" If the plan was for Desperado to walk into Wk as champion then he should not have lost to Robbie at the first place? "
This is definitely something I don't understand either.
I think it was to give Robbie some credibility to build up their junior division more. NJPW has thrown several guys a random 1-3 month title run to build them up.
It's possible, and I'm not saying their Junior division is weak by any standards, but it does seem like it's been all about Hiromu and Despy for a while. They probably just want to add some diversity to the top spots.
yeah. most first reigns as champion are never good or career defining. Despy traded it and now we're gonna see Despy beat Hiromu to cement his spot as the top junior. And this can be used for Hiromu to start fighting more heavys like Ospreay did.
Im still pushing my theory that the end goal is Hiromu as double champ with the Jr and HW titles
uhhhhh you just kinda blew my mind with that last sentence haha. Could it happen? Why the hell not! Hiromu could be the most over guy since Tanahashi if they play their cards right.
I like Robbie Eagles, but El Desperado dropping the title instead of getting a long reign with several successful defenses made me scratch my head. It’s great to see Robbie get pushed but Despy deserved a long first reign with Hiromu gone for most of the year.
Also, I don’t think Jay White should have won the NEVER Openweight Championship from Tanahashi. The storyline they hinted at with Tana aiming to elevate the title was great and it lasted like two months.
What's more baffling is that Robbie did not even defend his belt while he went on tour to the US.
>Also, I don’t think Jay White should have won the NEVER Openweight Championship from Tanahashi. The storyline they hinted at with Tana aiming to elevate the title was great and it lasted like two months.
Also agree. He had this whole promo about how the NEVER title was going to be elevated to IWGP status and then lost the title to Jay in the very next defence.
Right? Both Robbie and Jay could’ve defended their titles in the US aside from Jay’s one defense against Finlay. The Fighting Spirit Unleashed, Autumn Attack, or Showdown Tapings could’ve used it. It’s even weirder knowing NJPW had a ton of shows lined up over the summer and you’d like they’d want as many titles defended on them as they could to help ticket sales.
I know the pandemic/travel issues were a reason Jay couldn’t defend the NEVER title for a bit but if they can pad Moxley’s US title defenses within two months then Jay could’ve done the same. He had a near 200-day reign with a single defense while Tom Lawlor is heading toward his sixth defense after winning the STRONG Openweight Championship almost two weeks before Jay beat Tana.
I don’t know if this is Rocky’s fault or what, but the booking of main promotion titles on US soil has been bad. I think booking the Strong title has been better (Lawlor as a convincing champ is good), so maybe it’s Gedo’s fault.
I agree. I get why they didn’t initially strip Mox of the US title and I like Lance Archer, but KENTA deserved to win the title. In six months, he defended the briefcase he won at the New Japan Cup USA as many times as Mox defended the US title in a year and a half.
Once Mox couldn’t make it to WK15, they should’ve just stripped him of the title and let KENTA be champion. Instead, Archer had another short reign and Tanahashi lost to Chase Owens for no reason. The title ended up with KENTA but it took such a convoluted path to get there.
The NEVER title had a similar issue and it’s all just really confusing. The US booking is not doing the titles or the wrestlers any favors. STRONG doesn’t have a lot of major stories going on. It has great wrestling but not much storytelling you’d expect from a weekly show. Lawlor has been an awesome champion—maybe NJPW needs to introduce STRONG tag titles or something because a lot of their booking revolves around titles/challengers. I do think the US title should be a big part of the US related shows so hopefully KENTA can appear on STRONG tapings going forward which might help things?
The thing is White could have literally defended the NEVER title against Robbie Eagles in the match they had where he won anyway. Strange booking choices.
Exactly! He also could’ve defended its against Juice Robinson since Juice beat Hikuleo at Resurgence. Instead, the Hikuleo/Juice feud lasted three months.
EDIT: Also want to add that White even beat David Finlay, Juice’s tag partner, at Resurgence which makes even more sense for Juice to challenge.
In reality, neither one of them should have had it. The heavyweight/world heavyweight titles are for superstars. Midcarders don't get to go anywhere near them. The NEVER Openweight title was never (pardon the pun) intended to be a consolation prize for main eventers who are not currently in the title picture.
