New Japan "Power Struggle" - 11/11/12 iPPV *DAILY MOTION LINK NOW POSTED*

[Warner2BruceTD]

A day after the exciting “KING OF PRO-WRESTLING” at Sumo Hall, New Japan has announced the main card for the next big show “POWER STRUGGLE” (11/11) as well as the lead-in tour featuring the Super Jr. Tag Tournament. The tag tournament has a very basic layout with eight teams in an elimination format, with no major surprise inclusions. Like Devitt, Taichi is back from his overseas stay to reform his team with TAKA while Brian Kendrick joins new IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, Low Ki, as they face Apollo 55 in the first round. Mexican legend Negro Casas is also back for the first time in a while as he teams up with masked man BUSHI. Very interesting that some shows have Suzuki Gun vs. CHAOS six man tag matches, very rare conflict between the two heel groups. After getting sent to hospital by his former tag partner yesterday, Naito is nowhere to be found and off shows injured as he finally gets his knee seen to which could mean quite a long absence.

On to “POWER STRUGGLE” where as expected Yujiro Takahashi gets his first ever shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Title when he becomes Tanahashi’s fifth challenger in the biggest match of his career. Nakamura makes his V3 defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Title against Karl Anderson in what could be a show-stealer especially after how good the match they had earlier this year was. He’s either brave or stupid but the “Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada AGAIN puts his 1/4 Tokyo Dome title shot up for grabs, this time against Hirooki Goto who actually beat Okada in the main event of one of the G1 Climax shows. Two rematches make up the other matches announced so far, with TenKoji getting an instant rematch against new IWGP Tag Team Champions, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. And in a rematch many will welcome, Laughter7 are back as Sakuraba & Shibata again meet Makabe & Inoue, who get another chance to kill Laughter7′s momentum. 3-4 matches are yet to be announced including probably junior title bouts.

NJPW “POWER STRUGGLE”, 11/11/12
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium

1. Special Tag Match: Togi Makabe & Wataru Inoue vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata
2. IWGP Tag Team Title: Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. (c) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
3. Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Title #1 Contender Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Hirooki Goto
4. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Karl Anderson
5. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Yujiro Takahashi

They will probably add Low Ki (c) vs Prince Devitt and whoever wins the Jr. tag tournament against Romero & Kozlov (c)

Here are the teams for the single elimination jr tag tournament taking place on the current tour...

1. Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask
2. 'Forever Hooligans' - Rocky Romero & Alex Kozlov
3. 'Apollo 55' - Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi
4. Low Ki & Brian Kendrick
5. Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA
6. Jado & Gedo
7. Negro Casas & BUSHI
8. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi




NJPW “~SUPER JR. TAG TOURNAMENT 1ST~”, 10/21/12
Tokyo Korakuen Hall

1. Manabu Nakanishi & Captain New Japan vs. Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka
2. Togi Makabe & Wataru Inoue vs. Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI
3. Super Jr. Tag Tournament – Round 1: KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley vs. Jado & Gedo
4. Super Jr. Tag Tournament – Round 1: Negro Casas & BUSHI vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi
5. Super Jr. Tag Tournament – Round 1: Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov
6. Super Jr. Tag Tournament – Round 1: Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Low Ki & Brian Kendrick
7. Special 6 Man Tag Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.
8. Special 6 Man Tag Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Karl Anderson & Hirooki Goto vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada & Yujiro Takahashi

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Okada is going to have another **** match before the Observer Calendar ends. God damn.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Two rematches from King of Pro Wrestling, plus Okada & Nakamura swap opponents. Tanahashi gets the 'keep busy' title defense.

This is a placeholder show if i've ever seen one. I'm not paying $25 for it, especially since the last one was up on DailyMotion in under 48 hours, but i'll definitely watch once it's up.

Real curious to see if Tanahashi can work his magic against Takahashi.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

I expect a "base hit" match from Tanahashi. I do expect a very good Okada-Goto match though.

Not a buy, either...it'll be up on Dailymotion within a day, I assume.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Shelley & KUSHIDA won the junior tag tournament. They will likely face FOREVER HOOLIGANS at Power Struggle.

Power Struggle ordering page is now up:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/njpw1972

So far, assuming they do the junior tag above, its three rematches from King of Pro Wrestling last month, and Okada & Nakamura swap opponents.

[Warner2BruceTD]

They are doing a live presser right now if you click that link or go to the New Japan youtube page. They just officially announced the Forever Hooligans vs Timesplitters junior tag title match.

Alex Kozlov demanded to sing the Russian national anthem like Nikolai Volkoff circa 1985. Tremendous.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Kota Ibushi showed up, pen in hand, ready to sign to face Low Ki for the junior title. Everybody looked confused. Devitt walked in, tapped him on the shoulder, and told him to get lost. They had to escort him out.

