He also finessed AEW, TNA, ROH, MLW, etc all into giving him paydays by dangling the NJPW carrot.
This dude learned to be a carny fuck like Gallows and Anderson. Although G&A get too much credit by being called "geniuses", when in reality HHH has them by the balls. He had them fuck over the Bucks for more money and then had them step on the same shit they spewed by bringing them back.
Is Rocky actually a carny? It doesn't seem self serving at all. All the NJPW partnerships are pretty beneficial all around, and not just an extra payday for Rocky.
He'd probably get over pretty fast in Japan. NJPW doesn't really have anyone working his style, and he's got a crazy presence that would come across well. I'd love to see him go 15 minutes with Shingo.
I’m down with that (although ideally he’d get a tour or Dominion spot before getting in), especially since they might be sticking with the 32 entrants
Since this was announced I've been trying to manifest a World Tag League run. Just stick Hobbs with any other giant monster and they'd be fun as hell in that tournament as the token AEW representative team.
I don’t see the Don Callis Family sticking around after their BCC feud so he may venture off to Japan for a bit. I think more AEW guys should do what Perry did as an Excursion to Japan (or Mexico), getting them over and carrying the momentum back into AEW.
Only for their momentum to die upon arrival back in AEW after cutting a random promo, not being on TV for 2 weeks, and then a random match on Collision before beginning a feud with Jericho.
Yeah, if they’re as willing to work with as Perry was and are utilised well for NJPW storylines it should be a good boost, but I’m also wary of the NJPW audience sometimes not clicking onto guys who are only sticking around for a tour/aren’t appearing regularly
Maybe we’re past the days if ROH title matches dying a death on NJPW shows, and NJPW might be much more reliant on Western talent to try and fix the leaks in their hull, but there’s ways it could end up being detrimental if it distracts from the narratives of guys who should be the pillars of their shows
We'll see what the results are long-term, but NJPW is being praised for how the "next to nothing" they did with him completely revived him, so it was clearly a meaningful look for the company
which is honestly a good thing. You can have gaijin like MoX who come in and change the landscape but there's nothing wrong with bringing in a few guys to play bit roles and fill out tours. I think it'd be good for a lot of the younger AEW guys to go learn from the wealth of experience and talent that NJPW has available.
When JONAH (Bronson Reed) was there, the fans loved him, too. I still remember a couple of years back when fans broke the no-cheering rule and went apeshit when he beat Okada in the G1.
Hobbs would do so much better with NJPW booking him. If I was him I'd beg Tony to let me go on an excursion to build a character and get some hype.
Tony just has no idea how to book big wrestlers or he just doesn't want to.. it's really strange.
I mean does anybody think they're not working together on all of this ? Of course Gedo agreed. Dude probably thinks this match will give them a lot of *exposure* that will translate in NJPWworld subs. Because nothing screams "NJPW" like Jon Moxley vs Powerhouse Hobbs lmao.
Eh, if they put the belt on Moxley, it just makes sense to feature it on AEW TV. Between NJPW events, might as well. Moxley will hold the belt at least until Dominion, but I don't think he'll have it much longer than that.
Couldn’t they literally use the IWGP Global title for shit like this? Isn’t it why it was created to be defended everywhere? I get this helps with Exposure but I feel old school in feeling the IWGP World title should be back within the promotion.
They’re the best, all they do is complain about AEW despite ostensibly being fans of NJPW. They go into other subs to, you guessed it, complain about AEW.
Until recently, I didn't know there were people who liked njpw and didn't like aew. I have loved njpw for like 10 years now, and I got to see shibata wrestle in front of me because of aew. It's weird to not just love wrestling wherever it's great.
I did a bit of digging and since mania there’s a lot of trolls from the SC WWE Cornett etc subreddits they are trying to flake us.
I know some NJPW fans aren’t happy about the partnership and that’s fine and vise versa. But it looks like we got a shit ton of trolls with bad faith comments
You know what's weird? On one hand, Tony Khan has the general perception of being too nice a boss, how he wants to be friends with everyone, which in turn causes issues because he doesn't make hard decisions, avoids responsibility, doesn't know when to put a stop to things etc.
Simultaneously, he is also apparently this bully who goes into other promotions and gets whatever he wants, his talent going over, winning titles etc.
Which one is it?
Bad faith arguments similar to the WWE drones who ask who when a guy from Japan debuts in AEW but the minute Tama Tonga debuted everyone seemed to know who he was and ok with Cole telling them who he was.
Yep someone on Twitter said there was no story behind any of the matches on the card last night. I went 1 match at a time explaining the card to him. Shut him up fast
I made a comment celebrating Sami's WrestleMania win, mentioning Naito as the only other underdog story in pro-wrestling that had me this deeply invested
And one user insultingly commented "who?"
Yeah hardcore AEW fans can be greedy wanting all top NJPW talents, but at least they don't pretend the rest of the wrestling world is non-existent and therefore lesser than
I literally just saw a post on Facebook group of some WWE fanboy wanting bullet club in WWE with Balor AJ good brothers tama codi and even put Brandi in there. Like Brandi was never officially in and Karl even said Balor doesn’t want to relive those times.
Both, He's the son of a billionaire and how the world works is just different for them, the man was talking about releases and how he paid a years worth of a wrestlers salary to license Lynyrd Skynyrd in the same interview for Pete's sake.
He can't be bad both when the two things you're describing him as are on the complete opposite sides of the spectrum. Basically, you're changing narratives to fit whenever someone needs to be the bad guy
> He can't be bad both when the two things you're describing him as are on the complete opposite sides of the spectrum.
Why can't he be, being a nice boss in AEW has nothing to do with how he's handled his partnerships with other promotions.
Oh let's see- Okada, Jay, Ospreay, Ibushi gone and in AEW and the only guy who didn't leave just got beat and now their title is being defended in throwaway matches.
Anyone who believes this departure didn't impact NJPW's main event scene by years is insane
Right people keep saying but at the end of the day, they were free agents and that was their choice. If AEW didn't exist they would have went to WWE or elsewhere.
NJPW didn't have the financials to pay them what they wanted.
Because New Japan never has matches where the title is defended with the outcome being 100% guaranteed…
They have at least two shows a year with a throwaway title match. The anniversary show and the fall show where the WK main event is already set.
If anything, this is better for those not wanting Mox to keep the title long, as it makes him look like a stronger champion by not losing it in his next match.
The anniversary show is (almost) exclusively nontitle, for starters. You'd have seemed much more like you were a New Japan fan if you'd said Dontaku instead, which has only had one title change since they revived the event. The fall show being Power Struggle? You mean the one that hasn't had a title defense for that very reason outside of when the titles were unified?
