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Post by HMARK Center on Jun 13, 2017 6:36:09 GMT -5
That's a good point; they'll spend this year trying to make the US belt look good, then send it over to the states once the new touring group is set up here. Wonder if the final will be something like Ishii or Naito vs. one of the less established guys, Ishii/Naito winning, then the less established gaijin gets to chase them through to WK or whenever.
I would laugh if Naito won it and trashed it, actually; hey, folks were saying the belt looked ugly, let Mr. Belt Smasher handle it. But my money is on either Ishii or Elgin.
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Post by Final Countdown Jones on Jun 13, 2017 7:50:29 GMT -5
Going against the popular picks, I much rather see Juice Robinson win the US title. No better way to show that he has arrived than making him run the tourney while beating some top names along the way. Plus you elevated a new person and rewarding Juice for thriving in the NJPW system. Omega winning would be a boobie prize for not being able to beat Okada and he's already established as top tier. Same for Naito, whose not happy about more midcard titles being added to the mix. If you're trying to establish a regular US touring group, it's best to have the champion as someone who can make all of your shows with no problem. I think Juice would be a great choice, but I also think a new title is unlikely to be used to elevate someone unless they have been waiting a long-ass time for the opportunity, and I don't think he's yet at that level of support where he'd be an instant credibility shot for the title. I also feel like Juice would work better with a proper chase to get his first title win.
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Post by ________ has left the building on Jun 13, 2017 8:15:35 GMT -5
Going against the popular picks, I much rather see Juice Robinson win the US title. No better way to show that he has arrived than making him run the tourney while beating some top names along the way. Plus you elevated a new person and rewarding Juice for thriving in the NJPW system. Omega winning would be a boobie prize for not being able to beat Okada and he's already established as top tier. Same for Naito, whose not happy about more midcard titles being added to the mix. If you're trying to establish a regular US touring group, it's best to have the champion as someone who can make all of your shows with no problem. I think Juice would be a great choice, but I also think a new title is unlikely to be used to elevate someone unless they have been waiting a long-ass time for the opportunity, and I don't think he's yet at that level of support where he'd be an instant credibility shot for the title. I also feel like Juice would work better with a proper chase to get his first title win. To me, having someone relatively new to the singles title picture like Juice winning helps make the belt be different from the other belts. The IWGP is the main belt. The IC is the secondary belt. The NEVER is a callback to Inoki Strong Style. While it would look good for an established wrestler to be the 1st champion, having Juice win means you can witness the belt getting built up along with Robinson. Me, I'm picturing the US title as a belt that folks who rarely get a shot a singles title being able to get one. Putting a vet on top means they'll stick with that format like the NEVER title went from being a belt for the NJPW developmental shows to a hard hitters only one.
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Post by corndog on Jun 13, 2017 10:32:06 GMT -5
Juice, Elgin and Ishii are my top picks. Juice has been chasing a championship for most of the year and his work has been constantly improving. I could see New Japan rewarding him with this belt. Ishii would be a great choice, as he's one of the best workers in the world with no chance to win the IC/World title in the near future. Elgin would be the convenient choice, as he tends to work the most in North America out of the three and he is a solid worker. Easily my least favorite of the three logical choices, but it would make sense if it was him.
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Post by badkarma on Jun 13, 2017 14:37:32 GMT -5
I'm picking up on a Bullet Club vs The Elite feud coming soon. Omega wins the US title, Cody wins the World title, setting up the angle of "who is REALLY Elite?" They'll try to coexist for awhile but Cody will start questioning Omega's leadership. Eventually it becomes an issue of why is the World champion taking orders from the US champion?
