Coffey

G1 Climax Day 7 - A Block ZSJ/Fale - This match from the jump is nothing but Sabre climbing Fale like a jungle gym, slapping on various submissions that Fale has no answer for. Even with all of his power, he repeatedly has to go for the ropes because he can't get out. That continues until outside interference from Jedo & Chase Owens, which allows Fale to take control, finally. I'm over the Fale, Owens, Jedo trio. Finish was pretty cool though. ZSJ slaps on an armbar in the crowd until the count of 16 & then sprints back to the ring to beat the 20 count. Fale doesn't make it back in time because he's slow. Archer/Tanahashi - Tanahashi starts quickly going for Archer's leg. Archer fights back with power. Hits a big Chokeslam onto the ring apron. Hits a big Black Hole Slam. Tells Tanahashi "I'm the Ace now!" & tries to put Tanahashi in his own Texas Cloverleaf but Tanahashi fights out of the turn. Repeated corner Avalanches by Archer. Last one countered into a Sling Blade. Tanahashi goes for his own Cloverleaf but Archer gets out of that. Tanahashi was going for Archer's rope walk, but Archer countered it with a big Arm Drag off the top. It's a story of one-upsmanship but neither man is really getting the upper hand. Archer does his rope walk around a corner & a half then goes for the clubber at the end but Tanahashi reverses it into a Dragon Screw Neck Whip/Twist & Shout. Tanahashi goes for the Flying CrossBody but gets countered into a Chokeslam. Archer fights for & gets the E.B.D. Claw hold but he's in the ropes. Archer goes for what I think was an Iconoclasm attempt but Tanahashi turns it into a roll-up for a 3-count. Pretty decent back-and-forth match. EVIL/KENTA - EVIL tries to look tough by no-selling a kick. KENTA wipes off EVIL's eye make-up. EVIL puts a chair over KENTA's head & then slaps the chair with a second chair. Some how that's not a disqualification. They brawl through the crowd, to the back & are fighting in a hallway. Then back into the crowd, up the stairs & onto a stage platform. EVIL folds & stacks up a pile of about a dozen chairs & goes to Suplex KENTA onto them but KENTA reverses & gets the Suplex on EVIL instead. Now the referee starts counting... The crowd is booing KENTA & behind EVIL. KENTA goes through his finishing sequence, running corner big boot, running corner basement dropkick & top rope doublestomp & gets a 2-count. KENTA counters an EVIL headbutt with a BIG knee to his face. Then a Penalty Kick. Then a Go to Sleep to the gut for the win. Another pretty decent match. Sanada/Ibushi - Fast, action-packed, athletic match. Both wrestlers bicker about who has a better fan response. Both try to outdo one another with athleticism. Breaks down into a strike exchange fest. I feel like these two would make better tag team partners than opponents. Ibushi eventually wins with a knee to the face but this match didn't really grab me like I thought that it would. I'm not even entirely sure where the disconnect was. Just not enough drama to pull me in, I guess. It was another decent match but that feels like what the whole show is. Nothing is trying to get to that next level. The matches have been fine but nothing great. Nothing where it would feel like you missed out if you didn't see it. No MOTY contenders or anything. But maybe that's on purpose to subdue the undercard a little heading into the main event... Ospreay/Okada - G1 Climax Tournament matches all have a 30-minute time limit. However, the way they're working early, I feel like this is going to go long. My expectations for this match, at bare minimum, are Match of the Night. But that should be a foregone conclusion with how the rest of the evening played out. I'm hopeful for a Match of the Year Contender. Which right now, I think my working Match of the Year is Cody Vs. Dustin Rhodes from AEW Double or Nothing because they told such a good story. Ospreay knocks Okada to the outside & then holds the ropes for him to get back in, which Okada refuses. Then Okada knocks Ospreay to the outside with his standing big dropkick in the corner & does the same with holding the ropes open. Okada works over Ospreay's injured neck with some forearms & clubbers. Ospreay, like A.J. Styles, makes everything he does look so easy. Ospreay hits a BIG open hand, knife edge chop which is so loud it echoes through the arena & gets a very audible, positive reaction from those in attendance. Okada hits an insane Dropkick shortly after his Rainmaker Pose. It irked me that even though Ospreay has the injured neck, Okada still used the Tombstone to set up the Rainmaker instead of going for a pinfall attempt after the Tombstone. Maybe that's the American wrestling fan in me though, where I've been conditioned to buy the Tombstone Piledriver as a finish. Ospreay uses the guard rail on the outside of the ring to hit his jumping Cutter. Will Ospreay reverses The Rainmaker into a one man Spanish Fly. Then hits a top rope Shooting Star Press for a nearfall. Ospreay goes for The Stormbreaker. Okada reverses it into a Tombstone Piledriver. Ospreay reverses that into his own Tombstone Piledriver. Okada then reverses a Stormbreaker into The Rainmaker & maintains wrist control while both are down. Okada then picks him up & hits another Rainmaker. Then is going for a THIRD Rainmaker, that Ospreay counters into a Stormbreaker attempt, which Okada rolls out of & hits a rolling Rainmaker. THEN STILL DOESN'T GO FOR THE PIN & is setting up ANOTHER freakin' Rainmaker. Way overkill here. Okada hits that Rainmaker & wins with that but the ending sequence was too much for me. They went over twenty minutes but the match wasn't where I expected it to be. Definitely not a MOTYC. Night 7 was fine, nothing special. You could probably skip the entire night.

