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NJPW Castle Attack 2021. *CONTAINS NEW BEGINNING 2021 SPOILERS*


The Natural

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The guy who does the recaps of these shows on the WON site is so freaking bad. The Yano match was the right mix of silly and serious and the whole ending sequence was actually pretty cool and dramatic and the guy makes it sound like it was Goldberg-Undertaker.

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SPOILER ALERT:

Spoiler

I predicted Hiroshi Tanahashi losing the NEVER Openweight Championship to The Great O-Khan in his first defence...but he didn't! So glad to be wrong on that. Let Hiroshi Tanahashi have a long reign as NEVER Openweight Champion. It's a belt that tends to has more short runs than long. Need a secondary belt if Naito doesn't win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship back and the IWGP United States Championship stays primarily at NJPW Strong.

 

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Spoiler

You know, I've been completely checked out of NJPW since a few months after they started up again but I just saw Despy with the double Jr. gold. I will watch that. Gedo's been struggling and while his hand was forced into playing this card, it's absolutely the right one to play. Despy 4 lyfe. 

 

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10 minutes ago, Jiji said:
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You know, I've been completely checked out of NJPW since a few months after they started up again but I just saw Despy with the double Jr. gold. I will watch that. Gedo's been struggling and while his hand was forced into playing this card, it's absolutely the right one to play. Despy 4 lyfe. 

 

Spoiler

It was a great match but the announcers made it even better by explaining the entire story about Despy and getting it over. Kelly and Charleton are really the best English announce team in pro wrestling.

 

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Night 1:

Spoiler

Only match worth watching was Ishii-White. Far too much Bullet Club shenanigans on this show and I hated how predictable it all was. 

Night 2:

Spoiler

Hell yeah, Despy wins! I thought all three singles titles matches were great. Great -O-Khan looked like a killer in defeat. Definitely his best match so far. 

Naito watching Ibushi struggle to get in ring with a big smirk was great. Then he went and helped him in. What a guy. 

Aftermath:

Spoiler

So if Desperado is challenging for the double gold, can people still challenge for either? Ibushi-Desperado should be awesome. I imagine Hiromu was retaining to do Hiromu-Ibushi. 

 

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Man...I have so much to say. I've been in my feelings a bit the last couple of weeks...but I really needed an escape today, and NJPW gave it to me. 

The spoiler-free thoughts I can offer: night 2 of Castle Attack was the most well-shot, well-directed, well-produced pro wrestling show I've seen in a very long time. At the very least, since the beginning of the pandemic. I felt more during this show than even the last Wrestle Kingdom (though in fairness...my wrestling consumption nowadays is limited to NJPW, the occasional bit of AEW, and old puroresu on Youtube). NJPW is so far ahead of all other promotions in terms of how their camera work complements the action, I have no idea how other companies will ever catch up short of outright copying whatever the NJPW/TV Asahi crew is doing. Also credit to the English announce team. I craved English commentary for puroresu from the day I bought my first "Best of Great Muta" VHS tape twenty years ago. This is not to say the matches were incomprehensible without it; the wrestling spoke for itself even back then. But - there's no denying great commentary adds to the presentation, and this team has been on point for a while.

Spoilered thoughts:

Spoiler

The El Desperado bandwagon existed before me. But after the 2020 showing Despy had, culminating with the classic BOSJ final against Hiromu...I fully jumped on board, feeling that he has earned every bit of a push coming his way. Like probably many others, I figured his Jr. Tag title win with Kanemaru meant there was no way he'd get the singles title. The only thing I thought would've been different is that once ELP ripped the mask off, I thought Despy would once again have to do without it to show how badly he wanted to win. They didn't go that way, but the three-way was still a great watch. (As an aside...BUSHI doesn't do much for me as a character, but in-ring, he's rather underrated. He did well here, as he usually does whenever he's given something other than a multi-man tag.)

You can chalk me up as another one who thought Tanahashi was going to lose his first NEVER defense, though I didn't want that to happen. Very glad he retained. I think O-Kahn is progressing well, but it's still a shade too early for singles gold on him. The match told that story well, without burying him.

The only thing I was mildly let down by was the outcome of the main. I like both wrestlers, but at the end of the day, I'm a Naito fan. Now that his latest IC challenge has failed, he's in a baffling spot. In my opinion: his work in the G1 2020 wasn't given enough credit, and his match with Ibushi here again showed he can wrestle a very smart match without going overboard. He absolutely is one of the best in the world, yet it somehow feels he's overshadowed whenever that talk comes up.

Ibushi is a freak. No news there.

The result of the main event makes more sense when one realizes that it looks bad for Despy to challenge a freshly-beaten Ibushi for a match at the Anniversary show. Still a lot of intrigue with whatever happens with the title unification, though the Naito fan in me despairs a bit.

I'll close with this: it's entirely the bourbon talking, but I would have no qualms with Desperado Quatro Belts.

 

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Spoiler

Long reign will do that held by a true legend in Hiroshi Tanahashi. Look how Shinsuke Nakamura elevated the IWGP Intercontinental Championship into one that main evented shoes. Such a contrast between NJPW IC and WWE IC

 

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