This is fucking great.

No matter how many times Jericho does it, it's still amazing how easily he reinvents himself. I mean this again, is a version of Jericho we haven't seen before. It has similarities to past versions of his character, but it's much more aggressive and unhinged.

Guy might be the most adaptable performer in the history of wrestling.

It is fucking great. Jericho just losing it and throwing the table at the ring, then as he's being dragged away, Naito grabs a chair from the crowd, turns his back to Jericho and just sits down.

My only issue is that Jericho does need a win somewhere and Naito isn't that guy. Wonder how they'll play it.

Also, NEW BEGINNING seems so far away now at 27th Jan.

This seems to be the likely setups from what was shown for the two New Beginning Sapporo shows

Okada vs SANADA
Naito vs Jericho
Tana vs Suzuki
Ospreay vs Hiromu
Omega vs Switchblade
Bucks V R3K

I'm guessing Omega/Cody/BC shenanigans will be saved, either for the NEW BEGINING Osaka show on 10th Feb or down the line. Then we have Omege and Ibushi to work through too.

Taichi's superkick in the 10 man at the end was awesome

Baron Corbin + Full head of hair - tattoos = Jay White

Popped for the Young Lions' Nexus-style beatdown to start the opening match

Omega vs. Jay White will be a fun little program.

Very happy that Jericho is doing more with New Japan.

If you're an adult/nerdy wrasslin fan and you prefer WWE over NJPW, then I don't even know. I don't mean it as an "insult", I just don't know how you could prefer a product that even children think is hokey, compared to a gritty, hard hitting product like NJPW.

I'm not talking ALL WWE in history, just current WWE--they aren't even in the same stratosphere.

Man that would've been like calling up four guys from OVW and immediately putting them in a match on Raw against Hardcore Holly, Hugh Morrus, and the APA

Current WWE is barely wrestling.

Kitamura's a fucking beast. I think this is gonna be a big year for him.

I've been hearing his name a bit.

I wonder if they send him abroad? They are clearly thinking monster push though. Fuck, I love the booking of this promotion.

In New Japan, you have Kitamura starting a trial series, whereas in WWE you have Rhyno trying to "toughen up" Heath Slater.

Usually they send guys on an excursion for a year or two, but the guy is already 32. Wouldn't surprise me if they just use him on the main roster proper. Could even see him filling out a G1 spot, honestly.

He seems like they're ready to feature him without that excursion.

The ending to the Bullet Club tag was perfectly booked in virtually every respect. Cody getting the win allows him to regain some steam from his loss the night before. Omega saving Ibushi got a genuine "holy shit" reaction out of me. Continued teasing of Bullet Club dissension. And then that Jay White swerve was really cool and has me way more interested in him now.

In one segment they've set up Kenny's next US Title program, have a tailor made Cody match just sitting there for whenever they want to go that route, AND they've continued the years long story arc between the Golden Lovers.

I adore the booking of this promotion. It puts WWE's incoherent booking to shame.

did Omega turn face or did Jay White just fake the heel character for a minute? i couldn't tell from what I read

really want to start watching this.

Finally got around to watching the show and the crowd going wild for Omega during the rift with Cody was amazing. A potential Elite vs Bullet Club feud could make huge money for NJPW baring any screwups.

Jericho going after Naito was really interesting as well. Jericho alluded to this happening based on several interviews he gave recently.

Technically I think it was a face turn for White but considering how over Kenny is the face/heel alignment doesn't seem to matter much for this feud.

I think Omega has been a babyface since he wrestled Okada. And Jericho was definitely the heel during this feud.

Omega was the face in that feud, but the crowd popped huge for White's switcheroo and it came across looking like it was a face turn for him. Should be a banger of a match between them.

Omega/White
Tanahashi/Suzuki
Naito/Jericho

Man this is gonna be fun.

Yeah, those sound like crackers.

According to people who have been following longer than I have, they have done this before for promising Lions and quite often, they'll only win one match, occasionally 2 and look like they might, but noone could remember anyone succeeding.

Someone has to succeed at some point though and with his physical presence and the fact he's actually up there in terms of age, I think they might pull the trigger on him without an excursion and win the trial.

The heel and face dynamic is different in Japan. More of a grey area with most guys.

Yeah, I mean technically speaking, Okada is a heel. He leads a heel group and he's a cocky son of a bitch.

In this first year that I've been watching New Japan I thought CHAOS were faces as it's always felt as though they're the ones getting outnumbered in beatdowns by another stable, which I always found odd as there are a million people in CHAOS and they should be able to outnumber everybody.

But that's another quirk to booking that I've not gotten used to from being so accustomed to WWE, I guess it's just standard for stablemates to take a long time to make the save. Hell LIJ slowly walked back to the ring even though they were clearly watching their leader get beat down by Jericho.

Someone on Reddit explained it that the only true white meat babyface stable are Taguchi Japan, and their open door policy allows them to basically just be the "miscellaneous" stable that guys work with when they aren't in any of the other groups.

Conversely, Suzuki-gun are the only clear cut heel group on account of them being sadistic sons of bitches.

CHAOS, Bullet Club, and LIJ are all somewhere in the middle and whether they're operating as faces or heel depends on the match or program they're working on and that's where a lot of the grey area comes in. Half the stable may be heels in one match and the others would be faces in the next, etc.

Yeah, what group you're affiliated with is kind of like a scale of being heel or face. It kind of goes from heel to face: Suzuki-gun, Bullet Club, CHAOS, LIJ, Taguchi Japan.

Even then it's tough as LIJ were a heel stable, but just shifted because Naito and to a lesser extent, Takahashi, became so popular. The Bullet Club are atill pretty much heels, but The Elite jave a different dynamic. Outside of Suzuki and Taguchi, it's just different shades of grey.

Lol, Okada is a babyface.