Nice, thanks. Yeah there's a DG show at Korakuen Hall so I'm guessing I would enjoy it even with limited knowledge of the promotion. I'm going with some non wrestling fans and they're keen to see a show but that May 3rd NJPW PPV is so far out of our way . DG might be a bit better for non wrestling fans though with all the theatrics.

As I was reading your post, I was going to post exactly that. They'll def like it better.

There's a reason Vince, a guy who isn't keen on admitting he was wrong, has been quoted as saying he regrets not signing AJ 10 years ago.

Dang, we could have gotten HBK vs Styles during HBK's peak in his second run if that happened.

Styles vs Bryan at a big WWE event :fap:. Not too disappointed though as they put on a couple of classics in the early 00's.

I watched that AJ vs MiSu match from the G-1 again. I'd forgotten most of it. I forgot that all hell breaks loose when the ref gets bumped down. That part is great. The thing that I was most surprised at when rewatching was how hard hitting it was. MiSu was clobbering the **** out of AJ with his kicks. The running kick on the apron to AJ's chest, a few kicks to the stomach chest that nailed him flush. MiSu is not a joke. I also can't recall another match where AJ has used the Styles Clash as a desperation maneuver either.



He's desperate to release the armbreaker:


and MiSu's last resort in the match before being slayed.


All that praise aside, I don't rate it as high as most.



For darO and the lolz:

I love how Naito and Red Shoes put their arms up at the exact same moment. Just...awesome.

dar0 or anguyen, can you enlighten me on something? Has anyone ever kicked out of Shibata's PK? I don't remember it ever happening. OTOH, Gedo and management clearly don't see him on the level of Okada, Omega, etc. so I'm assuming it's happened.

Honestly, no one has kicked out of the PK in Shibata's matches I've seen. I know there was an instance he did a big kick to the chest on Tanahashi in September 2014 (not really the sleeper into the running PK combo which is his finisher), but couldn't cover due to the leg work that Tanahashi did. Heck, there are two instances I think where after Shibata did the PK and put his opponent in a rear naked choke or sleeper (don't remember) just because that opponent pissed him off too much. One of that opponent is in a gif on this page.

Okada and Suzuki are having a pretty good match right now. Live now if anyone's awake.



He does this spot a bit but I love it everytime.

Got to see the match. Enjoyed it a lot but found the announcing to be ... mediocre? Kind of like they were just bored? I think I might watch the Japanese cast next time despite not knowing Japanese just because whenever I watch a video with it I at least get the hype and excitement shining through, and that carries over no matter what language you speak.

For instance, the end of the Ospreay post match stuff it was just a very Ben Stein sounding "If he hits that at so and so we have a new champion". Just meh.

Main was good. I'll wait a day or so to talk about it more in depth

Thanks for waiting. I haven't watched yet and forgot all about it. Probably watch sometime tomorrow.

I watched the English version of WrestleKingdom and hated it. It was actively bad. Prefer the Japanese commentary.

I always watch with the Japanese commentary. I don't need anyone to explain to me (with the exception of Mauro Ranallo and Josh Barnett. Those guys was golden in the NJPW on AXS shows in 2015) why so and so is facing each other and whatnot. I can figure that out myself with ease. Japanese commentary has got so much enthusiasm where I can get excited while they get excited. One of my favorite moments of watching with Japanese Commentary was during the G1 Climax finals where Kenny Omega did the Bloody Sunday DDT and me and the commentary was screaming "BLOODY SUNDAAAAAAAY!" simultaneously. That was a great feeling.

Anyway, overall, the show was good. Not as great as WK, of course, but a solid 7.5/10 sort of show. Main event was very good as well. I'm hoping for better though at The New Beginning in Osaka, next week. Got some great line-ups. Ospreay/Shibata, Hiromu/Dragon Lee, Elgin/Naito. By the looks of things, those big matches should dwarf the big matches of today's show.

Kevin Kelly is boring, bland and mediocre, I still can't understand how people enjoy his commentary so it's good to see people here think it's bad as well. If I can I'll always watch the Japanese commentary, like anguyen said, you can feel the emotion. I'm also used to playing games with Japanese audio.

Another good plus to watching with Japanese commentary is that sometimes, some wrestlers would come to the booth for about half of the event and give their thoughts and get excited when something happens like Makabe, Liger (he's usually the defacto wrestler commentator after he's done doing the undercard match), Tanahashi, etc.

Just watched Okada/Suzuki, Okada went full Nakamura by absolutely refusing to sell the leg until the match was over, kinda ruined it for me.

I also thought Suzuki Gun wouldn't lose every match they were in so they could get killed by LIJ, but then they lost every match they were in.

I also find it interesting that this card didn't sell out but next week's sold out in a week.

They should probably just go all in on Naito, dude is the GOAT.

The show did sell well, drawing about 5,500 people (which was more than both New Beginnings show, last year). That stated, I do concur that they should go all in on Naito on a fuller scale. He sold out the show he's headlining with about two weeks in advance. He did that the last time they did a show in Osaka (that was when he was wrestling Jay Lethal, who has very little name value in Japan).

Well, what do you know, the NJPW show in Osaka was obviously better than last week's show. Better crowd and the Ospreay/Shibata, Hiromu/Dragon Lee, Elgin/Naito matches delivered greatly.

If E. Li Drake ever gets signed to tbe WWE, he is going to be an enormous star.

All I've got to say about Okada/MiSu is if you're going to do a tombstone late in the match after having your leg worked on for 30 minutes, you better sell it like this:



41 minutes. The WK match was 51 minutes and I read that Elgin/Naito was 40 minutes. This trend is not good. You don't do long matches to simply have long matches. I realize Gedo needs to switch things up but a worker like MiSu shouldn't be out there wrestling more than 30 minutes because his offense is submissions with some strikes mixed in and a dropkick somewhere as well.

I'll get around to the second New Beginning event but another 40 minute match is just making me procrastinate with it, no matter how good it is.

New Beginning in Osaka was soooooooo much better.

1. Naito

Agree on all this. Hope the trend doesn't keep up. It's easy to get fatigued watching them and like kicking out of finishers, if you do them so much they lose that special appeal.

I just read this sentence:

Elgin with 2 5* matches? jfc That match he got 5* with Davey in ROH was absolute trash. I'm sure Elgin vs Naito was much better since NJPW seems to tone people down a lot from whatever the **** ROH and WWE do with no selling and spamming finishers. I'll get around to this match some day.

Naito is the GOAT, it's that simple.

I'll admit that I'm into him. I even loved him as a babyface and really wanted him to beat Tanahashi on 10/10/11 when he got his runner-up to the G-1 shot (Shinsuke beat him that year in an amazing match, check it out if you have NJPW World). Now he has so much personality and doing things that really haven't been done in the past by a top guy.

Also, for my money, that god damned match vs Okada in Okada's very first IWGP defense in March 2012 is one of the very best matches I've ever seen in my life. Five ****ing stars. I think I'm gonna watch that tonight. edit: Da Meltz gave it ****3/4

shoot me a link, never seen that match.