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NJPW

Hey Scott,

NJPW has been on fire for the past couple of years. Any thoughts on possibly reviewing their iPPV's? Or not your cup of tea?

Well as I'm sure people can figure out, I do watch the shows because someone is nice enough to keep me updated with links.  But I already review five hours of wrestling a week, sometimes more with PPVs, and it's nice to just have shows I can relax and watch for fun without it being work.  But for the record, Tanahashi is fucking awesome.

Comments

  1. The last powerbomb in that second match gave Nakamura some of the worst whiplash I've ever seen. And then he got tiger suplexed. Shit.

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  2. Holy god, that was brutal.

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  3. the day NJPW gets English announcers is the day they get a metric-fuck-ton of my money

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  4. Could someone provide a rundown of the 5-10 best Tanahashi matches from the last year or so (or whenever his awesome run began)? I've seen a handful linked here, and would like to see more.

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  5. This is an area that goes largely ignored here, unfortunately. Scott already has his hands full although, selfishly, I'd prefer he review them. I feel that a lot of the other reviewers, plus the "guest reviewers" are sometimes doing the same stuff. In many occurrences, they're doing stuff Scott's already done and no offense to any of them, they're not going to surpass Keith's rants. One of them should jump at the opportunity to do them, language barrier be damned. I know I'd welcome reading and commenting on them with other posters.

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  6. Now, is it because you don't know what the story of the match is without commentary, or just don't like listening to japanese? Or both?

    /Legit curious.

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  7. I can't speak for Kyle but I've been really wanting the same thing. For me, it's I want to know the story going on in the match. I seem to get much more invested in a match when there's some sort of storyline going on. I also like to hear what (good) announcers have to say about the match and the participants, again it gets me more invested in what's going on.

    As for listening to Japanese, I don't mind it and actually like hearing the announcers go crazy in a language I don't understand. Even thought I don't understand fuck all of what they're saying, I can tell they have tons more passion than the WWE/TNA announcers when calling a match. Watch, this entire time they've just been going crazy for the NJPW app and I didn't even know it.

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  8. It's just "Tanahashi is BUILDING MOMENTUM!", and "1-2-thisisitnooo!"

    And I dig that reasoning. I wish I could understand it too, because they generally(or as i've been led to understand)hire guys who are, ya know, excellent announcers.

    Quick! Everyone petition NJPW for english dubs! They'll listen to all, what, 37 of us for sure!

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  9. I'd be happy if some Japanese and English speaking wrestling nerd edited all of these with subtitles.

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  10. I forget how bulky Nakamura was.. The TV special is legit.. It's a nice look back at the two most important pieces of the puzzle..

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  11. vs Okada:
    The New Beginning 2012 (12/02/2012)
    NJPW Dominion (16/06/12)
    Wrestle Kingdom 7 (04/01/2013)
    NJPW Invasion Attack (07/04/2013) - Big Dave five stars

    Their matches get better each time.

    vs Suzuki - NJPW 40th Anniversary King Of Pro-Wrestling (08/10/2012) Observer MOTY

    vs Anderson - NJPW The New Beginning 2013 (10/02/2013)

    vs Naito - NJPW Destruction 2011 (10/10/2011)

    vs Devitt NJPW Dominion - ( 22/06/2013) - a bit more sports entertainment than the others, but a good look at both guys.


    I think only the Devitt match got less than 4 and a half stars from Meltz (It got 4).

    Theres more but that's a good starting point. I remember there being a really good match with Nagata a couple of years ago.

    His earlier matches with Nakamura are great too. Though both guys are better now.

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  12. Nakamura is really, really great. He's almost too good for his own good at the moment. They know he can make anyone look a million bucks (eg: Shelton and Harry Smith).


    His match with Kazushi Sakuraba is amazing and everyone should watch it. Probably the best MMA infused match I've seen.

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  13. Agreed. English commentary would give everything a more personal feel. At the risk of sounding racist, sometimes I can't get into puro because it seems like a lot of Japanese wrestlers have a similar look and a similar sounding name.

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  14. I remember NJPW running American shows a while back, I had hoped that if they did well we might start seeing more english-friendly material.

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  15. I'd jump at the chance, to be honest, since puroresu is about the only wrestling product I can watch these days without getting pissed off. Unfortunately, I'm of the unemployed variety right now, so it's a bit difficult to purchase the iPPVs necessary to cover them.

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  16. Does anyone know how New Japan is doing these days financially? I know that puroresu as a whole was declining in Japan over the past few years, but has Tanahashi managed to turn business around?

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  17. They ARE both better now, which is scary.

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  18. Is Archer/Lance Hoyt any good in the ring? I remember him in TNA and he didn't seem like anything special. Also, how about Karl Anderson? I remember hearing about him in PWG back when I followed the indy's but have never actually seen him in a match. Is he anything special?

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  19. yes, NJPW is the undisputed king of wrestling in Japan and Tanahashi has started a new boom period.

