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HowtobeaMark said: One of the many New Japan Pro Wrestling nearly men, flirting with the top of the card but always falling back down to upper midcard/midcard, which may hurt his chances here but his skills between the ropes cannot be denied. He feels like an old soul in NJPW by old soul I mean harping back to the days of the Samurai. A warrior of honour, determination, and fearlessness. Most recently has been paired with YOSHI-HASHI as a tag team. YOSHI-HASHI has always been seen as a bit of a loser but is now seen as a genuine player to the point the team beat aces Kazuchika Okada & Hiroshi Tanahashi and it never felt wrong. Recommended matches Vs Katsuyori Shibata – 22 June 2013 Vs Kenny Omega -14 August 2016 Vs Tomohiro Ishii – 21 July 2018 With YOSHI-Hashi vs Kazuchika Okada & Hiroshi Tanahashi – 6 March 2023

This was FANTASTIC. Honma went after Shibata right away, that was awesome & then Nagata tagged in - goddamn Shibata trying to fight both Honma & Nagata at the same time on their corner was badass. That was shut down pretty quickly though, as the numbers advantage was too much for Shibata. Nagata throws one hellacious looking kick to Shibata on the corner. Eventually Shibata gets the control back, and we get a great Honma FIP segment. Meiyu Tag's work over him was terrific & Honma's eventual comeback w/ those slaps & a Lariat was amazing. Nagata's hot tag was amazing as well - damn his kicks looked DEADLY in this match. The match essentially kicked off into it's finishing stretch after Nagata's awesome hot tag, and it's great. Honmania run wild; Meiyu Tag looked to be in real trouble until Honma missed that big top rope Kokeshi. Fantastic stuff. All 4 men played their roles perfectly. A bona fide tag team classic. ****1/2

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Omega & Goto always work well together and this was no different. The weakest of their trilogy with my investment not as high as their other two. Never expected Goto to win, but they did a good job at making you believe that he might. Excellent match to cap off a very good day. ****1/4