G1 Climax Night 6: Taichi/Shingo - Everything about Taichi is bad. Maybe the Phantom of the Opera style gimmick could work with someone else. The best part of the act is Miho Abe and I think she would be better off with Shingo. The match is perfectly serviceable. They get the crowd into it & it gets more fun at the end with the near falls, finisher attempts & big clotheslines. That's the thing about New Japan that I think I enjoy the most: you can't write anyone or any match off because you never know when they'll show out. Even matches that feature people you normally don't like at all, like me with Taichi. This was still a decent match but nothing special, ultimately. Cobb/Juice - Cobb has gotta cut some weight. He's still as strong & agile as he ever was but he looks terrible in that singlet & seems to be gassing out early. It's funny that I felt like he showed more charisma when he was in the Matanza mask in Lucha Underground. I like Jeff Cobb but lately he has reminded me of a combination of ECW Taz & WWF Rhyno... and I'm not sure if either of those are compliments. He just seems so much slower & like his pacing is off. I still think he would be a good pick-up for AEW but so far in the G1, he's under performed for me. I expected more out of him. Juice is on the offense & controlling the match for the majority of it. Crowd seems more behind Juice, for sure. I don't think we'll get better than what Cobb did with Ishii in this tournament. That might have been his ceiling. Cobb reversing Pulp Friction into Rolling German Suplexes was a cool spot. Cobb finally gets on the scoreboard when he hits his finish. Match never grabbed me. White/Yano - Fuckin' Yano. LMAO. This was a clusterfuck of cheating/comedy & only went like four minutes or something but Yano with the upset win was cool. Switchblade Jay White is now 0-3 in the G1. Didn't see that coming! Goto/Naito - Naito did a spot in this match that I had never seen before that I LOVED: The match is all about the leg after that. Naito going after it & Goto selling it & trying to work through it. Selective is how I would describe Goto's continual selling. Also it should be said again, because it can't be said enough, Kevin Kelly is fucking awful at commentary. And I'm a moron for continuing to watch with English commentary over Japanese. That will be rectified with the rest of the G1. I can't do it anymore. This match was OK. Not great. Moxley/Ishii - Moxley comes out through the crowd, throwing chairs. Like he's Brody or Hansen. Ishii comes out & gets right into his face, as they go head-to-head in the middle of the ring. Hard-hitting, smashmouth donnybrook. Strike exchanges to start. They brawl into the crowd. Like up the stairs into the theater seats part of the crowd. Ishii is so good at the Hulk-up/fighting spirit/whatever you wanna call it. You really believe that he's a tough bastard that can just shrug shit off. This was pretty easily MOTN. Which... Ishii seems to keep doing. He's now had a good match with White, Moxley & Cobb.

