427 Super J-Cast Destruction In Kobe Preview

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2:01Visit VoicesOfRestling.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 Super J-Class. I'm Joel, joined by David Gold. It is Thursday, 24th September, 2026. This is episode 427. How are you, David? Good, good. Glad that we're at the end of the road for the road for the road to shows, Joel. We were an actual major show this weekend if I'm not mistaken, Destruction in Colet. That's nice. Then we'll get to the road to King of Pro Wrestling. We're trying to set some stuff up for

3:05the atunal months. Some of it's landing, some not so much, but that's what we do here, Joel. We talk about it, we give our opinions, and we promote discussion within our fan shant just shut. I got pleased to take it. You try so hard. I really do. A noble person, a noble podcast. No, it's impossible for me. Absolutely. I was thinking about that. You know what I was thinking of when I think somebody said, you know, if you guys didn't fucking just spout off and, you know, whatever, you guys probably would get more listeners. I'm like, I don't know what I'm saying. I like the list. Yeah, I know. Leave us alone. We were in not to name drop again, but Chris Samson's backyard. I was talking to Jeremy from keeping it strong, so I was just going like, we actively do not want people to listen. Let me take

4:14that back. We do, but like we don't harp on it. We're not going to sit there and fucking, you know, kiss people to do something that we don't want to do. So yeah, you just remember having that conversation and then everything playing back in my head. We are what we are. We is what we is. Yeah, I want fewer people to listen to us, but I want more people who do listen to us to pay to listen to us. We've got to find out balance. I know. Well, listen, we can, they can just, you know, we can keep up with the show with the shelf life of fucking 45 minutes. They don't help us. But yeah, the picture, I mean, enthusiasm to do any patron content about New Japan at the moment, because this road to destruction has really taken it out of me. I don't know what it is, but it's just absolutely killed me. It's been interminable. So I'm excited that I was like a first email in the desert, David, having some actual matches of consequence with, you know, the Japan championships on the

5:15line and having an actual honest to God proper name show to preview today. So that was exciting. But I just, I keep thinking of other things that I'd like to talk about. And I need to talk about with it. You know, I did, I've, I've entered a deep state of psychosis here. Because I did today while I was supposed to be working. I, did you know the, I don't if you haven't played it, the arcade shooting game House of the Dead. There's all me. No, but I heard of it. You see, you see, yeah, you might have heard of it. You might have seen it. And the part of the gimmick of it is that there's branching past. Like if you go, you know, you get to a certain part of the house. If you save a scientist, you know, you, you will go one direction. But if the scientist dies, you're going in another direction. And there's a few little sort of branching points where you can go in different places. So I started constructing a map. Oh, wow. Root. And getting screenshots of all those different moments where the paths branch. And then,

6:19like, yeah, making this little flow chart of what happens if you do certain things. And at that point, I was, what, what am I doing? This is not normal behavior. This is not normal. No, you're supposed to be working. Just be teaching children at this point in time. Well, it was my planning time. So it was supposed to spend planning lessons and, you know, marking assessment preparation and stuff like that. But I've just ended up with lots of really elaborate maps of House of the Dead. So if anyone wants to talk to me about House of the Dead and we record it, I'll do that. Yeah, you'll put that up. That's my brain disease. I'll just get really fixated on something for about two to three weeks. Yeah. Interesting. And then we want to something else. So anybody's listening to the loves house of the dead. And what's that content? You got to get to me within probably the next 72 hours. Otherwise, I would have just got to get to know what's up. Welcome to my world. Well done. Yeah. I'm in the same boat. Like I felt bad because I didn't

7:24feel like I churned out anything for the Patreon peeps. And again, I have a million plans, but I just been sick and just run down. And I'm like, I don't know. I just don't have the motivation for anything, but trying to beat this fucking cold. I did have a concert last night, which was pretty, pretty, pretty great. The charlatans for those who care. And hockey seasons right around the corner, like next week. So there's a little bit of my brain focus there as well. So if anybody wants to talk leaves, yeah. I can do that. All right. But listen, we talk about New Japan for a wrestling here, Joe. Again, we don't necessarily have to start there because we never do. But why don't you take us on a trip around the world and back? The passion mode. All right. John, sorry. Okay. Where should we start then? Let's have a question here. Too much, Ketsis is ghetto reusing his booking

8:27sheet from the bullet club Civil War for this column versus Osprey early builds. It should be fantastic. But it feels very jarring. So the great stuff a lot of the younger guys are doing, especially against the Vets on the roster like look at this versus GPH, for example. So there's been some activity on the AW side of things where Will Osprey has recruited. What's the little fellow who doesn't wear shoes? Speedball Mike Bailey to about you know, yeah. And there was a snotty tweet from Kalim human saying like, that's rubbish. You're I'm sure I need it for doing that. So it's I don't know how you feel about the build to this because it's likely during I agree with too much Ket seeing. In the Wembley show where they were all buddy buddy. And these sort of passive aggressively taking shots in him. And a lot of this is having to be done long distance because obviously

9:27is not not been in Japan recently. I mean, if what I am told is correct, we'll be seeing plenty of Will Osprey next year. But in terms of the build up for this Kalim human feuds, it's lost focus and it's lost momentum, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, it is. There are times where I just think it's truly on its way to being like the greatest thing New Japan could possibly do. And then like it seems like a week later, I'm like, all right, we're doing the Twitter shit. Yeah, I don't know what are you going to do though. And sometimes I feel like they were told, okay, you're going in this direction. Fuck and figure it out. And you know, it's just nonstop. You know, it's shit like, you know, like you mentioned with speedball, you know, little little jobs from Kalim. I mean, look, I mean, there's not much else they can do except like

10:31mail in fucking video packages or some shit, you know, but even then, like, okay, when would that be played at how shows? And I don't know, like in this day and age, this is probably the only way they can do this long distance. And I put in air quotes, relationship. I mean, does anybody else have any better ideas? I guess at this point, because I don't until they physically together. What's the trucks? Sorry, I was okay. Okay. Allison, there's nothing wrong with it. And another thing too, the question that was asked, you know, where we ever just, you know, get out, just kind of rip it out the notebook. Okay, we never really got what I would consider some kind of definitive finish to that civil war. So yeah, he's going to go to it again, how hopefully and maybe it's the actual ending that he was planning until everything went fucking tits up. So we're going to have the US branch of United Empire tweeting from about

11:31saying, oh, we're not part of the United Empire anymore. Yes, that'd be great. We're going to put a tariff on somebody. That seems to work. Yeah, what do you want to do? And again, I don't know of a better idea, just because of the difficulty of making that work and keeping it in people's minds. I do like the idea of like it is and it does say, we either it's going to be the biggest fucking swerve and just to keep everybody off their scent or it's going to be, well, this is the worst kept secret in fucking pro wrestling. You know, and this I do miss the element of surprise with shit like this and build, but it's, you know, it's like, I don't know, this is what it is. This is what it is. And again, sometimes I think it's great. And sometimes I think, oh, well, this will this ever end or this ever gets started. And of the bread crumbs. So, we'll see. We'll see. It's going to happen, but we'll see how it gets there.

12:36Let's get straight into talking about some of these matches then because there was some really good stuff, which I was pleasantly surprised by. Let's talk first about the show from Numbori Betzu in Hokkaido Saturday, September 19th. And of course, the standout match. Well, first of all, we did have the the Rambo again. Yes, welcome back to Rambo. Yeah, Rambo. So there's some some fun stuff in there. Shinsky Walker was the winner of the Rambo. But I'm going to just put that on ice for now when we preview the Shinsky Walker match at destruction. So we're just going to file that away. So listeners, I know we're talking about the show and you're going to be thinking, well, you must talk about the Muror Rambo 2026 and acknowledge the fact that Shinsky Walker was. So I've done that. I'm going to circle back to it later because it might be significant when we preview Shinsky Walker versus Kinozke to Keshda. What else happened in the Rambo? There was more parents between Oleg and Hinari. Yes. So they've been wrestling each

13:43other quite a lot on this tour in various combinations of multi-matte tags. And it was very good. So I don't know if there's some purpose to it. Or if it's just sometimes it's one of those things that just happens at random on an endless road to tour that just guys happen to be placed against each other various configurations because that, you know, those people they have on the tour. But again, I'm just filing that one away because it may become significant at some point. And I think it's quite an interesting and fun stylistic match. So Shota Umano had won all the previous Nubori Bettsu Rambo's, but he didn't win this one. And he's not slated for anything of significance on this destruction show. He's in a 10-man tag in the opening match. So I was watching this and we kind of felt that Shota pre-G1 was building a lot of momentum to potentially be a G1 winner. And a Tokyo Dome-A-N-Eventer once again. But the way he has returned, and I'm not criticised,

14:48I'm not saying they've done a bad job with it, but he doesn't look or feel like a guy heading for the Tokyo Dome-A-N-Event. Now he has said that he would like to challenge the winner of Drill Versus Gabe for the global title, which of course you know will preview that later on. And he would have faced Driller in the G1 block final, had he not been injured. So how are we feeling about Shota at the moment? No, no, no, we're kind of clutching at straws a bit here because there's not that much of substance we can talk about from a road to destruction tool. But I'll just repeat what I said earlier, it doesn't feel like this is a guy heading for the Tokyo Dome-A-N-Event. Yeah, I mean if we're going by the idea of New Japan Pro Wrestling had this plan, they were going to give him the brass ring, so to speak, for G1. And then we're moving on whether that be a challenge at a

15:51destruction or king of pro wrestling or whatever, and then moving on to a main event in the Dome, it does feel like not only was it a pivot because they had to, it might be a convenient excuse to kind of delay this a little bit. I mean, look, in the wacky and fun world of pro wrestling, pro wrestling, and the stuff that goes on behind the scenes and in locker rooms and in discussions and so forth. I mean, we all know that a lot of people have a lot of voices and things kind of get funneled up, so it's almost like a mafia situation to be quite honest with you. So, you know, I'm sure there were people in the camp of, yep, he's our guy, let's move forward, etc, etc. And in the same breath, I'm sure there were people that are like, I don't know, we've got a hot