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  20. listening to Japanese is fine, I'm an anime fan (to the point of attending conventions) and I watch all of that subtitled. I just want to know what the story is and what's going on. hell I'd probably give them my money if they just subtitled their shows

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  21. So many misspellings lol

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  22. Maybe just give us a brief paragraph of thoughts on the show afterwords and anything we should watch from it?

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  23. THIS is where TNA fucks up royally. The should do talent exchanges, or whatever it takes to work with NJPW and the AAA promotion in Mexico. I would love to see Tenay do some commentary (without Taz) on some NJPW matches.

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  24. The crowds seem like they are getting larger as well.

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  25. I've always wondered if Japan has a steroid/drug wrestling culture as well. I'm sure there is but beyond Misawa dying in the ring and Hashimoto (who didn't really look like he took care of himself anyway), there aren't as many tragedies (I'm sure there are some I'm not thinking of). Plus, the puro wrestlers, despite the very physical style, don't have as tough a schedule so they can heal up.

    Anyone have any insights?

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  26. If memory serves... I think Tom Zenk had an article up talking about a young Kawada serving one of those learning excursions to North America that Japanese wrestlers often do when they start out. It was here that Kawada was introduced to steroids in order to bulk up. I wouldn't be surprised if Kobashi did them either, since he learned to strength train from the Road Warriors. But I doubt roids are as prevalent or, at least, abused in Japan because of the touring set up, which allows for more rest and more gym time. Plus, Japanese audiences are much more accepting of being big and tall without being chiseled like a bodybuilder.

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  27. The matches posted in that youtube clip are awesome

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  28. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryJune 29, 2013 at 2:28 PM

    I doubt they do too much weed or blow over there, it's really hard to find there and obscenely expensive if you do. It's just not tolerated in Japan.

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  29. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryJune 29, 2013 at 2:34 PM

    Aren't NOAH (and maybe AJPW too) doing indy-sie crowds these days?

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  30. Amsterdam_Adam_CurryJune 29, 2013 at 2:38 PM

    That's the reason I can't get into Lucha stuff. If the commentators could explain to me what the hell is going on and who is who I could follow along better. My fault for zoning out in Spanish class for the 9 years I took it, I guess.

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  31. Japanese guys NEVER have drawn money in the US.

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  32. yeah both are in really bad shape. AJPW is in the middle of another Noah like split with Muta leaving and taking half the talent with him. Noah itself hasn't really recovered from Misawa dying and are at the point that Yano and Iizuka from NJPW are the GHC (the NOAH name for it) tag champs. It also doesn't help that for AJPW they were bought by some tycoon who kinda likes wrestling and proceeded to piss off most of the wrestlers there by suggesting they have non worked matches. Scott should really consider dropping TNA for NJPW as I bet it won't seem like work reviewing a show that just had four or five ****+ matches on it. It's way more then just Tanahashi blowing it out of the water. Okada, Nakamura, Ishii, Suzuki, Anderson, even Shelton Benjamin of late are just on fire.

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  33. Archer is OK he's fine in the tags but the singles he's done have exposed him a little as a generic brawler. Anderson has blown it out of the water with great matches against Tanahashi, Okada, Nakamura.

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  34. That has nothing on the Goto Shibata match from Dominion.

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  35. HUGE. Go grab a couple of the English-speaking retired stars still in Japan and let them call some matches; what would really be great would be vignettes in English running down the angles. I can't watch 2 hours of context-free wrestling (see Ring of Honor).

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  36. Surely it has something....Goto/Shibata II is epic, though.

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  37. I wouldn't say he's anything special. He still has that awful lower-back tattoo. Yeah, basically a big-man brawler. He works well with Davey Boy Smith Jr., who has been breaking out, I think. Nakamura had some terrific matches with him last year and this year.

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  38. I don't understand how someone can't get into a wrestling match because there is no commentary (or at least some they can understand.). I mean, have you ever been to a live event? You know there are no commentators, right? How do you get into a match and follow the story then? Maybe I'm sounding arrogant (who cares) but I don't need someone to hold my hand and tell me what I'm watching, I'd rather figure it out for myself, get more out of it. Beside, there aren't any good American commentators left anyway. Cole is serviceable at best. Kevin Kelly sucks, Mike Tenay sucks, Josh Matthews sucks and Matt Striker sucks.

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  39. Well, Reid Flair was sent there in order for him to stay clean.

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  40. I can get into *A* match just fine--but I like to know why these two people are fighting if i am going to follow your promotion rather then just watch a few random matches, when go to a live event I still know what the feuds are and who is fighting who.

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  41. when I said boom, I meant for the currents kings at NJPW. the competition is getting slaughtered

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  42. I will say, NJPW's video packages before the PPV matches are getting better at conveying the issues involved.

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  43. I don't think we've seen one in a position to do so in the WWE/WCW arena for years, though. By that I mean, treated as a title contender. Sure, Morishima was ROH's top dog for a few months, but arguably the last top Japanese star on a national platform in the U.S. was Muta in '89. The Liger/Pillman battle a few years later was more of a special attraction kind of thing.

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