:lol:

That was actually the first match I had ever seen from those two. Its good.

Figgy reccomend me some NJPW World content

PWG- Game over man

"Adam Cole, for obvious reasons isn't going with his birth name. Which is fat piece of shit."

Off the top of my head

Andre vs Hansen Sept 81'

Chono vs Mutoh 91' G1 Climax

Yuji Nagata vs Kensuke Sasaki Jan 04'

Tenryu vs Mutoh may 99'

Hansen vs Vader feb 90' and June 90'

Muta vs Hase sept 90'

Mutoh and Chono vs Hase and Sasaki nov 90'

Sasaki and Hase vs the steiners march 91'

I think i said id smack you irl for being anti semetic. Dont know if that is challenging anyone to a fight. My rule for anti semitism is i tell people id stab them. I see nothing wrong with this.

Your histrionics are hilarious. You are a crude, miserable drunk who likes to be rude but cant take it when he gets anything back

You are also built like a piggy bank.

Also, whats it like knowing you will die drunk and alone?

Day 2 of Fighting Spirit 99

Kanemoto vs Kendo Kashin

Cool back and forth snap mares spot

I watched this yesterday and I don't remember who won

So...that should tell you how amazing this was.

Gonna keep it short, if they're not really worth checking out.

Watched the GLOW Documentary. A lot of Ivory in it.

Takashi Izuka and Osamu Kido vs Tatsutoshi Goto and Kengo Kimura

Iizuka is just a baby here. Crowd still going nuts for kido.

Rarely hear japanese crowds boo like they do when there is any offense against Kido.

Kengo and Goto heeling it up while isolating Iizuka.

Kido with the hot tag

Iizukas exploder suplex is nice.

Iizuka gets the win with the blizzard suplex. Nice to see a proper send off to Kido, and cool to see young Iizuka get a win.

Decent little match. More entertaining for the crowd than anything else.

EL Samurai and Gran Hamada vs Shinjiro Ohtani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa

lol Sam wagging his finger at Hamada, telling him not to trust Ohtanis handshake.

Ohtani rubbing his wrist tape on Hamadas eyes and yanking the side of his mouth.

Oh shit early brainbuster on El Samurai

Ohtani is honestly one of the best heels njpw ever produced.

Takaiwa powers through a missle drop kick and then counters a hurricanrana into the double powerbomb dvd, but Sam counters the dvd into a reverse ddt. Nice sequence.

Sam counters the powerbomb again, this time into a tornado ddt

Great finish. Recommend checking this one out.

I won't spoil the finish of matches I really enjoy, in case someone wants to check it out.

Watching all this is kind of torture. It's REALLY making me want to play fire pro, but I won't have a comp til next month.

Should start a kickstarter. Tell everyone that I don't have a bed or running water.

Kazuo Yamazaki vs Hiroshi Tenzan

Kind of a random pairing. Wonder what the story is, because they don't have throw away singles matches in new japan.

Nice contrast of styles. Tenzan is a bruiser with unique offense. Kazuo is an experienced vet with a mma style ( though unlike most of the mma guys coming in, kazuo is an excellent worker)

Remember using Kazuo a lot in the gba firepro

Match starts with kaxuo kicking the holy hell out of tenzan then throwing him through the barricade outside

Tenzan using his power to gain control

Kazuo ROCKS tenzan with a stiff high kick

Tenzan regaining control and getting his shit in

Oh fucking god that german

I'm gonna plug this one. Its not a 5 star or anything, but its a good short fight, and I dont remeber seding a lot of singles kazuo on here.

Fucks sake here we go

Kazuyuki Fujita and Brian Johnston vs Don Frye and Dave Beneteau

We get these two fuvking dinks again, but instead of Kazuowe get Fujita, who I remember being awful. So Frye is the only real experienced wrestler, and even he is only okay.

