Salads

From the replies in that twitter thread (and verified): 'apparently he also forgot he isnt in japan so forgot its a 10 count not 20 in america if you go outside over there. so he got himself counted out and the match had to be re-edited'

For some reason this annoys me from a kayfabe standpoint of all things.

Playing Yooka Laylee has me nostalgic not for Banjo-Kazooie but for a certain flavour of British slang and humour that was all around when I was younger but I now realise has been absent in I think every bit of media I've consumed this century up to this point.

Tangentially related as I'm not a local, but as a non-Japanese speaker I can watch post-match interviews and appreciate those who either offer believable commentary or use the segment as an opportunity to engage the audience even if they're not convincing anyone. If neither of those things are there then there isn't really reason for me to care. Goto is a name often dropped when the subject of people who should've been IWGP champ comes up, but I can't remember him saying anything of interest either to me or seemingly himself. His character may be stoic and the notion that all these guys should have engaging comments about their latest fued-extending tag match is one born of lunacy, but still an opportunity missed and maybe that was a factor why he wasn't seen as having the same popularity potential as others. FWIW, my usual answer to the question of which NJPW names I'd like to see in AEW is the whole Ingobernables gang in some big-ass tag match. Partially because that format is more likely than fantasy booking a twenty minute singles but also because I reckon you could give them a minute to cut a group promo and viewers would come out of it more invested in their characters despite the language barrier. Was going to say that in their case having distinctive looks helps, but I guess how you come across when speaking is also part of that look. Not sure where mic skills begin and just having a character that you can communicate to the audience consistently ends, whether that's trash talking while walking down the ramp or doing a sit-down media interview. Different places of work will require and reward different routes of getting that across.

I remember reading an interview with Rey after he had just signed with WWE (likely in a magazine I didn't own while loitering in WH Smiths) where he had been asked if he wanted to be seen as the greatest cruiserweight of all time. His response was that he wanted to be seen as the greatest wrestler period. Now, it's not like Rey wasn't already iconic up to that point, but Vince had just signed him as the token good lucha thing for a sub-division of Smackdown! that everyone knew wouldn't last. I was thinking if that's not a soundbite and that's what he actually thinks then he's delusional. If you ask me to choose between him and Liger I'm leaning Liger, but years later we're having this conversation which says it all about how well he did for himself. I wasn't following WWE through the 2000s so maybe this is off the mark, but a guy like him winning Royal Rumbles and world titles in VKM's world sounded as revolutionary as what he was part of in WCW. Thanks for proving me so very wrong, Rey.

I'm assuming not, because I don't think they've had the luxury of being able to follow through any long term plans over the last two years. They may not have known who was going to win the G1, for example. It would be fascinating to see all of what could possibly be tens of booking revisions that have had to be made to date what with covid cases, covid regulations, injuries, title vacations etc. Every now and then Tony Khsn mentions how he's in regular contact with NJPW - speculation on my part but assuming there's a desire for talent to move both ways across the Pacific there may have been a plan early on that's had to be kciked down the road from 2020 to 2022 with amendments needed each time.

I'm betting that'll be his big impact sling blading arm and I've always said his fly flows didn't need to be that damn high.

Not a massive STG person but some click with me and I tend to like Cave's stuff. Playing DoDonPachi Resurrection like a normal person (ie dying plenty) but making a few cool clutch moves. After the game I'm given the option of saving a replay of the run. I'm not a sharey type so no one would see it, but I say yes anyway because I felt I had a few badass moments in there. Then I actually sit and play it back (well, fast forwarding most until the end), watch the bits I was thinking of and think 'yeah, that was badass'. Entirely pathetic but lovely that a videogame can make me feel that way at the age of 37. My new gaming emotion at age 36 was playing Outrun 2 in an arcade while a queue of people was building behind me. I'm an introvert so for me was some heart-pumping pressure to be the person who actually reached the end (I did, but the horror when a couple of cool drifts went wrong sticks with me.) Old bones, new feels.

I'm not confused at all by the current belt-holding situation, but I'm wondering how many consecutive years they'll feel the need to keep setting up these double night title match scenarios.

I for one appreciate the D.Z news blog.

Buddy's signing seemed to get some hype initially - was he any kind of standout among the hundreds of underused WWE talent recently released?

2019: Wrestle Kingdom build-up - Tanahashi: Your style is too high impact and flashy! Omega: No old man, the style that me, Okada, Naito and Ibushi are doing is the future! 2020: Okada desperately tries to get the moneyclip over as a finisher. 2021: Naito, Ibushi and Omega's bodies simultaneously crumble to dust.

Nakanishi's win was a good moment, but its legacy will be making everyone who doesn't get a run look worse.

