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Nea posted:Speaking of which, i've been meaning to watch some Zack Sabre JR matches. What are 4 good Zack matches that aren't too hard to find on dailymotion or otherwise online? I haven't seen much of the guy but he seems like my kind of wrestler. If you have New Japan World I can at least recommend the following: ZSJ vs Ospreay from this year's New Japan Cup ZSJ vs Okada from Sakura Genesis 2018 ZSJ vs Ibushi from Sengoku Lord 2019 (and basically all other ZSJ vs Ibushi matches because I don't think I've ever seen one that wasn't great) ZSJ vs Ishii from Wrestle Kingdom 13
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Aug 23, 2021 17:39
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forkboy84 posted:That was Wrestle Kingdom in 2020 I think, with the Kobashi Sasaki chop tribute It was the following New Beginning, WK14 was the Ospreay/Hiromu match where Ospreay did the Sasuke Special, Hiromu caught him, germaned him, Ospreay landed on his feet, scooted back a couple of feet on the ramp, ran at Hiromu, who just overhead tossed him and Ospreay went between the ropes, rolled, sprung to his feet, hit the ropes again, and did the Sasuke Special again and hit Hiromu with it all without even taking a pause, and only at that point did he end up messing up his foot, which he then worked another fifteen-twenty minutes on. Dragon and Hiromu have never had a match in the Dome, unfortunately. It’s been Hiromu against KUSHIDA at WK11, the four-way with Ospreay, KUSH and Scurll at 12, he missed 13 because of his neck, Ospreay at 14, and then El-P and Ishimori on consecutive nights at 15.
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Aug 23, 2021 18:54
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The Cameo posted:[long very good post about the current issues that NJPW have, cut for space] I'd agree with all of this - whatever people thought of them before COVID I think that everyone would agree that they were a promotion that always had a long term vision for people and their booking clearly indicated that. COVID happens which not only causes all the things listed above but also which cuts off your flow of new foreign talent (since the borders into Japan are vert restrictive at the moment; and the people they had aren't happy with the current restrictions which are out of their control) meaning that they are incredibly reliant on their domestic roster which, while very good, also limits the number of matches they can do and add in the issues they've had with injuries and COVID and suddenly its not working. Could they have done better? Probably: but as I'm sure anyone that's actually booked a promotion would tell you doing so in this situation where they don't know whether they'll have access to talent on a monthly basis makes it very hard to do anything long term other than having general ideas about what to do with people. In terms of wider perception: the crowds are a big part of things. As the US and the rest of the world moves away from restrictions Japan still having theirs (for good reason - cases are rising there) exposes the greatest weakness that Japanese wrestling as a whole has at the moment. This is especially the case for New Japan which almost always had very very hot crowds on every show and now they don't have that - and while its true that they haven't tried to adapt I think part of that is as much them thinking that they've set an expectation for what people want from a New Japan main event and still trying to deliver that, and also trying to give people their moneys worth on these big shows that have five or six matches total on them. What I've seen in some places is people after the US show talk about how the US side of New Japan is so much hotter than the Japan side and how they should simply move to the US for the rest of the pandemic which would be very silly - not only are we talking about a Japanese promotion that will always mainly book for its core domestic audience but also when you look at the tickets they've sold its not many really: the LA show was successful for what it was (2.5k) and the San Jose show has sold 800 early (with around 3k available total I think) which is decent but the Texas tapings sold barely 100 on day 1 and haven't really moved since and that's, well, not great while the Japanese side will sell more than that for their bigger shows even at the height of this - especially outside Tokyo. The TL;dr is that with any promotion at the moment I think you need to give a bit of leeway for COVID-related disruption. Stardom is in the middle of their G1-equivalent tournament and luckily scheduled a lot more shows than required since they've lost basically two full week of shows and one from next weekend because a few people on their roster had to isolate as close contacts; All Japan lost their big Ota Ward main event because Suwama got COVID and that forced them to have to reshuffle things like a week out; some promotions were booking towards big shows that had to be delayed or cancelled at the last minute (Marvelous/Sendai Girls ended up having to delay GAEAISM, which in terms of the booking was in effect a joint show between the two, twice for COVID; a few promotions that had Sumo Hall dates lost those when the Sumo organisation basically told them to gently caress off when they needed the building for Sumo; and the obvious New Japan examples when they lost a Tokyo Dome date in May) and with those situations you can't really criticise those promotions if their momentum was stalled because of those things because its impossible to book with the assumption that any show you run might get cancelled.
