New Japan Pro-Wrestling General Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Forrest OAKADA
- Start date
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A great developmental jobber. Haven't seen anything from him in New Japan yet, although I guess he's not gonna hurt that much in multi-man openers
ooh:
Prince Bálor's NJPW Journey
Destination: KING OF PRO-WRESTLING
Date: 10/12/15
Destination: KING OF PRO-WRESTLING
Date: 10/12/15
- Team Liger vs Young Lions was a good show opener. ***
I absolutely loved how the match started. The Young Lions went heel mode by acting like "Fuck your veteran status" and decided to attack Team Liger pre-match. Team Liger worked through their trademark stuff as expected, but the Young Lions were highlight of this match for me. Gotta give it to Juice, he looked a lot more comfortable and this was his best showing in NJPW since signing with the company. Needless to say Tanaka, Komatsu, White and Little Finlay were sterling as usual. Dorada picked up the win for his team, which means they could have something in store for him.
- Tomoaki Honma vs YOSHI-HASHI was good given the time. ***
Our lovable bastard won, despite working through a back injury! Honmania is running wild, brothers!
Let Honma win the NEVER title at WK and let him have a good run with it. He deserves it!
- TenKoji, Nagata & Nakanishi vs Shibata, Ibushi, Goto & Captain New Japan was a good multi-man tag match. ***
This wasn't anything groundbreaking, but a rather typical multi-man NJPW tag match. It had a good pace, though, as we had 3 unpushed guys (Shibata/Ibushi/Goto) being teamed up with a jabroni (way to troll, Gedo) which pretty much guarantess them a loss, fighting the barely mobile Tenzan and Nakanishi (who was actually moving this time, wow!), Nagata and Kojima. CNJ ate the pin here as the opposing damn near killed him with their finishers.
- reDRagon vs RPG Vice was decent. **
I like both teams, but this was nothing special at all. The action was fine, but I've already seen this same stuff like a thousand times already.
I can't watch the same match a thousand times and enjoy watching it every single time. At least they've stopped playing the hot potatoes with the Jr. tag titles for now, though. Also, there was a botched finish when reDRagon hit their Double Underhook DDT/Wheelbarrow Suplex combo.
I have no idea whose fault it was, if Trent failed to get his shoulder up, or if Rocky was late to break up the pin, or Tiger Hattori botched his count, but whatever. I'm kind of thankful the match ended earlier.
- Kenny Omega vs Matt Sydal was very good. ***½
The work was crisp and they put on a helluva fight, but Sydal should've been protected if he's gonna challenge for the title again. KO scored a clean, decisive win in what was a red-hot closing stretch.
- Nakamura, YTR & Sakuraba vs Machine Gun, Doc & Fale was decent for what it was, but totally skippable. **
Yano's gonna Yano, hit a low-blow and steal the win. Best troll ever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I LOL'd so hard.
- Ishii vs Makabe was great. ****
This was pure violence, loved it and yet I had very little interest in seeing it. Ishii won via Brainbustaah after a stunningly beautiful homestretch.
Now, it's time to get this bloody NEVER title out of the limbo already. Add some new people. Shibata, Honma, Sakuraba, Y-H, Ibushi and more, please and thank you.
- Tanahashi vs Naito was good. ***¼
This was more of an angle and I liked how it went down. At the start of the match, both Striker and Kelly commented on how Tanahashi has stated (at the press conference) that he did not like the slow pacing dictated by Naito in their G1 Climax bout, it threw him off and led to the loss. So right on cue, El Ingobernable Naito slowed the match down in his awesome Naito-like way, completely dominating Ace of the Universe in the process, and just as Tana was starting to make his comeback, we got the ref bump and a Watanabe run in. Yup, he was the man behind that mask. It was a nice surprise. I honestly liked it. Watanabe took out CNJ and then started beating on Tana along with Naito. Goto and Shibata made the save and then Tana won quickly via High Fly Flow.
- Okada vs AJ Styles was a great ME. ****¼
This was not their best bout, but it was still great, I enjoyed it. I feel like it was a notch below MOTYC, 'cause it lacked the brilliant homestretch that we usually get to see from a big NJPW ME, but instead, it was telling the story that solidifies Okada heading into the biggest match of his life at The Dome.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: I watched the English feed and thought Striker and Kelly did an OK job. It could've been much better, but whatever.
This was a good in-ring show overall, but the booking problems continue. I keep sounding like a broken record here, but the NEVER title scene, along with the Juniors division and the IC scene are stuck in a rut and need some change. Pronto.