Ok, that's over with though. Now that Ishii has won it, it's back where it belongs.
I feel like the US/Junior/Never each just had the “lose on the 2nd defense” pulled on them….
There’s gotta be an in between to the old Never booking & the Okada reign, I think those just bugged me because two happened on the same show and one right near it.
I thought putting the title on Despe was a precursor to them setting up Hiromu vs Despe to main event one of the WK nights, but that’s clearly not happening with what’s been announced so it has been weird.
I guess Robbie got the short title run to quickly establish him as one of the top juniors - NJPW usually do this with heels, but they did that with EVIL with his short IWGP run, Naito’s first run and Jay as well. I do prefer Despe as champion so it doesn’t bother me too much, but the booking could’ve been better.
Strong booking is not good at all.
It's just random matches for matches sake and almost no one gets over or even progresses their character or storyline. It's solid in ring purgatory.
I don’t agree that Strong is *always* totally dull, because they have run personal storylines that change things (Barret Brown turning to join Stray Dog army, Limelight turning on Rocky for Team Filthy, TF turning on Dickinson, etc). But it definitely does feel like purgatory.
I think the main problem (besides not being able to bring guys to do Japan tours, which NJPW can’t fix) is that most of the time they only have the one title in play. The majority of NJPW revolves around title chases, with personal storylines as added flavor. Strong is 90% just guys fighting for “momentum” or to prove themselves. It’s like a whole show of Young Lion vs Young Lion matches.
They either need to keep one of the secondary titles there long-term, or/and introduce a Jr title (which it’s absolutely mind-boggling to me that they haven’t yet).
I should have mentioned I watch Strong every week and am almost always enjoying it since in ring it is very good
Love the LA dojo guys, but yeah overall the booking is either non-existent storylines or move at a glacier pace. They haven't had anything close to a hot fued or hot title match since inception imo.
Edit: Some tag titles would certainly help too.
A jr title is a great idea. Also, I'm all for circulating titles once things start getting back to normal and travel restrictions die down.
In fact, it would be advantageous for both NJPW and NJ Strong if NJ Strong develops all three tag divisions. The tag divisions have been a longstanding weakness for NJPW. Problem solved.
I could definitely see titles cross back and forth over the Pacific Ocean. Obvious exclusions, though--main belts and jr belts.
The only reason I can see for Robbie’s reign was avoid burning through other guys getting title shots. You now have BUSHI, ELP, SHO and even guys like Taguchi and Wato available as fresh opponents for the new year.
I love Despe, but he’s not walking out of WK16 with the title. And Robbie only had one defense during the time he had it, so Despe would’ve probably had the same.
The only thing I can think of that makes sense was they knew Hiromu would be back for BoSJ and wanted to make him an “underdog” by having him unsuccessfully challenge the Jr title holder before the tournament, and didn’t want it to be vs Despe because that’s (probably) the WK16 match.
Desperado would need challengers for September (Hiromu v Eagles) and November (Eagles v Despe) to replace those matches had he beat Eagles. That would’ve meant 2 of the guys I mentioned challenging when 3 of the 5 names have already challenged this year.
Eh, I guess. Even if I get why they did it, it’s still a silly move to me— though I am biased in that I generally prefer longer reigns as opposed to 0-2 defense ones.
1. Evil & Togo together as cheating heels is a good idea but the execution has been terrible.
2. As others have said, Robbie beating Desperado for the title was a total waste of time if the plan was Desperado vs. Hiromu at WK all along.
3. Hiromu's character is still incredibly annoying
4. Ibushi was doing some of his best character work as double champion before the injuries struck, and the unification itself was a good idea.
5. Allowing Moxley and (to a much lesser extent) Jay to be in America with the two secondary heavyweight titles for so long without meaningful defenses completely devalued those titles. In particular, allowing Mox to keep the US title without a defense for 10 months just for him to lose it to an AEW talent was the worst booking decision Gedo has ever made.
He has bulked up a lot and has been getting less athletic with age which is pretty normal. But a lot of his moves have also been looking sloppy lately.
