| Best of Super Juniors Finals 2020 Himoru Takahasi vs. El Desperado(5 star match) |
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| This match was fantastic, the unmasking is probably my favourite wrestling moment of the whole year. After that I think is safe for me to say that Hiromu is the Wrestler of the Year imo. btw how does the 5 star thing on the first page works? |
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Basically you just do what Addae did and announce it and I'll eventually add it to the top post. |
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| I still have to rewatch some matches so I'll probably send them on a later day |
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Wrestle Kingdom 15 Night One - 1/4/21 Hiromu Takahashi vs El Phantasmo I didn't watch the Super-J Cup so I haven't seen ELP in awhile. Can't say I really miss him. Sure he do a few good moves but when he leads a match I don't feel he puts it all together. Hiromu Takahashi is clearly saving himself for tomorrow...which begs the question what was the point of this match anyways. Below Average, I don't even think I need a spoiler tag. You know who won this. IWGP Tag Team Championship Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr.) (c) vs Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) I was wondering how a heel vs heel match would do in this situation. Would both try to cheat against each other and it would end up being chaos or would one be more heel than the other. Kenta (certificate holder) vs. Satoshi Kojima This was another match that we knew what the result was going to be. Especially since Kojima was a fill-in for Juice who got injured. So the main point of this match to me was to see how much Kojima can still go when he isn't facing young lions. I felt he did pretty well. He still has good ring-speed. He hasn't slowed down like Jericho and his body isn't done like Tenzan. This was the best it could be but just a average match going into the intermission. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Great-O-Khan The next two matches features members of the new faction of The Empire. The Empire hasn't been given much momentum yet. So these are pretty crucial matches against top talent in New Japan. Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay At this point this card didn't feel like Wrestle Kingdom and apart of that is there is only 2 title matches on the first card. The U.S. Title is still on lockdown in the United States. We've had the Double Championship for a year. But these were the money matches and did they deliver? IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Kota Ibushi Chris Charlton on commentary mentioned that Okada wanted to compete with the main event to see whom the fans thought was the better match. I say Okada succeeded. This match never really got going to the levels of what I was expecting to be the best Wrestle Kingdom match from either night. It wasn't as brutal as we were expecting. There was a lot of pauses between moves and thus the match flow felt very stop, go, stop, go. The 25 minute mark passed and I still wasn't fully invested. Match of the Night: Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay Show Score: 82 out of 100 Going into the preparations for Wrestle Kingdom as they announced the matches. I was worried we were going to get 2 shows of 6 match cards instead of 8-9 matches a card like Wrestling Kingdom 14. For awhile it didn't feel like Wrestle Kingdom to me but thankfully there was matches that brought the magic that these nights bring every year. We have 4 title matches tomorrow. But I do feel that Night 1 was the better card on paper. So will see if I'm proven wrong in about 24-hours. |
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| My thoughts on Night 1 of WK 15 was that the card was very predictable for the most part. I knew Hiromu was going to win the opening match against ELP, G.o.D finally won a match in the Tokyo Dome, Kenta beating Satoshi Kojima, and Tanahashi-san going over the Great-O-Khan. I thought Ospreay was going to go over Okada, but boy was I wrong. These guys tore the house down with their match. Okada took a nasty table spot near the Japanese commentary team. Back to Back Rainmakers from Okada and Ospreay. This was a five star match that easily won match of the night for WK 15. The match between Naito and Ibushi was very underwhelming because there was no build going into this match, so I wasn't emotionally invested in this match until Ibushi won. I felt that both Ibushi and Naito were just going through the motions since one of them was going to wrestle the following night, so it didn't make sense for them to go all out. |
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Wrestle Kingdom 15 Night Two - 1/5/21 Provisional KOPW 2021 Trophy Toru Yano vs Chase Owens vs Bad Luck Fale vs Bushi Well I wasn't expecting too much from this match. This was going to be a opening comedy match and even though you tend to like to start your shows with a bang. I don't mind getting this out of the way first. IWGP Tag Team Championship Suzuki-gun (El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (c) vs One or Eight (Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato) The first thing that stands out to me is Master Wato has new ring attire and its 10 times better than whatever monstrosity he originally came back from excursion in. He still needs to be able to put a full match together but at least I can be more open to him coming up now as long as he doesn't get pushed down my throat. NEVER Openweight Championship Shingo Takagi vs Jeff Cobb I was expecting much from the first two matches and that is what we got. So we really needed this to deliver before the intermission. This will be the 3rd meeting between Shingo and Cobb. They have faced each other twice in the G1 with Cobb taking both encounters. The Empire started last night with a 0-2 record and Gedo is known for changing a lot of title holders at Wrestle Kingdom. So a lot was going in Jeff Cobb's direction of finally striking success for the Empire. Sanada vs Evil I'll be quite honest with you. I was more split screen on twitter at this point. EVIL matches to me at this point are Mundane. I rather watch Master Wato than EVIL. I rather watch Yano than EVIL. I'd probably like to watch EVIL instead of Marko Stunt so he still has that. