Dalton

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p { margin:0; padding:0; line-height: 1.5em; } NJPW WRESTLING DONTAKU - SATURDAY WEEK 1, MAY 2013 FUKUOKA INTERNATIONAL CENTER - 7500 FANS (SELL OUT) After winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Hiroshi Tanahashi last month at NJPW Invasion Attack, Kazuchika Okada faced perhaps the toughest challenger possible in Minoru Suzuki. Heading into NJPW Wrestling Dontaku, Suzuki held a 1-0 record in singles competition over Okada, with his win coming just three months ago at NJPW New Beginning. That victory is what led Suzuki to this challenge, and ultimately what led him to lose to Okada here. Okada is successful in his first defense in a fantastic match. As for the other title matches on the card, Shinsuke Nakamura successfully makes defense number eight of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, a title that has become synonymous with him. TenKoji become five-time IWGP Tag Team Champions by defeating Suzuki-gun's Killer Elite Squad, Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr. Masato Tanaka, the inaugural NEVER Openweight Champion, defeats Shelton X Benjamin to make his third defense. In junior action, Time Splitters retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles over Forever Hooligans. In other action from Wrestling Dontaku, the newly-formed Bullet Club has a fourth member, as Karl Anderson joins the crew. After losing to Hiroshi Tanahashi, the Bullet Club trio of Prince Devitt, Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga, fresh off a victory earlier in the night, come to the ring and attack the Ace. Devitt then offers an alliance, which Anderson immediately accepts. The Bullet Club quartet has quickly become the hottest faction in wrestling. And in a special singles match, Katsuyori Shibata bested his rival Hirooki Goto in a hellacious contest, finally scoring a pinfall after twenty minutes with a PK. 1. Bullet Club (Prince Devitt, Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga) defeated Ryusuke Taguchi, Captain New Japan and Super Strong Machine in 12:26 when Prince Devitt pinned Captain New Japan with a Bloody Sunday. 2. Time Splitters defeated Forever Hooligans in 14:59 when Alex Shelley pinned Rocky Romero with an OUTATIME. Time Splitters make defence number four of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles. 3. Katsuyori Shibata defeated Hirooki Goto in 21:51 by pinfall with a PK. (75) 4. TenKoji defeated Killer Elite Squad in 14:44 when Hiroyoshi Tenzan pinned Davey Boy Smith Jr. with a TTD. TenKoji win the IWGP Tag Team titles. (67) 5. Masato Tanaka defeated Shelton Benjamin in 14:48 by pinfall with a Complete Dust. Masato Tanaka makes defence number three of the NEVER Openweight title. (63) 6. Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Karl Anderson in 20:06 by pinfall with a High Fly Flow. (72) After the match, the Bullet Club entered the ring and attacked Tanahashi. Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga held up Tanahashi as Prince Devitt offered Karl Anderson a spot in the group, an offer that Anderson immediately accepted. Anderson then laid out Tanahashi with a Gun Stun and the group stood tall above the fallen Ace. 7. Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Manabu Nakanishi in 15:01 by pinfall with a Bomaye. Shinsuke Nakamura makes defence number eight of the IWGP Intercontinental title. (72) 8. Kazuchika Okada defeated Minoru Suzuki in 24:36 by pinfall with a Rainmaker. Kazuchika Okada makes defence number one of the IWGP Heavyweight title. (80) IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, fresh off gaining his first ever victory over Minoru Suzuki, sends the crowd home with a promo.

p { margin:0; padding:0; line-height: 1.5em; } NJPW WRESTLING DONTAKU SATURDAY WEEK 1 - MAY 2013 FUKUOKA INTERNATIONAL CENTER 1. Bullet Club (Prince Devitt & Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Captain New Japan & BUSHI 2. IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS: Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA) © vs. Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov) (4th defense) 3. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto 4. IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS: Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.) © vs. TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) (6th defense) 5. NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Masato Tanaka © vs. Shelton X Benjamin (3rd defense) 6. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Karl Anderson 7. IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP: Shinsuke Nakamura © vs. Manabu Nakanishi (8th defense) 8. IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Kazuchika Okada © vs. Minoru Suzuki (1st defense)

p { margin:0; padding:0; line-height: 1.5em; } STARTING ROSTER

p { margin:0; padding:0; line-height: 1.5em; } STARTING CHAMPIONS

p { margin:0; padding:0; line-height: 1.5em; } SHOW INDEX 2013 NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM NJPW NEW BEGINNING NJPW 41ST ANNIVERSARY SHOW NJPW NEW JAPAN CUP NJPW SAKURA GENESIS NJPW INVASION ATTACK NJPW WRESTLING DONTAKU NJPW BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS XX NJPW DOMINION 6.22 NJPW KIZUNA ROAD NJPW G1 CLIMAX 23 NJPW DESTRUCTION NJPW KING OF PRO WRESTLING NJPW POWER STRUGGLE NJPW WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2014 NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM

p { margin:0; padding:0; line-height: 1.5em; } Tokyo, Japan - Founded in 1972 by star Antonio Inoki, NJPW has been the top company in Japan for most of existence, carried through its early years on the popularity of Inoki and his battles with “legit fighters.” Inoki's love of legitimate martial artists and fighters would help form the “strong style” approach in the ring but carried to extremes in the late 90s and early 00s, with “Inokiism” actively damaging the company. After years of instability and stagnation, NJPW was purchased by collectible card company Bushiroad in 2012. Now with strong financial backing, and an exceptionally strong roster of in-ring talent, it appears NJPW could be headed towards a true golden period of in-ring product.

