sevendaughters

woah! did NOT know.

surely you know Yuki Ishikawa, @Control? Battlarts? Shooty tendencies.

I'll add to top post. I saw they had a match but it was being advertised as special tag match presumably until Ishii dropped.

Kento is top 5 in the world right now, no question for me.

Okada-Suzuki not their best match though they have had some dingers for me, this was real good and anyone in the house should feel privileged. Comes over great on video too.

just feels like a routine Okada win for me. KOPW is always good but of late they have been what you expect. Short of Kenny coming out, kneeing Okada in the head to set up round V, and SANADA winning AND not coming off like a lucky winner, I don't a creative path with an upswing. Poor Seiya.

Historically one of my favourite shows and in my favourite Japanese arena, New Japan returns to Sumo Hall on October 14th. Card as of 26 Sept. IWGP Heavyweight Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. SANADA G1 Briefcase Kota Ibushi (holder) vs. EVIL IWGP US Jon Moxley (c) vs. Juice Robinson IWGP Jr Will Ospreay (c) vs. El Phantasmo Special singles match Jushin 'Thunder' Liger vs. Minoru Suzuki Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, and YOSHIHASHI (CHAOS) vs. Jay White, KENTA, and Yujiro Takahashi (Bullet Club) Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, and BUSHI (LIJ) vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Lance Archer, and Taichi (Suzuki-gun) Hiroshi Tanahashi 20th Anniversary match series Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomoaki Honma vs. Toru Yano and Togi Makabe El Desperado comeback YOH, SHO, and Ryusuke Taguchi vs. El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and DOUKI (Suzuki-gun)

Never sure about these double/triple big shows but with a lot of stories and Young Lions Cup stuff, I think we could be in for a stacked end of year. I'm going to skip the multi-man tags in this list. Destruction in Beppu, 15th September - Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr., RPW British Heavyweight Championship - Guerillas of Destruction (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c) vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI), IWGP Heavyweight Tag - Shota Umino vs. Alex Coughlin (YL Cup) - Yota Tsuji vs. Karl Fredericks (YL Cup) noteworthy midcard stuff - Suzuki opposes Liger in a tag, DOUKI is back. Destruction in Kagoshima, 16th September - Kota Ibushi (holder) vs. KENTA, G1 briefcase - Ren Narita vs. Michael 'Not Kramer' Richards (YL Cup) - Yuya Uemura vs. Clark Connors (YL Cup) Destruction in Kobe, 22nd September - Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Jay White, IWGP Intercontinental - Hirooki Goto vs. Shingo Takagi - Ren Narita vs. Clark Connors (YL Cup) - Shota Umino vs. Karl Fredericks (YL Cup)

you EEEEEDIOT

my friend Neil reviews the main event and then ranks the 20 guys in the G1. here's a taste: I said it already but I’ll say it again, Jay White is Ridley Scott’s version of Ric Flair, a Trans-Pacific nightmare that gets away with it only because he is just that damn good. If you can’t appreciate what this dude is doing, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s everything . . . his sick throws, his insolence, the way he talks during a match, the way he pulls everything around him into his story, including the announcers, the fans at ringside and yes, you and me watching this an ocean away. https://g1spot.blogspot.com/2019/08/g1-final.html

that poster makes it seem like he might do a stand-up set.

OTANI AND MINORU TANAKA FOR THE DOME

oh wait, they started the build for Tanahashi-Jericho didn't they? Let me see. IWGP HVY: Okada (c) vs. Ibushi (G1) IWGP IC: Naito (c) vs. X RETIREMENT: Jushin Liger vs. X Tanahashi vs. Jericho Kenta vs. Shibata (?????) TAG: Champs vs. Tag League (whatever) Still a lot of building to do for two nights.

