chrom
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Post by chrom on May 3, 2019 9:21:39 GMT -5
Take your guess as to who it is
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2019 11:22:13 GMT -5
Take your guess as to who it is Chris Brookes surely.
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chrom
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Post by chrom on May 3, 2019 14:11:37 GMT -5
Lee mentioned post match that he wants a match with El Desperado who defeated him in last year's tournament
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2019 14:30:34 GMT -5
Lee mentioned post match that he wants a match with El Desperado who defeated him in last year's tournament That should be another really good match. I'm guessing that would be V2 for Lee, though.
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2019 14:32:38 GMT -5
The Never Title has been Hot Potatoed the past 8 months It really has, hasn't it? Honestly it started with the Elgin/Goto series last year. I guess that could be intentional?
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chrom
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Post by chrom on May 3, 2019 14:41:25 GMT -5
The Never Title has been Hot Potatoed the past 8 months It really has, hasn't it? Honestly it started with the Elgin/Goto series last year. I guess that could be intentional? No one's had more than 1 successful defense since Goto's 2nd reign
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2019 15:11:32 GMT -5
It really has, hasn't it? Honestly it started with the Elgin/Goto series last year. I guess that could be intentional? No one's had more than 1 successful defense since Goto's 2nd reign Yikes - didn't realize it had gotten to that point. Those are Junior Tag level numbers.
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chrom
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Post by chrom on May 3, 2019 18:48:00 GMT -5
Tomorrow begins at 2
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Post by The Kevstaaa on May 3, 2019 20:21:10 GMT -5
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Night One May 3rd, 2019 | Fukuoka Convention Center in Fukuoka, Japan | Attendance: 4,011
I’ve been very open about how little I feel for NJPW this year. Everything they do is hollow and I have zero connection to it all. I’m hoping the BOTSJ and Dominion turn that around. Before we get there though, we have Wrestling Dontaku. Turning this into a two-night event, like most NJPW events, hurt the quality of the show last year. Maybe this year will be different. As a fun addition, I wanted to add my top 5 Dontaku matches at the start here.
1. Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii – 2016 - ****½ 2. Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii – 2017 - ****½ 3. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi – 2018 - ****½ 4. KUSHIDA vs. Jushin Thunder Liger – 2016 - **** 5. Tomoaki Honma vs. Tomohiro Ishii – 2014 - ****
Kevin Kelly, Rocky Romero, Gino Gambino, and Chris Charlton on English commentary.
Ren Narita, Shota Umino and Tomoaki Honma vs. Toa Henare, Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura I haven’t cared much for Honma since 2016 but everyone else in this match is good. According to commentary, Henare wants the winner of the NEVER Openweight Title match. Henare vs. Cobb sounds rad but Henare vs. Taichi doesn’t. I liked the way team Honma kept Henare out of the action. He’s the most advanced guy on his team so you don’t want him in there. When he did come in, he cleaned house and showed why he’s a worthy NEVER Title contender. I popped for Uemura’s rolling armbar on Narita. It feels like he and the other Young Lions are getting different offense than in the past. Narita came from out of nowhere to win with the bridging suplex in 10:46. This was a good opener with a lot of energy. The Narita/Uemura stuff was top notch and it sold that finish as one that can come from out of nowhere. [***]
El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champion Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask IV & YOSHI-HASHI Suzuki vs. Liger is the best thing this company has going right now by a mile. Suzuki-Gun attacked before the bell because who needs creativity in their matches? I think I’m gonna stop watching all the “Road to” shows. Since most of the cards are the same, certain spots lose their luster when you see them often. That was the case with Taguchi’s gimmick where his teammate is thrown into his ass instead of his opponent and he’s left alone against the whole other team. Anyway, the highlight was again Liger against Suzuki. Seeing Liger stand up to him and go to war is fantastic. It was TAKA who got the win with the Michinoku Driver on Tiger Mask IV in 9:57. AND I GOT TO HEAR HIS DOPE THEME! Okay match but it gets a bump in score for Liger/Suzuki. [**¾]
Suzuki held Liger in an armbar after the match. Liger got up and went after Suzuki, with both men wielding chairs but they were kept apart.
IWGP Tag Team Champions The Guerrillas of Destiny and HIKULEO w/ Jado vs. Will Ospreay and NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champions Togi Makabe and Toru Yano The show is off to a solid start but then came the Guerrillas of Destiny and Will Ospreay. That’s literally the ultimate way to ruin anything for me. Yano did his usual antics and was still afraid of Tama Tonga. I’m only afraid when I watch him try to have a compelling match. Is that too mean? Anyway, the match at least moved along decently when they were in there. HIKULEO, Loa, and a Makabe who didn’t bring his working boots slowed this to a crawl. Ospreay helped in the speed category, obviously. He survived a shot with a kendo stick and beat HIKULEO with the Oscutter in 7:25. Completely uninteresting and bland. At least it wasn’t offensively terrible. [*½]
BUSHI, Shingo Takagi and Tetsuya Naito vs. IWGP Intercontinental Champion Kota Ibushi and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi 3K Ah, here are six guys here to save me from what I just sat through. You should know by now how good this was. These are six of the best wrestlers in New Japan. They’ve all wrestled so much that their interactions are smooth and exciting. Again, the main focus was on SHO/Shingo. They’re building that so well (it’s right up there with Liger/Suzuki) and the eventual singles match should be fire. Naito/Ibushi got a fair amount of shine as well. Shingo blocked 3K by suplexing both men over. They’re really selling him as a powerhouse, which makes sense considering his size and the rest of the division. The finish saw Ibushi catch BUSHI with Kamigoye in 11:31. As expected, the best thing on the show to this point. The exchanges between these guys always work. [***½]
Post-match, Ibushi officially issued the challenge to Naito, who just walked away.
Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens and Jay White vs. Hirooki Goto, IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Juice Robinson and Mikey Nicholls Here’s a perfect example of an issue with NJPW booking. Spreading out these events over so many shows meant they put things like White/Goto and Juice/Owens on earlier shows. By the time this happened, all these feuds had their blow offs, so there’s no reason for them. It would work better if most of these matches were saved to make the actual Dontaku shows mean more. Anyway, this was kind of just there. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either. Juice won a fine exchange with Owens after hitting Pulp Friction at 11:23. Nothing special to this one. Move on. [**]
Juice stayed in the ring to celebrate after his teammates left. That triggered a video package of a dude with a Union Jack logo on a leather jacket at a bar. He watched Juice highlights and held a knife. What is this, Jay white all over again? He walked out holding the knife, the words “TIME’S UP” appeared on the video, and the date 6/5/19 appeared. That’s the BOTSJ Finals. Speculation is that it is Chris Brookes.
EVIL and SANADA vs. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii A preview of the top two matches on tomorrow’s card. I’m hype for Ishii/EVIL, but have reservations on Okada/SANADA. The latter combo opened this with an athletic display before tagging to the former pair, who just went to war. Again, think of this like the other LIJ/CHAOS tag. They work so well together and have wrestled so often that the chemistry is clear. These tags are always very good at a minimum. EVIL and SANADA are a great team and it showed here. I love the way they play off each other. Ishii got isolated, partially because he’s so headstrong and would rather fight through trouble than tag out. Okada’s hot tag was the usual stuff. My favorite part was the finish. EVIL has been developing a Sharpshooter for his repertoire. He put it on Ishii as SANADA held Okada back. Okada got free, only to get put in the Skull End. You expect some kind of save here, but Ishii just faded and the match was stopped at 16:52. That did exactly what it had to. It previewed tomorrow, gave us great exchanges, and most importantly, it further established EVIL’s new move and added a wrinkle to their match. Great stuff. [***½]
NEVER Openweight Championship: Jeff Cobb [c] vs. Taichi w/ Suzuki-Gun As noted earlier, there’s potential fun in Cobb/Henare as a title match and in Cobb as champion in general. Taichi was his usual self. He stalled a lot, used all the cheap tactics you expect from him, and had assistance from his buddies at ringside. It made sense because he’s not going to be on Cobb’s level in any category. The shortcuts are necessary. However, it wasn’t done in a way that held my interest too greatly. Cobb tossed him around whenever he got the chance. Taichi used a low blow and a series of moves late to regain the title in 17:50. A wildly average match at best. Poor Cobb. [**½]
Gedo had a chance to establish Cobb as a big player and make the NEVER Title match again. Instead, his penchant to poorly book these titles and switch them constantly rears its ugly head again.
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Dragon Lee [c] vs. Taiji Ishimori The three-way with Bandido where Lee won the title in MSG was very good. Like everything involving Dragon Lee, this was worked at a crazy wild pace. Think along the lines of the insane Taiji/Hiromu BOTSJ Final from last year. Ishimori and Lee kept this going for most of the match. Things slowed a bit when Ishimori delivered an arm drag that sent Lee’s leg crashing into the guardrail. They both beat the countout but there was clearly damage done to the champion. Surprisingly, it didn’t lead to much leg work or selling there. Instead, they went wild with some of the craziest offense you’ll find anywhere. And it wasn’t just cool moves. There was an intensity to it all that sometimes is missing from Jr. Title matches. Lee eventually retained with Desnucadora in 25:53. A great main event. It was intense, had awesome exchanges, and a sense of drama. I bought into many of the late near falls and was on the edge of my seat. This division can sometimes be a train wreck, but these two are great. [****¼]
Overall: 6,5/10. One of the better full NJPW shows in a while. They’ve mostly been either bad or just featuring one strong match. This one had a stellar main event, two really good CHAOS/LIJ tags, and a few other solid matches. If the GOD match didn’t stink up the joint and with a better NEVER Title match, I’d be higher on the show.
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Post by IgnahtaSempria on May 3, 2019 23:11:43 GMT -5
Take your guess as to who it is Chris Brookes was my first guess, but I've also seen people suggest on the other hype videos that it might be El Phantasmo.
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Post by TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out on May 4, 2019 1:21:08 GMT -5
Anyone else up for this?
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chrom
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Post by chrom on May 4, 2019 1:27:08 GMT -5
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chrom
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Post by chrom on May 4, 2019 1:29:14 GMT -5
Henare wants a shot at the Never title but needs to start getting wins first
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Post by TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out on May 4, 2019 1:33:57 GMT -5
holy shit that superkick sell
Henare's gonna be so good
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chrom
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Post by chrom on May 4, 2019 1:36:30 GMT -5
Nearly kicked his head off
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Post by honsou on May 4, 2019 3:40:46 GMT -5
Ishii vs EVIL is my MOTY so far, good lord that was amazing.
Ishii is just the best wrestler in the world and I have no idea how Okada is going to follow that
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Post by AwamoriRock on May 4, 2019 4:16:38 GMT -5
Please don’t tell me this is going the limit
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Post by ANuclearError on May 4, 2019 4:37:26 GMT -5
And the Dominion main event is now set.
{Spoiler}{SPOILER: CLICK TO SHOW} The Rainmaker Kazuchika Okada vs The Painamker Chris Jericho
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Post by honsou on May 4, 2019 4:38:17 GMT -5
Well the Dominion main event is going to be incredible
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chrom
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Post by chrom on May 4, 2019 4:39:29 GMT -5
Did not see that coming as the main event
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