Puroresu Love & Resources V4

[Valeyard]

Kobashi's ability to both be a believable face in peril and total badass is what makes it for me. He's an action hero. AJPW Kobashi checks it all off for me while NOAH Kobashi is genuinely one of the best workers I've ever seen.

I can see how people don't really want to revisit at lot of 90s AJPW nowadays but man it's so good. Just structurally-speaking it perfected a ton of formulas. It's way easier for me to get into the Pillars than the Musketeers, personally.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Yeah I love AJPW. Jumbo is one of my absolute top workers as well.

 

[Valeyard]

Jumbo is incredible. One of my favorites and probably the easiest puro legend to get into for me.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

NJPW did its first ever coffin match last night with Catch22 Vs War Dogs. Fun Match but the flow was weird like with every coffin Match. Ishii had a banger with Callum Newman who liked fantastic as well.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Notice of newly appointed company President | NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING

After a meeting of New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s board of directors and shareholders today, December 23 2023, the following personnel change has been made in Company management.Reason for personnel changeAlterations to management structureNewl...

www.njpw1972.com

Newly appointed officials

President & Representative Director: Hiroshi Tanahashi

Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto (Chief of Business Production, TV Asahi)

Director: Taro Okada (President & CEO, Bushiroad Fight) *Mr. Okada’s position is on a part time basis

Effective December 23, Takami Ohbari and Michiaki Nishizawa will step down from their positions as President/Representative Director and Director respectively.

Tanahashi really is the Ace.

 

[Valeyard]

Fuckin TanaHHHahshi.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

It's kind of too bad Hunter is physically incapable of wrestling one last match cause Hunter beating Takahashi at a WrestleMania would be one last great troll job. Oh well.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

NJPW Concurso pics are in! | NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING

Japanese fan vote runs to ChristmasEvery year, NJPW’s best body is determined by NJPW Concurso, where participants take their best poses and put the results to the Japanese fan vote. This year, voting takes place until Christmas, with the ...

www.njpw1972.com

Yearly best bod contest pics are in and Kojimas pic is fantastic.

 

[BUTT]

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/nxt/wwe-nxt-wrestler-to-challenge-for-ajpw-triple-crown-championship

 

[Valeyard]

Fuck yeah we getting Wolf Hawkfield energy back.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

Mothafuckin’ Juggalo Championshit Wrestling has finally reached the Land of the Rising Sun, @Laz

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

WOOPWOOP-san

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Shibata gone from NJPW and signed to AEW fulltime. Tanahashi clearing house.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

WOOPWOOP-san

Idk if it's a great idea for a 51 year old gimpy white rapper that was recently diagnosed with heart failure to do some Japanese death match wrestling but I'm not a doctor.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

No. It's absolutely perfect. We get to see a guy who made a career as a clown that says awful things do stupid bullshit stuff in Japan. This is art.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Bad judgment is always a good idea in the wrestling industry.

I just hope J sticks around a few extra days and gets to be a participant in the New Japan Ranbo at WrestleKingdom.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Well now that both cards are set I thought I'd post them. NOAH and NJPW's big shows to open the New Years both look like a lot of fun, obviously NJPW's is a lot bigger but NOAH is putting a strong offering in.

Jan 2 on WrestleUniverse is Noah The New Year

No.	Matches*[14]	Stipulations
1P	Taishi Ozawa vs Yu Owada	Singles match
2P	Atsushi Kotoge, Muhammad Yone, Super Crazy and Terry Yaki vs. Daiki Inaba, Hajime Ohara, Hi69 and Kai Fujimura	Eight-man tag team match[3]
3	Los Golpeadores (Dragón Bane and Alpha Wolf) (c) vs. Good Looking Guys (Yo-Hey and Tadasuke) vs. Ninja Mack and Alejandro	Three-way tag team match for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship[4]
4	Good Looking Guys (Jake Lee, Jack Morris and Anthony Greene) vs. El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Vinnie Massaro and Titus Alexander	Six-man tag team match[5]
5	Tomohiro Ishii vs. Masa Kitamiya	Singles match[6]
6	Go Shiozaki vs. Satoshi Kojima	Singles match[7]
7	Nagisa Nozaki and Great Sakuya vs. Luminous (Haruka Umesaki and Miyuki Takase)	Tag team match[8]
8	Takashi Sugiura vs. Ulka Sasaki	Singles match[9]
9	Zack Sabre Jr. and Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Hayata	Wrestling Symphony tag team match[10]
10	Daga (c) vs. Eita	Singles match for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship[11]
11	Kaito Kiyomiya, Shota Umino, Ryohei Oiwa, Daiki Inaba, Shuji Kondo and Junta Miyawaki vs. House of Torture (Evil, Ren Narita, Yujiro Takahashi, Sho, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Dick Togo)	Twelve-man tag team elimination match
12	Kenoh (c) vs. Manabu Soya	Singles match for the GHC Heavyweight Championship[12]
13	Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kota Ibushi	Singles match[13]

So there's a bunch of NJPW workers on the show and also the question mark of Ibushi and if he's ready to work a Main Event. This is just about the best card NOAH can put on now I think although @Slayer might disagree?

