Guest LizardKing Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Looking at the results, I am really quite interested now in seeing the Wrestling World 2004 show. There are some good looking matches there but also a lot of questionable booking decisions. I think it's the best decision to have Nakamura unify the titles and it rejects the Zach Arnold rumour of Misawa wanting to use the titles to form a new Triple Crown.It's sad to see Tenzan reduced to jobber once more. The way New Japan have treated him is nothing short of disgraceful. His build up to become the new ace was good and then they totally grabbed the ball away from him before he had a chance to run with it. As compensation, they give him a totally meaningless tag team run, and now they make him job in another high profile match. When will Chono do the fucking job himself?Nakanishi beating Tenryu is surprising and to be honest, I couldn't care less if the Wild Beast is back or not. Nakanishi sucks, but at least his "Strong Style" persona was a little more interesting than the Wild Beast one. I guess he'll go back to forming his matches by using three thousand spears and that weak as shit Argentine back breaker rather than try any form of wrestling. *Sigh*Nagata v/s Sasaki does genuinely sound good (from what Stuart reports). It seems Sasaki beat Nagata bloody, on for Nagata to go all demon and bloody Sasaki back. Good stuff.Jado/Gedo retaining the titles was surprising, and I guess it means the neither guy is out of a job later this month (boo). IF J&G didn't control the match, then it has a hope of being good, but if they were in control, then no doubt it would be slow, dull and boring. As a side thought, maybe this is part of a Liger plan to devalue the Jr tag titles. You can't argue that with Liger/Kanemoto as champions, the tag belts became a lot better than the singles title. Maybe having J&G as champs will bring it down a notch and allow Heatoh to raise the profile of the single belt. Yeah...Anyway, Suguira-Liger looks great, and I'm already pumped for that. Cannot wait for the show to hit British shores.But no matter how good/bad, correct/incorrect the matches and booking was, it pales in comparison to the Hustle 1 show, which looks utter shite. I hope it bombs hugely, because that has to be the most uninspiring set of results I've seen in quite a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicRedneck Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 So when New Japan has shoot style stuff on it's show it's sucks, but when Z-1/DSE does it it's good?I don't think that show offered anything other than what we have already seen (and it sucked) with the Wrestle-1 shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
$tew Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Very surprised that Jado & Gedo retained. I guess they won't be dropped during this month's contract negotiations then? Boo.Liger beating Sugiura is great. Not all that fussed on seeing the match as I'm not all that fussed on Sugiura, but if we can get Liger v Kikuchi, and Liger v KENTA before he inevitably drops the belt to Marufuji, I'll be happy. NJPW now hold 50% of NOAH's belts!Surprised Tanahashi retained. The U-30 belt has kinda been inadvertatly devalued by having a Nakamura as the IWGP Champion, and I thought for sure that Tanahashi would drop it here in order to move on to bigger and better things. Apparently not. I was quite looking forward to Yoshie getting his own belt to defend. His work in 2003 deserved it.The Barnett tag sounds great, and I'm definitely looking forward to it. Apparently Josh got a 95%+ positive evaluation from the NJPW crowd voting via their mobiles!! It's only a matter of time before Barnett gets the IWGP Title, by the sound of it!Nishimura beating Suzuki is a great result. I like Suzuki, and to be honest he could do with a major win after losses to Nagata & Takayama... but Nishimura remains one of the most popular guys in the company, and with the potential of Nishimura v Sapp sometime in the future, I can understand why he was kept strong. Backslides~~~~ The only negative thing is that the sub-10 minute length may stop it from being the MOTYC that I had expected.I'm shocked and appalled that Nakanishi beat Tenryu. Seriously. First off, wouldn't it have made more sense to book Tenryu to win to set up future matches with the likes of Nagata, Chono & Tenzan? Secondly, if Tenryu is challenging for the Triple Crown later this month (as rumoured), it makes him look weak. With AJPW owner Mutoh on the card, that seems like a strange course of action.Nagata