Catch all NJPW of/in America thread

[King Kamala]

2020.12.12 SUPER J-CUP 2020 (11/7発表) | NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING

www.njpw1972.com

Doing El Phantasmo Vs Lio Rush in the first round. Wowwwww.

 

[Baby Shoes]

I’m guessing Rush is just doing a quick shot since they announced him for MLW, kinda like some of the weird guys popping in for a match in the ROH Pure tournament while pieces of their roster remained unused.

I’m sure @Big Beard Booty Daddy will agree with me it is cool to see Chris Bey pop in. Then again, I’d guess with his job in Impact and first round opponent, he’s in and out. It’s a shame because Impact made him hot right away and now it feels like he disappeared since they ran with Rohit.

I‘m curious how the ACH-TJP match goes on multiple fronts.

 

[King Kamala]

ACH and TJP teamed on one of the earlier episodes of New Japan Strong and it was awkward as it sounds on paper (culminating with TJP rubbing ACH's head after they won).

 

[Baby Shoes]

ACH and TJP teamed on one of the earlier episodes of New Japan Strong and it was awkward as it sounds on paper (culminating with TJP rubbing ACH's head after they won).

I have a feeling it went a little something like this

 

[King Kamala]

It pretty much went exactly like that.


Like the NJPW USA Cup, this tournament seems solely designed to put one guy over but unlike heavies version, at least this tournament has some really interesting guest stars before El Phantasmo inevitably dicks his way to a win.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

I’m guessing Rush is just doing a quick shot since they announced him for MLW, kinda like some of the weird guys popping in for a match in the ROH Pure tournament while pieces of their roster remained unused.

I’m sure @Big Beard Booty Daddy will agree with me it is cool to see Chris Bey pop in. Then again, I’d guess with his job in Impact and first round opponent, he’s in and out. It’s a shame because Impact made him hot right away and now it feels like he disappeared since they ran with Rohit.

I‘m curious how the ACH-TJP match goes on multiple fronts.

Yeah, I'm real excited to see Chris there. Luckily the tournament is one night, so there's a chance he gets to the second round, but I'm not holding out hope.

I can see Blake getting a nice run here. He gave a speech at the end of his (amazing) match yesterday with Lio Rush that sounded like he was saying goodbye, and NJPW has been using him a lot.

 

[King Kamala]

Way brackets are laid out, I kind of see Clark Connors going on a Cinderella run to the finals before getting screwed over by Bullet Club. Logic would seem to think the winner of TJP/ACH would go into finals against El Phantasmo but I'm still not getting any sense that either of those guys are more than name guest stars than NJPW is using to bolster this first year of show.

Along similar lines, I could definitely see Blake going over in the first round since he's more tied into NJPW than Ray Horus.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

My guess is Clark has a great run, and he's done with being a Young Lion after this. He's been incredibly impressive and is so damn good. There's really no place to send him, so like Karl Fredericks, who is going to be a star, he'll be fast tracked out of being Young Lion. I'm wondering where Alex Coughlin has been. He hasn't been on the US shows since the early shows.

 

[King Kamala]

Fred Rosser (FKA Darren Young) Vs Tom Lawlor this week is a match I didn't know I wanted to see.

 

[RedJed]

Fred Rosser (FKA Darren Young) Vs Tom Lawlor this week is a match I didn't know I wanted to see.

Right? That was a hell of a physical match I didn't expect. Arguably the best stuff of the week but the tag with Zayne was pretty excellent too.

Unintentional hardway blood in the main too, and a solid six man. Can't really complain much at all about this weeks show. Next week's episode looks loaded as fuck too.

So will the USA Jr Cup tournament be a live event in December? I'm presuming this will be at the Oceanside Pavillion?

 

[King Kamala]

Not sure if it's live live but it's being billed as 3 hour event airing live at 10 PM EST/7 PM PST on December 12th on NJPW and Fite TV.

I'm bummed it's on one of my work weekend cause I'd love to catch it live but no way I can stay up that late when I have to get up at 6 AM next day. I mean I could but it definitely doesn't mean I should!

 

[RedJed]

I wish there would be a way they could get a crowd for this. If they stay in Los Angeles for this (seems likely) there's no chance, but I wish they would consider a move to Vegas for this one, as indy companies are starting to do shows with fans starting in December (three shows scheduled first weekend of December by the way) so it seems a thing that is going to happen. That is unless they pull back last minute which seems possible given covid numbers.

 

[King Kamala]

Considering how precautious NJPW was to restarting attended shows in Japan, which has one of the best COVID-19 responses in the world, I don't think they're going to rush to do attended shows in the country with the worst COVID-19 response.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Yeah, the tournament is going to be live that Saturday. I'm stocked for it as it should be really fun.

Vegas could be in trouble as far as shows with fans. I'm friends with the owner of FSW, the big Vegas indie company, and he had to close his TV taping this weekend. They announced no public events, so he was able to change it to a private event to get around that, with limited fans. I'm wondering how GCW is going to do it in a few weeks when they are out there.

 

[RedJed]

Yeah, the tournament is going to be live that Saturday. I'm stocked for it as it should be really fun.

Vegas could be in trouble as far as shows with fans. I'm friends with the owner of FSW, the big Vegas indie company, and he had to close his TV taping this weekend. They announced no public events, so he was able to change it to a private event to get around that, with limited fans. I'm wondering how GCW is going to do it in a few weeks when they are out there.