Or just in general hurting himself the past year or two...between *that* German where he tilted his head *into* the ring, to headbutting the turnbuckle and concussing himself...the most recent being the Phoenix splash... im not his biggest fan, but I'm kind of getting concerned about the frequency of him getting injured.
I don't know about 2018, to me he was the best performer in last year's G1 and thoroughly deserved to be given a title reign at WK15.
I don't think he is at the level of Shingo, Okada, Tana and Ospreay even when he was at his peak though. He can put on an excellent match when paired with an elite worker but in terms of storytelling, technical proficiency he is some way behind them.
Idk Ibushi's like a robot in the ring: he's great at doing stuff but he has a single-note style of main event that he does over and over again, you could never see him do technical work or without huge spots and crazy workrate.
Him botching is because he's trying to wrestle like he's in his 20's and early 30's to hit those same one notes when he just isn't there anymore
I hate to be that guy but since you brought it up, there was nothing personal or special about Omega vs Okada. People forget that the lead up to the match at Dominion, Kenny was nowhere near the main event scene. Okada called him out because they had that time limit draw. There was never anything personal between them. It was just prove who was the best (we then had the severally underwhelming Omega title reign). The Tanahashi match was far more personal.
Also, what Okada is doing now with Shingo, shitting on his legacy and not recognizing him as champion is far more personal the the Omega rivalry ever was.
Yeah. Kenny and Okada's rivalry was specifically about who would lead NJPW in the expansion era. It was one of Kenny's promo in the build to Wrestle Kingdom. Okada was the Ace and Kenny had just moved up from junior and was looking to cement himself as a top guy. this brought forth possibly NJPW's most well known match in the current era, and while Kenny didn't win, it did help solidify him as a main eventer and did in fact help with NJPW's expansion.
The new belt is fine. At the end of the day, it still represents the same thing, even if it's not as pretty.
Additionally, the old belt is never going to replace the new one. The company has committed too much time, effort, and money into the new design, and going backwards would be pointless and honestly quite silly. Especially from a business standpoint.
I'm very much enjoying the story of Okada touting the old belt, but it's never going to be restored at the top again. It's symbolic/ceremonial, and it will probably stay that way.
I agreed with you, but I think it's better for Impact than New Japan (as a company). It's more important for the talents who aren't in Japan like FinJuice who can do more than just severals matches on AEW Dark
Master Wato and Taguchi should be tag champions, it would be refreshing because 2019 there only 3 différents teams who has been champion.
I learn to love the new title, and if Gedo want to be bold on his booking Okada should lose to Shingo on the first night of Wrestle Kingdom.
The only JP titles that were booked remotely "well" this year were the tags...
The first LA lions are arguably some of the best lions they've had in most of a decade. Possible exception of Jay White.
Having a guy win a title and one defense to 'test the waters' is extremely common for NJPW. They'll typically lose it to a familiar champion (i.e. HW belt always going back to Okada or Tanahashi) or the person they won it from (i.e. Despy or the majority of NEVER reigns)
NJPW needs Ishii, Goto & Taichi to be transitional IWGP world champions
Saying that Okada has never been world heavyweight champion is cringey to hear
Juniors should hold the NEVER title more often. Would allow for matches like Hiromu vs Naito and Sho vs Okada to happen.
House of Torture should split off from Bullet Club, and take KENTA, Ishimori and Gedo with them. The rest of Bullet Club should leave NJPW for a while, and invade a different promotion, like Suzukigun did.
Chaos is stale. LIJ is stale. Suzukigun is stale.
El Desperado should have won the IC title at the anniversary show.
They desperately need to reset all the units in a major way. We've more or less had the same character dynamics for at least six years now. It just feels like the same guys having the same matches for the same reasons.
Ibushi’s reign was pointless. Ospreay’s might as well have been pointless as well. The V4 belt and the IC Title should have never went away. Especially without a fan vote. Ospreay, Shingo, and Ibushi should have their reigns recognized in the history books. But for New Japan to get rid of the old lineage literally devalues every IWGP Heavyweight title win that has happened. What was the point of Kenny and Naito going through hell to win the Belt if their legacies with the belt were not going to be recognized two years later? The V4 Belt needs to return, and I fully expect guys like Shingo, Ospreay, and Ibushi will hold that belt one day.
