425 Super J-Cast Road To Destruction Reviews

0:00Wrestling Omakase brings you a full course meal of all of Japanese wrestling, men's and women's. Join me, a Japanese wrestling fan for over 20 years, along with a rotating cast of equally knowledgeable co-hosts as we cover everything from New Japan and Stardom to Noah, All Japan, DDT, Tokyo Joshi, Mari Gold, Sendai Girls, Dragon Gate, Glate, Ice Ribbon, and even more stuff. If you're a fan of Japanese wrestling and you want coverage of the entire scene in one podcast, check us out right here on the Voices of Wrestling Podcasting Network each and every week. Get us wherever you get podcasts today. This podcast is a member of the Voices of Wrestling Podcasting Network. Visit voicesofwrestling.com to hear the rest of our great podcasts as well as show reviews, columns, opinions, and updates across the world of wrestling. Hello everybody, welcome to the Super J cast.

1:10I'm Jolt, joined by Damon Madon. It is Thursday, September, 2020. This is episode 425. It's going to be bad. Damon is going to cough every time I say something funny, which you know how funny I am. This is going to be like every other sentence. I was saying to Damon off the air that I've had a really good first week back at school, feeling really positive about it. With that being said, coming home after a long day at work and doing all the childcare stuff and then having to sit down and watch several road two shows, nothing is going on. You know what that does to a man, Damon? This is the worst possible time in the year to have a weekly podcast about YouTube and pro wrestling because there are shows I watch four of them and nothing happened in the shows. I thought, well, maybe we can be some stuff to preview and I've looked at the upcoming shows over the next seven days and there's absolutely nothing to preview on those

2:12either. This is going to be good content. It's the post G1 blues, baby. I know all those shows blended together. Here's the thing though, there was some stuff that was at least like there was a surprise finish I thought. There was continuation of certain programs and storylines. So let's go to this way. They weren't the most horrible of road two shows. I think we've seen worse. But yeah, I mean, there were road two shows with a million multi-man tag matches. You know, it's kind of hard to sync your teeth into. Yeah, they were fine as far as road two shows, guys. So I think my problem here is that this road to destruction is like that road in Dragon

3:12Ball Z, that Goku has to travel down after he dies when he gets resurrected to get back from the afterlife. And there's like, there's King Kaisa at the end of it. Basically, it took him about like 18 weeks to get to from one end of this road to the other. I forgot what it's called, but just every episode, every time it cuts out, let's see what Goku's up to. And it's like, yeah, he's still going down the road. So this is what the road to destruction is. It is the never ending road to destruction. And yeah, we're trying to just sift through. I'm going to say the shit to find nuggets of gold because it's not shit. It's good. But there's only so much we can say about it. What I would like to say first of all is to very important public service announcement to my hour UK based listeners. Yes. Get yourselves down to little supermod kit. Now pause this podcast, get in your car or run to your nearest little and you need to buy their frozen mango and sticky rice because it's Asian week.

4:18And this mango sticky rice, they've absolutely nailed it. It's one of our favorite Thai desserts. We have money. And it is, they've knocked it out the park. It just tastes like the real thing. I'm down. Dave, so you got like the deliciously ripe sweet juicy Thai mango and the sticky rice with this kind of creamy coconut sauce, but it's not too sweet because obviously the mango is already sweet. So like a creamy coconut sauce, that's a little bit salty. Like they've added a little bit of salt to it to make the sweetness of the mango really shine. And then there's like these crispy, mung bean sprinkled over it so you get some textual differences. And I wasn't expecting much from a frozen little dessert, but I was just like, oh my god, this is it. That's the dish. So please have it now and you can fake me later. It's amazing. I wonder if the US is participating. Because I know there's a little by little near me, actually. I mean, not like near near, but like, you know, 10 minutes, 15 minutes.

5:21I wonder if they do the themes weeks like Asian week. I don't know, I've never been there. I've never been there. I've never been in it. All right. Well, I'll send you a picture of it. The brand is Vitasia. So V-I-T-A-S-I-A. And they do all like the Asian stuff. And some of it just absolutely whack. Like just mad things that a mad person has thought up. Like they'll just think of two random Asian things and put them together in a dish that shouldn't exist. So it would be like soy sauce and the giant flavors. Yeah, exactly. Just something like that. It's like, no, no, who's come up with that? That's ridiculous. But occasionally they'll do something like this and you're like, holy shit, they actually do know what they're doing. I mean, I'll take a look. I'll take a look this weekend. Send it to me. I will see if I see how it would help. It sounds fantastic. Well, he does. I get a clock coming. Great. I'll just talk them where you have it you call. I receive mostly shit presents from my students at the end of the year, mostly just the same

6:28tie that says, thank you for being a great teacher, which just goes in the cupboard with all the others. So that's about like 32 months that say, well, well, it's greatest teacher. I got a given a present this week from a returning student who was in my class last year's also in my class this year because I teach mixed year group. And he told me that they'd ordered it towards the end of last year, but there was a delay in the shipping. So it only arrived during the summer. And it's called an X 10 Pro. So it's one of these little gaming devices. So it's essentially like a hard disk, a small hard disk that comes preloaded with about 50,000 emulator games. Beautiful. And two wireless controllers. So the only bad thing about this is the wireless controllers need to AA batteries. They're not rechargeable. So that's probably going to wind me up. But that aside, extremely easy to set up. You just basically plug it into the TV. And it's got a really easy to use interface. And like I said, just like tens of thousands of games from every console, like RK every

7:32console, every retro console. And lots of like tons of N64 games that work, PlayStation games, the only issue with the PlayStation games is the music that's seem to work. I don't know if that's sort of a generality of emulated PlayStation games, but it's got emulated Dreamcast games. But yeah. I'm a Dreamcast man. And that was my console growing up. And that's always been one that's been very tricky to emulate. It's very, very buggy. And the emulation of House of the Dead 2, which one of my favorite games, like I must put hundreds of hours into that as a youth, by the way, arcade and on my Dreamcast. And it's great. And House of the Dead 2 on my TV doesn't have a light gun. So I'm going to use the control pad, which is a little bit awkward for a light gun game because you're sort of moving the sort of aiming reticle around the screen. So you don't get the same kind of experiences you've with the light gun at the arcade. But it's still incredibly fun. And you can save scum. So you know, using save state, save your game, play a bit, something happens you don't like reload the save file. I save scum House of the Dead 2 so badly that it started glitching.

8:35And all of the human, the sort of polygon models for the human, the civilians that you have to rescue, they disappear. So they clicked out. So they just had like, the zombie's chasing after nobody. It's a file. It's a visual. It's a visual. It was quite spooky as well. But yeah, this is what I've been enjoying lately. Other issue, Arthur just keeps hijacking it because he just wants to play any game that's got a speedometer on the screen. And then he just he wants to play that immediately. He's getting himself into trouble at school. But you know, he got told off of going into the girl's toilets and I was like, what the fuck was he doing in there? Why did he do that? He's like, sexual deviant. So what happened was in the boy's toilet, there was, he noticed the boiler system and he saw the boiler had all like dials that he's really into dials and speedometers. He think with like numbers on it and a little needle, he's in the gauge. So he noticed that gauge, right?

9:37That's it. And he saw the pipes going into the wall and then the girl's toilet is on the other side of the wall. So he was just desperate to find out what it looked like on the other side. So he went into the girl's toilet and was just like, crouched under the sink, looking there was a little pressure gauge for the water pressure underneath the sink. And he was just, just a hat to go in there and study that. And then he was inviting all his mates to come in. He was like, come in the girl's toilet and look at this and he had like one of the girls holding the door open. So people would come inside and he was telling the wall about this water pressure gauge. That is so good. Get door over. Come on. And he probably saw the giant. Yes, exactly. So two of us who won the stain and he's got a plausible deniability say I will probably use a similar excuse in court. That's good. That's good. Yes. Ah, that's good. That's a door wall. I love the fact. I told you, the one time, you know, we went to the castle of Fertey and we were all there

10:44and he's taking me by the hand and he's showing me this whole thermometer, barometer thing mabob and he's telling me the difference and I'm like, this kid is the genius. I don't know what he is. He's like, yep, and then they're just this and then it's this and then I'm like, my God, what a smart little bugger he is. One good job by him. Excellent. Excellent job. I saw he was, I saw the first day of school pictures. I didn't see them. Cheryl showed me those. Yeah, it looked great. I mean, they're just growing. They're just like fucking bean sprouts, man. They're just springing in just a short time, just like getting year. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm just going to be alone, but the year is a quick. Yeah. Right. I hear you. Well, listen, I'll be back soon. You know, Oasis is getting everything warmed up. They're throwing out their little teas or trailer things and it looks like it's going to be next summer. So I do want to do Scotland, though.