16:53thing here, or at least it felt like we had a hot thing here when G1 ended. Let's ride the momentum with the people that we got because in essence, we created two new stars that were, you know, one maybe had a slightly higher trajectory in the beginning than the other, but okay, the other one wound up winning the fucking thing. So let's just play that hot hand. I will say this in a match like this, this first match at, excuse me, at destruction, it's six man, six, not a six man tag, it is a one, two, three, four, five, a ten man tag, Joel, I did the math in my head. Thank you. And it wouldn't surprise me in a match like this, that the winner of the first match on said show in some ways, in some ways finds a way to get

18:01back into the mix. So what am I saying? Showed a picks up a win against whomever, pins, when, pins, I don't know, is pinning Sinada enough to get, okay, so let's go there. Could that be a catalyst to say, okay, later in the show, I'm going to do the walk out again, and somehow find a way to get my finger in somebody's chest while they're holding a title in the air. Yeah, of course, I, again, I'm fairly confident that he's going to come out after the global match and challenge the winner of Driller vs Gabe. And yeah, there's certainly storylines for him to be facing both. I could see it being Gabe, you know, Ghetto likes to do the trilogies in a calendar year,

19:03so I could see him having the rubber match with Gabe, maybe King of Pro Wrestling, and him beating Gabe Kidd and winning that global title. And then taking it on all the way to the Tokyo dome, so I think that'll be a decent spot for him. I mean, no, no, it's not the main event, and it's not what we had in mind, but like you said, you know, you do, you play the hot hand, I just don't think he is a guy that's anyone's going to be excited about as a Tokyo dome main event at the moment. And perhaps there's more interest in more fitting, more appropriate things you could do with him. So let's, well, first of all, do you think that is a plausible, if not probable path for Shota Uber and I move in forward? Yeah, I do. I do. Because again, you don't have to, you know, pivot just because it was written in the fucking notebook in March. No, again, I think that they're playing to a certain degree hot hands and we can keep Shota warm with a challenge for the global, which is again, not a

20:07terrible spot is your fucking number two singles title in the company. That's that. And nobody should be fucking hand waving that. That said, they got three months to the fucking dome, dude. I hate to say that out loud, but it's September 24th. You know, it's going to be my next question like who do you think would be an appropriate challenge for Shota for that global title in January 4th? Ideally, I would have zero issue if it were someone from outside the New Japan porousin world. I have the same thought, you know what I mean? Like I don't think, I don't think it's a slam dunk that it has to be somebody on the roster. Now, to me, that means we need Shota to go over, right? I think that's an important thing because you don't want the fucking global title to go

21:09gallivaning across Colorado and wherever else, AEW decides to run a show. Yeah, I mean, but again, I don't think it's it's carved in stone that Russell Kingdom has to have. A guy challenging for this title and I'll say this out loud too. Any title. We'll say, you know, we've heard a little bit of buzz and scuttle but, but yeah, we'll see where it goes. But yeah, I think I think Shota going into Tokyo down Russell Kingdom as a global champion is probably the smartest and safest bet to go. Yeah, and I sort of made my peace with the fact that Russell Kingdom and a lot of ways to sort of occupy in the same space like a Russell Mania does in that is. Correct. The biggest show of the year and you want to get big matches with big draws

22:11who are not necessarily full-time members of your roster because you're trying to get the casual fans in you got 40,000 tickets to sell. So whilst there might be very talented, very hard work in members of the full-time roster who you would love to get a big match at Russell Kingdom, not everyone's going to get a big match at Russell Kingdom. You know, some guys just get down cycled and they have to wait until and yeah, and that's just one of the realities of the product and I don't want everyone crammed in there so we get a load of meaningless multi-mad matches because then it just waters down the quality and the prestige of it. So I know there will be some people listening to this who would bulk up these suggestions of having outsiders at Russell Kingdom because you're thinking no, you know, we need to promote and push the guys who are going to be there the next night at Dash and the next month at New Beginning and I totally get that but I also, you know, I think I've seen enough that there is value in booking short-term and having big attraction spectacle matches just for Russell Kingdom and then you can kind of reset afterwards

23:16and build your kind of you meet in potatoes for New Beginning after that point. So I know this is someone that shows even has been tangled up with long-term since what was it? The Minion 2019 I want to say but John Moxley's always there and I don't know what his position is going to be with a W Cognin, I know he's challenging with a loss break for the World title isn't he? So there's definitely opportunities there to start, you know, part of the C for some interesting stories going into Russell Kingdom but I always wanted Shota and Moxley to have like a real proper big book match, you know, like a gritty nasty ugly match like with blood. That's why I want to see I think that could be a really fitting and the satisfying direction that goes in and I think that could be a feud and a win that could really do a lot for

24:16um, Shota Umalou not just in the eyes of the domestic fan base but for whatever it is worth with the Western fan base to, you know, have a big match and a big win with a lot of casual eyeballs on it at Russell Kingdom over a big name like John Moxley to then propel him back into the main event of the later in 2027. Right and again that doesn't necessarily mean that every single match and it has to be that way. Again we've heard, you know, just stuff that's being bantered about and you know I would say some stuff had us raising, you know, kind of doing a double take and be like, mm, okay, interesting. All right. Um, that being said, I am, again, I don't want it to be, I don't want Russell Kingdom to be thought of as just this big show that we need to pop a house. Um, I do think it's important and I do think for me and my

25:24enjoyment of the product, um, I, I, I like the idea of having New Japan pro wrestling guys in big spots but just as you said, not everyone can have that and unfortunately in this day and age or fortunately, no matter, depending on how you look at it, um, having that building get as many fucking asses in as many seats as possible and as many eyeballs on the product as possible is really the bottom line number one priority. Now again, we were fortunate last year in the sense of we had arguably our biggest star in the past, what, 30 years, um, you know, rechiring. So again, that, I mean, just that alone is going to bring people in. Um, we don't have that this year like we don't have a major thing, um, that we can go back on. Now again, this is a pro wrestling

26:26promotion, Joel. I don't know if you know that and we can do crazy things to get people over and move the needle. We saw it this summer. So I'm not saying that all fucking, everything's lost on the idea of it not being what we described but I like if you put a the super JKs brand of Gundam I had, you know, I'm probably 60, 40 in the sense of yeah, we're probably going to do see a decent amount of, I'll put quotes decent amount of outside help, um, involved in Russell Kingdom and that's, that's the state of things. Yeah. As always is the case when you're making plans and predictions and prognosticating future matches with AW guys like there's a lot of moving parts there. So what might be a really good idea in September may not always be possible come late December, January. So it does feel like

27:31sort of building on on quick sound to some extent when you are doing that with AW guys. But yeah, I definitely think there's opportunities there and I think it would do a lot for show to umano to get a big win like that on a big stage and yeah, I don't mind having these outsiders coming in as long as the right person wins and I think by and large that has happened over the last couple years. I can't really think of any examples where an outsider beat a new Japan guy really damaged their credibility momentum in a way that we're like, what's going on? How could this happen? I think New Japan whilst obviously is the um weaker entity when it comes to the sort of the political power but the dynamics between them and AW, they're not mugs, right? You know, they're not just letting all their guys get pinned. There is some mutual um benefit when they're working together. So I don't have any fears about the right person going

28:36over. It's more is that other person going to be available come wrestle kingdom. So yeah, you know, we'll wait and see. But at the moment, if you ask me now late September, I think that is a cool match that could happen. I'd be into that for potentially wrestle kingdom. Um, okay, where else should we go? Let's talk about one match that is official for King of Pro Wrestling. So we're far as forwarding here all the way to, so the way to October is only like two, three weeks away at this point, three weeks away. Yeah. So for sum of all, we have one official match and that is the never openweight championship between Aaron Wolf and Kosei Fujita. So Aaron Wolf has he's seen enough of Fujita. He's wound him up a plenty and he's going to put his never title on the line against the young punk. Uh, Sumo Hall. Yes. And we talked about this last week about the the heat and the intensity that they brought to to their interactions on this um,

29:38tour where everyone's worked really hard. And that that's been one of the the bright spots. I think the the way those two are having these really, um, quite heated pull apart brawls. And just watching the way they're both going at it, the thought occurred to me like those both forgot those guys, Aaron Wolf, Kosei Fujita, they were treating this feud like they believe it's going to be a future Tokyo domain event. I know that's a bold statement, but like they are going so hard on this for it just seems to have more significance than just being a one off never title defense. Do you know what I mean? Like I don't know if you're getting those vibes as well. But Fujita, he just like I said last time he is living the young punk gimmick now. It's not just a nickname that's been given to him at random that's been AI generated or we'd be translated

30:39or something or something that he's picked because it sounds cool in English. He's not he's not pretending to be a twat. He's enjoying being a twat like he is living that gimmick now. And not in a way that makes me think, oh this guy's going to be a heel. But he's he's just a bit of a not-business and it takes a lot of glee in doing that in a way that does and I'm not making these comparisons to be like, yes, he is going to follow the same trajectory and hit the same heights as these people I'm about to name. But you know guys like Texanito or you know even a stone cold Steve Austin guy who played by their own rules and and are not squeaky clean baby faces and we'll stick two fingers up at the establishment. And I just feel Koso Fujita is one catchy emote away from being a star like just a catchphrase and just a little gimmick like a little hand gesture or

31:39something like whatever his equivalent of the you know the tranquilo poses will be that that will be what just launches him into where I think he can go. And I think a split from TNDK and a move to the heavyweight roster is it's coming when and not if I think it's coming soon. That's why. Do you think this is in any way New Japan saying okay we like what we've seen so far. Let's let's let's try some fun with the never open weight situation. Put him in with Aaron. I think they've hit a home run both of them in the in at the very least giving a different flavor and a different taste of the idea of a junior and a heavyweight going at it like much better than like even you know I always use like show as the example of the junior making waves as a heavy. I mean