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi Taiji Ishimori is good but I do feel like there is better people in the division than him. He never exactly wows me like Hiromu. So this match basically hit around expections. Its Wrestle Kingdom. They will put in a good shift but it pales in comparison to any of Hiromu's best matches of 2020. IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Jay White Shingo vs Cobb really set a good bar for what would need to be beaten to win Match of the Night. It really depended on how much interference shenanigans would happen during this match. Bullet Club will Bullet Club but I still wanted to trust Gedo that he understands the time and place for going ham on the Bullet Club Tactics. Match of the Night: Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Jay White Show Score: 80 out of 100 I love Wrestle Kingdom and somehow with only 10K allowed into the Tokyo Dome and with no crowd noises and with a shorter card both nights still kept the magic. Even though the show scores are much lower than last year. Night One had a 92 and Night Two had a 88. But that is just the nature of the beast of these 6 match cards. You had your three great to phenomenal matches and your 3 average to below average matches on both cards. If I go based on my mean star ratings. Night One was 3.79 and Night Two was 3.54. For reference my highest night for the G1 was 3.66 on Day 5. |
HibbingtonJan 5, 2021 5:17 AM
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| WK Night 1 Hiromu Takahashi vs El Phantasmo Good start but then it went downhill, ELP sucks and he being a parody of other wrestlers do no good for me, very skippable match. 4/10 Dangerous Tekkers vs GOD ELP sucked so hard that my internet died in the end of his and because of that I lost most of this match, catched near the end and looked good but I won't go back to rewatch. KENTA vs Kojima Too bad we aren't on the 2000s anymore, but Kojima can still do it. 7/10 Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Great Okhan I can't get into Okhan, he brought in interesting ideas and approaches but not enough to make it compelling, Tanahashi is Tanahashi and he made it decent. 5/10 Kazuchika Okada vs Will Ospreay When Naito says Okada wouldn't survive if he was in Naito's skin, he is right. This whole thing of not doing the rainmaker is stupid, it had no purpose other than having a pop during this match, its insulting and Okada can't be interesting away from the title picture. I like Will Ospreay because of his fiery flips and took him 30 minutes to hit his first flying move so that was very annoying, but I can't say that the match was bad, it had its moments, its the worst good match ive ever seen. 7/10 Kota Ibushi vs Tetsuya Naito Necks getting hurt, but these two have the most complicated finisher setups in new japan. I guess is good. 7/10 WK Night 2 KOPW Don't care Suzuki-gun vs 1 or 8 I was making some food while this happened but looked good when I catched at the end, wato looked a bit stupid, despy looked good. Shingo Takagi vs Jeff Cobb Shingo never miss. 10/10 SANADA vs EVIL Comical. This was supposed to be a grudge match but I can only laugh at it, they don't take this match seriously, it doesn't get a DUD because it had some cute moments and I laughed. Dick Togo being reduced to the role of being a bump taker is a crime. 2/10 Hiromu Takahashi vs Taiji Ishimori Their match quality keeps getting worse each time they face each other but still in a good level, loved the 2 minutes of elbows to Hiromu's neck. 8/10 Kota Ibushi vs Jay White Lots of good stuff happened here but sometimes it felt like nothing of significance was happening. Earlier in the night Momo Watanabe died for it, gave out her place in the dark match just so Saya Kamitani could hit the Phoenix Splash, Kota Ibushi didn't care and hit one of his own, fuck Kota Ibushi. 8/10 |
LePiratePapiJan 5, 2021 4:28 PM
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LePiratePapi said: WK Night 1 Kota Ibushi vs Jay White Lots of good stuff happened here but sometimes it felt like nothing of significance was happening. Earlier in the night Momo Watanabe died for it, gave out her place in the dark match just so Saya Kamitani could hit the Phoenix Splash, Kota Ibushi didn't care and hit one of his own, fuck Kota Ibushi. 8/10 This video is from 2010, can't tell him to fuck off for doing a move that has been in his arsenal for over a decade. Not to mention, its pretty plausible that Kota taught her how to do it. |
HibbingtonJan 5, 2021 6:11 PM
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its part of his past, now phoenix splash belongs to tall saya and tall saya only |
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| Night 1 Rambo was very boring. Yano winning by doing absolutely nothing was funny though. Hiromu/ELP was a big disappointment. Hiromu didn't go all out and Phantasmo has reached his ceiling. He's a moves-guy, not a particularly good wrestler. Tag Team Title Match was...there. I would've preferred Tekkers to keep the belts, they were way more entertaining than GoD. KENTA/Kojima was a fun little match, I enjoyed it. Kojima can still go if necessary. Great O-Khan is not 100% ready yet. But he is showing improvement and I somehow like the boy. He could be a better Fale in the future. Okada/Ospreay was a very good match, though I have no idea why everybody creams their pants about it. I already know how good these two are, I would have liked for them to go to 11. Ibushi/Naito was a good match, I especially loved how they didn't try to die all the time in this match. The big moment for Kota lost a bit of impact because of the match the next night still looming over him. Night 2 Haven't seen the girl matches sadly. KOPW 4-way was very, very bad. Junior Tag Title Match was okay for what it was. Wato is shit and Despy needs to be pushed more. Takagi/Cobb was great, easily Cobbs best match I've seen yet. Seems like Shingo can pull out that extra effort out of everybody. Sanada/Evil was shit. I've given up on both of them now. Hiromu/Ishimori was very good, these two click well and the match deserved its spot this high on the card. Main Event was incredible, the story, the intensity, the false finishes, even the interferences all worked perfectly. People who still claim Knife Pervert isn't one of the best in the world cannot be helped anymore. Post-Match promo was on another level, I have not seen such a promo in many years. Both match and promo ***** After Day 1 I was very worried, that was not up to what I came to expect from Wrestle Kingdom. Night 2 was much better. If this was a one day event and they got rid of some matches, it would have been a fantastic show. |
