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Post by randomone on Jan 3, 2022 10:25:48 GMT -6
Night 1 January 4th
IWGP World Title
Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title
El Desperado (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi
IWGP Tag Team Titles
Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi (c) vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI
NEVER Openweight Title
Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. EVIL
Katsuyori Shibata vs. ?
Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI vs. Will Ospreay, Great O-Khan & Jeff Cobb
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero vs. KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo
SHO vs. YOH
Pre-Show
New Japan Rambo - Determines the 4 men who will be in the KOPW Match Night 2
Night 2 January 5th
IWGP World Title
Shingo Takagi or Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Will Ospreay
IWGP United States Title - No Disqualification
KENTA (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Tetsuya Naito vs. Jeff Cobb
SANADA vs. Great O-Khan
NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Titles
EVIL, SHO & Yujiro (c) vs. Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & YOH
KOPW 2022 4 Way
? vs. ? vs. ? vs. ?
Stardom Special Match
Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid vs. Tam Nakano & Saya Kamitani
IWGP Jr. Tag Team Titles
Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo vs. Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask (c) vs. Rocky Romero & Ryusuke Taguchi
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Post by randomone on Jan 3, 2022 10:34:04 GMT -6
Depending on how I'm feeling, I might stay up for Night 1. Night 2 though, I'll watch in the morning. We'll see. These picks are pretty much just darts, as the booking usually sees a lot of new champions come WK, but with who can stick around in Japan or not might dictate who wins or not. There should be some good wrestling, which I'm happy with.
Night 1
Shingo
Hiromu
Goto & YOSHI-HASHI
Shibata
The Empire
Bullet Club
SHO
Night 2
Shingo
Tanahashi
Cobb
O-Khan
Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, YOH
I think Yano wins the KOPW again
Iwatani & Starlight Kid
Rocky & Taguchi
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 1:16:46 GMT -6
I can’t believe I’m up for the 19 Man New Japan Ranbo live. I’ll watch the rest in the morning but this is usually a massive cluster fuck. In mostly bad ways.
Chase Owens is 1
Aaron Henare is 2
Kosei Fujita is 3 (he’s a young lion)
Yuto Nakashima is 4 (another young lion)
Ryohei Oiwa is 5 (yet another young lion)
Master Wato is 6
Hiroyoshi Tenzan is 7
Minoru Suzuki is 8
Suzuki taps out Fujita, Nakajima & Oiwa
Satoshi Kojima is 9
Taka Michinoku is 10
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 1:27:34 GMT -6
CIMA is 11!! First surprise. And he eliminates Taka quick
Tomoaki Honma is 12 (who moves more gingerly than Tenzan)
Wato eliminated and ran face first into the railing
My boy DOUKI is 13
Yuji Nagata is 14
Yoshinobu Kanemaru is 15
Tenzan eliminated via dog pile
Togi Makabe is 16
Kojima eliminated via dog pile
Bad Luck Fale is 17
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 1:33:42 GMT -6
DOUKI, Kanemaru, Honma, Nagata eliminated by Fale
TATSUMI FUJINAMI IS 18!!
Fale eliminated
Toru Yano is 19 and the final entrant
Henare, Honma & Fujinami eliminated
Night 2 KOPW Title Match
Chase Owens vs Minoru Suzuki vs CIMA vs Toru Yano
That was something. Pick this up in the morning.
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Post by Terry's Peeps on Jan 4, 2022 8:09:12 GMT -6
Seems like it was an okay show.
We'll see how tomorrow's show goes before judging.
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 8:25:15 GMT -6
I’m starting from the Shibata match. The multi 6 mans were your standard set ups for tomorrow.
The mystery opponent for Shibata is Ren Narita! Pretty ashamed I didn’t even think of one of the most logical choices. One of the top young lions in the last few years under Shibata’s leadership in the NJPW Dojo. Makes sense.
Just happy Shibata is back in the Tokyo Dome.
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 8:40:39 GMT -6
Nothing crazy, no headbutts thankfully. Shibata wins via PK in about 13 minutes.
Narita hopefully gets pushed soon. He more than held his own. Shibata will probably be back. Happy to see him again.
In a match I forgot was even a thing and didn’t make a pick for it, EVIL vs Ishii is next. I fully anticipate Bullet Club shenanigans, thus why I blocked it from my memory.
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 8:45:18 GMT -6
Yeah I skipped to the end of the match. Belt shot, distraction, Everything is EVIL, new champ.
Not wasting my time. Even commentary was so uninterested in this.
Zack & Taichi vs Goto & YOSHI up next. I’ll watch this one.
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 8:55:25 GMT -6
Hell yeah Goto & YOSHI win an action packed match. They first won the Tag League, now the titles.
YOSHI never had a title for 12 years, now he’s a (former) 6 man champ, Tag League winner and now IWGP Tag champion.
Hopefully Zack and Taichi break up and Zack does something different.
Post match Zack and Taichi showed respect and shook their hands, which is very unusual because they’re typically dicks.
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 9:15:47 GMT -6
Holy shit Desperado retains over Hiromu in a 16 minute match that had 30 minutes worth of stuff crammed in. Fantastic stuff.
Rolling Pinche Loco’s did it. Despy’s biggest win of his career.
Shingo vs Okada up next
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 9:24:19 GMT -6
Don't know if it's just for the Tokyo Dome, but Okada rocking an Inoki robe & signature towel around the neck.
Love the Rainmaker, but this look I actually dig on Okada.
