Shingo Takagi & Hirooki Goto Deliver, Bushiroad's NJPW Risk | Speaking of Strong Style

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was a mixed week for New Japan Pro Wrestling.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We saw some great matches in the G1, and we saw some that didn't quite click.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We also had extremes in attendance, so one embarrassing number, and one that was a big improvement.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So it seems a lot of people are still trying to get a handle on this tournament, including us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see if we can take a step or two toward that today, which here we find stone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Stephen Conway, this is Speaking of Strong Style.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome everyone to speaking of strong style.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We discussed the news issues in events surrounding new Japan pro wrestling.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We had three shows this past week, Jeremy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you got a chance to see them and and look up over, but me too.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I got a podcast to do the good and the bad were on display this week.

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[SPEAKER_00]: What were your thoughts just in general?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then we'll start breaking things down just a bit.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I think the best way to put it in some of the best matches I've seen all year and some of the worst matches in all year all in one evening.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're right there.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Did you want to spend a session, but I have maintained that there are one or two, I don't want to say bad actors, but people who for whatever reason are motivated other than to do their best work in the ring for whatever reason.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We're also going to take our first look at the career of hero Yoshi tenson.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I have that research ready today for first few years of his career and we can take a look at what we're seeing in the current tournament with some of the people and it's compared to what tenson did his first few years as well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there was news also regarding Bushy Road this week.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We can talk a little bit about that.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go for that first.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting looking at it from the outside, isn't it Jeremy?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Because New Japan isn't part of Bushy Road anymore, but just on the heels of them selling New Japan to Cyboragent and also TV Asahi.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bushy Road announced that they were reorganizing and Jeremy, I've lived through some of this in the past with companies that have reorganized and corporate speak, Steven.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There was a lot of corporate speaking this, and I understand that Japan, United States are not the same, but there are some things that translate quite well, and When, what's that?

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[SPEAKER_01]: University, they tried to leave Steven.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and when Bushy wrote initially took out the loan.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Remember the huge loan they took out a few months ago on this show, I said, New Japan's going to be one of the first things sold.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and it was, it was, it absolutely was.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I saw coming from a mile away when you take out that kind of money, you start to hear things like focusing on core businesses.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's not good side, and New Japan is not the core business, pro wrestling, not the core business.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There are a card game and mobile game company that right now is flowering.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They have changed the executive structure.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So Kadani, everybody's favorite Bushy road guy, who somehow managed to put his foot in his mouth as often as he opened it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: has been moved from president to chairman.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We're not totally sure what that means, what is if that's a emotion or anything else.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody else, much younger, has been put into the president's spot.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, they're saying all the right things that they're going to work together.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But sure, look, he was running the show and now there's another guy running the show with him.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is not good news for Kodani.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then

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[SPEAKER_00]: The other thing is, they still have this loan.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They have used words like AI, which is corporate speak for we want.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know what's wrong and we're hope AI fixes it for us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If we just put all this stuff into it, and then it'll tell us what we're doing wrong, that's what they're hoping for.

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[SPEAKER_00]: What it also means is for Jeremy, for a card company, a game company like this, they're in trouble.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They want AI to replace their human artists.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Flat out.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There's just no question anybody's mind.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There shouldn't be any way that that's what they're hoping to do.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a company that is doing well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: These are not signs from a company that's thriving and.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think starting was probably going to be the next one sold off because they're going to need to make some heavy payments and it's going to take a while to turn that ship around.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's all the stuff I said a few months ago, Jeremy, that Bushy Road is in a spot of trouble.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And what focusing on our core businesses usually means is it's putting a clearance sale sign on everything that's not a card game or a mobile game.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's probably in poor form to utter the phrase you should take a victory lab over the business failing to the company and the people who are involved in it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's not what we're trying to do here.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But.

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[SPEAKER_01]: There have been patterns that are cognitive and important to the greater scheme of what New Japan is, and Japanese pro wrestling, in which Bushi Road has been a major player for years, and not only has their involvement of

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[SPEAKER_01]: precipitously declined within the sphere, their ability to just make money in general is fraught with peril.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And when you're divesting yourself of the human element, you hopefully cut costs and you say, I, to accomplish your, your tasks and your goals, you're gonna end up spending more money than you did without the human element.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, and you know, the thing is about we're going to use AI, it, to me, it just sounds like we don't know what's wrong.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, like, if we knew what was wrong, we would hire people and make changes that would do it, but we're going to use AI because we're cool us right now is what they don't want to say out loud.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then the other part is for anything that deals with art like this that they're going to try to replace because look, AI doesn't need vacation time, AI doesn't need benefits.

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[SPEAKER_00]: it's just signs of a company that just doesn't quite know how to fix things moving forward except to slash payroll.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, that means we get to keep more money and that'll make the thing look a better and the balance sheets, but long term is slop going to help them sell cards and mobile game, uh, don't know.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The thing for me is that I

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[SPEAKER_01]: I felt like we have been seeing this for a while now.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I, I've always been aware of Kadani as an entity as a person, as the big man above everything in Japan for a rest of the day.

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[SPEAKER_01]: His name is always been kind of there.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's a good way of asking Kadani all of these things.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I will say in the last nine months, I have heard this guy name so much that he has taken up the oxygen in the room, getting into like spat with Yoda Suji, you know, like talking about the value of the card game.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I think he even had a opinion about Newspend for a wrestling that made it to the press about like, Great O'Con and Yoda Suji again, like two weeks ago, just before this news came out,

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[SPEAKER_01]: He's taking up the oxygen in the room for the company.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And yes, there are people that are point men for these things.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But it's clear that he no longer has control over the optics of what messages the company is trying to send and putting him in if a chairman role is almost like, hey, Stanley, you're not running Marvel anymore, you're just going to show up to the big events and smile and do the radio shows and and say what we want you to say, but you're not, you're not deciding what that is.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and we'll see how it affects startup.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Again, the thing that I was thinking of though, if they decide they need to sell off startup, which is thriving, I mean, they're doing well.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Doing a lot more money than I think they will, I don't know.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think they'll make more money than a big fan?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Or that I think they're very valuable, right?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Start them as profitable.

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[SPEAKER_00]: New Japan is a bigger name and probably brings in more revenue.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the question is, is New Japan,

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[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know how profitable New Japan actually is, that whole thing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But it's starting as doing well, businesses up, object, it's just, like more people are paying to see start them than used to, and startups even out drawing New Japan in some situations.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The key is if they decide to sell it, who's going to buy it, and right now the only company that seems particularly interested in acquiring wrestling companies is cyber-fight.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And that would put it under a very large umbrella and create sort of a not monopoly but close to it and yes right now for now cyber fight runs all of its company separately there is cooperation among them no doubt about it but we have not seen any kind of.

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[SPEAKER_00]: synergy, you know, that another corporate word for you right there where we tell everybody do the exact same thing, the exact same way.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We haven't seen that with cyber-fice wrestling companies, but they seem to be accumulating a lot of them.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And the only people that are buying right now, which makes me wonder, when we come back here in a year for the G1 next year, we're talking about New Japan and starting being under the exact same banner again, one day.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So who knows?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Fernando Vias is with us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He says that they should just merge a woman's G1 would be awesome one day.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they have that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That's the five star crown pretty.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's going on right now.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that is that is back going on and Fernando, it perfectly fine for you to join in and watch that at any time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's great stuff.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it really is.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And who do we a heart if in it right now?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Julie hearts in there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Julie hearts in there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So they have a guest, uh, they have a guest for her out there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Plus they needed to because uh, be pretty, she got hurt to the tournament this year.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, we have a G1 to talk about here and let's go ahead and get into that because we've got plenty to talk about.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Three shows this week, very manageable workload for us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, we appreciate that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And we got to talk a little bit about the fact that they were in older war gymnasium for two nights.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And well, a night in an afternoon, you know what I'm saying?

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[SPEAKER_00]: A Saturday in a Sunday, an older war gym.

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[SPEAKER_00]: What's now called the Barrel Wave Gymnasium St. Bill, the St. Louis, just with a sponsor name now.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Jeremy, they drew just barely over 2000 on Saturday and only 1500 on Sunday.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That is a disastrous number.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I had to look it up.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know me.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I got it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a venue near it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I had to look this thing up.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This was the worst crowd since the night of the New Japan Cup in 2022 drew only 777 in that building and that was the night you and showed it with the main event.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, it was the key to here is the two nights in auto ward.

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[SPEAKER_00]: the attendance combined came up short of the Super Junior finals.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's not great.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty spooky, pretty darn spooky.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was, I will get that lineup for that night and it's hard to get excited with the main event not being what it was, you know, so you've got

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[SPEAKER_01]: Basically, five guys in some way, shape or form at the top of the card and Oscar for Zaren Wolf, which, you know, it's that people who were on fire, it was a fine match, but like, you're not paying money for a ticket for this card, you know, and it just, it died on the sword because that San Bernardino and Gabe Kid, as good as it was,

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like an exact temperature in game kid, the new Japan crowd, it's like this is not, do I want front of the main event?

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[SPEAKER_01]: 2021.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just concerned that Yoda Suji and Shinko Takagi only drew 2000 them day before.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they got five out of more than the people than the B-block, so you're right, but they also got 1,900 fewer than Dokey and Yo.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm with you, I know, it's like the heavy weights in this company are in a very weak position, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: I hit there and we talk about the attendance and we talk about what's possibly going to draw

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[SPEAKER_01]: a crowd at the Tokyo Dome in January, and people are trying to convince me that you are murdering Yoda Fuji.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be the pious drawing like crowd that they're going to get.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And like, you're winning the G1 right now, I just, I do not have the pathway for some of these guys that are supposed to be at the top being booked in a

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[SPEAKER_01]: I am blown away by the breed of some of the community right now, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's just, it feels like we're,

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[SPEAKER_01]: We're watching this promotion like it's business is usual.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But it's not business is usual.

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[SPEAKER_01]: There is a brand new owner.

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[SPEAKER_01]: There are people that are kicking the tires.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They are approaching it with a different game plan.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying, hey, we're running this company.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This is who we want to push right now.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like the time of we're going to spend three years to build this guy up and put him through the trial for tribulations and then give him the belt.

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[SPEAKER_01]: That might not be the priority right now.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Make money with the guys that they think they can make money with and that's the crossover field like Aaron Wolf.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like you watch how you've booked in this tournament and I don't see how like people don't see that they have big plan for him even if he's not ready.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter that he's not ready.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He's competent and that's all they need.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But this is not, this is not Bushy Road, letting the five guys in the office decide what they want to do.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's like the big picture is met.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know what?

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[SPEAKER_00]: We're wrong by a TV network now.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We're wrong by a TV network.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You hold me on Aaron Wolf and Yoda Suji in Dominion and Rethel Kingdom.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We have these owners now, they have these guys making all the decisions and they may not know wrestling, but they do know what they do know and it's like we believe in these two guys.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see if it pans out that way, Wolf, you know, had a rough week himself.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll take a look at it, but let's go through these, well, let's go through these block matches and we'll get to Wolf when we get to him, his match because I'm less confident that he's gonna win the thing like I thought that he might have, I don't know.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not confident that he's winning it, not at all.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What I'm saying is there has been nobody.

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[SPEAKER_01]: nobody in the tournament that has been booked at like D-Maine of that level, including Yoda Fuji in the way that the presentation has been.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And so when we're looking to where the tournament is going to go and what it leads to, I'm having a real hard time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: If good if this G1 is engaging as the stories are that we are building to a

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, again, I'm not sure it's a current active wrestler that's going to be in that big match.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But we'll see what we'll go.

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[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Here we go.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Ebar wave, older word gym.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be a long time before I stop calling it order word gym Jeremy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't calling it that forever.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But it's, of course, the birthplace of New Japan pro wrestling, the very first New Japan shows in that building in 1972.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But here.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We had a block a match on Saturday that was a great O'Connor, here O'Kee, godo.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So these two came in on four points of peace.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Godo tried.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the extremes we're talking about here.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Godo tried.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But chairs, chairs, chairs, a referee bump.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Very similar to how they do referee bumps.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get to that later.

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[SPEAKER_00]: uh... go to picked up a chair and was going to use it on great o'clock on all the chaos but he put it down because he's a nice guy and he got punched in the nuts for it then great o'clock hit the eliminator uh... and one it's matsimoto protected godo from more chair shots but they both ended up getting laid out afterwards this was a not a good match and pretty depressing as a matter of fact but and it takes a lot for godo to have a bad match

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[SPEAKER_00]: But great no con managed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no, no, they hit that threshold in more Stephen.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I wrote it was a struggle between a Kodo match playing at straight and a con match with all this crap in it and the con match went out.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, basically what happened in this by highlight was the con punching Kodo in the nucks.

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[SPEAKER_01]: When he hesitated with the chair and then hit the elevator and then after the match,

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[SPEAKER_01]: Confusive baseball queen gimmick on the chair again, and then you know took a shot.

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[SPEAKER_01]: That's mud.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And how stupid is that like what why?

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[SPEAKER_00]: That whole move that whole move of putting the guy in the chair and then hitting that chair with another chair is so stupid.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's like just hit the guy, you know, if you like what why in the world are you hitting one chair into another.

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[SPEAKER_00]: pro fake pro wrestling thing to do that it just like just hit the guy in the back with a chair and instead of this thing where we can all clearly see that you're not actually hitting the guy it's just and yet it's sold like this big ooh moment and look I don't like edge and Christian has made of that guy I've never been made of interest to me that's my subjective opinion years may vary.

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[SPEAKER_00]: at least the concerto thing kind of looks like they are sandwiching the guys brain between those chairs when they swing them and you know you can make the case with the concerto thing that

19:29.663 --> 19:34.785
[SPEAKER_00]: in pro wrestling logic like the metal chair under their head keeps the ring from even cushioning them.

19:35.385 --> 19:48.211
[SPEAKER_00]: You can make that case with Ocon when he sets the guy's head on the seat of a unfolded chair and then hits the back of that chair with another chair, you clearly aren't hitting the guy.

19:49.031 --> 19:50.952
[SPEAKER_00]: Just hit him across the back safely.

19:51.612 --> 19:52.552
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a stupid move.

19:52.593 --> 19:56.874
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I needed to go off on that for a second because we're just seeing it over and over again and we'll get

19:58.735 --> 20:02.219
[SPEAKER_00]: New Japan tropes, but it's, this is not doing it for me at all.

20:03.921 --> 20:05.702
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me add even further to that, Steven.

20:06.543 --> 20:17.455
[SPEAKER_01]: So on here, if you expect a chair multiple times in this fashion, on multiple people throughout the entire tournament, right in front of the ref, can you hate one time?

