What Tanahashi's Last Match Was Like IN PERSON!

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[SPEAKER_01]: Leave me to do it, it is no pain!

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[SPEAKER_01]: The better it is, the better it was, and the better it will be.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And you know it.

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[SPEAKER_02]: We're back here, in my eyes.

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[SPEAKER_03]: The only way to cry, It not reach me.

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[SPEAKER_00]: What's up everybody, episode 406 of Top Rope Nation.

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[SPEAKER_00]: A Tuesday, now I don't even know when the last time we did a Tuesday and I show it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a really, really long time.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Ryan Drossie, Jesse Velasquez, and a very, very special guest who I will introduce here.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Momentarily, Jesse, how you doing tonight, man?

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[SPEAKER_03]: Correct me if I'm wrong, and I could be.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Were we on the year last Tuesday?

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[SPEAKER_03]: on the flagship where we it was either that or the Monday after world's end I'm pretty sure it was Tuesday.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I don't know man.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I got holiday brains though.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Trust me, I do too.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I as I was telling you guys off air.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I am in the midst of shoot job heaven hell, but everyone will look at.

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[SPEAKER_03]: It's like a count and a pro basically for me at the month of January.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And it's crazy just back teaching now holiday break is over and you know getting back into the swing of things it's been wild so We want it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We definitely wanted to talk a little new Japan.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We haven't talked new Japan much on the show in quite a while.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk about it in spurts you know when big things are happening.

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[SPEAKER_00]: like Wrestle King Dumber, Dominion, or the G1, but it's not like a heavy focus on our show usually, and we oftentimes will talk about how if people want some new Japan talk, they should go tune into speaking of strong style, and we have one of the hosts on the show with us tonight, and he was in attendance.

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[SPEAKER_00]: at the Tokyo Dome.

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[SPEAKER_00]: For Hiroshi Tanahashi's farewell magic in Scazuchika, Okada, this past weekend, he's back in the States, and not only that, it's his birthday right now, and he was kind enough to spend part of his birthday with us Jeremy Feinstein, how you doing tonight, sir.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, it really was a whirlwind kind of week.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing great.

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[SPEAKER_01]: A little bit jet lag.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be with you on that one.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But I am recovering from coming back from the flight.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I flew out the day after rest of Kingdom, but that was January 5th going into January 6th.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So I flew into,

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[SPEAKER_01]: the states, it's going to throw my birthday, my watch, my phone all gave me the notification, and it's going to say land, and it reverted back to jail, and I got all of that all over again, which was quite the experience, but not quite the experience of being in

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[SPEAKER_01]: the Tokyo Dome for Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kesachi Kokado's match that made evented and then a bonus track of that retirement ceremony that you guys watched on TV and I was very lucky, very very lucky to be ringside for that event.

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[SPEAKER_00]: man.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's crazy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you and I were, I was texting you as the show was going on.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I was laying in bed tonight.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't stay up for the whole show, but I was like, I was laying there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't sleep.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, all right, I'm just going to, I'm going to put it on my phone and watch it here in bed.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then I'm like text messaging you who's like basically front row there in the Tokyo technology is so cool.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So cool.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And now here you are in the show.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Very cool.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I, you know, I was

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[SPEAKER_00]: because we found out in person a few times and I'm just like, when did Jeremy and I first meet and I know for sure.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I go, was it 20, 20, 120, 20, 22, where I met the both of you, yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We were sitting next to each other and I believe we had John Mockley right near us at one point of the show.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, and that night I remember because my phone was going dead and you were kind of to let me use your mobile charger there, but so I met you before that though because so I couldn't remember if it was all out 21, which I wasn't at with Jesse, but I was there with Kyler old co-host and Justin who couldn't join us tonight, but then I know for sure we hung out at the sweet party in Vegas, double or nothing week.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so that was in May 2022.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So we for sure, I remember staying that balcony.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what floor was.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We were way up in Vegas and talk with you a lot that night.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then, yeah, a few months later at all out in Chicago.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was the other way around, but you're probably.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I will tell you when I look at Vegas, my friend.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not a taco sure the recollection of a taco who I met and when.

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[SPEAKER_01]: If that was the COVID, if that was the same as COVID, we can then that was in fact.

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[SPEAKER_01]: 2020.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was, it was the COVID weekend, both my wife and I, and Justin got COVID at that partnership.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was the one and only time that I got COVID and I was miserable, but I thankfully did not have the experience that I know other people had.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, count my buttons on that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesse, so you know Jeremy for a while as well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Try me here.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, we met in, as he mentioned, 222 all out, you sat next to me to my right.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And yes, John Moxley, I still have three or four photos of him like literally this close to me.

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[SPEAKER_03]: That's crazy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Stopped right in front of our section.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Wild.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's actually.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We go to, right?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We go in here.

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[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, I'm actually all of us, given him the arrow.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I believe, yeah, that's from that night.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The show intro, I have a brief clip of Moxley walking over there by us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If you watch real closely on our show intro, it's very brief.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want to copyright strike, but it's in there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's from that night.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So, you're on our show intro, didn't even know it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You have to watch if you blink you'll miss it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the funny thing is there was a series of paper views that I would go to and for about three paper views in a row, John Mothley was right up in my face, like three different times and then it stopped and I was really thankful it didn't want to just be like John Mothley came you know, I like that profit, right, we're the same shirt every time the last time it happened, though, was actually really funny we were at, uh,

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[SPEAKER_01]: the San Jose Civic for one of the New Japan shows and mock clear I think was wrestling a lot of say shingo to coggy that night right before he challenged for the IWGP.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well I had gone to the bathroom and I came back out the entrance and all the sudden I got the feeling like

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[SPEAKER_01]: Oh shit mocks is coming out right behind me, and I ran off to the left right over my seat court and within like two seconds he had first through the doors and I was like John it would have been a bunch of maniac moment, and I and I always think about that.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, okay, this this streak of mockery me it really has to stop

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[SPEAKER_00]: Was one of those were you at all out 21 in Chicago when punk came back.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, we were in the same row that night to I probably met you there Because I remember he walked down the aisle Yeah, you were there.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was there.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody been 21 that I was thinking of I got I went to 21 and I went to 22 because 22 was a brawl out, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and When that happened like we were there and I I was talking to some people who were really deep in the situation at the time it was kind of a

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[SPEAKER_01]: crazy night and it kind of took over all the narrative of anything else that happened to that night.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'll just get that event and just crazy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'll never forget Jesse and myself and then Tim, we were headed back to our hotel room.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And we just like, I think Jesse saw it first that that was happening and we're like, what is this real?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Is this what is happening right now?

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[SPEAKER_01]: I have the exact same reaction and all of a sudden it just blew up and everyone was just like you got

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[SPEAKER_01]: Simpson burst of information, but nothing really makes sense right out the gate.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And then we're all just like, is this real?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Is this not real?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Is this some angle for dynamite?

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[SPEAKER_03]: And then we had what the next year being kind of overshadowed by that one night one year later on my way in to Chicago for all out 23 half an hour away from Chicago.

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[SPEAKER_03]: CM Punk fired by AEW.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, all this was years ago.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I think the greater point guys is we need to get to a show together again because it's been a couple of years for sure.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That would be a lot of fun.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Think they's happened when we get together.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like they do they try to impress us when like we are a coalescence of a wrestling master by like we got to give the good stuff to put to the top rope nation and fight game media assessment.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, man.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, I mean, like I said, your podcast is great that you and see even do a fight game media, of course, run by Gary Gonzalez, friend of the show as well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We all met through blue wire back in the day.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, met so many cool people doing the show and you know, to be able to bring you on as someone who was actually there in attendance is super cool.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's fresh in all of our minds.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I know you as a, you know, a long time New Japan fan, this was definitely a dream trip to go to the Tokyo dome, and to go to Tokyo, and you know, you were post in the pictures on your Facebook page.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I saw all that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I posted some of them on public on social media as well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Got some great shots.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think we want to just start out by, I want to just know, just conversationaly here, how the trip came about, you know, like what went into making this happen, you know, what it meant to you

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, it really started about last year when my podcast partner Stephen went to rest of Kingdom of 19 and Russell died at the end of the two-night event and it was a, um,

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[SPEAKER_01]: a gift from his wife, you know, they were his partner, and they went together and she understood like, this is your Mecca trip.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go and let's have you do this up and then that's where went back to Japan a few months later and they did the revisit again.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So he expressed what a great time he had had, you know, when he was there.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And almost immediately after that, at the battle on the value last year, there was a retirement ceremony for Sunbeak Sikai, who was the ring of honor, kind of liaison for talent and just kind of made life easier and was really like connective tissue between Japan and the United States in a way that she doesn't get enough credit for.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was around that time where I've watched in that retirement, Mike, I think I have to go to Japan.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, well, you just have that moment.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And because I did the podcast, I had actually joined the New Japan fan club because they post information that you can't get.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Otherwise, like, diary journals of the wrestlers and whether or not it does anything with the storyline.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It just gives you context and context is really important.

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[SPEAKER_01]: When you're doing, when you're doing this, when you're you're doing an analysis for promotion, you kind of have to get in the weeds a little bit about how the rest of their portraying themselves and their portraying within the promotion because in Japan,

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[SPEAKER_01]: what you say, you're, you're, you are more free to be yourself as a person.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And so they're, they're expressing their own beliefs and their own thoughts like, you know, the food you mouthed off and so many different ways about what he was going to do in New Japan with he, if he's the man and now he's the man.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to see if he's put this money right about this.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So about January last year, I had to make sure I had my passport do all these other things.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And with that

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[SPEAKER_01]: Membership that I had I had access to like the pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pale and it was It was that like 7 p.m. on a Sunday night like I'm sitting at my computer and I'm just like I don't care how much the tickets are I'm just gonna buy them

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I have the buddy, if they didn't make me go, he's part of our friend group around here.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I knew who had already gone to Spain.

