Emerald FlowShow #101: Failed Bullet Club Hunter

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2:26You're listening to the Emerald Flow Show on the Voices of Wrestling Podcast Network. Welcome to episode 101 of the Emerald Flow Show. We're a podcast on the Voices of Wrestling Podcast Network. You can follow us on X and on Blue Sky. Leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts or any other podcasting app. If you want to donate to the show, go to Voicesof Wrestling at .com slash donate to do that and it's greatly appreciated. I'm drawn back with Paul. Paul, how are you doing? I'm doing fine. I just recorded an episode of Wrestling Omakase with John Carroll yesterday. So this is my second day in a row where I'm podcasting. I literally just clocked out of work like five minutes ago. I'm not going to lie. I literally clocked out of work and then ran over here.

3:26Well, since you were on another podcast, I mentioned this last time, but I did record my episode with Alan on the pro-RUSA Paradise, which is available on the PW Torch Podcast Network. And we talked for like about Katsuhiko Nakajima for two hours. And it was a lot of fun. And we went over his whole career and a lot of missed possibilities. And I reiterated my my belief that I wish he would come back to all Japan. Although I did say I think him going to popping up in zero one is the second best option right now, at least given the current state of wrestling in Japan. Yeah. No, no, no. I mean, I'm curious what it's going to do. I mean, have you seen that Bouchie was also sniffing around zero one as well? Oh, yes, that's right. Yes. But you do really think that's that's going to be Bouchie and where you say there's no way that NATO's going to work zero one. No, no, no, no, no. I don't think Naito's going to work. I don't think Naito's like going to get up and like get out to like Shinkiba first ring. I don't think

4:31there's any chance. Do you think they'll do have someone in that mask that's supposed to be Naito, but not actually. And you know, like they're going to put like they do like you say thing again, where he's under the mask. Yeah. Naito that's coming to Shinkiba. No, it's not. Yeah, that's interesting. But like again, I can't fault zero one for having using where you say and Bouchie actually. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Also, I just realized I don't think Naito can even like get down those steps and Shinkiba. Like those are some pretty steep like there is to like get down to the ring, like to get down on the stage. In other news of older wash up wrestlers popping up in strange places, she looks like he's having a Osaka Pro. Your thoughts on this one. I don't know. I kind of like that one. Like it feels like a homecoming for him, right? So is Jama coming out of retirement? He's got to be for this, right? Probably. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

5:34there's no way there's no way, guys. Like yeah, I'm going to get that. I mean, here's the thing. Do you think that's still like a show that can draw some money like the like eventual like Shima retirement show? Because we can't be that far off from it, right? Like I think even he probably has to admit that like the end is close and it's probably like time to cash out now as much as he still can, which I don't know. Like, is that still like, is that something you could even run and like the bigger idiot arena? Oh, the bigger one. I don't know. But the thing is like, yeah, I mean, you could sell like Corkin with it. But obviously, do you want to do it in Kansai reason, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, like you want to do it in Kobe or like in, yeah, Osaka. So, but the thing is Osaka doesn't really have like a 1500 2000 cedar, right? You've got Eddie on two, which is like a thousand if you pack them in there. And then, uh, you know, obviously, Eddie on one seems too big for Shima's retirement show to be completely honest with you. Yeah,

6:35that maybe not. Yeah. 10 years ago, but today, yes. Yeah, that's the 2018. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, no, no, no, like that's the thing. Like I think he's one of those guys that just like missed that window of when he showed up retired. Uh, it's not even that he should have, he missed the window. It's just that he made himself a role of it. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that too. Yeah. Which is weird. Like again, if you told somebody like 10 years ago, 10, 15 years ago, that like, yeah, we're not sure if the like Shima retirement show is going to be a big money draw, they would look at you really weird because they would be, they would think you're insane. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I don't know, I, but like him and Osaka Pro, you know, like, I think that's again, like, I think that's the other promotion that is like, you know, what terms of like the promotions that are doing really well right now in Japan, it seems to be like all of the like, you know, like secondary to like tertiary role, like promotion, like Osaka Pro, zero one, QSU Pro, that all like kind of just quietly chugging along and doing pretty well. I guess maybe

7:38that's why they are doing well because they get less scrutiny. Well, I was going to say, do you think they're doing well? They're just offering basic meat and potatoes resting when everyone's having heel units run in. Yes, I think that is actually the reason to be honest. Like, I don't even know if QSU Pro even has heels, like, they kind of have some people that lean heelers, but I don't think they really have out-and-out heels. I certainly think though, I mean, I think zero one for what I've seen and I've seen most of it, but not all of it, it's good, solid, mean, potatoes rustling with the whole story of Hyabusa and Junia, who they seem to be really willing to have to make a main event, or would seem to feel like just selling the case in the last zero one version of zero one. No, but it seems like that's going there now. I mean, I also feel like Junia has improved as well. I don't think like, they didn't really try with him like last time around, but it's also like, I don't think he really felt like he was ready for that at that point because like, he's not a charismatic machine now, but he,

8:41it like it was pretty dire like two or three years ago. And like, now I think he's like, he's always been a good wrestler, but like, I think now he's at least like figured out how to do like project somewhat like credibly as like a main event guy. Is there anything else you watch, Josh? Oh, Paul, I forgot. Sorry, you're going to care at this weekend. Yes, yeah, I'm going to care at this weekend, leaving it. What's going on in overhausen? So I bought tick, so I bought myself a ticket for the tournament shows. And then I'll even not really planning to go to like like because there's a bunch of like shows around it as well. So like in theory, I could have like gone to like way more like in theory, actually, the first show is today. There's like a show in the academy. But yeah, so I'm going to do the tournament and then I'm going to do ambition as well. So looking forward to that one. And I mean, I think like the first round sounds pretty good. Like, you have Yamato versus Accenture on that. You have Arrest versus Peter Tihani. I think that should

9:45be a good match. I am somewhat morbidly curious how Naito's going to do. They gave him like a technical like wrestler like Dieter Schwarz in the first round. So that should keep like most of the match like on the ground, which should hopefully help Naito. We'll see. You have Thomas Shire with Chihiro Hashimoto. That one I'm kind of curious what like those two like those kind of throwing each other on the ring should be fun. And then for ambition, you have like the you have Bobby guns with Chris Ridgeway. You have to return like I don't know. I don't think you know like Sasha Keel. Like I think I don't think you were watching WXW at that time, right? Like because he was like a guy there like 10 years ago. Yeah, he's like a tall like creation guy who kind of like semi retired a couple of years ago because he got like a new job. But I always enjoy this stuff. So I'm happy to like see him back. You also have like Minoru Suzuki on the show as well as like Katsuyama or Shima as well from New Japan. So yeah, no, I think those

10:52shows should be fun. And then like whatever else happens with the tournament should be pretty good as well. And you have the like Elijah Bloomberg. There's one called madness title match, which I don't know. I don't get Elijah Blooms. I'm really gonna root for like one called madness. But I think madness is really good. So I don't know at the very least, I think it should be a good match and both should be motivated. So I am really looking forward to it. Like it like carrot like as the like song goes. It's like carrot is only like once a year. Carrad. Carrad is not I'm Malamia. So it's always a good time at the very least. All right. So we'll have a review of that on our next episode. So we want to know that just completed their junior tag league this year over a number of shows. And we talked about the tournament last episode. But before we dive in some big picture ideas, how did you feel about this tournament? Cause I some thoughts. I thought it was solid overall.

11:52I think the outcome was very predictable, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, right? Like it felt pretty obvious from the beginning that it was gonna lead to like the brothers facing like the the betrayed brothers facing off of the betrayer brothers in the final. Yeah. So I don't know. Like I don't think it was like a spectacular tournament. There was some stuff in it that I liked. Like I like true and lazy in it overall. I thought those two were doing fine. I think Dragon Bain and Alejandro have actually become a pretty good team. I think Kai Fujimura is absolute dog shit as a heel. Yeah, he's not very good. I think Alfa Wolf is so like that team was like really up and down. I was like when Alfa Wolf was in there, I thought it was fine. Whenever Kai Fujimura was doing terrible heel work, I was like trying to restrain myself from like just fast forwarding. I don't know. Yeah. I thought it was good. I was going to ask what did you think of Ada and Inahada? I don't know. Like they were somewhat unmemorable to me. I thought

12:59well, Ada was unmemorable. I thought it was going to promise, especially at the final stretch of the tournament. Oh, yeah. No, for sure. For sure. It's, but he's also not going to be a junior long term. Oh, no, no, no. Yeah, he's way too tall for that. But yeah, no, I thought he was doing fine. Ada was just like a white boy basically the entire tournament. Like he might as well just not have been there. I'm struggling to think of a single thing he did in any of the mattress. Like anything I remember from this mattress are all like stuff in Ahada did. Well, I mean, I also got to say though, once I started getting into the last couple of block shows, I mean, it was getting long in the tooth because you got two team two thousand X teams going in this tournament. Yeah. I can't handle this. It got very, very same. It got very, very same. I can't. I don't know. This is just really bringing my any enjoyment of knowing down because I just know that we're in all this and what I'm with this is. I mean, yeah, I'm still not sure how long I don't know. I think we're different in for some changes. Like it feels at least

