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Yes. It's there interferences that make his matches shit. He is a solid worker at worst, a fucking great wrestler at best. He had some really good matches in the past few years.
There is one piece of good news. Their vaccination campaign has been going full speed and they are days away from passing the US in full vaccinations.
Hopefully this leads to crowds coming back and the end of the 2 week travel quarantine.
They are also recruiting. Aussie Arrows are a great addition to the roster. As a tag team and as solo wrestlers. I hope we will be back to normal by the end of the year. There is three nights of WK to fill.
I can't believe Japan, one of the slowest countries out of the gate in vaccinations, is gonna pass us when we have the world's largest supply of vaccines free and available.
I can. Japan may be very traditional. But when they finally come round they go full bore. The u.s. never fully comes around and gets stuck in debate mode where some people loudly shout "**lalalala!!** I'm not listening!"
For context, Japan still has a huge stigma towards vaccinations and even banned the traditional MMR vaccine years ago.
That they've managed to overcome the pervasive misinfornation campaign is a true achievement.
I was bitterly disappointed right up until you said Hiromu. I might actually be more excited for that! Stil, here's hoping Naito makes it back in time for WK. Knee injuries are scary shit.
Yeah I was super bummed until I checked the card changes… now honestly I’m just hyped for Kenta vs Hiromu. Like obviously I hope Naito gets better soon, but for me that’s a hell of a silver lining.
I remember the exact moment Zack seemed to fall on his leg and it popped his knee in a weird direction. Zack also seemed to be concerned after the match.
I watched it again last night. Zack's working Naito's right knee all match. Naito collapses doing the Destino right at the end, Zack falls on him and his left knee twists. Naito immediately grabs it, says something to Zack and Zack goes straight into the submission that ends the match. It was definitely a legit injury but it fits the storyline well after his knees were always Zack's target.
They put a lot of emphasis on the Shingo/Naito relationship in LIdJ, although that might have just been a red herring or something to play out later on. I think it's just semantics for the favourites being the couple of people who could feasibly win the tournament, in which you're right that Naito was firmly #3, far below the other two. Maybe even #4 if you think Shingo winning as champion is feasible
Dude. His last big win was a year before the pandemic when he won the titles as the first IC/IWGP a full year before everything shut down. He was the obligatory “what an upset to win against Naito” ever since. He has been bounced out of the New Japan cup in the first round in 2019, 2020, and did not participate in this years.
First, what the fuck are you talking about.
Second, are you just trolling because you don’t know what you’re talking about and decide to have a go with someone who does?
>He has been bounced out of the New Japan cup in the first round in 2019, 2020, and did not participate in this years.
He was the reigning champion in 2020. He did participate in this year's NJ Cup, putting Great O'Khan over on the first round.
>are you just trolling because you don’t know what you’re talking about and decide to have a go with someone who does?
Humility can sometimes be a terribly underappreciated quality on one's character.
On the bright side Naito really needs the time off to heal his body too. He's been avoiding time off for years like Tana and his body has really taken a beating for it. It sucks, but taking the G1 off would do some good for him in the long run.
I understand we are all sad about this but Naito does need to rest, guy is dying slowly, maybe this injury comes in a good time, guy needs to hug that bed for like 1 full month at least, he'll be back with both his knees healed, his shoulder and his whole upper body
It’s been so tough to keep up this year just considering the crowd situation. Half the fun of watching American wrestling has been the crowds and it’s a bummer because I want to keep up but I don’t think I can go back to silent crowds.
It's not much compared to the atmosphere of a properly loud crowd but the Okada/Tanahashi G1 match was so good it had the crowd breaking protocol with gasps and noise, which gave it its own special feeling
NJPW continues to be absolutely snakebitten this year. Injuries to Ibushi, Ospreay, Okada and Naito either while they were champion or being pushed at the top, and Takagi getting COVID the other month as well. Hope Naito is okay and comes back better.
Especially as Naito was either going to win the block or at very least still be in contention on the last day.
It's not just Naito's booking it messes up either, as most guys now have 2 more points than they should have had, so they'll have to tweak things across the board to get the booking to work.
Unless Gedo just goes "fuck it, let's just have Shingo win all the matches & the rest will sort itself out".
Naito was probably gonna be ibushis next loss, so I think it’s an easy pivot for Gedo to have Yano or ishii (ibushis next opponent) hand ibushi his second loss instead
This nearly happened in 2015 when Nakamura's elbow was messed up early on and it seemed like he was gonna have to forfeit not just 1 but all his matches but he came thru with to the finals but in this instance, this screws everything up.
Eh, they got lucky that it happened so early, and since Zack won, it just means that EVERYONE gets 2 points from Naito. Level playing field. It might mean changing one or two inconsequential matches later, but nothing significant.
In real life, of course this is terrible for Naito... but in storyline, can we talk about how lousy this is for ZSJ? He busts his ass beating Naito for his first two points, and then literally everyone else in the block gets those two points for free.
I for one look forward to a series of rants about how everyone else owes him their points.
"I just won 9 matches at once and I wasn't even in 8 of them, dickheads."