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[SPEAKER_01]: He was interested in his wife was going to go.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I told him how much it was.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, I'm going to buy two.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want one?

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[SPEAKER_01]: And it took him about 30 seconds to say yes.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And he did.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And

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[SPEAKER_01]: So I got on there.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I guess there were only about 40 tickets available for these seats and I did the $1,500 and I said I hit click.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I bought them.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I took a deep breath and I said, all right, we're doing this.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is that time, it's that one time, maybe.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was, yeah, I mean, we've all spent like money going to the trips and the states, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like we are all very lucky or very fortunate or the circumstances align where we all get to take that kind of.

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[SPEAKER_01]: an opportunity for ourselves, but I cannot understate how much I value my wife for giving me the opportunity to do all this without her none of this is possible.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I just had to make sure I said that here now because it has been on my mind so much.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What I got to see in the opportunity I had and it's really all thanks to

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[SPEAKER_01]: the support of the people in my life, and I just wanted to make sure I had that out there before I may have stupidly forgotten to say that very important point.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Give it up for Mrs. Feinstein.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

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[SPEAKER_01]: The Savannah in my life is the best person I have in my quarter.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Very cool.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Describe the culture of Japan and also the fans inside the Tokyo dome and just that whole experience and how receptive they were, yeah, go through that detail.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a.

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[SPEAKER_01]: a feeling of courtesy around Japan, like you, you need to just be respectful of other person, respect the way that they do things.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, you don't eat and walk.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You buy something and you either pack it up and take it with you or you eat it in the presence of where you're buying it at.

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[SPEAKER_01]: carrying your trash if common if you can't find a place to put up.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So the entire area is incredibly clean.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Culturally, I was there, I was there around New Year.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So December 30th was a very busy night because I was staying at the Tokyo dome.

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[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of a lot of young people hanging out having a good time and then it looked everything shut down on New Year's even New Year's Day because it's more of a family holiday during that time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I walked over to the token shop on December 31, just to see if it was open and.

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[SPEAKER_01]: To for those two days before rest looking them.

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[SPEAKER_01]: They closed the store they just said, well, we don't need to we're not going to try and make any sales today.

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[SPEAKER_01]: everyday, everyday, everyday out of the gate.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So because New Year's Day and New Year's Eve are more party days in the state, that was a, that was a big difference too.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And then I spent the next couple of days shopping around Shibuya, Akiabara, which are both completely different places, one's like a high-end shopping area and the other is more like, um, commodified garage, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

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[SPEAKER_01]: modified like small store sales, you know, like you buy your toys, you buy the little Maca Robots, Pokemon, all that kind of stuff.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And suitcases, you can buy all the suitcases you want to carry all the stuff back to America.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So it was definitely a different, a different vibe than what you'll see in America, but it all made sense once you had the context to it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So staying

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[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, in Tokyo, don't believe they had a whole restaurant hub, menu area, and throughout the whole weekend that I was there, the snow globes and the, and the trees would play the go a theme with LED boards and as the weekend got closer and New Year's Eve was in the rear view mirror, they began to deck out the entire Tokyo dome area in Hiroshi, Tantahashi.

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[SPEAKER_01]: just paraphernalia pageantry, they opened up a store that line across the entire stage in the amphitheater that opened at 9 a.m. and had people there the entire day.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This was not a wrestling event.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This was a cultural event at the Tokyo Dome.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You had some cosplayers.

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[SPEAKER_01]: You just had you had people that felt like they needed to be there for this moment, just kind of like I did.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And they were there from 9 a.m. until the show was over at whatever time, 9 p.m. at night, because it started at 3, you got in at 2.30, but I don't think the lights came back on until about 9 p.m. at night.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But it was cultural.

17:57.439 --> 17:58.701
[SPEAKER_01]: It was more than a wrestling event.

17:58.721 --> 18:00.784
[SPEAKER_01]: It felt like Prince is the Super Bowl kind of thing.

18:01.365 --> 18:05.050
[SPEAKER_01]: This was something that people were going to remember for the rest of their lives.

18:05.971 --> 18:07.273
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, a question.

18:07.844 --> 18:16.017
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a buddy that went to Japan and he talked to me about just like the availability, the thing that blew him away was like all the vending machines.

18:16.638 --> 18:28.637
[SPEAKER_00]: Like anything out of a vending machine and like going to the restaurants where the stuff is on like the conveyor belts and all that I remember him talking to me about that and I would love to go to Japan that would be such an awesome trip.

18:29.022 --> 18:34.494
[SPEAKER_01]: All the restaurants had like 15 or 20 feet, you know, like it wasn't designed for Matt's capacity.

18:34.895 --> 18:40.468
[SPEAKER_01]: They're designed to give you a quality meal and like move you in and out with efficiency.

18:40.829 --> 18:46.862
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, like there's the transactional idea of eating a meal and everything.

18:46.842 --> 18:49.147
[SPEAKER_01]: with just so much different than here in the state.

18:49.167 --> 18:50.289
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you don't tip over there.

18:50.329 --> 18:58.946
[SPEAKER_01]: They actually consider it an insult if you tip them because they're made a living wage and it's a sign that you don't think that they're doing their job good enough.

18:59.367 --> 19:01.190
[SPEAKER_01]: So they need to be paid more to do it right.

19:01.230 --> 19:03.114
[SPEAKER_01]: So you don't do that.

19:03.875 --> 19:04.517
[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting.

19:05.479 --> 19:09.306
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you think of my going to the famous Rivera Stay Council?

19:09.488 --> 19:32.003
[SPEAKER_01]: I did, but number one, if I didn't have the help of some friend Jake and Lisa and Pete who had navigated the Metro system, I mean, it was fine, but I screwed up so many times that I missed out on Rivera and I missed out on Tudicon, but I went to a number of other places including

19:31.983 --> 19:40.254
[SPEAKER_01]: This place called Halmeen, which is a specialty clothing shop that sells women edition wearing.

19:40.274 --> 19:48.845
[SPEAKER_01]: I got myself a really nice, new Japan hoodie, and then I also checked out Minoru Suzuki shop and Eugene and God is a little store.

19:49.045 --> 19:56.775
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got definitely, I got a little bit of wear that, and then there was a giant Boba pop-up those right next to the Tocon shop.

19:56.755 --> 19:59.860
[SPEAKER_01]: that you had to climb five flights of stairs to go into.

20:00.000 --> 20:05.869
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you've spent 4,000 yen, you got to take a picture with all three of the triple crumbels.

20:06.511 --> 20:09.335
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.

20:09.415 --> 20:10.597
[SPEAKER_01]: That's crazy.

20:10.757 --> 20:14.363
[SPEAKER_01]: They loaded it up for the weekend, and then when it was getting there, I got everybody shut down.

20:14.383 --> 20:16.266
[SPEAKER_01]: We got everything we needed out of the school.

20:17.377 --> 20:22.403
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was gonna ask about how many if you had gone there because I bought a T-shirt from their years.

20:22.523 --> 20:23.625
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I know of the store.

20:24.025 --> 20:28.791
[SPEAKER_00]: The T-shirt I got that was just like printed through pro wrestling T's, you know, it's just one of their designs.

20:28.831 --> 20:32.515
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, to go to the actual shop, I've seen some videos on YouTube of it.

20:32.555 --> 20:35.759
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, like Kenny's been associated with them over the years.

20:35.899 --> 20:37.662
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's always supposed to be a cool place.

20:37.682 --> 20:39.023
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really cool, you go there.

20:39.063 --> 20:47.113
[SPEAKER_01]: There were a ton of photos of the rest works that had been there and they put all like polaroids

20:47.093 --> 20:49.536
[SPEAKER_01]: all adorned on the wall with their autographs.

20:50.157 --> 21:03.092
[SPEAKER_01]: My friend Lisa actually had a Kenny Omega shirt where he was like an atherator, whatever, with like the base design behind it, holding a shield on the sword with his trusty cat by his side.

21:03.612 --> 21:06.155
[SPEAKER_01]: And as you told them, I was like, I sure did so sick.

21:06.175 --> 21:15.126
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they did a Shingo Tikagi kind of version of that this week that I was unfortunately unable to get my hand gone, but had I, it would have been mine.

21:16.439 --> 21:16.799
[SPEAKER_03]: Nice.

21:17.701 --> 21:22.587
[SPEAKER_03]: How long have you been a fan of New Japan for and what drew to the product?

21:23.588 --> 21:30.436
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think I started in 2017 really paying attention to New Japan.

21:31.377 --> 21:40.168
[SPEAKER_01]: And the context for me as a wrestling fan was that I was primarily following WWE until

21:40.790 --> 21:55.036
[SPEAKER_01]: or through like, 2010, I bounced in and out, maybe being, you know, of one of those guys, like, if I got born, I just, I didn't do anything at all, rather than like, seek out rig of honor or new Japan or anything like that.

21:55.156 --> 21:57.280
[SPEAKER_01]: So what ended up happening was,

21:57.260 --> 22:01.826
[SPEAKER_01]: I got in in one of those fifths and births, but there wasn't anything else like getting me into it.

22:01.946 --> 22:08.795
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was hearing about the bullet club and I knew about stuff without with the AJ Styles and all the stuff.

22:08.815 --> 22:20.690
[SPEAKER_01]: And him coming to WWE was like interesting, but it even him coming to WWE was like, I don't quite see the charisma of like being the heel that he was.

22:20.730 --> 22:22.592
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to see what he was doing.