Thank you to those who nominated me There are a lot of fantastic people listed here, so to even be included is an honor. Best of luck to everyone.

ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING - 1992 The first year was all about getting pieces in place for the next half-decade of stories and arcs. TRIPLE CROWN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: The reigning champion entering 1992 is Jumbo Tsuruta. The goal of Jumbo's reign was to take on the young guys in AJPW, as part of the iconic Tsuruta-gun vs. Super Generation Army feud. He defeated Toshiaki Kawada at the Excite Series finale in February, and headed into the Champion Carnival as champion. Mitsuhara Misawa almost earned a rematch against Tsuruta to finally capitalize on his 1990 upset and win the Triple Crown for the first time, but he would ultimately fall to Stan Hansen in the Carnival final. Hansen would then take on and defeat Tsuruta at the Super Power Series finale, giving The Lariat his third Triple Crown Championship. Hansen closed out the year with defenses over Misawa, Steve Williams, and Akira Taue, establishing himself as undoubtedly the strongest force in All Japan. AJPW UNIFIED WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS: The Miracle Violence Connection (Steve Williams & Terry Gordy) were the champions heading into the year. Their fourth reign as champions had fantastic matches, with defenses over the Super Generation Army duo of Mitsuhara Misawa & Kenta Kobashi, the Tsuruta-gun duo of Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa, followed by Akira Taue & Jumbo Tsuruta, before vacating the titles heading into the 1992 Real World Tag League (from 1988-1994, the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Champions would vacate the titles before the annual tournament, something that I am, for now, emulating in-game). The Miracle Violence Connection would make it to the finals of the tournament, but would lose to Misawa & Kawada. Thus, Misawa & Kawada enter 1993 in their second reign as champions. AJPW WORLD JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Long-time AJPW icon Masanobu Fuchi was the champion to start the year, in the middle of his third reign. This title was historically underrepresented in the King's Road era, a fact that I will certainly be aiming to change heading into the rest of the 90s but the junior division in 1992 is ROUGH. Fuchi scored a defense over Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, followed by a win over Fire Cat (Brady Boone under his AJPW mask), before losing the title to Kikuchi in a rematch. Kikuchi would then come out on top in the rubber match over Fuchi. Kikuchi closed out the year with defenses over Richard Slinger (a foreigner trained in the All Japan Dojo) and Johnny Smith. Kikuchi is a vastly underrated part of classic All Japan, and I am aiming to give him much more shine in this save. ALL ASIA TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS: For those unaware, these midcard tag titles were mainly for non-main event tag teams, younger talent, and lots of foreigners. The Can-Am Express (Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat) were the champions starting 1992, and would hold the titles the entire year. They started their 1992 with a win in January over Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa, then defended against The Fantastics. Abdullah The Butcher & Giant Kimala II failed in their challenge, as did the Malenko Brothers (Dean (the only hire I made for the first seven months) & Joe). Furnas & Kroffat then losed out the year with a win over the the Giant Kimalas, Kimala I & Kimala II. OTHER NOTES: SIGNINGS: Because I'm trying to maintain the "closed garden" approach of Baba's King's Road, I made a concerted effort to not make a ton of hires to kick off the save, because there are so many great hires I could make if I truly wanted to. The only hire I made around the start was Dean Malenko, who was working an indie in Europe if I remember correctly. Malenko was also an AJPW alum anyway. Malenko has been great in a very shallow junior division, and has impressed so much that I hired Joe Malenko to join him and challenge for the All Asia tag titles. I also ended up hiring Kamala (under the Giant Kimala I name) in the late summer to work undercard tags with Giant Kimala II and occasionally Abdullah the Butcher. The only other foreigner hire I made was The Patriot, who joined The Eagle in the Real World Tag League after Eagle's original partner, The Falcon, left before the tournament started (he wasn't good so I let his contract expire). In July 1992, I saw that NJPW did not renew the contract of SATOSHI KOJIMA, fresh off young lion status, so I of course stepped in and signed him. Kojima became the only native talent in AJPW outside of the grandpas, young lions, and Tsuruta-gun/Super Generation Army. It's a weird spot, but I have a great plan for what to do with him heading into 1993/94. While still in his early 20s, Kojima isn't a young lion like the other three men who entered AJPW in 1992: Jun Akiyama, Jun Izumida & Yoshihiro Takayama. Akiyama & Izumida are graduates of the All Japan Dojo so signing them is a no-brainer, whereas Takayama turned pro in June but wasn't hired by anyone, so I signed him to fill out the rookie ranks. Akiyama is, of course, a future megastar for All Japan, with Takayama having plenty of potential to become a top name. LEAVING: A total of seven names left All Japan in 1992, all from contract expiration. The first was Andre the Giant, who was completely useless. Even his giant pop wasn't enough to score anything near a good rating. Fire Cat, Billy Black and The Falcon were the next three names gone. All were decent foreigners, but being a decent foreigner in a company full of them simply isn't enough. The Patriot came in for the Real World Tag League to team with The Eagle, but was not retained after. The two native names to leave were longtime AJPW roster members Isamu Teranishi and Mitsuo Mimota (who is the son of Rikidozan). I debated keeping them for realism purposes, but TEW struggles with simulating the undercard comedy bouts, because the Royal Puroresu product gives a severe penalty to comedy bouts, which is simply false and unrealistic. So what can ya do. PUSHES: Outside of the expected pushes, I've been making sure Tsuyoshi Kikuchi gets plenty of wins. As the distant fourth member of Super Generation Army, he was often the fall guy in multimans, but after winning the junior title he has become a much bigger member of the roster. Dean Malenko has easily the best signing so far, regularly getting performance ratings of 80+. He's likely going to dethrone Kikuchi to become the junior champion, but is also a perennial All Asia Tag Team titles challenger alongside his brother Joe. Satoshi Kojima has been beating young lions and has been on the winning side of plenty of undercard multiman tags, and has gotten the interest of both Jumbo Tsuruta and Mitsuhara Misawa, with both men commenting on his potential.