11:47I do want to do Scotland. I like to do Manchester, too. But we'll see what the dates are. How it winds up and all that shit. Yeah, I want to do Scotland again. Don't go with me. If I buy the ticket, if I buy the ticket, would you go? Yes, I would. I go. I'm buying a ticket. You're going to Scotland. I think it's Celtic Stadium. Is the rumor? Is it? Okay. Celtic Park. Celtic Park, yeah. Celtic Park, yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that's the rumor. I mean, nothing's official yet, but I mean, they're dropping hints left and right. Official hints left and right. And people are like, yeah, they're just the sight. What are the hints? They're just eating a lot of deep fried food. Well, like there's like one video, a series of it with them eating the deep fried mouth. I mean, praise the right person. Like the Paris one, there's a guy outside and he's like eating a plum and he chucks it. And there's like a little backstory with the plum. But you hear the siren and sounds just like it would be in Paris.

12:50And then the Manchester shows, there's just two kids playing football and they just have like little subtle clues and shit. But the videos aren't long. They're like like maybe less than a minute. But like people are kind of like figuring, all right, Scotland sorted and Amsterdam sorted and Manchester. And I think today's was like the people are saying Boston. So who knows, but until it's official. But yeah, I mean, dude, if I buy, I will buy the ticket. If you want to go, we're going to Scotland. No, I don't want to go to Oasis, but I want to go like sightseed around Scotland with you and you're going to fucking, you're going to always us, all right? You're going to have a good time. Trust me. Trust me. It's me. It can't be any worse than going to Orleans. I'll dare you. I'll dare you.

13:51All right, listen, I'm going to cough up a long all show. But for you, it's worth it. Take me where you want to go. Take me where you want to go. Well, the biggest news of the week, Dave, in New Japan for a wrestling is by far the new moderating team over and reddit at our slash NJPW. So Evan, his reign of terror is over. He was a bigger of much controversy because people accused him of not doing any moderation. I'm sure he would have a different story if you were to ask him, which I don't care to do. But yeah, people have been sort of trying to coerce him. I tried as well. I tried to reach out to him and be like, look, why don't you make me a moderator in the New Japan sub right there? And he said, well, why would I do that? And I said, I don't know. I wasn't expecting to be questioned on it. I thought you'd just do it. Yeah. Now they've put a whole new team in place.

14:54Okay. Effing Kenter. Everyone knows Effing Kenter. Effing Kenter is part of the team. I know it is. Dare I say it. Do you think it's going to be safe for me to post off there? Oh boy. Do you think the Super J cast is still going to be unwalking? There's no need to grata here. What happened? Why don't we, why are we not welcome? Oh, I forget. I forget. What we start. Oh, really? You just give me the general overview. Was it the fan fiction? Was that it? It might have been that. See, my suspicion is that every time when we sort of, every time we got a bit political, then people get annoyed at that. I think we were two, we are slash were two anti-AW for the people in that, like AW and probably two pro AW for the people that don't like AW.

15:54Two negative about New Japan for some and two and we're New Japan shills to others. I think it's, I don't know. I was going to say largely people who don't listen to us. I saw plenty of critics over there and people who clearly did listen to us. Oh, yeah, that's fair enough. That's a valid criticism. Talk about dooks and more. I'm more dood. Yeah, I think the big mixture of criticism and probably a lot of it valid. I wonder if they've softened their stance on us. I'm tempted to just post a thread saying, hey, would you think the Super J cast? I don't know if I'm ready for that. Are you ready to be hurt? Yeah, I know. Listen, I have no problem extending in an olive branch, if you will. But truth be told, I feel like we've done pretty well without their support.

16:56I don't carry the way, honestly. It's fine if we don't, if we do, great. If there's new moderators that care for us, I feel like I knew a guy who was a moderator. What was that guy's name? I drove him like when we were in Long Beach, I drove him back to his Airbnb in like legitimate Los Angeles. It was like a 45 minute ride. He was a moderator. I found that mistaken. I forget. Was that a Evan? That wasn't Evan. That couldn't have been Evan. I don't know. I don't know, maybe it was Evan if you're listening last night. Was that you? Yeah, well, you give, did David give you a lift somewhere? Yeah, you don't beach. I drove me and Cheryl drove him back to his Airbnb.

17:59It was at least 45 minutes and we stopped at a, in and out. Stop there. That's how I found a thread that this is two months ago asking which podcast is your go-to for NJPW. And this is the most inscrutable piece of criticism. I've read it several times. I still can't work out what the issue is. It says, I was in and out with Super J cast. They were just so negative. And when they stopped, they interviewed Kevin Kelly. Joel is British. David isn't political to our knowledge, but I just can't listen to them anymore. So I'm just trying to figure out what I'm trying to, I think that's the thing. What, what it was that annoyed this person. Is it because we were negative? Is it because we interviewed Kevin? Is it because I'm British or is it because you're not political or is it a combination of all of this? The whole, the whole shabang. Wow, great. Listen, well, I got some good praise.

18:59You sent me over some good stuff. You sent me over a nice tweet. So it was, you know, it's not all bad. I mean, when we were negative, like I don't understand the idea of, like, we're not negative to be negative. Like, I don't want to be negative. I want to be positive. But when it's not good, you get the clicks when we're negative. Is that right? Do we? Yeah, so I just, I just analyzed the numbers, the list of the ship. And then if it's going to low, then we get a start deliberately crafted a negative episode where I start complaining about things. Yeah, you're winding me up a little bit. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll make some pool. I make a few phone calls to the booking team and get into, I mean, like, we need the numbers up. Can you please push some house of torture? Yeah. Push at least two prominent members of House of Torture into title programs. I mean, again, if it comes across as being negative, it's probably because we're negative about a show or negative about something.

20:02If it were just life in general, it's all right. Right. That's an effort, right? I would agree with that horribly. But again, we're positive too. I don't know. But again, I think, I'll say again, five more times. It's, I like the fact that some people think we're too positive. Some people think we're too negative. Like that's perfect for me. I love it. Love that. Because some people just think we're annoying. We are annoying. I mean, we are. We are. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. Yes. But also we're lovable. So there's that. Yeah. I mean, look, whatever. Again, if you did it, oh my god, I'm saying again, again, is my crutch work today. If you did it, I wouldn't have a problem with it. If you didn't, I wouldn't have a problem with it. Okay. That's me on the fence.

21:02Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to edit that out. Yeah. Right. We might get something. I agree. Listen. Listen. Okay. So there were four shows. I think I watched three of them. I think I was going to watch the UGNK1. Can we just do highlights? We don't have to decide to continue with my life. Yeah. So I didn't watch that one. Anything happened on that. I don't know. Here's what I know. I know. One. You want to work just just do just do high. I just got bullet points. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I just got bullet points. I've got two bullet points. It's good. Okay. Right. Let's start with this. Let's start by talking about Yushin Hatazawa. So this is a new young line. He made his debut. He's 20 years old. And he's six feet tall. And you can't teach that. He's 95 kilograms. So I've done it again. He killed Dave. So he was trained in sewer wrestling.

22:05And apparently he did sewer specifically. As a way to get into pro wrestling. But he was very good at sumo. And he reached national level competition in high school. So he is significantly taller than the recent crop of young lines who are all vanilla midgets. Or whatever that. The huge Japan equivalent of that is. And you know, it's one of these things where people try to watch. Young lines debut match matches. And try to extrapolate some information from the form of it match to make a projection about his future career. So instead of doing that, because that silly, I will just simply ask you. How sexually attractive do you find Yushin Hatazawa? On a scale of one to ten. Thank you. Yeah. So on a scale of one like this guy's repulsive and make sure Willie all floppy and sad.