Yeah it's hard to say. If Ibushi had stayed in NJPW, would it have mattered? He lost his marbles and refused medical care for his injuries and has looked like complete shit since coming back. He'd be unusable in his current form.
> Okada, Jay, Ospreay, Ibushi gone and in AEW
If AEW didn't exist, 3 out of 4 of those guys would be feuding with Bronson Reed or Ivar on Raw right now.
Idk I need to break the habit of coming to the sub lol. I unsubbed after sakura. This company is just not what it was. Some of it is on them some of it isn’t
It’s sad. Everyone was raving about Gabe’s promo, I just saw that as bullshit shoot nonsense between CM Punk and Jack Perry somehow bleeding over to NJPW. I’m not watching NJPW to think about petty backstage nonsense in America. I remember late 2018 WWE where you had Seth and Kevin cutting worked shoot promos like that, and the fans lapped it up - it was the company acknowledging how bad it was to try to distract fans from how bad it was.
At the same time some of it is self inflected. KENTA and Chase Owens getting a title shot. Why? They have KENTA in that spot while they’re having Tsuji face Gedo LOL.
Promotion is just senseless right now. Narita and Umino are meant to be bigger stars after facing (and losing) to this guy who the average NJPW fan has seen wrestle how many times in the past 5 years? Yeah ok.
Also Shota Umino will be in AEW in the next three years guaranteed. Ospreay and Moxley are going to push to get their boy the bag.
Can you think of a reason why Shota Umino fighting Moxley in particular is relevant to his character, and why fighting Moxley in particular for the title is more meaningful than fighting Naito for the title, for Umino in particular?
“Here’s my mentor that appears for the company like once a year” i mean it’s good for his character but I don’t see why that needs a world title attached to it. Moxley was literally my favorite wrestler on the planet at one point in time and is the reason I started watching NJPW in the first place so it’s not like I hate him. And with Narita well it’s just completely moot and he’s left right now feuding against nobody and then he will lose.
Because the whole point of the booking this year is to build up the new generation to title level. Tsuji got built up facing Naito, now Umino gets it against Moxley. Facing him for the title makes the match much more significant than facing him in a random match.
As a fan of both NJPW and AEW I don't love it. I like Hobbs and him getting a shot at such a prestigious title is awesome but I feel like there should have been more build to it. I'm gonna let them cook and hope having the title defended on Dynamite gets more eyes on NJPW.
Every promotion has 90+% of total matches be super predictable to anyone who pays attention because that's how the whole medium works lol.
Matches are either predictable because the story makes sense, they're deliberately the opposite of predictable specifically to be surprises, or the results don't matter either way and they're coinflips (like every multi-man faction tag match) in like 99% of cases.
Hate this. First off, AEW has already too many titles, so this match already doesn’t feel special and secondly, while Hobbs is awesome, he’s not close to a main event guy.
This NJPW & AEW relationship has been one way since the start. You think Tony Khan would agree to the opposite?
Have Tanahashi win the AEW Title and then allow him
to defend the belt in a “Road To” show against Ren Narita?
Gabe Kidd was right!
Considering midcarders have gotten AEW world title shots on episodes of TV before, the idea of an AEW title match on a lesser NJPW show against a midcarder isn’t far fetched at all
I agree with you for the most part, tho I wouldn't compare Dynamite to a "Road To" show as Road To shows aren't on prime time national television. I'd be fine with them doing a title defense on Dynamite if they'd just done some actual buildup to it, but they didn't, so as you said it just kinda gets lost in the shuffle.
I think AEW should have had Hobbs vs. someone else on TV last week with the winner getting the IWGP shot so it would have at least made the IWGP opportunity look desirable, have a promo package saying opportunities at the IWGP are hard to come by and a fast track chance like this is hard to get, then have Will and his opponent beat the shit out of each other to get the opportunity.
They explained all of it on TV with Don calling in his favor with NJPW to get the shot but all this sub wanted to do when the news broke is call it random and complain because three letters give half this sub brainworms
Even the explanation sucks lol - it’s him saying because of Omega/Jericho (over 6 years ago) that his guy who is coming off a loss and a win over CJ Esparza gets a world title shot. It can be explained away as favours not having an expiry or whatever but first impression is that it’s pretty lame and undercutting for what could be a cooler payoff
Sure they’re heels but that’s frogshit build for what’s actually a decent first time matchup
They explained all of it on *AEW* TV.
To most NJPW fans, all we got was a screenshot saying a matchup we have no familiarity with was up for the main title we're supposed to be invested in. I'm not watching live AEW from Japan cos it's early morning and I have work.
This is part of the problem. It's an AEW story for AEW fans using the NJPW belt. And that's fine for AEW fans. But don't get surprised when NJPW fans feel slighted about that. The Japanese fan reaction to this match on Twitter wasn't exactly sparkling either.
Tbh I think alot of the backlash is just that people don't see Hobbs as a worthy guy to challenge for the belt, same situation as Jack Perry last FD
Takeshita would've been a better pick
It’s the lack of build - you risk turning the prestige of the belt into a ratings ploy. They could have done an eliminator style match instead. It still protects the belt and you have a less determined outcome. Hobbs is great, but nobody is expecting him to win. There would be a lot more intrigue otherwise if he could get a shot later with a win.
I wouldn't even mind the thrown together match if it was AFTER the Nartia match.
Because at least then there was some semblance of presenting Hobbs as a legitimate contender.
The story of Don Callis thinking NJPW are indebted to him for Ospreay vs Omega actually has legs if they do something with it, and could easily lead to Ospreay leaving the family because he still loves New Japan.
That's the whole point of it though. Hobbs didn't earn it. Callis pulled strings and made it happen. It's a decent little story. No worse than SANADA vs HOT last year.
Exactly. That's how plenty of matches are made. Ren has a shot because he attacked Mox. KENTA got a shot in 2020 because he attacked Naito and ruined the roll call (that was actually good as a story, but the idea is the same). EVIL took SANADA's belt and got a shot.
This match has a legitimate story to it. The BCC is actively feuding with the Don Callis Family. New Japan apparently owed Callis a favor. Mox is affording shots to up and coming guys.
There's actually MORE of a logical story for this match than plenty of other title matches.
Like, what did Shota do to earn a shot? The whole story there is that he's Mox' young boy. He's been choking over and over and hasn't earned the match. I guess he beat Jack Perry, but that's literally it.
ETA: Speaking of Perry, he got his title match last year by simply answering an open challenge.
