New Japan

[wildturkey]

This was found on Will Ospreay's Instagram. I am glad that he made the choice of living because when things get back to some type of normalcy, this is a guy I can see being a future main eventer in New Japan. I hope that he gets the help that he needs to overcome it because having those types of thoughts in your head is seriously damaging to the psyche.

Do you know the details of the out of ring stuff he's been caught up in? I haven't really delved into them. Best I can tell at a glance is he had a friend that sexually assaulted a female wrestler and Will later had that female wrestler blackballed from some shows to protect his friend?

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Do you know the details of the out of ring stuff he's been caught up in? I haven't really delved into them. Best I can tell at a glance is he had a friend that sexually assaulted a female wrestler and Will later had that female wrestler blackballed from some shows to protect his friend?

This is the only thing I can find about it. I can't find anything more recent, so I'm guessing for the moment, it's blown over?
I don't use any social media other than Facebook, so no clue if Will ever responded back to her or not.
Will Ospreay Reacts To Accusation He Blackballed Victim For Coming Forward With Abuse Story

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Shingo vs Suzuki on August 29 in Jingu will be a lot of fun!

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Looks like the Stadium show on Saturday in Jingu is officially set. Just some quick (and probably wrong) predictions:

1. Master Wato will beat Kanemaru. Don't really think this will be anything special but won't completely suck either.
2. I feel like Okada is going to win the new KOPW belt over Yano, Desperado and Sanada. Yano is definitely the odd man out of the three. Don't know exactly how they're going to do this match, if it will be all four in the ring at the same time or something else. But regardless, this should be a fun match. (hopefully Okada's feud with Yujiro is FINALLY over)
3. Shingo will beat Suzuki to retain the Never Openweight title. I feel like this will be the most enjoyable match of the night. It'll be a match where the two will beat the hell out of each other for 20-25 minutes is my guess.
4. Takahashi will beat Ishimori for the Jr Heavyweight belt. This will be a completely different style from the previous match but these two will still likely have a fun, fast paced match. Just don't seen Takahashi losing the Jr Heavyweight belt yet.
5. Ibushi and Tanahashi will win the IWGP tag belts from Taichi and ZSJ. These four had a solid but not great match last time they were in the ring together. Taichi is usually hit or miss but the other three I feel are solid. If this is going to be better than their previous encounter, they can't start extremely slow.
6. Naito will win the Intercontinental and IWGP Heavyweight belts from EVIL. This should be okay but I expect a lot of outside interference, especially from Bullet Club. But I feel like they'll want to send the crowd home happy. It could also be possible that Jay White comes back and challenges Naito next since he hinted around about this particular date on Twitter.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Damn, was I WAY off on those predictions.

The Wato-Kanemaru match wasn't anything special. There was a couple of botched spots but the match didn't go all that long though. Surprised Wato didn't get the win, just because I figured Kanemaru is one of the Suzuki-gun job guys and I figured they'd have Wato go on to face someone else after picking up a victory.
Yano winning the KOPW match was pretty surprising as he was the last person I would've thought to have won it. What's even more surprising was that he got to pin Okada to win the match. This was very short and rushed as I felt like this never really got going.
The Suzuki-Shingo match was the best match of the night in my opinion. It was what you'd expect from these two, a hard hitting, back and forth brawl for 15 minutes. After watching the post match interviews, this feud will continue, which I won't complain about at all.
Hiromu losing to Ishimori was somewhat of a shock. But at least the way he lost made since since Hiromu has been nursing a shoulder injury and BC had been zoning in on that on the past couple of shows.
The Dangerous Tekkers vs Tanahashi and Ibushi was solid. I felt like it could've probably gone a bit longer. I enjoyed it more than their previous match. I'm figuring that this feud is probably over but don't know where any of them are going from here.
Naito beating EVIL didn't surprise me. It was thankfully 12 minutes shorter than the 38 minute match that they had when EVIL won the belts. It was very solid and they had Naito overcome the odds to win the belts back and to get the closing show interview uninterrupted, unlike at Wrestle Kingdom when KENTA came in and attacked him.

Overall, there was really nothing worth going out of your way to watch. But if you do, I'd say start at the Suzuki vs Shingo match and go from there. It wasn't a long show at all, lasting a bit over two hours, so it's a quick watch.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Participants announced for NJPW G1 Climax 30 tournament

A Block looks real interesting and can provide a lot of good matches. Just wish they put SHO in there instead of Yujiro, which would’ve resulted in even better matches.

 

[wildturkey]

Participants announced for NJPW G1 Climax 30 tournament

A Block looks real interesting and can provide a lot of good matches. Just wish they put SHO in there instead of Yujiro, which would’ve resulted in even better matches.

Is Jeff Cobb full time NJPW now? I remember him saying he was going to wait to announce where he signed until the company he signed with did.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Is Jeff Cobb full time NJPW now? I remember him saying he was going to wait to announce where he signed until the company he signed with did.

I've wondered that myself. I always thought that he was an ROH guy that also went to Japan to do New Japan shows. But I could be mixing things up. I just know that if he ever works in Japan, New Japan has exclusive rights to him.
Sorry for the edit. I at first misinterpreted that last statement. Comprehension skills aren't the best after a few drinks for the birthday celebration.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

@wildturkey What was surprising about the names was that they have gotten some of the guys that were doing the Strong shows here in the states to be in there and Ospreay, who really hasn't done much of anything that I can think of since the shutdowns started. I was also expecting SHO to be in there and not having Yujiro. But I guess that everyone else in the bracket needs the easy night match and he's the guy for A Block while Yano will be it for B Block.

