The annual Princess Cup event of TJPW started yesterday with a good (if predictable) first round.
Is anyone else following it? What are your predictions?
this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024
9 points (100.0% liked)
SquaredCircle
315 readers
46 users here now
This is the "official" Fediverse community for all things pro wrestling!
Come discuss pro wrestling! Any company or era is welcome.
Please ensure you have NSFW posts enabled or you may miss out on some threads. Bots are not used in this community.
Rules: (Click to expand)
1. Be Civil.
Users are expected to be civil and inclusive towards one another at all times. Remember the person on the other side of the screen. Hate speech, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and other inflammatory language is prohibited.
2. Keep content related to wrestling.
Any content posted should at least be related to pro wrestling somehow.
3. Spoilers.
Do not spoil events for people. If an event is going on, please keep discussion contained to the/a discussion thread for 24h after the event. Do not post spoilers in titles during this period. Use the spoiler function when you need to, it's there for a reason. Should your post involve a url to a spoiler (Twitter, YouTube video, etc) please mark the thread as NSFW as well so thumbnails are blurred.
4. Vague/Editorialized Title.
Please keep the titles of any articles you post clear, understandable, and indicative of what the article states within. It's ok to alter the title if the original is clickbait and confusing, or contains a spoiler like a debut that just occurred that day, but do not add your own thoughts to it.
5. Sexualized Content/'Plot'.
Please do not post any pornographic, 'creep shot', or similar adult-related material to the community (regardless of connection to wrestling). Wrestling content that involves sexualized content (in storylines/matches/promos) is fine, as well as photo's wrestlers post to their own social medias. Butt-shots you take with your cell phone at a house show aren't.
6. Banned Source(s).
Due not necessarily to the content of their reporting, but to their harassing and doxxing of users, the following news sources, journalists, and content creators are not permitted to be posted on SquaredCircle in any context - including direct links, articles, social media, and reports that cite only those sources:
- WrestleVotes
- RingSideNews
- Brad Shepard
- Billi Bhatti and "The Dirty Sheets"
- Any post or article citing one of the above as a primary source.
Useful Links:
Wrestling Promotions: (Click to expand)
US/Can/Euro πΊπΈπ¨π¦πͺπΊ
-WWE
-AEW
-ROH
-TNA
-GCW
-DPW
-NWA
-Revolver
-PWG
-CZW
-MLW
-Reality of Wrestling
-Progress
-DEFY
-RevPro
-NORTH Wrestling
-OVW
-Mystery Wrestling
-Alpha-1
-Maple Leaf Pro
-Burning Heart
-EVE
-WOW
-Mission Pro
Japan π―π΅
-NJPW
-NOAH
-DDT
-Dragongate
-AJPW
-TRIPLESIX
-ChocoPro
-STARDOM
-TJPW
-Sukeban
-SPARK Joshi
-Pro Wrestling Wave
-DIANA
-Actwres girl'Z
-Ice Ribbon
-Oz Academy
-Seadlinnng
-Sendai Girls'
-MARIGOLD
Mexico π²π½
Uganda πΊπ¬
-SGW
'The Dirt Sheets':
-WON/F4W
-Fightful
-PWInsider
-Denise Salcedo
-PWTorch
-SEScoops
Other Related Websites:
-Cagematch
-Kayfabe News
-WrestleCrap
-Pro Wrestling Tees
-SquaredCircle on Reddit
-Kim Justice's Wrestling Road
-WrestleMap
founded 10 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
A good litmus test is that seniority weights a great deal.
If you're someone's senior you're likely to go over them 90% of the time, with the exception of pushes like we've been seeing recently due to the top of the card being suddenly decimated during the last year.
With Saki Akai, Yuka Sakazaki (one of the most decorated champions in the company), Juria Nagano, and Nao Kakuta graduating or retiring, and Hikari Noa seemingly fired behind the scenes, the top of the card is suddenly a lot thinner than it was.
For reference, of all 8 PoP title winners, only 5 are left in the company, and 1 was crowned for her first time this year, of the remaining ones the only multi-time winners are Yamashita and Nakajima.
Though, the real massacre was in the tag division. By losing Sakazaki they also lost their top tag team (MagiRabi, with Mizuki) and a second very highly placed one (Miraclians, with Nakajima); they lost Neo Biishiki Gun when Saki Akai retired, and they lost Free Wifi when Noa got fired and subsequently Kakuta retired. That's 4 top tag teams gone in less than 6 months, and they also lost Team Karate (Juria Nagano and Moka Miyamoto) but that one was lower on the card and Miyamoto is still a rookie so she'll be fine.
My logic for the current tournament is that I don't expect whoever wins the cup to win the title, so I'm looking at it as "who's gonna be a draw for the match-up?" more than "who's taking Miu's place?" because if you look at the title reigns, they rarely (but not never) keep them this short.
With the defenses only being at the bigger shows people expect to be able to see at least a few unless it's particularly effective for the characters, like how Yamashita and Itoh hold the record for the shortest tag team championship reign, at less than 2 weeks and 0 successful defenses.
Also it's important to consider that TJPW is getting a lot more eyes on it and Yamashita is becoming more and more famous in the US too (recently had a match against Shayna Baszler at Josh Barnett's Bloodsport) and there's a real chance she might get scouted, so TJPW needs to fill up the card and pass torches as much as they can now, because their developmental process is slow.
And it was fucking phenomenal.
But yeah they really need to get things moving as you said. Oddly I feel we had this exact same convo a year or so ago about them needing to rebuild lol. Yamashita will 100% get nabbed by someone, that or she goes part time in TJ and focuses on US tours. Maki too eventually I feel (tho that'll probably be AEW with a 'let me work GCW' deal).
Gotta get it and watch it still, but so I heard.
We did have that, it was a "they need to rebuild since they will lose these people" last year LOL.
And to their credit, they did pull the trigger on a lot of pushes since then (unfortunately one of them crashed and burned hard with Free WiFi, whose presence will be sorely missed) and every current champion is either someone who never held that particular belt, or any belt, so the work is happening, it's just that they don't have a lot of shows a year, and most non-marquee shows have no defenses and few singles matches, so it's hard to establish someone as a proper star.
I understand the logic, their main income is still the live shows, and people want to know what they are buying, so you want everyone on the card as much as possible, but you can't put on 3-4 hours show every weekend, on the other hand it's still not great for making singles stars, whatever the underlying reason.