Source: f4wonline.com

-- Some familiar faces to fans in the United States will be debuting for New Japan Pro Wrestling as part of this year's World Tag League tour.

NJPW announced that Jeff Cobb, Chuck Taylor, and Sami Callihan would all be debuting in the tournament. Cobb, who was originally scheduled to team with Matt Riddle before plans changed, will partner with Michael Elgin, Taylor will be paired with usual partner Trent Barreta, and Callihan will team with Juice Robinson.

In a change from recent years, wrestlers who already have matches announced for Wrestle Kingdom 12 (including top stars like Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Kenny Omega) won't be participating in World Tag League.

Whichever team wins will likely challenge for the IWGP Tag Team Championship at Wrestle Kingdom on January 4th. Killer Elite Squad, the team that currently holds the titles, will also be in the tournament.

World Tag League 2017 begins on November 18th in Tokyo. The finals will take place on December 11th in Fukuoka, with the winners of the A Block facing the winners of the B Block. Here's the full list of teams for the tournament.

A Block --

Juice Robinson & Sami Callihan
Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi
Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens
Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi
Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka
EVIL & SANADA

B Block --

Togi Makabe & Henare
Michael Elgin & Jeff Cobb
David Finlay & Katsuya Kitamura
War Machine (Ray Rowe & Hanson)
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
Trent Barreta & Chuck Taylor
Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa)
Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.)


-- After they were made apparent at yesterday's Power Struggle show and in the fallout from it, New Japan Pro Wrestling confirmed five more title matches for the 2018 Tokyo Dome card.

Kenny Omega's IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship will be on the line when he faces Chris Jericho at the January 4th Wrestle Kingdom event. As Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio last night, Jericho is able to work the match because he's a free agent after his most recent short-term contract with WWE expired.

Kota Ibushi had been thought to be a possible opponent for Omega at Wrestle Kingdom, but he'll instead be challenging for Cody Rhodes' Ring of Honor World Championship. While that match is scheduled for after Cody's title defense against Dalton Castle at ROH's Final Battle pay-per-view, NJPW notes that Cody vs. Ibushi will be a non-title match if he loses the championship before January.

Prior to their matchup being announced, Cody and Ibushi took part in a post-show angle at Power Struggle.

Hiroshi Tanahashi defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Jay White (who returned to NJPW as yesterday's Switchblade reveal), Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA vs. Hiromu Takahashi for the Junior Heavyweight title, and The Young Bucks challenging for Sho & Yoh's Junior tag titles were also made official after they were set up in challenges at Power Struggle.

With Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship having previously been confirmed as the main event, there are now six matches set for Wrestle Kingdom 12. The rest of the card should take shape over the next month as NJPW's World Tag League tour takes place.

Oh dear G-d that A Block is going to be atrocious.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Nov 7th, '17, 11:04 Oh dear G-d that A Block is going to be atrocious.

indeed, i can't fathom the idea of Callihan fighting and spitting on Tenzan or Nakanishi, I do however wanna see him try with Suzuki.

the one thing i really don't like is that most teams have a fall guy, making them really predictable

cero2k wrote: ↑Nov 7th, '17, 12:27

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Nov 7th, '17, 11:04 Oh dear G-d that A Block is going to be atrocious.

indeed, i can't fathom the idea of Callihan fighting and spitting on Tenzan or Nakanishi, I do however wanna see him try with Suzuki.

the one thing i really don't like is that most teams have a fall guy, making them really predictable

Welcome to New Japan. This company at least five wrestlers who are only employed almost full time so that other wrestlers don't have to be pinned.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Nov 7th, '17, 12:44
Welcome to New Japan. This company at least five wrestlers who are only employed almost full time so that other wrestlers don't have to be pinned.

of course, every promotion has an hierarchy and that's the also the whole young lions, but they don't always over do it, in the jr tag tournament they really only had Kawato and arguably BUSHI, but all Suzuki-Gun-Jr are equally treated, Tiger Mask, Liger are the same-ish, Titan and ACH are new. In this tournament, even the teams with legit roster guys are super unbalanced, instead of Ishii and Goto teaming, they both have fall guys. Suzuki has Iizuka instead of Sabre. Yujiro and Fale could had been a team, but they each have even lower guys in the totem poll to take pins.

I guess i shouldn't complain that they used guys that we know won't win (the ones already with matches)

interesting that Callihan debuted for Impact on sunday and is now announced for NJPW, and to a lesser extent, Jimmy Jacobs returned for ROH and also debuted for Impact on sunday.

cero2k wrote: ↑Nov 7th, '17, 13:12

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Nov 7th, '17, 12:44
Welcome to New Japan. This company at least five wrestlers who are only employed almost full time so that other wrestlers don't have to be pinned.

of course, every promotion has an hierarchy and that's the also the whole young lions, but they don't always over do it, in the jr tag tournament they really only had Kawato and arguably BUSHI, but all Suzuki-Gun-Jr are equally treated, Tiger Mask, Liger are the same-ish, Titan and ACH are new. In this tournament, even the teams with legit roster guys are super unbalanced, instead of Ishii and Goto teaming, they both have fall guys. Suzuki has Iizuka instead of Sabre. Yujiro and Fale could had been a team, but they each have even lower guys in the totem poll to take pins.