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Aug 23, 2021 19:02
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Tampa Bae posted:Dragon Kid has been around for so long I actually have a VHS tape of his early work, I know exactly who he is. I'll hunt down the Dragon Gate YouTube openers and if it catches me I'll go through whatever bullshit I need to to buy their streaming service, Dragon Gate USA was really good up until they started having what would eventually become the ROH / Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano 40 minute long epics. I tried to make my DG thread OP as friendly of a primer for lapsed/new fans as possible. We mostly just do news updates and live-posting during shows though. But I've got links to sites that basically tell you anything you want to know about the roster, unit histories, etc.
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Aug 23, 2021 19:12
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I'm trying to remember if DDT had any massive pandemic issues akin to what pretty much every other promotion faced, most I can remember is Kenny Omega being booked for last years Ultimate Party and had to pull out on short notice, which led to a convoluted 'Daisuke Sasaki is being kicked out of Damnation' fakeout when they had to give Endo a new challenger quickly. Although I wonder if it's just that i've been conditioned as a viewer that the promotion is going to throw some weird poo poo at me and I better roll with it, so whatever teething pains there have been have glazed over for me. Also that their core roster is basically all Japanese or living there (with the exception of Mike Bailey who has been MIA since early last year) so they didn't feel nearly the pinch New Japan did.
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Aug 23, 2021 20:05
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Had to move Ultimate Party from Sumo Hall to Ota Ward (and obviously lost SSA last year) and that risk is why they are running things like Yokohama Stadium for Peter Pan rather than Sumo Hall which is the normal venue.
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Aug 23, 2021 20:21
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Tampa Bae posted:My payment info still works for New Japan World, so give me 10 matches since The Elite left that I should watch this week. Stardom got bought out by their parent company, are they part of the package too? Stardom is sold separately. Here's a post-WK13 NJPW mixtape, trying to highlight a wide swath of their roster: 1: Jon Moxley vs Toru Yano, 2019 G1 2: Juice Robinson vs Tomohiro Ishii, 2019 G1 3: Kota Ibushi vs Zack Sabre Jr., 2019 G1 4: Kazuchika Okada vs Kota Ibushi, WK14 5: Hiromu and Ryu Lee vs Jushin Liger and Naoki Sano, WK14 6: Hirooki Goto vs KENTA, WK14 7: Jon Moxley vs Minoru Suzuki, 2020 New Beginning 8: Taichi vs Kota Ibushi, 2020 G1 9: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs KENTA, 2020 G1 10: Shingo Takagi vs Kota Ibushi, 2020 G1
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Aug 23, 2021 21:33
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You could honestly just watch a bunch of the G1 Climax shows in both 2019 and 2020 as a primer, and get absolute banger matches and a familiarity with the roster.
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Aug 23, 2021 21:58
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That’s true. I literally started with the 2019 G1 and was hooked hard by the end of the second show. Having full time English announcers helps a ton.
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Aug 24, 2021 00:55
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The G1 as well as being a source of great matches and a roster intro also usually serves as a hothouse for stories. They'll set up and pay off storylines within both the G1 matches and the accompanying tags. 2018 did a great job of this with Switchblade as a corrupting influence in Chaos, Moxley had a great story in the 2019 G1.
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Aug 24, 2021 09:07
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Who is the best wrestler to never win a title of any sort?
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Aug 24, 2021 11:04
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Quinntan posted:Who is the best wrestler to never win a title of any sort? Are we talking titles from major promotions only or are we including indie backyard fed titles as well? Because if we're doing the latter then things get a bit harder.
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Aug 24, 2021 11:33
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Cerebral Bore posted:Are we talking titles from major promotions only or are we including indie backyard fed titles as well? Because if we're doing the latter then things get a bit harder. Kidd Bandit for the latter
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Aug 24, 2021 12:49
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luchadornado posted:Kidd Bandit for the latter He won a tag title last weekend.
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Aug 24, 2021 13:25
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CopywrightMMXI posted:He won a tag title last weekend. Top 10 Anime betrayals. Seiously though, if we count literally every title then the best wrestler that has never held one is most likely some trainee in the later stages of a Japanese dojo system. I'm thinking someone like Shota Umino or Ren Narita here.
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Aug 24, 2021 14:43
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I think part of the problem is if you're worth a drat as a worker, SOMEONE put a strap on you. Like, Lance Storm and Dynamite Kid were never world heavyweight champs, but were still winning titles with regularity.
