I’m not convinced Stardom is good now. Give me AJW, sure. Stardom can go fuck itself. But it is probably still better than AEW’s lol. I’ll maybe give New Japan a chance to tell stories in their own universe. I might check out Kairi vs. Mayu.

Like I said, their tag matches are nonsense and the idol culture is cringey, but when it comes to singles matches, no other modern women's roster touches stardom.

It coming from you means something. I dunno, I just remember the Athena/jobber stuff and people saying that Stardom makes it look weak. That sort of shit is gross.

Minoru Suzuki announced tonight at the WTL Finals that that Suzuki-gun is disbanding effective the end of the year. He put over all of the members individually and reflected on how they'd gone from hated to beloved by the crowd in the past couple of years, but that it was time for everybody to go their separate ways.

Whether they actually go their separate ways is TBD, I could certainly see them all jumping Suzuki and basically keeping the group together with either ZSJ, Taichi, or Desperado in charge.

As for Suzuki himself, I've got a feeling he's going to be properly going freelance now and since he owns the rights to the stable name, they had to do this. If he's planning on retiring in a year or two it makes sense for him to just get his bag freelancing everywhere for the next few years.

Wouldn't be a bad thing to bust them up unless as you said they'll jump him and one of the others will be in charge.

They need to recruit some fresh blood. LIJ was in the same boat for a while. But I see that they brought Titan into the fold.

Updated card for Wrestle Kingdom:

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] vs. Jay White (C) [Bullet Club]

IWGP Women's Championship
Tam Nakano [Cosmic Angels] vs. KAIRI (C) [STARDOM Main Unit]

IWGP United States Championship
Kenny Omega [AEW/The Elite] vs. Will Ospreay (C) [United Empire]

NEVER Openweight Championship
Tama Tonga [G.o.D] vs. Karl Anderson (C) [WWE/Bullet Club]

Inaugural IWGP World Television Championship
Zack Sabre Jr. [Suzuki-gun/TBD] vs. Ren Narita [NJPW Main Unit]

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Hiromu Takahashi [L.I.J] vs. El Desperado [Suzuki-gun/TBD] vs. Master Wato [NJPW Main Unit] vs. Taiji Ishimori (C) [Bullet Club]

IWGP Tag Team Championship
Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] vs. FTR (C) [AEW]

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
YOH and Lio Rush [CHAOS] vs. Francesco Akira and TJP (C) [United Empire]

is sanada on the card

Is that for all of Wrestle Kingdom or just one of the nights?

Hiromu Takahashi being the sole member of LIJ represented for the show is kinda sad. But at the same time, that's a solid card.

Not yet.

I imagine there will be another match or two but not really sure what.

Might be some 6-Man tag title bullshit where it would be Naito, SANADA, and Shingo vs. House of Torture.

That’s just the January 4 card. The next show being on January 21 will likely feature the prominent acts not included here.

WK is usually 9 matches — or at least it was a few years — so I think 1 more will be added.

New Japan pretty boring on paper right now.

* Junior Tag Titles are worthless. I get that they go for the sports thing, but it feels too dense and becomes a barrier of entry.

* Their tag division in general has sucked. I’m sure FTR will be good, but it’s a bit transparent to give Hirooki Goto another thing that doesn’t feel like the real thing. Doesn’t feel like “progress.”

* Clusterfuck four-way for another meaningless weight class belt. Feels like those names have been put together for years.

* Why are they creating another championship? Fucking hell.

* Tama Tonga vs. Karl Anderson sounds boring. Another title match. Who cares about the NEVER Title rn?

* Omega vs. Ospreay…yuck. Who cares about the US Title?

* I don’t know anything about Tam Nakano. Good luck to Kairi getting that belt over.

* Okada vs. White should be good and caps off a lot of history, but I doubt it’s a classic and isn’t supported by the rest of the card.

Tam Nakano is polarizing for me. Her image and presentation embodies everything I hate about modern joshi. At the same time, she consistently has great, hard hitting singles matches, and has been involved in some of the best storylines in stardom.

The match against KAIRI should be good at least.

