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Puroresu Love & Resources V4

Was just wondering what he was up to, too.
 
He has settled into the role of older big bruiser on the indies really well the last few years. Not usually a top guy anymore but always a threat.
 
Block A: Hirooki Goto, Boltin Oleg, Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji, David Finlay, EVIL, SANADA, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and two winners of qualifying matches.

Block B: El Phantasmo, Shota Umino, Shingo Takagi, Zack Sabre Jr, Great-O-Khan, Gabe Kidd, Ren Narita, Konosuke Takeshita, and two winners of qualifying matches.

Tanahashi miracle run?! B Block looks killer. We'll see who wins the qualifying matches but aside from the HoT members it's a good lineup.

Fale, Chase Owens, and Douki all joined HoT tonight. Might as well put as much of the deadweight (I don't have a problem with Douki really) in one unit I guess. SANADA also cosplayed as Giant Gonzalez. HoT being the unit where they send acts they just gave up on and everyone stops trying is really depressing.
 
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【新日本】テレビ朝日が来年1･4東京ドーム大会を22年ぶり全国ネット放送　ウルフ・アロンに追い風 | 東スポWEB

テレビ朝日は２３日、新日本プロレスの来年１月４日東京ドーム大会を全国ネット放送することを発表し...
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TV Asahi is going to broadcast the Dome Show for the first time in 22 years to help put over just how big a deal this is. Between this and Tanahashi's retirement this has the potential to be the shot in the arm NJPW desperately needs.
 
A little surprising but he had seven defenses, which is a great run for him. Having the belt back on Sabre for London makes sense. It also makes sense to feature younger talent on WK in the biggest matches since it's going to be on tv. They need to put their best foot forward.
 
Also Tiger Mask IV announced he'll be retiring one year from now. I was never a big fan but that's another one of the big names from the old gen hanging it up. I would expect to eventually see a new Tiger Mask of course but I would hope they'd wait until after his retirement.
 
Gabe Kidd got injured in his first match with Takeshita so he's going to miss at least part of the G1. He says he wants to come back as soon as he can and do whatever is left of his G1 he can.
 
Play Ins are now set:

Shota Vs Tsuji, winner faces Sabre
Finley Vs Takeshita, winner faces EVIL

aside from Gedo's continued love for EVIL that's a solid setup. Sabre has been incredibly dominant this whole tourny so dropping a loss to probably Tsuji would make sense. I assume Takeshita or possibly Tsuji is winning the whole thing. Finlay feels like he could leave for WWE at any time, Shota is still missing something and it shouldn't need to be explained why EVIL shouldn't win.

I'd have liked to see Uemura in the mix instead of Shota or EVIL as i think he has the most long term potential of any of the young guys. I'm also curious where Gabe Kidd would have slotted in.
 
  • Semifinal 1: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Konosuke Takeshita (8/16/25)
  • Semifinal 2: EVIL vs. Yota Tsuji (8/16/25)
  • Finals: Winner of ZSJ/Takeshita vs. Winner of EVIL/Tsuji (8/17/25
so it went exactly as I hoped. Now we just need EVIL out.
 
I think Takeshita wins but there's at least a possibility. EVIL is super over with the home crowds despite us Western fans wanting nothing to do with him. HoT is a huge merch mover as well. I don't agree with the logic of focusing on him when they so desperately need to establish Tsuji/Uemura/Oiwa/Narita/Shota/Nagai/etc but with how fast Japan's population is aging I'm not sure if puro is going to even be a thing for more than another generation or two tbh.
 
I don't want to judge Marufuji too hard based on one match but that looks really bad. It was only a year ago he had two MOTYC's with Ospreay and AJ and it was KENTA that looked totally washed.
 
Thank goodness for Takeshita. I hate HoT and they should push more young people but the match worked and EVIL held up his end. He still shows shades of LIJ EVIL sometimes which makes it all the sadder.
 
cobainwasmurdered said:
I think Takeshita wins but there's at least a possibility. EVIL is super over with the home crowds despite us Western fans wanting nothing to do with him. HoT is a huge merch mover as well. I don't agree with the logic of focusing on him when they so desperately need to establish Tsuji/Uemura/Oiwa/Narita/Shota/Nagai/etc but with how fast Japan's population is aging I'm not sure if puro is going to even be a thing for more than another generation or two tbh.
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Are we sure about that? Total attendance for the G1 was down 12% year over year and the worst it’s been in at least 10 years, excluding the pandemic in 2020-21.
 
He's over with the people who are actually there. Attendance is down for a variety of reasons. They've lost too many stars, Takeshita as an outsider isn't hitting as strong as previous guys did so far, failure to establish young talent, and the economy is shit.

I don't think the future is especially promising for puro business wise tbh. There's going to still be some great wrestling but the Okada era might have been the last strong money making era. Hopefully I'm wrong.
 
cobainwasmurdered said:
He's over with the people who are actually there. Attendance is down for a variety of reasons. They've lost too many stars, Takeshita as an outsider isn't hitting as strong as previous guys did so far, failure to establish young talent, and the economy is shit.

I don't think the future is especially promising for puro business wise tbh. There's going to still be some great wrestling but the Okada era might have been the last strong money making era. Hopefully I'm wrong.
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If anyone can come from beyond the grave to save Puro it's this man

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SOMEONE FINALLY UPLOADED IT. THE DEBUT OF HAYABUSA II.

This isn't on the same level as some of the wars that Tanaka and the real Hayabusa had, but...
1) Tanaka is 25 years older than the last Tanaka/Hayabusa match (5/5/2000)
2) It's not Ezaki.

This is a fun tribute to one of Japan's most legendary talents featuring one of his best friends. Whoever is working under the Hayabusa hood gets most of the mannerisms down and has a similar grace to his movements.

***, a very good match that pays tribute to a favorite.
 
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