In theory the production should be presenting it as a real sport (which new japan does perfectly btw) and this completely goes against that. Most of the moves look more impressive in the wide shot anyway, especially high spots.

RE: run-ins... the crowd usually reacts 5 seconds before so it makes no sense why they never catch a run-in before it happened.

>Am I nuts? Cynical? Just plain wrong?

No, the suicide dive has been dead for me for a while and a high spot has to be extra special to impress me these days. I agree with the scripting of the matches. Not to keep smarking out here, but this is another thing NJPW does better. Different company with different goals tbf, but their lack of predictability is worth noting. Okada's been champ for 2 years and I'm still on the edge of my seat every title match.