chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,842
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Post by chrom on Feb 27, 2021 19:16:55 GMT -5
Ren Narita is a lot of fun to watch. He's picking up a bit of weight, too. I'm glad we get to see him again. Disappointed that KENTA lost, but he still added to the prestige of the US Championship with his dogged pursuit over the last 6 months. That was a really solid match, and I'm glad the US Championship is back off the shelf. I'm surprised/excited they went with a three-way for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Ideally BUSHI pins ELP to win it; I'd prefer Despy won BOSJ before going on to win the title. I'd like Bushi to win and Naito to win so they can do a match at the anniversary show since they were in high school together and trained by Animal Hamaguchi
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Mochi Lone Wolf
Fry's dog Seymour
Development through Destruction.
Posts: 24,038
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Post by Mochi Lone Wolf on Feb 27, 2021 21:09:00 GMT -5
To nobody’s surprise, White/Ishii was awesome.
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Post by Some Baritone guy IS REDEEMED! on Feb 27, 2021 21:13:50 GMT -5
To nobody’s surprise, White/Ishii was awesome. I mean, Ishii is Tomohiro Motherf***ing Ishii, and Jay White has gotten so much damn better than he was when he showed up.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2021 1:53:03 GMT -5
Kojima's strong year continues, and Yoshi-Hashi looked great in the IWGP Tag Team match. Solid matches. Great to see the Ace pick up a defense victory. Really cool moment with Tsuji staying true to Tana/Hontai as well.
ELP doing ELP things in this match so far. Hopefully Despy and BUSHI team up on him here; poor Despy has lost another mask.
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Post by AwamoriRock on Feb 28, 2021 2:06:04 GMT -5
DESPY DID IT
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,842
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Post by chrom on Feb 28, 2021 2:07:08 GMT -5
Double Champion
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,842
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Post by chrom on Feb 28, 2021 2:07:58 GMT -5
Tanahashi added a new finisher to his repertoire
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,842
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Post by chrom on Feb 28, 2021 2:09:23 GMT -5
First singles title in his career
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2021 2:12:24 GMT -5
El Despy, 12 years a pro, has won his first singles title. Big congrats to one of the most consistently underrated men in NJPW. EL DESPERADO vs KOTA IBUSHI @ THE ANNIVERSARY SHOW!! LET's GO!!
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,842
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Post by chrom on Feb 28, 2021 2:46:10 GMT -5
Ibushi retains the IC Title.
Guess the belts are being unified then
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Post by AwamoriRock on Feb 28, 2021 2:53:11 GMT -5
Just give Despy all the belts.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2021 2:54:57 GMT -5
Did Despy just challenge Ibushi for the IC/Heavyweight Championships? Very cool that they've both arrived in this position.
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,842
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Post by chrom on Feb 28, 2021 8:44:57 GMT -5
The New Japan Cup participants will likely be announced tomorrow
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Post by Some Baritone guy IS REDEEMED! on Feb 28, 2021 8:49:03 GMT -5
Didn't Ibushi say he would unify if he was still Champion by Dominion? So there's still about 3 months til then.
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Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,101
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Post by Mozenrath on Feb 28, 2021 9:03:41 GMT -5
Goddamn, I am happy for El Desperado.
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chrom
Backup Wench
Master of the rare undecuple post
Posts: 84,842
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Post by chrom on Feb 28, 2021 11:19:21 GMT -5
G.O.D has said they're open to facing any team in the world
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Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Feb 28, 2021 11:38:12 GMT -5
Just a heads up, will be making the next thread for the NJC/Sakura Genesis soon
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Post by The Kevstaaa on Feb 28, 2021 11:53:10 GMT -5
Despy bout to be a quadruple champion.
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Convoy
El Dandy
Rusev admits to being a sex addict to large applause.
Posts: 7,524
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Post by Convoy on Feb 28, 2021 12:36:01 GMT -5
Happy they went with Despy over ELP. I think the latter’s time is coming eventually, and let’s face it, Ibushi/Despy is more marketable to the crowd than ELP in that same spot. Plus BOSJ is presumably around the corner, and that could be a crazy good tournament this year.
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Post by The Kevstaaa on Feb 28, 2021 16:30:59 GMT -5
NJPW Castle Attack Night Two February 28th, 2021 | Osaka Jo-Hall in Osaka, Japan
Okay, so there was no way I was going to review night one. Putting The Guerrillas of Destiny in singles matches is cruel and unusual punishment that I refuse to have subjected myself too. Of the important matches White/Ishii ruled (****) and Okada/EVIL existed (**¾). This show has a few interesting things so I’ll give it a shot.
