June 15, 20251 yr https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JZCSebpsWI0 The traditional video announcing the participants. Fancy Yota Tsuji to win, he lost the final last year to Zack Sabre Jr. Edited June 15, 20251 yr by The Natural
June 15, 20251 yr Author Spoiler A Block: Hirooki Goto. Boltin Oleg. Yuya Uemura. Yota Tsuji. David Finlay. EVIL. SANADA. Hiroshi Tanahashi. Two more TBD. B Block: El Phantasmo. Shota Umino. Shingo Takagi. Zack Sabre Jr. Great-O-Khan. Gabe Kidd. Ren Narita Konosuke Takeshita Two more TBD Two play-in matches will take place on June 23 at Korakuen Hall while another two will be held at Tokyo Budokan on July 4. The winners of these matches will determine the last entrants for this year’s tournament. The participants for these matches have yet to be announced. --- This tournament really needs some outsiders preferably AEW.
June 15, 20251 yr Wish they had AJPW and other DDT and maybe NOAH guys. I don't care for AEW guys. ROH Would be OK.
June 15, 20251 yr Gotta give them credit, that is a really young lineup for a change. Of course they had to hammer the square peg of Tanahashi into the round hole of the tournament but give them credit so far, there's only SANADA, EVIL, Shingo and Goto from the old(er) brigade. I'm not counting Zack because he's Zack, and one of five (!) white dudes in the lineup.
June 16, 20251 yr On 6/15/2025 at 6:52 PM, Doragon said: Wish they had AJPW and other DDT and maybe NOAH guys. I don't care for AEW guys. ROH Would be OK. Now was the time to bring in Kento Miyahara. Hell, have him win it and scoop him up from AJPW. He’s done everything he can there, and they finally have guys (Anzai, the Saitos) to make up for his popularity. Plus, it would be funny as hell if Kento went to NJPW and buried Jake Lee.
June 17, 20251 yr As long as Oiwa beats Fale to qualify, I'm still provisionally quite excited for G1 season. Other qualifiers are Ishii vs Moloney, Taichi vs Newman, Chase vs Yoshi Hashi. Chase winning would also be bad, but not quite as tear up your NJPW t shirt maddening as a 400 immobile fraudster beating the potential future of the company. I always want to see lots of fun outsiders, but not so keen on having people in the tournament who definitely won't win because they're not New Japan guys. Claudio would be great, but you know he'd go 5-4 and be as protected but unpushed as he is in AEW.
June 23, 20251 yr On 6/17/2025 at 5:55 AM, Control said: Now was the time to bring in Kento Miyahara. Hell, have him win it and scoop him up from AJPW. He’s done everything he can there, and they finally have guys (Anzai, the Saitos) to make up for his popularity. I have thought the same exact thing for many years now. He's only 36, it's still not too late.
June 23, 20251 yr Play-in matches kicked off tonight. Drilla v. Ishii: pretty much awesome! Callum Newman vs. Taichi: not nearly as awesome, but also highly enjoyable. Spoiler Folks, this Drilla Moloney fellow has gotten insanely good. This match was precisely the right length for an Ishii match these days, brutal as you'd expect and a few extra tricks up the sleeves of both participants. Loved it. I'm just not as fully convinced by Callum yet, but I'm not against him going over Taichi. I am far more intrigued by Drilla's upcoming matches than Callum's, that's for sure. Oh, and if Oiwa doesn't beat Fale, what are we even doing here?
June 25, 20251 yr On 6/23/2025 at 7:11 AM, Evil Otto said: I have thought the same exact thing for many years now. He's only 36, it's still not too late. I’ve been an AJPW loyalist for years, so I didn’t previously want it to happen, because it would be, like, death #4 for All Japan. But they seem healthy enough that they could survive without him. Meanwhile, he’s still got gas left in the tank. Also, for NJPW, Tanahashi is retiring, so they can replace him with a younger version
June 29, 20251 yr Tanahashi Jam spoilers: Spoiler Zack defeats Goto. IWGP champion once again. Incredible match. Before you judge based on the result, I implore you to watch it when it finally becomes available. Pretty much flawless in terms of how you do a world championship match. I don't really care about hall of fames and whatnot, but I know Goto and ZSJ belong in one. Two true masters of their craft. Wrestling is art, and the fact that Goto went down in Aichi, essentially his home turf, is purely poetic. I cannot praise this match enough. MOTYC. In less shocking but still notable news, there were two "X"es on this card, one being former partner Taiji Ishimori as ELP's World TV challenger, and Shun Skywalker as Tsuji and Takagi's partner in their trio. Granted, this was a "Tanahashi Produce" show, so plenty of outsiders were on the card (Dragon Kid, Kiyomiya, Marufuji) but the significance of Skywalker is intriguing, and makes me wonder if this was not just a one-off. Kind of amazing that this event was not broadcast live on World, relegated to TV Asahi's cable channel (which luckily I have), but they certainly gave the fans in attendance their money's worth. Well now, speculation in regards to future booking decisions just took quite an interesting turn! G1, Forbidden Door, WK. Much to discuss. Edited June 29, 20251 yr by Evil Otto
June 29, 20251 yr Classic Gedo, wanting the belt on a white guy for a major show in a white market. Probably the correct call this time, though.