20:18.291 --> 20:29.622
[SPEAKER_01]: where this action has led to the direct call to clank of a competitor losing their net match or suffering any injury whatsoever of the result of this chair shot into their net match.

20:29.962 --> 20:35.287
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you seen any mention of this in any moment of the G1 whatsoever?

20:35.587 --> 20:36.708
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a thing to do.

20:37.049 --> 20:38.330
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a thing to do.

20:39.130 --> 20:40.332
[SPEAKER_01]: Go to how to match your shingo.

20:40.652 --> 20:42.894
[SPEAKER_01]: Tonight, Clayton or whatever, like through this or a fine.

20:42.934 --> 20:43.134
[SPEAKER_01]: Just fine.

20:44.240 --> 20:45.221
[SPEAKER_01]: not a one mention.

20:45.741 --> 20:46.502
[SPEAKER_01]: No, the thing to do.

20:46.522 --> 20:47.022
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

20:47.783 --> 20:48.123
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

20:48.183 --> 20:52.526
[SPEAKER_00]: After that, we had a match that was better than go to and it was between Sanata and Jake Lee.

20:52.546 --> 20:53.227
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you believe that?

20:53.347 --> 20:54.328
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, no, it don't get me wrong.

20:54.388 --> 20:55.028
[SPEAKER_00]: This wasn't good.

20:55.749 --> 20:57.450
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was better than the go to Ocon match.

20:57.811 --> 21:00.092
[SPEAKER_00]: And my first note was what will this be?

21:00.573 --> 21:01.573
[SPEAKER_00]: Jake Lee and Sanata.

21:01.774 --> 21:05.056
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't much, but in the end, they came up with some trickery.

21:05.076 --> 21:07.578
[SPEAKER_00]: I went 13 minutes, did not need to.

21:07.638 --> 21:09.680
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanata ended up taking Jake Lee's belt and

21:14.063 --> 21:15.784
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he paradise locking as well?

21:16.705 --> 21:18.106
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he tried too, but he couldn't.

21:18.747 --> 21:24.751
[SPEAKER_01]: But somehow I crutchled him through the paradise lock with the pericade and try to make it look like that.

21:24.771 --> 21:28.073
[SPEAKER_01]: And then one by cow now and I'm like, all right, it's possible.

21:28.734 --> 21:33.818
[SPEAKER_01]: They both tried, but they're both not at the level what they want to, what they want for each end.

21:33.838 --> 21:34.558
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a struggle.

21:34.979 --> 21:38.701
[SPEAKER_01]: But the crowd that showed up did will this along.

21:39.242 --> 21:41.844
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they really, they really tried to get this,

21:42.524 --> 21:47.028
[SPEAKER_01]: going more than I thought it deserved as God bless.

21:47.368 --> 22:03.500
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Lee's been a little better in this tournament than a lot of people Fuddy would be and so that he got and he stopped using it for now, but he he goes back and forth on that I mean he just walked to make up it if you're at some point and you've gave up like But Sanada was coming off that excellent match

22:04.562 --> 22:14.855
[SPEAKER_00]: with uh, with so do you still trying to match like so the fans what I'm saying is the fans were on their side, they were willing this along because they want this run to continue.

22:14.935 --> 22:15.816
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

22:15.896 --> 22:16.136
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

22:16.216 --> 22:20.962
[SPEAKER_01]: And I, I still maintain an audit fighting for a job right now.

22:22.063 --> 22:22.303
[SPEAKER_00]: Well,

22:23.470 --> 22:24.371
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's some good news folks.

22:25.111 --> 22:30.094
[SPEAKER_00]: Once you got past those two, we got three really good matches in a row.

22:30.154 --> 22:31.615
[SPEAKER_00]: Three, really good.

22:31.675 --> 22:35.357
[SPEAKER_01]: And the first of which, a match that started awesome and never stopped.

22:35.957 --> 22:40.640
[SPEAKER_00]: This was a fierce battle between Kenosuke Takeshta and Oleg Bolton.

22:42.527 --> 22:45.248
[SPEAKER_00]: go back and watch this only 14 minutes and 20 seconds.

22:45.388 --> 22:49.550
[SPEAKER_00]: It felt like an epic battle that went on for a long time in a good way, in a good way.

22:50.231 --> 22:56.194
[SPEAKER_00]: Excellent choke spot from Bolden that tease the KO on Takeshita, Takeshita, really sold that well.

22:56.394 --> 22:58.154
[SPEAKER_00]: And it looked like it might end there right there.

22:58.455 --> 22:59.315
[SPEAKER_00]: Very fierce battle.

23:00.135 --> 23:04.798
[SPEAKER_00]: I love both in going down on his knees as they were battling each other back and

23:06.038 --> 23:21.666
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was like an almost double down spot so they hit each other and Bolton drops to his knees because he's so fogged up to catch the bounces off the ropes like like he's staggering around like the ropes are holding him up and then he collapses onto Bolton's back for the kamikaze spot.

23:22.166 --> 23:23.687
[SPEAKER_00]: like a felon to the kamikaze.

23:23.707 --> 23:24.447
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually like that.

23:24.948 --> 23:28.270
[SPEAKER_00]: Four arm battles where they stand in the middle of the ring and trade four arms.

23:28.870 --> 23:33.133
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a cliche thing that's way overdone and it's usually very, very lame.

23:33.733 --> 23:34.574
[SPEAKER_00]: Not in this match.

23:34.914 --> 23:36.315
[SPEAKER_00]: This is one time when it worked.

23:37.155 --> 23:44.700
[SPEAKER_00]: And they worked in shingos kamikaze spot where Bolton had to cash to up under shoulders to cash to held the rope.

23:45.260 --> 23:47.161
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he was able to break the

23:52.260 --> 23:58.306
[SPEAKER_00]: to Keshe was able to use the rope to get out of the hole, hit his big knee and then the raging fire.

23:58.746 --> 23:59.847
[SPEAKER_00]: This was great.

24:01.088 --> 24:08.055
[SPEAKER_01]: My favorite moment was when Bolton, Kati, Akiyama, and then lifted him up into the F-5 called verdict.

24:09.216 --> 24:12.239
[SPEAKER_01]: Just the feet of strength by Bolton

24:17.622 --> 24:26.828
[SPEAKER_01]: He looked like Batista, you know, just this, this beast in the ring that just manhandled you, and he was manhandling to catch that.

24:26.868 --> 24:35.053
[SPEAKER_01]: And to catch it is not a small man, but he lifted him and threw him around and kind of ragged all of them.

24:35.113 --> 24:38.115
[SPEAKER_01]: And when this match was over, to catch him in the middle of the ring, like,

24:38.795 --> 24:51.179
[SPEAKER_01]: On his knees, clapping, pointing it to Keshe, pointing it all like, look at this dude, like, oh my god, and I think this is the fourth single match between the two.

24:52.039 --> 25:03.363
[SPEAKER_01]: They've gone two and two, so they had a G1 match in 2024 that oligabied him, and then they never openweight match in 2025 to Keshe to beat him.

25:04.083 --> 25:09.368
[SPEAKER_01]: and then there are another open-weight title match, Oleg beat him, and then we had this one.

25:09.448 --> 25:13.632
[SPEAKER_01]: So they've been trading matches back and forth, and they've always had good matches.

25:13.652 --> 25:20.318
[SPEAKER_01]: They've always had excellent chemistry, but they've like next level unlocked kind of stuff between the two.

25:20.378 --> 25:22.841
[SPEAKER_01]: They just, it was great.

25:23.121 --> 25:24.963
[SPEAKER_01]: Jeff, good enough.

25:26.512 --> 25:28.674
[SPEAKER_00]: After that, we had utilized Rio de O'Ewan.

25:28.694 --> 25:34.698
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we know that these two have chemistry and they faced each other before and they did a little mini-fue between them in the past.

25:34.778 --> 25:36.259
[SPEAKER_00]: This one went about 15 minutes.

25:36.359 --> 25:37.540
[SPEAKER_00]: They're both on four points.

25:37.600 --> 25:40.162
[SPEAKER_00]: So everybody's fairly even on this show.

25:40.422 --> 25:49.168
[SPEAKER_00]: But that one put to cash to up six points to four on Bolton after this and out of Jake Lee match and the O'Con go to match, they were all on four.

25:49.268 --> 25:51.830
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're keeping everybody bunched up basically.

25:52.651 --> 25:54.332
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we've got ice in O'Ewan.

25:57.471 --> 25:59.372
[SPEAKER_00]: they portray that they hate each other, right?

25:59.392 --> 26:02.994
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause OEWA kind of came from a more, I don't know.

26:03.834 --> 26:17.782
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't really say he's a rich boy, but certainly from a better, they portray him as being certainly from a better home and a little more upscale type of upbringing than Udo-I's who kind of came off the streets and was fighting for money and a young age and all this stuff.

26:18.858 --> 26:25.961
[SPEAKER_00]: Only people who like each other, hit each other that hard, and that stiff, and that's safely though.

26:26.201 --> 26:30.263
[SPEAKER_00]: Watch where, and how they hit each other, these guys have a lot of respect for each other.

26:30.303 --> 26:32.784
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they're probably good friends off of this thing.

26:33.024 --> 26:38.126
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that for sure, but it's the kind of match you have when you feel very comfortable with the guy you're in the ring with.

26:38.627 --> 26:39.247
[SPEAKER_00]: When you trust him.

26:40.207 --> 26:42.708
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no sustained momentum in this match.

26:42.888 --> 26:44.449
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just a fight.

26:44.949 --> 26:47.210
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no period of selling and to come back.

26:47.350 --> 26:48.771
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just guys going to war.

26:48.871 --> 26:51.772
[SPEAKER_00]: It was worked in a way, though, that you felt the finish coming.

26:51.853 --> 27:01.177
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the down sides of having those battles where there's no sustained momentum is the finish off and feels like it came out of nowhere where it's just like they just decided in the match, finally.

27:01.577 --> 27:03.478
[SPEAKER_00]: This one, you felt it coming.

27:03.578 --> 27:04.878
[SPEAKER_00]: They ramped it up.

27:04.978 --> 27:06.099
[SPEAKER_00]: The blows got a little hard.

27:06.139 --> 27:07.880
[SPEAKER_00]: They sold a little more between them.

27:08.760 --> 27:11.942
[SPEAKER_00]: And you felt like it was coming and when it did come was very good.

27:11.962 --> 27:14.964
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I sent it up, winning it with the knee and the strikes.

27:16.065 --> 27:18.747
[SPEAKER_00]: Terrific match 15 and 18 puts him all on for him.

27:21.328 --> 27:22.469
[SPEAKER_01]: I called this match Banger.

27:22.789 --> 27:25.291
[SPEAKER_01]: That's basically all the notes that I had on this was.

27:26.011 --> 27:27.192
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this match was a Banger.

27:27.372 --> 27:28.773
[SPEAKER_01]: They beat the crap out of each other.

27:29.173 --> 27:34.377
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I was done, I felt like my body hurt just just just

27:35.970 --> 27:48.717
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what got into you to ice in this tournament, but he is dedicated to getting his ass kicked, but doing in an entertaining style for the most part in this tournament.

27:48.757 --> 27:52.539
[SPEAKER_01]: Like every time I see him, he's just he's losing in a different way.

27:53.080 --> 27:56.642
[SPEAKER_01]: And finding it amusing, but it also

27:58.363 --> 28:02.144
[SPEAKER_01]: it's incredibly creative come in the matches that he's having and it won't live.

28:02.465 --> 28:07.066
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we mentioned last week that one of the benefits of having ice in this tournament is his match just looks different.

28:07.386 --> 28:10.788
[SPEAKER_00]: It just it's a variety show and his matches different than other people matches.

28:10.848 --> 28:17.010
[SPEAKER_01]: And the energy of hit entrance to like when he comes out and the audience it almost feels like

28:18.157 --> 28:20.858
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just drinking a shot or red bull.

28:21.038 --> 28:21.898
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

28:22.018 --> 28:24.198
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, red bull would jam a center cup.

28:24.258 --> 28:26.459
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, you're just, oh my god, let's go.

28:26.819 --> 28:30.439
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you're just, your hand, they're on the rails and you're like, yeah, this guy's coming out.

28:30.519 --> 28:33.080
[SPEAKER_01]: He's coming out and he's just doing the left get high.

28:33.560 --> 28:39.001
[SPEAKER_00]: He's shaking, got that white vest on and it just, it could energy change her.

28:39.881 --> 28:44.682
[SPEAKER_01]: And they don't have a whole lot of guys like that's a completely changed mood the moment he comes out.

28:46.140 --> 28:57.549
[SPEAKER_00]: So we went from that to the main event, which is going from a fight to a classic G1 stiff hard-hitting match between two really good workers.

28:57.729 --> 29:00.151
[SPEAKER_00]: Yota Suji Shinkotikagi, very good match.

29:00.811 --> 29:05.275
[SPEAKER_00]: They played it like they knew each other so well because their stable made.

29:05.315 --> 29:07.897
[SPEAKER_00]: So they had clever counters for one another's moves.

29:09.722 --> 29:16.128
[SPEAKER_00]: And down the stretch, it was the kind of match that we love seeing in the G1.

29:16.388 --> 29:20.732
[SPEAKER_00]: Guys, working toward their finisher, trying to hit their finisher, countering in and out of it.

29:21.573 --> 29:25.437
[SPEAKER_00]: Shingo and Godo might be the two best regulars added.

29:25.477 --> 29:26.798
[SPEAKER_00]: Takeshita is excellent too.

29:27.338 --> 29:28.740
[SPEAKER_00]: Susie was right there with him.

29:29.640 --> 29:37.425
[SPEAKER_00]: As far as just having a match where we're just going to go hard for 20 minutes and hit each other with everything.

29:38.406 --> 29:50.113
[SPEAKER_00]: Fire Blaster to win and I thought it was terrific and after suffering that upset loss to Sanata, it was necessary for Suji to be on the microphone standing tall at the end of this one.

29:50.593 --> 29:53.835
[SPEAKER_00]: And we mentioned where Shingo Takagi is right now with New Japan,

29:58.398 --> 30:03.123
[SPEAKER_00]: And for the most part, put the other guy over, he played it perfectly here.

30:04.984 --> 30:09.589
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, everything about the fact that the net person to be tight, you chewed out of the G1, it's probably going to be a guy lecturing up.

30:11.211 --> 30:12.552
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's a little scary.

30:13.152 --> 30:14.594
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, Tom talks rubbish is here.

30:14.614 --> 30:15.254
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, Tom.

30:15.295 --> 30:15.915
[SPEAKER_00]: Glad to see you.

30:18.450 --> 30:24.597
[SPEAKER_01]: These guys had a challenge ahead of them with the fact that they had to follow the last two matches.

