New Japan has no time for AEW’s shit storylines.

It would also be possible to do something where, say, Tsuji wins the G1. Tanahashi can still challenge Sanada on Night 1. You could do LIJ vs. BCC on night 1 too. Tsuji can challenge Sanada night 2. That would be a pretty cool way to make a star. Tsuji pins Danielson and Sanada over the course of Wrestle Kingdom.

Oh man, imagine if Tanahashi/Punk is lined up for night 2 and Punk is all mad because Tanahashi doesn’t win the belt and bring it into their match. Tsuji wouldn’t be guaranteed a title shot then, but it could agreed upon that he goes on to wrestle the winner of Tanahashi/Punk. Could be a good chance for Sanada to cut some really good promos (if he can talk) about how he’s not going to lose the belt to Tanahashi.

Kaito has to beat okada here. Come on.

I just saw Kaito Kiyomiya’s name in there. Is there any chance he could be a dark horse in this thing? I mean, a strong showing is probably good enough, but the story of a NOAH guy going for the belt could be…interesting.

Kaito beats Okada and shockingly wins the G1. Okada beats Sanada for the belt. Okada vs. Kaito II in the Dome.

I've been saying for a while now that the noah vs njpw thing at wrestle kingdom isn't half as good as it could be. Create actual builds and feuds around it, all culminating in a noah guy going for the iwgp title. Hell, get even crazier and have him win the damn thing.

It would actually be kaito vs okada III. Okada has beaten him twice now. The most recent one was the hottest angle in japan for a while.

I’m down for Kaito/Okada in the G1 and then Kaito winning the belt at Wrestle Kingdom.

You can do all sorts of tricky stuff with booking too. For example, Kaito could lose to Okada a third time but still win the tournament. Leaves you Kaito/Okada IV with Kaito defending the belt against the guy he never beat. Or you can go the other way and have Kaito beat Okada.

Imagine kaito having a vice grip on the title for a year, and at the next wrestle kingdom, njpw trueborn Tsuji dethrones him to bring the title back home.

Or Shota. It's between those two in terms of being the next ace.

I don’t think it even has to be one of them. You could use the win to cement Sanada, Shingo or anyone. That wrestler can lay credit to being the one to save New Japan and put over the next gen.

The japanese fans would want a trueborn to beat kaito in that situation. They might even completely reject anything else. They are super passionate about that stuff.

I think that would be the best direction, but a guy from NOAH that has chosen New Japan could be a story. Would work better for an undercard match though.

I’m now thinking my preferred direction is Kaito winning the G1 and Okada winning the belt. Kaito should beat Okada in the G1 too. Match 4 is either Okada breaking away or Kaito evening it up and getting the belt. No clue what you do with Sanada, but a good strong win underneath is probs a good idea.

How about Sanada beating one of the top gaijin? Omega, Danielson or Moxley would be good.

AEW are very likely to always have a G1 participant especially with the field being this big now. I'm sorta surprised Lance Archer isn't in given he had a nice run last year and he isn't being used on AEW much, but he's also battled some injuries and AEW might not've wanted him in a grueling tourney.

So Eddie's probably the next most sensible guy for AEW to send. Storyline wise, he played a part in running Jay White out of New Japan, at least from the US side of things. He's also someone that AEW won't particularly care that he's gonna eat a few losses along the way.

The dream would be to see Danielson do it next year but I don't know if Khan will ever be down for it.

I’m interested in New Japan’s upcoming Independence Day PPV. Seems to feature a lot of New Japan Strong talent. Headlined by Jon Moxley in garbage matches though.

I like Clark Connors and what I’ve seen from Gabriel Kidd. They’ve got good spots on the show. I’ve heard good things about Bad Dude Tito too, but haven’t seen anything from him.

What’s Fred Rosser doing? Dude got REALLY good outside WWE.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you’re not a fan of NJPW that’s okay but one thing you gotta credit them on is how they made these young lions into stars like Alex Coughlin for example great promo.<br> <a href="https://t.co/gV6B3wg73O">pic.twitter.com/gV6B3wg73O</a></p>&mdash; Kenan (@KenanFields) <a href="https://twitter.com/KenanFields/status/1679875908960649217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

damn that's a good promo

CM Punk lite.

