Puroresu Love & Resources V3

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1383729483740422145

It's even worse than I thought. They're having to put their injured wrestlers to work as part of the ring crew!

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1384825520991342593

NOAH really cashing in on the "YEAH-UH!" photos that were popular on TSM 10-15 years ago.

Really hoping my beefy boy Kitamiya can get the gold from gimpy gorilla Mutoh but I HAVE MY DOUBTS.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

State of emergency declared in Tokyo, Osaka region as virus surges

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declares a state of emergency in Tokyo and the western Japan prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo in an effort to curb a surge in COVID-19 cases during the upcoming Golden Week holidays.

english.kyodonews.net

The dome shows next month might be lucky to have 5,000 fans. Prime Minister has banned fan attended events (and public establishments being open past 8 PM) in Tokyo and Osaka through May 11th.

 

[Slayer]

Dragon Gate poised to take over Japan now!

Srsly though that fucking sucks

 

[Slayer]

In the meanwhile I got my personal situation (that I noted in the COVID thread when I got my vax) straightened out so this weekend l'm working on catching up on the Champion Carnival and Dragon Gate

Was going to do a little write-up as well on DG's Dead or Alive show for you new fans as it's slated for a week from Sunday Tuesday night and should still occur as it's in Aichi, but who knows if the country may institute an even stricter lockdown between now and then so we'll see

EDIT: dunno why I've been seeing (and in turn telling you) May 3rd for DOA on different sites but the official DG site says it's on the 5th so my bad

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

The setup for these Korakuen Hall Road To with the giant Lion’s mark banners covering the empty seats really gives off ‘93-‘94 Superstars vibes. Half expect Adam Bomb or Thurman Sparky Plugg to wander out.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

New Japan is cancelling the May 8, 10, and 11 shows due to the state of emergency.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1386550477295259654

 

[Slayer]

Probably gonna be just like last year where NJ can afford to shut down in the short-run while the other feds have to run fanless shows to at least keep the TV/streaming revenue flowing

Dragon Gate mostly runs smaller cities/venues (and does a good job limiting and spacing crowds) so they may still be able to carry on like normal, for example this weekend they did have a fan attended show in Higashiosaka. By contrast that same night All Japan had to run a fanless CC show at Shinkiba 1st Ring, which is a shame because I've been hearing Kento/Suwama was really good

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I'm hoping this stay at home order turns out to be a blessing in disguise for NJPW. Maybe not having to do these crummy heatless Korakuen Hall shows with <300 people in the crowd will let them recharge their batteries more

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I'm up to early March of Dragon Gate, just about to watch Shun Vs Kaito Ishida and I can say confidently that IMO Dragon Gate has overtaken NJPW as the best overall company. NJPW has the better individual matches but the overall work up and down the card and more importantly the booking and freshness are way in DG's favour.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

NOAH has another event on FITE late tomorrow night/early Thursday morning. If old gimpy gorilla Mutoh retains the title again, it'll be the last time I order one of these...until I guess his next title defense

NOAH: The Glory
April 29th, 2021
Live from Congress Center in Nagoya, Japan

GHC Heavyweight Title Match
Keiji Mutoh (c) Vs Masa Kitamiya

GHC National Title Match
Kazuyuki Fujita (c) vs Takashi Sugiura

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles Match
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA ) (c) vs Ikuto Hidaka & NOSAWA Rongai

Six Man Tag Team Match
M's Alliance ( Naomichi Marufuji & Masaaki Mochizuki & Masato Tanaka) Vs Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada

Six Man Tag Team Match
Kazushi Sakuraba & Kazunari Murakami & Kendo Kashin vs Muhammad Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi & Masao Inoue

Kotaro Suzuki vs Yuya Susumu

Katsuhiko Nakajima & Nioh vs Akitoshi Saito & Junta Miyawaki

Six Man Tag Team Match
Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada & Yasutaka Yano vs Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka & YO-HEY

 

[Slayer]

You're paying more attention than I, I've pretty well written them off for the time being between this fuckin' Mutoh reign and doing my boy Kenoh dirty with Fujita

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

There can't be many if any people who have had a worse dropoff year to year than EVIL? From Double Champion to doing bad comedy with (and jobbing to) Yano.

