#but ibushi's one of the only wrestlers i watch were every time i see him i fall in love with wrestling all over again. he's just that good

[busaikuknee]

kota ibushi for the chara bingo

i just think kota ibushi should do literally whatever he wants

[galaxy-brain-rasslin]

Just some quick thoughts on All In. There will be spoilers.

Zero Hour

I, 100% did not expect Adam and MJF to win, at all. I expected there to be the initial start of a betrayal or something. I was pleasantly surprised, since I love the two of them.

Aussie Open seems really good. I should probably check out ROH.

Hook is one of my favorite anime protagonists, and Jack Perry has improved so much by being a complete piece of shit.

Also, Taz being hyped up for everything Hook does will literally never get old. Dude just sounds so proud every damn time.

CM Punk vs Samoa Joe

I don't really care a whole lot about CM Punk. I've seen a few of his pre-AEW matches, and I think he cuts a fun promo. I also think he's clearly enjoying himself, which makes watching his matches more enjoyable, in their own way.

That said, watching Samoa Joe just beat the absolute fuck out of Punk for most of the match was beautiful. I missed Joe in the original ROH and TNA/Impact, but his NXT and WWE stuff was so fun. Joe works at such a great pace, too. He literally always feels like a threat.

Seeing "real world championship" in quotes every time they mention CM Punk’s belt always reminds me of when AJ Styles was being announced in WWE as "The Man Who Would Like to be Announced as 'The Face that Runs the Place'"

Golden Elite vs Bullet Club Gold w/ Takeshita

Juice Robinson is my favorite feral little gremlin in pro wrestling.

Jay White is a beautiful piece of shit and I love him for it. He's also so fucking good in the ring.

Takeshita is also fantastic and has been consistently great.

I love how much everyone hates Don Callis.

Golden☆Lovers OTP

Hangman Adam Page is one of all-time favorite wrestlers. Just always happy to see him out there.

Ibushi tried to murder people with his kicks and it was fantastic shit.

A shitty surprise pin on Kenny Omega is absolutely on brand. I was peeved in a good way.

FTR vs Young Bucks

Fuck the Revival. I also like FTR a lot. Been a fan of theirs since NXT, and I loved seeing them draped in gold not that long ago.

I don't always feel like watching a Young Bucks match, but I always enjoy the match when it's done.

FTR and the Bucks were top-tier tag team wrestling today.

I legitimately expected FTR to lose, given the legal troubles that Cash could be facing. Seeing FTR win was a nice surprise.

FTR having arm bands for Brodie Lee, Bray Wyatt, and Jay Briscoe was so sweet, and so sad.

Stadium Stampede

Find someone who loves you as much as Eddie Kingston hates Claudi Castagnoli.

Mox looked so fucking cool walking out.

Oh my god, Trent, why, what the fuck. Please stop.

Someone getting skewers stabbed into their heads will always make me wince and laugh simultaneously.

Penta being walked backstage by medics only to return as Penta Oscuro was amazing shit. Penta is great.

Wheeler Yuta is the perfect person in BCC to be a bloodthirsty little goblin that you want to see eat the pin. He does his job well.

Also Best Friends hugging Yuta only to beat him up was gold.

I lost track of what was happening at least 400 times during the match and I don't care. I was thoroughly entertained.

Dr. Britt Baker, DMD v. Toni Storm v. Saraya v. Hikaru Shida

I assumed Saraya was going to win as soon as I saw her come out to Queen with her entire goddamn family walking out.

Toni Storm is a beautiful disaster.

In the event that Saraya wouldn't be winning, I didn't want Britt to win.

But that's also primarily because I *wanted* Shida to retain. Also, I love that Shida's theme has big 90s X-Men vibes.

Shida in general is just great. She should win every match.

I also just had no real investment in Brit for this match. She just kinda felt like she could have been nearly any other woman from the women's division. She wasn't *bad* by any means, just not someone I was pulling for or against.

I'm curious to see what happens with this implosion of the Outcasts now that Saraya and Toni aren't on good terms.

I dislike Ronnie Radke musically and as a person, so I'm not really thrilled at the idea of hearing Saraya's music more now that she's the champ.

At the same time, given all the shit she's been through, I can't be too mad about them giving her a run.

I still want Shida to have an actual good, long run though. I love her matches.

Christian Cage & Swerve vs. Darby Allin and Sting

Schiavone shouting "IT'S STING" is one of my favorite things in wrestling.

Joker Sting is fun as hell.

Swerve is actually the coolest motherfucker on the entire roster, and it is a literal crime that he doesn't have a belt.

Christian Cage is a menace and I can't get over that he wrestles in a sleeveless turtleneck now.

Darby is here for a good time, not a long time.

Sting is SIXTY-FOUR GODDAMN YEARS OLD AND SHOULD NOT BE DOING THIS STUFF.

Darby shouldn't either, but I'm fairly certain he's not even human anymore.

I love Swerve.

I also love Prince Nana.

Getting all of Wembly to shout "Swerve's house" probably felt cool.

This was fun as hell.

Will Ospreay vs Chris Jericho

bruv

Ospreay is so fucking good, dude. Like he's absolutely up there as one of the best to do this. Every match I've seen of his just blows me away.

Jericho is also absolutely one of the most versatile wrestlers of all time. I've seen this man reinvent himself like a dozen times, and every time feels just as natural as the one before it.

If they had Jericho win, there was going to be a riot.

Plz give me more Ospreay matches. Dude can fucking go.

I'm curious to know what happens with Jericho and Sammy now

House of Black vs The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn

HOB walking out with a lantern 😭

The Fireflies 😭

HOB looks so cool in white, holy shit.

I love Julia's hats.

I am not a cop, so obviously I love The Acclaimed.

Billy Gunn coming out in full-on Badd Ass Billy Gunn trunks made me feel like I was 12 again.

I love HOB, but if The Acclaimed didn't win this, after their whole mini arc of Gunn retiring, and Gunn bringing back BABG, I was gonna be mad.

Is there a rule that someone has to wreck Julia's shit every match, because lmao

A lot of fun.

Brody King scares the hell out of me.

Adam Cole vs. MJF

I went into this expecting heartbreak

Adam Cole, who took character inspiration from Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2, comes out sporting some definite Broderlands-vibe gear.

MJF is still wearing BTYBB gear.

MJF as this babyface-leaning thing is actually some of the greatest shit I've ever seen. The whole turmoil over using a weapon feels like Roddy Piper vs Bret Hart.

Cole being a desperate POS to the confused, hurt, and mad MJF was wonderful.

The tombstone onto the announce desk with metal reinforcement was brutal on my knees as a viewer.

lol Roddy. lmao.

MJF and Cole almost having a total falling out after the match was amazing.

Cole opting not to slam the AEW belt into MJF's head after the match, and they hug instead? Cinema.

Was I still deeply concerned that there was going to be a betrayal literally up until the PPV feed stopped? Oh hell yes. I watched Ciampa turn on Gargano after the little copyright stuff showed up in NXT. I will *still* be concerned about that until the moment it happens.

That said, I genuinely don't want it to happen because these dudes work so well together. They're just so fucking dorky in the best way.

Misc. Other Thoughts

I missed whatever happened with Miro and Hobbs, because I just missed the whole first hour of Zero Hour.

Apparently there was Drama involving Punk and Jack Perry-- I guess related to the use of actual glass in the windshield of the car that Hook and Perry wrestled on? Whatever. Punk isn't why I watch this stuff, but I would rather Perry not get screwed.

Why did they keep panning over to Mercedes Moné if she wasn't gonna do anything other than vibe to The Acclaimed's theme?

That being said, I was loving the wig she had on. I've been liking the shorter-cut wigs compared to the long-ass stuff she was wearing as Sasha Banks

A lot of people kept expecting Edge to show up at some point. I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that his contract was extended.

Overall, this was, in all honesty, probably the best wrestling PPV I've ever watched. And, thanks to the invention of VHS tapes in my youth and the WWE Network as an adult, I have seen a *lot* of PPVs. This felt bigger than any Wrestlemania I've watched. I can't compare it to Wrestle Kingdom because I've never actually seen one of those all the way through. But it had numerous people who have been in Wrestle Kingdom matches, which were great.

I'm just annoyed that All Out is next goddamn week, because I don't want to shell out $100 in two weeks for this stuff.

Regardless. I love wrestling. We are in one of the greatest eras of pro wrestling, if not *the* greatest. What a time to be a fan.

[gdwessel]

Moxley Defeats Kojima, Challenged by Suzuki at AEW ALL OUT, Mox v. Suzuki on AEW Dynamite Wednesday 9/8/2021; Other NJPW Activity In Chicago Last Weekend; Kidani Gives Not-Very-Inspiring Interview to Tokyo Sports About Poor Attendances

Once again, technical issues prevented me from posting this yesterday, and it's obvious something needs to be done about the computer I'm using, one way or another. I wasn't even able to finish a podcast yesterday I needed to. So I may be taking a few days off from this thing in order to get my tech issues resolved. Try not to miss me too much?

Sunday night at AEW's ALL OUT PPV from Hoffman Estates, IL, former IWGP US Heavyweight champion Jon Moxley defeated the visiting Satoshi Kojima in the second match of the show, and it was very good. Of course, Kojima isn't a huge name among modern wrestling fans necessarily, so the AEW commentators did a very good job explaining just how decorated Kojima's been through his career to build him up, and Kojima was over with the live fans in attendance. Moxley did defeat Kojima after two Death Riders, and then cut a promo saying he was irritated that a certain someone wasn't answering his challenges (Hiroshi Tanahashi).

Cue "Kaze ni Nare," and Minoru Suzuki appeared, officially kicking off his US tour. Suzuki made his way to the ring, and got into an elbow battle with Moxley, getting Mox's blood on him as Mox skinned his elbow at some point in the match, probably due to his activity on Saturday night (more on that below). Eventually Suzuki got the better of Mox, and hit a Gotch-style Piledriver on him to end the segment. Of course, Mox v. Suzuki had the potential to be a feud of the year in 2020 before the pandemic put a stop to that, so it's good they've decided to revisit this whilst Suzuki is on his tour of the indies this Fall. Mox v. Suzuki is now booked for this Wednesday's AEW Dynamite, from Moxley's home town of Cincinnati, OH. This was of course the first of four shock appearances, what with Ruby Soho, Adam Cole and, critically, Bryan Danielson all appearing. This was a very, very good show, and I highly recommend it.

(Another date to Suzuki's tour has been added now, as Premiere Wrestling Xperience in Concord, NC, has booked Suzuki v. Anthony Henry for their All Hail The King event on 10/2/2021, so that will go on the itinerary now as well!)

That wasn't all Moxley got up to this past weekend. As of Saturday night, Mox is now the Game Changer Wrestling Heavyweight Champion, after quickly defeating Matt Cardona (yes, the former Zack Ryder, who beat Nick Gage last month in what has been a masterclass of getting heat that should be studied by wrestlers and fans alike) via Death Rider onto lighttubes (which might be where the cut came from that opened Sunday). Afterwards, Moxley laid out the belt as a challenge to Nick Gage (something that has been building since Wrestlemania Weekend), which was accepted, and will take place at GCW's show in Atlantic City, NJ, on 10/9/2021.

Elsewhere, the NJPW Strong Openweight champion "Filthy" Tom Lawlor is now Tommy Two Belts, as he defeated the Black Label Pro Midwest Champion, former Time Splitter Alex Shelley, for that title at the joint GCW/BLP show 3 Cups Stuffed late Friday night, and then defended it the next day at BLP's Ground Control to Filthy Tom, defeating Daniel Garcia (late of both AEW and NJPW Strong) in the main event of that show. Juice Robinson also got involved with the proceedings this weekend, defeating 1 Called Manders at AAW's Destination Chicago show on Thursday 9/2/2021, the company's return to the Logan Square Arena for the first time since lockdown. AAW frequently books Impact talents on their shows (Josh Alexander and Jake Something still regularly feature for AAW), so that's likely how that booking happened.

All of the above events, even AEW ALL OUT, are available for purchase on FITE TV right now.

Yesterday, NJPW (and Bushiroad [and STARDOM!]) owner Takaaki Kidani gave an interview to Tokyo Sports, acknowledging the relatively poor attendances for the two nights of Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome this past weekend (barely over 2000 each night), even in light of reduced capacities due to states of emergency. Kidani recognized that attendances are down for the promotion, and even said if something does not happen soon, the three nights of Wrestle Kingdom 16 may be "duds." What's worrisome is, Kidani's solution in light of "foreign talents" not coming over (well, except when they are -- Zack Sabre Jr., Jeff Cobb, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Chase Owens and KENTA are all booked for G1 Climax 31), appears to be "booking more matches," which I suppose could also be read as "booking more events."

