#w teamup at a later date

[gdwessel]

Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night Two - January 5, 2020; Featured Shows for 2020: G1 Climax 30 to be Held in September & October, Two Osaka-Jo Hall Shows, Sakura Genesis Returns to Schedule, No KOPW in 2020?

The second part of the historic two-night Wrestle Kingdom 14 has come and gone, and...  yeah, there’s a lot here. You know where you can watch it and how much to pay for it. Let’s get right to it.

- January 5, 2020, Tokyo Dome (NJPWWorld, FITE TV)

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Gauntlet Match: EVIL, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables d. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano [CHAOS] & Ryusuke Taguchi © and Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] and Taichi, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] and Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens [Bullet Club] (Shingo > Taguchi, Made In Japan, 6:08) - Order Of Eliminations: - CHAOS > Bullet Club - CHAOS > SZKG - LIJ > CHAOS  - LIJ > MVP - Makabe/Yano/Taguchi fail their 5th defense - EVIL/Shingo/BUSHI are the 20th champions

Jushin Thunder Liger Retirement Match II: Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] & Ryu Lee d. Jushin Thunder Liger & Naoki Sano [FREE] (w/ Yoshiaki Fujiwara) (Hiromu > Liger, Time Bomb, 12:14)

IWGP Juniorheavyweight Tag Team Championship: SHO & YOH [CHAOS] d. Taiji Ishimori & El  Phantasmo [Bullet Club] © (SHO > Phantasmo, Strong X, 14:08) - Ishimori/Phantasmo fail their 2nd defense - RPG3K are the 61st champions

RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] © d. SANADA [Los Ingobernables] (European Clutch, 12:32) - Sabre succeeds his ?th defense

IWGP US Heavyweight Championship: Jon Moxley [FREE] © d. Juice Robinson (Death Rider, 12:48) - Moxley succeeds his 1st defense

NEVER Openweight Championship: Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] d. KENTA [Bullet Club] © (GTR, 16:12) - KENTA fails his 3rd defense - Goto is the 28th champion

Jay White [Bullet Club] d. Kota Ibushi (Blade Runner, 24:58)

Chris Jericho [FREE] d. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Walls of Jericho, 22:24)

IWGP Heavyweight & IWGP Intercontinental Championships Double Gold Dash: Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables] © d. Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] © (Destino, 35:37) - Okada fails his 6th defense - Naito succeeds his 1st defense - Naito is the 70th IWGP Heavyweight Champion and first Double Champion

Sometimes, you do need to tranquilo, and we learned that lesson here tonight, with this main event. This wasn’t just Naito winning the Double Gold Dash that he talked about all of 2019, and was the main driver of. This wasn’t just Naito winning in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom, and beating Okada at the third time of asking at the Dome at that. This was the culmination of a six year long storyline with Naito, that started with a fan vote that saw his earned WK main event be taken from him; that saw him be rejected by the fans and fall into Los Ingobernables along with two other friends in CMLL who had also been rejected by the fans of their company. That saw Naito and Los Ingobernables de Japon become one of the hottest acts in all of wrestling, to the point of being the only NJPW wrestler to get pre-match chants his way. That saw him get his Dome main event, but then lost at the final hurdle. And now,  two years after coming up short in G1 Climax, being saddled with a title belt that he despised, but now accepts, and a lot of online angst from his fans, Naito is an IWGP Heavyweight Champion at the Tokyo Dome, and the first to hold both title belts. 

So naturally, KENTA attacks him during the LIJ Roll Call. Because NJPW booking has whomever loses to Goto at WK fail upwards. Which is a damn shame for Goto, because his match was really quite good, and he always delivers at Wrestle Kingdom. It’s the other 11 months out of the year that the booking makes him look like a chump. Just let Goto club mofos in 2020 and see how far he comes along. KENTA meanwhile helps remake Bullet Club as the top rudo faction in the company, along with Jay White. His match with Ibushi was GOOD... until the last five minutes  or so. And then we get the needless ref bumps and fuck finishes and interference. Really took me out of the match honestly. 