Least we're starting with Fujita and Frye

Bad as Fuita is, johnston and beneteau make him look like lou thesz

They're just boxing now

That was mercifully short

Tatsumi Fujinami, Tadao Yasuda, and Junji Hirata vs Scott FUCKING Norton, NWO Sting, and Micheal Wall Street

Rematch of the previous day's tag match with two extra guys.

Fuck yeah, Norton time. Crowd loves him. Oooooohing for everything he does.

Great counter into a bear hug.

To answer your early question noid, NWO Sting was about as special in njpw as he was in wcw. I.E. not very. Just wrestled in some tag matches as far as I know.

Dragon sleeper on IRS for the win. Another formulaic tag match, but again, Norton is a stand out.

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title
Liger (c)!vs Dr Wagner Jr

Good back and forth to start out.

Liger taking control by attacking the knee

Wagner with a flurry of big moves

Fucking insane finish.

Not saying a lot about this one because you really should just go watch it. Two great world class workers putting on a great match, and again, dat finish do.

MAIN EVENT

NWO vs Team 2000
Keiji Mutoh and Satoshi Kojima vs Masahiro Chono and AKIRA

Mutoh and Kojima attack team 2000 on the ramp.

Ref pulls mutoh off, which leaves him open to a kenka kick from chono

Mutoh busted open. Hes like the flair of japan.

Kojima is FIRED THE FUCK UP Dude just drank two gallons of mountain dew

Oh god akira is fucking dead. Kojima just lariated him so far back in time that he looped around back to the present

Kojima and chono shrugging off each others shit

Young boy named Shibata ringside. I made myself sad.

Chono just knees kojima right in the dick.

Hot tag to mutoh

Bit of an anti climactic ending. Still recommending this as the match itself is fun, and its worth checking out just to follow the chono vs mutoh feud

April 99'

Exploding Barb wire death match
Masahiro Chono vs Atsushi Onita

So Onita wants Choshu in a match but Choshu is ducking him, first putting Onita against Kensuke, and now against Chono. But this time its in Onitas specialty

This is a really good hardcore match. Both these guys have so much personality and charisma. Great post match stuff too. Go see it. This match ix famous enough that you can probably find it on youtube.

May 99'
IWGP Heavyweight Title
Keiji Mutoh (c) vs Genichiro Tenryu

One of the matches I suggested to destor earlier. Two of the best ever going at it. Mutohs knees are pretty bad at this point so its not what it could of been a few years ago, but fuck me, its still really good.

At one point Tenryu almost kills himself, but I can't tell if he's hurt or selling really well, cause the guy is just that good.

K, done for today. Next I'll finish up 1999, and move on to the new millenium.

I remember watching a Tenryu match in my younger days. MAY HAVE been facing Mutoh. They just beat the ever living fuck out of one another. Not even a wrestling match as much as it was just punching and forearming one another in the face. And given they were legit heavyweights, it was physical af.

Just got Timeline WCW 1990 Jim Cornette. I can't fucking wait to watch this

Please let me know how great it is.

Halfway through it and it's pretty amazing. Lol lots of Jim Herd nonsense.

The funeral wreath get mentioned

Lucha Libre, AAA on Youtube. I love their shows

Alot of old AWA stuff on Youtube.

Watching the April 1981 MSG show this morning in the Gertner Network featuring Bob Backlund vs Stan Hansen for the WWF Championship inside a Steel Cage. Fantastic match. Pedro Morales also fought Moondog Rex for the IC Title

They ran an AWA marathon yesterday on ESPN Classic. Tivo'd a bunch of them. Hopefully they are the 86 shows (which aren't horrible). 87 and on is pretty bad for thr most part.

Always think of "No Holds Barred" when I see Stan Hansen. Funny as fuck.

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Final match of the show: Pretty Boy Larry Sharpe and Johnny Rodz vs Rick Martel and Tony Garea. Should be a really good match. Garea and Martel were a great team and 2 time tag champs

Ended up being kind of a blah match.

I watched the New Japan Cup AXS TV episode last night. Damn shame there's only one Shibata match left...

Great American Bash 1991. Always good for a laugh.

