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Post by armsofsleep on Oct 10, 2017 12:17:26 GMT -5
Pretty good weekend in wrestling with the two biggest companies in the world putting together good top to bottom shows.
Roppongi 3K vs Funky Futures **** Ospreay vs KUSHIDA ****3/4 Ishii vs Naito ****1/4 EVIL vs Okada ***1/4
Pretty disappointed by the main event (but that's what you get for a lot of color by numbers Okada defenses) but very pleasantly surprised how different the junior title matches meant to feel. Praying to Gedo that the heavy tag title nonsense can finally end too. A technically fine match that's impossible to care about.
Highly recommend Ospreay vs KUSHIDA to anyone who likes spotfests, its 25 minutes worth of crazy shit packed into 15. If you liked the Hiromu/KUSHIDA match at Wrestle Kingdom, this one feels very similar.
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Post by brockobama on Oct 10, 2017 13:56:26 GMT -5
Funny little anecdote that probably doesn't mean much but stood out to me: was following along with the show on Twitter as I was doing other things. Saw lots of people talking about the main event, sharing GIFs, reacting to spots, the usual. Any and all conversation died on my timeline as soon as Okada won.
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Post by notoriousgib on Oct 11, 2017 3:04:03 GMT -5
I'm a little behind on NJPW because I'm making my way through a bunch of indie stuff at the moment, but I'm planning on watching the Destruction shows and KOPW this weekend while I'm on vacation.
Gedo really needs to figure out something interesting to do with that tag division though. Four War Machine/KES/GoD matches in a row is so boring. Division is completely dead in the water even if the matches are decent.
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Post by bossrock on Oct 15, 2017 19:44:44 GMT -5
Really great show. As done to death as the triple-threat tag has been, I'd argue this was their best match yet. But it's time for everyone to move on. Thought KUSHIDA-Ospreay was great but I might still have the BOSJ Final higher. Not crazy at how Hiromu has been made to look in these segments but the crowd is still firmly behind him. With Scrull being one-and-done at Power Struggle, gotta believe Hiromu is getting the shot at WK. Whether he wins or not is another story. Ishii-Naito was match of the night and their best since Dontaku last year. The thing I love about Ishii is that even when you know there's no chance for him to win, he makes you believe he can do it. That's some top-notch storytelling ability right there. Am probably the high man on the main event but I will agree it was a tad disappointing. Actually needed to watch it twice before I could really get behind it. Loved the callbacks and learned psychology from the first match (Okada ducking the thrown chair and countering EVIL's clothesline with a dropkick, EVIL dodging Okada's springboard dropkick). It just kinda felt like they never kicked into another gear. Still thought it was great, though.
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Post by notoriousgib on Oct 18, 2017 1:37:11 GMT -5
Really fun show. Okada/EVIL was a disappointment because I loved their G1 match but it was still very good. Naito/Ishii was fucking insane, those two have been my two MVPs for New Japan this year. Ospreay/KUSHIDA was also very good and I liked that they went for a shorter match, though I do think the BOSJ final was slightly better. Also so happy to see Sho and Yo in Japan since I was underwhelmed by how they were used in ROH. That junior tag match was so much fun. The heavyweight tag match was definitely the best those three teams have had so far. Don't think it's a close comparison to the last three, but holy hell I hope they move on.
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Post by armsofsleep on Oct 18, 2017 7:18:32 GMT -5
It'll be fun to see Sho and Yo come back as ROH headliners after being completely ignored by their fans/management for a long time. They really did shine in that match, even though they had to play heel a bit.
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