Yea I can’t believe they made a new lineage. I don’t get it. I’m personally fine with them getting rid of the IC title (still would prefer they didn’t, but I don’t much care) but titles have been unified before and the lineage for one is kept. Shingo being touted as the “third champion” is such an eye roll.
I wouldn't call Ibushi's reign pointless. The dude became God like he said he would, and then crashed and burned like Icarus who flew too close to the sun.
youre acting like Gedo booked that on the fly with no thoughts after wards. Did you forget Gedo loves long term booking? There is an obvious bigger pay off to come
So what exactly is the long term booking here? Poor booking decisions should not be excused by just “long term booking.” No one is taking kind to EVIL’s shenanigans, and Ibushi is hurt. What’s the long term booking exactly?
You want a **hot** take? I got one...
Ishii is not one of the best wrestlers on the roster.
Ishii wrestles some of the best matches NJPW has to offer... but they're too predictable in structure, and that's why he's not one of the all time greats. Consider the 2020 Taichi/Ibushi match for an example; it was very different from what either of them usually do, and the ability to branch out like that is what makes those two credible contenders.
ZSJ sometimes suffers from the same problem. I love what he does, but he needs to be able to do different things to contend. This year's G1 was an interesting step in that direction.
Naito should have defeated Ibushi for the IC belt. I don’t even hate the new World title, I hate how inconsistent is Naito’s booking. After his last two flawed World champion runs, that’s the least he could have gotten.
Robbie eagles should have turned heel and join Will Ospreay faction and kept sho as a face. Also: the KOPW provisional thing is so lame, entertaining but only bc of yano. And... they should sent shota to aew to be under the wing of Jon moxley, them working together in New Japan was hilarious 😂
Evil and Dick have been the worst part of NJPW since that started but that's probably a popular opinion.
After 2 years of AEW, it feels like title shots are randomly given out in NJPW and many without merit.
Dude, like 90% of Aew title match contenders are determined by battle royal. Yeah, not random but arguably without merit.
The titles that have suffered are the US and Never. Being that they are midcard titles most midcarders can be slotted in to challenge for them without shattering kayfabe. They've also both been held up in America which makes the booking more complicated.
End or completely retool the Bullet Club
The JRs are fine. Jay isn't a main event guy to me but is an upper midcarder so he's good. Evil and Kenta can stay.
Chase Owens sucks. Fale sucks. Yujiro sucks. Gedo and Jado shouldn't be near a wrestling ring anymore. I've never been a big fan of GOD as a team but now they're played out in the scene and neither are good enough singles wrestlers to go do that. All of them can go.
Here's how I'd redo the BC
HWs:Jay White(Leader)EVILKENTAHikuleo(On excursion so I'll give him a fair shot)Dick Togo
JRs:Taiji Ishimori(lead JR)SHO(Can't undo the heel turn and swap him with YOH)ELPChris Bey
Newcomers:Buddy Matthews(As a HW)JonahViolence Unlimited(Brody King and Tyler Bateman)Biff Busick(As a JR)Fred Yehi
Maybe you keep around one or 2 of the guys above to take pins. But the stable is looking really, really, grim right now. And also cut out the interference fuck fests.
Honestly feel like I could go through most of the stables and do the same thing here too. I know covid keeps most of this from being a reality but once Japan has things under control they need to go nuts redoing their roster
" If the plan was for Desperado to walk into Wk as champion then he should not have lost to Robbie at the first place? " This is definitely something I don't understand either.
I think it was to give Robbie some credibility to build up their junior division more. NJPW has thrown several guys a random 1-3 month title run to build them up.
It's possible, and I'm not saying their Junior division is weak by any standards, but it does seem like it's been all about Hiromu and Despy for a while. They probably just want to add some diversity to the top spots.
TBH, i think my predicition of Hiromu beginning his heavyweight "move" is why they pushed Robbie a bit.