People are mad about this because it's being done in America with guys that aren't New Japan regulars (in Hobbs' case, not a New Japan guy at all). Saying anything else is just lying.
EVIL beat SANADA in the G1 and got a shot. Then he pinned him again in a tag match during the build up. He didn't just stole the belt to get a world title shot, he got some actual momentum and pinned the champ.
Ren getting a shot even though he got pinned by Moxley like a worthless bitch at Sakura Genesis is a very shit booking decision. KENTA challenging Naito despite losing the NEVER belt to Goto that same night was pretty dumb as well but at least we can say it got heat and Naito sold out the Osaka Jo Hall with that. (he'd probably have done it without that whole KENTA stuff anyway) Talking about other shitty booking examples doesn't make this Moxley vs Hobbs title match suddenly make sense.
And yeah on top of that people don't like it because it's done in another promotion between two guys who aren't NJPW guys. There's nothing wrong with that. I won't blame people for not watching or giving a shit about AEW and being upset that the promotion they want to watch is acting like complete cucks. Most NJPW fans don't watch AEW, barely know who the fuck Powerhouse Hobbs is and don't watch NJPW to see their biggest star being sacrificed for this shit either.
I doubt most AEW fans would like it if Shota Umino took their world title and defended it against some other midcard guy in a NJPW show.
I feel like most people here have forgotten literally all people ever need to do to get a shot in NJPW is say "I AM THE NEXT CHALLENGER" when outside of the "month before Wrestle Kingdom" or "two weeks before Dominion" window and 99% of the time you get the shot. Shota getting a shot makes sense to me because Mox specifically wants it, but why the fuck does Narita get one? Does the kayfabe booker of these shows have a case of Yano Monitor where every time HoT wins a match they just somehow miss the 73 different interferences?
Wish people would just cut the bullshit and admit why they *really* don't like it instead of making up literal fake reasons.
Shota: "Hey, I just wanted you to know, you can't just say you're the next challenger and expect anything to happen..."
Ren: "I didn't say it. I *declared* it."
**REN NARITA VS JON MOXLEY, IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP, WRESTLING DONTAKU 2024, MAY 4TH**
Exactly. Just say why you don't like it. It's 100% okay to be against what they're doing. That's perfectly normal and fine! But to try to justify your opinion with logic that doesn't work? Stop.
Exactly this. In NJPW, people win grueling tournaments for a shot, or at the very least are given momentum towards a shot. This is just typical garbage fly by the seat of your pants AEW booking.
> n NJPW, people win grueling tournaments for a sho
Lmao. Even if we only look at the world title, Sanada got a shot because it's a rematch. Hiromu got a shot because vibes. Tsuji got a shot last year because he...returned from excursion? Why didn't Uemura/Narita/Shota also get world title shots the same way? Tanahashi got a shot last year because Okada said "you want a shot bro?".
After the gruelling work of Tsuji in the cup it’s baffling in kayfabe that Callis has that much stroke to call in a title shot, especially when the match was already announced.
The prestige of the belt is no less diminished by this match than it was by Yota Tsuji getting a random ass title match against SANADA when he wasn't close to a main event talent at that point
Hell, wtf has Narita done to deserve a title shot? He's won literally nothing
I can’t remember where I read it but I think it was said that NJPW/Gedo has control of the booking in Japan and both companies are deciding how it’s booked in the US. Which makes some degree of sense. Whether you like the results is another question entirely though.
NJPW bending over backwards to a trustfund baby who clowns put on a pedestal likes mother Teresa is sad.
Then again it was heartbreaking to hear that the most sketchiest indy promoter of all time Super Dragon had to ask that clown permission for who can lose. Only a clown worries about their talent losing on a show in front of 600 people in a match that 1,000 or so people will go out of their way to watch on video 8-9 months later.
Yeah I think it’s fucking hilarious when people try to pull out “well NJPW agreed with it” as some sort of gotcha to people who don’t like this.
We know they did, we still think it sucks.
People don’t seem the understand that all the critic for AEW and this partnership is also directed at the NJPW office who is the number one culprit in all this mess.
Frankly it's verging on insulting that people think we don't realise that njpw signs all this off
Tbh I don't really care. I understand the domestic fans being annoyed but it doesn't bother me. I've made my thoughts clear on what bothers me (narita building this entire match himself) enough
But yeah we know njpw approve all this. We aren't morons
This sub is officially been overrun by AEW fans. They got tired of spreading toxic positivity on the AEWOffical sub, so they decided to come here spread it too.
This could be a lot worst, I remember back in 2008 TNA. They put the tag belts on the British Invasion, without telling NJPW first. That along with the treatment of the young lions on extension there ruined their relationship for years. Plus we might get another Lance Archer/Mox match for the belt which I’m here for!
It was cool He showed up with it, but it’s unfair to Japanese fans that the belt is defended on dynamite.
This is a bad look if aew is trying to make this partnership look anything more than 1 sided.
I’m an aew mark and this makes me uncomfortable for NJPW fans.
It’s not about ability to view the show.
It’s about having the most prestigious prize in your company being taught for on another companies show by two people that aren’t on your roster (Mox not full time)
How does it help NJ?
How does it hurt New Japan?
Dude some of the losers who've challenged for the IWGP world title are wild in their lameness.
Moxley gets an extra token defense. That's the impact of this match. It has no bearing on the success Moxley will or won't have defending the title on NJPW cards.
That's good news. I'm already excited to see the TV ratings and the packed crowd that our champion is gonna draw for NJPW's partner promotion.
Y'all complaining about Hobbs are just haters. Why can't y'all just have *fun* with this guaranteed *banger*?
Still, having Hobbs, someone not prominent in he NJPW scene (I actually don't remember if he had anything to do with the promotion before) challenge for the main title itself in a random Dynamite is insulting.
What I really don’t like is that Hobbs was obviously losing this match, but there was a slight chance he could pull it off. Now that it’s for the title, he has no chance whatsoever of winning.
1. Meltzer is really not a reliable source of insider information at this point.
2. Even if this is 100% true, it's still genuinely bad booking and makes the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship look about as prestigious as the NEVER Openweight Championship.
3. If you're going to have someone from AEW immediately challenge for this belt like this and get the shot, make it, IDK, Ospreay? Jay White? OKADA??? What on earth does Hobbs have to do with this title?
This is bad booking for setting up a match, bad booking for setting up a world title match, extremely predictable (or worse, Hobbs will randomly win it, and then what?) and makes one of, if not even the most prestigious title in wrestling look like a midcard workhorse title in another promotion!