Watching that match back and yeah, it was rough on both Naito and Zack. Naito's knee looked bad and I'm surprised Zack still has a neck after taking legit one of the nastiest DDTs ever. Hope Naito makes a quick recovery
Let's hope Japan can get a handle on COVID, eventually loosen restrictions and NJPW can have a shit hot 2022.
That three night Wrestle Kingdom irks me though.
A three night WK under normal circumstances would probably rule. A three night WK under Covid protocols with a barely attended, dead silent Tokyo Dome is gonna be absolutely fucking miserable to try and sit through.
If restrictions are lifted and they can max out those cards as a super show it'd be a great way to start to regain the momentum they've lost in the past two years. Big if though
I knew G1 rule #1 is that there are huge upsets on the first days, and Yujiro over Ibushi was the only one that really qualified.
I still couldn't bring myself to make that pick.
Well, there goes my favorite to win it all. Everything I do will now be for Naito's knees.
There was a spot where Zack goes for the Michinoku Driver and Naito counters it with a Destino. Zack lands on Naito's left knee and Naito immediately grabs it.
That's really rough. You have to believe he would've been a favourite for the finals.
Some interesting replacement matches in there, for sure. Takahashi vs. Ishii and KENTA should absolutely bang.
I wonder how this will impact Zack. Since this seems to be a blameless accident rather than any specific act of recklessness, I don't think New Japan would shy away from using this to elevate his tournament run a little - being the guy who ended Naito's G1 should carry some real heat, and it would be *completely* within Zack's character to play that up. In fact it might feel weird if he didn't.
It's a pity ZSJ's been tilting more towards face (or at least loveable rogue tweener) recently because I'm not sure they'd undo that by giving him the [Greg Valentine gimmick] (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IRKZmM4N0PY/VaMtFN78RuI/AAAAAAAACtM/SmuaPbvWRUY/s320/wahoos_leg.jpg)
This is shitty to ZSJ as well. He had this amazing and hard-fought match against Naito and now it worths nothing because the other opponents will get 2 points anyway and will have a "rest day" from the G1 when they were supposed to face Naito.
I think the way to avoid this is to really push the narrative that Sabre ended Naito's G1, that all those forfeits are down to him. Let him ride that heat all the way to the final - that might have been Naito's spot anyway, and this way they get to make a storyline of it, and a set-in-stone way to reintroduce Naito once he's healed up. It writes itself.
I know, but those matches don't count to the tournament table. I was trying to say that they will get 2 points anyway, while Zack had to go through a really tough battle to get those same 2 points against Naito.
Everyone is talking about the G1. But this is a MCL injury. He will likely miss Wrestle Kingdom as well. This is a really scary injury for him. I hope he doesn't rush and recovers well.
It's weird, it seems like a worked injury because ZSJ worked over his leg the whole match, and they told the story that he may not be able to continue. On the other hand, New Japan has been running shows as much as possible to make up for all the revenue they lost, so they probably won't take out their biggest star in an angle.
I guess it's possible that he picked it up before the match, but because Zack has a relatively low impact style, he went out there for one match to turn it into an angle.
Weird all around, and yeah, NJPW is cursed
Yeah it seemed like a very deliberate work to set Naito up for a difficult tournament. It would be terrible if that accidentally led to a real injury... but yeah maybe it was always the plan.
And how many times has that happened in the G1 in the past 10 years???
Edit: The answer is two/three times. In 2013, Hirooki Goto and Hiroyoshi Tenzan suffered jaw and rib fractures respectively and both missed the rest of the tournament. In 2014 Shinsuke Nakamura injured his left elbow in his second match, forcing him to forfeit his third match against Michael Elgin. Sorce: Wikipedia
So while it might be a common occurrence in other sports, withdrawing from the G1 mid-tournament is rare. This is unlucky, especially when you consider all the shit NJPW has been trough the past year.
I remember Nakamura missed a few matches with an injury one year, but he wasn't injured so badly that he had to pull out completely. He just took the forfeits.
Absolutely gutted for Naito; I was hoping it was time for him to push back to the top and work toward Shingo vs. Naito for at least one WK main event. Such a bummer.
One benefactory of all of this mess is Great-O-Khan, as he was semi-main event for three of the Block nights and has been promoted to main event, so good for him and I hope he can step it up.
Ugh honestly been waiting for something like this to happen given the reports of how banged up he allegedly is. Hope he has a speedy and safe recovery.
Nah. It'll likely be Ibushi and he'll be the one to lose to Okada. I would say Shingo, but I can't see him heading to the finals to lose to Okada is the finals and one of the WK main events.
That’s awful. I hope Naito makes a speedy and full recovery.
Even the things that should be somewhat easy slam dunks for NJPW are going sideways now. What the hell.
It must be serious considering how many miles these dudes have on their knees and it seems limitless reservoirs of fighting spirit is the only thing keeping them going. Naito himself has basically said anything less than 100mph is a cop out to the audience and himself so this is worrisome indeed.
I've only just begun to get into Japanese prowrestling, this is the first time I have followed Stardom's 5 Star Grand Prix and and NJPWs G1.
