Absolutely class, 10/10, no notes.
Second one too.
Bit too much Jeff Jarrett for me but he looks great all things considered
They’re very different beasts, but Takeshita’s wheelbarrow suplex and Ospreay’s flip off the ropes kick thing are such good middle-of-a-match moves. You know they’re coming but it’s still a delight when it happens.
Summerslam sales are awful
73k seater stadium, current set up is 29k and they’ve sold 22k on the saturday
Punk will be out in a couple of weeks telling TKO to lower the prices again, no doubt.
All In tickets are at about that too, might get a bump now they’ve gone half-priced though.
Absolutely furious I bought mine like a week ago 
Tbf mine were £32 upper ring, so I think they may have been discounted anyway, but still point is, I probably now could have got much better seats around the same price
pre-graps pint or two at All In?
Oh absolutely I would love to meet The Great Mert™
How much are All In tickets at the mo?
Starting at 30 quid in the top tier.
Yeah but there’s now a half price code which idk if thats what I got or not but its SUMMER26
The start of the G1 has snuck up on me. It’s kicking off tonight in Chicago with a Tsuji/Tskeshita main event, which is a pretty solid way to start. The ZSJ/Shota saga continues on the undercard along with a meatslappers dream in Oleg/Oiwa and what is an on paper banger in Yuya/Newman, Callum’s shoulder being a question mark there. Yuto-Ice/Great O Khan could be a sleeper, if only because Yuto makes every match feel deeply personal and when O Khan is awake he can be a fun watch.
Really excited about the tournament overall. All the young guns feel intriguing poised at this stage, with. a healthy smattering of grumpy veterans refusing to go quietly into the night. Aaron Wolf’s first G1 will be intriguing to see - some folks think he could get a shock win but that feels insane to me. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him go deep though. There’s a couple of unfortunate carbuncles in Jake Lee and the ghost of SANADA (spots that could have gone to Taichi and El-P, though the latter is probably going to be worki v Wednesdays soon) but looking through the schedule every night has banger potential all over it.
The only annoying thing is that after tonight the next show isn’t for a week. Gimme my weekday morning graps already!
Nice write up, agree its quite an intriguing year in that it doesn’t feel like there’s any one clear favourite?
Yeah it could go loads of different ways. Lot of folks have been reckoning it’s Yuya’s time (me included). Him and Tsuji have a long rivalry and good chemistry so it might be time to make that the dome main event and give the new gen a chance to say, “we’ve arrived.” But the closer we get to kick off the less confident I am about that outcome.
There’s loads of credible winners. Tsuji could win it - he’d be cemented as The Guy and could pick his opponent for the dome. I don’t feel like the office sees him as The One though. Zack, Goto and maybe Shingo could easily be put right back in the title picture. Shota seems locked in to the Global title scene but you can never write off a sudden unearned* Shota push. I have a feeling Takeshita might have a tough tournament, and back to back wins for a part-timer would be wild, but he’s too good not to be a contender. And as much as no one wants it Ren could win it. The House feels weak since EVIL left but the looming threat of a bullshit filled dome main looms large.
Or maybe it is Wolf time. It’d be a bold, bold move but for them but he’s crazy over. And New Japan have been criticised a lot for playing stuff slowly and safely. Might be time for a Wolf Shock.
*though that awesome bomb he took from PAC has to have earned him a shot at something. Mad bastard.
Was quite shocked Fletcher went over so definitively this week until I remembered they needed to write off Takeshita. Wouldn’t be surprised if he won tbh, get a real Tsuji v aew feud going.
Yeah once you see the timing it had to go that way. Don’t want the champ taking losses he probably won’t have a chance to avenge.
I feel like after the sudden, failed face turn they late in last years G1 they’ll be rethinking how to best use Takeshita. TV Asahi are very big on him by all accounts though so you can’t rule it out. And they might choose to run the match back at Wrestle Kingdom without a big retirement match to overshadow it this time.
