Puroresu Love & Resources V3

[Hoff]

Yeah for sure; I mean if there was something worth being upset over. Say they replaced Finn in the match with Kane, then yeah, let them hear it. But yes, 100%, this was a bad look, especially in retrospect as the furor over the belt died down very quickly.

 

[King Kamala]

Crowd reaction made Mick Foley upset and anyone who makes Mick upset makes King Kamala upset.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1376911737925013514

Well. Shit. Does this mean the Forbidden Door opening will culminate with Kobashi jobbing to Triple H?

 

[Slayer]

For my overall opinion, really I'm gonna sit on this one for awhile as the visceral response is to immediately hate the new design (especially in light of what it replaced)

On a pure aesthetics perspective though, the biggest problem seems to be the sharp angles on the sides of the front plate as 1) that contributes to the Diva's butterfly belt look that's been commonly pointed out and 2) as @Hoff noted, they both create and draw attention to those sizable "dead spaces" between the front and side plates. I'd say you could keep the front plate design just to give it a shot at least, but straighten out those sides, make them more vertical akin to the "crown" belt (which does appear to be a major inspiration for the new belt) and I think this belt improves greatly. Also interesting to me is the lack of any royal motif on this belt, as with the crown belt and the previous belt's heraldic lions framing the NJ logo.

Worth noting as well is Ibushi himself seemed less than thrilled when he walked out with the new belt this morning, real "my mom made me wear this..." energy. He does look better with only one belt though, as for some reason he generally looked awkward trying to handle the double belts compared to Naito or, hell, even EVIL carried them better

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1376987271841284098

 

[Broward83]

I've seen we've already made comparisons to Cody's tattoo online as well..

 

[King Kamala]

Medium warm take...I'd rather have Triple H beat Ibushi than Cody.

 

[Slayer]

Another thing: what happens with the junior belt since that's just a mini version of the previous main belt?

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

hideous belt lol

 

[King Kamala]

 

[King Kamala]

Cards that don't warrant a thread....

NJPW Sakura Genesis
April 4th, 2021
Live from Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan

IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match
Kota Ibushi (c) Vs Will Ospreay

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles Match
Suzuki Gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (c) Vs Roppongi 3k

Six Man Tag Team Match
United Empire (The Great O-Khan, Jeff Cobb, and X) Vs Los Incogbernables de Japan ( (Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, and Shingo Takagi)

Hiroshi Tanahashi and Satoshi Kojima Vs Bullet Club (Jay White & Bad Luck Fale) (with Gedo)

Ten Man Tag Team Match
CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Hiroki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, and Toru Yano) Vs Bullet Club (EVIL, KENTA, Taiji Ishiimori, Yujiro Takahashi and Dick Togo)

Six Man Tag Team Match
Bullet Club (Jado and Guerrillas of Destiny) Vs Suzuki Gun (DOUKI and Dangerous Tekkers)


Heavyweight title match seems like it's destined to have a result that will annoy the fanbase. How are we supposed to build two stadium shows in a month and a half to two months out of this roster? Great wrestlers yeah but like I said earlier ITT no one seems hot rn.

 

[Slayer]

Beyond the fiasco with the main title, it's a lackluster card especially considering this is supposed to be one of their Big Four annual events; only six matches total with two title matches (not helped by having Double Belt Despy) and the perfunctory multi-men fleshing out the remainder. Not likely watching this one live unless I get the insomnia bug tonight

Only parts I care about are 1) who is the newest member of The Empire and 2) the Jr tag title match, mainly just for the outcome as I can see reasons for it going either way

• SG wins: One of R3K turns heel against the other due to the loss. I'm thinking Yohei as I feel he has better heel potential combined plus you can do the "lengthy absence from the ring begets major attitude change" trope, while Sho maintains his babyface momentum​
• R3K wins: Despy can focus on the Jr title, then the heel just turn comes later whenever R3K loses the tag titles​

 

[King Kamala]

NJPW has embraced the darkest timeline. Will Ospreay is the IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

 

[tekcop]

Let me show you my reaction.

.

 

[King Kamala]

Ibushi's got to go up there with Sting's '90 WCW World Title run for most disappointing World Title run. I hope he'll get back to that level and I'm fairly certain he will but man, that title reign stunk.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1378718630712643587

This does feel a tiny bit like the pro wrestling equivalent of Trump winning the 2016 POTUS Election. All the worst people are elated

 

[Slayer]

This does feel a tiny bit like the pro wrestling equivalent of Trump winning the 2016 POTUS Election. All the worst people are elated

Gedo as the Steve Bannon of New Japan confirmed

 

[King Kamala]

Henare was also one of the least surprising mystery partners. I thought he was such an obvious pick that they were gonna surprise us with Shooter or something.

That being said, I'm fine with it. I'm glad they're finally doing SOMETHING with Henare since he's been a glorified Young Lion since I started watching NJPW regularly 3 years ago.