22:22.572 --> 22:36.424
[SPEAKER_01]: in New Japan that got him to the dance, you know, like sometimes the work that you do to get you to the dance in WWE is more, if better than once you get there, I mean, it's a common thing that you see some time.

22:36.524 --> 22:45.713
[SPEAKER_01]: So I started to deep dive in, you know, did my toe-in, who's Ocata, who's Nino, who's AJ, Nakamura, as you just left, oh, interesting.

22:45.733 --> 22:51.938
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to see him at the

22:52.087 --> 23:15.968
[SPEAKER_01]: uh give and take of information that you need for content going forward and then you're like oh that's interesting oh that's interesting oh they're a little stiff right that you know what I mean like you can start seeing that stuff and then I start following you know going into 2017 and 2018 and then I think by the time Kenny Omega got in the title and then dropped it

23:15.948 --> 23:21.434
[SPEAKER_01]: because he was leaving and all that contract with the backstage with the new Japan.

23:22.275 --> 23:24.457
[SPEAKER_01]: And then Tonahashi flipped it over to Jay White.

23:24.477 --> 23:26.019
[SPEAKER_01]: And we had this new era.

23:26.520 --> 23:36.531
[SPEAKER_01]: And it just felt like a good jumping on point where I could just watch and if I got bored with anything else, I had this, you know, just seemed very stable.

23:36.551 --> 23:40.335
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it was going, it was going and it was going.

23:41.108 --> 24:01.311
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was just watching it and I didn't understand a wick of the wick of Japanese, you know, like I found that Chris Charlton was very informative at the time, but he wasn't always there was Kevin Kelly at the time and I just I got locked in and when everything else just felt like it.

24:02.135 --> 24:07.781
[SPEAKER_01]: was going all over the place, whether it be a WWE or AEW or anything else that I was watching those sport with.

24:08.262 --> 24:19.375
[SPEAKER_01]: New Japan just kind of did a thing, just kept doing a thing, just doing a thing, and then a couple of years later I got bored and decided, hey, maybe I'll do a podcast.

24:19.395 --> 24:31.028
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just celebrated our 200th episode guys, we did a 200 episode this past week.

24:31.396 --> 24:37.464
[SPEAKER_00]: I say on the podcast all the time, I'm pretty sure the average length, I think most podcasts never go beyond.

24:37.504 --> 24:39.086
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like 15 or 20 episodes.

24:39.427 --> 24:42.771
[SPEAKER_00]: So you get the 200 is a heck of an alcohol.

24:42.791 --> 24:43.632
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you have to post?

24:43.712 --> 24:43.913
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

24:43.933 --> 24:49.660
[SPEAKER_01]: If I, on the first time out, I ever do like commit to something like this, I can do 20 episodes.

24:49.780 --> 24:50.181
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey.

24:50.161 --> 24:50.762
[SPEAKER_01]: good for me.

24:51.183 --> 24:52.986
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, let's see how this goes.

24:53.287 --> 24:55.311
[SPEAKER_01]: Never met Stephen before in my life.

24:56.213 --> 24:57.936
[SPEAKER_01]: We just partnered up and did a show together.

24:57.956 --> 25:00.521
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, all right, well, we'll see how it goes the next time.

25:00.982 --> 25:03.487
[SPEAKER_01]: Still never met him in person, but got some stuff.

25:03.507 --> 25:05.551
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to send to him from wrestle kingdom.

25:05.611 --> 25:07.675
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he's turned into a pretty good friend.

25:07.755 --> 25:11.983
[SPEAKER_01]: And if it wasn't for his support and telling me to go, I don't know if I would have gone.

25:13.398 --> 25:26.680
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is one of the things that you did over there that I mean, people don't follow you on social media is you guys did the podcasting summit with a bunch of the the larger New Japan theme podcasts and you talk about how that was where you guys had it.

25:27.201 --> 25:29.685
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it looked like it was a pretty big success from what I saw.

25:30.446 --> 25:37.077
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so the keep it a strong style guy who are part of the social group.

25:38.255 --> 25:39.496
[SPEAKER_01]: that's their website.

25:39.556 --> 25:47.924
[SPEAKER_01]: They are actually the website that was responsible for the long-form article about how the Nakamura Ocada, Tana Hashi Negotiate went down.

25:48.424 --> 25:50.606
[SPEAKER_01]: So they're very involved in Purell.

25:51.087 --> 25:58.313
[SPEAKER_01]: We also had the WeWork stiff podcast, which is long-form theory podcast where they just talk about characterization.

25:58.393 --> 26:08.262
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't really care about finishes or knowing anything in the head time, but they want the context to why every wrestler

26:08.242 --> 26:10.526
[SPEAKER_01]: narratively doing what they're doing.

26:10.666 --> 26:18.599
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you have the flagship superjacast out of voices of wrestling, Joel from that podcast came through.

26:18.619 --> 26:22.104
[SPEAKER_01]: And we all just kind of said, hey, we're all going to be there.

26:22.805 --> 26:25.069
[SPEAKER_01]: Why don't we just kind of,

26:26.315 --> 26:31.106
[SPEAKER_01]: get together and fight everyone to come over and just kind of make this community feel bigger.

26:31.988 --> 26:41.569
[SPEAKER_01]: And throughout the entire, um, entire, knock-a-mer-a-tana-hashi-o-kata-we're all speculating and trying to track this for the longest time.

26:41.649 --> 26:43.513
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you and I had talked about it.

26:43.493 --> 27:08.337
[SPEAKER_01]: before it ever became Ocada that I was pretty sure it was Ocada and this is why and then curveballs got thrown in our way but we all got to know each other a little bit better because we were all working with each other to corroborate what was happening you know it's like we all had different sources that were all telling us things that whereas each one of us

27:09.211 --> 27:24.942
[SPEAKER_01]: didn't have the full picture because we trusted each other and we had like briefly worked with each other in the past to just kind of knew that we were all good labs in some sort of way and not really in this for anything other than like, hey, the truth is the truth here, you know?

27:24.922 --> 27:35.620
[SPEAKER_01]: uh, we all just kind of developed a friendly relationship with each other and co-operated to merchandise some uh, a hoodie and any other things that we want.

27:35.780 --> 27:37.303
[SPEAKER_01]: And I run it going enough.

27:37.323 --> 27:40.548
[SPEAKER_01]: New Japan kind of reached out and said, hey, you can't really put our logo on there.

27:41.069 --> 27:45.276
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we had to switch it out and we were never planning on um,

27:45.762 --> 27:47.485
[SPEAKER_01]: making a profit on it or anything.

27:47.505 --> 27:49.269
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe just some peer money for the show.

27:49.770 --> 28:04.378
[SPEAKER_01]: But what we ended up doing was donating all the proceeds to the American Danny feeding America program that they did on social media right around Christmas for for people who needed food around the holiday, if you felt like that.

28:04.358 --> 28:08.843
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it looks just done the money there, like that's absolutely a good place to send that stuff.

28:08.923 --> 28:13.008
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, we all got to know each other and then we all got together at the show.

28:13.048 --> 28:28.226
[SPEAKER_01]: We didn't know how well it was going to turn out, but it felt like we got, I didn't take a count, but I took a photo, felt like 50 to 100 people were there, and it was just, it was really gratifying to see a unified community in everyone who's just there already to have fun.

28:29.688 --> 28:31.110
[SPEAKER_00]: It has a big crowd from what I saw.

28:31.210 --> 28:32.391
[SPEAKER_00]: It looked really, really cool.

28:32.523 --> 28:43.654
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was it felt gratifying and you know, there were there were people that were there for my show, which also felt good, you know, but I'm not just like, oh, they're throwing me in there, you know, like that.

28:43.674 --> 28:44.795
[SPEAKER_01]: No, we're here for a speed stroke.

28:44.835 --> 28:45.836
[SPEAKER_01]: So, but oh, you are.

28:45.976 --> 28:48.358
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, hi, how are you?

28:48.378 --> 28:51.842
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, no, you told me, you're like, oh, people are recognizing me.

28:51.902 --> 28:52.622
[SPEAKER_00]: This is crazy.

28:53.543 --> 28:54.364
[SPEAKER_01]: It was wild.

28:54.765 --> 28:55.966
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's awesome.

28:56.466 --> 28:58.328
[SPEAKER_01]: When you do shows, you know, like,

28:59.253 --> 29:04.930
[SPEAKER_01]: you don't know sometimes with the grind or whatever, you're just speaking into the void.

29:05.653 --> 29:12.975
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when you kind of find out that like, they may not say anything, but people know who you are is.

29:13.613 --> 29:13.994
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

29:14.114 --> 29:20.947
[SPEAKER_01]: It feels like you haven't wasted your time completely with doing a NutriPan podcast for 200 episodes.

29:21.287 --> 29:21.608
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

29:21.628 --> 29:24.153
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you know, if you are, it's going to be no who I am.

29:24.333 --> 29:31.386
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was, it was personally and professionally, a very fulfilling trip on that account.

29:32.918 --> 29:50.202
[SPEAKER_03]: It's such a niche product, and especially in America, right over there, it's, yeah, describe that right now, like how people feel in Japan about New Japan pro wrestling, and especially Hiroshi Tanahashi, I mean, you can go into that one as one B.

29:50.485 --> 30:01.230
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that show had the Aaron Wolf factor and the Tonahashi factor that were overwhelmingly a driver for the fifth day.

30:01.290 --> 30:08.848
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you saw the numbers, but Tonahashi announced that it was $3.5 million

30:10.094 --> 30:28.941
[SPEAKER_01]: 3.5 million people on TV is saw he watched it on broadcast television, and I think the New Japan world numbers were 155,000 people watched it on there, which I think might have been one of their highest broadcast like highest subscription totals ever.

