Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)
FANatic
You can either sink, swim, or be the captain....Long live the cheif
Posts: 113,468
Member is Online
|
Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Jan 7, 2019 13:53:46 GMT -5
Very proud of Juice's time in New Japan. It's really the most organic YL-to-star story, as we got to watch him grow into his current form. Now all I need to see is a solid showing in the G1 - have him land in the 8-10 point range at least. I'll miss Iizuka, but I am a SZG apologist. Hope he gives a showing similar to the WTL match with ZSJ/Taichi. When he locked in the sleeper, you'd think Rikidōzan came back to life with that pop. KUSHIDA is a weird one to me. As great as he was in the ring, he is a failed ACE for the junior division. He really never took off or garnered sympathy as much as New Japan wanted, even with years of putting him physically next to Tanahashi hoping for the comparison to rub off. Some of that was booking decisions, but he still was booed against many of his opponents and had crowds leaving (or just not showing up) at times. Don't get me wrong - I'll miss him too, but I can see why New Japan did not want to put him with heavyweights or in the G1. They couldn't trust him to be believable at that level or (more importantly) draw fans to see him in that role. It was best that he move on at this point. You're not wrong about how KUSHIDA's ace push was handled (way too ham-fisted) and that things fell short on that front, but I was of the mind that getting him in against more heavies would've helped a lot of those issues. I think a bit part of the problem was simply that the crowd was aware that he had done everything there was to do in the division already; putting him in a new environment might've given him a fresh coat of paint in the crowd's eyes and a new lease on life where he wouldn't be expected to be an ace or a major draw, since he'd be in the underdog role more often. Yea, KUSHIDA was essentially given that and the crowd knew it. It's no different than when Okada started dominating everybody and people started to boo him and cheer his opponent, KUSHIDA needed a change of enviornment. Having him go against Minoru Suzuki in a NEVER match or Goto or Ibushi would have been great for him because all of them bring heavy offense but KUSHIDA has the skills to match them. Even in a losing effort he would have looked great
If you can pull the trigger on Will who is good as well you can pull that same trigger on KUSHIDA who I think fits better in the HW mold and could have found a permanent home there. I think they did him a disservice by not seeing what they had there especially in the NEVER title where you could still technically kept him a Junior but they decided not and he's leaving. Door will still be open for him but it's a Nakamura type situation for him so he decided to leave. Ishimori and an eventual returning Takahashi is ahead of him and then you go Sho or Jo for whenever they split and go singles so yeah he was really without a spot if they weren't going to give him the nod.
|
|
chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,914
Member is Online
|
Post by chrom on Jan 7, 2019 19:24:51 GMT -5
Rocky Romero has resigned with them
|
|
Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)
FANatic
You can either sink, swim, or be the captain....Long live the cheif
Posts: 113,468
Member is Online
|
Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Jan 7, 2019 19:27:50 GMT -5
Rocky Romero has resigned with them Makes too much sense for Rocky not to do so as I believe he works backstage as well
|
|
Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)
FANatic
You can either sink, swim, or be the captain....Long live the cheif
Posts: 113,468
Member is Online
|
Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Jan 7, 2019 19:30:58 GMT -5
What makes stuff weirder with KUSHIDA is that he faced Ishii in OTT at the National Stadium in October which seemed to be more of an unintended audition for how he'd do in the heavyweight division (which was a really fun match by the way) so it seemed weird to let them have that booking if there wasn't some kind of plan to move him up at some point. Yea, just seems weird he was never given that extended look
In a sense you would have thought the same thing they are doing with Will they would have did with Kushida and while I like Will I think KUSHIDA would have done better in this role as my critique of Ospreay at WK was the fact he didn't wrestle all that differently from what he does already as a Junior
|
|
|
Post by brown bricks on Jan 7, 2019 22:04:51 GMT -5
I just finished WK and thought most of the show was just okay. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood, but I didn't get the hype with a few of these matches.
Having said that, I f***ing LOVED Naito vs. Jericho. Jericho's work in New Japan has been great, in my opinion.
|
|
Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,125
|
Post by Mozenrath on Jan 7, 2019 22:29:31 GMT -5
I just finished WK and thought most of the show was just okay. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood, but I didn't get the hype with a few of these matches. Having said that, I f***ing LOVED Naito vs. Jericho. Jericho's work in New Japan has been great, in my opinion. I think Jericho's always brought it in the ring for NJPW. I just wish he was around a little more. With him wanting to face some of the others he hasn't yet, like Okada, I'm hopeful we won't have to wait ages for that.
|
|
salz4life
Grimlock
Prichard is a guy who gets that his job is to service his boss.
