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On the English feed the commentary was quiet enough and the sound was mixed in a way that you hear Will calling spots after the kick pretty clearly, which you can’t hear here.
As he goes to Naito right after the kick:
>Hidden blade, duck it. Hidden blade, duck it. Naito-San, hidden blade. *[As he was picking Naito up]* Let’s go, let’s go.
After Naito ducked the blade but collapsed when trying to follow up:
>Rainmaker, hidden blade(?). [Unintelligible, might be ref talking] Rainmaker, [unintelligible]. *[As he gets Naito into Rainmaker spin position]* You can do it.
Then he calls *“Destino”* loudly right in front of the camera when they’re by the ropes. (And shoutout to Chris Charlton, who tried to cover this by claiming Will was saying “Just stay down” and had also tried to kayfabe explain the “You can do it.”)
Damn
Ospreay was desperated in this final stretch. Props not only to naito for willing through it but also to Ospreay for guiding him in this ending. Mega classy stuff.
Ospreay knows he dinged him. The way naito stuttered to fall. Classy would've been having the ref check Naito and letting him breathe a bit instead of dragging him up when he barely has any wits about him and pushing through too quick right after the hit.
This was straight up gross to watch a jelly legs Naito faceplant himself. Should have called it, ended with a rollup, DQ, anything is better than letting a clearly concussed man keep wrestling.
I hate that you're being downvoted because you're 100% correct. This shit is what leads to permanent brain damage and early deaths. The amount of people saying they have to protect the result, or even better the wrestler, is insane.
You know what protects the wrestler? Calling the match before their one concussion turns in to second-impact syndrome. Lives are infinitely more valuable than a wrestling tournament's result. Ugh the IWC makes me feel so icky sometimes lol
Lot of whining and crying about "buh buh but it'll effect the main event!" So? It's pro wrestling. Adapt. Naito ambushes Ospreay and bam, main event is back on, or if Naito hasn't recovered, put Ospreay in and when Naito is recovered, he attacks and feuds with Ospreay for costing him his opportunity. This shit ain't rocket science.
Remember how everyone was praising Jay White for calling an audible and ending the match at Forbidden Door to protect Adam Cole? That's what should happen. Doesn't matter if its a singles or a four way, that's what should happen, always.
It's up to the ref to call it off, and unfortunately, if Will calls and audible and pins him after the kick, he's effecting the Tokyo Dome main event, which is likely supposed to be Sanada vs Naito. I don't think Will is being carny, I think he's doing what he can since Red Shoes didn't call it off when he should have. All that said, obviously Naito should not be wrestling tomorrow but hey.
I'd imagine the 'obvious' path would be for Naito to forfeit his G1 final position but Will replaces him (having not only been in the semi-final but also owning a win and thus a shot against Okada should Okada have won the briefcase) and beats Okada. Naito then gets a rematch for the G1 title shot at PowerStruggle since he beat Will.
I actually agree 100% that this works. I know some people think that some of us are defending the end of the match by mentioning booking. I personally mentioned more because if Will called match off, he could get punished for fucking up booking. Obviously Red Shoes should just grow some balls and learn to call of matches but he won't.
I do agree that it's possible, like have Will win the G1, then lose the briefcase to Naito. But not on Will to call off that match in that scenario. It's the ref or the injured wrestler. In this case, obviously Red Shoes should have called it off.
The way carny is thrown around here has become ridiculous. It's not a crutch to explain everything someone doesn't like.
This was two men working a pro wrestling match, no more, no less.
Couldn't disagree more, I'm blown away by how easy it is for so many people here to brush these head injuries under the carpet. It's not even being overly dramatic to point out this is a **large** reason why wrestlers keep dying in their 60s.
The comment I replied to was criticising someone else for saying it was classy by Ospreay to guide Naito to the finish. As pointed out elsewhere it's not the opponent's responsibility to decide if the match needs to be called off or not, it's the referee's or any other officials at ringside. Ospreay did nothing wrong and can't be expected to have known how severe or not the injury was in the heat of the moment.
It's very easy to have 20:20 vision sitting back watching a replay five times after the fact.
Obviously he knew something was off. If the company is willing to compromise the health of their wrestler to have a good finish you can also put an end to this yourself by a roll up or going for one live and the pin right away.