Jesus Christ @ the scaffold match. Lol PN News.

If you looked at my WWE Network viewing history, you might think that I view the service as the WCW Network. The only thing I want to watch is old Clash's and try to find the old shows that I haven't ever seen or watching my favorites over and over. There's just something incredible about the roster ranging at any point between Flair, Sting, Simmons, Vader, Windham, Rude, Austin, Pillman, Road Warriors, Hogan, Savage, Benoit, Malenko, Brad Armstrong, Rey Misterio Jr., Cactus Jack, Maxx Payne, The Nasty Boys, Ray Traylor, Dustin and Dusty Rhodes, Arn Anderson, The Steiner Brothers, Davey Boy Smith and it just goes on and on...

Fucking love those days. I started watching wrestling in 95 and always thought WWF was the "A" show by far. But looking back, event through all the ridiculous decisions made, WCW is still by far superior as far as in ring goes, at least until about 97.

Last night through I fell asleep to some AWA Superclas II. Didn't even make it to the third match. Seriously boring as fuck.

Yeah, the AWA was pretty rough in the mid/late 80's. Rose/Somers, Midnight Rockers, Bockwinkel, Hansen, Hennig and Larry Zbyszko are the only things worth watching from 85 to 90

Are there any particular episodes of AWA TV, or events that you would recommend to me that would be described as "exciting"?

Somers and Rose vs Midnight Rockers matches.

Larry Zbyszko vs Former boxer Scott Ledoux is a fun match.

somers and rose vs rockers have a fucking blood bath that one time.

Day 4 of the 2017 G1 Climax tournament.

Wrestle circus on twitch right now

I often find myself watching old clips of DX clowning on Sgt. Slaughter from late 97/early 98'. That shit was gold in my opinion.

On the Gertner Network I'm watching a June 1977 MSG show with Bruno vs SSBG in a rematch for the WWWF Title

Volkoff and Patera just fought Andre and Chief Jay Strongbow in a fun 2 out of 3 falls match

Now we get former WWWF Champion Stan the Man Stasiak (father of Shawn Stasiak) vs Lenny Hurst. Stasiak is terrible.

If anybody has a Roku device there is a channel in it called Rasslin. It plays a random video of their vast collection.

Saw a six man tag team match with Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee and Jackie Fargo facing a team led by Wayne Ferris.

I'm guessing since Wayne Ferris was in the match that Larry Latham a.k.a Moondog Spot was involved since they teamed as the Blond Bombers. Pete Austin might have been on that team too.

Stasiak wins with a Heart Punch. Someone should bring that move back.

Here we go! Superstar Billy Graham vs Bruno Sammartino for the WWF title.

27,000 people in attendance at MSG. The Felt Forum must have been sold out.

Bruno sporting his terrible toupee. You really have to watch one of Bruno's matches from this era to appreciate how friggen over Bruno was.

This show is on the WWE Network. Just check out the Bruno vs Graham match at least. The crowd noise is deafening.

Graham's facial expressions are amazing. He was such a great heel. Bruno has had Graham in a full Nelson for 3 minutes and the crowd is going crazy.

Match ends in a double dq. Crowd is pissed! Loud "bullshit" chant. Great match. Graham is so good at selling .

Oh Jesus, Baron Von Raschke/w/ Blassie vs Ivan Putski. Von Raschke was a giant bust in the WWWF. Probably because Waldo Von Erich only left the territory a year and a half ago doing essentially the same gimmick only 10x better

Putski is over as hell but man is he ever terrible.

Holy fucking hell, this match ends in a 30 minute time limit draw. No. Just no. Skipping the rest of this.

Now was got High Chief Peter Maivia vs Baron Mike Scicluna. We still have Prof Toru Tanaka vs Fuji vs Dominic DeNucci and Haystacks Calhoun in a two out of three falls match so I can't imagine this will take long.

8.30.90


Jumbo v Kenta


Watching Kenta work before Kings Road had really been developed is pretty fascinating.

Dude was a machine.