30:24.617 --> 30:37.052
[SPEAKER_01]: To catch that old boat and you know, I said, you know what they did, they had an excellent made event match and the crowd decided very early on that they wanted Schingo to win this match.

30:37.793 --> 31:02.125
[SPEAKER_01]: They very much wanted him to win this match, and both guys played into that, remarkably well, you know, like old hands, you know, you feel like you're still a little young as a wrestler, but you've been doing this while, and yeah, you've been to the debt, so, you know, it's a bit of a g1 cool, I got to be the heel knight, great, let's do it, and then they did, and

31:03.313 --> 31:14.056
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the fire blaster I feel is going to preserve Yota Fuji's career a little bit longer even though it looks and look unappealing to take for the guy taking it.

31:15.568 --> 31:20.991
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I agree with you on that, but it'll probably keep him from getting the neck compression over and over again by doing a spear.

31:21.031 --> 31:21.331
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

31:21.652 --> 31:29.636
[SPEAKER_00]: The spear, as a finisher, hasn't worked well for the guys that are giving a lot of spears that usually ends up with some long-term damage.

31:30.116 --> 31:30.757
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

31:30.997 --> 31:31.357
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

31:31.377 --> 31:34.359
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, all the pro wrestling does, but that one, the particularly nasty bit of it.

31:34.379 --> 31:43.044
[SPEAKER_01]: So, whatever part of your body you're leading with when you want to weed an impact at a high speed, it's probably going to hurt later on.

31:43.700 --> 31:45.742
[SPEAKER_00]: So thank carefully if you want it to be your neck.

31:46.203 --> 31:46.743
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

31:47.184 --> 31:50.668
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so we move on from there to the Sunday show.

31:51.654 --> 31:54.715
[SPEAKER_00]: that horrible crowd of 1580 that would have barely filled the cork on the hall.

31:55.916 --> 31:58.457
[SPEAKER_00]: And it looked like it too, boy, I caught it.

31:58.837 --> 32:04.019
[SPEAKER_00]: They did a decent job in not shooting the empty parts of the arena, but there were some misses there.

32:04.060 --> 32:14.144
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember when I went to New Year's Dash a couple of years ago, that entire quarter of the building was just empty and to the point that the bleachers were folded up.

32:14.684 --> 32:20.067
[SPEAKER_00]: I just thought, oh my goodness, they must have known that this thing wasn't going to draw a dime, because they didn't even try to sell tickets

32:21.953 --> 32:29.980
[SPEAKER_00]: So they must have had a feeling that this was not going to do well at all because entire parts of that arena were not even available.

32:31.442 --> 32:32.162
[SPEAKER_00]: And it didn't do well.

32:32.503 --> 32:38.128
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's see what matches we had though, because we didn't have four matches, some of which were pretty good.

32:38.548 --> 32:42.331
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one was Oscar and Aaron Wolf and surprisingly.

32:43.540 --> 32:45.862
[SPEAKER_00]: Oscar won this one by referees stop it.

32:46.222 --> 32:48.324
[SPEAKER_00]: Oscar escaped the submission with his long legs.

32:48.424 --> 32:58.011
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's one of the things about Oscar that he plays up very well is that he's it's hard to submit it because he could reach almost any point in the ropes from the middle of the ring with those long legs is.

32:59.332 --> 33:05.836
[SPEAKER_00]: He rake wolf size when he went up for the angle slam, caught the sleeper referee stopped a bit of an upset.

33:06.937 --> 33:07.237
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

33:08.968 --> 33:30.633
[SPEAKER_01]: it wasn't really surprising to me that Aaron is going to lose some of these matches and Austin needed to win some of these matches and there are a lot of people that kind of think that Aaron will find a tag team partner and maybe run this back against, uh, you know, ice and Oscar sometime in the fall, not the worst idea in the world, but right now it's just

33:38.263 --> 33:47.632
[SPEAKER_01]: very strong, very overpowering, Hickleo kind of monster that got him in a position that you wasn't used to and got choked out.

33:47.893 --> 33:55.019
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's hard to watch like these guys that you want build as a baby face like you taught baby face to lose like that.

33:55.920 --> 33:56.141
[SPEAKER_01]: But

33:57.042 --> 34:08.964
[SPEAKER_01]: There is that window where you book them to lose and learn and overcome, it's just a matter of you can't have them lose and lose and lose and lose and lose and lose and lose and lose.

34:08.984 --> 34:13.825
[SPEAKER_01]: And then overcome, you have them lose once they learn and then it doesn't happen again.

34:14.546 --> 34:21.587
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what's interesting too about losing to Oscar in this is that that is unlikely to be a tiebreaker that hurts him.

34:23.090 --> 34:27.773
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, there's a strategic aspect to those upset losses.

34:28.994 --> 34:30.615
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, Cotta would take one every once in a while.

34:30.635 --> 34:38.420
[SPEAKER_00]: And it would keep him close to the pack at the same time when the tiebreakers hit his wins would be over top guys.

34:39.488 --> 34:41.629
[SPEAKER_00]: the other guys that were that had a lot of points.

34:41.649 --> 34:50.812
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is one where if Wolf goes on a run at the end, if he's in a gaggle of top stars, then his loss was to Oscar.

34:51.152 --> 34:53.153
[SPEAKER_00]: And his wings were over the top stars and it helps him.

34:53.193 --> 34:55.913
[SPEAKER_00]: So there are a lot of reasons to do it.

34:55.933 --> 35:02.336
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of a lot of little hint here that are saying that he's being booked for a top spot in the block.

35:06.897 --> 35:11.458
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever it is, that last night between Heavens and Samford Junior is going to matter.

35:12.218 --> 35:12.798
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

35:12.838 --> 35:27.322
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and there are plenty of reasons to think that Samford Junior can go into that spot as well, you know, former IWGP champion, you know, bend to the dance before total threat to be the rest of the kingdom made of them.

35:27.842 --> 35:30.542
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, completely believable.

35:30.802 --> 35:32.903
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that's the thing that they would do.

35:33.603 --> 35:41.327
[SPEAKER_01]: But you can always dangle that carrot up to the last minute and make you think and, you know, I just, I'm looking at this block.

35:41.567 --> 35:57.236
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think this outcome will change in any way, shape or form, but I think at one point was showed it in there, the winner of the block was probably going to have 12 points, but with everything being kind of funky, I wouldn't be surprised that the winner gets in with 10.

36:02.313 --> 36:08.555
[SPEAKER_00]: And how's the torture ended up making an RA look really, really good because he overcame every bit of their interference.

36:09.116 --> 36:17.018
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and an RA ended up winning this one, it was not good, but better than a lot of Nareda matches, mostly because of an RA.

36:18.019 --> 36:22.340
[SPEAKER_01]: But I wrote that if what I wrote, it was fine, an RA worked hard and Nareda did enough.

36:23.821 --> 36:26.402
[SPEAKER_00]: And RA, four and one, he's got eight points.

36:27.425 --> 36:36.417
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the call this here, you know, like you can have an outlook start and then you're just going to get squeezed out at the very end and you've got the new and matched the very end.

36:37.216 --> 36:39.717
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he's been wrestling really well too.

36:39.777 --> 36:40.778
[SPEAKER_00]: That's worth mentioning.

36:40.898 --> 36:46.921
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been praising rightly so, Oleg Bolton, and some of the others for having really good matches.

36:46.961 --> 36:52.865
[SPEAKER_00]: But Hinari, night in that and at that foreign one, he got something more than usual out of Nareda.

36:53.245 --> 36:54.786
[SPEAKER_00]: And his other matches were terrific too.

36:54.846 --> 36:57.107
[SPEAKER_00]: He is really showing up in this one.

36:57.147 --> 37:04.371
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not going to win the tournament, but I think he's gaining points with both the fans and the office because he's putting in the work.

37:05.155 --> 37:07.257
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you get the sense with him that he has got this?

37:08.118 --> 37:11.161
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very thankful that I still get to wrestle kind of mentality.

37:11.541 --> 37:14.083
[SPEAKER_00]: Where he seems to be into what he's doing.

37:14.624 --> 37:15.044
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

37:15.805 --> 37:16.245
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

37:16.505 --> 37:28.056
[SPEAKER_01]: It just being unable to wrestle after that dog pound cage match from a few years ago, coming back at wrestling kingdom this year, just killing it for the last six months.

37:28.136 --> 37:28.496
[SPEAKER_01]: And he just

37:29.237 --> 37:37.226
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like if you're feeling himself, if you're feeling all of it, you have to need to be, you never give me the top guy, but if you really like it, what would you do with it?

37:37.246 --> 37:42.931
[SPEAKER_00]: After that, when we had Drillamoloney and Calum Newman, these two have a long history going back to England.

37:42.992 --> 37:47.797
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Newman had never beaten Maloney in this thingals match coming into that, something they played up big.

37:48.619 --> 37:59.249
[SPEAKER_00]: They fought in the crowd a lot and there was a current raise the overhead throw by Drillamoloni to Calamon and into the chairs worth going back to check out pretty incredible.

37:59.289 --> 38:00.150
[SPEAKER_00]: He throws a scan.

38:00.170 --> 38:05.075
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, Newman can basically vault over Maloney because he has that leg strength.

38:14.867 --> 38:17.528
[SPEAKER_00]: Zane ended up saving Newman from the drill killer later.

38:17.849 --> 38:20.450
[SPEAKER_00]: He also pulled out the referee, so there's a lot of interference there.

38:20.950 --> 38:25.793
[SPEAKER_00]: And the guy helped also, he had, okay, worth mentioning this too.

38:26.493 --> 38:32.756
[SPEAKER_00]: In a preview tag, there was a spot in a match where Newman is in the ring with the guy.

38:33.377 --> 38:33.477
[SPEAKER_00]: And

38:34.342 --> 38:35.563
[SPEAKER_00]: And the guy's running the ropes.

38:36.103 --> 38:41.448
[SPEAKER_00]: He comes up with a luchely-bray style where he uses Newman as a jungle gym basically.

38:41.488 --> 38:44.350
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's spinning around over his shoulder, it over his head.

38:44.890 --> 38:54.038
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they have come up with a way for dyke the guy to, with his core strength, pop up off of Newman's shoulder straight up.

38:54.925 --> 38:59.231
[SPEAKER_00]: And hit a DDT coming down that looks fantastic.

38:59.371 --> 39:00.692
[SPEAKER_00]: And they did it in the preview tag.

39:01.053 --> 39:02.234
[SPEAKER_00]: And they said, oh, we're doing that.

39:02.595 --> 39:04.077
[SPEAKER_00]: We're doing that for the main match.

39:04.137 --> 39:08.042
[SPEAKER_00]: So they did it here, too, as he helped fight off Zane J.

39:09.532 --> 39:36.158
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... so you had the guy in there he had jay in there uh... we thought it was going to go numans way when he hit the low blow and a princess curse but only got to and then they started countering one another and he ended up in a drill a killer they are still protecting that move thankfully because of the so good and bologna is strong enough to do it certainly to to numan and he still has not been drill them alone he drill them alone he gets the victory

39:38.312 --> 39:39.593
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a really good match.

39:39.953 --> 39:42.094
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a really, really, really good match.

39:42.854 --> 39:49.277
[SPEAKER_01]: And we've known for a while that newman is the good.

39:50.477 --> 39:59.461
[SPEAKER_01]: And we've also known that Drill Maloney is excellent and the niche pan audiences absolutely adore him.

40:00.281 --> 40:01.842
[SPEAKER_01]: And as a result, you got

40:03.012 --> 40:08.236
[SPEAKER_01]: all the formula for what you need for everything to work in a match like this.

40:08.816 --> 40:17.242
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you had the crowd behind you all Meloni, Newman playing the heel, them fighting all around the ring.

40:17.843 --> 40:25.028
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like doing all the stuff and they're almost an argument that this should have been the main event tonight.

40:27.120 --> 40:33.164
[SPEAKER_01]: The star power of the other one I get it, but I just think this match was better in the crowd liked it more.

40:34.665 --> 40:35.265
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree with you.

40:35.906 --> 40:39.628
[SPEAKER_00]: The next one was Gabe Kid versus Zach Saber Jr. That's a match we're talking about.

40:39.648 --> 40:40.969
[SPEAKER_00]: 125 minutes, 47 seconds.

40:40.989 --> 40:44.792
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that Zach likes to stretch out on these main events and wrestle for a while.

40:46.473 --> 40:49.795
[SPEAKER_00]: My notes say, Jeremy, you can see Gabe Kid's respect

40:56.034 --> 41:00.316
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just something that you do for a guy that you have a lot of respect for.

41:00.376 --> 41:05.217
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I did appreciate that there was a period in this match.

41:05.238 --> 41:06.818
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a, it's, it's a lot of the Matt work.

41:06.878 --> 41:09.999
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot of the submission stuff.

41:10.099 --> 41:15.361
[SPEAKER_00]: Kid trying to make it a brawl and Zach trying to tie him up at one point.

41:15.501 --> 41:20.963
[SPEAKER_00]: When Zach was settling, kid got up on the ropes and cursed Hiroshi Tana Hashie.

41:21.003 --> 41:24.025
[SPEAKER_00]: Just so we all remember who the real star of New Japan is.

41:25.505 --> 41:42.898
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he did the frog splash so he's got I'm going to do the the high fly flow because of course we want everybody to be thinking about tana has she enough the guys on the show and so he did that Zach put him in a submission though so a little bit of heel hubris I guess worked out there there's a whole series of pile drivers at the end and get it up winning it.

41:43.418 --> 41:43.979
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't bad.

41:45.079 --> 41:45.920
[SPEAKER_00]: I like game kid.

41:47.021 --> 41:51.084
[SPEAKER_00]: I like how hard he tries even though sometimes he overshoots and misses the mark.

41:51.844 --> 41:52.785
[SPEAKER_00]: I respect his effort.

41:54.365 --> 41:55.706
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be glad when this angle's over.

41:56.787 --> 41:57.707
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all I'm saying there.

41:58.048 --> 42:05.253
[SPEAKER_00]: And this match tells me more and more that the rest of kingdom match is Gabe Kidd and Tana Hashie.

42:05.473 --> 42:10.497
[SPEAKER_00]: Because this whole thing is just about how Tana Hashie is the real star of the company.

42:10.817 --> 42:13.679
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just headed right for that direction.

42:14.139 --> 42:19.883
[SPEAKER_00]: That Tana Hashie's gonna come back and try to defend the honor of New Japan and this wrong-headed idea.

42:19.903 --> 42:20.544
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know what?

42:21.814 --> 42:32.923
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the thing, I think Tana Hashie believes that he's the only thing that can draw a crowd now and because Tana Hashie's presidency and the incompetence in it, he might be right.

