KingofSports

But both the Nakamura match and the crowd during it were special.

 

They need to get this guy on the main shows quick. Anyone who looks at him as a talent that needs "developing" is mental.

New Japan first saw fit to put the IWGP Title on him back in 2003. Pretty much speaks for itself. Suppose WWE need to do what they need to do, but with language skills that only time will improve and already having established his in-ring credentials, it's a bit odd that he should end up in NXT, albeit the coolest of their brands. Anyway, better than him vs. Cena. If that ever happens, I'll cry and not in a good way.

Problem is I would have difficulty cheering for him because I can't look at him without thinking "cheesedick and dingleberries."

Ditto. Add to that; splay-feet, annoying thighs & a penchant for repeating his own name, I'm struggling to take him even half-seriously.

 

No Best of Super Juniors this year, as far as I can tell. Nothing scheduled for June & it'd be pretty redundant anyway.

 

There aren't any tour dates announced on the usual sites, other than the tour-ending shows, beyond Road to Dontaku, but that means fuck all and is par for the course. Confirmed dates and venues aren't announced too far in advance other than the G1 schedule. Dominion is announced. Shows will run between Dontaku and Dominion. BOSJ matches will happen on those dates, and Dominion will host the winner challenging for the belt.

 

It's far from redundant, if you mean that just because there is a Super J Cup this year. BOSJ is a round robin tournament which is New Japan's tournament, usually involving a couple of outsiders, and the winner is made to look a huge deal and their shot at the title comes across as a massive match, arguably the biggest match of the year in that division. Winning the belt at Dominion has "made" several juniors, including Prince Devitt. The Super J Cup is single elimination and has a much stronger interpromotional element. New Japan are the hosts, but its very much cross-promotional whereas BOSJ is theirs.

 

I'd be surprised if they don't have one this year considering they haven't missed one since 1990.

 

This.

 

Happy to take your word for it. I understood that BoSJ is a New Japan thing, albeit an invitational as well. As KUSHIDA’s the only outstanding homegrown Junior at the moment, presumably either he wins it (same old), an import wins it or one of the rookies takes it. If something else is on the cards, fair enough. Ospreay perhaps? I know nothing about him. Rocky Romero?..no clue why they signed him. All I meant was that if/when BoSJ does take place, in my mind it’s second fiddle to another tournament held on a grander scale. I’ll leave it at that, as my interest isn’t sufficiently great to argue the toss.

No Best of Super Juniors this year, as far as I can tell. Nothing scheduled for June & it'd be pretty redundant anyway.

Just a heads-up regarding NJ Cup. Whilst there are more cards on the tour next week, the only NJ Cup matches are Saturday (12/3), which will include Semi's & Final. I thought it was a longer Tournie, but having checked the last couple of years, at least, apparently that isn't & wasn't the case.

Only a week or two back, I was thinking it might be time for a Super J-Cup & that's now going to happen in August.

Shibata & Elgin have both signed contracts with New Japan (1 year & 2 years respectively).

FMW, which shouldn't even be a thing in 2016 are running a show on 26/2 with this as a stip:

"FMW Disbands Immediatly If It Doesn't Become A Full House Special".

I guess they'll be going for the smallest possible Korakuen seating configuration.

Full house (1,800)! Ray also appeared and states that she wishes to return to the ring, once she's beaten her cancer. I hope she can.

 

Ah shame been wanting to watch it for a while. that link you posted is nice on several levels

 

As with most of those movies I try to read between the lines, but the nuances are doubtless lost on me. With that one, it was as much the thrill of the chase as anything else. It took many, many hours over a long period to track the thing down. Finally got it from Hong Kong, I think. Whilst I may have tidied-up the summary of the plot, it essentially came from a movie review site...this one by the looks of it:

http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/a-human-murder-weapon/

 

I posted a few screen's from MAO's DVD a while back, if anyone wants to see them (link below - very bottom of the page):

 

http://puroresuview.blogspot.co.uk/p/dvd-puroresu-movies-joshi-modeling-etc.html

Totally off topic but did you watch A Human Murder Weapon with english subs? or do you speak japanese and i have to hate you forever

No & no. I have limited French, but found that to be of little use.

I posted a few screen's from MAO's DVD a while back, if anyone wants to see them (link below - very bottom of the page):

http://puroresuview.blogspot.co.uk/p/dvd-puroresu-movies-joshi-modeling-etc.html

 

As far as I can recall, the Jr. Tag-Titles haven’t ever really been a major thing and recently, they’re pretty much spotfests & hopefully we’d all seen as much of that as we needed by 2005.

 

Couldn't disagree more. Matches for those belts used to be outstanding, state of the art exciting matches when they were straight two on two matches during the reigns of No Limit, the Motor City Machine Guns and Apollo 55, and especially the rivalry between the Apollo lads and The Golden Lovers. Used to actually be a highlight of the cards for me as something completely different from the other big matches, until they got caught in this never-ending cycle of pointless multi-team matches where there is no build for anything and nothing is memorable.

 

 

Well, we'll have to disagree. Some decent matches from that era, but I always disliked the Machine Guns enormously, whether it was TNA or Japan and I don't recall any Yujiro or Taguchi greatness at any point in time. I was actually thinking more in the grand scheme of things, since those belts were first introduced in '98. Highlighting a specific & arguably debatable 2-year period, in the context of a 17-year history, more or less endorses the point. Not that I particularly care either way.

Kyoko Kimura took a day off from jumping off balconies & having lighttube fragments removed from her torso, to get married.

Following her fairly disgraceful shoot beatdown of Act Yasukawa in Feb. 2015, Yoshiko will finally return to the ring in March, possibly under a different name, working for Nanae Takahashi's new Company. She's pictured in the SEAdLINNNG poster (left) with a more natural look. Why they're spelling 'SEAdLINNNG' that way, I couldn't say. Only thing I can think is that Nanae & Natsuki*Taiyo are involved.

