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Puro fans, UNITE!

Those are great news, I'm happy! I mean I can follow what is happening, but it's not the same without the announcing team. This can prove to be a great step for New Japan, slowly but surely growing...
 
So it'll be shown in Singapore huh... so the hope is that they'll market the iPPV's to them in English and thus we'll able to get them also?

I'd just like to ask about the state of Japanese wrestling in general. Since I've very little idea. Are we in a decline or a boom period? When were the glory years? Did it start to go downhill around the same time with North America, or has it not gone downhill at all and still big as ever?

Also do NJPW have a weekly TV show or do they just do PPV's?
 
New Japan is currently in an a steady incline after going downhill in the early to mid 2000s. Most of Japan in general is in a decline especially AJPW and NOAH. AJPW is in a decline due to losing so much of their roster lately and NOAH due to their main heavyweights getting old and retiring and a lack of good young heavyweights to step up and take their place. I'd say early 90s were a great time for Japanese wrestling with shows constantly selling out large arenas. NJPW went downhill in early 2000s when Inoki had the awful idea of let's make wrestling more like MMA. AJPW went downhill in early 2000 due to losing a ton of talent when a group of wrestlers decided to form NOAH. NOAH was at its strongest in early to mid 2000. NJPW doesn't have a weekly TV show type of format. Instead they have more of a house show deal which is shown on TV sometimes. They're usually just shows with a bunch of multi man tag matches on them.
 
They're still on TV I believe, but a report did come out last year linking them to the Yakuza which hurt their image.
 
Two great matches to watch are Misawa vs Kobashi from 10/31/98 AJPW and Misawa vs Kobashi from 3/1/03 NOAH.

Thank you very much Mission! Two great matches! I also watched Misawa vs Kawada from 94. Misawa, damn the guy was awesome. What a great wrestler! That Tiger Driver 91... holy crap :lmao: ditto for Kobashi's Burning Hammer. I had a look on Wikipedia and it has only been used seven times! The fact these moves are seldom used I think adds to their appeal, with them only being used in exceptional circumstances! And if you get hit by them, you damn well will stay down!

Now another name that I've always been curious to see is the Great Muta! What would you guys say is his best match? And also feel free to post any matches from any other notable Japanese wrestlers, because I'm sure there are many who I should be aware of.

I'm going to watch Tanahashi vs Suzuki now from 2012. Thought both guys were awesome in the G1 Climax and I wanted to see a Tanahashi match from when he was champion!
 
Great Muta vs Hiroshi Hase 12/14/92 aka the Muta scale match.
Great Muta vs Jinsei Shinzaki 4/29/96
Great Muta vs Jushin Liger 10/20/96
Keiji Mutoh vs Genichiro Tenryu 6/8/01
Great Muta vs Hulk Hogan 5/3/93
Keiji Mutoh vs Shinya Hashimoto 8/15/95
 
NOAH announced that they are bringing in Fenix from AAA to face Taiji Ishimori for the Jr. Heavyweight belt. Can anyone tell me about Fenix, because the only thing I know about him is that he's 22 years old.
 
Wrestle-1 debut show results:
1. Hiroshi Yamato and Daiki Inaba defeated NOSAWA Rongai and MAZADA
2. Ryoji Said and Kohei Sato defeated Ryota Hama and Yasufumi Nakanoueno
3. Yoshiko defeated Mayu Iwatani
4. Minoru Tanaka and Koji Kanemoto defeated Fujita Jr. Hayato and Masaaki Mochizuki
5. Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi defeated Kaz Hayashi and Shuji Kondo
6. Kazushi Sakuraba and Katsuyori Shibata defeated Masakatsu Funaki and Masayuki Kono
7. KAI defeated Seiya Sanada
8. Keiji Mutoh and Bob Sapp defeated Rene Dupree and Zodiac

Also, during the show it was announced that Jeff Jarrett will be making his Wrestle-1 debut at the October 6 Korakuen Hall Show
 
Its being reported that Prince Devitt has informed NJPW that WWE has made him an offer to wrestle for them. Supposedly they made the offer September 5 to Devitt. No word yet on whether or not Devitt actually accepted the offer. Also, remember this is just a rumor so it all could be false. I kinda want to see Devitt in the WWE, but at the same time he's becoming a main event level guy in NJPW.
 
It's common knowledge that WWE are courting him. William Regal outright stated it on Twitter, and told him to keep his nose clean and not be a Briscoe level dumbass (the rednecks, though the Burn Victim also lacks a brain judging by his tattoo).
 
'From what I hear' Lol why do people put that? You mean you seen it on a dirt sheet? Anyway, Devitt can do well there. He has the physique they're looking for and I honestly think he's improved at cutting promo's. He doesn't suck anymore.
 