42:34.805 --> 42:39.829
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there are people that really enjoy Gabe Kid.

42:40.109 --> 42:48.536
[SPEAKER_01]: And I am going to tacitly admit that his presence in this G1 does add to the G1

42:51.165 --> 42:54.427
[SPEAKER_01]: in general as a net positive, okay?

42:56.509 --> 42:58.210
[SPEAKER_01]: I am so tired of that.

42:58.450 --> 43:15.422
[SPEAKER_01]: I am a madman, you see, I'm just, it's, it's the one part of his game that he is so confident in that I am so exasperated by because it

43:16.980 --> 43:32.763
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything, if that at 12 when it needs to be out of like a six or seven and it's so totally inconsistent with everything else that's going on in the ring that it doesn't make it better it just makes it stick out and not stick out in a good way.

43:33.963 --> 43:43.885
[SPEAKER_01]: So if there are people that are listening to this and think that I hate Gabe kid, I don't hate Gabe kid, I believe that Gabe kid.

43:46.073 --> 43:51.537
[SPEAKER_01]: is doing the best job that he can and he is confident that this is what he needs to do.

43:53.299 --> 44:01.665
[SPEAKER_01]: But he is going so hard and so not just about the way that he is doing it that it's actively taking away from my enjoyment of the ankle.

44:03.186 --> 44:04.788
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I think that's very well said.

44:05.602 --> 44:10.383
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, took a break for a couple of days and then came back in Osaka.

44:10.423 --> 44:18.266
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the, well, Yoko Hama is technically the second largest city of Japan, and it's all part of that huge massive metropolitan area out there.

44:18.306 --> 44:24.587
[SPEAKER_00]: But outside of that Tokyo Bay zone right there, Osaka is the big boy.

44:24.627 --> 44:30.429
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's, it's really, it's New Japan's second biggest town, even though Yoko Hama's second largest city.

44:30.749 --> 44:32.610
[SPEAKER_00]: Osaka is very important.

44:32.650 --> 44:33.170
[SPEAKER_00]: Last year,

44:34.582 --> 44:39.585
[SPEAKER_00]: They went to this exact same arena for the exact same night in the G1, night eight.

44:40.245 --> 44:41.806
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have apples and apples.

44:42.826 --> 44:52.971
[SPEAKER_00]: After that embarrassing attendance in Oda, they went from 1,300 last year, which was considered a disappointment, but it wasn't in the usual arena.

44:54.372 --> 44:55.633
[SPEAKER_00]: Yamato Arena is different.

44:55.653 --> 44:59.515
[SPEAKER_00]: They're usually at the Ediana Arena, but that's being fixed up as we talked about.

45:00.097 --> 45:02.559
[SPEAKER_00]: this year, 2025.

45:02.639 --> 45:07.884
[SPEAKER_00]: So jumped up 700 people for last year over this year.

45:07.924 --> 45:10.066
[SPEAKER_00]: So they did a better job or promoting this Jeremy.

45:10.106 --> 45:19.115
[SPEAKER_00]: Either they got the word out, just to wear this arena is, or, you know, they just did a better job overall, making people want to see the show, but up 700.

45:20.725 --> 45:22.045
[SPEAKER_00]: is a very healthy increase.

45:22.065 --> 45:36.430
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the other side of what we saw this week that this way over performed the G1 last year in the same building for the same night of the G1, not the finals, not the playoffs, you know, just a night eight versus night eight.

45:36.990 --> 45:38.491
[SPEAKER_00]: So I thought that was interesting.

45:38.831 --> 45:42.412
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, last year, we had a strong main event.

45:42.472 --> 45:44.413
[SPEAKER_00]: It was Zach Worcester with

45:45.253 --> 45:47.577
[SPEAKER_00]: single versus umano underneath.

45:47.898 --> 45:50.362
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the one that only drew 1300 last year.

45:50.822 --> 45:51.784
[SPEAKER_00]: This year, 2000.

45:52.024 --> 45:56.171
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, the first block match,

45:57.132 --> 46:01.216
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it was Jake Lee again, put him on early, put in senato on early.

46:01.236 --> 46:02.697
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to get those out of the way.

46:02.717 --> 46:03.638
[SPEAKER_00]: Be a great O'Con.

46:03.678 --> 46:16.250
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems like there is some order of senata Lee O'Con early on before we get to the meat of block A, but it was O'Leigh Bolton and Jake Lee played it up in the build up like he had no chance to win.

46:16.711 --> 46:17.972
[SPEAKER_00]: That was, he would say that.

46:17.992 --> 46:18.633
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to lose.

46:18.673 --> 46:19.253
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to lose.

46:19.293 --> 46:19.774
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he was right.

46:21.938 --> 46:27.464
[SPEAKER_00]: Bolton ended up dodging the big kick in the corner, and he hit two power bombs, then the Kamikaze.

46:28.205 --> 46:33.891
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, look, I like Jake more than most, and I like this match more than most people did.

46:34.031 --> 46:36.353
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to go out there and say it was some classic or something.

46:36.674 --> 46:38.716
[SPEAKER_00]: I liked it overall, and Bolton's having a good tournament.

46:38.736 --> 46:39.797
[SPEAKER_00]: So this was fine.

46:39.897 --> 46:42.400
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to go past fine, but I thought it was fine.

46:42.700 --> 46:46.101
[SPEAKER_01]: I called it a thumb up match because both of them made again to look like a beast.

46:46.321 --> 46:47.321
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is job.

46:47.401 --> 46:47.601
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

46:48.041 --> 46:51.382
[SPEAKER_01]: Oleg pinned Jake Lee after two power bombs going to calm a card.

46:51.722 --> 46:54.863
[SPEAKER_01]: He got Jake Lee up for two power balls.

46:55.343 --> 46:58.904
[SPEAKER_01]: And let me let me tell you both everybody watching.

46:59.064 --> 46:59.644
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody watching.

47:00.345 --> 47:08.187
[SPEAKER_01]: He lifted Jake Lee up like dead lifted the dude up from the ground up.

47:08.347 --> 47:09.347
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was just like,

47:10.365 --> 47:29.230
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, like you you beat and for that alone, it's up like every time I watch every time I watch a bolt and a leg and then it's up to like how how or how are you not seeing that this guy is getting booked to like the moon right now.

47:30.575 --> 47:34.319
[SPEAKER_00]: So the next match is real way we wouldn't Sonata.

47:34.599 --> 47:37.422
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, they decided to do something a little bit different with this one.

47:37.442 --> 47:38.603
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was actually pretty smart.

47:38.703 --> 47:41.786
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we what has been working body parts throughout this tournament.

47:42.707 --> 47:43.547
[SPEAKER_00]: And it makes sense.

47:43.567 --> 47:44.468
[SPEAKER_00]: He's in TMDK.

47:44.488 --> 47:47.992
[SPEAKER_00]: He's training with Zack Saber Jr. That's intuitive.

47:49.433 --> 47:52.396
[SPEAKER_00]: He worked the neck of Sonata, also fairly intuitive, right?

47:53.637 --> 48:01.540
[SPEAKER_00]: He worked headlocks, Crovots, really cranking on the neck, and he made Sonata tap out with the side headlock.

48:01.920 --> 48:05.982
[SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting because they made it look more plausible than it sounds verbally.

48:06.362 --> 48:14.245
[SPEAKER_00]: Just me describing it, they worked it so that it seemed like it might actually be so painful that Sonata needed to tap out of it.

48:15.445 --> 48:16.786
[SPEAKER_00]: Sonata didn't have to do a lot.

48:17.566 --> 48:19.227
[SPEAKER_00]: He sold the next stuff pretty well.

48:20.471 --> 48:25.713
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, not a classic, but overall, cautious thumbs up for me.

48:26.713 --> 48:30.354
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, the story was that Sonata was able to counter all the power moves.

48:30.535 --> 48:35.616
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he was the wildly veteran that seemed to have an out for everything until he did knowledge.

48:36.657 --> 48:45.760
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't, nine times out of ten, I do not love

48:46.745 --> 48:52.750
[SPEAKER_01]: when a submission hold takes two to three minutes for somebody to tap.

48:53.550 --> 48:54.091
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, right?

48:54.611 --> 48:59.675
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if this submission is so devastating, you tap immediately.

49:00.635 --> 49:21.672
[SPEAKER_01]: But he had him in a headlock and he just was squeaking his head and he was squeaking his head for like a minute and it's not almost gone out of it and then he didn't and then all we were squeaved a little bit more and it's not a try to get out of it again and he couldn't and we would squeeze a little bit more to the point where like you've dead in the middle of the ring.

49:22.663 --> 49:39.091
[SPEAKER_01]: He tried four, five times and he's not getting out of it and he tapped this is the way you do it if you're going to do the elongated tap like whether he is or he isn't the most a time I don't love this, but this one really worked.

49:40.388 --> 49:46.750
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so that put, by the way, OE16 and some out on for both of them up to six.

49:47.291 --> 49:50.992
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, can Oscar Takeshita and Great O'Con were next.

49:51.272 --> 49:54.353
[SPEAKER_00]: O'Con ended up attacking him before the match before we even saw him.

49:54.473 --> 49:59.195
[SPEAKER_00]: He drugged Takeshita out instead of Takeshita getting an introduction.

49:59.275 --> 50:04.417
[SPEAKER_00]: So the idea was that O'Con had already assaulted him before his music even hit.

50:05.597 --> 50:07.418
[SPEAKER_00]: Drugged Takeshita out, they fought in the crowd.

50:09.420 --> 50:12.262
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got a bone to pick with this match right here.

50:14.023 --> 50:29.213
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeremy, the almost running into the ref, who then puts his head down and cowards in the corner, so that the heel can hit a low blow is so freaking overdone in New Japan.

50:29.293 --> 50:36.758
[SPEAKER_00]: We see it so often that stuff like that and the house of torture stuff with the ringing the bell in the submission hole,

50:38.067 --> 50:46.913
[SPEAKER_00]: this would be fine if they didn't broadcast every show so that only the live crowd would see it one out of the eight times on the tour they do it.

50:47.213 --> 51:06.025
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is all the stuff is on NJPW world and everybody is seeing them do this exact same thing eight times and now it's happening multiple times a night where someone has showed at the referee the referee turns around and covers their head and that allows the heel to low blow right or at least attempt to low blow

51:07.834 --> 51:20.932
[SPEAKER_00]: It's happening three times a night now and it's exposing how New Japan is devoid of real creativity at this point and it's become a real issue this show this match.

51:22.933 --> 51:27.775
[SPEAKER_00]: at more of the dumb chair spots that I mentioned earlier to Keshtagot out of it, so again, no creativity there.

51:28.095 --> 51:30.716
[SPEAKER_00]: The same stuff they had done two nights before.

51:31.396 --> 51:34.157
[SPEAKER_00]: And to Keshtagot out of the chair thing, they'll hit Blue Thunder Bomb.

51:34.638 --> 51:40.560
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, the referee took a tiny little bump and was out cold for way too long, another issue.

51:41.400 --> 51:43.523
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, just bad stuff over and over again.

51:43.543 --> 51:46.207
[SPEAKER_00]: The, uh, it don't kind of hit a tube stone on the chair for two.

51:46.267 --> 51:54.978
[SPEAKER_00]: Try the low, low, uh, again, the same spot in the same match to catch the caught it, hit the knee and thankfully ended this with raging fire, 14 36.

51:55.278 --> 51:57.802
[SPEAKER_00]: It was twice as long as it should have been and it wasn't good.

51:58.939 --> 52:15.910
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the only interesting thought was when Con went for that low blown to catch the caught it by the hand and then like turned around and it's like, I've, now I've got you, you have an effort, you know, and he basically like, oh, power drive oblivion to him in the face and then blue thunder bomb.

52:15.970 --> 52:21.514
[SPEAKER_01]: And it just, I'm watching the match and my no car, oh, I get it now,

52:26.525 --> 52:41.336
[SPEAKER_01]: he tore all y'all like you have that like kind of break match where to get you that didn't really have to work all that hard he had to sell and he had to have like his big comeback spot at the very end but this is basically him coming out and getting his

52:42.303 --> 52:57.988
[SPEAKER_01]: but handed to him over and over and over and over again because that was the premise that we saw when he came out, getting drug out by Great O'Con and he was like, oh, this is not gonna be that kind of match and he came from behind, he won, people left happy, but this is the new y'all know.

52:59.889 --> 53:02.510
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's it's been doing it for me on that.

53:02.970 --> 53:08.652
[SPEAKER_00]: I would suggest to Newsyman to challenge the guys a little bit here.

53:08.932 --> 53:10.733
[SPEAKER_00]: And like we're doing all these shows per year.

53:13.331 --> 53:16.894
[SPEAKER_00]: I would just tell them, look, you can have a house torture interfere.

53:18.114 --> 53:20.136
[SPEAKER_00]: You can have heels cheat to win.

53:20.836 --> 53:25.099
[SPEAKER_00]: But no more ringing in the bell spot and no more of the shoving.

53:25.119 --> 53:27.420
[SPEAKER_00]: They got make them be creative about it.

53:27.460 --> 53:30.142
[SPEAKER_00]: Just say, you can still do interference.

53:30.182 --> 53:32.724
[SPEAKER_00]: You can still do cheating for heels.

53:33.124 --> 53:34.005
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, it, their heels.

53:34.920 --> 53:42.924
[SPEAKER_00]: But these two spots are these three spots, like the low blow thing, the referee being down for 20 minutes, the rain, the bell, the yet out of a submission.

53:42.964 --> 53:46.465
[SPEAKER_00]: Just we're gonna put a 60 day moratorium on that.

53:47.506 --> 53:48.286
[SPEAKER_00]: Come up with something else.

53:49.727 --> 53:50.807
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got a long bus ride.

53:51.688 --> 53:54.109
[SPEAKER_00]: Sit around, huddle up, talk, think of something else.

53:54.769 --> 53:56.790
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody sees this thing way too often.

53:57.310 --> 54:00.051
[SPEAKER_01]: Go talk to Yoda, you should have creative finishes.

54:00.091 --> 54:03.533
[SPEAKER_00]: When we get to tens on, this is gonna come up again, by the way.

54:04.162 --> 54:05.783
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, so I'm going to tie all this together.

54:05.803 --> 54:06.963
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to tie all this together.

54:07.003 --> 54:08.043
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to tie all this together.

54:08.063 --> 54:10.444
[SPEAKER_01]: But I would reach out to them together at the end of the show, Steven.

54:10.464 --> 54:11.684
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, and so I'd ties it all together.

54:11.704 --> 54:12.664
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why you got to go find them.