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| Sorry I'm late to the party, but I did manage to catch all of both nights. Here's my quick thoughts on them. Night 1: Not good - Rumble was what you'd expect. Goto not taking off his shirt says enough about the match. Rumor has it Suzuki and Nagata are still fighting out back - Hiromu and ELP would've been nice had it took place in a circus. Felt like they tried doing a lot of big moves to grab interest from the live crowd but nothing clicked together and the result was a whole lotta dead space. Hated the Bullet Club references. ELP is a living parody in Edge's tights. - The tag match had an opportunity to craft an interesting heel/heel dynamic but instead played out with Tekkers working face. Pretty bland even with so many choking spots. Zack shouting out "We're in the Tokyo Dome!" does nothing and the match remained unremarkable as a whole. Nice that GoD finally won a WK match. - KENTA/Kojima wasn't bad for being put together on late notice and probably would've been really good before KENTA spent a few years as Hideo Itami, but I was very perplexed with how he changes the momentum of a match in such dull ways. They had Tenzan out at ringside and he hardly moved when the typical BC shenanigans came about. If you're really into this last stretch of Kojima's career, maybe you'd dig it, but I'm not so interested. - Tanahashi/Khan is a weird little match that turned out alright. Khan is frankly indescribable from his entrance and he wrestles on the mat like he's inspired from when Inoki faced Muhammad Ali from way back when. It's different, and was genuinely interesting the way Tanahashi would try and engage in the grapples early on. Very good selling made the Claw Hold not look like a joke. Came away from this more impressed than Tanahashi/White 3 years ago, but I don't expect such an exponential growth from Khan like King Switch would have. - Okada/Ospreay was fine and I'm tempted to say good considering some of the memorable moments in it. Like with the Kojima match earlier, if you're really invested in this Rainmaker storyline and find Ospreay works believably in his new heel role, this'll be pretty good. I'm still quite hesitant since the storyline and MoneyClip submission as a whole suck, but this was definitely one of the better Okada matches since WK14 Night 2. I liked Ospreay's viciousness at times with the stomps and stiff Powerbomb. I've heard quite a few people say his performance was stellar due to how much he wrestled like a true heavyweight and stopped the high-flying manoeuvres. I don't think they remember the parts with the Avalanche Spanish Fly, or the Springboard Forearm, or the multiple attempts at an Oscutter, but it's fine. He was fine. This was fine. Okada did the thing we were waiting for and I expect him to still use that god awful submission. Their 2018 & 2019 matches were much better. - Ibushi/Naito was probably the safest of their matches together that I can recall, which is saying something given how they still want to wreck their own necks. This match disappoints moreso as a result of being for the HW title and following a very derivitive type of match we've seen done better dozens of times already. Shocked at how Naito kicked out of 2 Kami-Goyes, but also lacked the buildup to capitalize on such a moment. Blame the booking, Gedo isn't God and Ibushi even getting this title match after losing the briefcase to White at Power Struggle constantly nags at me. Night 2: Was good - KOPW was not good, but it's also quite harmless in the grand scheme of things. Yano did Yano things, that's all that matters. - Jr. Tag match was better than the tag match on Night 1; shorter, more concise and to the point. Suzuki-gun is good - Shingo don't miss and Cobb didn't job. At least, not until the result happened. He showed up for a big man match and they hit harder than anyone else here. The leg sell late into the match looked memey but it still worked during the match. What is a meme though is the result: The Empire is a stable of losers lmao. - I made a good choice and took a quick nap throughout EVIL/SANADA. I assume nothing of value was lost. - It's been a few years but I still remember that insane Hiromu/Ishimori clash at BotSJ 2018. This wasn't going to be that match and the part of me that was underwhelmed here I blame on that, but this was perfectly good. Far better than the ELP match. Gets a tad too drawn out and excessive but it's still one of the best matches from both nights. - White/Ibushi was something special. Idk if I'd give it 5 stars personally since it was obvious after 40 minutes that it was just trying to go longer than Okada/Omega, but my god is Jay White the best in the world right now. Incredible development over the course of 48 minutes. Jay White wasn't just the heel here, he was the main character. He was reacting and adapting to the stone-face bowl-cut Ibushi, Knife Pervert tries to man up and gets f**king owned on the spot like G129, except here that spot evolves further. We love King Switch and the last thing I ever want to see is an NXT debut featuring "The Dagger" anytime soon. |
AndoCommandoJan 18, 2021 7:57 AM
