Archibald

Benefit of writing lots of speculations is that sometimes some of them become somewhat valid and you can quote yourself to look smart: Thou I hope nobody bothers to quote my other speculations that were obviously shattered during this tournament. So what finals managed to deliver: KES vs Evil/Sanada, Goto vs Juice and Okada vs Zack. And it looks like another 3-way for jr. tag titles is unavoidable... which is a shame. I hope that KES challenges Evil/Sanada for SSE so that we could have Evil/Sanada vs winners of YBs/Golden Lovers match for Sakura Genesis. And yeah, I think that KES winning titles back at this point would be kinda dumb unless Evil is on the shelf for long time and will just come out to get bombed and buried under the chairs in first 2 minutes while Sanada valiantly tries to fight 1vs2, but fails in the end. It is good for Juice that he will get a title shot, but I'm not sure if it is very good for the title itself or Goto. I hope that Juice wins and Goto can be either moved to IC challenger status or to tag-teams with, ideally, Ishii or, less ideally, Yoshi-Hashi for good. Would probably be kinda fitting that he started last year his underwhelming reign by beating Juice and will end this underwhelming reign by losing to Juice. If Goto ends up winning I'll just shake my head in disbelief. And you gotta give Gedo some credit. I, and I think most of people watching, would just have gone with easy and safe Tanahashi win for obvious storyline that fans would buy. But Gedo decided otherwise and it will be interesting to see how things unfold in next couple of months. With strong booking that Zack and Ospreay are getting, one would think that NJPW UK show should happen at some point? Yes I know that they do crossovers with RoH and RevPro, but surely there is more money in full fledged UK show than in those crossovers? But whats next for Tanahashi? It would make sense that Okada, after beating Zack, would call out Tanahashi for Wrestling Dontaku match where he would break his record and in theory it could set up Okada/Ibushi match for Dominion. But at the same time it sounds a bit mean to have him lose two big profile matches in a row.

Frankly I wouldn't mind if he wrestled against others somewhat similar to how he wrestled against Zack. Everyone expects from him very athletic stuff because he can definitely do it, but at the same time I feel like in this match everything looked a bit better because when he did his usual spots they really looked "wow, what was that" in the context of the match. So I wouldn't mind if Sanada was a bit more technical in his matches and did his flashy stuff only to signal a change in pace, similar to how Okada often uses his dropkicks. Besides, being slower and more methodical would also suit his character I think.

I didn't really mind it in Tanahashi/Juice, but here it took me out of a match for a bit and is probably main reason why I don't really feel like it was that great of a match.

Amazing promo work by Taichi: Anyway, time for finals. On one hand Tanahashi should really win it, but on the other hand Zack got a rocket on his ass.

Why he owes it? But yes, in my opinion it is not out of a question, but at the same time I'd say that it is something like 90/10 in Tanahashi's favour. Also, random thought after today's show. That tag match where Okada and Suzuki had a face off with belts raised. Now if I'm not mixing up continuity - Tanahashi defeats Nagata to tie his record and sets new record at WK by beating Suzuki. Now Okada can tie Tanahashi's record by beating him and Suzuki is in good position to challenge Okada who would set a new record by also beating Suzuki. Parallels are there. But wait, there is more. Tanahashi said that he wants to challenge the black belt while he is holding the white one, but instead of him it would be his old "friend" doing that which would add some more fire for their eventual match and Tanahashi's revenge. In other words I'm thinking that next two challengers might be Tanahashi and Suzuki.

People usually name Cody as an example, but there always are arguments made about his last name and that he got in Bullet Club. But Juice really was nobody in NXT, if he can make it then pretty much everyone can do it. That is, if they got the talent and work as hard as he did.

