NJPW Thread (New Japan Pro Wrestling)

Spens1 · Post #441 » by **Spens1** » Thu Aug 1, 2019 12:43 pm

Tonight in G1, Goto vs Ishii, a good example of why i got into New Japan in the first place and why i love this company. Brutal, strong style brawls. New Japan at its very best. Surprised Goto actually won since Goto is suffering (especially during G1).

I enjoyed every match top to bottom to be honest.

Shingo got Cobb's 2nd best match out of him so far (Ishii being Ishii got the best match out of him), surprised Cobb won but i guess it makes sense (since Shingo technically just got into the heavyweights). Shingo's G1 is on a knifeedge and realistically he is out.

Yano vs Moxley was top notch comedy wrestling with high drama (due to everyone being on a knife edge since he could have eliminted practically the entire block bar Juice and Ishii had he won). The finish would never had worked if it wasn't Yano :lol:

credit to Moxley selling it like he couldn't believe it. Its strange that Moxley has won over the crowd more than KENTA has (then again KENTA hasn't gone down as well with the crowd, tbf i think he's been pretty ok and is improving). Fun fact, this is also Moxley's first loss in any promotion since leaving WWE earlier this year.

Naito vs Juice ended up being solid but Juice did not look very good here (which is strange since he's been solid for a while, it was very hot in Fukuoka though) and even led to what i'd say is a botch and an injury to Naito's ear/eardrum since he was bleeding heavily. Naito is still alive in this G1 at least (not that i expected Naito to lose this regardless, its Naito and Juice).

Jay White vs Taichi was one of the more intriguing matches since its two of the biggest heels in the company against each other. Taichi actually played the role of the face somewhat even though it was basically them trying to outheel each other with shenanigans, i was sports entertained (take note other companies, this is how you do heel vs heel). Don't think i've ever been as invested in a Taichi match as much as this before as well, this may have not been technically gripping and maybe not the MOTN, but it was by far the most compelling. Also the post match antics with Rocky :lol:

Then the main event, what can i say, it was brilliant New Japan hard hitting, it was a classic NEVER Openweight match actually from a few years ago. It was glorious.

The post match promos for this should be golden (notably Yano's, Moxley's and even Taichi's should be all must watch videos).

Spens1 · Post #442 » by **Spens1** » Sun Aug 4, 2019 1:59 pm

Night 13 of G1 finished and, when wrestling is done great, its the best and this was a prime example of wrestling done well.

We also may have (well, in my opinion it is) a new MOTY contender and best match of the G1 so far after that main event.

Ishii vs Yano is a reminder that Yano actually is a good wrestler, its just easier being a comedy guy :lol:

this ended up being a straight forward match more or less and a good strong style match and Yano showing more of the tough Yano rather than sublime master thief. Couldn't ask for a lot more for an under 10 minute Yano match to be honest.

Cobb vs Goto as well was a very good match, i know cobb has copped some criticism but he's turning it on in the last few matches and Goto is quietly having a really good G1 in his own right (sadly it won't lead anywhere).

Taichi vs Juice was a classic dastadly heel vs face matchup. very old school 80's match with the heel and his manager doing what they could to cheat the babyface out of the win and it suceeding. Well usually at least but Taichi got the pop :lol:

White vs Moxley was again a very good match and a hotly anticipated one. as i expected, Jay took a beating and it came down to shenanigans by Gedo and even more shenanigans. Moxley came out looking strong from this one but the block is still alive. I honestly hope this is a feud they consider because this would be an amazing one for both men.

This main event though, oh boy. What. a. match. You can see they have known each other for nearly 20 years cause the chemistry between the two is insane. Takagi has made himself a legit heavyweight thanks to the help of Naito in this. Stardust Genius isn't just a moniker, he really is one, he's also insane. Takagi too showing why Dragon Gate had him as a main eventer and honestly, the draw, for a fair while. This was an absolute war between the two men, nothing left on the table, both men went absolutely nuts and delivered everything. I thought it was going to a draw (after thinking Takagi may pull the upset) but the running destino and then the full destino into the cover was enough to get it done. Honestly though, those lariats could be a finisher on their own, Takagi looked like he murdered naito. Takagi NEEDS to be a full time heavyweight and they need him as NEVER openweight champ ASAP (and then have him defend against KENTA, Ishii, Goto and all the strong style guys along with some of the top juniors and openweights, before dropping to SHO).

