lostinube

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.

People (not necessarily people here) think that KENTA vs Punk is going to be a battle over the G2S when it's going to be KENTA race walking around the ring and using the match to announce the English version of his book.

Hey Canada, you are getting Okada vs Danielson.

Doi went freelance but still does DG shows. Shingo went back to help put over the Madoka Kikuta. So fairly amicable departures. STRONGHEARTS wasn't though. But unlike other groups, DG has done a good job of bringing up their new talent. At the end of the last big show Kikuta declared himself, Shun Skywalker, Yuki Yoshioka, Kota Minoura, Strong Machine J and Ben-K the new Big Six (the original Big Six were Shingo, Doi, Masato Yoshino, YAMATO, BxB Hulk and Akira Tozawa). Ben-K is the oldest of the group at 31 and four of the group have already held the top title in DG. SB Kento is not that much younger than those guys so he might have seen that and went "whelp, ain't getting a big push any time soon" and decided to go elsewhere.

Hiromu vs YAMATO at Kobe World on July 2nd. Hiromu was also on the Dradition show that Suwama was on. Guy likes to keep busy. The Dradition sort of reboot also includes a project called Dragon Stadium where Fujinami is looking to make a "new hero." It includes a chart that makes it look like a quasi-ponzi scheme.

O-Khan and Henare were officially added to the tag title match last night.

Naoto Takenaka, the guy playing the Rossy character is probably know best in the west as the co-worker of the main character of Shall We Dance? He does a wide range of movies but he often plays off-beat characters.

The finals are set as Titan taps Despy. Crowd (and the Japanese announcers) were solidly behind Titan so I wonder how things will play out on Sunday.

So far so good.

For English speakers in Japan: https://health.gaijinpot.com/suicide-prevention/ Japanese hotlines: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/hukushi_kaigo/seikatsuhogo/jisatsu/soudan_tel.html

Your final four are Despy (B Block 1st) versus Titan (A Block 2nd) and Mike Bailey (A Block 1st) versus Wato (Eventual Winner). Despy and Titan met in last year's BOSJ. That's their only singles match ever yet they've had tags with and against each other all the way back when Despy was in CMLL. This will be the first meeting between Bailey and eventual winner Master Wato. I'm sure kicks will be done.