NJPW Thread (New Japan Pro Wrestling)

[jr lucosa]

I've been meaning to make this thread for a while, not sure how much interest there is in NJPW but I've been following them pretty closely this year and even with the language barrier I have been very entertained by every show that I've seen to the point where I find myself looking forward to the next show, so at the very least this gives me a place to put my thoughts on the PPVs and matches I like and want to go back and see again because I tend to forget.

[jr lucosa]

The next PPV is Invasion Attack 2014 on the 6th, though he is not on the card AJ Styles is expected to make his debut in some way, he recently signed a year long contract.

[skbucks1985]

I don't watch it regularly or anything like that, the language barrier is a bit too much for me. But I know a couple people who watch regularly and if they suggest a match to me I'll watch it. And there's also a couple people that I really like, The Bullet Club and DH Smith and Lance Archer's tag team the Killer Elite Squad (Smith is a guy WWE totally wiffed on).

[Marcus]

thank you based moderator.

[whysoserious]

I don't watch it regularly or anything like that, the language barrier is a bit too much for me. But I know a couple people who watch regularly and if they suggest a match to me I'll watch it. And there's also a couple people that I really like, The Bullet Club and DH Smith and Lance Archer's tag team the Killer Elite Squad (Smith is a guy WWE totally wiffed on).

I can't believe how they wasted DHS and how Tyson Kidd has done nothing.

[jr lucosa]

DH Smith was Nakamura's first round matchup in the new japan cup last month, it was good to see him in a 15 minute singles match, I had only seen him in tag matches recently besides that. I thought he looked pretty good in his role.

[skbucks1985]

So a pretty big story line development from NJPW's recent Invasion Attack PPV. The Bullet Club which is a top heel stable in the company, its leader Prince Devitt had a loser leaves town match with his former tag team partner. After a couple members of his stable (The Young Bucks/Generation Me) tried to interfere he took them out and Devitt lost the match and is now gone from NJPW. Later in the show the champion Okada was attacked by AJ Styles who is now the leader of the Bullet Club.

[Marcus]

So a pretty big story line development from NJPW's recent Invasion Attack PPV. The Bullet Club which is a top heel stable in the company, its leader Prince Devitt had a loser leaves town match with his former tag team partner. After a couple members of his stable (The Young Bucks/Generation Me) tried to interfere he took them out and Devitt lost the match and is now gone from NJPW. Later in the show the champion Okada was attacked by AJ Styles who is now the leader of the Bullet Club.

that is pretty flippin major. AJ isn't the mic gawd Devitt is but with the language barrier it shouldn't matter. AJ as a heel should be interesting. Wonder where Devitt is heading now. Hopefully signed that WWE contract.

[jr lucosa]

I'm just getting around to watching Invasion Attack, I was hoping to catch it live but wasn't even awake when it started which was about 1am here on Sunday.

I enjoyed the opening match, Young Bucks vs Ibushi & El Desperado. The Young Bucks have some very good double team moves.

Interesting watching the Devitt/Taguchi match. First off, this:

Spoiler:

The Young Bucks came out with Devitt to the ring and very early in the match pulled him out of the ring to help him out and you could tell he didn't like it, this happened a couple more times then Devitt shoved them both and they turned on him which lead to awesome "Lets go Devitt" chants that were on and off the rest of the match. No more interference after that, just a lot of close falls which the crowd was really into before Taguchi finally beat him.

The next match was Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale (Two Bullet Club Members) vs Okada and Yoshi-Hashi, shortly after Okada hit Tonga with the Rainmaker to win he and Bad Luck Fale had a staredown in the middle of the ring until AJ Styles attacked him from behind wearing a hooded jacket. He took his hood down and got a pop when the crowd realized who he was and then hit Okada with a Styles Clash. He called Okada a TNA young boy , said he still is a young boy and said he wants his title. Then took off his jacket and showed the Bullet Club shirt and did their club hand signal thing with Fale.

My favorite match on the card was the main event of Nakamura vs Tanahashi for the Intercontinental title, Tanahashi was doing a great job heeling it up and relentlessly attacking Nakamura's leg/knee. Nakamura would get some offense in and the crowd would start to get excited and then another attack to the left knee area would come. Shinsuke Nakamura eventually won after hitting Tanahashi with a bunch of those running knee's he does in the last couple of minutes.

If anyone is interested in watching the event http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1mr2c ... rt-1_sport

[Marcus]

Hope this means Devitt comes to the WWE. The Bucks are **** money in tag team action. the timing and execution is always on point.

[jr lucosa]

May should be an exciting month for New Japan fans.

NJPW Wrestling Dontaku PPV is on 5.3.14, card looks pretty good with a main event of Okada vs AJ Styles for the Heavyweight title.

Then on 5.10.14 there is the first ROH/NJPW super card called Global Wars which will take place in Toronto.

5.17.14 is the ROH/NJPW super card in New York, similarly named War of the Worlds

Then before the end of the month, on 5.25.14 they have yet another PPV scheduled, "NJPW Back To Yokohama Arena"

Should be an interesting next 30 days or so.

[jr lucosa]

Just finished watching Dontaku 2014, I didn't think the card overall was amazing but a couple matches really stood out.