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New Beginnings in Nayoya- 1/30/21 Will Ospreay vs Satoshi Kojima I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to do these New Beginnings Posts. I'll just focus doing the paragraphs for the main matches and then add anything extra I want to say about it at the end. Tonight was a night full of surprises though. Not entirely with the winners but the quality of the matches. Over the years I've gotten less bloodthirsty when it comes to hardcore matches. I am more a vanilla 1v1 type of guy these days. Not that I can't still enjoy these matches but from a ratings perspective I'm not going to applaud it as highly as maybe others would. I didn't need to worry about it this match though NEVER Openweight Championship Shingo Takagi (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi My mentality going into this match was Hiroshi Tanahashi isn't a NEVER type of guy. I like the NEVER title because of the style of wrestling it provides and seeing a match like this worries me for the future of the title. Especially since it seems like New Japan is going to retire the IC Title. But I can't let that drag me down and this match did a lot of pulling me up instead. Match of the Night: Shingo Takagi (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi Show Score: 78 out of 100 One other thing of note which is not a surprise so I don't feel the need to spoiler tag it. Tenzan lost to OKhan which means he is no longer allowed to use the Mongolian Chops...which is kinda his thing. I know his body is not in good shape. But at the same time he is only 49. Retirement normally is 3-4 more years down the line in New Japan but maybe its bad enough that he is bowing out in 2021. But watching NOAH as well...I'm seeing a lot of 50 year olds so I have no idea. This show though is prime example why you can't sleep on any New Japan Show. I don't see the other 2 New Beginnings being as good as tonight but you just never know when one of the best matches of the year could appear. The Ace still has it and Shingo deserves everything. |
HibbingtonJan 30, 2021 4:04 AM
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New Beginnings in Hiroshima- 2/10/21 IWGP Tag Team Championship Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa)(c) vs Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr.) Well this match started very silly and it made me worry a lot about the quality of this match. But once we finally settled into what we came to see the match was good as expected. This match never was really about the match though as Tama Tonga and Taichi have been fighting over the Iron Glove. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs Sho It took me a little bit to get my hype down from the Iron Gloves but once we got into the forearm exchanges I was locked into this match. New Japan is really going for long main events right now. Which benefits some and maybe for others it benefits them here but for me I was never able to get to that elated 5-star level feeling. Match of the Night: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs Sho Show Score: 76 out of 100 The first new beginnings had an all-time classic and the second didn't. But there still was 2 title matches in the 4 star range. The undercard did its thing but there was honestly some better matches on the under card in night 1 as well. So those are the two point difference in show score compared to 1/30. These shows have been delivering for sure. There is some worry about tomorrow. I'm expecting a mess in the NEVER Trios and Sanada vs Ibushi could tear the house down or be the weakest of the three main events. |
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New Beginnings in Hiroshima - 2/11/21 NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, and Yoshi-Hashi) vs Bullet Club (Jay White, Tama Tonga, and Tanga Loa) Something that was said earlier in the night was Dangerous Tekkers would be going on hiatus so that ZSJ would be focusing on the New Japan Cup. So that helped lean me towards a certain direction that this match was going to go. But at the same time Jay White and Bullet Club are always full of "surprises." IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship Kota Ibushi (c) vs Sanada Now this was still going to be a solid match but I did have my worries being that there match in the G1 was only good and not great. Maybe this match was slightly better since they upped the ante at the end of the match. It also seemed very evenly matched. But I just can't say that the match was better than their G1 match. Match of the Night: Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, and Yoshi-Hashi) vs Bullet Club (Jay White, Tama Tonga, and Tanga Loa) Show Score: 71 out of 100 So something that I didn't mention was...EVIL...and Okada...and that whole mess. That brought the show score down 4 points by itself. There hoopla was a complete waste of time and just put in a sour mood for the next match where thankfully good in-ring story-telling was able to get my head back in the right frame of mind. Then the other point is for the main event not being as good as the last two shows. |
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| I really really REALLY hope Naito wins the IC belt. |
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Castle Attack Night 2 - 2/28/21 IWGP Tag Team Championship Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c) vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi) I was looking forward to this match mainly because I enjoy Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi as a tag team. Guerrillas of Destiny will always have the chemistry to have good matches as well but its all on how much Jado is used in the match that dampers their matches. NEVER Openweight Championship Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Great-O-Khan When I was watching this match I keep pondering what exactly is The Great-O-Khan missing to make it to that next level. His moveset currently isn't that interesting but he did incorporate his own version of a backbreaker which I did like. