An interesting little comment from Okada about being a World Champion that can hold true to any major wrestling promotion in the world. The interview I'm linking is pretty good as well detailing his thoughts about Shibata as an opponent going into the Sakura Genesis event tonight.

https://www.njpw1972.com/6320

really enjoyed the main event. tho they can learn what the word selling means a little and itd make it a lot better.

Okada used to be an excellent seller. USED TO BE.

Although now that I've seen the match I actually didn't have a problem with Okada's selling in the slightest which is a cool little side effect of Shibata not realizing wrestling is fake.

The only problem I had with this match is that the RAINMAKAHHHHH is the worlds ****tiest finisher and was super lol that these guys were shoot beating the living **** out of each other for 40 minutes and it ends with a weak ass clothesline.

Great match otherwise tho. probably my #2 moty so far behind Naito/Tanahashi from WK.

Apparently Shibata suffered a Subdural Hematoma from the match and had to have emergency brain surgery which went well.

Who knew shoot headbutting people so hard it makes you bleed was bad for you.

There are people that legitimately want Daniel Bryan to wrestle there when his contract runs out. Those people are insane. That includes Daniel Bryan.

Glad to hear it went well. The headbutt spot disturbed me. It's SO LOUD and then he started bleeding from it. Incredible visual, but much like old school chair shots I can do without them anyways.

Shibata has basically been doing that spot EVERY MATCH for the last 6 months

Just watched the headbutt spot. Jesus Christ. That's just a thing that shouldn't be happening in 2017.

Yeah. I enjoyed the match but a lot of the stiff shots were hard to watch for me, not just the headbutts. Bryan wrestling there would be scary.

Side note, still can't really get into ZBJ and it's amazing how well they've Vince'd Omega's momentum.

I thought this one was worse

What the **** would possess anyone to throw a legit head butt?

Tough Guy Syndrome.

Finally saw the Okada/Shibata match. Much much better than Okada/Suzuki (my criticisms of which are in this thread). Hated the opening mat wrestling/MMA sequences, but once Okada didn't do his typical fakeout/chest slaps break and instead started wailing away, it was pretty darn good IMO. Could have done without the headbutt, of course.

https://twitter.com/STRIGGA/status/8...estling-4.html

Well thats not good

Just caught Omega/Ishii from the New Japan Cup. For the first 20 minutes, I was kinda meh on it. The last 10 were two thumbs up, though.

He only actually got that big nasty headbutt twice before the Okada match. One on Nakajima. The other on Bobby Fish. Other times, it was teased with other wrestlers avoiding it or countering it.

Hmmm, well, that is very unfortunate. We all know it would come to this point eventually. I loved Shibata's 2016 run of very brutal matches and him winning a lot of those matches, but those headbutt spots he landed were very concerning and it would eventually lead to this.

Edit: In hindsight, I guess Shibata not winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship last weekend was probably for the best. Would not look good if he won it and NJPW would be all "We got to vacate the championship because Shibata had some brain damage headbutting the top guy of NJPW to oblivion and cannot defend the title."

I don't think NJPW is getting enough flack for allowing Shibata to continuously do that spot. I get that they don't like to intervene with their performers, but when Shibata cracked Nakajima that first time, not making in explicitly clear that that **** can't happen again was straight negligent.

Had already been answered by the bold below.

Just finished the match and thought it was pretty good. Not a great match because no-selling The Rainmaker should be a crime when it went nearly 5 years without anyone straight kicking out of it. Also, the first 8-10 minutes were pretty boring. Shibata looked great in defeat but I suppose that'll happen when you just kick the **** out of your opponent. This match reminded me of the WK match between Shinskay and Ibushi. Supposed to be about athleticism and seeing who's best but breaks down to a total fight.

I'm also on board with antidan that this match was >>> Okada/Suzuki.

If that's it for Shibata, it was a helluva run after a very controversial comeback in August 2012. iirc, he's been doing these headbutts a lot longer than the last 6 months. Pretty sure he was using them in his August 2013 5* match vs. Ishii. Speaking of Ishii, I don't think we'll see him using headbutts in the near future.

edit: Just saw that Meltzer gave the match 5 stars. Needless to say, I disagree. I'd give it like ***3/4.

With regards to Shibata's headbutt spots, I like this one the most when he faced Goto in June 2013 and they were apparently friendly rivals at the time before being really a team in 2014. Those Shibata/Goto matches back then made me think, if they were dealing this much punishment to each other as friends, I shudder to think what they would do to guys they really hate.



The worst one I hated the most though was when he and Ishii faced off at WK 10 where they were going all battering rams with it, bucking heads. That was pretty much the only negative thing to me about that match.

That headbutt in the video above is ****ed up. You can hear the thump. Don't like it.

From August 2006:


In what I believe was the next match between those two, after 25-30 minutes of an amazing match, they ended it by both running to opposite ropes and doing legit headbutts which led to this and it no doubt led to the end of Bryan's career:



Let's not forget that Brock gave Orton a concussion on purpose last year at SummerSlam just to add to his aura. Brock's next match? Losing to Goldberg in 90 seconds.

It is pretty gross. I'll lose a lot of respect for NJPW if there isn't an incredibly strict NO HEAD STUFF THAT IS REAL policy after this.

I remember I had just starting binging Bryan matches not long before he signed with the WWE and hated that Bryan/McGuinness spot the first time I saw it.

Yep, I agree but unfortunately I won't be surprised if it doesn't happen.

With regards to Orton/Lesnar. He wasn't trying to give him a concussion. Supposedly Lesnar said he could graze Orton and bust him open, but obviously he did more than graze I'm guessing by accident

Obviously the concussion wasn't on purpose but when you're in there and doing what they were doing, it's going to go wrong a good percent of the time given how strong Brock is and the precision at which he needs to throw those elbows. Even though Brock's a "UFC fighter", he was never a precision striker which is what was needed in that scenario. Vince might as well have said, "go get rid of those voices that he hears via concussion".