Wrestle Kingdom 18 on Njpw World

1P	Participants TBD	New Japan Ranbo to determine who will challenge for the Provisional KOPW 2024 Championship at New Year Dash!![17]
2	Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney) (c) vs. Catch 2/2 (TJP and Francesco Akira)	Tag team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship[18]
3	Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi	Singles match for the NJPW World Television Championship[19]
4	Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura	Singles match
5	Shota Umino and Kaito Kiyomiya vs. House of Torture (Evil and Ren Narita)	Tag Team match
6	Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Tama Tonga	Singles match for the NEVER Openweight Championship[20]
7	Bishamon (Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi) (IWGP) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (Hikuleo and El Phantasmo) (Strong Openweight)	Winners Takes All tag team match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship and Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship[21]
8	Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. El Desperado	Singles match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship[22]
9	Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay	Three-way match for the inaugural IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship[a][11]
10	Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson	Singles match[23]
11	Sanada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito	Singles match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship[24]

This is a really intriguing show to me. Ospreay is leaving to AEW and will only work a few major shows a year. Okada is a huge question mark. Tanahashi was just named the President of NJPW. This has all the signs of being a huge turning point for good or bad for NJPW.

There's nothing on the card that stands out as likely to be bad except for the HoT match and aside from EVIL everyone in that is fantastic and has been showing a lot of passion in this angle.

 

[Hawk 34]

For those interested, NXT will be sending Charlie Dempsey to work the upcoming AJPW event.

 

[Valeyard]

Full four-hour retrospective edit dropped. Good day for remote work.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Okada hated the former boss because he didn't recognize his value and this was in part a move to make him happy. Meltzer also said that there aren't any signs he's leaving

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1741067355063791623

Andre's been waiting 30 years for another chance at revenge...

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Ibushi needs to either get surgery or just stop because he is looking fucking dire. He was so fucked up after the Main Event it basically came across as they sent Jake Lee and Kenoh out to close the show because he couldn't do a promo. It took him at least 5 minutes to walk backstage as everyone stood there waiting for him to leave. The match itself was really bad and he had trouble doing any of his moves.

He claimed in a youtube video a week or two ago that he currently ahs a broken right hand and a broken left ankle. His hand wasn't tapped up but his ankle was fucked. He was just so slow out there. Marufuji did what he could with him but it just didn't come together.

Ishii/Kitamiya and Kenoh/Soya especially were good shit. The video package for the latter was fantastic. Shiozaki/Kojima was also entertaining and I even LIKED a HoT match! They took a big risk in having Ibushi/Marufuji main event over the Title match though and it did not pay off. Especially since they

Spoiler

put Ibushi over which is baffling to me.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1742172099114836196

yeah sounds really bad for ibushi

 

[Valeyard]

He needs to retire. It's been uncomfortable for me to watch him for a bit now but this is just all bad.

Or it's a work to spend time with his life partner as he battles diverticulitis.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

WOOPWOOP-san

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

This was top to bottom the best WK in a really long time, I'm not sure when the last time they put one on with such a strong showing tbh. There wasn't really a bad match on this as even the HoT match was better than most of their shit due to the fire 3/4s of the workers showed. The crowd was hot for everything and the Dome looked pretty full.

I'll spoiler tag everything.

Spoiler

NJ RAMBO: ah shit fujita Hayato! IIZUKA!? He's still in good shape for someone his age and so broken down. This was a lot better than most years. No other real thoughts.

War Dogs Vs Catch 22: Bah Gawd TJP is some kind of Filipino death god or something? Cool entrance but the mask is kinda lame. They did a lot of cool stuff as you'd expect.

Sabre V Tana: I knew President Tanahashi had this one. Having Tanahashi move to working 15 minute or under matches makes a lot of sense and its time to move Zack back up the card again. This was a lot of fun and the crowd of course popped like crazy for the finish.

