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Yeah, all I remember about Elgin + Cobb is that Elgin was like "he doesn't listen to me, he just hangs out with War Machine, he should be listening to me and learning how to work because ME AND KENNY ARE THE VETERAN GAIJIN IN THIS LOCKER ROOM... also he smells bad"
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Jul 15, 2018 00:38
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Gaz-L posted:Chase got choked out more recently than that The Skull End doesn't need to be put over as a potential killer the way the Zack Driver does
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Jul 15, 2018 02:41
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I appreciate that in all that madness, Suzuki made sure not to step on those people’s stuff
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Jul 15, 2018 07:33
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VJeff posted:Hahahahaha Okada just fuckin' BOOKS it. Using that high school/college track stardom to his advantage
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Jul 15, 2018 07:52
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THE JESTER’S BURNING SPIRIT Oh, nope, he’s dead
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Jul 15, 2018 08:20
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Well, I guess after 450 tag matches together, you learn some of your buddy’s tricks
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Jul 15, 2018 08:22
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Rarity posted:I can't believe there was ever a time when I didn't get Juice This makes you not getting Tanahashi even weirder It’s the same gimmick, just Tana has like a decade-plus behind it
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Jul 15, 2018 08:29
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VJeff posted:I don't recall bald eagles ever coming out of Tana's rear end. He’s Japanese! It’s a rising sun that shoots out of his rear end, obviously
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Jul 15, 2018 08:36
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Carlioo posted:I'd imagine that the refs don't want to DQ anyone in the G1 and just let them fight until it gets too much Kevin Kelly pounds on this point pretty consistently: no one comes to see the referee make a decision and end a match because something outside the ring happened, especially for title matches and big tourneys. It’s really more them swinging as far away from the first like decade, decade and a half of New/All-Japan having lots of big matches end in double count-outs to try to drag out payoffs for maximum returns.
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Jul 15, 2018 08:40
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G1 28: The One Where Everyone Kept Stealing Finishers and Signatures
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Jul 15, 2018 08:58
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It’s the GTR
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Jul 15, 2018 09:01
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extradite THIS! posted:Well it's not a very good finisher imho It’s like a top three protected finisher, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone kick out of it Shibata also sold it beautifully at WK11. Then again, Goto did the reverse version of it first and THEN the normal one, so it looked ridiculously deadly.
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Jul 15, 2018 09:04
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Mr. Swoon posted:That's because Zack didn't just learn the michinoku driver. He also learned knife fighting from Iizuka How they haven’t done a bit where Iizuka just randomly storms through the crowd, not because of a match, but because he got loose, and Despy is just trailing behind him like “oh gently caress I just wanted to get a drink of water now Suzuki’s gonna kill me”
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Jul 15, 2018 09:13
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Remember, everyone: there will be a point - towards the end of July - where you will have seen so much good wrestling that you will become slightly numb to it. Also everyone will be tired as gently caress and it’ll show through a little. And then we’re gonna hit that final weekend of shows and minds will be blown because everyone goes 200 times harder for the finale.
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Jul 15, 2018 10:07
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Ishii is the ancient tortoise: moves at his pace, and is, to all known science, indestructible. He’s also sad like a tortoise.
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Jul 15, 2018 10:10
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I’m pretty sure that’s why they put him out there for G1s: to get him prepared for a day where they shove him out there with Kevin Kelly for good because Callis doesn’t want to do the travel anymore/they want more permanent English commentary, like “every commentary-sized show, no exceptions” permanent. Which only packs Rocky’s days even tighter since he’s basically the liaison for international talent for New Japan as well as involved in other front office stuff. So he’s running around all day taking care of things and then he ends the night doing a three hour or more live broadcast. Then he probably gets on the bus with the rest of CHAOS to maintain kayfabe and it’s onto the next town.
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Jul 15, 2018 10:17
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Let’s be sure Naito still has a neck first before we book him to take the title, that one Destino counter before the Jay Driller was, uh, nasty.