Posts: 14,007
|
Post by salz4life on Jan 12, 2019 0:52:22 GMT -5
Just watched Jay White/Okada.... loved it! Jay White is awesome and I’ll be interested to see what happens with Okada going forward.
|
|
TGM
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 6,073
|
Post by TGM on Jan 12, 2019 5:08:04 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Tea & Crumpets on Jan 12, 2019 5:50:02 GMT -5
Some Galaxy brain level hot takes about New Japan and Wrestle Kingdom here. What I really don't get is the comments like "NJPW doesn't sell, keep crying". How does someone liking a different company in any way hurt you? Nobody hates wrestling more than wrestling fans, and honestly fans like those make me think if I was a Vince or HHH, I'd just say "f*** em" and book my way regardless.
|
|
|
Post by HMARK Center on Jan 12, 2019 8:19:07 GMT -5
Who the hell is that guy?
|
|
|
Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Jan 12, 2019 8:30:45 GMT -5
What is the actual gain in shitting on fans of a wrestling company just for the sake of it when you run a wrestling news website? How the hell does that work? He also tweeted "Staying up for over 24 hours straight to watch Wrestle Kingdom made me appreciate WWE even more. Nothing really happened at Wrestle Kingdom except for every title changing hands." and that feels like it's solely meant to get people angry. And no shit a WWE show got more traction than Wrestle Kingdom, it's still a WWE show. Does anyone really need an explanation of how that works, let alone someone who claims to be looking at "traffic numbers and conversations all day"? And that's before getting into the idea that he's seeing numbers from his website, not broader numbers of what other sites' coverage gets.
But then, Steve Carrier's feed is like 50% "bluh bluh Dave Meltzer is poop" and most of the other stuff is retweeting Brad Shepard, the guy who couldn't wrap his head around how NXT functioned financially within WWE and who is just overall a total turd. Not steallar company. It's just second and third-rung newz sites gunning for attention.
|
|
|
Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Jan 12, 2019 11:15:19 GMT -5
I sent the tweets to my Facebook group chat of wrestling friends because we are a catty, catty bunch, and someone who posts on r/squaredcircle informed me that Ringsidenews, which Carrier founded, is banned over there the same way that Sportskeeda is here. Not just for being full of shit, but because people from it and Bodyslam.net--run by the previously mentioned Brad Shepard--made alternate accounts on the site to send harrassing PMs to people critical of the site. They're just for-profit shit disturbers going after people for clicks while masquerading as journalists and insiders. Not worth the time of day.
|
|
|
Post by AwamoriRock on Jan 12, 2019 11:35:54 GMT -5
When Inoki twitter and Gedoist Twitter unite to dunk on you? You are soooo bad.
Anyway no place to say it but I’m going to see violence giants vs strong bj for my bday today!
|
|
|
Post by corndog on Jan 12, 2019 12:24:34 GMT -5
When Inoki twitter and Gedoist Twitter unite to dunk on you? You are soooo bad. Anyway no place to say it but I’m going to see violence giants vs strong bj for my bday today! Happy birthday and that match should be a good one, enjoy it.
|
|
|
Post by corndog on Jan 12, 2019 12:44:38 GMT -5
Some Galaxy brain level hot takes about New Japan and Wrestle Kingdom here. What is his deal? Seriously. Obviously New Japan is not as big as WWE, everyone with a brain knows that. But it is getting bigger. New Japan World subscriptions are up to 120,000, half outside of Japan. The Tokyo Dome sold over 38,000 legit without comps. A lot of people didn't watch the show live because it was very early in the morning. I just want to know why this person hates New Japan so much. I think New Japan fans get an "elitist" rep, but really Twitter is the only place that seems to really happen and Twitter is a cesspool. Everywhere else, I constantly see them helping people that want to get into New Japan and if it's not their thing, that is fine.
|
|
|
Post by AwamoriRock on Jan 12, 2019 20:20:13 GMT -5
When Inoki twitter and Gedoist Twitter unite to dunk on you? You are soooo bad. Anyway no place to say it but I’m going to see violence giants vs strong bj for my bday today! Happy birthday and that match should be a good one, enjoy it. Thanks man!
|
|
|
Post by AwamoriRock on Jan 13, 2019 7:20:23 GMT -5
Happy birthday and that match should be a good one, enjoy it. Thanks man! For the record it just finished and it’s better than any match I saw in 2018. Just amazing. Legit legendarily fun match. The two best tag teams duking it out DELIVERED. I really hope as many people as possible can see it
|
|
|
Post by corndog on Jan 14, 2019 13:26:02 GMT -5
For the record it just finished and it’s better than any match I saw in 2018. Just amazing. Legit legendarily fun match. The two best tag teams duking it out DELIVERED. I really hope as many people as possible can see it I will look for it, hopefully someone loads it on YouTube, since it probably won't be on All Japan's service and Big Japan Core is shutdown.
|
|