And we have Shingo and Ishii after this. That may send me into another dimension from how good it is (i'm almost anticipating it could end up being the MOTY and has a real chance to become an all time great, that's the caliber of wrestlers we're talking about here).

If Shingo and Moxley have shown anything, New Japan (where it makes sense of course, don't become WWE and raid for the sake of raiding) shouldn't be afraid to bring in new talent from outside.

Spens1 · Post #443 » by **Spens1** » Thu Aug 8, 2019 2:01 pm

Night 15 quick recap (since i forgot to post):

Solid night, if not spectacular night, Ibushi and ZSJ deliver again and Okada vs EVIL was also solid. KENTA vs Ospreay was good but a bit sloppy. Okada vs Ibushi will be for the entire block, if Okada draws or wins he's through. Ibushi must get a result to get through to the block final

Night 16:

We're very close to peak gedo (we could have 6 guys on 8 points, 3 guys on 10 and 1 guy on 12 by the end of the b block).

Taichi vs Yano was everything i ever wanted out of a comedy match and more. This is the greatest night in the history of our sport :lol:

Seriously though, this is comedy done right.

Naito and Cobb was probably Cobb's best match this tornuament. Naito's quietly having a very good tornuament as well (which is weird since he's the most over guy in the company but he's been somewhat overlooked due to Ibushi, Ishii and Ospreay being on another planet right no in ring wise). I loved that finish, tour of the islands into destino looked amazing.

Goto and Moxley had a solid sub 10 minute match, better than i expected in truth (not sure why my expectations where low to begin with tbh). Dirty Deeds was no sold essentially as Goto reversed into the GTR. Kind of surprised it didn't go over 10 minutes but we see why later.

White vs Robinson, if you watched their U.S title match last year you know these two in the ring is absolutely magic. Again, here in the G1 they delivered. Such chemistry is rare really. Robinson is the perfect rival for White. the fated pairings in wrestling if you will (Hiromu and Dragon Lee, Nakamura and Tanahashi, Shibata and Ishii etc) this is one of those pairings where everytime they go head to head, you know you're in for a great match. Being good friends in real life has really translated well into them being amazing against each other.

Takagi and Ishii was even better than I expected. Ishii doesn't have bad matches, please put the world title on him at least once (he deserves it for being one of the best wrestlers in the world over the last 3 years). I'd give this a full 5 stars, that's how amazing i thought this was. Good old fashioned, hard hitting strong style that never gets old. This is the first time since Shibata and Ishii that i've seen such an amazing brawl of a match like this. Shingo, Ishii and Goto as the stalwarts of this division (and add EVIL to the mix) and you have a big time division.

Spens1 · Post #444 » by **Spens1** » Thu Aug 8, 2019 2:06 pm

Also Quickly. Scenarios:

A Block:

Okada wins IF:
- He Wins against Ibushi
OR
- He draws against Ibushi

Ibushi Wins IF:
- He wins against Okada

B Block:

Moxley wins IF:
- He wins against Juice
AND
- Naito wins against Jay White (Moxley has the head to head tiebreaker against him)

Or he wins against Juice and;
- Naito-Jay White Goes to a draw; or
- Naito-Jay White is a double count out

Naito wins IF:
- He beats Jay White; and
- Moxley loses against Juice Robinson; or
- Moxley draws against juice robinson

White wins IF:
- He beats Naito (in which he has the tiebreaker over both men)
or
- draws against Naito; and
- Moxley loses to Robinson; or
- Moxley draws against robinson (he'd have the tiebreaker over moxley and moxley has the tiebreaker over naito with naito failing to beat either).

Now there are some other scenarios but most aren't likely (goto ain't winning cause goto is suffering and he's facing Shingo).

My guess is

Ibushi beats Okada with seconds to spare (like 5-6 maybe).