Tsuji Vs Uemera: This felt sort of like an early Nakamura Vs Tanahashi "before they were stars" type match in that you can tell how GOOD these two are going to be in a few years. Tsuji has had a lot more big matches so I think it made sennse for Uemera to get the win here. And I LOVE his arm trap bridge suplex pin finish.

Kiyomiya/Shota Vs HoT: This was fine aside from EVIL. I laughed at them cutting up the NOAH shirt. Team Pretty Boy brought the fire and Shota got a special entrance riding a motorcycle into the arena. Crowd had fun booing HoT. I expected them to win since Shota Vs Narita is only just getting started.

Shingo Vs Tama: This was one of Tama's best singles matches in a long time. I don't know what the plan is for Shingo as he feels kind of stuck right now.

AH SHIT ITS DOLPH ZIGGLER (and his brother!) I know Kidani always wanted to hire him so not at all shocked to see him here.

Bishamon Vs ELP/Hikuleo: This wasn't as good as their tag league match and I was of course pulling for Bishamon but it was still fun.

Hiromu Vs Despy: Really sad my prediction of Hiromu breaking the most title defenses record was wrong but glad Despy won. The usual solid outting from these two.

Mox Vs Finlay Vs Ospreay: Ah shit here we go. This was fantastic. I give Finlay a ton of shit and I didn't think he should have been in this match but I thought he was used perfectly in this match and the crowd hated his guts. We got a good bit of Mox/Ospreay on their own to start. Finlay winning tbh makes sense and if he can be anywhere near this good going forward he might win more non-japanese fans over. After the match he and Ziggler got into so thats your next program.

Danielson Vs Okada: Holy shit this is MUST WATCH. This was exactly what everyone wanted from the first match. The two greatest wrestlers of the last 20 years testing each other to the limit. Danielson worked over Okada's arm the entire match and Okada's selling was phenomenal. Okada won and then they did the double kneeling bow to each other to huge crowd ovation. Bryan also tried to shake Okada's injured arm and Okada sold it like his arm was broken which was a nice little thing and amused me. Okada's special entrance with the scanner was cool.

SANADA Vs Naito: The WK Roll Call finally happened! This had the usual Naito rough patches but it was still great. The crowd was going nuts any time either guy looked like they might win. Finishing stretch was outstanding and the last sequence had me thinking SANADA might pull it off. The post match was masterful Gedo booking as at first I was PISSED when EVIL ran out to ruin everything only for it to be totally tuned around when SANADA joined Naito in clearing the ring. Then as a crying SANADA walked to the back (think Okada in 2015) Naito got on the mic and said he wouldn't be there if it wasn't for him. Crowd went apeshit for ALL of this.

I'm really curious to see what they do with DASH tomorrow and if they set up some big angles this year. With Ospreay moving to part-time and Tanahashi moving down the card there's more room at the top. If they can capitalize on this show they could get a lot of momentum.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

This was also a really fastpaced show. Longest match was 25:43 (not counting rambo) and 7 of of the 11 main card matches were under 15 minutes. It also was a good variety of styles compared to some NJPW shows.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

well they set up some interesting stuff tonight and some typical filler. The "big" news is Matt Riddle is coming in which bleh, it'll be a good match but yuck.

Stuff seemingly setup

They're doing Okada Vs Ospreay and SHINGO Vs Moxley at Battle in the Valley which I think @909 isn't going to lol

-Tanahashi Vs Riddle
-ELP/Hikuleo Vs Chase/KENTA (kenta's first match in njpw in a fair while)
-Shota Vs Narita continued its build
-EVIL cut off some of Tama's hair so we can assume we're being punished with EVIL beating him for the title because Tama is leaving.
-Kanemaru also looked like he's going after Despy which should be an easy Despy V1.
-STEEL CAGE MATCH!!!! United Empire Vs War Dogs in Ospreays final match. This will be fucking nuts.
-SANADA challenged Naito to a rematch but Naito didn't respond. Even more importantly TAKA actually got the pin for his team! President Tanahashi bringing the changes.
-Sabre demanded his rematch with Danielson
-Fujita/TMDK vs Okada/Ishii/Tana
-Also: Nakashima and Leube are going on excursion, and Bishamon going for Singles Titles

The War Dogs/UE "match" was a great crazy brawl that was really just an extended angle that you don't see a lot of in NJPW. The Main Event was really good with a lot of star power.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1743223220914807020

the satisfaction of Ospreay putting GEDO through that table was amazing.

 

[909]

They're doing Okada Vs Ospreay and SHINGO Vs Moxley at Battle in the Valley which I think @909 isn't going to lol

It’s like 400 miles away of course I ain’t