54:13.145 --> 54:13.505
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

54:14.605 --> 54:17.066
[SPEAKER_00]: G1 climax picks up after that.

54:17.126 --> 54:18.346
[SPEAKER_00]: So we had some rough moments there.

54:18.406 --> 54:19.246
[SPEAKER_00]: Some okay moments.

54:19.326 --> 54:21.267
[SPEAKER_00]: But now we've got Shingo Takagi and here are okay.

54:21.287 --> 54:21.647
[SPEAKER_00]: Go to.

54:23.093 --> 54:40.389
[SPEAKER_00]: Once again, I mentioned earlier that Chingo and Goto were both excellent at this type of G1 match, right, that we're going all out, throwing the everything at each other type of of match that we love the G1 for this is the kind of matches we enjoy in this thing it was stiff.

54:41.108 --> 54:43.189
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was safe, it was really, really good.

54:43.589 --> 54:44.849
[SPEAKER_00]: Shingo hit the burning dragon.

54:44.909 --> 54:49.430
[SPEAKER_00]: These are two technicians that could put a match on like this whenever you need it.

54:49.950 --> 54:50.871
[SPEAKER_00]: And this shown needed it.

54:51.411 --> 54:53.672
[SPEAKER_00]: And they came through 16 minutes, 40 seconds.

54:53.712 --> 54:55.932
[SPEAKER_00]: Shingo wins, gets himself up to four points.

54:55.952 --> 54:57.393
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Shingo had a very slow start.

54:57.773 --> 54:58.893
[SPEAKER_00]: Goto stuck on four.

54:59.353 --> 55:04.235
[SPEAKER_00]: But in this block, no one's really getting away from anybody else to cash to is out and the lead with eight.

55:04.775 --> 55:07.775
[SPEAKER_00]: So even only having four, Goto isn't out of it.

55:07.856 --> 55:09.136
[SPEAKER_00]: They're keeping everybody bunched up.

55:09.676 --> 55:13.421
[SPEAKER_00]: But a terrific match Bernie Dragon win for Shingo Takagi.

55:14.002 --> 55:22.252
[SPEAKER_01]: This is one of the matches that really called back to the long term booking of a new Japan or what they like to call long term booking, which is last year.

55:23.398 --> 55:33.868
[SPEAKER_01]: go to the champion and one of the first title defenses was against Shingo Takagi and there was the decoration by go-toes like you have nothing to fight for.

55:34.148 --> 55:43.457
[SPEAKER_01]: You are not a family man, like all of the things that I have, you do not have the fighting spirit of the reason why I do what I do and that is why you're going to lose.

55:43.797 --> 55:46.600
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we didn't know it was plotting to say Nat's a boy away from us.

55:47.740 --> 55:52.622
[SPEAKER_01]: So now a year later, she goes a family man.

55:53.242 --> 55:56.403
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got something to fight for and wouldn't you know it?

55:57.443 --> 56:08.287
[SPEAKER_01]: He overpowers the guy who talked to all that trash about how he had nothing to fight for with the last of the dragon and his wife is gonna be so happy when he comes home.

56:08.627 --> 56:10.948
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, you fought for me.

56:10.968 --> 56:13.088
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, it's very sweet.

56:13.208 --> 56:14.109
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, after that.

56:14.129 --> 56:14.649
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for that.

56:15.752 --> 56:31.313
[SPEAKER_00]: We had theota sugy and you to ice this one twenty six minutes they actually move a little bit toward a draw I don't know if we're going to get a draw on this term might not need it but I there might be one I think yeah yeah I think we're looking to the same match we'll see

56:32.741 --> 56:36.163
[SPEAKER_00]: I wrote in my notes, we get to see Suji in a fight.

56:36.944 --> 56:41.027
[SPEAKER_00]: And we really haven't seen a lot of that if you think about his time in New Japan.

56:41.067 --> 56:45.489
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he had a feud with Uey Moora, but Uey Moora isn't a fighter, he's a wrestler.

56:45.610 --> 56:46.050
[SPEAKER_00]: And a good one.

56:47.322 --> 56:53.045
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't get to see suits you just in a fight area every so often, but you know, it's going to bring out a fight in him and we've seen him do Lucha.

56:53.065 --> 56:55.587
[SPEAKER_00]: When you've seen him do strong style, now he can see him fight.

56:56.207 --> 57:13.558
[SPEAKER_00]: His chops are becoming a new trademark and a tattoo for his opponents, because over and over again, he, those chops that Yoda, Suji throws are leaving marks and blood blisters on these guys, chess and he lit up, you know, ice as much as he lit up everybody else.

57:14.683 --> 57:18.384
[SPEAKER_00]: Lots of chance for you to ice here, but they weren't bullying Suji.

57:18.404 --> 57:19.584
[SPEAKER_00]: They just enjoy the act.

57:19.884 --> 57:24.685
[SPEAKER_00]: And once the big moves came, ice kicked out of a gene blaster at one.

57:25.325 --> 57:34.827
[SPEAKER_00]: So the gene blaster has been devalued big time in the last 60 days since Kalimnum and he debuted the fire blaster against Numan.

57:35.388 --> 57:39.128
[SPEAKER_00]: But now they're just taking the gene blaster down, notch after notch after notch.

57:39.148 --> 57:41.849
[SPEAKER_01]: So now he's kicked out of the window near finisher.

57:42.534 --> 57:48.656
[SPEAKER_00]: He tried the fireblaster, but he ran into a very hard knee from utilized, looked rough.

57:49.116 --> 57:52.637
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, Suji did hit the fireblaster and both men were down.

57:52.657 --> 57:57.698
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is one we're just throwing big moves at each other and both of them were hitting their big moves.

57:57.818 --> 57:59.959
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they were just out on the map.

58:00.519 --> 58:03.300
[SPEAKER_00]: Ref began to count, but as Suji got up at nine,

58:04.000 --> 58:08.262
[SPEAKER_00]: All the vices losses in this tournament have come by referee stoppage or knockout.

58:08.342 --> 58:11.404
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, his matches look different and his finishes are different.

58:12.104 --> 58:23.630
[SPEAKER_00]: And so she won the fight and nothing wrong Jeremy with the IWGP champion looking like a guy who can win a fist fight and it wasn't a fist fight they weren't punching you know what I'm talking about.

58:23.670 --> 58:25.551
[SPEAKER_01]: It was looking like a lot of that standing finish.

58:25.831 --> 58:35.538
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and he looks like a guy who might be able to kick some ass in a bar bra, if one happens to break out, it's done hurt to have your champion look like you do that.

58:36.698 --> 58:49.787
[SPEAKER_01]: I think him having the optics of having just a devastating chop, you know, kind of like, you know, the Ric flare, you know, chop, but it's his version of the very strong stylish.

58:50.127 --> 58:50.628
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's.

58:51.610 --> 58:52.231
[SPEAKER_01]: think it's good.

58:52.631 --> 59:02.981
[SPEAKER_01]: I think him having that kind of thing that really just made him stand out and you know, like, I know he had his chop and now he, he kind of had his own as well.

59:03.061 --> 59:05.344
[SPEAKER_01]: So I like this.

59:05.844 --> 59:08.367
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope that they don't screw it up.

59:09.778 --> 59:12.779
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so that was the G1 action for this week, Jeremy.

59:12.839 --> 59:15.539
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go ahead and take a look at the standings.

59:15.839 --> 59:18.640
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we will look at the week ahead after that.

59:18.740 --> 59:29.502
[SPEAKER_00]: So as we sit today on the 30th of July, block A. Canosuke Takeshta, last year's winner, is all loan on top, he's on eight.

59:30.262 --> 59:35.423
[SPEAKER_00]: After that, there is a glut of people that are on six and four all within striking distance.

59:35.483 --> 59:36.203
[SPEAKER_00]: No one is out of it.

59:36.984 --> 59:38.484
[SPEAKER_00]: On six, both in Oleg,

59:39.680 --> 59:58.925
[SPEAKER_00]: or all day, Bolton, depending on how you want to say it, Yoda, Suji, and Rio, hey, OE, what a big Roy, right in there, and then on four, just kind of hanging around, one little winning streak away from being right back in, at Erroquigoda, Shingo Takagi, Jake Lee, Sanada, Gredo Khan, Utah, ICE.

01:00:00.025 --> 01:00:04.466
[SPEAKER_01]: We are getting close to elimination data, okay?

01:00:04.986 --> 01:00:08.387
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the people on four can't afford much, many more losses.

01:00:09.778 --> 01:00:16.620
[SPEAKER_01]: So you've got Goto Takagi Khenata and Ouiwa for Takeshita's last guys.

01:00:17.400 --> 01:00:26.042
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got for Oleg Khenata, Goto Fuji, Goto and Great O'Con.

01:00:26.983 --> 01:00:31.784
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, see here, Rio, Rio, Rio, Rio, Rio, Fuji, Goto, Jake Lee and Takeshita.

01:00:31.804 --> 01:00:34.565
[SPEAKER_01]: So like that Jake Lee or that Takeshita and Rio,

01:00:39.778 --> 01:00:52.467
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, right, real here, we were, if he loses a couple of these, he's more of a spoiler for Takeshina than Takeshina is, you know, going forward because I can see Takeshina losing to go though.

01:00:52.947 --> 01:00:54.468
[SPEAKER_01]: I can see him losing the shingo.

01:00:54.588 --> 01:01:02.194
[SPEAKER_01]: I can see him beating Sondata, but I can see him not beating OEWa at the very end, and it's like it's stuck at set.

01:01:02.214 --> 01:01:06.577
[SPEAKER_01]: A very, very real possibility of that because he's got plans for

01:01:08.589 --> 01:01:14.317
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, all in, you know, probably be in a three way batch with so caught in and Kyle Fletcher.

01:01:14.417 --> 01:01:19.203
[SPEAKER_01]: So once he's done here, he, he, he has done his detractory obligated moment.

01:01:19.223 --> 01:01:21.827
[SPEAKER_01]: And I, I think that's what that's going to be.

01:01:21.847 --> 01:01:21.907
[SPEAKER_01]: So.

01:01:24.186 --> 01:01:46.150
[SPEAKER_01]: I am excited for who it's going to be, whether it's bowl no egg or huroky godo or shingo te kagi or rio here we were you know, I think that guy that follows Yoda of suji into the block because quite frankly, they're not a scenario in my mind that has Yoda of suji, not making the postball play.

01:01:46.930 --> 01:01:50.371
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I agree, I think you have the champion at least make the playoffs.

01:01:51.177 --> 01:01:58.480
[SPEAKER_01]: So to catch it all look strong by being the guy in the lead, uh, the object of he's a real top guy.

01:01:58.680 --> 01:02:08.943
[SPEAKER_01]: He's one of these matches before everyone else, but you know, the G1 is a cruel mistress and you end up losing matches that you don't realize and all of a sudden the strength of the schedule rear is it's ugly head.

01:02:09.404 --> 01:02:15.266
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, his, his next two being against Goto and Takagi, those were all very loosable matches without damaging to catch it all.

01:02:15.366 --> 01:02:16.346
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's, yeah.

01:02:16.666 --> 01:02:21.267
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like to call you and go to both have four and they know both need six.

01:02:21.647 --> 01:02:22.108
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

01:02:22.128 --> 01:02:23.748
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they can end with eight.

01:02:24.148 --> 01:02:34.091
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fine, but they do need to what they need to win matchups and that kind of one, two punch shows the old guard of New Japan to get driving to get through.

01:02:34.111 --> 01:02:36.032
[SPEAKER_01]: It's luck might run out.

01:02:37.752 --> 01:02:38.152
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

01:02:38.192 --> 01:02:39.813
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's take a look at walk and be.

01:02:40.833 --> 01:02:41.133
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

01:02:41.967 --> 01:02:44.330
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this one, of course, show to Umenoe is out.

01:02:44.771 --> 01:02:48.456
[SPEAKER_00]: A suffered that concussion in Chicago and was removed from the rest of his matches.

01:02:48.496 --> 01:02:56.167
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a little unbalanced, but we have Drill Maloney and Gabe Kid and Hadnare in the lead on eight.

01:02:57.420 --> 01:02:59.802
[SPEAKER_00]: After that, we have two people on six.

01:02:59.842 --> 01:03:02.023
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Oscar and Callum Newman.

01:03:02.043 --> 01:03:03.724
[SPEAKER_00]: So they're only one match behind.

01:03:04.444 --> 01:03:11.389
[SPEAKER_00]: From there, you go from six to four, and that encompasses Yuya Uemura, Rennerita, and Aaron Wolfe.

01:03:11.989 --> 01:03:17.953
[SPEAKER_00]: From there, there is a two on the board, and it's Zach Saber Jr.

01:03:18.413 --> 01:03:22.896
[SPEAKER_00]: Bringing up the rear a full six points behind the leader's chair.

01:03:27.027 --> 01:03:30.869
[SPEAKER_01]: I put a match on the card for our graphic today.

01:03:30.949 --> 01:03:32.269
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you know what match I put on there?

01:03:35.390 --> 01:03:38.231
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw it, but now I'm having trouble with all of you.

01:03:38.251 --> 01:03:40.432
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be more diverse as Aaron Wolff.

01:03:40.972 --> 01:03:41.273
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

01:03:41.593 --> 01:03:46.355
[SPEAKER_01]: And I low key think this is going to be one of the most important matches in the entire tournament.

01:03:46.515 --> 01:03:47.075
[SPEAKER_00]: It's tomorrow.

01:03:47.935 --> 01:03:55.238
[SPEAKER_01]: If you get Louis Murrow wins that match tomorrow, I'm putting all my stock Aaron Wolff winning this tournament.

01:03:55.907 --> 01:03:57.768
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, all right, interesting.

01:03:57.788 --> 01:04:10.653
[SPEAKER_01]: Because that match feels to me like the way I've cut up my block in the sport of pro wrestling, it's actually my final for the G1.

01:04:11.568 --> 01:04:26.313
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow, okay, because I have bolt no leg in the second place in a block, facing off against Aaron Wolf, because the way that bolt no leg has been made, it will go like a beast to this entire thing.

01:04:26.433 --> 01:04:34.216
[SPEAKER_01]: I just, I think he is the right guy for Aaron Wolf to face to get to the final, and you get the second place guy.

01:04:34.236 --> 01:04:39.198
[SPEAKER_01]: He beat Yoda Suji to eliminate him and then facing off against Aaron Wolf again,

01:04:40.657 --> 01:04:42.678
[SPEAKER_01]: But this time, Aaron Wolf would be him in the final.

01:04:42.899 --> 01:04:52.986
[SPEAKER_01]: That kind of what I think might happen and if Aaron Wolf loses to you, I feel like I'm all in on that scenario.