Naito beats White

Naito and Ibushi go nuts at the finals and nearly murder each other with Naito going over

Title set up after for Okada:

- ZSJ at Royal Quest (idk, kind of has to defend it against someone)
- Sanada at destruction
- Ibushi at KOPW (this will be a big show)

Naito on the other hand will at least face Moxley (guessing KOPW for the case with him defending the IC title on the destruction tour and Power struggle).

Spens1 · Post #445 » by **Spens1** » Sat Aug 10, 2019 1:51 pm

A Block final is done and what a night of wrestling and what a night of upsets (basically every result, at least on paper, the better wrestler in kafaybe lost).

Archer and EVIL had a pretty good match, it was an interesting one and certainly one that probably style wise did not suit EVIL which is what they tried to sell i guess. Either way i'd rather EVIL have won and looked really strong (him coming third in the block would have helped him tremendously).

Sanada and Fale, no idea why they had Sanada lose given he's going to be versing okada soon, i know it was a flash pin but come on now, its Sanada, he should have won and been on 10 points as well. (again, bullet club desperately needs a new #2, so either get Ospreay over the Bullet Club, bring in Cobb full time to replace Fale or go outside and sign someone)

KENTA finished the tornuament off woefully in terms of results, he's lost 5 in a row i believe. He should have beaten one of ZSJ or Ospreay i think but i digress. Also it will take a while for him to warm up to the fans i think but he's been decent but the fatigue has set in a bit. It was a very good match though between the two men (who go back a fair bit to NOAH and even a tour of the UK where Kenta brutalised ZSJ in a match).

Ospreay vs Tanahashi was good and Ospreay is freaking over, he had them 50% behind him in a match with Tanahashi. Great story told here in the lead up with Ospreay using Tanahashi's catchphrase and the respect and reverence shown. the match itself told a really good story itself (Ospreay trying to prove himself to be that upper echelon guy and Tanahashi trying to prove to everyone he hasn't fallen off). the ending was great. Tanahashi reverses a stormbreaker into a slingblade but Ospreay then a minute or so later hits the hidden blade (that is such a heel move by the way) then stormbreaker to win.

Main event time, surprisingly subdued by Ibushi's standards and probably for the better given for the G1 final he's going to probably get himself banned from Budokan again. It was still a great match but they (meaning Okada mainly) needs to actually start doing stuff in his first 5-10 minutes and not follow the Okada formula all the time as if he was setting up for a 60 minute match, it was a 30 minute block match, you could have gone hard from the start.

Anyway night 2 and i think the setup should be fairly obvious but if they decide to go for something screwy, oh boy (cause i can't see White beating Naito clean, but it almost has to be Naito > White just due to the final, and if it is Naito vs Ibushi, oh boy......).

Spens1 · Post #446 » by **Spens1** » Sun Aug 11, 2019 12:17 pm

B Block final finished and i honestly can't even be bothered for the final. I honestly cbf watching tomorrow. I like Ibushi and i like white but i couldn't care less who wins that to be honest. We're just going to have the tragedy of Tetsuya Naito and waste our damn time with him being in the IC title match, yayyy :nonono:

(i honestly actively despise that belt at this point given what it has been for the last 2 years). If there is one guy who i wouldn't blame in the slighest for going to WWE it would be him (sure he'd be buried but Vince would pay him like 5 mill per year so its fine :lol:

). This was some straight up WWE b/s (like even Ibushi winning and Naito taunting the hell out of him and using that belt to go for the briefcase would be weak). Hell i kind of wish he went to AEW or All Japan to show exactly what he can do as the top guy pretty much (and lets face it, Naito and Omega as the two top guys is a damn good basis), not that he would cause he's loyal to a point but honestly the company is not giving him sfa in return (yeah yeah that sad world title run he got in 2016 and IC championship). Naito and the IC title, its such good **** :noway:

In saying that the storm that is coming from the LIJ marks though, oh boy gedo better have something good for him or else this gets ugly quick.

Honestly though main event technically never really got out of first gear, it felt like they where building up then the end came very suddenly.

Yano vs Cobb was a fun match and Yano actually did some wrestling. It was short though but a nice undercard match.