14:04the moving them out of like the main title picture. We'll see. Like I'm still somewhat afraid they're going to put Kenno in there, but like I don't know that feels such a like feels like such a thumb move. Oh, a tournament at the next Yokohama. Yeah. Little Yokohama. Shock. Yeah. I mean, I think he's going to win either way. Yeah. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. Yeah. We'll get to that. But yeah. Yeah. I think it was it was very it was like but yeah, I know it was like them having two teams and they just made this like very overwhelming. At least they kept like true and lazy ass like faces throughout the tournament. And would you give the team of the tournament? It's got to be them or Dragonbane and Alejandro. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Like I'm really looking forward to that title match. I think that should be tremendous. But yeah, I'm really sure. Like I guess maybe because Dragonbane and Alejandro would have like newer teams. So maybe I'm going to give them the slight edge. But like yeah,

15:07no, Nike and like Nike and Daga have just become like a really fucking good team now. Like they just like click insanely well. Yeah. Spoiler alert. I'm really looking forward to this next big Noah show compared to some of their big shows lately because of making decisions like of having like Bain and Alejandro when this tournament instead of Wolf and Fujimura. Yeah. Or like because to me like the outside one would have been like they like basically the brothers like eliminate each other or whatever. And then we get like Masau Jun Masau can't tell us scale something like. I think they just yeah, no. But yeah, no, I'm looking forward because it's like it's like the first show in a long time where like I don't think team 2000 X is in like any like prominent spot or even like a title match, right? Yeah. Like they just have like yeah, they just have like two eight man tags is like that takes up like all of like team 2000 X. And then otherwise all of the like notable matches all like don't involve them at all. It's a nice change. I mean they

16:14also don't hold any titles right now. Yeah. No. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Wolf got the national title. Yeah. Yeah. I forgot about it. Yeah. I forgot about that. But like other than that, like he's the only one. So I don't know like if those feel like they're getting down cycles a little bit but who knows how long that's going to stick. Yeah. Oh, I don't know. Yeah. For sure. For sure. Like I really hope that they don't do like some I don't know. Maybe somebody turns. Let's see. But yeah. Who knows? I mean we get no. That's nice. Yes. The big no return. So we'll just dive in quickly. Yeah. Because this does I mean it's a salt tournament but it does get repetitive. But on the 20th at Hiroshima Industrial Hall East Exhibition Hall in front of 398 fans, you had Alpha Wolf and Kaif which are more defeating a Moscow Black Mets Array in 355. You can imagine what that was like. Yes. There was a lot of team. Mark Turin Kirin Lacey defeating Tatusky and Julian Masaoka in 1115 with

17:19the Black flag on true on Masaoka. Again, you could expect how that was. Dragon Beat in Alejandro defeated Ada and Ketsumi Inohata in 1013 with the zero gravity from Alejandro on Inohata. I actually thought that this was a nice little solid match. But Ada is completely like just the mysterious like I don't remember him. Anything like that. I mean we're very firmly back into Ada does not give a single set territory. Yeah. And then because if he did, they could have been like a sleeper team of the tournament. No question, right? Oh yeah. That's kind of what I had to impact us. And then yeah, Ada just was just like, yeah, I'm just not gonna. I'm gonna show up physically but not mentally. Yeah. And so she could tell again, Heroki defeated Daga Dekio Dishima in 1234 with the inside cradle from Heroki on Daga. And I've said there at least with Heroki pinning Daga and actually thought this is a nice little match. I mean, I do think it was necessary right to like that it lost in talk to I just can't, I'm just gonna call him Daga and Daga again. I can't

18:25remember how this is like, how they're what they're called. It's too close to us, lost in Govanal. Yes, that's the problem. These are the two different on some small show, I guess these guys are bad. Yeah. Oh, I can definitely see that. Unless I don't know if I I would say Alejandro and Alejandro and Dragonbane have a chance at least. But I meant like Daga and Daga are so good. Just give them a long run. Like you really want to establish Nike. Well, I guess we'll get to this now. But like Alejandro and Bane don't need to win the titles because they vancors their evil brothers already. That's the story. True. True. You know what? You're right. Yeah. Let's just keep it on Daga and Daga. They run us too good. Just keep it on them. Yeah. And then you can do like Yokohama Radiant Hall show like main event with like the rematch of this match. Yeah. So and then on the 21st at Sun, Sunday, Sun Arena, the sub arena. That's a

19:25mouthful. We and that was front of 377 fans. I would just like to add that I did enjoy Massa Kitabita beating up Yudokoye and Naga and winning with the straggle hold gamma. Yeah. I mean, that was that was fun. That was like a little bit of like the old Massa Kitamiya. Yeah. You know, it's fun when the rookies are in against the guys like that. So to start off with the tag league, junior tag league. We had Mark True and Kirin Lacey defeating Ada and Kat Sumi in Hata in A32 with the black flag from Lacey and in Hata. Again, I really liked generally in Hata showing as this tournament went on. But again, it's not particularly memorable A because it's short B because Ada didn't really do anything. Yeah. And then in the next one was Dragon being out 100 defeating Amasaka and Black Mensa Re in 905 with the Twister Bay and from Bain on Mensa Re. And Paul, I got to say, I think Amasaka and Mensa Re

20:26did perform better than you might think they would because yeah, they started off as the joke as the tournament started. But then like they sort of got serious towards the end of this tournament. Yeah. Like I think you definitely saw that like especially like on the final show where they didn't have a they didn't have a like league match anymore. But like that one was basically just like Black Mensa Re like wrestling like the entire match like seriously, more or less. Yeah. Which again, he's really good at like put just for mind people that like no, he is a really good wrestler and he's given a chance to do that. Even though he had like the worst food of last year. Oh god. I mean, yes. I mean, it's not he's not going to win like you know what regardless of what happens. He's not going to win worst food this year because that will go to Gadgetogoro as a sidepatra because that food is awful. You don't think Aaron Wolf versus the House of Torture is worthy of that worst food. I mean, at least in that field, you have a very clear person

21:27you can cheer for which is Aaron Wolf, which does not exist in that field in the sidepatra, Gadgetogoro feud. Dragon Gate just expects you to be like these guys are both heels but you're supposed to cheer for sidepatra despite the fact that you have no reason to do so. And then that's basically you know what like you know this I click quite literally because it's quite literally like they like sidepatra sites with team 2000 X like they bring team 2000 X guys to fight with them. Why the fuck am I supposed to cheer for these guys like what? Yeah. Isn't weren't team 3000 X on the yeah they were on the Dragon Gate show. Yeah. Wow. And they want. Yeah, they weren't very good. So next up we had out the Wolf of Cockfrogimura and defeating Etzushi Katoke and Haruki in 720 with the Wolf driver on from Wolf on Haruki. This is what exactly you'd expect it was but at least hey it was like short it went under the allotted time limit so fine. And then

22:32Daga and Dakyotashima defeated Tatusuke and Junmasaoka in 923 when Otashima pinned the Tatusuke with the Rolling Olympic Hell. Or was it Daga that pinned Tatusuke after Otashima hit the Rolling Olympic Hell? I don't remember if the top of my head. Yeah, I'm just reading the yeah this is written up very confusingly by Purolo. Yes, I don't remember the end of this match but I did think that this was actually one of the better team 2000 X outings in this tournament because Otashima is just such a great baby face as well. Oh yeah, no, it just sold his ass off on this. Yeah. Then on the 22nd we had the Grand Messay Kuma D-Haul in 540 fans. Also, again, coin out getting beat up by the older wrestlers. That Ozawa match was all the kind of fun I had to say. That actually I know I will agree. Although Isozawa even that much older, I'm trying to think. I think that isn't YouTube was the

23:36one that was a bit older than the others, right? I don't remember when yet. He might be one of them. I think that I think that only one year apart. But yeah, he's technically older. No, he's definitely more experienced. Yeah, that was 25 years old. And Ozawa has got to be, as I was like 27. No, it's 29. Okay, it's a bit older. Yeah, he's turning 30 this year. Wow. Okay, definitely. Okay, we need to get him on the like 30. I mean, he's probably going to make it anyway. What we need to get him on the 30, on the 30. This is the last shot. He's already kind of old. Yeah. Well, it's not that old, but you know what I mean? Once you get younger, yeah, a little different, but he started, yeah, he would have been like 26 when he started. Yeah, because he started in 2022. Right. He's only one year younger than Yuma Aoyagi. Who has been around forever? Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's not around now. No, but it's not around now. Yeah, wait a fuck. Like, isn't this, like, isn't this, like, wasn't his suspension only supposed to, okay, we'll get to that later, I guess,

