The Puroresu (Japanese Wrestling) thread

ERG89

The last 2 shows we have Ishimori vs Ospreay, Bucks vs LIJ, Naito vs Jericho and Omega vs Okada 2/3 falls no time limit set up.

Not bad NJPW, not bad

sky88

have to say

naito/jericho isnt doing much for me jericho looked out of shape at GRR and naito hasn't been in top form against suzski but omega/okada will be great no doubt.

Lithium93_

sky88 wrote: »

have to say

naito/jericho isnt doing much for me jericho looked out of shape at GRR and naito hasn't been in top form against suzski but omega/okada will be great no doubt.

Okada/Omega IV @ Dominion, this is where their story finally comes to a conclusion and Kenny taking the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Also the outcome to that match will be interesting in the context of the ongoing "Civil War" in the Bullet Club on Being The Elite, will Kenny winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship make him the main man once and for all.

CastorTroy

Is there much outside interference in NJPW?

Like since the Cody/Kenny feud is still a thing, will Cody interfere in Kenny's match with Okada?

Lithium93_

Partial Card for Dominion.

No time limit best two out of three falls match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Kazuchika Okada (c) versus Kenny Omega

Singles match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Tetsuya Naito (c) versus Chris Jericho

Tag team match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil and Sanada) (c) versus The Young Bucks

Three-way match for the NEVER Openweight Championship
Hirooki Goto (c) versus Michael Elgin and Taichi

Singles match
Rey Mysterio Jr. versus TBA

And the blocks for this year Best Of The Super Juniors have been announced

Block A; tiger mask, Kanemaru , ACH, yoh, bushi, flip, Ishimori and Ospreay .

Block B: dragon lee, Taguchi , el desperado , sho, Kushida ,

Chris Sabin

, Marty skrull , Hiromu

ERG89

Final Dominion card looks like it will be a belter.


IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega - Best 2 out of 3 Falls

IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito vs. Chris Jericho

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champions Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Rey Mysterio & Jushin Liger vs. Cody & Marty Scurll & Hangman Page

IWGP Tag Team Champions EVIL & SANADA vs. The Young Bucks

NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto vs. Michael Elgin vs. Taichi

Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr

David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Jay White & YOSHI-HASHI

El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Roppongi 3K

Clegg

I finally got to see Ishimori v Takahashi.

Brilliant match and you there with Tana/Okada as current match of the year. The juniors are really on a roll.

sky88

Really hope okada/omega dont go too long seems like there playing up the no time limit on the match fear there going to go try go way over the hour. Give me a 30/40 minute banger anyday over a hour long or longer match that there are slow plodding parts which need to happen

ERG89

Finally! Kenny Omega is IWGP heavyweight champion

ThePott

What an outstanding show from top to bottom.

I think we saw a slightly more reserved Ospreay too aside from that one spot.

The tag match, intercontinental and IWGP heavyweight match were outstanding.

That main event was maybe the best match I've ever seen.

OMEGA is CHAMP!

Clegg

So Okada/Omega IV is the best match I've ever seen.

kessler182

Breathtaking match, literally the best i've ever witnessed. The psychology was next-level. 
I was on the verge of tears during the 3rd fall

CastorTroy

What was the official time of the match, out of curiosity.

He was saying something about people thinking he would get the belt then leave, but not sure what he said after that.

Be great if next time Jericho comes back to WWE, that he comes back as this Jericho instead of the goofy Jericho.

montyrebel

Just finished the show, Bucks match stole it for me but for omega and okada what great cardio to go that hard for that long

Agent Coulson

About to sit down and watch Dominion I though that was a good start introducing President Meij like that.

Agent Coulson

That was amazing!


That's how to do a 4 hour plus event.

Neil3030

Amazing show. Fantastic main event and progress in several short and long term angles. Japan just gets it, it's so refreshing.

sky88

finally got a chance to watch the show great show.