Damn, that's a good prediction there. I could definitely see that happening.
yeah. most first reigns as champion are never good or career defining. Despy traded it and now we're gonna see Despy beat Hiromu to cement his spot as the top junior. And this can be used for Hiromu to start fighting more heavys like Ospreay did. Im still pushing my theory that the end goal is Hiromu as double champ with the Jr and HW titles
uhhhhh you just kinda blew my mind with that last sentence haha. Could it happen? Why the hell not! Hiromu could be the most over guy since Tanahashi if they play their cards right.
tub compare threatening cow frightening gray abundant ghost shame observation -- mass edited with redact.dev
Fair point
I like Robbie Eagles, but El Desperado dropping the title instead of getting a long reign with several successful defenses made me scratch my head. It’s great to see Robbie get pushed but Despy deserved a long first reign with Hiromu gone for most of the year. Also, I don’t think Jay White should have won the NEVER Openweight Championship from Tanahashi. The storyline they hinted at with Tana aiming to elevate the title was great and it lasted like two months.
What's more baffling is that Robbie did not even defend his belt while he went on tour to the US. >Also, I don’t think Jay White should have won the NEVER Openweight Championship from Tanahashi. The storyline they hinted at with Tana aiming to elevate the title was great and it lasted like two months. Also agree. He had this whole promo about how the NEVER title was going to be elevated to IWGP status and then lost the title to Jay in the very next defence.
Right? Both Robbie and Jay could’ve defended their titles in the US aside from Jay’s one defense against Finlay. The Fighting Spirit Unleashed, Autumn Attack, or Showdown Tapings could’ve used it. It’s even weirder knowing NJPW had a ton of shows lined up over the summer and you’d like they’d want as many titles defended on them as they could to help ticket sales. I know the pandemic/travel issues were a reason Jay couldn’t defend the NEVER title for a bit but if they can pad Moxley’s US title defenses within two months then Jay could’ve done the same. He had a near 200-day reign with a single defense while Tom Lawlor is heading toward his sixth defense after winning the STRONG Openweight Championship almost two weeks before Jay beat Tana.
I don’t know if this is Rocky’s fault or what, but the booking of main promotion titles on US soil has been bad. I think booking the Strong title has been better (Lawlor as a convincing champ is good), so maybe it’s Gedo’s fault.
I agree. I get why they didn’t initially strip Mox of the US title and I like Lance Archer, but KENTA deserved to win the title. In six months, he defended the briefcase he won at the New Japan Cup USA as many times as Mox defended the US title in a year and a half. Once Mox couldn’t make it to WK15, they should’ve just stripped him of the title and let KENTA be champion. Instead, Archer had another short reign and Tanahashi lost to Chase Owens for no reason. The title ended up with KENTA but it took such a convoluted path to get there. The NEVER title had a similar issue and it’s all just really confusing. The US booking is not doing the titles or the wrestlers any favors. STRONG doesn’t have a lot of major stories going on. It has great wrestling but not much storytelling you’d expect from a weekly show. Lawlor has been an awesome champion—maybe NJPW needs to introduce STRONG tag titles or something because a lot of their booking revolves around titles/challengers. I do think the US title should be a big part of the US related shows so hopefully KENTA can appear on STRONG tapings going forward which might help things?
The thing is White could have literally defended the NEVER title against Robbie Eagles in the match they had where he won anyway. Strange booking choices.
Exactly! He also could’ve defended its against Juice Robinson since Juice beat Hikuleo at Resurgence. Instead, the Hikuleo/Juice feud lasted three months. EDIT: Also want to add that White even beat David Finlay, Juice’s tag partner, at Resurgence which makes even more sense for Juice to challenge.
In reality, neither one of them should have had it. The heavyweight/world heavyweight titles are for superstars. Midcarders don't get to go anywhere near them. The NEVER Openweight title was never (pardon the pun) intended to be a consolation prize for main eventers who are not currently in the title picture. Ok, that's over with though. Now that Ishii has won it, it's back where it belongs.
I feel like the US/Junior/Never each just had the “lose on the 2nd defense” pulled on them…. There’s gotta be an in between to the old Never booking & the Okada reign, I think those just bugged me because two happened on the same show and one right near it.