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship BUSHI vs El Phantasmo vs El Desperado There is a big bittersweet element to this match. It sucks Hiromu has taken another major injury. As for the match it was really good. I still prefer 1v1 matches these days but there was a lot of 1v1 action in this match. So it was never too crazy. IWGP Intercontinental Championship Kota Ibushi (c) vs Tetsuya Naito This was a hard match for me to watch. This is essentially a goodbye to the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. So this match gave me a lot more sadness than enjoyment. Starting from when they showed the opening video for the Intercontinental Championship to when the 3-count was called. I've known the result since I woke up the day after since I didn't watch this live. But when the 3-count happened my heart still sank. That is it...that is the goodbye. The titles are going to be merged. The NEVER will not be the NEVER again. I've seen this match-up a lot in recent times as well. So there was nothing new to be had here as well so my emotions were what was leading the way here. So the match honestly just feels secondary. That belt the, The IWGP World Champion better be one of the most beautiful titles ever because if not then the Intercontinental title being sacrificed will be in vain. Match of the Night: BUSHI vs El Phantasmo vs El Desperado Show Score: 70 out of 100 This of course isn't one of their major cards but your never not going to get good wrestling from New Japan. So it was still a solid card. The opening matches did their thing as well. Nothing that would effect the show score. El Desperado for the time being seems to be the placeholder for the ace of the juniors in Hiromu's absent with winning both Junior titles in the span of 7 days. He was the shining light of Castle Attack to being me glee where I mostly feel somber. |
HibbingtonMar 2, 2021 6:19 PM
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| I hope they aren't really gonna drop the IWGP Heavyweight lineage like the announcements make me believe. That would be a stupid move. Also, GO DESPY! |
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AnimeNerd99 said: Spoilers for New Japan Cup: They really had Great-O-Khan beat Naito in the first round just have him lose to fucking Yano in the second. Don't understand the thought process here one bit. I'm thinking that maybe they're just giving him a time to fully recover his injured knee or just give a W to okhan bc dude lost every big match so far, it's not like Naito ain't getting his W back in the G1 |
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AnimeNerd99 said: Didn't know he had an injured knee. That explains it. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/ll1006/nagata_bumping_naito_in_the_legknee/ he had to miss a few shows before facing Ibushi |
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| So just some small thoughts on the New Japan Cup. I didn't watch all the matches, only the ones that I was interested in. In the first round we had another Suzuki match showing he never ages and can have a good match against anyone against Tomoaki Honma. I nice strong style match to make me feel all fuzzy inside. My hidden gem of the tournament. Ishii went out in the 1st against Sanada. The match was okay but nothing special. In the second round Goto vs Shingo was one of the better matches. Kenta played around with his match against Suzuki so it wasn't as good in-ring as I wanted but still entertaining. But it was Will Osperay vs Zack Saber Jr. that so far deemed as the best match of the New Japan Cup. Dave Metlzer pulled the 5-star out for the match. A lot of other people did with a 4.60 rating on Grappl. I feel it was a bit overrated and gave it a 4.25. Still the best match so far but it wasn't an instant classic between the two. Just the quality of the performers prevailing. In the third round a lot of the focus was on giving David Finlay a push. Personally the guy is missing the "it" factor for me. He is a dojo grad. He is going to be decent in the ring. But his theme is generic. His look is generic. The guy lacks any natural charisma. Compared to Juice Robinson. Finlay is the rice and Juice is the curry. Good for Finlay getting his moment in the match taking out Jay White but I just buy him as a upcoming talent on the roster. Ospreay was the MVP of this tournament even having a 4-star level match with Sanada but couldn't bring Finlay up to that level in my opponent. Sadly EVIL made it to the Semi-Final so Shingo had to deal with all of that nonsense but thankfully we got the best outcome for the best match possible in Shingo vs Ospreay for the New Japan Cup. Personally I thought that Shingo was going to be the winner. I felt that Kota had really no chance of losing the title at Sakura Genesis. Giving Shingo a Cup win would be good to keep his momentum going but just not yet ready to take down "god". If Will were to win I feel he could of been a waste since yes it would help establish The United Empire but winning the G1 and NJC is not likely for him to have a rematch at WK to finally get the job done. Out of everyone on the roster Will is the one I see being the new Heavyweight Champion in the future. Been like that since the G1 last year. Well even with the fallout...It can't be worse than EVIL winning and becoming the biggest cheater and eye sore in the company right? |
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| New belt looks...meh. I like my world titles to be roundish. That said, I wasn't the biggest fan of the previous designs either. NJPW belts aren't the prettiest there are imo. |
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TrashDax said: New belt looks...meh. I like my world titles to be roundish. That said, I wasn't the biggest fan of the previous designs either. NJPW belts aren't the prettiest there are imo. I absolutely hate the new belt design. It doesn't even look like World Title. To lose both Heavyweight and IC Belts for that piece of trash makes me go #GedoOut as Booker. Pro wrestling has just been rough for me lately with the decisions. NOAH still has their top belt on a 58 year old. AEW has been okay lately but I haven't been interested enough to watch the last 3 weeks. Then for Stardom I've just been waiting for the next big show which is soon. |