01:04:54.297 --> 01:05:01.823
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, yeah, it's going to be obviously interesting down the stretch and the schedule picks up because we have four shows.

01:05:03.424 --> 01:05:05.226
[SPEAKER_00]: What by the time we read could be next week.

01:05:05.266 --> 01:05:10.110
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have Friday Saturday Sunday and then Thursday.

01:05:10.510 --> 01:05:22.439
[SPEAKER_00]: So this first time they've had put one on Thursday for us to deal with on the day on so we'll have to make sure we cover that one, but it's welcome and this block when you look at it, you all have to remember it's not.

01:05:23.200 --> 01:05:24.741
[SPEAKER_01]: concurrent with the A-Block.

01:05:24.821 --> 01:05:28.163
[SPEAKER_01]: There are some people that have five matches left.

01:05:28.643 --> 01:05:31.565
[SPEAKER_01]: There are some people that have four matches left.

01:05:32.085 --> 01:05:36.268
[SPEAKER_01]: Drilla Muloney may have eight points, but he's only got four matches left.

01:05:37.648 --> 01:05:41.311
[SPEAKER_01]: You remember us on four points, but he's got five matches left.

01:05:41.891 --> 01:05:43.192
[SPEAKER_01]: So he could end up.

01:05:43.941 --> 01:05:52.585
[SPEAKER_01]: with 14 points while, you know, drill a could, you know, end up with 16 or 10.

01:05:52.605 --> 01:05:56.948
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like everything, everything, everything still up in the air.

01:05:56.968 --> 01:06:01.630
[SPEAKER_01]: So the guys that have five and are lower lower in points, don't count them out just yet.

01:06:02.298 --> 01:06:06.922
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe the soccer term for that is a match in hand, so speak a match in the game.

01:06:07.403 --> 01:06:08.023
[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, good to know.

01:06:08.584 --> 01:06:16.151
[SPEAKER_00]: Speaking of soccer, by the way, last week, I was barely coherent when we went back and this, I experienced the hottest,

01:06:17.515 --> 01:06:38.926
[SPEAKER_00]: game I have ever attended live and I'm just now rehydrating from it and it's been a week I swear to God, Seattle Sounders and Austin FC played in Austin last Wednesday and for the folks of you at home that for the folks of you outside the United States temperatures were about I believe I put 44 degrees it was about 108

01:06:40.780 --> 01:07:00.875
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, they kicked the kick off of the game back an hour, just so it would be a little bit darker out, but in addition to it being over 100 degrees air temperature out there, you know that the heat index well over it, there was zero point zero wind in Austin that night.

01:07:01.761 --> 01:07:03.602
[SPEAKER_00]: We just sat in our own juices.

01:07:03.862 --> 01:07:06.844
[SPEAKER_00]: It was all, it was the hardest, oh my God, it was so brutal.

01:07:07.605 --> 01:07:12.188
[SPEAKER_00]: And just no air moment, just stiflingly hot right there.

01:07:12.248 --> 01:07:13.189
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm still not over it.

01:07:13.329 --> 01:07:20.533
[SPEAKER_00]: I just wanted to talk about it on air for a moment because I think I'm still experiencing some PTSD from that, from that sitting in that stadium, watching that.

01:07:20.593 --> 01:07:25.236
[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing that saved it was we won, and I got free chicken wing coupons which I appreciate very much.

01:07:25.396 --> 01:07:25.737
[SPEAKER_01]: Yay!

01:07:26.597 --> 01:07:32.039
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I thought you're going to bring up like the UEFA, basically pushing back against the right of the world cup thing.

01:07:32.099 --> 01:07:35.680
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you, you, you, you, you, you, you wafer the UEFA.

01:07:35.700 --> 01:07:36.941
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know what it's worth.

01:07:36.961 --> 01:07:37.941
[SPEAKER_01]: It's worth it.

01:07:37.981 --> 01:07:52.786
[SPEAKER_01]: Wait, guys, I was giving you the, I was giving you the, the, the, the, the runway to talk about like, uh, if European, like, football association basically say, yeah, we're not doing this selling right to the world cup.

01:07:56.423 --> 01:07:57.843
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, that's that's the point.

01:07:57.924 --> 01:08:00.424
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw that when they unanimously decided to do that.

01:08:00.504 --> 01:08:08.466
[SPEAKER_00]: I just thought, oh, Infantino has flown too close to the sun finally that clown that runs FIFA that FIFA is a corrupt organization.

01:08:08.646 --> 01:08:10.747
[SPEAKER_00]: Just rotten to the core.

01:08:10.807 --> 01:08:14.008
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not only in Fantino, but he's the head of it right now.

01:08:14.428 --> 01:08:21.290
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's he's taking all the the Bron of it, although I know my soapbox about this for years, even knows about it.

01:08:21.630 --> 01:08:28.853
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a whole thing organization, but then the NCAA just bunch of exploitative crooks.

01:08:29.533 --> 01:08:33.114
[SPEAKER_00]: But this one is going to be a big problem for him.

01:08:33.134 --> 01:08:36.515
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot have the World Cup without the European team and it won't be.

01:08:36.755 --> 01:08:39.996
[SPEAKER_00]: This will all be resolved, but Infantino's going to lose this battle.

01:08:40.077 --> 01:08:43.938
[SPEAKER_00]: There's just no way on earth they're going to have that tournament without the European teams.

01:08:44.418 --> 01:08:46.939
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he finally bid off more than he could cheer this up.

01:08:47.980 --> 01:08:54.952
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I feel like you cannot have a world cup without the European football teams.

01:08:55.593 --> 01:09:01.563
[SPEAKER_01]: But I also feel like you cannot have a Nutripan pro wrestling without a man named Ted's on.

01:09:02.528 --> 01:09:02.828
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

01:09:03.409 --> 01:09:07.891
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, before we get to that, I really appreciate that segue, but there's one of the things we got to do.

01:09:07.911 --> 01:09:08.131
[SPEAKER_00]: Damn.

01:09:08.992 --> 01:09:09.712
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the week ahead.

01:09:09.792 --> 01:09:11.113
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the week ahead.

01:09:11.634 --> 01:09:13.995
[SPEAKER_00]: On July 31st, they are going to Kagawa.

01:09:14.015 --> 01:09:16.657
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's, as we record this, that's tomorrow morning.

01:09:16.717 --> 01:09:26.703
[SPEAKER_00]: So the 31st in Kagawa, and Henare has the show to Umano by the main event is the Hontai Darby that you mentioned earlier between

01:09:30.585 --> 01:09:42.087
[SPEAKER_00]: there's also Oscar versus Maloney in an unbound company Derby and yeah and and Calum Newman versus Gabe Kid because every card has to have an all British match up apparently.

01:09:42.187 --> 01:09:55.449
[SPEAKER_00]: So after that Saturday, August 1st moving down to Hiroshima, so red and south, head and south and going down to Hiroshima to the Sun Plaza where we will see a block action.

01:09:59.750 --> 01:10:01.231
[SPEAKER_00]: uh, Suji versus O'Weewa.

01:10:01.631 --> 01:10:02.131
[SPEAKER_00]: I should be good.

01:10:02.711 --> 01:10:05.512
[SPEAKER_00]: And the main event will be go to versus Tequesta.

01:10:07.433 --> 01:10:09.573
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Sunday, August 2nd in Fukuoka.

01:10:09.953 --> 01:10:11.694
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be in the Fukuoka Convention Center.

01:10:12.074 --> 01:10:13.275
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe you just hit August.

01:10:15.175 --> 01:10:15.675
[SPEAKER_00]: August 2nd.

01:10:15.695 --> 01:10:16.035
[SPEAKER_00]: August.

01:10:16.536 --> 01:10:17.056
[SPEAKER_00]: August 2nd.

01:10:17.576 --> 01:10:17.836
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

01:10:17.896 --> 01:10:19.016
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about where did the year go?

01:10:19.477 --> 01:10:19.977
[SPEAKER_01]: No.

01:10:20.017 --> 01:10:20.817
[SPEAKER_01]: Great summer, but

01:10:25.278 --> 01:10:26.960
[SPEAKER_00]: Aaron Wolfer's drill Maloney.

01:10:27.681 --> 01:10:34.791
[SPEAKER_00]: Call of Newman has the uminobie so he doesn't have a block match someday in Fuku Wokea and Henry Davis's Gabe Kid.

01:10:34.811 --> 01:10:37.074
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't even know how I beat his ass.

01:10:38.706 --> 01:10:46.891
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they now that at that point, they're all the way down at Fukuoka, which is about as as south west as you can get in Japan.

01:10:46.911 --> 01:10:48.612
[SPEAKER_00]: So they had back to Tokyo.

01:10:48.792 --> 01:10:50.133
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a few days to do it though.

01:10:50.153 --> 01:10:59.379
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not wrestling again until Thursday, August 6th, when they returned to Korku and Hall, the main event there, Oleg Bolton versus Yoda Suji.

01:10:59.499 --> 01:11:01.921
[SPEAKER_00]: We will also see Takeshita versus Shingo.

01:11:02.701 --> 01:11:04.422
[SPEAKER_00]: and go to versus OEWA.

01:11:04.963 --> 01:11:08.665
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's kind of a loaded up show for Corkin Hall.

01:11:08.705 --> 01:11:11.607
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that's a nice lineup for a night of action.

01:11:12.007 --> 01:11:18.291
[SPEAKER_00]: Thursday, August 6th at Corkin, of course, we will have our analysis of that same day.

01:11:19.732 --> 01:11:23.875
[SPEAKER_01]: I will say I didn't probably one of the weakest weeks of the G1 that we're going to

01:11:26.280 --> 01:11:30.687
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there wasn't really good matches, but there were also only like 14.

01:11:31.588 --> 01:11:34.332
[SPEAKER_01]: And of those half of them were really, really good.

01:11:34.572 --> 01:11:41.663
[SPEAKER_01]: So I believe that better day to our head, we have something like nine more days of the G1, just

01:11:44.141 --> 01:11:51.105
[SPEAKER_01]: just amazing how to keep going man like the train never stop moving but it's I'm really enjoying this G1.

01:11:51.125 --> 01:11:54.167
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm enjoying the five star ground pretty too.

01:11:54.407 --> 01:11:56.188
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to try to get to some other stuff.

01:11:57.208 --> 01:12:02.171
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's what I'm focusing on right now is to start up in New Japan and overall both have been pretty good.

01:12:03.072 --> 01:12:03.732
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, all right.

01:12:05.220 --> 01:12:24.286
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so we mentioned here a Yoshi tens on who's retiring here, and that's what boy, I'll tell you what, the Japanese love a retirement because that show is almost sold out, it's almost all August 15th to say goodbye to tens on and I know that a lot of people that have watched New Japan only in the last 10 years, maybe since the Ocata Omega.

01:12:25.687 --> 01:12:33.073
[SPEAKER_00]: even AJ Styles boom that popped up that brought New Japan to more North American audiences than before.

01:12:33.753 --> 01:12:50.707
[SPEAKER_00]: May not realize what Tenson meant and I am not surprised at all that his retirement is almost certainly going to sell out a symbol hall and we're going to get into a little bit about why and what he meant to New Japan pro wrestling in means still to this day.

01:12:52.394 --> 01:12:56.401
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to begin with this hero Yoshi Yamamoto is the man's real name.

01:12:56.581 --> 01:12:59.727
[SPEAKER_00]: He was born in Kyoto back on March 23rd, 1971.

01:12:59.807 --> 01:13:05.998
[SPEAKER_00]: So just under a year before New Japan was created, he was born in Kyoto.

01:13:07.301 --> 01:13:11.483
[SPEAKER_00]: we don't know a whole heck of a lot about his early life to be fair.

01:13:12.123 --> 01:13:16.105
[SPEAKER_00]: But he had joined the dojo on May 11th, 1990.

01:13:16.346 --> 01:13:22.048
[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, I looked, and I have not seen a lot about how we got to be a wrestling fan or anything else.

01:13:22.349 --> 01:13:23.889
[SPEAKER_00]: How he decided to become a wrestler.

01:13:24.290 --> 01:13:25.610
[SPEAKER_00]: Not a lot of information about that.

01:13:25.670 --> 01:13:29.092
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he'll share a little bit with us as his career winds down the stretch.

01:13:29.332 --> 01:13:34.257
[SPEAKER_00]: He's doing a lot of commentary on Japanese commentary, maybe he'll spill a little of that.

01:13:34.697 --> 01:13:45.949
[SPEAKER_00]: But for the most part, Kim stays in the character, but he joined the Dojo, like I mentioned, on May 11th, 1990, so he was only, uh, what, 19 years old when he went into the Dojo.

01:13:47.030 --> 01:13:51.514
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was trained mostly by Ricky Choshu and Tetsumi Fujianami.

01:13:52.697 --> 01:14:19.825
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... and he also said that shinya Hashimoto who's a few years ahead of him uh... really put him through the wringer as uh... how he put it so uh... that that was the uh... the three musketeers shinya Hashimoto along with chono and muto few years ahead of him he debuted in january of nineteen ninety one against osamu Matsuda and he debuted under his real name you he wrestled as uh... here we're yoshiyama and in his first year he went twenty seven and forty seven

01:14:20.747 --> 01:14:21.728
[SPEAKER_00]: about what you would expect.

01:14:21.788 --> 01:14:28.076
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, remarkably his first win was over Koji Kanemoto, who was a frequent early opponent.

01:14:28.096 --> 01:14:32.261
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Koji Kanemoto would end up being a junior heavyweight legend with New Japan.

01:14:32.962 --> 01:14:33.183
[SPEAKER_00]: But,

01:14:34.531 --> 01:14:39.433
[SPEAKER_00]: County Motors started November of 1990, so he was only a couple of months ahead of tens on.

01:14:40.113 --> 01:14:46.396
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, some of Nishimura and Michiochi Yohara were also part of this group of young lions.

01:14:47.096 --> 01:14:55.720
[SPEAKER_00]: And this group that came up around within a few months of each other mostly worked each other at first doing opening matches, you know, so

01:14:57.082 --> 01:15:04.530
[SPEAKER_00]: rest of a lot of singles matches early on, they weren't doing 10 minute draws though, so he was getting wins or losses throughout all of this.

01:15:04.950 --> 01:15:12.237
[SPEAKER_00]: But opening matches, it was a while before really any of these guys were in tags with upper card guys.

01:15:12.338 --> 01:15:17.002
[SPEAKER_00]: They made them kind of wrestle each other in the first two matches on the show for several months.

01:15:17.323 --> 01:15:19.064
[SPEAKER_00]: That was how he was trained.

