[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back everyone to the gentleman's wrestling podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host as always, Justin Collins.

[SPEAKER_01]: And joining me once again, he is a returning guest to the show.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is a proud representative of Western Massachusetts.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's our Springfield Massachusetts correspondent.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's also the top the number one ranked fancer in the voice of wrestling podcast network.

[SPEAKER_01]: I bet you a lot of people didn't know that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it is New Japan expert, Jay Michael.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, Jesse.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for having me back after a year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a long year.

[SPEAKER_00]: God damn, we got a lot to talk about.

[SPEAKER_00]: When was the last year?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but first we're going to talk about Western mass.

[SPEAKER_00]: What was the last time I heard it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: Last time I was happy, why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, yesterday.

[SPEAKER_00]: course.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was there Sunday too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I've been the two days in a row.

[SPEAKER_00]: Real quick street.

[SPEAKER_01]: I go by every time I go into work, I see it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I go by a big billboard that's advertising the Biggie to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm actually going to be in Los Angeles, feel like the entire duration of the Biggie.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I will not be able to eat like my fried cheese on a stick.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the kid lay Ori is coming to the Biggie.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know I believe he's big in the hip hop scene.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would have no idea, but that's who their headlining act is, according to the billboard on a two ninety.

[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, Jesse, I was telling you about some local history before we recorded.

[SPEAKER_01]: We had the nerdyest conversation ever before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it was recorded.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the nerdiest because we're about to break that record because The Biggie, like it's the template for everything, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is a real agricultural fair, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You go and you got the thing with the eggs hatch and all the big giant.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for people don't know, this is like a big state fair that takes place in Springfield, Massachusetts every year.

[SPEAKER_01]: West Springfield.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, you're right.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's in the fairgrounds are actually on West Springfield.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and it's got like, it's meant to be like a New England thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's state houses for everybody, stay and like everybody lines up for like three days to get the same potato and all that stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, and everybody's sort of copying it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's the big Wisconsin wonders, the big Texas one, all these fucking states that have nothing to do with these big ones.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the very first agricultural fair, Jesse, was in Pitzfield, Massachusetts, AT&T-O-Ceven.

[SPEAKER_01]: Really, I did not know that shitty pity.

[SPEAKER_00]: First agricultural fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was right under the big piss field down downtown Pittsburgh.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was right there, ATNO seven.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the first agricultural society was started right after that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hell yeah, brother.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, it's been enough of that nerd talk.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about New Japan for a wrestling, something that only sophisticated jobs like ourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's a whole lot of way to hold that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got one more provincial thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been waiting for this to drop this on you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So last time I was on obviously the Celtics had just won the championship and we're talking about how they have all of theirs and the racers had five because they don't really have as many as they say.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the linkers claim the Minneapolis ones, which any sane person would not recognize.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, nonsense.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let me tell you about people who are claim and stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I don't know how often you've been to ninety one, but you know, when I get a ninety one and I'm going south across the border, there's the big scientists welcome to Connecticut, but there's been a recent addition like last year or two.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it literally says, welcome to Connecticut, home of the basketball capital of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: What the fuck do you make of that?

[SPEAKER_01]: So Connecticut is the basketball, so it doesn't tell you what the basketball capital of the world is, which I'm a con, but it's, so it wants you to think of stores Connecticut, which is home to you, con, because it has the woman's basketball program and also very successful men's basketball program.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would, I wouldn't say if you were to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you were to survey like five hundred people at random in this country and ask like, what would you recognize as like the basketball capital of the world?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think many people would say Connecticut.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think you'd get Indiana, maybe New York City, maybe like a few other major cities, people wouldn't say Springfield, because it's in the basketball and it's home to the Hall of Fame, which I'm sure the basketball fame is very closely located to that billboard.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like a mile.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, based on your description.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, they're pretty short.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you think they're trolling the basketball Hall of Fame?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think so.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the trolling all of us, you know, Jesse, I tend to put precedent on professional accomplishments on amateur accomplishments.

[SPEAKER_00]: So obviously, that's what capital would be just the state of Massachusetts.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, here's the thing is that college [SPEAKER_01]: sports are not big in Massachusetts, certainly not where I live.

[SPEAKER_01]: The exception is the bean pot, which is the ice hockey tournament between four colleges that are in Boston, except only two of the colleges actually are in Boston, but at Boston College, which is in Boston, Boston University, Northeastern, and Harvard, which is also not in Boston.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's like the only time like people care about college sports, like I think the BC alums care about Boston College, but nobody outside of BC really cares about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Worcester, there's like some holy cross fans that I see.

[SPEAKER_01]: But like college sports, like not nothing in Massachusetts, and I always say when people mention that, I say we have professional teams that win things.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we don't have to watch these amateurs play in the inferior version of these sports, but I understand in flyover country.

[SPEAKER_01]: That college sports is a big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, Connecticut's almost fly over country for me, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was here's a really provincial thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, you've sort of done it enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: I went from, you know, Western mass to Providence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, that spot before like, stir braids were eighty-four and ninety-meet.

[SPEAKER_00]: It took me like an hour and ten minutes to go five miles on that stretch.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just kept thinking, this is eighty-four asphalt, and eighty-four is literally like Connecticut's infecting Massachusetts.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so it's like a needle poking into the healthy veins of Massachusetts infrastructure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: They just can't help themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eighty-four sucks.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's worse road up, ever seen in my life.

[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that some of it comes in, takes our beautiful pike, brings it to a standstill.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's offensive to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: The worst part of our bet on, for example, your time is I-E-E-E out in West, like Central New York.

[SPEAKER_01]: It kind of takes you from like Albany down towards like Bigumton.

[SPEAKER_01]: I used to have a friend that lived in Bigumton, New York, so I took it several times.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the worst road in America from like quality, perspective.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just go over bumps for two and a half hours.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's awful.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, Ninja Pan Pro Wrestling, we're coming out of the G-One, and so...

[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to have this episode because I wanted to be a little bit more of a discussion on the roster and some of the key current members of the New Japan roster.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't want it to turn into a ghetto should be fired podcast because I already had that podcast with Gerard Detralio, which was before the G-One.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll say, I'll say, I don't think Gato strengthened his case for job retention following the G-One.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I also didn't really want to focus on like evil and house of torture because I think a lot of people were focusing on that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like the main takeaway from the chew one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to talk about some of the other things that happened in the street one and kind of what that means for the long term aspects of some of these members of the roster that are going to be key members for the raw for New Japan going forward.

[SPEAKER_01]: And obviously, I think the first person we need to talk about is Karate Keshta.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wins the G-One.

[SPEAKER_01]: We came into, I think every sensible fan came into the G-One saying, all right, New Japan needs to make a new star.

[SPEAKER_01]: They need to pick one of these young guys and give them a real steady push.

[SPEAKER_01]: And from, like, on paper, that's exactly what they did.

[SPEAKER_01]: They chose one of their young guys and they gave them a real steady push.

[SPEAKER_01]: But did they pick the right one?

[SPEAKER_01]: They picked somebody who is not one of their, you know, core, you know, young lions that they've graduated up.

[SPEAKER_01]: They picked somebody whose currently has two other contracts with wrestling companies.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think most people seem to understand that his primary focus is probably going to be AEW certainly.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's probably making getting paid the most money from AEW.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in general, as a fan and as an analyst, what was kind of your takeaway from to cash to winning the G one and kind of getting that opportunity as opposed to maybe one of some other options on the roster?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I spent most of Sunday wondering whether I wanted to send you a message that said I'm not recording, and I'm out and I don't want to talk about this company.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because to cash to the is my favorite wrestler.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a very soft spot for DDT.

[SPEAKER_00]: I pretty much just watched New Japan and DDT.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that, you know, it's not that they chose [SPEAKER_00]: They chose the best choice, or at least the choice that is the best.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it's the choice that fits the best, but part of that's also on them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was just so frustrated on Sunday with [SPEAKER_00]: all of this clamoring for evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, now the Twitter sort of like auto translate stuff for you, I'm going to do all this stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, I don't, I rather, I just see the katakana and the conchene the Japanese because it was just so much of just the online New Japan fan, domestic fan, like the Japanese fan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just like praising evil for his heart and is whatever the fuck, just simply because he's the homegrown guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And [SPEAKER_00]: I came up with a new word for all of this, Fedrem.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fedrem means federation reminiscent.

[SPEAKER_00]: Things that remind me of WWE fans, and I kind of feel like the company is being very Fedrem, and their local fans are being very Fedrem.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, to, you know, the way to make a star doesn't necessarily have to be that they're a traditional baby face.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, you know, to catch it, it comes into the G one.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's got Rocky Romero, who booked himself into a prominent spot again.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's there as like the Heal Manager, the Heal Voice.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he's kind of neutral throughout the whole thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we get to the block final night.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he has this magic, it's an Arita where he's playing this sort of underneath baby face that has to come from behind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he's at the limbs.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know there's some talk about his limbs selling in blah, blah, blah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Suji's limb selling was bad too, by the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, he fights his way to house a torch or stuff, and it's like, fine, it's a house a torch or a batch.

[SPEAKER_00]: They need to do something of render breeder because he really sucks.

[SPEAKER_00]: They gave him that match and touched a head to fight.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then they did the exact same thing in the Finley match, where Finley had like, ninety percent of that match.

[SPEAKER_00]: And to guess a head to fight his way through and blah, blah, blah, persevere and all that nonsense.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then he pretty much had the same thing in the Saber match.

