7 Ups & 3 Downs From NJPW Royal Quest
2. P*ss-Poor Production
Here's how not to start your first ever solo United Kingdom pay-per-view: by muting your announcers' microphones as you hit the airwaves.
Royal Quest cut in from the opening video package to the sight of Gino Gambino and Kevin Kelly addressing the viewers. They were talking, but not a word of it was audible. The producers c*cked it up and we were made to watch much of the opening bout without announcing, which is... not good.
Mistakes like this are why critics throw "second-rate" at promotions like New Japan. They can't happen, particularly as WWE's production is so immaculate, and that it took the technicians 25 minutes to fix it (with multiple FITE.tv error messages popping up throughout) isn't good enough from a company this big.
The early stream sucked, too. Low-quality and rife with cutouts, it was a mess reminiscent of AEW Fight for the Fallen's Buy In pre-show. These eventually stopped, though Royal Quest never once looked like a big-budget New Japan production...