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Jul 15, 2018 10:38
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It's back to the regular 2 AM PDT, 5 AM EDT time tonight
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Jul 16, 2018 02:05
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Gumball Gumption posted:Is the planned match order random in kayfabe? They obviously plan them out to tell certain stories but does New Japan ever talk about how they decide the match order? No, but they could never get away with claiming so anyway because kayfabing the idea of it being totally random but somehow culminating always with four of the biggest stars wrapping up their blocks in the final weekend in hotly anticipated matches would be a step too far. If they did, they’d probably just say “yes we schedule the matches in a way to try to maximize interest in each town”, like a hometown boy works the main event here or there. fart blood posted:Explain like I'm 5 and an idiot. We’re going to open you up and tinker with your ticker
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Jul 16, 2018 05:24
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STONE COLD 64 posted:jay whites really clicking now. maybe he just got the us title too quickly? He got kinda screwed by Tanahashi being all busted up right before Wrestle Kingdom, leading to a flat match for his return from excursion. Not to mention losing that match. They started the turnaround real good with the US title stuff, honestly, because he succeeded in manipulating Bullet Club. And he’s just improved drastically since then with Okada bringing him into CHAOS and Jay trying to corrupt them and take over
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Jul 17, 2018 01:14
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Jay’s so good at cheating he got himself another match against Tanahashi, apparently
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Jul 20, 2018 18:13
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dordreff posted:finals will be Ibushi vs a balloon man version of Okada Half a week later Meltzer gives it eight stars. No one argues with this rating, because Ibushi vs. The Inflatemaker, in a forty-eight minute war, is in fact the height of professional wrestling
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Jul 21, 2018 05:26
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Jerusalem posted:Well he was, but when the balloon head popped to reveal a startled Toru Yano at the controls, he dropped it to 4.75. However, Dave did marvel at Japanese technology and their ability to shrink someone of Yano’s size to fit inside a balloon as well as the tiny mechanical controls Speaking of Dave, it’s weird to follow the Wrestlesplania folks on Twitter and have this weird low-simmering annoyance with Meltzer having the position in wrestling criticism and reporting that he has float into my timeline. Currently seems like people are like “oh you gave Kenny two five-star matches in a row? Sure you’re not unbiased, Dave  ”
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Jul 21, 2018 06:33
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https://mobile.twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/923716377612926976
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Jul 21, 2018 06:59
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sigmachiev posted:Maybe for the finish, but this is a Budokan main event and most anticipated match of the tournament for pretty much everyone so they should think carefully on it. I'm enjoying the fuckery generally but wouldn't for that match. They'll probably pull "Firing Squad attempts to take them both out before the bell even rings, but Bullet Club cuts them off and they brawl to the back to leave Kenny and Kota to their match" if they pull anything (I don't think they will, New Japan treats the block finals very, very seriously since they're peak matches in the calender year; it'd be like having lots of interference in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom). But having a big factional brawl between the entrances and start of the match as a little bit of extra heat and a wink of "oh you thought we were going to gently caress you over on seeing this, ha ha, now watch these guys go nuts" seems possible. Phenix Rising posted:Firing Squad is very boring and I've never seen the appeal of Fale in general. I want to like Tama and I have in tag matches in the past but he hasn't done anything for me in the tournament so far. Fale was at his best as Devitt's underboss - the idea of a junior getting one of the largest guys in the company at the time to be his heater was this perfect combo. As for the Firing Squad? I bet they get a lot more to work with when Destruction/Strong Style Unleashed rolls around. This is sort of the Switchblade situation all over again, except instead of it being "well Tanahashi busted his knee so any confrontations you were going to have past Power Struggle have to be put off until who knows when" loving over his immediate post-return angle, this is more "we wanted to end the San Fran show with a big change-up in Bullet Club to keep the US fans interested" and are now trying to find enough of a balance to not defang the Tongans out the gate but not have them dominate the tournament with bullshit finishes. TriffTshngo posted:Highly recommend his matches with Kenny and SANADA from last year's G1. PRESENT! PRESENT FOR YOU!
