Post by HMARK Center on Jan 8, 2018 19:08:20 GMT -5
Spent the weekend catching up on WK and NYD after trying to hold off on watching until I could watch with friends, and yeah, great stuff, though I think I enjoyed last year's show a bit more. It's a nice problem to have, picking which of the WK's I've watched going from 9 through now was the most enjoyable.
MOTN for me may well have been Suzuki vs. Goto, and not just because I'm a mark for both guys. Just beautifully done, brutal storytelling, and Suzuki's entrance made him look like a mass murderer. Also glad that Goto changed his CHAOS gear, the red was just too plain (I miss his 2015 samurai look). Jericho/Omega fully delivered on the hype, both tag title matches were a lot of fun and I hope a sign of things to come for those divisions, Cody got to have his best Japanese performance thus far, the 4-way was a spectacle (though it felt like it could've just been Ospreay vs. Scurll with the story they told of 'Will finally beats Marty', I'm still glad Hiromu and KUSHIDA were in there), and if Okada/Naito was a disappointment it was only because it was "only" ****+ stars not five, or however you want to put it.
Reading through the thread, I know not all of us here watch NJPW regularly but, man, the whole "Naito is buried"/"he's in Goto territory now" stuff was off the walls to me. I get the frustration, it did feel like this was his show to win at, but clearly there's another plan in mind and, nope, Naito ain't going down the card any time soon, especially now with a Jericho match on the horizon. First off, the fact that Naito main evented in the Dome already puts him above literally everybody else who's been in the company lately who isn't Okada, Omega, Tanahashi, Nakamura (who isn't even around now), or technically Suzuki and Kojima since they've both headlined in the semi-recent past (Wks 6 and 5, respectively). Just being booked to main event on 1/4 is a big, big deal, and was a big part of his character arc. Not for nothing, but I'm also saying this as a big Goto fan; I fully agree Gedo made a mistake by booking Goto to lose his heavyweight title challenges so often and thus hurt his credibility, but Naito is not getting that treatment here, considering Gedo has never booked Goto to main event a show as big as Dominion, let alone the Dome. The office is fully aware of how over Naito is, the business he's doing for them, and the chances they'll let that fully slide are minimal.
The story seemed to be that Naito allowed himself to stop being "tranquilo" during the match, getting lost in the moment, so happy to finally have the acceptance of the fans on the biggest stage, living his dream, and he allowed himself to get caught up in the moment: going for the Stardust Press and missing, and going for a second Destino while playing to the crowd when he should've gone for the kill. I have no doubt this'll be a major part of his story to set up the next time he's in the main event. He simply can't win it all as the Stardust Genius, and thus far his El Ingobernable character has only been partly authentic: he's still driven too much by his bitterness and resentment over the WK 8 main event and still too eager to get the adoration of the crowd, which means he's not yet fully tranquilo. Basically, Okada only partly beat Naito; Naito really beat himself. And now his story continues from there.
There's no problem with being disappointed in Naito losing or in saying you'd rather see somebody other than Okada as champion; that's obviously a super subjective, opinion-based thing and nobody's "wrong" for either opinion. But I feel like we (meaning the wider online wrestling chat community) are so shaped by how we've been reacting to WWE over the past 15+ years that some of us apply that mentality to other promotions, where instead of a match's hook being "Man, I hope my favorite wins and I'll be bummed if he loses", instead it's "If my choice doesn't win it's a disaster for the company creatively and financially, and my guy will get bumped down to the midcard". For Okada, I can't see the comparisons between him and, say, 2006 Cena or current Brock Lesnar; it's an entirely different situation given this guy's talent level, proven drawing ability, and the fact that, say, unlike Lesnar he's not going out and working sub-10 minute matches before retaining, he's putting on regular MOTY candidates where his opponents typically look better for having faced him, not worse for having lost. NJPW's business is only going up nowadays; like his reign or not, Okada's been a massive part of that. Meanwhile, in the past two years Naito has been, as well, and he'll continue to be; it's why they put the IC belt on him last year, to show how well he can draw as the main event of some pretty major cards. This isn't WWE, where there are conversations to be had about why business has been going down for so long, or how when a guy loses in a main event there's a looming fear that he'll slide down the card and not be heard from again; Naito is still the 1A of the promotion to Okada's 1, and that's not changing any time soon. If Okada being champion was driving down business, or if Naito was at risk of losing his drawing power due to how he lost, then I could see the non-kayfabe arguments that go beyond "I'm tired of Okada's reign"; as that isn't the case, I just feel like some of the problems come from that mentality driven by WWE's booking style and the impact it's left on the online wrestling fan dialog.
1. Tama wasn't upset at White turning down the Bullet Club, and instead notes that "maybe the wrong guy was recruiting him." More anti-Omega/Elite comments, and not necessarily pro-Cody either.
2. War Machine officially said their goodbyes in their brief press conference, as expected.
3. Hiromu challenged Ospreay. EVIL challenged Goto, calling him the "weak, lifeless" member of CHAOS.
4. YOSHI-HASHI challenged Naito to a one-on-one match. I'm guessing that's a special challenge contest at New Beginning, and the Jericho match is at Dominion...?