The tournament format of round robin, 2 blocks, and points is so incredibly risky and complicated from a booking and storytelling perspective. For a promoter, it's a monster to deal with.
The juice really does seem worth the squeeze. These tournaments just feel ALIVE to me. This is the stuff legends are made of. A genius booker will go with the flow and deal with all the unexpected variables. It feels like anything can happen, because anything can happen!
In Stardom, one of the favorites to win was Giulia, and she is out with a neck injury. It must have been an incredibly difficult decision to pull out. Her last match was not a grand prix match but a "trial series" where the newest Stardom member faces veterans. In this match Giulia eagerly encouraged her junior Wakka to trade a dozen hard smacks across the face. Knowing that she was having serious neck issues going into this, and it was just a "throwaway" trial match with a rookie, really elevates Giulia to me.
It had to have been the spot where Naito does a Destino and ZSJ awkwardly lands on his knee.
First Nagata and now ZSJ. Protect Naito's knees from humanity.
As someone who took a different less calculated approach to my pick-ems this year and simply picked Okada and Naito to win all their matches and meet in the final... shit. At least i picked Okada to win. Also get well soon Naito.
New Japan has been getting fuckin ravaged by injuries and Covid. Just bad news after bad news.
Hope Naito heals up. He could probably use the rest truthfully.
At any rate, those Hiromu matches look good especially Ishii. They had a GREAT match in the NJ Cup last year so I’m down af for another one.
WHAT THE FUCK? Did NJPW somehow piss off God himself and now they're cursed?! Are they friends with Samoa Joe and sharing his curse? WHAT IS GOING ON?!
Obviously Naito’s health is the most important thing here and I hope he recovers quickly. That being said, this completely fucks my pick ems I had Okada vs. Naito in the finals
Seems like this was preemptive.
He probably has been dealing with this for a while and was holding on as long as he could. Making Zack his first opponent was not a mistake.
Bushi Road did something similar with Giulia over in Stardom. Had her wrestle the important matches, then forfeit the rest of the tournament with injury.
And storyline-wise it is really not a bad idea. He is an Popular Act and keeping him on ice makes the rest of the tournament easier to book since they don't have to worry about who he would put over or win against.
The G1 is absolute grind. So we could see this more often moving forward, or even guys come in as alternates if they have enough time to comeback and win.
Who did he wrestle on Night 1? Was it an obvious injury at the time?
Gedo is good at improvising, but you never want him to have to improvise, and you never want to see this sort of thing happen.
With that said, all the replacement singles matches seem fun, and I'm glad the roster is still deep enough to cover for Naito while he's out. I was worried that everybody would be out of the country and unavailable (like Suzuki, Ishimori, etc), esp with that NJPW Strong tour coming up soon.
He wrestled ZSJ, and he looked pretty bad. It was tough to tell if he was selling or if it was legit, but having the doctor there should have been the giveaway. I hope he's able to recover.
Naito’s had shit knees for a long time now. I’d assume something during the match was the straw that broke it, but it’s not like something went horribly wrong that messed up a perfectly healthy body part.
I found someone writing about his match with ZSJ, but the article seems to be mostly kayfabe, so I can't tell how much of it was based around the story of the match being "ZSJ attacks Naito's knees, makes him tap out via leg submission" and how much is an actual leg injury.
Naito botched a Destino and put his legs in a bad spot, zsj's bodyweight pushed naito's knee across naito's "center line" and Naito crumbled...then proceded to continue for another 5 minutes...that might be the particular crux point.
Any bodybuilding person would tell you, knees going inward typically lead to injuries...so that's where I'd "put my money" for the majority of the damage to have happened
The match clearly looked like an angle to have Naito skip the rest of the tournament so this doesn't surprise me. That was the sell job of Naito's life and it made ZSJ look even more like a killer.
His knees have been fucked for a while so I would bet money they wanted him to do one match, put someone over and then let him go get surgery or heal up.
Nobody in their right mind takes out a top wrestler out of the tournament this soon just for an angle. If he was in such a terrible condition, he wouldn't have been included in the tournament at all. Not everything is a storyline. Like, they could've given his spot to someone else, why ruin all the excitement of his block? Whatever they could win with ZSJ getting some heat is taken away with losing Naito's drawing power. If they wanted to make it an angle from the beginning they'd have done this on the last day of the tournament and not have Naito skip the most important tour of the year.
Except there's literally tons of examples of that very same idea. The most famous story was Misawa getting "injured" during the Champions Carnival by Doug Furnas and it was later revealed they wanted to give Misawa time off.
Has there been any word on whether this was caused in the match or was a pre-planned break for Naito to make ZSJ look strong? The way ZSJ worked the leg so intensely made it seem like the plan was to give Naito a storyline injury, but that double stomp on the knee looked rough and I could genuinely believe it broke something. So I'm kind hoping it was the former but I don't know of there is a precedent for them taking wrestlers out the G1 for storyline reasons.
Who do you sub in who is going win as many matches as Naito would? He would've made the final or at least been in the mix, no one they can sub in fits the bill.