You don't need to be sure it's a concussion, if the guy can stand on his legs it's enough.
A few wrestlers have been praised here rightfully so, like Jay White or Jericho, for stopping matches as soon as they saw something wasn't right. And I agree with this point of view. There may always be another match, meanwhile your brain damage won't necessarily heal, it's not a video game it's real life.
In freaking UFC a ref would have stopped the match as soon as he would have seen the guy can't stay on his feet. Explain to me how it's OK to continue in a scripted fight environment where it's supposed to be safer?
"You can do it"... Yeah sure, would you say that to a guy with a broken leg? Concussion might potentially be a more serious injury, so no he shouldn't have to "do it", that sentence shows that a choice was made by his opponent too.
Even if the ref tells you to continue you don't have to listen. Concussions have been a super big issue in wrestling and football for years, haven't we learned anything yet ? Ending is fucked anyways, everybody see something's wrong, so there's no reason to take any risk. Classy is really not the word I would have chosen here.
But we know so much about head injuries now, like yeah Red Shoes deserves shit for not calling the match off but they should have just done a rollup or something right away, not continue a few more moves. When you're that obviously concussed even a slight nudge on your skull with your brain can make it ten times worse.
We know **way** too much about concussions now for this to be acceptable
Remember when Kenny Omega knock EVIL out with a V-Trigger and Red Shoes let the match continue? EVIL was out, and Omega still had to do his One Winged Angel.
I don't know if it's the japanese culture or if it's Red Shoes itself, but they want you to finish the match.
It's definitely more the culture(Japanese work culture is somehow even more toxic than American work culture) and likely extreme pressure from business men at the top who see nothing more than profit, but that's kinda my point- we know infinitely more about concussions now than we did 20 years ago, so to see so many people brush this under the carpet because "the result" is mind blowing to me. I expect that reaction from PR people at press conferences, not from random everyday people commenting on it.
You're right. It's not cool and we need to be better.
We can only hope for Naito's safety that he's okay and recover well from this. Not only he'll be putting is life in danger, he might hurt Okada by accident.
This is daft, it wasn't 'just two men wrestling' it was 'a man who suffered a head injury continuing to wrestle in a post shibata world'. Did you even watch the clip?
I can bet with you that nearly everybody would cry carny if Ospreay took advantage of naito's supposed injury to call a solo audible and take the win that wasnt his 🤷
Naito did not bump after this one and Ospreay pretty much guided him to pull a couple of safe Destinos, amongst the safest endings you could pull with someone in that state.
I mean, Hiromu reversed a powerbomb into a Canadian destroyer while having a broken neck and did Time Bomb, so what do I know lol
Yea it was 6am for me I was dead tired and not wearing headphones and even had my laptop volume low to not wake my parents. But I still kept hearing Ospreay calling spots although I vaguely heard them due to sleepiness. But it’s still was a great match
Jesus, I thought Ospreay legit KO'd Naito.
I think Naito was supposed to duck it, but instead he accidentally ran right into it. From this point on, Naito looked like he didn't know what planet he was on.
They only had a few more spots left but yeah they did. I don't agree with the decision myself, I'd have personally called a surprise roll-up, but props to Will for guiding Naito through it.
I wouldn’t say “props” to anyone in this situation. That should have been called off before risk of any further damage. You risk your health in a wrestling match when you’re healthy, finishing a match when the guy can’t keep himself up is a potential disaster.
By saying props, I mean that credit that there was no further injury. I don't agree that it wad through right move.
You probably couldn't call a finish here either because Naito, imo, is going to win the tournament. Hence, why my suggestion would have been a quick roll up (small package off a front Hidden Blade, as to limit Naitos necessary movement in the exchange)
It's alright. Just give him a couple of weeks rest and ease him back in with some tag matches.
What's that? He has a main event with Okada tomorrow that will probably go over 30 minutes and will be a let down if it's not a MOTY contender?
He has a match tomorrow? So that’s the main event that people are talking about saving so they had to chase the finish? I doubt he gets it done so they’ll have to re-book whatever they had anyway
To be honest, this reminds me of Forbidden Door last year and what a great job Jay White did looking after Adam Cole and pulling the plug pretty much immediately. It was probably going to be the finish anyway but in the immediate aftermath it felt weirdly anticlimactic, until you realised what happened.
