NOOOO!!!!!!

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

 

 

So not only has the title switched hands twice in a month but freaking Bob Sapp is the champion. Inoki's shoot fighter obsession is just getting worse and worse. I guess the bright side to this is he'll be a decent sized draw for them. This also burns me as Inoki is starting to depend WAY too heavily on outsiders to carry the IWGP belt.

[Guest Black Tiger]

Sapp is only holding the belt to job to Nakamura at the Dome show, not like that's much better. Instead of a shootfighter who doesn't deserve the title, you have a guy with less than two years under his belt, who's still very limited in his ringwork, who won't deserve the title.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Sapp is only holding the belt to job to Nakamura at the Dome show, not like that's much better. Instead of a shootfighter who doesn't deserve the title, you have a guy with less than two years under his belt, who's still very limited in his ringwork, who won't deserve the title.

And the fact the title is switching hands every month now. At this rate there will be 5-8 title changes before the end of the year.

[SinToxic 0]

Then they wonder why the suicide rates are so high in Japan.

 

At least AJPW isn't treating the triple crown like a 24/7 hardcore title.

[Internet Warfare 0]

Kensuke wouldve looked like a monster if he beat Sapp. Then Shinsukw wouldve looked like a king beating Kensuke. You Fucked it up big time Antonio.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Now that it's over, is there really any way to defend Sasaki's title run?

 

If it was meant to be a "returning traitor wins title" storyline, wouldn't it have made more sense to have one of the NJ Golden Boys win the belt back to blow it off? Sapp winning the belt pretty much leaves that storyline in the dust, and now any revenge that Tenzan gets on Sasaki won't be worth much since Sasaki isn't the champion anymore.

 

If it was intended to protect Tenzan from jobbing to Sapp, I can't see why, considering that a) he already lost to Sapp in a tag on 1/4, b) he just lost to Nakamura again in a singles match and c) Nakamura is getting the title shot on 5/3, not Tenzan.

 

What was the point of taking the belt off of Tenzan? If he had defended over Sasaki and then lost to Sapp, wouldn't it have lead to the same end result, only with Tenzan looking like a stronger champ, and thus, making Sapp look stronger for beating him?

 

New Japan booking, at one point, could be intricate and yet structured. Now, it's like a giant tangled web of bad ideas.

[Internet Warfare 0]

Just like another company I know.

[Guest Black Tiger]

Then they wonder why the suicide rates are so high in Japan.

 

At least AJPW isn't treating the triple crown like a 24/7 hardcore title.

 

It says a lot when I prefer Mutoh's booking to whoever is doing NJPW's. The only thing I can bitch about Mutoh's booking of AJPW right is the existance of RO&D, but at least he added Taiyo Kea to give it some cred.

 

If they wanted to run the "evil traitor wins IWGP Title" storyline, then why not have Kensuke Sasaki just win the whole tournament back on 2/15?

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

I really don't have much to add to this except for the fact that I have a major problem with Inoki doing this. I am fully convinced that the man has lost his mind.......

[thuganomics 0]

I really don't have much to add to this except for the fact that I have a major problem with Inoki doing this. I am fully convinced that the man has lost his mind.......

You're just figuring this out now?

 

Inoki has been psychotic since sometime around 2002.

 

Absolutely freakin nuts!

 

He spent time dressed as a homeless man for fun for godsakes!

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

He spent time dressed as a homeless man for fun for godsakes!

And still it sounds more reasonable than having Sapp win the title.......

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

He spent time dressed as a homeless man for fun for godsakes!

And still it sounds more reasonable than having Sapp win the title.......

Well it could be a lot worse. He could've given Yasuda another title run.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

He spent time dressed as a homeless man for fun for godsakes!

And still it sounds more reasonable than having Sapp win the title.......

Well it could be a lot worse. He could've given Yasuda another title run.

Now that WOULD be worse......

[Guest Black Tiger]

Apart from the obvious main event that nobody wanted to see and the result nobody wanted to happen, the show still looks decent with two junior title matches, and a reportedly very hot Nakamura return match.

 

I wonder if Lyger/Kanemoto/Heat will form a union to destroy the Takemura/Gedo/Jado team, now that match I would love to see.

[SinToxic 0]

Tenzan should have gone through Sasaki maybe with a draw at least and then he could have lost it to Sapp.

 

Nakamura is Inoki's favorite so I'm not sure how the match between him and Sapp will end. I doubt Naka will win but they would love to raise his value in the eyes of K-1 and wrestling fans.