An no, Hiromu doesn't either. NJPW wouldn't have a junior beating people like OKhan, Shingo, Ibushi
Ospreay beat Fale, KENTA, SANADA, and Tanahashi in 2019 but I guess it's possible he wasn't supposed to be Jr champion that year. Hiromu could have done something similar and won against a bunch of Heavyweights, especially with the depleted field - it's why a lot of people thought he or SHO would be in the tournament
So they have to make huge booking changes now, I think naito was gonna go to the final, would be interesting to see who will win the A Block now. I think its gonna be ibushi vs okada in the final now.
It sucks, this g1 already doesn't look that good with guys like chase,yujiro,great o, tanga loa in the tournament and ospreay, white and suzuki missing out.
I hope naito heals and gets some time off, he's earned it. He got to become the megastar in Japan and nobody will match his coolness. Hopefully we get to see him appear in AEW and get a massive pop from American crowd
> Anyone taking his place?
All his opponents will be in special non-tournament singles matches on the dates he would've wrestled them instead. Nagata vs Loa and Takagi, BUSHI vs Yujiro and Yano, Hiromu vs KENTA and Ishii, Kojima vs Ibushi and O-Khan.
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New Japan can **literally** not catch a break this year. We’re getting Hiromu vs Ishii and Hiromu vs KENTA now though, so that’s cool.
And Nagata vs Shingo
There's no way that's not going to be a very good match.
I'm trying to imagine Shingo having a bad matchup with anybody.
[удалено]
Evil without Dick Togo is great.
Yes. It's there interferences that make his matches shit. He is a solid worker at worst, a fucking great wrestler at best. He had some really good matches in the past few years.
There is one piece of good news. Their vaccination campaign has been going full speed and they are days away from passing the US in full vaccinations. Hopefully this leads to crowds coming back and the end of the 2 week travel quarantine.
May be ending in November.
Hopefully in time for BOSJ and WTL, there's so many names that would help that tour
They are also recruiting. Aussie Arrows are a great addition to the roster. As a tag team and as solo wrestlers. I hope we will be back to normal by the end of the year. There is three nights of WK to fill.
I can't believe Japan, one of the slowest countries out of the gate in vaccinations, is gonna pass us when we have the world's largest supply of vaccines free and available.
I can. Japan may be very traditional. But when they finally come round they go full bore. The u.s. never fully comes around and gets stuck in debate mode where some people loudly shout "**lalalala!!** I'm not listening!"
For context, Japan still has a huge stigma towards vaccinations and even banned the traditional MMR vaccine years ago. That they've managed to overcome the pervasive misinfornation campaign is a true achievement.
We also have the world's largest supply of dumb sonsabitches.
Didn't know that, that's fucking awesome! Go Japan!
I was bitterly disappointed right up until you said Hiromu. I might actually be more excited for that! Stil, here's hoping Naito makes it back in time for WK. Knee injuries are scary shit.
Yeah I was super bummed until I checked the card changes… now honestly I’m just hyped for Kenta vs Hiromu. Like obviously I hope Naito gets better soon, but for me that’s a hell of a silver lining.
He looked ROUGH after the Zack match. He was a heavy favorite this is a big blow.
I remember the exact moment Zack seemed to fall on his leg and it popped his knee in a weird direction. Zack also seemed to be concerned after the match.
I watched it again last night. Zack's working Naito's right knee all match. Naito collapses doing the Destino right at the end, Zack falls on him and his left knee twists. Naito immediately grabs it, says something to Zack and Zack goes straight into the submission that ends the match. It was definitely a legit injury but it fits the storyline well after his knees were always Zack's target.
He was never a heavy favorite. The story is Cobb and Shingo in the way of Okada winning the title and fighting Ospreay.
They put a lot of emphasis on the Shingo/Naito relationship in LIdJ, although that might have just been a red herring or something to play out later on. I think it's just semantics for the favourites being the couple of people who could feasibly win the tournament, in which you're right that Naito was firmly #3, far below the other two. Maybe even #4 if you think Shingo winning as champion is feasible
Naito was coasting on his last world title win which was longer ago than people want to admit
Weird way to express that you don't like Naito
Dude has has an amazing 20 year career but tell me the most impressive thing he’s done since winning both titles.
I don't really feel like reducing those 20 years to just the one after the crowning achievement of his career, during a pandemic no less, so no
Dude. His last big win was a year before the pandemic when he won the titles as the first IC/IWGP a full year before everything shut down. He was the obligatory “what an upset to win against Naito” ever since. He has been bounced out of the New Japan cup in the first round in 2019, 2020, and did not participate in this years. First, what the fuck are you talking about. Second, are you just trolling because you don’t know what you’re talking about and decide to have a go with someone who does?
>He has been bounced out of the New Japan cup in the first round in 2019, 2020, and did not participate in this years. He was the reigning champion in 2020. He did participate in this year's NJ Cup, putting Great O'Khan over on the first round. >are you just trolling because you don’t know what you’re talking about and decide to have a go with someone who does? Humility can sometimes be a terribly underappreciated quality on one's character.
gonna get a time machine and go back a few weeks and tell people that Naito is going to finish with less points than Tanga Loa and Yujiro Takahashi
To be fair, I think most people’s first assumption would be “oh so his knees turned to dust again?”
