New Japan Pro-Wrestling General Discussion Thread

[Jay-Ashley]

Dominion Card​

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Chris Jericho

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Dragon Lee (c) vs. Will Ospreay

IWGP Tag Team Championships: Guerrillas Of Destiny (Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga) vs. EVIL & SANADA

NEVER Openweight Championship: Taichi (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Bullet Club (Jay White, Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori)

Jushin Thunder Liger & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr.)

Satoshi Kojima vs. Shingo Takagi

Jon Moxley vs. Shota Umino

 

[Pop Tatari]

So will Moxley be showing up on ROH ppvs then? They still have that cross promotion thing going on right?

 

[Jay-Ashley]

So will Moxley be showing up on ROH ppvs then? They still have that cross promotion thing going on right?

I believe they still do though it was in a rough area because of the stunt that RoH did at the G1 Supercard with nZo and Cazz XL, or whatever his name is now. So I think if RoH keeps making mistakes or such then New Japan may drop their partnership with them.

 

[Chris]

I'm not gonna make a full thread for it but there's going to be 3 of the Kazuna Road shows airing on World, so here's the cards for those three. Rest of the lineups are on NJPW's website.

June 16 (Korakuen Hall) --

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions SHO & YOH defending against Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo
Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI & Toa Henare vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr. & Lance Archer
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Toru Yano vs. Jay White, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
Kota Ibushi, Yuji Nagata, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV & Shota Umino vs. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI
Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado
Tomohiro Ishii, Tomoaki Honma & Ren Narita vs. Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI
Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura

June 17 (Korakuen Hall) --

Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, SHO & YOH vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Lance Archer, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru in a 10-man elimination tag match
NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi defending against El Phantasmo, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls & Ren Narita vs. Jay White, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori
Kota Ibushi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI (Tenzan's return match after being out of action with a knee injury since March)
Yuji Nagata & Shota Umino vs. Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare
Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura

June 25 (Sendai Sunplaza Hall) --

RevPro British Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. defending against YOSHI-HASHI
RevPro British Cruiserweight Champion El Phantasmo defending against Ryusuke Taguchi
Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toa Henare, SHO & YOH vs. Jay White, Yujiro Takahashi, Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Juice Robinson & Mikey Nicholls (Tonga & Loa are the IWGP Tag Team Champions, but this is a non-title match)
Kota Ibushi, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yuji Nagata & Yota Tsuji

 

[Snowman1]

I don't know though. Having G1 ticket sales so low (wish I could go!) does kinda shine a spotlight as to why this is a thing. NJPW struggles with the US to an extent, the Supercard wouldn't have done nearly as well without NJPW, it's too beneficial to both parties to let it go...

I wonder how AEW changes this though. I can't imagine NJPW wanting anything to do with this crew that used them to build their own legacies and are still trying to pilfer their talent, but they're taking so much of the American market from ROH...

Still. As a fan, I can't imagine myself not enjoying each NJPW big show, even if I struggle to write about it. Dominion ruled, and I wish for nothing for the best for these guys

 

[Jay-Ashley]

I don't know though. Having G1 ticket sales so low (wish I could go!) does kinda shine a spotlight as to why this is a thing. NJPW struggles with the US to an extent, the Supercard wouldn't have done nearly as well without NJPW, it's too beneficial to both parties to let it go...

I wonder how AEW changes this though. I can't imagine NJPW wanting anything to do with this crew that used them to build their own legacies and are still trying to pilfer their talent, but they're taking so much of the American market from ROH...

Still. As a fan, I can't imagine myself not enjoying each NJPW big show, even if I struggle to write about it. Dominion ruled, and I wish for nothing for the best for these guys

Give some more time and the sales may go up, but what also doesn't help is the fact that WWE is weak before the G1 and fans who like both WWE and New Japan will have to make a decision on which to go to. Though if they picked WWE, I think they picked wrong.

 

[Snowman1]

What could be great for the sales is the G1 card. This field is looking insane.

I saw a report about possibly moving it to 24 competitors (which I doubt, but.)

Okada, Tanahashi, Naito, Ibushi, White, Makabe, Goto, Ishii, Yano, Yoshi-Hashi, Fale, Sanada, Evil, Juice, Suzuki, Sabre Jr.

Then you have the 5 at Dominion that said they want in, which brings the field to 21, on top of the already advertised Lance Archer and Jeff Cobb, and they ran the angle last year about Taichi getting left out...

Who makes it in?

 

[Jay-Ashley]

What could be great for the sales is the G1 card. This field is looking insane.

I saw a report about possibly moving it to 24 competitors (which I doubt, but.)

Okada, Tanahashi, Naito, Ibushi, White, Makabe, Goto, Ishii, Yano, Yoshi-Hashi, Fale, Sanada, Evil, Juice, Suzuki, Sabre Jr.

Then you have the 5 at Dominion that said they want in, which brings the field to 21, on top of the already advertised Lance Archer and Jeff Cobb, and they ran the angle last year about Taichi getting left out...

Who makes it in?

Okada, Tanahashi, Naito, White, Goto, Ishii, Sanada, Evil, Juice, Suzuki, Jr., Yoshi-Hashi, Shingo, Jon, KENTA, Lance, and Will would be the names I think will be grantees with Jericho doing a run in or so.

 

[Snowman1]

Block A:
Okada, Tanahashi, Ibushi, ZSJ, KENTA, Evil, Sanada, Fale, Ospreay, Archer

Block B:
Naito, Ishii, Yano, Juice, Goto, White, Cobb, Takagi, Taichi, Moxley

Let's do this! :win:

 

[Rosie]

Predicting Naito. I've noticed it is more common for the winner to be in the opposite block of the champion, which makes sense since most of the time they want to protect that match for Wrestle Kingdom and he is the most likely winner I see in the block opposite Okada.

 

[Jay-Ashley]

I will say Naito as well

 

[Chris]

Here is the full G1 Climax participant list:

Block A
Kazuchika Okada
Zack Sabre Jr.
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Kota Ibushi
EVIL
SANADA
Bad Luck Fale
Lance Archer
Will Ospreay
KENTA

Block B
Tetsuya Naito
Tomohiro Ishii
Juice Robinson
Toru Yano
Hirooki Goto
Jay White
Jeff Cobb
Shingo Takagi
Taichi
Jon Moxley

 

[Hoss]

Both blocks have some fucking banging match ups. The one guy I wish was't in this at all and would get out of the upper midcard/main event scene immediately is Bad Luck Fale. That guy cannot fucking wrestle to save his life. I don't think I can recall the last big man who was as useless as him in the ring. Maybe Kozlov but even he could move around bring some intensity.

Ospreay and Shingo being in this is pretty big for both of their careers and an indication that they are in fact moving to Heavyweight very soon.

I'm still hoping Ibushi gets to hold the IWGP Heavyweight Championship sooner than later. Someone like Okada, Naito or Tanahashi winning this would be expected. Hopefully they go another route and give it to someone fresher. Ibushi would be my first choice. I wouldn't complain one bit about Moxley, Robinson or SANADA though.

 

[Chris]

Bad Luck Fale been in the ring with some of the greats and still sucks I'll give Kozlov a benefit of the doubt in that he was only in developmental for like a year or two before they gave him his monster push and he had like no wrestling experience before then so maybe he could have been better but Fale has no excuse. He's got a great luck for a bodyguard guy, but in those G1 Climaxes I watched from 2013 and 2014 he was consistently having the worst matches along with Yano, who's also in this one.

 

[Hoss]

Moxley vs. Ishii might be the match I'm looking forward to most in this pool.