There are a few problems with NJPW right now. The amount of matches on shows is not one of them. Indeed, I daresay the reduced number of matches has shined a light on just how ponderously endless a cycle the prelude tag matches can be, and the extended Summer Struggle tour showed that as well. The problem is a lack of compelling ideas and storylines happening with the talents they have right now. No, not every feud will be Okada v. Tanahashi, but then, they don’t need to be in order to be something the crowds can get behind. SHO v. YOH has the potential to be something worth watching; lazily throwing SHO into yet another sub-faction of the Bullet Club is not the way to build interest in it. That only sort of worked last year with EVIL, because their backs were against the wall immediately following lockdown. EVIL hasn’t amounted to jackshit since. Why they went to that particular well again is beyond me.

The debacles regarding the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship loom large in this equation too. From the initial unification that got rid of a beloved belt, even among the attending fans in Japan, not just Western internet fans, to the failures of Kota Ibushi and Will Ospreay as champions, have only served to heighten the malaise among the fans. Shingo Takagi is a great champion so far; that match v. EVIL on Sunday, eh, was not. Ospreay’s absence from Japan has completely derailed the United Empire, the first new NJPW stable in over 5 years when it was formed, and now Great O-Khan, the most interesting new character in the NJPW setup in the last year, can barely get booked on shows. Sure, perhaps “book more matches” might help that, but not if it’s just endless tag matches when Jeff Cobb nor Aaron Henare can’t be counted on to be on every tour in this pandemic age. It says something that the longest serving champions in NJPW right now include YOSHI-HASHI as part of that tandem.

Long story short, there are issues with NJPW, no doubt. Kidani acknwledging the slumping attendances, especially in light of announced a three-day Wrestle Kingdom 16, is good. I don’t think he’s going about this the right way tho. More matches is not the answer. More better storylines and feuds, that might be a better idea to try first.

Well, that's all for me, for now. See you on the other side of these laptop issues.

[fallynleaf]

(This is under a cut because it’s a long post about wrestling awards, but it’s also about creative storytelling in bleak conditions, the incredible emotional power of stories about love, and Japanese women’s wrestling taking important strides in bucking the idol-culture-esque trend where joshi wrestlers are expected to retire before they get married)

I don’t really put much stock into wrestling awards, because it’s all extremely subjective, and many of them, like the Tokyo Sports Awards, are heavily kayfabed/politicked anyway, but the 2020 Net Pro-Wrestling Awards, which were voted on by fans in Japan, were really fascinating to me.

The top 10 promotions were [source]:

NJPW

NOAH

DDT

Stardom

Muscle

TJPW

AEW

ChocoPro

AJPW

Ice Ribbon

This list is interesting, because it basically reflects the direction our own discord server’s interest took this year (though we’d probably rank them in a different order). The top promotions in our server currently are probably NJPW, NOAH, TJPW, Stardom, DDT, AEW, and ChocoPro, (not necessarily in that order). I’ve spent a lot of time over the past year thinking about which companies did the best job, creatively, with having to adapt to pandemic-era wrestling conditions, and I think this list reflects that somewhat. Many of these companies produced matches and performers that really stood out despite putting on shows in less than ideal conditions.

I’m especially happy that ChocoPro did as well as it did (beating WWE, you love to see it). It’s a very small promotion, but out of all of the companies in the list, it’s the only one that was specifically designed to operate in pandemic conditions, and it has a genuinely innovative format that was born from that. It’s also very accessible! ChocoPro operates with a no paywall model, and it’s distributed on youtube completely for free!

Also, four of these companies are directly part of the DDT family (and ChocoPro has extensive DDT connections), and two others (AEW and NJPW) currently have former DDT wrestlers as their world champions. I constantly think about how DDT has had more influence on the wrestling industry as a whole than most people really give it credit for, haha, but 2020 really proved that. DDT is simply better at creative adaption than most.

The top 10 MVP list was [source]:

Go Shiozaki (NOAH)

Tetsuya Naito (NJPW)

Hiromu Takahashi (NJPW)

Tetsuya Endo (DDT)

Minoru Fujita

Kota Ibushi (NJPW)

El Desperado (NJPW)

Kenta (NJPW)

Asuka (WWE)

Katsuhiko Nakajima (NOAH)

Fans voted Go Shiozaki as the top MVP of 2020, and that made me happy, because it’s very deserved!! He narrowly missed out on receiving the Tokyo Sports MVP award, so I’m glad to see him recognized here. Go truly did carry NOAH throughout 2020, and he really put the company back on the map again for many people.

I had no interest in watching NOAH before this year, but I ended up watching Go Shiozaki vs Kazuyuki Fujita from the March 29 show because I heard so much about it, and it blew me away. I’ve already talked about this match in bits and pieces; it’s the one that starts with a literal 30-minute staredown. It was a very avant garde decision to make, because it changes the entire structure of the match (it was a title match with a 60-minute time limit), and it’s something they never could have gotten away with if they’d had a crowd in the venue. But, performing in an empty arena, they could do it. It’s amazing how compelling it can be, just watching two wrestlers stare at each other, but it was really, really cool.

That match was Go’s first title defense (he won the GHC title shortly before the pandemic shut everything down), and he’s really had quite the run with the title ever since. The next thing he did that got me to tune back in to NOAH was when he got betrayed by his tag partner (Katsuhiko Nakajima, number 10 on the list), which of course pushed all of my favorite wrestling narrative buttons.

There’s just something about Go that makes him so compelling. It was even enough to get some friends of mine who primarily root for heels to really want him to succeed, haha. And I just really have to commend him for that. He was a late-blooming ace tasked with the incredibly rough responsibility of representing his company through a dramatic business shakeup while also weathering a global pandemic that drastically affected every aspect of the wrestling medium itself, and he was still able to put on innovative performances and tell very emotional stories and bring in new fans even in less than ideal conditions.

Some highlights from the list of top matches [source]:

1. Hiromu Takahashi vs El Desperado (12/11) NJPW 2. Go Shiozaki vs Katsuhiko Nakajima (11/22) NOAH 3. Go Shiozaki vs Kazuyuki Fujita (3/29) NOAH 4. Go Shiozaki vs Takashi Sugiura (12/6) NOAH 5. Tetsuya Naito vs Kazuchika Okada (1/5) NJPW 6. Go Shiozaki vs Kenoh (8/10) NOAH 7. Yuka Sakazaki vs Mizuki (11/7) TJPW 9. Tetsuya Endo vs Daisuke Sasaki (11/3) DDT 10. Kazuchika Okada vs Kota Ibushi (1/4) NJPW 11. Tetsuya Naito vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (9/20) NJPW 16. Hyper Misao vs Super Sasadango Machine (11/20) TJPW

There are a few things that really stand out to me here (I omitted matches from promotions that I don’t watch because I can’t speak to those). The first is that Go is all over this list lol. He’s in four of the top ten matches!

The second thing is that wrestling fans really enjoy stories about love. This is the least surprising thing to me, because those kinds of stories are ultimately why I watch this medium, but it’s still amazing to see that reflected in lists like this. In the list above, the top ranked matches in NJPW (#1), NOAH (#2), TJPW (#7), and DDT (#9) are all matches that are explicitly about love. They’re all different stories and different matches, but love is at the core of all of them.

I giffed all four of those matches (linked above!), and wrote up a short explanation of the stories for everything except for Despy/Hiromu, who have a dynamic that is too complicated for me to attempt to summarize. But they have explicitly described their feelings for each other as “love,” and have talked about their matches in terms of “making love.” I also wrote up a post about those three NOAH, TJPW, and DDT matches specifically.

It’s amazing to me how wrestling is, on its surface, a medium that revolves around hate and competition, but beneath that, it’s really a medium about love and cooperation. There’s simply far more at stake in a match between wrestlers who love each other (or who once loved each other) than there is in a match between wrestlers who hate each other.

I was surprised but happy to see that Hyper Misao vs Super Sasadango Machine got number 16 on this list, even though that match really did a number on me emotionally. This match was incredibly nontraditional. It involved a retirement announcement, a powerpoint presentation, a Bachelorette parody, a poetry contest, a retirement match, an unretirement, and a marriage announcement.

Misao started off by announcing that she was retiring, which devastated me. But by the end of the match, she decided that she wasn’t going to retire until peace and love had returned to the world, and she also decided that she wasn’t going to wait to pursue her other dream, too, which was to get married. Her husband-to-be came out into the ring, and the company put out a marriage announcement up on the website, and everybody cheered and celebrated the announcement. Misao became the first married wrestler on the TJPW roster.

This might not seem notable, but there are very, very few Japanese women wrestlers who are married and who are still actively wrestling. Joshi wrestlers often have very short careers and early retirements, and it is common for them to quit wrestling in order to get married. Misao also started her wrestling career fairly late: she began wrestling at 25, and almost quit at 30. In addition to all of that, she loves wrestling very unconventional matches (case in point: this one), and worries that her nontraditional style isn’t what fans are interested in seeing.

So, considering all of that, I love the fact that this match is getting so much positive recognition. It was very creative and emotional, and the reception to it really demonstrates how much the fans truly love Misao, as unconventional as she may be, and how happy we all are that she decided to get married and keep wrestling. I hope this match helps pave the way for other joshi wrestlers, too.

As always with awards like these, I wish there was more women’s wrestling represented, but it’s fascinating to look back at a year like the one we just had, and think about some of the things that resonated with me, and how those same things were received by other fans.

[let-me-love-you-loki]

In a Day or Two-Ch. 18

Chapter 18

           Kenny sat on the edge of the bed next to me just out of reach. He watched me with those blue-green eyes of his as if he could see right through me. For a moment, he didn’t say anything. And then…

           “I thought you’d like meeting the… meeting my friends,” he said almost too quiet to hear. He looked at his hands. “They’ve wanted to meet you for a while.”

           I bunched a pillow up in my lap and held onto it like a security blanket. “I did like meeting them. They were nice.” I breathed deeply to stop the tears before they could come. “Matt and Nick were great… they didn’t have to look after me like they did.”

           He nodded. “They’re my best friends. And they liked you.”

           I blinked, surprised at that. My stomach turned upside down as I tried to hold onto the tears. I didn’t want to cry in front of him, and I couldn’t understand why. He leaned closer, his fingertips settling against my ankle.

           “Koibito,” he said softly. “Why won’t you look at me?”

           My chest ached and I bit down hard on my lip to stop the sob growing inside me. I wanted to ask, but I didn’t know if I had the courage to deal with the answer. “Because it hurts.”

           He moved even closer, the hand on my ankle going to press gently on my cheek. I felt the gentle nudge of his fingers as he tried to lift my head to meet his eyes. “Shaye… talk to me. Please.”

           I couldn’t ignore the pleading in his voice. When I met his gaze, my vision blurred with tears. “I wish you looked at me the way you looked at Kota.” The words spilled out before I could catch them back. Part of me wanted to hate myself for the way he flinched as if he’d been struck. But I couldn’t help the fact that I was desperate to know what he would say.

           “Shaye,” his voice was desperate, breaking on my name as he crawled up the bed to sit knee-to-knee with me. “Kota isn’t…” He blinked, eyes filling with tears of his own. “Kota was a long time ago. You are right now.”

           “Am I going to be more than just right now, Kenny?” I asked pitifully. “Because you don’t look at Kota like it was a long time ago. You look at him like he’s everything to you.”

           He wrapped his fingers around my wrists and tugged me into his lap. For a moment, I tried to struggle out of his grasp, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen. He was stronger than me and, even though I was hurt beyond anything else I’d ever known, I wanted to be close to him. As if I could sense the end of this racing to a desperate and unhappy finish.

           Kenny pressed his forehead against mine and cradled the back of my head with his hand. “Kota was… I had a really hard time for a long time,” he explained softly, “about who I was. I uprooted my entire life because of Kota Ibushi. As far I was concerned, I was going to be the best wrestler in the world. And to be the best, I had to compete with the best—he was it. The first time we got in a match together… there was something there that I’d never been brave enough to acknowledge before. He… he let me be who I really was, and he loved me for it. I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am if it wasn’t for him.”

           I felt my heart breaking. Whether it was for him or for the shadow of what we had been or could be I didn’t know. Before I could take a breath to speak, Kenny went on.