32:47before this program did you have these thoughts of him being a heavy. Yeah I think I've been on record for quite a while saying I think that move is inevitable but it's accelerated for me in recent months. I just yeah I feel he's outgrowing TNDK and like I feel more than that it feels like it's leaving money on the table to just have him being the junior ace of TNDK I think he should be doing a lot more than that and yeah whilst I have always felt that was in his future what I've seen even just over the past week has entrenched that and I think yeah we need to accelerate this. Do you think they're what would stay percentage you're giving him walking away with this title? I don't know that's a really difficult question I don't

33:51because I think he went. I don't know. No I think that is not good for Aaron Wolf. I think losing to a junior. Yeah. Okay so this is Vegeta being you know losing the match but like walking away with it. Oh this guy is a fucking battle and it's not only where you can do some sort of no contest. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. Yeah. I'm not clever enough to think of a way you can end that with both guys looking great. Yeah. Yeah I think I think Wolf. I hate to say but almost has to win because yeah you're right that I think that would ding him up and do worse than the positive of okay. Fucking a battle between two guys and you know maybe you know it doesn't need I was going to say

34:56a slip on the banana peel but I don't even think you need to do that. You know it could be a clean win but again fucking a battle. I think that that would be the right way to go too. I did think though I think I really felt like before having this conversation that you know there's gonna be a title change here you know there's just smelled like it would be and I do want to say one more thing there is another match for King of Pro Wrestling obviously we don't know who the participant will be until after the 27th but the winner of Suji and Goto will take on Oyoah for the title here so I think that's I mean we're all assuming Suji right so that should be fucking wicked. There was also some talk of the I said that we earned a term destruction there's a the

35:58fourth match is a special six-man tag match with Tai Chi Yuya and Aaron Wolf against Zack Oyoah and Fujita. Now there was some talk about that possibly becoming a singles match between Oyoah and Tai Chi which I've been banging the drum for for a few weeks now but then Tai Chi got sick yeah and I don't know where we are with that I mean even if that doesn't change that's a pretty fucking good six-man tag match with with those guys like that's like a lot of my favorite guys in the company crowned into one match so I like that one a lot but I'm kind of skipping ahead of it there but I don't I don't know if they've sort of left it too late for that but it would be a shame if we didn't get Oyoah and Tai Chi in a singles match and there's plenty of time to do it because if I look at the the schedule then we have after destruction there's four shows aren't there and there's one in Ishikawa which is that Tai Chi's hometown or am I getting confused here

37:04hmm not 100% yeah look it up uh isn't that used to be his name his name was Tai Chi Ishikawa right here it's someone else now I'm finding all different yeah Nijipama or Nijikawa Tai Chi's homecoming event yeah okay so it is his hometown and I've got something wrong so yeah that could be something for the okay I don't know if I'm not checked if that one is televised but I would really like to see them in a a singles match I'm I'm not going to do the the weekly roundabout Tai Chi's criminally underused because we all know where it's down on that you don't need to hit again but that will be really sad if we just missed out on the opportunity to have a singles match even if it's of no significance whatsoever it's just a tune up match for Oyoah at least it will be something and it does feel like it was something that they're building to um so I don't know maybe you can squeeze it in somewhere in the Tai Chi produce show but um yeah just thought I'd throw that one out there as you brought up Oyoah

38:07um where else shall we go here let's talk about the tag match the um number one contenders match the iWGP tagging challenge well we have to knock out brothers oscar and uta ice defeating the challenges the most violent players toki maka me and tori yano in 33 minutes woof 57 seconds by a kob um if you just said that to me a month ago that we were going to get a match between these guys that went over half an hour I'd be getting flashbacks to yano versus chase o'instrian the pandemic holy moly but whilst there were actually now I bring up some similarities in terms of the uh the persona if yano that appeared for this match this is the absolute best possible outcome like if you really you know squinting to see it the amount of wish casting that I do on this podcast where when I'm previewing a match and I think what is the absolute best possible

39:08outcome here with where if all parties just have are on their a game and they create magic and it's a hot crowds and everything is more than the sum of its parts that's what they did absolutely nailed it didn't I I mean they could have just said okay uh most violent you are you know we're gonna check in the nostalgia box um bring back you know them and again maybe go 15 minutes and you know not present them it presents them is more of a nostalgia of what they once were kind of thing as opposed to what you got were I don't know if this is like the the last hurrah for both of these guys but it felt like it in the sense of these guys were really presented as fucking trouble against the team who you know is supposedly the trouble like like New Japan could have taken the

40:13easiest and you know just get from point A to point B and okay you beat some legends and you know where we go we're on to uh you know a tag title match uh you know beating the number one contenders air quotes but like they like they felt like a threat and they felt like you know and more serious than I would have ever predicted uh and in fact they they they I would be comfortable in saying they left it all out there you know I mean they they they they fucking drain the tank um again we're talking about wrestlers you know in their 50s who have a fucked on of wear and tear on their bodies but yet they found ways to at the very least going into this I can honestly tell you Joel that I was not particularly excited about the

41:19prospects by the end of it I think that both Makabe and Yano did and again we're grading on a scale you know we're talking about the guys at the at the tailiest of tail end of their careers putting forth an outstanding effort against guys that are you know three times as young who don't have the fucking wear and tear on their bodies so yeah look I don't think I couldn't have asked for anything more and I don't think that there was anything more to give like I really feel like they emptied the tank and for that that was a pleasant surprise yeah I you know with Yano Makabe have a reputation of taking it easy and you know it was not a critique of them because they've done enough right they're on the the twilight of their careers they're probably hanging

42:22up their boots sooner rather than the later so they they put the tar jar to and they don't need to be going out week in week out and killing themselves but the fact that they did like just look in the state of Yano at the end of this match when he was there doing his post match promo backstage with this like massive fucking gaping wound in the middle of his head just like pissing bloods and just looking like an absolute wreckage and it made me think like how good do you have to be as an opponent to get fucking Yano to play like that right yeah because you know you ain't doing that for like guerrillas of destiny or car on the cop or like any sort of random scrub tag team like he must see something in the knockout brothers where he was willing to do that and even Makabe was bumping you know he wasn't phoning it in by any means so yeah it was just really it seemed yeah quite shock shocking to me the lengths at which those two veterans went to to make this match great and I'm

43:28sure some of it is a bit professional pride and also the fact that you know they probably are not going to have too many more opportunities like this they're not going to have many more big spots where they're in a tag title match or a tag title number one contenders match and you know maybe part of them was just like when are we going to get to do this again let's really leave it out there but again just to blade like that on a row two show on a number one contenders match that seemed significant to me right to get over the idea of all right let's let's add a lot of sandpaper to this match that let's be honest didn't necessarily have to happen um yeah and you mentioned professional pride I'm sure there was a lot of that I'm sure there was a bit of chip on shoulder of all right let's let's let's show these kids what we got um yeah I mean I again I couldn't ask for anything more if you they empty that I I I I can't fault it at all um is it the greatest pro wrestling I've

44:33ever seen of course not but like if we're given credit where credit is due they went out there for you know a couple of weeks now you know doing their damnedest to get over the the idea of okay we might be old and we might not be able to get out of bed in the morning but you better fucking take a seriously and two it just as an added layer of all right knockout brothers you guys are tough son of a bitches you know it's like if G1 didn't help prove that um getting them back together and I sat here and said you know I can't see the fucking possibility of knockout brothers being put back together why could they they're leaving money on the table blah blah blah blah blah and maybe I was a little bit quick to anoint the end of the knockout brothers just because you had what I felt like talented money making parts that are are in tag teamland they got back together and it's like okay and not only are we picking up where we left off

45:36we're we're adding even more depth to who we are and what we can do and and and the uphill back I guess not going to be just fucking a straight trajectory up the mountain like there's going to be hills the fucking climb and they and and shocking you enough in the year 2026 Yanoh and Makabe who are a hill that I thought delivered absolutely so there is that legend status and there is that once again then the nostalgia thing and all of that um but it would be very easy to hand wave this to say oh okay the old guys are just going to fucking go in there get their pay lighting on the way we go no much more much more than that much more than that um well I definitely appreciate what they did and a lot of ways that remind me of Mick Foley when he was in the latter end of his career where there were three matches that stuck in my mind where he had

46:38you know he's absolutely bloodbaths like hardcore intense matches so one was against triple h in honestly year 2000s and there was one against Rani Orton in I think about 2004 maybe and one against edge in I think 2006 and they were all very similar in as much as like yeah just really violent intense hardcore matches all the gimmicks and and Foley absolutely took an actually beating to make his opponent look good but you look at what's in common with those three guys it was all sort of young up and coming prospects that the company were behind and like he obviously also saw the vision and was like yeah and to help this kid get to the next level we're going to go out there we're going to have a blood path everyone's going to remember it you're going to kick my ass and then you're going to become a star afterwards so that was kind of the vibe because I got here as well like not to say that this road to destruction is on the same level

47:41as like a royal rumble or wrestle manure or some of this land match but um the the I think the parallels are a valid and there were some really I think this is going to be on a lot of people's match of the year short lists I don't necessarily it's going to be number one because there's been some extremely high quality matches this year but I could see it sneaking in as just like a little vanity pick in the first block but we think that's even doing a disservice calling it a vanity pick because I think people really love this one and just aside from it being just a really dramatic and compelling match in and of itself there were so many great memorable little moments to as well like um the cutaway to um ishii sitting on the Japanese commentary and he's sitting with his arms folded and that was great he says just like well less than a meter away from him there's uh like yano carving up uh Utah ice and it's just like blood spurting everywhere at least he's not even like turning around to look at it he's just completely non-plussed staring at his um his monitor

