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Sphinx

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I don't buy Jay White as a top guy at all. He went from being very good for a rookie to not good enough for the main event, because they pushed him too quickly to cover all the ground in-between. He can put on great matches with Okada and Tanahashi but, fucking hell, if you can't manage that you probably don't deserve to be in the ring in the first place.

I get that they probably feel the need to have a Western heel champion as their expansion continues, but he's not the guy. I'd have been throwing money at whatever other names I could manage, not pinning my hopes on him. 

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I'm choosing to believe that the Switchblade character is a snot nosed, out of his depth punk kid by design and not just that Jay White is out of his depth. Makes it much more palatable.

Of course, I'm aware that I'm deluding myself and that he's just a bit pish, but it's nice to have these little fantasies.

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Kenny Omega recently brought up that the original main event for MSG was going to himself vs Okada. So NJPW's idea for a replacement is Jay White. Christ. Even though it'll probably be against Ibushi or Okada, that's still a subpar replacement.

Reminds of WresltleCon last year, where Flip Gordon was the surprise replacement for Trent Barretta in the Best Friends vs Golden Lovers match. Nowhere near what the crowd were expecting or wanting and it went over like a fart in church.

The MSG cards needs to have a killer semi-main and a solid-as-fuck undercard, otherwise their expansion to USA is going lose even more momentum. Don't fill it with fucking Matt Tavens and Silas Youngs, actually make it something that could out-do WrestleMania on WWE's spiritual doorstep. Make it feel like a big occasion because that's what it is.

NJPW have got a chance to really make a statement with this MSG show and I hope they don't fuck it up. Headlining with Jay White is palpable only if he's dropping the IWGP title to someone deserving of that championship accolade. Jay White may have all the goods in the future, but in the two years he's been in the 'Switchblade' gimmick, he's not really cemented any confidence in being able to carry that company's focus.

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I genuinely prefer White/Okada to Kenny/Okada headlining the Garden. With Omega, you're dangerously close to reverting to "ah we've not got much else built and Omega/Okada draws" similarly to the Dominion main event last year. With White, you've got the redemption storyline which Gedo loves, and there's the obvious story between Okada and White which you'd be able to continue into the summer. Okada dethroning a legitimate gaijin heel in America will be a far better moment than him going over Tanahashi. I really don't think it'll come across as remotely sub-par, the crowd is going to be incredibly hot. 

I think they will go all out with the MSG show, certainly. I can't see a reason as to why they wouldn't, given the likelihood of ROH having much of an in-ring presence is probably going to be quite limited.

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2 minutes ago, AdamTH17 said:

I genuinely prefer White/Okada to Kenny/Okada headlining the Garden. With Omega, you're dangerously close to reverting to "ah we've not got much else built and Omega/Okada draws" similarly to the Dominion main event last year.

Pardon? The rubber match, and hotly anticipated crowning at last of Kenny? You're doing Gedo's booking an injustice there.

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16 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Pardon? The rubber match, and hotly anticipated crowning at last of Kenny? You're doing Gedo's booking an injustice there.

Maybe so. I just think they knew that Kenny was coming to the end of his contract and they tried to cram in too many stories in too short a time span. I don't doubt for a second they were going to do the rubber match eventually, but it just felt like weird timing. They were trying to play out the Golden Lovers reunion as well as the Bullet Club split, then realised they didn't really have anyone for Dominion and shoehorned him into that. Whether Gedo was always planning on that being his main event or not, I'm not sure, but it felt rushed going into the match. That's just my personal take though. Even if Kenny was still around, I don't think I'd have booked Okada/Omega V at MSG.

Edited by AdamTH17
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1 hour ago, AdamTH17 said:

Maybe so. I just think they knew that Kenny was coming to the end of his contract and they tried to cram in too many stories in too short a time span.

