Childs

This was not very good for the first 2/3. Sabre gave an unfocused performance, and a lot of Okada's offense looked downright shitty. They did pick it up in the stretch, with ZSJ delivering some cool counters to Okada's signature spots. And the finish felt like it was probably quite a live moment, though it wasn't miced properly. Still, this was a significant step down from their IWGP title match.

This was my favorite match of night 3, and I did not expect the Makabe win, though I like them setting up Suzuki as a dangerous, cornered animal for the rest of the tourney. Makabe normally doesn't do a ton for me, but he works in a match-up of old lunatics with no regard for the crowd, the ref or anybody else. Suzuki has been the best guy in the G1 to date, and they have me interested in the A Block in a way I did not anticipate

They basically did the right stuff, but the match nonetheless got a bit long in the tooth. White has a lot of tools. He just needs to learn to be more dynamic on top. I also thought they lost the thread a little bit when he went away from the knee that had been established as Tanahashi's weakness going into the match. I get that White's best offense is more neck-focused. But I thought his sadism would have come across better if he'd tried to cripple the old man. Still, they've done a pretty good job with the overall story.

The love for Page is lost on me. He feels completely generic, even compared to Elgin, who doesn't generally give me what I want but at least catches my attention with his offense.

He became one of my favorites as we went through all the New Japan footage from the '80s. He was kind of the Arn Anderson to Choshu's Flair -- equally believable as a bad ass and a bit of a stooge, great tag worker, game to have a low-key killer singles match with anyone from Kengo Kimura to Larry Z. Obviously he was the rare Japanese worker who also thrived in the U.S. And you absolutely believed that if you crossed him in an alley, he could break you in half as easily as wipe his nose. RIP to one of the great legit hosses.

Their 2016 match was one of the best in the current era of the promotion. This one didn't touch that level of drama. In fact, it was kind of formless between the opening bullshit and the finishing stretch. But it's hard to knock the action down the stretch. There aren't too many wrestlers in the world who could execute those sequences. The stakes just felt much lower than in the previous editions, partly because of the placement in the tournament.

This match is wrestling nerd fantasia.

That sequence where Rusev sold the leg and then blocked the calf crusher was great detail work.

The long-haired dude who always sits in the front row should not wear that color.

Well, this is convenient actually. I'll call AJ-Rusev the main and move on with my life.

I liked that match quite a bit. Thought the timing on the big counter spots was excellent, and the finish was cool/unexpected.

You still watch wrestling?

Now see, I try not to be reactionary. But having Bryan go down that casually is just dumb.

Knowing that the Iron Man match is still looming makes me sad.

This was probably my favorite match of the first two nights. I appreciated the simplicity, and Suzuki delivered an excellent performance, both with the ferocity of his offense and the way he sold the dragon screw as the turning point. These guys are always good against one another.

This started well with the character-driven one upsmanship and White's initial control section. It went slack in the middle. But then they got it back once White took it to the floor, Okada tried to rally and White finished it by going full dirtbag. Ultimately, it worked to set up the tourney and further White's story.

I agree that they match up well. They always find creative ways to dramatize the style contrast, like that cool spot where ZSJ intercepted Ibushi's backflip dive and turned it into a submission. That said, this one never quite took off from very good to great. Sabre often struggles to kick his matches into high gear, and I thought his tendency to jump from hold to hold hurt him here, because you lost that sense of him grounding the more dynamic athlete. Ibushi didn't sell as well as he could have either. So yeah, I'm always happy to see them go at it, but I feel like they have a great match in them and this wasn't it.

Dave's overall point, that it's ridiculous to pit one promotion against another in this discussion, is right on. Modern wrestling is dangerous. Fans of all promotions covet matches that push the limits. It's nothing new, and it isn't going to change anytime soon. I will be interested to see what he writes in this week's issue, specifically if there's any introspection from him about serving as a leading fan of the most physically taxing styles.

Yeah, the IC title has been held by guys like Tanahashi, Nakamura and Naito, who are roughly on the same level as the IWGP champion. When they've done pairs of big shows in recent years, they often headline one with the IC title bout and the other with the IWGP.

I'm sorry, when you wrestle a 35-minute match and create no sense (either in the building or for the regular NJ viewer) that the challenger can win, that's a problem. The ladder felt completely inorganic to me, like it was only there so they could do the one crazy spot. I did not feel an escalating sense of violence. I guess they were trying to convey that Cody pushed Kenny, as the babyface, to lose his mind. But I didn't feel it, and the crowd didn't seem to either. Compare the heat to the Juice-White match. It just wasn't there. I also thought Kenny did too much in the stretch run, because again, there was no sense that he needed to dig deep in his bag to beat Cody. Post-match angle aside, the whole thing was a real failure of pacing and structure.

The main event was a terrible, heatless slog. The ladder had no place in the match, and the narrative of Kenny's emotions toward Cody came off really garbled. The crowd did not buy Cody as a real threat, and they did nothing to change that with the work. They worked extremely hard to little effect. Juice and White blew them away, with a legit face-heel dynamic and aura of violence. Best thing on the show by far.

I come at it from the same background as you, largely, but here's how I read it. Regardless of how well he wrestled over the first two falls, Omega was fighting an uphill battle because Okada was a historically great champion riding a historically great run, and he still had the Rainmaker in his back pocket. You blow the first fall against a guy like that and you're automatically in a hell of a bind. To go for the AJPW parallel, didn't you always feel the odds were in Misawa's favor, even if Kawada and Kobashi seemed to have his number? Well, Okada is the Misawa of New Japan.

More than a very good match -- which it certainly was -- this was textbook wrestling television. They passed a lot of time in entertaining fashion, set up the next big show and teased longer term rivalries. It was like the WWE version of an All-Japan six-man from the '90s. The first two Bryan segments were terrific and a further reminder that he's still as good as anyone in the company. I want to see him against almost anyone, not just the obvious dream matches. And I dig the slow burn to him and Miz. The Rusev victory was a nice cherry, even if that last segment was merely fine.

During GWE, we talked a lot about how he represented a different kind of versatility. He thrived in disparate promotions not because he adapted his style to each but because his style worked in every setting. I find his career as rewatchable as any. RIP

So many skippable cards with the A block.