Maybe someone smarter than me can answer this.
On every New Japan show I’ve been watching, they take a break part way through to disinfect the ring. I realize that it’s supposed to be a COVID measure, but what good is it doing if they aren’t doing it at the end of each match? Every show would probably be like 17 hours long if they did, but right now it comes off more like theatre than anything useful.
Speaking of New Japan, right now I’m working my way through last year’s G1. I have to say that so far I like it without all of the extra tag matches and I don’t think it would hurt my feelings too much if they didn’t bring them back whenever life is normal again. I get that they’re a way to build interest for the next night’s tournament matches, but a good tournament in a well booked company builds itself, and since NJPW is a well booked company that does good tournaments, they’ve always felt mostly like unnecessary filler. The one young lions match and then straight down to business format is working for me. The shows fly by, which is nice when they expect you to watch 19 of them in a month.
