Who's gonna watch this? I don't know much about NJPW, but I'm excited about this thing. There's a fun article on the avclub that got me pumped about this.

http://www.avclub.com/article/introd...-wrestl-213017

It's Saturday at 2am (technically Sunday) EST.

I'm obviously very pumped about this being a huge NJPW fan. Nice to see a thread started for it.

Psyched to see almost all of the matches. MiSu/Sakuraba could be good if Saku pulls out a performance like he did two years ago against Nakamura. Omega vs Taguchi could be a sleeper match. Ishii vs Makabe should be fine. A shame that Makabe has no idea how to sell Ishii's elbow strikes. AJ's run in NJPW has been extremely memorable and his match vs Naito should be no exception as they've had one tremendous match already.

The big two: Ibushi vs Nakamura for the IC strap. A rematch from their first encounter that has been 17 months in the making. They were supposed to face each other in August but Ibushi dumped himself on his head against KUSHIDA and it was not to be. Fitting for such an epic match (got MotY in Tokyo Sports) to have a rematch at Tokyo Dome.

Tanahashi vs Okada: I personally cannot wait to see this match. A lot of people say that they've faced each other too much but the last time they faced off was 15 months ago and they're the top two guys in NJPW...why wouldn't this be at Tokyo Dome? Two five star matches from Meltzer as well as two ****3/4 matches. They've imho got the match of the 2000's with their match from 4/6/13 (Invasion Attack). If they can top their match from WK two years ago even just a little bit it may be the best thing to ever happen.

Oh yeah, Jarrett is in a 6-man match. lol. Jim Ross and Matt Striker will be calling the action if you order on gfw.com. I will be watching the Japanese commentary first and then the Ross one when that gets up somewhere.

Your write up had me more excited. I'm not sure which commentary I'll be watching yet. Hoping it's English, but will be watching either way.

Glad to hear that. Thought I was just repeating a bunch of what was said since I didn't read .

I'm looking forward to it. I don't understand Japanese so I'll be listening to the goat commentator.

Bonus Tanahashi picture from being crowned Tokyo Sports WotY

Anyone got a river for this

Google it and a reddit thread pops up saying something about w w w idntv.com/#

I've got some sort of pre-show thing running now. Like an infomercial.

Hearing JR announce wrestling is comforting.

First time watching any non American wrestling. Like it so far. Hopefully they have English announcers on a regular basis

Yeah, fun so far, but let's get away from these quadruple tag matches now.

They hit so hard. Very stiff compared to the wwe stuff I'm accustomed to. Way better viewing experience.

holy **** I thought this was tomorrow

derp

edit: found a creek thanks to feldman. going to just start watching from here and download later to watch the earlier bits. JR and Striker sound great together.

Don't worry, there's still three more hours of the show!

I'd only heard of the bullet club vaguely, and thought id end up cheering for them. Not the case so far. Doing their jobs as heels

Can anyone define hardstyle wrestling for me? Couldn't find anything on the google machine.

I'm guessing it's just another word for stiff. I could be wrong though, this is the first time I've heard it.

Yeah that would make sense

Great show I thought for someone watching for the first time. So how does new japan work? A weekly show with monthly ppv type big shows?

New Japan is going to have an English announced "best of" weekly show starting this month on Fridays (I think) on AXS TV (used to be HDnet).

Also a first time watcher of a full NJPW event(I've only watched single matches on youtube without knowing backstory) and I'm interested to hear how isolated feels it stacks up to previous events because I loved it. The in ring action was so awesome. I love how every little move means something. JR and Striker did a great job of explaining back stories and the importance of the matches.

It usually has a ppv per month. Their are hype shows that lead up to the event. For instance on 12/20 and 12/19 there were hype shows for WK and not a show until WK. Main event was the big three matches mixed in a 6-man match (Tana/Makabe/Ibushi vs Naka/Okada/Ishii on 12/20).

In January or February (this year in Jan on the 17-19th) there is FantisticoMania or something like that where NJPW hosts interpromotional matches with CMLL. In March there is the New Japan Cup tournament. It has 3 days that are usually broadcast and then a ppv final. In August there is the G-1 Climax tournament which last year had 13 (maybe 12) days and those were all broadcast on ppv for a bundle price of $150. In November and December there are Junior and Heavyweight tag tournaments with the Finals being on Decemeber's ppv for the Heavyweights. Don't think the Jr's get a ppv final.

I'll get to it but waiting for somebody to get here to watch the undercard matches. Already watched the final two . Ibushi was a ****ing god out there. And that last match...wow. Totally atypical to the past Okada/Tanahashi matches. Mindblowing to me seeing them pull out **** I've not seen before that was so damn aggressive. I was completely deflated at the results of both matches despite my favorite wrestler winning, it shouldn't have been him.

The reply is live now, and also the video of it is up for freebie on daily motion.

A handful of people on wrestlingforum already calling both main events 5*. They were damn good. Can't wait to rewatch later. Still haven't caught the other matches yet tho