Couple more matches announced for the main card:

Keiji Muto's Last NJPW Match
Keiji Muto, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Shota Umino vs. L.I.K (Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, and BUSHI)

Antonio Inoki Tribute Match
Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, and Togi Makabe vs. Tiger Mask, Tatsumi Fujinami, and Minoru Suzuki

Additionally, the pre-show will feature a 3-minute exhibition between Ryohei Oiwa and Boltin Oleg, and a New Japan Rumble that will probably just have everyone else.

Those are more interesting than anything else announced on the show lol.

Ne1 watch WK yet

Watched yup. Omega/Osprey was awesome.

I'm sure they finished on each other's faces

Watching just shows how crazy it is that WWE/AEW/NJPW can’t have a working relationship. Let’s all cannibalize each other instead of work together. Dumb.

ya man it was pretty deadly

Posting thoughts as I watch this.

What in the fuck has happened to KENTA? Doing the Santino walk to the ring with a goofy haircut. Depressing.

I don't think there's a greater microcosm for Gedo's booking falling off a cliff than Shingo and EVIL, two recent IWGP champions being relegated to the preshow gimmick battle royal. Unfortunate.

Old guys match. Always fun for what it is. I hope I look half as good as Tatsumi Fujinami does when I'm 70. Dude looks like he could work in a coal mine. Tigermask literally dying in the ring. Needs to take diet and workout pointers from Fujinami. Makabe 69's Tigermask for the win. Huh.

Jr Tag Title match is your usual chaotic spotfest. At least fucking try to follow tag rules and have some structure. I'd understand if it was a multi team match but this is just 2 on 2. It's like a stardom trios match ffs. I will say that if Lio Rush didn't have all those attitude problems he'd probably be a really big star. We've seen he can talk and he's one of the few high flyers whose sheer talent and athletic ability make him stand out in an industry full of that style. Too bad.

IWGP Women's match. Looking forward to this one. Both these women deliver in singles matches. Very happy for them that they can perform on a stage of this scale. Ohy man, matrix into roll up by Tam looked so clean. Oh. it's over. Well so much for that. Don't see the fucking point of this title if they're only giving them 10 minutes.

There's Sasha. Can't tell if that move is good or terrible. I'm honestly interested to see what Sasha's work looks like with no restrictions.

Tag title match. Love Goto. Love FTR. Yoshi-Hashi is also in this match. Actually I haven't seen yoshi wrestle in a year or so. I'll give him a chance I guess. If FTR went to NJPW, I would watch it more regularly if they were there. Good match. Hard to get invested since you knew FTR was losing.

Ren Narita vs Zack Sabre Jr. Looking forward to seeing how Narita has progressed. Zack is always good. Solid technical match. Very abrupt ending, but that makes sense given it revolved around submissions. Oh TMDK is a faction now. Neat. Is Suzuki Gun not a thing anymore?

Anderson vs Tama for the never title. Holy shit at the start. Wow, this was better than I was expecting.

Mutoh's last match in NJPW. Be shocked if Sanada doesn't pin Mutoh for the finish. lol at Tanahashi begging Mutoh not to do the moonsault. Man Umino is 100% the next big homegrown star for njpw. You can just see it. Whelp. I'm shocked. Although, using this to help push Umino isn't a terrible idea either.

Looking at Master Wato and his mannerisms I can't help but think of OSW Review watching X-pac and going "waaaaaahhhhhh" I already saw one junior clusterfuck match I don't need to see another. I miss the 90's. Commentators talking about some backstage fight between Naito and Umino the whole time. Even they don't care about this match. Wato's finisher is cool, though.

Time for Omega vs Ospreay. omg at this fucking nerd coming out to one winged angel. Ospreay should come out to the oddly terrifying Dragon Quest battle music. Ospreay's presentation so much better. Aussie open in the suits surrounding him looks sharp. Kenny does look in the best shape he's been since leaving new japan. They must have imported that table from the states. Normal japanese tables are forged in the fires of mordor and require a magically enchanted tank round to break. This is very good. It's every bit the spectacle you would expect from these two, but at the same time, they're telling a story. Great match. Want to say the wrong guy won, but they could have plans for Ospreay to tie the score at an AEW event. Rubber match at Forbidden Door.