I'm not sure that there is much to it. People in G1 often beat someone higher on the pecking order and lose to someone weaker. Like Naito lost to Ishii and Fale yet defeated Goto and Omega who are positioned as higher than Ishii or Fale in the same stable. So would it really be different here? Either way looking forward to Zack/Sanada. Also one video that I found interesting/funny from yesterday: Taichi basically saying that he is ok with fighting Goto, but doesn't want him to put NEVER title on the line because Taichi doesn't care about that. Goto also had those weird exchanges with Oka that looked like they could build towards a title match, but that would obviously be rather stupid and pointless. I don't know, to me it perfectly encapsulates Goto/Never problem that NJPW got themselves into again two years in a row. Nobody important cares about this belt, nobody is ever going to challenge for it after winning the cup. Even Taichi correctly understands that he shouldn't be chained to it if he wants to go anywhere. In my opinion this belt needs to be retired.

Thats a weird Okada/Tanahashi tag. So far every match ends with someone tapping out to Okada, but surely neither Juice or Tanahashi will do that? And Elgin is in semi-protection mode so thats unlikely too... So Tanahashi picks up a win by pinning Chuck?

Makes sense, there aren't really many tag teams that Bucks could face (and draw people) in this without it being been there done that type of deal. Golden Lovers could have been one, but I'm sure that they have something else in mind for Omega and they are doing that match at SSE anyway. But Matt vs Nick? Thats something new and they could build a compelling story around it.

I think he does it every time. Every move he does needs to look big, sound big or look big and sound big.

It looks like when Big Mike got the notice that he will be in semi-main and will have less time he decided to remove almost everything that isn't a big move from the match. I like this match a bit better than his previous one with Ishii, but thats more due to Juice who is good at getting his ass kicked. Obviously it helped that they had less time and Elgin couldn't fit in his every big move. Anyway, why protected loss for Elgin? It looks like they want to keep him as a credible threat, but aren't sure what exactly they should be doing with him. And I'm unsure too, they obviously invested lots of time and resources into him and don't want to just throw him away due to all the crap surrounding him. But something has to be done since slowly he'll cool off in this position anyway. Tanahashi/Fale was similar to their last G1 match which I liked so naturally I liked this one too. Two things here, first of all just like in their G1 match Tanahashi didn't manage to "beat" Fale, but won via count out. I suppose that at some point we are bound to get another match between them and Tanahashi finally manages to beat him or Fale picks up a big win? Second thing is that show closed with a flash pin and a count out. It helps with building the atmosphere that anything can happen and it doesn't have to end with a finishing move. And yay me, I got one semi-final right. This is obviously going to be a big night for Juice and hopefully he manages to deliver.

Well Ishimori just announced that he is leaving NOAH so sounds like a perfect timing?

During the match it also looked like DBS had answers for many of old Yano's tricks so I agree in a sense that he looked strong and dominant before getting screwed due to being greedy and wanting Yano to be counted out. But at the same time I think my criticism that one of the top Tag teams can't win singles match is valid, last year we had same situation with both GoD guys getting eliminated in the first round. And yeah, I get it that nobody probably really wants any of them to win singles matches since they aren't very good, some are even terrible, but at the same time I think it doesn't make sense to have your top Tag Teams made out of such wrestlers. By comparison I think one of the reasons why AJPW's tag league got so much prise is because it had Suwama/Ishikawa team doing the work, wrestlers that are constant Triple Crown challengers/winners. That gives legitimacy to the division.

I'm not sure if Chaos needs more pin eaters considering that they have Gedo (and Jado if he returns at some point?) and Yoshi Hashi, Yano could easily eat some pins too. As for Chase, he is funny guy, but at the same time I'm not sure if anyone would really miss him if he was gone tomorrow. As for him being a regular tag team with Trent, I don't know. I didn't really like their WTL run last year and I fear that it hurts Trent more than it helps Chuck. I mean, Trent/Chuck to me is clear downgrade from Trent/Romero. Yay, you moved into heavyweight division and you are stuck in tag teams again, but this time you have shittier partner, much progression. I don't understand why they book KES in these tournaments if they are just to drop out in the first round. It makes their tag-team look like "two big guys that are bad wrestlers teaming up" instead of "two big guys that are really dangerous wrestlers are teaming up so you better run". Tag team division shouldn't be made out of wrestlers who are bad at singles.

Going a bit meta I think that it would make sense to have ACE and a rival for each region too so ZSJ and Ospreay getting heavy pushes makes sense in that regard. Way before shit hit the fan I was thinking that they were building Omega/Elgin as rivals too, but at this point I think they should probably make a course direction with Juice. So Juice should be going over Elgin in next round.