June 29, 20251 yr Goto's reign was never going to be long so that isn't surprising. Still nice to see him get 4-5 months and the most defenses in the current lineage of the belt.
June 29, 20251 yr I thought Goto would drop earlier than this, so a solid 5 month reign was a nice surprise. I dont think this is the case, but I wonder if Dominion drawing less than 2024 influenced the change on some level. I'm a bit surprised Zack won it back, but with UK Forbidden Door coming up it makes sense. I don't think it matters who is champ going into the Dome as Tanahashi's retirement is the draw.
June 30, 20251 yr Author I'm glad Hirooki Goto won the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and set the record for most defences in a single reign. I'm glad Zack Sabre Jr won the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. I still fucking hate the thing. Both should have won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
July 5, 20251 yr ...and now Hirooki Goto is out of this year's G1 Climax entirely. https://www.njpw1972.com/585056 Teflon Turtle's Multiple Personality A: "What did we ever do to deserve this?!" Teflon Turtle's Multiple Personality B: *looks around at previous 90 years of human history* "Oh. Right." Edited July 5, 20251 yr by Teflon Turtle
July 6, 20251 yr I hope Taichi wins the gauntlet to take Gotos spot. And does such a transcendent performance that Gedo decides to scrap all his plans and have Taichi win the whole thing and go on to meet ZSJ at WK when Dangerous Tekkers Explode!!!!!!
July 7, 20251 yr On 7/6/2025 at 10:20 AM, Sublime said: I hope Taichi wins the gauntlet to take Gotos spot. And does such a transcendent performance that Gedo decides to scrap all his plans and have Taichi win the whole thing and go on to meet ZSJ at WK when Dangerous Tekkers Explode!!!!!! Step one to making this a thing complete! The Taichi/Ishii part of the gauntlet and is must see. There's a good story with Taichi doing well and taking Goto's points that i hope they take advantage of. Taichi has been one of the best guys in the company this year.
July 7, 20251 yr Author I think Zack Sabre Jr goes into NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion two years running. That's what my heart and head wants. Speaking of, HiroshI Tanahashi's final match ever to headline the show. Nobody deserves it more than Tanahashi for what he's done for NJPW.
July 8, 20251 yr That's pretty awesome for showing all the victories. I've only seen about four or so (first two, Chono vs. Takayama, maybe one of the latter ones). It's interesting seeing Makabe won one year, Nakanishi won another, Goto wins one in 2008 but doesn't win the belt until THIS YEAR. Switchblade was in the finals as recent as 2019 and here he is now, MIA from a midcard role in AEW. Ibushi was in three finals and four years later almost totally went to seed. Naito did go to seed and he won two years ago?! A bunch of surprises in that video.
July 18, 20251 yr Author On 7/8/2025 at 3:45 PM, Curt McGirt said: That's pretty awesome for showing all the victories. I've only seen about four or so (first two, Chono vs. Takayama, maybe one of the latter ones). It's interesting seeing Makabe won one year, Nakanishi won another, Goto wins one in 2008 but doesn't win the belt until THIS YEAR. Switchblade was in the finals as recent as 2019 and here he is now, MIA from a midcard role in AEW. Ibushi was in three finals and four years later almost totally went to seed. Naito did go to seed and he won two years ago?! A bunch of surprises in that video. Of those I'd recommend 1992, 2001, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 to when things go wrong, 2023 and 2024. 2018 is the best match in the whole illustrious history of the tournament, it's one of the best matches of all time. 2017 is probably the second best final.
July 18, 20251 yr Author On 6/15/2025 at 11:13 AM, The Natural said: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JZCSebpsWI0 The traditional video announcing the participants. Fancy Yota Tsuji to win, he lost the final last year to Zack Sabre Jr. Sticking by my prediction of Yota Tsuji.
July 18, 20251 yr Author https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WI7DIVKvoj0&pp=ygUETmpwdw%3D%3D The annual press conference. Wait till you see SANADA, 13:20. Zack Sabre Jr is very NSFW, drops a C bomb. Edited July 18, 20251 yr by The Natural
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