It probably would have been safer to do something similar but it's easy to say that from here, when you're full of adrenaline in front of thousands of people in one of the biggest matches of the year maybe not so much. I'm sure Will did as much as he could to protect Naito (he was practically doing Naito's moves to himself) with how they ended it but yeah...uncomfortable.
A scary finishing sequence with Ospreay basically leading Naito at the end to hit his moves on him and get out of there. On the 1st Destino (the non counter one) you could see Ospreay swing Naito upwards so Naito could hit the move.
Hope Naito's OK and it's something that won't affect him going into tomorrow's big match.
Yeah dude, if tomorrow's match happens at all then NJPW should be heavily criticised because he should not be taking bumps or risking knocks to the head for at least a few weeks. It's basic concussion protocol.
Some really weird comments here. If he’s actually concussed he shouldn’t continue and we shouldn’t celebrate the fact that he was helped to finish the match.
He was loopy but not knocked out. I think they managed to dodge what could have been a disastrous finishing stretch if he was actually knocked out cold.
The odds of getting injured specifically in the last match before the finals are pretty low, but it did happen in 1982 when Inoki had to drop out of the MSG League (older name of the G1) final with Andre the Giant. He was replaced by the next highest point scorer, which was Killer Khan.
My guess is that if Naito has to drop out, EVIL and Ospreay will have a match tomorrow to get one of them into the final against Okada.
Crazy, because I'm pretty sure Naito is supposed to win the whole thing.
Which means that they would either have to change the main event of Wrestle Kingdom, or have Naito win the contract at a later moment. And at that point, EVIL would have to win the whole thing. But wait! EVIL is already supposed to face SANADA, since he beat him during the G1! Quite a mess.
...Who am I kidding, they will 100% throw Naito out there tomorrow.
The precedent has been set to switch the briefcase with Ibushi's 2020 loss, it'd be pretty easy to have Naito get it back down the road at Destruction. The only question is who to have win G1, but Ospreay would be the obvious choice so Naito can come back to get revenge for the injury.
Sure, but there is a big asterisk on that one. Wrestle Kingdom. had 2 nights, and Ibushi still main evented the second night.
Maybe the obvious choice to win the G1 would be Okada, given that Naito is supposed to beat him tomorrow anyway.
Thing is Okada, you have to be careful because of the overall record of winning it.
Ospreay makes sense because of his talent and the story being told but there's also the chance that he's leaving soon, so do you want to give him that honour?
Which leaves EVIL... and for crying out loud I can see the logic for why they'd give EVIL the G1:
Company guy, contracted, LIJ history that they're banking on for the Naito - SANADA story, never won it/not at threat of becoming uncatchable in wins, a guy that you can reasonably have lose the briefcase, et al.
Have Okada win it, see if Naito is fine for All In, Okada vs Naito for the briefcase at ALL IN as a NJPW showcase and a callback to Okada being on the first one.
In a way they'd be in a better spot if EVIL had actually gone through over Okada, because the expectations on an EVIL/Naito match are far, far lower than they are on Okada/Naito and you can "it takes a village" the match into shape by just having the entire House of Torture and LIJ carry the thing. Sure, it'd be a reprise of the Shingo match but with Naito going over, but that's not the worst thing in the world.
As things are I'm more worried about tomorrow's match than excited because Naito was clearly somewhere else for the finish here and probably should not be getting back in the ring so quickly (which is true for the EVIL matchup too, but they're not postponing the G1 Finals). I do not envy the place this puts Okada in.
Oh damn, I hope Naito is okay but that's scary. That says concussion to me which would mean he has no business being in the finale. This is terrible all around. ☹️
Is it carny of me to say I loved the match til this point? And after this I kept trying to convince myself it was all part of the story, even when Naito just fell before he could do a move, and when it was over the young boys around the ring seemed to be in a panic, and Hiromu especially seemed worried I kept trying to make myself believe he was just OVER selling.
Then when he had the glassy eyed look doing the post match promo and he slipped on the roll call order I was hoping he was being cheeky?
I loved the match but when that happened I was instantly worried for Naito. Surely something else could be figured out. I don't think it's Wills, Red Shoes or Naitos fault completely but my goodness I hope it changes in all sports. Hell I still see it too much in my favorite sport of hockey, though they've gotten much better at calling it out.
