sombre

Huh I honestly to this point had no idea FL4K was non-binary. There's a good chance they weren't aware either unless they fervently kept up with Borderlands news.

It's unfortunate that Alex wasn't there to talk about NJPW. Now that NJPW has english commentary it's a great product even for more casual fans, and the commentary is able to get across all the different stories that make matches more interesting.

There's no goofy backstage segments and no love triangle with Miho Abe, but what NJPW does better than any other company is they respect the history of their wrestlers. There are absolutely storylines in NJPW, but I think a lot of people have been conditioned to think of storylines as things that can only happen outside of the ring.

With the G1 starting, here's a couple of stories off the top of my head:

• -Shingo Takagi, a Junior Heavyweight, is entering the G1 where he'll be facing off against heavyweights. He was on an incredible winning streak during the Best of Super Juniors(Jr Heavyweight tournament) but can he pull off the same against heavyweights?
• -KENTA just left the WWE and joined NJPW for the G1. He's got a target on his back because you shouldn't be able to just enter the G1 without proving himself first, so others will be looking to put him back in his place.
• -Speaking of KENTA, he's representing the LA Dojo, NJPW's LA based wrestling school. The main trainer at the school is Katsuyori Shibata, who is known for being a no-nonsense tough guy wrestler. Hirooki Goto, a wrestler who's been kind of stuck in the midcard these past few years, showed up to his last match wearing a LA Dojo shirt and gave an unusually aggressive performance.
• -The current heavyweight champion is in the G1. Matches in the G1 are non-title matches, however traditionally everyone who beats the champ during the G1 gets a title shot at some point. Nobody's ever gone through the entire G1 undefeated, so unless he pulls off the impossible it will give us an idea of what's next for the champion.
• -Minoru Suzuki, the Man With The Worst Personality in the World, is not in the G1 this year and will probably murder someone over it.

There's also going to be individual matches with interesting implications, like stablemates fighting each other, someone taking a whole bunch of damage in a match and having to power through in the following matches, trying not to get rolled up by the sublime master thief Toru Yano.

rustyfe •

Alex has actually, literally, killed me when he refused to sell off more stuff, even though it's 8x faster than breaking down into Omnigel and Vinny specifically mentioned it.