New Japan Pro-Wrestling General Discussion Thread

[Stopspot]

Wonder how long New Japan will keep the jr belts on the Bucks with Matt's hand injury :sad:

 

[Pop Tatari]

Shame about the injury, when is the next event btw?

 

[Stopspot]

[NJPW News Updates] New Japan made announcements for the upcoming March tour shows as well as the NEW JAPAN CUP 2014.

First up New Japan announced that the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada will be going up against the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kota Ibushi in a non-title match. This has sort of become a staple of the anniversary shows to have the two top champions of their division facing off and these two have history stemming back in August of last year in a special singles match in DDT. Since then NJPW fans have been waiting for the match to take place on the their home mat.

Also announced is Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata taking on the current IWGP Tag champions, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows, in a non-title match. With Goto taken out of the IWGP Heavyweight title picture, there has now been a lot of thoughts that he and Shibata could begin a run for the IWGP Tag, and this certainly points to that becoming a reality.

The full card for the 3/6 show is below…

NJPW “Raising an Army Anniversary 2014”, 3/6/2014 [Thu] 19:00 @ Ota Ward General Gymnasium
(1) Raising an Army Anniversary Opening Match: Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi
(2) Manabu Nakanishi & KUSHIDA vs. Gedo & Jado
(3) Raising an Army Anniversary Special 6 Man Tag Match: Super Strong Machine, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Captain New Japan, El Desperado & BUSHI
(4) Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Prince Devitt, Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale
(5) Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka, Yujiro Takahashi & YOSHI-HASHI
(6) Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata vs. “The Machine Gun” Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows
(7) Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii
(8) Raising an Army Anniversary Special Single Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi

——————————————————————————————————————————-New Japan announced that KUSHIDA will be going an excursion to Germany in March and thus will not be competing on the March tour of New Japan shows.
——————————————————————————————————————————-

New Japan then announced the 16 men who will be competing in this years NEW JAPAN CUP tournament. The winner of which will earn an IWGP Title match of their choice, either IWGP Heavy or IWGP IC, for the upcoming Ryogoku show on April 6. Neither of the current reigning champions will be competing in the tournament, as the Cup is primarily used to build new contenders. [It is also suspected that runner-up will receive the contendership rights for the belt that the winner did not choose.]

The participants and matches are as follows…

NJPW “NEW JAPAN CUP 2014”, 3/15/2014 [Sat] 18:30 @ Korakuen Hall in Tokyo
(1) NEW JAPAN CUP 2014 1st Round Match: Yujiro Takahashi vs. Shelton “X” Benjamin
(2) NEW JAPAN CUP 2014 1st Round Match: Toru Yano vs. Minoru Suzuki
(3) NEW JAPAN CUP 2014 1st Round Match: Katsuyori Shibata vs. “The Machine Gun” Karl Anderson(4) NEW JAPAN CUP 2014 1st Round Match: Hirooki Goto vs. Doc Gallows

(5) Special 6 Man Tag Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi & El Desperado vs. Kazuchika Okada, Gedo & Jado

(6) NEW JAPAN CUP 2014 1st Round Match: Lance Archer vs. Prince Devitt
(7) NEW JAPAN CUP 2014 1st Round Match: Togi Makabe vs. Bad Luck Fale
(8) NEW JAPAN CUP 2014 1st Round Match: Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii
(9) NEW JAPAN CUP 2014 1st Round Match: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.

The winners of the first round will then move on to the second round matches on March 23 in Nagoya. Then the winner of those matches will move on to the semi-finals and then ultimately to the final match of the Cup on March 23 in Hyogo, Japan.

 

[THG?]

Some really sick looking matches there.

 

[Bort]

Well, holy fucking shit at Nakamura/Tanahashi, Ishii/Naito and Goto/Okada. Ishii/Naito was one of the stiffest matches ever, just pay attention. I spent $50 on those two shows, well worth it.

 

[Stopspot]

BUY DVD! YES VERY MUCH BUY!
Make Yano Toru much money

 

[Shadie T]

Devitt winning the tournament is my prediction. Such a bad ass

 

[Stopspot]

Devitt winning the tournament is my prediction. Such a bad ass

I don't think they'll give it to Devitt, in part because he's being courted by WWE, they aren't going to risk giving him a title shot when he isn't under contract (working the last days of his current one right now).

Plus with the way New Beginning ended, Shibata seems like the next challenger.

 

[Shadie T]

I don't think they'll give it to Devitt, in part because he's being courted by WWE, they aren't going to risk giving him a title shot when he isn't under contract (working the last days of his current one right now).

Plus with the way New Beginning ended, Shibata seems like the next challenger.

Proves once again how clueless I am about NJPW. Didn't know his contract was up.

 

[Shadie T]

Just finished Devit Vs Ibushi. It was very good but way too much Bullet Club that Devitt didn't even get his moves in, would have hoped it had went longer too.

Now onto A New Beginning with Timesplitters Vs Young Bucks.

 

[Shadie T]

Note: It amazes me how good Nick is without any proper training.

 

[B.Dazzle]

I love Shibata. He's quickly becoming one of my favorites in all of wrestling.

I've got to watch the last four matches of New Beginning.

 

[Stopspot]

Just finished Devit Vs Ibushi. It was very good but way too much Bullet Club that Devitt didn't even get his moves in, would have hoped it had went longer too.

Welcome to a lot of Devitt's matches since turning heel.

 

[Shadie T]

Welcome to a lot of Devitt's matches since turning heel.

It saddens me, his heel run character and heat wise has been awesome but way too much Bullet Club. Maybe they could put a rule in place to stop Bullet Club being at ringside.

 

[Stopspot]

It saddens me, his heel run character and heat wise has been awesome but way too much Bullet Club. Maybe they could put a rule in place to stop Bullet Club being at ringside.

That's not how Japanese wrestling works. It's common practice to have your friends/unitmates accompany you to ringside if you have any.