I remember marking the eff out when lawler turned face to help JR against Tazz after years of antagonizing one another. Wwe fans who never saw him wrestle got big time behind him because he is just fantastic.

Bigelow i like a lot but hes a bit one note.

It blew my mind seeing him be face. Id say lawler as a face is one of the best ive ever seen.

One of the best working punches. Fucking amazing fist drop and great seller.

Dale i think you got turned around

??

Ah i see

Watched the October 1984 MSG show for the billionth time featuring my favourite match ever Afa vs Dick Murdoch. Complete Murdoch shtick. It's on the Network. Check it out. It's amazing. You'll die laughing at Murdoch's selling.

Here's the match. Check it out. You won't be sorry.

Got a sweet 1980 MSG show featuring Yatsu and Fujinami facing the Moondogs for the WWF Tag Champs coming my way

Downloaded a sweet torrent: every Royal Rumble match from 88-2017. Such a great time killer.

Devils of Japan vs Jumping Bomb Angels 1985

Devils consists of Dump Matsumoto and a young Bull Nakano. Dump might be the best female heel ever. Just a big butch bitch in black, smacking commentators with a kendo stick and throwing shit around. Brings a chain in the ring, wraps it around the neck of one of the angels and lifts her up with one fucking arm. Nakano just smacking people with nunchuks the whole match. Shit is fucking bedlam. Love it.

ahaha Dump smashing the ref with a lead pipe

she's beating a photographer with it now and trying to steal his camera.

Brining a table in now

Fun match. 80's finish.

wait are they restarting this? guess so

ok now the wrestling match after 20 minutes of pure chaos lol

lol where does Dump keep getting these weapons

Great finish. Yeah, I'm posting this here.

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Misawa v Kawada 6.6.97


One of the best matches of all time

going to attempt to watch every match on NJ World, leading up to around 2010. After that they pretty much have every show in it's entirety, so there is a lot of filler, and stuff just not worth watching.Might as well commentate. Will skip ones I've already done though.

1975 ANtonio Inoki vs Tiger Jeet Singh NWF Title

lol someone pegs Singh in the back of the head with a drink on his way out. They were like right near him too.

National Anthems before title matches. Just 70's Things.

Thoroughly checking Singh for weapons. Such discrimination.

Anything with Singh in it, is the goods. World class heel.

Great wrestling mixed with great chicken shit heel tactics so far.

Inoki is so good at playing to the crowd, and holding their emotions in his hands. Like, Hogan level good.

Crowd throwing garbage because singh is in control now.

Singh channeling his inner Marty Scurll and using an umbrella to attack Inoki on the outside.

lol ref caught whatever Singh pulled out of his elbow pad.

looks like it's about to devolve into a double count out.

yep.

Singh busted open though.


Inoki still beating on Singh to send the crowd home happy.

Oh shit, forgot it goes all the way back to 1973

October 14, 1973
Antonio Inoki and Seiji Sakaguchi vs Lou Thesz and Karl Gotch.

Gotch's amateur wrestling and submission based style was incredibly influential to Inoki and establishing the overall style of NJPW. Sakaguchi is a former world class Judoka who joined the JWA, and followed Inoki when he formed NJPW.

I'm not expecting much from this. Always found Sakaguchi to be a complete snore, and Gtch and Thesz are pretty old at this point.

Tesz and Gotch moving faster than I thought they would. Must be taking their One-A-Day.

Gotch has such a unique, gentlemanly way of moving and applying holds.

Inoki wearing shit brown trunks. So that's where HBK got the idea.

Working the angle of Thesz unable to get around Sakaguchi's size.

Inoki and Gotch work really well together.

Tempers starting to flare

Backdrop outta nowhere by Thesz on Sakaguchi for the first fall.

Sakaguchi selling it like it killed him. Inoki whipping water on his back, and young lions, rubbing it with towels.

Thesz pissing Inoki off with the unclean breaks

Nice leg scissor counter to thesz takedown by Inoki.