01:15:19.845 --> 01:15:26.609
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, in July, he would meet another new wrestler, another guy coming out of the dojo, and defeat him in that wrestler's debut match.

01:15:27.189 --> 01:15:30.751
[SPEAKER_00]: And that wrestler would be linked to him to this very day with Satoshi Kajima.

01:15:30.872 --> 01:15:36.175
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Katoshi Kajima's first match in July, as the young lion was a loss to Tenza.

01:15:37.095 --> 01:15:38.336
[SPEAKER_00]: Orly was still yabba motor then.

01:15:39.942 --> 01:16:01.510
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1992 to show you how this was all working back that his second year in the business he had a winning record 57 and 53 again mostly wrestling other young lines so There were a few others that debuted after him and he would get the win over those guys and there were a few more of those than the word of the guys above him so a winning record for a young lion seems completely weird now, but that was how it went.

01:16:02.945 --> 01:16:07.129
[SPEAKER_00]: Andy was booked on the Tokyo dome show in January 4th of that year.

01:16:07.149 --> 01:16:08.650
[SPEAKER_00]: He took a loss to the black cat.

01:16:08.730 --> 01:16:10.011
[SPEAKER_00]: That was early on in the card though.

01:16:11.372 --> 01:16:15.035
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Shijiro Tani was also around in 1992.

01:16:15.115 --> 01:16:19.379
[SPEAKER_00]: So there was a lot of excellent young talent in New Japan pro wrestling at this time.

01:16:19.439 --> 01:16:22.782
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of motto of Tani Kojima Tenzan.

01:16:22.882 --> 01:16:26.005
[SPEAKER_00]: Nishiboro was good, you know, horror was around.

01:16:26.960 --> 01:16:38.022
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you also notice a lot of those names were juniors and sends on was not a huge guy when he came in although he would bulk up and turn into a powerful heavyweight.

01:16:38.543 --> 01:16:47.285
[SPEAKER_00]: His first real contact with the upper reaches of the New Japan cards came in 1992 at the G1 he was in preview text.

01:16:47.665 --> 01:16:53.646
[SPEAKER_00]: So he was the guy that was kind of doing the jobs in the preview text for so that the bigger stars could be protected.

01:16:54.853 --> 01:17:01.896
[SPEAKER_00]: And those were names like El Samurai, Shini Hashimoto, Justin Thunderlegger, Hero Saito, who would become an ally.

01:17:02.936 --> 01:17:09.519
[SPEAKER_00]: In late 1992, there's another name you might recognize, Jeremy popping up, Larry late 1992, Eugene Agada.

01:17:10.240 --> 01:17:10.740
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.

01:17:11.400 --> 01:17:14.501
[SPEAKER_00]: So now we've got young lions of tens on the Agada and Cajima.

01:17:14.521 --> 01:17:17.643
[SPEAKER_00]: So all the dads were the kids at the stage right there.

01:17:17.663 --> 01:17:22.445
[SPEAKER_00]: So in March of 1993, so the hour were two years in.

01:17:23.221 --> 01:17:25.342
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of the magic number for a young lion, isn't it?

01:17:25.362 --> 01:17:27.583
[SPEAKER_00]: That two-year mark we're about to see it with, yes, of it.

01:17:28.784 --> 01:17:33.806
[SPEAKER_00]: He defeated Manavu Nakanishi, Otani, and Nagata in the young lion cup.

01:17:34.046 --> 01:17:39.689
[SPEAKER_00]: So there were enough of these young lions that they did a tournament, a G1 style tournament.

01:17:39.729 --> 01:17:43.611
[SPEAKER_00]: So there was block, they had them in blocks, and there was a round robin, and then finals.

01:17:44.231 --> 01:17:46.372
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a loss though to Cajima in that tournament.

01:17:46.892 --> 01:17:58.177
[SPEAKER_00]: He then beat Nishimura, Tatsuhito, Takawa, Ishisawa, and then in the finals, he defeated Nishimura and won the tournament.

01:17:58.197 --> 01:18:05.541
[SPEAKER_00]: So think about this, young lions with names like Kanemoto, Kojima, Otani, Megata.

01:18:06.041 --> 01:18:10.383
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they chose Tenza, Tenza was the pick to win that tournament.

01:18:11.496 --> 01:18:13.557
[SPEAKER_00]: that field produced multiple multiple stars.

01:18:14.418 --> 01:18:16.239
[SPEAKER_00]: He also finished third in arm wrestling tournament.

01:18:16.759 --> 01:18:18.300
[SPEAKER_00]: And he only lost the Ricky Choshu.

01:18:18.841 --> 01:18:22.823
[SPEAKER_00]: And he lost in the semi-finals to Ricky Choshu, and then won the third place arm wrestling match.

01:18:23.263 --> 01:18:23.704
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jeremy,

01:18:25.304 --> 01:18:34.730
[SPEAKER_00]: arm wrestling Ricky show shoe that must have been a match he must have been terrified to win or he would be doing laundry the rest of his natural existence.

01:18:34.830 --> 01:18:40.734
[SPEAKER_00]: So, show shoe was a main eventer and the booker of New Japan at the time.

01:18:40.874 --> 01:18:46.157
[SPEAKER_00]: If show shoe had thrown his arm out, wrestling tensed on and that arm wrestling match.

01:18:46.177 --> 01:18:50.920
[SPEAKER_01]: We may have never, he may have never, he may have never, he would not be doing a retrospective right now with what you're trying to say.

01:18:51.020 --> 01:18:52.521
[SPEAKER_00]: He might still be doing squats.

01:18:52.802 --> 01:18:53.662
[SPEAKER_00]: Is what I'm trying to say.

01:18:53.702 --> 01:18:55.344
[SPEAKER_00]: He might still be doing squats from that.

01:18:55.784 --> 01:18:58.306
[SPEAKER_01]: Let a lot of retrospective by one Stephen Conwayo.

01:18:58.486 --> 01:19:01.909
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think he did the job very carefully in that one for that.

01:19:02.530 --> 01:19:14.040
[SPEAKER_00]: So after that, he had as many push as a young lion have a winning record in his second year rose to the very top of a crowded field of strong wrestlers, young lion cup victory.

01:19:14.600 --> 01:19:16.281
[SPEAKER_00]: So time to go on excursion.

01:19:17.082 --> 01:19:24.927
[SPEAKER_00]: He headed to the CWA, which is a company in Austria and Germany, as run by Otto Vance, former AWA World Heavyweight Champion.

01:19:25.628 --> 01:19:27.649
[SPEAKER_00]: He paid good money to have earned money to get that title.

01:19:29.746 --> 01:19:34.308
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, so he went to Germany in Austria and and wrestle for them there.

01:19:34.428 --> 01:19:37.449
[SPEAKER_00]: So similar to what Oscar and, uh, you know, I stood.

01:19:37.489 --> 01:19:46.913
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, very similar to that because, uh, when Germany in Austria weren't running, uh, big time or using him, he went over to England and wrestled some too, just like they did.

01:19:47.353 --> 01:19:49.554
[SPEAKER_00]: So, uh, Lance Storm was there then.

01:19:49.674 --> 01:19:52.295
[SPEAKER_00]: So he did have some really good people to work with fit Finley.

01:19:52.415 --> 01:19:52.835
[SPEAKER_00]: Was there?

01:19:53.295 --> 01:19:54.255
[SPEAKER_00]: Dave Taylor was there?

01:19:54.376 --> 01:19:54.856
[SPEAKER_00]: Alex Wright?

01:19:55.996 --> 01:20:01.397
[SPEAKER_00]: He actually defeated Lance Storm for the CWA Jr. Heavyweight title in July of that year.

01:20:01.437 --> 01:20:02.938
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was his first title belt.

01:20:03.398 --> 01:20:06.578
[SPEAKER_00]: He he dropped it back to Storm later that month.

01:20:06.758 --> 01:20:11.639
[SPEAKER_00]: And he participated in something called the CWA World Cup in 1993.

01:20:11.719 --> 01:20:22.302
[SPEAKER_00]: Now the CWA had a as far as I know unique process maybe maybe they might have happened in England also now that I think about it.

01:20:22.322 --> 01:20:23.922
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe not unique, but certainly unusual.

01:20:24.832 --> 01:20:41.321
[SPEAKER_00]: it is a tournament that would take place during a major festival and in or in a resort town in the same day in the same day, excuse me, in the same place every day.

01:20:41.981 --> 01:20:47.644
[SPEAKER_00]: So you basically set up a ring in a tent or in a building and you would kind of have a residency there.

01:20:48.444 --> 01:20:53.207
[SPEAKER_00]: And there would be a round robber tournament that would go on for a month.

01:20:54.277 --> 01:21:04.965
[SPEAKER_00]: And there would be a lot of wrestlers in this tournament, and it would be a round rob in tournament, and they would have the standings on the wall for the fans to come in, so they could keep track of who was in the lead and who wasn't.

01:21:06.166 --> 01:21:09.988
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jeremy, what this did was, it teaches guys a lot.

01:21:11.229 --> 01:21:15.732
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of the crowds are the hardcore wrestling fans who showed up day after day after day.

01:21:15.952 --> 01:21:22.297
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there were people who came in and out and only saw one or only saw the ones on the weekend that they were in that resort town of the weekends,

01:21:24.150 --> 01:21:41.882
[SPEAKER_00]: But there were also the real nuts who showed up every single day for this tournament you had to come up with something different for them and you had to come up with something for a different opponent every day and they did one in hand over Germany in October so October fest in Germany right as you know

01:21:43.924 --> 01:22:09.110
[SPEAKER_00]: It was an interesting thing because you had to wrestle people from all over the world so you're wrestling different styles and then you couldn't do the same act every single night because half the people in the crowd saw you the night before and it was every single day so as far as reps go nothing like it these are some of his busiest months in the entire business so far but when he you know how young lions aren't booked on every show so

01:22:10.600 --> 01:22:11.761
[SPEAKER_00]: road to shows.

01:22:11.841 --> 01:22:22.767
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they're often there, but sometimes they're not, you know, and sometimes they're they're off for a few days and they have two of them in and two of them out and then you'll say, but this was every single day.

01:22:22.827 --> 01:22:23.647
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can't beat the reps.

01:22:23.928 --> 01:22:27.930
[SPEAKER_00]: This one I'm saying, you can't beat the rain time, can't beat the reps and these, these catch tournaments.

01:22:28.972 --> 01:22:34.417
[SPEAKER_00]: did one in hand over, and then did the international catch tournament in Bremen in November.

01:22:34.517 --> 01:22:50.392
[SPEAKER_00]: So he did one in October, one in November, and he was very busy during that time and it gave him a lot of very good experience against people from all over the world, because they would book people from Japan, people from England, people from the United States for these tournaments.

01:22:51.874 --> 01:22:52.895
[SPEAKER_00]: Any thoughts before I continue?

01:22:54.230 --> 01:23:04.253
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I just the only thing that I had was it just goes again, to word a day and age where New Japan does send people out.

01:23:04.394 --> 01:23:23.480
[SPEAKER_01]: They do get reps and training outside, but if you're assigned to a major promotion in the United States, you're not getting really these opportunities, like all the time, to just go and wrestle all of these places, because you just have to be ready to be healthy for your main gig at the TV show.

01:23:24.061 --> 01:23:25.067
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're right, and

01:23:26.808 --> 01:23:33.331
[SPEAKER_00]: Almost no one is booked on every single TV show, like SmackDown RAW, or collision dynamite, almost nobody is.

01:23:33.771 --> 01:23:40.074
[SPEAKER_00]: So the most you could have are eight, nine matches a month at this and you're not getting that.

01:23:40.374 --> 01:23:41.394
[SPEAKER_00]: Hardly anybody gets that.

01:23:42.075 --> 01:23:51.179
[SPEAKER_00]: And NXT is once a week, the he was having the almost 20 matches a month during this time against different opponents.

01:23:51.219 --> 01:23:53.039
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not doing the same match in touring.

01:23:53.179 --> 01:23:54.200
[SPEAKER_01]: Iron, sharp, and the iron.

01:23:54.800 --> 01:23:59.084
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, and and also it's like the thing where Aaron wolf was stuck with house torture for six months.

01:23:59.164 --> 01:24:00.405
[SPEAKER_00]: He's wrestling so many different every night.

01:24:00.585 --> 01:24:02.126
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

01:24:02.626 --> 01:24:05.288
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so who else was there?

01:24:05.429 --> 01:24:09.992
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yes, 100 mentioned he's so he goes to England after that now.

01:24:11.193 --> 01:24:13.195
[SPEAKER_00]: He they gave him the name the Great Yato.

01:24:14.376 --> 01:24:14.636
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever.

01:24:15.076 --> 01:24:17.118
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Great Yato in England.

01:24:18.970 --> 01:24:23.132
[SPEAKER_00]: a little bit and robbing a bookside, a robbing bookside was working for them.

01:24:23.392 --> 01:24:26.913
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have great records for that wrestling company, though.

01:24:27.454 --> 01:24:29.555
[SPEAKER_00]: We just don't have the day and day out results.

01:24:29.575 --> 01:24:36.638
[SPEAKER_00]: So we don't really know how much he worked in England during this swing, but he was back to the CWA in June.

01:24:36.698 --> 01:24:44.161
[SPEAKER_00]: So he spent about six months at five months in England and then went back to Germany in Austria for the festival season and the tournament season.

01:24:45.852 --> 01:24:49.115
[SPEAKER_00]: And he wrestled the ice train.

01:24:49.155 --> 01:24:54.778
[SPEAKER_00]: If you remember him from the WCW day, John Hawke who would become Bradshaw.

01:24:54.858 --> 01:24:55.379
[SPEAKER_00]: He was there.

01:24:56.539 --> 01:24:58.661
[SPEAKER_00]: So he learned how to work with slugs who couldn't do anything.

01:24:59.762 --> 01:25:02.363
[SPEAKER_00]: He had two cold scorpio to work with.

01:25:02.423 --> 01:25:03.924
[SPEAKER_00]: That was probably pretty good.

01:25:04.365 --> 01:25:05.846
[SPEAKER_00]: And Eric Watts,

01:25:06.526 --> 01:25:13.471
[SPEAKER_00]: Bill Watts' son that they were trying to get over in WCW for a while didn't quite work out, but cowboy Bill Watts' son is over there.

01:25:13.511 --> 01:25:18.955
[SPEAKER_00]: So I imagine you learn a lot of creativity because you have to come up with something different for the same audiences today.

01:25:19.436 --> 01:25:29.803
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, he has now spent two years in Europe and in England and he's back for the Tokyo Dome on January 4th his return match

01:25:34.388 --> 01:25:46.318
[SPEAKER_00]: uh, the word is that he was named after mountains in Japan, but he's never really confirmed that uh, it's just a new name there, but here are Yoshitensan now and he defeated Manabu Nakanishi in the dome.