[SPEAKER_00]: More, you know, it was more even in that match, but again, he's still playing this under his baby face.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then obviously the evil match was just all of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I really don't understand why they took to Keshita, who could have become a star just as this dickhead.

[SPEAKER_00]: who's bigger than everybody in stronger than everybody, and who's kind of, it doesn't necessarily have to be an evading heal, but that he's in there and he's acting the way he did last year, where he's sort of very supercellious, he's very sort of high-flute in about everybody, and he's just sort of looking down a new Japan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, they wanted to be the traditional babyface, and then they saw the final, the new Japan fandom, [SPEAKER_00]: Now, in the building, I think it was like half and half, but it seemed like I'd line.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody's for evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they built themselves up here where the fans are sort of being kind of fed REM themselves, because they're just kind of rejecting somebody just because they're not the homegrown guy, which kind of reminds me of the sort of clashes we see here, dangerously coming close to sort of American rest and culture with all of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I just don't understand, like the instincts of this booking crew have just fallen off a cliff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because obviously, they know who's going to win before they start.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's some sort of backwards plan.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if the idea was that you were going to get to cash at a winning this thing, why in the world would you do it this way?

[SPEAKER_00]: So I do believe the cash should have talented enough to go through all this, but they've just totally mischaracterized him really within just a few weeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just fundamentally don't understand how they think this is going to work or could work.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of where I'm at with that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It would have been interesting to see if they went with Dekeshida in the finals against a non-evil wrestler.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, because I do wonder, on one hand, like, evil, to me as a fan of New Japan, like, evil has an absolutely nothing at all to make me invested in wanting to see him succeed.

[SPEAKER_01]: At all, I would like to, like, probably never see him wrestle up again.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that's just me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, domestic fan might be, or they're remaining domestic fans might be really excited to see him win matches.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: But like, what if he was like, what if they did to catch diverse is like, you are more of a sugy or someone that maybe the like someone that would be like an obvious person that actually should win, as opposed to evil, who everyone knows, like even though even though gay don't love evil, everyone knew evil actually wasn't going to win that match.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I agree.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, one thing I haven't taken for a while.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm obviously there were people who thought this well before I did, but I definitely was seeing the signs earlier this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not so much when he went away after Tanaashi beat him, but sort of when he came back and definitely, like, within this tournament, I really did think, like, if they just turned house a torch or face and didn't change anything, literally just the exact same things that they're doing, it would at least be interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then, you know, we get to this final and it's the same nonsense.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, I'm higher on evil since he got the laugh.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the laugh didn't exist last time we talked about this stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the laugh is incredible.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm fully in support of him with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, if it was evil in the final, or if like, oh, I don't know where the idea was, if the backwards design was, we're gonna have evil in the final, then Takeshita was absolutely the wrong choice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Should have been Suji, or especially Uemura.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if they like Takeshita's gonna be there, then they really need to realign everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think you're right.

[SPEAKER_00]: It should have been one of those guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: either Suji or the Wemura, or so to I guess, but probably a Wemura or Suji, facing him in the final, and that the Kesheuk should have been, you know, the character that he's been pretty much all year up until like the very end of this G-One, and probably still won.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think you could still base things around him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I think you're right.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think like it was just a totally mismatch final.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I keep coming back to the idea of instincts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like there's all these self-immulating choices that they keep making and they just fundamentally make no sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't really want to talk about that much about how to torture, but my stance for a while has been [SPEAKER_01]: Just in addition to like, okay, these matches all have kind of the same format because the heels run in and cheat.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, as someone that has been watching American wrestling their whole life, like, I just a formula that has been pervasive throughout all of American wrestling for as long as I haven't been watching it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I just don't want to see that outside of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even see it at all, but one of the original things that got me interested in New Japan and Peru in general was not as many like American troops.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other thing, it's just like, it's just not creative.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, like objectively, like these matches all have the same layout and they all have kind of the same things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, kind of Morris goes whiskey bottle and Dictogo is gonna, he's got his throat wire and he's gonna do the chop off of the ropes and walker stewards gonna have to say, Dicta, Dicta, contacta, and just like that was just like every level match.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not creative.

[SPEAKER_01]: In regards to DeKeshta, [SPEAKER_01]: So, there's been this thought process where it's like, okay, New Japan needs a new ace.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then Chris Samsev wrote all about this article that went up today Tuesday as a writer in this kind of talking about Takeshta as the new potential ace of New Japan for us like.

[SPEAKER_01]: And these, these other [SPEAKER_01]: with the Ray Watch generation or other people that have been possible candidates for that role.

[SPEAKER_01]: You could say that there's been issues with them that we didn't have the charisma for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of these other guys were maybe a little too green.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Tequesta is kind of despite not being a New Japan homegrown star.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tequesta from a talent perspective is the obvious choice if you were to pick, okay, who's going to be like the next top star for a New Japan pro wrestling?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's this guy who looks the part who's a great great entering wrestler has tons of charisma is young but also very experienced.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, it's, it's just an obvious like super slam dunk prospect that you want to build an entire company around.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but the issue comes from first and then you saw this during the final and kind of you're talking about seeing people online talk about it and things like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's this stigma about him not being a new Japan guy and being a DDT guy, you know, as a as a trainee and for a bulk of his career.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then also the fact that he's an AW star and has, you know, factored pretty prominently into AW as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is general sense that, can this, this guy cannot really replace Tanahashi because Tanahashi is like the heart and soul of New Japan for wrestling.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this guy no matter how talented he is, even if he gets really over, he's just not going to be the heart and soul of New Japan.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, that's the way it seems.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of like a, I don't know what I'm saying, unforeseen factor, but it's an extra factor with him that I don't think New Japan has adequately addressed.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you're picking like, all right, who are we going to give this rub to?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I agree.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, again, I think it comes back to I just fundamentally do not understand why they presented him as this heroic baby face when he's bigger than everybody else.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't really suit him as well right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like you said, like he's only been in New Japan for a year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I even less than a year, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Cause we didn't technically know that he was signed when he started the G one last year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like officially signed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right in New Japan for a year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that was like the big reveal like after that you won and did right and you know, I don't I think that's kind of overwhelmed because you know, yes, he's not there every day and like it's sort of one of those things where you have enough [SPEAKER_00]: You have enough fermentation on both sides to work where, you know, he is not there every day.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the ones who are there every day and the flans who are behind them can draw on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he's there more than anybody else that does like the sort of two company to be company deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's been at every single major event at New Japan.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been either the whole G one.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's been there a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just hasn't been there on the tours.

[SPEAKER_00]: Which of course, only one or two shows where you can broadcast anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I just think, you know, with the cash that there's one thing that's really kind of bothering me, especially is that he's not coming from, like, if it was the opposite and New Japan sent somebody to DDT, [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, I think DDT fans would be rightfully upset because that's like punching down, but this is a guy coming from DDT.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love DDT, but it's fucking DDT.

[SPEAKER_00]: They produce these generational talents, but he's a guy from DDT.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's not like somebody from all Japan, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it will, New, New Japan has a long history of picking up talent from other promotions worth that are smaller than them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, you can look at, you know, as we go, kind of.

[SPEAKER_01]: you know, who started out, you know, working at Torium on and the dragon gate system.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as soon as they were, they're like, wow, this guy's really talented, guess who is sniffing around and looking for a new Japan pro wrestling.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think dating all the way back to like the first time I saw it to Kasta, which is going back to those like, you know, matches he had with Hiroshi Tanahashi when he was a teenager, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I just thought, okay, one day this guy is gonna be in New Japan.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so talented and he's so young and New Japan gets those guys because they're the biggest fish in that pond [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I think, I was talking to Joel about this yesterday too, because obviously you think to yourself, he's tall, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's really tall, taller than pretty much everybody else in the promotion, and he's buffed.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Ocada didn't have that, but he, you know, the idea is like, and see the new Ocada.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope he's not because Ocada kind of left the company in a lurch last year, didn't help anybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, I see that.

[SPEAKER_00]: but they're kind of skipping steps again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, O'Cotta's title reigns.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if you watch those title reigns back, especially like the three-year one from like, twenty-fifteen to twenty-eighteen, most of the matches, he's getting his ass beat from most of the match.

[SPEAKER_00]: The crowd is behind his opponent, and then he just pulls it out, but you accept it because it's O'Cotta, like you just accepted, he's an other worldly talent.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it took a long time to get to there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this kind of feels somewhat reminiscent of what they did with Narita, where it's like, all right, here's your new Shabata without any of the backstory of Shabata.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think they're doing everybody to service by doing this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it seems like they're just writing themselves into corners by overthinking everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the main difference between Ocata and come to that phase of Ocata's career [SPEAKER_01]: and where to catch the finds himself now, is that Ocada was working, I think, with way better people, that even if Ocada had the physical tools to survive, when he's working against, I'll just throw out my North Suzuki as a guy, like, Prime Missouri's Suzuki, or maybe whatever, if you wanna call that phase of my North Suzuki, when he was like, fifty, but still very good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like he's dealing with, so yeah, yes, he has the physical tools, but he's also dealing with like he's wrestling, you mean he's wrestling Tana, he's a legend and Suzuki and Nakamura and these guys that were enormously talented legendary wrestlers that were very, very good at their jobs and to catch you finds himself [SPEAKER_01]: on a roster that just doesn't have that kind of depth and talent in terms of opponents, which also makes it more challenging, I think, to build them up as a baby face in that regard.