The Fire Pro World and NJPW partnership has got me really psyched up. The glut of posts I've made on the forum is evidence of that Its all good though because I thought Fire Pro was done after Fire Pro Returns. Its funny because its a little bit of history repeating as I bought a PS2 back in 2007 specifically for FPR and I'll be buying a PS4 for the sole purpose of playing FPW. Admittedly, Fire Pro Returns was a bigger deal as the game never had a US release and I could only mod my PS1 so much and could only admire the awesomeness of Fire Pro D from afar. I would say Fire Pro Returns is a big reason that I became a fanatic for Puroresu. I printed name guides and move lists for all of the wrestlers and studied them against my old VHS tapes and incoming DVDs (plus WCW vs the World PS1). So with this release for the PS4, Fire Pro has got to up the ante. The NJPW partnership is the first chip and new moves, expanded Create-a-Wrestler, and story mode have sweetened the pot for me. However, 08/28 is a little bit away so, I've got to keep the fires stoked somehow. What better way than by combing through free NJ matches on YouTube? What's great (in a way) is the relatively recent stuff from NJ's boom period is at a premium and most likely available on the NJPW World streaming service. The YouTube stuff is perhaps the stuff "no one" cares about anymore . And by "no one", I mean mainstream wrestling fans...people who perhaps have the streaming service and know Okada, Bullet Club etc. but have no clue who Inoki, Hashimoto, or Fujinami are. I'm rambling...onto the matches. The Fire Pro World and NJPW partnership has got me really psyched up. The glut of posts I've made on the forum is evidence of that Its all good though because I thought Fire Pro was done after Fire Pro Returns. Its funny because its a little bit of history repeating as I bought a PS2 back in 2007 specifically for FPR and I'll be buying a PS4 for the sole purpose of playing FPW. Admittedly, Fire Pro Returns was a bigger deal as the game never had a US release and I could only mod my PS1 so much and could only admire the awesomeness of Fire Pro D from afar. I would say Fire Pro Returns is a big reason that I became a fanatic for Puroresu. I printed name guides and move lists for all of the wrestlers and studied them against my old VHS tapes and incoming DVDs (plus WCW vs the World PS1). So with this release for the PS4, Fire Pro has got to up the ante. The NJPW partnership is the first chip and new moves, expanded Create-a-Wrestler, and story mode have sweetened the pot for me. However, 08/28 is a little bit away so, I've got to keep the fires stoked somehow. What better way than by combing through free NJ matches on YouTube? What's great (in a way) is the relatively recent stuff from NJ's boom period is at a premium and most likely available on the NJPW World streaming service. The YouTube stuff is perhaps the stuff "no one" cares about anymore . And by "no one", I mean mainstream wrestling fans...people who perhaps have the streaming service and know Okada, Bullet Club etc. but have no clue who Inoki, Hashimoto, or Fujinami are. I'm rambling...onto the matches! Ok this first one is 2009 but, close enough... Shinsuke Nakamura vs Hirooki Goto (08/07/09): G1 match. People didn't really care about the G1 until a couple years ago when Dr.Dave and others started rating these highly. AJ vs Minoru Suzuki, I think is the big one. Otherwise, there were probably only like a handful of G1 matches that got uber pimped. Nonetheless, the tournament always produced a few great battles. This has got to be one for '09. Smart, violent Nakamura vs Tank like Goto in 16 minutes of vicious strikes, suplexes, and slams. There was a miscommunication early or in the middle, I believe but, it was quickly forgotten. As much as I like the psycho Beat It Nakamura, this iteration is best because he's not so predictable. For instance, there is an awesome ground work sequence at the end that had me saying, "Damn I need more of this in my NJ!" Go see this and you'll want Nak' back in NJ immediately. Ryusuke Taguchi vs Kota Ibushi (06/10/11): 18 minutes of perfectly executed action. Ibushi was flashy here with a cartwheel move but, I'm OK with the rest of his offence. He made it look natural. However, the real talent of the match was Taguchi. He employed a strong abdomen focused attack on Ibushi from beginning to end. Unfortunately, Ibushi doesn't go very deep in selling this psychology. He lets you know how tired and hurt overall but, doesn't so much as clutch his ribs or chest to convey the strategy of Taguchi...Doing this may have put this into classic Jr. canon contention. Alas, we just get an excellent fireworks match. Or an excellent Fire Pro World match Still, no one really recalls how Devitt & Taguchi were hot shit back then. Their matches with Golden Lovers & Motor City Machine Guns were what got people excited about NJ. Then, the Tanahashi stuff started up. Anyway, great match here. Probably will dig back into the early 2010 NJ Jr. Tag scene next post. Tomohiro Ishii vs Hirooki Goto (05/20/12): I'll be honest. The IC and Never contenders are the real heavyweights in NJ. The IWGP heavy stuff (especially Tanahashi & Okada) is like WWE Japan at times. There are exceptions for sure as I really dug Omega vs Okada at WK12 and Naito is the man. I just think the Nakamura-Ishii-Goto combo was the bees knees for a few years. You can throw Makabe, Nagata, and a couple others in there and you've got a winner in my book. I say this because people no longer associate NJ with this beat guys into a pulp style but, before the Jr. Elevation Explosion, it was Kensuke, Hashimoto, Choshu, Kojima, Tenzan, Nagata and others doing straight forward physical matches. Goto and Ishii carry on that tradition. No surprise as Goto is the pupil of Tenzan and Ishii is Choshu's. Put simply, there are strike battles and no-sells that are the hallmark of the period but, they can be overlooked when it cannot be determined if Ishii is bleeding from giving or receiving a straight headbutt. Moderation is the key to this style but probably no more than the spot and sequence heavy style in vogue. Highly recommended match. Kazushi Sakuraba vs Shinsuke Nakamura (01/04/13 WK 7): I'll guess that I personally would like this better than the Okada vs Tanahashi main event of this super show of super shows. I'm ragging on NJ a lot for allegedly wanting to buy their game so bad This bout starts polite until Nak' slaps Saku. Then, it gets blown open like old corduroy pants! The Gracie Killer unloads with palm strikes and aggressive grappling. Shinsuke is just trying to stay alive until he can deliver his patented knees and make some space to breathe. This fight is Strong Style Evolved in the true sense. Slaps, knees, armbars all while Nakamura is able to insert his character and Saku is able to smash Nakamura's head like an egg! Awesome stuff man. Part 2 featuring tag matches and multi-man matches should be up soon. Tenryu in 2004 anyone? Thanks for reading! Hope this pumped you up for watching NJ and playing Fire Pro!

"The usual" between these 2. They beat the crap out of each other, showcasing their MANLINESS. Goto & Ishii are also really good at doing the usual fighting spirit no-sell stuff while also selling the pain they're in. Really good, borderline great match. ***3/4

Typical match of it's kind, but I usually always enjoy them, so I ain't complaining. This was very fun. Everybody got their time to shine & it resulted in a very good, fun match. ***1/2

This was FANTASTIC. I love how different it was from your usual big NEVER title match formula - it was all about Minoru unleashing a menacing, badass beating on Goto. Goto sold fantastically & his comebacks were good. The post-match was excellent. ****1/4

This is super enjoyable. They wrestle it with a good, tight pace, we got a fun Goto FIP segment, very nice Shibata hot tag which gets cut off by Gallows in AWESOME fashion, really hot finishing stretch. Just really good stuff all around. ***3/4