30:28.961 --> 30:37.553
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there were more in the low 100s for their viewership count for some of these big shows in the past.

30:38.292 --> 30:43.538
[SPEAKER_01]: This thing was a massive, massive, massive success in Japan.

30:43.839 --> 30:49.606
[SPEAKER_01]: And they looked at all this as a moment of culture and passing.

30:49.686 --> 30:59.338
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you watch the rest of the show, beyond the Kaita Komitami Natch and beyond the Takeshita and Fuji Match,

30:59.318 --> 31:01.440
[SPEAKER_01]: There wasn't a whole lot to that card.

31:01.721 --> 31:05.005
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it was like boom, boom, boom, boom, let's get to this.

31:05.465 --> 31:06.787
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't need to overload it.

31:07.227 --> 31:11.632
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't want anyone burned out for what we have at the very end, which was from all-time or stuff.

31:12.914 --> 31:24.988
[SPEAKER_01]: So to me, I don't look at the business that New Japan did on this show as any indicator of their future success going forward.

31:25.660 --> 31:38.511
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, this was more culture that was more like, this is a ton of Hashimoto and everyone knows who ton of Hashie is, if you've ever been affected by Hiroshi ton of Hashie, you want to be here for this.

31:39.092 --> 31:43.062
[SPEAKER_01]: So could two completely different things in my book.

31:43.042 --> 32:04.172
[SPEAKER_01]: And I really wanted to go to New Year Dash, but my wife had a dinner set up for me that it was like one or the other and she reserved it a year in advance and I love new Japan, but I love my wife more so I came back to that and I just watched that show that, um, but they did the New Year Dash at the Oda, Oda award gematium.

32:04.321 --> 32:05.844
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was a fantastic show.

32:06.204 --> 32:20.710
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the first time that they had a show where there's no night-o, there's no alcada, there's no ta-na-hashi, there's none of these old-guard guys that take up the air on the room.

32:20.690 --> 32:33.367
[SPEAKER_01]: and they had a really exciting dynamic first start where guys who are getting bloody noses getting popped in the face like these guys were going hard and the audience was very much here for it.

32:33.387 --> 32:42.900
[SPEAKER_01]: They disbanded Bullet Club, they brought back the old IWGP title which

32:42.880 --> 32:49.270
[SPEAKER_01]: of the title, so John Maucleus no longer the 9th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.

32:49.751 --> 32:58.425
[SPEAKER_01]: He is now the 81st IWGP Champion or IWGP Heavyweight Champion that removes the world out of it.

32:58.405 --> 33:06.918
[SPEAKER_01]: So, there could clean lineage back to it and Yoda Suji is walking around with that old belt, and I was really worried that they weren't going to do that.

33:06.938 --> 33:09.202
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like that, they were just going to move forward.

33:09.863 --> 33:22.422
[SPEAKER_01]: But for these guys and this just generation, fighting for the title that these other guys held and now that they're gone, that looks so much better and looks so much cleaner than fighting for, you know,

33:22.908 --> 33:28.597
[SPEAKER_01]: the 15th iteration, the 15th reign of the world heavyweight championship.

33:29.198 --> 33:47.689
[SPEAKER_01]: So, the writing the ship, there is every opportunity for 20, 25th to be a really good rebuilding year for New Japan, and I often the first show alone, I do feel good about it, but they're not in a great place financially or with attendance or anything like that.

33:48.370 --> 33:49.472
[SPEAKER_01]: If we're being honest with each other,

33:51.595 --> 33:58.923
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say lately, roughly half the times we talk about New Japan on here, it's commenting on the championship belt.

33:59.703 --> 34:02.987
[SPEAKER_00]: And we have come ever since they switched it out.

34:03.047 --> 34:05.289
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would you get rid of that beautiful belt?

34:05.329 --> 34:15.180
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, to me, the IWGP tied, I think that's what the version for, that is one of the top three world championships of all time.

34:15.320 --> 34:16.641
[SPEAKER_00]: To me, it's

34:16.621 --> 34:20.586
[SPEAKER_00]: in a, in some varying order, it's the WWF winged Eagle.

34:20.827 --> 34:22.769
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the big gold and it's that one.

34:23.110 --> 34:24.973
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I like the WW world title a lot too.

34:24.993 --> 34:26.334
[SPEAKER_00]: That's almost in the conversation.

34:26.435 --> 34:26.995
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

34:27.015 --> 34:33.945
[SPEAKER_00]: But to me, like those three are the best world championship belts of all time.

34:33.965 --> 34:37.350
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was, I was super happy to hear that, you know, that came back.

34:37.410 --> 34:40.774
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't watched New Year Dash yet, but I'll just bring it up on.

34:41.355 --> 34:44.940
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll just bring it up now because Justin said he wanted to,

34:44.920 --> 34:51.667
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted me to ask this and yeah, I do plan on watching because I heard great reviews and just hearing you talk about it now makes really makes me want to watch it.

34:51.707 --> 34:55.030
[SPEAKER_00]: But just wanted me to ask you since he couldn't make the show tonight.

34:56.151 --> 35:02.798
[SPEAKER_00]: What you think about Yoda Suji, you know, declaring that he will only defend the title against New Japan guys.

35:03.118 --> 35:11.727
[SPEAKER_00]: Justin thought at first kind of lame that he wasn't a big fan of that, but since Yoda brought back the old title, he can forgive him because it's such a beautiful title.

35:11.747 --> 35:13.088
[SPEAKER_00]: But what do you think about that?

35:13.321 --> 35:22.039
[SPEAKER_01]: you need someone who's not, who's gonna look at everyone else and say, no, fuck you, you want, you want this, you fight your way to me.

35:22.400 --> 35:24.985
[SPEAKER_01]: He is, he's got to be the big time, right?

35:25.046 --> 35:26.990
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no one else in this vacuum.

35:27.010 --> 35:33.844
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got to step up, he's got to say the things that make you talk about, go to Suji in a way where you like raise your eye or how.

35:33.824 --> 35:36.449
[SPEAKER_01]: or you wonder, where is he going with this?

35:36.890 --> 35:39.055
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's in the conversation now, you know what I mean?

35:39.075 --> 35:41.660
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, people saw that match with Takeshita.

35:41.961 --> 35:48.073
[SPEAKER_01]: You saw what a lot of people who've been watching New Japan have seen from day one.

35:48.093 --> 35:52.362
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you remember, when he returned, Sonata was the champion.

35:52.723 --> 35:55.208
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's been a long time since he's been here.

35:55.188 --> 35:57.151
[SPEAKER_01]: And he had that opportunity to be in.

35:57.191 --> 35:59.835
[SPEAKER_01]: And there were a lot of people advocating to put the belt on him now.

36:00.697 --> 36:01.498
[SPEAKER_01]: And they didn't.

36:02.319 --> 36:07.087
[SPEAKER_01]: And for whatever you can argue back and forth, whether it was the right call or not, they finally did.

36:07.127 --> 36:09.992
[SPEAKER_01]: He's the first of those guys in that generation of when that belt.

36:10.573 --> 36:13.037
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's got to be the guy to rise up to the child.

36:13.077 --> 36:13.838
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got to.

36:14.982 --> 36:17.507
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to title make the man or the man makes the title.

36:18.409 --> 36:25.785
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's both with him right now, like he's got to have dominant title defense because he's got to look like the guy.

36:25.825 --> 36:31.337
[SPEAKER_01]: And if these guys come to NutriPan and they want to shot at it, sure.

36:31.317 --> 36:34.884
[SPEAKER_01]: But he should not be like, Oh, yeah, come on, bye.

36:34.944 --> 36:37.268
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, you're your top guy and another promotion.

36:37.308 --> 36:39.232
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he doesn't care about the other promotion.

36:39.252 --> 36:41.616
[SPEAKER_01]: He could give two crabs about AEW.

36:41.656 --> 36:48.689
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think in real life, he does not care about AEW in any way, shape or form, because they can be honest about that stuff.

36:48.770 --> 36:50.192
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of those guys really don't.

36:50.793 --> 36:51.655
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they,

36:52.360 --> 36:53.462
[SPEAKER_01]: breaking the walls a little bit.

36:54.143 --> 36:58.791
[SPEAKER_01]: They uh, they'll work at a W, but they won't work for a UW.

36:58.811 --> 36:59.732
[SPEAKER_01]: If that makes any sense.

37:00.734 --> 37:01.195
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

37:01.215 --> 37:01.615
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

37:01.635 --> 37:06.563
[SPEAKER_01]: So he is, he is going to carry himself like he is the man.

37:07.084 --> 37:12.934
[SPEAKER_01]: And that means not compromising what you're going to say, even if it pisses us.

37:15.057 --> 37:16.519
[SPEAKER_03]: It makes me incredibly happy to hear.

37:16.579 --> 37:21.306
[SPEAKER_03]: I think, and you have been a lot closer to this scene than I have.

37:21.907 --> 37:27.275
[SPEAKER_03]: When AW became an entity and they formed a partnership, I'm going to use that in parentheses with New Japan.

37:27.976 --> 37:29.599
[SPEAKER_03]: I think AW is taking advantage of it.

37:29.699 --> 37:31.281
[SPEAKER_03]: They've done the same thing with CMLL.

37:31.361 --> 37:37.971
[SPEAKER_03]: And it almost seems to me like AW has and done too many favors for either of these promotions.

37:38.532 --> 37:44.541
[SPEAKER_03]: How, what do you think of this working relationship

37:45.787 --> 37:54.575
[SPEAKER_01]: pragmatically, I will get it from both sides, because I do an AEW paper view recap with Gary Gonzalez for every show.