'Okada: So there are those political lines there. And that’s when the words struck me, of whether you’re in the ‘IWGP Party’ or the ‘G1 Party’. –So to make things clear, you want it to be less of a case of the G1 winner being a challenger, and more that the G1 winner is the G1 Champion, and that Wrestle Kingdom is a Champion versus Champion match.' G1 Party 4 Life

Thread bringing back memories of Muscle Orchestra, the team with a name that generated more appeal to me in comparison to their ability than any other. At first I interpreted this as Sapp being the last 2nd gen holder (he isn't, much like Okada wasn't the last holder of the 4th. Woosh) but for a moment I would have bet money he was. Combination of remembering Nakamura holding the 2nd in 2004 and Inoki stink being responsible for the first two times we had multiple generations mingling like a Doctor Who special.

If it's TV Asahi responsible for the crackdown then sadly that doesn't bode well for a change.

Every now and again I try to remember to thank posters on this forum because I barely ever actually watch wrestling but love reading your thoughts. Extra appreciative of the G1 talk this time round because from what I'd seen of NJPW talk so far this year on this and other sites, I'd resigned myself to the possibility that there may not have been any.

To me this would be the perfect antidote to what Ibushi did earlier this year.

I'm maintaining optimism for a ZSJ push on the basis that NJPW are starting to realise the value of a talented foreigner who isn't only wrestling for them because there wasn't an English speaking alternative offering their pay grade when their contract was negotiated.

The linearity is a common complaint for Fusion but I appreciated it. Gunning for the end credits isn't really getting the proper Metroid experience but I always have to balance that with my impulse to backtrack over every step of my game so far whenever I get a new ability so that I'm up to date with my upgrades. Fusion segmenting the map into sections and restricting access to one or few at a time still allowed for rewards for going off the beaten track / remembering prior obstacles but helped funnel me into a far more sensible backtracking : progress ratio. Speaking of the beaten track, there were plenty of moments where you would be told to go to point X on your map like it was a GTA mission but some shit would go down en route and you'd have to go off-grid to find some other way there. So my initial reaction to tasks would be 'this sucks I'm meant to be playing a Metroid game' but instead of trying to find exploitable nooks and pathways as one of many sweeps looking for upgrades as I would in past Metroids I would end up doing the same things in Fusion to get to my next objective. Felt like they melded those two parts of the Metroid experience together well. Maybe not the most Metroid way of doing things, but considering its GBA neighbour is the formularific Zero Mission those little set pieces helped set it apart from the rest of the series.

To add to the Japan comparison, NJPW definitely promotes guys trained in-house over others and will adopt signees into that system whenever they can get away with it, but at least when taking on people who are still inexperienced excursions are also an important part of the formula. I'm sure part of that is for general life experience purposes when you're trying to move guys on from years of sleeping in a dojo living the drill sergeant subordination dream, but in terms of wrestling I interpret it as: a) a value to the company to have outside influences to avoid their style becoming too incestuous. Parking guys in different corners of the world means hopefully no two have the same upbringing and they can bring something new to the group rather than regurgitating what it already had. b) a value to the individual of being outside the system. Different locker rooms. Adapting to random opponents. Trying to appeal to crowds that respond to different things and don't know who you are. You know, the indy experience. I don't think it matters that much where they go or how they're used (Okada's TNA run didn't seem to deter them too much). More that they get the opportunity to put it all together themselves after they've been given the tools and to find some new inspirations along the way. So it's agreeing with WWE that if you want to drill in your fundamentals it's easier when you get them early rather than re-training after they've had years to establish themselves, but it may be disagreeing with how useful the other part is. If you want your roster to be told what to do, work TV matches only and happily sign on the dotted line when their contract is up for renewal, maybe not so much.

I think people are sleeping on just how well Shingo has been protected and pushed up the card since his debut (I posted about this back in April and you can now add 'loses title shot but gets another one > wins title > main events two dome shows' on the end of that list). The only time this dude loses is when he's about to get promoted. Maybe when he comes in we're thinking he wouldn't get a shot because he's an outsider and the NEVER run seemed to slot him in the Ishii role but Shingo is bigger (by a bit), younger (by a chunk) and a better talker (by PLANETS) along with a similar level of ring performance. Looking at his push and the commitment to having new faces on top since the belt switch to IWGP WHC, I think he would have always been in the mix somewhere down the line. Though I agree the unlikely champ / carrying the company angle is a good one to make him stand out if they want to spin it that way.

Can understand wanting Nintendo games cheaper, not so much attacking Nintendo for it. Saw a headline last week that the three biggest selling games in Europe for the first half of 2021 were Super Mario 3D World, FIFA 21 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. You can't critisise charging a standard release price for some of the most in-demand games on the market. (Side note: It's insane and super cool that good but commercially irrelevant games can be re-launched years later with proper marketing and become chart-toppers second time round. C'mon Nintendo do Excite Trucks next.) Similarly why should they be dropping the price on games like SMO and BOTW just because they're four years old? Other games don't drop in price because they're old. They drop in price because they aren't pulling in revenue anymore. Those two games are still shifting millions of units each quarter. Now someone tell me why Yoshi's Crafted World is $60.

One wig away from the perfect cosplay.