u/IWannaCorn

Pretty much the title.

A Block has been genuinely incredible this year. Tsuji, Takeshita, Boltin, SANADA, O-Khan, ICE, Goto, and especially Oiwa have been putting on some of the best wrestling NJPW has seen since 2019.

But B Block feels so underwhelming. Everyone is working hard and putting on good matches, but they just can't seem to garner the same level of hype and intensity. Uemura and Umino were obviously supposed to be the centerpieces of the block, and now that Shota's been injured, the hype behind it has seriously suffered.

Does anyone else feel the same way?

I gotta say, corny ass title.

Just noticed this today, but every non-Japanese wrestler in the G1 this year is participating in B Block (with the exception of Boltin Oleg but he doesn't really occupy the foreigner role in the same way as the other wrestlers). The only Japanese participants are/were Shota Umino (Ace candidate), Yuya Uemura (Ace candidate), Aaron Wolf (super rookie), and Ren Narita (Dark Ace candidate)

In a New Japan whose future and very identity is in question at this point in time, having these four men run the gauntlet of international threats feels important. Newman and Henare are both members of UE (the top heel faction), and thus represent a very traditional threat to the company. Zack Sabre Jr. represents an ideological threat (the rise of Sabre-ism and thus tanking of ticket sales if his reign is anything to go by) while Gabe Kidd is more existential (AEW Ichiban, Fuck Shin Nihon). Although Drilla and OSKAR aren't threats in the same way, they still fill the role of the traditional big bad foreigner for the Japanese babyface to overcome.

Umino and Uemura are both encouraged, in this scenario, to prove that they can truly thrive in the role of being the Ace by defending New Japan from its enemies and thus leading the charge onward to prosperity. If we count Ren Narita as a threat, these two (one now) have to fight their way through the proverbial seven layers of hell to reach the holy land that is the semi-finals. Narita is the antithesis to his counterparts, cheating and squirming his way out of these very same challenges (to varying degrees of success). All three men are essentially being tested in this tournament. If Shota and Yuya can't get good reactions when the deck is so heavily stacked in their favor, how can either of them be ready for the IWGP. If Ren can't use this opportunity to garner heat, get the crowd to care, to boo him out of the building, and buy his merch when he has the opportunity to make steppingstones off the backs of an array of monsters in order to claim his place at the top of the block, as the king of hell, then it's time to go sit in the back with O-Khan.

Aaron Wolf is encouraged to demonstrate his own mettle in a field of wide-ranging styles and philosophies. In a way, this tournament acts as an excursion of sorts. Wolf is forced out of his comfort zone of the House of Torture style shenanigans and thrust into the deep end against a variety of opponents who he hasn't even had a chance to work against in the structure of a tag match on a road show.

Thoughts? Am I just speaking out of my ass here?

But, I agree with him. The ring ads are bad.