37:54.615 --> 37:58.648
[SPEAKER_01]: So I do see both sides of this, and I do have a little bit of insight.

37:59.962 --> 38:02.346
[SPEAKER_01]: Tony Carter's a fantastic businessman.

38:03.167 --> 38:11.580
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what he's been able to accomplish with AEW far exceeds the expectations of what anyone thought he could do and the success he's reached.

38:12.041 --> 38:21.235
[SPEAKER_01]: He's gotten more paper view bias than most any other company out said to WWE in years and has maintained a consistent viewership for the show.

38:21.395 --> 38:23.218
[SPEAKER_01]: So that is to be applauded.

38:24.127 --> 38:40.843
[SPEAKER_01]: With that said, he is still a business man with his priorities being his own product, and so he will dip and he will take and he will do what he needs to do in order to feel like he is both appearing his partnership and getting what he needs out of it as well.

38:41.244 --> 38:43.148
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a very

38:43.313 --> 38:55.014
[SPEAKER_01]: powerful and exceptionally smart man who may feel like he does not need to do extra thing beyond the basic to accomplish his goals.

38:55.655 --> 39:01.425
[SPEAKER_01]: I do not believe that New Japan has fully benefited from their partnership with AEW.

39:01.746 --> 39:04.090
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there is an opportunity to

39:04.070 --> 39:18.495
[SPEAKER_01]: make a storyline a bit more out of it where they could legitimately do a war between AEW and New Japan, maybe with like guy like Takeshida and then Trade, although kind of being split between like the line now that they're involved in some way, shape, or form.

39:19.116 --> 39:26.588
[SPEAKER_01]: There are opportunities to do that kind of thing and in the pro wrestling business and all honesty, it probably gonna happen, you know?

39:26.608 --> 39:28.812
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no.

39:29.500 --> 39:57.651
[SPEAKER_01]: Tony Conn is right, Newt fan of wrong or Newt fan of right, Tony Conn is wrong, it's just a myopic picture of gray area that you just depending on what side of the business deal you're on, you're going to find the advantages or disadvantages or see why one side is in the right and one side is the wrong you have to remove the tribalism and just understand that there are complex things going on between these companies that.

39:57.631 --> 40:16.028
[SPEAKER_01]: that far exceed Tony Khan said yes or no to something and have more to do with the Japanese side trying to be honorable in their business dealings and expect an honorable transaction in the end rather than I'm going to get everything that I want and you're not going to get anything at all.

40:16.598 --> 40:20.726
[SPEAKER_01]: CMLL and Needspan, unfortunately, are not the big fish in the relationship.

40:21.067 --> 40:24.394
[SPEAKER_01]: Tony Conne is much more powerful than that.

40:25.195 --> 40:28.342
[SPEAKER_01]: So you just have to live with the reality of it.

40:28.682 --> 40:32.430
[SPEAKER_01]: As long as there are in a partnership with each other, the dynamic is going to be that way.

40:33.912 --> 40:51.178
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think at the same time it's it's interesting because that dynamic seems to have kind of flipped from early on in a w because I mean I do recall when a w for started there was no partnership and this was a common talking point among fans like the only time I've ever done the media scrum.

40:51.158 --> 41:13.521
[SPEAKER_00]: with AEW was revolution 2020 and I remember during that scrum people are asking Tony about are you guys going to work with new Japan and he made some comment I don't remember exactly how he said it but paraphrasing here something along lines of I'd love to work with new Japan you know we've been generous with them and because at that time, Moxley was going over there but they weren't getting any new Japan guys and um

41:13.501 --> 41:31.288
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he's like, I like to do something, but he basically said like they weren't returning his calls kind of thing until, you know, then eventually obviously forbidden door happened and things kind of opened up and since then, yeah, I agree with what you guys are saying, New Japan definitely has not benefited like AEW has from the relationships.

41:31.308 --> 41:32.771
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's flipped around.

41:33.412 --> 41:36.977
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what do you think the odds are that they would run up forbidden door at Tokyo don't?

41:40.973 --> 41:44.999
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it could happen in the next five years, but I don't think it happens in the next two years.

41:45.881 --> 41:46.402
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's fair.

41:47.684 --> 41:49.206
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it'd be super cool.

41:49.527 --> 41:55.296
[SPEAKER_00]: I think New Japan has to work through this period there in before doing something like that.

41:55.576 --> 42:06.053
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes, I think that they need, I think they need, and I think they are well aware that they have to build confidence with the brand, going forward, it cannot be,

42:06.033 --> 42:12.541
[SPEAKER_01]: part of the roster and then a bunch of indie talent and talent that you might see on G.C.W.

42:12.881 --> 42:16.546
[SPEAKER_01]: Ring of Honor lower on the card of A.E.W.

42:16.606 --> 42:18.128
[SPEAKER_01]: trying to fill out the roster.

42:18.148 --> 42:29.442
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not the authentic New Japan experience that people want and doing the Despae imitation on days is a really good start doing the G1 show.

42:29.422 --> 42:31.445
[SPEAKER_01]: uh it's also good start.

42:32.087 --> 42:34.751
[SPEAKER_01]: Are they going to try Madison Square Garden again sometime?

42:35.012 --> 42:47.633
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I think that probably something that they need to try first before, you know, they bring AEW there because AEW is a bit more niche, you know, they don't have.

42:47.613 --> 42:52.241
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't have the audience factor where they can help fill out the token of them.

42:52.261 --> 43:03.519
[SPEAKER_01]: It will still need to be the New Japan talent with a strong build rather than anybody over there, other than Ocaran, Osprey and those guys.

43:03.539 --> 43:07.225
[SPEAKER_01]: And they did set a program that they think that you can move forward.

43:07.205 --> 43:23.552
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the idea to me that Aaron Wolfe and Okada seems incredibly viable, moving forward, and that's the guy that Okada put over, you know, for the next generation of wrestling, you know, if he can be gone and he's famously not found a guy that he won't put over.

43:24.354 --> 43:32.267
[SPEAKER_01]: Aaron Wolfe might be the guy, you know, and that's something you could do at a forbidden door, but I almost think that you just want to do that.

43:33.108 --> 43:40.058
[SPEAKER_01]: because the rest of Kingdom is always going to be a bigger show than the crossover show with the other brand.

43:40.619 --> 43:41.420
[SPEAKER_01]: If that makes it a joke.

43:41.800 --> 43:42.061
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

43:43.162 --> 44:02.710
[SPEAKER_03]: Back to something you said earlier about Yoda Suji losing to Sonata in his world championship opportunity a few years ago, and I almost liken it to, like, Okada when he came back from his excursion within five, six months, he defeated Tana Hashie in 2012 to win the

44:02.690 --> 44:04.453
[SPEAKER_03]: going with somebody that young.

44:05.375 --> 44:13.290
[SPEAKER_03]: In your opinion, do you feel that New Japan didn't quite want to repeat that history for the potential backlash or do you think he wasn't ready?

44:13.450 --> 44:21.966
[SPEAKER_03]: Just kind of give me your thoughts on that and then you think that this moment here, which I thought was obviously the right choice in excellent, was justified.

44:22.286 --> 44:24.951
[SPEAKER_03]: It should have been here at rest of Kingdom 20.

44:26.163 --> 44:30.488
[SPEAKER_01]: The last chance for this to happen is the best way that I could put it.

44:31.829 --> 44:55.815
[SPEAKER_01]: If he didn't win here, Yoda Fuji, like we would have been doomed, or would have been cataclysmically damaged as a main adventure, because of the optics of losing on the stage alongside the other guy winning or having the send off of, when Yoda Fuji won that match, you knew that there was a guy going forward.

44:56.673 --> 44:58.154
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make you, you know what I mean?

44:58.174 --> 45:14.268
[SPEAKER_01]: So the idea of whether it should have been years ago or not, I think have more to do with whether New Japan was comfortable building around the sky at the time.

45:14.788 --> 45:21.134
[SPEAKER_01]: They could still had, night out, they could still had Ocada, you know, offspray was still there.

45:21.194 --> 45:26.258
[SPEAKER_01]: So they had a lot more options

45:27.807 --> 45:29.553
[SPEAKER_01]: over time, all of those people left.

45:30.697 --> 45:36.799
[SPEAKER_01]: And suddenly that void at the top of people that could put him over, we're no longer there.

45:37.160 --> 45:38.003
[SPEAKER_01]: And

45:38.168 --> 45:43.936
[SPEAKER_01]: they put a show to Umano with offering a bunch of programs before he left and not Yota Suji.

45:43.956 --> 45:48.822
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was in the same faction as NIDO, so you couldn't really have him to put over.

45:49.023 --> 45:50.204
[SPEAKER_01]: And O'Conan didn't do it.

45:50.965 --> 45:55.331
[SPEAKER_01]: So you kind of missed a window there and you had to find the right opportunity in the right guy.

45:55.972 --> 46:04.383
[SPEAKER_01]: So when Dekeshia showed up in the G1, not this year, but last year, and they had their match in, I believe, they had a couple of matches last year.

46:04.944 --> 46:08.108
[SPEAKER_01]: You saw something.

46:08.088 --> 46:28.458
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of people saw that Takeshira was incredibly special, and since he's not there all the time, he was used to build up Yoda Fuji in Apprentia with the Yoda Fuji being able to be in the mouth, he's like, no, I'm going to take the rank, I'm going to be in the guy, I'm going to do everything that I need to do, and I'm going to bring like the way you're seeing cropped.

46:28.478 --> 46:36.390
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they should have done it in hindsight back then, but I understand the full strength of confidence that they had that they didn't need to.