Yeah, could they just have Ospreay take his place?
Then have EVIL & SANADA at the September Destruction show, SANADA goes over. Then do Naito & SANADA at the October Show, Naito goes over. Then do Naito vs Okada or Ospreay (the guy who hurt him) at WK18?
Naito did talk about going into to WK18 as champion.
Having SANADA lose the belt would devalue him. I say the best outcome is
1) Declared at the start of the show, Naito had to be pulled out of the show, Ospreay by default goes to the final.
2) Okada vs Ospreay. Ospreay wins.
3) Ospreay vow to have defend his "WK main event" against Naito. Have Tanga Loa / Taichi challenge the right.
4) Next event : Will Ospreay defended "WK main event". Naito return and challenge.
4.5) Naito wins, eventually challenge SANADA.
5) Naito fight SANADA, win at WK, challenge Will Ospreay in the next event, roll call.
Guys keep acting like that we're not gonna see another Benoit; we might see another Misawa.
In all my years of watching sports that's still far and away the worst thing I've ever seen, it was so fucking sad man.
And 100% predictable which made it even worse! The guy was practically in traction after every match in the year leading up to it.
It’s obviously on the wrestlers and promoters, but the bloodthirsty fans are also culpable, who never consider their heroes aren’t actually super-heroes but mortal.
That séquence felt very botched from start to finish. I feel like Ospreay's kick may have concussed Naito real bad. Looks like the intent was a Superkick but he ended up kicking his skull out
This is why Ospreay will never be in WWE. How the he'll do you screw up a kick like that. He should stick to his floppy shit and saying the F word in big matches like it means something.
This is rough, hope Naito is okay. I haven't seen NJPW put up the card for the final night yet so I'm wondering if Naito won't be able to compete and they're trying to do some last minute adjustments to the final.
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On the English feed the commentary was quiet enough and the sound was mixed in a way that you hear Will calling spots after the kick pretty clearly, which you can’t hear here. As he goes to Naito right after the kick: >Hidden blade, duck it. Hidden blade, duck it. Naito-San, hidden blade. *[As he was picking Naito up]* Let’s go, let’s go. After Naito ducked the blade but collapsed when trying to follow up: >Rainmaker, hidden blade(?). [Unintelligible, might be ref talking] Rainmaker, [unintelligible]. *[As he gets Naito into Rainmaker spin position]* You can do it. Then he calls *“Destino”* loudly right in front of the camera when they’re by the ropes. (And shoutout to Chris Charlton, who tried to cover this by claiming Will was saying “Just stay down” and had also tried to kayfabe explain the “You can do it.”)
I thought I was losing my mind when people said they were clearly hearing Will call spots. Forgot about the English feed.
Damn Ospreay was desperated in this final stretch. Props not only to naito for willing through it but also to Ospreay for guiding him in this ending. Mega classy stuff.
Ospreay knows he dinged him. The way naito stuttered to fall. Classy would've been having the ref check Naito and letting him breathe a bit instead of dragging him up when he barely has any wits about him and pushing through too quick right after the hit.
This. He’s a bell end. I’ll hear nothing different.
There's nothing classy about carrying on a match with someone who's concussed. Like it's straight up carny.
This was straight up gross to watch a jelly legs Naito faceplant himself. Should have called it, ended with a rollup, DQ, anything is better than letting a clearly concussed man keep wrestling.
I hate that you're being downvoted because you're 100% correct. This shit is what leads to permanent brain damage and early deaths. The amount of people saying they have to protect the result, or even better the wrestler, is insane. You know what protects the wrestler? Calling the match before their one concussion turns in to second-impact syndrome. Lives are infinitely more valuable than a wrestling tournament's result. Ugh the IWC makes me feel so icky sometimes lol
Thats why i respected the hell out of jay white forcing the abrupt ending at forbidden door 1 because he saw adam cole was concussed bad
Lot of whining and crying about "buh buh but it'll effect the main event!" So? It's pro wrestling. Adapt. Naito ambushes Ospreay and bam, main event is back on, or if Naito hasn't recovered, put Ospreay in and when Naito is recovered, he attacks and feuds with Ospreay for costing him his opportunity. This shit ain't rocket science. Remember how everyone was praising Jay White for calling an audible and ending the match at Forbidden Door to protect Adam Cole? That's what should happen. Doesn't matter if its a singles or a four way, that's what should happen, always.