Taichi vs Ishii was freaking amazing. no Shenanigans, we had Taichi straight up brawl with Ishii in an amazing match and he came out on top with the crowd firmly behind him (legit the pop was so loud you would have thought he won the whole thing). This may have been the best match of Taichi's career honestly.

Takagi and Goto was standard for the course, great bruising strong style vs kings road match.

I'll close off with this though, I **** hate wrestling sometimes. Should have watched the Aoki memorial show instead.

Spens1 · Post #447 » by **Spens1** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 8:40 am

Spoiler:

Spens1 · Post #448 » by **Spens1** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 9:54 am

So we have a G1 winner in Ibushi who is great but i honestly can't even get hyped about it after last night (yes i'm still saltier than the dead sea) and i freaking love Ibushi but i can't get hyped for this.

In saying that, i'm bloody afraid this idiot manages to lose the briefcase cause Ibushi (also given who he has to face in EVIL and KENTA, its not looking good).

Spens1 · Post #449 » by **Spens1** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 8:14 am

Ibushi is still the dumbest man in professional wrestling.......

He wants to face the world champ on the 4th and wants the I.C title on the 5th. So the Naito 2 belt dream is still alive in the most obscure and convoluted way (i still don't like it very much mind you). I'm half expecting Naito to just jump Ibushi at some point and goad him into giving him a shot (since Naito technically has the last win over Ibushi besides G1, having won at Dominion so he could make a claim, kind of). Power Struggle makes sense

I still say though, Ibushi and Naito's rolls should be reversed (Ibushi is a much MUCH better IC champ than Naito since his character reveres the belt rather than despising it, Naito is the most over star in the company and has the biggest ready to go storyline of the last decade perhaps).

In theory

Night 1:
Main event: Okada vs Ibushi (Okada's going over cause lolokadawins)
semi main: Naito vs White (Naito goes over)

Night 2:
Main Event: Okada vs Naito - winner takes all (cause okada can be a petty bastard and its beautiful, he wants Naitos 2 belt dream, Naito wins):
Semi main: Liger retirement match (Suzuki or Hiromu would be my bet)

Still though, they should have never really notioned the two belts thing anyway (as good of a moment as it would) and just had Ibushi win the IC title (and bring prestige to the belt, cause as much as i like naito, he's not the type of IC champ that elevates the belt, rather, inherently cause of his gimmick, he buries it) and Naito wins G1, Okada vs Naito on the 4th and Ibushi vs White/Omega (if they can get him back at least for a storyline to put over Ibushi) on the 5th.

Spens1 · Post #450 » by **Spens1** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 8:28 am

Also more importantly, the card for Royal Quest at the Copperbox:

Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki - IWGP Heavyweight title

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - British Heavyweight championship

Tomohiro Ishii vs. KENTA - NEVER Openweight title

Guerillas of Destiny vs. Winners of the RPW Road to Royal Quest tournament - IWGP Tag Team titles

SANADA and Tetsuya Naito vs. Jay White and Chase Owens

Juice Robinson and Kota Ibushi vs. Yujiro Takahashi and Hikuleo

Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino and Ren Narita vs. Rocky Romero, YOH, SHO

The three single matches are all amazing on paper but Ishii vs KENTA, especially after G1. Oh, my, god. There's a steadfast rule i stand by when it comes to New Japan that has always held true, Tomohiro Ishii doesn't have bad matches. Ishii vs KENTA will be amazing, especially as its heel KENTA vs Ishii. Expect some Kings Road goodness with this one.

Okada vs Suzuki will be a clinic, obviously Okada will win, but he probably doesn't come out of the match in one piece.

Sabre Jr vs Tanahashi will be interesting, its a down year for Sabre Jr overall so he may just lose this one, but Tanahashi is broken and he is going down the card seemingly so ZSJ may just send him into another break (which he needs honestly).

G.O.D vs the winners of the tag team tornuament (probably Aussie Open) will be a great match and hopefully means more teams being introduced (cause the tag team title scene is horrific).

