#also i don't know enough about sports commentators yet to comment on more than surface-level observations

[spoonerisrns]

I know this might not be a huge thing, but I love that nearly all the commentators seem to be women??? Realizing I've NEVER seen so many female sports commentators before, and so many different kinds of presentation among them? I've often seen One Pretty Cis Het Woman on a panel of cis het dudes. This is hella refreshing.

[thistledropkick]

I haven't been keeping up with the Junior Heavyweight tag league, but Okamoto of Tokyo Sports posted an article he wrote about Umino and his backstage comments to twitter recently, and the replies are absolutely brutal.

The article covers Umino's backstage comments from 11/2, with the headline "Umino Shota requests a one-on-one fight with his master and AEW World Champion Moxley. 'Perhaps the time has come'" The excerpt from the article that people seem to be reacting most strongly to is towards the end. NJPW has translated it on the official subtitles, but I'll translate it myself here too. Umino says, "I absolutely don't approve of your way of doing things. But I know how to heal you. First of all, send me a message. Since our IWGP match in America, I haven't gotten a message, a phone call, or heard anything from you at all... Perhaps the time has come."

Japanese wrestling twitter is usually more positive than English-language wrestling twitter. (That may not be saying much given the state of English-language wrestling twitter in general, but it is generally the case.) But the replies to Okamoto's tweet are overwhelmingly negative, to a degree that really shocked me. As I went through and read them, I only saw a few scattered positive replies mixed in among almost universally negative ones.

Many of these negative comments reflect the issues that many people seem to have with his character - that his influence from Moxley feels shallow and surface-level, that he seems to be a mix of influences rather than his own man, that he isn't understanding or taking in the reason the crowd is booing him in the first place, and that he keeps being given way too many chances without having the results to justify them. And there are still some comparisons between him and Stardust Genius Naito, as well. Besides these criticisms, there are also a lot of replies that are just heckling, or are outright mean.

I think Umino is in a really tough situation right now, and I'm not even sure how they can get him out of it. Out of the "Reiwa Three Musketeers", Umino is the only one who has had zero results - Tsuji Youta has held the IWGP 6 man tag belt and won the New Japan Cup, and Narita Ren has held the IWGP 6 man belt and is the current World TV champ. Umino has had many chances, but he has won no tournaments and no belts.

Because of this, it doesn't make sense to me that they'd give him yet another match against Moxley. I don't feel like Umino's at a place where it would make sense to have him win against Moxley in a fair singles match right now - as it stands, Umino's coming to this from a string of losses, although he does have his match with Sanada coming up soon. But even if Umino wins that match, I don't know that it would make him feel like he's at a high enough level to get a victory there.

And also, while I don't watch AEW or follow it at all, I know that Moxley is a wrestler who only rarely takes a pin. I decided to look up the stats, and it seems that he's only taken one pin in all of 2024 - to Naito, for the IWGP HW belt, in a situation that was completely unavoidable because NJPW needed their belt back eventually. And that pin was to Naito, who is unquestionably the most popular wrestler in NJPW.

Given those things, I can't imagine that Umino will get a win over Moxley if this match happens. But why set him up for a match against Moxley just to have him lose again? That would make him look even worse. But a win at this point wouldn't feel right to me, and I don't think it would feel right to the crowd either.

And putting all that aside, if Umino does win over Sanada and then tries to use that to challenge Zack for the belt for 1.4, I think the crowd is going to revolt. I really do think they'll have another Naito situation on their hands, where the crowd will rally for some other match to take the main event spot. But if they're trying to make this play out like Naito's story did, I don't know how successful that's likely to be - Stardust Genius Naito had a much more established career and fan base than Umino did, and he's also just a different person than Umino is. I don't know that that's something that can be intentionally repeated.

I can't stop thinking about this Umino Shota situation, so I'm gonna write about it.

Umino has been in a very weird position for quite a while now, when it comes to his character, his booking, and his crowd response. I feel like it has finally hit some kind of breaking point at the recent KOPW show.