Okada/kenny was great not moty for me but close

ok for one thing i didnt like jericho just looks effing horrible he still managed to get a good match somehow but just looked out of shape and sloppy.

they've killed naito since wrestlekingdom he should have got the title from okada and even with the title win its been very wwe booking of killing a popular guy for me. Naito has also looked disintrested so not all booking.

leggo

sky88 wrote: »

finally got a chance to watch the show great show.

Okada/kenny was great not moty for me but close

ok for one thing i didnt like jericho just looks effing horrible he still managed to get a good match somehow but just looked out of shape and sloppy.

they've killed naito since wrestlekingdom he should have got the title from okada and even with the title win its been very wwe booking of killing a popular guy for me

It’s actually very NJPW booking: they love stripping a guy to nothing then having him find something he didn’t have before to come back and win it all. They did it with Kushida last year, for example. It’s fighting spirit 101. They’ve even done it with Naito finding his tranquilo and not caring about what fans think to get to the WK main event.

What you have to realise is that Naito is the chosen one, the next ace in line after Okada. And his feud with Okada, being unable to beat him at WK etc, is similar to Okada/Tanahashi. He will eventually beat him at WK, in the main event and for the title, but it could be 2-3 years away (or it could be next January). These things are mapped out way in advance.

I was initially confused by him losing this year but then when you think about it, it makes total sense: his arc this time around was based around main eventing not winning. He’s done that now. Next time it’ll be about winning (and I bet Okada comes in as challenger to make us think then that it’s really about him winning his belt back). If Naito would’ve won, he would’ve lost his driving force, he wouldn’t have been fully humbled and a face everyone could get behind yet, we wouldn’t have got the record breaking title reign or the conclusion to the Omega arc. In Gedo we trust and I’m fully behind the decision now.

den87

leggo wrote: »

It’s actually very NJPW booking: they love stripping a guy to nothing then having him find something he didn’t have before to come back and win it all. They did it with Kushida last year, for example. It’s fighting spirit 101. They’ve even done it with Naito finding his tranquilo and not caring about what fans think to get to the WK main event.

What you have to realise is that Naito is the chosen one, the next ace in line after Okada. And his feud with Okada, being unable to beat him at WK etc, is similar to Okada/Tanahashi. He will eventually beat him at WK, in the main event and for the title, but it could be 2-3 years away (or it could be next January). These things are mapped out way in advance.

I was initially confused by him losing this year but then when you think about it, it makes total sense: his arc this time around was based around main eventing not winning. He’s done that now. Next time it’ll be about winning (and I bet Okada comes in as challenger to make us think then that it’s really about him winning his belt back). If Naito would’ve won, he would’ve lost his driving force, he wouldn’t have been fully humbled and a face everyone could get behind yet, we wouldn’t have got the record breaking title reign or the conclusion to the Omega arc. In Gedo we trust and I’m fully behind the decision now.

Great post and spot on. However it wouldn’t surprise me if we see Ibushi costing Omega the title against Naito leading to a WK triple main of;

Naito V (?) for IWGP HW
Okada V Jericho for IWGP IC
Kenny V Ibushi

Neil3030

leggo wrote: »

It’s actually very NJPW booking: they love stripping a guy to nothing then having him find something he didn’t have before to come back and win it all. They did it with Kushida last year, for example. It’s fighting spirit 101. They’ve even done it with Naito finding his tranquilo and not caring about what fans think to get to the WK main event.

What you have to realise is that Naito is the chosen one, the next ace in line after Okada. And his feud with Okada, being unable to beat him at WK etc, is similar to Okada/Tanahashi. He will eventually beat him at WK, in the main event and for the title, but it could be 2-3 years away (or it could be next January). These things are mapped out way in advance.

I was initially confused by him losing this year but then when you think about it, it makes total sense: his arc this time around was based around main eventing not winning. He’s done that now. Next time it’ll be about winning (and I bet Okada comes in as challenger to make us think then that it’s really about him winning his belt back). If Naito would’ve won, he would’ve lost his driving force, he wouldn’t have been fully humbled and a face everyone could get behind yet, we wouldn’t have got the record breaking title reign or the conclusion to the Omega arc. In Gedo we trust and I’m fully behind the decision now.

