gordi

I feel like we might be heading toward a "Lockdown" type of PPV with a whole mess of Wargames Blood & Guts matches. - MJFTR vs Jericho & Pals - Mox, King, Christian & ? vs Kenny, Good Bros & ? - Hardy Party Butcher & Blade vs Hangman/DO/Bear Country add a women's B&G and one more and... On the one hand I thought running a death match, ladder, match, and street fight on one PPV was overkill. On the other hand, I'd kind of like so see an All Wargames All the Time PPV and see how everyone tries to top one another.

I couldn't agree more. I will have to catch Dynamite after the fact today, and I'm a little on tenterhooks to see how this whole thing is handled. There's a whole continuum ranging from "treating the audience with respect" to "treating the audience with contempt" amf AEW had always been way over o the former side, as compared to "the competition." Here' hoping they don't chose this show, and the unfortunate damp fart of a match ending, as the point here they start insulting our intelligence with a "we meant to do that" approach. I almost always trust AEW to do the right thing, but I am a little worried this time. I guess we'll all know soon enough.

1) Bryan 2) Terry 3) Liger 4) Foley 5) Bret I mean, just, all of those guys consistently worked to make the other guy look as good as possible. Who would be the top lady in this discussion? Chiggy?

Not being contrarian, not being ironic: I loved that bit. I thought I was burned out on wrestling after the G1, but I enjoyed every minute of Dynamite this week. So much variety from match to match, and so much entertaining BS on top of everything that happened in the ring.

It's almost a relief that the G1 is over. I enjoyed the hell out of that but I think one more week might have burned me out. Not sure what I'll do with my extra free time next week. Been a pleasure watching and discussing with all y'all. Personally, I think I'll mostly stick to AEW between now and WK, but who knows - maybe the combined BOSJ and Tag Tournament will drag me back in.

Full card for the finals has been released: https://www.njpw1972.com/83035 Stoked for the Handsome Battle

Tonight, I believe that EVIL vs SANADA is going on last. If Naito wins the semi-main then SANADA can only play spoiler. If KENTA beats Naito, then the winner of the main goes to the finals. Naito needs a win and a SANADA victory. For me, Naito would be the most satisfying winner, and EVIL the least satisfying. So, I will genuinely be pulling for Naito, then regardless of how that goes I'll be pulling for SANADA. It's likely I'll be genuinely marking out for two long matches tonight. Looking forward to that! I'll be totally deflated if EVIL wins... But then I'll be marking out for tomorrow evening anyway.

Without spoiling anything, Ospreay vs Okada had a twist I DEFINITELY did not see coming, and Ibushii vs Taichi Without Miho Abe was a genuinely unique pro wrestling match. This was another night of very good and entertaining stuff from A Block. Can't wait to read everyone's reactions to Ibushii vs Taichi, Okada vs Ospreay, and the Main Event. I've been popping like Orville Redenbacher all night here.

Man... I got home from work exactly in time to catch Ishii's entrance. Like it was fate or something. That match gave me a rare gift. Marking out, not for the quality of the work or the stiffness or the spots or whatever. Marking out because I really, really wanted this particular "good guy" to beat this particular "bad guy" on this particular night. Absolute f'n roller coaster ride. Even the Gedo stuff totally worked on me tonight. I was 100% losing it: SCREW YOU GEDO! LET'S GO ISHII!!!!! Oh boy was that fun. Cannot adequately express how much I enjoyed that.

I just want to see Naito vs Hiromu. And I believe it is understood that if the current champion wins the tournament he gets to pick his challenger in lieu of the winner getting a title shot.. The current champ has won the G1 twice before (Mutoh in '95, Kensuke in 2000), but I don't think they had the "G1 winner gets a title match at WK" stipulation until, maybe 2012?

With the way things are shaping up, I am getting worried that they are planning to give us a Jay vs EVIL, Gedo vs Togo, all interference all the time, Bullet Club Explodes final. Personally, I am still hoping that Naito wins it all and chooses Hiromu as his challenger.

Not to mention that (for me, at least) having something like AEW (and recently the G1) to look forward to has made getting through"these difficult times" so much easier and more fun. Week after week, they give us something to smile about.

