NJPW World

[BomberPat]

Not Gama Singh - he's Jinder Mahal's uncle. A rudimentary Google search tells me Kenny Omega's uncle, according to cagematch, was "The Golden Sheik", who Wikipedia tells me managed Don Callis.

Omega once Tweeted this, saying "very rare photo of my uncle managing Don Callis";

 

I've never heard of Golden Sheik before, and there's very little info online, so chances are he was a minor regional figure - I never even knew Omega had family in the business.

[Cheapheat]

Yeah on the Jericho's podcast with Omega, Callis mentions that he didn't know Omega and the Golden Sheik worked together until Omega contacted him to speak at Sheik's funeral (I think) I really loved Callis's commentary. His 'Oh Jesus!' calls always made me laugh. I have pretty low standards with English NJPW commentary and found Corina tough to listen to. Calli's call of 'He just kicked a young boy in the balls! For no reason!' set me off.

On another note, I am thinking of canceling my NJPW world subscription. There doesnt seem like too much stuff on the horizon, and I can pik it up in a few months and catch up. So my question is, what are the next shows that will be worth catching? Any advice appreciated,

[gadge]

There's six live shows in September. 

Bear in mind you lose access the minute you cancel, so assuming you were renewed last on the first, you might as well wait until after the bank holiday weekend. 

[JNLister]

September's one of the months where they split the 'main event matches' across three shows, so won't necessarily be killer shows.

King of Pro Wrestling in October is one of the big shows of the year and will most likely be Okada defending the IWGP title and Naito defending the Tokyo Dome title shot among others: it pretty much sets up/confirms the Tokyo Dome show.

November is mainly the tag tournament which is skippable.

After that you get a series of Korakuen Hall shows at the end of December that are the go-home shows for Tokyo Dome. Usually they'll have a six-man with the participants in the three top Dome Show matches.

So best bet if you want to keep costs low is to subscribe for October (catching up on the September shows) and then cancel until January,

[Cheapheat]

Thanks Lister, I know it seems cheap to cancel for a month but I'm doing my best not to waste money right now, i'll probably do what you said, but maybe catch up in December. It's hard to get my head around the schedule being so used to the weekly shows monthly PPV deal. Is it Likely that Naito will defend his shot once or more than that, before G1 people seemed to think this is the year the title shot may be lost before wrestle kingdom, I guess that's not the case now..

[Cheapheat]

I have a request from you educated folks here, can some please explain the evolution of Naito's character to me, I have lose understanding that he was a babyface that didn't quite get over and a pivotal moment was him losing the main event at a wrestle kingdom. Is there more to it?

[Polish Dad]

The character bio from this: https://wrestlepressive.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/g1-climax-2017-preview.html is a fantastic round-up on him (and everyone else in the G1).

 

Quote

Leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon, destroyer of belts, and my favorite wrestler, in the past few years Tetsuya Naito has transformed himself from a fairly bland babyface into one of the best acts in the world. For years Naito was known as the Stardust Genius and was portrayed as worse lucha-influenced Tanahashi. Initial attempts to push him as Tanahashi's successor were widely rejected. In fact after his G1 win in 2013 was poorly received, his match-up with Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight title at Wrestle Kingdom 8 was demoted to semi-main event so that Tanahashi vs. Nakamura for the Intercontinental title could main event the show after fans voted for Tanahashi vs. Nakamura by a two to one margin in an online poll. A bit over a year later in May of 2015 Naito returned to Mexico (where he had done his excursion as a young wrestler) and reunited with La Sombra who he had previously teamed with in Two World Tag leagues and who was now a member of a stable in Mexico called Los Ingobernables. When Naito returned shortly before the 2015 G1 it was with a new shaggier look, the 'ungovernable' attitude he picked up in Mexico, and a new finisher. A modified standing shiranui he calls, Destino. He quickly began to earn the ire of the other wrestlers and the crowd with his obvious apathy towards the multi-man tags he was being placed in, but they had seen nothing yet. For every single match in 2015 G1 he sauntered to the ring in a full suit (no tie; ties are not ingobernable) which he did not even begin to slowly remove until his opponent was prepared to wrestle and that does not even begin to cover his time wasting and taunting during the match. Using tactics like this and his relaxed, but defiant attitude Naito built up huge amounts of heat with the fans and used this heat to build up three wrestlers returning from excursion and one from injury into the hottest stable in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Ironically, in the ensuing two years Naito's attitude, confidence, and just plain cool as well as great out of the ring moments like pretending he does not speak Japanese and insisting that he be questioned in“Español” have brought much of the fan adoration (not to mention the IWGP Heavyweight title run) that his initial main event push failed to generate and it is not uncommon to hear fans alternate between raucous cheers and loud boos in a present day Naito match (and even a Naito entrance).

 

[JNLister]

There's also a great piece in the current FSM that covers it in depth.

Okada-EVIL plus Ishii-Naito for the title shot are both confirmed for King of Pro Wrestling, so that's likely the only time Naito puts it on the line.

Destruction mains are Suzuki-Elgin, Tanahashi-Sabre and Omega-Robinson.

As for the NJPW World schedule, the general pattern is that there's one big show with a name each month (but occasionally split over two or three shows, so it'll be "SHOW NAME in CITY" which airs. That show finished off a tour of live dates ("ROAD TO SHOW NAME"), of which the Korakuen Hall ones air on NJPW World.

The exceptions are tournaments:

With March's New Japan Cup (elimination tournament), they also air the shows with the earlier rounds.

With the Best of the Super Junior they usually show the opening and closing nights plus Korakuen shows in full. Everything else, only the tournament bouts air and they are added on a brief delay.

With G1 every show is live.

I forget what happens with the tag league, but I think it's similar to BOSJ.

[Cheapheat]

Thank you again Lister, appreciate the heads up, There aren't to many sources to learn this stuff from. Cheers.

[Kamaras-Tash]

Will you fuck off spamming your video in every thread

[ViewCubeProWrestling]

Just now, Kamaras-Tash said:

Will you fuck off spamming your video in every thread

No? It's wrestling threads i am wanting people to see my videos about wrestling what do you Do?  Post to a wrestling thread you dumb fuck

[TildeGuy~!]

Matt Riddle and Jeff Cobb have entered the tag league.

Holy Shit

[gadge]

Matches from the ROH War of the Worlds UK tour featuring New Japan talent are up on World now. 

[Ambulance Chaser]

Well that Destruction Tour was a mixed bag eh. Best match of the 3 shows for me was Omega/Juice, what a fucking Wrestling match, the real life come storyline of Omega's knee injury and Juice at first being hesitant to attack it, then eventually just thinking sod it I want this belt and going after the leg. The finish of the match, the suplex from apron to outside, bloody brutal.

King of Pro Wrestling is shaping up to be fantastic, EVIL aint winning but boy have they built him up well, they have got over his STO finisher as a match ender. Naito/Ishii for the briefcase, Ospreay/Kushida for the Junior title.

[air_raid]

It's a good looking B+ show card, but there is so little suspense in who's winning the top two matches it's almost pointless having them. It's such an In Your House before Mania, I can almost hear Vince, JR and King trying to persuade me Ishii v Evil might be the main event at the granddaddy of them all.

Omega v Juice, conversely, was fabulous because there was *JUST* enough doubt in my mind, in spite of their predictable even booking (Juice having the upset to his name already). Somehow I believed, for a moment, that Kenny might walk into Kingdom unencumbered by a tertiary title.

With that said, the booking of Tana and Kota opposite each other in a tag match at the next show instead of going straight from "challenge" to "title match" suggests strongly that they fight at Kingdom. Who does that leave Kenny with??