Well number of English shows is increasing with each year so they are moving towards that?

Was going 4-0 and then YH failed to deliver an upset while Zack delivered it so now I'm at 4-2 and that side of the bracket is fucked for me. Anyway, some thoughts: Fale/Archer was just eh. I like Archer as part of KES, but his singles stuff isn't very good while Fale really ever works as a monster against smaller face. I'm not sure why this was booked and it held my interest only while they brawled outside the ring. I get that they want to keep Fale strong, but I think that swapping YH with Archer in brackets would have resulted in better overall flow of the tournament even if neither of those matches would have ended up as good as Ibushi/YH. It also doesn't help that both guys look impressive only when they are throwing around smaller guys and it looked like they couldn't really hit some of their big moves on each other. Tanahashi/Taichi was great. I was worried at the start when Taichi started doing his old stuff with stalling and running away, but things picked up and I started liking it more and more. As mentioned earlier there were issues with how Taichi and Tanahashi did some things, but I feel like this is a journey and I can accept that. Short feud with Nagata would definitely be great for Taichi, give him a win and he would get some good heat for beating the shit out of old good Nagata. Also, should he get a new finisher? I would love if he started using Ganso bomb as his finisher. Sure, Tanahashi no sold it, but I think this was first time he used it so it could be easily rationalized away that he simply got better at doing it. Ibushi/YH I have mixed feelings about. Lots of crazy and exciting spots, but it lacked something for me. I wrote earlier that I think YH really needs to win this if he is to keep some credibility and when I started watching the match I thought that there is no way he is going to win. So I guess I felt like this was a match between a star and a jobber and that jobber held his own for way longer than he should have and that Ibushi should have kept some of this stuff for matches that actually matter. If we include TakaTaichiMania then we could say that both Taichi and YH had three singles matches that they lost this year, but while it looks like Taichi's journey is only begging, at the same time it looks like YH's journey is moving towards its end. And there is nothing at the end. Unless some people get hurt I don't really see YH making this G1, his spot should definitely go to Taichi. Naito/Zack was also great. At this point I'm not sure which I liked more, Tanahashi/Taichi or this one. I wanted Naito to win, but towards the end I started feeling that Zack really needs this win and thankfully he got it. So whats next? Looks like LiJ/Suzuki Gun will be happening and I wonder how they'll work around Suzuki holding IC title when Naito really doesn't want it. Or maybe Suzuki will drop it to Tanahashi before that? Anyway, more interesting at this point is whats next for Zack. On one hand Ibushi could just beat him in next round, but on the other hand Zack just got a big win and it would feel like a waste to follow that up with big nothing. It was also pointed out during the commentary that Zack avenged his G1 loss against Naito, well he also lost to Ibushi and now is a good opportunity to avenge that too. There is also obvious similarity between what Gedo and Taka are doing for Okada and Zack... so at this point my gut is telling me that Zack is going at least to the finals and it is not out of a question that he main events Sakura Genesis. Additional small detail, conveniently just before Sakura Genesis he will be defending his RevPro title against Ishii. So in relatively short time Zack could be going over Naito, Ibushi, Sanada, Tanahashi and Ishii. If NJPW wants it they can really establish him as a credible main eventer.

The awesome: I'm 2-0 in my predictions. The good: Juice/Yujiro was better than it had any right to be. I still don't want to see Yujiro singles matches, but I have to give credit - he is now a bit better than years ago when he was actually pushed as singles guy. Tanahashi looked great and I'm pumped for Tanahashi/Taichi today. Idea of Taka being Zack's Gedo is really good, I think. The bad: Poor Yoshi-Hashi doesn't even get to pin Chase Owens in his build up match. If Ibushi defeats him (and he probably will) then Yoshi-Hashi will become official pin-eater for Chaos. The shit: I like Elgin and I can enjoy his work despite him being shit person and I love Ishii, but damn that match was boring even before that head drop happened. And yeah, I'm not sure how anyone can justify going for extra few minutes after that botch, Elgin should have hit Burning Hammer immediately after and closed the match. Its just weird, I like both guys and they have delivered some of my favourite NJPW matches last year, but this just didn't work for me on any level.