Could Devitt really make it in WWE? I dunno... I couldn't see him succeeding there. Of course I haven't seen nearly as much of his work as all of you since I only saw his G1 stuff. I mean don't get me wrong he's good in the ring but I thought compared to everyone else he was pretty bland and I don't think he really fits as a "Real Rock n' Rolla" :lmao:

I need to ask another favour of you guys. How do I buy the Destruction iPPV? What website is it on?
 
Done! Thanks again Mission I really appreciate your help. So it's on at 8am in my timezone, not bad at all!

The card looks good. Kojima and Okada are two of my favourites so I'm glad to see them tear it up again. And it's good to see Liger is still active! Watching what I have, he's probably my favourite Japanese wrestler. A real life anime character who is also a great wrestler, how can I not love that!?

Also thanks for those Muta matches been making my way through those. Is it bad that I prefer him as Keiji Mutoh instead Muta? When he's Muta there's way more stalling in his matches. Loved the one with Hogan though, just to see Hogan working a completely different style.
 
Akebono won the AJPW tournament beating Go Shiozaki in the final. I am shocked by this as I though for sure Go was beating Akebono. I guess this is Akebono's reward for signing a contract with All Japan and not remaining freelance. Also, after the match Akebono showed the wounds he suffered from the blast match with Onita last month.
 
Hey Mission, I always wondered about Hirooki Goto and why he hasn't won the Heavyweight championship yet. Do people feel that he's not ready yet?
 
Thoughts on Destruction

Liked the opening tag match. Damn Taka can still go! And the "Out of Time" finisher is a great move, basically an improved version of MCMG's finisher.

Conway and Liger was pretty crap. Damn muting Liger's theme, his theme is too good to be bound by copyright! The NWA President was funny, he sold a shove by Liger like it was a stunner and proceeded to sell it for the rest of the match. And I was hoping Liger would win too.

Masked Rider (I think that was his name, was awesome in the 8 man other than that nothing particular of note. Makabe's team wins.

Yano vs Suzuki was great comedy heel vs serious heel with a finish that was just absolute genius :lmao: I'm not a fan of Yano but here he served his purpose well.

The tag match was nothing special really... I enjoyed Nagata employing submissions while the the two legal men worked "around" him. Shibata was really good but I wish he would've been used a bit more here. And the finish was pretty deflating. Rollup finishes are fine but that one wasn't very good.

Tanahashi vs Devitt was magic, as in it told a great story. Lumberjack matches aren't usually very good but this one made an excellent use of them. Many many false finishes I was convinced it was over after Devitt used a guitar THEN did his finisher. And I liked it when Makabe used his chain on Devitt in revenge, cheating as a face I thought was awesome.

Naito vs Tanaka was very good but I can't help feeling Tanaka looked better in the match, but this was obviously done to try and make us doubt, since this would be an obvious win for Naito. Also for some reason Naito's submission just isn't over. Crowd just goes completely silent. I think it's a neat move.

Nakamura vs Benjamin... while nothing wrong per se the match just didn't seem to click for me. Shelton's heart just doesn't seem to be in it.

Kojima vs Okada was very good and absolutely loved the finishing sequence.

So overall I'd say a weak first half but a good second half.
 
The saying for Goto is always a bridesmaid never a bride. Pretty much he's usually pushed towards the top or seems like he's gonna win the belt, but he never does. I mean the mans won the New Japan cup 3 times and G1 climax once. A lot of people think he should of won it in 08 or 09. I think New Japan will eventually give him a reign, but as of right now there's so many top talents a head of him that I doubt this happens anytime soon.
 
It was announced today that Kojima dislocated his shoulder during his match against Okada and will be out for 2 months. Also, the card for the 10/14 show was announced
1. IWGP Jr. Tag Championship Match: Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov vs KUSHIDA and Alex Shelley
2. Toru Yano vs Minoru Suzuki
3. Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Takaaki Watanabe vs Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.
4. Togo Makabe, Tomoaki Honma and a mystery partner vs Prince Devitt, Karl Anderson and Bad Luck False
5. Tomohiro Ishii vs Katsuyori Shibata
6. Yuji Nagata vs Kazushi Sakuraba
7. Tokyo Dome Contract and NEVER Championship match: Tetsuya Naito vs Yujiro Takahashi
8. IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura vs Naomichi Marufuji
9. IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi.

This should be one hell of a show.
 
Also announced today was that Rikidozan's grandson Chikara Momota will be making his pro wrestling debut on December 16. This will be the Rikidozan Passing 50th Anniversary Memorial Show. Chikara will go by just his first name. He is currently 31 years old and will be wearing long black tights, just like his grandfather did.
 

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