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 9:26:32 GMT -6
Oh yeah, NJPW is back on AXS-TV and will follow Impact starting March 3
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 9:39:38 GMT -6
I think even if there was a packed Tokyo Dome and they're allowed to react, that fucking Money Clip of Okada's would still get crickets.
He loves that move so damn much. We're about 20 minutes into this and it feels like he's applied it 87 times already.
It's his Superman Punch.
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 10:05:47 GMT -6
36 minutes. Okada pins Shingo to win the title. To the surprise of no one, this match ruled.
It was your standard start slow, then fucking bust out to a crazy second half. Shingo tried a superplex to the floor at one point but Okada countered into a gnarly DDT off the top.
Tombstone, Rainmaker put away Shingo. Just wish the crowd could’ve reacted more, but rules are rules I guess.
Okada vs Ospreay tonight. I have no idea where Shingo goes now. Wish he could’ve gotten a major WK win.
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Post by randomone on Jan 4, 2022 10:10:23 GMT -6
Okada bowed to the old better IWGP title, then put it aside and Red Shoes put on that ugly new title. There’s so much that needs changing in NJPW and the title isn’t it.
Ospreay interrupted Okada’s celebration to crickets. Ospreay is trying this cocky arrogant smug heel promo and it’s really bad.
Ospreay’s a great wrestler, but it really makes you appreciate how amazing Kenny Omega was in NJPW.
WK doesn’t need to be 2 nights.
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Post by randomone on Jan 5, 2022 8:13:59 GMT -6
Night 2, here we go.
Dark matches were
Honma, Nagata & Makabe over Jado, Fale & Gedo
Tenzan, Wato & Kojima over Desperado, Kanemaru & Taka
Shingo, Hiromu & BUSHI over Taichi, Sabre & DOUKI
Honma got the rare win in his match
Wato submitted Desperado, so expect that title match soon
Shingo pinned DOUKI
The fact that some of these guys are on the pre-show nothing tag matches on WK Night 2 is embarrassing. Poor Shingo & Hiromu. At least Desperado has a new challenger for his title, whatever.
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Post by randomone on Jan 5, 2022 8:31:45 GMT -6
Eagles & Tiger Mask retain the Jr Tag Titles in an action packed elimination 3 way
ELP & Ishimori were DQ’d after everyone exposed ELP’s loaded boot he’d been using for about a year.
Eagles tapped Rocky to the Ron Miller Special. Rocky was pissed and didn’t shake hands post match. That could be something.
Stardom Showcase up next. History about to be made, first female match on a main card at WK
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Post by randomone on Jan 5, 2022 8:43:28 GMT -6
Tam Nakano & Saya Kamitani over Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid in an all out sprint. Kamitani got the pin off a Phoenix Splash.
These ladies crushed it and fit in about 30 minutes worth of stuff in 9.
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Post by randomone on Jan 5, 2022 8:53:09 GMT -6
Suzuki won the KOPW 2022 trophy
So either this will be taken seriously this year or Suzuki will slum it with Yano a bit.
Post match Suzuki tried choking Yano out but Yano handcuffed him to the ropes.
I think I just answered my own question
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Post by randomone on Jan 5, 2022 8:56:48 GMT -6
Not wasting time in a House of Torture match
Evil, Yujiro & SHO retained their 6 man tag titles. I don’t give a shit.
We didn’t even get a Pieter appearance!
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Post by randomone on Jan 5, 2022 9:02:41 GMT -6
Keiji Mutoh & the Pro Wrestling NOAH roster all got in the ring and served notice to the NJPW roster before their showdown (no matter how underwhelming the card) on the 8th.
Kiyomiya and Kenoh, who are usually rivals, shook hands and are on the same page for one night.
Shingo, BUSHI & Hiromu interrupted but realized they were outnumbered about 50 against 3 and retreated
This was different, but I liked the unity the NOAH crew showed
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Post by randomone on Jan 5, 2022 9:03:34 GMT -6
Not sitting through an O-Khan match
SANADA beat O-Khan
Now then, give me Jeff Cobb vs Naito!
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Post by randomone on Jan 5, 2022 9:22:56 GMT -6
Naito wins a good match that was more about chopping Cobb’s leg down instead of a crazy banger. It was smart strategy by Naito.
Chop a tree and it’ll eventually fall.
Tanahashi vs KENTA up next. No DQ.
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Post by randomone on Jan 5, 2022 9:46:09 GMT -6
Tanahashi wins the title in a weapons filled match.
KENTA did a Falcon Arrow superplex through a table. He got a huge ladder, but had to like screw it together awkwardly as Red Shoes stood there, refusing to help him. This took FOREVER. KENTA went for a double stomp, took too long (SHOCKING) and Tana shook the ladder and KENTA face planted to the mat, busting himself open.
Tana did a massive High Fly Flow off the ladder through a table for the win.
Tanahashi is IWGP US Champion again. Hopefully this means we get Moxley vs. Tanahashi down the line finally.
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Post by randomone on Jan 5, 2022 10:24:26 GMT -6
Okada retains in a fucking war of a main event. Okada went 1 hour and 7 minutes over the last two nights. I literally got every match wrong but 1 on Night 2, haha.
Post match, Naito showed up and challenged Okada. So while it seems like they're going back to the well (they are), it's the 50th anniversary of New Japan, so if you want a big match with lots of history, I get it.
NJPW desperately needs a new contender eventually. The matches are amazing, but they need someone new to face Okada. And I'm not fucking talking about EVIL or anyone in House of Torture.
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