NJPW World

[Guest]

What a showwwwww. Kelly & Striker usually piss me off but even they didn't seem so bad this time around. Yoshi Tatsu was a bit shit though, I agree. Sounded like a knob in the IC match.

 

Opener does what you'd expect it to, so if you're up for it you'll enjoy it. Note we haven't seen before but loads of fun with some class spots. The division is stale and desperately needs some Japanese blood, but these matches always deliver.

 

6 man was alright. Mark Briscoe looked ace and could easily get over with this crowd, Jay was probably a bit out of his element. Fucking love Yano and was quite surprised when his team won. Sidenote: I wanna see a Yano v Kenny Omega match and watch them out-antics each other for eternity.

 

ROH title, not bad. Crowd was obviously a bit flat but Elgin does some power moves - Lethal cheats - sets up a bigger match on the ROH Japan show which should have a really interesting atmosphere

 

Omega/KUSHIDA was brilliant. Absolutely adore both these guys. Taguchi dressed as Doc Brown was a class touch. Everything Omega does is so fucking entertaining, and his deceptive strength is breathtaking at times. That one armed powerbomb made me lose my shit. You can criticize the back-and-forth booking of recent months but this victory for KUSHIDA made it all worth it. On a standard card, this would've stolen the show

 

Pretty pleasantly surprised by the heavyweight tag title match. Usually find Makabe somewhat dull, but the team with Honma works. Easy to root for with good selling and exciting comebacks. Would've liked Honma to have got the cover but that's splitting hairs

 

Goto v Naito was good stuff but did provide me with my only real disappointment of the night. Goto should never be winning that in a million years. Heel Naito is ace and his cronies add something a bit different. I thought Naito could finally be a main eventer this time next year but they'll have to do some rebuilding now. Honestly, the three of them smash the shit out of Goto the whole time and yet Goto wins after a not particularly inspiring comeback

 

Ishii v Shibata was exactly what you'd want it to be. A gasp a minute (if not more, infact fuck it yeah they had me squealing about every 15 seconds). No-selling is like an art within itself. Was surprised that Shibata's strikes managed to look significantly more brutal than Ishii's about 70% of the time. Even as a massive Ishii mark, I was pleased to see Shibata get the win.

 

At first I thought like 'WWE's PPV pacing structure is probably superior to NJPW's, because I'm not sure I have the energy to get into Styles v Nak after being worn out by that NEVER match'. Quickly proved myself wrong. That opening sequence was insane. Was interesting to watch this shortly after finding out they'll be WWE bound. Shinsuke will be a god in NXT, as for main roster - fuck knows. I think the AJ Styles name carries enough weight to get him pretty swiftly over on the main roster, though I could be wrong. AJ's charisma has come along leaps and bounds in his time in Japan. Whether that's because he plays the disrespectful heel is possible, but I reckon this is the perfect time to try his hand at the E. Back to the match itself, loved the psychology of it. Leg v back. AJ playing possum was ace, as was the stand-off with Shinsuke eating the bullet AJ fired. That styles clash landing looked nasty as hell. I loved that you could sense the respect at the beginning of the match then as AJ dicks Naka around a bit, Naka starts to lose all regard for his opponent. Until the end and an iconic fist bump. Excited as hell for these two in the E, but they will be sorely missed on these shows. Stick the belt on Naito next. If it goes on Goto again I'll be peeved

 

Again, I think how on earth am I gonna be able to get into the main event after being drained by those two matches... nae bother. Okada's modified entrance was cool as fuck. The roar of the crowd before they even touched was invigorating. The slow start was the perfect way to go. Going into the match I was worried I wouldn't quite get into it because, c'mon, Okada's winning. But those false finishes were magnificently done, I fell for loads of them. I could nitpick at Okada's lack of selling on the legs maybe but this was a truly special match. Credit to Striker putting over the importance of the pinfall in his voice, something Kelly is pretty incapable of. Interesting to see where the main event scene goes from here

Edited January 5, 2016 by sj5522

[air_raid]

I could go into detail, maybe I will later, but for now I'm just going to say.... a deadlift superplex when your opponent is stood on the apron is an impressive spot that pops the crowd. A deadlift second rope Falcon Arrow is a bit unnecessary, especially when it gets 2, and the guy giving it then has to get pinned after getting conked with a book and a glorified cutter.