46:36.910 --> 46:42.627
[SPEAKER_01]: the booking in between then and now for the most part, part of my language, probably an excuseable.

46:45.656 --> 46:45.756
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

46:47.339 --> 46:49.722
[SPEAKER_00]: I suppose we should talk about this main event a little bit.

46:49.783 --> 46:53.187
[SPEAKER_00]: As much as I am in joy, and this has been a great conversation.

46:54.069 --> 46:57.113
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, we're not going to talk about the whole card.

46:57.153 --> 47:00.598
[SPEAKER_00]: You ran through it on speaking of a strong style.

47:00.658 --> 47:03.623
[SPEAKER_00]: You did a show while you were still in Japan, which was pretty...

47:03.643 --> 47:04.684
[SPEAKER_00]: I was dying.

47:04.704 --> 47:04.985
[SPEAKER_00]: I was dying.

47:05.565 --> 47:07.408
[SPEAKER_00]: Skyline behind you on all of that.

47:07.528 --> 47:09.651
[SPEAKER_00]: And you guys will be live on Thursday night.

47:09.671 --> 47:13.617
[SPEAKER_00]: So people should check that out or check out the podcast feeds for the show.

47:13.597 --> 47:17.104
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I, you know, I've only watched the last two matches on the show.

47:17.144 --> 47:18.507
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all I've had time to watch so far.

47:18.567 --> 47:19.850
[SPEAKER_00]: Love them both.

47:20.311 --> 47:23.758
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, Suji defeating Takesha was a freaking out standing match.

47:24.259 --> 47:27.606
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, you know, with Ocada and Tana Hashi that

47:27.940 --> 47:45.078
[SPEAKER_00]: No, we know Tana Hash has been pretty hobbled when he's worked the last couple of years, but Ocata is so good that you figured, you know, these are two guys who have made a benefit of the Tokyo dump so many times before, or if anyone can get just one last great performance out of Tana Hashi, it's Ocata.

47:45.098 --> 47:46.880
[SPEAKER_00]: They had that familiarity in history.

47:47.841 --> 47:55.129
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, a lot of people are talking, since it just happened, they're comparing this to the

47:55.598 --> 48:10.823
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, Tanahashi losing the match, which is tradition and progress, and we talked about that one scene a lost, but still, and, you know, I've seen people talking about this in our discord to how like, you know, it wasn't really the, some people thought scene to should have won.

48:11.410 --> 48:19.398
[SPEAKER_00]: But other people thought, you know, he didn't win and they just, they didn't feel like they treated his send off as big as they should have like post-match, pre-match, all of that.

48:20.319 --> 48:24.243
[SPEAKER_00]: This was perfectly done in my opinion.

48:24.564 --> 48:28.207
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that pre-match video was so good.

48:28.307 --> 48:30.670
[SPEAKER_00]: The match itself was phenomenal.

48:31.731 --> 48:37.637
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Tana Hashie, he turned back the clock a little bit in this one, with some of those moves he did, especially off the top to the outside.

48:38.512 --> 48:44.345
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I mean, my god, the post match with all those dudes coming out, just a shame that we didn't get knock on Merrill.

48:44.846 --> 48:52.723
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a whole different conversation, but yeah, yeah, I mean, WWE where can you say, but.

48:52.855 --> 49:13.632
[SPEAKER_00]: All the guys who have a reason to be there, you know what I mean, like each one of them had their moment and for the pageantry, they're all, they're all in the competition and you know, oh yeah, but I mean, I thought, pre match the match the post match all phenomenal, I guess, I mean, this is a, this is a big question, but just.

49:13.612 --> 49:27.874
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of put us in your seat and like what it was like sitting there at ringside, seeing that video come up, what you were feeling during the match, maybe anything that stood out during the match that we wouldn't have noticed watching on television, and then, you know, your thoughts on the post-match ceremony.

49:28.580 --> 49:47.533
[SPEAKER_01]: So all three of the last matches all had something a little bit special to him, you know, that you had that Aaron Wolf evil match and you were seeing like you were seeing how 50,000 people who were behind this Olympic star wanted to see him win.

49:47.513 --> 49:57.403
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was unlike anything that I had seen before, and when he hit the angle slam, which he actually did hit an angle slam in that match, and he did that frog splash.

49:57.783 --> 50:01.407
[SPEAKER_01]: You just saw, you just saw people like, oh yeah, that can be our guy.

50:01.427 --> 50:03.208
[SPEAKER_01]: I like, we're behind you now.

50:03.248 --> 50:10.115
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you had the Takeshita and Fuji match, which is basically made in Japan versus made in New Japan.

50:10.836 --> 50:14.179
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you had the main event, which

50:14.868 --> 50:17.661
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to talk about that scene of match in WWE.

50:17.701 --> 50:22.122
[SPEAKER_01]: That match was in hindsight, it wasn't about the scene of retirement.

50:22.423 --> 50:24.051
[SPEAKER_01]: It was about getting Gunther over.

50:26.275 --> 50:28.377
[SPEAKER_01]: This was not about getting anybody over.

50:28.857 --> 50:46.814
[SPEAKER_01]: This was about sending off Conahashi with the best match that these people could possibly see Okauna, 1000% knew the assignment of he needed to make sure that these people remembered every last bit of the thing and got to soak it in one last Conahashi performance.

50:47.354 --> 50:51.278
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, what they said about John Cena and Cody wrote a separate claim.

50:51.298 --> 50:55.962
[SPEAKER_01]: Not as good as he once was, but for one night, it's good as he ever was.

50:55.942 --> 50:59.801
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's exactly what the Tonahashi and Okada match was.

51:01.148 --> 51:03.640
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a seat that were basically

51:04.160 --> 51:19.977
[SPEAKER_01]: uh eight people deep from the ramp and from my line of sight was exactly where Ocata and Tonahashi did the tombstone pile driver spot and then the count out a crawl that Tonahashi did.

51:20.437 --> 51:26.504
[SPEAKER_01]: I could see the beginning and I could track the camera with my phone all the way to the 19 when he crawled into the ring.

51:26.564 --> 51:31.669
[SPEAKER_01]: That's like you can smell the sweat is what I'm saying here.

51:33.522 --> 51:39.272
[SPEAKER_01]: The, the pulling cheers from the crowd is what I remember the most.

51:39.974 --> 51:49.792
[SPEAKER_01]: When Tonahashi would do a strike or you would do a singling blade, you would hear that, oh, in the, in the, in the television broadcast.

51:50.333 --> 51:54.400
[SPEAKER_01]: But what I'm telling you is you could feel it on the ground floor.

51:54.650 --> 51:57.416
[SPEAKER_01]: when they're doing it because they're all doing it in beautiful.

51:57.436 --> 52:01.386
[SPEAKER_01]: So you had that slight, that slight little wind get like that.

52:01.486 --> 52:06.718
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know what I'm saying that little like shifted the air pressure right around you and it was.

52:07.475 --> 52:08.617
[SPEAKER_01]: it was something.

52:08.637 --> 52:20.819
[SPEAKER_01]: I I've been in the rafters for, uh, maniac 28, which of rock versus Sina, and I felt floored that Florida like open air don't like arena just shaking to its core.

52:21.360 --> 52:28.453
[SPEAKER_01]: But because this was all in a dome and it was all covered, I just felt the impact of everyone reacting.

52:28.433 --> 52:30.919
[SPEAKER_01]: to the thing, just around me at the time.

52:31.400 --> 52:37.553
[SPEAKER_01]: And there were a lot of people that I knew that went to the show that cried during the match and during ceremony.

52:37.974 --> 52:38.516
[SPEAKER_01]: But I didn't.

52:38.696 --> 52:47.235
[SPEAKER_01]: I almost felt like I was so locked in and trying to take in every bit of like what was happening here because it was so

52:48.110 --> 52:50.914
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a really, just like, this is a moment.

52:51.074 --> 52:55.339
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, just not like clock all that that you can.

52:55.359 --> 52:58.483
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like don't care if my battery dies.

52:58.583 --> 52:59.985
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a battery pack or whatever.

53:00.005 --> 53:08.696
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, again, as much of this as you can to history because this is, this is, no one else is gonna be doing this right now.

53:08.756 --> 53:17.087
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I saw people with their cameras, but it just, it felt like I had an opportunity here and watching this match,

53:19.227 --> 53:23.776
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to about 20 minutes and you didn't know how much longer that they were going to go.

53:24.057 --> 53:25.860
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they were going to go at least 20.

53:26.241 --> 53:32.934
[SPEAKER_01]: They ended up going like 33 minutes and 3 seconds and you had red shoes reacting to everything.

53:33.035 --> 53:35.700
[SPEAKER_01]: And you had Tana Hashi,

53:36.895 --> 53:55.883
[SPEAKER_01]: Do in the swing blade like the Nakamura and the Shabbata stuff and you're watching it and you're seeing it and you just you know it's getting closer right you know it's just that the moment to the end and I think whenever one knew it will done.

53:55.863 --> 54:09.166
[SPEAKER_01]: was when Ocata couldn't get Tata Hashita stay down being the AEW Ocata and he kind of he did the old Ocata dropkick.

54:09.387 --> 54:15.357
[SPEAKER_01]: He did the old Ocata elbow from the top and then he did the rainmaker pose.

54:15.337 --> 54:42.154
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when he did that rainmaker pose this place went unbelievably like the energy in the room just looks like at an all time high because you weren't sure if you were going to get that you weren't sure what you like okay i'm not going to give you this but you know at the end I have to do this because i'm not going to lose to this guy and he hit it and everyone knew and red shoe hit that three and it looks just like

54:43.754 --> 54:51.024
[SPEAKER_01]: And after that, they went immediately into the ceremony.

