Puroresu Love & Resources V3

[KOAB]

Didn't Omega do this twice already right down to Meltzer saying he was leaving last year and they even did a whole kayfabe interview around it before the Rumble?

 

[RedJed]

Didn't Omega do this twice already right down to Meltzer saying he was leaving last year and they even did a whole kayfabe interview around it before the Rumble?

I don't recall that.

Anyway it will be interesting if both Omega and Kushida are kept to that end of the month contract, meaning if either are WWE bound, it will be hard to do a debut in the Rumble itself. They likely will just have Kushida do the token ringside appearance at the Phoenix NXT Takeover.
I'm not convinced Omega is WWE bound quite yet, though. Tuesday's AEW press conference might clear up some stuff with all that. Khan has $$$ to throw around and I would guess that means a big offer to Omega, maybe even matching whatever deal WWE threw at him.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Didn't Omega do this twice already right down to Meltzer saying he was leaving last year and they even did a whole kayfabe interview around it before the Rumble?

I don't recall that.

Anyway it will be interesting if both Omega and Kushida are kept to that end of the month contract, meaning if either are WWE bound, it will be hard to do a debut in the Rumble itself. They likely will just have Kushida do the token ringside appearance at the Phoenix NXT Takeover.
I'm not convinced Omega is WWE bound quite yet, though. Tuesday's AEW press conference might clear up some stuff with all that. Khan has $$$ to throw around and I would guess that means a big offer to Omega, maybe even matching whatever deal WWE threw at him.

KUSHIDA said he will be with NJPW until the end of his deal.

Omega did a similar thing when he lost to Okada at the Dome. He took about a month off after saying he had to rethink if he wanted to still be in NJPW, etc.

 

[vivisectvi]

Latest BTE had post AEW countdown stuff.. Kenny said he lost his phone as a means to explain why he wasn't a part of that scene. Final scene shows Kenny's phone outside of a TGIFridays making a countdown sound. My guess is it ends on Jan 31.

https://twitter.com/GIFSkull/status/1082274435405557760

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

In news that probably only I care about, as I'm a huge Rocky Romero fan, he has signed a multi year deal to stay with NJPW.

 

[Epic Springs]

Juice re-signed as well. Three year deal.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Juice re-signed as well. Three year deal.

Very happy about this one as well.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Juice should be getting a really big push as he's the most over gaijin with the Japanese fans and has a lot of charisma and he can promo. He's got a crazy amount of upside.

KUSHIDA leaving is very interesting. I didn't think he was going to so I admit I was wrong. Hopefully he got WWE to agree to give him a good spot and they're desperate enough to put him on tv *SMACKDOWN PLEASE) instead of just 205/NXT. Give me a Tozawa/Kushida tag team (as one idea) competing against new day/usos/bar and I'd be going nuts. I don't know how great KUSHIDA's english is whereas Tozawa's english is excellent which is why i suggest a team.

 

[Epic Springs]

KUSHIDA's english is actually pretty good. He did a podcast with Colt Cabana not too long ago. He also has family in North America which I imagine weighed in his decision to join WWE.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/takashi-iizuka-retire-next-month-273976

Damn this is pretty big even if a lot of newer fans only know him as a weird dude who barely does anything. He debuted in 1986! I think only Liger has a longer tenure with the company than him as far as wrestlers.

 

[vivisectvi]

I know a lot of ppl aren't fans of Iizuka, but I loved his heel turn. It came so far out of left field and him going from this Nagata'esque perennial babyface to a missing link style lunatic heel was just a great revitalization for his career, IMO.

Also, do you ever watch "The Recount" on NJ's YouTube? They're doing multi-part histories, in English, of basically every stable in the promotion right now. Here's the start to the CHAOS one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjmVQpBy62M

I'd love to see them do Recounts for old stables like CTU and Team 2000.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I liked the heel run in that it did a lot to cover up his faults and was good for his character. He also usually stayed in the lower card too. As a worker he wasn't very good but then he'd also been going for 25 years or so at that point so it's not shocking.

I'd love to see unit histories for the older stables yeah.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

The Recount has been a lot of fun. My wife got into NJPW last year, and watching them with her has been great. She's learned a lot from them.

I wasn't around for most of Iizuka, but I've enjoyed his heel run. He's a perfect fit for Suzuki-gun, and it's a fun character at the perfect level of the card.