Young Bucks vs Forever Hooligans, and I hope I'm not being a prisoner of the moment in saying this, was my favorite tag match of the year so far. Great tag team wrestling from both teams, quite a bit of action, many 2 counts that I thought might have been 3, everything was very fluid and very fun. I thought the match was 25 minutes at least with how much was going on, but they packed it into 15 minutes, in a good way.

AJ Styles vs Okada - First off I just want to mention how great AJ Styles looks in his role in Bullet Club. He fits in perfectly and if I didn't know any better I would think that he's been a part of the group forever. He comes out with the other members of Bullet Club, but after one time of AJ pulling the ref aside and the rest beating down Okada the ref sent them all to the back, with the help of a nice spot from Okada. Styles looked just as much at home in the ring vs Okada as he did in his new stable, they wrestled an excellent match with great reversals and everything being really crisp. One exception being the top rope backflip into a reverse DDT but even there Okada did a nice job helping him sell it. A little while later the Bullet Club members reappear, distract the ref and a hooded guy attacks Okada. Guy takes off his hoodie and it's CHAOS member (the big stable that Okada is a part of) Yujiro Takahashi, now wearing a Bullet Club shirt. He hits a couple nice looking moves on Okada and they clear out of the ring for Styles to hit a brainbuster followed by a Styles Clash to become new IWGP Heavyweight champion. The celebration in the ring by the entire Bullet Club was pretty awesome to see also.

I was surprised to see Takahashi there, he plays an undercard Val Venis type character. I find him quite entertaining so I don't mind, but it seems like a high profile spot for a guy in his position. It was cool to see either way, and I do think his character fits into the Bullet Cub very well.

[skbucks1985]

Just watched the Okada-Styles match and it was tremendous. The best way I can describe it, is that I think these are without a doubt two of the ten best wrestlers in the world and this match didn't disappoint.

I don't have an issue with Takahashi in particular being part of the group, but I'm just not sure putting an East Asian in the group is necessarily a good idea.

[jr lucosa]

I don't have an issue with Takahashi in particular being part of the group, but I'm just not sure putting an East Asian in the group is necessarily a good idea.

I definitely understand that point and I thought about that too but as I was watching the post match celebration in the ring and then the press conference type thing they held afterwards I think it started to make some sense. It gives the group a guy who can address the crowd in their native language. (This is assuming none of the other guys can speak fluent Japanese, I am assuming this because I've never heard any of them speak in anything but english )

I agree with you on the match too. After that match I have no doubt that having AJ Styles compete against some of NJPW's best over the next year should be a treat to watch.

[skbucks1985]

I think its a fair assumption to make that none of them can speak Japanese or else we would've heard it by now. There's obvious benefits to this including it being a springboard for Takahashi. But, regardless of whether its explicit or not, the fact that its a bunch of foreigners was not by accident. And now its losing a bit of that. If he's the only one then I don't have much of a problem with it, because he's the turncoat. But adding another East Asian could be the beginning of the end of the group.

[jr lucosa]

I enjoyed all of the NJPW portions of tonights PPV, the triple threat tag match for the IWGP Junior tag titles between The Young Bucks, Forver Hooligans, and TIMESPLITTERS being my favorite match of the night.

Some of the ROH stuff wasn't bad. The opening match was worth seeing for Maria Kanellis. The Main event between Steen and Cole was good except for a really bad ending.

[Marcus]

I enjoyed all of the NJPW portions of tonights PPV, the triple threat tag match for the IWGP Junior tag titles between The Young Bucks, Forver Hooligans, and TIMESPLITTERS being my favorite match of the night.

Some of the ROH stuff wasn't bad. The opening match was worth seeing for Maria Kanellis. The Main event between Steen and Cole was good except for a really bad ending.

Cole is one of my favorite heels in the biz today. Waiting on that WWE signing to happen.

[Dunthreevy]

I need to see some of this new AJ Styles stuff. Never seen him do anything since leaving TNA. From what I've read here it sounds like he's actually doing interesting work in New Japan.

[jr lucosa]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ssjz ... 2014_sport

Here's his match vs Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight title earlier this month. The celebration and press conference type thing they have after the match is pretty good too.

[jr lucosa]

War of the Worlds was tonight, very entertaining show. Show kicked off with a segment that made the IWGP title match a triple threat between Michael Elgin, AJ Styles, and Okada.

KUSHIDA vs Jay Lethal and Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs The Briscoes were both good matches, Tanahashi vs Bennett was better than what I was expecting, unfortunately for the ROH and IWGP title matches Young Bucks vs reDRagon was insane and sucked the remaining life out of the crowd, with only those two title matches left on the card. The IWGP triple threat still managed to be pretty decent and the crowd was trying to wake itself back up, but Jushin Liger vs Adam Cole really suffered from that.

Match of the night for me was probably Nakamura vs Steen, but honorable mention to Bucks/reDRagon, and really I thought the whole card was pretty good. Steen teased taking time off after his match but was interrupted by Silas Young. After the IWGP main event Cole attacked AJ Styles. Also once the PPV was over they cut to a video package of Daniels and a censored Kaz announcing their return to ROH, which I figured was worth noting.