I guess i shouldn't complain that they used guys that we know won't win (the ones already with matches)

That's because that's a single elimination tournament so each team only needs to lose once, and because they don't see the juniors as big enough stars that protecting them will matter.

Dave says that the reason all of the top guys aren't in the tournament is because they already have matches announced for WK and thus everyone would know they can't possibly win the tournament. Seems to me that rather than gut your tournament, it would make a lot more sense to just not do all of these big angles until the final day of the world tag league. The Omega vs. Jericho thing would be my one exception, as that is HUGE news and is exactly the kind of thing you want out there first, plus it lets Omega wrestle for ROH in December where he can take your US Title and defend it in the US.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Nov 8th, '17, 22:20 Dave says that the reason all of the top guys aren't in the tournament is because they already have matches announced for WK and thus everyone would know they can't possibly win the tournament. Seems to me that rather than gut your tournament, it would make a lot more sense to just not do all of these big angles until the final day of the world tag league. The Omega vs. Jericho thing would be my one exception, as that is HUGE news and is exactly the kind of thing you want out there first, plus it lets Omega wrestle for ROH in December where he can take your US Title and defend it in the US.

but if you think about it, that only leaves Ibushi since (1) Tanahashi is banged up and you may not want him running a full round robin tournament before WK, (2) White debuting in a tag series would be kinda dumb, and (3) Cody can't do the series since he has ROH dates. Okada and Naito was announced even before Omega/Jericho.

It's the one thing that NJPW could really use ROH for, but with ROH's Final Battle tour it just doesn't work. I'd personally would have added The Bucks with that idea of they wanting to win titles in both divisions and at least bring in a heavyweight team from CMLL (i don't think they have big shows) at least for the work rate.

cero2k wrote: ↑Nov 9th, '17, 09:29

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Nov 8th, '17, 22:20 Dave says that the reason all of the top guys aren't in the tournament is because they already have matches announced for WK and thus everyone would know they can't possibly win the tournament. Seems to me that rather than gut your tournament, it would make a lot more sense to just not do all of these big angles until the final day of the world tag league. The Omega vs. Jericho thing would be my one exception, as that is HUGE news and is exactly the kind of thing you want out there first, plus it lets Omega wrestle for ROH in December where he can take your US Title and defend it in the US.

but if you think about it, that only leaves Ibushi since (1) Tanahashi is banged up and you may not want him running a full round robin tournament before WK, (2) White debuting in a tag series would be kinda dumb, and (3) Cody can't do the series since he has ROH dates. Okada and Naito was announced even before Omega/Jericho.

It's the one thing that NJPW could really use ROH for, but with ROH's Final Battle tour it just doesn't work. I'd personally would have added The Bucks with that idea of they wanting to win titles in both divisions and at least bring in a heavyweight team from CMLL (i don't think they have big shows) at least for the work rate.

The little angle they did with Cody and Ibushi would work just as well at the final day of the World Tag League as it did at Power Struggle (and, arguably, would let the Jericho surprise have even more spotlight). The only ROH dates that the tournament conflicts with the World Tag League are SOTF, which are shows that Cody doesn't have to be at. Hell... take advantage of the fact that Omega is working ROH that weekend to have Cody specifically not work ROH, as with Cody and the Bucks not around, Cody can start acting like the leader and seem to get approval from Tonga and Fale. If I were booking this I would have ROH say that they had been trying to get matches for Cody for SOTF weekend but Cody went and got himself booked in New Japan for the tournament because he's worried that ROH will book Dalton's title shot that weekend and he wants o hold onto the belt for as long as possible. Meanwhile, I'd find a way to stick Kenny Omega in SOTF where he can get eliminated without doing a job because just having him in the tournament gives the announcers an excuse to wonder about- and thus plant seeds for- what would happen if Omega got a shot at Cody's title (or, theoretically, if Cody got a shot at Omega's). Maybe you have Omega lose by count-out on night one, team with the Bucks in a six-man on night two while the guy who beat him gets eliminated, then have Omega defend his US Title against that guy on night 3?


You might be right about it being best to not debut White at the WTL Final Day just because of how big of a push to the moon they are giving him. The more I think about it, the mistake they're making is not putting White in this tournament so he can get some establishing wins (let him pin someone like Ishii or Elgin who have some value that you could actually start to see White as being on Tanahashi's level.

I'd think that a tag tournament would be the ideal place to protect Tanahashi, because we all know that they'll never say that they don't want him in just to protect him from injury. They should have at least sent him to ROH or CMLL for some portion of the tournament to have a real kayfabe reason for why one of their top stars isn't part of the tournament? (Same with Okada and Naito).