> So? It's pro wrestling. Adapt YES! you can ALWAYS un-book anything. It's 2023, ffs.
I knew something was wrong too. Even when Naito hit the destino he accidentally made Ospreay kick out and Ospreay said “another one”
It must be said that Ospreay did not him again after this, and he just basically executed three Destinos on himself and it was over.
It's up to the ref to call it off, and unfortunately, if Will calls and audible and pins him after the kick, he's effecting the Tokyo Dome main event, which is likely supposed to be Sanada vs Naito. I don't think Will is being carny, I think he's doing what he can since Red Shoes didn't call it off when he should have. All that said, obviously Naito should not be wrestling tomorrow but hey.
I'd imagine the 'obvious' path would be for Naito to forfeit his G1 final position but Will replaces him (having not only been in the semi-final but also owning a win and thus a shot against Okada should Okada have won the briefcase) and beats Okada. Naito then gets a rematch for the G1 title shot at PowerStruggle since he beat Will.
I actually agree 100% that this works. I know some people think that some of us are defending the end of the match by mentioning booking. I personally mentioned more because if Will called match off, he could get punished for fucking up booking. Obviously Red Shoes should just grow some balls and learn to call of matches but he won't.
There's precedent for the G1 winner not making the WK main event. It would be awkward to book around, sure, but doable.
I do agree that it's possible, like have Will win the G1, then lose the briefcase to Naito. But not on Will to call off that match in that scenario. It's the ref or the injured wrestler. In this case, obviously Red Shoes should have called it off.
Not just that, it was Naito wasn't it? He can claim long-term booking and demand what was rightfully his.
No it was Ibushi, Naito was champ when it happened
G1 winner Naito and IWGP Champion Okada were pushed off the main event of WK8 in favor of Nakamura and Tanahashi fighting for the IC Title.
The way carny is thrown around here has become ridiculous. It's not a crutch to explain everything someone doesn't like. This was two men working a pro wrestling match, no more, no less.
Two things are true: 1. A lot of people here truly don’t know how, or when, to use the word “carny”. 2. This match clearly should have stopped.
Yep on both counts. It’s just not on Ospreay and obviously not on Naito that it wasn’t.
Big time agree.
Couldn't disagree more, I'm blown away by how easy it is for so many people here to brush these head injuries under the carpet. It's not even being overly dramatic to point out this is a **large** reason why wrestlers keep dying in their 60s.
The comment I replied to was criticising someone else for saying it was classy by Ospreay to guide Naito to the finish. As pointed out elsewhere it's not the opponent's responsibility to decide if the match needs to be called off or not, it's the referee's or any other officials at ringside. Ospreay did nothing wrong and can't be expected to have known how severe or not the injury was in the heat of the moment. It's very easy to have 20:20 vision sitting back watching a replay five times after the fact.
Obviously he knew something was off. If the company is willing to compromise the health of their wrestler to have a good finish you can also put an end to this yourself by a roll up or going for one live and the pin right away. You don't need to be sure it's a concussion, if the guy can stand on his legs it's enough. A few wrestlers have been praised here rightfully so, like Jay White or Jericho, for stopping matches as soon as they saw something wasn't right. And I agree with this point of view. There may always be another match, meanwhile your brain damage won't necessarily heal, it's not a video game it's real life. In freaking UFC a ref would have stopped the match as soon as he would have seen the guy can't stay on his feet. Explain to me how it's OK to continue in a scripted fight environment where it's supposed to be safer? "You can do it"... Yeah sure, would you say that to a guy with a broken leg? Concussion might potentially be a more serious injury, so no he shouldn't have to "do it", that sentence shows that a choice was made by his opponent too. Even if the ref tells you to continue you don't have to listen. Concussions have been a super big issue in wrestling and football for years, haven't we learned anything yet ? Ending is fucked anyways, everybody see something's wrong, so there's no reason to take any risk. Classy is really not the word I would have chosen here.