[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, and also, I mean, you know, I don't want to harp on it until you, unless you bring it up, but, you know, same thing that we were sort of talking about last year and it's become exponentially worse.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, obviously you're right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, I really love this roster, but the level of talent is tricky to compare.

[SPEAKER_00]: These guys are gonna have to bring themselves up on their own.

[SPEAKER_00]: The guys who are still around that are like legendary talents are broken down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also, let's just add to this, you know, talking about ACEs.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Tata Hashi was a true ACE.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, to me, he's like a jumbo.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like that classic guy, because jumbo, [SPEAKER_00]: was the ace, and then he passed it on to the four pillars.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Tonahashi did the same thing, built the company up, passed it onto a car.

[SPEAKER_00]: A car did not fulfill his ace duties, because he purposely not only didn't even pass it on, he went out of his way not to.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the big problem to me, I mean besides the pandemic, which obviously, like everything that we're talking about is because the pandemic fucked everything up.

[SPEAKER_00]: the factions, like there's no faction element, like Okada was nurtured by Nakamura.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we don't have that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we don't even have the support system for these guys to sort of like get boosted up.

[SPEAKER_01]: So is this just a whole male stream of stuff that you're applying that house the torture is not a good support system?

[SPEAKER_00]: For who?

[SPEAKER_00]: For Narita?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I know that, I mean, what House of Tortures, it was, I guess it's good for evil, but what I've said House of Tortures is like, is a spot for people who they've given up on and are just like, all right, like in Gato's one idea, which is if your first push doesn't really take is to just be like, all right, you're just going to be like a super shitter he'll now and you'll be like one, get yourself like some sort of prop or gimmick.

[SPEAKER_01]: and go, go run in in different matches and hit your opponent with whether it's a red chore, push a bar, or a whiskey bottle, or a garot wire, or whatever you want it to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: When it works at works, but like most of the time it's just so insincere.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I adore it when it works, and I probably have evil higher than anybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think he might have been like tenth or eleventh in my matrating list.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it works for evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, don't ask me about Naruto and Senada's like unradable at the moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, it's just like, it's almost a mockery of wrestling.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's not even like an homage.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like literally just shoving it in your face.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, here we go, everybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's fucking fake.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're just gonna do all this stuff every single night.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just really dire when you see that group, especially when you saw them after Chase and Folly joined, and then that night, they come out with evil and you're just like, oh, fuck, look at this group of husbands and jobbers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, just like growing with discarded parts, like a junk pile.

[SPEAKER_01]: I made this point with drivers on my show, but as I said, the main interest for me, getting into [SPEAKER_01]: Piro was, and when I explained to people was like, they take pro wrestling more seriously there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not sports entertainment.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not, you know, the matches are treated as like this real athletic competition.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's just a hard sell when House and Orger are as prominent as they are.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't feel, yeah, it doesn't feel, yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it doesn't feel like real.

[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, it doesn't [SPEAKER_01]: feel like a real competition.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard for me to say like, oh, yeah, this is promising where it takes a lot more seriously.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, here's like Gicto go hitting the his opponent with a chop to the balls for like the five hundredth straight match.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and just something that fundamentally.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have a hard time dealing with as a fan and honestly like.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't watch a ton of evil matches in this G one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I gotta prioritize my time, and I'm like, that's a skip.

[SPEAKER_01]: I watched more Renerita in Senata matches, because I was a little bit more perversely intrigued by what they were gonna do, but evil's been this guy for years.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need to see the latest evil match the same way I don't need to, I don't know, anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's, you know, in one last thing, it is a lot of just overthinking because and just a lack of common sense because, you know, evil, you know, Joel and Joel was talking about it on his show and we've been talking about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: he was twelve overall in like the booking strength you know like the average match ranking that we do you know he was twelve like he didn't have a semi-main where he had some semi-main he had no main events and it's just like what do you guys thinking about here like you bake this group of jobbers who's like the biggest faction they've ever had in their history practically [SPEAKER_00]: And it's like so we're supposed to be mad that these people are like exceeding their position or like that they're acting this way, but that just makes you like legitimately mad.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to go like you're just mad.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like you're just mad and they're just making you want to watch anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to say if there was really kind of no indication leading up to the G.

One, they're like evil was going to get a big renewed push as a top guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, besides the Finley win, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But like he beats Finley, which of course is it's a whole other discussion there about why they had a faction versus faction thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: They lose that faction.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: They lose the faction versus faction match.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then like [SPEAKER_00]: the house tortures the consequences that was like house tortures only grew much much stronger falling right and then their leader beat the other leader which means they win the feud so that was a whole waste of time and then like you know i've said this before i'm just constantly gonna complain about it [SPEAKER_00]: I really hate it how they've changed things.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want my one match final.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want, you know, block A, block B and a final three days.

[SPEAKER_00]: None of this playoff nonsense.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the playoffs hurt quite a bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think this would have been as bad if they just would have had two block winners.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then I also just don't care if it's predictable that I can look at the final night of a block and say, yep, it's gonna be those two guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you look at the booking and say, yep, those are two of the strongest book guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's never a problem.

[SPEAKER_01]: Never a problem before when we had really well-booked G-wants.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was never a problem.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, you know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: I probably think like, ton of how she's going to win this G-wants.

[SPEAKER_00]: not a problem, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You look forward to it, because it's like, you know, the G-One is also like, I hate to sound like this, but it's like the process too, you know, it's a month, it's a grueling deal, you know, the whole thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, why are you hiding someone in the midcard?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, if somebody's book like a midcard or they shouldn't be in the G-One final, and that goes for anybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care if it's evil.

[SPEAKER_00]: If they would've put Oywa, they would've put Shingo, who was also tenth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if they would've went with Omno, [SPEAKER_00]: who, you know, besides a couple of main events was pretty low in the card as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: He kind of hid in the midcard, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, yeah, if you want to put them there, book them like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't have to main event like every night, but like, they should have some.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and that's common sense, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like if we're going to put this guy in the main event, let's make sure that there's some prominence going into their process.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I also kind of feel like they think evils kind of above that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you might be, actually, because you can just do whatever you want with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moving on.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to focus on some of these young guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me ask you this question.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: The question is going to be rank these guys based on how you personally feel they have the potential to be a top huge drawing star.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to give you these names and you just rank them how you feel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're the Suji.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oywa, show it, Rennerita, you get you more.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so I got to admit, again, I think with what you do and what I do, we both know, and it's probably been drilled into our head that you cannot eliminate bias if a human is involved.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I try to get around that by being, you know, whatever, but, you know, so expertise can only go so far or attempt it expertise.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I got to admit that I'm an always Uamura guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I always will be.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought he was the chosen one when he was a young lion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, God, I really fucked him over because he did that drop kick on the way out, which seemed to be the, the, the chrysoning that, oh, this is the guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Focada was willing to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he left.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I would put Uamura number one.

[SPEAKER_00]: because I mean, oh, I mean, I mean, everything he does, like this G-One really, I'm almost glad that he didn't make it out of his block because he didn't get caught up in all that nonsense.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I would say keeping a simple U-Mura, Suji, see, I'm gonna say U-Mino and then O-I-Wa and then Naruto.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think no, I think you'd be I think you'd be hard press to find some of that doesn't put Nareta last I guess unless you're like a super immediate hater I guess I was thinking about this [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: He always said, Mark, all right, this ever showing me is he had that really great super juniors when he had to kind of fill in when Despy got hurt and Roman got hurt.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I haven't really seen it from him even when he was in America.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't know, he might be, I think he'll get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, it'll be fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can say one thing is that, you know, I spend a lot of time watching the backstage comments.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I truly believe that you can see elements coming together back there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and now read this backstage comments haven't getting much better.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he only says like, two lines, but he's getting better, but it's going to take a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I thought about this five guys and I thought my list feels like I'd probably go, you were more or, oh, you were Suji.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, you know, not right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the things I was thinking about [SPEAKER_01]: was that's kind of basically a reverse order of how long they've been around.

[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm concerned about that as a exercise because it's like the longer these guys are around the more exposure they're given in the more exposure to the booking that they have.

[SPEAKER_01]: the lower their ceiling seems to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's natural, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: No one has more.

[SPEAKER_01]: No one has a higher ceiling than somebody who's like, only who you just saw their debut match and it looked good in, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But there's something about the creative process over the last few years.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, there's something about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: The completed process has been bad.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where [SPEAKER_01]: for a guy and this is where we get to sue g i think we're to me sue g has really good talent and and to me would be like the kind of guy that i think is the closest to a complete package from a in-ring charisma [SPEAKER_01]: kind of marketability kind of perspective, but he's just been on the end of some not not even not just bad booking, but just like boring in consequential booking and it feels like like his [SPEAKER_01]: But people have said this, like they missed the peak with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: They should have just pushed him right out of the gate when he came back and he, you know, immediately challenged for the title.

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe they should have done that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I understand why they didn't go all the way with him there.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what they've chosen subsequently to do with him over the last eighteen months or so has not helped him feel more like a potential top guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Despite the fact, [SPEAKER_01]: that you know he's had really i think he's had some really good matches and he's done some really cool stuff it's not like he's not like no retail where you're like okay we're going to have to go back to square one with the sky and figure out how to get his career back on track or he's just going to be an undercard card guy forever but there's something like suit you let the longer he's exposed the more [SPEAKER_01]: questionable he becomes or the more the hotter the less hockey feels as a potential top guy and like I think part of the reason there was so much optimism for Oowa who I did think had a very strong G-One which he needed to have because he hasn't really done all that much that's coming back to New Japan.