48:45very much like me watching the football and if Esther and Arthur is just saying I haven't applied but it's like I'm like I'm going to say remind me of like a parent at like a like a like a brew pop or whatever that bring their kids and the kids are just going nuts and they're just staring at their beer drinking you know exactly what it reminds me of okay I got a funny email from work today actually now you bring that up it was one of these ones that is sent out to everyone and is done under the auspices of being just a mess just disapplies to everyone this is not aimed at one person fucked up yeah yeah yeah this is me and looking at the garfield no garfields I said oh wonder who that's who that's for and um it was because say when work is finished as a teacher it's not like as soon as the students have left them my work is done I've got to get everything ready for the following day plan the lessons get all the resources and materials ready which I've got two

49:49choices there like I either take that home with me or I stay at work and do it but the added complication of doing that is that I've got Esther and Arthur to look after because um you know I don't want to drop them at after school club because that's like a 10 minute walk there and like a 15 minute walk back because they've got little legs I can't be bothered so most of the time they'll just sort of stay in my classroom they'll watch CBBs or do some drawing eat their snacks whatever were like sort of stuff out now Arthur took it upon himself to go to the star frame in this period after school and just start cooking food this is an air fryer in our star frame when you air fryer and the other star frame is like George you know Arthur's in the star frame cooking some crumpets in the air fryer I was like he's too wow he's in there he's in there cooking up oh what are you doing I'm making a beef Wellington so then this email guys out today saying um please ensure that children are not

50:50brought into the star frame at any time during the day including before and after school the star frame needs to remain a professional space where confident conversations discussions can take place where that concerns about children over here in sense of information and here's this is what this is the line this expectation applies to all children including staff members children oh boy I mean in this star frame contains kitchen appliances and equipment that are not suitable for children to access or be around on the supervise oh my god I mean the day create this email and then hand delivered it to you Jesus Christ wow well all right listen now all right sorry buddy you're not to stay out of there that's now a no cook zone for you oh that's hilarious oh my god oh well you make it friends at work that's that's good you yeah another moment made me laugh back back to this wrestling match um we had these guys out of the ring just brawling hitting each other with weapons like literally carve on each other's

51:54heads open but then in the dramatic closing stretch to the match we've got uh Oscar holding the tag rope like wait wait like come on tag me in tag me we've got to make a legal tag so I can save you from things and it just didn't bait me well at right obviously like New Japan have this how style of tag matches where they're all just tornado tag matches and they completely abandoned the kind of psychological element of the rules of a tag match like you need to be in the corner you're not allowed to get in the ring until you are tagged him and I just wonder could they possibly move away from that and would their tag matches be better or more or fresher as a result if they actually respected the rules of the tag match more well yes how the likes of um you know you and oi went back to basics and had an outstanding match that didn't leave the ring didn't in the G1 final whether there might be some tag teams going

53:01you know what let's let's tap into a bit of that and have like a proper old school tag team match that is built around having to tag in and out of the match legally and and working within those parameters because um I don't know if I maybe get a little bit tired of the tornado may him element of new Japan tag matches you know you just mentioned that in my head I've probably have said that a good a hundred times in my time watching pro wrestling um maybe never out loud but yeah like rules are important um especially in the hoki world of pro wrestling like like I feel like you can do a lot more within the confines of the rules of pro wrestling because then it makes the times when you don't adhere to the rules that much more special that much more important

54:02that much more what have you um yes I'm a thousand percent in agreement with you that you you the one thing that annoys me and again referees are there to help with the flow of the match they're there to um you know get over certain things and also put you know they're there to put heat on themselves as opposed to a wrestler because you can blame the referee because he was a fucking blind as a bad asshole um but like there has to be that element of okay here are the guidelines for the pro wrestling match because eventually wink wink nudge nudge we can go outside of that and it'll make it that much more special but if everyone's just fucking willing nilly and we're not really caring about the idea of that and here's the thing too um I don't necessarily blame the referees mean obviously it's the promotion that allows it to happen but also I blame the wrestlers because the wrestlers have created that environment again I feel like sometimes

55:07I'm an old man yelling at a cloud but like yeah like having concrete rules within a pro wrestling match I think is incredibly important because when you don't you you muddle everything so I'm glad that you said that because that was has that has been a pepive of mine for the longest time and there are a couple of other nice moments as um when Horneberg got involved in Yang the ref out just as he was about to make a decisive count and then uh to catch the izaka yeah making an appearance as well they were jangling all the keys and I fucking loved it right there's a time at a place for it and yeah all the smoke and mirrors and all the jangling keys for a match like this to make it memorable yeah just fantastic job by everyone um the only bit that I didn't like was there was a horribly violent moment where um Utah ice took a double clothesline from honmer and macabay and it was just the most vicious thing I've ever seen I don't know if you remember this

56:09part I'm going by thought you needed immediate medical attention to that uh yeah so it's the the standout stand hands and ask yeah okay big big whopping clothing um I do like the idea though like and again I'm I'm kind of you know we're letting my imagination run wild but you know like macabay and and yanora back there and they're like all right listen dude we fucking pull this off man I'll I'll you know I'll give you 20% of my cut or what you know I mean like like they're working out they are this is our last raw guys we got to teach these fucking young guys we can go nowhere man because this is it okay it's pretty funny but yeah I love that I mean again there's a time in a place and I think they hit all the marks absolute and in a lot ways that's been one of the themes of New Japan over the last year or two is the veterans pulling out all the stops to to help make the next generation look good rather than just being truckulent or dragging their feet or

57:11being jealous of their spots on the roster so yeah great great stuff we're all involved it feels like like systematically these guys are getting the tap on the shoulder and mean out right there's your time now row two whatever the fact we want you to deliver now and they they they're doing it and I think that's what makes New Japan a very special promotion to watch there's a few questions on this one but probably got says off the back of KB versus GPH what are the top five best ever New Japan matches in a brightly lit gymnasium now that could make wow I think we've got the other on my head a brightly lit gymnasium yeah yeah I can't think of any unfortunately I was going to say like um you know some of the New Japan shows that they did for Jersey all pro but those arenas were not Britly Britly lit brightly lit brightly lit I'm a real I'm gonna sit here and you know there's probably like a fucking super junior tag like like the bucks and I don't know fucking

58:18Kylo Riley and fish you know they probably was really good and you could just a super genius match or something right right um do you consider quirk and hall a brightly lit gymnasium no it's not gymnasium is it that's not not really I mean it's not I mean it would be stretching the uh definition of a gymnasium for sure um yeah I'm sure that like I said I'm sure there's a random junior tag or something like and for whatever reason I just hearken back to the days of when they would have shows with no commentating like they would just have the hard cam I actually really enjoyed a lot of those um and it was in maybe my favorite and it's probably not even a gym but um you know the arena with the gigantic wall the thing I love that fucking arena um yeah maybe uh maybe

59:18there but yeah nothing I can't give you a specific but yeah I'm sure there's just plenty of that I want to do like a look into some best of super junior stores because there must be some absolute bagna on best of the super junior's that have been in brightly lit gymnasium but um anyway we uh other questions we got a burning hammer so should most violent plays be in the world tag league yes why should they absolutely win was this the throwback match that could lead to G.B.H. Renaissance you know what I'm gonna take that back now let's let's let this let's let's let let's let it be this you know I mean let's not damage what they've done um no they don't necessarily need to be and because keep in mind what you're asking for they had one match where you know there was a lot of I don't want to sit here and tell you smoking mirrors but you know let's put it this way a lot of guys have extended their pro wrestling careers working a and I'll put in air quotes hardcore style um you're asking for how many matches eight I don't I think we're pushing

1:00:27I'm gonna say no and let the memories be the memories I'm doing a dive into the 2019 best of super junior when one arena called the Almory Marshall Arts Hall I don't remember this match but dragonly defeat show that got 8.26 he got aged much and that was before show became crap stupid as a lovely segway to the next match oh I just one more from Davies says can we get is a good indexes g1 instead of ok of course yeah I'm not sure I take a bit the coin toss at the moment but um yeah there we go um actually it close my tab oh come on so what were we talking about okay so there was the show a different show not show as in House of Tortures show shows in

1:01:27event wrestling show in events yes that was yesterday in Hokkaido in the Kitagas arena in Sapporo so we're gonna fast forward straight to the business end of the card IWGP junior tag championship match uh Mr. Kote and Eldersbrado successfully turning against show and doki 21 minutes 58 seconds new rodoz this was fine I don't I'm sad to say I have no more insight into this match it was absolutely fine it was perfectly cromulent match where the baddies actors as bad guys and the baby faces actors baby faces and it was very well constructed well-worked and satisfying and built up the heat well and had the hope spots in the comebacks and all that and um got some dramatic near falls quite a few moments where I was like oh well then House of Torture is gonna win and then they didn't win and I was happy they didn't win and the good guys won at the end and everyone was happy that's all I have to say about it yeah I mean here's the

1:02:31thing I think Mr. Go and desby as a tag team is a novel concept um again this is their first title defense so we certainly don't have it this long history of you know to be able to rank them as you know wherever you want to rank them as IWGP junior tag champions they don't do anything for me to gather dude I don't know I don't know what it is like like they're fine don't get me wrong and better than fine I don't know if it's just like and again the junior tag has had a long history of oh cool guy and cool guy together um and we're just gonna make it work for a couple of shows that's kind of what this feels like like they don't feel like a real tag team to me they feel like a two guys who are very good at what they do having to get together and oops we just won the

1:03:32titles and now we had a tough anthem that's what if they feel like to me hey guys is rich from the voice wrestling podcast network letting you know that we've once again partnered with an old friend my bookie football is finally back everyone and whether you've been betting on football for years you're just looking to put a little action on the game this season my bookie is where we're all playing here on the voice wrestling podcast network now I'm far from an expert on sports betting especially college and pro football but you don't need to be an expert on my bookie they make it easy to figure out and find a play you like and take that shot and that's what I love about my bookie you can find the action you want bet on it wherever you are when the game kicks off and that's very important whether you're on your phone you're at a bar even at an apple orchard it's the fall and you know me I'm at those apple orchards and I've done it I have made my bookie bets at an apple orchard if you're new to my bookie I should let you know about the one of a kind bet back bonus which gives you complete protection on your first place here's what you do you sign up with our promo code