           “My career is built on the time I spent with Kota Ibushi. Everything I am is because of him. I love… loved…” Kenny’s entire body shuddered as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me hard and fully against him. “I love him, Shaye. And I always will. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love you."

           “Is it really love?” I murmured, hardly able to breathe in his desperate hold. “We both knew this was going to end.”

           “Don’t… please don’t say that…” he pled, carding his fingers through my hair, cupping my face in his hands. “I don’t want this to end. Is that what you want, koibito, watashinoie, watashi no kokoro?”

           I’d learned enough at last to know what he said. Sweetheart. My home. My heart. The words sliced straight to the center of me, carving themselves on the flesh of my heart. Tears slid down his face over cheeks that had gone faintly red. He looked miserable, his eyes glassy with tears, his brows knit together in desperation.

           “Please, Shaye,” he whimpered, sniffling. “I love you. I know it like I know my own mind.”

           Kenny went quiet, as if he’d poured out everything he could. Every part of me ached, inside and out, but I couldn’t speak. All I could do was wrap my arms around him and cradle his head against my shoulder as he cried. I let my fingers walk through his curls even as I finally let myself give over to my own sobs. He held me so tightly… as if he feared I would vanish… as if he was desperate for the connection to soothe his raw heart.

           The silence stretched out and, before we knew it, sleep pushed us over into a tangle on the mattress. We slept knotted around each other.

***

           There was a faint unease between us when we went downstairs the next morning. The ghost of Kota Ibushi still hovered over us, but in a very different way than before. Kenny stayed close to me, like he was waiting for me to bolt away. His fingers skimmed my arms and my back whenever he was near enough to touch me. The tenderness in those touches burned into my skin and right down into my bones. I held onto them, knowing my heart squeezed painfully, the air rushing out of my lungs, every time I thought about never feeling them again.

           The other members of the Bullet Club were already waiting in the lobby, standing in a loose circle. Nick smiled when we stepped off the elevator, and I waved good morning. He looked quickly between Kenny and me before turning to his brother. The two of them had a low conversation as we crossed the lobby. As we got closer, I noticed the shaggy chestnut hair that belonged to Kota Ibushi.

           He nodded his head at me, his dark gaze going immediately after to Kenny. I didn’t have to look up to know that they were watching one another. They were drawn together like magnets, and I was going to be torn apart by their orbit. Kenny’s hand swept flat onto the small of my back, thumb stroking a line up and down my spine.

           “How you feeling today, Shaye?” Nick asked when we got closer. “You good?”

           I smiled, though I knew it didn’t reach my eyes. “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks again… for everything.”

           He pressed his lips into a thin line and gave me a jerky sort of nod. Then he turned away, something like hurt in his eyes.

           “I’m going to go see if they have any of that Vietnamese coffee,” I murmured against Kenny’s bicep. Before I could walk away, he leaned down and pressed a fleeting kiss to my hair.

           Matt dropped into the space beside me. “I heard coffee, so I’m following you,” he offered by way of explanation. “Seriously though, you okay?”

           I took a moment to think about it. My emotions were raw and brutal in a way that I’d never known before. The memory of Kenny holding me so desperately as he cried filled my thoughts. “I don’t know. Kenny and I… well, we talked. We ended up somewhere, I just don’t know where.”

           “Let me tell you something about Kenny,” Matt said gently. “He’s got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. And he loves… hard. There’s no halfway with him, Shaye. Even though it hurts him every single time, he goes all in with his heart.”

           “He told me about Kota. Some of it anyway.”

           Matt gave me a halfhearted smile, eyes still burning with pity. “That’s a long story to tell. It took him a long time to tell us all of it.”

           I stopped, a paper cup in my hand, thoughts of coffee forgotten for a moment. “Am I making a mistake, Matt? He says you’re his best friends—you and Nick—and you… I don’t think you sugar coat things for people. So tell me the truth. Am I making a mistake with Kenny?”

           He glanced back toward the huddled group. I followed his gaze to find Kenny talking with Kota. As if he knew I was watching, he looked up and gifted me with a sweet, hopeful smile. And, though he fell easily back into his conversation, he didn’t look away from us.

           “No,” he said after a moment. “No, I don’t think you are.”

           Matt and I got our coffee—his traditional American style, mine two cups of Vietnamese style—and walked together back to the group. The ache in my chest had eased a bit after talking with the oldest Buck. I didn’t know how to navigate the waters that awaited, but at least I wouldn’t be going through them alone.

           I handed one of the coffees to Kenny, lingering enough to feel our fingertips settle together as he took it. I sipped slowly at the sweet concoction as I listened to the faint buzz of the Bullet Club’s conversations. The sensation of being out of place began to creep in. I pushed it away, giving myself permission to just observe and learn about these people who meant so much to Kenny.

           He reached out, tangling his fingers with mine and pulling me in against his side. I found myself staring up at Kota, unsurprised to realize that he was more beautiful the closer he came. A faint sort of understanding settled in my bones. With his easy smile, I could see how Kenny had lost his whole heart to him. And finally watching them together, up close, without my panic threatening to drown me, I could see that the feeling was mutual.

           It took a moment for me to realize that Kota was looking at me. Not only was he looking at me, he was speaking to me.

           “I’m sorry,” I said embarrassingly. “I don’t speak…”

           “He said that you are prettier than I said,” Kenny translated, his blue eyes bright. I shook my head at Kota, knowing I looked shocked. The other man nodded and began speaking rapidly, still looking at me, entrusting that Kenny would translate. “He says that he’s sorry that he was rude at the match last night. And that he…”

           Kenny paused, blushing. Kota shifted his focus back to him and began to clearly urge him to continue translating. “Ibutan…” Kenny stammered, followed by a rapid string of embarrassed Japanese.

           “He says that he knows you are important to me...”

           “Anatanokokoroni,” Kota said, thumping Kenny in the center of his chest.

           Kenny sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “He says that he knows you are important to me… to my heart… and…” He broke off to whisper something in furious Japanese back to Kota and then turned back to me. He took a deep breath. “Kota says he knows how I feel about you and that… uh… he hopes you come to Japan often. So he can get to know you, too.”

           “Shaye-san,” Kota said, his voice almost as sweet as my coffee. He reached out, taking our entwined hand in his own. “Kentan.” He held our hands together, said something to Kenny, and stepped away, waving goodbye as he went.

[wrestlingisfake]

Power Struggle preview

Tetsuya Naito vs. EVIL - Naito is defending both the IWGP heavyweight title and IWGP intercontinental title.  He won both titles in January, then lost them to Evil in July, and regained them in August.  During the G1 Climax, Evil defeated Naito in a tournament match where neither title was at stake, so Naito needs to even the score.  The winner of this match will most likely go on to defend the titles at Wrestle Kingdom in January.

The key to this Evil-Naito series has been whether you really buy Evil as a headliner, a credible rival to Naito, and a top champion.  To that end, New Japan was probably smart to have him win the first match.  But switching the title back so quickly undermined that effort.  I think western fans, who are used to half-hearted star-making in WWE, see Evil’s short title reign as evidence that New Japan is already giving up on him.  For them, this match will likely feel like a pointless rehash unless there’s a big angle or Evil delivers a five-star performance.  In contrast, the Japanese fans at the shows appear to be taking Evil at face value--they hate him when he gets cheap heat, but they don’t resent him as a failed experiment--so they’ll probably won’t be as demanding here.

I suppose a title change is possible, but I’m pretty sure the plan for Wrestle Kingdom is Naito vs. Kota Ibushi for the double gold, and Evil vs. Jay White in the upper midcard.  Evil and Jay were needling each other throughout the G1 Climax, and that’s got to be leading to something.  Both of them are in Bullet Club, though, and it’s hard to imagine them turning on one another right now without more buildup.  It feels like something should happen on this show to lead to a bigger angle in December, but I can’t imagine what that would be.

Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White - This is for the “right to challenge” contract that was awarded to Ibushi for winning the G1 Climax.  The bearer of the contract is expected to defend it like a championship, typically against the wrestlers that beat them during the G1.  Ibsuhi only lost two matches in this year’s tournament, to White and Shingo Takagi, and White beat Takagi, so I guess that means Jay’s got dibs.  Whoever ends up with the contract will challenge for the IWGP heavyweight and IWGP intercontinental championships at Wrestle Kingdom.

This will be the fourth singles match between these two, and White currently leads the series 2-1.  But that only hints at the real story here.  Both guys were in the four-man “Double Gold Dash” mini-tournament at Wrestle Kingdom 14, and Jay beat Ibushi in the consolation match, leaving Kota with the worst record of the group.  Ibushi has been trying to recover from that loss ever since, and winning the G1 was a key part of his road to redemption.  Beating White on his way to another shot at the double title is a very fitting next step.

As for Jay, his confidence in his corner man, Gedo, appears to have been shaken following his failure to win the G1.  That probably plays into whatever is going on with Jay and Evil, but it’s still too fuzzy to forecast what’s going to happen with that.  Could Gedo betray White leading to Evil kicking Jay out of Bullet Club?  Or is Jay letting paranoia push his allies away from him?  I’m not certain we’ll get any answers at this show.

In all the time that G1 Climax winners have defended their title shot contracts, none of them have ever lost their briefcase.  It’ll probably happen someday.  But I definitely don’t think this is going to be the year.  Ibushi retains.

KENTA vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - This is for Kenta’s “right to challenge” contract, awarded to him for winning the New Japan Cup USA tournament.  The bearer is entitled to challenge for the IWGP United States championship, although it’s not clear when (if) that will happen.  Since winning the contract, Kenta has lost four singles matches--all during the G1.  But Tanahashi is the one whose head cracked the red briefcase Kenta uses to store the contract, so I guess that puts Tana first in line.

The current US champion is Jon Moxley, but he hasn’t been able to schedule a title defense since February.  Mox’s AEW contract doesn’t prevent him from flying to Japan to face Kenta, but current travel restrictions would make such a trip difficult to schedule, given the demands on his time as AEW world champion.  (Ironically, Moxley cannot defend the US title on US soil, because his AEW contract only lets him work for New Japan in Japan.)  In light of that situation, I think there’s a strong possibility the title could be vacated, which makes possession of Kenta’s contract even more crucial.  The winner of this match could end up becoming the next US champion by forfeit.

The outcome of this match probably depends on what the plans are for the US title going forward.  I’ve been assuming that New Japan will reposition the belt as the top championship for the weekly shows taped in Los Angeles; in that event, Kenta as the strong heel champion would make a lot of sense.  But as we get closer to Wrestle Kingdom, and the possibility that the company will keep the title on Moxley until that show, I have to admit that Moxley vs. Tanahashi would be a bigger match at the Tokyo Dome.  Of course, there’s no guarantee the winner of this match will wrestle Moxley at Wrestle Kingdom or at all.  But until we know for certain, I’ve got a hunch that Tana ends up with the briefcase.

Kazuchika Okada vs. Great-O-Khan - Okada is looking for payback from October 16, when Will Ospreay turned on him to start a new faction alongside O-Khan.  Sooner or later Okada and Ospreay will have to meet one-on-one, but first Okada has to get through Ospreay’s heavy.  This is easily the biggest match of O-Khan’s career, coming so soon after his “graduation” from the developmental system.  We’ve seen Master Wato in a similar position earlier this year, against Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and he came up short.  Let’s just say Okada is a substantially bigger challenge than Kanemaru.  I like O-Khan’s look and the style of his gimmick, so I sure hope he gets a win here.  But as a general rule, I don’t bet against Okada.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Shingo Takagi - Suzuki won the NEVER championship from Takagi in August, but Takagi defeated Suzuki during the G1, so he’s earned a chance to regain the title.  This should be a hard-hitting war, but I’m not sure it matters who wins because I don’t think it matters who has the title.  Regardless of which guy has the belt in the end, the bigger question will be the next challenger.  I’ll be rooting for Shingo because he’s cool, but then again I’m not wild about playing hot potato with the championship.

Toru Yano vs. Zack Sabre Jr. - Yano is defending the KOPW 2020 trophy; whoever holds it at the end of the year will be declared the KOPW champion, or something like that.  The original concept was that each participant in these matches would choose a stipulation and the fans would vote on it, but in this case Yano just demanded a match without turnbuckle pads and I guess Sabre didn’t object. 