Agree with all this. Plus, if Naito gets the belt at WK12, what do you do with Omega? The Omega/Okada series was always going to culminate with Omega getting the title, so if Naito had the belt you'd either need to hot potato the title, or have Omega wait a few more years to finally get his run, which was never going to happen.

BTW, they now have several great options with Omega as champion - he'll can great matches out of pretty much anyone, so put him in a feud with the second tier guys who could eventually transition to main event status - Sanada, Evil, Elgin, Robinson, White, etc - and get their profile raised. There is also the Rhodes feud that will need to be resolved at some point. All the while they can plant the seeds for when Ibushi and Omega eventually lock horns. Then you can sprinkle in some programmes with the certified main eventers like Naito, Okada and Tanahashi - in fact, it wouldn't surprise me to see them use Omega to get these guys more exposure in the states.

leggo

Naito and Omega are tied at 1-1 for singles matches too, I could see that main eventing WK easily if they wanted to let The Golden Elite play out long term. And that way Naito can win the belt at WK but still not have defeated Okada in that match and you’ve got that at WK14 plus Omega/Ibushi.

They’ve so many options. And to think we thought they were done for when WWE did a talent raid a couple years back!

Neil3030

And on Naito hitting rock bottom - would you even notice that Omega has put Elgin, Robinson, Naito, White, Cody, Ishii and of course Okada over in the last year and a bit?

Ali Bomaye

Hiromu Takahashi took a really bad bump on his head in his match with Dragon Lee last night. He continued on and finished the match, and walked up the ramp on his own after. I read Meltzer reported he was taken to hospital after and it looks likely that it’s a broken neck. Still doesn’t seem to be any official word yet which I don’t think is a good sign. I really hope he’s going to be okay and that it’s not something absolutely terrible that ends his career.

CastorTroy

Saw what happened Takahashi. When I saw it happen I had to rewind and watch again to see if it was as bad as it first looked. Landed on his head then slid along a bit.

https://twitter.com/ryansatin/status/1015989501536100352

Felt the ending to the Cody/Omega

feud was quicker than I thought it would be after the big build up.
And the botched table spot looked bad as well.

JR even took a bump last night

Lithium93_

I'll spoiler tag this just in case anyone hasn't seen the G1 USA Special

So the "civil war" is over, Bullet Club is fine rig? nope here comes Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa and Haku to **** **** up

The beginning of the end maybe?

Lithium93_

CastorTroy wrote: »

Saw what happened Takahashi. When I saw it happen I had to rewind and watch again to see if it was as bad as it first looked. Landed on his head then slid along a bit.

https://twitter.com/ryansatin/status/1015989501536100352

Felt the ending to the Cody/Omega

feud was quicker than I thought it would be after the big build up.
And the botched table spot looked bad as well.

JR even took a bump last night

I don't that to me, felt like a case of wrong place, wrong time..

CastorTroy

Yeah didn't seem intentional but just decided to say that. The swearing afterwards from Barnett and JR kind of backed it up. Though was decent job from Barnett going after White.
I do think they need to stop getting JR to call these shows. Barnett was constantly covering for him, while JR was going for obvious "I have no idea what's happening" calls. Can't remember who did a cutter and JR called it a version of a stunner. It's like he doesn't do any research before the show.

Ali Bomaye

CastorTroy wrote: »

Saw what happened Takahashi. When I saw it happen I had to rewind and watch again to see if it was as bad as it first looked. Landed on his head then slid along a bit.

JR even took a bump last night

I think Dragon Lee usually bridges and holds on for a pin when he does that move.
JR falling on his arse was a highlight. More shocking commentary on a NJPW show from him, he just has a complete lack of interest in the product.
Jay White vs Juice Robinson was a brilliant match. White is a tremendous heel.

ThePott

https://twitter.com/JRsBBQ/status/1016124400062648321/photo/1

Yeah JR doesn't seem to happy. He also apparently liked a tweet asking that the media call out NJPW for their dangerous and unsafe working style.