[SPEAKER_01]: No but part of it was look we haven't seen Oowa spin his wheels in place for eighteen months the way we have with Yoda Suji so he obviously feels like he has higher potential.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, with Euler, like before he got into the G-One, he had defeated Yoshi-Hashi, Kentha, and like Che-Sawans.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those were like his singles wins.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and he was like the fourth most important person in his stable.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, I agree with you somewhat.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think what I think is that play here is that [SPEAKER_00]: You know, another thing about this G-One and why it's kind of malfeasance that it was evil there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I'm a staunch supporter of evil right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really did enjoy his G-One.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, but that means that like, now is the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, those guys went back two and a half years.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so like they went back too long, but they back at the point where we got to make a decision.

[SPEAKER_00]: You guys are doing some stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: And my big thing that I'm going to be writing about however long this friggin article ends up being in my post G-One grading stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, like these fundamental critical choices that they're making.

[SPEAKER_00]: like the decision of what they could do and what they couldn't do.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they had a choice, you know, certainly coming out of the pandemic and with this influx of guys who, you know, I'd have to go back and look, but I can't remember this many guys coming back in such a flurry before like it's been at least twenty years since they've done that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like a flurry of like real prospects to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, because like, go toe and naritz and nighto and ocata were like spread out, so you probably have to go back to the second musketeers, but you know, when I'm looking at what they did, you know, one of the problems that that I'm seeing is that there's all these changes that they've made.

[SPEAKER_00]: like these really like deep changes to like the armature of what makes the company work.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to change the G one.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to have twenty eight types.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're going to have three two guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're going to have a playoff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're going to have a six man playoff with buys and all this fucking nonsense.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then we're going to have four blocks and one of them is just going to be young guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and then they're all going to lose the sonata.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who doesn't we're going to put him away through?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because like we couldn't see that he was fucking leaving.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, and that, no, he's the pez-yon.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is he on TV?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, he is.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if he's actually wrestled a match, but he has finally, after one year of apparently doing nothing, he is there and he is going by the name, Tala-Tanga, in case you need to know which one he was.

[SPEAKER_00]: That actually happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, he is on screen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe this, I'm not a regular WWE viewer, but I believe on screen, his name is Tala-Tanga.

[SPEAKER_00]: You understand?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's so smart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to left too much because like I could just see that being like some sort of like tongue in name that has this rich culture, but obviously they just chose it for the pun.

[SPEAKER_00]: I did see like the last I checked it was like Tonga Loa was injured and like well, a fucking of course he was, but I don't blame him, you know, these fucking forties get your payday.

[SPEAKER_01]: But later something on that is that semi-zane is kind of back in like the bloodline trying to like [SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate himself to them, you know, like the same thing they did a couple years ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're now at that phase of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, Jesus, with spite of the way, like, I mean, that's what revitalized the company by the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the fucking, I don't want you about Roman and Cody.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you don't need to explain.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't need to explain.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't need to defend that position or this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've said this is the most anti-Roman-Rainz podcast in the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not like I'm saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like I love Roman though, but it's just like it was in like it was Sammy.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was you love Roman.

[SPEAKER_01]: You love Roman Reigns.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I like Roman Reigns.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've liked Roman Reigns.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's confident.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, I had to endure like the undertaker match and stuff, but I've come around to like Roman Reigns.

[SPEAKER_00]: But on New Japan front, they come back from the pandemic, they have all these guys coming in.

[SPEAKER_00]: They change all this stuff, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So they change the G-One.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we're not going to have the winner of the G-One challenge at rest of Kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to have them challenge in the fall.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I got to talk about that too later, the desperation that they have and trying to fill these gaps.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of just letting the fall play out, like it normally does, got to fill it with a title match.

[SPEAKER_00]: That has consequences.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there changed all of these structural things.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what they didn't change was the way they book new guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to bring them slowly along and they're just going to join a faction and they're going to work their way through.

[SPEAKER_00]: They'll work a world tag league.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to slowly work each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to slowly make their way towards the never belt or the white belt.

[SPEAKER_00]: They'll have [SPEAKER_00]: You know, four and five records in the G-One.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to expand the G-One so they can like get these meaningless achievements of making them where I had the block, even though they didn't win the block.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all this stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what it really shows to me is that they are desperate.

[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, their desperate to just like draw a house, whatever they can.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not working, obviously.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they are desperate.

[SPEAKER_00]: to do anything they can to truly commit to these guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything they've done with these guys is about half-hearted.

[SPEAKER_00]: So instead of changing the way that they book new wrestlers, especially with so many coming back within the short time frame, they were more willing to change the system [SPEAKER_00]: then to change the booking to give these guys the opportunities they needed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you're right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Suji is the greatest example of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, as an Uamura fanatic, I don't want Suji to succeed more than Uamura.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I have to look at this objectively, they've given Uamura more than anybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: He comes back and he challenges for the title at Dominion, main events Dominion.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wins the New Japan Cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: He makes it through the G-One Final.

[SPEAKER_00]: He challenges again with his faction leader.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of this, and now he's got the White Belt, held it for six months before he lost it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But all of this stuff is just meaningless.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all surface, surface level, dribble.

[SPEAKER_00]: He lost all those big matches.

[SPEAKER_00]: He never made a vented a card when he had the global title.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was always working under his sugy.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and, you know, in the moment, like, in the moment, it didn't feel like he could've or should've beaten Senat or beaten Naito or beaten Finley or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, it's the same thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's all this half-hearted stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're not willing to commit to these guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're willing to just like change the format, change the system, instead of just putting these guys out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure you're going to bring them up, a showtis of the greatest example of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Changing his whole character, having him be this mopee hamlet walking around for almost a year for a shade-less fucking head, and then instantly came back and almost won the New Japan Cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at last year, if you knew that you wanted Shota Amino in the rest of the main event, then you should've just had him win the fucking G-One.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I haven't stopped moping about moxley because I was there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was one of the few in the low and the war a lot of Torium.

[SPEAKER_00]: watching him at that show, tell Moxley to go fuck himself, and the crowd reaction told you everything, they just wanted to see this guy be assertive.

[SPEAKER_00]: He should have won the G-One, went to wrestle kingdom of lost, then he could have his meltdown.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they didn't want to do the traditional thing, so they changed the system, because for some reason, they didn't have enough faith in one of these guys to just stand on his own, it either fail or succeed.

[SPEAKER_00]: as a G-one winner in the wrestling domain event.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think there shows a profound mistrust they have in themselves, but they don't even feel like they could pivot if these guys don't succeed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just the whole thing is just set up for failure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's a frustration I have with like the fifty-fifty booking that they've gone with and I are somebody somebody on the voice of wrestling discord.

[SPEAKER_01]: I apologize.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't remember specifically who it was, but they said something all lines of like this entire G one was built around like crowning sugy and this was like right after sugy lost to evil and kind of what was kind of a stunning match.

[SPEAKER_01]: I said, I mean, I kind of pushed back on that because like, like, as soon as you went five and four and like barely scraped into the playoff for his block.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I feel like, it felt like when people got to when we got to the playoffs and we got to the semi-finals and it was, you know, Zack and Takasha and Evil and Suji.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of people were like, well, Suji's got to be the young guy that they picked to put over.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it kind of, there's some momentum.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, all right, Suji's time and then like he loses to Evil and it's like, so it's really never, they didn't really give Suji that much more than they gave any of the other young guys outside of Takasha in the G-One.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, in this one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I have.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's there's there's there's two big issues here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Two big.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, by the way, Jesse, it's the exact same thing they did last year where he just barely makes it out of the block.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not pushing these guys like, oh, they go eight and one or whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then just really, really dominating and.

[SPEAKER_01]: I guess that that transcends to my, I didn't include him in this list because I think he's a different case, but bolt and all like.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, big bolt in here.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a big fan.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he has done a really, really good job coming along as a overall performer.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's obviously got great size and athleticism.

[SPEAKER_01]: I enjoy his matches.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he, when I see him in the ring and I'm like, all right, this is the kind of pro that I enjoy, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Big physical mother fucker that's gonna suplex people and [SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be great.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he has the issue, I think specifically because of his athletic background in his physical presence, where it's like, this guy, if you're going to feature this guy, and he's any good, which they should, and they do, he should not be someone that gets fifty-fifty books.

[SPEAKER_01]: He cannot be somebody that is going four and five in his G-One block.

[SPEAKER_01]: or I think you would five and four and not making the play off.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like if you're going to have a guide that looks like this and you're going to, you have aspirations to push him, you cannot have him [SPEAKER_01]: being booked just like he's like any other wrestler on the roster.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not necessarily because he's more talented than those guys, but because his appeal should be just historically based around this guy's a huge powerful tough motherfucker and he's probably going to win most of the matches he's in because of that because this is a combat sports in the bigger athletic, more skilled person wins most of the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he has the actual pedigree.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he, of course, and that's a big thing too, especially in Japan, where it's like, OK, this guy is a legitimate fighter.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's one of those coming up in January.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, he's, oh, get to him later.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's, I think he's, he's even a different.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it'll be funny.