The turnbuckles are the metal hooks that secure the ring ropes to the posts; the turnbuckle pads are big cushions that are used to cover the metal so nobody gets a body part caught in the hooks or something.  It’s pretty standard in wrestling to remove the pads and throw your opponent into the exposed buckle, but Yano has honed it into an artform.  So for Sabre this is sort of like facing Kane in an inferno match, or Jeff Hardy in a ladder match.

Yano gets a bad rap, because people watch New Japan more for good wrestling than comedy shenanigans.  But man cannot live by bread alone, and I like me some good Yano shenanigans in the middle of a stacked card.  I really dug the match these guys had in the G1, because it was a perfect clash of styles.  Yano has a strong amateur wrestling background and can go to the mat with Sabre, but it’s easier to just cheat.  Sabre is an absolute bastard who can use every dirty trick in the book, but it’s easier for him to just grab a hold.  So they drive each other nuts, and it’s awesome.  I expect this to be a really fun opener.

I can’t begin to guess where they’re headed with the KOPW title, but on paper I’d assume Sabre has to beat this clown.  But Yano’s really great at defying on-paper expectations....

[thecompostpile]

Quarantine Chronicles 12 Kota Ibushi vs Finn Balor Best of Super Junior 2009

It wasn’t surprising at all when New Japan announced they would be canceling this year Best of Super Juniors. New Japan was the first to cancel wrestling and has instead had their wrestlers provide different forms of entertainment. Tanahashi himself told the government that wrestling should be one of the last things to come back after all of this. It has been a relief from at least one major wrestling company is taking these matters seriously. Not putting their staff at risk to wrestle in front of no one. 

It was still a huge bummer though that Best of Super Juniors wouldn’t be running. For the past few years it has been one of my favorite wrestling tournaments. Something about it feels special. It could be that the junior wrestling style is one of my favorites. It could be that some of my favorite wrestlers, Dragon Lee, Hiromu, Jushin Thunder Liger, all wrestle in it. It could even be the time of year it takes place, early spring, is my favorite time of the year. It just feels special. Last year at this time I remember watching almost every match of BoSJ during an, especially difficult depression funk. It was great, Dragon Lee was champion, everyone was having great matches against everyone. Some days I would even watch all of the pre card stuff which I usually just skipped. 

As spring gets warmer and slowly turns into summer it feels weird to not have the junior tournament to keep me company. I have only been watching the tournament for the last few years and there is plenty of stuff I have never seen. None of Kota Ibushi’s junior runs. I don’t even think I have seen a Finn Balor New Japan match. So I have decided to watch their match from 2009, far before I even knew about New Japan or even watched much wrestling. While I was still in high school thinking Warped Tour bands were cool and jerking off into my comforter. 

I am excited to see older Kota Ibushi stuff because I haven’t seen much of it. The most famous stuff like his matches against Kenny Omega and the DDT doll. Finn Balor looks exactly the same as he does today. I have really never seen any of his New Japan stuff and haven’t heard much about it good or bad. I liked Finn when he first came into WWE but he hasn’t done much for me lately, it’ll be interesting to watch this. 

They start by trying to lock up but Kota kicks at Finn instead. They exchange armbars on each other back and forth. Trying to one-up the other. Finn gets Kota on his back and into a headlock. They run the ropes Finn hits a dropkick. He goes for a dive on the outside but Kota hits a springboard dropkick to interrupt. Really quickening up the pace of the match. 

Kota muscles his way out of a headlock and hits a flurry of kicks. Getting Finn into a headlock and slowing the match down again. These two certainly like headlocks. Finn seems more technically advanced but Kota certainly outstrikes him. Kota hits the golden triangle and all the fans cheer for him. The count starts and both men struggle to get up. Kota is up first and throws Finn into the guardrail, into the ring and then hits a missile dropkick off the top rope. Kota hits a german for a two. 

Both men are standing and strade strikes. Kota gets the best of it again being the better striker. He then hits a moonsualt lands on his feet and flips onto Finn for a two count. Kota can’t believe Finn was able to kick out. Finn get the best of exchange and both men are down. The ref starts to count. 

Finn his a Pele kick into a brainbuster but only get a two count. Kota gets up and flips off of Finn Balor’s back lands on his feet hits a Pele kick out his own then a suplex. Finn gets momentum back when Kota mises a Pheonix Splash and Finn hits a double stomp, a gutbuster and it is all over for Kota. 

 It seems like these two would have a few more matches. Including a triple threat with Low Ki that might end up in this series. This match doesn’t do much. They only wrestle for about ten minutes, which is the perfect length for a tournament match. Kota gets the most out of those ten minutes looking impressive for all ten of them. It is interesting to compare both of these two to their current selves. Kota could have made 2020 his year after a rough Wrestle Kingdom. While I was writing this I was trying to think of what happened to Finn Balor, if he was injured or not and why he hasn’t been on any of the little bit of WWE I have watched then I remember he moved to NXT, which I have never watched. I assume he is just wasting away there and I couldn’t be any less interested. 

[namajague]

hi are there any el desperado matches you would recommend to someone who is relatively new to wrestling but has seen a few of his matches and already decided they like him a whole lot?

Ahhh, good question! He’s a delight and I’m gonna try not to just shove every match at you. One thing is that if you’re watching his NJPW matches, do yourself a favor and watch his post-match comments when they go up - this is true of every wrestler, because it’s where most of the character work and story building happens, but his comments are what made me love him in the first place, so I encourage you to watch his in particular.

The NJPW youtube has the comments from the past year or so, subtitled 99% of the time, and you can search if any of these matches inspire you to know what the wrestlers have to say.

This is gonna assume you have an NJPWWorld sub, but we’re all denizens of the internet, we know how to find things.

His IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match against Kota Ibushi. His debut confronting Kota was in a non-match segment the month before (near the end of this video), and this match was the payoff to his first rivalry.

(His tag team match with Kota against the Young Bucks is also worth watching.)

As you may have noticed: he was a face when he debuted! This lasted maybe half a year. (He never really connected with the audience, possibly due to wearing a full face mask and looking like a skeleton.) The match where he turned isn’t available anywhere online that I’ve found, or I’d link it here.

Before his return to NJPW, he was on excursion in CMLL, which is Mexico’s largest promotion. Sometimes I pretend these two wrestlers are different people, but if you’re new to wrestling I won’t play games about it. He was Namajague there, and here are some good matches to get a feel for that character:

[2020 update: This post is many months old, and the youtube account that was hosting these Namajague matches has been terminated. BUT! You can still see Namajague in Fantastica Mania 2019 and 2020, and if those matches interest you, I have these CMLL videos (and many others that were deleted) backed up and can send them to you. Just message me.]

Nama v Rey Cometa in a lightning match (meaning one fall, rather than lucha’s typical 2 of 3 falls format)

Nama and Okumura v Rey Cometa and Stuka Jr in an apuestas match, with the respective teams’ hair/masks on the line.

Nama v Rey Cometa (are you seeing a theme here?) in a hair v hair match.

Namajague made a mysterious and unexpected return this past January at Fantastica Mania! All his matches were good, of course they were, but the one most relevant for recs is [Mistico, Dragon Lee, & Soberano Jr v Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero, & Namajague]. Namajague and Lee had a few matches in CMLL, but this post is already so long. Youtube will help you if you want to see more.

Namajague v Dragon Lee this year was itself a callback to El Desperado v Dragon Lee during last year’s Best of the Super Juniors. The progression from:

Desperado v Hiromu, to

Desperado v Lee, to

Desperado v Hiromu for the title

is worth noting not only because the matches are amazing, but also for the callbacks and character work. Hiromu calls back to Despy’s debut (the non-match video linked in the first bullet, above) and both of them are referencing their time together as Young Lions. This is actually noteworthy because this particular feud was the first time Desperado had admitted, however vaguely, to being Kyosuke Mikami and not a completely unrelated wrestler.

(Young Lion Kyosuke Mikami v Hiromu, while I’m at it.)

Most of these so far have been singles matches, which is not the majority of his work. You’ll see him most often tagging with Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and they were the IWGP Junior Tag Champions for nearly a year. They won the belts at the Anniversary show in March 2018, and only lost them at Wrestle Kingdom this January.

Anniversary Show tag title match

I’m not linking the WK match, because it still upsets me that the junior tag titles got under seven minutes for a six-man tag. Just over one minute per participant. They deserve better.

Despy & Nobu v Tiger Mask & Jushin Thunder Liger

Despy, Nobu, & Zack Sabre Jr. v Evil, Bushi, & Sanada

This whole post-match video is set-up for the Junior Tag League final and eventually the WK match, but is also just… some of the best work Despy’s done recently in terms of being a vile gremlin of a heel.

Some scattered others, I tried to keep this short and it didn’t work:

El Desperado v Takashi Iizuka, in a match orchestrated by Taka and Taichi after Desperado returned from injury, to make him fight for his place in the faction. This match gets passed around somewhat, and like… I get it, Despy’s being dragged around on a leash, I get it. But he’s being forced into this to preserve his spot in the faction, and that makes the match really upsetting to watch, for me. I can’t make people feel the same way I do, but that context is important.

El Desperado & El Ligero v Gabriel Kidd & Prince Ameen

El Desperado & Zack Sabre Jr v Kota & Kawato

El Desperado vs Kenny Omega

I hope this helps! There are a lot of his career-significant matches I haven’t seen because they’re not online, and I hope every day that they’ll be uploaded, but for now I think this is a good overview.

[buttdawg]

Think I'm caught up on the World Tag League now. Some observations:

It doesn't look like Dangerous Tekkers is doing so hot in this thing. I forget how many matches they have to wrestle, but I think they're 2-3 so far, which doesn't sound great. I think Juice and David Finlay are in the lead with 8 points. DT only has four.

Then again, the lesson I learned watching the G1 was that these round robins are almost impossible to call this early in. I thought Jon Moxley was in good shape to win B-block because he got five straight wins to start off, while big stars like Jay White and Naito were having really lackluster runs. But White managed to build a winning streak of his own, and Mox couldn't score that much-needed sixth victory. So it's likely that Juice/Finlay are only winning big now because they're due to hit a rough patch later.

I think that's the formula with these tournaments. A few entrants flame out early on, so by the halfway point, you already know they're mathematically eliminated. The you have guys who sort of win every other match. Some of them manage to stay in contention to the end, and they're kind of the dark horses in the tournament. Ibushi was a dark horse, at least to my way of thinking. He lost to KENTA and EVIL pretty early on, so I was convinced he couldn't pull this off, since Okada was on such a roll. Maybe everyone else knew Ibushi would win the G1, but I was somewhat surprised to see him win A Block.

Anyway, it feels like Juice/Finlay are in the Okada or Moxley role right now, building an early lead before the others start to catch up. The Tekkers can still win this thing, especially since they hold a win over Juice/Finlay. But I feel like they're just sort of there to be there. Zach Sabre Junior seems confident about winning, but I don't see it yet.

G.O.D. looks more solid on points. I think they're 3-1 so far, but that could just be designed to make them look strong in the tournament. They're the champions, so they ought to beat most of the other teams. I guess there's not much point to having them win the tournament, since the whole point is to establish a #1 contender, but they should probably be one of the top scoring teams.

Mostly, these matches I've watched have been pretty low-key affairs. Both teams had really standout performances against Suzuki & Archer, and against each other, but the other matches have just been pretty good. I like the relaxed feel to it, honestly, where these guys are mostly just mixing it up in a small venue with no commentary and minimal camera work. But I'm not expecting bigger and better matches against some of the upcoming teams. Honma and Makabe, Goto and Fredericks, these seem like ad hoc teams set up to fill out the tournament. The matches should he enjoyable, but I saw a lot of these dudes in tag matches on G1 Climax undercards, so I don't expect much more than that.

I guess the big team to look forward to is SANADA and EVIL, since they won this tourney in 2017 and 2018. I get the sense that they're the only "proper" team in this thing besides the G.O.D. Maybe I'm wrong, but the rest look like a bunch of singles wrestlers who paired off. I think Dangerous Tekkers might become a full-on thing, but it doesn't have to. Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI have chased the tag titles before, so maybe this tournament is about getting some of these guys to bond into a more permanent unit. I hope so. We need more of that in wrestling.

I've been thinking about tag team wrestling a lot, since AEW has really been pushing to make it important again. WWE has tried to revitalize their tag division several times over the years, but it never sticks, and I think I've finally figured out why. Every time I watch a tag match in AEW or New Japan, I keep instinctively expecting teammates to turn on each other. Heel team loses a match? One of them should blame the other and attack them. Face team loses a match? One guy should attack the other and turn heel to set up a singles fued. Scorpio Sky gets a title shot against Jericho? The other two guys in SCU should betray him out of jealousy.