Prince Bálor's NJPW Journey
Destination: KING OF PRO-WRESTLING
Date: 10/12/15
- Team Liger vs Young Lions was a good show opener. ***
I absolutely loved how the match started. The Young Lions went heel mode by acting like "Fuck your veteran status" and decided to attack Team Liger pre-match. Team Liger worked through their trademark stuff as expected, but the Young Lions were highlight of this match for me. Gotta give it to Juice, he looked a lot more comfortable and this was his best showing in NJPW since signing with the company. Needless to say Tanaka, Komatsu, White and Little Finlay were sterling as usual. Dorada picked up the win for his team, which means they could have something in store for him.
- Tomoaki Honma vs YOSHI-HASHI was good given the time. ***
Our lovable bastard won, despite working through a back injury! Honmania is running wild, brothers!
Let Honma win the NEVER title at WK and let him have a good run with it. He deserves it!
- TenKoji, Nagata & Nakanishi vs Shibata, Ibushi, Goto & Captain New Japan was a good multi-man tag match. ***
This wasn't anything groundbreaking, but a rather typical multi-man NJPW tag match. It had a good pace, though, as we had 3 unpushed guys (Shibata/Ibushi/Goto) being teamed up with a jabroni (way to troll, Gedo) which pretty much guarantess them a loss, fighting the barely mobile Tenzan and Nakanishi (who was actually moving this time, wow!), Nagata and Kojima. CNJ ate the pin here as the opposing damn near killed him with their finishers.
- reDRagon vs RPG Vice was decent. **
I like both teams, but this was nothing special at all. The action was fine, but I've already seen this same stuff like a thousand times already.
I can't watch the same match a thousand times and enjoy watching it every single time. At least they've stopped playing the hot potatoes with the Jr. tag titles for now, though. Also, there was a botched finish when reDRagon hit their Double Underhook DDT/Wheelbarrow Suplex combo.
I have no idea whose fault it was, if Trent failed to get his shoulder up, or if Rocky was late to break up the pin, or Tiger Hattori botched his count, but whatever. I'm kind of thankful the match ended earlier.
- Kenny Omega vs Matt Sydal was very good. ***½
The work was crisp and they put on a helluva fight, but Sydal should've been protected if he's gonna challenge for the title again. KO scored a clean, decisive win in what was a red-hot closing stretch.
- Nakamura, YTR & Sakuraba vs Machine Gun, Doc & Fale was decent for what it was, but totally skippable. **
Yano's gonna Yano, hit a low-blow and steal the win. Best troll ever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I LOL'd so hard.
- Ishii vs Makabe was great. ****
This was pure violence, loved it and yet I had very little interest in seeing it. Ishii won via Brainbustaah after a stunningly beautiful homestretch.
Now, it's time to get this bloody NEVER title out of the limbo already. Add some new people. Shibata, Honma, Sakuraba, Y-H, Ibushi and more, please and thank you.
- Tanahashi vs Naito was good. ***¼
This was more of an angle and I liked how it went down. At the start of the match, both Striker and Kelly commented on how Tanahashi has stated (at the press conference) that he did not like the slow pacing dictated by Naito in their G1 Climax bout, it threw him off and led to the loss. So right on cue, El Ingobernable Naito slowed the match down in his awesome Naito-like way, completely dominating Ace of the Universe in the process, and just as Tana was starting to make his comeback, we got the ref bump and a Watanabe run in. Yup, he was the man behind that mask. It was a nice surprise. I honestly liked it. Watanabe took out CNJ and then started beating on Tana along with Naito. Goto and Shibata made the save and then Tana won quickly via High Fly Flow.
- Okada vs AJ Styles was a great ME. ****¼
This was not their best bout, but it was still great, I enjoyed it. I feel like it was a notch below MOTYC, 'cause it lacked the brilliant homestretch that we usually get to see from a big NJPW ME, but instead, it was telling the story that solidifies Okada heading into the biggest match of his life at The Dome.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: I watched the English feed and thought Striker and Kelly did an OK job. It could've been much better, but whatever.
This was a good in-ring show overall, but the booking problems continue. I keep sounding like a broken record here, but the NEVER title scene, along with the Juniors division and the IC scene are stuck in a rut and need some change. Pronto.
I'm a bit behind but I finally got to watch this. I agree on most except I thought Okada and Styles was definitely a match of the year candidate. It wasn't a fluid technical masterpiece, more of a gritty and sort of painful encounter, but I liked it. Okada really sold AJ's offense and there were several times I was actually cringing, convinced Okada was going to lose. I think Okada's performance was Flair worthy and I don't give that praise out lightly. I loved it.
So Okada is still champ, the Denver Broncos are undefeated and the Cubs are the odds on favorite to win the World Series. This is a good sports year for me
