DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
TNA Fan World
HTML https://tnafans.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
*****************************************************
#Post#: 19814--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; Let It Rain
By: SheriffLonestar Date: October 19, 2013, 12:47 am
---------------------------------------------------------
New Japan Pro Wrestling, like much of the Japanese Wrestling
World is going through a bit of a renaissance at the moment. The
creativity of the promotion has made it the stand out product in
the crowded Japanese market that has to deal with interlopers
like WWE and TNA on a semi regular basis. It also helps that it
has the most strength in depth of any of the big promotions.
There is literally no slack anywhere on the card. A case in
point is this years Dominion card from Osaka in June. So this
week's PPV of the week is more or less up to date. No Old
Schooling this week, except where necessary because some of
these guys are actually quite old. Not that they aren't
valuable, it just goes to show that some legends take a long
time to find a resting place.
Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi
Jushin Liger is 49 years old. Let me repeat that. Jushin Liger
is 49 years old. He spends his time, as most 49 year olds don't,
getting talent over in New Japan, being the GHC Junior
Heavyweight Tag Team Champion in NOAH and touring the world to
the places he went to 30 years ago as a young grappler learning
his trade so he can drop some science on the locals once again.
Taka Michinoku has been in FMW, WWE, ECW, All Japan and to many
other places to mention. He is forty years old. Most importantly
in New Japan he is the brains behind the nominally heel
Suzukigun Stable. These two veterans with two established
younger stars by their side put together quite a show in their
relative dotage and show why age is but a number but they key
thing is they are both in the opener. Even more generously they
give ring time to their younger guys in this match. While the
current iteration of Tiger Mask does not live up to his three
predecessors game changing legacy, he is still a good watch as
is Taichi. This sets the tone for the whole show, if they can
put a legend like Liger in the opener, what the hell will happen
next?
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Forever Hooligans Rocky
Romero & Alex Koslov (c) vs. The Time Splitters KUSHIDA & Alex
Shelley
Quite a lot as it happens. I talked a little bit about The Time
Splitters earlier this week comparing them to another team
featuring Alex Shelly, The Motor City Machine Guns. I personally
have to say, though this is an obvious revamp of The Machine
Guns gimmick, this one might be slightly better. This has a
tradition of happening with Tag Teams in NJPW. When Hawk left
the Road Warriors, Kensuke Sasaki was bought some shoulder pads
and introduced as Power Warrior and the Hellraisers where born.
When Animal went on his farewell NJPW tour, the Hell Warriors
where born and so it goes on. Only this time the Time Splitters
maybe a bigger success story than The Guns even. They have been
married to the Hooligans for quite some time over the last year
and its hard not to see why. These matches are amazing in
quality and pace. The double teaming is some of the best I have
seen since the hey day of the Midnight Express. With The Young
Bucks on the horizon, the NJPW Junior Tag Ranks have just gotten
very exciting indeed.
Yuji Nagata, Ryusuke Taguchi & Captain New Japan vs. Karl
Anderson, Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale
Captain New Japan is a comedy wrestler who suddenly seems to
have found his niche, and Taguchi is a classy junior heavyweight
trying to get back his IWGP Junior title. Nagata is the kind of
old school NJPW veteran that makes a great opponent for some
upstart rebellious punks. His long standing with the history of
the company, 21 years, and his outstanding no no nonsense floor
based style means that he has had a long career where he has
basically done it all. Longest reigning IWGP Champ for instance,
and can play the Gary Cooper part in High Noon which is what
this feud needs. For those of you who don't know The Bullet
Club, Prince Devitt, Karl Anderson, Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale
are the biggest heel group in NJPW at the moment. Devitt
controls the Junior Heavyweight division from the top down, and
keeps taking shots at the Heavyweight heroes like Tanhashi, more
of that later, his brash style with the help from the Bullet
Club have made him a big star in the last twelve months. His
team mates aren't half bad either. Karl Anderson, as our friends
Indy Power Rankings have pointed out, is a world class
heavyweight, Tonga and Fale bring some menace and with a pure
technician like Devitt in the group, you are looking at a true
horseman style stable for the 21st century. This match shows
what great story telling NJPW offers right now.
IWGP Tag Team Title -- 3WAY Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi
Kojima (c) vs. Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka vs. Lance Archer &
Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Archer and Smith, are obviously going to be the two best known
guys in this match to western fans. Reinvigorated after a stale
and bewildering WWE run that nearly made him give up on the
business, Harry Smith has found a new lease of life back in his
first “home” New Japan. Tenzan and Kojima are about as good as
it gets for heavyweight tag teams right now. Yano and Iizuka are
comedy gold, and really what could go wrong? These guys are that
good they can make a three way (always a difficult match never
mind when you have six guys this size moving around) very
watchable indeed.
