Thread: new japan wrestling
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Old 01-20-2022, 04:21 PM   #3
Mr. Nerfect
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Seph View Post
Is it just regular NJPW content with english commentary? Or is it a seperate division with its own program?
I think it’s the former. NJPW Strong is the English division show. I watched my first full episode the other day. I have to say I rather enjoyed it. Not enough to go on a binge, but enough to maybe watch one a week.

Kevin Kelly and Alex Koslov were outstanding on commentary (especially Kelly). The first match had this LA Dojo guy named Alex Coughlin, who looked like a million bucks. He wrestled some dude named Bateman who could do all the moves, but was way too indy for me.

Then they did a tag between Karl Fredericks and Brody King against Danny Limelight and JR Kratos. It was fine. Limelight is good in the ring. The big guys are just big guys who slap each other lots. Fredericks is supposed to be really impressive, but he was just there. The booking was clearly designed to get him over though, and it worked as a middle of the show thing for that.

The main event was Fred Rosser against Hikuleo in a No DQ Match, which was hyped so well as something they don’t usually do, and why they are doing it now. I absolutely detested Darren Young in the WWE, but he was fantastic here. He’s kept at it, worked hard, and you can feel the other talent’s respect for him. His psychology was there, he talked trash when appropriate and not too much. It actually channelled some of the Roman Reigns stuff on SmackDown in subtle ways, which was smart (Rosser would call Hikuleo “Uss” and about how he respected what his extended family has done for wrestling, etc.). But it wasn’t too on the nose. The match structure was great. There was a great spot where they were brawling in a truck, Hikuleo went to slam the back on Rosser, but Rosser got out of the way and was in the truck. Hikuleo had to open the back to get to him, but was like “oh shit” because he knew Rosser was waiting for him. He opened it and sure enough Rosser dived right out onto him.

They kept times, had corners (don’t know if this is a hard and fast rule, but generally I find New Japan puts faces in the red and heels in the blue — so that can be a useful storytelling device too) and it flowed from match-to-match well. Overall, NJPW Strong got my seal of approval.
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