The young lions match was excellent tonight. Cobb v Stone Pitbull was exactly the kind of match I love. Stiff strikes. Big bombs. Power v toughness, but Cobb is also pretty tough and Ishii is also pretty powerful. Loved this match. It might just be the best of Cobb's career so far. I mean, he's had a ton of matches I haven't seen, but this one won't be easy to top. Tokyo Pimp Without Pieter v Jay was a lot of fun. A really good idea very well executed. Most I have ever enjoyed a Jay White match, and that's a shoot, brother! Long term story telling. Good Lord this show has been my cup of tea thus far! I get the feeling that two of the last three matches are going to go over 20 minutes, though. That could be good or bad. So, maybe I'm just in a good mood... because I enjoyed every minute of Ospreay v Taichi Without Miho Abe and I don't generally enjoy Taichi Without Abe. I think this was the most I have ever enjoyed him... so, yeah, good mood. Probably also good wrestling, too. And now they are playing "Kaze Ni Nare" so it's not like I won't enjoy what's coming next. Man, autocorrect really didn't want to help me write Kaze Ni Nare. And apparently now Ibushi can credibly go toe-to-toe with both Ishii and MiSu. Pretty tough choice between the more concise Cobb v Ishii and the more epic MiSu v Ibushi for MOTN so far. Shingo and Okada definitely put in the work to try and top everything that came before their match tonight. I imagine the Meltzers and Kellers of the world will rank it #1. I have it in 3rd place because of the finish (you'll understand when you see it) but the match was a strong conclusion to a really excellent night of pro wrestling. I genuinely enjoyed every match on the card. The Osaka crowd was white hot all night, and well-miked as well. Best night of the tournament so far, for me.

Finished work in time to catch Cobb v White, switched over to AJPW TV, marked out like a little kid watching the CC final, then switched back just in time to catch the start of Ospreay v Ibushi. Pretty good time to finish work early-ish then be stuck at home in front of the computer screen!! Both G1 matches were very enjoyable. As for the CC: Baba, Abdullah, Jumbo, Hansen, Kawada, Misawa, Taue, Vader, Kobashi, Tenryu, Mutoh, Kensuke, Suwama, MiSu, Akiyama, Sekimoto, Ishikawa...

Another enjoyable night of pro wrestling. I though everything was at least good, but nothing on the card was excellent. I'm happy to see the young boys continue to put on solid showings. I wasn't paying close attention during Tokyo pimp without Pieter vs Taichi without Miho Abe because on paper that was the match I had the least interest in in this G1. #s 2 and 3 on that list were Yoshi-Hashi vs EVIL and Yoshi-Hashi v Juice. And now all of those matches have come and gone, and all were cromulent enough. I don't think any of those guys stink, it's just that none of them have ever really grabbed my interest... yet. I surprised myself by enjoying Ishii v Ibushi more than MiSu v Cobb. I think Ishii set the bar of my expectations for a "2020 G1 Minoru Suzuki match" way too high. I thought Cobb showed too much light a couple of times. That being said, his rolling deadlift gutwrench suplexes are very impressive indeed. I enjoyed the finish to their match. Ishii v Ibsushi was probably my personal MOTN. I liked the tidy little story they told of how Ibushi was able to hang with Ishii when they were trading strikes, but how Ishii just couldn't keep up with all of Ibushi's fancy Dan stuff. If anyone had told me, as recently as three or four years ago, that Ibushi would one day be able to believably go toe to toe with the toughest guy in New Japan in the G1... I would have thought they were insane. Yet, here we are. Hats off to pretty boy, he can go. Also, if you'd told me a few years ago that Shingo v Ospreay would be a viable NJPW heavyweight G1 battle, I doubt I'd have believed you. And if you'd told me that Ospreay would damn near out-muscle Shingo in 2020... .... ....but here we are. I wanna like Jay White more than I do, but I find a lot of his matches to be very formulaic: He begs off and bails out like a coward to start things off, works the crowd in an ironic fashion as soon as he gets the advantage, Gedo interferes... I absolutely do not hate the guy's work, and it's not like Ric Flair and Bret Hart didn't have a formula, but I am certainly not aboard the Jay-1 hype train... yet. Okada's been on an underwhelming run so far. Such are the burdens of high expectations. It was a good match. I hated the ending.