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1:05:38hybrid and all electric models across the lineup you'll find sophisticated design rugged capability generous cargo space available seating for up to seven and on select models driving range of more than 600 miles one model that really stands out as the all new 2027 Kia Celto's it's a small SUV with big SUV capability featuring class leading interior space unavailable turbocharged engine and available multi terrain all-wheel drive whether you're navigating city streets or heading out for a weekend in the mountains or along the coast it's ready for wherever life takes you whatever your lifestyle Kia has an SUV designed to fit your needs learn more at Kia.com or visit your southern California Kia dealer yeah I could kind of novelty special attraction rather than an actual long-term fixture in the junior tag division and again like the junior tag division has been something that we have really enjoyed I think it's one of the one of the stronger parts of

1:06:40New Japan sort of over the last two three years and that's gone right that that division's dead I don't even know who challenges would be at this point I know it would be like Robbie and we will Robbie X is he's challenged yo right right I mean not maybe not now but yeah but like yeah but that's the first team that comes in my fucking head you know what I mean like who else like like where would you go that's a great question where where do you go after show and doki like where do you where do you what do you fucking land you know is he just shoved somebody with master Watto yeah that's a great question it does seem a little dry right now I don't I have no idea where they turn it just seems to be one of these situations where New Japan booking team has only they've got like a certain number of tokens that they can

1:07:46invest in booking a division well right and in order for one division to be booked better than it currently is then another division has got to get worse as a result so I always I always wondered why like again not to go too far back into you know our histories here you know in the past Liger was booking for the most part the juniors and show shoe was booking the heavies um why can't we do that like why can't we have like a different like just one part just take something off like give somebody the tag fucking you know and again maybe they do have something like that as we sit here you know maybe and again I'm just throwing in a name please don't take this for anything but like Eugene Agata is running the fucking I don't know the tag situation

1:08:46and I'm not saying we sit here and we have we go so far as oh we need and I hate this term summit that like producers for a match not saying we need to go there but again just to have one point person be the guy that is the focus of that piece and just worry about that piece um again whether that's kakuch whether that's ghetto whether that's uh yano who again has a pretty loud voice backstage um um you know whatever the case may be like let's just like uh I just want to make sure that they they they can do exactly what you described but we only take that back not do exactly what you described in the sense of oh yeah we only have so many chips and we have to distribute them and if we put our focus on something else we got to move chips and things get stale and dry now I don't understand why they can't do two things at once but okay here we are there's also been the element of roster turnover so um tjp to what he did Kevin Knight

1:09:52leaving the company um accurate seems to spend most of his time abroad um driller maloney moving to heavyweight park honestly even the company so yeah there's a lot of people have moved on but that's not to give new japan a past there that stuff should not have all been a surprise right they knew that was coming and I think they could I should have done more to freshen up the vision in the interim so what I will propose to you I think we need new blood and this is something we're talking about months ago about the uh the rumors we heard about the junior heavyweight recruitment drive that new japan what happened with that yeah well I I think they like to wait until post g1 to start to bring new guys in so they brought in shinsky walker I think slash hope we might see some more guys appear at this point so just as we've been talking an idea has popped into my head which makes sense and they kind of built up to so how about a challenging team TMDK

1:10:58robbie eagles and fuminaure arbe I mean again that's the name that I'm I'm I've been waiting for um I don't know if there's again if it's just a conscious decision of new japan to say okay um we're gonna pump the brakes did I and I maybe I'm confusing so if I'm wrong won't be the first time but um that there was some issues with negotiating for abay like tampering allegations am I am I thinking of something different or was it him I think you might be thinking of um dragon diarrhea you might be right me that was some issue with that that meant he's yeah it seems to be a little bit radioactive at the moment um so yeah he's another guy that there were a lot of rumors around being brought in but yeah my understanding the situation he might have upset the wrong people and um yeah I don't just not to say that they're never gonna bring him in but certainly that's not helped his transition to the company if

1:12:02that he's gonna happen at the top but well you know who I can pick up and pick up the phone and call I'm gonna call Nick Wayne right now but I'm know that we're we need him you're favorite we're gonna give him a call right now uh flip Gordon yep oh flip Gordon god damn there new japan pro wrestling legend flip Gordon flip me I can be a team my two favorite people um yeah so abay he did he had a single smx with Zach a couple of months ago a few months ago didn't he which I sort of interpreted as that's gonna be that that was his like unofficial tmdk tryout so yeah I think now is the time with super junior tag league around the corner let's start bringing some new people in no I didn't I see somewhere about one of the guys from top flight talking about being in super junior tag league which I'll be I'll be on that one you know I do I don't mind bringing in um mid card AWX for the tag leagues to freshen things up I don't have a problem with that

1:13:08and top flight we're a team a few years ago before I think both of them have been accruing injuries that sort of halted their momentum but certainly at one point they would really exciting prospects say you know that might be a good way for them to get back on track now I'm not saying let's put the belts on top flight but point is we need some new blood because the whole division is dead and I think you could probably say the same about the junior singles division which uh you know we had the main event here at the show with uh yo getting a successful second defense against ishimori 20 minutes 44 seconds direct drive and again it it was a really good match and I liked it I enjoyed it I could say that to start the show it was refreshing to have a match of consequence with the title on the line I could have closed my eyes and imagined what this match

1:14:11looked like and it is exactly how I thought it would be you know it was ishimori working over the shoulder and doing a lot of really great work on that and he was working hard and yo was great and it was very well structured well-paced both of them had the working boots on the crowd were into it and there was the jewellery and charts and lots of back and forth and exciting near falls and good stuff but I did did nothing for me it was I left this to the last possible minute to watch Dave and I started watching this about an hour before we knew I was just doing anything else but sitting down to watch this match it was a lovely evening I sitting outside I've stolen this book from Malik it's called Murdoku so it's a cross between like murder mystery logic puzzles and Sudoku where you get given like a grid with different parameters like different areas on the grids in a scenario and a bunch of characters and you have to figure out who did the murder and it will be like Adam was next to a treasure chest and there's like four treasure chests on the map and you got

1:15:13you know it could be here could be here could be here and Jane was alone on a boat with another woman and then you know we know how that went yeah the victory got a do you be favorite send me the name of that because that sounds right up in an alley I have a friend who you know she loves the fucking murder podcast nonsense um but that might be right up her alley so um yeah send me a link that I'll see what I can do with it or you know if you know the name of it or whatever I'll see if I can pick one up yeah but this is the dichotomy isn't it that I didn't want to watch this match I watched this match and liked it and I don't want to talk about this but what what what what can I possibly say about it and again I'm not criticizing the fact that the match took place I think it perfectly fine and good for a road to destruction show but it's not exciting it's not really moving the

1:16:20division forward or that I like the idea of Robbie X challenging I think Robbie X versus Yo would be a fun match um if I'm not mistaken that's gonna be on another road to show so I mean there's two problems here isn't there that the division's not exciting it's stale there's no one fresh there the best guy in the division has seems to have one foot in the heavyweights and Jose Fuji ta I know there's gonna be a lot of Yo Fanta we're gonna take Umbridge with this and they are probably living their best lives at the moment having this glorious title reign for Yo and love in every second of it and to those people say God bless you I'm happy that you're eating big now but this is just doing nothing for me personally and yeah the roster the the junior heavyweight singles division feels really really thin at the moment and I don't know what you can do to improve it but like I about a couple of years ago I had this vision in my head of this exciting new time

1:17:24for the junior division where the title was going to be circulated not hot potato but it was going to be fought over by the likes of Jose Fuji ta and Francesco Acura and Kevin Knight and Master Watter and Docke before he turned heel but none of that has come to pass yeah it's just been very very underwhelming and if I we've got the junior title match between Yo okay so we've got some matches in us actually which I wasn't aware of so Vrotie King of Pro Wrestling choose delpt over six at Koraka we've got Oscar and Utu ice challenging Greg Arden Henry and then we've got Koraka and Hall show on October 7th that's where we're having Yo versus Robby X and I was just thinking as I was watching this show like I would love and then when Robby came out to challenge I was like you know what okay this I think it was it was Dominion 2019 or maybe it was

1:18:282018 I can't remember where I if it was just after Ospreay won best the Superdue players and he challenged Dragon Lee and it was on the Dominion card and they just had like a like a 13 minute match that was just fucking nuts they just crammed everything into that it was just high spot high spot high spot high spot nothing was given time to breathe and it was fucking great and it feels like we've lost that as part of the the New Japan product where the junior title used to be this like delicious morsel that you get on a big show to wet your appetite for the heavyweight stuff that come after it and it was something different and it was short and snappy and dynamic and memorable and yeah they weren't given as much time as the business end of the card but that was fine like that was part of the appeal that it was just really snappy like that and now we've lost that because all of these fucking junior WWE championship matches are put on their own shows and

1:19:33and I did this yo this you're going to win 22 minutes you know is that's that's fine and I think that's a perfectly appropriate time for it but that's not what I want the junior division to go back to being what it was before when it was you know little fellas flying around and I was just thinking like oh Robby it's coming out of challenging that would be great if they put that on king of pro wrestling as like the fourth match from the top you know six match on the cards yo and robbiex having you know 12 minutes just go out there and just fucking get all your shit in robbiex but nah it's the main event of the mini show on road to king pro wrestling at corpus and I'm just like oh can we can we not New Japan can we just can we make the junior division exciting please yeah big problem is is that and specifically with this match like the two guys that again yo is not for me and I've said it a thousand times and I will acknowledge the fact that

1:20:34he is still a good wrestler mind you but he's just not for me like and when I see him I it's hard for me to focus and be like okay buckle down dude you know because he just he doesn't interest me at all and again for we love the praise and we like to shit on and we like to but again Taijiichi Mori's been in this mix for what feels like 400 years like if I never saw him again in a new Japan pro wrestling junior heavyweight match I would be okay with him um it does feel stale and the the problem also is is that that staleness needs to be stretched across the calendar year you know it's like when you're a poor college student you buy a half a pound of fucking ham and you put one slice on stale bread and you got 55 sandwiches for the in any mean for the month like that that's what it feels like like oh yeah there is a sliver of ham