When Umino walked out to challenge for the IWGP HW belt, he didn't just "get booed" - he got a mix of cold silence, some scattered booing, and some overt heckling from people in the crowd shouting "Go home" at him. That wasn't even the kind of booing you want in pro wrestling - it was an outright rejection of him by the crowd.

(You can hear the heckling starting at about 3 minutes in during this video - people in the crowd start shouting "Kaere!" "Go home!" This mix of scattered booing, icy quiet, and heckling is not the kind of response NJPW goes for even for actual heel wrestlers.)

It was also absolutely not the response that anybody there had planned for or anticipated. Umino looked legitimately upset, Zack immediately took action to calm down the crowd before things got ugly, and then Takagi came out to keep things moving when it was clear the crowd was not going to change their tone. If any of this response had been planned, they would've encouraged it instead, or at least given it a little more space to play out.

In his backstage comments afterwards, Umino addressed the comparison that fans have repeatedly been making between himself and Stardust Genius era Naito. Umino rejected that comparison.

(Personally, I agree that the two situations aren't identical, but for a different reason - Naito was a much more well-established wrestler when the crowd turned on him, while Umino has never even held a title.)

In any case, the fact that Umino is directly addressing the comparisons that fans keep making, rather than ignoring them, was noteworthy to me.

Today, an article about the situation was released in Tokyo Sports. Tokyo Sports is a kayfabe magazine, and anything published there is generally done to forward the intended story of the wrestlers involved.

The headline reads: Umino Shota - "Booing = Big Shot" Proof of his decision to fight for the IWGP "Even Tanahashi-san himself said, I'm leaving it to you, Sho-chan"

This is... not helping to counter the feelings of the fans that Umino is being given a spot he doesn't deserve, to say the least. And quoting Tanahashi calling him the cutesy nickname "Sho-chan" isn't helping either.

With this being addressed directly in the kayfabe ToSpo, I have to believe it means they'll be addressing it directly in the storyline as well. And it's very easy to imagine some scenarios where they could repeat the infamous fan vote that eventually turned Naito ungovernable. But with the differences between Naito's situation and Umino's, I'm not sure how well this will actually work if they do end up trying it...

As for my own feelings about all this - I don't like or dislike Umino as a wrestler right now - more than anything, I feel like he hasn't solidified as a wrestler enough for me to have much of an opinion on him yet. But this whole situation has been fascinating to watch as it plays out.

[transhawks]

What do you think about Hawks being a mentor? I really like his relationship with Tokoyami. There are a lot of interesting parent/mentor relationships in BNHA imo (All Might, Aizawa, Gran Torino, Inko) and they're have clear differences but it still feels a lot different from Hawks? Hawks is a lot closer in age to the students and he also mentions he's not interested in "nurturing the younger generation" but it seems he is still making an effort? We don't see much from siblings besides Fuyumi...

Ahh, this is such a good question! First off, someone has written a bit on this already and it’s such a good take that I have to link it: (x)

Here’s my thoughts: Hawks and Tokoyami are different than our general mentorships in series because they have the actual possibility of rivalry given closeness in age and personality differences that don’t mimic the other student/hero mentorships. 

Anyway, let’s break this down a bit. First off, on the “Nurturing the younger generation” comment, you hit the nail on the head on something I’ve talked about before here: (x) 

Hawks is a man of contradictions and this extends to his personality.

Confusing, right? It’s why Endeavor didn’t know if Hawks is being sincere or not - it’s why he keeps everyone on their toes with the things he says. Personality-wise, I’d almost call him duplicitous, except I don’t think it’s even conscious on his part (mostly). What I’ve noticed with him is that he says one thing, does another, and wants something else completely. It’s stunning because you think he’d be straight-forward with the way he talks but he’s more a maze than a path.

That’s why you have to look beneath the surface when you look at that comment.

Hawks says that line to Tokoyami after treating him to a flight. Given how he sort of ignored Tokoyami (or at least that’s how Fumi felt), this is obviously a very nice gesture, and probably meant as reward because Tokoyami proved himself first. But, whereas Tokoyami always felt that Hawks was ignoring him, we had a surprising twist where Hawks admitted to having watched Tokoyami all along.