Nah that was pretty good. Does tend to be a bit more believable when you’re cutting a promo based on the truth. Wonder how he’d do with something from the WWE scriptwriters.

Not impressed by that. Quite dry and performative. Too much swearing. Don’t buy him. I’ve seen the guy before and I don’t think he’s an offensive wrestler or anything. Youngish and in good shape. But the promo is pretty bad.

It would be a great explanation for a heel turn. Did he turn heel? Or is he just publically airing greivances?

He turned heel and aligned with Bullet Club a couple months ago. He and some of the other Dojo guys also joined (Gabriel Kidd, Clark Connors etc) and airing their grievances is part of the reason they’ve joined Bullet Club and want to take the place down.

Kinda bringing BC back to its roots in a way. These guys have a purpose for wanting to be in there.

Of course, the Dojo was/had been legitimately mismanaged for a while so the grievances have elements of truth to them as well, but at least they’re parlaying it into an angle.

You can’t push them all though. Everyone doing the same thing sounds boring.

Cant believe we had ZERO posts about the 2 G1 shows that are free on New Japan World.

Night 1 had some great moments. Shoota / Narita had an absolute banger. Everything else was okay.

Night 2 was one of the best shows I've watched in a while. Ishii/Finlay was a 4* match. Yano/Goto had a classic comedy match with some truly hilarious stuff. Shingo and Eddie Kingston fucked each other up I highly recommend it. Cobb/Naito had a great main event too. Lemme put them links down:

https://njpwworld.com/p/s_00658_2_1

https://njpwworld.com/p/s_00658_4_1

I might check them out. I don’t know why, but I’m really hoping Finlay becomes something. I would actually like to see him cross paths with CM Punk. I think Punk talking about his father would be interesting and I think Punk & FTR vs. Finlay, KENTA and someone else from Bullet Club would be a cool way to get some Punk and KENTA interactions out there without making it all about them.

Watching them today

Eddie vs Ishii was 7.5/5 stars in Korakuen Hall and I'm changing my last name to Meltzer

Hearing no buzz about this at all.

Naito wins the G1.

So that SANADA/Naito match I totally forgot about will be happening at Wrestle Kingdom.

Not a shocking outcome. If they’re planning an Okada/Danielson rematch in the Tokyo Dome, Naito is probably like the low-hanging fruit for a Sanada opponent.

So I checked out the Wrestle Kingdom card just to see what’s going on. Nothing really too exciting outside Naito/Sanada and Danielson/Okada. “Exciting” might be too strong a word.

There are rumors that WWE are interested in Okada. That would be a good move for Okada. Totally fucks New Japan tho. Unless they can work out something with WWE, which would send ripples everywhere.

Going through the card:

* Shingo vs. Tama for the NEVER Title. Not sure if I’ve seen Tama wrestle. People used to say he wasn’t very good, but they also said that about Hikuleo and when I saw him, he was actually impressive.

* Takahashi vs. El Desperado…eh. If it’s your sort of thing, I guess this feels like the biggest juniors match they can put on? I dunno.

* Tanahashi vs. ZSJ…so boring. I guess it’s their first time at WK? Tanahashi used to be a really good worker. ZSJ hasn’t been very good.

* Tag Team Titles…don’t care. New Japan has never been very good with tag teams, have they?

* I’m glad Clark Connors is making a WK card. He’s a great little wrestler. Don’t know what his tag team is like, but I hope they beat Catch 2/2.

* Three-way loses a lot of suspense when you know Ospreay is leaving and Mox is AEW. I guess David Finlay, the Bullet Club leader, is going to win it for New Japan? It’s just a weird dynamic. And Moxley sucks. Oh well.

* Bryan Danielson vs. Okada will be good.

* Sanada vs. Naito doesn’t feel special to me. Given their histories and all that. Naito just underwhelms me.

Okada is leaving New Japan.

Selfishly, I want to see him in WWE. It’d certainly be an interesting move for Okada, legacy-wise. I could also have an effect on WWE/New Japan politics.