2015 New Japan Cup

[Defrost]

This seems to be out bracket

http://i.imgur.com/nN7r4vW.png

[Tainted Eclipse]

3/8 show possibly:

Tanahashi/Ibushi
Naito/Okada
Makabe/Yoshi
Goto/Shibata

looks like a good line up for that show at least.

although really honma should win the tournament and go on to lift AJ styles over his head, slam him to the canvass and drop the big kokeshi to win the iwgp world heavyweight title at the sumo hall in front of 10 thousand screaming honmaniacs.

[Defrost]

Ibushi and Naito are so the next tag title challengers looking at that btw

[Defrost]

Yano is totally winning too. There is no way in the world that the first ever match between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi is happening in Korakuen Hall in the 2nd round of the New Japan Cup.

[Ringo]

I was starting to think Okada over Fale in the final so this is cool.

[Fanny Batter]

First round is on tomorrow, by my math 10am GMT (Defrost?). Really looking forward to the right side of the bracket, with hopes of a Shibata/Goto quarter final since their matches are ridiculous. On the left side, we can only hope they don't bother with the Bullet Club winning any matches and obviously Yano going out, but get the feeling it's probably brewing up to be Tanahashi vs. Gallows and Naito vs. Fale.

[Bad Collin]

I'm really looking forward to this, there are a few guys in the bracket I don't know much about so i'll have to do some reading up before the weekend.

[Ringo]

Yeah it's 10am GMT Batter.

I can see things going a number of ways. Pulling for a Shibata or Ibushi win.

Who are you most unfamiliar with Collin?

[Bad Collin]

Yano, Yoshi, Takahashi and Kojima.

[Psycho666Soldier]

Personally, I'm hoping we see Shibata/Nagata. Shibata/Goto are always good matches, but we've gotten plenty of that. I wanna see the kick battle between Shibata and Nagata.

[Fanny Batter]

Yano and Fale for fuck's sake. Fale will probably win the thing now. The wrestling's great but the booking... geez.

Still think Ibushi has to win it and go on to face Nakamura. I like the Naito team but the kid is too good to be dossing about in a permanent tag team. If not, Shibata to take it. I just get the feeling with Bullet Club having every other belt they'll go with Fale challenging Nakamura again.

[Psycho666Soldier]

Fuck, my schedule was all fucked up. I thought the show would be on tonight, not last night. Well that sucks. I guess I'll have to catch the replay.

[Cewsh]

Yano and Fale for fuck's sake. Fale will probably win the thing now. The wrestling's great but the booking... geez.

Still think Ibushi has to win it and go on to face Nakamura. I like the Naito team but the kid is too good to be dossing about in a permanent tag team. If not, Shibata to take it. I just get the feeling with Bullet Club having every other belt they'll go with Fale challenging Nakamura again.

The booking is completely on point. Okada's storyline is that he can't get back on track and win after his humiliating loss to Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom, and much has been made of how much he is failing at at the moment, which they've even incorporated a real life car accident into. I actually predicted that this exact thing would happen in the New Japan Cup article I wrote, because they're building Fale as the obstacle he'll have to eventually overcome to regain his old self. Meanwhile, Tanahashi had to lose because it isn't the right time to put Ibushi over him clean, and Ibushi is 100% either winning this, or putting on a heroic show in the final.

The booking is fantastic, and most of all consistent.

[Psycho666Soldier]

What Cewsh said. I see no problem with Fale and Yano winning in the first round. That said, IF Fale does win the whole thing, that will be massive letdown.

I'm more pissed about YUJI FUCKING NAGATA.

[Tainted Eclipse]

Ibushi/Shibata better be the finals.

[Ringo]

Just finished the show having cut out bits and fast-forwarding.

Really enjoyed the battle of GBH. Honma is incredible. If Jado & Gedo don't push him this year they deserve just as much criticism as WWE have got over Bryan.

Shibata/Ibushi is definitely what I want the final to be. I was worried about Gallows beating Ibushi for a minute.

Liked Tenzan getting in CHAOS's face after their match. "I may be old and broken but I'm fucking NWA CHAMPION YEAH."

Yano winning was great. I love his face and I love how he's done this a couple of times now. Tanahashi's lower card kryptonite... kinda.

Fale can get fucked. But I so agree with Cewsh that it works. We'd all like to see the best wrestlers advance... but if Tanahashi is losing he's best off losing to Yano and if Okada is losing he's best off losing to Fale. Yano pulls out a shock cheap win every now and that doesn't really mean much and this is Okada's current angle, gradually building him up over the next year in preparation for him finally cementing his place as the new ace after the heartbreaking loss at WK is the way to go.

[Defrost]

Just looking at the bracket everything that happened here was blatantly obvious

[Ringo]

Everyone should watch all Honma matches spoiler free. My head's telling me there's no way he's winning, my heart's buying into all of it.

[Fanny Batter]

I think one or the other would have been effective. Yano and Fale aren't going to progress much further than they are now so shouldn't be going over the top guys clean. Could they not have run with, say, Nagata beating Tanahashi, as he's always worth moving up the card at any given time and beating him would have given credence to that. Agreed on the Okada point though. I feel they're building to a new super finish for him, Fale has the working's of the Rainmaker counters so he's going to develop a death move to beat him I feel. Which is good build with a happy ending.