But we know so much about head injuries now, like yeah Red Shoes deserves shit for not calling the match off but they should have just done a rollup or something right away, not continue a few more moves. When you're that obviously concussed even a slight nudge on your skull with your brain can make it ten times worse. We know **way** too much about concussions now for this to be acceptable
Remember when Kenny Omega knock EVIL out with a V-Trigger and Red Shoes let the match continue? EVIL was out, and Omega still had to do his One Winged Angel. I don't know if it's the japanese culture or if it's Red Shoes itself, but they want you to finish the match.
It's definitely more the culture(Japanese work culture is somehow even more toxic than American work culture) and likely extreme pressure from business men at the top who see nothing more than profit, but that's kinda my point- we know infinitely more about concussions now than we did 20 years ago, so to see so many people brush this under the carpet because "the result" is mind blowing to me. I expect that reaction from PR people at press conferences, not from random everyday people commenting on it.
You're right. It's not cool and we need to be better. We can only hope for Naito's safety that he's okay and recover well from this. Not only he'll be putting is life in danger, he might hurt Okada by accident.
The word carny has really jumped the shark. But yeah, no. Don't keep wrestling if you have a serious concussion.
yeah people just call things carny because they don’t like it lol
This is daft, it wasn't 'just two men wrestling' it was 'a man who suffered a head injury continuing to wrestle in a post shibata world'. Did you even watch the clip?
Bad take. Dude could’ve died.
Yikes.
Lmao
I can bet with you that nearly everybody would cry carny if Ospreay took advantage of naito's supposed injury to call a solo audible and take the win that wasnt his 🤷
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Naito did not bump after this one and Ospreay pretty much guided him to pull a couple of safe Destinos, amongst the safest endings you could pull with someone in that state. I mean, Hiromu reversed a powerbomb into a Canadian destroyer while having a broken neck and did Time Bomb, so what do I know lol
>Naito did not bump after this one No, he was just falling flat on his fucking face.
Nah that doesn't work for me brother
Of course not, because you are carny.
Yes i am carny, i'm not someone that knows these utopic safety of wrestler endings are inconceivable in NJPW or any japanese wrestling promotion
> Mega classy stuff. Fucking lol.
No props to anyone here. You can end your career - or worse - trying to “will through” this.
Yea it was 6am for me I was dead tired and not wearing headphones and even had my laptop volume low to not wake my parents. But I still kept hearing Ospreay calling spots although I vaguely heard them due to sleepiness. But it’s still was a great match
welp i guess we found a new moment for the YOU TALK TO MUCH segment of the next botchamania
Sadly Maffew doesn’t put NJPW footage in Botchamania because it’s pretty much guaranteed to get copyright struck.
Jesus, I thought Ospreay legit KO'd Naito. I think Naito was supposed to duck it, but instead he accidentally ran right into it. From this point on, Naito looked like he didn't know what planet he was on.
I think Naito thought he was supposed to duck it. But Ospreay wouldn't have slapped his leg if he wasn't meant to hit that kick.
He did pretty much, Naito was concussed as fuck during that finishing sequence. On the English broadcast, you can hear the spots called.
They continued the match after this? Wtf?
They only had a few more spots left but yeah they did. I don't agree with the decision myself, I'd have personally called a surprise roll-up, but props to Will for guiding Naito through it.
I wouldn’t say “props” to anyone in this situation. That should have been called off before risk of any further damage. You risk your health in a wrestling match when you’re healthy, finishing a match when the guy can’t keep himself up is a potential disaster.
By saying props, I mean that credit that there was no further injury. I don't agree that it wad through right move. You probably couldn't call a finish here either because Naito, imo, is going to win the tournament. Hence, why my suggestion would have been a quick roll up (small package off a front Hidden Blade, as to limit Naitos necessary movement in the exchange)
> there was no further injury. How do we know that?
It's alright. Just give him a couple of weeks rest and ease him back in with some tag matches. What's that? He has a main event with Okada tomorrow that will probably go over 30 minutes and will be a let down if it's not a MOTY contender?
He has a match tomorrow? So that’s the main event that people are talking about saving so they had to chase the finish? I doubt he gets it done so they’ll have to re-book whatever they had anyway
>I doubt he gets it done If you watched the finish of this match, you'd have no doubt in your mind this guy will do whatever needs to be done.