1:21:38in there I guess but yeah I but we're just kind of just stretching out and stretching out and stretching and out poverty booking that's what we should call it this is poverty booking is poverty booking it is poverty booking now again am am I somewhat excited for our yaks getting in the mix yep absolutely I think I need to but yeah and the thing about it is this too you're right juniors should be that element on a show um the problem is is that that element has become across every fucking match so now you got 300 pounders doing junior spots um but again the whole purpose of the junior thing was like okay these are the guys that can do this shit because they're not 300 pounds yeah I'm even a Jeff Copic it'll be too much 100% yeah 100% so so what makes them special they're not doing and but but you'll see it somewhere on the show just not in junior form um we got 25 minute shoulder matches result great right right you know I mean is that good and

1:22:40in the fucking pandemic era right but and here's the thing too so there was one sequence during this match where it was like reversal into into an arm bar and then reversal into uh you know they were just going back and forth and back and forth but nothing felt like it meant anything it felt like they were just rolling around on the mat you know reversing you know like ground based finishing holds and yeah it really was and it was like like okay like you compare that where people were just like you mentioned that the crowd was into it but like it didn't feel like they were into that that sequence so to speak and that was toward the end of the match um um and I compare that to the you know when you cared about a guy and the idea of them finishing off people with basic moves again we're going back to the G1 um like there's there's nothing established between like there was no reason they get excited over that other than okay this is

1:23:46a finishing maneuver that people use you know other wrestlers have maybe very successful and even though he was working over the shoulder it just felt like oh we're just we're just reversing shit on the fucking mat um I don't know I shoulder shrug I shoulder shrug but yeah they need fresh talent now here's the good news though Joe and I'll say this with all the sincerity in the world but also knowing that it might not be exactly what we want but okay hear me out like when it comes to juniors I feel like it is easier to refresh a junior roster than it is a heavyweight roster because you might have like big guys like that don't necessarily fall off a trees um but a two hundred and ten pounder a two hundred and twenty pounder um I feel like those are somewhat more prevalent in promotions that you know aren't AEW or aren't WWE or you know you're not

1:24:52they're available like there are guys out there that are available that we can you can say and even the AEW guys you know there's some stuff where you know they may not be used a lot and say okay we'll go over there for tagly we'll go over there for best of super juniors whatever the case may be um yeah I'm I'm hoping that the scenario that you laid out with TMDK that that will get some new blood pumping but yeah it does feel like it's it's a bit stale right now and poverty booking is where we're at when it comes to the juniors and also I can't neglect the fact that you know guys like Ishimori and Yo and Desperi they sell a lot merchandise they sell out shows so you know you can't be a bit churnish of me saying like put all three of them in the bin because I don't personally like them so I do think they do have value to the roster I just not against each other I would rather see them sort of helping to elevate a newer generation

1:25:56of junior heavyweights than just wrestling each other at infanitum um I would just buy one little thing from this match which I may be reading too much into it but Ishimori did a blade runner and he did a j-white hand signal so it's a little bit of me I was like and I know it was within the context of a bit of callback slop where they were sort of spamming finishes from their former stable mate so I get that you know in context it probably doesn't mean anything but there's a little bit of me like um j-white too would you would you welcome them back given given one recent injury issues to and again I'm not 100% up on AEW products so it's not like I'm tuning in every day but it feels like he's considerably lost in the mix um that doesn't necessarily diminish the talent that he has but again it does feel like he's

1:27:01he's there I guess um you you you take him back 100% open arms I think so I think it's how shit Joel he's banned from Japan he cannot come back yes the myth of uh informed consent um yeah j-white I consent new Japan I consent isn't there someone you forgot to ask we've got to go and ask tola tonga over done we didn't we didn't consent yeah so I it's tricky because if we've got we'll osprey doing a load of dates next year as well and wrestling in all the big shows then like we're running the risk of you know having issues if we keep if we're bringing over guys uh I I can definitely see value in it that being out of the Tokyo time and that pop when j-white's music hit and I could you could see it in his eyes when he was in there that he missed Japan and he missed New Japan and I reckon given the chance even if it was just to do something akin to what osprey

1:28:08doing at the moment just like running an extended program with one of the guys I'd better jump at the chance to do that I don't think he's got the legs to be a full-time member the roster and I'm not sure I want that but I think it would be a shame if he never came back I don't think that would that was really ever on the table never coming back um match stipulations aside um I I again I think at that time though he's getting uh a generous offer on a national stage and his stock was very high and you know the expectations were you know he was going to be you know a next level star for a US-based promotion uh correct me if I'm wrong he's married uh now but at the time was his girlfriend lived in the states um and he was living the farmer's life you know he was loving you

1:29:09know beautiful piece of property um and you know enjoying the fruits of this wonderful country of ours that said things didn't quite work out that way that did they um I mean everything aside you know from the beautiful home and the lovely wife uh and the wrestling side of it you know so again there's nothing to say like I don't think I hear it's really where I think new japan is going if you want my honest to god gun to my head opinion new japan is and it's not like they haven't done this before and they and they do this currently but I think a little bit more emphasis is going to be on a select core of guys that are homegrown new japan guys but with a you know with the idea of guys coming in for short tours again we're not spending two years in japan but very similar to what osprey is doing now very similar to uh maybe you know some guys doing

1:30:16stuff like this in the past but I think we're gonna see an emphasis on that this year I really do so um yeah I would have no problem having him come in with a program again if the intentions are the end result is is that we're making new japan pro wrestling strong I don't know if if they give a fuck could be quite honest with the people that they bring in they might uh you know they might be a professional and know that okay I'm being brought in to help elevate stars here and I that doesn't mean we're diminishing your light which means that again the end result is we need to get this fucking dude over um and sometimes you need a little help in that and I think you know we'll see a we'll see a decent amount of that moving forward and I think with names that you had mentioned then and you know maybe other familiar names um but yeah I think that's kind of

1:31:20where we're heading and at least in the near future let's put it that way I think jay white would be a very cool opponent for you yeah to have a program with because they they've got a bit history out there I seem to recall something about five years or so ago where jay white was forcing someone to smile was that you yeah I remember there was a bit where he made you your his assistant um I think I might have dreamed this up in sort of the haze of the pandemic era but him like fishook in his fingers in a young lad's mouth and forcing them to smile and I think that was you yeah I could be wrong but um does sound like some of the porn that you watch not going to lie it does sound very I found it no I think it was him so he was yeah he was pulling down his mask and telling him to smile it wasn't as violent or sexualized as I'd made it out really I got a bone I'm not gonna lie I made it more fujoshi in in my mind I'd he got it yeah we do that yeah

1:32:27yeah white versus you that we fucking great I love that yeah can I ask what you tied into the search engine to find the video or the image or whatever you need what exactly that was it really like a technology to give you the fucking thing right there perfect job of you all right uh what else we got there chemo sobby um well so I got okay well that's it on that side I the Robbie X tag team match before the junior tag match is really fine he was working really hard so I'm sure yeah Robbie X that's good I like he's not getting a shot at the junior title um so let's preview destruction in Kobe coming up this Sunday in Hugo the Kobe World Memorial Hall so we've got kick off match Taisi Anakara and Macedonia Sada against Yushe and Hattasawa and Tatsuya Matsumoto I've enjoyed Taisi Anakara on this tour

1:33:28you know young guys go through that phase where they don't have to shave their heads anymore and they try and grow their hair out and it reaches that kind of like pudding bowl stage where it's like the shit stage where it's not long enough for them to style in a fashionable way but it's strong god yeah yeah so he's in that phase at the moment he's I think there's something there with him he's he's quite cocky and I don't know if that's sort of the standard k-fabe like oh there's another young line here so now I'm above him so the sort of the trickle down nature of Dojo bullying kicking in or he might genuinely think he's the shit possibly because he's been in the Dojo for ages you know he was the guy that was there for like three years and didn't get to debut so he's got all the fundamentals like he's a really good grappler from what I saw from him in this tour I was like there's there's something there and it might be like the kind of cockiness where he's going to

1:34:32get taken down a peg or two because he actually leaves his own hype and is enjoying this meadow zone farce or I don't know that's just something I'm keeping in line with him especially in this match I think there might be something there first match then we've got the 10-month tag yanno mystico desupe oleg and shota against diktogo show doki sanada and ren as we've laid out before I think this is show to picking up a win probably over ren maybe sanada and then calling a shot later in the show right 100% agree I think that's that's where we go I'd be shocked if it wasn't again they do dumb things sometimes but I think that's the again we've got three months to fucking wrestle kingdom so we do have to start thinking of okay we need to put the fucking wheels in motion here and I think that's it we've got wato to Gucci and yo against ghetto ishamori and robi ex I mean there's I suppose there's the space there to revive team what was they called six

1:35:32or nine the wato to get yeah I know sorry yeah get up the snake mate let's get ghetto and jado for reviving the team yeah I mean obviously that's just a little taster of yo and robi ex find whatever third match dyke in the guy oscar and yuta ice against zane j greco con henare again that's going to be a preview of the knockout brothers holy semen army match that will be coming up on the road to king of pro wrestling on of tober 6 is zane taking the four or is it is dyke you taking the four probably I don't know if you subscribe to the preview tag theory you'd imagine whoever wins here is going to lose the tag title match say by that logic I say dyke in a guy gets beaten down gets pinned by

