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NJPW New Japan Cup & 51st Anniversary Discussion Thread: 3/5 - 3/21

2483 Views 59 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  thorwold, 
TD Stinger
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thorwold
This generally looks a lot less boring than these have the last couple of years in terms of the early rounds of the bracket. Chase Owens with the first-round bye is kind of funny though. Presumably, it'll be him and ELP and some Bullet Club shenanigans shall ensue.

Pulling for Narita, Umino, and Phantasmo to be three of the final four...
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thorwold
The NOISE towards the end of the Tag Title match on the Anniversary show :love: rasslin' in Japan is back, baby.
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thorwold
Turning heel is probably just what Sanada needs to get over the top, if he is ever going to get over the top. It's crazy they've taken this long to get... Presumably, to it.

Happy for Davis, he's great to watch. Love them bigging up the Stan Hansen comparisons on commentary.

Kyle Fletcher is the real star of all this so far for me though. Two matches with two guys who are not exactly guarantees of anything, and he had a really good match with each of them. Aussie Open's days as a tag team might be numbered.
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thorwold
TD Stinger said:
I skipped to the end of Evil vs. Davis considering most of Evil's match end in shenanigans. But I will say, at least these shenanigans were fun with United Empire coming in for the save with Ospreay playing the cheerleader with his injury. It was a case of when Attitude Era run ins can work well and lead to a hot finish. Doesn't happen often with House of Torture but it worked here.

Naito vs. Sanada was pretty good overall. I liked Sanada in the spots where he got fired up, which made more sense towards the end. Sanada leaving LIJ at the end was surprising but welcomed. I have grown so tired of "stoic and cool" Sanada so to see him show some personality here was very welcomed. It was time for a shake up and I think this will only lead to good things for Sanada. Can we change then name now though? "Just 5 Guys" seems like too much of a gag to be taken as seriously as they should.



I don't know if I'd classify what Sanada did as "turning heel". He beat Naito clean and even in leaving LIJ, he didn't attack anyone. He was dismissive of his now former stablemates but he didn't come across as over the top "bad" to me.
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You’re right, he still displayed more personality than I’ve ever seen from him, so it looks like it’s for the best either way.
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thorwold
Just caught up with the Finals. It was a nice show, all very watchable, nothing spectacular but Hiromu and Lio certainly the highlight.

Very, very happily surprised by the result of the final, I thought for sure they were going to use this to try turning Finley into the new Jay White, but the leadership thing between him and ELP makes more sense with him losing.

Sanada much more worthy of this, even if he's likely just going to lose to Okada again, at least they usually always put on a good one. I'm working under the assumption that they're building to Okada and Ospreay for the title in January, and I don't think Okada should be dropping it before then, especially as giving Sanada one of those lame win-it-and-lose-it-on-the-first-defense reigns would do him zero favours.
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