54:51.044 --> 54:53.026
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you had Tony Hawk in the ring.

54:53.066 --> 54:55.309
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got his hand over his face.

54:55.369 --> 54:57.953
[SPEAKER_01]: He got a photo of him just laying down.

54:57.993 --> 55:00.356
[SPEAKER_01]: Humped over the face.

55:00.376 --> 55:01.517
[SPEAKER_01]: Just kind of taking it all in.

55:01.537 --> 55:05.182
[SPEAKER_01]: I got a photo of a college just like sitting up after the match.

55:05.623 --> 55:07.726
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just for a brief second.

55:08.487 --> 55:10.710
[SPEAKER_01]: He just got there and he's like, Holy shit, we fucking did it.

55:11.350 --> 55:13.373
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

55:14.078 --> 55:30.383
[SPEAKER_01]: We we fucking killed it just that brief moment and I walked it and he like and he had it, but it's a little out of focus, but you could see it and then he doesn't he doesn't bow over expect and you know you've crying and he had to out of the ring and then all of a sudden no

55:30.363 --> 55:31.644
[SPEAKER_01]: the pageantry at them.

55:32.085 --> 55:34.127
[SPEAKER_01]: And you got the switch played.

55:34.948 --> 55:35.589
[SPEAKER_01]: Looking good.

55:35.649 --> 55:38.031
[SPEAKER_01]: You had Will Offspray, Little Steph.

55:38.051 --> 55:43.938
[SPEAKER_01]: You had Kenny Omega, Gangtoto Abushi, which, oh my god, that was frightening to watch.

55:44.178 --> 55:47.562
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm weeping on the inside when I'm seeing this.

55:48.263 --> 55:50.165
[SPEAKER_01]: You had Fujianami and Mudo.

55:50.185 --> 55:57.653
[SPEAKER_01]: You had

55:57.633 --> 56:15.996
[SPEAKER_01]: He gets his flowers, he does the air guitar over and over and when you guys did you're opening ref with that guitar, I was thinking all about trying to hodgey to air guitar that he was doing that air guitar with that little musical rest and then he does his thing, he walks up to the ramp.

56:15.976 --> 56:24.794
[SPEAKER_01]: And you think it's over, but Kikuchi, who's a guy who dresses in the, in the, in the Newspand sports suit and kind of directs the traffic.

56:25.595 --> 56:30.625
[SPEAKER_01]: Rebeside put him off into this little cart that was pushed by all the Newspand hauntime members.

56:31.046 --> 56:36.617
[SPEAKER_01]: And he literally did a victory lap around the outfield line, around the, around the ring.

56:36.597 --> 56:56.547
[SPEAKER_01]: he comes back up to the ramp and I shit you not he got the grease enter exit where he's like flowing off into the sunset with a smoke machine obscuring him and the doors closing behind him and you're just you're said they're going 10 stars 10 stars like just whatever that was like

56:58.180 --> 57:01.345
[SPEAKER_01]: That, well, that comes this guy off into the sunset.

57:01.966 --> 57:02.787
[SPEAKER_01]: One thousand percent.

57:02.847 --> 57:15.686
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no, there's no, if, if in or but, if you felt like you didn't get any, something out of that retirement, I don't know what to tell you because they threw everything, but you, but the kitchen sink into that thing.

57:16.408 --> 57:24.660
[SPEAKER_01]: It was in all time of a moment and that stage was so beautiful that it just made everything look, it popped in real life.

57:26.058 --> 57:44.539
[SPEAKER_03]: one serious and one on serious question we're going to go serious question first the only person you didn't mention and i'm glad you didn't because i can bring this question up is catchy ory shibata and tana hashi by far to me look like he was the most emotional when shibata came out so my serious question is

57:44.519 --> 57:54.397
[SPEAKER_03]: go through a little bit of their relationship and as to why Tana Hashie acted this way and then the unserious question you gotta ask it because you already said 10 stars already.

57:54.858 --> 57:58.444
[SPEAKER_03]: Does everything get that extra star because it was in the Tokyo dome?

57:59.504 --> 58:03.871
[SPEAKER_01]: The last three matches, I'll get extra points for being in the Tokyo dome.

58:04.271 --> 58:11.222
[SPEAKER_01]: The other side of the con time match, I don't think so, because I think that match killed regardless of where it was, kind of thing.

58:12.244 --> 58:17.712
[SPEAKER_01]: So for the start, what will the catchy or ishibata?

58:17.732 --> 58:18.593
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, there we go.

58:19.014 --> 58:20.236
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, I forgot about him.

58:21.317 --> 58:25.564
[SPEAKER_01]: So we talked quickly about Nakamura not being there.

58:26.225 --> 58:26.946
[SPEAKER_01]: And

58:28.276 --> 58:34.604
[SPEAKER_01]: he ended up not being there, but he was part of the three macheteers alongside Tonahashi and Shibada.

58:34.624 --> 58:35.866
[SPEAKER_01]: And they all came up together.

58:35.906 --> 58:38.068
[SPEAKER_01]: They were all in the development together.

58:38.128 --> 58:46.339
[SPEAKER_01]: Shibada never reached that level of title, holder ship or anything that the other two did, but he was just as important to them.

58:46.479 --> 58:52.967
[SPEAKER_01]: And through everything that happened through the first 17 years of their career before Shibada,

58:53.420 --> 59:02.628
[SPEAKER_01]: had the traumatic brain injury and was no longer allowed to work in New Japan for many complex reasons that I unfortunately don't have time to get into here right now.

59:03.749 --> 59:06.472
[SPEAKER_01]: He parted way and went over to AEW.

59:06.672 --> 59:20.625
[SPEAKER_01]: So for Shibata to be allowed back to be in the Tokyo dome to be able to come back when he was there at a day one guy working while tied in the New Japan dojo with none of them knew if they were going to be

59:20.605 --> 59:24.512
[SPEAKER_01]: into this business, let alone the accomplisher that they've reached.

59:25.313 --> 59:43.845
[SPEAKER_01]: It was emotional for both of them because they've seen a lot of people not make it for a number of reasons and they've seen a number of people not be able to see through their careers to make it to 20-30 years, everything that they did and to see that

59:44.416 --> 59:45.678
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll go a worth it in the end.

59:46.299 --> 59:56.553
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like that, the kind of, that was the kind of relationship that they were getting to share with right now, like, Tana Hashi, the real point in his life where he wasn't sure if Shabado was going to be able to see the day.

59:57.234 --> 59:57.814
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

59:57.854 --> 01:00:00.899
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if Shabado was ever going to, like, this was opportunity.

01:00:01.519 --> 01:00:12.955
[SPEAKER_01]: And at least one of those guys, you know, that one of those day one people that was going to mentor was going to teach her, but was your guy of on tidy shoulder to shoulder.

01:00:14.437 --> 01:00:25.517
[SPEAKER_01]: It's validating and it's called like a quote from the chapter and it could all feel like you've done everything that you need to do.

01:00:25.537 --> 01:00:30.546
[SPEAKER_01]: Like everything every last I will dotted and let every last hear things crossed.

01:00:32.550 --> 01:00:34.453
[SPEAKER_00]: Well said, really well said.

01:00:34.771 --> 01:00:48.207
[SPEAKER_00]: When you're walking out of that building, and I'm thinking too about what you know what you were saying with the reaction of the crowd because anyone who's watching New Japan show, you know, totally different environment than watching a US show or show that happens in England or anything like that.

01:00:48.307 --> 01:00:49.911
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you don't have that.

01:00:50.296 --> 01:00:54.222
[SPEAKER_00]: constant noise from the crowd, but when something big happens, everybody reacts.

01:00:54.262 --> 01:00:57.307
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of like you were describing with almost healing that in the venue.

01:00:57.588 --> 01:01:01.494
[SPEAKER_00]: And I noticed that too, you would sent me a video you took of the pile driver.

01:01:01.554 --> 01:01:12.372
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, like you can hear that, you know, coming across, it's just when you've watched on TV so many times to see it, like on a cell phone video and just hear everyone react in unison, it's kind of kind of cool.

01:01:12.352 --> 01:01:20.527
[SPEAKER_00]: When you would walk out of a show like this in the US, you would have kind of that like buzz as people are walking through the tunnel or the concourse or whatever.

01:01:20.687 --> 01:01:22.030
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone's talking about the show.

01:01:22.370 --> 01:01:24.074
[SPEAKER_00]: What's a like in Japan after the show?

01:01:24.094 --> 01:01:28.622
[SPEAKER_00]: And especially after something like this as you're exiting the dome.

01:01:28.602 --> 01:01:35.534
[SPEAKER_01]: Very controlled organized effort, including people behaving much better than they would in America.

01:01:35.554 --> 01:01:43.447
[SPEAKER_01]: Doing it the best comparison that I could say is that I want to do an NFC championship football game.

01:01:43.487 --> 01:01:49.277
[SPEAKER_01]: And it felt like the same energy trying to empty out like a big, still football stadium.

01:01:50.270 --> 01:02:04.646
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, like just that energy of some people are down, some people are up like the euphoria there for a bunch of people, some people are sad that, you know, things ended the way that they did, but there's also that like tired energy.

01:02:04.746 --> 01:02:10.072
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we have we have dedicated every last bit of energy that we have for the show now.

01:02:10.092 --> 01:02:15.838
[SPEAKER_01]: We just kind of, let's let's quite we like reflect upon it.

01:02:16.848 --> 01:02:19.874
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, did you, you and some of the guys that do the podcast?

01:02:19.914 --> 01:02:24.943
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you all meet up after the show and go get a drink or were you pretty much back to the hotel and out for the night?