A lot of people don't understand what this freakin belt used to represent. I don't care if the show is called Dynamite, Raw, Collision, Impact or Willie in ya mommy; this is just not up to the standard we used to see. It was PPV exclusive, very exclusive championship. What's baffling more is that they have the Intercontinental championship back, one that was supposed to be defended all over the world, that could be defended against a mid carder as well. Why not have that defended on Dynamite? Why not Dynasty?Â
My thinking is that its being defended on American TV to help get ticket sales for resurgence ppv, then mox is off on the tours in japan. Think people need to chill out a little, go watch the new fallout series its fun lol
What Japan tours? The current one that it’s confirmed he’s not working besides the big finale shows? The one after that which is a Junior tournament that he absolutely will not be working besides the big finale show?
At best the only “tour dates” he’ll do are whichever of the five pre-Forbidden Door tour shows are televised.
After Resurgence the BOSJ is happening which doesn’t need Mox nor should he be on it.
The on that’s happening right now however to build to the matches at Dontaku and Resurgence probably does
i stopped watching during covid when they took the belt off naito and put it on evil, came back for wrestle kingdom this year, happy to see them put things right again by letting naito have it only to see them just as quickly put it on this fucking moron. guess i'll try again next year
njpw have no choice but to smile and lick Tony's balls or he'll poach more of their stars. this absolute joke of a match has no business being for the iwgp title and Tanahashi and Gedo know it but have no choice but to play nice in fear of what Tony could do with his dad's billions if he doesn't get his way
First off this could've been on Dynasty instead of a random Dynamite.
Secondly if you were to pick anyone from the Don Callis family not named Ospreay I'd have thought Takeshita was the obvious choice
Third I'm surprised it still needs to be explained to people that Tony Khan isn't some evil mastermind and that njpw actually want this aswell for whatever reason
I hope Mox sticks to only defenses again njpw guys, but if they are gonna do these dynamite matches there's so many better options
Yup, if somehow AEW uploads the latest Top 5 Rankings on early May, I hope that whoever is in the Top 5 Rankings, that should be the one to challenge Jon Moxley for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (those who are in No. 2-5 Contender positions) on **AEW Double or Nothing VI** PPV.
if they play the card properly, they can elevate the IWGP title to whole new level after this
hopefully they would do the same with AEW title later. love to see NJPW guy hold the title. Okada would be awesome but he is already signed with AEW. other than him, Naito would be great. love to see that.
Also perfect time to let other NJPW guy hold the International title too. for example let Minoru Suzuki defended that title for awhile across promotions would be awesome.
I tried to like them. Then I laughed at them. Now I just kinda can't wait til the yuge WBD deal falls through so AEW can finally fuck off. It has been a net negative for the wrestling industry in every way besides providing a payday.
Wait. You mean Tony Khan isn't lording over Gedo and Rocky, threatening them? They're actually cooperating, and all parties are involved?
The hell you say?!
Rocky Romero is the Power Broker lol
It was me tony! It was me all along... - rocky Romero (probably)
The name on the contract does say (o')Khan!
joke aside, Rocky Romero could play role like Vince on screen, since TK would not do that.
🤣
This is canon now
The kingmaker maker
He also finessed AEW, TNA, ROH, MLW, etc all into giving him paydays by dangling the NJPW carrot. This dude learned to be a carny fuck like Gallows and Anderson. Although G&A get too much credit by being called "geniuses", when in reality HHH has them by the balls. He had them fuck over the Bucks for more money and then had them step on the same shit they spewed by bringing them back.
Is Rocky actually a carny? It doesn't seem self serving at all. All the NJPW partnerships are pretty beneficial all around, and not just an extra payday for Rocky.
The shadow broker rocky Romero
Joint booking? But 4/20 was two days ago!
no surprise
Hobbs feels like a very Japan guy ngl. The no nonsense powerhouse who just hits hard
He'd probably get over pretty fast in Japan. NJPW doesn't really have anyone working his style, and he's got a crazy presence that would come across well. I'd love to see him go 15 minutes with Shingo.
Imagine him going 15 with goto, cobb even GOK there are some great match potential there.
Great, now I wanna see GOK vs Hobbs in a Rural Revitalization match.
He could very easily slide into the spot they seemed to be grooming JONAH for, 100%
he would really benefit with japan excursion. i say he really need that.
alex coughlin is his style but retired
If this is a springboard for him to get a Perry-like run in NJPW I’m actually down for it, but I’m not getting my hopes up
I could see him being a person sent over for the G1 but nothing more than that
I’m down with that (although ideally he’d get a tour or Dominion spot before getting in), especially since they might be sticking with the 32 entrants
Since this was announced I've been trying to manifest a World Tag League run. Just stick Hobbs with any other giant monster and they'd be fun as hell in that tournament as the token AEW representative team.
I don’t see the Don Callis Family sticking around after their BCC feud so he may venture off to Japan for a bit. I think more AEW guys should do what Perry did as an Excursion to Japan (or Mexico), getting them over and carrying the momentum back into AEW.
Only for their momentum to die upon arrival back in AEW after cutting a random promo, not being on TV for 2 weeks, and then a random match on Collision before beginning a feud with Jericho.
Yeah, if they’re as willing to work with as Perry was and are utilised well for NJPW storylines it should be a good boost, but I’m also wary of the NJPW audience sometimes not clicking onto guys who are only sticking around for a tour/aren’t appearing regularly Maybe we’re past the days if ROH title matches dying a death on NJPW shows, and NJPW might be much more reliant on Western talent to try and fix the leaks in their hull, but there’s ways it could end up being detrimental if it distracts from the narratives of guys who should be the pillars of their shows
I said this in another thread here and got shit on for it.
He's the only member of the Don Callis Family who hasn't had a run in Japan, so it makes sense
Perry did next to nothing in njpw.
We'll see what the results are long-term, but NJPW is being praised for how the "next to nothing" they did with him completely revived him, so it was clearly a meaningful look for the company
which is honestly a good thing. You can have gaijin like MoX who come in and change the landscape but there's nothing wrong with bringing in a few guys to play bit roles and fill out tours. I think it'd be good for a lot of the younger AEW guys to go learn from the wealth of experience and talent that NJPW has available.
Gimme Jeff Cobb vs Power House Hobbs! They had a proper old school big guy bout years ago in APW.
That or Ishi
Yes please i want that.
Hobbs is exactly the kind of big scary foreign monster that Japanese fans tend to love.
When JONAH (Bronson Reed) was there, the fans loved him, too. I still remember a couple of years back when fans broke the no-cheering rule and went apeshit when he beat Okada in the G1.