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Post by HMARK Center on Jun 13, 2017 17:24:31 GMT -5
I'm picking up on a Bullet Club vs The Elite feud coming soon. Omega wins the US title, Cody wins the World title, setting up the angle of "who is REALLY Elite?" They'll try to coexist for awhile but Cody will start questioning Omega's leadership. Eventually it becomes an issue of why is the World champion taking orders from the US champion? I don't think Cody's winning in Long Beach, but I agree that a BC split could be coming sooner rather than later. Cody's merch is apparently selling very well in Japan, and Kenny is probably going to get bigger and bigger babyface reactions with the Japanese crowds, as well, after the second Okada match. Certainly could open the door to new BC leader Cody with the Bucks staying loyal to Kenny (hey, they were the only BC guys trying to stop Cody from throwing in the towel, right?). Don't want to say that's happening for certain, but they've booked things in such a way that it's one of numerous options available to them. Quick little thought exercise: I think the Observer reported that the demand for tickets to the Long Beach shows was high enough that the convention hall informed NJPW they likely could've filled the arena there, which seats around 13,000. There are also some rumors floating around that NJPW might try for an East Coast (NYC?) show before much longer (sorry, ROH). Ignoring for a moment things like the cost of using a venue and focusing only on ticket demand, do you think that, again, pretending they could afford the venue fee, NJPW would have a remote shot at selling out MSG if they booked Okada/Omega III there? Again, just a thought exercise: I also get that a big reason they had so much demand for the LA shows is that they're the first shows of their kind, not something that happens too often, and something like 80% of the people going to them, myself included, are not from California.
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Post by eJm on Jun 13, 2017 17:32:11 GMT -5
I'm picking up on a Bullet Club vs The Elite feud coming soon. Omega wins the US title, Cody wins the World title, setting up the angle of "who is REALLY Elite?" They'll try to coexist for awhile but Cody will start questioning Omega's leadership. Eventually it becomes an issue of why is the World champion taking orders from the US champion? I don't think Cody's winning in Long Beach, but I agree that a BC split could be coming sooner rather than later. Cody's merch is apparently selling very well in Japan, and Kenny is probably going to get bigger and bigger babyface reactions with the Japanese crowds, as well, after the second Okada match. Certainly could open the door to new BC leader Cody with the Bucks staying loyal to Kenny (hey, they were the only BC guys trying to stop Cody from throwing in the towel, right?). Don't want to say that's happening for certain, but they've booked things in such a way that it's one of numerous options available to them. Quick little thought exercise: I think the Observer reported that the demand for tickets to the Long Beach shows was high enough that the convention hall informed NJPW they likely could've filled the arena there, which seats around 13,000. There are also some rumors floating around that NJPW might try for an East Coast (NYC?) show before much longer (sorry, ROH). Ignoring for a moment things like the cost of using a venue and focusing only on ticket demand, do you think that, again, pretending they could afford the venue fee, NJPW would have a remote shot at selling out MSG if they booked Okada/Omega III there? Again, just a thought exercise: I also get that a big reason they had so much demand for the LA shows is that they're the first shows of their kind, not something that happens too often, and something like 80% of the people going to them, myself included, are not from California. I mean, it's a big long shot, but if that's the case and they do something as ridiculous as that (barring any deal MSG might have with WWE)...I don't see why not. If they hype it big enough, they could get Europeans to come over quite easily and fill it up. I'd have completely blown it off but considering how quick the tickets sold out for Long Beach, I'm less doubtful than I would have been about it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2017 17:37:30 GMT -5
so anyone know how to legally watch this? I don't have AXS
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Post by Mayonnaise on Jun 13, 2017 18:28:25 GMT -5
I keep coming back to Kenny winning the US Title and Cody having the ROH Title. Keep the Bucks with the ROH Tag and Scurll wins back the TV to have all the ROH gold and the USA title in BC/ROH for exposure. Later that all explodes setting up some sort of Elite/BC or Cody/Kenny battle at the next major set of NJPW USA shows.
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Post by HMARK Center on Jun 13, 2017 18:53:04 GMT -5
so anyone know how to legally watch this? I don't have AXS NJPW World will have it, too, otherwise it'd likely take some Roku or Slingshot style service that happens to carry Axs, not sure if they do.
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Post by 1 Free Moon-Down with Burger on Jun 14, 2017 9:58:03 GMT -5
I really hope NJPW doesn't go insane over their success here.