As for the "everyone knows that their match will be already" thing for Okada and Naito, that isn't kayfabe written in stone. Or at least it doesn't have to be. I'm pretty sure Naito actually has the first right to choose whether he goes after the IWGP Heavyweight Title or the IWGP Intercontinental Title, which I guess does mean he can't also win the tournament so putting him in it makes no kayfabe sense, but there is no reason why you can't put Okada in B Block and have someone set up to challenge him for the title on the final A Block show. Yeah, we all know he's not going to lose because they've already built up the idea of him vs. Naito at the Dome, but we knew that he wasn't going to lose it to EVIL or Fale, either, based on the challengers they had already set up for him. I'm not saying waste a major challenger on this, but at least bring in someone from CMLL or ROH or some freelancer who you think Okada will be able to have an awesome match with. You can't just start booking you promotion using a non-kayfabe thought process as a kayfabe one, or else the only viable challengers for Okada between the end of the G1 and the Dome would have been Omega or MAYBE Ibushi because they're the only (eligible) guys aside from Okada people would buy as possible Tokyo Dome main event opponents for Naito

knowing that the WTL only overalps with SOTF changes a lot, there's no reason why you can't get another team from ROH that is not necessary for that weekend, especially since they're bringing in guys from Mexico for the tournament, hell, build Ibushi vs Cody at SOTF, God knows that tournament could use some notice from the fans. Exchange Bucks and Addiction for Ibushi seems like a fair trade.

thinking more about this, building Ibushi at SOTF could also include Castle and that way you don't make Final Battle as predictable, since Cody vs Ibushi at WK without the title is really not that interesting, at least to me.

Naito and Okada could have been easy to add by claiming that they plan to win both titles at WK or something, or Naito brings in RUSH and if they win will give up his spot to EVIL or whatever.

Jay White will most definitely be winning in all the undercard matches going up to WK, surely not against guys Ishii, but I can see him getting a pin here and there over a Tenzan or even a Juice

cero2k wrote: ↑Nov 9th, '17, 11:39 knowing that the WTL only overalps with SOTF changes a lot, there's no reason why you can't get another team from ROH that is not necessary for that weekend, especially since they're bringing in guys from Mexico for the tournament, hell, build Ibushi vs Cody at SOTF, God knows that tournament could use some notice from the fans. Exchange Bucks and Addiction for Ibushi seems like a fair trade.

thinking more about this, building Ibushi at SOTF could also include Castle and that way you don't make Final Battle as predictable, since Cody vs Ibushi at WK without the title is really not that interesting, at least to me.

Naito and Okada could have been easy to add by claiming that they plan to win both titles at WK or something, or Naito brings in RUSH and if they win will give up his spot to EVIL or whatever.

Jay White will most definitely be winning in all the undercard matches going up to WK, surely not against guys Ishii, but I can see him getting a pin here and there over a Tenzan or even a Juice

I think they're pretty dead-set against giving the Bucks the heavyweight belts, or even letting them near them. If they were going to do it, they would have beaten the Briscoes last year. Also, if you let the Bucks near the heavyweight belts, it makes the Guerrillas of Destiny's entire existence pointless.
Winning undercard matches against undercard guys isn't enough of a featured spot for the push they are giving White.
I don't like the idea of Naito saying he'll give his spot up to someone else if he wins because that guy didn't earn the spot. I'd be much happier with Tanahashi/White/Okada/Naito saying they'll just wrestle twice at the dome try to win both belts.

I think NJPW is dead-set on Cody vs. Ibushi being a singles match because it can/will later be used to play into Omega vs. Cody, especially if they come have Kota pick up a win over Kenny at some point along the way (next year's G1 seems like the most likely time).

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Nov 9th, '17, 12:16
I think NJPW is dead-set on Cody vs. Ibushi being a singles match because it can/will later be used to play into Omega vs. Cody, especially if they come have Kota pick up a win over Kenny at some point along the way (next year's G1 seems like the most likely time).

I wasn't suggesting that Castle get added to the match, but at least hint at me that Castle has the slightest chance at winning at Final Battle. I know they said that if Castle wins the WK match is non-title, but it's one of those things that completely telegraphs the result of the FB match.

cero2k wrote: ↑Nov 9th, '17, 12:27

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑Nov 9th, '17, 12:16
I think NJPW is dead-set on Cody vs. Ibushi being a singles match because it can/will later be used to play into Omega vs. Cody, especially if they come have Kota pick up a win over Kenny at some point along the way (next year's G1 seems like the most likely time).

I wasn't suggesting that Castle get added to the match, but at least hint at me that Castle has the slightest chance at winning at Final Battle. I know they said that if Castle wins the WK match is non-title, but it's one of those things that completely telegraphs the result of the FB match.

I don't think ROH gives a sh*t. Delirious is obsessed with making Gedo happy, so he'll f* ck over his Final Battle main event for the sake of having Cody defend the world title against Ibushi with a dirty win half-way down the WK card.