Post by Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby on Jan 29, 2024 23:25:24 GMT -5
You might be asking what has possessed me to do that!
There are two answers: it's on Wrestle Universe (which I have for TJPW), and Jake Lee is hot.
I also think that one of the things I enjoy most about wrestling fandom is diving into a new promotion and familiarizing myself with everyone, evaluating what I think of them, that sort of thing. Blame it on getting into ROH in 2005 and putting a lot of thought into which DVDs to get as they sucked up most of my disposable income. NOAH is the current new shiny, even if it's objectively...not that shiny, I guess.
So some overall impressions and. A few questions I guess?
The current ring announcer looks like Max Headroom and does the announcements in English. But slowly enough that it's presumably understandable to the Japanese audience? I haven't been able to find out his name. Is he like. A guy? Some minor celebrity who has this gig for a reason? Someone from Abema or Cyberfight? He's not bad, he just seems like such a strange bit of presentation.
In another topic, I mentioned to Bo Rida that it's funny how much old dude energy the promotion has when, really, it's not that bad. Yeah, there are 00's NOAH guys who are hanging around the card, but they're well-used. Mohammed Yone and Akitoshi Saito are mostly dark match guys who are clearly player-coaches. Yoshinari Ogawa actually has more swag as a gangly old dude than he did as a gangly 30-something, has always wrestled in a way that would age well as he got older, is absurdly fit, and just generally comes across like being an old guy is a positive. Takashi Sugiura is still really friggin' good. Shuhei Taniguchi is a fine goofball. Go Shiozaki and Naomichi Marufuji are still quite good, and they seem to be booked appropriately for their longevity and current levels of athleticism; they are the old standbys, and that matters, but they are clearly on the way down while the prime aged wrestlers are on top.
The thing that really makes the promotion feel insular and lived-in, though, is the feeling that most everyone's well into their run and has won their division title plenty of times. That's obviously not true of everyone, but it stood out to me how most title contenders were acknowledged by English commentary as multi-time champions. It speaks to how important it is for a promotion to have a lot of newer faces vying for every title, making sure that there are people to root for just on the basis of watching them get the prize for the first time. The National Title's shorter lineage contributes to it feeling really important, even moreso since it seems like the highest belt most of the foreigners will be winning.
With all that in mind, the Good Looking Guys are remarkable. Not just because, as mentioned, Jake Lee is hot; these six dudes feel like a breath of fresh air even though I started my catch up just after their formation. Maybe it's Jack Morris and Anthony Greene being new, maybe it's Tadasuke's earnest ankle biter energy, maybe it's the number of titles they have even though Lee lost the heavyweight belt, maybe it's just that Jake Lee radiates coolness to a degree that he elevates everyone he's teaming with. They're a faction that feels like the reason to watch, but in a low key way; they're not dominating the card, they're just there but awesome, to where I'm happy to see any meaningless multi-man that they're wrestling together.
Also on freshness, Lee's title reign was quite good. Not an all-timer, but it felt like he had more restrained matches in a good way because the reign was about establishing him to the audience and protecting his big moves.
The luchadores are the other big highlight. Much more effectively than AEW (where they're often slotted into JTTS roles indiscriminately) or WWE (where they always feel like exceptions to a rule), the luchadores are just...roster members, and the smaller ones ensure that the junior division feels substantially different from the heavyweight division. El Hijo Del Dr. Wagner Jr. just plain rules.
Also wow I see why Ninja Mack was getting so much hype on the indies.
I really like this new faction Manabu Soya's forming, and oddly, my favorite part is Soya being on the same team as Masa Kitamiya. Just two stocky dudes who look cool together. It's weird, they looked like an even match when they wrestled each other in a tag title match in 2023, but now that they're on the same team, Soya looks like a stone cold badass and Kitamiya looks kinda goofy. Maybe that's just the contrast being brought out when they aren't doing meaty men slapping meat spots with each other.
If I hadn't heard beforehand that Kaito Kiyomiya is the supposed ace of this promotion, I sure wouldn't have picked that up by what he's been doing since losing the belt to Lee.
The fledgling women's division is a bizarre window into what the AEW women's division would have looked like it if were solely a joshi showcase. Just a ton of freelancers who get one match, not even one match per show, and seemingly little idea of what the overall vibe is supposed to be. Riko Kawahata as The Great Sakuya seems to have not gone over great, even if she has a lot of wrestling chops behind the gimmick; Miyuki Takase, Nagisa Nozaki, and Yuu seem to be positioned as the main stars, but don't really have enough going on yet beyond the former two's angle with Sakuya. Sumire Natsu just doesn't fit the rest of the show. Ryo Mizunami and Hiroyo Matsumoto, despite appearing once each, are the ones who really felt like what I would expect of NOAH's overall identity and atmosphere in a women's division, but it remains to be seen if either will ever be more than a guest star.
