NJPW Booking confuses me

[Guest TheGame2705]

Now I know I'm probably just an idiot but you build up Koji Kanemoto to lose to Tiger Mask 4? Of all people. TM isn't bad but didn't Koji beat him before and pretty much anyone else? Wasn't Koji feuding with AKIRA too? That's one thing that puzzled me.

 

Another one was, Yuji Nagata becomes most successful defender of his title against Tadao Yasuda?! Again nothing wrong with him but Yasuda only got by on cheap wins in his singles matches before. I wouldn't have questioned it if he lost though with what I described before. But this was supposed to show Nagata was the BEST in NJPW.

 

Discuss or berate, your call.

[Guest Mad Dog]

It seems Yuji Nagata's whole title reign has been built around defending against inferior opponents.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Hey, just like Chris Jericho!

[Guest TheGame2705]

I wouldn't say that's the case. It was made to seem like an important match, I just wish it had been against someone better.

[Guest Black Tiger]

Notice in the last couple of years, title matches have been much more frequent. With crowds down in Japan right now, they need to find a way to draw in folks, and it seems the best way is with a title on the line. Nagata has been champion for a litle over a year, I remember Koji Kanemoto was once champion for about six months and he made a whole three title derfenses.

 

I'm probably the biggest Kanemoto mark around and I don't even mind TM4 getting the strap. With the big junior feud and Kanemoto's team more or less dominating, somehow AKIRA's side needed to get a big win. Ther are much worse wrestlers on the roster who could have won the title. Kanemoto and TM4 will fight in the Tokyo Dome in a tag match, so look for Kanemoto to get his revenge.

[Guest PlatypusFool]

Kanemoto probably should have lost to AKIRA instead, but AKIRA is an actor as well as a wrestler and takes regular time off to do that, so that could explain that. TM4 is a good champion, he's a quality wrestler, probably the best on AKIRA's side apart from AKIRA. Plus, the match was probably booked as a shock win for TM4, a quick finish where either man could have won, so in this case, questioning booking of a match without seeing the match is a little suspect.

 

As for Yuji vs. Tadao, I agree that a stronger challenger would have been prefered. In fact, they wanted Hashimoto, so that Yuji could beat him to beat his record, but for obvious reasons, Hash didn't go for this idea. Yusuda was a decent choice, as leader of the Makai club he's the man that Yuji has opposed his whole title reign and he's also the guy that Yuji beat to gain the title in the first place, so in a way, he's gone full circle. They also built Yusuda up HARD during this tour, making him look really good for the challenge, so it's not a dead loss at all. The match was also apparently good, so i'm not complaining.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Judging by what little I've seen, I find it hard to believe that Yusuda was involved in anything good.

 

Did you mean, "Good, for a Yusuda match?"

[Guest PlatypusFool]

Well actually, in my opinion, Yusuda is a good wrestler in a slug's body.

 

He actually sells quite well, always putting over the other guy and any injuries he's incurred, and his facial expressions tell of an excellent cocky heel persona, always with a little smirk on his face even when there's a serious situation going on. He also plays his heel shooter gimmick very well, always getting in little nods to the MMA style and making them count against the pro wrestling guys. His major problem is his un-athletic body, which doesn't allow him to give any great offence to his opponents, and doesn't allow him to bump as well as he might. Hence, when pitted against a good opponent capable of carrying someone, like Nagata, he frequently is involved in what I'd call good matches. NJPW also have a nack of laying out matches to not show too many faults in their guys, and it usually works too.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Well, you know that I haven't seen any of his latest run, and I only have a few of his 2001 matches to go off of.

 

Judging off that, it was a lot more than his body that made him a choad in the ring. There have been blimps who've still managed to put together smart matches, but I don't see any sign of Tadao being one of them. I remember, seeing him in there with Tanaka, who looked fired up and was drawing pretty good heat, but Yusuda had no clue how to work with him. Tanaka's offensive runs were hurt by poor transitions, Yusuda (who dominated) lacked any kind of direction with his offense, waffeling between pro and shoot spots with no sense of how to use them effectively (spots like his Tiger Driver were painfully out of place), and then basically shitting all over Tanaka at the end, where he ignored Minoru's kicks and lazilly slapped on his choke to end it.

 

The facials and cocky heel stuff was no where to be found. Maybe he's managed to find himself a personality recently, but he certainly was a black eye to pro wrestling from what I've seen.

Edited April 26, 2003 by RickyChosyu

[Guest TheGame2705]

I think he should just stick to one style. A Tiger Driver really has no place when you're trying to be an MMA/Shoot fighter.

[Guest PlatypusFool]

Well yeah, i'm not saying he's a great worker, not even good, just that he can definately be carried by someone as good as Nagata. He has a good character now that he didn't have back then, and Nagata has the ability to control his offence and create a good match built around characters. I'm pretty sure this will be as good as most of the quality NJ stuff recently.

[Guest Shuriken]

It's Yasuda by the way, not Yusuda...

[Guest mach7]

I'm still trying to figure out Inoki's hermit costume and him being vacuum-sealed into a plastic bag...