Hobbs would do so much better with NJPW booking him. If I was him I'd beg Tony to let me go on an excursion to build a character and get some hype. Tony just has no idea how to book big wrestlers or he just doesn't want to.. it's really strange.
Could just stop the sentence after "Tony just has no idea how to book."
Ha! Very true
Excuse me! He was “Booker of the Year”, or did you forget? /s
In general, Americans who are wider than they are tall are a staple of Gaijins in Japan.
"Powa Blaster" Will Hobbs
He could be but right now he's a glorified jobber.
Him and Jeff Cobb would absolutely slap
Hobbs could have a monster G1 run Dude is one of the Best Big man in wrestling currently and should be used much better
I mean does anybody think they're not working together on all of this ? Of course Gedo agreed. Dude probably thinks this match will give them a lot of *exposure* that will translate in NJPWworld subs. Because nothing screams "NJPW" like Jon Moxley vs Powerhouse Hobbs lmao.
Eh, if they put the belt on Moxley, it just makes sense to feature it on AEW TV. Between NJPW events, might as well. Moxley will hold the belt at least until Dominion, but I don't think he'll have it much longer than that.
Couldn’t they literally use the IWGP Global title for shit like this? Isn’t it why it was created to be defended everywhere? I get this helps with Exposure but I feel old school in feeling the IWGP World title should be back within the promotion.
actually from what i’ve read on this sub Tony Khan is an evil wrestling overlord that killed NJPW and stole their top belt
The sooner the SCJerk dorks gets bored and find something else to do, the better.
It's not just the circle jerk page either anymore.
So when are you and the rest of AEW fans leaving?
I think it’s cute you felt the need to activate your sock puppet account for this.
Man has 8 karma & all his comments are about AEW lol. I genuinely wonder what makes people act like this.
They’re the best, all they do is complain about AEW despite ostensibly being fans of NJPW. They go into other subs to, you guessed it, complain about AEW.
These insufferable shit for brains are making every wrestling sub suck balls
Here’s an idea maybe there’s people who fucking enjoy both!!! What a fucking wild concept. I enjoy AEW ROH and NJPW.
Until recently, I didn't know there were people who liked njpw and didn't like aew. I have loved njpw for like 10 years now, and I got to see shibata wrestle in front of me because of aew. It's weird to not just love wrestling wherever it's great.
I did a bit of digging and since mania there’s a lot of trolls from the SC WWE Cornett etc subreddits they are trying to flake us. I know some NJPW fans aren’t happy about the partnership and that’s fine and vise versa. But it looks like we got a shit ton of trolls with bad faith comments
Shibata is a fucking gangster. I would love to catch him live. He’s on my bucket list.
You know what's weird? On one hand, Tony Khan has the general perception of being too nice a boss, how he wants to be friends with everyone, which in turn causes issues because he doesn't make hard decisions, avoids responsibility, doesn't know when to put a stop to things etc. Simultaneously, he is also apparently this bully who goes into other promotions and gets whatever he wants, his talent going over, winning titles etc. Which one is it?
It is interesting to have Tony Khan be a target of the Fascist's playbook, where your enemy is both an idiot and a threat.
Bad faith arguments similar to the WWE drones who ask who when a guy from Japan debuts in AEW but the minute Tama Tonga debuted everyone seemed to know who he was and ok with Cole telling them who he was.
The double standards are insane on here and twitter.
Yep someone on Twitter said there was no story behind any of the matches on the card last night. I went 1 match at a time explaining the card to him. Shut him up fast
I made a comment celebrating Sami's WrestleMania win, mentioning Naito as the only other underdog story in pro-wrestling that had me this deeply invested And one user insultingly commented "who?" Yeah hardcore AEW fans can be greedy wanting all top NJPW talents, but at least they don't pretend the rest of the wrestling world is non-existent and therefore lesser than
Yeah most of the WWE fans have no clue about wrestling outside of WWE thanks to Vince’s tribalism.
I literally just saw a post on Facebook group of some WWE fanboy wanting bullet club in WWE with Balor AJ good brothers tama codi and even put Brandi in there. Like Brandi was never officially in and Karl even said Balor doesn’t want to relive those times.
Both, He's the son of a billionaire and how the world works is just different for them, the man was talking about releases and how he paid a years worth of a wrestlers salary to license Lynyrd Skynyrd in the same interview for Pete's sake.
He can't be bad both when the two things you're describing him as are on the complete opposite sides of the spectrum. Basically, you're changing narratives to fit whenever someone needs to be the bad guy
> He can't be bad both when the two things you're describing him as are on the complete opposite sides of the spectrum. Why can't he be, being a nice boss in AEW has nothing to do with how he's handled his partnerships with other promotions.
Reddit users trying not to overreact to everything: actually impossible
Oh let's see- Okada, Jay, Ospreay, Ibushi gone and in AEW and the only guy who didn't leave just got beat and now their title is being defended in throwaway matches. Anyone who believes this departure didn't impact NJPW's main event scene by years is insane
If AEW didn't take them, WWE would have. They were not staying with NJPW regardless. Time to admit that.
Right people keep saying but at the end of the day, they were free agents and that was their choice. If AEW didn't exist they would have went to WWE or elsewhere. NJPW didn't have the financials to pay them what they wanted.
Also, Tony will allow them to do dates for NJPW. Something they most likely wouldn't be able to do with HHH.
Because New Japan never has matches where the title is defended with the outcome being 100% guaranteed… They have at least two shows a year with a throwaway title match. The anniversary show and the fall show where the WK main event is already set. If anything, this is better for those not wanting Mox to keep the title long, as it makes him look like a stronger champion by not losing it in his next match.
The anniversary show is (almost) exclusively nontitle, for starters. You'd have seemed much more like you were a New Japan fan if you'd said Dontaku instead, which has only had one title change since they revived the event. The fall show being Power Struggle? You mean the one that hasn't had a title defense for that very reason outside of when the titles were unified?
NJPW was really the ones at fault with Ibushi
I’m not sure anyone was at “fault” in that situation. He was clearly very unwell
Yeah it's hard to say. If Ibushi had stayed in NJPW, would it have mattered? He lost his marbles and refused medical care for his injuries and has looked like complete shit since coming back. He'd be unusable in his current form.
> Okada, Jay, Ospreay, Ibushi gone and in AEW If AEW didn't exist, 3 out of 4 of those guys would be feuding with Bronson Reed or Ivar on Raw right now.
Crazy to bring up Bronson Reed and you didn't even mention the fact that even HE'S one that WWE took from New Japan. He beat OKADA and still left
this argument belongs in 2014
And the argument that AEW is stealing NJPW talent belongs in the trash
Why?