Same here. I can't see this happening. I have an invite out that weekend to attend all of those shows but I'm awfully hesitant to do so, even as much as I'd LOVE to go to shows again.

And I feel, like Kamala, there's no way New Japan will have any crowds anytime soon, but its just a shame this awesome one night tournament won't have any crowd energy at all. Is what it is though.

 

[King Kamala]

I'm not going to poohpooh anyone for trying to make a buck (or who wants to go to a show) but I don't think anyone should be holding indoor, attended shows right now in the United States. I think the GCW Vegas weekend is a terrible, terrible idea.

Whole situation just sucks cause finish line is in sight with COVID-19 but people are just too tired or too stupid to hunker down again like we did in March/April. And of course, it doesn't fucking help that our government hasn't helped average person outside of one piddly dink stimulus but this isn't the Coronavirus thread so I'll STFU.

 

[RedJed]

I'm not going to poohpooh anyone for trying to make a buck (or who wants to go to a show) but I don't think anyone should be holding indoor, attended shows right now in the United States. I think the GCW Vegas weekend is a terrible, terrible idea.

Whole situation just sucks cause finish line is in sight with COVID-19 but people are just too tired or too stupid to hunker down again like we did in March/April. And of course, it doesn't fucking help that our government hasn't helped average person outside of one piddly dink stimulus but this isn't the Coronavirus thread so I'll STFU.

Amen to that. Given how the Collective weekend went in Indiana (I think it was), I am shocked CGW is still doing this.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1333954035108384774

 

[King Kamala]

Ordered the last season on Fite TV even though I have NJPW World cause I had some extra credits and thought "Well I can watch the briefcase challenge match on my Roku" not realizing the Fite TV episodes are two weeks behind. *forehead slap*

I mean I hadn't seen any of the other episodes and the briefcase challenge match two weeks late will directly lead into WrestleKingdom 15, I guess. *shrug into 2nd forehead slap*

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

NJPW US has been a great ride. Nothing world beating, but the shows were always solid with a few stand-out matches. Brody vs KENTA was really, really great. If you took it off this show and put in on one of the G1 shows, it'd fit in perfectly.

I think besides that match, Lawlor vs Fred Rosser might have been the best match of this run. I became a big fan of Rosser from his debut. I was expecting a WWE cast off that just performed WWE moves, and I was blown away by how good he was. I hadn't hear anything about Fred since he left, outside of a few indie matches he did, but nothing great. It was like watching someone who never stepped foot in WWE, and his match with Lawlor was fantastic.

I loved the push of my buddy Danny Limelight, and Blake Christian getting a big push was great. I can't wait for more shows.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Rosser doesn’t complete surprise me because he was one of the guys in WWE putting on sneaky good matches on Superstars circa 2010-2011 where the guys had time and no one was paying attention to stop them.

 

[King Kamala]

@Baby Shoes , I feel like a NJPW World subscription would be worth it for you alone for this match on this last “season”/tour where Rosser teams up with PJ Black, Jeff Cobb, and Rocky Romero against Team Lawlor and the commentary team makes a bunch of references to Nexus (and Team Lawlor tries to do a Nexus style ambush ).

 

[Baby Shoes]

@Baby Shoes , I feel like a NJPW World subscription would be worth it for you alone for this match on this last “season”/tour where Rosser teams up with PJ Black, Jeff Cobb, and Rocky Romero against Team Lawlor and the commentary team makes a bunch of references to Nexus (and Team Lawlor tries to do a Nexus style ambush ).

I’ve been tempted to sign up a few times but wrestling aside, I underuse multiple streaming services and can’t justify adding another. Someday...

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1347742361279860741

Yes so happy for the Filthy Father! Know how much of a puro freak he is and this means he is that much closer to realizing his dreams.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

I was so happy to see that. He and Kratos would make an awesome heavyweight tag team for Team Filthy, with Danny as their junior, and Tom as the heavyweight. They have a really team there, until Danny heads off to AEW since they’ve used him the past 3 or 4 tapings.

 

[King Kamala]

I hope some of the NJPW USA are integrated onto the main show whenever international travel resumes full bloom. Love to see Filthy Father and Filthy Tom compete in the NEVER division.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Dickinson vs Shingo, vs Suzuki, vs Cobb, vs SHO would be INSANE.

I also need Lawlor vs Suzuki.

 

[King Kamala]

A dream match for me and @Big Beard Booty Daddy next Friday on STRONG...Rocky Romero Vs Chris Dickinson.

Consensus for the show I've read seems to waver between "Pretty bad" and "Actually decent" and I lean towards latter group. It accomplishes what it's set out to do to be half developmental show/half B&C show. Crowd would go a long way and I'm assuming once pandemic ends, the roster will be a lot better.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

That match is going to be so good. I'm loving this feud between Rocky and Team Filthy. Rocky needs to get a group together combat Team Filthy, though.

I'm in the Decent group. I'm enjoying the shows. They have fun stories and matches, and very sound wrestling. Fred Rosser has been a revelation. He's so good.

 

[King Kamala]

I think a lot of the people shitting on it are doing so cause they're comparing it to a normal NJPW show. Best STRONG isn't going to be as good as even the most rote Korakuen Hall "Road To" show. But I think it's meant more to be competitive with ROH/Impact/MLW's of the world and I think in that sense, it holds up decently enough with those shows.