[SPEAKER_01]: What if they, I mean, it won't be funny.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if they, they book him the way they, they book, both, and they'll be interesting.

[SPEAKER_01]: But so you have this guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, [SPEAKER_01]: He wrestles Tonahashi, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And they have a nice little match.

[SPEAKER_01]: I enjoyed it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Tonahashi's, you know, trying his best and he gets bolting on the ropes, but then both, it's just a little bit too big, a little too strong, a little too young and beats Tonahashi.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, I don't really rate matches, but I think it was like three and that quarter star three and a half star match.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another wrong with it, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, there's another school of thought where it's like, Bolton's wrestling Tonahashi and Bolton just absolutely destroys Tonahashi.

[SPEAKER_01]: because the message is, oh, this guy's not actually he's a legend, but he's on literally his last legs.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is his last G-One.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a giant athlete in my prime, and you don't even deserve to be in the ring with me, and I'm gonna beat you in like four minutes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that would be like an aggressive move that would also send this message.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's like this guy isn't just another guy on the roster and just another midcard or that's going five hundred and g one.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is, oh my god, this big strong powerful guy that everyone on the roster is going to have to reckon with because he's probably going to win the world title because who could possibly beat this man?

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's just like simple traditional fundamental booking that just seems lost.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, they book Bolton like he is, you know, Roy, Roy, Roy, and I like Roy, Roy, but like, you those guys shouldn't be book the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I joked about this in the, I was looking this up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was looking at Vader in, in, in, and I was looking at like his results.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he didn't win every match he was in, but he, you know, he would work his tag matches and his partners would lose, but I'm sure I haven't, I didn't go back to look at all of them, but I'm sure he wasn't dropping many falls in nineteen eighty eight.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was thinking like, if Gato had nineteen eighty eight Vader, he'd have him like losing of thirteen minutes to David Finlay and like a hard fought G one match.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just what the Tana Hashi, you know, retired G-One retirement tour here was right for like one match.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it right because I remember some people were like speculating like maybe they could do something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was asking for like one match where somebody just puts him down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you can do that in the G-One.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wouldn't like, like, to me, Tana actually wouldn't lose anything by doing that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And because they didn't really want to have them that much in the mix at the end and they were going to, they were just kind of telling a story where he's like, kind of struggle to get his one hundredth career G-One win and that's kind of what he's going to focus on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, and both in one the match, so it's not even like a result would change.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a stylistic choice for how you want to present these young guys that you're presumably going to be counting on to carry your company.

[SPEAKER_01]: course.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I think, you know, with Bolton, I somewhat agree with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think they could go a little bit faster.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to see what he does with the Never Belt, and I think he's got it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's not ruined or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just tossing out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's thirty two.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's thirty two, you know.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wait.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's maybe not as young as you think he is, but that's, I mean, [SPEAKER_00]: the way but like the ideas like you got to do something with them soon like in twenty twenty six you've really got to like push him a certain direction it's a really much better it's a great week and he's improved backstage too like his talking has gotten significantly better like he's ready to prime to break out [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I just think when you have someone with those with the physical size and physical tools, they will acquire a level of, they're quite a level of attention to how their matches are being laid out in terms of projecting dominance because these kind of guys are rare.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's rare to have a guy with that size with that athleticism that has, I think, you know, been a fast learner and a quick study.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you can't, like, you got to take care of those people.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't book them the same way you would book like other guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, like, I used always an example, but just like any of these guys, like, I just feel like there's more, you're booking a monster in a way and they need to do better job on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Other things, just one last thing about kind of branching off what you were just saying real quick.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I've done a lot of work going through the G-One.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've gone through every single result, every single scenario for the final nights.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've done all this freaking work for nothing, essentially.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like if you look, there was a period where they were really hot in the late twenty-tenths, and the match has got longer.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then during the pandemic, they just had to do log matches.

[SPEAKER_00]: And really ever since then, it's kind of been a monotonous deal, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of like what you were saying, like every match kind of feels like it's in the same time frame, you know, it kind of feels the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even if you go back just to like twenty- eleven, twenty- twelve, [SPEAKER_00]: You see like different matches like matches that end in five minutes or whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can look you can look at a G on any G one this year and be like I know how long roughly each match is going to go based on where it's slotted on this card.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the first opening G one matches going to be like seven or eight minutes and then that kind of going to get progressively longer until the main event.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, it's to be honest with you, the funny thing is I think more people are going to remember that drill a maloney BLP match than probably would of obviously people just despise ELP for some reason, but like that match is like four minutes and people are like, wow, that was interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like they used to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Both, and it would be a perfect example of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: His match is, you know, only going like five, six minutes, either direction.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then every cell often, you break out that long match with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I think it right about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing, and I want to touch this, you match, we kind of talked about this in a few different ways already.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that there's, and we talk about making one of these young guys giving them a real strong push.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's an issue where there's kind of a fundamental lack of hierarchy within New Japan that used to be there, during the boom period of the twenty tons, and in previous areas as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: But like you had like this kind of first class group of talents.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you could say at one point it was like, you know, it was Tanahashi and it was Nakamura and it was Okada.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was like I think like AJ Styles got in there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Basically whoever people that were good enough to hold the IWGP will work championship.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then, you know, Nakamura leaves and night tourizes up, and AJ leaves into your place with Kenny Omega, and then there's a couple of other shuffling with there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Will Osprey gets into a J.

White gets into it, Koto Bouchy gets into it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you kind of have this like first class group of these are the top guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: And these top guys are pretty much never going to lose signature big singles matches to anybody else in the roster except other people in that top class.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a nice kind of informal establishment of who are the guys who have truly made it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who are the guys that are in this top class of Duke Japan wrestlers?

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you are excited about inspiring young wrestler, what you should be looking at as a family be, oh man, I hope like if you're a big, you were more a fan like you're, your goal should be, I hope you were more a can one day be in that class of the absolute top top guys in New Japan.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think over the years a lot of it's due to talent loss and and guys getting older and but a part of it is almost a bit just comes down to bad booking.

[SPEAKER_01]: They just don't have that hierarchy anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like everyone on the roster and a lot of that's because they passed a world title around a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it just feels like.

[SPEAKER_01]: you don't have that hierarchy.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're looking to a build someone like you or more, or like a sushi, like who is there on the roster right now that if you were more aware to beat them in a big singles match, that would feel like a firm establishment of, okay, he's now at this level.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that maybe that's the plan with Takeshita to kind of use Takeshita as that kind of tent pole in the measuring stick.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then eventually someone beat him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think me like only guy like sack maybe is a guy I would say is like in terms of like some of that's been protected enough that that a younger guy beating him would be big deal, but on that the rest of this roster just is is comprised of guys who don't even feel who don't feel close to that level.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a major loss when it comes to the current state of New Japan, but also if you're planning on elevating guys in the future, you don't have those, those, you kind of let yourself not have those top guys that can be used to make new top guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: a hundred percent and and I think it comes back to what I was saying before, you know, a Chris does a lot of work with this stuff too about like he's mentioned this a lot about how like hierarchies and like, you know, you know, you know, going into a G one that it's very rare that [SPEAKER_00]: You know, the second guy in a faction is going to be higher than the first guy, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So you look at a faction and you're like, all right.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we know, you know, O'Cott is going to finish above Goto, or Kenny Omega is going to finish above, you know, whoever from the Bullet Club Center.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I hate to keep harping on this, but like, I'm a big believer in the factions.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think last time I was here, I talked about how, you know, WWE was super hot a year ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, you know, it's probably because they committed to longer title reigns and they committed to more factions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all of a sudden, you notice you've started putting people in factions and people start getting more personally attached to this stuff and more invested as new to being went away from that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the toss in the title around.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then like, you talk about like, oh, so H.S.S.

[SPEAKER_00]: leaves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you make a slotted right in?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you make a leaves?

[SPEAKER_00]: J.

White slotted right in.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Will O Spray left, obviously he wasn't ready for it then, you know, a year and a half ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: but just they should have just said calumnen's the new leader just say it's happening because you know it's only these guys were ready I mean you know Kenny Omega had kind of a rough stretch there you know after he took over the ball club right he's in ladder matches with Michael L.

again and they were great matches but it's like you know he's getting hurt you know he come into the g one kind of cold I think they just like you know like I I I understand what you're saying [SPEAKER_00]: But I think the guys are there.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're just not presenting them that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: So she doesn't even have a fucking faction right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're doing this fucking unafiliated gimmick.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just wait to guide the image strapped.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just should have taken over for a right though.

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, Newman should have just taken over in an empire.

[SPEAKER_00]: I like what they're doing with Laura.

[SPEAKER_00]: Laura is like the new Tanaashi.

[SPEAKER_00]: He'll take over Haontai.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, we need that structure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, my fan theory was, I wanted, like, like, Suji should have just like beat the shit out of night, though and said, I'm taking over this faction bitch and that's how night, how I took on the company, which I know people love night, though, so much that maybe that doesn't go over as well as, as it does, like, when I say it out loud, but I was like, that would be a direct, like, okay, this is where we're really gonna be seriously elevating somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, he's kind of like twisting in the wind.

