lostinube

If they stick to the schedule, Nozomi 371 (for some reason that poster has it as 317 but the site says 371) leaves Tokyo at 13:09 and arrives in Nagoya at 14:45. That is with two scheduled stops towards the beginning of the trip. I think that's why they chose this route because it will go over an hour uninterrupted by any stops. Before people get too excited, they are only renting one car for this. They won't be fighting throughout the entire train.

Anytime a wrestler moves to a new promotion, their "wrestling clock" should be reset. Thus my candidates for Rookie of the Year include Jeff Jarrett, Jake Lee and TAJIRI.

They don't directly link to the fanclub on their twitter or youtube so yeah, they could improve their own visibility. And getting actual matches for 500 yen makes it a better deal than the AJPW fan club, which is also at 500 yen. It would be easier if they put the matches on the AJPW TV though (I don't think they are on there).

I think they are being leaked from the fanclub site? Do these match up? https://evolutionofficialfc.com/movie

I think it might be SANADA and Kaito out of A, Okada and Ospreay out of B (it gives El-P a chance for a win against Ospreay), Finley and whoever wins on the last night between Shingo and EVIL out of C and Cobb and possibly Naito out of D. Zack is ahead right now but we can't put it past NJPW to have Naito win out, especially if his last obstacle is Tanahashi. Safe picks to be sure.

Tomorrow is headlined by Okada vs Ospreay. SANADA vs Narita should be interesting as the other Musketeers should pick up wins. Other than that not much going on other than a match that people would have hated simply for the people in it in YOSHI-HASHI vs TAICHI. Oh how times have changed.

Dunno how long this will stay up but

SANADA showed he can do these right up to the time limit matches well during the TV title tournament. I thought Kiyomiya was going to go the distance but him almost getting there shows that he's above the Reiwa Musketeers. Okada should have given points to YOSHI-HASHI.

Tonight's main event (HOT BC vs Rebel BC or whatever it's called) featured four ref bumps (as in four different refs).

The Douki (with J5Gs included) shampoo commercial. I think it might only be for the G-1 shows - as in on the screen at the arena during breaks. Not sure. Anyway, he says that it seems familiar and that's because it's basically the current Merit shampoo spot with the J5Gs swapped in (someone links it in response to Douki). And Douki gets to do the mom's hair toss at the end.

Deadline, Variety, Rolling Stone and a bunch of other sites/magazines that cover the entertainment biz are owned by Penske Media Corporation. Jay Penske (son of Roger Penske, yes, the racing guy) is a member of the AMPTP.

Douki getting a tie-up with a major shampoo brand in Japan is both random and great. He had been using it for years but he also tweeted that he brought some with him on this past trip and that might have been what got their attention.

With one post (not a video, not an in-show angle - just essentially a blog post), NJPW got everyone from the wrestlers named - Tsuji is all "don't lump me in with those losers" - to everyone else - even Fujita was like "wtf man?" - worked up. And this is all probably just to promote Strong Spirits.

For context, NJPW World put up a bunch of videos hyping up the matches for Forbidden Door. Omega/Ospreay is the Forbidden Rematch. BCC/Elite is the Forbidden War.

This was at Aka Renga in Yokohama. Nice place. Been there for the SASUKE final stage just before covid hit.

He makes the announcement at the end of his 15th anniversary show which is on youtube for free:

Average height for women in Japan is 5'2. Not sure how tall Ram is as her official height is listed as 小さい (small).

People have been talking about it on Twitter. And a time that happened in April during a verbal confrontation between Jack, Sammy and Darby. The show goes up on NJPW World for Japan-based viewers about half a day later and I didn't see it pop up at all. I checked the other show and I didn't see it then either.

I don't even know what Super Bowl Sunday is anymore. Super Bowl Monday Morning, more like. It's our (well, my) punishment for rolling our eyes at the people complaining on twitter that they had to wake up early/stay up late to watch Wrestle Kingdom every damn year. Excalibur tried to do the quick reading of Kazuchika Okada but fluffed it by putting the emphasis on the zu in Kazu when it should be on the chi in chika. I guess if you only ever hear the ring announcer call him Okaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddaaaaaaaaaaaa Kazuchikaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa you might not catch that part. There's a reason why Kaz Hayashi works as a name in English and Japanese.

I think parts of Voices of Wrestling and the NJPW English commentary team helped create the (mainly Western) negative image of Wato. It always seemed unnecessary especially during the no-noise era. Once people could start cheering you could see that Wato and O-Khan (the other repackage that the internet did not dig) were over with the crowds. I guess you could say that Despy was constantly crapping on Wato too but at least that was done in character. Yujiro is the probably wrestling's most boring Marty Jannetty ever. How you could be that boring with a supposed pimp gimmick is astounding. But at the same time, he's also the most stable Marty Jannetty ever. He has enough of his own history (he is, after all the first Japanese member of the Bullet Club - is he the longest continuous member?) that NJPW almost never mentions No Limit anymore.

Block C is like a mini-NEVER title tournament unto itself.

The J5G/LIJ elimination match was over the top rules but in essence was a way to get a DOUKI/Tsuji main event. Since J5G lost no pointing time.

They announced the blocks at the Road to Strong show. A, B, C, D. A (aka SANADA and the kids) = SANADA, Umino, Narita, Tsuji, Hikuleo, Chase Owans (zero points possibility!), Kidd, Kiyomiya. B (aka LOL, what is Loa doing here) = Okada, YOSHI-HASHI, Loa, El-P, TAICHI, Ospreay, O-Khan, KENTA C (aka Let's hit hard!) = Tama, Ishii, Takagi, Nicholls, Henare, Kingston, Finlay, EVIL D (aka Alex's trial by fire) = Tanahashi, Goto, Yano, Naito, ZSJ, Haste, Cobb, Coughlin

Kidd and Coughlin just challenged Bishamon for their tag titles for Independence Day. One night for the Strong titles, one night for the IWGP titles.

Catch 22 vs Connors and Maloney for the IWGP Jnr Tag Titles on Day 1 of Independence Day Eddie Kingston vs KENTA for the STRONG title on Day 2.