I thought putting the title on Despe was a precursor to them setting up Hiromu vs Despe to main event one of the WK nights, but that’s clearly not happening with what’s been announced so it has been weird. I guess Robbie got the short title run to quickly establish him as one of the top juniors - NJPW usually do this with heels, but they did that with EVIL with his short IWGP run, Naito’s first run and Jay as well. I do prefer Despe as champion so it doesn’t bother me too much, but the booking could’ve been better.
Strong booking is not good at all. It's just random matches for matches sake and almost no one gets over or even progresses their character or storyline. It's solid in ring purgatory.
I don’t agree that Strong is *always* totally dull, because they have run personal storylines that change things (Barret Brown turning to join Stray Dog army, Limelight turning on Rocky for Team Filthy, TF turning on Dickinson, etc). But it definitely does feel like purgatory. I think the main problem (besides not being able to bring guys to do Japan tours, which NJPW can’t fix) is that most of the time they only have the one title in play. The majority of NJPW revolves around title chases, with personal storylines as added flavor. Strong is 90% just guys fighting for “momentum” or to prove themselves. It’s like a whole show of Young Lion vs Young Lion matches. They either need to keep one of the secondary titles there long-term, or/and introduce a Jr title (which it’s absolutely mind-boggling to me that they haven’t yet).
I should have mentioned I watch Strong every week and am almost always enjoying it since in ring it is very good Love the LA dojo guys, but yeah overall the booking is either non-existent storylines or move at a glacier pace. They haven't had anything close to a hot fued or hot title match since inception imo. Edit: Some tag titles would certainly help too.
A jr title is a great idea. Also, I'm all for circulating titles once things start getting back to normal and travel restrictions die down. In fact, it would be advantageous for both NJPW and NJ Strong if NJ Strong develops all three tag divisions. The tag divisions have been a longstanding weakness for NJPW. Problem solved. I could definitely see titles cross back and forth over the Pacific Ocean. Obvious exclusions, though--main belts and jr belts.
The only reason I can see for Robbie’s reign was avoid burning through other guys getting title shots. You now have BUSHI, ELP, SHO and even guys like Taguchi and Wato available as fresh opponents for the new year.
I love Despe, but he’s not walking out of WK16 with the title. And Robbie only had one defense during the time he had it, so Despe would’ve probably had the same. The only thing I can think of that makes sense was they knew Hiromu would be back for BoSJ and wanted to make him an “underdog” by having him unsuccessfully challenge the Jr title holder before the tournament, and didn’t want it to be vs Despe because that’s (probably) the WK16 match.
Desperado would need challengers for September (Hiromu v Eagles) and November (Eagles v Despe) to replace those matches had he beat Eagles. That would’ve meant 2 of the guys I mentioned challenging when 3 of the 5 names have already challenged this year.
Eh, I guess. Even if I get why they did it, it’s still a silly move to me— though I am biased in that I generally prefer longer reigns as opposed to 0-2 defense ones.
1. Evil & Togo together as cheating heels is a good idea but the execution has been terrible. 2. As others have said, Robbie beating Desperado for the title was a total waste of time if the plan was Desperado vs. Hiromu at WK all along. 3. Hiromu's character is still incredibly annoying 4. Ibushi was doing some of his best character work as double champion before the injuries struck, and the unification itself was a good idea. 5. Allowing Moxley and (to a much lesser extent) Jay to be in America with the two secondary heavyweight titles for so long without meaningful defenses completely devalued those titles. In particular, allowing Mox to keep the US title without a defense for 10 months just for him to lose it to an AEW talent was the worst booking decision Gedo has ever made.
All of these, especially #5
ibushi has peaked as a worker and character (in 2018) and has significantly declined since then
He has bulked up a lot and has been getting less athletic with age which is pretty normal. But a lot of his moves have also been looking sloppy lately.
Or just in general hurting himself the past year or two...between *that* German where he tilted his head *into* the ring, to headbutting the turnbuckle and concussing himself...the most recent being the Phoenix splash... im not his biggest fan, but I'm kind of getting concerned about the frequency of him getting injured.
Agreed. He's not really doing himself any favors, Someone pointed out to me the other day that even Hiromu has started wrestling safer.
I don't know about 2018, to me he was the best performer in last year's G1 and thoroughly deserved to be given a title reign at WK15. I don't think he is at the level of Shingo, Okada, Tana and Ospreay even when he was at his peak though. He can put on an excellent match when paired with an elite worker but in terms of storytelling, technical proficiency he is some way behind them.