The Empire vs. TenKoji Will Ospreay is still a bad human being. Satoshi Kojima is seemingly as wholesome as they come. Choosing who to root for here is easy. These guys have worked a ton lately and have had some quality bouts so they knew what they were doing here. I liked the action, Tenzan is best in tag matches these days and Kojima is still awesome. There was something I wondered about. Tenzan used the Mongolian Chops that he was banned from using. They never made it clear what the repercussions would be if he used them. Would it be a DQ? Suspension? Fine? If WWE booked this and didn’t explain it, they’d get roasted. Anyway, Kojima hit the lariat on Cobb and scored a surprising win heading into the New Japan Cup after 9:56. A good tag even with the odd chops stuff. [***]
Chase Owens, EVIL and Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano Okada’s theme makes me wanna twerk. Jay’s theme is sick too but in a different way. This was your usual multi-man tag fare. The guys who had big matches yesterday took the night off a bit other than Ishii who was still pissed about losing. Jay White can afford to do that because his character work can carry him. EVIL and Okada were there, while Yano bought the comedy and Owens took the bumps. Okada beat Owens with the Money Clip in 8:35. Fine enough for what it was. [**¼]
IWGP Tag Team Championship: The Guerrillas of Destiny [c] vs. Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI The rest of the show involves titles. Imagine booking your entire division around Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa. That’s just asking for disaster. No wonder it’s the worst division in all of wrestling. Anyway, a lot of this match followed traditional tag formula. YOSHI-HASHI played the face in peril, always bringing fire to his hope spots. A hot tag to Goto is rough since I don’t think anyone cares about him anymore. He got booked into oblivion a long time ago. G.O.D. got help from Jado to hit a Gun Stun and retain after 15:46. Inoffensive and solid enough. If you want another example of this joke of a division, G.O.D. is on their seventh reign and this was their 11th successful title defense ever. Yikes. [**½]
NEVER Openweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi [c] vs. The Great-O-Khan GO ACE! New Japan would be a lot better if I just got to see Tanahashi 24/7. The Ace carried this goofy character to a good match in the Tokyo Dome. This time around, O-Khan came out firing and tried to put Tanahashi away quickly. A lot of this was O-Khan bringing the more hard hitting style the division is known for while Tanahashi opted for the classic style he’s made famous. It’s part of his goal to make this a piece of the division and I am all for it. An interesting moment occurred late involving Yota Tsuji. O-Khan wanted him to hand him a chair but Tsuji opted to slide it to Tanahashi, who hit a drop toe hold onto it. I’m glad that didn’t immediately set up the finish as Tanahashi and O-Khan went at it for a bit more. There’s something about Tanahashi matches that make the drama work where it doesn’t for a lot of other NJPW guys. Tanahashi eked out a win with a counter leading to a pin after 18:44. An improvement on the WK match due to the story and you can tell that this had Tanahashi’s fingerprints all over it. [***½]
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: BUSHI vs. El Desperado vs. El Phantasmo The injury to Hiromu Takahashi sucks. Of these three, I like BUSHI, ELP is okay, and Desperado is fantastic. Since NJPW doesn’t run these matches that often, they don’t have many common tropes to fall into. They still use the ones seen in WWE a ton like one guy being out of the action for a bit but that’s to be expected. Desperado was taken out with a piledriver on the aisle and by being unmasked by ELP. The segment with just ELP and BUSHI going at it wasn’t anything special and you just knew they were killing time until Desperado returned. When he did, things picked back up. They delivered some solid drama late as you got the feeling that with Gedo’s love of gaijin, he would’ve put the title on ELP. However, Desperado surprised many by hitting Pinche Loco twice and beating ELP in 23:12. A hell of a week for Desperado, winning two titles. He deserved this after stellar performances lately and especially in the BOSJ Finals last year. A very good match only hampered a bit by the middle portion. [***¾]
IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Kota Ibushi [c] vs. Tetsuya Naito It’s a Wrestle Kingdom rematch. Ibushi won their matches at the G1 23 (****), 2015 New Japan Cup (****), G1 28 (****¼), 2019 New Japan Cup (****½), G1 Supercard (****¼), and WK 15 (****½). Naito won at the G1 27 (****¾) and Dominion 2019 (****¼). There’s also the story of Naito trying to save the title he once loathed. Unlike some of their other matches, this one went to the mat early, which made sense given that both men had bad knees entering this. It made for a slower burn than their previous matches, which was welcome since they usually to balls to the wall and try to kill each other. I liked this approach and appreciated that the whole thing moved picked up at just the right time. It was only after trading submissions that they moved into the stuff they’re known for. Again, I bought into the drama here because there was a legitimate chance that Naito would win. I bit on near falls, though not for Destino because that never ends it. In fact, his second Destino was blocked and that exchange led to the Kamigoye that put him away after 27:50. A great main event though not on the level of their best work. [****]
Post-match, El Desperado came out to challenge Ibushi for the Anniversary Show. That’s a match I didn’t know I needed but GIVE IT TO ME. To top it off, Desperado issued a challenge for the double gold gimmick. Do it, Gedo. Don’t be a coward. Make Despy a quadruple champion.
Overall: 7.5/10. That was an enjoyable show. It didn’t go too long and nothing was bad. The middle matches were skippable but inoffensive. The main event is great, Desperado got to look like a star, and Tanahashi was once again the ace.
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