Phil Parent
El Dandy
Your Favourite Teacher
Posts: 8,508
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Post by Phil Parent on Jan 5, 2016 16:29:14 GMT -5
They do but just like WWE does sometimes, they don't capitalize on it. Any chance of NJPW raiding NOAH? It's about time Chris Hero got some big time shine. Also the American Wolves got a call from Japan. Kenny Omega of all people liked the tweet. I don't know if raiding is the right word for it. Gedo has been running NOAH for a year already. Taue just writes the checks IF he even writes the checks. The guys coming in New Japan from NOAH wouldn't even need to be exclusive to NJPW, they could still work NOAH. I'm interested to see if anything will come out of the tweet exchange between Akiyama and Nagata/TenCozy/Nakanishi. That could be interesting... but I just realized, Suwama is almost 40... I figured he was in his early 30's...
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,896
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Post by chrom on Jan 5, 2016 16:42:04 GMT -5
Random fact of the day: Togi Makabe has his own TV show in Japan called "Sweets Makabe No Umaissu!" where he travels around Japan sampling various cakes and desserts from different restaurants and gives his thoughts on the food. He's not the only one, Nakanishi also has his own variety show that airs in Japan
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,896
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Post by chrom on Jan 5, 2016 16:52:07 GMT -5
Kamaitachi is so in love with Mexico that he wants to stay there for good. He just did an interview saying he wants to beat Dragon Lee and Maximo more than coming back to New Japan. Kamaitachi's needed more in Japan with The Junior Division than he is in Mexico, he's been gone for two years and as good as he's gotten it's time for him to return home.
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Post by ________ has left the building on Jan 5, 2016 17:00:53 GMT -5
Kamaitachi is so in love with Mexico that he wants to stay there for good. He just did an interview saying he wants to beat Dragon Lee and Maximo more than coming back to New Japan. Kamaitachi's needed more in Japan with The Junior Division than he is in Mexico, he's been gone for two years and as good as he's gotten it's time for him to return home. As I said before, CMLL loves the guy and the feeling is mutual. He rather be treated as a big deal in Mexico than another cog in the juniors in New Japan. That is why they need to fix the division because few juniors want to remain juniors. They are lucky they convinced KUSHIDA to be the glue of the division because he was bulking up to move to the heavies. Look how they booked Mascara Dorada. He became a wallflower and only got remembered because of the Fantasticamania shows coming up. Maybe it's time to let the juniors main event solo a non junior show.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2016 17:27:27 GMT -5
"I have heard people say that if I stay in Japan that I will be a big fish in a small pond, but I do not agree. If people think Japan is a small pond, then I will rebuild the pond with my own hands and make it as large as the Pacific Ocean.”- Kazuchika Okada Its time. Where did he say this?
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Post by Raskovnik on Jan 5, 2016 17:45:13 GMT -5
"I have heard people say that if I stay in Japan that I will be a big fish in a small pond, but I do not agree. If people think Japan is a small pond, then I will rebuild the pond with my own hands and make it as large as the Pacific Ocean.”- Kazuchika Okada Its time. Where did he say this? It was either late 2012 or early 2013 when he gave an interview about possible WWE interest or something like that, if I remember correctly.
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Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 5, 2016 18:19:17 GMT -5
Based off of New Year's Dash, we can probably expect these matches at the two New Beginnings shows. {Spoiler}IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Hirooki Goto IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Kenny Omega IWGP Tag Team Championship: Tomoaki Honma and Togi Makabe (c) vs. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: KUSHIDA (c) vs. BUSHI Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito
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Post by N E O G E O B O Y S on Jan 5, 2016 19:00:15 GMT -5
Men, that Kenny Omega promo completely buried the Junior Division in my eyes. At least the WWE bury their divisions with the booking, no with a wrestler doing a promo
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
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Post by chrom on Jan 5, 2016 23:26:22 GMT -5
The lineups for Fantastica Mania has been announced, and both Tanaka and Komatsu will be heading to CMLL for their excursion as this is their farewell tour.