24:38but like, wasn't suspension only until like mid-February? Like, we're like two weeks after that. Now he's nowhere to be seen. Maybe he's in big trouble. Big trouble to think, I don't know. So, so when we get into tackling matches, we got Mark, Drew, and Kirin, Lacey, depending on Tushii, Katoge, and Huroki, in 10 minutes, the black flag from Drew on Huroki, again, solid match. Then we had Alpha Wolf and Kai Fujimura defeating Ada and Katsumi in Hara, 541 with a death hanger from Fujimura on in Hara, which was the old Galazzo. Nothing. It was nothing. And then Tatuske and Jun Masaoka defeated Dragon being in Alejandro in 909 with the Tatuske crash two from Tatuske Alejandro, which kind of made sense that the other team, two dozen X-team would beat, being in Alejandro and all of this. And again, it was like, what do you think it was? And then Daga and Deku, Otishima defeated Amasaka and Black

25:41Mensa Rei in 1203 with the cradle from Daga on Mensa Rei. And that was a lot of fun. This is what it was really good. Mensa Rei and Amasaka are stepping up. No, like this again was like Black Mensa Rei just being like, no, no, you can literally feel they were like, threw out the tournament. It's like, no, no, wait, I'm actually a serious wrestler. Like, as he kept on losing more matches, he got more and more serious, basically. And he was like, no, no, wait, I'm not a loser. Like, I can do more than just comedy. I can actually win matches. And you could like see the desperation, like, basically build up. And then I thought that was actually one of the best, like, things they did in the tournament, but they like slowly build that up, basically. And then we go to the last, um, block day at Acro's Fukuoka event hall in front of 559 fans for the tag league. We had Ada and Katzumi Inohada with scoring the upset over at sushi she could tell getting herokie in 811 when Inohada penned herokie. And Paul and I loved about this

26:45is that they, they actually had someone lose when they did the, I'm going to pin you directly after already trying to pin you again to tire you out. But Inohada is on herokie. And I was like, yeah, that's great. That's a great one. Yeah, that's also like you, you kind of want to do that at least every once in a while. So like, stays believable. And I think this is like the like, perfect time to do it. Also was that like Inohada's like first like pin that he got in Noah, trying to think if he got like a pin over a rookie. Oh, he might remember that. Maybe I don't remember off the top of my head, but like definitely like the first pin over a non-roki for sure. Yeah, for sure. Um, and then we had a mask on black men so great, defeating Katsuki and Jun Maso, who can 612 with the passion ground kibura from a mask on my soka. And I will say that it was kept short and completely inoffensive. And then Alpha Wolf and Kai Fujimori defeated Mark True and Kirin Lacey in 826 with the package power driver from Wolf on Macy. And honestly, like, you know, you could have given this a couple more

27:49minutes, but yeah, notice what's actually quite good. Yeah. And then they got the main events spot because it was basically the decision match. Who else is going to go to the finals against the team 2000 X team of Fujimora and Alpha Wolf. Drinking bait in Alejandro defeated Daigui, I'm sorry, Daga and Daigui, Oh, Dishima. 1253 with the zero gravity from Alejandro on Oh, Dishima and Paul, the biggest problem with this match is that it could have used other five minutes. Yeah, I mean, but he has to think to run. It will get that additional five minutes on the match. And also, why I think that they're just going to retain the titles instead of drop. Yeah, no, you know what you're right. Yeah, because they got the win here. So like, they don't need to win two matches on a row. Yeah, no, you know what you've talked me into, like, Daga and Daigui, just like I was basically 60 40 beforehand on like, Daga and Daigui retaining, but now I'm more like 80 20. And then, but yeah, no, like, I definitely, this was this was a great,

28:49like, this was like, this felt like a preview essentially, like, it was a great match, but it was essentially just the preview for hopefully an even greater match. So then we go to Quarket Hall on March 1st, sort of 1,396 fans. We had in the opening match, sort of like the Noah, Jr. Tag League extra edition. So in Damascus and Bachman's array defeating Ada and Ketsumi in 1744, then their passion ground cobra, this time for Mensura on Inohara. And yeah, this is a nice little opener. Yeah, this was awesome. Honestly, like, again, this paid off like the whole like story of like Mensura, like, again, the entire time he was trying to get the pin, right? Like, he never could do it. The entire like league. And he actually finally pulls it off here. Like, the way, like, he celebrated after the match, like, he just won the World title. Like, it was, it was nice. And then, uh, Bushi, uh, or sort of Kenta Tatsuya Endo in Hayata defeated Daga and

29:49Dekio Toshima in Midori, Midori Takahashi in 1013 with a modified chicken wing arm lock from Hayata on Takahashi, perfectly acceptable six band, I'd say. Yeah. I mean, the thing is I set this this ball on Omakase, like, right Raven Squad just feels like completely lost in the shuffle already. Yes. Right? Like in theory, you make a new faction for like the people in it to get something to do. But it feels like all free, like, like, the free that are still like a one of them immediately like left to go to the US. And now the other three are just like completely spinning their wheels and are just like irrelevant essentially. But like, all three of them were like pretty like notable people just last year. And now they're just like, I don't know, just bodies on the roster was what they feel like. Yeah, there's, yeah, it's a bizarre because they also like, they clearly formed a group doing full well like, um, uh, Uka was going to like the States. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

30:51So which like interestingly is like the apparently like the leader to tweets of him at the performance center. Oh, we had tweets. I haven't the performance center and deleted them. I, I, yeah, I mean, apparently, like, I didn't even get there entirely. I didn't see them. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if this like a general weirdness going on with like no trainees right now. Because like, for example, GWF had like a show last like this past Sunday. So three days ago. And I didn't end up going because I did this like, I did this thing called hanging out with your friends instead. Um, so, uh, but like originally announced for that match for that show was, uh, uh, I don't remember. Is it cool guy? I think it was a lot of sounds like new name is right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But originally announced him because he's the Berlin champion right now. Like, they announced him versus, uh, Jack Morris for the Berlin time. But then that treat, but then

31:54that treat got deleted and that match didn't happen either. Maybe they had, they had Jack Morris versus, they did. Jack Morris was Peter Tahani instead. Interesting. So who knows it? I don't know. Like, these could be completely unrelated, but it is notable that I don't know. There was like, there was some weirdness with two Noah people on excursion like within the same week essentially. Hmm. And so next up was Bruce and Angel Reyes, uh, defeating Shujikon and Yudu Koyanagi in 915 with the, uh, Sue Parks Cutter from Reyes on Koyanagi. Not particularly memorable. Nope. I think so. Um, well, I mean, I would say I'm gonna raise look nervous, but I think he got better as the match went along. Yeah. Um, and then Ozawa Masakitamiya, Tatuski, Andrew Masaoka, defeated Sushi Katoge, Mohamed Yone, Hiroki, and Hanger Meohara, and 1033 with the Swan Dive style moonsault press from Ozawa on Ohara. This was just obviously just, uh,

33:01give Ozawa some heat going into it. Do you think that Ozawa spinning his wheels at all? I mean, they did kind of do like one promo where like Ozawa was kind of teasing, fuelling with Naito. Yeah. So I feel like that's basically where they're like, where they're like essentially spinning his wheels until they're like ready to pull the trigger on that, which so like the thing the way I see this going is Kenno beats in a mora. And then because it's Kenno, he's gonna like more or less immediately maybe like one title defense, maybe a zero title offense. We'll see like he's gonna then lose the title to Naito. Yeah. And then I think they're probably pretty quickly going to Ozawa as a snito because you can't have a snito hold the title very long because it's if body will just not allow that. Do you think you string that out? I mean, if you're gonna have Naito versus Ozawa, you kind of got to do that at Budakon, right? Yeah, but you can't have Naito hold the title for like six months. Well, you could draw the Kenno

34:02brain a little longer. Yeah. I mean, they should like I mean, you're the neighbor of a like I don't know, Kenno. Does Naito sit out the N1 then? I mean, from a drawing perspective, he shouldn't, but like I don't think he can do the N1 like I just don't think his body is able to. So yeah, I mean, that's the thing like if he's champion, you can at least have like the whole argument where he's like, oh, like because right that happens every once in a while in other promotions as well. Well, like the champion is like, oh, I'm going to sit out this tournament because I am the champion and I want to see you like who challenges me. So like, yeah, I could see that where they where they might go for that. Yeah, we'll see. And then the all rebellion final triangle through a match, Galeno defeated Kato Kamiya and Harutoki in 746 on the wagon track around Harutoki. And I like this just for what it was. It's a quick little sprint and obviously building to the big Galeno versus Kato match. Although with the result, this I feel confident that WWE is not going to make no uphab Galeno go over. Yeah, no, no, no, I also feel that.