And it never happens, which is a good thing, because if they did it every time I expected it, then they'd run out of tag teams. The problem WWE has always had is that they pull that trick way too often, which is why I've been conditioned to expect it. It's like they don't know any other way to book a tag team except to split them up. And usually, neither guy gets over. Yeah, Shawn Michaels turned into a big deal when he turned on Marty Janetty, but Enzo and Big Cass tanked hard. Their teamwork may have been the best thing those two had, and they destroyed it on a whim.

What I like about the World Tag League is how the Dangerous Tekkers support each other, win or lose. They seem to really enjoy working together, and they don't point fingers when they lose. When they beat Suzuki and Archer, there was a moment where it looked like the whole Suzuki-gun stable might collapse, but instead they all did fist bumps and congratulated Zach for the win. I've been watching backstage comments where it's clear that Goto and Fredericks aren't doing well, and Fredericks blames himself because he's a rookie, but Goto's chill about it, and seems to take this whole tournament as a way to mentor Karl Fredericks. He's not going to turn on Karl because this story is about camraderie and teamwork. They'll probably win matches late in the tournament once Karl gets more acclimated to it.

Same thing with SCU in AEW. SCU is a three-man unit, but Scorpion Sky and Frankie Kazarian won the tag title tournament, and Christopher Daniels made it clear that those two are the champions, and he's content to be the third guy in the group who currently doesn't have a title. I dig that a lot. the Freebird Rule is fine and all, but it's already being done elsewhere, and it's refreshing to see a team willing to set aside egos for the sake of the group. Sky and Kaz give Daniels a ton of credit, and Daniels supports them as the champions. In another era, it might sound hokey or commonplace, but after years of watching WWE's constant backstabbing angles, it's really comforting and reassuring.

I've always believed that conflict is the essence of drama, so I can understand the WWE philosophy of everyone being at each other's throats, but if you play that to the hilt, 24-7, never relenting, then how can you expect any tag team to matter in the long term? And without proper tag teams, how can you expect anyone to care about the division?

[thatdarnblogagain]

Pro-Wrestling: Familiarity vs Exploration

Ya know, I really love pro wrestling. Whether NJPW, ROH, TNA, Stardom, CZW, Capitol Wrestling, ECW, WCW and of course WWE as well as recently, AEW. I just want really good wrestling regardless of the source. If I can see something amazing or be enraptured by the match I always thought, “Did it matter from where?”. To some that seems to be the case.

 We love consistency, we love familiarity and we love our favorites. I am a huge Seth Rollins fan and to go back to my teenage years, I have a huge love for Jeff Hardy. I know if I watch these guys and some of my other favorites like Ember Moon, The Usos, Cesaro and Naomi, I am in for good matches. I have that faith in them because I have been exposed to their work. That’s fine.

You see at the time of being a teenager I knew only of WWE since by then WCW was gone and the internet was no where near as amazing as it is now so at the time I was really only exposed to one company. That is not the case now. A few years ago by some chance I was introduced to stardom where I saw Io Shirai, Alpha Female and Natsuki Taiyo doing things that women at the time didn’t do in wrestling. I immediately sought more. I watched more and more of Stardom and saw these women doing things akin to Lita if not more.

It did not stop there! A few months later a close friend told me of New Japan Wrestling and its upcoming PPV, Wrestle Kingdom! Every match I watched was one that left me wanting more. It did not matter the style of match, I truly enjoyed them all and I had no idea who any of these people were except for Luke Gallows due to him being fake Kane and Festus in WWE. But, that did not matter. I was seeing amazing wrestling and that was it. I was exposed to a new company and quickly saw people who I thought as faves like Kota Ibushi, Shinsuke Nakumara, Takahashi, Okada, Kenny Omega, Naito, Ishii, Makabe...the list goes on.

Fast forward to recently and I am watching so many different sources of wrestling and seeing so many talents. Lucha Underground is by far one of the craziest wrestling shows I have ever watched but also one of the most entertaining. This is a good time to be a pro wrestling fan for the reason of so many companies and talents being around. It seems like a sin to only latch on to one company, one style or one era.

Not every wrestler has to be a high flyer but not every wrestler has to look like they were crafted from marble. Not every female wrestler has to look like a model but not everyone of them has to be the next coming of Charlotte who I think is the best female wrestler in the world right now (seriously that woman can get a good match out of anyone!). But at the same time I do not mind an argument being posited for another female wrestler in WWE or outside of it. I welcome it because then I can be enlightened to other talents.

That is what I think it should be. What we have is a library in front of us and there are so many titles to peruse. So many heroes and villains to root for. So many genres. Are we limiting ourselves to one of these?

[theundergrounddog]

Kenny Omega at DDT (Part 1)

Kenny first went to over to Japan to wrestle for DDT in the summer of 2008. He was there for just over a month and it was on this tour that he met and wrestled Kota Ibushi for the first time.

In late 2007/early 2008 Kenny Omega was starting to break out into the American independents, having regained his passion for wrestling after a pretty bleak experience in WWE developmental. Now he was finally venturing out of Winnipeg again he had his sights set firmly back on Japan.

He made a video of him doing a DDT style match, the company saw it and wanted to bring him over. This is also when he cut this promo on Ibushi. (It is both cringey and totally adorable in classic Kenny Omega style.)

In interviews Kenny has mentioned that he came to Japan determined to give 100% effort. The way he saw it the tour was only a one off unless he could be so good that DDT would have to bring him over again. But although Kenny describes his ambition in quite aggressive terms; after going through the blogs of the DDT staff and fans of the period the overwhelming picture is of a promotion and its fan base falling head over heels in love with him.      

The day before Kenny’s arrival, Sanshiro Takagi, the president of DDT wrote this on his blog:

“August 4 Kenny Omega who is participating in DDT from beer garden wrestling has pointed out a mistake about the previous report.

"You wrote my special skill was "Kamehameha", which is a mistake, that is "Hadouken " That isn’t right. I think that the rest is largely in line."

It is said that. We are sorry for your inconvenience, but we appreciate your patience as we will revise your recognition.

hm….

Is it not the same thing as the Dragon Ball strike? He is something like the American version of Ibushi.”

Reputation as a pedantic geek rightfully established, Kenny arrives on the 31st and Takagi, Kenny and Michael Nakazawa go to eat together. Check out that cute little ninja turtle shirt.

“Kenny Omega arrived Japan today and we had dinner together. I was worried how crazy he is but basically he’s okay except mentioning he wants to wrestle at Yoshinoya (beef bowl restaurant).

Anyway I was relieved and took some pictures for this blog but suddenly he was trying to throw Michael Nakazawa by German Suplex. I managed to stop it somehow but I understand why he’s claiming he’s off-ring champ.

Oh, but I think I shouldn’t have stopped it because it’s Michael Nakazawa (LOL)

Also he knew FU☆CK will have a show at DDT Dojo on 8/3, and asked me if he could see it. I really think he has so many things in common with Ibushi.

I’m so happy to have him this time!” (translation from m-drop) 

The match with Ibushi was not actually Kenny’s first match in Japan. The beer garden shows started up on the 4th and Kenny had a tag match that first night teaming with Ken Ohka against a masked wrestler ‘HERO!’ and a second, time traveling HERO! (welcome to DDT). Kenny’s team loses but the audience is impressed with his athleticism and Takagi with his ability to adapt to the comedy match style. Kenny serves at the stalls among the rest of the DDT roster.

(source)

On the 6th of August, the 3rd night of the beer garden shows is when Kenny and Ibushi have their first match. It’s fantastic and you can watch it on DDT universe here. (Or other places online if you are willing to search a little.)

The Shin-Kiba 1st Ring where the match and all the beer garden matches were, holds about 290 people according to Wikipedia but apparently way more than that showed up to try and get in for Ibushi Produce Night. (One blogger estimates 600) So the place was packed.

The match is 2/3 falls with the extra stipulation that one of the falls must take place outside of the ring and one inside. This suited the whole ‘Kenny Omega - Canada’s king of the streets’ gimmick he was doing. (I think maybe purely for the benefit of DDT?) Apparently, he regretted this later as everyone who booked him of the back of this wanted him to do scary outside matches. You live and learn I guess.

They start inside the ring for a bit but soon go outside.

Both score an outside fall and then head back into the ring. The camera man loses them in the crowd halfway through and has to scramble back through the food stalls to reach them again.

More facts about this match:

-This was Kota’s actually the second match of the night. He fought Gota Ihashi – (this is the same guy he tries to propose to in that crossdressing date skit.) in a boxing-type match earlier.

-While Kenny and Kota were fighting outside, Nakazawa and Dino went into the ring and performed a strip tease for the people who hadn’t bothered to leave their seats. (Again: Welcome to DDT)

(source)

- In 2017 Kenny ranked jumping off the bleachers through Ibushi as one of the 3 most painful bumps of his career. (The other two were from his second match with Ibushi in 2012)

Ouch.

Back in the ring Kota wins; beginning his streak over Kenny which remains unbroken to this day. Kenny lays on the mat beaten.

Kota gets up and calls for the mic. He thanks everyone and motions to the guys to help Kenny stand.

Kenny is holding it together up until this point. But then Ibushi claps and says thank you and the crowd starts chanting for him and the poor guy is so overwhelmed he just starts full on crying.

Kota cuts a promo to the crowd along the lines of: “Thank you very much for today. I feel a bad because I hit my head, so I will finish. The end.” Both of them start staggering out. Kenny crumples on the way out of the ring still crying. Kota hugs him again and then leans on him to stand up. He’s kind of wowed by the strength of Kenny’s emotional reaction I think. 

He hugs and pats him some more and eventually they make it out of the ring. Kota goes through the curtain and Kenny follows, after a final applause from the crowd.

The DDT fans love the match and they love Kenny omega.

Post-match comments from http://www.m-drop.com/archives/228

Sanshiro Takagi: “It was the most craziest match I’ve ever seen. Every move in and out of the ring was totally amazing. Although Kenny lost the match, I believe he gets lots of applause and attention from Japanese fans in just one night. I was so thrilled to watch the match. I will wrestle against Kenny on Sunday with “Street fight-anywhere fall” match for my Extreme Championship as ex.King of out-of-the-ring match. I promise to retain the belt. Everybody, get ready!”

Kota Ibushi: “Kenny Omega is an AWESOME wrestler! Power, speed, craziness, intelligence – everything is perfect. He is really a nice guy! He is the real Pro-wrestler. I couldn’t keep up with him during the match actually. Also I felt something common between us. It’s like “Yes! That’s it!!” He was great not only out of the ring but in the ring. I lost my memory after Michinoku Driver and then I noticed I was in the ring – now I’m pretty sure Michinoku Driver on the road is very dangerous! Also I noticed fans were crazy as well. I’m so glad Pres. Takagi told me it was legendary match. I love Kenny Omega! He’s great!”

Kenny Omega: “To be honest with you, I was a little bit nervous before the match as this is the one against Kota Ibushi. But I am so glad that we had a great match tonight. Ibushi is an awesome wrestler as I thought. And I feel we understood each other from the bottom of our heart after this great match and we are now best friends. I want to team up with him and wrestle together!”

[hoogiehowser]

MEDIA DIARY JANUARY

:::::::::: MOVIES ::::::::::

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) I liked this so much I ended up seeing it twice. The animation is on a whole different level from everything else in theaters I just can’t believe it. Nothing has immediately endeared me to a character more that when Miles gets to the place where he’s going to put up graffiti and yells “BROOKLYN!” to get the echo. Absolutely perfect. 

Happy Death Day (2017) The trailer looked good but the trailer for the sequel looked even better. Good time repeating movie. Way better than Blood Punch. I’m excited to see more of this.

Alien: Covenant (2017) Had no clue what to expect going in but I actually dug it. It’s just Alien again like every Alien movie but what they do with David from Prometheus makes it really interesting. There’s also some straight up slasher movie sleaze that definitely appeals to me.

MacGruber (2010) It’s just a bunch of dick jokes while a bad action movie happens. There’s no clever spin to it.

Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) Wanted to watch this due to the Fast & Furious connection. It’s a great movie about overachievers and getting away with shit. I think Justin Lin is a great director and his unique voice benefits every movie he does.

Collateral (2004) I didn’t realize until the credits that this was a Michael Mann movie but it was so obvious in hindsight. The premise is simple, Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx are great, and everything comes together in a genuinely cool film.