So it's Low Ki defending against Prince Devitt.

Card rounding out nicely.

[Warner2BruceTD]

NJPW "40TH ANNIVERSARY POWER STRUGGLE", 11.11.2012 (WPW/iPPV)
Osaka BODYMAKER COLOSSEUM (Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium)

1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov (c) vs. Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA
2. Manabu Nakanishi, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Negro Casas & Captain New Japan vs. Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Jado
3. Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi
4. IWGP Tag Team Title: Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. (c) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Low Ki (c) vs. Prince Devitt
6. Special Tag Match: Togi Makabe & Wataru Inoue vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata
7. Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Title Contendership: Kazuchika Okada vs. Hirooki Goto
8. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Karl Anderson
9. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Yujiro Takahashi
************************************************** ******************************

There's the card.

1. It can't not be good.
2. Requisite New Japan multi man prelim. Move along.
3. Sleeper match if they get time. Nagata is still floundering with no story.
4. Rematch for TenKoji. I expect another dominant win for the foreigners.
5. Awesome. Many thought they might wait to do this at Tokyo Dome.
6. Another rematch. Meh. Not my cup of tea.
7. Okada will retain the briefcase, and it will be awesome.
8. Could see a title change here. Should be good.
9. Placeholder title defense. Tanahashi is the best in the world, he will make it work.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Archer & Smith are "Killer Elite Squad". Archer is calling himself "The American Psycho" Lance Archer. He just cut a pretty bad ass promo. Smith, not so much.

The are talking about the tag league which kick off on the next tour. That's always a lot of fun.

[Warner2BruceTD]

lucha expert thecubsfan makes a case for Takahashi

I know this isn't worth much, but: When Yujiro was in CMLL this summer, he was largely annoying and lazy in trios (and then La Mascara kicked his face off and it was glorious), but the dude did step up and deliver when it came to the big singles matches with Rush & Terrible. There's no way he's winning the belt, and I'd understand not being in the match for that reason, but there was also no real drama in the result in either of those matches and they were able to make it work. If you are a person who believes Hiroshi Tanahashi is as good - or possibly even better! - than Rush, then the title match might be worth checking out.

ALSO, if you are interested in watching NJPW wrestlers having matches on the internet on Sunday: Tama Tonga has a main event singles match versus Diamante Azul that'll be streamed for free on terra.com.mx. Show starts around 5pm CT, main event gets to the ring around 7pm.

[Warner2BruceTD]

lots of chatter about a potential three way at Dome with Low Ki, Devitt, Ibushi

meh. im sure it would be awesome but thats not what New Japan does

[Warner2BruceTD]

New Japan posted the Tanahashi/Takahashi match from G1

[Warner2BruceTD]

This has nothing to do with the PPV, but I don't know where else to put it.

Looks like Yuji Nagata will be teaming with Masaaki Mochizuki in the World Tag League that kicks off after this PPV.

Yuji Nagata nominates Mochizuki of Dragon Gate as tag partner for World Tag league. Nagata does not have tag partner now. Nagata's unit "Seigi-gun" member Wataru Inoue is not teaming up with Togi Makabe. And Hirasawa has become Captain New Japan.And King Fale is now oversea to train. Nagata wants to team up with Jun Akiyama of Pro-wrestling NOAH. But Akiyama said he can not team up with the one who fight against in NOAH global League. Akiyama refused it.

Then Nagata nominates Mochizuki of Dragongate as tag team partner for NJPW world tag league. Nagata teamed up with Mochizuki in Nagata's 20th anniversary show. Then Nagata accepted it. Nagata and Mochizuki will team up for World Tag League. Team name is anti-aging β!

[Bigpapa42]

Shit this is tonight. Gonna have to look into getting it...

[Warner2BruceTD]

Buyrate predictions? King of Pro Wrestling did 56,000+ total, 600+ outside of Japan.

On the positive side, the buzz couldn't have possibly been better from the first show. Universal praise and probably the show of the year. I think New Japan actually made new fans last month (Fed being a good example). The stream itself was flawless and the picture quality was top notch. Great customer service as well. This card will also be late Saturday/early Sunday, as opposed to late Sunday/early Monday, which is an advantage.

On the negative side, the first time out is always a novelty. Also, Takahashi is a weak challenger. Much of the rest of the card is similar if not identical to last month. So this is a weaker card overall. Plus everybody knows WrestleKingdom is coming up and anybody who is going to buy a New Japan PPV is going to likely buy that and may lead to them skipping this one.

I say the numbers drop. I'l go with 50,000 total, 400 international. I think if they match or exceed the numbers from last month, it's a massive success and WrestleKingdom could do 80,000+.