1:36:34tenori or okan can't wait that's too great uh yeah all right I'm with you honestly because yeah we do follow the new japan booking patterns if you will it does feel like that's the case so yeah I'm with you then we've got special six man tag match tight chi you and are on wolf against ax a bid you knew that you're iowa and korea say fugita so just yeah six really good fucking wrestlers and that could spark a lot of interesting stuff obviously we've got wolf against fugita but for king of pro wrestling I've talked earlier about tight chi and iowa possibly having something going forward and that leaves you here and zack which is an interesting pairing they were in the same g1 block currently yes i'm not mistaken but also uh tight chi and zack you know on other sides of the war again so uh yeah that's always interesting good friends uh on the other side yeah that's

1:37:40that I mean this match has this match will not be bad let's put it that way it it it it shouldn't not be bad I can't imagine it being bad um in fact i'm putting a lot of stock in it being right up there with some one of the better ones of the night yeah even if it doesn't have much narrative significance like i'm not demanding that there's some sort of angle there or spark in a future feud i will put down whatever i'm doing and watch that match just because i like all six of those guys and you know given ten minutes that could be really fucking good um fifth match then we got special thing as much jeff cob versus calum newman um yeah i don't have a problem with jeff cob being back and i think he is probably grateful to be there and is going to have his working boots on and and do what he has to to help the um the new guys and yeah i expect calum newman to pick up the win here and i've got quite high expectations of this one damon i think there's kind of stylistic difference so then with jeff cob being a good powerhouse base capable of doing his own flippy

1:38:46stuff i mean i don't know how much of the flippy's he does these days but um certainly as a base for calum newman and the designer as he likes to do and they could probably hit each other very hard as well i think it's quite important that calum newman wins this and maybe we get says video message or something maybe just a little breadcrumb to just something to re-ignite the osprey fuse rather than passive aggressive twitter comments i'll be nice uh i think jeff will come in with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder uh but also come in with a little bit of and also uh again he kind of coming in with a hat and hand a little bit um so i think he's got a little bit something to prove um and calum again we always talk about jeff cob matches back in the past of the best ones it felt like we're we're and he was working with guys who could take a lot of fucking shit um get tossed around make make it look spectacular and you know that's right up calums

1:39:52fucking alleyway so yeah i think this match will be very good um because uh just the dynamic that i laid out like that and again with the hope that there'll be something maybe a little bit special to help extend the the feud that we all see coming with uh good all will so yeah i think it's magic be very good then we've got the njpwl tv championship match with kudoski tkstert first is shinskye walker so i'm really quite curious to see what this looks like and what shinskye walker looks like against a quality opponent like tkstert as i said last week from everything i hear shinskye walker is absolutely doing his best to make this work and this come in with humility and enthusiasm um as i was an interesting conversation it's actually about how uh sort of picking up the style like the stylistic differences of coming in from a promotion like a dragon gate or Noah

1:40:58and how there's like different footwork required when you move to new japan and the adjustment period for that from like a technical standpoint in in the ring work and that's something that i wouldn't have been thought about and i pro you know even if i was looking for it i probably wouldn't be able to notice it in the ring but that's an interesting one and and quite a tall order for shinskye walker to be coming in and having what you know you'd expect and and hope to be quite a dynamic match with kudoski tkstert and of course like shinskye walker has got a back hat lock of very high quality matches but i have some question marks about how he is physically though is he at his best is he still nursing a few long term niggles i don't know um but i think this match will go some way to arch in the questions i do think shinskye walker needs to win this because it will be a bit of a wet fart if he comes in with what i think was a fair amount of hype

1:42:03and then just immediately loses to tkstertert i don't even want every match he's in like like he's he's getting pinfalls left and right yeah i and yeah as we talked about him in the show he won the number of betsy rambo not nothing he cut a funny promo afterwards backstage where he was invisible well he was out of frame basically cutting the promo to like the camera just pointing at the advertising behind him basically saying like well to kester you haven't shown up so if i'm not going to show up either uh so i i think as shinskye will win this and i'm curious to see what the house of torture flavor of shinskye walker looks like you know is he going to win relatively clean or is there going to be a whole lot of shenanigans involved in order to protect to kester and to emphasize that shinskye walker is a baddie and he's with house of torture um i don't think that's necessary but they're probably going to do it anyway aren't they yeah yeah they definitely

1:43:03are holy i know it's weird like you've been somehow digging through my thoughts because i've always wanted to ask wrestlers especially new japan wrestlers like what are the things that trigger something in your head that says oh this guy's guy is shit together and this guy's a really like there's stuff that we see that's like that we that we see on the surface in our eye oh that guy's a good worker because he does this but there's probably so much subtle things that we don't even pick up on footwork being a perfect example of you know like okay i'm in the ring with wrestler x and uh you know you're a minute in you're like oh yeah he's this guy's you know this guy's fucking good like i wonder what those little things might be um the people pick up on so yeah that's funny that you said that's funny i remember something saying to me like when all you were came back from his nowhere mini excursion that he really struggled to get back into

1:44:07the rhythm of new japan matches because in nowhere they've got the whole different timing and and pacing of of their matches which again it just it's fascinating to me like it's way too technical for me to even comprehend but just like here in the the professionals talking about stuff like that like that's yeah i love that something that's the stuff that kind of gets me like that that's very interesting you know it's kind of like analytics for like you know sports you know it's like i do dig like time of possession and uh you know zone injuries and shit like that a lot um so that's kind of like a little bit of the geekiness that i like about you know like okay so like is it because it's like he's leading with his left foot or like what do you what do you what are my missing like yeah definitely into that yeah like someone could sit down with me and show me video footage and actually explain it to me frame by frame let's do an understanding right this is one of these things like there's certain elements of football like certain tactical

1:45:07things that i hear a lot and i watch them and have them explained on a watch videos about them but i still don't really understand it i'm right in real time it's like you will never see it yeah you never know it's not great exactly okay we have a seventh match special singles match shingo to kagi versus cloudio castan only but that's fun that's cool i like that um don't know what the you know we get to get something afterwards i don't do we care who wins i don't personally i'm looking for good match i think they have good chemistry together um but you know if we want to lean into theories you know this is just another example of what we were talking about with you know i know that they have had matches before and you know but this does feel a little bit random you know especially for a new japan pro wrestling show so yeah pretty cool it feels like there could be

1:46:08something happening after this match where we go oh okay right now i'm like i don't know like shingo and driller versus cloudio mocks or something like that or you know driller that let's say cloudio wins and then driller wrestles him afterwards or you know maybe show tour against cloudio it just feels a bit strange as just a one-off isolated match and i'm not seeing the bigger picture at the moment but that's fine like i even if it is just a one-off match like great shingo versus cloudio you five not gonna and one knows how but that that's fun yeah that's good shit um eighth match is the global headweight championship match driller maloney against gade kid driller had a fantastic year and as exceeded my hopes and expectations for him this feels like it would be a good moment for to crown him and celebrate that by having him win that belt um i think during the the three way much they had a i want to say the dominion

1:47:12where um who is it was it i can't even remember who's in the match was it and driday and shota and driller and there was the the crowd were just like all in on driller and the enduring image at the end of the match was driller looking all sad like oh fuck i didn't win it and the crowd mills out for him i think this has been perfect spot for him to win and and capitalize on the his growth of momentum and i didn't love the match that driller and gade had in the g1 there was just a lot of crowd brawling i thought i had some issues with the pacing of it this is their chance to fix that and make good on that and if there's a hot um koe bay crowd i'm going into this um with quite a high expectations actually yeah i think it'll be i think it'd be very good so you're saying driller wins yeah um my biggest fear is that they're just going to be totally

1:48:18heavy handed with the the mid match pro-mose community theater just you're my you're my brother i love you and you all right broke my heart and stabbed me in the back who are you i don't even know you're like then i hope they don't do too much of that um but they probably will uh a little bit yeah they can kind of curb their sort of self indulgence i okay i think gade can be and has been really fantastic this year when he tones it down a bit um i don't see him toning it down here like semi main event of a relatively big show here i think he's going to be completely on his bullshit uh so i've also got a mixture of um optimism but also more been curious about just how off the rails it could go if if there isn't a voice in the room you know go the car rails are in place now no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no right now is it more important for you for shota to challenge game or did you think it doesn't matter

1:49:23he's just going to challenge her to title. Oh yeah, that's a good point because I said earlier that I think it was going to be Shota versus Gave it, King of Pro Wrestling. But now I've disregarded that and said I think Drillin needs to win here. Hmm, back myself to the corner here, Damon. I don't know. No. Yeah, I mean, listen, I don't think it's a terrible thing if Drilla wins that Shota's challenging Drilla, I think it might be a little bit more significant if it's Gabe that he's challenging and wins. But I hear you when you say, all right, let's shit or get off the pot with Drilla. You know what I mean? Like, let's give him a little taste. See what he's got. I still think Gabe is more of a bigger win. But I see where you're coming from. I think Gabe retains, beyond sort of. I'm changing my mind here.

1:50:24I think I had enough of him. I've had enough of him, not to say I think he's been bad, because I think I've enjoyed his work in 2026. A lot more than a lot most hardcore New Japan's have. He's annoyed a lot of people. I totally get that. It just comes down to your own tolerance of him being Kim, you know, Gabe, you know, Gabe. Yeah. It's not an act. It's not a performance. It's not a character. But I think we've seen enough of it. And I think it's time to move on. So I'm changing my mind. I want Drilla to win and at King of Perrestling or whatever at some point in the future, Drilla versus Shota for the White Bout. Although that does run the risk of the crowd turning on Shota again because they like Drilla more than him. I don't know what to think anymore. David. Gabe's one in the show. Okay. Matt winning the title, but he's been successively the van. We'll see Shota and Gabe. That'll be my prediction. All right. That's fun.

1:51:25And then the main event is the IWGP Headaway Championship match with Yotasuji is first defense. That's weird. It is first defense. From the dream. Yeah. Against Hiruki Goto. Look, I really and truly honestly feel like this match will be very good. I'm not excited for it. And I feel bad because Goto's had quite a resurgence in the past year, year and a half. I think Suji's coming into his own. People are starting to open their eyes a little bit more to him. Having a hard time getting juiced up for this. Yeah, I say like I said with the Ishimori challenging, yo, I'm sure it's going to be a good match. But these people thought I would dub the legacy challenges. Like I understand why they're getting the shot. And there's value to that.