A touring brand in the US or booking bigger venues for future shows sounds like a bad idea. I really think the novelty isn't going to be as big past these first shows.
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Post by corndog on Jun 14, 2017 10:30:31 GMT -5
I really hope NJPW doesn't go insane over their success here. A touring brand in the US or booking bigger venues for future shows sounds like a bad idea. I really think the novelty isn't going to be as big past these first shows. From what Kitani has been saying, they are looking for slow, sustainable growth in the US. The might do a Chicago and east coast, most likely New York show next year based on the success of this year. But I wouldn't expect anything crazy like MSG or full blown tours anytime soon.
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Post by eJm on Jun 14, 2017 12:59:57 GMT -5
I really hope NJPW doesn't go insane over their success here. A touring brand in the US or booking bigger venues for future shows sounds like a bad idea. I really think the novelty isn't going to be as big past these first shows. From what Kitani has been saying, they are looking for slow, sustainable growth in the US. The might do a Chicago and east coast, most likely New York show next year based on the success of this year. But I wouldn't expect anything crazy like MSG or full blown tours anytime soon. It's a smart thing to do, really. They're not judging things from one show and seeing what is reasonable to try instead of counting their chickens. I mean, promotions in 2017 have tried worse and not gotten anywhere with it (I'm looking at you, 5* Wrestling).
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Post by HMARK Center on Jun 14, 2017 13:22:41 GMT -5
Yeah, like I said when qualifying my thought exercise I fully realize, and you know Bushi Road fully realizes, that showing the potential to sell out a 13,000 seat venue for your debut show in a new market isn't the same as trying to sell that many tickets once you've begun to fully saturate that market. It'd be like WWE trying to sell multiple Wrestlemania gates a year within the US, it just isn't happening and comes with enormous risk.
You have to think the new dojo/US touring company will be concentrated on the West Coast, and will likely run more ROH-sized venues.
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Post by flowercity on Jun 14, 2017 15:24:16 GMT -5
my fantasy booking: omega throws in the towel during cody's match because he wants to be the one to beat okada. this leads to a BC vs Elite feud culminating in Omega winning the G1 to have the third match with Okada at the dome. Hell, maybe the finals of the G1 even ends up being Cody vs Omega. Though, that seems a little too Americanized for NJPW.
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Post by honsou on Jun 14, 2017 16:52:54 GMT -5
I really hope NJPW doesn't go insane over their success here. A touring brand in the US or booking bigger venues for future shows sounds like a bad idea. I really think the novelty isn't going to be as big past these first shows. From what they are saying their touring brand would run in very small buildings, holding like 500 people or so, which sounds like something that they can pull off. They could also run one really big show in the US every year that has the full NJPW roster that might do pretty well. NJPW is making a healthy profit right now and Bushi Road is a big enough company that an experiment wouldn't sink the entire company so it might be worth a shot.
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Post by HMARK Center on Jun 14, 2017 20:46:58 GMT -5
so anyone know how to legally watch this? I don't have AXS NJPW World will have it, too, otherwise it'd likely take some Roku or Slingshot style service that happens to carry Axs, not sure if they do. I should amend this: apparently if you're in the US then NJPW World won't carry it live nor be accessible for a few weeks, likely due to their deal with Axs.
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Post by flowercity on Jun 15, 2017 8:31:01 GMT -5
NJPW World will have it, too, otherwise it'd likely take some Roku or Slingshot style service that happens to carry Axs, not sure if they do. I should amend this: apparently if you're in the US then NJPW World won't carry it live nor be accessible for a few weeks, likely due to their deal with Axs. It won't be live but I do believe it'll be on demand almost immediately after it airs.
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Jun 15, 2017 14:55:06 GMT -5
It's announced that there will be no commercial breaks during matches
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 85,079
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Post by chrom on Jun 22, 2017 11:12:49 GMT -5
I think RPG Vice is going to break up soon, with Trent laying out Rocky at the show and Chuck Taylor becoming his new partner. That's the way it appears to be looking.
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