[SPEAKER_00]: I actually think people would really like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: It would have been a really aggressive, it would have been a really aggressive booking move, but that's what this company needs, I think.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's like, you know, with all the things that they've given him, and they've at least presented Suji as a solid main eventor from the very beginning.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Suji is at least the one that has the most fan support.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that would have been a really interesting thing to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I mean, I haven't even talked about Suji wearing the fucking pudding guy all over his gear and coming out dressed as the pudding guy and talking about the fucking pudding all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like that hasn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he comes out dressed as the guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that he's an actual character.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joel pointed that out to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's just Philip Marlow.

[SPEAKER_00]: My response was like, Suji doesn't read.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's just talking about the fucking pudding guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like the guy's on his gear.

[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, it's flan.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's fucking flan.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not pudding.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Marlowe putting, like, you know, it was funny at first, but it's on his fucking gear Jesse.

[SPEAKER_00]: How am I supposed to take this guy seriously?

[SPEAKER_00]: He should be at least leading a faction right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think, I mean, I'm kind of, I'm not, I like the idea of factions.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just, I think that a lot of these factions in the New Japan have hit their expiration date a couple of times ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would really be a fan of like a dragon gate style restructuring of a lot of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think like, well, I mean, you know, I mean, listen, I mean, the factions that we know of like chaos came out of turning on the code you are not tens on like, you know, a lot of these factions come from just the dissolution of another faction.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, but it's [SPEAKER_00]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Chaos hasn't had a strong real strong direction in years.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's always been kind of like chaos and eventually it kind of wears with like on tie and like just kind of like the generic like all the baby faces are going to be in this faction for the most part.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you have, you know, bullet club war dogs, which is again, the bullet club is just been around for over a decade now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you have house torture, which also kind of riveted, but also like house torture has been around since the pandemic, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's five years, five years now.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like so it's like you got those guys have been around forever and then you got L.I.J.

[SPEAKER_01]: or like the husk of L.I.J.

[SPEAKER_01]: and I understand like this merchandise and like why would you have like the bullet club at L.I.J.

[SPEAKER_01]: like why would you want to give up um you know potential merchandise with those those are now brands I almost said I told you right this but I was like I feel like they're like almost exports teams like the players change people up the teams stay forever and even that's like okay but I would just like to see like [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I guess they tried with just four, so that's just five guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: But maybe try a little bit more than that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But maybe that's, you know, they're doing the, that's something that's going to be in the works going down lines seems like kind of what Suji's doing is is a, [SPEAKER_01]: Is it is is maybe a teaser of what that's going to be in the future, but just seems like they need a refreshing of those things.

[SPEAKER_00]: How much merch are they actually selling like did you see in the numbers of these shows like most of these shows were a bismal.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they did less than last year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been told that house torture is selling many, many teachers.

[SPEAKER_00]: they may percentage wise be selling a lot of t-shirts as far as what's being sold but like there's not enough people to sell to right now like this year's g one was running bigger buildings like there was a higher total capacity because I'm fucking loser that looked at this stuff and like last year [SPEAKER_00]: They had more people in smaller buildings.

[SPEAKER_00]: This year ran slightly smaller, so I have bigger buildings, and they had less people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's going the wrong direction.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're really making a lot of work from home to home.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, I would never have been more happy for a G one to be over.

[SPEAKER_00]: I swear to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, it's just like, [SPEAKER_00]: You know, because I don't want it to be like all negative, because like the pieces are there, I really think like this ridiculously talented group of guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are a lot of people in the roster, I enjoy seeing for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we haven't even talked about the junior division.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I loved the super juniors.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they fucked up that booking at the end, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, you know, there's a lot of stuff that's going on right now that's been good.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, just looking towards the future and you're just like, it just doesn't seem like there's a vision.

[SPEAKER_01]: Something else I wanted to mention is really became apparent, I think, throughout the G-One.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it starts really with Goto's world title reign and kind of the momentum that builds up around Goto earlier this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there was something about Goto because he's just got this level of experience and physicality to his matches and the closing stretches and I was like, [SPEAKER_01]: And as his contemporaries have either broken down or left the company, it was like, you know, Kyoto just has something that these other guys don't like this kind of [SPEAKER_01]: old fashion charm in his matches that that that I think the younger generation has struggled to emulate there's something about goto's generation that they were just naturally better than that kind of like how you'll see guys who were like were not really anymore because they're there's almost none but like you know twenty years ago you would see like oh that's a guy who worked the territories in the U.S.

[SPEAKER_01]: you're gonna just see like oh you can see he's got [SPEAKER_01]: Like I guess Jeff Jarrett's a good example.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Jeff Jarrett has some like just Memphis showmanship and working punches and things that are like trade marks.

[SPEAKER_01]: So like this this this dead style that you only see in a handful of wrestlers.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel like go to what's doing that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then during this G-One the two guys who I don't think people were really expecting that much of the G-One which are Yoshi Hashie and Tai Chi to me demonstrated a similar kind of [SPEAKER_01]: appeal that go tell us, which is like, these guys, usually actually in Tai Chi, like, they're, they have this, they know how to fire up at the right time.

[SPEAKER_01]: They know how to lay it in.

[SPEAKER_01]: They know how to do these things that I just don't feel like the younger guys are doing at this kind of consistency.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, part of that is, like, with all three of those guys, you know, she actually tied to you and go to, these guys are really experienced, they're all like, twenty-year pros.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in all three of their cases, they're probably underrated throughout their career, overshadowed by flashy or more talented people.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, and makes sense that they are, when you take, when you take away their, they're no longer competing with like, oh, caught out with like the flashiness of Nakamura or any of these other guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: like that these guys kind of stand out a little bit more.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there is just this just something about their matches and the way they they think a big thing is that the way they work their closing stretches and the way they they know how to fire up just like that last gasp firing up before they finally put out.

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe it's just experience maybe in twenty years all of the [SPEAKER_01]: You know, Raywell guys have that as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there's just something about that generation of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's probably not a great thing that I'm like, Yoshi Ashie is one of the only guys in the roster that still gets it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not entirely what I'm saying, but there's something that stands out out those guys compared to the current generation.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't necessarily think that's like a great thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I, I, yeah, I hundred percent agree with the same about those guys and what they do because, you know, Yoshi Hashie, he even, I mean, fortunately Yoshi Hashie had a good couple G one years and then he just had some really bad ones and then he had to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: But like, and I, and I, and I, and I'm a longstanding like Yoshi Hashie enthusiast and I've always kind of enjoyed the underdog G one Yoshi Hashie story.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I enjoyed pretty much every year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and since the pandemic, he's been amazing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: When you see in his matches, it would tie to you saw this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, they seem to understand what you need to do to make a G-one match.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like, like, you were saying, knowing how that end game should go to get the crowd really excited.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, not doing it every match, but Yoshi Hoshis, like, the genius of [SPEAKER_00]: a little bit more, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So like you respect the G-One match and like you were seeing kind of against monotonous or you kind of expect it, you know, there's a hundred matches in a month, you know, you think the match is gonna end here and then it goes like that little extra step.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's one extra chapter to the match.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or if they're not gonna have that, you know, watch the matches with Yoshi-Hoshi and Tai Chi where they don't go that extra level.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's only like eight to nine, ten minute match.

[SPEAKER_00]: They make the most of those minutes, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: They're not fucking around.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they're not going crazy either.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, it's very exquisite what they do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's two matches I want to highlight related to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, they both include OIWA.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people like this match, probably most people like this match.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was like almost legitimately offended by the OIWA Newman match.

[SPEAKER_00]: because like it was just a nothing match, it just existed, you know, for however long it went, like seven or eight minutes, whatever the fuck.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ten minutes, ten to half minutes, and I just thought these guys were having a medium level match, and they didn't do anything expressive.

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't do anything to sort of grasp that moment, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where it's like these two young guys, they gotta do something memorable.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they didn't do anything memorable.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought both guys had great G ones, but it's just like, what the fuck is this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you guys just wrestle for ten minutes, and I was expecting more.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the other hand, [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and a lot of people have pointed out this match.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this was the match of the tournament for some people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oywa and Uemura, you know, they were calling their shots on the backstage comments.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Uemura literally said, we're going to show you a wrestling that you haven't seen.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to show you the future of this company.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that match was fucking amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, and it wasn't, it was just straightforward.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was very traditional.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't like super ambitious, but it was just like profound.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just look at that.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's my match.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's my match of the tournament and will be probably be placing in my mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if current standing is a good stance of making my, you know, ten match top ten of the year, I think.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and you know what, I talk about how like, you know, warmer is my guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm always rooting against Suji because I want a woman to get there and hi or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I do like Suji a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, what Suji does like a lot of cool stuff, but like there was something about, I mean, there's something they just doesn't land or just comes across flat.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, his fucking finisher is a spear.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we need more guys that wrestling that do spears.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's a shortage.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we need like like ten more guys should be using the spears to finish.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like you've got the the like summer salt one that drill a does and you got the lifting one that Hinarry does and then you got another lifting one that's just a new Japan to like.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyone that ever played football does a spear.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and that's just a rule.

[SPEAKER_01]: Fuck you, Bill.

[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't even work like it worked for ads for like six months.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we've been cursed with that fucking thing forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Goldberg is a spear guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Goldberg.

[SPEAKER_00]: Goldberg's fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Goldberg can do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I enjoyed the house.

[SPEAKER_01]: I also enjoyed Ryan O's spear.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it kind of ended with those two, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And actually, you know, funny thing, did you use the Newman Sugey match?

[SPEAKER_00]: How flat that match ended?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Sugey ended it with a different move that whatever the fuck that was that little DVD, whatever it was.

