it looked pretty cool. i mean, the beginning was awful, like 800 armbars or whatever.

but some of those over the rope moves were pretty rad and i'm not usually into it very much.

still, i skipped a lot, because there's no way i could watch 45 or so minutes of a wrestling match. maybe 15 years ago, but not these days.

Lol yeah. I had no idea how long it was on for and like 15 minutes in I was ready for it to end.

Young Bucks would probably get right up from it, superkick the guy and then say suck it and whatever 20 year old catch phrases they weren't even old enough to watch.

they're both around my age, one is older, one's a bit younger.

surely they watched suck it, if even i did.

After watching most of it I imagine if I had been invested in the story leading up to it it would have been one of the best matches ever. Really good drama. I just can't "feel" a match when I'm not emotionally invested in the characters. Unlike with WWE though, it's probably more my fault for not being able to get into New Japan and not their fault for being shitty at building up guys.

I'll say one thing though. The commentary was really good. It wasn't full of annoying characters with annoying catchphrases chatting bollocks to one another. Made it seem like a legit sport.

Watched the main event, knowing nothing of either guy, and thought it was awesome.

I might be in this boat. I don't know if it would be "best matches ever" worthy, but it might have resonated with me more.

I liked the commentary more than I would a RAW or SmackDown, and there were two moments where I thought "That was good insight," but apart from that I could have left it. :-\

It was good to at least hear them call action rather than yell at each other, ignoring what's happening.

It was Striker right? He can go on for a bit. He knows his stuff though. Will try to catch JR and Barnett on AXS this week. JR does have a bit of a low-key tone on this stuff now though.

Thought their banter just as the match was about to begin about the language barrier was "real" and pretty cool.

Ross isn't exciting to me anymore. He's whatever. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino I believe are the commentators.

Sweet moment was when Naito recognized Corino and did the LIJ sign with him.

Couldn't stand KK and Corino. I had New Legacy Inc talking over them.

Omega:

https://abload.de/img/c1uqiruukaerptk87sif.jpg

Really glad he's making his time off make sense. He gave that match everything and came up short so he needs to be off.

Sounds like he'll come back as a face

Maybe he does come as a face to take the title from Suzuki who takes it from Okada, then Okada wins G1 and faces Omega again at the dome next year.

NJPW has a got a friend in me /RandyNewman

If it means IWGP Heavyweight Champion Minoru Suzuki, I'm ok with it.

According to DA MELTZ, Omegas contract ends January 31st and he is taking time off until March.

What are the chances that they send Bullet Club to ROH or somewhere else for most of 2017 to make room for Suzuki Gun as the top heels in Japan for a while. Seems like the Bullet Club is down right now losing most their titles at Wrestle Kingdom. Only BC members that won were Adam Cole and Cody Rhodes.

I dunno, stables are very different in NJPW. Like Suzuki gun were just kind of there a couple of years ago before they invaded NOAH and CHAOS barely do anything as a team.

Bullet Club is a bit special because of how much merch they sell outside of Japan, so not sure what they'll do with them.

Maybe BC will attempt to deal with the Suzuki Gun raid.

They are all babyfaces anyway.

I'm not a Bullet Club guy because it's very unoriginal, just DX and NWO combined. Probably my least favorite gimmick in NJPW.

https://youtu.be/ZXfzoZDmauk

"faces"

That match was fun to watch!

Yeah that one of the things I like about NJPWs stables. They are more like alliances. Just seems like with Kenny taking time off and Bullet Club being on a down swing at the moment t in Japan that they might send them on an excursion for a while so Suzuki Gun can takeover. With them looking to expand to the United States this year having BC in USA could do them some favors. I don't know but I feel like Kenny has something big planned once he returns.

That was incredibly annoying IMO.

I know about the origins of the NWO. But that doesn't have much to do with the unoriginality of The Bullet Club.

I loved the Guerrillas of Warfare cursing. But then again I'm quite the sweary motherfucker.

don't you people have trouble remembering all those jap names?

fuck, can't read a wiki article about a single wrestler without realizing i've already read about him, just the name didn't sound familiar.

i think that was pretty funny.

I spent a little bit of time thinking about New Japan today, which is a good sign for my potential fandom. I kind of think the main event of WrestleKingdom 12 should be Okada vs. Naito. Okada beat Tanahashi at WK10 and Naito at WK11. I'm intrigued to see if New Japan spend some real money on trying to get some guys locked in for the American expansion in order to try and work alongside or against Okada in order to give him some spotlight. My picks would be Kurt Angle and Rob Van Dam, as well as locking Cody Rhodes and Adam Cole down to contracts. As much as I'm not into him, if he hasn't signed with WWE yet, they should make a push to bring in Kyle O'Reilly. He'd make a good opponent for KUSHIDA at least.

I'd like to see New Japan produce some sort of video game too. I think it could help with product awareness and their "penetration."

Dude ... RVD in Bullet Club would be fucking awesome.

Kurt Angle going off with ANYONE would be dope.

I don't know if Okada and Naito have wrestled much in the past but yeah that makes sense for WK 12. But I feel that Omega is going to headline again probably as a baby face.