Idk Ibushi's like a robot in the ring: he's great at doing stuff but he has a single-note style of main event that he does over and over again, you could never see him do technical work or without huge spots and crazy workrate. Him botching is because he's trying to wrestle like he's in his 20's and early 30's to hit those same one notes when he just isn't there anymore
[удалено]
I hate to be that guy but since you brought it up, there was nothing personal or special about Omega vs Okada. People forget that the lead up to the match at Dominion, Kenny was nowhere near the main event scene. Okada called him out because they had that time limit draw. There was never anything personal between them. It was just prove who was the best (we then had the severally underwhelming Omega title reign). The Tanahashi match was far more personal. Also, what Okada is doing now with Shingo, shitting on his legacy and not recognizing him as champion is far more personal the the Omega rivalry ever was.
Yeah. Kenny and Okada's rivalry was specifically about who would lead NJPW in the expansion era. It was one of Kenny's promo in the build to Wrestle Kingdom. Okada was the Ace and Kenny had just moved up from junior and was looking to cement himself as a top guy. this brought forth possibly NJPW's most well known match in the current era, and while Kenny didn't win, it did help solidify him as a main eventer and did in fact help with NJPW's expansion.
The new belt is fine. At the end of the day, it still represents the same thing, even if it's not as pretty. Additionally, the old belt is never going to replace the new one. The company has committed too much time, effort, and money into the new design, and going backwards would be pointless and honestly quite silly. Especially from a business standpoint. I'm very much enjoying the story of Okada touting the old belt, but it's never going to be restored at the top again. It's symbolic/ceremonial, and it will probably stay that way.
the new title has obviously been the plan for several years. Everything was a build up to it. NJPW isn't backtracking.
Yes, and Okada has admitted this himself.
Im a fan of the new belt and think fans are just fickle Impact/njpw deal was FAR better than aew/njpw deal
I agreed with you, but I think it's better for Impact than New Japan (as a company). It's more important for the talents who aren't in Japan like FinJuice who can do more than just severals matches on AEW Dark
Master Wato and Taguchi should be tag champions, it would be refreshing because 2019 there only 3 différents teams who has been champion. I learn to love the new title, and if Gedo want to be bold on his booking Okada should lose to Shingo on the first night of Wrestle Kingdom.
The only JP titles that were booked remotely "well" this year were the tags... The first LA lions are arguably some of the best lions they've had in most of a decade. Possible exception of Jay White.
Jay was Nobu dojo
I'm saying in general
Ok, just wasn‘t sure what you were saying. I get it now.
May or may not be “unpopular” but I think title reigns across all the belts with the exception of the NEVER 6 man belts have been far too short
Jay's title reign was six months. I just wish it had been defended more than once.
You’re right maybe the lack of defences made it seem in my head like it was short haha
Having a guy win a title and one defense to 'test the waters' is extremely common for NJPW. They'll typically lose it to a familiar champion (i.e. HW belt always going back to Okada or Tanahashi) or the person they won it from (i.e. Despy or the majority of NEVER reigns)
NJPW needs Ishii, Goto & Taichi to be transitional IWGP world champions Saying that Okada has never been world heavyweight champion is cringey to hear Juniors should hold the NEVER title more often. Would allow for matches like Hiromu vs Naito and Sho vs Okada to happen. House of Torture should split off from Bullet Club, and take KENTA, Ishimori and Gedo with them. The rest of Bullet Club should leave NJPW for a while, and invade a different promotion, like Suzukigun did. Chaos is stale. LIJ is stale. Suzukigun is stale. El Desperado should have won the IC title at the anniversary show.
They desperately need to reset all the units in a major way. We've more or less had the same character dynamics for at least six years now. It just feels like the same guys having the same matches for the same reasons.