EVIL as a champion was a bad idea but it seems worse to push him further down where he was on the card before the heel turn.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

You're paying more attention than I, I've pretty well written them off for the time being between this fuckin' Mutoh reign and doing my boy Kenoh dirty with Fujita

The Mutoh reign. at least, makes sense KIND OF from a visibility standpoint. It's certainly elevated interest in NOAH among casual international fans even though the shows last year were apparently a 1000x better.

But having an old dog take the secondary title too!? Maybe Ol' Ironhead's a big star domestically in Japan but I thought he was mostly associated with declining years of NJPW.

NOAH turning into the senior circuit of puroresu would make sense if all their roster had was old dogs but there's a lot of young talent that seems like it's going to waste.

 

[Slayer]

The Mutoh reign. at least, makes sense KIND OF from a visibility standpoint. It's certainly elevated interest in NOAH among casual international fans even though the shows last year were apparently a 1000x better.

I'd already accepted that aspect in a post of mine from last month* (still making a point of emphasis for reflection on how NOAH put themselves in this spot in the first place), though it is mildly amusing seeing some tools on social media bending over backwards to offer justifications beyond economics for why this whole reign is actually a good thing, because story or other reasons

I just hate it from a personal standpoint for a couple reasons, mostly because this is a badly faded carbon copy of what was supposedly Mutoh's ONE FINAL RUN in 2008 when he had his dual IWGP and Triple Crown run for most of the year. Beyond that admittedly I've just never been the biggest fan of Mutoh even in his prime, and he was easily my least favorite of the Three Musketeers (was a Hashimoto guy primarily, with Chono not far behind), so seeing him still doing this shit two decades later bugs me. Best thing I'd say that he's had some bangin themes thru the years.

*aside: the Kenoh thing still pisses me off too since he would be the prime candidate to beat Mutoh. He'd be all "I'm not gonna draw out a half-hour 'epic' match from you, I'll just punch and kick the shit out of you for 10-15 minutes until you can barely move (well, even less so) and pin you or choke you out for the belt", but obv losing to Fujita decompressed that real fast

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

beefy boy Kitamiya is gonna do it tonight. Just have faith!


He will then immediately drop the title to another old guy.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

There can't be many if any people who have had a worse dropoff year to year than EVIL? From Double Champion to doing bad comedy with (and jobbing to) Yano.

EVIL as a champion was a bad idea but it seems worse to push him further down where he was on the card before the heel turn.

Working Yano is an honour. All the top stars do it. Look at the guys he has wins over.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1387788310052052996

Like---I don't get Gedo's thought process with his booking these days. This is like TNA level convoluted storytelling.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

MAybe one of them is leaving. TAMA TO JOIN THE BIG DAWGS TABLE

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

One of my weird Mandela Effect memory thingies is I always think watching IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles matches "the GoD seem like the poor man's edgelord version of the Usos even if the GoD were around for years earlier." but the Usos have teamed for a half decade plus longer! So the GoD really are the poor man's, R rated Usos. I'd never say that to their (or their dad's) faces though!

Being a poor man's Usos is not a damning statement. Both teams are good! The Usos are just better! Also maybe I'm racist for saying the two Pacific Islander teams are alike!

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

i mean they're vaguely related ad wrestling is so small its inevitable to draw te comparison. They are for sure the lesser team. I think Uso's are severe;y underated as am alltime tag team tbh. Their overall body of work is tremendous. I especially love when they turrned heel and went all THUGSO.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I genuinely feel like if their places were swapped, The Usos would be considered greatest tag team of this era if not one of GOAT. But then again, NJPW may be the one promotion that puts less of an emphasis on tag team wrestling than WWE so who knows.

I want to see Usos Vs Dangerous Tekkers now though dammit.

 

[Slayer]

After seeing recommendations that it was an intense match, I went ahead and watched the Fujita/Sugiura title match. Even tempering my expectations due to their age (though Sugiura is easily in my Tier 1 of the 50+ puro club), I didn't feel that it really picked up until the last few minutes... and then it was over, so not one for my personal MOTY list. Either way, rather baffling to me to have Fujita beat Kenoh only to lose a month later, though if Kenoh had still been the champ he would forfeited ahead of time as he unfortunately got the COVID earlier this week (hence his absence from this morning's show)

Reading about the post-show and saw the next challenger at the big Cyberfight Super Saitama Festival (which btw will include all three feds under that umbrella) on June 6th, the show where most people seemed to be predicting Mutoh drop the belt if he got past Kaito, is... Marufuji. Absolutely not who I was expecting as a potential challenger, but I'll be pulling for him nonetheless to finally end this farce

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I'll for sure take Marufuji over Mutoh easily.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

(NOAH) "When it comes to management, I have wrecked two companies" ~ how did Keiji Mutoh's "sudden joining of Noah" come true?