[Defrost]

Cody Hall has improved in his time in the dojo

[Gibby]

Enjoyed the QFs as I did the first round. Unspoilered hot takes a-plenty here.

- Jay White is good, YOSHI-HASHI is not so good.
- Ten man tag match was good bcs additional storyline drama but also pleasantly chaotic.
- Tanahashi/Komatsu v Nagata/Sho was brilliant. Best throwaway tag match for ages. Those kids are gonna wreck someone one day.
- CHAOS v BC was four awesome dudes vs four dudes.
- Sex Pest v Gorilla Brody Man was decent, though Yujiro pisses me off with his sloppiness.
- YTR v Kota wasn't quite full DDT but a good short comedy thing.
- Falehorn v Naito was good, Naito pulled the crowd onside for once and totally carried this.
- Legit bros beatathon rd. 5 (?) was pretty damn good, more of a wrestling match than a slobberknocker but they can do variety.

[Defrost]

Fale and Shibata losing does in my bracket

[Tainted Eclipse]

makabe better not win

[Defrost]

Well Ibushi and Naito aren't winning because they're gonna end up going for the tag belts. So that leaves Makabe and Goto, and I see no reason why Goto would win therefore by process of elimination that leaves one guy.

[Tainted Eclipse]

ibushi and naito going for the tag titles makes it especially dumb that they took the belts off shibata and gotot because ibushi/naito v. shibata/goto would've actually been a great match and exciting on paper. who does aj face at invasion attack then if makabe is just going to challenge for the never title?

[Fanny Batter]

They can do the tag title bout sometime else - Invasion Attack should be Nakamura vs. Ibushi for the IC title.

[Tainted Eclipse]

if they dont want ibushi winning the title here or if they dont want ibushi eating a fall to nakaura twice in a row i can get it. but at least do something interesting like shibata winning and challenging AJ rather than makabe winning and challenging for the never title again, just about the most boring scenario possible.

[kangus]

I totally agree.

[Cewsh]

I think we need to give the possibility of Goto/Styles some real consideration.

[DDT]

Okay; considering, considering....:zzz::zzz::zzz:


Considered.

[Ringo]

In the last few months my love for Goto has been entirely rekindled. He's a fantastic bull of a man and you can both leave him alone.

[Tainted Eclipse]

i could live with that, but styles/goto doesn't exactly sound like the big main event of one of your 4 major shows of the year, especially since goto doesn't have a lot of momentum. they could run that fine on one of their lesser shows but for invasion attack styles/shibata sounds like the better bet. or styles/honma of course!

[OD50]

Trying to catch up with this. Yano beating Tanahashi must be some kind of epic scale upset right? Surprised the hell out of me.

[Defrost]

I saw it coming

[Bad Collin]

That was a really good show; the highlights for me:

- Mascara Dorada, what a talent. That moonsault from the ropes was amazing
- Naito v Ibushi was amazing, much better than the final I thought. I'm looking forward to watching it again.
- Homna/Shibata were brilliant as a team
- Yano going over Tana again, his shit eating grin makes the whole thing for me
- Ibushi winning the final. I'm not a huge fan of Goto, as a newb to NJPW I wonder if i'm missing a few nuances of his but at this point i'd rather watch Ibushi v AJ

[Tainted Eclipse]

the shibata/honma tag was god damn incredible

[Psycho666Soldier]

Wow. What a show.

I'm still loving the young boys. Komatsu and Tanaka are fantastic, and I see a lot of upside with Cody Hall and particularly Jay White. Interested to see where they all line up as they progress up the card. Also, Old Man Nagata getting pissed at Komatsu's overwhelming and straightforward offense is gold.

Shibata & Honma make such a wonderful tag team. I don't think I want to see it become a thing other than a feud, but I wouldn't complain much with them as a pairing.

Ibushi/Naito was fantastic and had me jaw slacked by the end. Ibushi/Goto was really good, too, and while on its own was not as great as the Naito match, together they made such an impactful story that it's almost hard for me to separate the two. The big thing with Goto/Ibushi is it was the ultimate put-over for Ibushi considering the setting. Ibushi's trying to prove how tough he is, and Goto is like the quintessential tough guy in New Japan. Plus, I think he's had more victories in the Cup than anyone else on the bracket, so not only was it incredibly believable that he could win, it cemented Ibushi as one of the strongest victors in recent years.

I skipped the last two tag matches for time, but everything else was really fun to watch. Makabe/Goto probably the stand out for the rest of the pack, but I think both of Ibushi's matches outshined that one.

Somewhat shocked Ibushi picked AJ, but I like it. It either extends the Nakamura feud by testing Ibushi in a main event setting with someone who will give him a good match, or we get a shock victory of Ibushi getting the IWGP Title, which I don't think that is likely as much as I'm not sure it would be a good move, but it would be exciting. Either way, I'm looking forward to it.

[Defrost]

So apparently on commentary they explained Cody Hall by saying his dad was Hulk Hogan's friend.