Naito and Sanada vs White and Owens is setting up the Naito vs White feud (so maybe that match happens earlier than we think, Destruction main event makes sense). I thought we'd get Naito vs Taichi here (given the top 2 matches are suzuki-gun ones and Taichi is without a match here).

Juice and Kota both get filler matches here whilst they wait upon their matches (for Kota, briefcase defenses against EVIL and KENTA, for Juice, waiting upon that Moxley title match)

Shota and Narita with Taguchi vs Rocky, Sho and Yoh. I'm intrigued, could they have Shota and Narita get a jr tag team title match. Shota (or narita) could pin Rocky to send them on excursion.

Spens1 · Post #451 » by **Spens1** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 12:25 pm

So night 1 of the Super J Cup has shown (finally) and it was a very good much between Amazing Red vs Ospreay (red doesn't look like a man about to retire and Ospreay, well, he's amazing in that ring).

Early upset as Taiji Ishimori lost to SHO, bit surprised but ELP beat Eagles so they probably wanted to even the score there. Then again i think Ishimori is a clear #2 atm in the division whilst Hiromu is out (and a strong #3 even with him there, probably the #2 once Ospreay goes up) but it is a cup so someone has to lose early i guess.

Not a fan of Gresham losing in the first round, think he could do a lot more to be honest in the tornuament (having a Jr heavyweight ZSJ is great).

Anyway, Cain Velasquez was seen at the Super J Cup and is apparently in talks with New Japan (along with other companies, you can bet AEW and the WWE are in on that as well) to appear for the promotion.

Spens1 · Post #452 » by **Spens1** » Thu Aug 29, 2019 11:30 pm

A few announcements

Jay White will challenge Tetsuya Naito at Destruction at Kobe for the IC title. Interesting implications here since many thought it would be the night 1 WK main event (i think it means White either wins or Naito wins and we see a change of plans).

Also the Young Lion cup will return this year (first in 2 years and only the 2nd in 14).

The competitors are as follows:

New Japan Dojo:
Shota Umino
Ren Narita
Yuya Uemura
Yota Tsuji

L.A Dojo:
Clark Connors
Karl Fredericks
Alex Coughlin

Fale Dojo (NZ):
Micheal Richards

The cup will be held through the destruction tour in september. One would have to say that Umino or Narita will be the heavy favourites i'd imagine with maybe Connors and Fredericks also being a chance.

Spens1 · Post #453 » by **Spens1** » Sun Sep 1, 2019 7:17 am

Spoiler:

Non spoiler, FITE had major issues with the streaming and people where pissed, no wonder Craven got fired for this and the Super J stuff. They needed both on New Japan World and even if you can get a small channel to show some of it live on tv, even better (AXS for the Super J in a similar way to how TV asahi does it and some small UK channel for this would have been good).

Spens1 · Post #454 » by **Spens1** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 12:28 am

Some info on the King of Pro Wrestling and Destruction Tour cards have been announced (along with the road to destruction night 1 being announced).

We know that Okada vs Sanada 577 is going to be the KOPW main event. Also, Moxley will defend against Juice Robinson in a no DQ match. Ospreay will defend the Jr Heavyweight title against El Phantasmo. The rest of the card will be announced later but being a big 4 show, we'll probably get a ic title match and/or a briefcase defence.

Destruction at Beppu (Sept 15) sees ZSJ vs Tanahashi 525 for the British Heavyweight Championship. On this card as well, Ishii and Yoshi Hashi :lol:

face Guerillas of Destiny. The undercard includes Naito and Evil vs White and Owens, Sanada, Bushi and Takagi vs Okada, Goto and Romero along with the Young lions cup matches of Tsuji vs Fredericks and Umino vs Coughlin.

At Destruction at Kagoshima (Sept 16), Kota Ibushi will defend the WK contract against KENTA. This is in Ibushi's hometown so result seems a given. The Jr heavyweight tag team titles will be on the line as Birds of Prey (Ospreay & Eagles) will face the champs, ELP and Ishimori. Naito & EVIL will face White and Takahashi (Naito and Takahashi of course being former tag team partners in No Limits way back when so their is history there), another Okada, Goto, Romero vs Sanada, Shingo and Bushi match. The two young lion matches here being Narita vs Richards and Uemura vs Connors.

