Here we go then lads, summer is upon us and with it the return of New Japan pro-wrestling after a truly crazy, unprecedented Spring. Here is the tournament bracket, starting tomorrow morning GMT:
With the winner facing Naito for both the World and IC titles (assuming he still has both then) at Dominion on July 12th, who needs the Euros eh?
In America, we are now living in a post-Greating Wrestling Match Ever/Stadium Stampede world, so who the fuck knows whats coming next. Big shows this summer:
WWE:
July 19th - Extreme Rules
August 22nd - NXT: Boston (except Boston will remain on lockdown of large events until September, so expect this to change)
August 23rd - Summerslam
AEW:
July 1st & 8th: Fyter Fest special episodes of Dynamite (& Blood and Guts at some point)
September 5th - ALL OUT
Probably gonna watch the NJPW thing despite not really having any idea what’s going on. My exposure to NJPW is limited to the last Wrestle Kingdom and the Omega/Okada matches so far. I’ve been thinking about digging further into the archives but the app is the most confusingly laid out thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.
Their tournaments are generally the best place to start to get an idea of the company, I learned so much watching G1 for the first time last year for instance
Do love a good tournament. I do love some proper carnival nonsense in wrestling but the pretense of it being a fair sporting competition is nice. As much as I’m enjoying it I’m disappointed AEW jettisoned that side of things almost instantly.
One of the problems with AEW trying to serve literally all tastes is it’s hard to properly engage with a tournament or old fashioned sports based presentation if it’s sandwiched between a deatchmatch and a comedy match. They definitely had the balance right 4/5 months ago, less so now.
I think they’ll go safeish - get the biggest stars in the mix with Okada and Ibushi but hoping Ishii gets a big rub. I forgot Suzuki was still around but he hasn’t got a prayer really.
It’s cool that everyone gets so much input into the creative side of things but it is just all over the place tonally. I think I’d be happy if they just had someone paying attention to the rankings. They haven’t made a lick of sense since they started doing them. Either have them mean something or, if they’d rather just put latest shiny new guy in the main events every time, just drop them altogether.
Matt Hardy especially. He’s more or less where I draw the line because I love Orange Cassidy and can live with Brodie Lee just for his workrate if not the Dark Order gimmick, and find Jericho’s silliness mostly acceptable.
But they should just tell Matt to fucking stop, he’s honestly dreadful.
Would’ve paid through the nose tbf
but he hasn’t got a prayer really.