35:09It's also, I mean, talking about factions that are just like spinning their wheels and are just lost in the shuffle like all rebellion again, supposed to rebuild Kato Kamiya's career and Kato feels more relevant than he ever has in his entire career. Yeah, well, it's just confusing because like they do these things and they click like because how long was Kato even in all rebellion? Like a month and a half feels like maybe a bit like I think he was in there a bit longer. I think he was in there until like made like they formed in like January, February, right? And he was in there until like May, I think. I think just like watching. I'm actually not sure. Yeah, it was fun when it was like Kato and and Kato together. But then it just yeah, some luster. That was that was the whole point. That was the whole point of the faction was that it's Kenno and Kato together and like the inherent like tension that came out of that of them like long-term rivals that are not like. And don't forget, of course,

36:09they finally had that other match when they did the Iron Man match. Now that was an awesome match. I wanted like 10 best of the year, but it was still like they had been making you think that they weren't going to be another match between them at least for a long, long time. Okay, so they formed a lot. I thought, okay, they did actually form an October 2024. Okay. For some reason, I thought they had formed an early 2025, but yeah, they formed an October 2024. And then unfortunately, engagement addresses Kenno left the stable in 2025. Oh, yeah, no, of course, they had to have formed in 2024 because Osawa was a member for like, right? Like did it the whole thing where he came back, got injured, joined the faction and then turned on them immediately when he was healthy again. Yeah. Well, it did give him the crutch gimmick. Yeah, which for some like, okay, at first, I was like, how long is he going to keep this up, but then he got another reason to keep this going. Like at this point, I don't know if he's ever going to drop it. Yeah. Oh, yeah, wait, no, they formed all the way back in like May of 2024.

37:13Yeah, I don't know why they formed in 2025. Yeah, like at least Cage Smash had this as their like first match, right, which is where they were no, I did a great job of establishing this new faction by having them lose to Ada. Really, we were a Shuji Kondo and Olga Sasaki, but yeah, I don't know, I think it's time to just put all rebellion out of its misery. Like now that I know it's been around for even longer than I thought of us, like it's like if we're getting up on two years and like, probably time to call it. Yeah. And so next up, we had Ketsuya Neto and where you see where you say defeating Manibusoi in Herodo, Suruya in 1015 with the crowd holds from where you say on Suruya, and Paul, is this a hot take to say this is the best match that Neto had in Noah? Well, yeah, but that's also because he like wasn't in for most of it. Yeah, it was all it was mostly where you're saying and and and Suruya who were obviously the two hot prospects as well, right? Like yeah, sorry, it didn't build anything either. Yeah, yeah. Right? But like, oh yeah,

38:17it was still it was gonna get us as best effort. Yes. It's gonna get a push because he had his boy and Suruya is clearly there. Also, it seems like Noah's sort of guy that they're focusing on of this this crop rookies. So that they did all the work and basically made it into Neto's best match in Noah so far. Yeah, I don't think Suruya even has taken that many pins as well. So like as much as it is notable to pin a rookie, this was probably one of the more notable ones to pin a rookie. Well, I think that they should go to a Suruya versus Suruya. Seagulls match and have like Suruya win that. Oh, yeah, I mean, yeah, I would be curious to say it's also a young boy, yeah? Yeah. No, I'm not opposed to that. I think that actually would be a good idea, yeah. Mm-hmm. And then in the semi-made event, Kenno Nail Michi Morafuji and Shuhei Tanaguchi defeated Yoshiki and Imura, Mark Tru and Kirin Lacey and 1319 with the PFS from Kenno onto Lacey. And I thought this was a solid match and I thought that Kenno and Imura did a very good job of building to their

39:21match. And I know that people really hate the gimmick, but I still quite enjoy Imura's in-ring work and I'm actually quite excited for their match. Probably the most excited for anything I've been all year and no. No, I think that's fair. I think that's fair, right? I mean, it should be good, right? Like I don't think. Again, unless they do something stupid, like I mean, we set the same thing with the like alpha wolf drag and brain match. So like that's the only way this could be bad if they do something like that. Otherwise, like if it's just a straight-up single match, I think it's going to be... Well, I mean, you can't discount that either of them would join T2,000X. That's the thing. Okay, what would be the Dumber decision? Would it be Dumber to turn in a in a Mura? Would it be Dumber to turn Kenno? I think it would be Dumber to turn in a Mura. Yeah, because that also clearly that would also clearly start in a Mura below Ozzawa instead of being rivals. I mean, but then he joins the faction-ass champion. Like it almost creates this like we attention of like Ozzawa being faction leader and like another guy being like champion,

40:24like that would also be weird. Yeah, yeah, it's just the all-around, it's the worst decision. Yeah. And then Noah, Jr. Tag League finals, Dragonbane and Alejandro defeated alpha wolf and Kai Fujimura in 2056 with the zero gravity from Alejandro on Fujimura. Now look, this is a good match, but again, what did you like it hit all the beats that you were going to expect in terms of ref getting pulled out of the ring interference? Although I would say that I feel like, especially for the first 10-15 minutes, this did not feel as heated as you'd think the brothers versus brothers would be. Yeah. Like I don't know, it just wasn't quite as dramatic as I thought it could have been. I mean, I did like the finishing sequence between Alejandro and Kai Fujimura, but yeah, I mean, I think what what they'd heard is just the fact that Kai Fujimura is just not good as a heal. Right. Like I think that's the problem, it's because also like alpha wolf and Kai Fujimura, like alpha wolf is a little bit over as a heal. I don't think Kai is over as a heal at all,

41:29and I think that's really what heard this match. I popped when Mark Pickering on commentary called Yoshitatsu the former Bullock Club Hunter. Yes, no, that is that is a great pull. That is a great pull indeed. Remember when he was still wearing the Bullock Club Hunter tights in all Japan for a bit? For like a wire, like for way longer than he should have been really. I mean, like on the other hand, I will say like as much as I'm annoyed with Team 2000X, this is still the best run Yoshitatsu has ever had. I actually liked him as Kento's tag team partner but I mean, then again, he did actually have that weird chemistry with Suwama for a while. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that eventually faded out because we had a match later and it wasn't very good. Yeah, that was very good. That wasn't very good yet. I think I think we previewed it on here, and I was like, well, these two have always great, have great chemistry, so it will be good,

42:30and then it was and I was like, oh, and I think his run was over pretty quickly, Asha that as well, because that was probably also all Japan being like, oh yeah, there's nothing left here. Can it fuck off? Yeah, there's nothing left in this tank. So let's preview the show that is going to be on Sunday, March 8th, starting at 3pm, Japan time, which means that I'll be able to watch it live, even if it's early here, so that's good. Paul, I'm going to see, because this is very curious, given some of Noah's infamous attendances in this Yokohama Buddha con. What do you think the show draws? Because there's no NATO on this show either. I might add. I'm really not sure, because it's also the people you would generally consider like the draws. It's not even just that Naito isn't, right? It's also like who are the, I mean, it's not just that Naito isn't in a drawing position. It's also that really the other people that you would consider the draws in a promotion aren't really in one. I guess Kaito is at least in a single smash, but it's way down the card.

43:36Kenta and Ozaawa are just like in an eight-man tag. I mean, I would say it's a really big test of like in a more drawing power. Yes, for sure. So I don't like, do we have kind of like a thing of like, I mean, at least so far on the website, it does still show, or every like category is available. They got to break a thousand though, right? Yeah, no, no, no, they do have to at least break that. Okay, let me just really quickly check what E plus is saying. If there's like the website, maybe it's just kind of showing it. It's like not that well yet. So maybe I actually go to like the thing. I always check Lawson when I'm looking up the ticket sales. Oh, yeah, same, but it's just that if you're on the newer website and if you click on buy tickets, that's where it takes you. Got them. The thing is down for maintenance. Never mind. Okay, so I can, my Lawson here, Paul got four types of tickets. The arena s seats are the most expensive at 12,000 and then 10,000

44:39and 7,000 and then 5,000. Yeah, Paul, nothing is sold out. And the arena s and the arena tiered, the two most expensive tickets both have triangles and then the other ones are still the circles. Oh, on ticket Pia, it looks even worse. They basically they have arena s and arena a are at the regular ones are all still on like circles and then only arena tiered seats are on like only few left. So this might be, this might be a bad number unless they like manage to sell a bunch of tickets in like the next one, two, three, four, four days. Basically, well, no, it's already the fifth in Japan. So it's like even less time. So yeah, I don't know. I think it definitely shows that like in a more like if it if that ends up being a bad number, I think that's definitely a black mark on an amora. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, you could never tell. I mean, it's still very much a walk up business in a lot of ways in Japan. Yeah. But if it was hot, if we do it was really hot,

45:42then there would be more ticket movement for sure. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a long time reporter and an on air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I mean, again, we still see that they still sell out like Kaurikan or not sell out, but they still drew like really good like numbers and Kaurikan sold even with bad cards. Even without like GHG title matches. I mean, this, yeah, I do not whatever it did. 396, that's good for what this card was. Exactly. Yeah, it's like with like a junior title like with like a junior like match on top and everything. Yeah. And like no title

46:42match on everything. So that that's still a good number for like what that show was, but I don't know, like I would like to see at least like the expensive seats on like triangles at least, which yeah, I don't know. We'll see. So this show on the 8th, we've got, Asushi Katelke, Mohamed Yone, and Hajime O'Hara versus Mandebussoia, Shuhaitanaguchi, and Madori Takahashi. And then the 8-man tag mattress, Alpha Wolf, Kaifu Jamura, Tadesuke, and Junmasoka versus Ada, Kirin Lacey, Black Monsure, and Katsumi Inabata, Inabata. Sorry. And then Nihon Michi Marafuji, and Yudo, no, Sir, Hroyo Surya versus on how Reyes and Reus say interesting. So I mean, it's like because I'm actually not 100% certain on the result. Yeah, like normally I would say well, Marafuji wins this, but I don't know, like I mean realistically, it's probably Reyes that takes the pin here,

