NJPW General

[Vic Boss 612]

On 2/12/2021 at 3:42 PM, Garlic Junior said:

Btw don't know if I mentioned it before but I got this amazing book on the history of wrestling in the Tokyo Dome called "Eggshells". It absolutely slaps.

Oh ye, btw I have this book too, but I haven't touched it yet because I meant to read along with Tokyo Dome events whenever I got to them in my Jap wrestling rewatches... which aren't done as regularly as I'd like

[Psycho666Soldier 283]

Trying to go back and watch old wrestling is so hard for me nowadays.  I have enough current product stuff I enjoy that I feel like if I have time to time travel, I have time to stay as current as possible.  And I struggle enough with that as it is with school and shit.  I've wanted to go back and look at old G1s or follow the career of Jushin Liger or some shit.

 

I did used to have a torrent of all 5-star All Japan matches, and I ordered them in chronological order and got pretty far into that.  Such an awesome fucking run.  It's also where I realized how much I love Jumbo Tsuruta.  That dude's a legend in my heart even if he's outshined by the Four Pillars.

[Vic Boss 612]

The Jumbo vs Tenryu 5-star match is one of my fav matches.

 

I tried getting into AJPW stuff back in the mid '00s (I think a few 5-star matches and a "History of the Triple Crown) but for whatever reason I had a hard time getting into the four lords. Jumbo was super-easy to get into though. I do mean to go back and watch AJPW and offshoots (SWS, WAR, FMW, NOAH, Wrestle-1 I think?) starting in 1972 whenever I'm finished with New Japan and offshoots (UWF, PWFG, UWFi, maybe Kingdom, RINGs, maybe Pancrase, maybe Zero-1) but who knows when that'll be. I left if in the mid to late '80s on NJPW.

[Garlic Junior 136]

Yeah I feel that. I have sought out some matches on the strength of this book, although weirdly it has been most Murrican wrestlers ie Sting v Muto, the Steiners, etc.

[Vic Boss 612]

Wuh oh, Naito's hurt his knee. He was still walking seemingly fine, so hopefully it's just bad enough to stay off of it until Castle Attack and not something that keeps him out

[Vic Boss 612]

>Naito injured

>Hiromu injured

>Sho's balls came out during a match

> Show cancelled because of the Earthquake

 

Should've just called it the Cursed Tour

[Vic Boss 612]

Actually a fuller representation from reddit

 

The very first show of the tour, in the very first match, the first Young Lion to debut in a long time gets injured seconds into the match.

Kevin Kelly has technical problems with English commentary.

A show is canceled because of an earthquake.

Naito is injured by Nagata of all people.

SHO’s crown jewels escape during a match causing a main event to be cut from show replays.

Hiromu gets injured, out 6 months

And to top it all off, the Young Lions have forgotten how to clap, despite Jay White’s instruction.

[Garlic Junior 136]

Honestly, what a disaster. I am devastated for Hiromu.

[Vic Boss 612]

Either ELP is a great seller or he messed up his foot or ankle early in the Junior Tag Title match and had to work around it the rest of the time.

 

Expecting Great O-Khan to paralyze Tanahashi and Okada to announce he's retiring for undisclosed reasons by the end the way this tour is going

[Vic Boss 612]

They unified the IWGP Heavy and IC Titles into the new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Ibushi is considered the 1st Champion

 

I DON'T LIKE

 

I can make a case for it and all (the original function of the IC Title is now what the IWGP US and Rev-Pro British Heavy Titles are for, the NEVER Title offers a more dynamic and logical secondary title because being an Openweight Title at least gives it a reason to exist, the Junior Title can be a bigger deal but all the Heavyweight Titles were crowding it out of spots) but I DON'T LIKE

[Garlic Junior 136]

It is an awful, awful, awful idea. I've not read a single person who thinks it is a good idea and you know how divisive the IWC is. Every take has opposing sides. This is unanimous.

 

The press conference video has like a 1:100 upvote/downvote ratio it is ridiculous.

[Vic Boss 612]

Huh, they're running a Yokohama Stadium show and a Tokyo Dome show in May. What the shit are they gonna do for main events?

[Vic Boss 612]

Chris Charlton BTFOs all us fat babies

[Garlic Junior 136]

I can't believe they let Cody Rhode's tattooist design the new IWGP belt

[Vic Boss 612]

Two guys from an Okada/Sho/Yoh vs Suzuki/Despy/Kanemaru match tested positive for Covid

[Vic Boss 612]

Ospreay vs Shingo pulled a 6-star rating. Yeah, it was that good.

 

Also covid has been hitting Japan hard so they've postponed both the Yokohama Stadium and Tokyo Dome shows, which was probably for the better because they only had two matches set between them and one of them involved maybe-Covid'ed Okada

[MT 917]

Ospreay hurt his neck, and had to vacate the title.

[Vic Boss 612]

New Japan sure getting fucked up every which way possible

 

On the plus side, we might end up with the G1 winner becoming IWGP Champion

[Vic Boss 612]

>Tokyo Dome on the weekend

>Ibushi has pneumonia

 

It takes the worst luck in the universe to make Shingo the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, and he might even get a decent reign out of it because of even worse luck

[Garlic Junior 136]

No Wrestle Kingdom chat? Sad times.

[MT 917]

I didn't watch, I know Ma did. I haven't kept up with NJPW at all

[Vic Boss 612]

My time's become much more limited, I just finished the main event of Night 2 tonight

[Vic Boss 612]

BTW, my heart beats LIJ but the United Empire keeps speaking my language too

[Vic Boss 612]

Getting around to the NJPW vs NOAH show

 

They're throwing some live rounds and it's AWESOME