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I was excited to hear this was worked differently than their usual matches but after watching it I don't think that was such a good idea after all. In the typical Shibata/Goto match you'd get 1-2 no-sell sequences, usually one in the middle of a match and one to tease a double KO since that's how one of their matches finished, but here it was just non-stop. I quite liked the opening and how Shibata dominated, his headlock escape was lovely, but the terrible no-sell sequence in which Goto came back to control turned me off big time (seriously. he didn't even bother selling Shibata's corners Forearms by falling down to convince you Shibata could hit his corner dropkick, which in turn also made Shibata look stupid for running to the other corner instead of hitting Goto some more). They play to the worst and most predictable tendencies of the modern New Japan style that I've brought up a million times before (rope running when there's no move to be hit just to eat a move, questionable selling where counters delete all damage previously accumulated-unless of course you're doing a sequence or hit your finisher too early; then both wrestlers fall down). I enjoyed Shibata's offence as I always do, but Goto's was just terrible here as it always is, his Headbutts aren't really shoot headbutts, they can make impact but Goto's really hitting the chest/shoulders of his opponent and it's the sudden surprise of them that makes them work. When he's doing a flurry of those headbutts it looks really ridiculous, someone like Makabe would be dragged endlessly on all the hip social media if he were to do the same thing. Not a fan of all the backbreakers/neckbreakers that rely on him driving the opponent on his knee either, they look like he'd have to botch them for them to hit clean. I'd say your enjoyment of this depends on how much you like/tolerate modern New Japan cliches but that's where ratings for the match have quite surprised me. Maybe it sounds like I'm super negative on this but it's easier for me to write about things I think are bad than it is to write about five sentences about how Shibata hits hard, and I don't think the match had much other going for it. **3/4

I watched this match twice since I saw that people gave it ****3/4. Here are my thoughts from both viewings: Omega is charismatic and his mannerisms and expressions are indicative of a character he's playing rather than "himself." He engages the crowd very well with these attributes which have a tinge of dark humor. It's fun to watch. I am a fan of Goto especially in his IC fights with Nakamura. I thought this would be similar since Omega is playing something like Nakamura's but, Goto came across as bland. He was not as stiff and or intense as I would have liked. They could have traded out Goto for any big/strong wrestler as I felt this was all Kenny. Watching this made the Naito match all that more worth watching again. All in all this was a great match with the powerbomb fake out and the tributes to Ibushi and past Bullet Clubbers. I was hoping that they would play more off of Omega's knee from the Naito match from the previous night...that would have been awesome and a recipe for a classic but, i just had higher expectations than what this turned out to be. Great match nonetheless

This was an interesting spot for Martinez - he probably had the most to prove after the cards came out. And honestly, he did really well here - exceeded my expectations. Goto worked most of this match fighting from underneath and honestly didn't get a lot of offense in outside a neckbreaker and the big forearm exchange. The match kept building on Punisher's escalated offense; Goto slips to the outside to avoid a top rope move and Martinez dives over the ropes (6'6" dude) near the turnbuckle in a big spot. They reverse around each other as Punisher tries for his choke slam and finally Goto hits his finish off a slick counter and that is it. Really a plucky one-move-does-it win for Goto and credit his selling (as much as one sells in a NEVER title match) for creating a good atmosphere here. ***1/4

This was really good. Great showing by Juice, who impressed vs. Cody at WK, and continued to impress here vs. Goto. His early shine was super good; highlight of the match. Goto's heat segment was really good too, and after that, most of the rest of the bout went to Juice, which was nice, as because of that, he managed to come off as a winner with his strong performance even though he lost the match. ***1/2

This was very fun. Some good interactions between the New Beginning big match up opponents, such as Ishii trading some stiff strikes with Makabe & Honma, Goto & Juice having some nice sequences, and then my favorite part: Shibata & Ospreay having an absolutely amazing opening sequence. ***1/2

Nothing groundbreaking here, a very solid traditional heavyweight tag match. I dislike Goto and don't care much for Kea but Saito and Makabe were good enough to keep them from doing anything stupid, and having this be a ten minute match instead of an epic in which Kea's and Goto's performances have often choked helped things, doesn't take a magician to do some nice brawling for a bit before going home. Kea's quasi-Tornado DDT is probably the single counter spot I've fallen for the biggest number of times since I always forget it's a thing he does and don't watch his stuff often. It looks good every time I watch him, maybe it would wear off if I ever binge watched 2005 All Japan. ***

EVIL is still trying to figure things out, which means he hasn't settled into a formula and his matches aren't just spamming contemporary New Japan cliches. This forces Goto to step out of his (dreadful) comfort zone and as a result these two have had some surprisingly solid matches. EVIL does some thing here that I liked as ideas but could've been milked out more like ending an elbow exchange with an eye rake (seriously, that could've been my favourite spot of the year if they treated it like it mattered more) and rubbing his elbow across Goto's face. The good parts are when they're smashing into each other with elbows, lariats and so on. The bad parts are when they're turning around a lot and it looks more like modern dance than a fight and also when Goto does his stupid indy backbreakers on a knee. There's a lot of movement and the match is almost all action, and it kept me interested throughout, so the good outweights the bad. **3/4

This was surprisingly solid, I'd have expected these two to have a boring opening and then transition into trading weak forearms for five minutes before a dancing finishing stretch but the match was actually quite tight and compact. It also had a lot more movement and selling than Goto matches usually do and counters that looked cool and felt fresh and novel due to these two not having five million singles matches against each other. EVIL's Fireman's Carry Powerbomb looked great and I loved how he sold the Impact of Goto's Lariat as soon as he countered them. **3/4

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