New Japan Pro Wrestling News and Card Announcements Thread

[Papa Pillman]

New Japan has released the full Strong Style Evolved card for this Sunday night airing live on AXS from Long Beach California...

Rey was pulled from his match with Liger, which is a huge blow to how big this card looks on paper; and the card isn't the huge show that many had hoped for(and with rumors that NJPW has a hold on the Cow Palace in July, that may be where we get a huge NJPW card in America in 2018), but it still looks on par with a semi-tour ender from a secondary tour, like we get on a New Beginning or Destruction tour, for example.

Here is the card with some of my quick thoughts on each match:

Roppongi 3k and Rocky Romero vs. SoCal Uncensored
This could be awesome, and an interesting note is that Scorpio Sky will be helping Shibata run the new NJPW dojo in Cali

David Finlay and Juice Robinson vs. Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI
Could be another fun one, and continues build toward Juice facing Goto for the NEVER belt, possibly at Sakura Genesis

Toru Yano and Chuckie T vs. Killer Elite Squad
Two comedy guys versus a big guy power tag team, KES will win, but the match has trainwreck potential

Guerrillas Of Destiny vs. Marty Scurll and Cody
More Bullet Club fallout storytelling, and the story should be far better and more relevant than the wrestling will be

Ryusuke Taguchi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Dragon Lee and KUSHIDA vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, SANADA and Hiromu Takahashi)
Weird switchup in the current stable feuds, but that may be due to a small number of Suzuki-Gun participants making the trip, but the match should be good and every time Hiromu and Dragon Lee share the ring it is must watch

Jushin “Thunder” Liger vs. Will Ospreay
The best Cruiser in the world is a suitable replacement for Rey, but this match doesn't hold nearly the intrigue for a variety of reasons

Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr.
Coming out of Sabre's win in the cup, and heading into the main at Saura Genesis, this match could be the second best of the night

IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Match: (C) Jay White vs. Hangman Page
Page has looked great lately and this is the biggest spot of his career, there's a lot of pressure on these two guys to deliver

The Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi) vs. The Young Bucks
The definition of a must-see main event match, its basically impossible for this match to be anything other than the best tag team match that will happen in 2018

 

[ABMorales787]

NJPW announced its line-up for their upcoming 'Destruction' tour. The series of events that usually follow the G-1 Climax and concludes with 3 major cards in Hiroshima, Beppu & Kobe, Japan. The cards were announced via press conference this morning along with three matches for NJPW's upcoming 'Fighting Spirit Unleashed' event in Long Beach.

Along with the match announcements, it was also announced that Hiromu Takahashi was stripped of the IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship following his broken neck from his title defense against Dragon Lee at their previous US event 'G-1 Special'. The Championship will be determined with a 4 person tournament over the course of the 'Destruction' tour & 'Fighting Spirit Unleashed' before presumably concluding at their 'King Of Pro Wrestling' event.

The cards announced are as following:

Road to Destruction (9/7, Korakuen Hall)

• Golden Lovers vs. Tomohiro Ishii and Will Ospreay
• Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma vs. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano and YOSHI-HASHI
• Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA and BUSHI vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado
• Hirooki Goto and Gedo vs. Taichi and Taka Michinoku
• Beretta vs. Toa Henare
• Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin, David Finlay and Ayato Yoshida vs. Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Taiji Ishimori
• Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi vs. Ren Narita and Shota Umino

Road to Destruction (9/8, Korakuen Hall)

• Hiroshi Tanahashi and Juice Robinson vs. Kazuchika Okada and Beretta
• Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano and Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi and Yujiro Takahashi
• Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, BUSHI and SANADA vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, El Desperado and TAKA Michinoku
• Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI vs. Taichi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru
• Togi Makabe, Michael Elgin, David Finlay and Toa Henare vs. Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Taiji Ishimori
• Ayato Yoshida vs. Chase Owens
• Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura vs. Ren Narita and Yota Tsuji

Road to Destruction (9/9, Chiba)

