Yes he is… although, as Kevin Kelly keeps on saying every chance he gets; “This isn’t about wins and losses, it’s about evaluating Kitamura and seeing where he is in his development as a wrestler”.
I used to watch the full cards and it quickly became way too much to handle. Now I look at the card, pick out the matches I’m interested in and skip the rest. I actually do it with the bigger shows as well now, although I usually end up watching way more of those and I’m not likely to skip anything on Wrestle Kingdom or Dominion.
I don’t think it would be smart to have Naito lose again unless its some sort of shady finish. But man I have a wierd feeling that we might get a transition champion situation with Okada. Loses to Sanada and then Sanada drops the belt to Omega in LA…
I only watched the singles match from Osaka but I went away very happy with what I got. Ospreay/Takahashi was easily match of the night for me but Okada/SANANDA was really good too.
I highly recommend checking out the half hour “The Golden Comeback” vid which was just posted on NJPW World. Kenny and Ibushi tentatively practicing and talking about getting back in the ring together, with plenty of subtle character work regarding their history, what’s changed, what hasn’t, and how this all relates (or doesn’t) to Bullet Club.
This mini-doc was fabulous. I really enjoyed how they kept character and threaded that thin line of real and not. As always, it’s when Wresting in its best and the story being told by Omega, the Bucks, Ibushi, Cody, and we’ll see who else has really be incredible scripting. Both by NJPW and Being The Elites show. I totally forgot this but saw it in another clip recently, after Omega loses the G1 final to naito, Ibushi meets him backstage. Watching this again, and the Bucks involvement in the clip, it’s really great how this has been a story carefully crafted since last summer. Who knows, year(s)?
Someone on Twitter wrote a few days ago a series of Tweets sharing the history of the Golden Lovers and how it came to be and I must say that this is the best piece of compelling storytelling I’ve ever read when it comes to a pro wrestling angle. So many layers through the whole thing. It can make anyone invested into their story.
I posted the link to the tweet thread as well in the Golden Lovers discussion and also John did in a news update.
When you consider these two (who I think we presume are super close in real life, as friends or more) were not seen together in public for the entire separation of the Golden Lovers you begin to realize what Kenny refers to about viewing wrestling differently than others (and the same as each other). Ditto the Young Bucks - the way they’ve handled social media and appearances since the Cody/Kenny angle started makes you realize the attention to detail and care for their craft. Every little thing makes the matches come alive that much more. The mini-doc on World made the return matches this weekend so much extra because we saw them discussing moves, we saw them talking about team rust. The attention to craft is second to none. And that amazes me more and more the further this goes.
I have mixed feeling about the current NJPW storylines. I had to really deep dive like I was some journalist to find out the back story of The Golden Lovers, luckily someone linked a Twitter thread that was far more useful but became rather political so I had to stop reading it.
They have chemistry, but it takes two of the most exciting singles competitors and puts them in a tag division that at least as far as NJPW has their fair share of solid talent. Evil and Sanata, KES, GoD to name a few then throw in the Bucks and the Golden Lovers and sure it seems fun but then it pulls all of the momentum out of Omega’s push for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title.
This also I feel hurts Bullet Club as The Elite and Kota are getting a lot of the push. I could argue the pros and cons either way but Bullet Club is a huge faction right now with mainstream worldwide appeal and it is been put on the bench for an internal conflict that while cool takes away from what makes Bullet Club as cool as it is.
I think Kenny Omega comes off as a bit of a dick here, he essentially turned his back on the faction he was leading and his friends for Kota, if my understanding of the Lovers is correct I can see why, but it makes Kenny a rather undesirable and rather selfish friend.
I feel most for Matt, Nick and Marty in all of this, they seem to be the guys caught in the middle while the Tongans simply are like “We couldn’t care less about this drama, we are still a group of badass dudes”
It is interesting and I want to see the conclusion but it is interesting that Kenny did something I perceive as rather heelish to his team and is getting away with it and seems pretty much unaffected by the pain he has caused for his friends.
Cody on the other hand, has to be the most pure heel in pro wrestling today and I love it. He is just a scumbag, working his own “friends” up, getting them angry and manipulating them for his own ends. The more I see of Cody the more I am into his brand heel. He is walking a fine line between cartoon villain and legit sociopath, and I couldn’t be more interested.
The comments if you veered out if the main thread got to be much. Stick to just the main thread and it’s not political.
Cody is the best heel in the business right now and if you look back at the last few months of BTE this has been simmering for a while.-'other reason I’m infatuatied with how they have worked all the platforms together (remember when he paid Flip to gag Kenny then has acted like he has hated Flip! - evil genius!)
No, I am not that familiar with Twitter, I never had an account outside of work and I only used that for a week like three years ago. I kept going after the main story was told by the original poster and what I saw got to be political ideology. I guess I was hoping if I read further I would learn more from fans in the know and it just didn’t go that way.