From the old CVerse site:

Fantastic show. The only negative point I can make is Okada/Danielson not being as good as it could have been, but obviously a broken arm not even halfway through the match will cause some changes.

Why would Jay do that? No one was listening to Punk so he could hype the main event. It was already booked and didn't need any extra fluff. Case in point, the crowd was molten for both the promo and the match so what they did worked as intended, obviously. The promo was straightforward and blunt. He told everyone that he is the most important person in AEW and the rest of the roster needs to come to terms with that, including the current champion.

Best episode this year and I don't think it's close.

Yes, they worked under masks with those gimmicks in AJPW starting in 1992.

I'm stunned there are people walking around who think this is real.

This is great, keep the updates coming!

That just isn't true. She regularly gets the loudest reaction of any woman on the show, only occasionally being beaten out by her closest ally. She's a star for AEW. Being part of a bad pandemic-era cinematic match does not negate her popularity. If she was overpushed or not good, she wouldn't be as beloved as she is by the fanbase, and wouldn't have organically turned face like she did.

They're already a success. They're in their fifth year of existence, just sold 60,000 tickets and counting to a show three PPVs away, and are about to have yet another weekly series on national television, on top of likely getting a huge raise from a happy broadcast partner who can't stop giving them more and more airtime. -- There is this aura in every wrestling community about AEW constantly being days away from death or on the verge of failure when every conceivable metric states otherwise. WCW comparisons are pointless. MJF and Sammy are not David Arquette and Jeff Jarrett. Tony Khan booking is not Vince Russo booking. The only comparison there is that its not WWE. It's time for people to just accept AEW as a regular wrestling company and critique them like one, instead of thinking they're always at death's door and one move away from going under. That mindset is what drives much of the negativity around AEW discourse. Hyperbole inevitably leads to arguments.

I know you're trolling for some reason, just wanna point out to everyone else that this show aired at 6:30ET on Friday, after being advertised for 5:30ET, both of which are not the Rampage timeslot. Funny how you left that part out though Also, All In has sold 35,000 today in just the pre-sale. Safe to say that any previous estimates should be thrown out the window. Incredible success.

I really enjoy these updates!

Hmm...that's a great question that none of us are equipped to answer unfortunately lol. The strong ad buys on Dynamite hints that the network is happy with its ROI. The closest we'll get to an answer is how big the AEW rights fees become, since AEW programming is such a vital component of WBD television.

I'm also really curious where this "200k viewers lost since last year" number is coming from? They averaged about 975k this time last year and are averaging about 887k the last two months. That's not 200k if my math is right.

Hurt my feelings? What in the world? You can't just say "more people have TVs now" and call that verifiable statistics lmao. That's not a statistic. I gave you verifiable data and statistics when I said TV ratings were down over 10% in 2022 alone, continuing the trend of huge drops year over year. That's straight from Nielsen. WarnerMedia networks are actually down more than 10% in the past year. More people have TVs and they're not using them to watch cable. Those are verifiable statistics and prove what you said to be incorrect and false. And no, it is absolutely not stupid of Tony Khan to start a wrestling promotion and put it on national television right now. In fact, this is the best time in the history of the universe to start a wrestling company since TV rights fees have never been higher. WWE gets half of the viewers they did just a few years ago but are pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars in broadcast deals. Their current deals with Comcast and FOX dwarf their previous deals. AEW's upcoming renewals with WarnerMedia will likely include huge bumps in rights fees. There has never been a better time to put a show, especially sports, on television.

This isn't true. The average TV audience dropped over 10% just last year alone. Cable television is a dying medium and quite literally all the data backs this up.

Vikingo has a match this week, just an FYI since you said he's not returning.