• Manabu Nakanishi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yuji Nagata and Satoshi Kojima v. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Juice Robinson and David Finlay
• Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Beretta and Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Yujiro Takahashi and Chase Owens
• Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toa Henare vs. Kazuchika Okada and YOSHI-HASHI
• Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA and BUSHI vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Taka Michinoku
• Hirooki Goto and Gedo vs. Taichi and El Desperado
• Michael Elgin, Ayato Yoshida, Shota Umino and Ren Narita vs. Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Taiji Ishimori
• Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura

Destruction in Hiroshima (9/15)

• Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the IWGP title
• Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma vs. Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI and Jay White
• Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA and BUSHI vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., TAKA Michinoku and El Desperado
• Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano and Gedo vs. Taichi, Takashi Iizuka and Yoshinobu Kanemaru
• Gorillas of Destiny and Taiji Ishimori vs. Juice Robinson, David Finlay and Ryusuke Taguchi for the NEVER six man tag team titles
• Will Ospreay, Chuckie T and Beretta vs. Kota Ibushi, Yujiro Takahashi and Chase Owens
• Michael Elgin and Ayato Yoshida vs. Killer Elite Squad
• Bad Luck Fale vs. Toa Henare
• Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask and KUSHIDA vs. Rocky Romero, SHO and YOH

Destruction in Beppu (9/17)

• Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki
• Hirooki Goto vs. Taichi for the NEVER Openweight title
• Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma and Juice Robinson vs. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI and Jay White
• EVIL, SANADA and BUSHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado
• Beretta and Chuckie T vs. Killer Elite Squad
• Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, KUSHIDA and Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Will Ospreay, Rocky Romero, SHO and YOH
• Ayato Yoshida vs. Takashi Iizuka
• David Finlay and Ren Narita vs. Toa Henare and Shota Umino
• Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Yota Tsuji vs. Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi and Yuya Uemura

Destruction in Kobe (9/23)

• Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP title shot at the Tokyo Dome
• KUSHIDA vs. BUSHI in a IWGP Jr. title tournament semi-final match
• Tetsuya Naito, EVIL and SANADA vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr. and Taka Michinoku
• Juice Robinson, David Finlay and Toa Henare vs. Jay White, YOSHI-HASHI and Will Ospreay
• Chuckie T and Beretta vs. Killer Elite Squad
• Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Ryusuke Taguchi and Ayato Yoshida vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi
• Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask vs. El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru
• Roppongi 3K vs. Shota Umino and Ren Narita
• Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura

Fighting Spirit Unleashed (9/30, Long Beach)

• Juice Robinson vs. Cody for the IWGP United States title
• The Young Bucks vs. Guerillas of Destiny for the IWGP tag team titles
• Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll in a IWGP Jr. title tournament semi-final match

===================

It is rather interesting that NJPW is going with two major matches for their tour in the form of Tomohiro Ishii vs Kenny Omega for the World title and more astoundingly Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazuchika Okada for the Tokyo Dome main event slot. This tour is normally known for being headlined by mid-card level matches such as Michael Elgin vs Minoru Suzuki or the likes of Zack Sabre Jr & Juice Robinson challenging for mid-card titles held by Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kenny Omega. This seems like a very big leap for the tour.


Source: F4W Online

 

[Tsunaru]

The Destruction shows frequently feature a match between the G1 winner and someone challenging for the WK title shot (last year being the only recent exception as Omega defended against YOSHI in 2016, Tanahashi defended against Fale in 2015, Okada defended against Anderson in 2014, and Naito defended against Tanaka in 2013 meaning this'll be the fifth time in the seven years since the whole "G1 winner gets the title shot at WK" thing started in 2012 that the title shot has been defended at Destruction), but this is the first time since 2013 that the IWGP Heavyweight Title has been defended at Destruction.

Omega vs Ishii should be the shoe-in for best match of the three cards, but Okada vs Tanahashi has potential to beat it if they give it the 60-min time limit instead of the 30-min.

 

[Tsunaru]

Well ladies and gentlemen, we are now officially only two weeks away from what is already slated to be the show of the year for 2019. That's right, Wrestle Kingdom is upon us. I unfortunately have to skip out on making the trip this year (cause of course I do with it being Kenny's last Dome main event), but we've still got a hell of a card.

First off we've got the preshow match.