Inoki with Ahmed Johnson levels of trunks wedgie

Second fall an a Sakaguchi atomic drop.

Thesz throwing out some heel stuff

Nice bridging clutch pin by inoki to get the win.

Better than expected. Gotch and Thesz still move around the ring really well despite their age, and even Seiji put in work. Definitely need a taste for old school mat wrestling to appreciate this though. Not for everybody.

First time seeing Gotch. Seems way ahead of his time.

Handshakes all around at the end. Boy these young kids thesz and inoki are spitting on the biz by doing that sort of thing, right Jim?

12/10/1973
Antonio Inoki vs Johnny Powers.

Never heard of Johnny Powers. Inoki in his shit brown trunks again.

I guess Powers created the NWF and it's championship, which he sold to NJPW in 1973. They used the NWF title as their main championship until the IWGP title came along.

Damn, Inoki wrenching that head scissors.

Inoki's flying head scissors looks so cool.

Powers expressions when selling are ridiculous.

Powers' head scissors do not look cool. In fact it's botched as all fuck.

Powers kicks out of a flying knee drop at 1. What

Abdominal stretch gets the win for Inoki. I like the name "cobra twist" better.

Oh thats right 2/3 falls.

Powers keeps shouting like some caveman that can't form actual words.

I guess Powers gets the second fall off a figure 4 because Inoki couldn't free himself? Even though he didn't give up?

Powers continuing to work the leg. Using the turnbuckle posts.

Inoki with the octopus for the win.

Good match.

3/19/74
Antonio Inoki vs Strong Kobayashi

Don't know much about Strong Kobayashi. If you're gonna name yourself strong, you better be badass though.

Shit brown wedgie trunks for Inoki again.

Strong doesn't seem to have much in the way of mat skills. Kind of a big flaw in this era unless you're a big hoss gaijin.

Strong rolling back in forth to torque Inoki's arm, despite the fact he is clearly holding it in place as he does so.

Strong just lets Inoki throw on the cobra twist.

Guess Kobayashi was a big star in IWE which was the successor to JWA, and wasn't as big as NJPW or AJPW, but was still a big enough deal that Kobayashi could be placed straight into a program with Inoki upon his arrival in NJPW.

Inoki busted open hardway.

German Suplex by Inoki for the win.

Strong isn't very good, but the match had a good finishing stretch.

4/26/74
Antonio Inoki vs Seiji Sakaguchi

Killer Karl Krupp attacking Seiji on his way to the ring for some reason.

Seiji in his trademark red tights. Inoki in his trademark shit brown tights.

Brown is such an awful color for tights. Only makes sense if you killed an animal and tanned it's hide for use as ring attire, like Tatanka and the Berserker's.

One thing I'll say for Seiji, he makes the atomic drop look brutal.

No real story here so far. Just transitioning from one hold to the other.

Ends in a draw because of course it does.

Screw this respectful match between friends. Give me matches with invaders or foreigners.

5/8/1974
Antonio Inoki vs Killer Karl Krupp

I guess Seiji is too much of a big man baby to fight his own battles, so Inoki does it for him.

Ahahaha Karl has a monocle

Oh wait, Seiji strapped his bollocks on and is fighting instead of Inoki

On the plus side, they aren't pussyfooting around like last match, due to Krupp being foreign and a nazi

A nazi gimmick who uses the iron claw. Color me surprised.

This is pretty much just a fight

Match just ended for some reason. Not sure why.

Wait now Inoki is in. I guess he's going to fight Seiji now?

Oh god, Inoki is going to fight Seiji.

video isn't even half over yet.

Least this one seems to have more fire in it, since it's a tournament match

Crowd really helping this match. Popping for everything. Maybe it's in Korekuen Hall.

Nope metroplitan gymnasium

Ooooh laying into eachother with that strike exchange

Killer Karl back out

Some other guy in a mask with him

Seiji busted open

Seiji having trouble getting back in. Prolly gonna end with ref stoppage.