v Sasaki sounds like a belter! Nagata v Sasaki from the Budokan in 2002 was one of my favourite matches of that year, so I'm totally hyped for this rematch - which features blood and "Killer" Nagata~~~~~ Yay!!Sapp pinned Tenzan? Damn. I thought Chono would job for Sapp. Still, the match should be good, and if nothing else, should be a sight to behold!Nakamura is the undisputed ace of NJPW now, with the NWF belt to add (or absorb into) to the IWGP. Good. Definitely the right move, even though I prefer Takayama personally. More positive news in that the K-1 match with Ignashov has now officially been ruled a no-contest~~~~!And Fujinami is coming back! Wahoo~~~~~~~~~! The Dragon announced "Full Comeback Revival" in 2004! Excellent news, to cap off what looks to me like the best Dome card in some time...!Hustle-1, on the other hand, seems like an entertaining enough mish-mash, with some weird booking.I can't see how Predator & Randleman beating Emblem can be seen as anything but retarded.Likewise, Giant Silva beating two of ZERO-ONE's top young prospects in 2 minutes seems to be crack-inspired.The main four matches should all be interesting, and fun.Hash v Vader lasted 10 minutes, which is probably long enough.The six man Lucha Legends v Americans should be weird, with Corino's comedy and Rhodes' bionic elbows and flip-flop-flies...Kawada v Coleman was probably long enough too, despite being only 6 minutes.I'm interested to hear the time of the Goldberg v Ogawa match. I'm amazed that Ogawa agreed to do what seems like a clean job on such a high profile match... and I'll be even more amazed if the match time was Coleman-Kawada esque.I'll definitely get the vid of Hustle-1 though.Hustle-1 drew a claimed 23,000... but Wrestling World drew a claimed 53,000, which from eyewitness reports seems to be either totally legit or close to it.$tew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicRedneck Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 I'm shocked and appalled that Nakanishi beat Tenryu. Seriously. First off, wouldn't it have made more sense to book Tenryu to win to set up future matches with the likes of Nagata, Chono & Tenzan? Secondly, if Tenryu is challenging for the Triple Crown later this month (as rumoured), it makes him look weak. With AJPW owner Mutoh on the card, that seems like a strange course of action.I think it's to get Nakanishi over again. Plus, New Japan want to get jobs out of Tenryu before he goes to AJPW/NOAH. It's pretty obvious that he is jobbing to Kawada, so it's a good booking decision from a New Japan point of view. I'm also surprised Mutoh didn't object to it but he's a retard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
$tew Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 I think it's to get Nakanishi over again. Plus, New Japan want to get jobs out of Tenryu before he goes to AJPW/NOAH. It's pretty obvious that he is jobbing to Kawada, so it's a good booking decision from a New Japan point of view. I'm also surprised Mutoh didn't object to it but he's a retard. Oh, I agree that it's great for Nakanishi to be made to look stronger than the next Triple Crown challenger, and he does need to be built up again... but I thought that with Mutoh on the card, NJPW would try not to piss him off by having a booking decision like this which devalues his Budokan main event.Maybe Chono told Mutoh that if he wanted Tenryu to go over Nakanishi, that he (Mutoh) would have to job in the tag match??$tew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dave Pick Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Well, Hustle-1 always looked like a piece of shite, and it looks like it delivered in that respect. No real interest in that show.I will get the New Japan show, though. If only because Tenryu is on it.When you say "looked like a piece of shite", do you actually mean "offered something different to the staid, dull fayre that modern puro has become, with little room for anything fun or different"I thought so.Fucking puro purists. purosts, if you weeeeel. :)Anyway, WW04 is the first puro show in ages to catch my interest to the point I'll find a way of seeing the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
$tew Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Kensuke Sasaki, wishing he'd never left NJPW... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