23:09Okay. Or ten like idiot pony. You've got to just get it out there and then just start jerking off. Yes. You can't contain it anymore. Just a sworn member. Throbbing. You know, I probably got a semi hard on, I would say semi hard on. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, you know, I could, I could be. He's probably like two drinks in, you know, and he's like, all right, it's not bad. How about that? I'll say it's always. Unfortunately situations where when they come in with their shaved heads, you realize that people. A lot of people, some people have oddly shaped heads. Maybe this has just been being unkind to some other young like, like, New Japan wrestlers who are, you know, very conventionally attractive now as young ones with their shaved head, they look like they had weirdly shaped heads. They just, they just look odd when they did the full young line things.

24:10I, I'm sorry, I'm saying that I think Yushin Hatazawa has a strangely shaped head. Oh, now when he grows his hair, maybe he can overcome that. You know, we have to, we've got to deal with the elephant in the room and talk about his, his weird head. And I think that could be a significant problem in his career as a professional wrestler. Yeah. Yeah. But on the other hand, I like that he comes from sumo because I like sumo wrestling and I don't, you know, know if that's going to be something they're going to lean into. I'm not asking the company to make him pile on the pounds and be, you know, a big fat guy and wear a Mawashi and do a full sumo gimmick. But we'll be pretty cool if they did that. Well, there again, the pathway from sumo to pro wrestling in Japan is, you know, there's a lot of main talent that made that transition. So, um, that's your guitar?

25:11Is that, I think, is my thing? Yeah, well, he was, he's probably most famous to the guy that was like, that's in a shoot with fucking massive balance. Yeah. He's, he's the dude that got in a shoot with, um, John Tenta, if I'm not mistaken, on an SWS show. Yeah. Yeah, because he's actually people also such with John Tenta. Right. Um, but yeah, I mean, there's that that that pathway is pretty strong. So, um, I mean, he's gonna have trouble if he wants to be a mass wrestler. That's for sure. So, I just looked him up and the first thing the result is a YouTube video called Koji Gitao. The biggest idiot in Japanese wrestling history. I came just this. I want to watch that now. God, we stopped doing the podcast. It's only 28 minutes long. No, okay. Just let me watch. Yeah, we just stuck it on the head. So, right, we've done enough. Come on. And I would you want. Yeah. I would do a little watch along. Well, there were a little watch along with that video.

26:12Um, yeah, he, um, he was a, he, I don't know if the backstory, but like he didn't, I don't know if it was he didn't want to do the job or he didn't something. Oh, right. It's my little guy. He didn't, something. And I think there was just not a lot of cooperation in the beginning. And there was a lot of nothing like there wasn't like it was like two guys just started teeing off in each other. But it was a lot of threatening of, you know, I'm going to tear your eye out and bullshit like that during a match. Um, but yeah, it was pretty, pretty lame. Um, yes, again, his head is a weird. He might have trouble putting on a mask. But again, first match, fine, you know, excellent fine. You know, young lines, okay. Uh, I was actually quite impressed with his opponents in these matches. Um, Maximoto in the first match and Nakaar in the second match.

27:13You see it really puts a spark into the young lines when a new young line debuts. And the other guys realize they're not the bottom of the pile anymore. So they can start acting like a bit of a cock. They're wrestling the new guy me like, oh, no, it's not not so fun when the rabbit's got the gun. Um, I'm actually, I don't know if that's the correct analogy in this case, but, um, yeah, I enjoyed the level of prickishness that's both, uh, Maximoto and Nakaar showed in their matches against Yushin and Hata's hour who, um, yeah, I think that, you know, that's exciting to have a big boy. And what was unfortunate for Hata's hour aside from his unfortunate shaped head was having she on a batter ring site who took all of the attention away from Hata's house date because then everyone was just like, holy shit. Look at the size of a batter who is a 130 kilogram elite amateur wrestler.

28:14And people are a bit excited about him. You know, he's for feels like years now been sort of penciled in for having a New Japan career after the, the finished up with the amateur wrestling stuff. And I think he was, he was under the wing of Eugene Agata and it's just massive, right? This guy's fucking huge. And he's obviously got all the credentials of the background in wrestling. And I'm, I'm, I'm, like I said to you, the trio is run with him and our wolf and Oleg Bolton. Like that will feed families for generations. And I just love the idea of all these different guys from different backgrounds like Aaron Wolf with his judo background and Hata's hour with a sumo. Backgrounds and Abata coming in with his amateur wrestling background and just having all these different guys with different skillsets and different strengths and different shapes and sizes mix it up with, you know, you, you, you, you traditional classic guys that fit the New Japan mold of, you know, people like you, a whemma or, you know, showed you people like that.

29:28And it's just a very exciting time. I don't know. I just, I get very excited by the thought of she on Abata and just what that landscape of the, you know, the future of the heavyweight division is going to look like in YouTube when people like that come, come to the forest. It's very, it's exciting to me. It is. And, and I like the fact that again, he is a big boy, both of them are. I would, I would assume both of them are probably slated for, you know, the heavies. And so that's exciting that can keep things fresh. And yeah, it's like not everyone is just this cookie cutter pro wrestling guy. Like they're like the fact that they all do come from various backgrounds and extremely athletic backgrounds that, you know, it does make things that much more interesting. And, you know, because New Japan does do a solid job of putting people through the rigors of the dojo system to have them appreciate and, and you know, get up to snuff and pro wrestling.

30:32But if they're able to bring a little extra and make it their own. I mean, we're ahead of the game. That's perfect. So, and having a legitimate background, you know, it just kind of strengthening that as well. Yeah, it is exciting, actually. It is truly exciting. No doubt. Yeah, I'm just looking forward to New Japan and it's sort of made events seen evolving away from that sort of prototypical PWG style, you know, like Osprey. And I'm like, oh, there's anything wrong with that. That's good. Right. You know, that's probably don't get upset. That I'm saying this. But moving towards fat dudes is like grappling and throwing each other around beefy boys. Yeah. That's why I want. And they're growling still. I mean, it's not like, you know, they can't change and morph a little bit. It's certainly not their final form. But yeah, it does make it again.

31:36Just I think it's easier to find a guy that you could slot into a junior heavyweight role because, you know, they're sized. And I want to say regularly, you know, like even their junior heavyweights can be, you know, look like solid fucking brick shit houses. These guys are just fucking legitimate brick shit houses. And they know, they know, I'm looking at what it was really. I think it's making me thrilled about the prospect of a batter is that he's not a very handsome man. And there is no way they're going to try and package him as, you know, sort of the good looking matinee idol. It's kind of baby like I'm not saying he's not going to be a baby face. But he's got a face like a potato. He's massive and he's fat and muscular. I don't want him to be lean. I want him to. If anything, get more fat and just be this fucking monstrous guy who ragdolls people. I just like go.

32:40Gary all bright. Yeah, I want him to wrestle like that. And you know, have a moment. Like made of a wrestle kingdom where in the climactic sequence of the match he goes to the top rope. It does a shank style press. What was that wrestle made when Brock Les the landed on his head? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of that you said potato because when I first saw him, I was I. What was that fucking Rick and Morty one where it's like a giant just giant rockhead or potato head. Show me what you got. Do you ever see that? No. Maybe somebody will know. I don't know if the fuck I'm talking about that. That's a reminder. Maybe I've done that. Show me what you have. Yeah. Okay, I killed it. I killed the whole bit. Okay. Transition. No, so I'm not I'm not clever enough to watch Rick and Morty. That's now together. You gotta give you a smart cookie.

33:41Okay. I haven't watched it in a long time. What else happened on the shows? We had the comeback of show to Ubuddo who seems to sort of reverted to the initial 2023 post excursion aesthetic. But he's bolted up even more so it seems to me like he sees even bigger than he was before. I read some of the interviews that he did when he was talking about concussion and sounded pretty non- I mean, I don't know to what extent that is exaggerated for K-Fade purposes. But you know, he was talking about amnesia and vomitting and stuff like that. Sure. Yeah. If I can understand if that is to be taken at face value, why he was removed from the entire G1 climax tour. And so these matches on these everlasting never ending road two shows, he has been positioned against United Empire, which sort of simultaneously presents us with I think a very interesting possible comeback feud in the shape of Henry.

