Ok, I might be in the minority here, but I’d like to see Jinder get the title on Sunday.
Just seems like a shot across the bow of WWE that they’re doing a US tournament with a new US title so soon after WWE did the UK tournament. WWE rarely references other promotions by name, but they talk up BC’s IWGP championships all the time because they don’t consider New Japan “competition” in the same way that Impact/ROH is despite NJPW being the second-biggest promotion worldwide. I get the impression that they’re trying to say “Yeah, we’re coming into your yard now, let’s see how you like it.”
A little of both? From having seen a few of them in person at the ROH/NJPW Vegas show last year, IWGP belts tend to be a bit larger than American championships, more on the size of Flair’s original Big Gold Belt, which at first was even bigger than the one WCW used in the Nitro era. I think the idea is to make it look even grander and more majestic when worn by the champion, since main-eventers in Japan tend to be smaller guys than the kind of champs Vince likes - Kazuchika Okada, the reigning heavyweight champion, is a mere 236 lbs., Nakamura runs 229, Hiroshi Tanahashi is 227, Tetsuya Naito is 225, and so on.
I’ve never understood the abject hate that some people have for this storyline. Ginger Mahal has a great look about him, looks and acts like the heel he is, and wrestles perfectly fine. He’s a bit wooden on the mic, but that’s more the norm than the anomaly nowadays.
I’m not a huge huge fan of the “evil foreigner” gimmick…I’d much rather him just be a bad guy, but I’m perfectly fine with him.
I guess I never thought about it that way. Although I can’t imagine Japan is going to be a serious competitor in this country, even with a US tournament. You simply can’t run something in time zones that far away and have it be viable (IMO of course)
NJPW probably does have some sour grapes over losing talent to WWE, but from what I understand, their competition with other Japanese feds is pretty cut-throat. Family feuds, bitter divorces, etc.
Finally, Eric Rowan kills a promo. This is what made the Wyatts cool before WWE broke them up and made them stupid.
Saw something this morning about a Supernatural - Scooby Doo crossover.
With all the WWE Scooby movies, I had to suggest it be Supernatural & Scooby vs The Wyatt Family. 
Supernatural is crossing over with Scooby Doo? So the demon that leaves wizened defiled corpses in its wake turns out to be the nice old lady down the street wearing a mask who just wanted to scare away any potential poachers looking for her husband’s treasure chest?
[deadpan]Yes. That is exactly what happens.[/deadpan]
Serendipity rides again…
Some chick from some band that you’ve never heard of tweeted about how she was super excited to be singing the lyrics to Johnny Garbanzo’s new theme. Prompting The Universe (Copyright WWE 2017) to say “wellp. looks like DIY is breaking up on Saturday!”
No need for that to happen. Tomasso Chiampa tore his ACL at a house show yesterday. Meaning not only do they not have to break up, but it puts a huuuuuuge wrench in the match tomorrow.
Although, let’s be honest, we can just throw Oney Lorcan in a #DIY shirt and no one will be able to tell a difference anyway…
So much potential in that guy. So little actual.
I dunno, I thought that Talking Smack bit was way too long, slow and mostly boring.
Well, he’d need a body wax first.
The full list of participants for the IWGP US Championship event has been released. Looks like we’re getting a pretty solid blend of native Japanese wrestlers, gaijin, and ROH/CMLL guys (and also Zack Sabre Jr.) Not all of them are competing for the US title, though - we’re also getting Okada/Omega II for the world title and the Young Bucks vs. Roppongi Vice for the junior tag titles. Assuming Omega isn’t also in the tournament, I’m guessing either Cody or Jay Lethal comes out on top.
Night one is airing live on AXS (with JR on commentary!), while night two will air live on NJPW World and will air on tape delay on AXS the following week. Should be pretty entertaining.
Table for 3 with Team ECK (Edge, Christian, Kurt Angle) is pretty good.
Just finished watching the Takeover replay. It was OK - no real complaints, but nothing too exceptional either. The UK title match stole the show.
If Johnny Wrestling didn’t get a 6 figure bonus for all the wicked bumps be took, they essentially stole it from his career longevity.
Wow, he did it. Randy Orton put over Jinder Mahal. Jinder looked awesome after taking all those moves and still kicking out and coming back for more. So glad they pulled the trigger on it.
Takeover > Backlash
Agreed, UK Title match stole the show.
Hate to see DIY split up, but such is life. Which will be the Shawn Michaels and which one the Marty Jannetty? Which will be the Bret Hart and which the Jim Neidhart? Which one the Wesley Blake and which the Buddy Murphy?
I guess I liked the KO vs AJ match the best, and Tyler Breeze now has Santino Morello’s mantle of jobber clown, but the rest of Backlash didn’t do much for me. Jinder’s OK, but not exceptional.
I gotta say, I liked Backlash, and it probably says a lot that they put on a show in Chicago without any significant “CM PUNK” chants starting up. I’m perfectly OK with Jinder winning - it’s just far enough out of left field to be shocking without being ridiculous, and he looked damn good in that match. He certainly has more momentum going in than Orton did, and I’m legitimately interested in seeing where they go with this.
My only complaints would be the screwy finish of the AJ/Owens match, and the “undercover” gimmick in the Breezango/Usos match which requires us to assume that Tyler, the Usos, the referee, and the announcers are all blithering idiots.
I’m excited for my boy Elias Sampson. They started him out entangled in the Miz/Ambrose feud and he looked pretty damn good. I thought he’d be feuding with Darren Young in dark matches to start, but he exceeded expectations. Just don’t turn him into another Rockabilly.