Everyone's contract comes up every January in New Japan though. Unless you mean "they knew Elite was happening and Kenny was probably leaving" which certainly wasn't known or a factor in Bullet Club splitting or the Kota reunion, rushed or fan-service as either may have been. Omega's title run being as short as it was is about the only thing that happened specifically because they suspected they'd lose him, I assumed he'd otherwise have dropped the belt to Jay himself or possibly to Naito in advance of a build to another Naito/Okada match.

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On 2/12/2019 at 12:02 PM, MVP RULZ said:

Seems we may have some news coming about the UK show

A major announcement regarding our event on 31st August, in London will take place on 14th February at 12.00 JST! 

Hands up if you've seen our homepage, where you can sign-up to our mailing list to get advanced access to any ticket sales!

www.Njpwuk.Com

So the major announcement was they have “3 top stars” confirmed for the show but won’t be announcing them until next week for some reason as well as a ticket announcement.

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So it's NJPW Royal Quest on August 31st at the Copper Box in London https://www.njpw1972.com/44495

Quote

NJPW Royal Quest will take place on 31st August 2019 in London!

NJPW welcomes you to the Copper Box Arena in London’s historic East End as we host our first major event in Europe!

Three of our top Japanese wrestlers have confirmed they will be on the card and they will be bringing New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s fighting spirit to the heart of the UK’s capital. We’ll let you know who they are next week at the same time that we announce the ticket sale!

https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/44497

Information about ticket sales will be announced next week, but make sure that you sign-up to the ticket sale mailing list to make sure you get first access to tickets for the event!

https://www.njpwuk.com/

More information will be released over the coming months including more wrestlers, meet & greet information and more!

Get ready for NJPW Royal Quest!

 

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More Kota Ibushi comments. Seems like he's finally gone exclusive to New Japan and is making it his number one priority. (Source)

"I really wanted to lay my cards out and shut down the ‘what about Ibushi?’ talk. Osaka was that chance. The Ibushi institute is on hold, I’m exclusive...This is the last decision I will make in my career. I’ll end my wrestling career in NJPW".

On AEW;

"AEW said they just want me in their ring in some form. The ideal for them was for me to move to America and be there full time. I turned them down just after Wrestle Kingdom...If I went it would be the end of my career. There wouldn’t be anywhere else to go after that. No step up, nothing left to do. That would be the last step to make, and after that things would just go down. Great money, but I want to keep developing".

Also, on Omega;

"Kenny wants to change the world with wrestling. I think to change the world with wrestling, New Japan is the best place to do that. That’s where he and I differ. I can do all that here. I’m all the places I’ve been, NJPW is the highest level...He chose his path. Good luck to him and I’ll be doing my best on my path. We might be together again one day, and I think it’s fine to leave it like that. It’d be cool to be Golden Lovers again one day, although by then we might be too old to use that name".

With the top of the card looking a bit drab right now in New Japan, investing all that stock in Ibushi and cashing in with a world title reign would be a significant step in the right direction.

 

Edited by Accident Prone
Edited to add the AEW comments
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I am concerned for the NJPW now that Omega has been replaced by White. Whilst he has improved I don't think he has the star power nor the ability to be a mega draw like the company need right now. They are very sparse when it comes to 'big' names with KUSHIDA, Omega, Bucks, Takahashi, Shibata et al all having left over the past few years for various reasons. We essentially have Naito, Tanahashi (not getting any younger), Okada (a little over saturated for the past few years) with Ishii and Suzuki in the rear. I would push Sabre Jr and Ospreay ahead of White from a perspective of great match potential. They must make this work or US and European audiences may drop off. 

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I believe they've left the door open for Kenny at least to come back in. He spoke about it with Dave Meltzer that it's stipulated in his AEW contract he can still work for New Japan. Jericho I believe has a similar stipulation too. I'm not sure if the Bucks, Cody and Hangman have a similar deal but Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho definitely do. 

 

 

Edited by Really Big Shoe
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