[SPEAKER_00]: You saw that, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do all this stuff like you're talking about specific matches like you you're mentioned that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, was it or you want new men match and I was like, what do I have any strong I'm like going through my notes and I'm like, I don't have anything on that match.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like going through cage match.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, I don't remember this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have no strong opinions on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You won't know anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but go back and watch the end of the go back and watch the end of the sushi Newman match because like this is like a block final, you know, it's a third match, but like, you know, one of these guys is going home and the sushi hits them with whatever the fuck that move was.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, he, the crowd had no reaction because he hadn't done that move before, which is really weird.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, I think it's cool that guys who don't usually get false and stuff have gotten a lot of them on this tour.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, if sushi was gonna win a match with that like caliber and those much stakes, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: With that much consequence.

[SPEAKER_00]: He should have been winning like every night with that move.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he should be laying out people in the multi-man matches with that move.

[SPEAKER_00]: Same thing with Takeshita with that fucking action movie, next snap thing, and then it's fucking chicken wing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's sort of been winning some of these undercar tags with it too, to really get it over.

[SPEAKER_00]: He kind of got money clip.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, in that match.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's like, I should go back and watch that match.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's like a pledge, Derek Nash in my mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, I was like frothing at the mouth and then everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, she goes the best.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's the best at selling stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Real quick, uh, it's because I kind of wrapped this up as my third in a basketball game is looming.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to stretch out the Achilles stretch out the back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, [SPEAKER_01]: Two things, they bring back two young guys at the end of the store.

[SPEAKER_01]: We get the return of Oscar Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou, [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, I didn't know this about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm probably gonna.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm intrigued.

[SPEAKER_01]: I like tall guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm intrigued by that many way, just as a wrestling fan.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm always been kind of like a finoscler.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they bring back Oscar and Utah Nakashima who is doing in like, this is like this is classic Japanese wrestling where he's doing like a two thousand rapper gimmick kind of where that's at least how it seems like he's dressed.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're, I guess, going to be the tag, the main tag team in the wardogs.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: What did you think about them bringing these guys back?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't, I'll tell you what, I remember like, almost nothing about YouTube.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not because you're not as a young lion.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I have not been closely following a subscription.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Utah was kind of hamstrung because Omar broke his arm in like his debut batch.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just on a scramble and then he kind of came back and he was very like straightforward.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was kind of like, you know, never coded.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he was constantly like, yeah, he's a liar too.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's not that much.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: you know, but he was like, you know, kind of like a shooter type, or at least, you know, like, I know that's his background too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not sure, like I, he certainly committed to the body language, Jesus, fuck, he's coming down the ramp doing that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I enjoyed it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I could probably should have seen it coming because Finley was kind of handing out it, but I guess they fit in war dogs the best.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we don't know what the wardogs is going to look like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like is Gabe how long do we have Gabe for?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I've heard people speculate that he's going to AW really hope this ought to case, but we haven't even mentioned Gabe, which I don't really want to talk about in that lunch because [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have that much to add.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gay kid currently.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I'm saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think like he could have heated himself up because like if I was looking at the way they structured his matches, the way all the way through it looked like he was going to have a very, very strong first half where he was going to face Zack and Takeshita and all them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, unfortunately, this guy's, you know, sent a snake bit as well because, you know, that's, of all the times to get hurt, especially he was coming in as the secondary champion.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm looking forward to this team.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the only thing I hope that, you know, whenever we see people come back as teams, I always get a little reticent just because, like, we saw what that did to show when you were, you know, and it could have just been the makeup of showing you, even though I love show.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, they come back and then they're just like, they're tag team and they never break out of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whereas I think that there is a lot of singles potential for these two, but [SPEAKER_00]: It's just a bizarre thing where it's like, I can't remember a team coming back or even a team even forming where there's such a dichotomy, like there's such a clash between the two characters.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like we see that with the tag team that can't get along, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The fucking Hayman special.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I've never seen a tag team that actually comes fully formed as a new tag team with totally mismatched characters.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And these aren't established characters.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mark our television screen.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like we're introducing you to the new Oscar and we're introducing you to you to ice which is he supposed to be like vanilla ice because that's the vibe I'm getting.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: He kind of looks like whenever I see hip hop presented in manga where you're kind of noticing, which doesn't make any sense either because it's like, you know, Japan has a pretty productive hip hop culture and they have for a very long time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not really sure why they always go to these stereotypes, but [SPEAKER_01]: It's because Gato is like Vince McMahon and his stereotypes are like forty years out of date.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to give you a hip-hop guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to get a hip-hop guy from nineteen ninety-one.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to put it on Gato because I don't know who's actually doing that.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we want to say.

[SPEAKER_00]: If New Japan booking was a person, you would definitely be wondering if you should make the call to assist a living.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it's one of the, it's very, it's hard to say, because again, I think get out takes a lot of flack because we don't, but we ultimately don't know who's here and who's there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, New Japan has had its challenges with going back to COVID-nineteen pandemic, guys getting older.

[SPEAKER_01]: The very, very competitive wrestling environment for talents, because I mean, I, since it's like an under really underrated part of the two thousand tens of Japan boom is especially in terms of just getting their hands on pretty much every cool Western wrestler that was around because [SPEAKER_01]: WWE and TNA would like didn't have any real interest in these guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: So like they were able to have the unboxed for years and years and years and Kenny Omega and you know any top British wrestler like Will Osprey or before him, Marty Skoro or any of these guys, you know, dev it like because they had Cartesian obviously that totally is gone away.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you notice he all the stuff like everything you said is valid and it's a hundred percent true, but [SPEAKER_00]: How does any of that explain the decision to turn dokey heel?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, and like there's no excuse for some of this stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you watch other promotions, and particularly other pure promotions, and a lot of I am not a startup viewer, but a lot of people have pointed the irony of how well startup is handled.

[SPEAKER_01]: losing some key talents and rebuilding compared to New Japan given that they're both owned by Bushy rogue.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've seen other promotions that have far fewer resources that have dealt with a lot of issues and they've been at least [SPEAKER_01]: Um, you know, you can quibble with like, well, they're not that successful because not drawing that well, but we, I feel like from all meant in perspective, we've seen them can be able to to build new stars and things like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in Japan, you know, it's a bigger stage.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably it's probably harder to get over to Japan than it is when you're wrestling and, you know, should you go face and you're wrestling in front of small crowds.

[SPEAKER_01]: My take a little bit something extra and my take longer investment, my take more charisma to project outwardly.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a one to one comparison, but we've seen other companies.

[SPEAKER_01]: be able to find a better, better success in creating a new wave of talent than New Japan has and a lot of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: The last thing I want to talk about, just real quick, do you have any thoughts on Aaron Wolf?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I don'ts, but I find the increasing conversations about him kind of interesting.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the sense that a lot of people feel like [SPEAKER_01]: He's being presented as like, oh, well, he's going to be a savior.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I even don't know how serious this is, but people perhaps joking, like, oh, Wolf is going to be the main event of Russell of Russell Kingdom or something like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I find hard to believe, but who knows?

[SPEAKER_00]: I just find, you go ahead, go ahead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, no, I do have thoughts on them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like nobody, okay, so nobody reads my stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody, people listen to my stuff because I'm on, you know, actual popular people's podcasts like yours.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although they used our podcast last year as a punishment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you saw that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's fucking discord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yes, discord.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they use the podcast as a punishment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there was some bet and the punishment was he had to listen to our show, which, I don't know, like I said, I don't know why they, they're so hard on for you, because obviously nobody cares about me.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the funny thing about that was, by the way, that he had to like describe it, he had to like give a, like a, don't live response thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like he, you know, he was like, oh, this is a good podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it actually, it ended up turning in our favor, I guess.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's so funny because I find my takes relatively benign around New Japan.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's like I think it's just because you don't write about New Japan as much.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they were like, oh, what does he have to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: He just writes about the fucking American wrestling.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then it was like, oh, it's a good podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: But so Aaron Wolf, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's been very interesting how they've had him strategically ringside, but not always ringside.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was very unfortunate that they did that little TV spot that people spread around, where he was like running the ropes when the goddess, because he's a big guy, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't look like he's in shape right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, he's always been a bigger guy anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he was a big judoka.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not going to look like Bolton or League.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, but I do somewhat worry about that because, like, talking about FedRAM, you know, how doubter if you leave for the longest time, until kind of Brock, but even they've done it after, like, I mean, they did it to Chad Gable forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, if you have actual credentials, they did the opposite of what Japan does, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where it's like, if you have actual credentials, like, like Chad Gable legitimate Olympic wrestler, Greco Roman, but he was at the Olympics.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they just treat you like fucking trash.

[SPEAKER_00]: They just want to like, put you down.

[SPEAKER_00]: They do what I've got to humble you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't even need to.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't keep, when Greta Khan had the, or he was going for the KOPW, if y'all remember the KOPW?

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought, like, he lost a wrestling match like that, that amateur wrestling match, which he lost to Yano, which I know they liked to talk about Yano's background, but Great O'Conne was a Japanese national champion.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not losing to that fucking fat old man.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then they had him lose an MMA match to Shingo, which is like, how the fuck am I supposed to watch?