34:43I think Henry versus show to Ubuddo would be very good stylistic match because they both have a similar style where they will just beat each other up and that. But also the worst possible comeback feud in the shape of the greater con. So we're really sort of tossing the coin here to whether it's going to be something great or something horrendous with nothing in between. And I'm just curious, I know we have talked about him before. Do you still think Wrestle Kingdom main event is in his near future? And if so, let's just do it as a thought exercise. Could you map out a path for show to Ubuddo to the Wrestle Kingdom main event between now and then that would heat him up sufficiently to make us all get on board and be like, yes, he's the guy to challenge. Yeah, for sake of our Yotasuji in Don't You Fourth. I mean, on the spot, probably nothing that interesting. But at the most of the trots, can we get this?

35:47But like at bare minimum though, all he needs to do is get a single's win on a show leading up and he could walk right the fuck out and do the whole thing that he did before. That might go, that might derail him back to where he was though. Yes, that's what I'm saying. I need to do both of that. I think I would agree. I think the worst thing they could do is just have him pop up and be like, I'm in the mix and nobody's going to beat Greg O'Card in a single's match and like the third match on the card and then come out often. Yes, I shall challenge them. That's again, I feel like we would be right back to square one. So we don't necessarily want to do that. Do I still think it's there? I think there's lots of thought that if it was there, that they don't necessarily have to be there. With everything that went down G1 wise and the truly the elevation of two guys, they have more options.

36:50They absolutely have more options if they're not quite 1% on board with Shota. They're not a company that does pivot quickly though and pivot well. They could treat G1 like a f**king fever dream and be like, okay, well, we were in the notebook so we can't deviate. So I generally think he's still in the mix. And if you put a gun in my head, I'm saying that he is challenging for the world title at Russell King. Still. I think we need to have several great matches from him to get us excited about him again as a wrestler. They won't do this, but what I think they should do given now that they've decoupled the G1 climax win from the Russell King to make a bet, which I'm fine with.

37:57But I think now there needs to be something else in place for establishing yourself as the challenger for Russell King. So I propose a small tournament, a little single elimination tournament, something like the huge pound carpool or a little ram rock and whatever. Sort of King maybe between King of Pro Wrestling and power struggle to get who the new challenger is. And I'm sure like suggesting that there'd be like a million other issues with that and reasons why they couldn't do it. But I just think they need to be something to help establish a credible challenger for a January 4th in the relatively short space of time. It is short space of time for FYI. Yeah. You know, because they've already announced World Tag League dates. And that's like starting in November, late November, but November. It's September.

38:57And we're rapidly approaching mid September. So yeah, there isn't a lot of time to reheat someone up. So I would think. I mean, there's nothing after destruction, right? Is there big show wise? After destruction, this typically King of Pro Wrestling and then power struggle. And then the last if you capital as a big show, I suppose would be the world tag league final. But they want I don't think they would do something there at the World Tag League finals. I mean, also you don't leave it to like because then you got to do the promotional stuff for wrestle kingdom. So I don't know. It's a tricky one, but I. I really feel like they have to do something to have higher expectations than just someone coming out of power struggle being I did my turn now.

39:57But you know them, you know how they do what they do. And that's a possibility. And they might think that well, everything's fine. You know, we rehabilitated him and he's at a point where he can walk out. Certainly they couldn't do that in Osaka again. Yeah, I worry about that that they're going to they're going to lazy spoon feed us this. And they really need to they really need to make him feel like a legitimate challenger if they're going to pull it. But again, here's the good news, Joel. The good news is that there's already prebuilt two guys that could, you know, if they need to pivot, they can't. It's just okay to do. This has been a very good year for them having balls and having the guts to do stuff. And sometimes it's a forced hand that that that made them do it. They might need to have a little bit of guts and be like, okay, we're going to we have to pivot because unfortunately, you know, you were injured and we had to go plan B.

41:06So we got to ride out plan B. I'm I'm I'm cautiously optimistic that they would do that. So speaking of greater car, we have a question from the real Mike Brown, he says, do you think Tony Khan is leaving greater car off AW TV on purpose? How can he not want to showcase such a huge talent is hilarious in his tag partner on a w without him? Yeah. Yeah, no, I think Tony for all Tony's flaws. I think Tony can, you know, whoever's foot in the bill for that, the trip to Wembley Stadium, the all of that trip back to the United States. I think I think he was very wise and not rating the check to have that taken care of. So now I think I think I think you probably made a very move. I know he and I know Khan might have been like, I'm good.

42:08I'm going to stay here. But yeah, I don't think I think I can't think of a guy who stunk is at such a low point. Like I don't know. I think he's lost cause be quite honestly, but then obviously Tony feels the same. So no point no point in bringing along deadwood. I think there's a rule where they only let have one Khan is me W any given time. So that's precludes great O from a period at the same time as Tony. Shaka Khan. Shaka Khan from Mortal Kombat. Cool. Cool. Not all I can do is think of cards rights. And his partner, Henry, what did you just touch on him briefly? Because he's been dealing with some disrespectful tourists. So there were some, I don't know if you saw this day when there were a few foreign tourists who films themselves doing like a Maori style poidance at a shrine.

43:12There's a very sacred trines in Kyoto. And there's a lot of backlash for that because as many people seem to do these days of a trip and the shrine like basically the backdrop for content. For the social media videos rather than respecting the religious significance of the shrine. And I saw that and said, fuck that. And he got involved. So obviously being a proud having proud Maori heritage as he does. He managed to track these people down. Oh wow. You identify them and told them that their behavior was unworthy of Maori culture. Because he says Maori customs privet. That sort of disrespectful behavior in sacred places. So he got them to apologize and make a donation to the shrine to make amends. Good for an ore. Yeah. Wow. Really cool. He found them. Wow.

44:12That's pretty great. Good for an ore. I love it. Yeah. It's, I have read a lot of stuff online where, you know, the Japanese people themselves are kind of like, look, we love the tourism. We love you coming and enjoying our country and seeing it and experiencing it and all that. But some of the shit's getting a little out of hand. What you're fucking dumb content and your dumb videos. Yeah. Here's the thing too. Like, this is what I don't understand. The first time that you went to Japan. Did you read everything you could about everything you could about traveling to Japan? Like, how do you just go in there blindly and be like, I'm just going to, you know, there's certain things and certain things. Like, watch one fucking video and you kind of get clued in. No, I got told off to do the break dancing routine in front of the restaurant.

45:16I mean, no positions at all. I hear you. I hear you. It's, yeah, come on. You got to, you got to smut yourselves up, peeps. Good for an ore. You know what? He, he, he, I feel like he did the right thing. And, and, and the people, you know what? Again, I'm going to, I'm going to side on ignorance and say that, you know, that maybe they did it. No, but they were smartened up and Hanoi went out there and made sure that that got taken care of. And they went along with the plan. Then excellent thumbs up all the way. Excellent job. They learned her lesson. They paid a little price. Perfect. Excellent job. Hey everybody. Interesting. He put out a tweet. Quoting a video. I think it was the thing with Shingo and Claudio Castigoni. And he said, why the hell can't I do this kind of battle? Instead, I'm just stuck fighting young punks as an opening act.

46:18So, sure, there's, you know, healthy doogie of K-Fig there. But I do see the appearances he makes on AW TV. I think I wonder is that a character that might get more traction of people more popular and, you know, Benny utilized on American TV. And, you know, I think it feels like he's, you know, think we'll go because I, I reckon like they'll, they will absolutely be an offer on the table for him. If he wants it, he hates you guys, doesn't he? That's the biggest fan of the US. Well, if there's enough digits on the check. Yeah, right. You might be ready about that. Yeah, I mean, again, he's always been one of those guys that I feel like just right when things are starting to cook for the kid. Or, you know, we blow out a knee or something happens injury wise or some, you know, he gets a chair wrapped around his fucking head.

