lostinube

It's only because of the title change. If it was just a show (and technically this was a Tanahashi produce show) and it was only shown live on a channel that only some people in Japan could see it would have been fine (relatively speaking). But because people will apparently explode if they can't everything rightnowgiveitomerightnow the reaction was overblown. There were a few articles written in the Japanese media about how NJPW World subscribers were upset but I doubt it was massive numbers. It wasn't the first time a show was a TV Asahi CS exclusive (the SANADA title win) but the key was that show was available for overseas viewers (which I would think be more infuriating to Japanese viewers). But people are also missing the fact that not every NJPW fan subscribes to World.

New Japan's Aaron Wolf was featured in a segment on the Japanese news program Hodo Station. Wolf was given tips on his rope work by Yuji Nagata. The other person there was Shuzo Matsuoka who was a former pro tennis player and until the arrival of Kei Nishikori, Japan's most well-known men's pro tennis player. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1yeecx2W20

Finals are set.

This could go in the joshi thread, the puro thread or the AEW thread but Konosuke Takeshita and Yuka Sakazaki just announced that they are married. Since this is a Japanese couple, that means they could have actually been married for the last five years and only decided to tell everyone else today.

I don't know how it came off on the broadcast but you could tell from the crowd responses that even though it was predominantly a New Japan audience, quite a lot of people were familiar with the Kyushu Pro guys. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that Mentai Kid's retirement was coming up so soon. His last match is with his eternal rival Genkai next Sunday. Also: https://x.com/chikuzenryota/status/1918963205855924675

Just got back from Night 2 of the Dontaku. Probably one of the better Dontaku shows I've been to match-wise.

Former wrestler and president of Dragon Gate Takashi Okamura has passed away. He was 60.

I like that Starlight Kid was there sans mask so people at the time wouldn't have known it was her. Of course I'm sure some psychopath on Twitter will scour all the photos of the crowd to find her.

Hisashi Shinma has passed away. He was 90.

With only a few more days left to go to their big loser must retire match, Saya has just "hit" Tam with a car while Tam was doing a promo. In her post Saya claims that despite her busy schedule she got her car license in two months just to do this. The detail is that you can see the green and yellow sticker on the car that signifies a new driver in Japan.

Cubs said on Twitter that AAA does not own the Lucha Underground show or IP. Anyway, he talks about the buyout here : https://thecubsfan.com/cmll/2025/04/20/wwe-buys-lucha-libre-aaa/ The end paragraph is the good part but this stuck out: I like how guys now know that you have to prepare a knock-off of yourself for any given situation.

There are tours that come from Japan that are there to go to CMLL shows, either as their primary purpose or as an add-on to a larger Mexico package. They are mainly marketed as lucha libre tours but that pretty much means CMLL. Regular shows at a regular spot (I think most go to Arena Mexico) is much easier to plan around.

Pretty sure there are way more hurdles to a foreign company purchasing a Japanese entity than in some other countries. Despite Kevin Kelly wishing that NJPW get bought up, that seems fairly unlikely. I guess the closest would be NOAH which is mainly because of the Abema deal. Don't know when that expires and if WWE will ever move to Netflix in Japan.

FWIW, what I've seen online is that Naito wanted to wrestle more than NJPW was willing to give him so possibly he was just resisting being moved into the NJPW Dad division similar to what happened with Okada.

On last week's Everybody's Live with John Mulaney, Richard Kind gets a head injury and somehow becomes Gene Simmons. But not a make-up Gene. We've reached the point where plain clothes Gene Simmons talking about making money (or loving women if you want to be spicy) is just as recognizable as the Demon.

Six Kyushu Pro wrestlers on the show (Jet and Sasaki in the dark match, Baten and Mentai in the opener and TAJIRI and Chikuzen Ryota in the tag against TMDK) . I will laugh if Taguchi pins Sasaki (it will probably be Jet eating the fall). Mentai Kid is also retiring this year. TAJIRI and Tanahashi are teaming together for the first time since 2010. Chikuzen Ryota was Makai #2 and he lost his mask to Tanahashi in a U-30 title vs mask match way back in 2003.

Might go to Night 2, especially if it's going to end up being the send-off for Naito and BUSHI.

Yeah, it's Callum vs Goto for Night 2 of the Dontaku. Night 1 is the HOT vs War Dogs dog pound match.

Japan considers cash handouts to counter rising costs, U.S. tariffs: The government plans to provide cash handouts, likely 50,000 yen ($344) per person, to ease the burden of the higher cost of living and cushion the impact of U.S. tariffs. ... The government aims to enact the supplementary budget during the current Diet session, which ends in June, to finance the emergency economic measures. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15704566

I'm out of the loop when it comes to this kind of stuff but the Miyoo Mini Plus looks interesting. Some older reddit posts are saying don't use the SD card that comes with it?

All is right in the world.

Camera: 5980 yen Pro Controller: 9980 yen Games vary but at around the 8000 range for downloads and 9000 for physical. It's 1000 yen each for the Zelda upgrades and 2000 yen for the Mario Party upgrade.

It seems like the Japan-only versions are a way of trying to combat resellers from outside of the country who will want to take advantage of the weaker yen.

OK, the multi-language version is roughly the same price as in the US so I'm now a bit happier that the Japanese-only version is around a hundred dollars less. I only have a Japanese Nintendo Switch Online account anyway.

Wha...the Japanese (as in language) only Switch 2, sold only in Japan and can only be connected to accounts from within Japan is going to be 20,000 yen less than the multi-language version (which will not be sold in stores). 49,800 yen (all these are with tax). 53,980 yen with Mario Kart. 69,980 yen for the multi-language version only. https://www.nintendo.com/jp/hardware/switch2/lineup/index.html#