[SPEAKER_00]: And believe this is at least a gauge with it, thinking that Shingo Takagi, who I'm sure as a tough guy, could be Great O'Conne, who literally, like, [SPEAKER_00]: like promoted the match with like a room full of these fucking trophies that he's won.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think they're gonna do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think they're gonna really present him strong, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard rumors about who we might face at rest looking dumb.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I would say, nobody pays attention to me, but I do talk to the people that people talk to.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is an interesting stuff out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just worry [SPEAKER_00]: Like, he may be the savior, but it's not going to happen immediately.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like this idea, but I was old enough to live through Kurt Angle in real time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Kurt Angle was not a polished thing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The idea that Kurt Angle was as proud as you from day one.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a prodigy from day one hundred.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like it took him several months to get to be the Kurt Engel and then like he was just instantly great and maybe A.R.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wolf can be that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I it's the guy has to be careful because like you were saying, you definitely don't want to overexpose this guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I find that takes on him, like he said, there is the clip of him running the robes, so there's clips of him with his pictures of him with his shirt off, and it's like, I find that people already ushering takes on him, like interesting, just because like we've, this guy doesn't have to single match.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have absolutely no idea how good this guy's going to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think what he's going to attempt to do is extremely difficult, which is jump into presumably a very prominent spot in one of the biggest wrestling promotions of the world in the world without having any experience, which is like insanely hard to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I wish him the best of luck.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's going to be fascinating to see how he's going to shape out, but it's hard for me to like, can't wish cast anything on him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've heard people say, oh, well, he's going to be the new ace.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, the guy hasn't had a match yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: He can't be the new ace.

[SPEAKER_01]: But because I think, but I think because of the lack of of star power on the roster right now, the focus whether good or bad is going to be more on him because of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, hundred percent.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to have expectations that are beyond what he's capable of.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do want to stress though.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen people in the dojo.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to look good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know he looks kind of out of shape now, but I kind of feel like we're just jumping on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I kind of feel like all of this training is going to get back.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he was a fucking goal medalist.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been in shape.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to be in shape.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'd be very surprised if he goes out there and he's looking like, [SPEAKER_01]: like one of those like barely trained WWE, like warehouse women's wrestlers that they have.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like he's going to go out of the wrestling kingdom and probably have a very safe well played at well fought out match to hide his strengths and or hide his weaknesses and promote his strengths.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think how does he look three months from now that for then is far more important.

[SPEAKER_00]: right and I think I'm always interested because like I think in America it's constantly like I mean I know WWE's trying to break through that but like it's always traditionally been amateur wrestling background and even in Japan so I'm always sort of interested because I find judo wrestlers who have a judo background very interesting so I think like with him because he's just so famous [SPEAKER_00]: And he's so famous for a specific athletic thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's like, you know how when Tai Chi does the thing where he does the sumo thing and he tosses the guy and that, you know, that gets a big reaction now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could see those judo throws like, I guess we'll actually, you know, Ron Derousi.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was going to point out this sounds a lot like Ron Derousi.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of my thinking, yeah, Ronald Rossie, you'd be like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was there in MetLife Stadium when she, uh, main event of WrestleMania at that like nine hour WrestleMania.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like, I think you're still there.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're still waiting to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to [SPEAKER_00]: I know nobody else did.

[SPEAKER_00]: But no, I think it could be around a rousing thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, like, say what you will, that was very exciting before, like she came back and it was awful.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that first front was really exciting.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it goes to like, I think one of the things that WWE has become very good at is WWE is very good about like taking undrained people and making putting them into situations where they look like cool for the most pipe.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, they did a great job with Rousey laying out her matches and doing all of that stuff for her.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they, but they've done it with people with far, far less athletic ability.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are natural instincts than Ronda Rousey.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I wonder what New Japan's approaches going to be like, I said, I mentioned the recipe to match is probably going to be like, really well laid out match where he's going to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: you know, taken care of for the most part.

[SPEAKER_01]: But how will he look, you know, in March when he's working in a tag match on the undercard?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like how is that that's far more interesting in terms of what his ceiling is going to be than if you know, he could have like a four star match or whatever at Russ and K.

D.

And like really impressed people to like, whoa, this guy is a natural.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And six months from now being like, well, you know, it really didn't come together for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just hope that he, like, I hope like what you're saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, that's exactly what I was thinking that I hope they just let him, like, just make him look cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because we saw how that's worked for Suji too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember how weird he looks when he was a young lion?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now he comes out of the looks cool, besides the fucking flawed putting nonsense.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm getting hungry.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was talking to this question.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to get some of my from the from the Tequiro that's down the street from my house.

[SPEAKER_00]: My wife is glare in at me to make dinner, but like I hope he doesn't go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we're going to like cool mountains.

[SPEAKER_00]: You doka he's going to come out wearing a ghee and he's going to wrestle in the fucking ghee like he's fucking Yoshida or something like, you know, I want him to like be a real wrestler.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I hope [SPEAKER_00]: They haven't done that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's not like I'm basing this just on fears that have no foundation, but yeah, like he's he's going to be like a nokey isn't it's going to make a big resurgence and he's going to be like doing these like worktube fights in the main event instead of just being like a wrestler.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're already close enough to a nokeyism level houses like let's just steer the course and work with what we got.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, he's a fast, I mean, he's he individually is a really fascinating person in terms of, you know, his background and his, I mean, his shoot name is Aaron Wolf, which is fucking awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I mean, he's probably like the most famous guy they've had on the roster, like, probably only sends Makabe, but Makabe got famous after he became a wrestler.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Makabe kind of became famous after he was a kind of washer already, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because he was doing like these, he was became like a figure on like the Japanese equivalent of like the today show or something, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was like this gap mode deal where he like, he loves sweets and stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, I'll look at the, you know, big burly, gruff-looking guy, but he, you know, he loves sweets and chocolates and stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no, nobody cares about him anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, but he was seen like he'd have a demonstra breakfast and he would be like eating a bunch of food and I believe that he'd broved that to celebrity status.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he was a very highly regarded amateur wrestler.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, I mean, we don't even need to talk about like they forced his retirement.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now he's like working at a gas station or something like what the fuck is that?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's true.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't I don't [SPEAKER_00]: I just remember after he retired his dad was like, the ass is dad and he's like, oh, you know, he's fine, but he didn't praise him and I was like, oh, he's one of those dads.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I remember something where he worked somewhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was working somewhere where I was like, why isn't he in the dojo training guy?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's got like a sad shoot job instead of like, yeah, I mean, he's retirement.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it was time for him to hang it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, anyway, Jade, you got it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think you want to plug?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think so.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'll be writing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you've got your big G one recap coming out, correct?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, I'm hoping to keep that to just one column, but I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've already, I've written like, I keep track of like how much I've written, because I've always wanted to write, but I never did it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like, I kind of view it as like a, I don't want to say a dream come true, because it's fucking wrestling, but it's not a dream.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a nice thing that I've done, and I enjoy writing, so it's nice to be able to write publicly.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have published ninety-three thousand words this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: So far, I'm hoping I don't break a hundred thousand with this new one, but I will be creating the wrestlers and creating the booking, which is almost certainly going to get a D or an F, creating the attendances, which definitely is getting an F.

Just getting grades to stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: which, you know, I did get last year, but I did it the year before, and that ends up being kind of like a, like examining the state of the company too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I kind of wonder if it's going to take that route too, just because, you know, once the G ones over, it kind of feel like you're assessing where the company's at, where it's going forward.

[SPEAKER_01]: So probably, I don't know if you can, I don't know if you can call it your writing columns, columns would imply that it takes up one newspaper column.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I would say that you're article, well, I mean, yeah, that's why it's called a column.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's because you'll be like on the side of a paper and it'd be one column.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't think you're writing with a, would fall into that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I swear I got every time, every time I sit down, I try to write a column, like you say, and it just never, never comes out that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got to write more frequently.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's true, too.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you have a thought, that's a column instead of like, twenty thoughts being in one story.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you write how you want to write.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no, it's just like, yeah, I do have those thoughts all the time, but then I'm like, yeah, that's not enough for a column.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think for me, like, an article of like, I'm not going to write it unless it's at least three thousand words.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I never had it writing it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'll say, there's no one that writes about wrestling like you do.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I would take that as a patch of honor.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think your writing is very unique experience with a lot of insight and a lot of knowledge, but written in a very distinct way that we need more people doing stuff like that and less people making soy-faced reaction videos to AI produce content, which is what brought into wrestling analysts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not me yet, never.

[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate that Jesse and you know, I never really talk about because I don't really necessarily watch the stuff that you write about, but I always end up liking what you read and I especially like how you just piss people off.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you just get so much reaction.

[SPEAKER_00]: People that's so furious with some of the things you write about.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't hear it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't get these, I, yeah, see, I don't see these interactions, but [SPEAKER_01]: I have a liberal use of the block function in the voice of wrestling discord at least.

[SPEAKER_01]: So maybe I'm getting, I'm allegedly getting all this heat, but as someone that was, like I said this all the time, like as someone that was originally a columnist and I wrote probably, I think I did some math.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think I wrote over two million words for wrestling ink over my time there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, like, but dealing with the wrestling in comment section, like, which would be like dealing with like, Raj Gearies Twitter replies now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our basically like how I grew up writing about wrestling.

[SPEAKER_01]: So criticism does not bother me.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, I stopped a lot of time ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: I did.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I, I admire it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really do.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thanks a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to thank Jay Michael for being on the show.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to thank all our listeners and I'll talk to you again after a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bye.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bye.