FlaeBlazer
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Everything posted by FlaeBlazer
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Naito vs. Ishii was every Naito vs. Ishii match ever but they have such a great dynamic that it will always be good. Shingo vs. Moxley was really good too. It was a very psychologically sound match and Moxley in control is really fucking good. His leg work was awesome. Shingo did a good job selling too.
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I feel like an Shingo vs. Ospreay final is pretty obvious. The two biggest stars in the field and it would be the last big Ospreay match that we haven’t seen in Junior division before they move him to the heavies permanently.
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Not just that but with the White vs. Goto match, inferring from their booking patterns, it looks they’re running back Okada vs. White at Dominion. If they do a consecutive stretch of SANADA-White-SANADA-White matches for Okada, that feels like lazy booking to say the least.
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I guess this basically confirms the theory that he left New Japan because of his lack of a push. He obviously loves working in Japan but he was never going to go anywhere in New Japan especially considering how far he dropped down the card after the scandal. I’m assuming he thinks that he could be a main event guy in All Japan with the big focus on hosses and such.
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The last Okada/Ishii match was possibly the best match of 2016 so I am insanely excited for tonight.
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The whole show was probably the best show I’ve seen this year. Those last 3 matches were lights out. Iwamoto/Suzuki was great. Iwamoto is making a bit of dark horse WOTY case right now. Strong BJ/Violent Giants was fucking amazing. A 25 minute bomb fest with tremendous heat and intensity that was compelling at every moment. Definitely my MOTY. And the main event was fantastic, an amazing showcase for Nomura and Kento’s strongest performance in a while as the dominant ace looking to prove that this young upstart ain’t worth shit. I’d say this was the 3rd best match I’ve seen so far in 2019. Two top 3 MOTYs and another great match plus a fun undercard. All Japan is on a roll right now. I’m so excited for Champion Carnival.
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It’s a huge show. I could see them doing Naito/Ibushi IC Title as the semi-main event before the Okada/White main event.
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The new NOAH logo is here and it’s controversial to say the least.
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The DDT Judgment show was fantastic. The main event is my MOTY so far and this show will be tough to beat for show of the year.
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I don’t see any way Okada/Ibushi is a NJC Final. That’s a match they’ve been protecting for a long time and they’re not putting it in a 4,000 capacity arena. That match could easily main event Dominion or be the G1 Final. A match like that would be a good Dome main event too.
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I’m pretty sure the story would’ve been that Okada would’ve found himself during the New Japan Cup and won the whole damn thing. White probably would’ve still beaten Okada to be a Kenny defense at NB like he is now. Something interesting that Dave said in a previous WOR is that Jay will be a Kenny surrogate in 2019. Basically everything that was planned for Kenny’s booking will just have Jay White plugged into the role. So IF that’s true, then that would mean Jay would presumably beat Tana and then drop it to Okada in the Garden.
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Meltzer said that from a conversation he had with Kenny pre-interview, he was told that if Kenny had re-signed with NJPW, the plan was for him to beat Tanahashi at the Dome and lose to Okada at MSG.
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It really seemed from the interview that Kenny does not like Harold Meij at all and his relationship with NJPW had deteriorated significantly. I’m doubt it’ll be the last we see him there but I’m very confident he’s not gonna be there for a long while.
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Kenny Omega was on WOR today and he said something very interesting. Says that for the G1 when he faced Ibushi at the Budokan, they sold 144% of the building, while Tana/Okada on a different night had only sold 65%. Kenny said the New Japan office sent emails around saying that free tickets need to be given away for the Tana/Okada show because they can't have two guys from the indies (Kenny/Ibushi) outselling their home grown guys. If that’s true, wow.
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If you guys haven’t, you gotta watch the Strong BJ vs. Violent Giants tag match from the Sekimoto anniversary show. It’s the best match I’ve seen so far this year.
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I think somebody like Okada when you consider his body of work, might already be a top 10 Japanese worker ever. I will be very shocked if he makes my top 3 by the end of his career because I consider Kobashi, Misawa, and Kawada to be untouchable but I could definitely see him as the best NJPW worker ever when it’s all said and done.
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Haven’t you admitted that you barely watch modern NJPW though? Have you seen a lot of Tana’s body of work? Anyway, as overall Japanese wrestling talents go (I’m not qualified to talk about drawing power and importance), Tanahashi is top 5 in my opinion. My GOAT has been and will likely always be Kenta Kobashi. Misawa and Kawada come in 2nd and 3rd for me, and I’d probably put Jumbo at 4. I have no problem saying that Tanahashi might be the best in NJPW history from a talent perspective. I’d take him over Inoki, Hashimoto, Fujinami, Choshu, Mutoh, Liger, Sasaki, etc.
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If anything this show solidified what I had already thought. I know people were getting tired of him in the stretch run of his reign but Okada is clearly the best wrestler of the big 4 in my opinion. It’s not even particularly close to me. The only wrestlers in NJPW that I’d even put in his league are Ibushi and Ishii. Right now, he’s way ahead of Omega, Tana, and Naito as a worker.
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I honestly think Kenoh vs. Kaito is the best match I’ve seen in the first week of 2019. I liked it better than everything on Wrestle Kingdom as well as Kento vs. Kai. I’m fully sold on Kaito now as the ace of NOAH.
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I don’t think the predictability of the match hurt it for me. For example, at WK 10, everybody and their mother knew that Okada was going over Tana but it still was an absolutely awesome, iconic moment. I dunno. There was just something off here. I think the finish was really anti-climactic. Tana’s win came out of nowhere while at G1, he won at an absolute dramatic peak.
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Tana winning wasn’t as much of a hype moment as I thought it would be. I can’t pinpoint why. Especially compared to G1 where it was such a beautiful moment.
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My big worry was the double Dome shows is this. NJPW cards have been spread thinner and thinner as they have added more and more shows. Wrestle Kingdom and Dominion are the only shows left that are really top to bottom supercards. If the the shows are split apart, they both will probably take a hit in quality. I don’t want an IC Title headlining night 1 and IWGP headlining night 2. I want all the biggest matches on one show. It’s still unclear where they are doing two nights of Wrestle Kingdom or WK and then New Year’s Dash in the Dome. I really hope it’s the latter. I have no interest in seeing them spread out the Wrestle Kingdom card across two nights.
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Omega/Tana was great like I said but I definitely wouldn’t consider it among the best matches of either’s career. In fact, their one match in 2016 was better than this. I dunno, it’s really weird that Tana winning G1 felt like a way bigger moment than him winning in the fucking Dome. Maybe it’s just cause the Ibushi match was way better. When Tana won G1, I was losing my mind and it seemed everyone else was. With this one, the consensus seems to be “wow that’s cool”. Even the crowd didn’t really pop that much when the final bell rang, it seemed the finish came out of nowhere to them too.
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I thought Tana/Omega was great but I can’t call it a classic cause I thought the finish was REALLY anti-climactic. And this coming from a company that has a trademark for amazing finishing stretches. I can’t think of a NJPW main event where I thought the buildup parts of the match were better than the stretch run. I really liked the first 10 minutes of the match, loved the next 20, liked the next 5, and was lukewarm on the finishing sequence. The finish really came out of nowhere. Compare it to the beautiful climax of when he beat Ibushi in G1. A sling blade to a High Fly Flow? That’s it?
