Guest Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 this weeks being the elite show has a great follow up to Sunday’s show Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TildeGuy~! Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 1 hour ago, Louch said: this weeks being the elite show has a great follow up to Sunday’s show The ending was superb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 I made some right funny noises both times I watched it. Their stories they mix in with what’s going on on tv are brilliant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVP RULZ Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 (edited) I subscibed to NJPW world for Wrestlekingdom and have watched every show since and been working my way through some of the older shows over the past few weeks and got to say they have made a permanent fan out of me. I've even gone and booked off Wrestlekingdom next year (that is allways on the 4th January right?) Could someone feel me in on what the situation with Omega and Ibushi is? It seems a big deal but having only been a fan for a month now and slowly going through some of the older stuff its a bit lost on me, were they former partners? Edited January 30, 2018 by MVP RULZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 In my limited knowledge, came up together in DDT , tagged for about 5 years, but have kept apart in NJPW until now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TildeGuy~! Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 (edited) They were a former Tag Team in DDT (The Golden Lovers) They then started tagging in NJPW where they feuded with Prince Devitt and Taguchi for the JR Tag titles, The team broke up in 2014 (no shenanigans) and Ibushi went on to the Heavyweight division whilst Omega stayed in the JR division up until he replaced AJ Styles as the leader of the Bullet Club Edited January 30, 2018 by TildeGuy~! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVP RULZ Posted January 30, 2018 Share Posted January 30, 2018 Thanks Guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2018 There's a few additional layers on top of that - there have been times in NJPW where both of them implied that a match against each other was the last thing they wanted to do in the company, but around the time of last year's G-1 Kenny started acting as if Ibushi didn't even exist; he'd be asked about him at press conferences, and pretend that he didn't know what they were talking about. Kenny has also said in the past that he didn't want to go to WWE unless he was going with Kota, and that he felt hurt when Kota went there without him. There's also the implication that Ibushi and Omega either were or are a couple; Omega pitched the name "Golden Lovers" rather than Golden Twins, and they use to hug and kiss during matches, and when Kota Ibushi was in the Cruiserweight Classic, Kenny Omega accused WWE of "stealing his ex". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted January 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2018 Don't know if you'll feel this is relevant to the on screen stories but Kenny & Kota definitely WERE together, although I couldn't speak for today. Without being vulgar, it sounds like they were the definition of "open relationship." I'm told their house parties were somewhat legendary. Leave your inhibitions at the door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2018 Yeah, I'd heard that too - knew that they lived together, and knew their place was known as a party house, but wasn't 100% sure if they were a couple or just housemates in the middle of that scene. I think it is relevant to the on-screen story, or at least adds to it. The best stories in wrestling have multiple layers you can appreciate them on, and if one of those layers can reflect reality, that's even better. Kenny's definitely played the part of the spurned lover in his interactions with, and about, Ibushi the whole time this has been going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted January 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2018 Kota's tears the other day had a strong feeling of "this is bigger than tag partners reuniting" I felt. Of course, it won't be made explicit on TV. Japan's not ready for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2018 39 minutes ago, air_raid said: Kota's tears the other day had a strong feeling of "this is bigger than tag partners reuniting" I felt. Of course, it won't be made explicit on TV. Japan's not ready for that. At the same time, a lot of Japanese entertainment media has that undercurrent to it - pretty boys in implied relationships, usually aimed at women. There's more than a hint of bishounen (think I'm spelling that correctly) to Kota, and their relationship - whatever it is - seems to openly invite that kind of speculation, and I don't think it particularly needs to be made explicit for it to resonate with the people to whom it'll mean anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted January 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2018 They're playing into it as well - Cody shouted "Kenny doesn't love you like I love you!" to Ibushi during their match, didn't he? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted January 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, BomberPat said: At the same time, a lot of Japanese entertainment media has that undercurrent to it - pretty boys in implied relationships, usually aimed at women. There's more than a hint of bishounen (think I'm spelling that correctly) to Kota, and their relationship - whatever it is - seems to openly invite that kind of speculation, and I don't think it particularly needs to be made explicit for it to resonate with the people to whom it'll mean anything. Apologies to those who've read this from me before. Modern Japan has an odd viewpoint on homosexuality/bisexuality, especially in the media. For a long time, the nearest comparison would've been the UK in the 70s and 80s, when it was seemingly acceptable to have homosexuals portrayed on TV provided they were incredibly obvious and flaming, e.g. Boy George, Liberace, etc. Japanese TV has a long history of drag queens and flamboyant gays appearing on things like panel shows, quizzes, etc., and, of course, there is a long-established culture of gay romance manga. At the same time, this is a country where gay men are frequently beaten by their fathers and thrown out of their homes upon coming out, and there's still a pernicious under-current that strongly implies immorality and all the horrible things that most reactionaries also accuse homosexuals of, i.e. paedophilia and bestiality. Obviously, like most of the world, things have been gradually improving as society becomes more liberal and the internet expands people's experiences of culture and life, but it's far from perfect. Simply put, Japan is a society in the closet. Until its defeat in WWII, Japan had a fairly liberal attitude towards most things sexual, with bisexuality and homosexuality not only being considered everyday, but also philosophically justified under Confucian and Taoist values. The basic concept of Yin and Yang was that Yin is absorptive and passive, whereas Yang is invasive and aggressive; the notion was that, should a man indulge too much in women, his Yang would be gradually absorbed and sapped by her Yin, and he would thus have to replenish his Yang by engaging with the Yang of other men. For some, this simply meant hanging out with one's mates, but in others, it involved having sex or romantic relationships with them. Come Japan's defeat in WWII, and this largely Confucian society all of a sudden has Christian fundamentalist General MacArthur in charge of its occupation and thus government, constitution, and, consequently, culture; he outlawed homosexuality, and instigated a whole slew of reforms aimed at basically making Japan the US' representative in Asia. In essence, Japan is a Confucian society that's had Christianity crudely grafted on to it, and the discrepancies and oddities are the gaps where the two sets of values don't quite meet. Edited January 31, 2018 by Carbomb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2018 That seems to be true of many cultures that have had Abrahamic religion, or "Western values", as you say, "crudely grafted on". I see the Omega/Ibushi "romance" as something akin to the gay romance manga you mentioned (as far as I understand it, anyway)Â - young (though Ibushi is somehow 35!), pretty, somewhat androgynous (in Ibushi's case, at least) boys, in a largely (seemingly) asexual, or only flirtatiously sexual, courtship. Anecdotally, the "romantic" element of the storyline seems to have played a substantial part in getting a lot of female interest in NJPW - or in Omega and Ibushi, in particular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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