5-team gauntlet match to determine the number one contenders for Bullet Club's NEVER Openweight 6-man Tag Team Titles:
Team Suzuki-gun (If I try to come up with a funnier name Suzuki will find and murder me): Suzuki, Archer and Smith Jr. Weird seeing Suzuki on a preshow but okay.
Team Villianous Dick and Balls: Hangman, Marty and Yujiro. Makes sense.
Team "Dad who can't take his adopted white sons anywhere": Goto, Beretta and Chucky T. Sure, sure.
Team #FuckMichaelElgin now with less Michael Elgin: Cobb, Nagata and Finlay. Elgin got injured and is now off the card, so I feel like we need a better team name.
Team Wait What?: Makabe, Taguchi and Yano. Wait. WHAT? Makabe and Taguchi, okay fine. But Yano? I get that Taguchi Japan and CHAOS have been teaming lately (by which I mean Tanahashi and CHAOS have been teaming lately), and Makabe and Yano used to team together a decade ago, but WHAT?

NEVER Openweight Title:
Kota Ibushi (c) vs Will Ospreay

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Titles:
Suzuki-gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado) (c) vs Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI and Shingo Takagi)

RPW British Heavyweight Title:
Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs Zack Sabre Jr

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles:
Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Roa) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL and SANADA) vs The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)

IWGP United States Heavyweight Title:
Cody (c) vs Juice Robinson

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title:
KUSHIDA (c) vs Taiji Ishimori

Special Singles Match:
Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White

IWGP Intercontinental Title:
Chris Jericho (c) vs Tetsuya Naito

IWGP Heavyweight Title:
Kenny Omega (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

 

[Jack-Hammer]

From just a sheer entertainment perspective, there are only a few matches on the card I care about: Ibushi vs. Ospreay, Ishii vs. ZSJ and Omega vs. Tanahashi.

To me, however, a lot of the bigger matches don't really have much meaning due to the fact that, supposedly, many of the top wrestlers for the last several years in New Japan are leaving shortly after the show.

The tag title match doesn't interest me, probably wouldn't all that much anyway as the Bucks have long since done everything that can be done as a tag team in New Japan, or ROH for that matter, so it's kinda moot to me.

Jericho has been IWGP IC Champion for the better part of 6 months and wrestles even less as champion that Brock Lesnar does in WWE, so you can just feel he's dropping the title to Naito in what will be a good, yet most likely highly overrated, match.

Cody vs. Juice Robinson just doesn't interest me. Cody's time as IWGP United States Champion hasn't been all that inspiring to me and Robinson's run was utterly forgetful. During his entire time as champ the first time around, the only real buzz the guy got after winning the title had to do with stories that WWE was interested in re-signing him. The match will probably not be all that great considering Cody's knee is pretty significantly injured and he's all but guaranteed to be dropping the title as he's said he'll be taking time off shortly afterwards to have his knee scoped. Even if he knee was perfectly fine, Cody'd probably be leaving New Japan anyway to concentrate on whatever it is the Elite is working on for 2019.

Okada vs. White is interesting, though it depends on where they go with it. It's an opportunity to establish Jay White as a real force in New Japan and he needs the win far more than Okada does. Okada winning just undermines White's new position as head of the Bullet Club. Could be a good match but I'm not expecting some all time classic, though I'm sure some will try to make it out to be one even if it's not.

Omega vs. Tanahashi will wind up getting all kinds of praise and all that, which it'll most likely deserve, but it'll also be telling of Kenny Omega's future. Personally, as with Cody's recent championship runs, I haven't been hugely impressed with Omega as IWGP Heavyweight Champion, his time as champion just hasn't nearly equaled the greatness of his pursuit of the title though this was somewhat expected. I'm not trying to blame anybody as it's common to be more interested in watching a top name chase the title than it is when he/she actually captures it. If he's leaving New Japan soon, then he'll likely drop the title and it'll cap off what's just not been all that great of a run in my eyes. Of all the matches on the card, this is really the only one with an outcome really matters as everyone already knows what the rest of the Elite plans to do, yet none of them are as ingrained in Japan as Omega. He's fluent in the language, he lives in Japan, absolutely loves the culture and became a citizen earlier this year so the outcome is a good indicator of his future with the company.