The NJPW Thread

Trying to decipher the Tama Tonga and Kenny Omega tweets regarding friends and enemies and Roman Reigns is like trying to solve a rubric cube!

Latest news on Hiromu Takahashi after his neck injury at “G1 Special in San Francisco”.

“This is the last word anyone had heard regarding Hiromu Takahashi and it’s based on the belief from a few weeks ago. The New Japan doctors believe it will be nine to 12 months before he can return.” - WON~F4O: August 6, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: The deaths of Brian Lawler, Nikolai Volkoff, and Brickhouse Brown

Key thing is that he is ok and can possibly return in the future. Still sucks though, the guy was in the midst of a huge push.

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It’ll be interesting to see what they do with the Jr title. They’ve been able to avoid it altogether during the G1 but that’s a belt I know they like having defended on most shows.

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They should hold a tournament at the Destruction shows and the finals at Fighting Spirit Unleashed. At least then they could fill up some of those shows with meaningful matches and not all tags.

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Yes, but given how they only just held Best of the super Jr’s just before the G1 they may be hesitant to have another Jr’s tournament run so long.

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They do the New Japan Cup, a couple months before the G1 and that is ok. I think it would work the same for this, pretty much. It would be a single elimination, like the New Japan Cup.

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Yep, just checked the calendar, for some reason thought “Fighting Spirit Unleased” was November. :confused:

For the televised “Destruction” cards of which theirs 3 (excluding “Road To” events) that would make time for good booking of 8-men tournament. (4x 1st round matches / 2x 2nd round matches / 1x 3rd round match “Final”)

Also I can’t remember what they did when Nakamura vacated the IWGP IC Championship just a few years ago.

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They did a match between Kenny Omega and Tanahashi for the vacate IC belt. Kenny was put in because he was going to be the next contender and I don’t know why Tanahashi was the other, might have been because he was a top name who had been IC champ before.

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How radical would it be for Mysterio to win the title heading into All In. He is to be on the G1 Final show…he could very well wrestle for the title and then drop it in Long Beach. I think him and Jericho holding IWGP titles simultaneously would be really cool (and probably annoy a lot of folks as well). Talk about polarizing.

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So…I guess the Tongans suspension was a work?

It looks like they’re on all of the major Destruction cards as well as the Fighting Spirit card.

They were never suspended. They came down to the ring and were removed from the building before they interfered.

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Maybe it was just wish fulfillment on my part. Had major go-away heat for them after the G1.

Majorly disappointed that the IWGP Jr Title is going to be decided in a 4 man tournament, in which Rey Mysterio is not being used to elevated the future winner or Ishimori is not included as he was the BOSJ finalist.

My ideal bracket would have been:
Osprey - Ishimori (former champ vs finalist of BOSJ that did not win and therefore did not get Osprey for the belt at Dominon)
Rey - Scurll (an incredible dream match that would have sold out Long Beach)

and with Marty going over Rey that would be a huge endorsement (and play off recent BTE) and set up a match with either the BC-OGs Jr. heavyweight OR another installment of Marty/Osprey.

I don’t need more Kushida in my Jr. Heavyweight life unfortunately. I do however appreciate them including Bushi for the LIJ connection.

El Desperado even though he had a shot recently against Hiromu, should have been in there over Bushi. Ishimori too. I like your bracket though. That is what it should have been.

Rey, Marty, Osprey, Liger, Bushi, El Desperado, Ishimori, Kushida

That’s a hell of an 8 man tournament that could have been booked.

Not sure how many have realized but the Alpha Club v Bullet Club matchup will feature the IWGP Heavyweight Champ, Tag Champs and IC champ and may wind up inlciuding the Jr Heavyweight champ as well if Marty wins that before.
Holy ship!

Anyone know last time this many IWGP titles in one match.
And would a true Alpha v Omega 2 featuring IWGP Heavyweight and IC champ be a first?

So out of interest is anyone planning on attending Wrestle Kingdom 13??
Tanahashi is my guy and it’s possible it will be his last Tokyo dome main event
flights from London ÂŁ931 I am really tempted :thinking:

Caught up on KOPW yesterday. I really enjoyed the card even if the main event didn’t do much for me. I’m really not a fan of Cody in ring, so between him, the fact that it was a 3 way and not believing that anyone besides Omega winning I couldn’t get into it.
I also don’t wanna see another ‘emotional’ Omega match for ages. Dude cannot act.
The Tanahashi/White match was great and the post match was better, Tana and Okada teaming will be incredible.
Hopefully Ospreay is officially moving up to heavyweight and not just jobbing to Taichi.

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If they job out Will to Taichi :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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