KENTA/Archer - Kenta starts by chopping down Archer with some brutal kicks. Archer gets back on offense with a big clothesline. Then Archer goes for a ring apron chokeslam, with the LA Dojo boys trying to talk him out of it, so he Chokeslams Kenta onto them. Then does a running rolling senton onto all three. That was a helluva start! The crowd is super into the match too, which is fun. They chant for Archer a couple of times. "You're not Kenta anymore. You're Hideo! Yeah, that's right, fucking Hideo." That pissed Kenta off lmao. Archer hits a muscle buster! Then a huge Powerbomb. Kenta then reverses a Chokeslam into an cross armbreaker which he turns into a Crippler Crossface & Archer taps out. This was a good little match, man. Archer has been MVP of the G1 so far. Sanada/Evil - Evil's strikes look like shit. They're super unbelievable. He hits a double-axe handle during this match that would make Barry Darsow cringe. Sanada on the other hand is super athletic but seems to struggle to turn his athleticism into good matches a lot of the time. The talent & skill is there but it always feels like something is missing. Evil putting Sanada into his own Paradise Lock was probably the highlight here? Maybe it was the Evil Superplex, actually. That was really well executed. They do some good things, back-and-forth. Including countering each other's finish. Sanada even hits Evil with his own finish for a 2-count. There's a Tiger Suplex from Sanada that gets a nearfall as well. I actually think this match went long because the content wasn't there for the time limit they got. Felt very average all around. Like a two star match. Fale/Okada - Starts with Fale already beating on Okada from the backstage area into the arena. That's a different start! The match was pretty bad though. Okada selling throughout most of it because of the start. Working to get a bodyslam. Then there's a ref bump & a lot of outside interference from Chase Owens & Jado. Match ends with a sunset flip rollup. ZSJ/Tanahashi - Really good back-and-forth wrestling where the story is that Tanahashi is out wrestling ZSJ. A lot of nearfalls off of rollups. A lot of submission attempts. Tanahashi is noticeably a step slower than he used to be but this is still really good. Good finish too. This might be my fav match of the G1 so far. Went about fifteen minutes. Ospreay/Ibushi - Ibushi & his ankle injury against Ospreay & his neck injury. Ibushi whom signed the long-term New Japan deal & said he wants to finish his career in New Japan. Ospreay whom moved to Japan & said he wants to be the ace of New Japan. Ospreay working the injured ankle of Ibushi also has the added impact of limiting his high-flying ability. This match is even better than ZSJ/Tanahashi! This is a strong G1 night because of the last two matches. The best night of the G1 so far. Both matches are worth checking out, for sure. With this match being MOTN & definitely worth seeking out. It goes over 25 minutes. Match of the tournament. Watch this one!

July 18 @ Korakuen Hall, Tokyo 2:30AM Pacific, 5:30AM Eastern, 10:30AM UK, 6:30PM Japan, 7:30PM East Australia A Block KENTA vs. Lance Archer Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. EVIL vs. SANADA Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay Ibushi Vs. Ospreay will be interesting, since they're both not 100%. Also interested in Tanahashi/ZSJ. I don't expect much from the other three matches, but Archer has surprised me so far.

I've never tried to post clips outside of Twitter before, so I don't even know if this will work. So this is an experiment. vlc-record-2019-07-15-15h33m56s-NJPW.2019.07.15.G1.Climax.29.Day.4.ENGLISH.WEB.h264-LATE.mkv-.mp4

Night 4: So far, the G1 has felt a bit disappointing to me. The three best matches, in my opinion, so far, have been Ishii/Cobb, Archer/Ospreay & Tanahashi/Okada & none of them were great. So I'm hoping we get at least one match over the 4-star range tonight because these shows, outside of how hype the crowd was in Dallas, have been pretty mediocre & not felt like must-see shows. Shingo/Yano - Yano cracks me up. His matches are never really good but they're always entertaining & I think that's needed to help some of the G1 matches stand apart. I really wanted Yano to get the win via countout after the mouse trap obstacle was set up. That killed me. But this was fun for what it was. Goto/Juice - Goto is kinda boring, huh? The match was fine. Felt like a TV match. Nothing exceptional or that you couldn't see on a show like Smackdown. I wouldn't go out of my way to see it. Moxley/Cobb - Mox works over Cobb's left shoulder. If negatively effects Cobb's attempts at offense & takes away some of his power. Match ended shortly after that. Shame. It needed about ten more minutes. Never came close to hitting the next level. This match disappointed me as it was one of the matches I was most interested in for the whole tournament & it just ended abruptly before it ever really got going. Ishii/White - Some decent heeling to start from Gedo/White leading to Ishii getting posted on the outside to let White gain control. Best match so far. I did genuinely enjoy the sequence where Ishii was Hulking Up and walking into the strikes to get back on offense. Leading to a HUGE stalling, jumping superplex that looked like a million bucks. Good match. I would recommend this one. Taichi/Naito - Love Naito but I'm not big on Taichi. This match was OK because they got a lot of time so they could do a lot of things. They ran through all of their spots but it didn't feel great to me at any time. Didn't feel like a main event either. They went over 20 minutes. It was the longest match of the night but I think Ishii/White was better. Naito starting the G1 0-2 is interesting.