Destruction at Kobe (Sept 22) sees as we said, Naito defend the IC title against White. Shingo vs Goto in the semi-main (that should be a good one and may defacto be a #1 contenders match for the NEVER openweight title), Okada and R3K vs EVIL, Sanada and Bushi (the main heavyweight tag vs the main jr tag team of the last couple of years, i'm intrigued). Also Ibushi, Ishii, Yoshi Hashi, Ospreay and Eagles vs G.O.D, KENTA, El Phantasmo and Ishimori with young lions cup matches of Umino vs Fredericks and Narita vs Connors (this is the one i want to see since i'd rate both the best in their respective dojos).

After this, we should know the IC title scene and the Briefcase scene, but surprisingly enough, no idea who their next defences are (i thought Ibushi vs Kenta would be the big KOPW defence and Naito vs White would be the night 1 WK main event, granted, the latter could still be the case).

I'm looking forward to Ibushi vs KENTA (cause Ibushi doesn't have bad matches) and Shingo vs Goto (cause if its anything like their G1 match, this should be amazing). Jr Heavyweight tag team titles and the jr heavyweight title matchup should be interesting, though the jr heavyweight division seems to kind of be just waiting for Hiromu to come back at this point.

Spens1 · Post #455 » by **Spens1** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 2:18 am

Road to Destruction Night 1 and the young Lions cup started:

First we had Coughlin and Tsuji face off and i was so impressed with Couglin, his chops were so good (as good as anyone on the roster, young lion or not). Tsuji looked bad in comparison. His aggressiveness was really something else, i'm thinking he'd make a brilliant, aggressive heel in the future (Bullet Club for sure).

Then Clark Connors and Shota Umino, both went hard here and fast. The ending was rather sudden as Connors hit a flash spear and then got him into the Boston Crab and Umino tapped (but it didn't look like he tapped).

I honestly did not watch anything else on the show cause this is super long tour and a lot of these matches are going to repeat constantly (and most of them are leading to repeat singles matches like Okada vs Sanada and Tanahashi vs ZSJ, so i'd rather just watch the match itself than really pay close attention to the build).

Spens1 · Post #456 » by **Spens1** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:07 am

Destruction tour finished and pretty much what you'd expect occured (except the young lions cup perhaps)

Fredericks took out the young lions cup, finishing on 12 points with Umino and Narita in joint 2nd on 10, i should have seen this coming since Fredericks has experience in the indy's and is older as well (i think he's about 28 as well, making him the oldest). It still is a shock that Umino didn't win or even Narita but its not a bad choice at all. I think the three L.A guys, Narita, Umino and even Uemura all looked really good. I think Tsuji was ok this tornuament (didn't stand out as much as the others) and Richards was probably the most dissappointing but by no means was he bad.

Jay White beat Naito for the IC title in a result everyone could have seen a mile away. Its clear that Naito will challenge white and win, then okada on night 2 (whether they screw him over remains to be seen). I still don't like it that much, would have rather have had White vs Ibushi as the main IC title match leading into WK as it could have elevated the title (which Ibushi was doing a great job of when he was champ) rather than it being the afterthought to the world title.

ZSJ beat Tanahashi in an amazing matchup, with Tanahashi doing all he could to retain but ZSJ was just too strong

Goto actually beat Shingo in an absolute banger of a match, true strong style here on display. Kind of surpried Goto won but i guess Shingo technically only became a heavyweight recently (and Goto is challenging for the IC title, which he will most certainly lose).

Ibushi retained the Briefcase earlier on tour after having a solid match with KENTA, EVIL came out after and challenged for the briefcase.

Birds of Prey (Ospreay + Eagles) failed to win the IWGP tag team titles off of Ishimori & El Phantasmo after Ishimori smashed eagles with the belt which led to shenanigans.

G.O.D also retained their belts against Ishii and Yoshi Hashi ( :lol:

) with Tacos taking the pin. However Roppongi 3K may be moving up to heavyweight as they got a big title win over The Guerillas (i hope they do, not much for Roppongi 3K to do and if Kawato is close to coming back, he could be slot into the jr hevayweight division easily).

