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Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 11:13 am
by Mr. Mojo Risin
Watched Omega vs. Naito from last year's G1 Climax Tournament on AXS last night. Yeah, I obviously knew the outcome, but holy fuck this match killed! Easy **** 1/2 stars from me. I think the fact that it was constrained by the tournament time limit kept this from being 5 stars. This is what happens when you have not only 2 of the best workers in the world, but 2 of the best storytellers as well. Smart, smart work by both guys. The match layout was fucking perfect. I envision an extended feud between these two just and just salivating.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 4:46 pm
by SweetDaddy
Naito might be the best in the world.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:42 pm
by famicommander
Image
https://www.njpw1972.com/6034

Both G1 US shows sold out in less than 2 hours.

They're considering adding more seats

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:50 pm
by King of Indy Style
I totally would have gone to the shows but I got concert tix like a week before they announced these, oh well.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:57 pm
by Mr. Mojo Risin
Impressive. I hope this is a sign of things to come. Maybe 3 or 4 big shows a year on U.S. soil would be fucking cool.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 7:14 am
by famicommander
Does anyone know how many seats these shows are set up for? I've seen the numbers 7,000 and 8,000 thrown out there but I haven't been able to find confirmation.

Because if it really 8,000 and they really are going to add more seats then they're going to draw a bigger paid crowd to their first US show than TNA, ROH, or ECW ever drew for a US show in their respective histories.

Makes you wonder where all these people are being exposed to the product.

I mean, last we heard NJPW World had less than 20,000 non-Japanese subscribers and their AXS TV show only averages ~200,000 viewers.

The only other exposure I can think of is people pirating their shows and how ever many people see them on ROH TV (which was getting roughly 400-500K on the Sinclair stations as of may 2015, before the Fite/Fight Network/Comet TV deals and not including rohwrestling.com)

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 9:09 am
by King of Indy Style
I think I had heard that it was around 2 or 3 thousand seats, but I could be totally off.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 9:14 am
by famicommander
King of Indy Style wrote:I think I had heard that it was around 2 or 3 thousand seats, but I could be totally off.
I was just going off a random post on another forum.

Maybe it was 7-8K for both shows total?

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 4:27 pm
by maxx_powerz
Still hard to believe they sold 6k of tickets in 2 hours. It took ROH fifteen years and the Hardy's to get over 3k. It took TNA signing Sting, Christian Cage and Kurt Angle to do it. If the demand for NJPW is so high I wonder why ROH didn't book larger venues for their joint shows the past few years.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2017 6:09 am
by Brada
This should be a sign to the ending of the NJPW-ROH relationship that Ray Charles himself can see.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2017 7:23 am
by dark patriot
yeah 3,000 is what i read as well
New Japan Pro Wrestling's much-anticipated July 'G1 Special In USA' events in Long Beach, CA, sold out shortly after they went on-sale Saturday even with no official card announced.

The two shows, set for July 1-2 at the city's Convention & Entertainment Center, were paired with meet and greets which are also sold out. The arena will be set up for just over 3000 fans with ticket prices ranging from $30-$150.

Dave Meltzer previously noted that the show will start at 5 PM local time which could indicate a live airing on AXS TV. Meltzer wrote, "I haven’t heard that they are broadcasting these shows but it has definitely been talked about with the idea of the first night going live with Jim Ross and Josh Barnett doing the show."

While no talent for the show has been announced, expect the big stars of the promotion (Okada, Naito, Kenny Omega, Tanahashi, etc) to be in attendance
http://www.f4wonline.com/japan/njpws-tw ... urs-232901

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2017 2:26 pm
by famicommander
Brada wrote:This should be a sign to the ending of the NJPW-ROH relationship that Ray Charles himself can see.
I'm still not sure I agree.

Even if they start running more shows per year in the US, they could still easily avoid conflict with ROH shows. They can still share talent and they can still work together to get their payscales more competitive with WWE, so they can hold onto stars like the Young Bucks. The Bucks still have 18 months on their contracts and they're signed to each promotion.

NJPW is starting in the southwest, whereas ROH is mostly popular in the northeast. Continuing to work together as both try to expand at their own paces gives each of them a more complete national visibility.

And speaking of visibility, if they're going to be a permanent US promotion they're going to have to outgrow AXS TV. That's the bottom line. 200,000 viewers per week is sub-Impact and right about what Lucha Underground does on El Rey. ROH was doing more than twice that on Sinclair stations alone two years ago, and that doesn't include Comet/Fight Network/Fite/rohwrestling.com viewers. NJPW stars appearing for ROH puts NJPW's product in front of hundreds of thousands, and possibly millions if you include DVR+streaming, of people in the US every single week.

