NJPW New Beginning/Battle In The Valley

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Never Title is up next, ELP may make his move after what just happened.

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Tama made his first successful defense.

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I was sure LOTD would be it

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Genuinely curious what White does now

Strong is an option if he stays, but the real meat is WWE or AEW I would imagine.

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It's Okada vs Tanahashi for Battle in The Valley.

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Tama did The Jay Driller as a finisher to pay tribute to Jay Briscoe.

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Feb 11, 2023 6:43:30 GMT -5 67 more said:

I was sure LOTD would be it

I really bought it that Shingo had won it when he hit it.

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Strong Style maybe holding those Trios Titles for a long time.

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Okada may be rushing it having a title defense against Tanahashi so soon.

[ace]

Feb 11, 2023 7:03:36 GMT -5 chrom said:

It's Okada vs Tanahashi for Battle in The Valley.

I thought we’d get a nice opponent on the show…but didn’t expect it to be this good.

Okada/Tanahashi
Kairi/Mercedes
White/Kingston
Rosser/Kenta
Sabre/Connors
Finlay/Fish
Coughlin/Kratos
Lawlor/Homicide
Guns/Team Filthy
An 8 man tag with guys like Alexander, Kushida, Dorada, Volador jr…

Thats a hell of a lineup.  I mean jeez that’s deep and fun from start to finish

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

Ok, if Jay is WWE bound, now I especially want Cody to beat Roman because a Cody/Jay White world title feud on Raw would be lit like the fourth of July.

Those two would compliment each other so well. The son of the son of the plumber and the scumbag who single-handedly sold out MSG.

[Convoy]

Damn, I really bit on that Last of the Dragon. It’s impossible for Okada & Shingo to have a bad match together. Hard-hitters tend to bring Okada out of his comfort zone, as he sells better than usual against them and also excels at slaying monsters. The matches with Ishii are another great example.

Another very solid show, though I would’ve given more time to Ishimori/Wato and less to Tama/ELP. The latter was disappointing, but it makes sense that ELP didn’t have anything to do with the prior match since he just lost here. I was hoping for a Bullet Club shift, and while it didn’t happen with a twist, I’m very happy to see Jay lose.

Now we have BitV, the All-Star Jr Festival and the Anniversary Show/New Japan Cup to look forward to. Fantastica Mania as well, but I usually sit that out and just cherry-pick matches later. Excited to see all of those, and who gets the push to face Okada at Sakura Genesis.

[Bo Rida]

Damn losing White and Ibushi within a clue of weeks is rough

Except apparently it was loser leaves Japan which makes me think he'll do Strong and other US(/international?) shows and maybe mix it with aew and/or impact for a while.

[ace]

Nah…I think they booked him on the show next week to throw doubt he was the one losing. That was a man saying his goodbyes today. Makes no sense to have a guy like that that you can’t bring over for big shows…ever.

He’s gone.

[Convoy]

Curious to see what’s next for Bullet Club.

This year marks a decade, and things arguably ran their course a while back, but the shirts kept making Bushiroad money so the train kept rolling. Now Jay and his dojo mates don’t even want to appear in Japan anymore, and Tana is apparently asking KENTA to move onto the next phase of his career/leave BC behind. Fale is forming his Rogue Army in Tamashii (which means nothing but letting him book an official offshoot), and Chase is finally returning for the New Japan Cup on 3/5. Feels like the best thing going for the group are the juniors, but two of them are full-time tied to another company. They’re like a diverse, part-time version of Liger’s CTU.

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Yeah this could very well be the end of Bullet Club.

[Mochi Lone Wolf]

I turned off the English commentary halfway into the show. They've gone through such a downgrade in the past few years.

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Feb 11, 2023 15:55:36 GMT -5 Mochi Lone Wolf said:

I turned off the English commentary halfway into the show. They've gone through such a downgrade in the past few years.

I like Kelly and Charlton but I really miss having Don Callis on the English commentary. Never gets enough credit for just how good a colour commentator he is

[Andy Martin]

Feb 11, 2023 16:04:26 GMT -5 67 more said:

Feb 11, 2023 15:55:36 GMT -5 Mochi Lone Wolf said:

I turned off the English commentary halfway into the show. They've gone through such a downgrade in the past few years.

I like Kelly and Charlton but I really miss having Don Callis on the English commentary. Never gets enough credit for just how good a colour commentator he is

Callis when he’s not in full shill for Omega mode on commentary is pretty good. I miss Corino, though. They’ve never really been able to replace him.

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