I could see that. Omega will be featured if he is still around. I could personally see him in the semi-main. Something like the spot Tanahashi and Naito were in this year. In fact, I could see him against Tanahashi, Shibata or Goto. Given how much they seem to love Goto but have trouble getting him "there," putting him against Omega next year might be a way of spreading some shine to him. Maybe that's my cynical North American thinking? Haha. Not that Omega/Goto would be bad by any stretch.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/37c8a7695...rtjo1_1280.jpg

What a goddamn heel

Damn. Body language says it all. I wish we had heels like that in the States.

Watched this last night. My God what a show. The last 4 title matches were great. Goto finally getting the big w was great.

Loved it. More words later.

And yes I came. Several times.

Monthly posting of this match:

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/102825529" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/102825529">AJ Styles vs Minoru Suzuki</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/portugaltna">Jorge Rebelo</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

What a bloody beautiful match with AJ he had. I honestly love it more every time I watch it.

I get a sense from the way Meltzer is talking that New Japan's idea is to hold off the Okada/Omega rematch until next year's WrestleKingdom, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I find it hilarious that TNA is basically responsible for Okada coming up with the Rainmaker chsracter. I had forgotten his stint in TNA..

I loved it too. Too bad Corino was fucking laughing.

I only saw Okada vs Omega. In that match, I thought Corino and Kelly were just fucking horrendous. Don't get me wrong, even them being horrendous was better than what we here on WWE these days, but my standards aren't so shit that I accept what they offered.

They sound like they've never heard other sports being commentated. Kelly in particular is supposed to be a play-by-play and there needs to be some kind of cadence. Instead, they sound like a couple of smarky wrassling teachers trying to talk about how a match should be "worked". It honestly felt like I was watching figure skating. The 2 guys were not "in character" at all, they were just 2 fans watching a match and clearly pretending it was real. We all know it's fixed, but it's not a lie if you believe it. Either call the match like it's real or dont' call it at all. No energy, so fucking bland and talking about the match like they were smarks. Really disappointing.

Jim Ross is the same when he calls in Japan. I guess the guys think they have the day off or something. Plus JR is obviously way older now and it's hard to remain as focused as a pbp.

Kelly and Corino were ok on commentary. They weren't bad. But they weren't that good. If Ranalo was calling the show it'd have been a better call.

But those last 4 matches were still fucking stellar.

The biggest issue is that they call it like it's a work. For a work to be good, it needs to be commentated like it's a shoot.

It's not about working "us" the audience, it's about working themselves and one another as pears. It's not a lie if you believe it.

They buy into the wrestlers as performers, and obviously respect them as such. But they don't buy into the performance as a competition, they only see and act as it's just that, a performance.

To me it almost sounded like they were dubbing in their commentary after the fact. Seemed like they weren't fully into it, I guess.

I still only listen to the Japanese commentary when I'm watching the events, it gives me a better feel for the crowd, announcers picking up the excitement for spots.

Corino and Kelly were decent and a lot better compared to last year's English team. They have the same problem JR and Striker had in general with their inexperience showing a lot because they only do NJPW events on occasion.

Probably would get the same sort of disconnect occuring if you took those same Japanese commentators and had them call ROH or WWE events on the spot.

I did switch to the Japanese commentators for the last two matches because of them being able to match the intensity and fast pace of those big matches.

I synced this video up and their enthusiasm mixed with being stupid really worked. It was like listening to friends watch it.

https://youtu.be/wVeY9MjdH58

They did get a bit silly with lack of sleep during the Shibata match though. This was pulled out from that, ASM(J)R

https://youtu.be/RBGXtAdLjf0

fuck you roxer. fuck you and your whole jap family.

I can see Suzuki getting a run with the IWGP Heavyweight Title.

So, as much as he likes it he has no problem spoiling shit about it? What a fucking dirtbag.

What did he spoil? Kenny had already said he was taking time off. Nothing was spoiled.

There is a guy on F4Wonline's board who put a list with links of all the NJPW matches you need to see on NJworld.com

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...7pI/edit#gid=0

I started watching WK 10 last night with Striker and Kevin Kelly and they make Corino and Kelly sound like gods.

Uh, isn't that the one with Yoshi Tatsu as well?

Speaking of Tatsu, is he trying to ape Triple H's gimmick? Comes out spitting water and a water bottle in hand, hits all of the signature moves (spine buster, high knee, face smash) and I'm pretty sure I've seen him try to go for the pedigree.

Yes, he's the Bullet Club Hunter

Yeah he started Hunter Club to oppose Bullet Club and started mimicking HHH. He made offers to Micheal Elgin and Tanahashi to join but they both declined. Captain New Japan joined but was later kicked out and joined Bullet Club becoming Bone Soldier. Billy Gunn teamed with him in the tag league.

I'm glad for a break from the Club for now. Suzuki gun will be a fresh breath of air, and it's good to see the bad guys get one to the chin and take a step back.

Bump so folks and see

...........yes

Huh. Didn't they win the never openweight6man belts for a while?

Ah well. Good to see Tatsu back after almost dying. I just find the gimmick hilarious. The bullet hunter shirts did look like dx shirts