Hawks clearly looks for potential - this is important to note, as he stated it earlier:

Someone who could keep up with him because Hawks is the man who goes too fast. And then - someone with promise. He scouted Tokoyami. Perhaps like he’d been scouted?

He then landed them on a safe, but isolated place to talk, where he proceeded to dispense some wisdom.

Hawks here first states he doesn’t really care for ‘nurturing’ Tokoyami. We know he says he primarily scouted him because he wanted a voice about what’s going on UA and with the LoV (strangely enough far earlier than he was supposed to care given that he was only given his mission post-Kamino). I’m sure the nurturing comment came from Hawks’s own issues with heroism, and the choices (children) can make.

And yet, he thought Fumikage had potential, potential he wasn’t using. Hawks is most definitely, until you prove yourself, a fly or fall kind of mentor. He didn’t offer Tokoyami anything at first - until he showed he could try to keep up. Even if Fumikage couldn’t breach that gap between them, the fact he attempted endeared him to Hawks. How do we know this? This is the exact reason he admires Endeavor, admitted through his own narration. Attempting to cross gaps that seem impossible despite all others not even trying is something Hawks finds admirable. 

So, he then gives Tokoyami a short run down of what he’s doing wrong - yeah, covering weak points is important and Fumikage must have realized that after the Sports Festival, but he’s also not using his quirk to its fullest potential. Tokoyami has trouble with Dark Shadow, obviously, control is his biggest issue. 

As far as we know, Hawks doesn’t struggle with control over his quirk because control is his greatest asset. He has a telekinetic quirk, after all, one with sensory and transformation capabilities that also requires incredible focus due to the sheer number of feathers able to be deployed. The fact he can do that also means he has the freedom to be creative with his quirk. Tokoyami, who is still mastering Dark Shadow, is yet to achieve this. It makes a great deal of sense that Tokoyami is partnered with a mentor who is as flexible and creative as Hawks.

Hawks flying Tokoyami gave him an idea, and a desire to fly. He’d upgraded his Black Ankh move to allow him to fly, essentially copying the way Hawks had flown him. Edgelord name aside, Black Fallen Angel is really Hawks’s move and it’s so useful and game-changing that it’s no surprise he refers to Hawks as ‘Master’ later on. Or sees himself as his representation.

But what makes this a different relationship to any of the other mentor/student relationships?

Tokoyami is clearly paying lots of homage to Hawks in this arc. He names a move Hawks technically created for him after Hawks himself (in what might be a morbid piece of foreshadowing), defends Hawks’s ‘creed of speed’ in battle, acknowledges that the man is indeed a master to him - even if his original perception of Hawks had been extremely disappointing.

But he also challenges Hawks by trying to keep up, by trying to match his speed. Hawks’s interest and respect were piqued, and Hawks even gave him sound advice (and let that falsely cheerful facade of his slip around him). The age gap of six-seven years is also an experience gap of around five years.

That’s why this relationship feels a bit different. At once Tokoyami is displaying levels of admiration that seem normal to our hero/student relationships, but unlike everyone else the process, Tokoyami has a clear understanding of his own worth and doesn’t seem to believe the gap between Hawks and him is too big to fly over. 

Look at that face! Tokoyami is mad here - and look what the reaction is. Hawks’s sidekicks are in awe of someone practically managing to keep up when they don’t bother, Hawks is impressed, and importantly, Tokoyami has room to grow.

Does Hawks?

That’s a big question, how high can he go before he can’t? His whole arc is someone too fast for their own good, someone who rose too quickly. Does he ever plateau? 

And, I don’t mean to be drawing in the other theories surrounding Hawks, but as curious as it is that one of the main 1-A kids who have been shown to struggle with their quirk was paired with a hero with excellent control over his, it’s also equally curious that Tokoyami is consistently struggling with what must be the representation of his innate darkness, as Dark Shadow feeds off negative emotions. Tokoyami utilizes and embraces his shadows to fight, while Hawks has to learn to embrace his own or he can’t infiltrate the league. 

Oh - and didn’t the League see Tokoyami and see villainous potential?