Man, I watched AEW Fight for the Fallen and two back-to-back days of G1 Climax matches. Hard to get up for Lacey Evans & Baron Corbin in the main event & continual use of Shane McMahon...

OK, Night 3. I skipped all of the opening multiman tag matches. They're just meaningless filler truthfully. And that saves me an hour. I just want to see the tournament matches. Bad Luck Fale Vs. Lance Archer - Went in thinking it was going to be a complete dud/stinker but there were some things that I genuinely enjoyed. I like the new Lance Archer, with the new look & getting over The Claw. The Superplex spot was awesome. As was The Pounce that Archer hit Fale with. The sound of all that meat colliding! Archer getting chucked into all of the chairs in the crowd looked brutal. The Chokeslam that Archer hit Fale with was SUPER impressive. I def. thought that was the finish & fell for the near fall. Can't believe Fale got up like that! There were a couple of "no way" spots that they built into the match smartly too, like teasing Fale doing the rope walk or Archer hitting the Iconoclasm (or whatever he calls it). They got the crowd into it. Better than I thought it would be & Archer has impressed me in both of his G1 matches so far. Fale losing without it being a DQ feels like a big deal. Not a great match of course but still, better than I thought it would be, they got the crowd going & they did some entertaining stuff. Perfectly serviceable hoss fight. Sanada Vs. Will Ospreay - I have always felt Sanada was underrated. He's ridiculously athletic, anyway. The opening exchanges were good displays of both men having said athleticism. My biggest gripe would be when pregnant pauses are built into sequences. Ospreay is very guilty of this. Pretty much anytime he goes into his Thor/Roman Reigns pose it means it's time for the crowd to clap. Drives me a little bonkers. The stretch/sequences leading into the TKO were a lil' sloppy. The stretch/sequences leading into the sitdown powerbomb were not. Great 30 seconds there. The Stormbreaker counter into the Skull End was cool. The Ospreay Cutter countered into the Skull End was cool. The finish was sweet. Pretty fun spotfest although honestly, it was more subdued than I would have guessed. I thought they were going to go crazy with the high spots but they were reeled in a bit. The story of Ospreay having great success with the hook kick was a nice little addition to the match. Zack Sabre, Jr. Vs. Kazuchika Okada - Show so far, at least from the order of the first three G1 tournament matches, has been laid out really well. You had the slobberknocker hoss match. Then the athletic display match. Now with ZSJ you get the technical wrestling match. The banana split spot was fantastic. ZSJ plays a great cocky dickhead. I've come around on him a lot too. Honestly, there's very few people left in New Japan that I don't at least enjoy a little. I'm not big on EVIL. I downright loathe Chase Owens. But most of the people I didn't like, such as Captain New Japan, Iizuka, Taguchi, Nakanishi & Tenzan I've not seen around in awhile. I love that part of ZSJ's schtick is that he not only does the British style, or the submission based offense but that he's always well prepared for his opponent leading to a lot of counters. It makes sense, from a storytelling perspective, if you're familiar with the moveset of a guy & then have a plan according to it. I wish more people did that. Maybe not necessarily in a first encounter but the psychology of learning from the matches as you go is important. Rainmaker countered with kicks to the arm. Rainmaker countered into a Royal Octopus. Rainmaker countered into a European Clutch pin. Rainmaker countered into a hanging armbar. That's good stuff. Okada still has one of the best dropkicks in all of wrestling & you get to see it three or four times in this match. After all the counters to the Rainmaker, that builds to the finish of Okada finally hitting it & it leading to the victory. Pretty good story told. Okada did a spinning variant on the Rainmaker and ZSJ didn't have a counter for that. EVIL Vs. Kota Ibushi - Guess I'll get to see what sort of shape that Ibushi's ankle is in. The pictures he posted of it on Twitter were brutal. Very slow paced, strike based match to start. After a few minutes EVIL grabs an ankle lock. The English commentators mention Ibushi's ankle a lot. They work the ankle into the match. With Kota not even being able to jump as high as normal, which is pretty cool. First match of the night where a part has been worked too, I believe. Pretty good Superplex, off the top rope, by EVIL. Wasn't as impressive as the one Fale did to Archer earlier though & that was off the second. This match didn't really grab me or do it for me. Felt lackluster. KENTA Vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - Jury still out on KENTA for me. I didn't like his previous G1 match at all, although I know some other posters on the forum in this thread did. Something that never really gets talked about enough: there's dudes in New Japan, like Tanahashi & Okada, that just have incredible gear. It really goes a long way in helping them stand out & look like bigger stars from some of the other guys. I've seen more freakin' double stomps this weekend than I've ever needed to see. I would be OK with never seeing another one again. Put Cutters, Destroyers & Superkicks on that list too. All these years of watching pro-wrestling & I still mark out for someone just simply putting their knees up to counter a top rope splash. Also, I love Frog Splashes. I'm not really that difficult to please! Anyway, Tanahashi goes to sleep abruptly. Match never really hit the next gear. Kind of just felt there. This whole show did, really. Not a great day. Every match was pretty much in the 2-3 star range. Crazy that after the first three nights, I think Lance Archer has been in the best match so far. Both night 2 & 3 feel entirely skippable. I've noticed, not just in New Japan but in wrestling as a whole lately, there's an over-reliance on repeatedly going back to the same well too many times in the same match. Young Bucks with Superkicks. Tanahashi with Sling Blades. Kenny Omega with V-Triggers. Etc. Just making the moves not mean anything.