Jon Moxley retains the IWGP US Heavyweight title, meaning not only was Juice Robinson denied also being a Double Champion, but also that Moxley looks to be sticking around in some capacity. Also sticking around, is Minoru Suzuki, who despite all the talk (including from this blog, ahem) that he may be done in NJPW and would be coming to NOAH tonight, appeared after Moxley’s match, with a full “Kaze Ni Nare” entrance, and laid him right out. I am completely psyched for a Moxley v. Suzuki feud, and never been so glad to be wrong about something I’ve written about. This is the type of quality pairing the fans have been clamoring for.

SANADA is the only member of LIJ to not have any kind of title belt. Hmmm.

Jushin Thunder Liger’s final match was something to behold, and words cannot do justice the emotions behind this. Post-match, he gave a quick speech to the Tokyo Dome crowd, thanking them for 31 years of support. Backstage, the creator of the original Jushin Liger comic, Go Nagai, was there to greet him, as well as Daichi Hashimoto, current BJW wrestler, and the son of the late Shinya Hashimoto. In the meantime, the teamup between Hiromu and Ryu Lee (in his debut as Ryu Lee) didn’t last, and Hiromu  offers the first challenge for the IWGP Juniorheavyweight title to Ryu Lee.

One interesting aspect of this was Ryu Lee came wearing the ROH World Television title, which got no mention on the Japanese commentary, and from all accounts one mention followed by awkward silence on the English. Contrast that with numerous mentions of AEW and their title belt, which Jericho wore to the match. However, Jericho still won, so there will be no challenge by Hiroshi Tanahashi for that title anytime soon. Jericho did say backstage (out of character?) that he wants AEW and NJPW to work together more in the future. So stay tuned for that.

All in all, a very satisfying two days. The attendance was listed for tonight as 30,063, a nearly 10,000 person drop, however this is still hardly a failure, given the sell-out last night. A very successful weekend for NJPW and the Tokyo Dome. I do have to wonder if Ibushi v. Naito would have popped the number more, however. We will discuss that on the Podcast soon, probably later this week.

Looking to the future, NJPW announced select major show dates, with some very interesting listings. First off, they will run both Dominion AND The New Beginning In Osaka at Osaka-jo Hall this year. Wrestling Dontaku is once again a two-day event.

Sakura Genesis returns to the NJPW calendar this year, on 3/31/2020 from Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan. The BOSJ Final will be on 6/6/2020 at Tokyo Ota Ward Gymnasium, rather than at Ryogoku like last year.

The biggest news here is G1 Climax 30 will be getting moved to the autumn rather than July/August this year. This is totally to  do with the Olympics being in Tokyo this summer, and the lack of availability of arenas during that time. It will be interesting to see G1 so late in the year, however, with the Finals at Ryogoku on 10/16/2020 - 10/18/2020. The other upshot here is with this move, there does not appear to be a King Of Pro Wrestling event on the cards for this year, as the G1 30 Finals will take place during that usual time,unless they run it at another time this year. The Olympics are making things very interesting for NJPW. 

I will list the shows soon in an Upcoming NJPW Events pot coming real soon.

Tomorrow is New Year Dash!!, which is a secret card, bar the retirement ceremony for Jushin Thunder Liger. I may not hold it together for that. We are also still awaiting the announcement for the cards for Fantasticamania, and The New Beginning, tho the latter will depend on New Year Dash!! to some extent.

Hope everyone enjoyed this Wrestle Kingdom weekend, and we move on to the future.

[des-shinta]

What would you rate each movie wars from good to bad(or from most to least favorite) and why?

Not yet seen Heisei Generations so that’s not on the list.  Heard good things, but I’m waiting on a translation that doesn’t localize the dialogue when you are not supposed to perform a localization on Freaking subtitles.This is also pretty brief as..well, it’s a tumblr reply, so doesn’t get all my feelings on the films or every single thing I find good or wrong with them, just a general impression and a few things that make me like/dislike what’s in it.  

