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NJPW The New Beginning 2018


Raziel

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1 hour ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

Heavyweight tag titles suddenly mean something in New Japan. I am so thrilled. SANADA pins Okada to retain the tag belts then dies gloriouslyin his first title shot? Right? I'm excited. Jay White should not be challenging for another title already. If he loses again he looks like el chump supremo and if he wins we have a guy who didn't look too good in his big debut suddenly taking the title off a guy everyone loves. Suzuki as IC champ would be cool. Don't see them taking the belt off Goto so soon so I'm guessing he wins, EVIL beats him up a lot in the tag title match, they do a rematch and EVIL wins. EVIL and SANADA are so great, I don't mean to sound like I'm hating on all the hot topic dudes but them, Suzuki, and Tomohiro Ishii excite me way more than Omega or Ibushi or Jay White or the Young Bucks do. Speaking of Ishii why is he so de-emphasized lately? Unless maybe the plan is to have Suzuki hold the IC title forever and then drop it to Ishii at next year's Dome. My god that would be so awesome. Maybe they can also run some interpromotional matches with Miyahara, Suwama, Ishikawa and Soya too just to totally sate my fantasies...

My guess is because he's winning the NJ Cup finally and we get a kick ass all-Chaos title match and they're wanting to make it seem like he came out of nowhere for it. That's my hope, anyway.

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Better yet get rid. The six-man titles are a joke. I like the idea of six-man tag team titles in a company where there are so many factions and 6/8-man tags, but it's the hottest of hot potatoes and the title carries no weight because of that. When you've already got a secondary singles title (and now Kenny's elevated the US title above the NEVER...) and a junior title, I don't see the point of the NEVER singles title. It has little-to-no prestige regardless of who holds it and I don't see that changing.

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3 hours ago, sevendaughters said:

in a sense you're right, it is a silly title, but I do think it has been booked well (if not enough actual Openweight) and the matches for it are generally a thing to enjoy. Having the US title as a sop to the new fans is what annoys me, to be honest. Merge two of them.

The US and IC titles do essentially have the same purpose, at this point, both being--and having been--excuses for Kenny/Nak/Naito/Tana to be presented as co-ace to a different segment of fans. (Okada not your guy? Here's your champ, then.) They get to headline shows (that did and do tend to draw well, which is a reason for multiple "top" titles to exist) with the kind of epic high-profile singles matches they wouldn't get otherwise. It seems possible--maybe likely--that, post-Omega (...), the US belt will become essentially the "Which foreigner is touring this time?" title, which could lead to some pretty heatless exhibitions. (But then, New Japan does use a lot of foreign talent, many of whom are quite good and generally without direction. So maybe it has a brighter future than that.)

Regarding the NEVER title: Would making it KO/stoppage/submission only successfully canonize it as the Fight belt, or would that be too gimmicky?

 

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It is genuinely interesting to see how much homoromanticism NJPW will allow into the Kenny/Kota story. This is the same company that told Sami Calihan to knock it off with the kisses, but didn't seem to mind the Jasmine/Aladdin spot on Halloween. You've got Cody as a factor and he's got a proud family history of walking that thin line, too. 

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They should make the US belt only defended on US soil. Make it a big deal yearly thing where you have a KOTR-style elimination tourney in Japan, then the winner faces Omega or whoever in LA. Better yet, so as to not step on the NJ Cup or the G1's toes, make the tournament a one-night-only deal. 

I'd also be down for the NEVER belt to be KO or sub only. And no rope breaks! 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/9/2018 at 12:17 PM, Oyaji said:

Am I wrong in thinking it's best to run Ibushi/Omega before the Cody match? 

Thinking the same thing. Still getting used to logical  but slow booking of NJPW, but I kind of feel that if they are turning Kenny, then they should have Ibushi vs Kenny as the match to do it. Although I feel that match should be a Wrestle Kingdom match for the IWGP Heavyweight Title since neither of them have won that belt yet. There feud and rivalry should headline Wrestle Kingdom imo. But that is just me.

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Fantasy booking, fuck yeah. However, I doubt we see a foreigner wrestle a freelancer for the title in the main event of the Tokyo Dome. If they ever brought back the May dome show, I could see it... but not the 1/4 show.

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...Why the fuck is Kota still a freelancer? Are you kidding? I was under the impression that he was signed with them since he seems to be doing a lot business with just them. I don't see Kota doing anything else with any other promotion. For fuck's sake, the guy could have been the face of New Japan years ago. He still can be. Does New Japan not want him or is this a weird thing that Ibushi does? I don't get it.

And NJPW is really lenient and the only company they probably won't do business with is NOAH. 

I am so annoyed because I assumed that he signed with New Japan because who the fuck wouldn't.

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Somebody on this board recently made mention that his family is super rich, which I didn't know... That would explain a lot about his approach to wrestling as something to have fun with rather than a career. It kills me that he doesn't commit to New Japan though, so I feel you 100% on that. He turns 36 in May but I still feel like you could build him into a top 5 main event scene with Okada, Naito, Omega, and Tanahashi, with Ibushi taking over Tana's role moving forward (as Tana himself said was how he sees NJPW's hierarchy already).

He mentioned around the G1 that he was more positive of dedicating himself more to New Japan, so we'll see but as of right now I don't think his status has changed.

My entire being was ready for Kenny/Kota G1 final, but alas... We had to settle for the Bucks overacting in the backstage scene between the two.

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They don't have to do much of a build either way since he was always booked "strong". All he needs is one big win this year (I'd say either taking the title from Okada or winning G1) and he'll be set as main eventer.

As for 1/4 show, I don't think that we are going to get any main event that doesn't feature Okada in near future unless he gets hurt.

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47 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Somebody on this board recently made mention that his family is super rich, which I didn't know... That would explain a lot about his approach to wrestling as something to have fun with rather than a career. It kills me that he doesn't commit to New Japan though, so I feel you 100% on that. He turns 36 in May but I still feel like you could build him into a top 5 main event scene with Okada, Naito, Omega, and Tanahashi, with Ibushi taking over Tana's role moving forward (as Tana himself said was how he sees NJPW's hierarchy already).

He mentioned around the G1 that he was more positive of dedicating himself more to New Japan, so we'll see but as of right now I don't think his status has changed.

My entire being was ready for Kenny/Kota G1 final, but alas... We had to settle for the Bucks overacting in the backstage scene between the two.

As much as I enjoyed his matches in WWE, I'm kind of glad Ibushi stuck to Japan.  In WWE, he never would've really gotten beyond being a 205 Live or jobber on Raw or Smackdown. But I'm still very grateful I got to see Roode vs. Ibushi live in NXT.

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I just don't get it. NJPW is a lot more lax compared to a typical indie schedule and definitely a lot less intense than a WWE schedule by sheer workload. Yes, when the wrestlers require heavy workrate matches, they over deliver, but that is like once a month. They usually stick them into semi-meaningful multi-tag matches where dudes can just chill out in the corner and get into little skirmishes. You go to ROH overseas maybe once or twice a year. You don't really leave Japan much. Like as @TheVileOne mentioned a match between Kota and Roode in a fucking house show, New Japan rarely if ever gives that kind of match without eyes at home not being able to see it.  I don't think New Japan demands too much compared to WWE or ROH or TNA. It's the wrestler's ideal type of company where they aren't overextending dudes in countless houseshow matches while still making meaningful gains. It is the kind of company a person like Kota should thrive in.

Whatever, I guess. It does throw a wrench in Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi because as much as I love Okada, those two, to me, are better than him by a slight margin and a match with those two headlining would be magnificent.

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