NJPW New Beginning In Sapporo night 2 thread

IWGP Tag Team Championship

The Young bucks vs Roppongi 3K

IWGP US Championship

Kenny Omega vs Jay White

I expect to see a clean sweep of title defences by the elite but maybe there will be a shock.

New champions Roppongi 3k

Matt Jackson sustained a back muscle injury at the start of the match was visibly in excruciating pain. respect to the guy to carry on Matt could barely stand during that match let alone wrestle.

Great selling by Matt butā€¦ it was ridiculous that he never tagged in Nick at the end.

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New US Champion Jay White WOW!!! that is a shocker White looked to have much better chemistry with Omega than Tanahashi.

Cody attacks Omega! The implosion of the bullet club has started

Kota Ibushi comes to save Kenny Omega

HUGE HUGE ENDING TO THIS SHOW!

Aww that was um how shall i put it.Too sweet

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The Ibushi hug was incredibleā€¦ but the match was not.

Jay White was the wrong guy to beat Omega clean. Heā€™s frankly not readyā€¦ then again Hangman Page is seemingly Whiteā€™s next challenger so the US title just went from Co-Main eventing the Tokyo Dome to a low midcard belt.

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I feel giving the title to White is just their way of getting behind the character. Iā€™m hoping this is the beginning of Omegaā€™s rise to the IWGP title.

The ending to this show was incredible.

White and Omega had a decent match, but nothing more. Heā€™s good in midcard matches, but his (current) style doesnā€™t fit that of a main eventer.
Whiteā€™s character is just not over, I mean he plays a serial killer, was introduced as a heel, but then turned against the Omega/Bullet Club, which made him a face, then became a member of CHAOS, so heā€™s definitely a babyface, but then again again he said that heā€™s going for Okadaā€™s title eventually, so is he a tweener now?

The implosion of the Bullet Club came sooner than later. Would have liked to see more of a build to it, but itā€™s okay. Iā€™m curious whether Kenny will be on his own (with Kota) or be with The Elite (and Scurll) and where Kota and Kenny will go from here. Maybe theyā€™ll hunt tag team gold, which would be pretty cool, and later they set him/them up for bigger things.

Does the rest of B.C. align with Cody? Fale, G.O.D., Tokyo Latina, Bone Soldierā€¦?

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Bad Luck Fale had the best tweet:
Said #OGBC was eating, asked what the hell happened with #TheElites

I like how they clearly are two groups in the faction.

I got a lot of mixed feelings about this angle but my god was it incredibly executed. Iā€™m sad that BTE and their content may be very different now but at the same time, this sets up some potentially incredible matchups with Omega/Cody and GoldenLovers/YoungBucks

It didnā€™t cross my mind, until someone posted it on SquaredCircle. But man, I definitely need to see a Bucks vs Omega/Ibushi match. Who goes over in that match?

Jay White is the next big thing for New Japan

It didnā€™t cross my mind that they wanted to setup Golden Lovers vs. Young Bucks. I thought that Omega shoving Matt was just an accident, when he turned around and didnā€™t even know that he was there. Plus, they were pissed that of all the people in the ring, he shoved Matt, because he sold his back in the match prior so shoving him to the ground made both Bucks angry. But I guess that could be fixed, especially since they werenā€™t involved in the angle afterwards. I donā€™t know if there were any teases on BTE for a break-up.

I thought they were building to Page and Cody vs. Golden Lovers. Cody talked about Omega stealing Pageā€™s moment and that they (Page & Cody) were best friends, so it would make much more sense to build to a match between those. The end goal is a singles match between Cody and Kenny, so a tag team match up against them instead of the Bucks would make much more sense.

In any case, Ibushi and Omega should win.

Iā€™d like to know where Marty remains in all of this mess. Of all the people he was the rational one :joy:

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What will probably happen is just that the Bucks and Omega will break off from the Bullet Club, leaving Cody in charge. I just get this feeling that with Marty he just gets completely broken off and plays that reluctant guy who doesnā€™t want to get in the middle of things.

Just for a second though let it sink in you may have a face stable of the Bucks, Omega and Ibushi, that is something to look forward to.

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The stories running rampant at the end settting up so much.

  1. White was man of his word as his win split the Elite/Bullet Club.
  2. White will eventually dethrone Okada as Champion. Okada seeing this new guy appear and make waves by beating Omega when he has struggled 3 times to win shows that Jay is a danger when he does decide to target Okada.
  3. Okada is dominant as champion but he has to adjust to being Ace as there will be surprises coming like when Tanahashi was champion and Okada surprised him when he won the title the first time. Okada is seeing White as himself back when he wanted to dethrone Tanahashi.
  4. Golden Lovers will be a story for the rest of this year. Golden Lovers vs. Cody & Page at NJPW in USA. Cody vs Omega in ROH in New Orleans. Golden Lovers vs The Bucks at ā€œAll Inā€ seem likely.
  5. Although thy have reunited, Omega/Ibushi seem likely for the G1 Final in Budokan Hall as a friendly encounter before the story of betrayal kicks in later on in the year.
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There might be something to it.