Buuuut I’ll be releasing reviews on movie war 2010 and Core later this year as part of my all-encompassing coverage of W that I’m actually working on editing this month.  my words on them are pretty consistent with what’s going to be said on that, just expanded there as opposed to here.1: Movie war megamax.The thing here is…I like everybody in this, and it ADVANCES everybody in this in some way, either from W calling back to when he met OOO, or the Fourze gang making reference to what Fourze originally was going to be about, or, for the ONLY time in Heisei Kamen Rider do the Original showa Riders come back, and not end up crapped on by a shitty event.  Plus, they all get to show themselves as competent fighters in this modern age too, against a modern fan-favorite antagonist organization that is shown that Even the Showa riders, who decimated every incarnation of Shocker (Outside of chatastrophically bad idiot plots) are having difficulty with Foundation X’s cells.  EIji, Ankh and Hina get good moments in the OOO’s portion that cap their relationship and put Eiji on his journey to mend Ankh that he now knows he will succeed in if he perseveres, Gentaro’s interaction with nadeshiko is sheer adorableness, and I Nadeshiko became the second Female kamen Rider to Actuall survive.  Yeah, she was captures to the movies’ villain could use her power and had to lose her physical form for a while, but at least we knew she wasn’t actually dead, which was only later confirmed by utlimatum…as bad a movie that Ultimatum actually is.2: Sengoku movie warThis one is good again for reasons similar to Megamax, proper closure for the returning hero group of Wizard (And an actual moral to it about letting go, fuck Kamen Rider Taisen), while the Gaim half has an interesting adventure playing into Gaim’s long game; so when you look back on this movie you realize there was a lot of narrative foreshadowing present in it.  Plus, Bujin gaim as a central antagonist for the teamup was a good one due to his dark mirror aspects of what Kouta could become on accident, especially since he facilitated interaction between Kouta and Haruto in the downtime of the movie, which even Megamax didn’t really allow to happen, as the one scene with Shotaro, Phillip, Eiji and Gentaro as more business talk than really getting to know one-another.  And Haruto Getting his new infinity ring fixed another narrative screwup from the end of Wizard itself.Hell, speaking of Wizard’s side…SHUNPEI ACTUALLY FREAKING DID SOMETHING!3: Movie war Full throttleI find it the weakest of the ‘good’ Movie wars due to some narrative hiccups and Drive’s portion and it’s ‘ultimate’ mystery being kind of weak, but Drive’s side is heavy on backstory for Krim and his pre-drive actions, while seeding a few later things seen in the series; plus Lupin is kind of a fun antagonist.  Gaim’s side?  The first signs of Mitzuzane actually having worked towards the redemption the exact end of Gaim set him on, Dragon energy arms Ryouma is glorious and good closure for a conflict Gaim again didn’t resolve between him and TakaTora(Batta), and we get to see that even with the powers of a god, Kouta is not all-powerful as the borg/Reaper-like machinoid threat is enourmous.  While there aren’t as good interactions in the downtime of the film as the Sengoku movie war, at least they gave Shonisuke and Kouta two moments to interact, one in the midst of the final battle that was naturally precipitated from both early stories (”I’m a Space god…I think.”), and the finalizing gratitude once it’s all done were good endcaps, alongside the implication at the end of the film of Kouta and Mai, Despite their Divine state and duty to watch over the helheim so it doesn’t run rampant again doesn’t mean they can’t visit their friends and loved-ones.The only real bullshit moment of it then, is the movie powerup cross-state forms coming the hell out of nowhere.  Just…why?  You already had the Lupin Gunner and Dragon energy arms as new collectibles to sell, Type fruits and Drive arms were kind of dumb.4: movie war 2010First movie has problems, but W’s half and it’s importance in culminating the first arc of W’s story and how that plays into the greater series hold it up immensely, whereas Decade’s side…feel’s like a rush job since we know they cannibalized what was originally going to be decade episode final into something completely different.  I think it’s okay, as it does give proper closure to Decade’s story that the TV show should have done, but there’s a lot wrong with Decade’s side.I’ll give it this, The final movie war portion where Decade teams with W?  