I think they'll probably do Liger-Jericho. Maybe. Not sure. Make up for last time. Maybe Kawato comes back too? I wonder if they'll do it like they do when they run two PPVs in a week, where there's some big matches and everyone else is paddling around the bottom in tags. Won't feel very special but undercard matches rarely shift tickets.

two thoughts while doing the dishes - slightly panicked about the Shibata angle. as in: why would they do this if he isn't coming back? up to GTSing Ishii you have a perfectly good heel turn. Beating up a beloved babyface and setting up a great match. Of course Shibata would be pissed, but to the extent of running through fire to whup someone? I trust NJPW not to tease stuff like this without delivering. Like all the Hiromu teases have come from the man himself. - on the note of White (it was @Archibald who made that point about the pacing, @Oyaji) - I thought the best bit of the match was when Ibushi got irate after all the BS, all the interference, it's FINALLY you and me. White cowered rather than begged off and ate a load of strikes. When he regained control, he came across more like "tough and resilient wrestler" rather than "sneaky shit". When he lost, he took a ton of punishment and went down like a man. I'd like to see them gradually have White shed Gedo - at least the interference - as a crutch and draw on this tough guy who appeared here and momentarily at MSG. the overbooking (at times) combined with the push so early could end up Nakamuraing him.

imo, who comes out of G1 (the tournament) enhanced, same, or downgraded. Ibushi (arguably had better tournaments in-ring but now the shackles are OFF) Shingo (looked very much i. a heavyweight and ii. a world class talent) Jay (super character work, still has doubters but they're falling away) Archer (breakout tournament, everybody dies) Moxley (brought big dick swagger to G1, embraced NJPW with his Shota stuff, slightly bumpy finish, but the different thing he brought made it all very watchable) Juice (now, for me, a big deal wrestler from being my least favourite guy in WWE) Ospreay (getting better inch by inch) Okada (his throne unchallenged, did big stuff when he needed to without breaking too much of a sweat) Tanahashi (selfless jobbing, could get major league reactions if his moveset was reduced to air guitar) Goto (Goto) Ishii (probably the best in-ring G1 but that's Ishii) Sabre Jr (sometimes better, sometimes worse) EVIL (nearly put him in the up arrow but the whole losing record business did for him. glad he took it safer this year but still had some burners) SANADA (they either needed to push him or Ibushi. hard cheese) Yano (some good matches, hardly any of the slightly flat ones) Taichi (I enjoyed him a lot this year, at no point did anyone say "this is the best G1 field assembled and Taichi as well", he was part of it, he bought in) Cobb (come back Elgin, all is forgiven) Fale (some humour to his run but we've also abandoned the pretence that we need to protect him) Kenta (he did well, but disabused a lot of people that he is still one of the best workers in the world. his angle at the end probably resets this though) Naito (difficult to rate but it seems like the cumulation of injuries and cooled-off booking combined to see him brought lower than the stratosphere he resided in)

i did sort of expect Kenny and Hiromu at some point tonight. in the end I'm glad Ibushi got a solo moment of true glory, and it's probably best to spread out the emotional comebacks.

Naito reads this post, logs off.

I see Zack winning at RQ so the British crowd get something. But if Tanahashi has been demoted then maybe he'll be doing more overseas work. Interesting. Poised.

great shout out to The Dirt Bike Kid. Even says it on his kneepad.

he took a couple of moves, to me it was as if to say "i am back", he looked in wrestling shape (obviously I do not have a CT scanner)

last three matches of the G1 finals night was pretty much perfect pro-wrestling spectacle. I loved the final.

I thought KENTA did fine - well in spots - but I'd rather he had storyline justification ie. TAKEOVER / LADOJO rather than trying lucklessly to win people over with 'great matches'. If he moved on I can't say I'd miss him at this juncture.

thought Io-Candace was one of the best women's wrestling matches of this century. tapped out after 10 min of the main event. just Not For Me.

quick power rankings for each block A: Okada, Tanahashi, Ibushi, EVIL, Sanada, Ospreay, Archer, Kenta, Sabre, Fale. B: Ishii, Shingo, Juice, Moxley, White, Naito, Taichi, Goto, Yano, Cobb.