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Jul 21, 2018 22:56
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All In isn’t a New Japan event, though. NJPW also has an event at the end of September themselves in Long Beach, and their Destruction tour in the middle of the month, if they’d do anything with Firing Squad the build would probably be over the tour and a minor blowoff at Long Beach. I’m pretty sure the only reason Kenny and Okada are even able to be on All In is because it’s right in the middle of the post-G1 break, when they basically let talent take whatever outside bookings they want (and because the Bucks are very close with both Kenny and Kazu).
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Jul 22, 2018 01:09
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Gaz-L posted:I still think it's likely, but I'm starting to believe that Tanahashi is a real possibility. Once you stand back and realize it’s been thirty months since Kenny and Tanahashi actually last had a singles match, it’s the only likely outcome.
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Aug 4, 2018 19:56
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Gumball Gumption posted:They're my favorite stable just on the strength of "Weirdos who are friends" and they feel like a unit in a way that no other stable does besides maybe BC. Chaos has always felt like "guys who stand next to Okada" and Suzuki-Gun works well but just don't click together the way LIJ does. The real key thing is that if Naito wins a main event, the whole crew will come out and Naito has made his closing catchphrase “EVIL! SANADA! HIROMU! Y NAITO... LOS INGOBERRRRRRRRRNABLES - DE - JA - PON!” *streamers fire off* Nobody else does it that consistently in the entire company. Occasionally Suzuki will have his entire army out with him and he’ll go “Suzuki-gun... ichiban”, but he just as well will end a show with a win and just do a solo promo after. But the stringent way Naito sticks to making sure to highlight the group as well as him helps get everyone else over as the biggest star in the company highlights them and makes the group feel like a family that’s very, very loyal to one another. Add on the “it’s a group of weirdos who banded together because they’re all off-kilter in some way” and you’ve got yourself a star stew going.
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Aug 7, 2018 20:15
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So who wants to bet Kenny/Yano is what main events the Sept. 30 LA show. Yano in Long Beach, Ishii in Ryogoku, sounds like a plan to me.
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Aug 8, 2018 17:54
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GEORGE W BUSHI posted:They should have them try to interfere in Suzuki/Fale and then all get murdered by Suzuki-gun to give a good reason why they don't disrupt the Omega/Ibushi match. Tama Tonga can forfeit his match with Yano, and hopefully the rest of the matches he'd have in the company. I do think this is going to happen - whatever Tongan doesn’t come out with Fale will run out and suddenly there’ll be the entire Suzuki-gun crew out, everyone brawls backstage, match continues and whoever wins, wins. Basically like Omega/Suzuki from last year. Or they get away with interference and a more filled Bullet Club Elite with the Bucks come out to keep them from ruining Omega/Ibushi the next night. It’s one of the two, having the Squad have this run of killing matches feels like it has to pay off right at the end with some other group being prepared for it and cutting them off before they can pull any bullshit.
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Aug 9, 2018 00:53
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Gaz-L posted:Naito reminds me of The Rock. A B+ worker who can have phenomenal matches with the right partner , but who compensates for those occasions when he can't shine in the ring by having ungodly charisma (and singalong catchphrases) After the BOSJ backstage bits with Hiromu where he pitches the next show in the tour for like 98% of the tourney, I’ve become pretty convinced he’s one of the best promos out there right now. He smoothly goes from an ongoing story with his little bro, then talks about the guys on the next day’s show and either talks about watching them elsewhere, wrestling them back when he was a junior, or being like “I have no idea who this is, but I’ve been watching him wrestle and he seems tough/dangerous/smart and people better watch out” and then brings up the next town and that, hey, he’ll be there, so come on out and see LIJ and New Japan in [town]. Adios! It’s low-key amazing work.
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Aug 10, 2018 01:38
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forkboy84 posted:Ibushi vs Omega in the Tokyo Dome baby! There's literally no downside here. If Tana wins, Tana/Omega at the Dome almost three years since their last meeting; if Ibushi wins, Ibushi/Omega at the absolute biggest stage possible, at the top of the goddamn card of Japan's Wrestlemania. That's the most win-win situation ever.