CMLL NJPW (SUN) 01/17/2016 Kochi Sunpia CHRES, Kochi, Japan 1) Kushida & Stuka Jr. vs Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu 2) Guerrero Maya Jr. & The Panther vs Boby Zavala & Okumura 3) Fuego & Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario & YOSHI-HASHI 4) Dragon Lee & Jay White vs Hechicero & Virus 5) Atlantis, Juice Robinson, Máscara Dorada vs Bushi, Evil, Tetsuya Naito 6) Ryusuke Taguchi & Volador Jr. vs Mephisto & Shinsuke Nakamura 7) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin Thunder Liger, Mistico vs Gedo, Kazuchika Okada, Último Guerrero
CMLL NJPW (TUE) 01/19/2016 KBS Hall, Kyoto, Japan 1) Fuego & Ryusuke Taguchi vs Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu 2) The Panther vs Okumura 3) Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Boby Zavala 4) David Finlay, Dragon Lee, Jushin Thunder Liger, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Virus, YOSHI-HASHI 5) Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Stuka Jr. vs Bushi, Evil, Tetsuya Naito 6) Kushida & Mistico vs Gedo & Último Guerrero 7) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Volador Jr. vs Kazuchika Okada, Mephisto, Shinsuke Nakamura
CMLL NJPW (WED) 01/20/2016 Osaka Prefectual Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan 1) Jushin Liger & Stuka Jr. vs Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu 2) The Panther vs Boby Zavala 3) Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Okumura 4) Jay White, Kushida, Ryusuke Taguchi, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Gedo, Hechicero, YOSHI-HASHI 5) Atlantis, Fuego, Máscara Dorada vs Bushi, Evil, Tetsuya Naito 6) Juice Robinson, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Mephisto, Shinsuke Nakamura, Último Guerrero 7) Dragon Lee & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Okada & Virus
CMLL NJPW (FRI) 01/22/2016 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan 1) Fuego & Stuka Jr. vs Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu 2) David Finlay, Guerrero Maya Jr., Jushin Thunder Liger, Kushida, The Panther vs Boby Zavala, Gedo, Hechicero, Okumura, YOSHI-HASHI 3) Atlantis & Juice Robinson vs Evil & Tetsuya Naito 4) Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario © [MEX WELTER] Barbaro second defense 5) Máscara Dorada vs Bushi © [CMLL WELTER] BUSHI first defense 6) Dragon Lee, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi vs Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, Virus 7) Mistico & Volador Jr. vs Mephisto & Último Guerrero
CMLL NJPW (SAT) 01/23/2016 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan 1) Máscara Dorada & Titán vs Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu 2) Fuego, Juice Robinson, Kushida vs Gedo, Hechicero, YOSHI-HASHI 3) Guerrero Maya Jr. & The Panther © vs Boby Zavala & Okumura [Arena Coliseo TAG] first defense 4) Ryusuke Taguchi & Stuka Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario & Shinsuke Nakamura 5) Atlantis, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask vs Bushi, Evil, Tetsuya Naito 6) Dragon Lee © vs Virus [CMLL SL] Dragon Lee fifth defense 7) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Mistico, Volador Jr. vs Kazuchika Okada, Mephisto, Último Guerrero
CMLL NJPW (SUN) 01/24/2016 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan 1) Guerrero Maya Jr. & The Panther vs Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu 2) Fuego, Kushida, Stuka Jr., Tiger Mask IV, Titán vs Boby Zavala, Gedo, Hechicero, Okumura, Yoshihashi 3) Jushin Thunder Liger vs Virus Lucha de Maestros 4) Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Ryusuke Taguchi vs Bushi, Evil, Tetsuya Naito 5) Dragon Lee, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura 6) Mistico vs Último Guerrero 7) Volador Jr. © vs Mephisto [NWA WELTER] 7th defense
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Post by berlynwright on Jan 5, 2016 23:56:27 GMT -5
lot of matches pitting Okada/Tanahashi. I know it's hard to avoid in tag situations, but they shouldn't be facing each other for a while after WK
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2016 0:19:17 GMT -5
Been starting to dig into older NJPW lately. So much to take in that it's overwhelming.
