NJPW World

[mikey]

6 hours ago, Michael_3165 said:

I think they are far from running out. They have this mental ability to pick out decent talent and run w them. For all White's faults he is one of the best heels I believe. Give him a few years and he will be having classics consistently. They also seem to really pick their new signees well. Ospreay, Shingo etc have all proven to be great shouts over the past several years. I have faith in their ability to make stars. Its just the time it takes. Ibushi (barring neck injuries) has a decade on him as does White, Okada and others. Protect Suzuki and Tanahashi and they could have give years left each. I'm unsure about the Evil experiment but it's best they try new stuff when crowds are low, their fans arent going anywhere. 

That's my point though.  These guys have had their bump card stamped a lot more than you might think and/or they're older than you think.  Shingo is 37 and Ibushi is 38, both have had serious injuries, both have worked a high-paced, high-risk style over the last 16 years.  Okada is apparently fucked because he's been running himself into the ground over the past 8 years.  Sure Tana is going to say he's the ace and people will pretend he's the ace but he's not the ace.

My argument is they're in a precarious position because their current batch of native stars are aging out and the response is that those guys are fine and that Ospreay and White will fill the void.

 

5 hours ago, danlewis said:

Hiromu is the next big star, there’s also Karl Fredericks, Jay White, Umino and Uemura.

If the main events consisted of them in 5 years time I don’t think it’d be a problem at all.

 

Before he went away (and went backwards), Kawato was a better worker than Umino was when he went on excursion.  Uemura is good but everybody projects what they want to see onto the young boys. I always say that if you go back and watch Okada in TNA, there's no way you'd think that this chubby-faced kid would steal the Pope's gimmick and become the biggest star they'd had since the 90's.  No freaking way, no freaking how.

Fredericks is good, though the revamping in Lion's Break Collision makes him look very 80's.  He needs that beard back, that bit of bad boy roughness.  The clean-shaven look with the hair and the tassels all feels like he's going to start doing a dance like Gigolo Jimmy Del Ray at any moment.

I love Hiromu but he's really small.  I don't see how he ever looks like a credible heavyweight.

In any other wrestling culture, New Japan would be looking at freelancers to fill out their roster or looking to smaller companies but they'll do neither.

[danlewis]

I think Hiromu is really credible, he just faced Evil for the title and it looked fine, he beat Ishii in the cup and towered over him, well not towered but he was noticeably bigger.

Agree that Fredericks doesn’t look quite as cool now he’s a bit clean cut.

I think Uemura is the pick of the young lions, although it is fair to say a lot of that may be projection. He just looks like an ace these days. In a way that Kawato never did, with his odd eyes and that.

[TildeGuy~!]

After the announcement of NJPW Strong(Their American brand that will run a weekly show that will be on NJPW World every Friday) 

A New Japan Cup USA will be taking place starting August 7th where the winner will challenge Jon Moxley for the US Title.

Also with Evil leaving LIJ and the 6 man Titles, They’ve announced a tournament to crown the new champs starting this week.

Edited August 1, 2020 by TildeGuy~!

[mikey]

7 hours ago, danlewis said:

I think Uemura is the pick of the young lions, although it is fair to say a lot of that may be projection. He just looks like an ace these days. In a way that Kawato never did, with his odd eyes and that.

Somebody on Twitter told me that if I can't see why Yota Tsuji is going straight to the top then I don't understand puroresu. 

[Michael_3165]

Njpw Strong looks interesting.. Have to see how that plaayss out. The one thing that always put me off about njpw was how they dont have an episodic, weekly show. Just conditioned by wwe to assume it should be that way I guess. 

[KingofSports]

Just referring back a few posts, with regard to the lack of upcoming native talent in NJPW. I brought this up in Oct. 2015 & again a few months later, also mentioning that it had been an ongoing issue, for a few years prior to that. Somehow, they managed to get through the ensuing time without it being too noticeable, albeit in all likelihood, to the physical detrement of some of the mainstays of the company (Okada, Tana, Naito etc). Creating new stars in NJPW is a process. Even the likes of; Liger, Okada & Hiromu had to do their young boy / rookie stuff, the excursions and so on. Obviously, you need the right guys coming through the door in the first place & for whatever reason(s), that by and large hasn't been happening for years.

For my own reasons, I watched so little of the lower card matches in the past 5 or so years, that'd it would be unwise for me to comment. Based on the tiny bit I have seen, Tsuji was the one who looked to have something. Hopefully more talents will emerge. The efforts along those lines, certainly seem more visible of late with Lions Gate & L.A Dojo.

[Michael_3165]

Just caught Wk14. Tsuji was really great. Definitely got something w him. 

[KingofSports]

That's most likely what I saw.

[KingofSports]

Just remembered when they re-introduced Hideo Saito in 2011, following his excursion. The guy looked a monster. He became Captain New Japan shortly after. To counter-balance, I did say Kamaitachi (Hiromu) looked great at FANTASTICA MANIA 2016 in his match against Dragon Lee.

[mikey]

They've had a lot of wastage in a system which isn't designed for any wastage at all. They lost Honjo, Yagi, Kanemitsu and, most crucially, Kitamura in the last 4 years. He was a stiff, he wasn't really improving. He could've been the Japanese Brakus or the Japanese Lesnar but Kitamura looked the part, that couldn't be argued.

He won the revived 2017 Young Lion Cup. Kawato was second, Oka was third. Neither look like world beaters. This is why the people I listen to have their hopes pinned on not just this class but the diversification of the system as a whole because wastage is built in. 

In the 2019 Young Lion Cup, the rookies churned out a slew of good to very good matches. Alex Coughlin is a bad bad man, he looks like he could go toe-to-toe with anybody in the company and throwdown. I don't see it with Clark Connors so much, he looks like the worker in a tag team. Shota's excursion is being ruined but he has "the face" and the run as Moxley's second gave him a personality.

Tsuji's thing is that he sells like a mofo. He's perfect for the dads 8-mans because he makes them look godly but he's also still big enough to stand up to them. He has a future.

The thing about Uemura in YLC19 is that he's so much better now, it's completely irrelevant. He looked like a junior, now he's clearly a heavyweight. He was stilted, whereas now he's smooth. This is why everybody is high as giraffe pussy on Yuya. 

Michael Richards might be the odd man out and given they're pushed for numbers, I don't see why they don't bring him over from New Zealand ASAP, unless he can't come for personal reasons. He has a good base, he hits hard, he looks like he'd headbutt you in a nightclub. 

[KingofSports]

9 minutes ago, mikey said:

Michael Richards... He has a good base, he hits hard, he looks like he'd headbutt you in a nightclub. 

I'd prefer Marks & Spencer, but I'll take a nightclub.

[air_raid]

On 8/2/2020 at 1:03 PM, KingofSports said:

Just remembered when they re-introduced Hideo Saito in 2011, following his excursion. The guy looked a monster.

Did I pick the wrong jumping-on point with that year’s G1? I immediately clocked him as a JTTS using Meng’s finish unsuccessfully, losing every night until they gave him a pity win over Nagata on finals night.

[KingofSports]

I can't recall because 9 years. Possibly prior to that. Didn't he first show up at Dominion in June? It was literally his first appearance, I was referring to.

-edit- answered.

Edited August 3, 2020 by KingofSports

[TildeGuy~!]

Ibushi being pissed at Tanahashi for letting the team down every show with Taichi and ZSJ trying to prove to him that Tanahashi is now old and useless is my favourite story in wrestling at the moment.

[DavidB6937]

Has NJPW World been updated recently? I haven't used it in a while but I always found it a bit of a shit app to use. Just wondered if they'd made any changes or improvements.