47:28Yeah, he could eat. I think if he wanted to do it, I think there's, there would be a spot. And I think he would do per, I think he'd do fairly well. Yeah, I think he'd do fairly well. Again, it's just, I just don't think he would want to like tour the grind of the US. And I don't know if that's something that he's particularly interested in, but we'll see. Let's stick with United's Empire, Callum Newman, who was calling out Acura in his backstage comment for a period on AW for being part of Will Ospreay's version of United Empire. So Ospreay said he's going to have his own Yankequit version of United Empire. And Francesco Acura appeared and Callum, you were saying like, oh, you didn't tell me you're going, you're going to go with that.

48:28Plenty of scenes. Really bastard or something like that. So, yeah. What do you think those scenes will grow up to become? I think everybody is looking at Tokyo Dome, right? Callum and Will. I think that would be for Acura. How do you think Acura? He's just a player in it. I can't imagine. I mean, there might be a match. There might be something where we're going to teach Acura a little lesson to not stray. Or some type of a public humiliation of some kind. But yeah, I think that I think this all winds up being Will and Callum. But yeah, it's just another road to that. I mean, I'm up near that, but big match. I'm sure we touched on this last week. Do you think Ospreay being a W champion complicates those plans?

49:34You know, I was thinking of myself briefly. Like I said a few minutes ago that it's, you know, Russell Kingdoms, rapidly approaching and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But on American TV and the US stuff, like that seems like, you know, it could be a decade six months or actually four months. So I don't know if it's a 100% guarantee that he is champion by the time he gets to. And again, we're assuming Russell Kingdom. Him being champion. Would pretty much guarantee that Will's winning a match, I would think. But yeah, I don't know if there's a guarantee that he is a world champion by the time they get to Russell King.

50:39Yeah, it's not a title that has had particularly long reigns in recent history. So yeah, I'd say there's a fairly good chance that come. Jeremy thought he's he's not sharp here anymore. So again, it's quite an interesting story to keep an eye on. I mean, it's always tricky to build your new Japan storylines around the whims of what is going on in eight up you. But I'm sure that's something that if that's got to be set in stone, surely. Like he's not going to be like, hey, I know you wanted to have kind of gone over a osprey on the 24th, but I needed for dynamite. Sorry. Yeah, no, yeah, instead of Will, we're going to give you, I don't know, I'm trying to think of something on a low level, eight W guy, but I can't really give anybody right now. What of the top flight guys? Oh, nice. Jeff Cop may disreserve. He did.

51:40Look, I saw a little bit of complaining about Jeff Cobb. I think this is a good deal for both in the sense of one, we know that Jeff was, you know, I don't want to say on his hands and knees begging to come back, but I'm sure there was him coming back. We'll call it a hat in hand. And, you know, after how he left and what happened and all that stuff. It might be a sweet deal for New Japan. It broke their bank, so to speak, to bring him in. So I don't have a problem with it. I think it's, I like Jeff Cobb. I think Jeff Cobb in New Japan is fine. The problem was it was like, all right, there's really not, what else are we going to do with the guy? And I think New Japan has changed in the short time that he's been away. Yeah, and I think you could slot him into different roles and be a guy, a bit of a baby face monster guy that can be a roadblock for guys that you need to put over.

52:50So, yeah, I don't have a problem with this at all. In fact, I welcome him with open arms, Joe. Yeah, if I'm going to be optimistic, perhaps the time away has made Jeff Cobb realize how wonderful you do for a wrestling isn't how much he enjoys working there. Sure. And he's going to work extra hard to make a good impression and help everyone around him. And yeah, let's hope he can read the room and understand that he is there to help the new generation big up stars. And I'm sure he will. Like I don't doubt that. I don't think he's going to go into business for himself or anything. And I enjoyed the combat matches. I think it was interesting that Zane Jay has been placed opposite him for the start of this. I talked about that briefing last week and saying Jason that interesting spot where he is the pinnacle for United Empire. And United Empire is a heel faction and he is sort of the shithill sort of weasel in the group who's there to sort of do this.

53:56And so the experience of stuff with kind of you and earlier in the year, but in these matches, Zane Jay is getting these. I'd say sort of quite babyface coded spots where he gets a little spirited come back. And near fall down the stretch like that. I think there was a moment in one or maybe both these matches where he was able to lift up Jeff Cobb and slam him in the crowd, reacted to that. But then he gets beaten up and gets pins. So that seems to be a little New Japan trope in a restless development where they where they start getting those spots. Then it feels like they're sort of tested the water and almost priming him for something bigger in the future. Little sympathy, yeah. The fun on Newman thing like like what I described with like with Acura. Yeah, possibly. But I don't know if I don't know what I was saying here. If I like Zane Jay, I'm not saying Zane Jay is going to be like a sort of prime white meat babyface.

54:58But it's this is sort of the typical New Japan pathway that precedes something more of a sustained push. Yeah, where you eat shit, you eat shit, you eat shit, then you get a hope spot and a cool little moment in the match and everyone's like, oh, yeah, look, he did a thing. And then you eat shit right. And then it just sort of increases incrementally from there. Right. So it was just something I took note of although he did do a shit elbow drop and he slipped and fucked that up. So maybe he's just a trash. No, that's gone. He slipped. He made him a sneak. But yeah, I do agree. And I think you're right about the idea of just dipping your feet in the water and see what you got with the guy. And if the crowd starts eating it up, it makes that decision a little bit easier to say, okay, let's push forward a little bit more and push forward a little bit more.

56:02Yeah, I think he's going to have a bright future in New Japan is Zayn J. So what else happened? Should skywalker. Oh, yes, boiling up some shit in the kettle. Like that move. What does he call it? I only ever get what he calls it. Skyfall. He's one of my favorite games. So I resent him using the name of the film that good for a move that bad. He did it on who was it? Fuck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't remember any of their names though. He looked the one who looks like a virtual fighter one. I don't know if he's going to be a lot sooner. That's it. He has to. And I thought, oh, is he has to have fucked it up? That's what I thought. He's not taking the move correctly. And then the next time he did it on Teguchi.

57:03It's even worse. It genuinely looked like Teguchi had done a storm breaker on Shinskywalker. Shinskywalk just lands flat on his back. I'm like, oh, Teguchi's reversed there. I know he got me. It's not a good sign, is it? No. That he came up with that presumably. I'm not. I'm imagining that's not like the office. I'm right. You have to do the shit move like there's some sort of punishment or a rip. Like I'm assuming he's come up with that himself. And he's tried that out. Yeah. Presumably there's some somewhere. And then the people around him have gone, yeah, yeah, yeah. Shouldn't that looks really good? It's a good move. And it's a good idea to do that. It doesn't feel like it feels like nobody knew how to take this move. And it just looked like it was just a somebody threw shit against the wall. And that was again, when you did when we had a little text exchange about this specifically.

58:05And yeah, I thought that I was blaming rookie mistakes and couldn't take the bump. And then to go to was even worse. Yeah, I can't imagine him like it might be something that he was trying out. People didn't know how to take it. I don't know. It can't possibly be it. Like there it feels like there's something missing in the communication of how to take the move or like what needs to be done to make this move look like it. A legitimate pro wrestling move let alone a finisher. Yeah, it just looked like it just just a just a blob of shit. I couldn't believe it. And I was more surprised like when it happened again, I couldn't believe it. Yeah, somebody's got somebody's got a whisper in his ear and be like, dude, we need to come up with something else for you. Because that ain't it.

59:06That really ain't it. People hated it. Like people really were like, what the fuck is this? And I got to be honest with you rightfully so it does not look good at all. When you when you have a finishing move that looks like you are on the shit end of it, that can't be good. That really can't be good. I rewatched it quite a few times. And I tried to rewatch it slow motion. I was like, what is he actually going for here? And it's it just maybe even more confused. It's really bad. Yeah, I can imagine it. It's a little world for his. This running YouTube and a brace said, what do you guys think Shun Sky Walker ceiling is in New Japan? There's a bit in the resident evil where you take a shotgun off the wall. And then in the next room, the ceiling is booby trapped and the ceiling starts coming down. And if you don't get rescued in time, we'll put the shotgun back.