01:25:46.438 --> 01:25:51.522
[SPEAKER_00]: So he came back to a victory and at first he teamed with Ken's case, Sasaki.

01:25:52.323 --> 01:25:57.427
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a baby face, good looking guy, and they were right in with some of the bigger names.

01:25:57.447 --> 01:26:02.471
[SPEAKER_00]: So when he came back from excursion, he was in with guys like IWGP Championship in Hashimoto.

01:26:03.217 --> 01:26:05.459
[SPEAKER_00]: He was in with Kaiji Mudo, who was the top challenger.

01:26:06.880 --> 01:26:08.461
[SPEAKER_00]: Masihiro Chono was a main event guy.

01:26:09.963 --> 01:26:14.747
[SPEAKER_00]: He got a main event shot at the IWGP title in February.

01:26:14.767 --> 01:26:22.573
[SPEAKER_00]: He comes back at the January 4th show and had a challenge for the IWGP title in February of that year at Lost to Hashimoto.

01:26:22.593 --> 01:26:27.798
[SPEAKER_00]: But Hashimoto was in the middle of what would become a more than one year run with that championship.

01:26:32.527 --> 01:26:37.911
[SPEAKER_00]: Leaves cancekase Sasaki turns on and goes with Masahiro Chono and his group.

01:26:37.931 --> 01:26:45.896
[SPEAKER_00]: Now Chono had the very cool sunglasses, long jackets, yakuza style presentation during this time.

01:26:46.236 --> 01:26:50.059
[SPEAKER_00]: So it kind of goes a little heelish, joins a heelish stable.

01:26:52.220 --> 01:27:01.287
[SPEAKER_00]: That happened for the first time on 18s with Chono for the first time on February 11th, which was a week after his world title shot, that would be an alliance that would last for years.

01:27:01.707 --> 01:27:06.551
[SPEAKER_00]: Hero Taito, Tenzon, Chono, that was the heart of that group.

01:27:06.991 --> 01:27:14.037
[SPEAKER_00]: And they would be fighting against Hashimoto, against Hero Hase, Junji, Harada, Muto, and others.

01:27:14.097 --> 01:27:19.180
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was a pretty strong group that would team up in tags and singles and well, that team up in singles.

01:27:19.200 --> 01:27:19.801
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know what I mean?

01:27:21.662 --> 01:27:23.685
[SPEAKER_00]: And Trio's matches, that was the group.

01:27:24.126 --> 01:27:26.810
[SPEAKER_00]: He started wrecking up wins against top guys.

01:27:26.830 --> 01:27:35.802
[SPEAKER_00]: This is first year, including Mudo, just one month before KJ Mudo would win the IWGP title and end the long reign of Hashimoto as just talking about.

01:27:36.383 --> 01:27:38.925
[SPEAKER_00]: So that would set up a second title match later.

01:27:39.265 --> 01:27:50.892
[SPEAKER_00]: County Moto, he would be El Samurai, he would be Megato Otani, Kangokamura, who had been a upper midcard, two main event guy for New Japan all through the 80s.

01:27:50.993 --> 01:27:51.873
[SPEAKER_00]: Be Kangokamura.

01:27:52.794 --> 01:27:54.595
[SPEAKER_00]: Then they went to Don Taku.

01:27:55.982 --> 01:27:57.543
[SPEAKER_00]: at the Fukuoka dome.

01:27:58.264 --> 01:28:04.187
[SPEAKER_00]: So wrestling Don Taco back then was an baseball stadium, a dome baseball stadium, and so that's how hot New Japan was.

01:28:04.728 --> 01:28:08.490
[SPEAKER_00]: And they would draw about 40,000 Jeremy for Don Taco.

01:28:08.530 --> 01:28:15.495
[SPEAKER_00]: So they were running the Tokyo dome multiple times a year, and then Don Taco was a stadium show in Fukuoka.

01:28:15.535 --> 01:28:19.677
[SPEAKER_00]: They would run what the, not sendai.

01:28:19.697 --> 01:28:19.937
[SPEAKER_00]: It was,

01:28:21.787 --> 01:28:22.748
[SPEAKER_00]: And not in Chebe either.

01:28:22.788 --> 01:28:23.168
[SPEAKER_00]: Where was it?

01:28:23.188 --> 01:28:26.610
[SPEAKER_00]: It was in the Saitama, the super arena, the stadium mayor.

01:28:26.810 --> 01:28:30.913
[SPEAKER_00]: So they were running stadium shows five, six times a year.

01:28:31.313 --> 01:28:32.854
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, not just the dome either.

01:28:33.174 --> 01:28:33.895
[SPEAKER_00]: Tokyo, don't mind me.

01:28:34.495 --> 01:28:36.777
[SPEAKER_00]: He faced a small part in our case of Sakey.

01:28:36.997 --> 01:28:40.499
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jeremy, he was in the semi-main event of that show in the dome.

01:28:41.580 --> 01:28:43.581
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how high a 10s-on-art he was.

01:28:44.541 --> 01:28:49.625
[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing above it was the IWGP title match, the saw Moodle win the title from Hashimoto.

01:28:50.832 --> 01:28:52.613
[SPEAKER_00]: And that ended Hoshimoto's one-year reign.

01:28:53.173 --> 01:29:02.419
[SPEAKER_00]: It was after Koji Katow, a former, and Antonio Annoki, versus Ricky Choshu, and Janituro Tenru.

01:29:03.219 --> 01:29:12.965
[SPEAKER_00]: So three of the biggest legends of Japanese professional wrestling and Koji Katow in the match underneath Tenzon's match in his rookie year.

01:29:14.230 --> 01:29:35.208
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... and it was also after rick flair versus heroshi has said some of the other people on the card lower on the card intends on the diners uh... road warrior hawk wild pegassus christman walk to cold scorpio terry fog this show was loaded and he was in the semi-man as kinski saki went for revenge uh... for turning on him

01:29:36.550 --> 01:29:47.279
[SPEAKER_00]: On June 12th in Osaka, Tenson and Chono, won the IWGP tag team titles, and it would be the first time that Tenson would hold the title that he would become synonymous with later.

01:29:47.859 --> 01:29:50.181
[SPEAKER_00]: And they defeated Junji Hirata and Shinya Hashiboto.

01:29:50.221 --> 01:29:51.903
[SPEAKER_00]: Now they had to give up those titles fairly quickly.

01:29:52.003 --> 01:29:56.566
[SPEAKER_00]: Afterwards, there was a whole thing with Chono, and fortunately, the passing of his father and all that.

01:29:56.647 --> 01:29:56.867
[SPEAKER_00]: But,

01:29:57.627 --> 01:30:17.401
[SPEAKER_00]: He also challenged Muto for his newly won IWGP title, we mentioned that he beat Muto in a singles match soon after coming back from excursion and then Muto won the title, so of course, he had a title challenge set up and he lost that one in the main event in front of 16,000 people at Budacon Hall.

01:30:18.281 --> 01:30:21.742
[SPEAKER_00]: So he is placed in really prominent positions.

01:30:21.842 --> 01:30:26.903
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he had a couple of title matches where he lost, but he was never humiliated.

01:30:27.624 --> 01:30:30.064
[SPEAKER_00]: He had won the IWGP tag team titles.

01:30:30.164 --> 01:30:32.965
[SPEAKER_00]: He was getting pinfall victories over some of the top stars.

01:30:33.345 --> 01:30:37.666
[SPEAKER_00]: He participated in his first G1 by the way in 1995, Muto ended up winning that one.

01:30:38.686 --> 01:30:41.547
[SPEAKER_00]: His record, that year, was 146.

01:30:44.593 --> 01:30:48.656
[SPEAKER_00]: So he wrestled 148 times in one 102 matches that year.

01:30:49.356 --> 01:30:57.042
[SPEAKER_00]: So this was not one of those he needs to suffer for four years before he, you know, to build character and then the fans will be into him.

01:30:57.102 --> 01:30:57.322
[SPEAKER_00]: No.

01:30:58.414 --> 01:31:04.896
[SPEAKER_00]: They just had him win big matches, believed in him, and low and behold Jeremy, he drew money.

01:31:05.356 --> 01:31:05.836
[SPEAKER_00]: Go figure.

01:31:06.136 --> 01:31:10.437
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like it's like if you push someone and stick with it, people get into it.

01:31:10.557 --> 01:31:11.398
[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost like that.

01:31:12.278 --> 01:31:15.779
[SPEAKER_00]: His 1996 began with a dome match in push.

01:31:16.279 --> 01:31:18.760
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we're talking about some of these threads that go throughout his career.

01:31:19.260 --> 01:31:22.961
[SPEAKER_00]: He defeated Satoshi Kajima and Kojima's return match from excursion.

01:31:23.581 --> 01:31:24.401
[SPEAKER_00]: So, there you go.

01:31:24.441 --> 01:31:26.262
[SPEAKER_00]: That was his dome match in 1996.

01:31:26.722 --> 01:31:38.005
[SPEAKER_00]: And then July of that year, he and Masalchana would win the tag team titles again, beating Casuo Yamazaki and Takashi Isaka, and they would hold those titles for the rest of 1996.

01:31:38.045 --> 01:31:40.005
[SPEAKER_00]: He also competed in the 96 G1.

01:31:40.406 --> 01:31:48.248
[SPEAKER_00]: That was one of the Ricky Choshu won and his big Cinderella story of Choshu having that one last run on top.

01:31:48.708 --> 01:31:49.408
[SPEAKER_00]: So at this point,

01:31:50.862 --> 01:31:52.383
[SPEAKER_00]: Only a couple of years ago was career.

01:31:52.603 --> 01:31:54.344
[SPEAKER_00]: Two time, tag team champion.

01:31:54.564 --> 01:31:56.144
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know how long the first one would have gone.

01:31:56.164 --> 01:32:01.086
[SPEAKER_00]: It was stripped of the title due to circumstances that didn't involve wrestling because of the death of China's father.

01:32:01.847 --> 01:32:02.187
[SPEAKER_00]: And then,

01:32:03.390 --> 01:32:06.031
[SPEAKER_00]: But they regain them, hold them for months at a time afterwards.

01:32:06.511 --> 01:32:14.174
[SPEAKER_00]: He is in this group with Master Chano that is consistently at the very top of the cards, fighting against the other top guys.

01:32:14.834 --> 01:32:18.856
[SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned Muto Hashimoto, Harada, all these guys.

01:32:18.876 --> 01:32:30.520
[SPEAKER_00]: So he is a main event player, headlining shows two years into his career and a multiple IWGP tag team champion.

01:32:31.300 --> 01:32:34.251
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is nowhere near Tenson's peak.

01:32:34.472 --> 01:32:36.459
[SPEAKER_00]: We will get closer to that next week.

01:32:38.645 --> 01:32:39.585
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for doing that, Stephen.

01:32:40.045 --> 01:32:43.326
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that you've been looking forward to getting to the 10th on stuff.

01:32:43.386 --> 01:32:46.407
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know how long this retrospective is going to be.

01:32:46.887 --> 01:32:48.727
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's not going to do it.

01:32:49.327 --> 01:32:52.748
[SPEAKER_01]: So we might be going past a natural career to do it.

01:32:52.848 --> 01:32:53.748
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I feel safe.

01:32:53.768 --> 01:32:55.068
[SPEAKER_00]: There are a lot of chapters to this.

01:32:55.268 --> 01:32:59.749
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want people to understand what he means to this company and what he has brought to the company over the years.

01:32:59.809 --> 01:33:06.151
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is during one of the biggest boom times they had, just multiple stadium shows a year that are just packing houses.

01:33:06.311 --> 01:33:07.311
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was part of it.

01:33:09.347 --> 01:33:14.372
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, what if we got anything that's about it.

01:33:14.392 --> 01:33:27.705
[SPEAKER_00]: We've talked about what's coming up this week four shows to come and three in a row starting Friday and in Saturday Sunday and then until Thursday and we'll be back on Thursday to go over with you anything else from you before your episode up Jeremy

01:33:28.709 --> 01:33:30.932
[SPEAKER_01]: No, just I hope everyone's having a great summer.

01:33:30.952 --> 01:33:36.118
[SPEAKER_01]: I would mention it earlier that I feel like I've been having a really great summer and so I'm a Spider-Man movie last night.

01:33:36.559 --> 01:33:37.300
[SPEAKER_01]: Good time.

01:33:37.360 --> 01:33:38.641
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to go to World Cup.

01:33:38.701 --> 01:33:39.943
[SPEAKER_01]: We both went to Chicago.

01:33:39.963 --> 01:33:42.166
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very thankful for this show.

01:33:42.226 --> 01:33:44.849
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very thankful for everything that I have in my life right now.

01:33:44.869 --> 01:33:48.233
[SPEAKER_01]: And reflecting and just grateful, just yeah.

01:33:48.845 --> 01:33:49.526
[SPEAKER_00]: Take care like that.

01:33:49.746 --> 01:33:50.226
[SPEAKER_00]: I like that.

01:33:50.266 --> 01:33:50.647
[SPEAKER_00]: Very good.

01:33:50.687 --> 01:33:51.047
[SPEAKER_00]: Very good.

01:33:51.848 --> 01:33:52.268
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

01:33:52.328 --> 01:33:53.970
[SPEAKER_00]: So we will end on that happy note.

01:33:54.090 --> 01:33:58.094
[SPEAKER_00]: So with Jeremy Feinstein, I'm Stephen Conway, everybody who joined us your live.

01:33:58.114 --> 01:33:59.155
[SPEAKER_00]: We appreciate your time.

01:33:59.595 --> 01:34:03.959
[SPEAKER_00]: And we know you have a lot of choices for entertainment out there in the fact that you decided to spend some time with us.

01:34:03.979 --> 01:34:04.900
[SPEAKER_00]: Really means a lot to us.

01:34:05.000 --> 01:34:05.921
[SPEAKER_00]: We're very, very grateful.

01:34:05.941 --> 01:34:06.882
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether you're watching this live.

01:34:07.322 --> 01:34:12.146
[SPEAKER_00]: or you were joining us later on the podcast feed or here on YouTube later.

01:34:12.206 --> 01:34:16.669
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, we're, we're very happy that we be, we're able to spend time with you each week.

01:34:17.109 --> 01:34:22.813
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be back next Thursday to take a look at these four nice of the G1, and see where the standing's go is we head into the home stretch.

01:34:22.973 --> 01:34:24.975
[SPEAKER_00]: We did a bit of a general advice on, I'm Steve and Conway.

01:34:25.015 --> 01:34:28.197
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been Speaking of Strongstyle, and we'll talk to you again real soon.