I feel like this match doesn't have anywhere near the heat that it should. The crowd is gassed.

I don't believe for a second that Jim Ross thinks the Young Bucks are the best tag team in the world. He's spent a part of the evening talking about how guys are using the same moves too much!

Hangman Page feels nowhere ready for a world title shot. Meanwhile Luchasaurus looks like the biggest star in the company.

JESUS CHRIST LUCHASAURUS

Headbanger Mosh and Abyss ready for action!

Unsurprisingly, the crowd is white hot & awesome tonight.

He'd get a huge reaction! I'd pop for his punches too. I actually like his pairing with Salina in MLW. Salina would also be a big get for anyone. I'm not sure how ironclad the MLW contracts are.

Darby Allin is 22-years old. He is billed (according to Wikipedia) as being 5'8", 180lbs. For comparison sake, playing football in third grade at age nine, I was 5'6", 180lbs. And I'm pretty sure his stats are exaggerated.

Honestly, Britt Baker is wrestling like she's concussed.

I feel like this match would have been a lot better if it were just Riho Vs. Priestley.

I mark out for the Rhodes Brothers referring to themselves as "The Brotherhood."

The match was fine. The librarians honestly came out to mega heat.

Why replace him? Just let the other two guys do it & don't try to do a 3-man team. You can even hear some of the old guard stuff of his slip through on commentary sometimes. It's very noticeable.

The more I hear & read from Jim Ross, the more I don't think he really fits in with AEW at all. Not even necessarily because I disagree with some of the things that he says, like on the Steve Austin Podcast, but just because he seems to contradict statements that Cody has made in the past. A lot of the times he comes off being grumpy with "well, I don't get it but it's not my business" type one-liners. I'm all for him giving AEW help but it's a bad look when you air that stuff out publicly when you work there. As an example, Jim Ross was talking about having an established set of rules. Which I agree with. He went on to make the point that you need clearly defined rules so then you know when the bad guys are breaking them. Again, I agree with him. Makes sense. He's 100%. But he makes those statements after Cody talks about how AEW doesn't want to have heel/face dynamics & they're going to let the crowds decide who they get behind & that the old way of thinking regarding alignment is antiquated. So it both makes it look like Jim Ross is antiquated & makes it look like he's contradicting Cody. I don't think it's that far fetched to believe that Jim Ross won't be with AEW in a long-term role because I feel like drama will start to arise. AEW is trying to be the new, young, hip thing & Jim Ross is a guy from the old guard. They're going to clash.

If we get this I'll be ecstatic. That would be great.