Main Event time. God damn, Jay White looking shredded. Jay is so great at being an obnoxious heel. Feel like both these guys need a refresh. All this seems a bit been there, done that. They should do a reversal of how this all started. Gedo turns on Jay to reunite with Okada and bring him into bullet club, and thus kicking Jay out. They won't though. I really do love how well the rainmaker and bladerunner counter into themselves. Those two moves were made for eachother. Great match. This was billed a memorial show for Inoki so kinda figured Okada was winning.

Good show. This is Wrestle Kingdom though. It needs to be better than a good show. The last two matches were the only ones that had that special wrestle kingdom feel. Can't help but feel they've gone harder into the WWE mindset of filling the card with multiman matches to get everyone on the card, thus watering the whole thing down. The IC belt's absence has also left a big hole in the card. That used to have really big match feel at WK. Likewise, the NEVER title used to be the belt for knock down drag out fights, and always had a match to look forward to at WK. They killed the IC belt, and got rid of the brutal fight feel of the NEVER title to elevate it as a replacement but it never came close to recheaching that level of prestige. And thus, two big match belts were killed to make room for more senseless multiman matches.

I'll come back for the big shows like WK and Dominion, but this did not convince me to pick up New Japan regularly again.

And I'm still fucking pissed that jr tag gymnastics contest got more time than Kairi and Tam. Those two really could have put on something special.

Good takes. I’d imagine the reason the women’s match is so short is because New Japan’s main audience isn’t that into women’s wrestling. They’re drip-feeding them.

And this was an oppurtunity to change that. But it doesn't happen in 6 minutes.

I don’t disagree. They could have used a banger to get people on-side. But their thinking is probably to make smaller impressions over time. Get people used to them before they hit them with a banger.

Jay White lost to Hikuleo in the "Loser Leaves Japan" match at New Beginning.

I guess he's all done with NJPW?

Good for him.

Jay White would be an awesome edition to NXT. I think he’ll probably go to AEW, but I think he’d be more refreshing in NXT.

Brackets for the New Japan Cup look kind of uninspired. I think the final four will probably be Sanada/Naito, Will Ospreay, Shingo Takagi and ZSJ. I’m reading a lot of support for El Phantasmo, but whatever. I think a final between Ospreay and Shingo looks good.

lol Gedo brought out David Finlay as the newest member and presumptive leader of Bullet Club. He's even dyed his beard jet black so it straight up feels like "but we have Jay White at home" energy.

Never been terribly impressed with finlay either. He's alright, but I don't see him filling those shoes.

I mean I can understand the character motivation for him. Bullet Club was recruiting every gaijin sunder the sun at the same time David Finlay was coming out of the Dojo.

Finlay sees Jay White join, become the leader, win multiple titles, get all kinds of accolades. AND the company basically goes all out on giving him a hero's farewell treatment. There was no real comeuppance for White's dastardly actions over the years.

So I can see why Finlay would be like "fuck this shit, I should've just been like Jay this whole time".

But that doesn't mean he's got the talent to pull it off.

The Bullet Club is so fucking done.

SANADA beats Naito to advance to the semi-finals only to announce he's quitting LIJ and joining Just4Guys (a stable that was formed after Wrestle Kingdom by displaced Suzuki-gun members Taichi, DOUKI, TAKA Michinoku, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru). Presumably they'll be called Just5Guys now.

Somebody should probably check on Gedo.

If he's leading the stable, it might not be a bad idea, as far as propping him up to that next level. Pretty solid group of guys too.

That's just so random.

When Bullet Club eventually phases out, I wouldn't be surprised if EVIL went back to L.I.J. and we pretend like nothing happened.

I get the Sanada move. The stable name doesn’t translate though.

Yeah it might be something that sounds cool in japanese, but it sounds like a jobber stable in english.

Exactly.

Anyone think Sanada is going to win the IWGP Title?

I think theres a better chance now than in any of his other matches.