dragonzombie Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Zeus retained. 30 min match. Promised to have a long reign. Yuma and Nomura retain their Asia Tag belts. But Omori wants another shot with someone else. Aoki dropped the Junior belt to Iwamoto. Hino beat Kento. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Quote Akira Taue, who was a part of many of the greatest tag team matches in pro wrestling history in All Japan in the 90s, and was later President of Pro Wrestling NOAH after the death of Mitsuharu Misawa, announced that he has been battling cancer since the spring and had to have his stomach removed. From the daily news update on F4W directly from Dave. Awful news. Kid Yamamoto also has cancer. Add this to the news of Aya Koyama and it's just an awful week. Ed Cohen, who booked venues for WWF and was a friend of Meltzer's, also passed due to cancer. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Stomach... removed? I... how... what? You know what, I don't even want to know how he's surviving. The imagination reels as it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Thought it was v brave of AJPW to run an entire show with an empty arena gimmick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 There were people! Just not a lot... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Zeus v Ishikawa told a story as old as Beowulf, and told it well: who shall clubber, and who shall be clubbered? Random thoughts: I like that Zeus's lariat is called a "Biceps Explosion" but it's not as catchy as "Ax bomber" and I don't need to hear it dozens of times a match. Ishikawa has the most terrifying strikes in wrestling. For a guy who doesn't pin people off of strikes, I'd sure buy him pinning anyone off of a strike. There was a point where the two gladiators, broken down, slouched on their knees and had a little confab. It went something like this: Zeus: "Bruh stopping hitting me so hard there are like 12 ppl in the audience lol I'm concussed" Ishikawa: "I hit not for them but for the gentlefolk streaming from the luxury of their home en garde blaggard!" Great but also watch the undercard for Hino and to see Akiyama mess up Jake Lee. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 That Taue news is just saddening. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaeBlazer Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Look at those thighs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 NOW That's What I Call Vascular! Any news on him coming back? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Bugg Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 So I'm watching the Minoru Suzuki 30th Anniversary Special, the match where he's against Takayama for the NWF belt. I know the early 2000's were a crappy period for NJPW, but was anyone watching back then? If so why did they bring back that belt? Looks like the Bob Backlund/Superstar Billy Graham WWF belt kind of. Wikipedia only says that it was brought back as a storyline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 We had a decent li'l discussion about that period a few pages back. I think the NWF title returning was just an Inoki idea to have a 'legit' guy belt and for something else Nakamura could win to prove how tough he was. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Inoki and the bookers wanted to do an angle to put some over eventually as dual champion. Fujita requested a tournament (with legit guys) for it. When Nakamura won it from Big Tak, it started his belt sealer thing. Nakamura later did the same with IGF's version of the IWGP and NJPW's 2nd generation version they reverted back to. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Bugg Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Wow, great answers guys, I'm now more fascinated with this era of NJPW. So in the midst of this Inoki-ism shit were there any matches that were actually good and not a shoot fight with a pro wrestler getting fucked up by an MMA guy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Minoru's 30th anniversary was this year and the match between the two on his 20th anniversary show wasn't for the NWF belt in 2008. That belt was sealed with Nakamura in 2004 after winning it from Takayama at the Dome. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 4 hours ago, Thomas Bugg said: Wow, great answers guys, I'm now more fascinated with this era of NJPW. So in the midst of this Inoki-ism shit were there any matches that were actually good and not a shoot fight with a pro wrestler getting fucked up by an MMA guy? What is the general idea people have of this era? I just find this idea that it was so terrible to be quite odd as someone who started watching in the middle of it. While certain booking ideas were hated there where still quite a few well regarded matches. FFS this stuff was happening at the same time NJPW feuded with AJPW and NOAH. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Looking into this era, I'm reminded that Bob Sapp has an IWGP title reign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Questionable booking decisions here and there aside, it was ok with matches. The era did raise big debts and lowered attendances in places but profits and tv ratings were higher than the Yukes era. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 There was a pretty good conversation about this era a few pages back, complete with a lot of good recs (none by me). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 On 8/1/2018 at 10:55 PM, Beech27 said: That 2007 Nagata/Tana match was the MOTY in the old board’s Japan folder, though I can’t remember how I voted, and of course all those posts are gone. (In this case I might be ok with that.) If there were a surviving record, it would be interesting to see how New Japan fared in the voting during the 2000s. Edit: Holy shit this is pretty close! Only lists the top ten, and omits 2003, 2004, and 2005, but this is fascinating to me. Shinobu, a DVDVR legend! And everyone hating the analysis is, of course, beautiful. Ahahahahahahaha this is fantastic. I spent so many hours of my life on those lists and people's response was that the DVDVR people are diiiiiiicks. I never really posted anywhere else back then and I had no idea what people thought of us. I might have some of the Final 10 lists saved somewhere. Wouldn't hold my breath though. Shinobu is fucking awesome BTW. I actually started digging through the archives to reacquaint myself with the current scene because I lapsed. One of the first things I thought of was "Wonder what Shinobu is doing now?" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted September 1, 2018 Share Posted September 1, 2018 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaeBlazer Posted September 1, 2018 Share Posted September 1, 2018 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted September 2, 2018 Share Posted September 2, 2018 How is Danshoku Dino anything but an extremely homophobic character? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted September 3, 2018 Share Posted September 3, 2018 I'm a fan. I used to cringe, but after a while I just enjoyed him making fools of other wrestlers. It started to feel like the joke wasn't him being gay, but on other manly wrestlers being sooooo unable to cope with being kissed by another man, that they'd lose a match. At least that's how I justified it so I could keep laughing. I mean Pepe Le Pew could be brought up on so many sexual assault/harassment charges, but I find him funny too. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted September 3, 2018 Share Posted September 3, 2018 4 hours ago, jaedmc said: I'm a fan. I used to cringe, but after a while I just enjoyed him making fools of other wrestlers. It started to feel like the joke wasn't him being gay, but on other manly wrestlers being sooooo unable to cope with being kissed by another man, that they'd lose a match. At least that's how I justified it so I could keep laughing. I mean Pepe Le Pew could be brought up on so many sexual assault/harassment charges, but I find him funny too. He's also just a great character, really funny, and charismatic even if you take away the OTT gay stuff. I can understand if it makes people feel uncomfortable but I ain't gonna get mad at DDT when they featured the Golden Lovers as the top stars of their promotion for a long period. And like Jae said, shit makes me laugh. I'm sorry if it's wrong to laugh at Great Homo spitting back Muta's mist from his b-hole. Watching Meiko vs. Dino now. Hyped! We also get another DDT campground wrestling event! You can watch it here! Additionally, I didn't realize Universe has an English recap show, even if it's a bit awkward from the li'l bit I glanced at. Edit: You all need to see Meiko go for a Death Valley Bomb with her head in Dino's trunks. Unreal. Dino also created two (or was it three?!) variants of the Meiko Killer submission in the build-up to the match. (Also I just can't type "Deino". It's only that way because of limitations/structure of the Japanese language). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted September 3, 2018 Share Posted September 3, 2018 Also on Tuesday's DDT show (this is from the wonderful Dramatic DDT blog) : Quote Cherry won the 4 Way Match but was surprised to find out it didn’t mean she would get to date Rintaro Oyaizu from The Bachelor. When Hisaya Imabayashi put the match together he never agreed to the stipulation that the winner automatically gets Oyaizu. Instead Oyaizu would get to choose whoever impressed him the most. In a shocking twist, Oyaizu apologised to all of the women in the ring because there is another attractive woman he saw today working as the lighting assistant at ringside. The assistant revealed herself to be Aja Kong! She got the lighting assistant job because DDT stopped booking her to wrestle. When Kong and Oyaizu left to go out on their date to any place that has meat, the four women in the ring all attacked Imabayashi for wasting their time. ... The campground match is the usual insanity and fun. Yumehito Imanari showed up dressed like Rambo with two BB assault rifles. Michael Nakazawa has had his faced covered in... something (they're claiming "unko") from an outhouse and then had his head forced into a toilet. Kazusada Higuchi, dressed in his sumo mawashi, showed up out of nowhere to challenge the entire field to sumo battles. There was also a murder mystery surrounding the untimely death of Makoto Oishi. And, of course, fireworks! We also get vehicular showdowns. Edit: The fuck?! Shinya Aoki was also on that DDT show and choked out Gota Ihashi in under 5 minutes! Aoki was, at one time, Japan's best and brightest MMA star. That is insane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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