US title match at New Japan Cup Finals was decent.



Very slow paced and full of shenanigans but both guys did a pretty good job with their injury storytelling.

:lol: at the initial part of the Observer's match recap

SANADA vs. Okada was amazing. Very worthy contender for MOTY.

A fine choice.

Feel compelled to say “Vince Russo sucks” just because I saw him mentioned.

Okay so now I'm feeling very positive. Potentially we are in store for one of the best championship win pop's ever because nobody in the Garden wants White to hold IWGP at the end of that match.

White wont lose in his first defense especially in the US even if it is MSG

Yeah White probably retains by shenanigans. Could see it turn into a Bullet Club vs CHAOS clusterfuck brawl.

<iframe width="873" height="491" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H-mf8NNmDWs" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="873" height="491" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KaikioOkpr4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

When it comes to the MSG title match:

I was very impressed by Colt Cabana in the NJ Cup. He got over in a hurry.

Pre-Show: Honor Rumble
Dalton Castle vs. Rush
IWGP Tag Team Championship vs. ROH World Tag Team Championship Winner Takes All – Guerrillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) (IWGP) vs. Villain Enterprises (Brody King & PCO) (ROH)
NEVER Openweight Championship vs. ROH World Television Championship Winner Takes All – Will Ospreay (NEVER) vs. Jeff Cobb (ROH)
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Three-Way match – Dragon Lee vs. Bandido vs. Taiji Ishimori (c)
New York Street Fight – Bully Ray vs. TBA
ROH World Championship Three-Way Ladder match – Matt Taven vs. Marty Scurll vs Jay Lethal (c)
WoH World Championship – TBA vs. Mayu Iwatani (c)
IWGP Heavyweight Championship – Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White (c)

I doubt they will add any more matches and something tells me that Tanahashi, Suzuki, Naito and Sanada won't be booked for the pre-show. Perhaps we will get an NJPW talent to challenge Bully Ray, Suzuki would be the best call right? But I'm preparing for Flip or Cheeseburger or something very ROHy.

I'm not upset I bought a ticket for the show it will be fun no doubt but back when this was announced I didn't expect they would pull so many punches for this show. Not the knockout it should've been on paper that's for sure.

And yeah it's the booking. Is it bad? I don't know. I think it's still to early to say. I'm talking about the Jay White reign. Obviously they are attempting to replace Omega in a certain way. Not that White is attempting to be Omega, but he seems to have the spot because he's a good looking white guy who can wrestle fast. I do believe "in Jay White", he's just in a rough spot. He's in a spot similar to The Rock just before he started getting the fans behind him. So with that I hope he does pull it off and make it work. But the other part of me wants to see Okada win the belt at MSG for the magical moment. But wouldn't the longer story be stronger if Okada has to win G-1 to once again challenge for the IWGP against white at Tokyo Dome?

One thing that is clear is that Harold or Gedo think the US audience wants to see white guys, and that is like 100% not of concern to anyone who REALLY wants to watch NJPW.

I feel like this is more Harold than Gedo. I believe that Harold is a moron.

Yeah it’ll be a good show but they went wayyyyyy lighter on the NJPW side of things than most people assumed they would.

I do think Suzuki might turn up either to face Bully or in the Rumble. He’s working Bloodsport that weekend so he’ll actually be in the area.

Doubt Tana or LIJ are flying in, unfortunately.

Yeah...if White drops the belt already it’s pretty clear they just wanted a gaijin headlining. Even though Tana/Okada, while done to death, would’ve been a guaranteed master class.

All of LIJ is announced for the Festival of Honor before, as is Hirooki Goto, Juice Robinson, Jushin Liger, Kota Ibushi, and Zack Sabre Jr. Tanahashi is working the Rev Pro show on Friday and more than likely working Wrestlecon so he'll be in town. Ishii is also working Rev pro. There's quite a bit still to be announced from the New Japan side of things. Plus the Briscoes still need a match.

Would be very surprised if we didn't get Naito-Ibushi for the IC Title.

Meltzer thinks Naito/Ibushi’s being saved for the next big show in Japan

Idc what Meltzer thinks. It'd make sense to throw it on MSG considering both have nothing going on for it and will be in town for the show.

Supposedly its neither and instead due to NJPW's owner Bushiroad.

According to Meltzer, Harold mainly handles their UK and international stuff while Bushiroad has been handling all the US based stuff.