Also, Yuji Nagata had a great run last year, and it's awesome to see him getting some more time this year with a possible feud with Ishii. Those are going to be great matches. I'd love to see him work with Juice and Ospreay to help elevate them even more.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

KUSHIDA's farewell match in NJPW will be on the 29th against Tanahashi. That very well could be a match of the year candidate, and a hell of a send off.

 

[vivisectvi]

Dammit Gedo... https://cultaholic.com/news/reason-kushida-left-njpw-for-wwe-revealed/

 

[KOAB]

:-\ I got so used to seeing Kenny up there

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Damn KUSHIDA wanted his CTU run. That would have been nuts.

 

[909]

:-\ I got so used to seeing Kenny up there

It looks better now.

 

[vivisectvi]

Could do without Jay White's puffy Trent Reznor face.

 

[Epic Springs]

Oh God now I can't get the image of Jay White belting out "Head Like A Hole" out of my head.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

NJPW announced the cards for their US shows next week, and there are no Japanese wrestlers. They ordered the work Visas back in November, but due to the government shutdown, that stopped the process dead.

 

[Epic Springs]

New AMERICAN Pro Wrestling, amirite?

 

[King Kamala]

Seems like even with that limitation, they should be able to produce a better card than this. I'm a nerd and I haven't even heard of half of these guys. I'm assuming they're NJPW LA Dojo guys?

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Karl Fredericks is a West Coast mainstay and NJPW Dojo guy, as are Clark Connors and Alex Coughlin.

Great O-Kharn is a British wrestler they are bringing in for this tour and making his NJPW debut.

Cobb vs Brody King is going to be great.

Tracy Willams just signed to ROH and is part of Juice's new group there.

They were supposed to have Cobb vs Goto and Ishii vs Nagata on the tour.

 

[King Kamala]

Well, NJPW better hope that the shutdown is done by the time of G1 Supercard at MSG or else there are going to be a LOT of PISSED fans.

"President Trump. Hey pal! Keep that shutdown going! We got to stop that god damn nerd Japanese wrestling show. Er. Uh. I mean build the border wall."

 

[Epic Springs]

Yeah, Meltzer also speculated if this will affect the MSG show. I have no idea of the turnaround time between filing for a visa and actually receiving it but I'm sure when and if the government reopens, the process can be expedited.

 

[King Kamala]

Tracy Willams just signed to ROH and is part of Juice's new group there.

I'm very familiar with Hot Sauce Tracy Williams from going to EVOLVE and Beyond shows. And being in the same vegan coffee shop with him before a Beyond show.

I could've swore I had a shitfaced photo with Tracy Williams on Facebook but all I could find was a shitfaced photo of me wearing the shirt I bought from Tracy Williams with an annoyed Santana from LAX.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Tracy Willams just signed to ROH and is part of Juice's new group there.

I'm very familiar with Hot Sauce Tracy Williams from going to EVOLVE and Beyond shows. And being in the same vegan coffee shop with him before a Beyond show.

I could've swore I had a shitfaced photo with Tracy Williams on Facebook but all I could find was a shitfaced photo of me wearing the shirt I bought from Tracy Williams with an annoyed Santana from LAX.

I figured you would know him from his Beyond work. Just was pointing it out for others that might not be familiar with him.

The idea of these shows from the start, though, was to be a showcase for the American Dojo and the work Shibata has done.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Yeah, Meltzer also speculated if this will affect the MSG show. I have no idea of the turnaround time between filing for a visa and actually receiving it but I'm sure when and if the government reopens, the process can be expedited.

There's going to be an insane backlog and a wrestling company isn't going to be a top priority. If the shutdown goes much longer there's a real risk of some of them not getting cleared. I really hope that doesn't happen since it would be awful for NJPW...and because of the hundreds of thousands of people not getting paid. Mostly that.

Watched Final Gate and some other DG from December and they seem to be slowly getting back on track. I really like some of the new/returning talent they've got. DAGA, Dragon Dia, and PAC are all breaths of fresh air. Bandido and Flamita being on the shows more has also helped. They've got some promising young guys and hopefully they'll actually push them instead of just having them endlessly tread water like they've done in the past.

I also watched the Kaito Kiyomiya title win in NOAH. I can't believe a 22 year old is the champion in NOAH! That's like half the age of what I expect from them. The match was good enough and hopefully they continue the youth movement they've been doing the last couple years. It looked like they drew a decent house for the show which was really good to see.

 

[909]

Just finished watching Tana-Kushida.

First of all, what a great match.

Secondly, smart angle to clear Tana out of the ring so Kushida could give his speech.