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Aug 11, 2018 19:06
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VJeff posted:At this point, Ibushi/Omega is starting to become like Gargano/Ciampa for me in that yeah, it's great, but it's starting to shove a knife in the back of all the other stuff I like in the promotion. Naito lost at WK12 so Omega could get the title from Okada and now Naito's lost the G1 so Omega can main event the Tokyo Dome against his BFF. I'm just starting to wonder if the dude is ever gonna get his due. It’d be Okada/Naito X, I believe? They were building up the two of them having been battling each other since their Young Lion days for WK12, I think Okada had pulled ahead by one heading into the match, I think it was 4-3 heading in. Also unlike Gargano/Ciampa Ibushi/Omega went six years - six fuckin’ years - between matches, and for all we know Tana wins the G1 tonight and it’s “An Ace For The Gold” heading into WK13. ... or Naito beats him for the briefcase and we get Naito/Omega III: The G1 Warriors. And, not gonna lie: Naito doesn’t need the belt, and it doesn’t really work with his character to have the belt. The idea is he doesn’t give a poo poo about trinkets like title belts, he’s about achieving moments. Being champ also means you get planted in a bunch of Bushiroad promotional stuff, and for that three month period where he was champ, he did some advertising expos and stuff and boy howdy did he look incredibly out of place standing next to Milky Holmes characters in a way Okada doesn’t or seeing Kenny promote Bang Dream! doesn’t. Him being the Chono to Okada’s Mutoh is fine: Chono only won the title once, and had to vacate it due to his neck injury (thanks, Stone Cold!), and he held it for the same amount of time Naito held it.
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Aug 11, 2018 20:16
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Tonfa posted:You can't just say this without a link I mean, it's not literally the characters, that would be frightening and I don't even know if Bushiroad has mascot costumes for Milky Holmes, I think they've just always thrown the clothes on the voice actresses and put them out there, but:    From the spring CharaExpo 2016. He looks like he wandered into the wrong room. Contrast that to Little Kazu going to the summer version of the same event with Mimori Suzuko literally dressed up as her cartoon character from... I think that's from Buddyfight? Maybe? Maybe it's from Vanguard. I dunno. I don't play card games. https://finance.yahoo.com/photos/photos-c3-charaexpo-2016-singapore-092349289/tape-cutting-ceremony-mark-start-photo-092349747.html TriffTshngo posted:I think the point of Naito's character is he's been bitter about having his "destiny" stolen from him at WK8 for years and while he may put on an air of rebellious apathy, it's obvious deep down he's still got that fire burning in him. He doesn't care about the IC and other lesser belts but he very clearly wants the big one again. Well, that's the little bit of Stardust Genius he can't seem to kill. I'm also thinking of the apathy he had towards the literal physical belt when he won it:   He treats the title with more respect than the IC belt since the IWGP belt is an older belt that's been held by his heroes, but he still doesn't treat it with much. Not that Naito isn't above kissing the boss's rear end once in a while (not really, this is him "making the peace" after having made overtures to challenging Kidani himself to a fight):  But, overall, Naito's goal isn't something as small as merely being the IWGP champion. He is loftier, he wants to be the shuyaku, and if that means he has to cart around a dumb belt to prove it, so be it. But he plays his character in a way that pushes that if he doesn't need it, why bother with it? It's just this thirty-pound, awkwardly shaped thing and who wants to add that to their luggage? Yet deep inside, there is that old him, the one more closely connected to the 12 year old him who once wrote in a list that he would be IWGP champ one day, and that old him won't disappear, no matter how tranquilo he gets... GEORGE W BUSHI posted:The Chono argument is a good one but watching old stuff I've never got the impression that his popularity at any point clearly exceeded the other two musketeers to the extent that Naito's exceeds Okada's and Omega's. But obviously that's just from seeing random old shows and not actually living through it like I am with Naito. If Chono's neck hadn't gotten hosed, he might have been. That really hosed him over; that, as well as some of the really dumb angles in the latter half of the decade, like nWo Japan. Also the context of only being a few years into the post-bubble Japanese economy versus the thirty years of it crowds have been through now, which is yet another aspect of Naito's appeal to remember: he's a rebel, doesn't care for the mores of Japanese tradition. He'll spit on you (very rude), cast aside symbolically important things like they're made of tin (the titles, very disrespectful), and generally cares little for the rules of decorum that Japanese society insists on. This