NWA World Heavyweight Title: Rob Conway (NWA) (c) vs. Manabu
Nakanishi
The NWA title has become somewhat lacklustre as of late, having
been placed in the hands of people who wanted to change the
nature of the NWA, the NWA affiliated wrestlers revolted and the
board had to start again from scratch. To be honest they
couldn't have found a better proponent than Rob Conway. He looks
like a Worlds Champion, and can work all styles. He is the
classic NWA champ kind of guy and I am pleased he has the honour
of trying to put some esteem into a belt that has had a load of
problems. Nakanishi is an excellent challenger and this match
really grabs some attention, the heat Conway gets is where this
card really starts to lift off.
Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki & Shelton
Benjamin
Nakamura and Ishii two long time crowd favourites against the
big hitters of Suzukigun Suzuki and Benjamin. The match quality
between these two teams is a bit of old school strong style, and
you notice the further up the card you go the harder everyone
hits. Knowing how to work this crowd the home town boys Nakamura
and Ishii, both long time NJPW veterans, are wonderful
antagonists to the outsiders Suzuki and Benjamin, both of whom
are freelancers who came to NJPW from other promotions, though
both now under contract. That tension is the catalyst to this
match and its a sight to see.
Tetsuya Naito Return Match: Tetsuya Naito vs. Yujiro Takahashi
Tetsuya Naito the current NEVER Openweight Champion, which
carries an IWGP title shot claimable whenever he wants it, is
really the one to watch in this one. New Japan stars building
guys over the long haul and Naito who has had G1 Climax wins,
spent time abroad with TNA, is on the up. Though some find their
feet sooner 12 years of experience is a good age to be the
champion in NJPW.
Special Singles Match: Hirooki Goto vs. Katsuyori Shibata
My personal favourite on this card, just a hard hitting solid
affair that is strike heavy as you would expect from a former
shoot fighter; Shibata and a guy built like a tank Goto, who is
also a well rounded amateur. As these two went to high school
together it shows how far you can test your friendship. Hey pal
can I kick you in the chest repeatedly? On a serious note, both
these guys have high class amateur backgrounds and know how to
work stiff style to its wonderfully dramatic conclusions.
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Prince Devitt
These two put together a 45 minute classic to celebrate the
anniversary of the promotion in 2012. Tanahashi then IWGP
Champion has started to wind down his life at the top of the
card, though NJPW still want him up there to keep selling T
shirts and to be back up to Rainmaker in the box office draw.
Though something tells me they see a lot in Devitt to. These
guys are both products of the NJPW Dojo system, and they are
beautifully matched. The Bullet Club's interference, though
fairly standard by North American ideas of what pro wrestling
is, is revolutionary in Japan where fans are only really just
starting to boo heels. This makes it incredibly fresh to watch,
and though Devitt clearly doesn't need any help, it makes things
interesting to. The New Japan Dojo smiled the day these two
showed up, two of its greatest products.
IWGP Heavyweight Title: Rainmaker Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Togi
Makabe
After a short piece of historical interpretation where former
All Japan Triple Crown Champion Stan Hanson is introduced to the
crowd and the man who is going to present the belt to the
winner, on with the action. Okada is turning in quite a harvest
at the box office with this title run, and though he isn't
Daniel Bryan perfection in the ring, he is Punk like in his
authenticity and Ziggler like in his bump taking. He has pretty
much the all round package to be the long term IWGP champion and
he is now considered the companies Ace or go to guy. After this
match it is hard not to see why.
So there you have it, a five hour slice of wrestling heaven from
a land far, far away. So what is the secret to the success of
this promotion? Well the one thing they always had; talent. They
have the best training system in wrestling. Whether it is guys
who went through it thirty years ago like Liger or guys like
Okada and Devitt. They know what they want in their wrestlers,
and they know how to put that talent in place. The people
putting that talent in place, are actually anything but NJPW
guys. They are The World Class Tag Team Gado and Jado, who
wrestled for FMW and WAR in the early nineties. Their tag line
then was “Fuck You We're Gado and Jado”. They have calmed down
somewhat since, Gado is now the on screen manager of Okada along
side his other duties, but they have hit upon a magic formula.
Put the talents in the right place, don't be afraid to be
different, while keeping enough of what the fans know to build
something new on. Well done indeed sirs.
Enjoy the show;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xU8rddcz9I
*****************************************************