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| Ospreay being champion in itself is not that shocking, but taking the belt off Ibushi already while Ospreays stable has literally no heat is a very questionable decision. |
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| Wrestling Dontaku 2021 Night 2 Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi(5 star match) |
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Dominion 2021 - 6/7/21 IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship El Desperado (c) vs. YOH You could definitely feel the slow build in this match. I don't feel the match got out of 1st gear until 15 minutes into the match. The first part of the match consisted of working on each others legs because of past injuries. Despi taunting YOH. Personally I'm not really sure what YOH brings to the table in a singles match. There is nothing that stood out to me. Kota Ibushi vs. Jeff Cobb With Will going out the United Empire really needs some positive momentum here so I was going into this match hoping Cobb could get the win. Ibushi could take the loss and be fine here but Cobb could be the guy for United Empire until Will comes back. This match was quicker in pace than the last match. Which is good because I'm expecting another slow build for the main event. IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Shingo Takagi vs. Kazuchika Okada Well this match started out with a mundane feeling. There wasn't much story to it unlike the slow build in the Despi vs YOH match. Which maybe means I should respect that match a little more in reflection. I felt it took around 20 minutes to get into 2nd gear but once they actually wanted to get into the good parts of the match and get pass on the money clip attempts. Dear lord there was at least 5+, 10 is probably an exaggeration. Shingo absolutely made this match though. Match of the Night: Shingo Takagi vs. Kazuchika Okada Show Score: 71 out of 100 This was only a 5 match card so the overall rating isn't going to be the highest. The only match watch here is for Shingo anything else really isn't. The other matches did well but it wasn't something I needed to watch live. As for the opening matches. It essentially set-up 4 title matches. So that did its job. |
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| I am super happy for Shingo.....I just wish I still cared about the New Japan product. |
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Wrestle Grand Slam In Tokyo Dome - 7/25/21 IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship BULLET CLUB (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) (c) vs Mega Coaches (Rocky Romero & Ryusuke Taguchi) I wasn't expecting too much from this match but it was actually much better than I thought it was. Taguchi kept the match straight, didn't get too comedic. But mainly El Phantasmo was the one that headed this match as the top performer which is no surprise IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship El Desperado (c) vs. Robbie Eagles Well it was going to be hard for this match not to be overshadowed by the fact that Hiromu is cleared to come back and challenged the winner. I honestly hope he loses that match. This isn't the first time he is hurt and I feel it would be better to see him have to work his way back then just continue where he left off AGAIN. Kazuchika Okada vs. Jeff Cobb So the story going into this match is Cobb is calling Okada a young boy. Which everyone knows is ridiculous...thus everyone probably expected Okada to get the win. I would love Cobb to get this win though and have him go after Shingo for the World Heavyweight Title with Ospreay out of of action. [b]IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & Tetsuya Naito) (c) vs Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.) Well that didn't take long for them to face each other again. IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Shingo Takagi(c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi Then finally we have the main event. This was set to be Shingo vs. Ibushi but Ibushi has pneumonia so they needed someone to fill-in as challenger. Well Tanahashi did beat Shingo for the NEVER Openweight earlier in the year. So now Tanahashi will try to take the IWGP World Heavyweight as well from Shingo. Match of the Night: Shingo Takagi(c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi Show Score: 80 out of 100 I feel this is the highest I can give this show without having two great matches. But when you have a match that can possibly be in your top-10 of the year, that is a big score booster. Things might go back down from here though...especially whom is next to face Shingo. |
HibbingtonJul 26, 2021 12:15 AM
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| So this will be my G1 Climax 2021 patch notes Average Star Rating Day 1 - 3.15 Day 2 - 3.30 Day 3 - 3.38 Day 4 - 3.15 Day 5 - 3.06 Day 6 - 3.20 Day 7 - 3.43 Day 8 - 3.25 Day 9 - 3.31 Day 10 - 3.45 Day 11 - 3.12 Day 12 - 3.20 Day 13 - 3.31 Day 14 - 3.15 Day 15 - 3.06 Day 16 - 3.30 Day 17 - 3.06 Day 18 - 3.30 Match of the Night Day 1 - Tomohiro Ishii vs Shingo Takagi - 4.50 Day 2 - Kuzuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - 4.25 Day 3 - Tomohiro Ishii(2) vs Kota Ibushi - 4.25 Day 4 - Tama Tonga vs Chase Owens - 3.25 Day 5 - Zack Saber Jr vs Kota Ibushi(2) - 4.00 Day 6 - SANADA vs Chase Owens(2) - 3.50 Day 7 - Zack Saber Jr(2) vs Great O-Khan - 3.75 Day 8 - Jeff Cobb vs Tama Tonga(2) - 3.50 Day 9 - Shingo Takagi(2) vs Kota Ibushi(3) - 4.00 Day 10 - Jeff Cobb(2) vs Taichi - 4.00 Day 11 - Tomohiro Ishii(3) vs The Great O-Khan - 4.00 Day 12 - Tama Tonga(3) vs Yoshi-Hashi - 3.50 Day 13 - Zack Saber Jr(3) vs KENTA - 4.25 Day 14 - Jeff Cobb(2) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi(2) - 3.75 Day 15 - The Great O-Khan(2) vs Shingo Takagi(3) - 3.75 Day 16 - Tama Tonga(4) vs Kuzuchika Okada(2) - 3.75 Day 17 - Zack Saber Jr(4) vs Tanga Loa - 3.50 Day 18 - Jeff Cobb(3) vs Kuzuchika Okada(3) - 4.00 |
HibbingtonOct 20, 2021 7:12 AM