$tew Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Nagata: Kensuke Sasaki? Yes, I twatted him. Mutoh looks concerned as Sapp scratches his nuts"Afroman" TenryuWeird hairstyles a go-go... Looks like Minoru Suzuki has hit the bleach!Yoshie - Bringing the Fatness~~~~!Liger - Bitch Slapping Sugiura!Liger - New ChampionTiger Mask - Means business in his swank~ new tights!Yasuda, getting choked out by a Junior~~~~~! Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, Tadao!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terje Rindal Posted January 4, 2004 Author Share Posted January 4, 2004 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
$tew Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Any idea who Zebra Man was? I mean, other than Zebra Kid's daddy... $tew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terje Rindal Posted January 4, 2004 Author Share Posted January 4, 2004 And a few more.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terje Rindal Posted January 4, 2004 Author Share Posted January 4, 2004 Any idea who Zebra Man was? I mean, other than Zebra Kid's daddy... No, but he's got some nice arms on him :)And with a quick win over Hidaka makes it seem he's in for a push, whoever he is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MECox Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Short and sweet. WW2004 sounded like a tremendous show. Itching to see the Jr. matches & Nagata - Sasake which sounded like one of those bloody classics only NJ can pull off. Anyway, a NJ revival is good for the Puro scene as a whole, so lets look positively towards this new year.Obviously the key result from a potential standpoint is Liger winning the GHC Jr. strap. Given his role in 2003's feud of the year, the chase to reclaim the title should be worth it's weight in **** matches.Wow -2004 off to a bang. Lets ditch the negativity and get back to some serious marking out -god knows we've all earn't it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDanger Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 (edited) Concerning the Tokyo Dome show, I can really only echo what's already been said.It looks like Yasuda has finally been sent packing.Liger vs. Sugiura should be a bunch of fun. Gedo & Jado retaining both the belts and their jobs suck. Nagata vs. Sasaki sounds terrific. Tenryu jobbing in his first match is pointless. Tenzan doing another high profile job rounds off a pretty frustrating year for him. Nakamura going over was the right result. Some guy's live report from the show: Ok. I'm back from the show. My wife and I debated this quite a bit. I dont think there was a head over 50,000 there. SUPPOSIDLY I'm supposed to get an email tomorrow with how many people walked into the dome. I'll be curious to see if it arrives. If it does keep in mind that is how many people ATTENDED not how many paid for a ticket and didn't show for whatever reason. Some of the first few shots you can see just how many empty seats there were. Being this was my first Japanese wrestling show without the distractions of 6 other Americans there heckling I think I can give a good rundown of what I thought. Problem is, its going to have to wait until tomorrow morning Japan time before I can put all my thoughts into a readable "article" or whatever. I'm as tired as I've ever been. I will point out a few though and ask a question or two. Kensuke Sasaki. The show was absolutely dead in my opinion until he showed up. Man got booed out of the building. Why?When Tenzan was on offense, everytime he threw a punch the crowd shushed him. Why? He would hit and they would go SHHHHHHHHHHHJosh Barnett as a working professional wrestler is awful. I dont know who is worse though. Him or Bob Sapp. Make these guys believable and teach them to work WORKING style. Damned entertaining seeing the reaction of the crowd when they entered their respective matches. If you have never been to a Japanese wrestling show it is quite the site to behold. The crowd is so silent I'd be willing to bet my yelling "Thumb 'em in the eye" was heard by guys in the ring. Jado and Gedo besides Sasaki were the only other true heels on the show that worked LIKE HEELS. Some may not like them but this was my first time seeing them and I thought they were pretty entertaining. Where did the ASWESOME pictures from the dome come from like backstage? Seeing those makes me sad to post mine. Mine are at http://www.SharpWideWeb.com/tokyodome/index.htm Edited January 4, 2004 by MrDanger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CracktonMoj Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 I like that live report, it rules.And to add to the attendance thing:Looks pretty empty to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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