Wrestling Dontaku Nights 1 & 2 Set: Nemeth/Tanahashi! Moxley/Narita! Shingo/Kidd! Tsuji/Finlay! ZSJ/Cobb!

19 comments

1. Thank fucking god Bodyslam was wrong.

2. Night 1 main matches:

   ***Nic Nemeth vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Global Championship***

   ***Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jeff Cobb for the NJPW World TV Championship***

   ***Yota Tsuji vs. David Finlay***

   ***Jon Moxley, El Desperado, & Shota Umino vs. House of Torture (EVIL, Ren Narita, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)***

   Night 2:

   ***Jon Moxley vs. Ren Narita for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship***

   ***Shingo Takagi vs. Gabe Kidd for the NEVER Openweight Championship***

   ***Bishamon vs. Bullet Club (KENTA & Chase Owens) for the IWGP Tag Team Championship***

   ***Hiroshi Tanahashi and Nic Nemeth vs. Just 5 Guys (SANADA & Taichi)***

3. Very solid card. Mox mentioned he’d be fighting Narita at Resurgence in the backstage comments but that match is way more suited for the main event of Dontaku. Curious to see what happens in the US though

4. So for all the nerds and the special AEW defense force that went *”See ? Moxley’s gonna work the NJPW schedule, what are you complaining about ?”* (like it was the only problem with Moxley being champ) ,that report was a fucking lie but a lot of you believed it blindly lol.

   So Narita gets a title shot despite the fact Moxley pinned him at Sakura Genesis. Can’t build much momentum, can’t build anything when the champ is not here. Him getting his first world title shot that way is really lame.
   Nic Nemeth vs Tanahashi is a trash main event. Zack vs Cobb should be good but Zack shouldn’t be stuck with the TV title again + it was literally the title match of last year’s Wrestling Dontaku. Great creativity here. Tsuji vs Finlay could be good but Tsuji is obviously losing, Kidd vs Shingo should be cool as well at least. But when the 2 biggest matches of the tour are so poorly built up with the champions not being there to build anything, it’s just trash. Huge downgrade from what we had with Naito as champion.

5. Kenta and Chase getting a rematch is dumb.

6. pls hot potato the TV belt to Cobb 🙏

7. Is Mox vs Narita really a ppv worthy main event? I mean look at Ren, guy looks like an absolute dork.

8. Also on the road to shows:

   TMDK vs GoD for the Strong tag belts

   Hiromu and Bushi vs War Dogs for the Jr belts

   GOK vs Uemura for the KOPW championship

   A night of LIJ vs War Dogs singles matches

   Gedo vs Tsuji

   Takagi vs Connors

   Naito vs Molonry

   Bushi vs Kidd

   Finlay vs Hiromu

   Nemeth and Tana vs J5G is interesting on night 2. Perhaps Sanada vs Nemeth at Dominion/resurgence

9. Moxley working with Ren in Japan and Shooter at a later date is great. Will let elevate both of them where a certain other main event level talent just did not lol

   I think the most likely outcome is they run Moxley vs Umino at Dominion this year, to parallel their encounter at Dominion 2019, question then is who would face Moxley at Resurgence and Forbiddeon Door.

   If I were to fantasy book as an insanely biased Naito fan, I’d like Moxley to retain vs Narita, then Shooter at Resurgence, then drop the title back to Naito at Dominion in Osaka. Then, before Naito can celebrate, you have Danielson (either through video package or in-person) declare for Forbidden Door.

10. Naito is booked on every show this tour. So all of you who said something about „Naito needed to lose to rest“ can shut the fuck up lol

    Edit: Meanwhile both top champions are not even working a single road to show.

11. Despite the fact I still don’t care for Mox being champ, him vs Narita should be fun; Narita’s progressed a lot in such a short time since his heel turn, showing he can use his own cunning/tricks to win matches, rather than rely on constant HOT interference (looking at you, EVIL-San).

    Shingo vs Kidd is just gonna be a damn good stiff brawl, and I’m here for it.

12. Could definitely do without Chase and Kenta getting a rematch but other than that it’s a pretty good set of cards, including the Road To ones.

    Minor complaint – could they not have got a photo of Mox with the belt before they releases the match card images?

13. Shingo & Kidd about to kick off a new era of NEVER greatness

14. Oh hey look at that, Moxley is nowhere to be seen on the Dontaku tour. “Don’t worry, he’s taking time off to tour with New Japan!” Lmao, did anyone actually believe that story? He’ll be goofing around on Dynamite with the belt as a prop instead of helping the company that just put its top title on him.

    It will be a major test of his drawing power, though, as Narita is nowhere close to being a draw. Last year, Dontaku was a single show and drew 4,400. If Night 2 is below or matches that, then it’s going to be a huge issue. I expect Night 1 to outdraw it because of the Tanahashi match.

    Aside from that embarrassment, the tour and cards look really good. The only bad matchup is Owens and Kenta getting a rematch for the tag titles – I’d rather have seen Uemura and Sanada feud over the belts than have their match on the Taiwan show.

15. Shingo vs Gabe will be my main event

16. Every time I see Gabe on the card now, I am interested. So now I am wondering, when he is going to be the “real” bullet club leader? Sorry Finlay, I still can’t see you as future gaijin main eventer, I feel Gabe has surpassed you in terms of the bullet card’s leader “aura”.

17. Power Ranking of Wrestler’s Match Photos/Graphics:

    5 – Evil – Always love a Kubrick Stare.

    4 – Ren Narita – It takes work to look this sleazy/awkward, well done Narita.

    3 – Shingo Takagi – Great energy, classic finger point. A picture you can almost hear.

    2 – YOSHI-HASHI – As always, he seems to have chosen to go with “confused bewilderment” which is a bold choice, but one that has historically worked him.

    1 – Gabe Kidd – Obviously. This continues to be amazing and it’s hard to see anyone knocking him from the top spot anytime soon. GOAT Tier graphic.

18. fuck Jon Moxley

19. I’m going to be honest here. I’m really not looking forward to the last night on the 4th. The tag match feels like a bad repeat because Chase Owens and KENTA are once again challenging for the belts. I don’t mind the NEVER Openweight title match. The main event is what I hope becomes a major restart for Narita. If we get a clean 15 minute match from Narita like he did with Zack in the New Japan Cup and maybe a little bit of the House of Torture interference and not the infuriating nonstop House of Torture interference, I think the main will be a standout match for the night.

    Each night from May 3rd and May 4th has three key matches. May 3rd looks more standout with the rematch from last year Dontaku with Cobb and Zack. This can be the first step for UE to back on there feet if Cobb wins the TV title. As well if Akira and TJP put on great performances in the BOSJ tournament by either winning the tournament or earning themselves a Jr Heavyweight title shot in the near future. Tsuji and Finlay will be great to watch and the main event where Tanahashi might dethrone Nimeth if they don’t plan on having Nimeth there for too long or have him drop the belt at Dominion.

    Will Tanahashi be a two time grand slam winner if he wins the Global Championship?