1:00:06You get squashed. That is the skywalk of the ceiling in New Japan is it is a booby trapped ceiling that is rapidly descending and it is going to crush. Shun Sky Walker gets more. I mean, you were pointing us in the direction of our dragon gate podcast on the network. And other written pieces. And you know, the prospects were pretty gloomy. Let's be honest with you. It's somehow even worse. We're ready. Yes, not three matches. Oh God. Yeah, I can't sit here and tell you like, if we're talking about like personal ceilings of, yeah, he could be. You know, somebody that I really look forward to saying. Not yet. And I mean, we already know that he's, you know, the leader of House of Torture, which, you know, everybody's kind of sick of anyway. This is doing it. No favors. So you would think that he's going to be getting a decent push as that person in a faction that, you know, sticks around and has stuck around for quite a while.

1:01:21Yeah, I mean, again, we say it all the time. If we can keep this on the undercarter won't be as stinky. But yet that the ceiling is, you know, waist high at this point to be quite honest with you. I don't, I didn't have a lot of expectations going in, but trust me, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're shrinking as you described in the Resident Evil analogy. Bray also says David thought sort of dog pound steel cage match between House of Torture versus Paul Jones army. Oh, wow. Yeah. Paul Jones army. Donk. Baron Vine Rashky. And, uh, Kanga the barbarian. He was up there. He was actually the best one of it. T-Joke Khan was in that. Yeah, not a lot in pols. Shasco Wattley.

1:02:21Yeah, I'm good. Who I, you know what, I would take House of Torture. I honestly would take House of Torture over Paul Jones army. Paul Jones army is just like every fucking lower mid card heel that nobody can really fuck up. Nobody can really fucking go like nobody's having great matches. Yeah. Hopefully they're all, they're all constantly feuding with Jimmy Valiant constantly. Oh, yeah, I'll, you know what, go, go watch those glory years of fucking Jim Krocken promotions and try and sit through all the fucking Paul Jones army nonsense. Awful, awful. And, and you'll have new family respect for House of Torture. Trust me. Yeah, if it's just guy will, because guy Walker is going to make everyone start missing evil.

1:03:21Yeah, that's going to be mixing. So what else we had? Okay, knockout brothers. They are feuding with the most violent players. Yes. Talking about the mate and Torriona. So it was interestingly first night. Knockout brothers started to show a nasty side and they were like beating up the these old guys that the crowd like and I thought that's interesting. They're sort of positioning knockout brothers in the way that seems to invite heel heats because they weren't really presented as heels during the G1. I said Oscar more so than you to ice but you to ice to me was ticking a lot of baby face boxes on this first show. I was like, well, okay, so they're, you know, they're the mean young guys who are beating up the poor old guys. But then the following night, Yano has died his hair and his eyebrows, you know, gone back to his, his roots as the most violent players in.

1:04:25He looks like there's this old lady called Sue who works at the local Chinese takeaway here who takes everyone's orders. That's what Yano look like the lady for much of a steak. He got the hair cutting scissors that he cut some of Oscar's hair. A lot. Yeah. They were quite a big chunk of his hair and showed that MVP most violent players, not Montel from Davis, Porter are going to. They're going to tap back into their. Violent healish personas and a negative fight dirty. So yeah, I thought that was quite interesting and it made me more excited for that upcoming match because I think they could go in some interesting directions. Give it a little bit of juice. That's for sure. Do you do you want to hear and I never thought I would share this fucking story. I know how MVP got his name. I was there when he got his name.

1:05:26Oh, yeah, yes, yes, please. So you mentioned was it Montevius, Porter, right? The name. So was it Montel, Vontavius, Porter? Porter's the key. Yes, Porter's the key. Because so Nova, supernova in the ECW was Don Bucy's brother. Right. Don Bucy was Donnie B in the Dennis Carlyuso independence. So we worked many shows. And he, not Donnie B, but the brother, older brother, supernova, wound up getting like office job in WWE. Donnie B and brother supernova were friends with again, a guy that we hung out and we became friends. He had a small tiny run in ECW.

1:06:28Lupus, he was one of Raven's flunkies after Stevie Richards left. And he would have the blow up doll. I don't know if you remember back in it was those ECW days with Raven. But he, no, Lupus worked, you know, all the time with us in the independence. It's a real good dude. And his real name is Kent Porter. So we're, I'm over Kent's house as he's talking to Nova. And he's living on the phone, like cracking up and he hangs up the van and he goes Madonna. But he always call me Madonna wing. Madonna wing. You're not gonna believe us. They have, they're given this guy getting like a ball or basketball guy, athlete guy, even they're calling him MVP. And it's, he couldn't even pronounce it.

1:07:28He's like Monteller, whatever. And then the porter is easily even going to have to pay. So. There you go. Thank you very much. That's my old school story for the day. So yes, I was there when that occurred. It's very good. Thank you. Okay, one of the highlights actually from these shows has been the interactions between the Kosey Fuji to Aaron Wolf. So I have not seen Aaron Wolf this fired up in his entire career, which is, you know, admittedly is a relatively short career. But they're, you know, pulling each other's hair and just going out at hammer and tongs and the post match staff when it looks like they've had the big pull apart brawl. Okay, right. It's all settled down and then Fuji is just attacking him from behind. And I think that's one thing Fuji is doing better than his peers, which is really living the young punk gimmick by actually punking people like he's actually being a disrespectful little fuck rather than just having like a generic.

1:08:28Oh, I am heatstorm. Right. For example, so I think he's shown a lot of really great attitude and there's been a really interesting foil for Aaron Wolf in a way that I wasn't expecting. And he got the, I don't, when you said a shock win, I don't know if this is what you were referring to when he managed to pin Aaron Wolf. And yeah, that was a big surprise because Kosey Fuji is a junior heavyweight and Aaron Wolf is a heavyweight, a heavyweight champion. He's an ever-opened champion, of course. And obviously leads us to ask the question about the intentionality of Kosey Fuji being dipped into the never seen here. Now we have seen this in the past with junior heavyweights, but it does feel to me that Kosey Fuji's transition to a heavyweight is inevitable and is going to pop in sooner rather than later.

1:09:29Yes, yes, you would think again, I don't, I, I, there's a part of me that wants to be very excited. But again, we've seen it before and it kind of fizzled out. I'm sorry, I'm getting a text from my wife. We may have the pause for a moment if that's okay. But yes, I, I, I, I like the idea of him getting the surprise win. I do like the idea of a guy, a junior getting a, and again, I call it a shock win. I definitely call it a shock win. And we're building toward the idea of these two guys wrestling and him challenging for it. Yeah, I'm, I, I think it's really great. I feel like I'm stammering because I, like, I, when you get a text like this, can you call me? I tried to call you and it wouldn't accept my call because I turned off my phone.

1:10:30Oh, yeah, you, you, you called them and you did. So you, you, you take it from here. I, I will be two seconds, please. All right, I'm going to answer some questions here. So my key says how will Fulham's relegation affect the NGPW relationship? So obviously Tony Khan is a man who spends all of his time of money on all elite wrestling and not on film football club, which surely the only solution there is going to be a W wrestlers will have to be flown in to help Fulham's ailing fortunes in the Premier League season, which leads me to speculate which AW wrestlers would be a good fit in the, the Fulham team. And that's an interesting thing to think about as I ponder, you know, could we repurpose Kenny Omega, Kenny Omega, I could see him being like a sort of Cristiano Ronaldo style striker,

1:11:34you know, a guy who's not as mobile as he used to be, but still physically very impressive and you can just sort of stick him out front and he'll still score lots of spectacular goals for you. So yeah, let's put Kenny Omega up front. Who else can we have? John Moxley, I could see as like a really no nonsense tough tackling fallback, like it in the, like the Julian Dix mold. So we'll have John Moxley as a left back. Yeah, that's kind of like Stuart Pierce, psycho kind of character. Who else can we have a Brody King? Let's have a massive Brody King. He can be your goalkeeper. Definitely an upgrade on Bert Leno, still like Bert Leno, but you know, Brody King and Gull, nothing's going to get past him. Yeah, so you listen to us, you let me know which AW wrestlers you think would parachute