01:02:25.564 --> 01:02:35.363
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, we tried to coordinate a little bit and so I tried and met up with the keeping up strong style guys and we went back to the place that we did the, um,

01:02:36.153 --> 01:02:39.479
[SPEAKER_01]: We did the meet-up earlier, but a little too packed and we ended up leaving.

01:02:39.499 --> 01:02:47.674
[SPEAKER_01]: And we went over on the other side of the dome to this place called Pepper Lunch, which is basically like you go to a kiosk, you sit down at a spot.

01:02:48.054 --> 01:02:52.602
[SPEAKER_01]: And they bring you like a sizzling plate of steak with some rice, some broccoli.

01:02:52.763 --> 01:02:56.389
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's literally just cooking on your steak until you want it to be done.

01:02:56.369 --> 01:02:59.013
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you dip it in your onion sauce or whatever.

01:02:59.113 --> 01:03:02.278
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was basically a really nice meal to have.

01:03:03.019 --> 01:03:11.651
[SPEAKER_01]: I did see Will Osprey and Alquins are right after, right after we did a pepper lunch, but they wanted to get food and we were leaving.

01:03:11.671 --> 01:03:15.777
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's kind of that moment of like, you know, it just let them have their moment kind of thing.

01:03:15.797 --> 01:03:24.790
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, just, hi, bye, even though you had the opportunity, but sometimes you just got to read the room and they don't have to be honest.

01:03:25.698 --> 01:03:40.872
[SPEAKER_01]: But the other guys from, we weren't stiff and Super JKAT stuck around over at the hub and then having Robbie Eagles over there and a couple other people who were just talking after the show.

01:03:41.122 --> 01:03:51.196
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I probably should have gone back to the hub, but my knee was barking, and it was good been a long day, and I was like, you know what, I could just, I could just call it this was a good day.

01:03:51.777 --> 01:03:53.539
[SPEAKER_01]: And I knew I had the podcast in the morning.

01:03:53.619 --> 01:04:06.657
[SPEAKER_01]: So I stayed up and tell about midnight, got up around six kind of got my eye together, packed up my stuff, and set down for the podcast, and then almost immediately after that, I made my way for the airport and got on a plane and got home.

01:04:09.117 --> 01:04:16.690
[SPEAKER_03]: give our audience either a favorite or best Hiroshi Tanahashi match that you would recommend.

01:04:17.732 --> 01:04:20.396
[SPEAKER_01]: Guys, this is the match.

01:04:20.416 --> 01:04:30.895
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no, like if you, you could go watch their first Recklooking to match, you know, Okada and Tanahashi back at Recklooking to 11 or 12 or whatever once.

01:04:31.696 --> 01:04:32.357
[SPEAKER_01]: But

01:04:33.198 --> 01:04:43.237
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to know the impact of what Hiroshi Tanahashi is and has done and what he means to New Japan, you watch the match.

01:04:43.257 --> 01:04:44.499
[SPEAKER_01]: They tell you everything.

01:04:44.819 --> 01:04:51.351
[SPEAKER_01]: They line it all up for you and make it as easier possible to understand the impact that he had over the last 2016.

01:04:52.333 --> 01:04:57.062
[SPEAKER_01]: If you do one more context for this, I actually sat down with one Dave Meltzer.

01:04:57.042 --> 01:05:14.201
[SPEAKER_01]: about two weeks ago, and he and I, along with Steven, just went over his entire career, a moment like whether Brock Lesnar, no showing in Japan in 2006, truly set Tonahashi back, or if he still got to where he needed to be in the first place.

01:05:15.563 --> 01:05:26.475
[SPEAKER_01]: The areas of his career, all of the star ratings, anything you want to know, like the kitchen

01:05:26.455 --> 01:05:37.145
[SPEAKER_01]: This could be the, uh, the appetite to this main podcast of getting all your background information about one Horoshi Tonashi.

01:05:37.165 --> 01:05:37.685
[SPEAKER_00]: Very good.

01:05:37.786 --> 01:05:40.888
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, said, well, hey, man, I don't want to take up any more of your time.

01:05:40.928 --> 01:05:41.629
[SPEAKER_00]: It's your birthday.

01:05:42.270 --> 01:05:45.973
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to spend it with your loved ones and everything, but why?

01:05:46.474 --> 01:05:47.114
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a good time.

01:05:47.154 --> 01:05:55.602
[SPEAKER_01]: And I have really, uh, I've been looking forward to coming on and finding a reason to come chat with you, find gentlemen, and I don't consider this a waste of my time.

01:05:56.780 --> 01:05:57.421
[SPEAKER_00]: It was fun.

01:05:57.521 --> 01:05:58.342
[SPEAKER_00]: Great conversation.

01:05:58.362 --> 01:06:03.287
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope the listeners enjoyed it because again, we don't usually spend a whole episode of New Japan.

01:06:03.307 --> 01:06:06.590
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a while in fact, and so this was this was a lot of fun.

01:06:06.730 --> 01:06:14.719
[SPEAKER_00]: And like I said at the top, if you guys want consistent New Japan talk, you need to check out Jeremy's Steven on speaking of strong style.

01:06:14.959 --> 01:06:16.321
[SPEAKER_00]: It's on the fight game media network.

01:06:16.801 --> 01:06:19.344
[SPEAKER_00]: Podcasting feeds on their YouTube channel as well.

01:06:19.504 --> 01:06:20.825
[SPEAKER_00]: Can't recommend it enough.

01:06:21.826 --> 01:06:23.108
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeremy, just a great guy.

01:06:23.148 --> 01:06:24.289
[SPEAKER_00]: Appreciate it again.

01:06:25.383 --> 01:06:28.430
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesse Ryan, I appreciate it so much having you on here.

01:06:28.511 --> 01:06:37.733
[SPEAKER_01]: And hey, if New Japan is getting more interest from your viewership and stuff like the New Japan cup or Super Junior or G1, you want to come in and chat about it.

01:06:38.214 --> 01:06:42.885
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, oh, make a drive by and a sit-in to chat about it with you.

01:06:43.270 --> 01:06:43.771
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.

01:06:44.232 --> 01:06:44.833
[SPEAKER_00]: Sounds good.

01:06:44.893 --> 01:06:51.784
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, guys, if you want another way to support Top Rope Nation, we've got a top Rope Nation classics coming very soon.

01:06:51.824 --> 01:06:54.448
[SPEAKER_00]: The poll is up right now for our patrons.

01:06:54.508 --> 01:06:56.151
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a patron, make sure you vote.

01:06:56.391 --> 01:07:02.882
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to become a patron and get all of our bonus shows, which Jeremy is is a patron and we appreciate your support.

01:07:02.862 --> 01:07:09.934
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, yeah, link in the broadcast description we got like over 240 bonus shows new stuff going up every single week.

01:07:10.395 --> 01:07:25.782
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesse just put out his 200th episode of TRN Unplugged and the guests were Justin and myself and we talked about the entire history of top

01:07:26.268 --> 01:07:44.361
[SPEAKER_00]: awesome stuff you can check on the patreon feed you can also find it here on the YouTube channel if you become a YouTube member the video is posted for members as well another way to support the show and of course it's totally free to just subscribe here to the channel on YouTube or your favorite podcasting feed we would appreciate that very much that helps us out.

01:07:44.341 --> 01:07:49.971
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell the friend about top rope nation and yeah, well, I'm sure we'll be coming at you again very soon.

01:07:49.991 --> 01:07:59.147
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have our next show date exactly decided yet, but it will be very, very soon and and Jesse will have an unplugged here again too before too long.

01:07:59.168 --> 01:08:03.936
[SPEAKER_03]: The only two things I've left to say are Jeremy will be joining me next week.

01:08:04.658 --> 01:08:06.901
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're starting to get even gone away.

01:08:07.301 --> 01:08:13.650
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, his co-host, Stephen Conway with the 52 match project kicking off with January 4th, 1996.

01:08:13.770 --> 01:08:17.695
[SPEAKER_03]: Antonio Nokey versus Big Van Vater.

01:08:17.755 --> 01:08:18.616
[SPEAKER_03]: You know him as a Vator.

01:08:19.577 --> 01:08:24.263
[SPEAKER_03]: And last thing, Jeremy, you mentioned, Cachiori Shabbata in the injury.

01:08:25.004 --> 01:08:33.535
[SPEAKER_03]: One of the 52 matches I have is Casuchico,

01:08:33.515 --> 01:08:41.366
[SPEAKER_03]: This is your formal invitation to come talk about it, and we can get into the politics of Shabbata not going back to New Japan.

01:08:41.766 --> 01:08:42.728
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a full-time performer.

01:08:43.569 --> 01:08:44.370
[SPEAKER_01]: Put it on the board.

01:08:45.111 --> 01:08:45.632
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.

01:08:46.833 --> 01:08:47.194
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.

01:08:47.554 --> 01:08:47.995
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, guys.

01:08:48.015 --> 01:08:49.176
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll have you birthday, Jeremy.

01:08:49.437 --> 01:08:50.859
[SPEAKER_00]: Hope everyone enjoyed this show.

01:08:51.139 --> 01:08:51.820
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

01:08:52.441 --> 01:08:55.225
[SPEAKER_00]: And we will be catching you all again in next time.

01:08:55.385 --> 01:08:56.206
[SPEAKER_00]: Take care, everybody.

01:08:56.406 --> 01:08:57.788
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you then.

01:08:57.808 --> 01:08:59.050
[SPEAKER_00]: Go.

01:09:01.021 --> 01:09:20.717
[UNKNOWN]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

01:09:31.919 --> 01:09:35.078
[UNKNOWN]: You