 

[Baby Shoes]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1378731789850615808

 

[King Kamala]

Hey. Ospreay gave Big Van Vader one last big day. Don't threaten him with a good time.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Henare was also one of the least surprising mystery partners. I thought he was such an obvious pick that they were gonna surprise us with Shooter or something.

That being said, I'm fine with it. I'm glad they're finally doing SOMETHING with Henare since he's been a glorified Young Lion since I started watching NJPW regularly 3 years ago.

I really didn’t want Shooter to be X. He needs to come back and be the next Ace of the Home Team, the savior for the future.

Toa was the best possible choice if they didn’t want to bring Robbie Eagles in to be the Junior of the UE. I saw Karl Fredericks’ name tossed around, and he wouldn’t have been a bad choice, but I might hold off on him joining a faction until they have something big for him. Toa getting the pin is huge and shows they have something planned for him. I know his name is now Aaron, but it’ll take some time to get used to typing it out.

 

[King Kamala]

Henare is absolutely the right choice. I just thought they very blatantly tipped the pitch. He might as well have just started screaming "Er! I'm going to become a bad guy soon!" after every match after the Jay White squash loss in New Japan Cup before today.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

pretty done with NJPW at this point. Go Dragon Gate!

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1378890132158300160

Moxley calling out Yuji Nagata for an IWGP US Title match. Put that right into my veins now!

 

[King Kamala]

I'm guessing Ospreay wins the title at Sakura Genesis then drops it to Okada at one of the Dome shows in May and Ibushi wins G1 Climax for third year in a row (1st guy to do it since Inoki) to set up Okada Vs Ibushi at WrestleKingdom for who the real immortal in New Japan is.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1378987888721850376

Predicting Gedo's booking can seem complicated but is often as easy to understand as a ripe watermelon.

 

[King Kamala]

Some wild optimism thinking Shingo is ever going to be the champion. I love Shingo but he's not even third banana in his faction. I get that he just went to the finals in the Cup but that really doesn't mean a lot.

Not the same thing as him being champion but Shingo is Ospreay's first title defense. I'd brag about this but CWM is too busy watching Dragongate.

Taichi and Tama Tonga having a ladder match for the Iron Fingers is the type of dumb thing that I AM HERE FOR!

On the other hand, a Toru Yano Vs EVIL program is the type of dumb thing that I AM *NOT* HERE FOR! But I guess better a Yano program than another uppercard EVIL program. I kind of feel like NJPW is trolling Meltzer and smarks who thought that Yano-EVIL New Japan Cup match was worst NJPW match in years.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

he's just being fed to him so he doesn't have O defenses before losing the belt to Okada which really makes my point stronger tbh. Shingo is the new Goto. He's a reliable over workhorse that can win tournaments and undercard titles and get 100 title shots but they'll never put the belt on. See also SANADA. It was frustrating before they gave the belt to Ospreay and now it's even worse.

If the belt was just about "workrate" you could argue for Ospreay but there are so many other factors. They have a far better foreign heel in Jay White. He is more over with the fanbase and a better promo (in both languages!). He's also not so far as I know a scumbag. Ospreay may be a great inring worker but I think he has lost a lot of his shine. NJPW in general feels very uninteresting and tonedeaf.

Gedo has been booking for a very long time now and no one can stay in touch forever. I'm ready to see what someone else can do. Liger was an amazing booker for the juniors back in the day. Give him some control or something. Steal Akiyama from DDT because AJPW under him was the best booked company with the least ingredients.

 

[King Kamala]

Isn't the average lifespan for a booker's prime like 2 or 3 years at absolute max? Gedo's been booking since like 2010-11. His prime lasted a lot longer than most but nothing lasts forever. Everyone just seems so burned out so I can't place ALL of NJPW's woes on him but he's the guy who decided EVIL should be a top guy so...

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

If the belt was just about "workrate" you could argue for Ospreay but there are so many other factors. They have a far better foreign heel in Jay White. He is more over with the fanbase and a better promo (in both languages!). He's also not so far as I know a scumbag. Ospreay may be a great inring worker but I think he has lost a lot of his shine. NJPW in general feels very uninteresting and tonedeaf.

I mentioned on Twitter, Jay lost the title on April 6, 2019 at MSG. He hasn't held the main title since then. He's a fantastic heel, in my opinion the second best heel in pro wrestling next to Rickey Shane Page. He's a top tier talker, and his style is different enough from what NJPW fans are used to, but it works perfectly for him, and he's really grown into his character. On the second point, he's supposed to be a very, very good person. He's heavily behind Black Lives Matter and has raised money for it. When I met him, he treated my daughter, who is autistic, like a total princess. He was incredible with her. And I gauge people on how they treat her, and other people with disabilities, and he's top of mountain for that.

 

[King Kamala]

Even though he's no longer in the World Title chase, Jay is still given interesting things to do like---uh, his 4th feud with Tanahashi in the past three years!?

White absolutely deserves to be having the run that Ospreay is having. I'm FINE, I guess with Ospreay being a transitional champion but they could have done the same thing with Jay White and had it make more sense storyline wise.