Get In Loser, We're Going Moonsaulting

Yes! Obviously this question is best answered in the form of a gif essay.

For those not aware, previously I wrote (in that one really long essay) that Kenneth Omega was at one time the only person in professional wrestling who even had knees. 

It all started because Kenneth has this one running knee strike (that he totally stole from Shinsuke Nakamura, but I DON’T SEE HOW THAT’S RELEVANT), you may have heard of it? He calls it V-trigger.

And during last year’s G1, a certain person Kenny never ever thinks about was able to beat Hiroshi Fucking Tanahashi with this:

As it turns out, that there knee strike was Not At All Significant Person Kota Ibushi’s new finisher, Kamigoye, which—I know what you’re thinking—yes, is completely unacceptable. And the following night, an understandably enraged Kenneth Omega opened his postmatch comments with this TOTALLY NOT ABOUT ANY ONE SPECIFIC PERSON shade:

So AS YOU CAN SEE, it is not right for anyone else to use Knees. As I said in that essay, which is where Anon acquired this specific phrasing, “didn’t motherfuckers know that Kenneth now owns the entire concept of knees?” 

But then the clouds parted and the heavens opened, and the Golden☆Lovers became a team once again. The two of them being heavyweights now, this required a new joint finisher to replace their former, flippier joint finisher, the Golden Shower (yes, really). 

And this is how Kenneth Omega generously and selflessly conferred joint custody of the concept of Knees to his bff Kota Ibushi. They call this thing the Golden Trigger, which they helpfully dramatically announce before they do it, as wrestling is real.

So, to answer your question, Anon: yes! Kota is permitted to have knees in the blessed year of twenty gayteen, and we are all the richer for it.

The pose they all did at the end of the show is called the "Sushi Zanmai" pose. For a while Chaos was doing this pose after group or tag victories, especially Goto and Yoshi-Hashi. I think (?) it was because Sushi Zanmai was sponsoring New Japan back then, but I'm not going to look it up to double-check. They got very enthusiastic about it, and it was very funny.

Sushi Zanmai is a popular sushi chain in Japan. The founder's "Sushi Zanmai Pose" became a meme in Japan. There are statues of him doing the pose in front of the restaurants, you can get toys of him doing the pose in gachapon machines, he had a cameo in one of the Yakuza games, and so on.

In real life he tends to do this pose in front of giant and impressive tunas.

Which is what Douki and Sho are supposed to represent here!

@choerrycolouredfunk @1701d

I know we’re not alone, I’d love to see some other people who sushi zanmai’d w/goto!! I know you have one @leaveharmony

This was his #squad retweet of mine :,)

The pose they all did at the end of the show is called the "Sushi Zanmai" pose. For a while Chaos was doing this pose after group or tag victories, especially Goto and Yoshi-Hashi. I think (?) it was because Sushi Zanmai was sponsoring New Japan back then, but I'm not going to look it up to double-check. They got very enthusiastic about it, and it was very funny.

Sushi Zanmai is a popular sushi chain in Japan. The founder's "Sushi Zanmai Pose" became a meme in Japan. There are statues of him doing the pose in front of the restaurants, you can get toys of him doing the pose in gachapon machines, he had a cameo in one of the Yakuza games, and so on.

In real life he tends to do this pose in front of giant and impressive tunas.

Which is what Douki and Sho are supposed to represent here!

@choerrycolouredfunk @1701d

I know we’re not alone, I’d love to see some other people who sushi zanmai’d w/goto!! I know you have one @leaveharmony

How the hell did he make it to 44

Questions like "I wonder what Hiromu is up to?" always lead to such interesting answers. There is...rarely a complete explanation as to why, though (it was a photo shoot, obviously, though I feel like they coulda done one less likely to drown the kid)

happy 20 year anniversary of Neil banging out the tunes!

though every rat is special, it's a wonderful and unusual thing for their accomplishments to be remembered and cherished by so many people so many years later. we're all so fortunate to know about the rat who banged out the tunes!

thank you to all the people who sent me reference photos of their beloved rats for this piece!!! credits under the cut!