I love Shinya Hashimoto.
I just got into puroresu like..5 months ago or so.
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Post by Raskovnik on Jan 6, 2016 1:26:52 GMT -5
Been starting to dig into older NJPW lately. So much to take in that it's overwhelming. I love Shinya Hashimoto. I just got into puroresu like..5 months ago or so. Shinya is one of my favorites too, and a big part of why I'm a huge Goto fan is I see a lot of the same DNA in him. Nose to the grindstone badass face with brutal offense.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2016 1:31:49 GMT -5
Been starting to dig into older NJPW lately. So much to take in that it's overwhelming. I love Shinya Hashimoto. I just got into puroresu like..5 months ago or so. Shinya is one of my favorites too, and a big part of why I'm a huge Goto fan is I see a lot of the same DNA in him. Nose to the grindstone badass face with brutal offense. Yeah, I love that ice cold killer aura he has. Two favorites that stood out was the G1 98 with Tenryu and match in 96 with Yamazaki. I just started with him because a friend of mine is a big fan of his, so I decided to check him out more.
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PL23
AC Slater
Posts: 101
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Post by PL23 on Jan 6, 2016 5:30:09 GMT -5
Men, that Kenny Omega promo completely buried the Junior Division in my eyes. At least the WWE bury their divisions with the booking, no with a wrestler doing a promo It was buried a long time ago, and Devitt's heel turn and run as a pseudo-heavy was the final nail in the coffin. It needs so much work to recover it now.
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Post by Chris Hammers on Jan 6, 2016 5:34:27 GMT -5
KUSHIDA/BUSHI is the first Jr Feud in a while that really interests me.
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,896
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Post by chrom on Jan 6, 2016 12:16:41 GMT -5
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,896
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Post by chrom on Jan 6, 2016 13:55:05 GMT -5
It's been announced that Yohei Komatsu and Sho Tanaka will be making their debuts for CMLL at the end of the month on January 31st and will be going as Fujin and Raijin respectively and both will likely be donning masks.
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Post by The Kevstaaa on Jan 6, 2016 16:13:25 GMT -5
New Year Dash January 5th, 2015 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan
One night after their biggest show of the year, New Japan Pro Wrestling ran New Year Dash. It’s set up like a house show, with many multi-man tag matches but should set the stage for the upcoming New Beginnings Pay-Per-View.
Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shiro Koshinaka, Sho Tanaka and Yuji Nagata def. Cheeseburger, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV, Yohei Komatsu and Yoshiaki Fujiwara in 10:13 If you read my review of Wrestle Kingdom, you’d know that I found the New Japan Rumble to be a blast. This was more of the same as a lot of the guys involved were used here, with a mix of legends and Young Lions. Much like in the rumble, this was ridiculous fun. Cheeseburger was again a highlight, with his act already being over with the crowd. Fujiwara hilariously slapped him at one point, getting annoyed with his offense since it failed against the likes of Nakanishi and Nagata. Komatsu ate the pin in a fun little match that did well as an opener. **½
Ricochet and Matt Sydal def. David Finlay Jr. and Jay White in 6:46 The newest team in the junior tag division, Ricochet and Matt Sydal, get themselves a little showcase here. While I enjoy them, they aren’t really adding anything new to a stale division. David Finlay Jr. and Jay White have blossomed into a nice little team actually. They have one of the worst win/loss records in history, but that’s expected from the Young Lions. They are a unit I’d like to see move into the ranks of the division. This was kept short so they were able to go at a really fast pace, which benefitted them. Solid stuff here. Stereo shooting star presses did the deed. **¾
Non-Title Match: ROH World Champion Jay Lethal w/ Truth Martini def. Juice Robinson in 7:11 At Wrestle Kingdom, Jay Lethal was introduced to the Japanese audience by retaining the ROH World Title against Michael Elgin. Here, he faced the former CJ Parker in a fine little match. Juice has been trying to find his footing in NJPW, but I think this was his first actual singles match. I think this would have been better suited on the Road to Tokyo Dome to familiarize the crowd with Lethal but I get that the timing wouldn’t work with Lethal’s US dates. Anyway, this was solid though it featured a bit too much Martini interaction. Lethal shouldn’t need help to beat someone in Juice’s position on the card. Fun fact, it was Martini who trained Juice. He got to do a fun little airplane spin spot to him before falling victim to the Lethal Injection. **½
Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson, King Haku, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi def. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA, Satoshi Kojima and IWGP Tag Team Champions Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma in 11:10 Yup. MOTHERF***ING King Haku wrestled in this match and looked pretty damn good too. He got involved in the brawling and got to team with his son, Tama Tonga, which has to be cool. This was a fun multi-man match, with everyone being on their game. It was the usual Bullet Club tag but with something just making it better. Maybe it was having Haku involved, but they seemed fired up. I mean, Haku did a goddamn piledriver. Despite the talk about them leaving, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows scored the win on Honma, most likely setting up a rematch at New Beginnings. That could be their final match. Fun match with the rating bumped up a notch because of Haku. ***¼
BUSHI, EVIL and Tetsuya Naito def. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Mascara Dorada and Michael Elgin in 11:58 EVIL’s gimmick and entrance is just too over the top. It doesn’t work for me in the way that a lot of other gimmicks do. While he is back in the relative midcard for now, Hiroshi Tanahashi is still insanely over and the tandem with Michael Elgin just works with the crowd. Even with the lackluster ROH Title match at Wrestle Kingdom, he and his power offense is still clicking with the fans. Los Ingobernables won after a ref bump and BUSHI spitting the mist at Dorada. He pinned him with a diving codebreaker. This was more fine work on the show, keeping a consistent tone. Los Ingobernables attacked after the match, leading KUSHIDA to try and make the save. He also got misted and BUSHI challenged him for the Jr. Title. That is a fresh matchup that I’m looking forward to. We may also be getting Tanahashi/Naito again, which doesn’t sound bad but also isn’t exciting. Hopefully Naito comes out on top. ***
AJ Styles and Kenny Omega def. IWGP Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and YOSHI-HASHI in 12:01 When I woke up today, the post-match angle was the big news, but we’ll get to that in a second. First off, the match itself was really good. AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura had some great exchanges early on, reminding everyone of their fantastic Wrestle Kingdom match. Surprisingly, the stuff between Kenny Omega and Nakamura was also very interesting. Even more surprisingly, Omega pinned Nakamura with the One Winged Angel. Then the big angle happened. As the victors celebrated, Omega attacked Styles, hitting him with the One Winged Angel as well. The rest of the Bullet Club ran out to calm things down. As AJ got helped to his feet, Omega and the Young Bucks hit him with a triple superkick. The rest of the group joined in on the assault, ending with Omega planting Styles with a Styles Clash (with superkicks from the Bucks involved). Omega cut a promo about how Styles is fired and that he won’t be challenging KUSHIDA for the title he lost the night before. He calls himself a heavyweight and is going after Nakamura and the IC Title. While I’m not a big Omega fan, this was expertly done as he is now solidified on the fast track to some sort of major role. After the Bullet Club left, AJ Styles was serenaded by chants from Korakuen Hall and he bowed to them, seemingly as a goodbye. If he ever does return, he’ll be a big time babyface. If he doesn’t, it was a thank you for some phenomenal, pun intended, years. ***¼
Hirooki Goto, NEVER Openweight Champion Katsuyori Shibata and reDRagon def. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, Roppongi Vice and Tomohiro Ishii in 13:19 Oh my goodness, Meiyu Tag and reDRagon together? What a damn team. The other side isn’t too shabby either. Outside of the previous angle, this whole match was my favorite thing on the card. The interactions between everyone was great. Ishii and Shibata went to war, Roppongi Vice and reDRagon were their usual selves and the stuff between Goto and Okada was great. The best parts of this though, was seeing Okada and Ishii work reDRagon. I would love to see Okada/O’Reilly when Okada visits ROH in a few months. Goto would make Barreta tap out to win for his guys. Before he left though, Okada got on the microphone. I read that he kind of ran down Goto for wanting to unify the IC and Heavyweight Titles a few months back. Goto beat Okada in the G1, but since then, Goto lost the IC Title, which Okada was sure to point out. It looks like Goto/Okada at New Beginnings, which should be fun. ***¾