There's really not a downside for NJPW, except perhaps risking injury of their talent on ROH shows. As long as they don't try to run the same markets in the same weekends, it's a win/win.

I think if the ROH/NJPW ends, it will be because ROH is bought by or otherwise affiliated with WWE. WWE is NJPW's real threat, and NJPW is the only promotion in the world that could conceivably compete with WWE one day (in my opinion).

As long as Vince keeps signing 3 out of every 5 big free agents from NJPW and ROH, they're going to need each other.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 9:38 am
by Wilson
After the breathtaking Okada vs. Shibata, I'm seriously starting to question if Okada is already the greatest in-ring champion ever. His last eighteen months have been mesmerizing.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 12:23 pm
by Mr. Mojo Risin
Wilson wrote:After the breathtaking Okada vs. Shibata, I'm seriously starting to question if Okada is already the greatest in-ring champion ever. His last eighteen months have been mesmerizing.
Not going to argue this at all. Crime of the century if Okada doesn't take home Wrestler Of The Year...and we are only 4 months into 2017.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 12:14 pm
by Wilson
http://www.cagesideseats.com/2017/4/10/ ... ul-surgery

Shibata suffered a subdural hematoma as a result of his risky match with Okada. The nauseating headbutt near the end of the match seems to be the most likely culprit. Like a lot of other fans, I really thought their match was special, but there was so much offense that should have been toned down, which is not even to mention the inexcusable headbutt. Though Shibata gave a spectacular performance, it’s important not to fetishize the relentless physical brutality. Shibata’s body language and charismatic bravura are what engaged the audience from the onset and elevated the emotions for 38 minutes.

Now, we might have might have to watch for Okada’s health, who’s been in two agonizing, possibly career-shortening, matches within the last three months.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 1:07 pm
by Mr. Mojo Risin
Wilson wrote:http://www.cagesideseats.com/2017/4/10/ ... ul-surgery

Shibata suffered a subdural hematoma as a result of his risky match with Okada. The nauseating headbutt near the end of the match seems to be the most likely culprit. Like a lot of other fans, I really thought their match was special, but there was so much offense that should have been toned down, which is not even to mention the inexcusable headbutt. Though Shibata gave a spectacular performance, it’s important not to fetishize the relentless physical brutality. Shibata’s body language and charismatic bravura are what engaged the audience from the onset and elevated the emotions for 38 minutes.

Now, we might have might have to watch for Okada’s health, who’s been in two agonizing, possibly career-shortening, matches within the last three months.
Yeah, a subdural hematoma is no fucking joke. When I read that Shibata had emergency surgery for that, I was floored. These guys will keep going full bore until someone dies. Its unfortunate but true. The thought on Okada was sobering. I wonder if and when the guy is going to start suffering symptoms from CTE. That headbutt drew blood on Okada. If you have read up on CTE, it doesn't take much to rattle the grey matter in there. A cringe worthy moment in a match that didn't need it to be great.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 2:36 pm
by ROHfan2002
Shibata is now my favorite wrestler. That much might be the greatest I've ever seen (and yes I did see the Wrestle Kingdom main event). I'm okay with the headbutt simply because I think it worked well in the match. It was just one. It did add a bit to me. I have far more trouble with the multiple head butts of Danielson-McGuiness. Here, it was a natural part of the match. I do hope he is able to come back though.

Great show. I include this with last weekend's events and say it was easily the best show. Only Supercard of Honor came close. That main event was incredible.

As for Okada, I was really hoping he'd lose (but knew he wouldn't), but he is easlly the Wrestler of the Year for 2017. His four main event single matches this year have all been phenomenal. I cannot wait to see what he does the rest of the year.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:27 pm
by SweetDaddy
Okada is one hell of a hand.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 5:17 pm
by supersonic
Meltzer:
An update on the situation with Katsuyori Shibata. Unfortunately the news appears to be very bad and that the injuries are not storyline. This is not 100 percent because there are many situations historically where this could be just storyline or a cover for something else, but it appears this is the case and that a combination of dehydration and the trauma of the legitimately skull-on-skull head-butt hospitalized him and at this point it is believed he will never be cleared to wrestle. He is currently in the hospital and is awake, can carry on a conversation, has some memories of the match itself. He initially had some right side paralysis but that is getting better.

Re: The NJPW Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 5:42 pm
by famicommander
That's terrible news for Shibata but he really only has himself to blame. I hope he can manage a full recovery whether he ever returns to the ring or not.

Hopefully this dissuades others from following the same path.