Like an army of people trying to prevent seiji from getting back in.

yep. inoki wins via ref stoppage.

wait theres still like 15 minutes left in the vid? guess they had several rounds of the tournament in this one video. weird.

oh, it's karl krupp again. I thought he lost against seiji. I don't know whats going on anymore.

lots of stalling outside

Karl busted open now.

Inoki stomping karl's ass. devastating.

Stomping on his hand now to disable the iron claw.

Inoki wins with a bow and arrow hold.

That was probably the weakest of the three matches.

6/26/74
Antonio Inoki vs Tiger Jeet Singh

First encounter between these two on njworld at least.

Tiger wont get in the ring. keeps attacking fans.

Inoki finally ditchingthe shit brown tights.

Starting out hot

Singh using a chair on the outside.

Apparently this whole feud started with Singh starting a brawl with Inoki in a shopping center. I need to see that.

Still on the outside. Bushwacker battering ram into the ring post.

Tiger pulling something out of his trunks

literally throwing an entire row of chairs at inoki

Frantic bell ringing to regain control. Like that ever works.

Finally back in the ring.

Inoki busted open.

Inoki using the chair now

Now tiger is busted open

Inoki trying to break tiger's arm.

I guess its a ref stoppage. Par for the course in this era.

Great match though

Figured I'll bump this since Destor's back and he's the only one who cared about the nonsense I post here.

Wanted to give my thoughts on BOTSJ, but since I'm way the fuck behind and literally just starting it, I don't want to do it in the NJPW thread and accidently get spoiled. Maybe this will prompt other people to post random shit in here instead of just me endlessly rambling about rice eaters.

Anyhoo, night 1 Block A. Skipping the tag matches cause I just don't have the fucking time.

Taka Michinoku is coming mother fucker vs Tiger Mask

Both these guys look great and can still fucking go

Slick transitions from Taka

Taka fucking rules

Ringpost figure 4 HOT SHIT

Tiger suplex still such a great move

Nice little match. Honestly makes me excited to see Taka's main event matches when they give him more time. Should be good.

Titan vs Kanemaru

Wriring about this one like a day after I watched it and honestly don't remember much. Kanemaru is much more limited these days, but he's still solid. Remember seeing Titan in a multi man tag and being really impressed, but this didn't really blow mind. Not bad, but just solid match

John Grisham vs Marty Scurll

I know of John Grisham because of Fire Pro but I've never actually seen him til now. Pretty sure Gertner would describe him as a Mocha Midget.

Some very Jack Gallagheresque escapes from Grisham

Marty is really good, but for some reason he's never clicked with me. Never been excited to see him, with the exception of the Okada match, but that was because it was a unique match and they did a great job building to it on BTE

Finger snap is always great though. Pete Dunne wishes he could do it as good as Marty.

Good match. Grisham is alright I guess. Have to see a few more matches to make a fair judgement though.

Shingo Takagi vs SHO

Here we fucking go. BIG fan of SHO right here. Feel like he's a future star both in the Jr and Heavyweight divisions. And I've got a soft spot for Shingo because I saw him live in ROH way back when he was just starting out. He was supposed to fight Christopher Daniels, but Daniels flight got cancelled and he was replaced by Curry Man. It was a fun match.

Fucking Shingo looks so bad ass

SHO debuting his own. Chiptune style like TJP. Except better. Good sign though. Shows that NJPW sees the star potential.

Also love that the announcers here react so strongly to a new entrance theme rather than talking over it about whats trending or the main event later in the night.

"Shingo is the Dark Souls of Best of the Super Juniors." lol that's fucking great. These guys know their audience.

SHO with a Tekken cross promotion shirt. SHO needs to be in Tekken 7.

This match fucking rules so far. It's like strong style mixed with a dash of straight power wrestling.

Commentator's with a great observation on how impactful something as simple as bodyslam is, when performed by Shingo. Not sure who these guys are besides Kevin Kelly but I really like them.

Backcracker into armbar needs to be in Fire Pro. Gonna request it from one of the modders.