 

Fucking ROH.

[SiWri]

Other people can give you a better idea historically, but I'd say if you enjoyed last night it's worth going back a couple of years to WrestleKingdom 6 or 7 and working your way through those and if you have time, the big events like Invasion Attack, Dominion, G1 finals, Power Struggle etc.

 

Worth noting there was another show that just finished airing this morning called New Year Dash that is usually a good "Raw after Wrestlemania" type show.

 

 

There's a decent recommended match list here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZsZCBTpKjHzdbCpKZ1No1KAdpmOd2OcgSMfC1-oa7pI/edit#gid=0

 

Admittedly it's a mere 700 matches, but the ones with dark yellow backgrounds are good bets for the vintage stuff.

 

That should keep me busy for a while. Cheers both.

[Ambulance Chaser]

Don't want to be long winded, enjoyed the show as a whole. I think the Ishii/Shibata actually went a little far for my taste to be honest in terms of no selling and one upmanship, sitting down arms folded in the centre of the ring waiting for the kick, I don't know why but I mentally checked out a little at that point. I like both guys but I think the match almost became a parody of itself and the style.

 

Superb main event.

 

Oh boy, the commentary, I like Kev Kelly but I couldn't hack Striker, he makes me feel ill. Tatsu was hilarious, I spent 2 hours wondering if it was a wind up or a rib, he just never said fuck all or if he did it was a one word answer, very odd, I'd have liked to see Bobby Fish join the commentary team after he was in the first match, he comes across well on ROH TV.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Ambulance Chaser

[The King Of Swing]

Just started watching WK10 and I almost feel bad for Tatsu. Poor guy is clearly out of his element.

[air_raid]

So, here's what I thought of what I watched from Wrestle Kingdom 10.

I watched the show socially and due time constraints and not wanting to be up too late (having a job and that) the plan was to watch 5 or 6 of the last 6 matches depending. I considered Naito v Goto somewhat skippable, but I'll get onto that in a bit. Probably be unfair to not mention why I thought the first three matches were skippable.

Opening juniorweight cluster.... I'm sorry, I've seen this match. I've seen it so many times, I'm not interested any more. They rotate the names over time but after a few goes, it doesn't matter whether you're throwing out the Time Splitters, Forever Hooligans, reDRagon, the Bucks or Roppongi Vice, I'm dead to it. When Ricochet and Sydal were put into the junior tag tournament I immediately started tweeting about how they were obviously winning as the division badly needed some fresh blood, and then the company decided the best way to use this fresh blood was on the next big show to throw them out there with three other teams at once? I can't get over the gulf between the quality of the actual action (high) and my level of giving-a-shit (zero).

Yano & Briscoes vs Bullet Club.... nope. I love Yano's shenanigans but short of those singles matches that come around in every G1 where its fun to see who he's allowed to beat that he really shouldn't, he's getting slightly played out. I dunno, I just didn't see a reason why I should make time for this match. Time I didn't have, anyway.

ROH title match....... you know, I think I've gone a little past not caring about ROH and it's turned into contempt. Blame Davey Richards, back in the day. When skipping merrily through. We skipped ten minutes forward from entrances, and I had to see that retarded deadlift falcon arrow near fall. Pass.

So, what I actually watched. Kenny Omega vs KUSHIDA featured some great nearfalls and thankfully the right result. Frequently in the buildup to the match I've been banging on about "HE HAS TO WIN" and thank Christ he did. It makes up for the brevity of his last reign, I hope he gets a proper run now. Doc Taguchi made me chuckle.

Goto vs Naito, I was utterly convinced only was happening as a vehicle for Cunt Naito to get a win as his heel character seems to have given him a new lease of life. We were making for decent time so I decided we might as well watch it. It was quite enjoyable but I was more than a bit shocked by the end. Before the end of the show I started emptying my brain that maybe they'd given Naito his little push to give Goto a decent win to make HIM strong as next challenger for Okada, but rubbished that because I thought they'd probably blown their stack on Goto's big last chance last year and not pulled the trigger on him. As it turns out, that's precisely what they've done.