Of course we also had the Sanada vs Okada build which really heated up, Hopefully Sanada signs a long term deal so they really go all in on him next year or the year after that (after Naito and Ibushi, i think he has a good chance of being the next champ after that perhaps and probably taking the title of LIJ's Ace off of Naito, cause this Naito run here is probably his last as a main eventer, or at least as the #2 guy in the company, with it more than likely Sanada replaces him in that top 4).

Spens1 · Post #457 » by **Spens1** » Wed Sep 25, 2019 11:36 am

Shota Umino and Ren Narita are both going on excursion.

Umino is going to Rev Pro in the UK for his excursion and Narita is going to L.A Dojo and probably touring around there (he also had a backstage promo where he asked to train with Shibata).

Note that Narita isn't going directly to ROH which is interesting (hopefully that means that the partnership is dead and they can partner up with either Impact or MLW even).

So now we know those two are going, i kind of want to see what they do with the L.A dojo young lions.

Spens1 · Post #458 » by **Spens1** » Sun Oct 6, 2019 7:43 am

So apparently (if rumours are true) Harold Meij and Minoru Suzuki could be done with New Japan after wrestle kingdom. Suzuki is unhappy with his current place on the card (i mean i have no idea what he expects to be honest, given that he's 50 and is slowing down now). That would be interesting for Suzuki-Gun at least and what could happen to them (logic would dictate ZSJ or Taichi but maybe they go left field and have Sanada or even Ibushi take over). Also apparently all of Suzuki-Gun but ZSJ are freelancers (i'm kind of surprised Taichi and El Desparado aren't signed in tbh). It would be so weird without seeing Suzuki around however, he's been around for basically my entire New Japan fandom (i started in watching around 2013)

Dragon Lee also tweeted some stuff about Japan and to Hiromu, indicating that after being fired, he could be going to New Japan full time (that would be a good call by him and New Japan should be all over that, with Ospreay about to go heavyweight, they'll need a good 2nd to Hiromu in the jr heavyweight division and a pure face).

Hirai Kawato also apparently has had a serious injury and was back in Japan, however this has been disputed by the Super J Podcast who have said it isn't that serious and Oka has had some family problems and is back in Japan right now training at the Dojo (maybe getting ready to debut). Kawato and Oka i hope debut sometime soon (hopefully with new gimmicks), KOPW is usually around the time for some debuts to be honest. Kawato also would be a welcome addition to the jr heavyweight division but if his CMLL performances are anything to go off of, i'm a bit skeptical as to how good he will be (that class in general just seems cursed, started off very promising, but ultimately no one so far has lived up to the promise).

Honestly, with Umino and Narita going off on excursion, i'm excited to see who replaces them.

Also, New Japan is considering/probably building a Dojo in the UK, meaning talent from all over europe could be coming over (which would be great to be honest). With Rev Pro being there their is a good base (which is something that New japan doesn't have in north america at the moment).

NinjaBro · Post #459 » by **NinjaBro** » Sun Oct 6, 2019 7:57 pm

Spoiler:

Spens1 wrote:So apparently (if rumours are true) Harold Meij and Minoru Suzuki could be done with New Japan after wrestle kingdom. Suzuki is unhappy with his current place on the card (i mean i have no idea what he expects to be honest, given that he's 50 and is slowing down now). That would be interesting for Suzuki-Gun at least and what could happen to them (logic would dictate ZSJ or Taichi but maybe they go left field and have Sanada or even Ibushi take over). Also apparently all of Suzuki-Gun but ZSJ are freelancers (i'm kind of surprised Taichi and El Desparado aren't signed in tbh). It would be so weird without seeing Suzuki around however, he's been around for basically my entire New Japan fandom (i started in watching around 2013)

Dragon Lee also tweeted some stuff about Japan and to Hiromu, indicating that after being fired, he could be going to New Japan full time (that would be a good call by him and New Japan should be all over that, with Ospreay about to go heavyweight, they'll need a good 2nd to Hiromu in the jr heavyweight division and a pure face).

