The Puroresu (Japanese Wrestling) thread

RollieFingers

Preach it brother, now's the time to get on board the SBK hype train because it's about to leave the station. He is too good for 21 years of age, it's almost unimaginable for someone so young to effectively have back to back singles against two of the bigger stars in DG in YAMATO and DK on an important show.

Yeh Kikuta feels cursed, saw Jae on Twitter saying he seemed ok afterwards.

Roll on King of Gate indeed.

RollieFingers

Seems like the curse of Kikuta continues, his injury forces him out of Block C, replaced by H.Y.O. The kid has had no luck recently at all.

RollieFingers

The cards have been announced for King of Gate this weekend.

YAMATO/Okuda and DK/Kzy on Saturday along with Ishida/Shun and Doi/Minoura on Sunday are the highlights for me, really glad Kaito/Skywalker 2 is making tape.

There's also a lovely full 5 on 5 tag match between Masquerade and R.E.D and the Speed Star teams with Natural Vibes for his last appearance in Hakata. Looks like another great weekend of DG action coming up!

LineOfBeauty

Banging first day of King of Gate. The best matches being Ben K/Naruki Doi (***3/4), Susumu/Kzy (****), Yamato/Shun Skywalker (****1/4).

I honestly would have no issue with someone going ****1/2 on the main event. Yamato getting the first fall over Skywalker since his return from Mexico is significant. He's surely the favourite to win this tournament and challenge Shun at Kobe, a great main event it would be between the past and current face of Dragon Gate and the current and future face of Dragon Gate. Absolutely nothing bad on the show (surprisingly I thought the worst match was Diamanté/Kota Minoura, they just did not have chemistry) but as easy an empty arena watch as you'll find anywhere.

Also a huge step up in effort across the board from last year's tournament.

RollieFingers

Really good start to King of Gate, a very easy watch as you said, just a fun show.

The main was a cracker and yeh definitely significant. Big match Shun is so good. I think YAMATO is the favourite, but I wouldn't write KZY off either. I loved his match with Susumu, was match of the night for me.

Really liked Ben-K/Doi too, good to see Ishida get off to a winning start and the Pump-handle GTS from EITA looked sick, nice little match with him and Jason Lee.

Roll on today and tomorrow.

RollieFingers

What you think of the rest of the weekend LOB? Some more very good stuff, I really enjoyed Dragon Kid/KZY. Sucks that we miss out on Doi/Kota, Minoura gets the win by forfeit.

I liked the Vibes & Yoshino multi-man against R.E.D from today's show, I want one of them Speed Star scarfs! Yoshino also passed the Missile Dropkick Senton to U-T.

Lithium93_

Massive news out of NJPW today.

https://twitter.com/voiceswrestling/status/1395328847730651139?s=19

RollieFingers

It sucks, terrible news for New Japan.

The company is stale and Ospreay felt fresh as champ. I'd be reluctant to go backwards to Tanahashi but it'll probably be Okada again. I don't think they should go straight to Shingo either, I'd like to see Jay win it. They should just have the G-1 for the vacant title really.

LineOfBeauty

I'm behind already on Dragon Gate. It's been a crazy week so I've not seen much of anything or had the chance to comment much on anything either.

Ospreay's injury is a blow. He's been the best thing about NJPW, with him out, Hiromu out too their plans have been thrown into the bin. It's been a snakebit year and a half for NJPW.

beakerjoe

If they got Andrade in and pushed him he could solve their problems.

RollieFingers

A solid if not spectacular weekend of King of Gate, understandable considering the circumstances. Jason Lee/KZY was so good, easily one of the matches of the tournament. Really liked Shun and Okuda too!

RollieFingers

The Ospreay situation is weird, there's a rumour going around now that he's not injured, won't be returning to Japan and is headed to NXT UK!? Which would obviously suck, but just doesn't seem true, surely if he was going to the E it would be to NXT proper? Hopefully not true and the rumour goes the same way as the Jay White talk did.

Clegg

Today is the 5th anniversary of Ospreay Vs Ricochet from Battle of the Super Juniors. For me it's one of the best Jr Heavyweight matches ever and perfected the high spot match structure that the Juniors had been building towards in years prior to that match.

It's interesting to see the differing fortunes that the participants have had since then. Ospreay stuck with NJPW and moved up in weight category, toned down his style, upped his psychology and developed into one of the best heavyweight wrestlers in the world. He was rewarded by winning the IWGP heavyweight championship. Ricochet, in contrast, went to WWE, had a decent run in NXT and has found himself floundering in jobber he'll for the last two years on Raw. He's not allowed to do a quarter of the stuff he's capable of. He needs to leave the company and re-establish himself elsewhere.

Lithium93_

RollieFingers wrote: »

The Ospreay situation is weird, there's a rumour going around now that he's not injured, won't be returning to Japan and is headed to NXT UK!? Which would obviously suck, but just doesn't seem true, surely if he was going to the E it would be to NXT proper? Hopefully not true and the rumour goes the same way as the Jay White talk did.

Well this tweet from him last night indicates something is definitely up... He could be serious, or it could be a case of, wait a second, are you just pulling our legs here. I'd be inclined to lean towards the former.

https://twitter.com/WillOspreay/status/1397653948199231490

The White Wolf

What's happening with Ospreay is quite disturbing. The way he's talking you wonder if this is it for his career.