Wilson (2017) Based on a comic I don’t particularly like from Dan Clowes’ grumpy old man phase. The cool thing about the comic is that each page works on its own and has a different art style. The movie can’t do that. But it’s still faithful to the book which means it feels like a series of one page gags strung together until it finishes. Woody and Laura Dern are great though and it is pretty funny at times.

Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare (2018) There was another truth or dare based horror movie a year before that was a Syfy original. The Syfy one is better. The problem with them both is the supernatural contrivances that make people play truth or dare against their will. It’s such a strained premise.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) Guy Ritchie made a King Arthur movie and it feels exactly like you’d expect. 

Thoroughbreds (2017) Girl who can’t feel emotions befriends girl who is very politely hiding her extreme emotions. Things get bad when they start to think about murder. Anton Yelchin plays a druggie scumbag loser. It’s such a good movie. 100% my kind of thing.

:::::::::: TV ::::::::::

The Great British Baking Show (Beginnings, Collections 1-4) Got addicted to this one. I love cooking competitions shows and pleasant ones are usually the best. I like seeing competitors that like each other. I like Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry not trying to tear people down. I love Mel and Sue. It’s just a nice show for the nice people.

Toei Spider-Man (Episodes 1-5) I’m not a big toku guy but Spider-Verse got me curious about various Spider-Men. Takuya Yamashiro wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider, he was injected with blood from the last survivor of Planet Spider and carries out a mission against Professor Monster’s Iron Cross Army to avenge Planet Spider and his own father. Next to nothing present from the classic Lee/Ditko Spider-Man and that’s totally alright. I’m going to try to watch more because the episode where Spider-Man has to donate his blood to hurt child has some serious heart.

The Prisoner (Episodes 7-17) I started watching this a while ago but only now got around to finishing. Mostly super clever plots and the atmosphere is always great. Patrick McGoohan sells it every single time. Some of the later episodes go really off the rails though. There’s an entire wild west episode. Nothing in this stretch tops my favorite episode, The Schizoid Man, where Number Two brainwashes Number Six to act differently and then forces Number Six to pretend to be Number Six while a different man is already pretending to be Number Six. The ending is solid though and carries a really good tv series to a confusing, surreal end.

Cutthroat Kitchen (Season 7, Episodes 1-7) Polar opposite of The Great British Baking Show. It’s the Mario Kart of cooking competition shows. Everyone tries to fuck each other over and Alton laughs at them the entire time. It’s brilliant.

:::::::::: PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING ::::::::::

TJPW Tokyo Joshi Pro ‘19 (January 4) I don’t follow TJPW and don’t know any of their wrestlers besides Meiko Satomura but I watched this because it was on before Wrestle Kingdom. Meiko vs Reika Saiki definitely made the show worth watching and the rest was pretty alright. Lots of fun, new personalities that I like.

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 (January 4) Probably the most I’ve looked forward to a show and it absolutely delivered. For the past few years I’d watch WK and recommended matches but in in July I started following everything NJPW. That added investment made this WK special. Ibushi/Ospreay tore it up and I really hope Ibushi recovers soon. Jay White/Okada shocked me. Naito/Jericho was fucking brutal. And Kenny Omega vs Hiroshi Tanahashi was a match I was so invested in that I thought I was going to cry. If you haven’t checked out New Japan yet this show would make an excellent start. GO ACE!

Impact Homecoming (January 6) Impact has gotten pretty good. I’ve only seen a few of their most recent ppvs but it’s obvious that they have a wealth of talent and they’re willing to tell the kind of dumb stories that I really like. Since Homecoming was in Nashville I went and it was one of the best shows I’ve been to. The energy was insane all night and LAX vs Lucha Bros has to be the best match I’ve seen live. Now that they air on Twitch I’ve been following the weekly show and enjoying it quite a bit.

WWE Royal Rumble (January 27) I always love the rumble but the rumble was weird. Both rumble matches were okay but filled with dumb stuff and way too many recovery spots that were immediately deflated by the person getting eliminated. I like the winners. AJ/Daniel didn’t deliver like I wanted. Sasha and Ronda had a good match. I loved how Finn Balor worked Brock Lesnar’s diverticulitis. Fun show.

NXT UK Takeover Blackpool (January 12) NXT UK doesn’t really grip me aside from the women’s division. I liked this well enough but nothing really changed my mind. Finn Balor made a surprise appearance and he looked like such a star compared to everyone else. Excited to see what WALTER can do here though.

GCW 400 Degreez (January 12) GCW’s brand of hardcore indie nonsense is my absolute favorite. 400 Degreez isn’t the best they’ve done but it was full of disgusting beautiful deathmatch bullshit. Markus Crane vs Nate Webb especially.

NXT Takeover Phoenix (January 26) Takeover always delivers. Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet was definitely the match of the night. I don’t dig the War Raiders schtick but their match was great. Bianca Belair and Shayna Baszler also killed it.

:::::::::: COMICS ::::::::::

One Piece by Eiichiro Oda (Volumes 1-10) I wanted something long to start reading so why not One Piece? Enjoying it so far. I like getting the crew together and Usopp’s story in particular is great. Oda is a master cartoonist. I love every time we get reaction faces.

Spider-Man: Fever by Brendan McCarthy Spider-Man fever got me wanting to revisit Spider-Man: Fever because I remember liking it. I still like it. Doctor Strange accidentally opens a doorway into a spider dimension and Spider-Man gets caught in Doctor Strange’s bathtub and the alternate dimension spiders take him. All this and McCarthy’s art make Fever pretty far out. 

Spider-Man 2099 by Peter David, Kelley Jones, and Rick Leonardi (1-15) Miguel O’Hara wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider, he had Peter Parker’s DNA put into him by weird future DNA machine and he wages war against the gigantic corporations that control everything. I like Spider-Man 2099. Miguel is so different from the Peter Parker archetype and he’s got claws and fangs. He’s brutal. It’s got a neat post-hero future kind of like Batman Beyond. I stopped reading because the next part is a crossover with Punisher 2099, Ravage 2099, Doom 2099, and X-Men 2099. I’ll hopefully pick it back up because I want to know what happens with the hologram that’s in love with Miguel. 

Spider-Man by Kazumasa Hirai & Ryoichi Ikegami Yu Komori was bitten by a radioactive spider and he definitely wishes he wasn’t. It starts off a lot like our usual Spider-Man but the villains are so much more tragic and Yu deals with some heavy shit. Ikegami’s art evolves from cartoony to serious as the tone of the book changes. He’s a really incredible artist who is consistently pulling neat tricks and trying new things. I really liked this and it may top my favorite Spider-Man comics. It’s just so bleak and unforgiving to poor Yu. By the way, the final plotline is exactly the same as the Sonny Chiba movie Wolf Guy. Turns out the comic that movie was based on was written by the same guy that write Spider-Man. An odd find.

:::::::::: VIDEOGAMES ::::::::::

Axiom Verge Had my eye on this for a long time and finally picked it up on sale on my Switch. It’s okay. There are a lot of clever ideas here that I don’t think work for me. But I do like the decorrupter and the teleport. Some of the movement feels great but some stuff like the grappling hook feels awful. I hate the story. Completely incoherent sci-fi nonsense. But it’s a fun game and I enjoyed my time with it.

Hollow Knight I’ve spent about 30 hours on this game and I feel like I’m close to the end of the story. I absolutely love it. The movement, the combat, and the exploration all feel excellent. I’ve played over ten metroidvanias in the past year (I really like them) and this might be the best. My favorite part about them is how you’re almost never wasting time because there are new secrets to discover all across the map and Hollow Knight does such a good job with that.

[breadclubrising]

it’s 10pm and i’m mad about wrestling

so i’m writing this essay about kota like i do and i’m talking about the golden lovers like i do and... i’m just thinking about all the people like ‘lmao bye bitch that raggedy hag was weighing kota down new career who dis’

????????????? were we watching the same thing? yall are really gonna make me say good things about kenneth omega??? fine. that raggedy hag (not denying that part) mentioned kota ibushi every. single. time. he had a mic in his hand or a camera in his face. 

kota wasn’t signed! you think he would have had a huge singles push if only he wasn’t sometimes on a tag team with the fucking iwgp heavyweight champion who cannot shut his idiot mouth about how great his boyfriend is?????  the champ! of the company! holder of one of the most prestigious titles in all of pro wrestling! like that dude who is supposed to be doing champ stuff but instead keeps talking about how much he wishes he was tagging with his bff kota ibushi, who by the way is the best wrestler on the planet??!?  

is kenneth making booking choices now? bc if he is, he’s really burying kota with his booking choices. oh wait, i mean! no! he’s constantly constantly pushing the issue of how great kota is! he’s never letting anyone forget, including the bookers! he’s saying all he wants to do is be on a tag team with his mans but said mans should tear up the singles scene and kenny would be perfectly happy to second him all the way. he is using the platform that he has to put pressure on people to book ibushi better!!?!? like those are words that he said and events that took place!?? they can’t ignore him if their fucking champ won’t stop saying ‘i’m great but he’s better’?!

having your champ! on a dedicated, named tag team! elevates the other member of the tag team! it just does! it’s math! kota didn’t need elevation but!! being on a tag team with the champ!!! puts you! further up on the card! it just does! the golden lovers were super over, everywhere but on the mean girls wrestling internet!!! you think somehow that hurt kota??! do you think kota would have been booked as well as he was (considering he’s a freelancer) if he hadn’t been shoved in everyone’s face every time kenneth got a free second to remind us that he loves kota ibushi?!? maybe, bc i don’t know if you’ve heard this, but he is the best wrestler! in the world! source- kenneth omega iwgp hebikyu champ! maybe he would have been! but it certainly didn’t hurt! 

and! outside of njpw! literally!!! everywhere! that kenny went! outside of njpw he was like ‘yeah i’m the most famous non wwe wrestler in the world but have you heard of ze golden lovahs? no? great. me and my associate ibushi will accept your invitation to attend your event.’ the only reason they didn’t tag! as the golden lovers!!!! at all in was that the fucking young bucks wanted to tag with kota?! L I T E R A L L Y every time they wrestled outside of njpw they did so as a tag team which? i’m sorry i can totally see how that weighs ibushi down.... with more fans and more exposure outside of japan! selfish selfish kenneth! and now he’s gone and that spotlight that he dragged ibushi into every moment he could remains on kota! he didn’t need kenny’s help to be great, he was already great. his talent should have gotten him good booking but it didn’t bc he wasn’t signed w/njpw!!! so kenneth affected the only thing he could, which was making sure everyone thought about kota ibushi as much as he does! ! ! 

like????? who had something to gain from kenneth constantly tying his success to the golden lovers and constantly reminding everyone that he was part of a tag team called the golden lovers and the other golden lover is kota ibushi who is the greatest wrestler of all time and also very handsome?!?!? kenny? the iwgp heavyweight champion who openly said he was happier on the tag team?!? somehow he was the one who benefited from this? somehow despicable kenneth used poor innocent kota to.... ??????? make his title reign less impactive?????? make everyone wonder where the champ’s priorities are? poor kota! if only he could make choices for himself but he can’t bc his mean abusive boyfwiend keeps saying how great he is :’(

anyway i get that you hate kenneth and every bad thing that happens in njpw is his fault but bitch where. where. 

[gdwessel]

G1 Supercard - 4/6/2019; Wrestling Dontaku Tour: Featured Matches, Tanahashi & Tenzan Injured; Nagata/Kojima in Crockett Cup; This Week’s NJPW on AXS

Yes, hi, hello. It’s been a bit. After two twelve-hour drives, five wrestling shows (which is apparently NOT ENOUGH judging by how many shows some people attended, or WORKED, during Mania Weekend), and a brush with death (I’ll explain next time I record), I needed to recover a bit. I’m still kinda half-assing it now, since I won’t be going through the full lineups for Wrestling Dontaku in this post. But youse all can forgive me, right? Anyway, let’s start with the whole reason I went to NYC...

(And hey, you can also listen to me do a podblast on Pro Wrestling Only about the event!)

ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard - 4/6/2019, Madison Square Garden, NYC (NJPWWorld / PPV)

Honor Rumble: Kenny King d. Jushin Thunder Liger, Great Muta [Wrestle-1], TK O’Ryan, Vinny Marseglia, Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], King Haku [Bullet Club], Cheeseburger, Minoru Suzuki [SZKG], Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Jonathan Gresham, Toru Yano [CHAOS], Colt Cabana, Delirious, Bad Luck Fale [Bullet Club], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS], Rocky Romero [CHAOS], PJ Black, Tracy Williams [Lifeblood], Brian Milonas, Chase Owens [Bullet Club], Will Ferrara, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables], Rhett Titus, SHO [CHAOS], YOH [CHAOS], Shaheem Ali, LSG, BUSHI [Los Ingobernables], Beer City Brusier (42;21, OTTR)

NEVER Openweight Championship & ROH World Television Championship Title v. Title: Jeff Cobb [FREE] © d. Will Ospreay [CHAOS] © (Tour Of The Islands, 12:52) - Ospreay fails his 2nd defense - Cobb succeeds his 6th defense, and is the 24th NEVER Openweight Champion

Rush [Los Ingobernables] d. Dalton Castle (Skewer Dropkick, 0:15)

Women of Honor World Championship: Kelly Klein d. Mayu Iwatani [STARDOM] © (K Power, 10:38) - Iwatani fails her 3rd defense - Klein is the 4th champion

NYC Street Fight Open Challenge: Juice Robinson [Lifeblood], Flip Gordon & Mark Haskins [Lifeblood] d. Bully Ray, Silas Young & Shane Taylor (Gordon > Bully, Four Flippy Splash, 15:01)

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship 3-Way Match: Dragon Lee [CMLL] d. Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] © & Bandido [Lifeblood] (Lee > Bandido, Desnucadora, 8:54) - Ishimori fails his 3rd defense - Dragon Lee is the 84th champion

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team v. ROH World Tag Team Championships Title v. Title 4-Way Match: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] © d. PCO & Brody King [Villain Enterprises] ©, EVIL & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] and Jay & Mark Briscoe (Loa > King, Super Powerbomb, 9:54) - Guerillas of Destiny succeed their 1st defense - PCO/King fail their first defense; Guerrilas of Destiny are the 54th ROH World Tag Team champions

RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] © d. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Jim Breaks Armbar, 15:14) - Sabre succeeds his ? defense

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Kota Ibushi d. Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables] © (Kamigoye, 20:53) - Naito fails his 2nd defense - Ibushi is the 21st champion

ROH World Championship 3-Way Ladder Match: Matt Taven d. Jay Lethal © & Marty Scurll [Villain Enterprises] (29:35) - Lethal fails his 13th defense - Taven is the 21st champion

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] d. Jay White [Bullet Club] © (Rainmaker, 32:33) - White fails his 1st defense - Okada is the 69th champion

Hoo wee, a lot to unpack here. This actually ran longer than Wrestle Kingdom 13. And it did feel every bit of that towards the end, sitting in MSG, I have to say. But this was a great show, and for being the last show I saw this weekend, it was a great way to end my Mania Weekend.

Which isn’t to say there are some major questions here. Like, was this the right move to take titles off White and Naito? Both are VERY over in their respective roles, Naito the only NJPW wrestler to get pre-match chants, White clearly the most hated heel in NJPW, both in Japan AND America. While Ibushi in his first championship as a contracted wrestler offers fresh title matches, Okada retaking the belt does not. And they were in the midst of an angle whereby Naito wanted to win the IWGP Heavyweight title while still IC champion. So that was... a waste of time and energy? Neither of which says the matches were not good, because both of them were. Just not sure of the results.

Tanahashi got injured, maybe by that Jim Breaks Armbar? So he is out of the next tour. So is Hiroyoshi Tenzan, which, not sure how he got injured considering he didn’t work this show. Maybe it happened during the New Japan Cup tour, or whilst in training. 

The Guerrillas of Destiny are now double-champions, however their belts were stolen by Toru Yano at the conclusion of the match. Not that anyone in MSG actually noticed, because everyone’s attention was on the (what we now know to be worked) crowd invasion by fucking Enzo & Cass. I really don’t want to spend too much time on those two scumfucks. MSG let their feelings known in no uncertain terms, however. As did many of the wrestlers, like, true to form, Tama Tonga. This was a recurring theme, of Ring Of Honor really not reading the room, and having such shitty booking decisions. The Women of Honor match was patently Not Good, and a waste of Mayu Iwatani’s talents; this goes double for the Beautiful People appearing at the end, to absolute crickets in MSG. Kenny King robbing both Jushin Thunder Liger and the absolute surprise entrant THE GREAT MUTA (yes, I absolutely did lose my shit seeing him at this show, why do you ask?) of an MSG moment (Muta did spit red mist in King’s face tho). A streetfight clusterfuck that became a 6-man match to put over Herb Gordon. The way too long ladder match. ROH stinks, folks. Stop watching them. They are awful. The only thing  on their end that was remotely good was Rush destroying Dalton Castle, but Dalton is either turning heel or leaving the company, following his attacks on The Boys. But yeah, this show made it crystal clear that NJPW are way better off without fucking around with Sinclair Broadcasting Group, especially if they are going to hire scumbags like Enzo Amore.

Dragon Lee finally wins the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title! That was a bit of a shocker. So was Ospreay ending his Giant Killer push by losing the NEVER title to a much deserving Jeff Cobb. Real happy he finally has an NJPW title.

Long story short, I really did enjoy this show, but mostly by ignoring the ROH content. I also had a wonderful weekend, where I met quite a lot of people, both regular folk and wrestlers (ZSJ! Shibata! Chinsuke Nakamura! Jiro “Ikemen” Kuroshio!), saw friends and co-hosts, ate some great food, and saw some awesome wrestling. Including the RevPro show on Friday, which had a lot of NJPW guys, but I don’t have the energy to go over that now. And what’s passed, is past. Time to look into the future yo...

This Saturday (my 46th birthday!), we begin the cycle of shows leading in to Wrestling Dontaku, which will be a 2-day event once again. I don’t have the energy to enter in the full tour cards right now. I will get to that tomorrow/Friday when I do a new Upcoming Events post. But I can go over some of the feature matches...

On 4/20, we will have Sengoku Lord in Nagoya, at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. Two title defenses on this show, as Kota Ibushi will make his first defense of the IWGP Intercontinental title against Zack Sabre Jr., who of course beat Ibushi during the New Japan Cup. Also on this show, Juice Robinson will defend the IWGP US belt against Bad Luck Fale.

Another title match takes place on 4/29, at the annual Wrestling Hi no Kuni  event in Kumamoto. Here, GOD will defend the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team straps against the Most Violent Players, Togi Makabe & Toru Yano. The main event of this show is a special singles match between Hirooki Goto v. Jay White. Not sure why, but here we are. There will also be a special singles, non-title match (if Juice retains on 4/20) between Juice v. Chase Owens.

The first day of Wrestling Dontaku, on 5/3 in Fukuoka, has the first time the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title is a main event match for a megashow in... a long time. (Someone tweeted when the last time was, and I didn’t save it, and I can’t fathom looking right now.) Dragon Lee makes his 1st defense against the previous champion, Taiji Ishimori. That ought to be good. Also, Jeff Cobb makes his first defense of the NEVER Openweight title against Suzuki-gun’s Taichi. And only that belt.

The following day, on 5/4, sees Kazuchika Okada make his first defense of the IWGP Heavyweight title against LIJ’s SANADA. Those three have had great matches before, including the recent New Japan Cup Final. They are also advertising a special singles match between Tomohiro Ishii v. EVIL, as well as a tag match that sees Dragon Lee & Will Ospreay team v. Taiji Ishimori & an X wrestler. Not sure why they are going the X route when we all know it’s El Phantasmo. 

As I said above, I will list all cards tomorrow or Friday in an Upcoming Events post.

Meanwhile, the brackets have been announced for the 2019 Crockett Cup tag team tournament, taking place on 4/27/2019 at Cabarrus Arena in Concord, NC. NJPW will be sending over the team of Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima to this event; one assumed it would have been TenKoji were Tenzan not injured. They will face the recently dethroned ROH World Tag Team champions PCO & Brody King in their matchup. Should Nagata/Kojima win, they will face the winners of The Briscoe Brothers v. The Rock’n’Roll Express. Yes, you read that right. Over in the other block, an ROH team of Herb Gordon & Bandido (poor Bandido) goes up against a CMLL tandem of Stuka Jr. & Guerrero Maya Jr., whilst the War Kings (Jax Dane & Crimson) face off against the winner of a Wild Card Battle Royale that will take place during this show. This event will also have an NWA World’s Heavyweight title defense by Nick Aldis v. Marty Scurll. 

Finally, NJPW on AXS has a 2-hour special this week, with matches from G1 Supercard just last weekend. The advertised matches are the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental matches. You can scroll above to see who is in those. Show starts at 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT.

And that’s it. I’m still recovering, so off to bed with this old man. Tour starts Saturday. Happy to be back. Hope you enjoyed the G1 Supercard, and anything else you watched during Mania Weekend. Come back for the Road to Wrestling Dontaku!

[frankbelloriley]

top ten wrasslin’ matches of 2018

So before I get into this, I’m gonna lay down some ground rules--well, more like tell you the rules I gave myself and those rules are 1) did it make me laugh a bunch and forget about how stupid the world is? (which is the basis for every one of these kinds of lists really) 2) would I show this to someone who had never seen wrestling before? and 3) one (1) match per episode/pay-per-view with one (1) exception for a good reason With that in mind, I’m going to get some honorable mentions out of the way:

Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho for the IWGP US Championship, and the Fatal Four Way for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship between Marty Scurll, KUSHIDA, Hiromu Takahashi, and Will Ospreay from Wrestle Kingdom 12-- they’re all really good and fun and worth checking out, but another Wrestle Kingdom 12 match is going on this list

The other two Chris Jericho NJPW matches versus Tetsuya Naito and EVIL--not on this list literally only due to the “one match per ppv” rule, but they’re all very fun, Chris Jericho is delightfully dickish and you should watch them in order to see Chris Jericho become a progressively more goth dad (he out gothed a dude named “EVIL” (all caps theirs, not mine) that’s how goth Chris Jericho got)

As much as it pains me and as much as it is a testament to what good wrestling there was in 2018, none of the Johnny Gargano-Tommaso Ciampa matches (1, 2, 3, which I can’t find online and whatever) are on this list (my favorite is probably their second match), and neither is Velveteen Dream-Tommaso Ciampa which rips (can I interest you in a fight between a Prince inspired wrassler who refers to himself in the third person and whose act became a giant subtweet of Hulk Hogan against just the biggest asshole in the world?). There is only one Johnny Gargano match on here, and if I’m writing a list of the best character arcs in 2018, the list goes Gargano’s redemption only to succumb to the dark side, Kazuchika Okada’s existential crisis after losing the championship, and Becky Lynch becoming The Man in that order. Becky’s arc really only started four-five months ago and much of it was spent by creative trying and utterly failing to get the crowd to boo her, and Okada’s arc was, by design, slow and frustrating after he lost the championship, but Gargano basically started the year as Luke Skywalker getting his hand cut off and ended the year as Kylo Ren yelling at a ghost on the salt planet, with every character turn making sense. It’s fascinating.

Speaking of, no Aleister Black-Johnny Gargano at NXT War Games 2 match which might be as pure a classic wrestling story as there is, second only to the Gargano match that is actually on here. (In real life, Aleister Black hurt his leg, so in story, they explained it that he got attacked in the parking lot by an unknown person, so the mystery of who attacked him would go on for months (coincidentally the same amount of time it would take someone to recover from an injury like Aleister Black’s) until Johnny Gargano fessed up to the act by kicking him in the face, so now Aleister is seeking justice. Wrestling is delightfully extra.

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair vs Asuka TLC match for the Smackdown Women’s Championship (no link, couldn’t find)-- whew (not “woo” in this house we boo the woo) Asuka was finally Asuka again (her first and last ppv matches in 2018 (this and against Charlotte at Wrestlemania) are super great and everything else is super not), Becky Lynch continued being the actual greatest, and I literally do not know how Charlotte Flair did not end up in the hospital after this. It’s not making the list for how the match ends in bullshit fashion even though it ends perfectly in character with consistent story logic (a pleasant fucking surprise from WWE especially considering, again, the rest of Asuka’s year)

None of the Shayna Baszler-Kairi Sane matches (can’t find NXT Takeover Brooklyn 4, but I found Evolution and NXT War Games II) (NXT was really good this year), which is a shame because all of which are great, but my personal favorite is on Evolution, and another match beats it out. As I’m writing out the list, I realized there aren’t a bunch of women’s matches, but that’s because WWE’s creative ideas for its women’s division was garbage until the Becky Lynch turn happened in August and got a crowd reaction they super didn’t want and tried to change until they were finally forced them to lean into it. However, Evolution was easily the best main roster WWE ppv.