English language Pro-Wrestling Noah news

puroprogramtranslations.blogspot.com

Boy this headline makes me feel optimistic about the current state of NOAH.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Also when I scrolled by this photo on Twitter, I thought it was Mike Love.

 

[Slayer]

Two big events in the next few days (oh and I guess NJ has some shows too). Tonight is the final night of the Champion Carnival but unfortunately due to the current COVID lockdown in the country it will be a fanless show. As this year's CC was a single group round-robin, there won't be a separate finals match so this is it! Currently there's a five way tie atop the board involving Kento, Zeus, Suwama, Jake Lee and Kohei Sato. There may be a bunch of possible tie-breakers that could come into play but I don't feel like running thru all of them esp since the Kento/Lee match will probably be winner-take-all anyways (the other three lost to at least one of the pair, only the eliminated Shuji Ishikawa scored wins over both)

Shotaro Ashino vs Koji Doi
Shuji Ishikawa vs Suwama
Yuma Aoyagi vs Kohei Sato
Shinjiro Otani vs Zeus
Kento Miyahara vs Jake Lee

Last week also I said I would write-up about Dragon Gate DOA which is Tue/Wed overnight, but thankfully someone at Reddit made a big post about the event covering it pretty well thus saving me the effort. One key note they didn't mention though is that if you plan to watch via the official DG site, because of TV rights bullshit the shows are only available for a week after the live event before getting pulled (the only major puro fed streaming site that does this btw). When the site first started they would then repost said show around one month later but the last year or so they've stayed down for longer/indefinitely (most recent show available prior to last week is from mid-February), so after one week you'd have to hunt for it via third-party video site like bilibili

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Mutoh-Kitamiya seemed better than the other Mutoh GHC Title matches only cause it wasn't inexplicably long for a match featuring a 58 year old man.

Cards that don't warrant a thread. Cause maybe me and @Big Beard Booty Daddy still kind of care about current NJPW. These are the last two shows before the stadium shows and we have one match announced.

Wrestling Dontaku 2021 Night One
May 3rd, 2021
Live from Fukuoka Convention Center in Fukuoka, Japan

NEVER Openweight Championship Title Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) Vs Jay White

Iron Fingers From Hell Ladder Match
Tama Tonga Vs Taichi

Rights to Challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles Match (if ZSJ loses, Dangerous Tekkers can never challenge for the belts again)
Zack Sabre Jr Vs Tanga Loa

Eight Man Tag Team Match
The United Empire (Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb, The Great O-Khan, and Aaron Henare) Vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (Shingo Takagi, BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito, and SANADA)

Six Man Tag Team Match
CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada and Roppongi 3K) Vs Suzuki Gun (Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)

Eight Man Tag Team Match
Bullet Club (EVIL, Taiji Ishimori, Yujiro Takahashi, and Dick Togo) Vs Toru Yano, Master Wato, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Tiger Mask

Wrestling Dontaku 2021 Night 2
May 4th, 2021
Live from Fukuoka Convention Center in Fukuoka, Japan

IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match
Will Ospreay (c) Vs Shingo Takagi

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match
El Desperado (c) Vs Yoh

Ten Man Tag Team Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano, Master Wato, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Ryusuke Taguchi Vs Bullet Club (Jay White, EVIL, Taiji Ishimori, Yujiro Takahashi and Dick Togo)

Six Man Tag Team Match
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, and BUSHI) Vs United Empire (The Great O-Khan, Aaron Henare, and Jeff Cobb)

Kazuchika Okada and SHO Vs Minoru Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru

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

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

i finally saw mutoh vs shiozaki. Bleh. Go sold the loss really well but I didn't need to see a shit ton of headdrops poorly executed because Mutoh is totally broken down.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I'm going to guess that Marufuji is probably the guy to finally end Mutoh's reign of terror. Interview I posted earlier ITT with Mutoh and the current NOAH brass explained that the driving reason why they picked Mutoh is because he was a name internationally. Marufuji is only other guy on the roster who has worked internationally somewhat recently. If he doesn't win, I think we've got to strap ourselves in for an extended Mutoh run.