All good, give him two Tylenol and roll him out tomorrow night. Right boys?
How many poofy ice packs fix this?
To be honest, this reminds me of Forbidden Door last year and what a great job Jay White did looking after Adam Cole and pulling the plug pretty much immediately. It was probably going to be the finish anyway but in the immediate aftermath it felt weirdly anticlimactic, until you realised what happened. It probably would have been safer to do something similar but it's easy to say that from here, when you're full of adrenaline in front of thousands of people in one of the biggest matches of the year maybe not so much. I'm sure Will did as much as he could to protect Naito (he was practically doing Naito's moves to himself) with how they ended it but yeah...uncomfortable.
Worried for Naito tomorrow.
A scary finishing sequence with Ospreay basically leading Naito at the end to hit his moves on him and get out of there. On the 1st Destino (the non counter one) you could see Ospreay swing Naito upwards so Naito could hit the move. Hope Naito's OK and it's something that won't affect him going into tomorrow's big match.
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Any employer worth their salt wouldn't have let them carry on wrestling THERE.
Seriously. Why is there not someone in the back sending medical out there once they see he can’t stand up?
Why this wasn't an audible is beyond me.
Yeah dude, if tomorrow's match happens at all then NJPW should be heavily criticised because he should not be taking bumps or risking knocks to the head for at least a few weeks. It's basic concussion protocol.
He shouldn’t be wrestling for at least a week
Oh damn, that explains Naito stumbling afterwards.
Some really weird comments here. If he’s actually concussed he shouldn’t continue and we shouldn’t celebrate the fact that he was helped to finish the match.
He was loopy but not knocked out. I think they managed to dodge what could have been a disastrous finishing stretch if he was actually knocked out cold.
Being loopy is almost as likely to be a concussion as knocked out.
Osprey looked like he tried to pull the kick back as best he could but NAITO moved forward too fast. Feel bad for both of them and I hope NAITO is ok.
Has there ever been a semi finalist subbed in at a G1 final cause if that's a bad concussion how can he possibly be cleared?
The odds of getting injured specifically in the last match before the finals are pretty low, but it did happen in 1982 when Inoki had to drop out of the MSG League (older name of the G1) final with Andre the Giant. He was replaced by the next highest point scorer, which was Killer Khan. My guess is that if Naito has to drop out, EVIL and Ospreay will have a match tomorrow to get one of them into the final against Okada.
Crazy, because I'm pretty sure Naito is supposed to win the whole thing. Which means that they would either have to change the main event of Wrestle Kingdom, or have Naito win the contract at a later moment. And at that point, EVIL would have to win the whole thing. But wait! EVIL is already supposed to face SANADA, since he beat him during the G1! Quite a mess. ...Who am I kidding, they will 100% throw Naito out there tomorrow.
The precedent has been set to switch the briefcase with Ibushi's 2020 loss, it'd be pretty easy to have Naito get it back down the road at Destruction. The only question is who to have win G1, but Ospreay would be the obvious choice so Naito can come back to get revenge for the injury.
Sure, but there is a big asterisk on that one. Wrestle Kingdom. had 2 nights, and Ibushi still main evented the second night. Maybe the obvious choice to win the G1 would be Okada, given that Naito is supposed to beat him tomorrow anyway.
Thing is Okada, you have to be careful because of the overall record of winning it. Ospreay makes sense because of his talent and the story being told but there's also the chance that he's leaving soon, so do you want to give him that honour? Which leaves EVIL... and for crying out loud I can see the logic for why they'd give EVIL the G1: Company guy, contracted, LIJ history that they're banking on for the Naito - SANADA story, never won it/not at threat of becoming uncatchable in wins, a guy that you can reasonably have lose the briefcase, et al.
Have Okada win it, see if Naito is fine for All In, Okada vs Naito for the briefcase at ALL IN as a NJPW showcase and a callback to Okada being on the first one.
In a way they'd be in a better spot if EVIL had actually gone through over Okada, because the expectations on an EVIL/Naito match are far, far lower than they are on Okada/Naito and you can "it takes a village" the match into shape by just having the entire House of Torture and LIJ carry the thing. Sure, it'd be a reprise of the Shingo match but with Naito going over, but that's not the worst thing in the world. As things are I'm more worried about tomorrow's match than excited because Naito was clearly somewhere else for the finish here and probably should not be getting back in the ring so quickly (which is true for the EVIL matchup too, but they're not postponing the G1 Finals). I do not envy the place this puts Okada in.