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship: The Briscoes and Toru Yano (c) def. Bad Luck Fale and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks in 11:02 The newest title in NJPW got defended a day after being created. I honestly would have put the Okada/Goto stuff on last. I get that this was a title match, but it doesn’t feel like a main event to me. This was good old fashioned fun. I’ve gone on record many times in saying I don’t like the Young Bucks, but the Briscoes and Toru Yano are enough to make up for it. Yano was his usual self, calling for BREAK after BREAK and having fun at Fale’s expense. The exchanges between the Bucks and Briscoes were fine but nothing new for them. I like the addition of the Briscoes, especially Mark, so far. They retained with a Jay Driller/Froggy Bow combination to cap a fun little main event. ***
Overall: 7/10. If you hadn’t noticed by my words, this was a really fun show. Nothing about it was MOTY contender level, but that’s fine because it wasn’t supposed to be that kind of event. It did a great job of giving us really fun matches and setting the stage for future programs. It was one of the more noteworthy non-PPVs I can think of in New Japan. An easy three hour watch.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2016 18:54:41 GMT -5
Just got done with New Years Dash. Honestly, as a whole, I enjoyed it more than WK10. It was really neat not having commentary either, made the show feel much more intimate and like you were there.
Anyways, 9/10 show from me. Watch it if you haven't. It was really fun.
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Phil Parent
El Dandy
Your Favourite Teacher
Posts: 8,508
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Post by Phil Parent on Jan 6, 2016 19:07:36 GMT -5
New Year Dash January 5th, 2015 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan
One night after their biggest show of the year, New Japan Pro Wrestling ran New Year Dash. It’s set up like a house show, with many multi-man tag matches but should set the stage for the upcoming New Beginnings Pay-Per-View.
Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shiro Koshinaka, Sho Tanaka and Yuji Nagata def. Cheeseburger, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV, Yohei Komatsu and Yoshiaki Fujiwara in 10:13 If you read my review of Wrestle Kingdom, you’d know that I found the New Japan Rumble to be a blast. This was more of the same as a lot of the guys involved were used here, with a mix of legends and Young Lions. Much like in the rumble, this was ridiculous fun. Cheeseburger was again a highlight, with his act already being over with the crowd. Fujiwara hilariously slapped him at one point, getting annoyed with his offense since it failed against the likes of Nakanishi and Nagata. Komatsu ate the pin in a fun little match that did well as an opener.
I'm sure Burger thought it was a blast too... as in, Fujiwara probably blasted him hard enough for it to be considered a real HARD slap. Watching Fujiwara matches makes you realize nobody ever told him this was a work. He gives nothing. And it doesn't matter against whom, Antonio Inoki in 1986 or Cheeseburger in 2016, they both get absolutely NOTHING and better learn to love it because there's plenty of it coming where that came from. Inoki deals with it by giving him his own medicine back, but Burger can't do that. You can see his opponents get upset about it too. During the UWF VS NJPW gauntlet match in '86, Kimura jumped him the second he put his head through the ropes and was way more stiff than he usually is, and Fujiwara answered by giving him a dislocated shoulder, he has a big purple egg on his shoulder by the time Fujiwara had finished him with the armbar. Then Fujinami gets handed the task of actually getting a PIN out of the bastard. The referee counted him down but in NO WAY were those shoulders down at 3. Fujinami then slapped away his hand and went to slap him in the face when Fujiwara went to shake his hand after the match, a very unusual thing in context. Fujinami shook Maeda's hand after the last match of the gauntlet, for f***'s sake. In the WK10 Rumble, Cheeseburger innocently goes to shake his hand, which Fujiwara GLADLY does. And then he holds on to it. Liger & Tiger Mask having to come in, pull on his other arm to get him free is CLASSIC. If anything, I'm sure Fujiwara scared the hell out of the kid in there because even at 70 years of age or whatever he is, he can probably still hurt you if he wants to.
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