is an escape for a working-to-middle class audience who have to deal with the old ways even though they don't want to, or think it's right to, and have spent their whole lives under the thumb of old men telling them it's the only way they're allowed to be. Chono didn't really have that context to work in, but the crowd definitely grew to appreciate the rebellion in retrospect. Like, not everything's one to one with how the original Musketeers turned out; hell, the Second Three Musketeers didn't turn out the way anyone would have expected, either, with one running off to MMA for like a decade before coming back, becoming more popular than most of the company (including Okada) before headbutting himself into retirement, one panic-pushed to IWGP champ status very quickly before eventually turning into the most popular guy in the company after like a decade before running off to the US to have a middling end to his career and one being GO ACE *guitar noodling, synth hums* GO ACE The Cameo fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Aug 11, 2018 |
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Aug 11, 2018 21:28
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VJeff posted:I'd be absolutely on board with this, I just reeaaallly don't think Tana's winning. Also, You wouldn't be wrong, since New Japan does do 50/50 booking, simply stretched out over such long times that it actually means something and not "this week I win, next week you win, for four months straight" like WWE does. Last time Tana and Ibushi met (Power Struggle last year), Tana put Ibushi away to retain the IC belt. So the story going into this could be "has the Ace fallen off since Suzuki destroyed his leg at New Beginning, allowing the Golden Star to surpass him? Or is Ibushi still not arrived at the level Tanahashi believes he can get to?", since Tana made comments about feeling like Ibushi was not living up to his maximum potential, while slyly suggesting that a "maxed out" Ibushi would be the best wrestler in the world by a long shot. In fact, the propensity towards the long game 50/50 booking made it a surprise when Zack won, if only because I can't remember the last time someone got two uninterrupted wins in a row on a guy, especially a top one. It's almost as if they're establishing Zack as someone who has Naito's number and would be a dangerous, but worthy opponent if Naito were to ever win the IWGP title, while also suggesting that he's very dangerous to everyone else...
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Aug 11, 2018 22:17
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VJeff posted:Sabre is becoming a hell of a heel because he's basically killed my favorite two tournaments in a row now. Thank God he wasn't in BoSJ. how dare you say that about everyone's favorite socialist 
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Aug 11, 2018 23:00
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Isn't it great when you can go "there are two good legitimate storylines here, plus multiple others that could come into play because both the title and briefcase have to be defended at least once between the G1 and the Dome!" and not be thinking "how are they going to try to swerve everyone because they've become so insular and weird that they spite book nonsense" If Tana wins and holds the briefcase to the Dome and Kenny keeps the title to the Dome, I hope they do the ladder match they never got to do back at Dominion 2016 (well, Tana didn't get to do it; Kenny lost the IC belt to Elgin there, who belt pillowed it until Naito took it off him at... I think it was Destruction in Kobe?).
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Aug 11, 2018 23:23
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A Real Horse posted:This overlooks there only being one legitimate storyline: We live in a world where Tomohiro Ishii, Kota Ibushi, and... Toru Yano all have rightful claims to a title shot. That's a pretty good world.
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Aug 11, 2018 23:43
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VJeff posted:https://twitter.com/JustinBarrasso/status/1028569046105522176 Gedo afterwards ducks behind a door and weeps, for his perfect son has left the nest.
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Aug 12, 2018 11:12
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sigmachiev posted:I really hope they do Budokan again next year. Sumo Hall rules but these last three days had such a cool aura. Given how well it went, I imagine Budokan might become a fixture of the G1 Finals. Ryogoku already has both Sakura Genesis and King of Pro-Wrestling every year, so it doesn't really need the event, although it's very traditionally the home to these past three days (but they did do the Seibu/MetLife Dome in 2014 for the grand finals). It actually wouldn't surprise me if next year they do the first two nights in Ryogoku, then go to Korakeun for a few nights before carting around the country again and ending at Budokan.
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Aug 12, 2018 20:59
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