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A Block Stats Name || Average || High || Low Tomohiro Ishii || 3.72 || 4.50 || 3.00 Shingo Takaki || 3.59 || 4.50 || 2.25 Zack Saber Jr || 3.56 || 4.25 || 2.50 Kota Ibushi || 3.47 || 4.25 || 2.50 The Great O-Khan || 3.34 || 4.00 || 2.50 Kenta || 3.28 || 4.25 || 2.00 Tanga Loa || 3.00 || 3.50 || 2.00 Yujiro Takahashi || 2.41 || 3.00 || 1.75 Toru Yano || 2.34 || 3.00 ||1.75 A-Block Thoughts Going into the G1 this year we knew this was a weakened G1. That doesn't mean there wasn't any great matches in the tournament but there wasn't anything that was special. There wasn't any 5-star matches. There was no one whom got over a 4.00 mean like last year. Naito getting injured surely didn't help. I'm not going to add him to the list since he only wrestled 1 match. Ishii tops his block again. Ishii is my guy so its no surprising but there wasn't any matches that I will remember like Suzuki/Ishii or Ibushi/Ishii from last year. ZSJ made significant improvement from G130 to G131 and I do feel he should of won the block. The Great O-Khan proved he could hang in this group. I do feel that Tanga Loa is better than a 3.00 but there was certain matches he just wasn't given the spot to show it. Then lastly...for god sakes. Can we not have Yujiro Takahashi in the G1 last year...please? B Block Stats Name || Average || High || Low Kuzuchika Okada || 3.55 || 4.25 || 3.00 Jeff Cobb || 3.47 || 4.00 || 3.00 Hiroshi Tanahashi || 3.44 || 4.25 || 2.50 Taichi || 3.36 || 4.00 || 2.50 YOSHI-HASHI || 3.31 || 3.75 || 2.50 Tama Tonga || 3.25 || 3.75 || 2.25 Chase Owens || 3.25 || 3.50 || 2.75 SANADA || 3.17 || 3.75 || 2.50 Hirooki Goto || 3.17 ||3.50 || 2.25 EVIL || 2.58 || 3.00 || 2.25 B-Block Thoughts I do think of B-Block as being the weaker block again this year but when you start looking at the mean scores says things were closer than originally thought. Having Yujiro and Yano together against just EVIL surely helps bridge the gap between A and B blocks. Kuzuchika Okada is the B-Block MVP. He has gotten back to mainly using the Rainmaker and is using the MoneyClip as more of a set-up now. I'm fine with that. I'm also fine with him winning with the MoneyClip once and awhile as long as it is not frequent. I do want more people to win with different moves. Why can't Shingo win matches with "Made in Japan" too. It would make his matches so much more compelling. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jeff Cobb both seemingly stay around the same mean score as last year. Jeff Cobb was in A-Block last year so he did get boosted by the stacked block. So this could be looked at as more of an improvement. YOSHI-HASHI gains a boost as well while Taichi stays around where he was last year. Tama Tonga and Chase Owens were consistent additions. They made most of their opportunities and you have to respect that. Goto continues to struggle for me in singles competition. Things have been downhill since his match with Suzuki in I believe 2017? Then finally my patience for EVIL is getting worse and worse. He is down 0.25 from last year. I can't give the man anything above a 3.00 for his matches. The way his whole character is set-up makes only the last few minutes of his match mean something. An example is early in the tournament he had a 17 minute match with YOSHI-HASHI and if your going to win that match with a low blow than can you not have it 17 minutes with a YOSHI-HASHI? Can you have that match be 12 minutes at least? Your just wasting my time. Not to mention the man had to beat Yoshi-Hashi with a low blow 2 years and a row. They gave this man 14 points when he looks like the biggest loser in the company. You can tell Gedo is seething to push him again but nothing good is going to come from it with how EVIL is right now and I don't believe many people are willing to give him a second chance if we do get a change. Match of the Night Honors Zack Saber Jr(4) Tama Tonga(4) Kuzuchika Okada(3) Jeff Cobb(3) Shingo Takagi(3) Tomohiro Ishii(3) Kota Ibushi(3) The Great O-Khan(2) Hiroshi Tanahashi(2) Chase Owens(2) Tanga Loa KENTA Yoshi-Hashi Taichi SANADA Finale Block Thoughts |
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| If Okada is gonna go against Shingo in Tokyo Dome anyway, why not book somebody else in the final than Ibushi for thr THIRD time? Why not Zack? |
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| OMG SHIBBYYYY!!!!!!!! I'm so happy! |
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Yeah it was a highest of highs and lowest of lows when Ibushi got hurt. I hope we get a conclusion to that KENTA feud that was started in 2019. |
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| Well New Japan's staleness has hit me lately. I watched a few of the big matches in February today and I gave Tanahashi vs Sanada a 3.50 and Okada vs Naito a 3.75. Everyone is raving about Okada vs Despy in the New Japan Cup. I definitely shouldn't watch that right now, not in the right headspace I feel. |
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| Pumping 48 ppl into the New Japan Cup was a mistake imo. |
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| Hyper Battle 22 - The second best match was the tag match with LIJ vs United Empire because of the people involved. - Still not that into Master Wato - Yano vs Taichi was a 1 1/2 stars...Grappl doesn't have a DUD feature haha - Evil matches are Evil matches, so both those two brought down the show score - Chaos vs United Empire wasn't as good as I thought it would be, The Great OKhan is too plain in most of his matches - We at least got mostly a normal match between Despi and Sho so it was an okay match but still nothing to write home about. - Zack Saber Jr carried the main event and continues to show why he is front-runner for Wrestler of the Year Show Score: 70 out of 100 |