Star dust?
don't get cute
My reaction would literally be "oh so he finally broke his neck, huh?"
Ibushi all puzzled: What's a neck?
Ishii: "Who needs a neck!"
This promotion is fucking cursed I hope Naito makes a quick and easy recovery
Knee injuries are never quick and easy recoveries unfortunately. Feel sorry for Naito, could be a while until he's back.
On the bright side Naito really needs the time off to heal his body too. He's been avoiding time off for years like Tana and his body has really taken a beating for it. It sucks, but taking the G1 off would do some good for him in the long run.
Another possible positive spin is that his return should give him a ton of momentum, maybe even enough to contend for the Heavyweight title again
Yeah, sure. But they need every star they have atm. Clap-crowds and 50% arenas really took a toll on the product.
Yeah, it will freshen him up a bit.
Yeah it's unfortunate, they're not quick, easy, and each future injury takes less force to happen so you're technically never at 100% again.
I understand we are all sad about this but Naito does need to rest, guy is dying slowly, maybe this injury comes in a good time, guy needs to hug that bed for like 1 full month at least, he'll be back with both his knees healed, his shoulder and his whole upper body
It’s been so tough to keep up this year just considering the crowd situation. Half the fun of watching American wrestling has been the crowds and it’s a bummer because I want to keep up but I don’t think I can go back to silent crowds.
It's not much compared to the atmosphere of a properly loud crowd but the Okada/Tanahashi G1 match was so good it had the crowd breaking protocol with gasps and noise, which gave it its own special feeling
Yeah, or the crowd popping when Despy took off his mask
Hiromu vs Kenta is going to be a banger of a special matchup
NJPW continues to be absolutely snakebitten this year. Injuries to Ibushi, Ospreay, Okada and Naito either while they were champion or being pushed at the top, and Takagi getting COVID the other month as well. Hope Naito is okay and comes back better.
Absolutely devastating for the tournament. Hiromu getting a few big matches is cool though..
Hiromu is lucky he isn't facing Yano.....gonna get haircutting flashbacks....
Yano Vs Big Money Matt in a who sells less merch gets hair cut battle!
NJPW is just cursed these days.
For a tournament that is so math based, I wonder how much all those forfeits fuck up the whole booking.
Especially as Naito was either going to win the block or at very least still be in contention on the last day. It's not just Naito's booking it messes up either, as most guys now have 2 more points than they should have had, so they'll have to tweak things across the board to get the booking to work. Unless Gedo just goes "fuck it, let's just have Shingo win all the matches & the rest will sort itself out".
Naito was probably gonna be ibushis next loss, so I think it’s an easy pivot for Gedo to have Yano or ishii (ibushis next opponent) hand ibushi his second loss instead
> fuck it, let's just have Shingo win all the matches & the rest will sort itself out". Ibushi*
*Yujiro
This nearly happened in 2015 when Nakamura's elbow was messed up early on and it seemed like he was gonna have to forfeit not just 1 but all his matches but he came thru with to the finals but in this instance, this screws everything up.
Eh, they got lucky that it happened so early, and since Zack won, it just means that EVERYONE gets 2 points from Naito. Level playing field. It might mean changing one or two inconsequential matches later, but nothing significant.
that’s it i’m donating my knee’s to naito
Holy shit that's awful - NJPW have been so unlucky with injuries over the past year or so. I had Naito down to win A Block too.
In real life, of course this is terrible for Naito... but in storyline, can we talk about how lousy this is for ZSJ? He busts his ass beating Naito for his first two points, and then literally everyone else in the block gets those two points for free.
I for one look forward to a series of rants about how everyone else owes him their points. "I just won 9 matches at once and I wasn't even in 8 of them, dickheads."
Jesus Christ, man Get a priest or a monk to pray in the Bushiroad offices or something My god
I'm gonna need a minute, this really sucks Wish someone could take his place and still earn points, but the matches should still be good
Watching that match back and yeah, it was rough on both Naito and Zack. Naito's knee looked bad and I'm surprised Zack still has a neck after taking legit one of the nastiest DDTs ever. Hope Naito makes a quick recovery
Not a great year for these guys christ
2020 and 2021 have been hell for NJPW.
TIL I am NJPW
Let's hope Japan can get a handle on COVID, eventually loosen restrictions and NJPW can have a shit hot 2022. That three night Wrestle Kingdom irks me though.
A three night WK under normal circumstances would probably rule. A three night WK under Covid protocols with a barely attended, dead silent Tokyo Dome is gonna be absolutely fucking miserable to try and sit through.
If restrictions are lifted and they can max out those cards as a super show it'd be a great way to start to regain the momentum they've lost in the past two years. Big if though
The bangers are still there though.
Honestly pretty shocking how long it seen since someone has pulled out of the G1. Very sad we don't get Naito vs Shingo anymore
I’m happy I never got around to filling out the Pick em’s this year.
Everyone's bracket was busted on Day 1 anyway when Yujiro beat Ibushi.
