🦁 NJPW - G1 Climax 33

[Bo Rida]

What was the conclusion to the onion on the English commentary table nonsense?

[lockedontarget]

Jun 17, 2023 16:43:21 GMT -5 Bo Rida said:

What was the conclusion to the onion on the English commentary table nonsense?

It bloomed into Gino Gambino

[HMARK Center]

Jun 15, 2023 4:23:52 GMT -5 Fundertaker said:

Jun 14, 2023 18:34:31 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

While I think ZSJ is _much_ improved over where he was before, I dunno. TMDK doesn't really do much for me as a concept. It's hard to wash the stink of the Slapjack gimmick, and TM-61 flaming out hard in NXT, off of the stable. Especially after JONAH returned to Papa H.

I never thought I'd be the one to say this, but ZSJ deserves a better stable than he's got. I'd like to see an excursion returnee become his protege at some point.

On the other hand, TMDK the tag-team are one of the best tag-teams in the world, are over with the Japanese crowds and can be slotted as champions at any time and no one would bat an eye (especially after the WTL last year). You may not have liked their fed stay (fair enough) but those guys are on a different wavelength in Japan.

So... yeah, TMDK are fine at the moment, and will have many moments of glory in future.

Yeah, they're going to be just fine. Zach is the "Front Man" of the group for a reason; he's the established guy there who fans can buy as a main eventer, while the others are getting themselves fully into place...and frankly, yeah, I agree that if they ended up with the tag straps, even for a reasonably lengthy reign, there wouldn't be anyone up in arms about it, they've delivered on their work so far. I can agree that the rest of the group needs a bit more of a hook, though; Robbie jumping from Bullet Club to Chaos to TMDK should be something that plays into his character more, Nichols and Haste are solid but just need something to spark their characters a bit more, but they've got the building blocks there to get where they want to go while Sabre gets the majority of the attention for the moment. They're not slotted to be on, say, United Empire's level right now, but they'll grow.

As for G1 itself, I hadn't heard about the 20 minute time limits for the round robin matches and holy shit I'm so glad about it. It's obviously necessary given the sheer number of matches they have to get through, but between that and the TV title and a few other things they've done over the last year or so it seems like the booking team might've been receiving the message that while NJPW main event style matches are basically the best in the industry, they need to get back to basics a bit with a bit more of a 90s NJPW pace now and then. It really does open the door to so many more in-ring stories to tell: you'd think longer matches would serve that better, but you want to have a reasonable option of "this match could end at any time" in there to spice things up, and you want more situations where guys are going all out to win in a shorter window since it varies up their approaches to each opponent more.

I mean, every promotion falls into a "house style" of match layout, it's no sin to do that, but I wonder if there was a conversation among Gedo and company that kind of went "Are the fans having too easy a time lately guessing the major beats in most of our featured matches? Let's shake it up, then." Reminds me of being a huge ROH fan in the 00s but kind of hitting a wall circa 2010 or so when I felt like I'd figured out the "formula" too much, eventually you have to introduce something new to the equation to keep fans on their toes, without having to resort to shocks and swerves for the sake of them.

[chrom]

Full lineups have been made for Strong Independence Day

July 4th

Preshow: Ryusuke Taguchi, Yoh and Oskar Leube vs Kengo, Dragon Libre and Takahiro Katori

Bad Dude Tito vs The DKC

Lance Archer, Alex Zayne and Ryohei Oiwa vs JR Kratos and West Coast Wrecking Crew

Tom Lawlor vs Kosei Fujita

Eddie Kingston and Rocky Romero vs Kenta and Gedo

Strong Tag Titles: Bishamon vs War Dogs

Exciting Encounter Doomsday Match: Jon Moxley and Homicide vs El Desperado and Jun Kasai

IWGP Jr Tag Titles: Catch 2/2 vs Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney

July 5th

Preshow: Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi and Boltin Oleg vs Dragon Libre, Takahiro Katori and Rekka

JR Kratos vs Oskar Leube

Catch 2/2 vs Homicide and Ryohei Oiwa

Rocky Romero and Yoh vs Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney

Lance Archer and Alex Zayne vs Bad Dude Tito and Kosei Fujita

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii and The DKC vs Tom Lawlor and West Coast Wrecking Crew

IWGP Tag Titles: Bishamon vs War Dogs

Final Death: Jon Moxley vs El Desperado

Strong Openweight Championship: Kenta vs Eddie Kingston

[Fundertaker]

So Jun brought buddies from FREEDOMS? Not that I'm complaining...

[chrom]

Eddie gets to cross Korakuen Hall off his bucket list.

[chrom]

Bryan Danielson is calling out Okada tomorrow on Dynamite.

[chrom]

Moxley vs Desperado from Nashville last year is up.

[chrom]

Many New Japan talent are in the states today, including Ishii.

[chrom]

10 Man tag been made for Forbidden Door.

The Blackpool Combat Club vs The Elite and whomever they pick as the fifth man.

[chrom]

LIJ, El Desperado, Rocky and Tiger Mask will be competing Monday at CMLL's show in Puebla.

[chrom]

Douki makes his AEW debut on Friday taking on Jungle Boy.

[chrom]

Hiroshi Tanahashi will face Swerve Strickland this Saturday on Collision.

[chrom]

Ishii will team with The Elite at Forbidden Door II.

[lionheart21]

Jun 21, 2023 21:25:30 GMT -5 chrom said:

Hiroshi Tanahashi will face Swerve Strickland this Saturday on Collision.

That’ll definitely get me to tune in.

[chrom]

United Empire teams with Swerve Strickland tomorrow to face Best Friends, Yoh and Rocky

[chrom]

ELP is alone on an island here, he's got no friends or allies now.

[chrom]

Naito, Titan and Bushi team to face Ultimo Guerrero, Averno and Rey Bucanero on Tuesday in Mexico.

[chrom]

Robbie Eagles challenges for The X Division Title next Friday.

[chrom]

Tom Lawlor makes his AEW debut Sunday facing Adam Cole.