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| Wrestling Dontaku 2022 - Them talking about YOH possibly not being in the BOSJ was just silly but they might be setting him up for a win right now - Tama Tonga is finally getting that singles run he mentioned wanted a few years ago - This should honestly just be considered Wrestling Don Bullet Club - For a fill-in match, Tanahashi vs Ishii was my favorite match I've watched all week. - Please stop with the Okada vs Naito matches...I am so bored of them. Show Score: 68 out of 100 If it wasn't for Tanahashi vs Ishii than this was going to be a pretty poor card. That gave the show score 5 points by itself. and like I said that was suppose to be Tanahashi vs Ospreay. Those two went all out to save this show. Not too optimistic going forward as well since this show was all Bullet Club, all the time. Seems like Bullet Club will be the top faction going into the G1 Hype. BOSJ next. |
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| Watching Dontaku right now, first time I watched NJPW in a while. I'm really looking forward to Yuta in BOSJ. |
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| So this will be my Best of Super Juniors 2022 patch notes Average Star Rating Day 1 - 2.90 Day 2 - 3.15 Day 3 - 3.20 Day 4 - 3.20 Day 5 - 3.20 Day 6 - 3.10 Day 7 - 3.28 Day 8 - 3.05 Day 9 - 3.28 Day 10 - 3.05 Day 11 - 3.30 Day 12 - 3.05 Match of the Night Day 1 - Taiji Ishimori vs YOH - 3.50 Day 2 - Robbie Eagles vs Wheeler Yuta - 3.50 Day 3 - Francesco Akira vs Hiromu Takahashi - 3.75 Day 4 - El Lindeman vs Titan - 3.50 Day 5 - Ace Austin vs Hiromu Takahashi(2) - 3.75 Day 6 - Wheeler Yuta(2) vs El Desperado - 3.50 Day 7 - El Desperado(2) vs El Lindeman(2) - 4.00 Day 8 - Ace Austin(2) vs Alex Zayne - 3.75 Day 9 - Robbie Eagles(2) vs El Phantasmo - 4.25 Day 10 - Alex Zayne(2) vs Hiromu Takahashi(3) - 3.50 Day 11 - Robbie Eagles(3) vs El Desperado(3) - 4.00 Day 12 - Wheeler Yuta(3) vs TJP - 3.50 |
HibbingtonMay 31, 2022 9:07 AM
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| Oh, it started already? Dayum. Also, I wonder how destructive the Ibushi drama will be to the company, he has made some serious allegations. |
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A Block Stats Name || Average || High || Low Francesco Akira || 3.39 || 3.75 || 3.00 Ace Austin || 3.36 || 3.75 || 2.00 Hiromu Takahashi || 3.28 || 3.75 || 2.00 Alex Zayne || 3.19 || 3.75 || 2.50 Clark Conners || 3.14 || 3.75 || 2.75 Taiji Ishimori || 3.11 || 3.75 || 2.00 YOH || 2.94 || 3.50 || 1.00 Yoshinobu Kanemaru || 2.69 || 3.50 || 2.00 Ryusuke Taguchi || 2.58 || 3.50 || 2.00 SHO || 2.31 || 3.00 ||1.00 A-Block Thoughts Francesco Akira really benefited from Ryusuke Taguchi only serious match of the tournament. I guess he didn't want to do his butt stuff to a 22-year old. Which Taguchi was a full-blown comedy wrestler this BOSJ, essentially turning him into the Junior's Toru Yano. Ace Austin and Alex Zayne both did well in their first BOSJ. Ace Austin could be a main event guy for NJPW for the Juniors someday. Clark Conners had a solid debut after graduating from Young Lion status. I wasn't really feeling YOH this whole league. Nothing about him interests me from a character perspective and more importantly a move-set perspective. But his mean is much worse off thanks to the absolutely stinker of a match he had to endure against SHO. Which is a real shame because we all know how good SHO can be but now that is all masked under House of Torture tactics. There is trash matches and then there is cesspools and their match on Day 12 was an absolute joke where I had to pull out the 1-star for. Taiji Ishimori has always been a B-tier guy for me in the Juniors so not surprising for him to be lower down on mean score but man did this group hurt Hiromu Takahashi. B Block Stats Name || Average || High || Low Robbie Eagles || 3.53 || 4.25 || 3.00 El Desperado || 3.50 || 4.00 || 3.25 Wheeler Yuta || 3.39 || 3.75 || 3.25 El Lindeman || 3.33 || 4.00 || 3.00 El Phantasmo || 3.28 || 4.25 || 3.00 Titan || 3.28 || 3.50 || 3.00 TJP || 3.25 || 3.50 || 3.00 Master Wato || 3.22 || 3.50 || 2.75 Douki || 3.19 ||3.50 || 3.00 Bushi || 3.08 || 3.25 || 2.75 B-Block Thoughts Robbie Eagles topping the group is pretty surprising to me. I thought it would be El Desperado but having the match of the league with El Phantasmo was the slight edge Eagles. All 3 of my 4+ star matches came from Group B. So it was the superior block easily. Wheeler Yuta just fits New Japan. His pace, his grappling, his intensity. Its a shame he is going back to AEW because things always feel they are on fast forward there. El Lindeman showed how much he has grown as a talent in this tournament but there are certain matches where his work rate isn't as high as others. A lot of 3.00 for El Lindeman. Same thing for El Phantasmo. When he wants to tear the house down he surely can but most of the time he needs to keep his bravado instead with the taunting and the slow pace. El Lindeman had 3 3.00 and El Phantasmo had 4 3.00. Titan just did his thing every night. Never was the best. Never was the worst. Represented CMLL well. Personally I can't say I care much for TJP but he isn't passed his prime like Yoshinobu Kanemaru. So he can still help be a vessel for other people to look good. Master Wato has the athleticism but he still doesn't have the feel to put a whole match together. This is better than I thought he'd have but still around the bottom of his group. I actually like Douki but he doesn't do anything to evaluate himself. His best match was with El Desperado whom you'd expect him to have the best match with him being it was a main event and that they have the relationship. It was the battle of the wounded knees between them. Then lastly Bushi...he was just there. Match of the Night Honors Robbie Eagles(3) El Desperado(3) Hiromu Takahashi(3) Wheeler Yuta(3) Alex Zayne(2) Ace Austin(2) El Lindeman(2) Taiji Ishimori YOH Francesco Akira Titan El Phantasmo TJP |
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| Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega might of already had the MOTY for 2023. It feels so good that Wrestle Kingdom is back in full form!!! Easy 5-star match to add to the header post. |
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| Also 5 stars for me. Wrestle Kingdom was fine, but Kenny vs. Ospreay is the only match you really need to see imo. |
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