 

Lately I have been only enjoying Tanahashi's title reign.

[Dangerous A 0]

Tenzan wasn't supposed to have the title in the first place. According to the Observer, Nagata was slated to win the IWGP title tournament in February, but was injured in his match against Tenzan. So they changed the booking to Tenzan winning the belt.

 

Why they had Kensuke win the title off of Tenzan instead of Sapp, I have no idea. The whole thing with the tourney was to get the title on someone because Nakamura was injured and they wanted it on a good worker like Nagata who could possibly carry a load like Sapp to a passable match.

 

The end result of all of this is to get the title on Sapp the best way possible, which is insanity in and of itself.

[BigPoppaKev 0]

I'm going to go against what everyone else is saying and say Sapp winning the title isn't that bad of a thing. How is it a bad thing to have arguably the worlds biggest MMA/Wrestling star hold your companies top title. Yes, the workrate isn't going to be there but if it helps re-establish NJ and pro wrestling in Japan then so be it. NJ needs to get some main stream pup and this is the perfect way to do it. If Nakamura does go over Sapp at the dome then its even better. Establishing your top young guy as a true ace is a great building block for the future.

[thuganomics 0]

I can't disagree that Bob Sapp will almost certainly help the company make some money now that he's champion. But with Inoki's booking I fear it at the same time...

[Use Your Illusion 0]

So does this make me and Kev the only two who actually dig Bob Sapp?

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

So does this make me and Kev the only two who actually dig Bob Sapp?

I think so.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

I'm going to go against what everyone else is saying and say Sapp winning the title isn't that bad of a thing. How is it a bad thing to have arguably the worlds biggest MMA/Wrestling star hold your companies top title.

Because while Sapp is a box office hit as a shoot fighter, he isn't as a pro-wrestler. Most of Sapp's MMA and K1 fans think of pro-wrestling as fake, so few of them are going to fork over money to see him in New Japan.

 

Yes, the workrate isn't going to be there but if it helps re-establish NJ and pro wrestling in Japan then so be it.

 

Putting the title on a K1 fighter doesn't make New Japan look strong. It says that K1 and shoot fighers in general are stronger than New Japan's boys.

 

Puroresu in general is suffering from the popularity of shoot fighting in Japan, and booking shooters on pro-wrestling cards doesn't benafit them.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

I'm going to go against what everyone else is saying and say Sapp winning the title isn't that bad of a thing. How is it a bad thing to have arguably the worlds biggest MMA/Wrestling star hold your companies top title.

Because while Sapp is a box office hit as a shoot fighter, he isn't as a pro-wrestler. Most of Sapp's MMA and K1 fans think of pro-wrestling as fake, so few of them are going to fork over money to see him in New Japan.

 

Yes, the workrate isn't going to be there but if it helps re-establish NJ and pro wrestling in Japan then so be it.

 

Putting the title on a K1 fighter doesn't make New Japan look strong. It says that K1 and shoot fighers in general are stronger than New Japan's boys.

 

Puroresu in general is suffering from the popularity of shoot fighting in Japan, and booking shooters on pro-wrestling cards doesn't benafit them.

I would have to agree with your two statements above for sure. I was wondering though if you thought of this the same way as I do, or at least you might be able to answer my question. What would the main reason be to put the title on Sapp? I would have to agree and say that there aren't as many crossover fans from his K-1 stuff, because as you said before that they feel as wrestling is fake and they wouldn't watch it. Also why does any of this make sense according to Inoki's line of thinking? I was under the understanding that Inoki pushed his wrestlers into the shoot fights so that he could garner a higher respect for his wrestlers, correct? Well, what would the purpose of having a champion of your "wrestling" organization that is one of the top shooters in the world? Wouldn't this go back on Inoki's plan to get the wrestlers more respect? Or am I just reading a little to much into it, and just assume that Inoki is just completly insane?

[Guest Black Tiger]

The idea is that whoever takes the title from Sapp (probably Nakamura at the Dome) will come out looking like the big Puro savior by representing NJPW and defeating the K1 Monster.

 

Personally I don't see the need to use the IWGP Title for this, titles are only props in the US but are treated with great respect in Japan, and I don't think that Bab Sapp is a respectable IWGP Champion.

 

It was a similar situation in 2001 when Makayuki Naruse was given the IWGP Jr Title in his debut, Naruse was only given the title due to his shoot record. Now in 2004 if Naruse was given a title run, I don't think anyone would complain because Naruse has turned into quite the worker.