47:43but I couldn't, I can't really roll out like the like LTJ like young boys getting a win here. Well, I was going to say could Surya pin Reyes say in the trade wins maybe? Maybe, yeah, but I don't know, like I feel like with Marafuji and then it's still just the most likely one that he gets the pin. And in that case, he's pinning Reyes. I don't think he's pinning Reyes. Also, sorry, just but this is apropos of nothing, but like man, Reyes say he needs to get like a different profile picture. And I don't know a website that, yeah, that too, but like that picture is awful. I think he's got, I think he's got potential for his work. He just goes in not a very good look. Look right now. No, he looks like he's an indie scummer. He looks like he is like, you know, work in Dove Pro or something, you know? Wait, he's from Mexico. Right. You say? Yeah. Is he? I mean, at least it says on the knower website that he's from Mexico City. Oh, right. Because he's he's Zimbito's son. Oh, okay. Right. Right. Right. And of

48:49course, yes, Surya's brother. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Just that sort of thing with the better look. And then it's crazy. Cause and yeah, Reyes is only like 20 years old. Yeah, he's super young. Yeah. Yeah. Quite quite. I think he's turning 21 this year. Yeah. We'll see with that. All right. Marfuji. How long do you think what percentage of the match do you think he's tagged in for 20% 15? I mean, I think he'll be just out of Reyes. I'll say he's like, I think 20, 30, I think 20 to 30%. I think it's a good guess. That an eight man tag team match. Kanta, Tetsuya, Endo, Hayara, and Udo Koyanagi versus Ozawa, Masakiramiya Takashi-Sugera, and the returning Nol. So I think Nol's pinning Koyanak. Yes. That's a good feeling too. That's got a Nol's back. You got to give him a win,

49:54build him up for some momentum. And ironically, like, Nol, I just think that as a someone of his size, he moves pretty well. I mean, obviously, there's things he can work on, but he's just a tribe of Dustin Rhodes. So I can't like, dismiss him, right? Cause he's got that probably amazing training. Yes. No, no, no, like, I think I think there's potential there. For sure. He should watch out Talos tapes. Oh, yeah, kind of, yeah, actually. Well, I mean, he's kind of Talos. Like, what if Talos could do like a fucking dive over the top rope? Yeah, exactly. I mean, Talos dives, but they're much more, I know, restrained. Yeah, he just took it to his top. Yeah, exactly. And then sort of the fair will match for Galano. Kairou Kimi versus Gino. And it's confident that WWE is not going to make him win. Yeah, I think he's just going to take, he's just going to go out on his back here. Happy retirement to him. Happy retirement to him. Well, it's funny, because on the,

50:57on commentary on the core, it can show like, um, Fulton and Piggering were saying, like, oh, Galano and his brother will be back because they love Japan so much. We'll see about that. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, I could see them come back eventually. I just don't think it's yeah, I mean, I don't know. Yeah. And then for the GHC junior heavyweight tag team titles, we got Dog and Deku, or she goes for Dragonbane and Alejandro, which has to be part of my second most anticipated match on the show. And frankly, it could, if they wanted to, the probably, maybe able to steal the, uh, maybe able to steal the show. I could, I could definitely see that happen. Like, if they go like insane, then like, yeah, I can definitely see that being the match of the show. And then for the GHC junior heavyweight championship, we got Amoska versus Mark True, which, you know what? Good. I like that. Give the guy the chance. Nice, could be a nice little match. I mean, Amoska is great and can carry him to this sort of thing. So I have no problem with this at all. Uh, I, like, is this one the most likely one where there's a turn? Or somebody

52:01joining team to fuzz next? Oh, like Lacey and True or they split up with true and one of them joints. I, I don't think they're gonna split them up, but I could see them basically turn. Like, I was kind of happy that they burned in team to fuzz next, but I don't know, I could, I can't rule it out that they're joining. Yeah, you just any match could like, we should just have a chance of a turn in joining team thousand x in this match. That doesn't have anyone in team two thousand x in it. Uh, it is what it is. And then of course, the main event, uh, Ken versus Yoshiki and Amara for the G H, she title, heavyweight title. I'm looking forward to it, and it could be awesome if they just let them do their thing. Or for all we know is I was going like coming to ringside at some point, you know? Yeah, did you see, did you click on the learn more button on the Noah website under this match? Yeah, it's not. Do you want me to read out what it says there? Yeah, we need a ball. This championship match is the fulfillment of the champion's long cherished wish. Yoshiki who had been hoping to fight Kenno has overcome repeated interference

53:07from team two thousand x to face Kenno. Kenno feels the same way. He has overcome repeated attempts to steal his challenge right to face Kenno and is ready for this match. Enjoy the pure mutual love of Noah pro wrestling to the fullest. Well, I mean, I want to enjoy the pure mutual love of Noah pro wrestling to his fullest, but are they going to give it to us? Hopefully. I feel like they better. I feel like they're kind of teasing like this is just going to be a straight slumber knocker type match, right? Yeah, yeah. Which I don't know if that sets of my angle a lot, but like I'm going to try and like keep that away unless it actually happens. I'm going to try to just enjoy the match because it's going to ruin it for me otherwise. Yeah, um, so we'll see how that is. So the kind of kind of a lot of questions going into the show in terms of attendance, and like, are they going to do something stupid to screw up the very good looking, uh, Matt, some of the very good looking matches on the show. Um, so we turn over to all Japan

54:09pro wrestling for site series on February 23rd at Otis City General gymnasium for in front of 2,237 fans and Paul. That's actually a pretty good number, uh, given, uh, how many times we've had Kent over to June settle over the last like year or so, right? Yeah. I mean, that's definitely not a fresh match on the slightest. Uh, are Reyna and Talos adding to this attendance, do you think? No. Okay. So I'm a maybe I don't think they'll look free. No, I don't think so. Um, at this point, um, so we saw with that Ryuki Honda defeating Hogo Tomori in 828 with the final event. Paul, this was a good opener. Just straight wrestling. No, be asked. And, um, it was a lot of fun. I definitely did raise my like feeling that like Umori might be on the way out. Yeah. And he just like, you know, like, just gets pinned in the opener on the show. It's just like, I don't know.

55:11Like people are leaving as far like we've talked about as a cup. We talked about this already, but like, I don't know. I definitely didn't make me think any less that he's leaving. I, uh, you know, it was like, are they going to do anything? There was no angle on the show where you know, he comes out and they required two more to join the chamber. And kind of more and anything like that. I should add because I said that that was possible, although they barely changed these lineups as a storyline or anything like that in these tournaments. So, you know, it is what I mean, no mention of Yuma Ayoyagi at all. Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, we then had Attsuki Ayoyagi rising Hayato, Yuma Anzai defeating Rio in a way, Kanko Machino and Fumonori Abe in 1020 with the Gimlet from Anzai on Abe. And this was another solid little six-man tag match that really got the show off to a good start. Yeah. No, this was really good. Like, I, again, I'm curious, like, I'm really curious on the

56:14Anzai's run in the champion carnival. Again, like, I don't really know what it's going to look like until we know what the blocks look like. Yeah. And we don't know the blocks. We're not reveal on the show. Garrett, the championship, Kumarashi defeated Daisuke Sakamoto in 13 or two with the diving centon. So Sakamoto fails on his first defense and, uh, Kumar is the 33rd champion of this most illustrious belt. Now, this is a great match. Yeah. And I kind of expected it was going to be pretty good. And, uh, Kumar really worked hard here. And look, Sakamoto is still good enough that he can deliver on match like this, you know, quick 13-minute match where they just hit each other really hard to throw each other around. So it was a lot of fun and really good. But Paul, here's my issue with it. Sakamoto didn't get any defenses of this title in this reign. So what was the point of having Sakamoto beat Ashino because you could say Sakamoto is a bigger name than Ashino, but Kumarashi overcoming Ashino to win that TV title would have meant more given the history of both of those guys.