...so hey all that was me saying a lot of words and now this is a NOAH thread for (w)Rest.
There are two answers: it's on Wrestle Universe (which I have for TJPW), and Jake Lee is hot.
I also think that one of the things I enjoy most about wrestling fandom is diving into a new promotion and familiarizing myself with everyone, evaluating what I think of them, that sort of thing. Blame it on getting into ROH in 2005 and putting a lot of thought into which DVDs to get as they sucked up most of my disposable income. NOAH is the current new shiny, even if it's objectively...not that shiny, I guess.
So some overall impressions and. A few questions I guess?
The current ring announcer looks like Max Headroom and does the announcements in English. But slowly enough that it's presumably understandable to the Japanese audience? I haven't been able to find out his name. Is he like. A guy? Some minor celebrity who has this gig for a reason? Someone from Abema or Cyberfight? He's not bad, he just seems like such a strange bit of presentation.
In another topic, I mentioned to Bo Rida that it's funny how much old dude energy the promotion has when, really, it's not that bad. Yeah, there are 00's NOAH guys who are hanging around the card, but they're well-used. Mohammed Yone and Akitoshi Saito are mostly dark match guys who are clearly player-coaches. Yoshinari Ogawa actually has more swag as a gangly old dude than he did as a gangly 30-something, has always wrestled in a way that would age well as he got older, is absurdly fit, and just generally comes across like being an old guy is a positive. Takashi Sugiura is still really friggin' good. Shuhei Taniguchi is a fine goofball. Go Shiozaki and Naomichi Marufuji are still quite good, and they seem to be booked appropriately for their longevity and current levels of athleticism; they are the old standbys, and that matters, but they are clearly on the way down while the prime aged wrestlers are on top.
The thing that really makes the promotion feel insular and lived-in, though, is the feeling that most everyone's well into their run and has won their division title plenty of times. That's obviously not true of everyone, but it stood out to me how most title contenders were acknowledged by English commentary as multi-time champions. It speaks to how important it is for a promotion to have a lot of newer faces vying for every title, making sure that there are people to root for just on the basis of watching them get the prize for the first time. The National Title's shorter lineage contributes to it feeling really important, even moreso since it seems like the highest belt most of the foreigners will be winning.
With all that in mind, the Good Looking Guys are remarkable. Not just because, as mentioned, Jake Lee is hot; these six dudes feel like a breath of fresh air even though I started my catch up just after their formation. Maybe it's Jack Morris and Anthony Greene being new, maybe it's Tadasuke's earnest ankle biter energy, maybe it's the number of titles they have even though Lee lost the heavyweight belt, maybe it's just that Jake Lee radiates coolness to a degree that he elevates everyone he's teaming with. They're a faction that feels like the reason to watch, but in a low key way; they're not dominating the card, they're just there but awesome, to where I'm happy to see any meaningless multi-man that they're wrestling together.
Also on freshness, Lee's title reign was quite good. Not an all-timer, but it felt like he had more restrained matches in a good way because the reign was about establishing him to the audience and protecting his big moves.
The luchadores are the other big highlight. Much more effectively than AEW (where they're often slotted into JTTS roles indiscriminately) or WWE (where they always feel like exceptions to a rule), the luchadores are just...roster members, and the smaller ones ensure that the junior division feels substantially different from the heavyweight division. El Hijo Del Dr. Wagner Jr. just plain rules.
Also wow I see why Ninja Mack was getting so much hype on the indies.
I really like this new faction Manabu Soya's forming, and oddly, my favorite part is Soya being on the same team as Masa Kitamiya. Just two stocky dudes who look cool together. It's weird, they looked like an even match when they wrestled each other in a tag title match in 2023, but now that they're on the same team, Soya looks like a stone cold badass and Kitamiya looks kinda goofy. Maybe that's just the contrast being brought out when they aren't doing meaty men slapping meat spots with each other.
If I hadn't heard beforehand that Kaito Kiyomiya is the supposed ace of this promotion, I sure wouldn't have picked that up by what he's been doing since losing the belt to Lee.
The fledgling women's division is a bizarre window into what the AEW women's division would have looked like it if were solely a joshi showcase. Just a ton of freelancers who get one match, not even one match per show, and seemingly little idea of what the overall vibe is supposed to be. Riko Kawahata as The Great Sakuya seems to have not gone over great, even if she has a lot of wrestling chops behind the gimmick; Miyuki Takase, Nagisa Nozaki, and Yuu seem to be positioned as the main stars, but don't really have enough going on yet beyond the former two's angle with Sakuya. Sumire Natsu just doesn't fit the rest of the show. Ryo Mizunami and Hiroyo Matsumoto, despite appearing once each, are the ones who really felt like what I would expect of NOAH's overall identity and atmosphere in a women's division, but it remains to be seen if either will ever be more than a guest star.
...so hey all that was me saying a lot of words and now this is a NOAH thread for (w)Rest.