The tag title match was similar to KUSHIDA's match in that the feelgood ending was the only ending I'd have tolerated and thankfully they delivered again. It wasn't quite last year's demolition job that Doc & Karl received from the Super Best Friends, but nor did it outstay its welcome. There were a few times I genuinely feared for Honma getting isolated but they were dissuaged when they lamped the Machine Gun with that Doomsday headbutt. It's a shame that the Kokeshi didn't get the win but yeah, whatever. After both delivered some great matches in the Hard Bastards division last year, I'm glad the two of them have had a moment in the sun. Shame that Goto and Shibata have singles commitments on the horizon because that's a tag match I'd really enjoy. Also of note, Karl's "that's some Taker shit" on his way to the ring made me chuckle.

Speaking of which, Ishii vs Shibata for the Hard Bastards title was great. I won't lie, I suspected Shibata would win only because New Japan does its fair share of 50/50 booking and I thought off the top of my head that Ishii won their last singles match. At the start of the match I did worry they were going too far in the "letting the other hit each other" stakes and the older I get the more I wince at the "really twatting each other" stuff which can be a bit unnecessary, but once they stopped letting the other hit them and actually trying to do damage and put each other away, it became breathless. The flurries were very exciting until Shibata lamped Ishii with the PK, which I'm glad gets protected. I love Shibata, the sexy bastard. As much as I've enjoyed the matches in that division between Ishii, Makabe, Honma and the conspicuous Ibushi, I think the belt gains a little more credibility from being around the waist of Shibata. Although in hindsight, if Nakamura is leaving, Shibata really should be Intercontinental champ, surely? He still has that air of "main eventer in waiting" to him, carries himself like a star, and Id embrace his promotion more than Naito or (sorry) Goto at this point.

Nakamura vs AJ is my wet dream and the match I most wanted to see when Styles rocked up in New Japan. A very Japanese thought occured to me watching Shinsuke work the back - "the whole world knows you hurt your back, so I'm going to beat the shit out of your back." Just like Nakamura's arm was the target when he came back last time. There were too many sequences to mention that I thorougly enjoyed, and at the end I was begging AJ to "Bloody Sunday, silly piledriver, Styles Clash, go home" and kept shouting at the screen "Don't do something stupid" .... then he did something stupid. Went up top, got caught, paid the price. The sell job off the Boma Ye from AJ was brilliant. At the end I thought "That was a really good first match" and if it is to be the only match they have in New Japan, so be it. I got my moneys worth. My gut feeling watching AJ accept the fist bump from Nakamura was "Well, if he is leaving, he's just given the rest of Bullet Club an excuse to kick shit out of him, showing respect to the Chaos leader." Again, how little I know.

The main event, I can't say too much about. I'm not sure it eclipsed the Invasion Attack match because of emotional investment - I was desperate for him to win the belt at Invasion Attack but didn't know if he would so was into every near fall and off my seat at the end. Here, it was bloody obvious that he was going to win, losing to Tana at this point would have savagely cut his bollocks off for ever being THE MAN but even so, while the nearfalls themselves perhaps didn't fool me, after the first High Fly Flow (the first finish is never going to end a Wrestle Kingdom main event) I still felt a sense of jeopardy every time not-so-Young Hash went up. Timings around the tombstone, the dropick and the RAINMAKER POSE-AHHHH were all perfect, I got into it at the end cheering for Okada and as my mate and I speculated the "Shinsuke-killing" two short clotheslines and proper Rainmaker combo would be the finish, so it came to pass. Great match, didn't feel like 36 minutes. Tanahashi's run of closing Wrestle Kingdom in victory is over (Tanahashi fails in V6).

So, that was Wrestle Kingdom 10. It was a belter. I'm not sure I can go as far as Fin Martin who I read is comparing it to WrestleMania 17, When Worlds Collide, whichever Dream Slam he bums etc in terms of the best shows ever. But it was fucking good. Everything happened for a reason and it was all well-executed. Was it as good as last year with Tana v Okada, the stunning Nakamura/Ibushi match, the over-achievement that was Styles vs Naito, and the satisfaction of Goto & Shibata barbecuing Gallows and Anderson? I'm not sure. Except fuck it, it was. The right guys won. Okada won, KUSHIDA won, Honma & Makabe won. It's what the big show should feel like. It's what a WrestleMania should feel like and seldom does.