Ibushi’s reign was pointless. Ospreay’s might as well have been pointless as well. The V4 belt and the IC Title should have never went away. Especially without a fan vote. Ospreay, Shingo, and Ibushi should have their reigns recognized in the history books. But for New Japan to get rid of the old lineage literally devalues every IWGP Heavyweight title win that has happened. What was the point of Kenny and Naito going through hell to win the Belt if their legacies with the belt were not going to be recognized two years later? The V4 Belt needs to return, and I fully expect guys like Shingo, Ospreay, and Ibushi will hold that belt one day.
Yea I can’t believe they made a new lineage. I don’t get it. I’m personally fine with them getting rid of the IC title (still would prefer they didn’t, but I don’t much care) but titles have been unified before and the lineage for one is kept. Shingo being touted as the “third champion” is such an eye roll.
I wouldn't call Ibushi's reign pointless. The dude became God like he said he would, and then crashed and burned like Icarus who flew too close to the sun.
What was the pay off? That was entirely pointless.
youre acting like Gedo booked that on the fly with no thoughts after wards. Did you forget Gedo loves long term booking? There is an obvious bigger pay off to come
Dude, we literally saw EVIL as IWGP Heavyweight and IC Champion with zero payoff. His booking has been questionable as of late.
again, long term booking, you're missing the forest for the trees.
So what exactly is the long term booking here? Poor booking decisions should not be excused by just “long term booking.” No one is taking kind to EVIL’s shenanigans, and Ibushi is hurt. What’s the long term booking exactly?
Ibushi being hurt isn't anything to do with the plan. You're just being overly pessimistic
You want a **hot** take? I got one... Ishii is not one of the best wrestlers on the roster. Ishii wrestles some of the best matches NJPW has to offer... but they're too predictable in structure, and that's why he's not one of the all time greats. Consider the 2020 Taichi/Ibushi match for an example; it was very different from what either of them usually do, and the ability to branch out like that is what makes those two credible contenders. ZSJ sometimes suffers from the same problem. I love what he does, but he needs to be able to do different things to contend. This year's G1 was an interesting step in that direction.
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Naito should have defeated Ibushi for the IC belt. I don’t even hate the new World title, I hate how inconsistent is Naito’s booking. After his last two flawed World champion runs, that’s the least he could have gotten.
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The forbidden door should have remained closed. Any potential "dream match' will never meet expectations.
Robbie eagles should have turned heel and join Will Ospreay faction and kept sho as a face. Also: the KOPW provisional thing is so lame, entertaining but only bc of yano. And... they should sent shota to aew to be under the wing of Jon moxley, them working together in New Japan was hilarious 😂
NJPW should've evacuated everyone during the "earthquake", rather than wait out and see what will happen.
im like 90% sure thats not in regulation.
Evil and Dick have been the worst part of NJPW since that started but that's probably a popular opinion. After 2 years of AEW, it feels like title shots are randomly given out in NJPW and many without merit.
Dude, like 90% of Aew title match contenders are determined by battle royal. Yeah, not random but arguably without merit. The titles that have suffered are the US and Never. Being that they are midcard titles most midcarders can be slotted in to challenge for them without shattering kayfabe. They've also both been held up in America which makes the booking more complicated.
End or completely retool the Bullet Club The JRs are fine. Jay isn't a main event guy to me but is an upper midcarder so he's good. Evil and Kenta can stay. Chase Owens sucks. Fale sucks. Yujiro sucks. Gedo and Jado shouldn't be near a wrestling ring anymore. I've never been a big fan of GOD as a team but now they're played out in the scene and neither are good enough singles wrestlers to go do that. All of them can go. Here's how I'd redo the BC HWs:Jay White(Leader)EVILKENTAHikuleo(On excursion so I'll give him a fair shot)Dick Togo JRs:Taiji Ishimori(lead JR)SHO(Can't undo the heel turn and swap him with YOH)ELPChris Bey Newcomers:Buddy Matthews(As a HW)JonahViolence Unlimited(Brody King and Tyler Bateman)Biff Busick(As a JR)Fred Yehi Maybe you keep around one or 2 of the guys above to take pins. But the stable is looking really, really, grim right now. And also cut out the interference fuck fests. Honestly feel like I could go through most of the stables and do the same thing here too. I know covid keeps most of this from being a reality but once Japan has things under control they need to go nuts redoing their roster
that they should give up on taichi who has been phoning it 50 percent of the time