretch for him to go over SANADA too

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