Hirai Kawato also apparently has had a serious injury and was back in Japan, however this has been disputed by the Super J Podcast who have said it isn't that serious and Oka has had some family problems and is back in Japan right now training at the Dojo (maybe getting ready to debut). Kawato and Oka i hope debut sometime soon (hopefully with new gimmicks), KOPW is usually around the time for some debuts to be honest. Kawato also would be a welcome addition to the jr heavyweight division but if his CMLL performances are anything to go off of, i'm a bit skeptical as to how good he will be (that class in general just seems cursed, started off very promising, but ultimately no one so far has lived up to the promise).

Honestly, with Umino and Narita going off on excursion, i'm excited to see who replaces them.

Also, New Japan is considering/probably building a Dojo in the UK, meaning talent from all over europe could be coming over (which would be great to be honest). With Rev Pro being there their is a good base (which is something that New japan doesn't have in north america at the moment).

Hey Spens, on this week's VOW Joe Lanza had a segment where he said that producer Dan from the Super J Cast got berated by a NJPW executive after some info leaked on their podcast that New Japan officials didn't want out. Lanza said that this was a few episodes back and they talked about the incident on air. Have you heard of this and remember which episode it was? I listen to Super J every week and I don't recall them talking about it, I must've been doing something else while I was casually listening to it. Apparently the NPJW was furious and it got really heated. I need to go back for a full listen. Might've had something to do with the Suzuki or Harold Meij news coming out now.

Spens1 · Post #460 » by **Spens1** » Mon Oct 7, 2019 6:04 am

NinjaBro wrote:
Spoiler:
Spens1 wrote:So apparently (if rumours are true) Harold Meij and Minoru Suzuki could be done with New Japan after wrestle kingdom. Suzuki is unhappy with his current place on the card (i mean i have no idea what he expects to be honest, given that he's 50 and is slowing down now). That would be interesting for Suzuki-Gun at least and what could happen to them (logic would dictate ZSJ or Taichi but maybe they go left field and have Sanada or even Ibushi take over). Also apparently all of Suzuki-Gun but ZSJ are freelancers (i'm kind of surprised Taichi and El Desparado aren't signed in tbh). It would be so weird without seeing Suzuki around however, he's been around for basically my entire New Japan fandom (i started in watching around 2013)

Dragon Lee also tweeted some stuff about Japan and to Hiromu, indicating that after being fired, he could be going to New Japan full time (that would be a good call by him and New Japan should be all over that, with Ospreay about to go heavyweight, they'll need a good 2nd to Hiromu in the jr heavyweight division and a pure face).

Hirai Kawato also apparently has had a serious injury and was back in Japan, however this has been disputed by the Super J Podcast who have said it isn't that serious and Oka has had some family problems and is back in Japan right now training at the Dojo (maybe getting ready to debut). Kawato and Oka i hope debut sometime soon (hopefully with new gimmicks), KOPW is usually around the time for some debuts to be honest. Kawato also would be a welcome addition to the jr heavyweight division but if his CMLL performances are anything to go off of, i'm a bit skeptical as to how good he will be (that class in general just seems cursed, started off very promising, but ultimately no one so far has lived up to the promise).

Honestly, with Umino and Narita going off on excursion, i'm excited to see who replaces them.

Also, New Japan is considering/probably building a Dojo in the UK, meaning talent from all over europe could be coming over (which would be great to be honest). With Rev Pro being there their is a good base (which is something that New japan doesn't have in north america at the moment).

Hey Spens, on this week's VOW Joe Lanza had a segment where he said that producer Dan from the Super J Cast got berated by a NJPW executive after some info leaked on their podcast that New Japan officials didn't want out. Lanza said that this was a few episodes back and they talked about the incident on air. Have you heard of this and remember which episode it was? I listen to Super J every week and I don't recall them talking about it, I must've been doing something else while I was casually listening to it. Apparently the NPJW was furious and it got really heated. I need to go back for a full listen. Might've had something to do with the Suzuki or Harold Meij news coming out now.

Can't recall to be honest and i'm not sure what info they didn't want out either (not that New Japan can really do a thing about it).