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AN UPDATE ON PRESIDENT TANAHASHI AND HOUSE OF TORTURE
*Very minor spoiler warning for the undercard tag match earlier today at G1 Climax 34: Night 17 that saw NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champions Hiroshi Tanahshi & Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano vs. House of Torture in a non-title match.
Last week I discussed how since announcing an improvement plan for NJPW, President Hiroshi Tanahashi hadn’t done anything to deliver on his promise to put an end to the House of Torture constantly putting on matches where they interfered without consequence. Tanahashi had said we would see changes as soon as Dominion, which took place over two months ago.
During the G1 Climax 34 tournament, House of Torture has been allowed to run wild without consequence throughout the tournament. I had lost hope, but then hope came in the form of G1 Climax 34: Night 15. Tanahashi decided he had had enough.
I’d like to say that Tanhashi glided to the ring to put an end to the interference in the Evil vs. Shota Umino A Block match. It wasn’t a glide, but more of a limp. Not quite as slow as Junior Soprano after his fall at the courthouse, but not far from it.
Tanahashi looked rough not only running to the ring, but also while fighting off multiple members of House of Torture on his own. It came off like Tanhasahi should never be allowed in the ring again, as his movement was as bad as it has ever been.
We’ve all seen legends put in positions they shouldn’t be in, but I didn’t expect to see Tanahashi in the sort of condition where I questioned whether or not he should even be out there participating in what should have been an easy angle to execute from a physical standpoint.
To make matters worse, Evil eventually punted Tanahashi low. Umino ended up surviving the House of Torture interference to come away with the win. Despite how Tanahashi looked in the ring, certainly from a storyline standpoint he could have handed down some discipline on House of Torture after that match, but he didn’t.
It is just plain silly to see this continue even through the action on the undercard of today’s G1 Climax 34 event which featured a non-title undercard tag match with NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champions Hiroshi Tanahshi & Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano vs. House of Torture. Tanahshi was in the match and he allowed House of Torture to jump his team before the opening bell without consequence.
It just seems silly to put people through House of Torture shenanigans during most of their matches, but to not only to continue to do that, but also tell fans that it is going to be fixed by Tanhashi when he’s done nothing to fix outside of getting involved in one G1 match is ridiculous.
The House of Torture once again ran wild with their style of interference in this match while focusing their attack on Tanahashi for a portion of the match. There were no consequences handed down for their actions after the match as far as I know as of this writing. NJPW would be wise to have some positive things happen to generate some buzz coming out of these last few days of the G1 Climax 34 Tournament. As of right now, there’s not much for NJPW to hang their hats on in terms of showing fans they’re moving in the right direction on a number of fronts.
THE MIZ AND THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MATTER
What wrestlers say and do on TV has consequences in terms of how fans perceive the talent in a given wrestling company. WWE has put a lot of stock in hyping up Bronson Reed. He had already taken out Seth Rollins heading into Raw this past Monday and been put over like a dangerous monster in the ring.
It has been a push out of nowhere for Reed post-SummerSlam and he’s got his Tsunami finisher over huge in the process taking on Rollins. So that’s all fine and dandy, but then you have The Miz walking around backstage to set up a match with him and in the process Miz undermined a lot of the work done to boost rising star Bron Breakker.
The Miz was shown backstage thinking he had a shot at IC Champion Bron Breakker. He didn’t seem stressed about the idea of facing Breakker for the IC Championship. The Miz then saw a TV backstage with a graphic showing that he was going to face Reed in a match instead.
The Miz said, “That’s not Breakker” and he was upset that he wasn’t facing him when he saw the graphic. Breakker has been put over like a dangerous man in the ring. He’s had some big spots to highlight his power this year including eliminating multiple men in spectacular fashion during the Royal Rumble and destroying Ricochet on Raw most recently. Breakker could use even more of a boost after becoming IC Champion as he begins what should be his ascension to a top spot in WWE.
Did any of that make the Miz fear getting in Breakker? If anything Breakker should be just as if not more feared than Reed, but The Miz’s actions and mannerisms showed that he would match rather have faced Breakker than get into the ring with Reed.
Booking like this does Breakker no favors and undercuts the work WWE has done in building him up. Sami Zayn did as best he could to put Breakker over in a 2 out 3 Falls match to end Raw this week to end their feud over the IC Championship.
Breakker beating Zayn at SummerSlam and then again in a 2 out of 3 Falls match on Raw this week means something . Zayn is coming off the best run of his career that saw him team with Roman Reigns in The Bloodline and then Kevin Owens as WWE Tag Team Champions. Zayn then beat Gunther, the most dominant IC Champion of all time, at WrestleMania.
WWE passed off a lot of the stock they put into Zayn when they used him to elevate Breakker recently. Breakker should be someone nobody on the WWE roster wants to see in the ring and WWE should be more careful when presenting him as a preferred alternative to Reed by The Miz, as it could skew how the fans look at him. After all, if The Miz isn’t afraid of him, who will be?
Contact Sean at pwtorchsean@gmai.com. Follow him on X @SR_Torch
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