Few other stops could happen there: there's the Strong Style Evolved show in LA where there could be a Jericho match, and the two other bigger cards until then would be a New Japan Cup show (doubtful they'd do it there) or Sakura Genesis in April.
MOTN for me may well have been Suzuki vs. Goto, and not just because I'm a mark for both guys. Just beautifully done, brutal storytelling, and Suzuki's entrance made him look like a mass murderer. Also glad that Goto changed his CHAOS gear, the red was just too plain (I miss his 2015 samurai look). Jericho/Omega fully delivered on the hype, both tag title matches were a lot of fun and I hope a sign of things to come for those divisions, Cody got to have his best Japanese performance thus far, the 4-way was a spectacle (though it felt like it could've just been Ospreay vs. Scurll with the story they told of 'Will finally beats Marty', I'm still glad Hiromu and KUSHIDA were in there), and if Okada/Naito was a disappointment it was only because it was "only" ****+ stars not five, or however you want to put it.
Reading through the thread, I know not all of us here watch NJPW regularly but, man, the whole "Naito is buried"/"he's in Goto territory now" stuff was off the walls to me. I get the frustration, it did feel like this was his show to win at, but clearly there's another plan in mind and, nope, Naito ain't going down the card any time soon, especially now with a Jericho match on the horizon. First off, the fact that Naito main evented in the Dome already puts him above literally everybody else who's been in the company lately who isn't Okada, Omega, Tanahashi, Nakamura (who isn't even around now), or technically Suzuki and Kojima since they've both headlined in the semi-recent past (Wks 6 and 5, respectively). Just being booked to main event on 1/4 is a big, big deal, and was a big part of his character arc. Not for nothing, but I'm also saying this as a big Goto fan; I fully agree Gedo made a mistake by booking Goto to lose his heavyweight title challenges so often and thus hurt his credibility, but Naito is not getting that treatment here, considering Gedo has never booked Goto to main event a show as big as Dominion, let alone the Dome. The office is fully aware of how over Naito is, the business he's doing for them, and the chances they'll let that fully slide are minimal.
The story seemed to be that Naito allowed himself to stop being "tranquilo" during the match, getting lost in the moment, so happy to finally have the acceptance of the fans on the biggest stage, living his dream, and he allowed himself to get caught up in the moment: going for the Stardust Press and missing, and going for a second Destino while playing to the crowd when he should've gone for the kill. I have no doubt this'll be a major part of his story to set up the next time he's in the main event. He simply can't win it all as the Stardust Genius, and thus far his El Ingobernable character has only been partly authentic: he's still driven too much by his bitterness and resentment over the WK 8 main event and still too eager to get the adoration of the crowd, which means he's not yet fully tranquilo. Basically, Okada only partly beat Naito; Naito really beat himself. And now his story continues from there.
There's no problem with being disappointed in Naito losing or in saying you'd rather see somebody other than Okada as champion; that's obviously a super subjective, opinion-based thing and nobody's "wrong" for either opinion. But I feel like we (meaning the wider online wrestling chat community) are so shaped by how we've been reacting to WWE over the past 15+ years that some of us apply that mentality to other promotions, where instead of a match's hook being "Man, I hope my favorite wins and I'll be bummed if he loses", instead it's "If my choice doesn't win it's a disaster for the company creatively and financially, and my guy will get bumped down to the midcard". For Okada, I can't see the comparisons between him and, say, 2006 Cena or current Brock Lesnar; it's an entirely different situation given this guy's talent level, proven drawing ability, and the fact that, say, unlike Lesnar he's not going out and working sub-10 minute matches before retaining, he's putting on regular MOTY candidates where his opponents typically look better for having faced him, not worse for having lost. NJPW's business is only going up nowadays; like his reign or not, Okada's been a massive part of that. Meanwhile, in the past two years Naito has been, as well, and he'll continue to be; it's why they put the IC belt on him last year, to show how well he can draw as the main event of some pretty major cards. This isn't WWE, where there are conversations to be had about why business has been going down for so long, or how when a guy loses in a main event there's a looming fear that he'll slide down the card and not be heard from again; Naito is still the 1A of the promotion to Okada's 1, and that's not changing any time soon. If Okada being champion was driving down business, or if Naito was at risk of losing his drawing power due to how he lost, then I could see the non-kayfabe arguments that go beyond "I'm tired of Okada's reign"; as that isn't the case, I just feel like some of the problems come from that mentality driven by WWE's booking style and the impact it's left on the online wrestling fan dialog.
Watching the post-NYD interviews, some notable items came up:
1. Tama wasn't upset at White turning down the Bullet Club, and instead notes that "maybe the wrong guy was recruiting him." More anti-Omega/Elite comments, and not necessarily pro-Cody either.
2. War Machine officially said their goodbyes in their brief press conference, as expected.
3. Hiromu challenged Ospreay. EVIL challenged Goto, calling him the "weak, lifeless" member of CHAOS.
4. YOSHI-HASHI challenged Naito to a one-on-one match. I'm guessing that's a special challenge contest at New Beginning, and the Jericho match is at Dominion...?
Few other stops could happen there: there's the Strong Style Evolved show in LA where there could be a Jericho match, and the two other bigger cards until then would be a New Japan Cup show (doubtful they'd do it there) or Sakura Genesis in April.