1:12:34into the the full of lineup and help save them from relegation. Let's see, what else we got here? Kevin says, do you expect ELP to be back for the KOPW tour? No, I don't. It seems to me and I'm not really asked anyone, but the impression I got was that they would kind of done ELP and in Europe pro wrestling. I don't know if ELP is just maybe taking some time off to recover or just had to spend some time away from the ring, but I heard no indication that he was going to return. Not to rule it out. I mean, it wouldn't stun me if it happened, but I've just not heard anything indicating that that would be the case. So yeah, I don't expect them to be back for the KOPW tour, but T-Wide B, I mean, I still think there is value to him on the roster, but I suppose the right was on the wall when they decided not to have him in the G1 Climax. That's always the barometer of where the real value is for singles, heavyweight wrestler

1:13:41in New Japan. And they obviously didn't see him at that level. So back, everything all right? Yeah, yeah, she's just everything. Everything's fine, I don't know where. Yes, I heard a little bit of it with ELP, so the talk is we're not expecting anything from ELP, correct? Yeah. So circling back to Fuji to Troy says, if a web Fuji to go to the heavyweight division, do you want him to still be on the lead aside or to be as fat as Aaron Wolfe and Shio Obata? Yeah, it's bonk up. So here's the thing though. I certainly think he, this is a definite call for him to that he's joining the heavyweight ranks, because I still think there's plenty more to do as a junior, right? See I think the junior division's shit now. It's really not interesting to me at all, and I felt that way watching one of these

1:14:41main events which had, was it Yo and who was it? Yo and Goto against Ishimori and Suji, and I just realised how disinterested I am in, well one in these sort of legacy challenges, you know, guys like Goto, I understand why it's getting the shot, like I don't have a problem with that, and Taiji Shimori, and I think the Taiji Shimori and Yo sequences were quite good to be fair. They're both good wrestlers, and I can guarantee now what that match is going to be and it will go about 10 minutes too long, and it will be like three and three quarter star match, and we're like, well actually a part of the week was really good, there were some really good sequences in there, but it just doesn't interest me at all, and I just think the whole junior division and the junior tag division is just on its arse at the moment now, so it would be a shame for Fuji to leave that division before he was really able to put his mark

1:15:46on it, but can you just picture a scenario that, to me he's still even though best of the Super Junior, there's still mountains to climb as a junior for him, to be the guy considered the top dog in the juniors before he moves on, and you're right, the junior division isn't what it once was, but can you see it rebounding if they put a little bit of time and effort into it? I think they need new blood, I think they will be new blood, I'm expecting new people to arrive, yeah at the moment it's a little dry, I'd say it's just boring, it's dry, yeah, but I don't necessarily need to have him shotgunned into being a heavy, and maybe, this is their example

1:16:51of buying time, maybe they recognize that, and they say okay, we're going to put you in this program as a junior fighting for the never open weight title, to buy some time, so to speak, until they can get things cooking again for the junior division, and then he slides back in, and away we go, yeah I mean they could, they could absolutely say okay, I have you and go at it, I just think there's more check boxes that I would love to see him do, and I know that they, some of those, some of the things that haven't been checked, some of it was the promotion, some of it was, we may not have the people to deliver what we want to do, and third was really him, right, like him feeling he's not ready, so again, maybe this is just a matter of them just buying time.

1:17:57How about, I'll just first see booking now, because I'm bored, for Fujita beats Harrod Wolf, with the never title, and then at Wrestle Kingdom, it's Koso Fujita defending the never title against his teammate, Yohai Oihwa, never gonna happen, but it was just a cool idea that popped into my head, don't dignify it with response please, okay, what else happened, so Robby X is back, which is good and fun, I like Robby X, I've missed him, and yeah there was a tag match on the first night with him and Shingo against Huato and Oleg Bolton, which led to some interesting combinations, Bolton and Robby X, wrestling each other, didn't think I would see that, and that was a lot of fun, Huato and Shingo, again, interesting combination there, and then afterwards Claudio Castagnoli had a video package, and he has challenged Shingo for a match, and they're gonna have a wrestling match, that's up in, I don't hate that, not too much, I think that could be very good, that could be

1:19:03very good, you know, you mentioned Robby X, could we slide Robby X into the junior spot and have a little few Robby X and Fujita? Yeah, we got to get the belt off of Yofa, that's fine, that's fine, yeah, I'm saying down the road, that could be your junior heavyweight title match, right, could be, right, that's the problem is, right, there's all these guys hanging around like Yo, Anishimori, and Despie, and Huato, all these fucking losers that they've got to do something with, they can't just not book them, so they're having to, they're like there's not that influx of fresh and exciting young talent in the junior division, that there is a heavyweight roster that has necessitated, you know, the fact that all these stars left me and they're like, frack, okay, we've got to do something, we've got to make some new stars here, there is not that feeling of urgency in the junior division, yeah, they're really,

1:20:05they were carrying the promotion though for a little bit, I mean, this is not necessarily a everyday occurrence, so we're like Goto and Zack and Sonata and Shinkgo, then you finish with them, and you put them in the bin, you just sweep them aside and let the cool young guys come in, I'm with you, trust me, I'm with you, all right Claudio, um, of anybody, I think Shinkgo is probably the most comfortable in the sense of, you know, he does like working in an American style, and Claudio does like working not necessarily an American style, so I think this is kind of fun actually, I don't have a problem, do you have a problem with it? It's fine, I'll be a fun match, I would rather see Claudio wrestling against the newer younger guys in New Japan, but you know, I understand why it is like this because I'm assuming that

1:21:11Claudio is going to win, right? Maybe that's not something you, you know, you might not want to have one of you, you know, guys like a New Year or an Oywo or whatever you think you're about to go. But here's the thing, I think Claudio could lose, like he's not a protected guy, he did need a sh- uh, shota, did he, did he have a match with shota? Where have I dreamed that up? He may, I know he's had matches with Shinkgo before. I'm gonna look it up, shota, you will know, that's him. I'm almost certain he did. Almost sir. Yeah, I don't really know, it's like if like Claudio is in protected spot in a way, he's talking at the bottom. Yeah, I mean, it's not like he's doing anything massive with him. He can lose. Yeah, maybe I'm talking out of my ass. Yeah, you're not, you're not, you know, but I'm just saying, like I think I think it goes either way, I definitely could go either way. And I think it's somebody that, for being honest here, it's probably somebody that that Tony gets a boner over, so he wouldn't have

1:22:12a problem, having Claudio lose them, you know, because he knows he's going to be like, you know, there's about like 15 guys I would rather see wrestling Claudio than Shinkgo. I think it'd be good. I really do. I think it would be good. I'm not just speaking that. I would rather have this match than not have it, but you know, if you are saying to me which New Japan guys you would like to wrestle Claudio, Shinkgo wouldn't be, you wouldn't pop up on the list. Thank you. I hear, like I get again, if this is a guy that quote-unquote were downcycling, yeah, I hear you, but yeah, I think this is a perfectly good match to stick in the middle of the show. I'm totally okay with it. Can I just sort of copy paste the weekly misuse of Tite Cheese segment? Absolutely. That made a vent in this, today's show, was it him and you, you're against Iwa and I can't remember who's in the back of match, David. I watched it a couple of hours ago.