She went to have a concussion checked out & that's what they discovered. She was determined as having a Stage 3 tumour [on the scale of 1 -4]. I'm assuming inoperable means untreatable.

Joshi puroresu wrestler Ray a.k.a Lin Bairon has been diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. Very sad. She turned 34 on Valentines Day.

Kana (Asuka) has a background in graphic design & as a freelancer regularly changed her look, in terms of costumes, hair & facepaint. She certainly wasn't short of ideas. I guess it'll come, in time. Thus far, she's only had around 90 minutes air-time since joining NXT.

Can anybody sense an Asuka heel turn coming up?

Someone could have this to deal with before too long. You just get that feeling.

Just going back to the belt situation. They currently have 7 Titles, could be 8 by the time I post this. IWGP speaks for itself. In any given 12-18 month period, there will probably be 4 or 5 players seriously involved at that level, either as holders or contenders. In a situation where they had/have major stars on a similar level; Tana, Shinsuke & Okada for example, it makes perfect sense to create a.n other belt (I.C). Having elevated the status of that, it can be utilised in a similar way to the IWGP Title. NEVER Openweight Title (haven’t seen much of the openweight so far) provides the Company with another ‘trophy’, along the lines of New Japan Cup, G1 etc. In other words it helps create an extra opportunity for someone to say I’m the current….Champion, current holder. Keeps both workers & fans happy I suppose. Personally, I’d like to see more ‘random’ matches for that Title, certainly in terms of contenders.

IWGP Tag & IWGP Jr. Titles are historical, in the sense that they’ve been held by some of the greats and at times, had some real meaning. I struggle to reconcile that with the recent era, which to me, has devalued them to the point that I absolutely don’t care who has them. That’s not to say they can’t become something again.

As far as I can recall, the Jr. Tag-Titles haven’t ever really been a major thing and recently, they’re pretty much spotfests & hopefully we’d all seen as much of that as we needed by 2005.

Business-wise, the recent addition of the 6-Man Titles is a way to build-up feuds & give; 3 more workers a Title and matches a meaning, but whether you choose to care about it, is down to the individual. This individual thinks that 6-mans are shit, unless done properly (with psychology, a fitting story & a worthy match). I don’t see that happening any time soon. I’d put the belts on Bullet Club, make them super-heely & have multiple Japanese teams beaten by them, until X. Create your own ‘X’.
 

That would directly contradict the owner of New Japan, who specifically made the point that they are not and do not wish to be a feeder company, hence the contract restructuring.

Having just read a badly translated article, it appears that New Japan are in the process of restructuring talent contracts. Reading between the lines, it sounds like they were rattled by the loss of; AJ, Nakamura, Anderson & Gallows & don't want to become a feeder / regional Promotion. Sounds like they also want to make Okada a mainstream personality.

Hardy always reminded me of Drooper from the Banana Splits.

I would very much worry about filler. There's far too much of it & I'd include Jr. Tag belts & 6-man Tag belts in that, as they're tedious, meaningless dross. The Company is becoming stale & the loss of AJ and Nakamura, leaving Goto as current IWGP Title challenger, both sums up and pretty much kills it for me at present. They got problems.

Don't know if anyone watched the 24/1 FANTASTICAMANIA show. There was a great little match involving Kamaitachi, who I later had to Google, having not recognized him. Turns out it's Hiromu Takahashi. He was a 'Young Lion' until 2013 and currently works for CMLL. No plans for his return at the moment, but if that performance was anything to go by, he's come on leaps and bounds from being a generic rookie-type.

Cards for the forthcoming New Beginning shows. Apart from Omega-Tana, I've personally very little interest. Shibata vs. Ishii - that's already happened too many times for me, though I'm doubtless flying solo on that:

NJPW "THE NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA", 11.2.16
Edion Arena Osaka

1. Jay White vs. David Finlay
2. Kazushi Sakuraba, YOSHI-HASHI & Gedo vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi
3. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi
4. Tetsuya Naito, "King of Darkness" EVIL & BUSHI vs. Michael Elgin, Juice Robinson & KUSHIDA
5. NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Title: Toru Yano, Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe © vs. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga
6. NEVER Openweight Title: Katsuyori Shibata © vs. Tomohiro Ishii
7. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title, 3 Way Match: Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson © vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly vs. Matt Sydal & Ricochet
8. Special Six Man Tag Match: Kenny Omega, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma
9. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada © vs. Hirooki Goto


NJPW "THE NEW BEGINNING IN NIIGATA", 14.2.16
Aora Nagaoka

1. Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson & Cody Hall vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Captain New Japan
2. Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Gedo
3. Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi & David Finlay vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Ricochet & Matt Sydal
4. Tetsuya Naito & "King of Darkness" EVIL vs. Michael Elgin & Jay White
5. Toru Yano, Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga
6. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Hirooki Goto, Katsuyori Shiabta & Juice Robinson
7. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: KUSHIDA © vs. BUSHI
8. IWGP Tag Team Title: Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows
9. IWGP Intercontinental Title, Decision Match: Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
 

It was up, in full, a few months ago, possibly on Youtube (I forget). Not particularly memorable. First time I'd seen Dixon speaking at any length, apart from that I'm struggling to remember anything of note. Second half just seemed to be a plug for Alex Shane & his ventures. It's about the third British wrestling retrospective documentary in as many years.

Yeah, I know he does them periodically. Should have stayed retired from '95 onwards. Just sad really.

 - edit - Actually, thinking on, he had a very decent match with Sasuke in '03 for M.Pro, so I'll allow him that one.