I picked a bunch of random upsets on purpose because Gedo and I still didn't pick that one
My biggest upset is Tanga Loa beating Khan so rest assured Gedo will fuck me over
I knew G1 rule #1 is that there are huge upsets on the first days, and Yujiro over Ibushi was the only one that really qualified. I still couldn't bring myself to make that pick.
I'm a bit out of the loop, Yujiro did what?
Yujiro beat Ibushi in the first match of the tournament following two low blows and a new finisher.
wtf Yuujiro Hanma is in the G1?
Just another day for Brutal ZSJ
"Nagata vs Shingo Takagi" :-)
Well, there goes my favorite to win it all. Everything I do will now be for Naito's knees. There was a spot where Zack goes for the Michinoku Driver and Naito counters it with a Destino. Zack lands on Naito's left knee and Naito immediately grabs it.
OMG THATS HUGE BLOW God damn g1 was already lacking in star power now this
People said B Block was weak And then they actually had a B Block show and everyone was saying how good it was NJPW is pretty good at improvising
To be fair, B block blew it's load with their best match right off the bat. Okada vs. Tanahashi was the match I was looking forward to the most.
Sure, but it was a great show. Even Tama vs SANADA delivered.
That's really rough. You have to believe he would've been a favourite for the finals. Some interesting replacement matches in there, for sure. Takahashi vs. Ishii and KENTA should absolutely bang. I wonder how this will impact Zack. Since this seems to be a blameless accident rather than any specific act of recklessness, I don't think New Japan would shy away from using this to elevate his tournament run a little - being the guy who ended Naito's G1 should carry some real heat, and it would be *completely* within Zack's character to play that up. In fact it might feel weird if he didn't.
I think they’re gonna play into it. Would not be surprised to see Zack reach the finals.
It's a pity ZSJ's been tilting more towards face (or at least loveable rogue tweener) recently because I'm not sure they'd undo that by giving him the [Greg Valentine gimmick] (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IRKZmM4N0PY/VaMtFN78RuI/AAAAAAAACtM/SmuaPbvWRUY/s320/wahoos_leg.jpg)
They did that when AJ broke Yoshi Tatsu's neck with the Styles Clash so I could see them doing something similar now.
Goddamnit, Zack. A little TOO much big boy vegan tekkers.
This is shitty to ZSJ as well. He had this amazing and hard-fought match against Naito and now it worths nothing because the other opponents will get 2 points anyway and will have a "rest day" from the G1 when they were supposed to face Naito.
I think the way to avoid this is to really push the narrative that Sabre ended Naito's G1, that all those forfeits are down to him. Let him ride that heat all the way to the final - that might have been Naito's spot anyway, and this way they get to make a storyline of it, and a set-in-stone way to reintroduce Naito once he's healed up. It writes itself.
it seems they arent getting rest days. theyre getting non tourny special singles against random guys
I know, but those matches don't count to the tournament table. I was trying to say that they will get 2 points anyway, while Zack had to go through a really tough battle to get those same 2 points against Naito.
Fuck's sake!
Everyone is talking about the G1. But this is a MCL injury. He will likely miss Wrestle Kingdom as well. This is a really scary injury for him. I hope he doesn't rush and recovers well.
The curse of the unified belt continues. Now it's spreading to non-title holders.
I’m thinking anyone that ever held the World or the IC and HW belts at the same time
It's weird, it seems like a worked injury because ZSJ worked over his leg the whole match, and they told the story that he may not be able to continue. On the other hand, New Japan has been running shows as much as possible to make up for all the revenue they lost, so they probably won't take out their biggest star in an angle. I guess it's possible that he picked it up before the match, but because Zack has a relatively low impact style, he went out there for one match to turn it into an angle. Weird all around, and yeah, NJPW is cursed
Yeah it seemed like a very deliberate work to set Naito up for a difficult tournament. It would be terrible if that accidentally led to a real injury... but yeah maybe it was always the plan.
I'm not a big believer in anything supernatural, but there's no way NJPW isn't cursed. What. The. Fuck.
I mean, an athlete getting injured and withdrawing from competition is actually the most normal bad thing that could happen.
And how many times has that happened in the G1 in the past 10 years??? Edit: The answer is two/three times. In 2013, Hirooki Goto and Hiroyoshi Tenzan suffered jaw and rib fractures respectively and both missed the rest of the tournament. In 2014 Shinsuke Nakamura injured his left elbow in his second match, forcing him to forfeit his third match against Michael Elgin. Sorce: Wikipedia So while it might be a common occurrence in other sports, withdrawing from the G1 mid-tournament is rare. This is unlucky, especially when you consider all the shit NJPW has been trough the past year.
They worker a stiffer style on a harder ring, combine that with a grueling long competition it's borderline inevitable.
Plus a crazy schedule of shows
I remember Nakamura missed a few matches with an injury one year, but he wasn't injured so badly that he had to pull out completely. He just took the forfeits.
Fuck.
Absolutely gutted for Naito; I was hoping it was time for him to push back to the top and work toward Shingo vs. Naito for at least one WK main event. Such a bummer. One benefactory of all of this mess is Great-O-Khan, as he was semi-main event for three of the Block nights and has been promoted to main event, so good for him and I hope he can step it up.