57:18That is actually very true. I hadn't even considered that. Uh, I guess maybe it's to like, if Ashino, if Ashino wasn't going to be in a champion carnival, it would have been weird to leave him out as champion. Right. It's like the only reason I can see that. But no, that actually would have been a way better story. It would have been, yeah, Kumarashi overcoming like, Shitaru Ashino, like his form attacking part, like his former like stable leader for like, they debuted again. They have, yeah, that, yeah, again, like they have years of history can see. So yeah, that would have been a way better story. I did like the match. I love that, like, we do a link, like, torture, like, oh, that was, I don't know, that was the best spot on the entire show. Excuse me, Paul, this is Japan. They're Argentine backbreakers. Let us do, yeah, they were, yes, you're right. They were doing Argentine backbreakers. So I mean, that's a good sign for Kumar. We'll talk about some more later. Ray Seto's return match, Ray Seto, Mr. Seto, Nureki Dois, Senora Seto, and for whatever reason,

58:25defeated Goshio, Zaki Shitaru Ashino, Zion, and Odyssey, in 1141, when Ray pinned Zion with the eyesbind. Now, Paul, I just think that this makes, like, obviously, Ray's upper mid card basically, but this does make havoc look a little weak by losing to the rest of these guys, though. Yeah, also the guy, like, traditionally with, like, guys losing their return match in Japan as well. Yeah. They don't do that anymore. That's a lot less common these days than it is. That is true. That is true. Because I'm trying to think when, like, the last time that really happened with, but yeah, you might be right, that that's kind of a thing that quietly dropped. Yeah. I mean, also curious that, like, Zion is the one that took the pin here. Well, they're clearly protecting Odyssey for reasons of probably the champion carnival. But, but that's the thing. There's one guy in that team that isn't in the champion carnival. Oh, yes, of course. You know, like, I don't know much, but like, you know,

59:26well, dare I say that Zion and Ray might be in the same block. Oh, yeah. So that Zion really get his win back. Yeah. I think that makes sense. Yeah. Next up in the Zenichi Junior Tag Festival round one, Dan Tamer and Hikaru Sado defeated Kota Sakafuda and toast to Yuki Sakuda in 1548 with a cross-armed biker from Sado on Sakuta. And Paul, it's just funny because nobody liked this match. No. No. Because it's so funny because they brought out the bar wire boards. But then it can, Sado gets the win with just an arc breaker across our board and everything like that. It's a shame because I like Sakafuda and Sakuta is technically a good russer, but they decided just to death match it up. Yeah. It's new from the Honest New Deathbatch promotion die instead of having a good wrestling match. So that means Sakafuda isn't even a deathmatch guy. No, he's not. Yeah. Again, like, it was so weird that they did that and it didn't really factor into the match really at all. Yeah. What's fucking, it was a fucking weird ass.

1:00:32I don't get what they were trying to do. Yeah. For all we know, Sado came up with this idea because he could be weird. Yeah. I this felt like very much like a feng sado came up with. Yeah. And then another tag festival match, Sekio Shioke and Yuki Sasumo defeated Musashi and Shiroda Kofujin in 1552 with the Nitin and Chiru from Yoshioke on Musashi and Paul. We have some good things to say about a match featuring Yuki Sasumo Sasumo. Yeah. Somehow was really good. I thought that Kofujin also stepped up here playing the role of the young guy and then, of course, you have the whole finish where Yoshioke, which is a great, had a great finishing sequence to in Yoshioke and Musashi and Yoshioke ends by using, Musashi's move on him. So this is going anywhere. I suspect, right? So yeah, this was very good and exceeded my expectations. So I will stay on the whole if you sort of take into account the death match fart. I have enjoyed this tournament

1:01:40so far. Yeah. No, I also have to say like you're a Sasumo. I think he was the weakest of the four in the match, but he didn't drag it down. Like he was fine. And yeah, I think, you know what, I can kind of loving the like Yoshioke Musashi feud. Like I'm still kind of sad that displayed that team up because I really enjoyed them. But I think at least, you know, like I think there's something there. Like it gives both of them something to do as well. And again, like I think they're both showing an edge, which is something that's promotion kind of like has been lacking like in like recent times. Like they need guys that show an edge, which I think these two definitely are in this huge, but it is constantly shit talking each other as well. And yeah, like I'm like a start meeting each other with like the other guys move. Yeah. This is what like a Bane Wolf versus our sorry, a Bane and Alejandro versus Wolf and Fujimura needs. Yeah, yeah, that's not an advantage. There's no shit talking in that one. Yeah, it's real because they're like brothers,

1:02:42you so you would think that there would be more hate, but yeah. Yeah. And these guys were teaming for like what like a year and they're basically treating it like they've been teaming for like 15. Yeah, they're like great friends or something. Yeah. I wonder if there's more in their past. I have to look it up because you know, Yoshioke was like a kind of a freelancer for a bit. Yeah. He always worked outside dates when he was in Russell one. But he's not even a restaurant. Now he's a Tijiri guy, right? Yeah, he was a Tijiri guy and then he went to Russell one. Yeah. And then yeah, it's a lot more than I'd have to look it up. But anyway, so send me me an event for the World Tag Team titles. Renay Abe and Talos defeated Suwama and Hideki Suzuki in 1608 with the death roulette from Abe on Suzuki to make their second defense of the titles. Paul, I'll say that this was not like a great match, but it certainly wasn't as bad as it could have been, especially given how Suwama and Hideki Suzuki sort of shit the bad as a tag team when

1:03:43they were last together as a tag team. But this was solid enough and Hideki did the right thing by by lying down for the death roulette from my out again. So I'll give this a nice little like, you know, like thumbs up like three and a quarter, three and a half, you know, but like solid. And yeah, I think kind of the best you could expect from when you've got Ren and Talos in against these older guys. Yeah, yeah, no, like I think so far like the like Titans of Calamity Rain has been solid. Like again, I'm not expecting like like, you know, like match of the year bangers from them because that's just not who like either of them is. Yes. But like I just expect their matches to not like be boring and they haven't been like they've all they've generally been like really good like solid matches like don't overstate a welcome either. Like you just, you know, like 16 minutes, I think that's perfect for like a title match. Like you don't need to go longer than that with these guys. Exactly. So like again, I think they've been booking that perfectly.

1:04:44Also, I just really quickly looked it up at least in terms of like both of them being in the same match. The first time Musashi and Yoshiyoka were in the same match was like in 2024 was like, both of them teaming with Fuminori Abe on like an ultra-pancho and at the only time they had been, yeah, they still made it like such a huge huge between them. Yes, but really they've only been interacting with each other for like under under well, yeah, basically just exactly like two years at this point. Yeah. And then after the match, Rey came out and what do you think of that going right to what everyone was expecting was going to happen? I thought they would hold off until after the carnival. Like I mean, I kind of get it, but I don't know, I thought we could have gotten at least like one more like title defense for the Titans, but oh, oh, so you're like on the like totally like they're the titles are winning. I mean, like you don't think they're winning. I think it's

1:05:48like, look, I just go right back to the titles. No, here's what I think Titans win because it's going to main event court at Hall. Yeah, you have a rematch in like in July where they when they usually go to Sendai and that's where the titles win. I mean, you know, they're not setting the world on fire, but they're working for what they're supposed to be and I'd keep it on them for a few more months. And then yeah, I mean, I can kind of see that if they do like the big show in Sendai, they need something to put on that. And yeah, yeah, I you know, I can see that because I don't like I hadn't really considered otherwise, I would have just been like, well, I mean the titles are back. So you just go back to them as champions. But yeah, if you want to do that, like if you want to tease it out a little bit more and then do it in Sendai, I think that does make more sense. Also, because like March will be the last defense until after the carnival. Yeah, maybe by then you may aiyagi will be back and you run business tag versus the Titans. And I also want you to get out of them. Or you do like the, but the fuck was the like Yuma, the two Yuma, like team

1:06:52or the two Yuma's. I can't remember. I just called him Yuma squared. So I'm just going to go back. If they're back, but I don't know, like I feel I don't know. Again, I don't really have a good feeling of what the fuck is going on with you, my aiyagi right now. Like I'll be sure he is actually coming back. Who really cares? No, I mean, I think, well, it's funny, because there was a time where I'm like, okay, obviously Kento is very important losing him would be, would fuck them. But there was also a time where it's like, losing Yuma would even fuck them in longer term. Yeah, now I don't believe that. He was younger. Yeah, no, because I don't know where he would necessarily go, because in that weird position, where like he's only a year older than Ozawa. So would know what pushing or they just prefer to push their dojo guys, right? Yeah. For all we know, New Japan might need him.

1:07:57I mean, he is tall enough, right? Like he's tall enough to go to New Japan. Yeah. DDT, maybe he really gets to do a bunch of comedy stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Like, so like zero one. No, we're sitting there. Yeah, zero one. He'd actually be serious in zero one though. Yeah, true. That doesn't work unless you'd form a trio with like the Kubota brothers. Oh god. He would love to do that, but it's probably he tells it to like whoever booked zero one and they would tell him to fuck off. Yeah. And then he made a bet at the show. Can tell me a hard defeat. A June set in 2732 with the shutdown during suplex to make his fifth defense of the Triple Crown. I thought this was a pretty good match. It's just been overdying. It was also formulaic, but I think June is becoming a better singles wrestler. And I said that from like the last couple of matches he had in his Triple Crown reign. And then there was a match against Go that I thought was very good. And I thought he looked very good here. It was just formulaic from Kento's

1:09:03side and we've seen it too much, but it was like a solid enough match. It did what it needed to do. I don't know Paul. What did you think? Yeah, that's what I thought as well. It's like it kind of almost felt like them playing the hits essentially. Yeah. I mean, there's nobody better at like a closing sequence than Kento Miyahara. And I think that really elevated the match for me still. Like it was still a good, like it wasn't a great match. It's not a match that's going to be anywhere near my like match of the year list at the end of the year. Yeah. But it definitely, it was, you know what, it was better than like they're like the title match they did last year. Or around the same time last year, like early last year. Yeah, for sure. This was better than that. Because that, that again, I think, is still like that was a weirdly bad match. They had a better match in the army. Exactly. Yeah. So like that was just a weird one where like it just seemed like both men were just off the game. And like this definitely wasn't that.