1:23:15I can't remember who it was. I'll look it up because otherwise, no one's going to get angry with me for not knowing it. No one gives a shit. It was, yeah, Tite Cheese and Aaron Wolf against Fujita and Iwa. And that was really good. I know there were some great sequences between Tite Cheese and Iwa and I would love to see that as a singles match. There was a great moment where the big lock was counted into the dangerous backdrop. So I want a whole feud, a whole match built around that spot and Tite Cheese various ways of countering the big lock. And you know, we were talking about ways to keep the momentum of Iwa going between now and King of Pro Wrestling. Tite Cheese. And I think a feud with Tite Cheese would be the perfect way to do that. And yes, Tite Cheese criminally misused and underused by this company, news at 11. You know, I feel bad about Tite Cheese putting in the work and really turning, you know, a lot of people's perception of him. And

1:24:22I don't know if he got like that work paid off for him when it comes to success, quote unquote, in New Japan, per lesson. Yeah, I think he's criminally underrated at this point, criminally underrated. Hey, active advance pro wrestling says, where will the masses realize Yo-Tosuji is a placeholder, A.C. who's already hit his peak. Well, I don't necessarily agree with that. Yeah, I think there's plenty more and plenty to do and certainly not at the speakers of yet. Nathan says, what do you think the path is for Zach going into Russell Kingdom? Do they build to a big Arnold Wolf never title much or attempt to continue telling the story that he said a funk, which they did post G1 in Refrigerate with his recent loss to Jay Joshua. Could you see him in the mix world tagly? Potentially, but would you consider, let's say hypothetically, Zach and Oywa,

1:25:32winning world tagly, wait, did they win it last year? Yeah, who won the world tagly last year? Oh, no, I watched the whole thing in a car. This is when we're usually on hiatus. So, where we don't 2000. I still watch, even if I'm not doing the podcast about, I still like, you know, it would be the 25 world tag league. Yeah, but it doesn't have its own page. Yeah, it was. It was Zach and Oywa, they won. Basically, my point was going to be, I think that would be a step down for Oywa. I think Oywa needs to be doing something better than the tag-to-boy loft. Who else is there that he could tag with? Let's go. HJ, baby. Hardly Jackson. Now they would. Oh, oh, oh, oh, you know, I think that is an interesting idea. What about Zach and Fujita, TV? Okay. I would think he's Junior Heavyweight title defense or title challenge or something like that.

1:26:38Yes, I would think. Yeah. Zach's interesting because yeah, that line up is filling up pretty quick. If we're fantasy booking, Russell Kingdom now, we're really hitting the top end of the card. I mean, maybe the TV championship again, possibly? I mean, maybe? That's about where we're at, right? Maybe TV? Maybe never? Yeah, I mean, I think it's... I mean, we're not going to put him in a never-six man, Matt, are we? It seems like a waste. Yeah, that's a tough one for Zach. This might be a down year for Zach. Maybe we'll do a wrestle game to blast you.

1:27:42He wasn't a never-six man, was it? I can't remember any neither. I feel like I have Alzheimer's. Russell Kingdoms. What was the last year's, Russell Kingdom 20? 20. Yeah, he was in the... he won the rainbow with Oyward and Hartley Jackson. Oh, boy. Yeah, you're right. Oh, yeah, I do know. I don't remember that at fucking all. No, do I? No, it's that. Right? If you were in, you'd be touching it half-fitting in front of my stupid face and even my, my braid weight, remember that. Yeah, I had no idea. Wow, that was a while ago, wasn't it? Six months, eight months. It seems like a lifetime. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I don't... I'm gonna say TV championship match or never-six man or something like that. It's gonna be a tough year of the squeeze him in. That's for sure.

1:28:45I still like the idea of him wrestling, I'd wof... I thought I really, really love the G1 match that they had. And it felt like they were going somewhere with it, where if I remember correctly, yeah, Zach, what did they? He caught him in like the European clutch pit or something and he had a big shit-eating grin. He was like, ha-ha, I got you. Felt like that was the first chapter in the story. So I think they could run that back at WrestleKeynes and for the never-tuttle or any title. It's really a matter, but yeah, I could see... I could see that being an exciting program. I'll be into that. Okay, J-J-J-Stocks says Suji came out to invite VPW's unstoppable force, Aries, to train in the New Japan of Dojo. Please check out Aries' tremendous work in putting the Southeast Asia Wrestling scene on the map of the massive growth on the Southeast Asia scene. Look, I saw the clip.

1:29:46I have not seen him work yet. So let's just say, and I haven't done yet, Joel, just between me and you. But maybe we can work on something to learn a little bit more. Maybe we can work on something to learn a little bit more about that situation, how that happened, all that kind of stuff. Maybe if you're a $10 subscriber, maybe. So, you know, I'll leave it at that. But yeah, I haven't seen any of his work yet. So I can't get form an opinion. I can't give you an opinion. But, you know, to get hand-picked and invited to see what you got in Dojo and see where we can go from there is an exciting thing. And yeah, like the idea of kind of broadening our horizons. You know, when we talked about a lot of the

1:30:46that area of the world and where to explore and find new talent, it seemed like it was always Australia that or and or New Zealand that people were cherry-picking talent from. But, you know, if there's a growing wrestling scene in Vietnam, yeah, I'd be curious to see what we got there and what talents there and what we can what we can use for our pleasure and benefit. So, yep. I promise I will work. So, I'll go back to some of the progress from Thailand's. Imagine like some sort of like Muay Thai trains. You know, Thai box in the GDF, that would be sick. And I'm just saying there might be an untapped region where we could find another star. So, yeah, let me work on that this week and see what we can do to learn a little bit more about that that area and their connection with New Japan and how they can work for both.

1:31:50And the last question we've got here is from at Death to You Cunts. No! And that's right. To you Cunts says, I'm sure you've both been asked this, but which AW wrestlers that sometimes work for New Japan, do you want to be around on a more full-time basis? Mm-hmm. Will Osprey. We can start there. I've said numerous occasions that I would take O'Cottahback tomorrow. I'd like to see more pack. I like pack. Pack? All right, I like that. That's not a bad one. Brody King? Brody King's not a bad one. It's a good one. Yep. Yep. I liked winning it was there. Would you take a gamble on a J-weight again, even though he's banned from Japan? Yeah, for sort of like the odd showcase match.

1:32:50Sure. Okay. Juice Robinson, the other thing back. Okay. I wouldn't have a problem. He would probably be welcomed with open arms. Juice. Again, these are guys that have worked in New Japan for a little taste. Um, obviously to Keshner. Um, trying to think you guys are late like worked. I'm thinking like less guys who used to be in New Japan, but more AW guys who have occasionally done right. New Japan stuff like Ricochet, would you want to, well, I used to be a huge rapper. No, I'm good. I'm good. There. Um. All right, I'm gonna throw. Well, no, no, I'm just going to, but I don't even know what he's doing now. I would, I would do bucks. You do bucks? They, yeah, I was kind of hoping we would see more. But me too. When he came, when he had that little, little shot, you know, when he went back,

1:33:52I think it was in Osaka, right? Um, that was fun. I liked it a lot actually. Um, yeah, I mean, we give you plenty of names, right? I think we, we, we, we fulfilled our obligation to the roster. Fuck me. The size of their roster. Oh, it's massive, isn't it? I've been scrolling for about 30 seconds and I'm still only on the A's. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Yeah, they, they, they, uh, I'm like, the good and the bad is, you know, if you're a pro wrestler, you know, you have a guy who's willing to sign up for a couple bucks, that's always a good thing. But yeah, just, it just hoover's up every, you know, every Tom Dick and Harry. And it's like, okay. Is that a good thing? I don't know. Maybe. And depends on if you go on the other side of the check, I guess. He's probably too famous for this now, but I wonder how, uh, Hangman page would be received. That was a name.

1:34:52I, that was the name I pulled back on. And I don't, I don't, I don't, like, is he still hurt? I don't even know if he's like, what's his status? Um, that, but that was the, the name that I didn't say. Um, I don't know. But I want Hangman page back. I'm gonna say no. Okay, here's another one. Kyle Fletcher. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. With that question. In a heartbeat. The heartbeat. I wonder if he could sort of bring him and Mark Davis back for another run with Aussie Open. Sticking him well, tagly, they can, they can make it to the block finals, not the actual finals. They're, they're lose to, uh, Yano McElbey in the B block final night. There you go. That's the time break. Chef Kess.

1:35:54All right, bye, everyone. Hey, everybody. My name is Jesse Collins and I am the host of the Gentleman's Wrestling Podcast. A show right here on the Voices of Wrestling Podcasting Network. On the Gentleman's Wrestling Podcast, we take a deep look at individual issues and stories that are going on in the wrestling world. Each episode is about a different topic and we take a thorough and educated look at things ranging from current booking trends to break down a individual performers and angles to investigations into different fan cultures across the industry. In addition, we keep a close eye on the wrestling media. And as a professional journalist, I bring a unique perspective to how current issues in wrestling are being covered and discussed through the wrestling media. We have a revolving series of guests from a cross-wrestling punditry,

1:36:56joining us on each episode and we hope that you make the choice to give us a listen on wherever you get your podcasts from.