It does beg the question of where next? Goto getting another title shot feels a little stale but it would be sod's law that if THIS time, when I've given up on him actually getting his turn (and they did such a good job with his last shot at Okada) - he might very well win. There's never been a better time to try someone new on top. Okada and Tana can't wrestle each other again any time soon, Styles and Shinsuke are off. Speaking of Shinsuke, if he's dropping the I title to Kenny O before he leaves, that opens up the mouth-watering possibility of resolution to the Omega/Ibushi story coming when Kota comes back, with that belt at stake.

Final thought - it would be a really good time, with Bullet Club dissolving soon, for Suzuki-gun to come back. MiSu can direct his newest acquisition Sugiura towards Okada (which gives us a completely fresh match) until eventually deciding he should go for the belt himself. And having won the GHC and the Triple Crown, I think he should have a run with it and finish the set. KAZE NI NARE!

[Guest]

Good stuff raid. Enjoyment of the first three matches definitely depends on how open you are to the ROH style (Davey Richards can indeed fuck off tho), but I thought it definitely helped the show along better than last year's opening matches, despite the fact yeah these junior tag matches may as well be carbon copies

 

A couple minor aesthetics notes about the company in general:

the (main) ring announcer is just the best of all time, surely? Nothing beats wailing the names of wrestlers along with him. I'm gonna miss Karl Anderson for this reason

when are NJPW gonna get the rights to loads of their own bloody music? the dubs always sound shit and generic and come on way too loud. It should be something they are able to sort out eventually, surely? Was well pleased to finally see Ishii come out to a proper theme

Edited January 6, 2016 by sj5522

[DEF]

There's a decent recommended match list here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZsZCBTpKjHzdbCpKZ1No1KAdpmOd2OcgSMfC1-oa7pI/edit#gid=0

 

Admittedly it's a mere 700 matches, but the ones with dark yellow backgrounds are good bets for the vintage stuff.

That's fantastic. Thanks for posting. I've just signed up and that's exactly what I needed.

 

Would have signed up earlier but I was under the impression the android app was Japan only. Gave it a shot. Earlier and bingo I can watch on my tablet. That being said I'm struggling to get it to skip through without crashing but its better than nowt.

 

I have a ps3, ps4 and android tablet. What would be the best/cheapest way to get New Japan World on to my TV? I mean its cool on the tablet but I'd rather have the big screen option.

[DEF]

Re watching on TV via a tablet. I think I may have solved my issue. I've got one of these HDMI to Micro HDMI cables coming in the post tomorrow.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-High-Speed-HDMI-Micro-Cable/dp/B00NH12T9E/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1452638284&sr=8-4&keywords=Tablet+to+tv

 

Hopefully this does the trick because I'm gagging to give New Year Dash my full attention. The first half was great fun.

[Mr.E]

Re watching on TV via a tablet. I think I may have solved my issue. I've got one of these HDMI to Micro HDMI cables coming in the post tomorrow.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-High-Speed-HDMI-Micro-Cable/dp/B00NH12T9E/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1452638284&sr=8-4&keywords=Tablet+to+tv

 

Hopefully this does the trick because I'm gagging to give New Year Dash my full attention. The first half was great fun.

 

Awesome, let us know if that works, as I'm wanting to sign up to NJPW world, although not watching on TV is a bit of a bummer really.

[Linus]

Look at this Fantasticamania shirt, LOOK AT IT!!!

 

[JNLister]

I'm not walking into a pub wearing a shirt with "Fukumen" written on it.

[undercover elephant]

Jim Ross confirmed as the new announcer alongside Josh Barnett each week on AXS covering NJ

[DEF]

 

Re watching on TV via a tablet. I think I may have solved my issue. I've got one of these HDMI to Micro HDMI cables coming in the post tomorrow.http://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-High-Speed-HDMI-Micro-Cable/dp/B00NH12T9E/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1452638284&sr=8-4&keywords=Tablet+to+tv

Hopefully this does the trick because I'm gagging to give New Year Dash my full attention. The first half was great fun.

 

 

Awesome, let us know if that works, as I'm wanting to sign up to NJPW world, although not watching on TV is a bit of a bummer really.

OK so the short answer is I'm an idiot. I didn't check my tablet was mini HDMI compatible, which it isn't. Looks like I'm stuck watching on a tablet until I get a new device. However providing your tablet does have mini HDMI I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

[Mr.E]

Swish, I'll check it out.

 

Depending on the tablet you have....say an iPad....is there some form of cross connection cable you can get like apple > HDMI or am I right thinking that doesn't exist?