1:10:05This was like a good match, not a great match. And I had four little bit in there. Like I think it dragged a little bit around the middle, but then the fucking finishing sequence was good enough at the very, at the end. Yeah. This is just like I think somewhat of a filler defense and somewhat about like, okay, June's going to leave the main event scene for a while now. Yeah. I mean, call this a filler title defense and get to the next title defense. Well, see, this is funny. Because I think we might disagree about this. So who comes out, but Kumarashi carrying the gay or a TV championship, he challenged and they'll face each other later this month at Tahashi Oji Arena, which is that arena like the western edges of Tokyo. Paul, I saw your response in the disc, the voice of wrestling discord. Oh, I think we're going to disagree on this. So you go first. Okay. So what I said, basically, I before like, I think like literally the day before I had called Sawya and Kondo challenging Naito and Bouchi for like the note attack titles,

1:11:11the most like filler title defense possible. And then Kumarashi comes out to challenge Kento for the Triple Crown. I was like, okay, no, actually, you know what, this is the most filler title defense possible because to me, a filler title defense is any title defense where the other guy just like doesn't have a fucking lick in hell to like win the match. And to me, this is one of those matches where like, I don't think Kumarashi, like the only way Kumarashi wins this match is like, is like, Kento gets injured and they have to call the match and like Kumarashi wins. That is, I think the only way he has a chance to win this title. And that's why to me, this is like, I think he literally has like, again, a zero percent, like barring an injury, he has a zero percent chance to win. And I guess you disagree with that. Or do you think, well, no, I just, I think it's great that they're giving him this chance. They built him up very well over several,

1:12:13a couple of months, not super long, but a couple of months, which I feel like this company doesn't always do. I somewhat almost want to say, is this go planning things out more carefully? Because the mid card feels a little more airfully booked. I don't know, what do you get that sort of vibe? Yeah, no, no, no, I mean, it definitely seems like they're putting in more effort there, yeah. Well, like, it's not a slap dash. And again, I think there's also like notable, like, less comedy now than they used to be. Like, then there was this time last year. Like, there's still some comedy, but it's not as overwhelming as it was. Which again, seems to point that there's somebody else in charge of like booking all of that. Yeah. So I show whoever booked Kuma Rashi did a great job in getting and elevating him. Because like, oh, he's getting more and more singles wins and everything like that. And okay, well, he won the title. And I was like, well, I wasn't shocked that he beat Sacramento. I kind of expected Sacramento to retain to be completely honest with you, but I was not like as shocked as I was when he came out to someone's canto to

1:13:13be completely honest. So I think it's good that they're just going and getting new guys in there in that main event. That's what they desperately need. So I will take it. Kuma's been working hard, canto is canto. I think they're going to have a great match. I mean, again, okay, feels weird that I have to beat a one that like put some water on like Akuma Rashi match. Because generally, I am like his like biggest defender. But I yeah, we'll see. Like, I like him, but I've just never seen him as a guy that should be like in the like, you know, like triple crown, like like sphere, basically. Like I perfectly, I was like, oh no, it's perfect for him to like win the gay or TV title. I think that's like a great idea. That's exactly what he should be doing. I just don't know if like triple crown feels just a step too high for him. I mean, maybe he will like deliver in the match. I'm just like, I'm just not sure if that's really like where he should be essentially. I'd also assume on that show or on the core, I can show we get the

1:14:16champion carnival blocks and everything like that. I mean, kind of because like, when else are we going to get the Yeah, exactly. So let's go to previews because we got a show in all Japan for this Sunday, March 8th. And this is going to be the final new age chronic chronicles that with the Z final show. I think it's also the out actually, which is good. Well, I think it's only still it's good. So your first match, we have Dan Tamera and Nubohiko Kamura versus Rio in a way and Gaiahawks, who is now who partner list is June Masaoka right off the team 2009. I'm still a battle that they signed Masaoka instead of Gaiahawks. I just think Gaiahawks is just the better guy between them, but I don't know. Second match, we've got Holkotou Mori versus Jiro Shinbachi. Yeah, I've been interesting to like see a Jiro match outside of like Dragon Gate, which I don't think he's done before. But Holkotou after having a nice outing against Honda is back to fourth.

1:15:16Okay, Jard, if you lose this to Jiro Shinbachi, will you admit that he's probably leaving the promotion? Okay, I'll do that. I feel like that is like a safe bet on your end, but still I feel like I think that is just such a like 100% that if you literally lose this to like the fucking like comedy drama from Dragon Gate. Yeah, then the third match for a three-way match. We have Seger Tachibana versus Shota Kufuji versus Odyssey, and he's going to stack him, obviously. Yeah, yeah. So that is all about fourth match, special tag match, 20 minutes. Right now, I'll be in Tellus versus Mochizuki Junior in Kazuma, Kamura. I mean, hey, again, like I hope Mochizuki Junior just you know goes through here because you can walk all the Dragon Gate. Yeah. I mean, I want them to win the egg festival tournament. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then the main event, this is basically the six-man

1:16:19tag match of all the big guy and doage chronicles, guys that they have, rising high-acto, race Sado and Reki Honda versus Attsuki Ayurac. Sorry. Attsuki Ayuragi, June Sado and Yuma Anzai, so that should be a good main event. And then we have on March 15th at Corket Hall in the early slot that starts 11.30 a.m. Tokyo time singles match. Shota Kufuji versus Manzada. Nepal, do you think that they do you think that Kufuji is still in his young boy Jover stage or can he beat Masada? If he has chance of beating anybody, it's Masada, right? Yeah. Because it's not even okay, who actually would he be more likely to beat? Would it be Masada or completely entirely unrelated wrestlers senior Sado? Actually, it would be senior Sado. That's the thing, right? He has a chance of beating senior Sado than Masada. That's true, yes.

1:17:20So we'll see about that then. This is not in order. This is just listed on the site. So Triple Crown Poeminary 6-man tag match. Can I talk to me about Reki Honda and Yuma Anzai versus Kubo Rashi, Daisuke Sakamoto and Sago Tachibana? That could be a banger. It's a good preview match. We've got an 8-man tag match that I don't know how this is going to go. Paul, have you seen this card because you're not going to like this? No, what's the match? So we've got Goshio Zaki, Shotaro, Zian, and Anisee versus Homo Mori, Nouruki Doi, Kodosekafuda and Toshiyuki Sakuda. What the fuck? Yeah. Who the fuck booked this match? So we have the semi-finals of the Zenny Junior Tag Festival, Aski Aoyagi versus Ryzen Hayato versus, sorry, did I say versus Aski Aoyagi and Ryzen Hayato versus Sakiyoshiyoka and Yuyosusumu?

1:18:22Paul, I feel like, me, Yosuoka feels like he's got some momentum, but I think getting that big win over Rusashi with Rusashi's own finisher, that's good enough for this tournament. I would tell you. Oh yeah, no. No, no, no. Your aces go over here. No, absolutely. Yuyosusumu was eating the pennant match. Yes. Like I don't even know which of them is pinning him, but like, he's definitely getting pinned. Yeah. And then in the other semi-final, Dan Tamer and Hakao Sado versus Ryo in a way in Mochizuki Junior, hopefully everyone brings their seriousness because this could be a good match. And look, well, I already said, I made it known who I want to win here. I mean, Dan and Hakao to like the finals of this tournament again, it felt like they were like a team that did stuff like a few years ago now. You can't rule it out though, like especially because it has reformed evolution. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know. Pin Sado are here, I think. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing with like, I think that's also like

1:19:28last time they were relevant. Sado was a lot better than he is now. Yeah. Yeah, Sado is like going to be 46 this year. Oh god. Jesus. Yeah. No. Yeah. Um, so we'll see about that. Yeah, I can't, I'm not like, I put money on Innoi and Mochizuki Junior here. I like, I can't do that. Um, but I really can. Because it's Innoi, right? Like that's the problem here. Like if it was just much of you not teaming with somebody else, I would definitely be like, oh, they're going to the finals, but like, yeah, I think you want to put hand rule on Innoi getting pinned. Yeah. You got a lot of dragon gate guys on these two on these shows coming up too. So I feel like, yeah, you know, um, I mean, that definitely seems like a strong like again, not to harp on like something I said earlier, that makes like team 2,000 X coming in even weirder because Noah is not the promotion that dragon gate currently has a closer relationship with. Yeah. It's ultra pan, but yeah, I don't, I don't know. Like it's actually interesting with sorry, just a quick as well on that because with the whole carnival thing and me saying like