Nothing from All In literally only because that show is for Wrestling Fans, and this list is supposed to be a “if you’ve never watched wrestling in your life” list. All In is good good fun, but if you show it to someone who’s never seen wrestling before, they’re gonna ask why are there dick druids, and you’re gonna have to explain that Joey Ryan, a dude who wrestles with his dick, came back to life after being murdered and the number one suspect was the guy from Arrow (really). Get into wrestling, then watch that PPV.

Good god, that’s a lot of honorable mentions. Anyway:

10. Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens, an open Intercontinental Championship Challenge on Monday Night RAW, August 27th - this is just a really fun wrestling match between two talented guys who were stuck in other feuds that were prolonged needlessly in 2018, and it was just fun to see these guys branch out, do something different, and tear the house down against each other like, “oh yeah, these two are really good at what they do, I almost forgot.”

9. Andrade Cien Almas vs. AJ Styles - Smackdown Live on September 18--Like Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins, AJ Styles was stuck in bad storylines that meant to make him look like a strong champion but ended up making him look like a plot armored goober. Here we have the story of the cocky upstart Almas taking the veteran champion Styles to his absolute limit with a finish that is smooth as hell.

8. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Will Ospreay, IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship at NJPW Dominion on June 9th - Spoiler for the number two entrant but this is where I’m breaking the “one per ppv rule” because Hiromu Takahashi has a broken neck and no one knows if he’ll ever wrestle again, so this might be his swan song. (He doesn’t break his neck in this match, I wouldn’t introduce him like that) These are two dudes who flip with zero caution to themselves with some incredible flippy shit. Watch it and pray for Hiromu to make a full recovery.

7. Six Man Ladder Match for the NXT North American Championship with Adam Cole, Ricochet, Velveteen Dream, EC3, Killian Dane, and Lars Sullivan - Okay, so, about this. Excepting Killian Dane and maybe Lars Sullivan, everyone here has had a better match elsewhere this year (Lars probably had a better match against Keith Lee, Adam Cole had his best match against Ricochet, Ricochet and EC3 had their best matches against Velveteen Dream, and Velveteen Dream had his best match against Tommaso Ciampa), but everyone gets a moment to shine here, and this is the NXT introduction of Ricochet who is basically a flippy videogame cheat code who is made out of some sort of alien substance. At one point the two large men Lars Sullivan and Killian Dane toss Ricochet across the ring to each other like they’re playing fucking catch. It’s hilarious and maybe the fifth most insane thing that happens here. If someone was to come up to me like, “I know nothing about wrestling, what should I watch to find out if I like it?” I would probably show them this.

6. Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii,  G1 Tournament Match - I’m laughing just thinking about this match. I don’t think anyone would call Tomohiro Ishii the best wrestler in the world, but I love him with my heart. Kenny too, but a boyish giggle comes out of me every time Tomohiro no sells someone slapping the utter shit out of him and he says (presumably) something like “that it?!” (I’m a fan of this gif of Pete Dunne slapping a no-selling Tomohiro for Pete Dunne shaking his hand afterwards. Physical comedy!). Anyway, the story here is Kenny Omega has gone 6-0 in this tournament, Ishii (who he has a competitive history with) has gone 0-6 in the tournament, so Kenny takes him for granted and when he realizes his opponent won’t go down that easily, it’s too late. It’s quick, it’s fast paced, and very fun.

5. Meiko Satomura vs Mercedes Martinez, Mae Young Classic Quarterfinals - I had no idea who these women were before the Mae Young Classic, but I loved Meiko with her first match in it, while Mercedes was just, you know, fine. But this? Wheeew. Two veterans giving it their all, and if you don’t turn into a Michael Scott crying gif after when they show each other respect, we ain’t the same.

4. Johnny Gargano vs Andrade Cien Almas, NXT Takeover: Philadelphia -  Going with this one because it’s the most newbie friendly match, it kicks off Johnny Gargano’s year storyline at the finish, and Andrade Cien Almas is really really good at his job. It’s a simple “good guy versus arrogant heel” match, and Andrade comes out to a masked mariachi band as his entrance.

3. Kota Ibushi vs Cody Rhodes, Wrestle Kingdom 12 - there are probably better matches from Wrestle Kingdom 12 but this is my list so fuck you but this is the match where pro wrestling finally clicked with me after starting to watch it because of GLOW. Folks, this is a 20 minute Jackie Chan fight with Kota as the daffy Jackie Chan-like hero and Cody as Anime Biff Tannen. It is fast, has some wild acrobatics, and it is funny as hell.

2. Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega, 2/3 Falls Match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (Part 1, Part 2), NJPW Dominion on June 9th - If the last one was a comedy, this is an epic. This thing last an hour and a half, and it goes by in a flash. The entire Okada-Omega series is basically wrestling’s Lord of the Rings, and this is its Return of the King. The only reason it’s not number one because of the match’s lack of follow through in the months since, but man, this is great.

1. Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair, Last Woman Standing Match at Evolution (start at 29:45 then watch the end here)- *types then deletes a bunch of unintelligible vowels* Okay, so this is the first match that really took advantage of the NXT Horsewomen since their call up in a good long while and it rules. I’d say Bayley, Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch had been given nothing for 2018 until August, but “nothing” would be a step up in some cases *cough* group therapy *cough* *cough* Nia Jax injuring every single one of them plus others and the only reason she still has a job is that she’s The Rock’s cousin *cough* Charlotte had her Wrestlemania match against Asuka, but this? This is mean, this is rough, this is the story of a girl, no this is the story of two former friends wanting to throw the other through a table. When pro wrestling is bad, it’s “what the fuck am I doing with my life watching this shit” bad, and when it’s good, there is nothing like it. This is the latter (not the ladder, but there are those here).

[wrestlingisfake]

Summer Struggle in Jingu preview

EVIL vs. Tetsuya Naito - Both the IWGP heavyweight championship and the IWGP intercontinental championship are at stake.  Evil won both titles from Naito on July 12, so this is the rematch.  It’s Evil’s second defense of the “double championship,” and the fifth time both titles have been on the line in the same match.

It’s fair to say the experiment of pushing Evil as top heel champion has had a mixed reception at best.  Rightly or wrongly, there’s a perception that the headliners in New Japan need to be great workers working great matches.  Evil’s heel run is all about vicious brawling, nutshots, and Bullet Club run-ins.  So the question now is whether this is meant to be the long-term direction.  Did Evil win the title just so Naito could win it back here in a big stadium show?  Or are they doubling down on Evil to be champion through the end of the year?  I think this match will give us the answer.

I’m not as negative on Evil as a lot of people have been.  I don’t think he’d be my first choice for this role, but the shock of them suddenly giving it to him was a breath of fresh air.  It sure beats watching the big mean upper midcarders and feeling like none of them are ever going to step up.  That said, I was already getting tired of the super cheap heel shit when Jay White and Gedo were doing it.  I guess my preference would be for Evil to squash Naito in minutes (like Brodie Lee going over Cody) to reinvent him as a monster instead of a dickhead.

Still, my prediction for this match is based on New Japan preferring to stick with what works.  Naito works.  And while they might hold off and have Naito get his big win at Wrestle Kingdom, something tells me they’d rather get it done now.

Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi - Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi/Sabre) won the IWGP heavyweight tag team title from Golden Ace (Tana/Ibushi) on July 12, and their first defense is a rematch.  The champs originally refused to dignify the idea that Golden Ace deserved a rematch, and seemed to be trying to convince Ibushi that Tanahashi was the weak link in the team.  But Tanahashi pinned Taichi on August 7 to force this issue.

My big beef about the first match was that I’d seen several “let’s push Taichi” programs where Taichi destroyed a superior opponent with shenanigans and still lost, so I didn’t take him seriously.  To New Japan’s credit, they actually followed through this time and let Taichi actualy win.  (Zack scored the winning fall, but I’ll take what I can get.)  So as much as I loathe Taichi, I have to admit he finally has some credibility, and the last thing I want is for them to immediately snatch it away and put him back on the treadmill.  Which puts me in the unenviable position of rooting for Taichi to retain.  Ugh.

The story of this feud has been about the Tekkers suggesting Tanahashi is washed up, and accelerating his decline with devastating attacks on his knees.  Sooner or later the story for Tanahashi and Ibushi will be about Tana imploring Ibushi to leave him behind to pursue bigger and better things.  That doesn’t have to start on this show, but I’d rather hurry up and get it over with.  I could do with Tanahashi feuding with somebody who doesn’t twist his knees over and over.  Maybe a one-legged man or something.

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori - This is Takahashi’s second defense of the IWGP junior heavyweight title.  Shortly after Hiromu lost to Evil on July 25, Ishimori ran in to beat him up.  Ishimori then wrestled Takahashi to a submission on July 27, setting up Hiromu being pulled from the tour for a legit shoulder injury.  Hiromu returned on August 9 to save Tetsuya Naito from a Bullet Club beatdown and give Ishimori a receipt.

I could see this going either way.  The junior heavyweight division is in a mess right now, what with so many guys out of the country and/or moving up to the heavyweights.  Indeed, the reason it’s taken so long for Hiromu to defend this title is because he’s spent the last couple of months in a heavyweight tournament and chasing the heavyweight champion.  On top of that, it looks like the junior tag team title is about to be vacated, so it’d make sense to bring back the Hiromu Takahashi/BUSHI team, which means it might be a good idea for Hiromu to drop the singles belt.

None of that means Hiromu has to lose this match.  But the kicker is that he really doesn’t have many top contenders in front of him, so if Ishimori can’t get it done, I don’t know who else will.

Shingo Takagi vs. Minoru Suzuki - Takagi is making his fourth defense of the NEVER openweight championship, after Suzuki issued a challenge on August 6.

This should be stiff as fuck and kinda scary.  I don’t know why I never thought of this matchup before.  Actually Suzuki was gloating about picking a new target a few weeks back, and I was trying to guess who it was and I only thought of Takagi because he has a championship.  But then when the idea hit me, I was like

So anyway, I think we’re all gonna die.

Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA vs. Toru Yano vs. El Desperado - This is a four-way match to determine the first KOPW champion.  I haven’t seen anything about elimination rules, so I presume it’s one fall to a finish--whoever scores the first pinfall or submission on any of the other opponents wins the match and the title.  There will be no time limit and I doubt disqualifications or count-outs will be in effect, so there must be a winner.

Okada came up with the idea for the KOPW title, apparently both in storyline and real life.   Unfortunately it’s kinda complicated and I think a lot has been lost in translation.  It seems to be similar to the gimmick on the old “Beat the Champ” TV show from Los Angeles in the 1950s.  Wrestlers would compete for the “Beat the Champ” championship every week; at certain times the titleholder would be awarded a cash prize, and the title would be vacated to start over.  In this case, whoever holds the KOPW title at the end of 2020 will be awarded a KOPW 2020 trophy.

This match should be rather unique.  Just doing a four-way at all is rare in New Japan, to say nothing of putting Desperado in there with high-level guys like Okada and Sanada.  Yano’s shenanigans add a whole other dimension of unpredictability.  On paper Okada would be the heavy favorite against any of the other three in a one-on-one match.  But if things get nuts he could easily get rolled up, or find himself out of position to prevent Despy from pinning Yano.  There are a lot of ways this could go.

In theory, it’s Okada’s idea and you want to start strong by making him the first champion.  But if you wanted to push Despy you could have him steal a win and force Okada to chase him for a while.  Or Sanada and Okada could have a serious feud over the title to get it over as a coveted prize.  Or Yano could win to make it a running gag like R-Truth with the WWE 24/7 belt.  Again, a lot of ways you can go with this, but I’m tentatively picking Okada to win.

Master Wato vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru - Wato had just made his big return from excursion when DOUKI kicked his ass.  That set up Wato vs. Douki, and Wato had just won when Kanemaru kicked his ass.  Settling the score with Kanemaru is taking longer.

I had high hopes for Wato becoming a big deal, but I’ve already seen him get pinned several times over the last couple of months, and it’s clear that they’ve pegged him as an undercard guy to do jobs in tag matches.  If he’s ever going to mean anything, he really needs to win conclusively here, and start chasing a title.  These days it feels like there are more junior titles than juniors to go after them, so it’s a total waste if Wato just keeps playing little buddy for Hiroyoshi Tenzan.