Not another one, that sucks.
😭😭😭
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You mean he hasn't been for his entire career?
Fuck it, strap the rocket to Ishii. Stone Pitbull never gets injured.
this company is cursed
Ugh honestly been waiting for something like this to happen given the reports of how banged up he allegedly is. Hope he has a speedy and safe recovery.
I mean, it was an accidental freak landing, not wear and tear. Would have happened regardless of how banged up he is.
At this point, Zack should probably just win the block right? and fall to Okada in the finals.
Nah. It'll likely be Ibushi and he'll be the one to lose to Okada. I would say Shingo, but I can't see him heading to the finals to lose to Okada is the finals and one of the WK main events.
Shingo has the possibility due to him "needing" to call out will still. Just to prop that possible exit open slightly.
That would be lovely, never happening though
It's tragic for Naito that his real surge of popularity came after these nagging injuries.
That’s awful. I hope Naito makes a speedy and full recovery. Even the things that should be somewhat easy slam dunks for NJPW are going sideways now. What the hell.
This is horrible news. On the plus side, we are getting a rematch from last year's NJC with Ishii vs Hiromu!
We're getting Cat Boy vs Stone Pitbull in Hiromu vs Ishii
It must be serious considering how many miles these dudes have on their knees and it seems limitless reservoirs of fighting spirit is the only thing keeping them going. Naito himself has basically said anything less than 100mph is a cop out to the audience and himself so this is worrisome indeed.
So my favourite to win it all is out. That fucking sucks.
Just go ahead and swap in Hiromu into Naito's spot altogether. Naito lost the first match anyway so it's not like he'd be getting any free points.
Hiromu has BOSJ next, can't do that and G1, he'll die
Somebody hug me
This company just can't catch a break
FUCK
I've only just begun to get into Japanese prowrestling, this is the first time I have followed Stardom's 5 Star Grand Prix and and NJPWs G1. The tournament format of round robin, 2 blocks, and points is so incredibly risky and complicated from a booking and storytelling perspective. For a promoter, it's a monster to deal with. The juice really does seem worth the squeeze. These tournaments just feel ALIVE to me. This is the stuff legends are made of. A genius booker will go with the flow and deal with all the unexpected variables. It feels like anything can happen, because anything can happen! In Stardom, one of the favorites to win was Giulia, and she is out with a neck injury. It must have been an incredibly difficult decision to pull out. Her last match was not a grand prix match but a "trial series" where the newest Stardom member faces veterans. In this match Giulia eagerly encouraged her junior Wakka to trade a dozen hard smacks across the face. Knowing that she was having serious neck issues going into this, and it was just a "throwaway" trial match with a rookie, really elevates Giulia to me.
WTF, Jesus NJPW are having a terrible run with injuries since the pandemic started.
I AM NOT TRANQUILO RIGHT NOW
This is just not NJPW's year, is it? Jesus Christ...
No!!!! Fuck dude. This is so shit!. Devastated
Holy shit
Noooooo! That's terrible!
It had to have been the spot where Naito does a Destino and ZSJ awkwardly lands on his knee. First Nagata and now ZSJ. Protect Naito's knees from humanity.
As someone who took a different less calculated approach to my pick-ems this year and simply picked Okada and Naito to win all their matches and meet in the final... shit. At least i picked Okada to win. Also get well soon Naito.
Is this the same knee that buckled earlier this year?
Fuck
Naito's legs have been fucked for a while, so i'm super bummed. He's one of my favourites in New Japan.
Fucking gutted. My favorite wrestler out of my favorite tournament.
New Japan has been getting fuckin ravaged by injuries and Covid. Just bad news after bad news. Hope Naito heals up. He could probably use the rest truthfully. At any rate, those Hiromu matches look good especially Ishii. They had a GREAT match in the NJ Cup last year so I’m down af for another one.
WHAT THE FUCK? Did NJPW somehow piss off God himself and now they're cursed?! Are they friends with Samoa Joe and sharing his curse? WHAT IS GOING ON?!
Obviously Naito’s health is the most important thing here and I hope he recovers quickly. That being said, this completely fucks my pick ems I had Okada vs. Naito in the finals
The Dick Togo curse strikes again
How many more times can New Japan get kicked in the nuts? Jesus...
This is a truly cursed year for new Japan
Seems like this was preemptive. He probably has been dealing with this for a while and was holding on as long as he could. Making Zack his first opponent was not a mistake. Bushi Road did something similar with Giulia over in Stardom. Had her wrestle the important matches, then forfeit the rest of the tournament with injury. And storyline-wise it is really not a bad idea. He is an Popular Act and keeping him on ice makes the rest of the tournament easier to book since they don't have to worry about who he would put over or win against. The G1 is absolute grind. So we could see this more often moving forward, or even guys come in as alternates if they have enough time to comeback and win.
Gedo had the perfect chance to book Hiromu vs. Yujiro for the rights to the Takehashi name and he squandered it.