 

[wildturkey]

@wildturkey What was surprising about the names was that they have gotten some of the guys that were doing the Strong shows here in the states to be in there and Ospreay, who really hasn't done much of anything that I can think of since the shutdowns started. I was also expecting SHO to be in there and not having Yujiro. But I guess that everyone else in the bracket needs the easy night match and he's the guy for A Block while Yano will be it for B Block.

Maybe some of the restrictions for travel got lifted. Or maybe they negotiated some type of quarantine routine with the gov't.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Maybe some of the restrictions for travel got lifted. Or maybe they negotiated some type of quarantine routine with the gov't.

That’s a possibility. My other guess would be that they taped those Strong shows well in advance so the talent that’s coming in has had the two weeks to quarantine and be ready.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Here’s the match lineups for each night of the G1.

NJPW announces lineups, main events for all G1 Climax 30 shows

NJPW has announced the matchups and main events for all eighteen G1 Climax 30 events this year. This year’s G1 kicks off on September 19th in Osaka with Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi in the A Block.

www.f4wonline.com

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Early prediction for the G1 - Kota Ibushi wins A Block and Hiroshi Tanahashi wins B Block. For A Block, the only other two I can see having a chance is Jay White and Okada.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Of the night one matches, I liked the Suzuki vs Ishii match the best. The Okada vs Ibushi was good but wasn’t quite as good as their Wrestle Kingdom match. As expected, the Jay White vs Shingo match had shenanigans but was solid. Taichi vs Cobb was fine for what it was. The Ospreay vs Yujiro match was nothing special, although Yujiro matches usually aren’t. The Uemura vs Tsuji was a fine opener with both guys showing a lot of energy.
If anyone watches any of this, I’d probably start with the Suzuki vs Ishii match and go until the end. Having no tag matches before the main matches made this a lot easier to get through.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

@wildturkey do you want me to continue giving updates throughout the tournament? I feel like nobody else that posts in the wrestling forum even cares about New Japan.

 

[wildturkey]

@wildturkey do you want me to continue giving updates throughout the tournament? I feel like nobody else that posts in the wrestling forum even cares about New Japan.

It's up to you. I'm not a mod here or anything. So whatever makes you happy is cool with me. It does look like we're the only ones that watch it though. And you watch a lot more than I do, too. I haven't got around to watching the start of G1 yet (read the spoilers though). Sounds like Ibushi/Okada might be the only one worth checking out from the first night.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

It's up to you. I'm not a mod here or anything. So whatever makes you happy is cool with me. It does look like we're the only ones that watch it though. And you watch a lot more than I do, too. I haven't got around to watching the start of G1 yet (read the spoilers though). Sounds like Ibushi/Okada might be the only one worth checking out from the first night.

I enjoyed the Suzuki-Ishii match more. I've always preferred more of the hard hitting type matches where it looks like the guys could legitimately beat the shit out of each other. The Ibushi-Okada matchup was good but of the two I've seen, I prefer the one from Wrestle Kingdom back in January. That was fantastic. The White-Shingo match was typical Bullet Club type shenanigans, so if you don't mind them, you'll enjoy the match but if not, skip it. The Young Lions match that opened the card wasn't bad. It was only around 7-8 minutes. I like Uemara and think whenever he goes on his excursion and comes back, he'll be a star. Just like I think Ren Narita and Shota (Shooter according to Moxley) Umino will be in do time as well.
The B Block starts tonight here shortly so I'm going to try to catch that but B Block really doesn't interest me nearly as much as A Block does this year.
But I figured since you and I are the only ones that have been commenting in this thread for a while now that everyone else is primarily just focused on watching AEW and WWE.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Well, there was nothing on last night's show worth going out of your way to watch in my opinion. There was really nothing completely awful on it but nothing that is must see either. I'd say that the Naito vs Tanahashi match was the best of the night. The Juice Robinson vs YOSHI-HASHI match was better than I expected. The ZSJ vs. EVIL match wasn't as good as I was expecting but I think a lot of it was do to the normal Bullet Club interference. I think it's pretty obvious that A Block is definitely more stacked and has a lot of good matchups to look forward to for the next month.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Well, night 2 of the A Block is in the books. Most of the matches were solid to very good. I'd say the only match that I'd skip if I were to rewatch the show would be the Okada-Yujiro match. The Young Lions match was a good opener with a lot of fire from both guys. The Shingo-Cobb match was a slight difference in styles but they made it work. The Okada-Yujiro match was nothing special but that goes with the majority of Yujiro matches. I had a feeling that Taichi was going to pull that match out with Suzuki and I was right. It was good but you could tell that Suzuki was carrying the match in my opinion. The Ospreay-Ishii match was another one that was a clash of styles but it worked. Will is definitely acting more and more cocky after each match, so I'm wondering if there is something storyline wise coming up that they have planned for that. The Ibushi-White match was really good as well. Gedo of course interfered a few times but that's par for the course for Jay White matches.

 

[wildturkey]

I just got around to watching some of the first matches today. How many roids has Ospreay consumed? Holy crap that dude has blown up. He looks totally different.