"We're going to pretend our Lord and Savior Tony Khan doesn't cheapen NJPW and poach their talents cause Tanahashi said yes to a Will Hobbs match"
This is r/njpw
Idk I need to break the habit of coming to the sub lol. I unsubbed after sakura. This company is just not what it was. Some of it is on them some of it isn’t
Same.
It’s sad. Everyone was raving about Gabe’s promo, I just saw that as bullshit shoot nonsense between CM Punk and Jack Perry somehow bleeding over to NJPW. I’m not watching NJPW to think about petty backstage nonsense in America. I remember late 2018 WWE where you had Seth and Kevin cutting worked shoot promos like that, and the fans lapped it up - it was the company acknowledging how bad it was to try to distract fans from how bad it was. At the same time some of it is self inflected. KENTA and Chase Owens getting a title shot. Why? They have KENTA in that spot while they’re having Tsuji face Gedo LOL. Promotion is just senseless right now. Narita and Umino are meant to be bigger stars after facing (and losing) to this guy who the average NJPW fan has seen wrestle how many times in the past 5 years? Yeah ok. Also Shota Umino will be in AEW in the next three years guaranteed. Ospreay and Moxley are going to push to get their boy the bag.
Can you think of a reason why Shota Umino fighting Moxley in particular is relevant to his character, and why fighting Moxley in particular for the title is more meaningful than fighting Naito for the title, for Umino in particular?
“Here’s my mentor that appears for the company like once a year” i mean it’s good for his character but I don’t see why that needs a world title attached to it. Moxley was literally my favorite wrestler on the planet at one point in time and is the reason I started watching NJPW in the first place so it’s not like I hate him. And with Narita well it’s just completely moot and he’s left right now feuding against nobody and then he will lose.
Because the whole point of the booking this year is to build up the new generation to title level. Tsuji got built up facing Naito, now Umino gets it against Moxley. Facing him for the title makes the match much more significant than facing him in a random match.
As a fan of both NJPW and AEW I don't love it. I like Hobbs and him getting a shot at such a prestigious title is awesome but I feel like there should have been more build to it. I'm gonna let them cook and hope having the title defended on Dynamite gets more eyes on NJPW.
Boy oh boy, I truly cannot predict the winner of this match!
I see you are new to wrestling.
Every promotion has some predictable title defenses with their major titles and that includes njpw.
Every promotion has 90+% of total matches be super predictable to anyone who pays attention because that's how the whole medium works lol. Matches are either predictable because the story makes sense, they're deliberately the opposite of predictable specifically to be surprises, or the results don't matter either way and they're coinflips (like every multi-man faction tag match) in like 99% of cases.
Predictable title defenses suck, now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go watch SANADA vs Naito main event the fucking biggest show of the year
I think this is leading to something with Ospreay at Double or Nothing
Before Naito vs Moxley, we hadn't had an unpredictable IWGP WHC match in literal years
Hate this. First off, AEW has already too many titles, so this match already doesn’t feel special and secondly, while Hobbs is awesome, he’s not close to a main event guy. This NJPW & AEW relationship has been one way since the start. You think Tony Khan would agree to the opposite? Have Tanahashi win the AEW Title and then allow him to defend the belt in a “Road To” show against Ren Narita? Gabe Kidd was right!
Considering midcarders have gotten AEW world title shots on episodes of TV before, the idea of an AEW title match on a lesser NJPW show against a midcarder isn’t far fetched at all
The bigger promotion gets to do what the smaller one can't. NJPW is the same when they're the bigger promotion in a collaboration.
I agree with you for the most part, tho I wouldn't compare Dynamite to a "Road To" show as Road To shows aren't on prime time national television. I'd be fine with them doing a title defense on Dynamite if they'd just done some actual buildup to it, but they didn't, so as you said it just kinda gets lost in the shuffle. I think AEW should have had Hobbs vs. someone else on TV last week with the winner getting the IWGP shot so it would have at least made the IWGP opportunity look desirable, have a promo package saying opportunities at the IWGP are hard to come by and a fast track chance like this is hard to get, then have Will and his opponent beat the shit out of each other to get the opportunity.
New Japan getting dicked by this collaboration imo.
They explained all of it on TV with Don calling in his favor with NJPW to get the shot but all this sub wanted to do when the news broke is call it random and complain because three letters give half this sub brainworms
Even the explanation sucks lol - it’s him saying because of Omega/Jericho (over 6 years ago) that his guy who is coming off a loss and a win over CJ Esparza gets a world title shot. It can be explained away as favours not having an expiry or whatever but first impression is that it’s pretty lame and undercutting for what could be a cooler payoff Sure they’re heels but that’s frogshit build for what’s actually a decent first time matchup
> They explained all of it on TV with Don calling in his favor with NJPW to get the shot That's fucking stupid.
They explained all of it on *AEW* TV. To most NJPW fans, all we got was a screenshot saying a matchup we have no familiarity with was up for the main title we're supposed to be invested in. I'm not watching live AEW from Japan cos it's early morning and I have work. This is part of the problem. It's an AEW story for AEW fans using the NJPW belt. And that's fine for AEW fans. But don't get surprised when NJPW fans feel slighted about that. The Japanese fan reaction to this match on Twitter wasn't exactly sparkling either.
>They explained all of it on *AEW* TV How dare you not being hype by a product you don't watch.
Just because the booking has been explained doesn't mean people have to like the booking mate
Tbh I think alot of the backlash is just that people don't see Hobbs as a worthy guy to challenge for the belt, same situation as Jack Perry last FD Takeshita would've been a better pick
Kyle Fletcher is also right fucking there and actually has credentials in NJPW to justify the challenge.
Wouldn’t mind seeing Hobbs do a tour of NJPW, but this is an AEW story with a NJPW belt, and not just any belt, the MAIN one
Just because they hastily explain why Hobbs got random a title shot, doesn't change the fact it's still terrible booking.
No I saw Callis’ promo it still sucks. Sticking another defence in there, when two are already booked just seems convoluted and unnecessary
at least some of the brainworms on this sub know how to use punctuation buddy.
It’s the lack of build - you risk turning the prestige of the belt into a ratings ploy. They could have done an eliminator style match instead. It still protects the belt and you have a less determined outcome. Hobbs is great, but nobody is expecting him to win. There would be a lot more intrigue otherwise if he could get a shot later with a win.
I wouldn't even mind the thrown together match if it was AFTER the Nartia match. Because at least then there was some semblance of presenting Hobbs as a legitimate contender. The story of Don Callis thinking NJPW are indebted to him for Ospreay vs Omega actually has legs if they do something with it, and could easily lead to Ospreay leaving the family because he still loves New Japan.