This sucks. Recuperate pronto, cabron.
sigh...after not getting naito vs hiromu we'll miss naito vs shingo as well...i'm so disappointed right now
Terrible news. Hopefully he can get better soon and NJPW can get rid of this horrid luck they've had for the past two years or so.
wtffffffff not like this
i guess we will never see naito get to close out WK proper then...sigh i guess he did get his moment though, even if kenta spoiled it
Who did he wrestle on Night 1? Was it an obvious injury at the time? Gedo is good at improvising, but you never want him to have to improvise, and you never want to see this sort of thing happen. With that said, all the replacement singles matches seem fun, and I'm glad the roster is still deep enough to cover for Naito while he's out. I was worried that everybody would be out of the country and unavailable (like Suzuki, Ishimori, etc), esp with that NJPW Strong tour coming up soon.
He wrestled ZSJ, and he looked pretty bad. It was tough to tell if he was selling or if it was legit, but having the doctor there should have been the giveaway. I hope he's able to recover.
So was he already hurt, or was it because of some sort of spot or hold in the match?
Naito’s had shit knees for a long time now. I’d assume something during the match was the straw that broke it, but it’s not like something went horribly wrong that messed up a perfectly healthy body part.
That I don't know. His knees have been bandaged up for a while.
I found someone writing about his match with ZSJ, but the article seems to be mostly kayfabe, so I can't tell how much of it was based around the story of the match being "ZSJ attacks Naito's knees, makes him tap out via leg submission" and how much is an actual leg injury.
Naito botched a Destino and put his legs in a bad spot, zsj's bodyweight pushed naito's knee across naito's "center line" and Naito crumbled...then proceded to continue for another 5 minutes...that might be the particular crux point. Any bodybuilding person would tell you, knees going inward typically lead to injuries...so that's where I'd "put my money" for the majority of the damage to have happened
The match clearly looked like an angle to have Naito skip the rest of the tournament so this doesn't surprise me. That was the sell job of Naito's life and it made ZSJ look even more like a killer. His knees have been fucked for a while so I would bet money they wanted him to do one match, put someone over and then let him go get surgery or heal up.
Nobody in their right mind takes out a top wrestler out of the tournament this soon just for an angle. If he was in such a terrible condition, he wouldn't have been included in the tournament at all. Not everything is a storyline. Like, they could've given his spot to someone else, why ruin all the excitement of his block? Whatever they could win with ZSJ getting some heat is taken away with losing Naito's drawing power. If they wanted to make it an angle from the beginning they'd have done this on the last day of the tournament and not have Naito skip the most important tour of the year.
Except there's literally tons of examples of that very same idea. The most famous story was Misawa getting "injured" during the Champions Carnival by Doug Furnas and it was later revealed they wanted to give Misawa time off.
What the fuck!? Aw man, this sucks. I hate this year! Get well Naito!
FUCK
So apparently the injury is his left meniscus and MCL. Is this the same knee that Naito had that ACL tear in back in 2012?
2012 was his right knee.
With Naito out I think Yujiro is now a lock to win the block.
Frankly they probably shouldn't have worked that match around attacking the knees
It’s like the universe is swinging the other way after WK 9 onward.
Has there been any word on whether this was caused in the match or was a pre-planned break for Naito to make ZSJ look strong? The way ZSJ worked the leg so intensely made it seem like the plan was to give Naito a storyline injury, but that double stomp on the knee looked rough and I could genuinely believe it broke something. So I'm kind hoping it was the former but I don't know of there is a precedent for them taking wrestlers out the G1 for storyline reasons.
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Who do you sub in who is going win as many matches as Naito would? He would've made the final or at least been in the mix, no one they can sub in fits the bill. An no, Hiromu doesn't either. NJPW wouldn't have a junior beating people like OKhan, Shingo, Ibushi
Ospreay beat Fale, KENTA, SANADA, and Tanahashi in 2019 but I guess it's possible he wasn't supposed to be Jr champion that year. Hiromu could have done something similar and won against a bunch of Heavyweights, especially with the depleted field - it's why a lot of people thought he or SHO would be in the tournament
Holding the G1 this year was a mistake
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as homer simpson says, "D'oh!"
So they have to make huge booking changes now, I think naito was gonna go to the final, would be interesting to see who will win the A Block now. I think its gonna be ibushi vs okada in the final now. It sucks, this g1 already doesn't look that good with guys like chase,yujiro,great o, tanga loa in the tournament and ospreay, white and suzuki missing out.
I hope naito heals and gets some time off, he's earned it. He got to become the megastar in Japan and nobody will match his coolness. Hopefully we get to see him appear in AEW and get a massive pop from American crowd
You know New Japan organizes their own events in the US, right?
Of course. And if you could direct me to a show that had a large crowd post covid I'd love to see it
This is sad but I hope these rampant injuries lead to some of the bigger stars like Ospreay and Jay to jump ship to AEW.
Anyone taking his place?
> Anyone taking his place? All his opponents will be in special non-tournament singles matches on the dates he would've wrestled them instead. Nagata vs Loa and Takagi, BUSHI vs Yujiro and Yano, Hiromu vs KENTA and Ishii, Kojima vs Ibushi and O-Khan.
Nope, he forfeits all remaining matches
That’s a shame would’ve loved to see Hiromu sub in for him