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Aug 24, 2021 14:53
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Yoshi-Hashi had been with NJPW since 2008 before winning his very first title in August last year. 
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Aug 24, 2021 14:55
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El Gallinero Gros posted:I think part of the problem is if you're worth a drat as a worker, SOMEONE put a strap on you. Seams posted:Yoshi-Hashi had been with NJPW since 2008 before winning his very first title in August last year. I see no contradiction here.
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Aug 24, 2021 14:58
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Here’s who I would say is the most notable to never hold gold in promotions I’m familiar with: WWE - Hacksaw Jim Duggan AEW - PAC WCW - Scott Norton ECW - Nova
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Aug 24, 2021 15:11
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CopywrightMMXI posted:Here’s who I would say is the most notable to never hold gold in promotions I’m familiar with: This one's iffy, since the crown was treated as a title.
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Aug 24, 2021 15:14
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Gavok posted:This one's iffy, since the crown was treated as a title. Good point. I guess Jake Roberts would have to be the answer then?
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Aug 24, 2021 15:17
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Insane to eat 298 flapjacks and not get a title for it. Not even a loving cup?
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Aug 24, 2021 15:23
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i'd probly say Stone cold
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Aug 24, 2021 15:24
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CopywrightMMXI posted:Here’s who I would say is the most notable to never hold gold in promotions I’m familiar with: Norton was recognized as IWGP Champion in WCW and wore it to the ring at least once. He held gold in a literal sense.
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Aug 24, 2021 15:26
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MassRafTer posted:Norton was recognized as IWGP Champion in WCW and wore it to the ring at least once. He held gold in a literal sense. Taking that into account, and doing a bit of googling, it seems like Mike Awesome or Chris Adams would be the best answers then.
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Aug 24, 2021 15:32
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CopywrightMMXI posted:Taking that into account, and doing a bit of googling, it seems like Mike Awesome or Chris Adams would be the best answers then. Awesome was ECW champ, Chris Adams was WCCW champ.
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Aug 24, 2021 15:44
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CopywrightMMXI posted:Good point. I guess Jake Roberts would have to be the answer then? Jake never winning the IC belt was a mystery, even if the world belt would have been impossible. Wasn't there something about Hogan squashing Jake's push because he felt threatened? I'm sure I've heard that and could even buy it, but I genuinely don't recall where.
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Aug 24, 2021 16:35
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Cerebral Bore posted:Are we talking titles from major promotions only or are we including indie backyard fed titles as well? Because if we're doing the latter then things get a bit harder. Major promotions only.
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Aug 24, 2021 16:41
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They acknowledged it on Jake's WWE-produced documentary. They didn't frame it as Hogan killing his push out of jealousy, but they said that they quashed the program because it split the audience down the middle.
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Aug 24, 2021 16:41
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Dawgstar posted:Wasn't there something about Hogan squashing Jake's push because he felt threatened? I'm sure I've heard that and could even buy it, but I genuinely don't recall where.
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Aug 24, 2021 16:43
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Quinntan posted:Major promotions only. Right. Then I'd say that it's Orange Cassidy.
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Aug 24, 2021 17:36
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Cerebral Bore posted:Right. Then I'd say that it's Orange Cassidy. Former DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion
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Aug 24, 2021 17:49
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CopywrightMMXI posted:Here’s who I would say is the most notable to never hold gold in promotions I’m familiar with: Duggan was WCW TV champion after finding the title in the garbage.
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Aug 24, 2021 17:51
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Yes but Duggan never held a title in the WWF
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Aug 24, 2021 17:53
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SG Bamboo posted:Former DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion I guess this hinges on whether you count DDT as a major promotion or not.
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Aug 24, 2021 17:54
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Wasn't Duggan US champ when he turned heel and joined Team Canada?
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Aug 24, 2021 17:55
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Pope Corky the IX posted:Wasn't Duggan US champ when he turned heel and joined Team Canada? He definitely was when he beat Austin for it in 1994.
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Aug 24, 2021 17:56
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Pope Corky the IX posted:Wasn't Duggan US champ when he turned heel and joined Team Canada? No.
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Aug 24, 2021 17:57
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You know I can’t resist it when you flirt with me…
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Aug 24, 2021 18:02
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Cerebral Bore posted:I guess this hinges on whether you count DDT as a major promotion or not. Just stab me right in the kidneys why don't you 
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Aug 24, 2021 18:31
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