Shingo with the Cesaro style deadlift suplex off the apron. Always incredible.

fuuuuuuuuck this match

Fucking LARIAT strike exchange so fucking STRONG

rolling deadlift germans get the fuck out

We are saddened to learn of the death of proffesional wrestler SHO of NJPW following a lariat from Shingo Takagi

Holding onto an armbar after kicking out of a pin reversal. Dont see that often

Crowd is fucking HOT

Jesus fuck is the main event gonna be 5 minutes?

Fucking incredible. Match of the tournament contender on the first night.

These two guys. This is your top act in the Jr division going forward.

This match just made SHO as a singles star. Fucking MADE him. Which was inevitable, but here it is.

Who's in the main event? Who cares after that?


Dragon Lee vs Taiji Ishimori

Gotta be honest. Pretty drained after that last match. But these two are fucking studs and work great together so we'll see.

Dragon Lee's theme is so fucking terrible

Cool mask though

Glad he decided to match his mask color with his gear. Hate when masked guys don't do that. Like they'll have a cool looking red and black attire, but their mask is just randomly green. LOOKING AT YOU EL SAMURAI

Slow pace to start. Not great considering the Speed 2: Cruise Control pace of the last match.

Alright now it's picking up.

Taiji dipping in and out of the ropes so fast. Also, dude has like an 8 pack

Holy fuck Dragon Lee didn't even slow down for that suicide dive. Fucking scary to watch.

This is a really great match, but it lacks the raw emotion of the last one. Can understand why it's the main event though. Current champ vs former champ

Fuck death valley driver into the corner. Ishimori sounds legit fucked up.

So many backflip head drops.

Yeah, good match, but Shingo vs SHO stole the show by a country mile

Great start. I'll probably watch a show every day and 2 or 3 on my days off until I'm all caught up.

Very, very disappointed by Starrcade '83.

Besides the last 3 matches the card was a shit show and anybody that blames modern wrestling for "exposing the business" with ludicrous spots should really be forced to watch the first match on repeat for 24 hours.

Flair vs Race
Piper vs Valentine
Briscoes vs Steamboat and Youngblood

Only matches I recall enjoying from that show.

This years super juniors really went to shit. Its been a trend for sometime but every second of it looked like a work. Broke my heart a bit

Member when new japan looked like a sport?

Big problem is New Japan's Jr division is suffering pretty bad right now.

Ospreay is likely moving up to heavyweight division. Wouldn't be surprised if he was asked to do BOTSJ this year as a favor.

Hiromu's out

KUSHIDA is gone

Romero hasn't been a top contender in a long time, and it looks like he's been transitioning to production roles.

Desperado, TAKA, Kanemaru, BUSHI, Taguchi, Liger, and Tiger Mask are all basically Multi-tag fodder.

Young lions aren't anywhere near ready to seriously challenge anyone yet. They'll probably go on excursion first.

Eagles and ELP are pretty good I guess but who knows how long they'll be there? They could just be there for a cup of coffee. I don't think they're even signed. Plus, they're good but not IWGP Jr. champion good.

YOH and and SHO will absolutely be stars and are likely the future of the division for the next few years, but that's not happening until Wrestle Kingdom at the earliest.

That leaves Shingo, Ishimori, and Dragon Lee as the only serious contenders right now.

This is why I've gotten so strongly behind SHO. Offense consisting of suplexes, submissions, and stiff strikes. He's got a lot of strong style in em'.

I have a low bar I think. It needs to look like a struggle. That's all I'm asking. Half of their guys look like they were pulled from random US indies.

Did you watch Shingo vs SHO on the first night?

That shit was a struuuuuuuuuugle

There was a moment early where SHO catches a line into an arm bar and it looks like he's gonna break clean and then goes into the 4 count.

Crowd gave a big OooOooOoò

That's when that match hooked me.

Really good match, but compair what you got there to the rest and it really exposes it by proxy.

That's why my favorites in NJPW are Ishii, Goto, and Suzuki.

Whenever any of those guys are in the ring, it's a fucking war.