RollieFingers

Yeh it is a strange one alright, he does seem legit injured. Would be grim if it's a career-ender, hopefully not, time will tell I guess.

The United Empire are still being strongly pushed so you'd think New Japan are hopeful he can return.

RollieFingers

Shingo vs Okada for the vacant IWGP world heavyweight championship announced for the rescheduled Dominion on June 7th.

The safe option of the Rainmaker seems likely. Shingo would be great though. An LIJ heel turn might be what New Japan need to freshen things up a bit too. Cobb/Ibushi also announced which should be good.

Xenji

I was hoping for a mini run for Suzuki, it would not of hurt either party for him to a transitional champion.

RollieFingers

https://twitter.com/DragonGateEN/status/1398923450459193346

Big shock, you love to see it LOB!

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

https://twitter.com/DragonGateEN/status/1398923450459193346

Big shock, you love to see it LOB!

Did not expect that! The young phenom can't be stopped. I've got so much to catch up on, nightmare! Any recommended shows or matches from King of Gate you wanna throw my way Rollie, I'm all ears!

RollieFingers

Man just off the top of my head but Eita/KZY and KZY/Lee were both great.

Trying to find time to catch the Misawa memorial show too, haven't heard much about it yet.

LineOfBeauty

Alright I fell behind but I'm back baby! Live show in Korakuen Hall now with English commentary, semi finals and finals, I'm up for it.

RollieFingers

What did you think LOB? Happy for KZY, the main event was so good, some of the counters they pulled off looked nuts. Was really impressed by Minoura, he looked like he belonged at the top of the card, you'd forget how young he is. Huge win for him over YAMATO. SBK was robbed though! KZY/Shun for the Dream Gate should be a classic, I hope KZY wins the big one.

You have to love King Shimizu Kagetora should be a good fall post for High End too.

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

What did you think LOB? Happy for KZY, the main event was so good, some of the counters they pulled off looked nuts. Was really impressed by Minoura, he looked like he belonged at the top of the card, you'd forget how young he is. Huge win for him over YAMATO. SBK was robbed though! KZY/Shun for the Dream Gate should be a classic, I hope KZY wins the big one.

You have to love King Shimizu Kagetora should be a good fall post for High End too.

Kagetora's bitchy promo was fantastic, great loss post.

And delighted for KZY, he gets his big Kobe main event. Given that Yamato defeated Shun in the opening round match I really was surprised when Kota Minoura knocked him off in the first semi final but it's clever booking, it keeps the slate clean (recently) between Yamato/KZY, the moment everyone will remember from Yamato in the tournament is him giving Shun his first loss since his return, it gives a little boost to Minoura too who had his best match yet in the finals of the King of Gate and going into Kobe you've got a strong main event between Shun Skywalker and KZY and a challenger waiting in the wings in Yamato.

Speaking of Minoura, I know Jae pointed it out on commentary yesterday but there is serious Yamato vibes coming off of him with the look and the suplex heavy offence like early day Yamato. Excellent main event, beautifully worked and so smooth, everything really did click in it. ****1/2

King Shimizu is great!! Loved the Bokutimo run but it was time for the next thing. Personally I love Natural Vibes, but I'm a mark for big dancing and singing numbers in my pro wrestling so that's to be expected.

It's a shame they rush through the semi finals cos I think they were both on the way to something really great if they'd just had maybe 5 or 6 more minutes each.

All in all though, hugely enjoyable show and now Kobe looks far more clear with a set main event for Night 1 and Kai/Yamato finally having their blowoff match.

Agent Coulson

Looking forward to Ibushi vs Cobb tomorrow.

RollieFingers

Yeh should be a good one alright, Okada/Shingo will be tasty too!

Did you see any of the CyberFight show LOB? Thought it was decent, all the title matches were fairly good, delighted that Marufuji took the championship off Mutoh.

Lithium93_

Shingo Takagi

is the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.

I honestly didn't see that coming, but enjoyed the surprise nonetheless.

Agent Coulson

I didn't see it coming either however it makes sense

with Okada's back being in bits he really should be taking a long time off to sort it out.

RollieFingers

Delighted for Shingo, he's been consistently the best thing in New Japan for a good while now along with Ospreay before he got injured, and just cool to see him come up from Dragongate to win the big one in New Japan. Think it's the right decision too, definitely freshens things up. Ibushi/Shingo should be great.

Decent Dominion overall, Cobb/Ibushi was good and I liked Despy/YOH too!

LineOfBeauty

Well there you have it, any doubts erased, any arguments to the contrary now undisputed nonsense and the last stick anyone had to beat Shingo Takagi's legacy with has been has been apprehended and being used against the previous holder, Shingo Takagi has won the biggest prize in Japanese pro wrestling and his status as one of the greatest pro wrestlers ever is secured. Of course, even had he lost anyone whose watched even a small portion of his career would've been convinced anyway, how could you not be? There's no wrestler that jumps off the screen more, no wrestler that projects absolute chaos more than Takagi. His NJPW run is the most high profile of his career and what a run it has been, banger after banger, MOTY contender after MOTY contender, but nobody expected this, to beat Okada at Osaka Jo Hall for the top belt was surely unthinkable for any fan after his debut as a Junior in LIJ. The match itself I have at ****3/4, and more importantly in any list of Top 10 pro wrestlers ever, if it does not include Shingo Takagi then I'm afraid you might need to check it again, he is undeniable.