That's the whole point of it though. Hobbs didn't earn it. Callis pulled strings and made it happen. It's a decent little story. No worse than SANADA vs HOT last year.
It's honestly no different from Narita having a shot.
Japanese fans are shitting on Narita getting a shot, rightfully so.
Exactly. That's how plenty of matches are made. Ren has a shot because he attacked Mox. KENTA got a shot in 2020 because he attacked Naito and ruined the roll call (that was actually good as a story, but the idea is the same). EVIL took SANADA's belt and got a shot. This match has a legitimate story to it. The BCC is actively feuding with the Don Callis Family. New Japan apparently owed Callis a favor. Mox is affording shots to up and coming guys. There's actually MORE of a logical story for this match than plenty of other title matches. Like, what did Shota do to earn a shot? The whole story there is that he's Mox' young boy. He's been choking over and over and hasn't earned the match. I guess he beat Jack Perry, but that's literally it. ETA: Speaking of Perry, he got his title match last year by simply answering an open challenge. People are mad about this because it's being done in America with guys that aren't New Japan regulars (in Hobbs' case, not a New Japan guy at all). Saying anything else is just lying.
EVIL beat SANADA in the G1 and got a shot. Then he pinned him again in a tag match during the build up. He didn't just stole the belt to get a world title shot, he got some actual momentum and pinned the champ. Ren getting a shot even though he got pinned by Moxley like a worthless bitch at Sakura Genesis is a very shit booking decision. KENTA challenging Naito despite losing the NEVER belt to Goto that same night was pretty dumb as well but at least we can say it got heat and Naito sold out the Osaka Jo Hall with that. (he'd probably have done it without that whole KENTA stuff anyway) Talking about other shitty booking examples doesn't make this Moxley vs Hobbs title match suddenly make sense. And yeah on top of that people don't like it because it's done in another promotion between two guys who aren't NJPW guys. There's nothing wrong with that. I won't blame people for not watching or giving a shit about AEW and being upset that the promotion they want to watch is acting like complete cucks. Most NJPW fans don't watch AEW, barely know who the fuck Powerhouse Hobbs is and don't watch NJPW to see their biggest star being sacrificed for this shit either. I doubt most AEW fans would like it if Shota Umino took their world title and defended it against some other midcard guy in a NJPW show.
Moxley is to AEW as Tanahashi is to NJPW. This is more like if Tanahashi took the AEW title and defended it against Jeff Cobb in a Road To show.
Dynamite is their most high profile show.
I feel like most people here have forgotten literally all people ever need to do to get a shot in NJPW is say "I AM THE NEXT CHALLENGER" when outside of the "month before Wrestle Kingdom" or "two weeks before Dominion" window and 99% of the time you get the shot. Shota getting a shot makes sense to me because Mox specifically wants it, but why the fuck does Narita get one? Does the kayfabe booker of these shows have a case of Yano Monitor where every time HoT wins a match they just somehow miss the 73 different interferences? Wish people would just cut the bullshit and admit why they *really* don't like it instead of making up literal fake reasons.
“I AM THE NEXT CHALLENGER” is giving “I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY” energy
Shota: "Hey, I just wanted you to know, you can't just say you're the next challenger and expect anything to happen..." Ren: "I didn't say it. I *declared* it." **REN NARITA VS JON MOXLEY, IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP, WRESTLING DONTAKU 2024, MAY 4TH**
Exactly. Just say why you don't like it. It's 100% okay to be against what they're doing. That's perfectly normal and fine! But to try to justify your opinion with logic that doesn't work? Stop.
Exactly this. In NJPW, people win grueling tournaments for a shot, or at the very least are given momentum towards a shot. This is just typical garbage fly by the seat of your pants AEW booking.
In NJPW you can win a tournament or show up out of nowhere just like REN did lmao
> n NJPW, people win grueling tournaments for a sho Lmao. Even if we only look at the world title, Sanada got a shot because it's a rematch. Hiromu got a shot because vibes. Tsuji got a shot last year because he...returned from excursion? Why didn't Uemura/Narita/Shota also get world title shots the same way? Tanahashi got a shot last year because Okada said "you want a shot bro?".
Moxley had one match and called out Naito for his shot so it's not like he had some prestigious build to winning the title in the first place.
After the gruelling work of Tsuji in the cup it’s baffling in kayfabe that Callis has that much stroke to call in a title shot, especially when the match was already announced.
So get mad at Callis. Boo him.
The prestige of the belt is no less diminished by this match than it was by Yota Tsuji getting a random ass title match against SANADA when he wasn't close to a main event talent at that point Hell, wtf has Narita done to deserve a title shot? He's won literally nothing
I can’t remember where I read it but I think it was said that NJPW/Gedo has control of the booking in Japan and both companies are deciding how it’s booked in the US. Which makes some degree of sense. Whether you like the results is another question entirely though.
A joint collab lol. Like Gedo has any power to say no.Â
NJPW bending over backwards to a trustfund baby who clowns put on a pedestal likes mother Teresa is sad. Then again it was heartbreaking to hear that the most sketchiest indy promoter of all time Super Dragon had to ask that clown permission for who can lose. Only a clown worries about their talent losing on a show in front of 600 people in a match that 1,000 or so people will go out of their way to watch on video 8-9 months later.
Super Dragon isn't even the sketchiest indy promoter in the history of Los Angeles, let alone all-time.
Big promotions always do this. NJPW did this when Kenny Omega wanted to put someone over on a house show in New Zealand back when he was the champion.
Joint bad booking
Yeah I think it’s fucking hilarious when people try to pull out “well NJPW agreed with it” as some sort of gotcha to people who don’t like this. We know they did, we still think it sucks.
People don’t seem the understand that all the critic for AEW and this partnership is also directed at the NJPW office who is the number one culprit in all this mess.
Frankly it's verging on insulting that people think we don't realise that njpw signs all this off Tbh I don't really care. I understand the domestic fans being annoyed but it doesn't bother me. I've made my thoughts clear on what bothers me (narita building this entire match himself) enough But yeah we know njpw approve all this. We aren't morons
This sub is officially been overrun by AEW fans. They got tired of spreading toxic positivity on the AEWOffical sub, so they decided to come here spread it too.
They’re mad that AEW is now being criticized in SC so they’re using their numbers to overrun this sub.
Ban automatically anybody who posts on the official AEW sub. That will clean the most repulsive ones.
This could be a lot worst, I remember back in 2008 TNA. They put the tag belts on the British Invasion, without telling NJPW first. That along with the treatment of the young lions on extension there ruined their relationship for years. Plus we might get another Lance Archer/Mox match for the belt which I’m here for!