Gedo shoots hard on Goto and pretty much explains why he won't be pushed to the top:

I'm not sure how much value we should give to Suzuki's words, I remember before WK and match with Goto was made official Suzuki would often call out other champions in his promos, but it didn't go anywhere.

While I think that my Naito/Sanada semi-final is crazy, but at the same time I think that Tanahashi/Juice semi-final is possible.

Started writing my predictions and then basically went fuck it, I want Naito/Sanda semi-final and Naito/Tanahashi final with Naito going over.

Top reason why I don't post anything on reddit. It just looks like my tastes are completely different to theirs. Thou I also have a conspiracy theory that lots of reddit posters don't actually watch wrestling shows, instead they watch wrestling gifs in which wrestlers like Ospreay always look cool. I base this crazy conspiracy on posts that write about the match like they know what happened in it, but miss so many important things that make me think that he either watched the gifs or read results somewhere, and they get ton of upvotes. To stretch my conspiracy theory even further I think that this might be one of the reasons why there is this popular myth going on that Japanese crowds are silent despite most crowds getting hot when they see something they really like/dislike. Gifs don't have sound, after all. Mat wrestling opener was my "oh I really like this, but this is completely stupid" moment. I love Zack, Kushida (heck, I don't mind Scurll when he is actually doing that, I don't like his other "cool" spots) and I like mat wrestling in general, but I don't understand why it is used sometimes like this (I remember last Ospreay and Ricochet in BotSJ match having same start). For me it is a valid style of wrestling and if someone is good at it he should be top contender. So here we have two guys that don't use this style at all suddenly opening the match with that, why? I understand when someone does it when facing Zack, you want to show that you can hang in his element, cool, good for you, you will hang in for 3 minutes and then you should revert back to your element once you realize that this is not a fight you can win like this. And I can somewhat understand why Okada would do it, when facing Ospreay it makes sense to ground him, but why in the hell Ospreay would be doing that? Only reason is that Ospreay wants to show that he is well rounded wrestler and silence his critics saying that he is just a glorified spot monkey. And for me it does the opposite. Problem with him is really not his high spots, but what he does in between them, replacing some of your early high spots with mat wrestling doesn't change the fact that nothing good (or interesting) happens in between those sequences. And I think thats why crowds usually don't get behind him very strongly. I think it is close to impossible to not-react when he is doing some of his spots, but his selling is rather bad (those screams when someone does something to him instantly take me out of the match for example) and as mentioned before he doesn't really do anything worth caring about in-between his spots. Good point, after the match I saw some comments that Ospreay should be moving to heavyweights and it makes sense based on this match since nothing really showed here why Ospreay is junior. He is high flyer? Sure, but so is Omega/Ibushi/Naito when compared to people like Makabe and Goto. Okada can't overpower him easily so what disadvantage Ospreay really has?

Naito broke his singing stick, will Taichi now change his entrance or will he simply buy a new one? I think this is most important question coming out of this event. Anyway, when this match was announced I was expecting them to take their TakaTaichiMania match, change some things, fix this or that small detail and do it again. Nope, they did different match which I ended up liking even more. I'm really interested to see what Tanahashi/Taichi match will be like. Also, hearing audience chant "Lets go Taichi" was very weird experience. And yeah, I do care and I think that Tanahashi should probably win it, but Taichi would be deserving of that victory. In a way it could also send a message that Tanahashi ain't winning this and he ain't getting his revenge because second (third?) in command just dropped him. Or it could result in same scenario as last year with Tanahashi later getting his win back and challenging Suzuki anyway. Either way they got options here and I like that. Speaking about people who deserve something... how good was Yoshi-Hashi in this? I probably will change my opinion later, but right now I feel like he needs to win against Ibushi.

I think this is very interesting and good development. One of my fears with NJPW's USA expansion was that whole promotion would become "americanized" and hardly distinguishable from USA indies, but putting Shibata in such position gives me assurance that they will preserve their unique flavour.