The wrestling gods give and take, that is the way. I guess in order to get Kazusada Higuchi as KO-D Openweight Champion I had to lose Goto as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion (and I notice that both faced 2 Englishmen last night who are rather good mates).
Tbh, I should actually thank NJPW for making it pretty easy for me to cancel my World subscription, even with the G1 coming up, so at least I'll be saving some money. ZSJ has been a personal favorite of mine for years but there's nothing to suggest he's anywhere near the caliber of top guy that Goto was on this run. NJPW deciding to have the biggest draw they have (by far, especially since the departure of Naito) drop the Belt on a show that they didn't broadcast on their streaming service in of itself is one of the more shortsighted things this promotion has done in recent memory.
I know that FD is in England but I fail to understand exactly why Zack should be Champ walking into the event. Will that really move more tickets? Only thing I could see doing that is if they do Zack vs Ospreay and book it as a main event, anything short of that would make zero sense. Did Zack say something to the effect he'd only stay in NJPW if he was IWGP Champ for that show?
I also know that there's the remote possibility of Goto getting the Belt back before WK but to me that stinks of the same type of booking where Naito dropped the Belt to Moxley last year, only to get it back at FD. It's a booking pattern I really despite, in all honesty (and I know it's now new or anything).
Now that I think about it, this is the same time of year I canceled my World subscription last year, with the whole debacle of Moxley's terrible run with the IWGP. Something tells me this could be a trend in coming years.
Anyways, I'm a fucking mark, folks, so enjoy what you like and don't listen to a Negative Nancy like me. I'm gonna have some ice cream.
by MrPuroresu42
24 comments
when did you un-cancel?
how many times have you cancelled?
cancelling doesn’t work if you re subscribe weeks later anyway
love you
I mean, if you’re going to cancel on the eve of a solid month of banger events in the G1, then more fool you.
Mate, wind your neck in. Have you fucking watched wrestling before? Get a grip!
Is it still real to you dammit?
Ya this is just shit. It’s annoying the logic that the IWGP title needs to be hot potato’d for the sake of an AEW show lol
I think you are right when it comes to the booking pattern, but I also think ZSJ winning is nowhere near the levels of ass Mox winning was last year. Goto’s run was special and could have continued to be special. We’ll have ZSJ vs Ospreay at FD and ZSJ vs Goto at KOPW. G1 winner Tsuji will win at WK. This seems to be the best way to not have Goto have a hard to break 11-12 defense record while giving the London crowd 2 brits for the IWGP. ZSJ’s second reign will have 1 defense and Goto’s second reign will have 0 lmao. At least it’s better than ZSJ vs Shota again.
Yeah, I’m sorry, but people cheering for Zack winning are mostly AEW fans, because they want to see him face one of their guys at Forbidden Door. They couldn’t give a shit about the booking of NJPW shows, or Goto being champ.
Personally, I hope Goto wins it back before WK. Him versus a young guy at WK is the way to go.
This was the bulid to the g1 climax
I would like to ponder if Goto was actually all that as a draw. Dominion came out with a very good card and a 700 drop in attendance. This is off last year’s, with a much weaker title match.
Now that being said, it’s certainly a weird choice to take the belt off him.
while i do think that keeping the title on goto would’ve been the better decision, this does do a couple positive things (particularly if zack ends up holding the title until wrestle kingdom, which may or may not happen):
– cements zack as basically the guy to beat in the company in a way goto wasn’t (at least to me), which is especially helpful since tsuji and uemura haven’t beaten zack but have beaten goto, so if either of them beat zack for the title, it feels bigger (i know umino and narita have beaten zack, but tsuji and uemura are much more ready for that spot than umino and narita are)
– gives the new viewers from the TV broadcast a huge moment (world title change) to remember, perhaps leading more of them to tune in for wrestle kingdom
i agree that the title change and the way they went about it were weird (and particularly unfortunate for western fans like most of the people on the sub), but i kinda just wanted to point out that it’s not all bad, i guess
Even last year Goto even being champ was a pipe dream. He not only wins the belt but defends 7 times and it’s not enough?
I know the unpredictability of wrestling is what keeps it interesting, but I still feel that this wasn’t the right time for Goto to drop the belt. I really wanted him to stay champ, defend against Shibata at FD, defend against Yoshi Hashi/Ishii, then lose to a young guy on 1.4.
I wouldn’t go as far to have it be the thing that makes me stop following as intently as I do, but it does make me slump in my seat a bit. But hey, you do you.