After White beat Omega, Okada (who did commentary) seemed very surprised by his win. Now, it could have been just shot out of context, because it was just a split second and since my Japanese is non-existent I have no idea what he might have said, but letā€™s assume he was indeed surprised. Then your scenario might be realistic.
I donā€™t think White will end Okadaā€™s current run, since itā€™s too legendary to be ā€œwastedā€ on a guy still trying to figure out his gimmick. Therefore it should either be Naito or Omega (depending whether he stays or not) who dethrones him. But I could see in a couple of years Okada, once heā€™s established as the undisputed #1 in NJPW, being beaten by some guy he doesnā€™t consider to be a threat, a guy like Sanada for example.
White already mentioned that he wants Okadaā€™s gold eventually, so he should fall under that category, why else would he let him be part of CHAOS?

Incredible scenes. From Almas vs Gargano to this. I donā€™t smoke, but I needed a cigeratte after the Omega/White match and the post-match angle. Oh boy.

First, the match is so great! Omega went in with the goal of getting Jay White over and it fucking worked. Jay looked superb the entire time and there was even seeds of a double-turn with Omega battering him to a pulp and Jay refusing to quit. That moment where Jay just lifted his shoulder a few centimeters got me. Credit to the always great NJ production crew for showing a great angle afterwards. If you arenā€™t sold on Jay White after this, then tough tits, he is here to stay. Iā€™m really looking forward to his feud with Hangman Page (who has really impressed me the past the past few weeks).

Then the angle afterwards. Holy fuck. Thereā€™s so many different avenues to explore with the way they executed Omegaā€™s apparent departure from The Bullet Club. Iā€™ve not been the biggest Cody supporter, but his work in New Japan this past month has turned me around on him. Marty being the powerless friend, who just wants the whole gang to get along, is so natural and feels like what an actual person would do if this happened in their own friend group. Adam Page reluctantly helping Cody attack Omega, The Bucks leaving after Omega shoved an all ready injured Matt. Omegaā€™s whole world crumbled around him in the space of 3 minutes. When Kota ran in for the save, I lost it. I had a big massive smile on my face and a manly happy tear formed in my eye when Kota and Omega buried the hatchet and hugged it out. I didnā€™t feel so stupid about the tear when I saw one of commentators wiping his eyes with a tissue and Okada struggling to compose himself.

Thatā€™s how itā€™s done. Absolutely perfect storytelling that rivals any television show or film. This is why we watch pro wrestling. Incredible. All the fucking stars.

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Preach brother!!! I watched the shows in the following order: the first night in Sapporo, NXT, the second night in Sapporo, and to be honest they are more or less ranked in the same way (although I related more to the NXT show as a whole than to the second night in Sapporo). This is going to be an interesting summer for NJPW and a possibly intriguing summer for NXT.

PS: I have the sneaking suspicion that the Rumble will be utter shit compared to the above three shows.

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I think youā€™re correct on that Rumble assumption! Iā€™ll be watching it tomorrow night, so it leaves some breathing room for what has transpired the last 24 hours, so I may enjoy it more than those watching it live in a few hours.

Iā€™ve also been vocal on the topic that one of New Japanā€™s weaknesses are the run-of-the-mill, house show style tag matches that clog up these shows. I feel though that since the beginning of the year, theyā€™ve made a massive improvement on them. I still skip the multi-mans that wonā€™t affect story lines, but Iā€™ve watched and enjoyed all the tag matches that have implications laced into them, which is usually the last 3 or 4 matches before the main event.

Iā€™m really enjoying the Yohsi-Hashi/Naito mini fued (which is amazing considering Yoshi is one of those guys who I donā€™t usually care for). Naito just being such an irritating dickhead that Yoshi canā€™t help but attack him is such a fun story. Their interactions post-match Night 1 for example; Yoshi attacking Naito in the crowd and Naito just walking ahead of him arrogantly like nothing happened in order to frustrate Yoshi more was so great!

The one thing Iā€™m not liking is this build to Sanada/Okada. So you have Okada attack Sanada and humiliate on Night 1; fine. They must building up Sanadaā€™s retaliation for night 2 in order to go into the title match looking strong. But then during the tag on Night 2, Sananda doesnā€™t get any measure of revenge at all (unless you call submitting Gedo ā€˜revengeā€™, which is pretty weak in my opinion). Then after the match, Okada is holding back Yoshi and Sanada must be no more than arms reach from Okada, What does Sanada do to the guy who stuffed money down his mouth and choked him out the previous night? Nothing. Doesnā€™t even care or notice that Okada is there. Weak. Iā€™m almost entirely checked out of that fued and the title match feels heatless.

Letā€™s end on another positive; The Bucks and R3K put on another storming tag match! I think the Bucks have proven even their biggest doubters wrong now, and those that remain in the ā€œthey cant work! spot monkeys! superkicks!ā€ camp are just being contrarian for the sake of it.

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