Thought I would get a thread started, I am here at the Hammerstein and show delayed 50 minutes and counting. Unfortunately it has garnered some upset fans and “bullshit” chants. Read on Twitter that this is due to the lack of an ambulance on hand, and this is required by New York State Athletic Comission (can’t verify). Shame to see this show with an enthusiastic crowd fling in from the start earn ill will.
An official came in to ring just now, deep bows and apologized. Rocky Romero just hit the ring to smooth things over and is throwing out t shirts. D
Still hasn’t started. They are showing footage from the Lowell shirt which isn’t getting over with anyone in the audience in NYC. At least they solved the merch problem, seems they came well stocked this time.
Boy am I glad I did not attend this down the street. Seemed like a clusterfuck. New Japan needs to get their shit together if they want to come West
Once the show got underway, things went without a hitch. In fact, it breezed by pretty quickly with the absence of intermission. By some accounts, it may not have been their fault and now there are some delicious conspiracy theories out there about what went down.
the show the stream was pretty good, but the audio levels between the crowd and the commentary left something to be desired, kind of wish i heard a bit more of the crowd, but i guess a slight disassociation happens when the commentary team isn’t actually in the building.
once the show got started though, there was no slowing down.
selfishly, the delay worked out for me, had to finish cooking supper and do the dishes
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yes, having commentary dubbed over live, but from off site, probably messes with the mix. That would suggest to me that there could’ve been no plans to broadcast the show at first and then a last minute decision to do so.
Audience reactions were huge during nearly every ring entrance, and Naito’s seemed longest. There were chants of ‘Rock N Roll’ mid match, and Tiger’s ovation was huge.
I was with three friends in the balcony for the show and while the crowd was definitely annoyed about the delay, NJPW definitely went out of their way to apologize for the delay as it was not their fault. The show was incredible from start (albeit, a late one) to finish. The crowd was red hot throughout the whole show and the card flowed smoothly with most matches running back to back with little to no interruptions in between. Definitely got my $69 dollars worth and look forward to attending future shows on the east coast when they return to the states.
Dittoing the comments regarding sound mixing, but that’s not a dealbreaker. Opening Young Lions matches were great, and seeing Ricky and Robert tangle with LIJ was surreal. Not to overly focus on the negative, but that Yoshi Hashi/Kenta match was brutal. The whole match was structured around YH fighting from underneath, but it should have been obvious that a NYC crowd wouldn’t be as forgiving of him as Japanese ones. Sounded like he was getting more boos than cheers from the beginning, and there was no adjusting on the fly. Also, having Kenta require GOD interference to beat arguably the lowest ranked main roster wrestler doesn’t do him any favours.