1:52:25And some people are going to love it. And Goto still has some name value and prestige as a relatively recent former heavyweight champion and all the street fighter stuff. Notwithstanding. But I've just I've moved on from it emotionally. It's not scratch. Yeah, yeah. So I don't, there's no part of me now being like, I want Goto to win the big one. I just want to fast forward. He's get to the fireworks factory basically. I don't think there's any chance of Goto winning. I think that would be weird and bad if he did win. Correct. I like the stormy of yota wanting to defeat all the former or recent former champions. That's fine. I think that's what we'll do here. We'll get his business done. So yeah, I'm sure the match will be very good. I'm just looking past this one to the the oil or match checking or progressing and beyond that even to wrestle kingdom. So, you know, we touched on Shota and how I think neither of us believe he will be in the main event anymore. So I think, you know, whilst I, if you'd asked me a few months ago,

1:53:28I would have put money on Yota versus Shota for wrestling in the main event. I don't think that anymore. I don't think that is the match. What do you think is the best and biggest possible match they could do for wrestling kingdom main event? That's a good question. Because I don't think best and most interesting are necessarily one and the same. That's a great question. Because I don't know if I have a definitive guy I would put main event. Like, we could easily fall back and be like, okay, let's scrap everything that we talked about for two hours and just assume, okay, they're going to go with Shota or they're going to say, okay, we're going all in on Oioa, right? And maybe he wins the title. Who knows? I don't know.

1:54:31To me, Oioa feels like a guy that we would put in that spot and ride the momentum a little bit even though it does feel like it's cold off a smidge. I'm sure we can build that back up. I wouldn't be too much to ask the tournament to be heat on that one. But Joel, I mean, this might be one of those scenarios where we talk about, okay, is this an example of a time when we need outsiders to help the cause a little bit? Personally, do I think it's going to be Oioa? I'm going to give you a solid, I don't know. I would love it. I don't know why I'm apprehensive of that. I shouldn't be. And again, I can't give you a concrete reason why. But it just doesn't feel like that's the path. Again, I could be dead wrong.

1:55:32I've gotten to my head. Oioa is the new Japan guy I would put in that role. Second would be we change things up from everything we said in its show to. Third is an outsider and an in an in that people would buy a ticket for. Again, I don't think they try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to wrestle kingdom. And I think the philosophy and the mindset might be, you know, the biggest gate of the year that we can generate might be somebody from the outside challenging. Again, I feel like they have the time to build up Oioa, but if they didn't and they don't, or they don't want it, they could be working with an outsider. I wouldn't put I would not put that idea past past people. Again, I think that's why this this show is pretty significant in the sense of,

1:56:36okay, I think we kind of are clear on who's winning. But I'm a little bit curious of, okay, how many more seeds need to be planted to get to January 4th? Because I think that's where everybody's mindset is. I know king of pro wrestling as well, but I think a lot of people are looking past the past king of pro wrestling even and looking at, okay, so what is what is kingdom going to be looking like? And yeah, I don't know if it's Oioa right now. I don't know. I would go there, but I don't know if the company feels the same way. First of all, wrestle kingdom specifically. Yeah, it's going to be a controversial one because I know it becomes a very emotive issue when you do start bringing in outsiders for big spots and how that can genuinely upset the people on the full-time roster thinking like, you know, why is this outsider having sort of moonwalking into the company getting the biggest match, the biggest paid over

1:57:37year, but I think it's incumbent upon if you are feeling that way to get on their level, you know, make yourself into that type of guy. But there's strong arguments on both sides, like I know if this does come to pass and an outsider is putting that spot, then a lot of people will be upset. And arguably rightly so that should be given that spot to a full-time guy and it's not really benefiting the main roster in the long-term future, the benefit of New Japan pro wrestling to bring an outsider in. However, I will make the case for it that there are several things in favor of bringing in an outsider and one outsider in particular, right? The guy who we cannot deny sold a lot of tickets for last year's wrestle kingdom and the sort of symmetry of having the winner of the wrestle kingdom 2026 is semi-main event against the winner of wrestle kingdom's main

1:58:42event plus the history of that altercation back in what was it, 2024 I want to say, where he called this guy out to his face at ringside after his match and said to him, what was it, Zananda, what a disappointment, are you happy with how you left this company and just said that shit straight to his face and had us all fist pumping, being like, fuck yeah, Shinihone Tjiband and run Yotasuji versus, because it's got a card in the main event of the Tokyo though. Yeah, I know saying that out loud. I know there are some people that might be like swallowing vomit at the idea. Not people fucking hate that, I like get it, right? I totally understand. But again, in an ideal scenario and in an ideal world, New Japan would have the elements

1:59:47available to them to rely on just the talent there. And again, I feel like they have three months to do that. Let's put it this way, let's just fucking lay it out. The scenario that you proposed and it being Okata Suji, does that sell more tickets than Oyoah Suji right now? Of course it does. I think you'd have to be really intellectually dishonest to say that it doesn't. Right. Now again, are there things to help, again, the guy 1G1 for Christ's sake, so that's an important fucking thing in the New Japan calendar. Let's not just fucking hand wave that. That being said, there are even more things that I still think need to be done to get us there. I will also say that the idea of once again, the G1 winner,

2:00:58automatically getting that Wrestle Kingdom spot would kind of eliminate a lot of this. Because now you have months to be able to build and you have creative freedom to be able to build. Now I'll go out and say that New Japan, shockingly in my eyes, really doesn't do a great job at that. If you look back, I mean again, I think about Kenny and fucking Tonohashi and how much we were like, what the fuck are they doing? And again, that's one example, but I feel like we've seen that a lot. That they don't really do a lot of, okay, here's some added spice to make this fucking match even greater. It's usually they won, they are getting a shot, that's our big match. I, again, we're assuming that King of Pro Wrestling, it's Oyoah and Suji.

2:02:00Could they continue and make the, you know, stretch out this run and get it to Wrestle Kingdom? Yeah, absolutely, no, it's pro wrestling. You can be creative and do things. But I also hear your statement of an established guy who already know Cancel tickets against your main event, pro wrestling champion. I think for a Wrestle Kingdom main event, that's not a bad option. It's not a bad option at all. Especially when again, we're talking about the philosophy idea of Wrestle Kingdom not necessarily being this program arch, so to speak. It's really about how can we get as many fucking answers in as many seats in this building as battle. I would ask to win, right? Yes, that's the caveat.

2:03:04Suji to beat a guy like Akadra in a big match like that. And I think the fact that Kiddarni's gone makes that a lot more feasible than it would have been. Absolutely correct. That's an important part, or both things, important part. One, I will die on the hill that if they did go that route, or Suji absolutely has to win. A trillion percent. I wouldn't not accept anything less. I mean, maybe, Damon, that was even part of the package of Akadra coming in for this year's Wrestle Kingdom and beating Tanaashi in the main event. You come in, you get this huge match in front of a Tokyo, sold out Tokyo, and go back to AWS. But you're coming back in 12 months time and putting it over the ICG. I mean, you could say that I mean, that'd be nice. I don't think they, again, the weirder things have happened. Injuries, we had a whole G1 that kind of got blown up just because of an injury. They might have said it, maybe, but I don't know how you could be

2:04:07that definitive and be like, okay, yeah, see you next year and go with that. Because again, if Shoto didn't get hurt, would we be having this conversation? No, that's a good point. But that will be my head count. But again, the Kedani thing and new ownership and that whole, I mean, look, aside from making a lot more money and arguably a later workload and all the things that we, you know, Okada has experienced at this point. One of the breaking points for him was management. That's not a problem anymore. You know, his good friend is running the show. You would say that figuratively or, you know, whatever the case may be, but there's new ownership, new president, new all that. I think that also clears the path for him to return in some capacity.

2:05:16I'm not saying return full time, but yeah, the idea of him, main eventing, Russell Kingdom, seems more possible than it ever has before. Let's put that way. I'm also acutely aware that I've essentially found to see book to AEW, New Japan Cross over show for Russell Kingdom where, you know, if we've got like, let's say, Suji versus Okada and show to us mostly and Kalam, New versus Osprey and fuck it, let's put you, University, Chey White in this. That's fucking girl. It really has become forbidden or at the Tokyo though. Yeah, forbidden door, but good. Kind of like the forbidden door that we always wish we could have had, right? Exactly. Russell Kingdom 21, forbidden door, but good. Before, but good. I love it. And I'm going to be brutally honest. I don't got a problem with this. I really don't.

2:06:17I don't have a problem with it. I don't know if we're going to go that deep, but I don't know. You brought up an interesting point in the interesting scenario. I'm not saying that it's carved in stone. I'm saying that logically, there's a lot there. There's a lot there. And again, there has been plenty of, I don't know, like, I don't know. What would you call it, Joel? I don't want to say chitter chatter, but yeah, it's a possibility. Let's put it that way. It's a possibility, as I chew on my pastrami sandwich. I don't know. I wouldn't even go that far, I say. No, I'm not sure I put it in the pastrami camp at all. No, no. But it is an interesting scenario. That strange, what things have happened? Yeah. Does that mean stop? Yeah, I've run out of things to say. I've got any more questions.

2:07:22No, I don't. I've got a point here about Jake Lee, but I don't want to say it. I don't want to talk about Jake Lee. Let's end it there. Good show. Good book on. Bye. 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 some 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

2:08:27revolving series of guests from a cross-wrestling punditry joining us on each episode, and we hope that you make the choice to give us a listen on wherever you get your podcast from. At QVC, fall shopping is more than just checking out. It's discovering the brands you love across beauty, fashion, home, and culinary, all in one place. Whether you're getting ready for crisp mornings, cozy nights, or everyday moments, QVC has what you need for the season ahead, with brands like Laura Geller, Philosophy, Ninja, and so many more. Shop now at QVC.com.