1:20:32last time that I think Ikuta has a chance because he's going to lose the like dream gate to Yoshiyoka, but turns out he didn't lose the dream gate to Yoshiyoka. Oh, so he's going to go into the carnival ass champion, which I think basically rules him out as the winner, but also makes it really fucking complicated like because he can't really take that many pins. He's either going to the finals or he's like going to be eliminated on the last night. Yeah, saying him to the finals is not a bad idea in all honesty. No, I mean, what a finals go versus Kikuto, like that would be easy. Actually, you know what, both are like, you know what now I can, I can't definitely because both are lary at guys. Yeah. And that's like a super fresh match as well. Yeah. Oh god, it'd be amazing. So, but yeah, he basically my whole idea of him, my whole idea of him winning and then winning the triple crown is out the fucking window because he didn't lose the crown. He didn't lose,

1:21:33he didn't lose the bell to the guy. He very obviously built up for him to lose the bell to. So again, dragon gate booking is like, we'll make any fucking sense. And then the main event for the World Tag Team Championship, Rana Iabe and Tows, the Titans of Clamity defender titles for the third time against the set of brothers, June center and race center. We already said this. I think, I don't know. I mean, look, I would not be shocked at all if June and Ray win the titles here, but I just think you could string this along a little longer, especially with the carnival coming up. Just have them retain and then have the titles win in Sunday later in the summer. Yeah. No, I mean, again, like I was fully on the train of like us, I just kind of went up back, but like we've really talked me into like it makes more sense to hold off until Sunday because then because it's like otherwise, you just have like a sighted like title defense on that, which probably might still draw well, but like having to draw be like, oh, they're actually, they're finally going to win back those belts. I think it's a much better draw for them to do in

1:22:35Sendai. And especially since they haven't held the belts in like a bit now. So yeah, not long, but like by their standards, it's been a while. Yeah. So Paul, this I was like, what is this show going to do? But Paul, the pre-sales are looking pretty good. We got the five sections. We got the premium C to the special ring sides. It's both sold out. And then all the other sections are in the triangle and lost it. So Kuma Rashi confirmed the bigger draw than Yushiki and Amura? No, this is the side, this is the Titans of Clamby, a bigger draw than Yushiki. Oh, oh, okay, sorry, oh yeah, it's that much. Yeah, okay, never mind. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, that is a, yeah, that is a caracan though. So it's a small ability. Yeah. But they'll break a thousand when you have that kind of pre-sales. No problem. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, no. They might, they might decide to still over. Oh, I don't know if they're going to sell it out, but I had 12 3, 12 or 13 hired easily. Yeah. And then we go to March 20th. And I was also concerned because this is the bigger show

1:23:42technically with the triple crown. So I wasn't going to sure if that was going to cannibalize it. Even though it's way, way, way on the other edge of Tokyo. So we only have three matches, or four matches, sorry, announced for this show. So we got the triple crown match, Kento Miyahara versus Kumarashi. And we both let it be known how we both feel about that. Paul, we have two tightens of calamities versus the Sido brother singles matches, which when I saw this, it was like, oh, feels like this feud might be getting strung out a little longer, don't you think? Yeah. No, I think that definitely would be an indicator that it is actually being strung out a bit more. That is true. So we have Talos versus June Sido and Renai Abe versus Ray Sido, which I probably think is the most ideal way to distribute this. Let them up. Yeah. Yeah. And then of course, we have the junior tag finals. Go Mocha Zuki in any way on that show. And let's just do a quick ticket look because I haven't done this yet. This is the 320 show.

1:24:47So six sections, all of them are triangle. So I think that's not bad. Yeah. Because they have more expensive than usual premium seats. Usually the premium seats are like one or $20,000, $15,000 yet. The premium seats for the short $20,000. And you're still two weeks out from the show as well. Yeah. So that's not bad, I would say. Yeah. And I mean, will this, will this, I mean, I was told like saying, but like will this actually outsell the like Noah, like Yokohama show? It's possible if they have a hot cork in that builds it up. Yeah. Because again, they they have they still have two movies to sell tickets for the show where it's Noah needs like a big uptake and like four days. Right. And they haven't done the final angles going into the show. Yeah. On the so and then the very next, yeah, March 21st, they're in Gunma. And Anaka Shinkumi Sports Center. And this is the Yuma Anzai homecoming show.

1:25:49Is it advertised old? Yeah. He's on the poster. It's just him. Okay. And what I assume is going to be the main event because there's only two matches here listed. We have Yuma Anzai, Ryuki Honda and Asuki Aoyagi versus Ken Tomeahara, Hideki Suzuki and Ryzing Hado. So I think that's going to be really good. Oh, yeah. No, that's my minutes. Yeah. Look at at least 15. Sato Brothers versus Havik, which could also mean that going Chitaro Shino or Zimbine and Odyssey are going to challenge them next to as well. You never know. It's decided when the title back. Yeah. Yeah. So June Sato, Ray Sato and Senior Sato and Makoto Oishi, because maybe Ryuki Doi is on a Drenge show that day. Versus Go, Chitaro Shino, Zimbine and Odyssey. And that's all that's been announced for that Goon Macho. But I mean, the main event of that show, I think will be pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. And then I'm looking at the ticket sales for the Goon Macho and it looks like

1:26:53six sections, the top four are xed out and then like the, you know, the bleachers. Those bleeds are triangle. So Anzai is a draw in Goon Mach. Yeah. I mean, also notable that like Atsuki and like Ryzen Hayato are on like opposite sides. Like that would indicate to me that like they're not winning the tournament. Right? Like because like I would assume whoever wins is also going to win the belts. Yeah. Well, we don't know when that's going to happen though. That's true. Yeah. But then I don't know. Like I at the very latest, I would say like they're like opener of the Carnival. Yes. Like the latest I would put on that. But then again, yeah. Do you think it could be in Dragon Gate, though, because it's going to be father versus son, possibly. That's true as well. Um, when is the big like when is when is the cage match? So let me double check on that actually real quick. Um, I mean, the thing is like the next big Dragon Gate show is not

1:27:54until the 26th, though, of April. Okay. I don't know if they have a hurricane before that. I mean, probably they have a hurricane before that. But like the whole like, you know, like cage match, like show and everything, that's on the 26th of April. Which, wait a minute, isn't that? And like, doesn't that yet? Yeah, wait a minute, because we had that problem last year. Well, like Kekuta is in that match. Kekuta is in the cage match yet again. We had that, we had that problem last year. Well, like remember where he basically turned heel halfway through the carnival. Oh, that's right. Yes, I forgot about that. So like that, that's the case this year again, where he's in that cage match yet again. So I don't know, like mate, there is a chance he'll get his head shaved. I think it's unlikely, but it's possible. Yeah. Uh, we'll see what happens again more crazy booking with Dragon Gate booking. That's affecting all Japan, maybe we'll see. Yeah. I mean, he will still be Dreamgate champion. Like I don't think he has any title defenses

1:28:55before that. Yeah. And so we're just on a attendance or ticket buying kick for a set of the carnivals moving well. The premium seats are sold out. There's a couple of triangles up already in some of the other sections. So I think that will do well, because we're still over a month away from that. Which honestly, that's a really good sign because historically that show has sold like shit. Yeah. Right, like weirdly, like opening night of the carnival has not sold well for like years at this point. Like I, because I remember people always freak out where it's like, because it's like when a lot of people pay attention to all Japan, it's like the opening night of the carnival. Yeah, I mean, I don't have any case for all that number. Could also be a case that the card is not spectacular when they finally announced it and then no one else buys tickets in advance. There's no, there's no walk up. Yeah, that might be the thing as well. Yeah, that could also happen, but it's very part like they want to stack the good they could probably do well if they can stack that person. Yeah. So that is it. I think that I am getting a little frustrated with Noah,

1:30:01but I am looking forward to Inamura versus Kenno. And I am cautiously optimistic in all Japan's direction. I guess that's how it's about my feelings on everything. Yeah, I mean, I definitely am enjoying like Kendra's reign. So yeah, I think again, I think for me it very highly depends how they're like carnival blocks. For sure. Shake out, you know, because just looking at that roster, I don't know, like I think there is a way to get to two good blocks, even with like the like lineup, but it could also very well be that they just stack one block and we get one really, really, really bad block, but yeah, let's see which way they go for that. All right, then. So we'll be back soon, probably to talk about this big Noah show and then we've got some all Japan stuff to tie this over. So they're moving again and we can get to us, you know, a fairly regular schedule of every other week, I think for the next little while, because then we've got the sojourn march. And of course, the champion carnival starts. So there'll be plenty to talk about. So until then,

1:31:04enjoy all the wrestling out there. Bye. My name is Tyler Fornison. I am one of the co-hosts of the good, the bad and the hunggy AEW podcast here on the voice of wrestling podcasting network. We take a broad scope approach to the world of all elite wrestling and the entire universe of Tony Khan. We talk about the big matches, the big stars, the promos, the storylines. And we also look at it from a big picture perspective. How are things going to change over the course of the next 10 years with AEW still on the picture? How are companies like WWE going to adapt and adjust to AEW? Are they going to be a similar way like they did with WCW in the late 1990s? Will there be a counter punch? We talk about all of that and more on the good, the bad and the hunggy every week on the voice of wrestling network. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a long time reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me,

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