Bushiroad pretty much misjudged the entire North American market. They assumed since Omega, Elite, and Bullet Club were their top merch sellers, US crowds wanted shows leaning more towards non-Japanese and ROH stars than the full NJPW experience. They learned the hard way that only Omega and the Bucks were top stars and crowds don't want watered down NJPW shows.

I don't think they can run an endlessly long show like WWE can on their own network. They probably can't exceed a 3 hour show.

They can go 4, plus the pre show, so they really have 5 hours.

Watched this a couple days ago. One, I wonder what the other songs (plural, not just the unused singles theme, but the rest of whatever went unused). Two, I like shit like this. I watched a set of videos before where some DJ remade Nas's Represent/Nas Is Like and Mobb Deep's Shook Ones Pt. II by finding the sampled material and re-compiling the beat. And three, I think I may just purchase this if it shows up in Google Music.

Anybody checking out Markout at the Meadowlands before Mania on Sunday? 15 bucks to enter and a lot of great former talent doing signings including Jim Ross, Tullehhh Blanchard etc.

Hell no.

I'm getting into Jersey City where my Airbnb is on Wednesday evening.

Going to Josh Barnett's Bloodsport and iMPACT! Wrestling on Thursday

Going to NXT and Blackcraft Wrestling on Friday

Going to Orange Cassidy is Doing Something, or Whatever, Who Knows??, G1 Supercard, and hopefully Joey Janela's Spring Break 3 Part 2 on Saturday (don't have tickets to the latter but I'm literally staying 5 minutes walking distance from White Eagle Hall so I'll see if I can get in.)

Going to Mania Sunday then driving straight from there to the jobsite in Utica so I'm there on time.

I soooooo wish Spring Break was somewhere else in NYC instead of Jersey.

I'm still not sure if I'm staying in a hotel in the city or not or if I'm gonna just take the train in from CT every day but either way heading out to Jersey after G1 and then having to come back late at night (well actually early morning) would be a bit of a ball ache.

Holy shit! They just blew the roof off MSG! I was never so wrong!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="tl" dir="ltr">Zack Sabre Junior versus Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito versus Kota Ibushi, Jay White versus Kazuchika Okada all official title matches at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/g1supercard?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#g1supercard</a> !</p>&mdash; NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) <a href="https://twitter.com/njpwglobal/status/1110059768989794304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Will Ospreay vs Jeff Cobb is official for the NEVER Championship! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/g1supercard?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#g1supercard</a> ! The IWGP/ROH Tag title match is now a four way, with GoD, the Briscoes, PCO and Brody King and EVIL and SANADA! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/g1supercard?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#g1supercard</a></p>&mdash; NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) <a href="https://twitter.com/njpwglobal/status/1110059506145390592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Some announcements for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/g1supercard?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#g1supercard</a><br>The full card is announced.<br>Honor Rumble will have thirty participants, including Jyushin Thunder Liger!</p>&mdash; NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) <a href="https://twitter.com/njpwglobal/status/1110059144864768000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

OMG Wow I am now glad I won't be going to Mania because holy shit MSG is gonna wipe me out. I guess they are gonna go like 6 hours or something.

Now I am feeling some kind of rasslin buzz for Mania weekend good brothers. Gonna see some fun MLW show's and then this MSG Epic. Gonna get everything I would've wanted in a wrestling show at MSG. The glory of Ibushi vs Naito & Sabre vs Tanahashi, the insanity of the Winner Takes All tag team match & The ROH World Championship Ladder Match & The 3 Way Junior Championship match as well as a 30 man Rumble topped somehow by Okada and Jay White. It could happen. It will be a long night that's for sure. I'm pumped.

I'm pretty convinced the match of the week will happen at MSG. Outright if nothing fucks up has a good shot at being one of the best wrestling cards top to bottom that I remember at least.

Wow I'm doing two Rumble's back to back with Battle Riot and then Honor Rumble. I guess that will be cool.

With all the stuff happening at this years Mania week, it's got to go down as the biggest of all time by far. Mania, MSG, Barclays (4 shows?) plus all the other pop up shows around the area.

Are you going to mania..might have 4 if they do the Andre and a wonens

https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/44155?showCards=1

Full G1 card

Oh man lol. No I'm not going to Mania. That would be crazy though, someone out there is going to see 2 Rumbles and 2 Battles Royals in a weekend haha.

I'm actually checking out other shows right now. I'm thinking of seeing WXW before going to Rise of the Renegades. Seems like a show that you won't see often.

Just had a thought. Wonder how many NJPW fans from Japan will come to NY for the show