That is the first Time Tsukasa has encountered a Rider that doesn’t want to or Tries to kill him.  it really informs why character-wise that Tsukasa would prefer to work with the Neo-heisei Rider’s after this; they weren’t necessarily jackasses to him, character-assassination being behind the cause or no.Ultiamtely Movie war 2010, when both sides are accounted for isn’t actually bad, but with Decade holding it back it’s not particularly good either.  Watch for W’s side.5: movie war Core.ALL of the bad movie wars have the same problem; a lack of involvement from the writers of the show involved in the event.  While Riku Sanjou AGAIN salvages this movie with W’s half and it’s exploration of Soukichi Narumi, OOO’s portion and the actual teamup are utter write-offs as they’re by Toshiki Inoue…and they make absolutely no damn sense.  While there is a way to Fir the Nobunaga story into OOO’s timeline by setting it’s events to occur in the background of majority of the series–starting in the single digit episodes and then concluding in the late 30′s continuity-wise–it’s an extreme headache to even try and figure that, since it has to sync with W’s timeline, and That can only be allowed to happen approximately a year after the final battle, since Phillip was effectively dead for around 9 months.  Setting it over a extended length of time to conclude near OOO’s end then also answers how the hell the Dinosaur Greeed and his Yummy are active, but you really shouldn’t need to do that kind of ‘it’ll make sense later’ kind of thing in a story that out-of-nowhere introduces those things.  Which was kind of the same damn problem with Ryuki Episode final, to show that Inoue when writing something for a Kobayashi series has learned nothing.  Or maybe it was done to spite her since the two don’t like each-other and she’s derisive of His father’s body of work. (Inoue’s Dad wrote a majority of Showa Kamen Rider)Not helped that Eiji Spends the majoirty of the film out-of-character, acting like a dumbass, and shoved to the side in what was supposed to be his own story, so Toshiki Inoue can write a ‘what-if’ story about Nobunaga Oda being resurrected in the modern era…and it’s in no way interesting.  And the final teamup is just…dumb, as things seem to happen in it for no reason.6: Movie war UltimatumHi, we’re introducing a modernized depiction of former heroes, and have set them up as the ulimate villains of this entire event.  To anyone who was a fan of these characters, Fuck you!  This was written by the guy behind Carranger that means it’s going to sell!…No seriously, the guy who wrote Carranger wrote this movie, no-one on the main shows was involved, and it SUUUUUCKS as a result as the guy is a TERRIBLE writer.  The ‘villains’ are all characters he wrote for too their original shows, which makes that all the more egregious.  The Poitrine plot of Wizards half was utterly stupid and a waste of time, and while the Fourze part isn’t entirely dumb, it showcased a series of actions that no-one at toei is going to respect or Acknowledge (Outside of this one scene in Taisen Z Where NEW!Inazuman inexplicably shows up) since they destroy the Fourze Driver in that sect of the film, but Since Fourze KEEPS APPEARING in Heisei stuff since it’s past the point in time of that destruction, no-one’s going to acknowledge that.  They intentionally put into place a contradiction that no-one is ever going to answer.  And the end-of-film teamup is just magnitudes of bullshit.7: Movie war Genesis:RETCONNED OUT OF EXISTENCE!  IT NEVER HAPPENED.  It suffers the same problem as Ultimatum, the guy behind it DIDN’T WORK ON OR WATCH either series involved.  Once again it’s a time travel plot, but things here all just fall into the heroes laps even though it outright contradicts material in the series.  All of the Drive gear was locked up By Krim?  Oh, suddenly Gou has not only his bike and Mach Driver, but a spare and deadheat so Shinosuke can transform.  Oh, they got sent back to the past?  They find Krim in a Bush.  Krim?  What are YOU doing here?  The rationale for the Roidmude resurrection?  never explained as they are FREAKING ROBOTS.  At least when Drive Saga 2 did that, they explained it as recovering Scattered roidmude data from their remains.  The renaissance Ganma?  their existence and plan contradicts what’s later explained about the Ganma?  Toucon Boost, and the way Takeru’s Dad Died?  Contradiction.  Drive Type zero?  Contradiction, and a big one due to how Protodrive functions.  The Shinosuke/Kiriko Wedding?  Contradiction and then later RETCONNED in the Mach Saga novels, as you don’t go from dating to wedding in the span of less than two freaking months.  Oh, we see sight of Nekrom at the end of the film?  Alan didn’t finish building that gear until around episode 16.  Just…FUCK THIS MOVIE!  AS Bad as Ghost Got due to it being screwed over, it struggled to get this bad in any individual episode that this one just had happen naturally.