It leaves me scratching my head really. As a fan of both AEW and New Japan, idve honestly preferred a Goto defense at FD, I’m not sure why they’d take the belt off of him unless
1. He may be banged up a bit, not sure here honestly.
2. They wanna tell a sort of redemption story through the G1 with him trying to get another shot at the belt he lost. (Which I’d would prefer a younger guy like Tsuji winning it, but we are where we are currently)
In the grand scheme of things, I really don’t see Zack holding the belt too long.
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There s one thing you did forgot to mention.
Goto was the bright light while the promotion was slowly being invaded by the House of Torture.
Can’t we have something nice until the young guys find their groove?. Aside his wrestling skills, Goto has a great babyface character many can relate to. It was truly an enjoyable reign that could help people to get through the HOT shenigans(just look how they killed the very hot Osaka fans). And now, it s gone… .
There is very little to suggest that the big reason tickets are moving this year is Goto as champion and not because it’s Tanahashi’s final run.
It’s funny how revisionism is applied to ZSJ…
On the other hand, people are reacting as if Chase Owens had won the title. Chill out a bit…
This is drama. Wrestling needs drama. A safe run for Goto just because people like him is boring and unimaginative.
We all thought he was better than Zack, now there’s doubt. And Zack has cemented himself as a team threat to beat anyone, and is not just a one hit wonder champ like Takagi and Sanada. Zack is still relatively young and needed a boost like that.
Can people try not to sound like they are one bad day away from being institutionalised over bad njpw booking
Here is my thoughts for what it’s worth. They’ve been stat padding Gotos reign since jump street. They’ve kept him far far away from uemura and tsuji. They buried his match up with shota deep in a njoa show and that at least had some storyline reasons to happen but we all agree it was weird. This goto reign was never supposed to happen and they’ve deviated from plans to do it. It’s pretty obvious because if they knew goto was going to get this over in the g1 they would have had ren knock him out not henare.
I think this this may not be put a britoid with the big belt for forbidden door and more we are resetting the booking back to where it was supposed to be coming out of new beginning. I guess we will find out over the coming months because I’d be surprised if zsj is the champ going into kingdom. Whoever beats zsj will be somewhat telling
But just padding out some nostalgia run wasn’t sustainable and was hurting the booking. They either needed to commit to Goto and that carries its own issues or advance the booking
ZSJ winning the first time was the good kind of nuts, but this is bad nuts. Gedo can’t tell good nuts from bad nuts any more.
I mean, I’m not happy about it but at least this year the foreign champion before Forbidden Door is an actual NJPW talent. If this is all to try and pop the FD gate then that is both stupid and shortsighted, but NJPW has shown they have a bad habit of that. Worse still if they’re kidding that Sabre can draw any better than he did when the back part of last year was in the toilet with him leading.
But like I said, he’ll be on the tours and he’s not gonna fuck off for the majority of the reign. This feels better than last time, we’ll see what happens after the G1, and the worst is that this reign is until KOPW or Kingdom.
The greater fear for me is that they really need to pick a young Japanese guy and throw their weight behind him. Because this waffling is gonna hurt as early as next year, and it could hurt incredibly badly.
Quick thoughts (well I’ll try)
– Goto’s reign lasted a lot longer than anticipated, i think this was due to the sudden uptake in tickets earlier in the year. However Dominion was down, possible knee-jerk reaction?
– I do think he plan was to go back to Zack, again I think due to Gedo or whoever thinking they need a Gaijin on top for whatever reason for Forbidden Door
– I think the eventual pivot is to a new generation guy (G1 winner). It doesn’t matter if its Zack or Goto who drops the belt.
– Champ going into WK doesn’t matter as the main draw is Tanahashi’s retirement. As long as there is a star making performance by a new gen guy I think that is what matters
I’ve read a lot of your posts and probably think its for the best if you’re cancelling. You obviously are not enjoying NJPW so why spend time and money on something you don’t like?
Mate, there’s nothing surer in wrestling than, after a bloke wins the title, he will one day lose it.
PLZ FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I KNOW ONE OF YOU JAPANESE NATIVES RECORDED THIS MATCH, WE NEED TOO SEE THIS MATCH PLZ before it becomes Lost Media 😭
I like ZSJ, but I don’t see him as IWGP champ. He doesn’t look tough. Maybe if his kit actually fit him? He looks like an average Englishman on holiday in Spain.