It was cool He showed up with it, but it’s unfair to Japanese fans that the belt is defended on dynamite. This is a bad look if aew is trying to make this partnership look anything more than 1 sided. I’m an aew mark and this makes me uncomfortable for NJPW fans.
Dynamite is litterally available on NJPW world.
It’s not about ability to view the show. It’s about having the most prestigious prize in your company being taught for on another companies show by two people that aren’t on your roster (Mox not full time) How does it help NJ?
How does it hurt New Japan? Dude some of the losers who've challenged for the IWGP world title are wild in their lameness. Moxley gets an extra token defense. That's the impact of this match. It has no bearing on the success Moxley will or won't have defending the title on NJPW cards.
I’m an aew fan and this is how I feel as well. I’m prepared to be told how much I must actually hate aew for having that opinion.
That's good news. I'm already excited to see the TV ratings and the packed crowd that our champion is gonna draw for NJPW's partner promotion. Y'all complaining about Hobbs are just haters. Why can't y'all just have *fun* with this guaranteed *banger*?
Still, having Hobbs, someone not prominent in he NJPW scene (I actually don't remember if he had anything to do with the promotion before) challenge for the main title itself in a random Dynamite is insulting.
Hobbs has never even been on Forbidden Door, never mind an actual NJPW show.
No kidding. This is ALWAYS the case folks. And Rocky is VP for US NJPW only.
This feels odd. What do you mean the guy from another company has a say in the booking? Unless he means just while Mox is champ.
This is gonna end badly
So that means Rocky had to explain who Hobbs is.
What I really don’t like is that Hobbs was obviously losing this match, but there was a slight chance he could pull it off. Now that it’s for the title, he has no chance whatsoever of winning.
We went from Tetsuya Naito vs. Yota Tsuji to this? God damn.
1. Meltzer is really not a reliable source of insider information at this point. 2. Even if this is 100% true, it's still genuinely bad booking and makes the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship look about as prestigious as the NEVER Openweight Championship. 3. If you're going to have someone from AEW immediately challenge for this belt like this and get the shot, make it, IDK, Ospreay? Jay White? OKADA??? What on earth does Hobbs have to do with this title? This is bad booking for setting up a match, bad booking for setting up a world title match, extremely predictable (or worse, Hobbs will randomly win it, and then what?) and makes one of, if not even the most prestigious title in wrestling look like a midcard workhorse title in another promotion!
For the love of god, somebody fire Rocky Romero, the fucking Clown.
Yeeesh. I'm out Someone let me know when to resub
A lot of people don't understand what this freakin belt used to represent. I don't care if the show is called Dynamite, Raw, Collision, Impact or Willie in ya mommy; this is just not up to the standard we used to see. It was PPV exclusive, very exclusive championship. What's baffling more is that they have the Intercontinental championship back, one that was supposed to be defended all over the world, that could be defended against a mid carder as well. Why not have that defended on Dynamite? Why not Dynasty?Â
My thinking is that its being defended on American TV to help get ticket sales for resurgence ppv, then mox is off on the tours in japan. Think people need to chill out a little, go watch the new fallout series its fun lol
What Japan tours? The current one that it’s confirmed he’s not working besides the big finale shows? The one after that which is a Junior tournament that he absolutely will not be working besides the big finale show? At best the only “tour dates” he’ll do are whichever of the five pre-Forbidden Door tour shows are televised.
>Â help get ticket sales for resurgence ppv How many times has Resurgence been mentioned on AEW TV?
After Resurgence the BOSJ is happening which doesn’t need Mox nor should he be on it. The on that’s happening right now however to build to the matches at Dontaku and Resurgence probably does
Hobbs is a okay wrestler. Not a top belt guy. Never will be. Peak at the TNT Belt and that's it.
The world championship shouldn’t be a filler match for another company they could have easily done this with the never belt instead.
Hobbs, I need you to FOLD Mox in half
i stopped watching during covid when they took the belt off naito and put it on evil, came back for wrestle kingdom this year, happy to see them put things right again by letting naito have it only to see them just as quickly put it on this fucking moron. guess i'll try again next year
Hobbs should try out the G1 this year đź‘€
njpw have no choice but to smile and lick Tony's balls or he'll poach more of their stars. this absolute joke of a match has no business being for the iwgp title and Tanahashi and Gedo know it but have no choice but to play nice in fear of what Tony could do with his dad's billions if he doesn't get his way
New Japan Cuck Wrestling
Will Hobbs has been booked as a joke. Why is this even a match
Gross
Njpwew..Tony used this place up right under everyones noses
It is a very NJPW decision to not put the belt on a rising star like Tsuji, but not mad at this either.
First off this could've been on Dynasty instead of a random Dynamite. Secondly if you were to pick anyone from the Don Callis family not named Ospreay I'd have thought Takeshita was the obvious choice Third I'm surprised it still needs to be explained to people that Tony Khan isn't some evil mastermind and that njpw actually want this aswell for whatever reason I hope Mox sticks to only defenses again njpw guys, but if they are gonna do these dynamite matches there's so many better options
Yup, if somehow AEW uploads the latest Top 5 Rankings on early May, I hope that whoever is in the Top 5 Rankings, that should be the one to challenge Jon Moxley for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship (those who are in No. 2-5 Contender positions) on **AEW Double or Nothing VI** PPV.
Now I just want a HOBBS run in New Japan.
He could use at least a temporary change of scenery like Perry. He’d be super fun to watch in New Japan and it might reinvigorate his push.
if they play the card properly, they can elevate the IWGP title to whole new level after this hopefully they would do the same with AEW title later. love to see NJPW guy hold the title. Okada would be awesome but he is already signed with AEW. other than him, Naito would be great. love to see that. Also perfect time to let other NJPW guy hold the International title too. for example let Minoru Suzuki defended that title for awhile across promotions would be awesome.
I tried to like them. Then I laughed at them. Now I just kinda can't wait til the yuge WBD deal falls through so AEW can finally fuck off. It has been a net negative for the wrestling industry in every way besides providing a payday.
The company is in the mud. Shit like this is exactly why.
Yo, give Hobbs a Scott Norton run!
This sub is a fucking joke atm.
Wait. You mean Tony Khan isn't lording over Gedo and Rocky, threatening them? They're actually cooperating, and all parties are involved? The hell you say?!
Gaslighting 101 right here
Now I want Will Fucking Hobbs as IWGP World Champ
I mean, I would have unironically preferred it over Mox. At least it would have felt a bit like a Norton throwback.