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NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam 2021. *CONTAINS SAKURA GENESIS 2021 SPOILERS*


The Natural

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Just announced. Can't see it drawing well as it doesn't have the Wrestle Kingdom name and 4th of January date. We'll see. Hoping Will Ospreay drops the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to Kazuchika Okada. Pretty sure Jay White's winning the G1 Climax this year.

Edited by The Natural
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  • The Natural changed the title to NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam 2021. *CONTAINS SAKURA GENESIS 2021 SPOILERS*
  • 3 weeks later...

The 3 Road to Wrestle Grand Slam shows before the Wrestle Grand Slam in Yokahama show have been cancelled due to Covid measures. Anyway the break will allow their fighters to rest up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Will became the first man to successfully defend the IWGP World title.

So later on we will see if Will wins at the Dome like Brock did, or Okada wins the World title and reestablish himself as the Strongest.

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Breaking news:

New Japan Pro Wrestling has delayed both of their stadium shows that were to take place later this month in Yokohama and Tokyo.

NJPW said the following in a statement on their website:

On Friday May 7, the Japanese government announced an extension to the state of emergency currently in place in Tokyo and other prefectures. In light of this announcement, as well as current COVID-19 infection status, and in order to prevent any potential further spread of the virus,  New Japan Pro-Wrestling has arrived at the decision to postpone the Wrestle Grand Slam events in Yokohama Stadium and the Tokyo Dome previously scheduled for May 15 and 29 respectively.

The company said that new dates for the upcoming shows are currently being finalized. They ask for fans to retain their tickets, and that any fan that is unable to attend the new dates will be eligible for a refund.

The only match officially announced for either show was an IWGP World Heavyweight title match between Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada for the Tokyo Dome event.

Originally set to expire on May 11, Japan extended its state of emergency until the end of May. This applies to the Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo, and Kyoto prefectures. Two more prefectures, Aichi and Fukuoka, have been added to the list.

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Incredibly discouraging and worrying for the puro scene. This setback I think makes it VERY hard to come back regularly until Japan as a whole has a handle on Covid, which may not be anytime this year, especially with how restrictive the government has been anyway.  

Time to open the Orlando DOJO and just ship everyone over for the rest of 2021. 

Edited by Hagan
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5 hours ago, Hagan said:

Incredibly discouraging and worrying for the puro scene. This setback I think makes it VERY hard to come back regularly until Japan as a whole has a handle on Covid, which may not be anytime this year, especially with how restrictive the government has been anyway.  

Time to open the Orlando DOJO and just ship everyone over for the rest of 2021. 

I'm not going to lie...that's actually a very, very intriguing idea. It's also wild as hell and won't happen, but it does make me wonder how successful it would be if they did do something that crazy for at least the next 3 to 6 months.

EDIT: Or, I don't know, why not have the boys make a shorter trip to Australia and run shows from there? Hasn't Australia opened back up to some degree?

Edited by Craig H
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  • 1 month later...

Interesting. I gotta think running the Dome right now is a risky move, regardless of the card. I love Shingo but I dunno how well this will draw, especially given the reduced roster they're working with. What are we thinking for plausible semi-mains? Okada vs Cobb? Okada vs Jay for the NEVER belt? I suppose they could do Okada vs Tanahashi one last time for nostalgia's sake but with no build and Tanahashi being booked lower on the card lately I dunno if the fans would really want to see it or not. 

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It really depends on who is available. I assume Jay White will defend the Never Openweight title but he was originally to defend versus Finlay, which didn't strike me as a big match up.

I am guessing it'll be six matches total and Shingo/Ibushi is the main event. Really need something different on the undercard.

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I guess NOAH sold out the Dome twice with weak undercards...but those shows also had huge main events and the promotion was red hot at both times. I wonder if they'll reach out to any outsiders. Seems unlikely but Okada vs Miyahara at the Dome would be a spectacle, even in the worst of times. 

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Now would be a good time to run Kiyomiya-Okada... but that'll never happen.

I'm unsure what the covid protocol is in Japan right now. If you have to quarantine 2 weeks regardless then no one will give up 2 weeks in America for 1 show in Japan. 

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I really hope Shibata never returns because I want him to stay healthy/alive but, as a purely hypothetical fantasy booking scenario, if he could get miraculously medically cleared this would be the time to bring him back as like a one time special deal. 

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On 6/17/2021 at 4:05 PM, Belgian_Waffle said:

Interesting. I gotta think running the Dome right now is a risky move, regardless of the card.

I guess they won't have problems with COVID restrictions, but they are running during the Summer Olympics (they are starting on July, 23rd) which seems to be insane.

Edited by Robert s
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Yano's KOPW Royal Rumble at the Dome, any body can join and any number. NJPW is renting the building because they can, not because they can fill it out.

Nagata and Tenzan and Kojima challenged for the Never Openweight six man titles, not sure what show. 

Edited by D.Z
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4 hours ago, Belgian_Waffle said:

I like creative solutions. Is Tenzan about ready to hang it up? Maybe promoting his retirement match in the undercard would help attract some longtime fans. 

I thought that he might be hanging it up when he lost singles match against Oka earlier this year, but it looks like it revitalized his career a bit instead. I doubt that retirement is coming this year.

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People should really check out the NEVER 6 man, a lot of fun, EVIL finally looked like he had some spark back and Togo still has the goods! 

Really looking forward to the Chaos vs 3rd Gen match (and the Ishii v Nagata and Goto v Kojima set up matches on the first) as well as what looked like the seeds to a Ishii v EVIL match down the line.

The young lion vs vet matches from the last two shows were great too. Definitely recommend Ibushi v Uemura, Taichi v Uemura and Zack v Tsuji.

Edited by Horangi
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  • 2 weeks later...

Card is set for the Dome, spoilers below for anyone catching up on the last few shows:

 

Spoiler

0. NjPW Ranbo for the King of Pro Wrestling Trophy 

1. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles: Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero 

2. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: El Desperado vs. Robbie Eagles

3. Kazuchika Okada vs. Jeff Cobb

4. IWGP Tag Team Titles: Tetsuya Naito & SANADA vs Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.

5. IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Shingo Takagi vs. Kota Ibushi

 

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8 minutes ago, Horangi said:

Card is set for the Dome, spoilers below for anyone catching up on the last few shows:

 

  Hide contents

0. NjPW Ranbo for the King of Pro Wrestling Trophy 

1. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles: Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero 

2. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: El Desperado vs. Robbie Eagles

3. Kazuchika Okada vs. Jeff Cobb

4. IWGP Tag Team Titles: Tetsuya Naito & SANADA vs Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.

5. IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Shingo Takagi vs. Kota Ibushi

Spoiler

So they're running back the tag title match after Naito and Zach? I guess, they haven't restocked the tag division. 

 

 

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Gedo has always leaned on gaijin to fill out the tag division. The pandemic has screwed that up and the only solution he seems to have come up with is “throw the Tekkers out there.”

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