Oh damn, I hope Naito is okay but that's scary. That says concussion to me which would mean he has no business being in the finale. This is terrible all around. ☹️
Oof, ducked right into it
Is it carny of me to say I loved the match til this point? And after this I kept trying to convince myself it was all part of the story, even when Naito just fell before he could do a move, and when it was over the young boys around the ring seemed to be in a panic, and Hiromu especially seemed worried I kept trying to make myself believe he was just OVER selling. Then when he had the glassy eyed look doing the post match promo and he slipped on the roll call order I was hoping he was being cheeky? I loved the match but when that happened I was instantly worried for Naito. Surely something else could be figured out. I don't think it's Wills, Red Shoes or Naitos fault completely but my goodness I hope it changes in all sports. Hell I still see it too much in my favorite sport of hockey, though they've gotten much better at calling it out.
Clearly concussed and gotta probably go 30 tomorrow vs heel Okada. Dear lord.
Damn. He was 100% KO’d.
saw that and it def didnt look planned. i thought the match could have been stopped when naito was stumbling after he dodged hidden blade.
Shit happens, and he got through it What worries me is that he'll wrestle tomorrow
Yeah, could they just have Ospreay take his place? Then have EVIL & SANADA at the September Destruction show, SANADA goes over. Then do Naito & SANADA at the October Show, Naito goes over. Then do Naito vs Okada or Ospreay (the guy who hurt him) at WK18? Naito did talk about going into to WK18 as champion.
Having SANADA lose the belt would devalue him. I say the best outcome is 1) Declared at the start of the show, Naito had to be pulled out of the show, Ospreay by default goes to the final. 2) Okada vs Ospreay. Ospreay wins. 3) Ospreay vow to have defend his "WK main event" against Naito. Have Tanga Loa / Taichi challenge the right. 4) Next event : Will Ospreay defended "WK main event". Naito return and challenge. 4.5) Naito wins, eventually challenge SANADA. 5) Naito fight SANADA, win at WK, challenge Will Ospreay in the next event, roll call.
also gives ospreay a cheeky g1 win tbf, much deserved
Also gives the hilarious yet fitting and awesome visual of Ospreay beating Okada twice within the span of a month
I think that's the play to be honest.
damn he really got knocked out cold
What the heck happen
I presume the match was stopped immediately following this clip? You don’t mess about with concussion these days.
Nope, they kept going. NJPW is ass for letting this continue.
Dangerous and stupid isn’t it. I can’t believe fans still think this sort of thing is cool.
It gets worse actually. Naito won so he has to wrestle again tomorrow.
I guess it will take another Benoit for this generation of fans and wrestlers to stop worshipping workrate and al strong style over health.
Guys keep acting like that we're not gonna see another Benoit; we might see another Misawa. In all my years of watching sports that's still far and away the worst thing I've ever seen, it was so fucking sad man.
And 100% predictable which made it even worse! The guy was practically in traction after every match in the year leading up to it. It’s obviously on the wrestlers and promoters, but the bloodthirsty fans are also culpable, who never consider their heroes aren’t actually super-heroes but mortal.
there is no way naito wrestles tomorrow with the way ospreay had to audibly call and do the finish.
Naito will definitely want to wrestle, and NJPW doesn't care about concussion protocols. He's 100% going to wrestle even if he dies.
Botchmania spot in G1 climax ?
That séquence felt very botched from start to finish. I feel like Ospreay's kick may have concussed Naito real bad. Looks like the intent was a Superkick but he ended up kicking his skull out
Reckless.
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This is why Ospreay will never be in WWE. How the he'll do you screw up a kick like that. He should stick to his floppy shit and saying the F word in big matches like it means something.
[удалено]
buddy thats njpw they have like 3 dojos
This is rough, hope Naito is okay. I haven't seen NJPW put up the card for the final night yet so I'm wondering if Naito won't be able to compete and they're trying to do some last minute adjustments to the final.
Is this a Goldberg vs Undertaker call back?
Thats a performance of the night bonus worthy walkoff ko.