bradhindsight

Gd it, i had that reply up in draft and then you both post prior to me - lol. What are the odds?

Come on man. He's not new to the internet and clearly was trying to recollect something that a lot of people on this site could possibly solve.

Different Jeff from Jeff Learns Wrestling also (fwiw). Just wanted to clarify so there isn't confusion with our normal group of folks/shows.

Lee's title defenses are always great and this is a unique dynamic as he can be X-Division Trevor Lee and really work underneath to the bigger Elgin. And that's what this entire match is based around - Elgin's power, Trevor trying to counter and get an edge, but Elgin continuing to pummel him. They slug away on each other to start, good intensity and Trevor's selling throughout is really good. There's a thread in this match around the German suplex - they battle over it early before Elgin eventually fires a bunch off. It's somewhat Lesnar-esque, but Lee's comebacks are good and all feel natural. Elgin himself comes off scouting Lee really well; he gets big power moves like his Falcon Arrow off of Trevor's regular spots. Lee comes back and laces Elgin with penalty kicks while standing on the apron and elgin finally collapses. Back in there's another and then Lee's big spot in the match: a deadlift German (pay-off) which gets two. Feels like this is building to the finish, but there's another chunk here with Elgin on top; he gets a DVD on the apron and deadlifts Lee from the top rope into another Falcon Arrow. And then he hits his big elevated powerbomb for another two count. Another slam and Lee is up at 1 and fired up, but he collapses right before Elgin lariats him. Elgin picks him up to finish him off, but Trevor reverses into his STF, but elgin boots him in the face. Lee then grabs him into a cradle to retain. Elgin was great here, and i have no problem with a roll-up finish here, but it felt really flat with it coming off Elgin kicking Lee and not vice versa. Still ****1/4

Every year I get the game on a Black Friday sale for $30, about a month after it releases for $60. The season passes have gone on sale more recently, in the past they never did (for PS3) so i'd use those savings to make sure i had all the content with the game. Truthfully the 2k15,16,17 versions for this generation haven't gotten a lot of run by me. I really liked 2k14 on PS3 with the Mania challenges and the Attitude Era one from the year prior. They got rid of that stuff with this gen.

PS4's (especially the non-Pro version if you don't have a 4K tv) are really getting affordable - $250 bundles, etc. If you target it around the holidays you'll get a nice deal as the system will have been out for four years. This is a good time to jump in!

Hey Elliott - would you mind if I worked that up for a post at PTBN?

I liked the build and atmosphere for this and because of the built-in drama of Cody being ROH champ (and his status in general) + this being on US soil, there was heightened talk of a title change. So that was really cool "pit of the stomach" thing in watching to see how things played out. Okada gets a monster pop! The match, for me, completely kicks into top NJPW gear when Okada starts laying in the forearms and does that extended stomp in the corner. Prior to that, there was a lot I wasn't particularly feeling. Cody's mistiming around the guardrail dive, where he goes back to Okada on the apron and then walks himself back out and climbs over the rail is quite possibly the WORST sequence I have ever seen in a pro wrestling match. His work on top with Okada was uninspiring and Okada has to sell like death after taking a crappy front suplex. And then Okada has to kick out at two after being kicked in the freakin' arm. Way too many cover attempts in this one, which completely stilt the drama and flow. To counter some of those negatives, the power slam by Cody was nice, and the top rope arm drag was well done. I liked the idea of countering the disaster kick into a flapjack, but it looked like shit. Inverted neck breaker into a Rainmaker pose is reversed into a leg lock that had no setup by Cody. Good selling by Okada, but there was just nothing that built to this being meaningful. Back to the good stretch now, Okada ratchets things up with the drop kick and tombstone and then moves into the short arm lariats with the wrist grab (the Japanese announcers do call these Rainmakers fwiw, but i feel like the final one is the REAL one here). Now comes the Omega drama, which does heighten watching live. Good sequences set up each guy stealing each other's finish - it's like WWF 2001! So that US trope happens. Okada's counter with the knee into his own cross rhodes is sweet, and it looks like Cody has no idea which way he's going to be twisted and it comes off stiff. They go from these big spots to a weird sequence where Okada kind of breaks cross rhodes so Cody just picks him up into a reverse DDT driver of sorts that gets NO reaction on the kickout (and again with the kickouts and ruining the flow). They should done that before the finisher stealing. Another counter sequence is mistimed so Okada seemingly shoot picks up Cody and does a spinning jumping tombstone -> Rain Maker - and done. I rarely criticize a match for starting slow (because long matches have to start somewhere), but the work in that part was just dreadful. Good last 6 minutes or so. ***

I like that they start with a lot of aggression given the stakes and that helps a little when they go into the standard LMS trope of counting for everything fairly early. But at least the moves are count-worthy, which cannot always be said when they've done matches like this. I thought the production was really good here too, good camera angles to make stuff look stiffer. I think it can certainly be said that Nikki's offense was a lot more interesting, starting with the reverse DDT on the apron and that snap back suplex on the chairs after taking a hair toss off the turnbuckle. I also liked that Nikki wouldn't just sit around during the count; even after the four swinging fishermen busters (Cross rhodes), she's going for the belt, not convinced she'll get 10. Asuka does take a lot of damage here, which felt off - and the powerbomb onto the chairs was really sick because Nikki just dropped her so she couldn't bump normally. But it's a weird transition there, Asuka is up at 9 and then just takes over, leading to a very lame hip attack off the ramp - which seemed like such a tame response to all the carnage. And then from there its more Nikki, like the rail assisted swinging neckbreaker to the mat; she was just much more creative in this match. I liked the finish setup as you don't think about the announcer's table with how they worked it, and Asuka barely survives. ****

From Ioan Morris at PTBN

I thought this was pretty rad - probably checked in around ***3/4 or so for me. The following is our recap from Ioan Morris at PTBN

Peter did ask us if it could possibly work Parv.

Okada as a second here added to the match and certainly upped my interest level, although it felt like they did a lot more restarts than normal with all the interference (which I get and like to a point). It takes DBS Jr. to get the rest of CHAOS to support their guy and then we do the match proper. I couldn't believe how much i liked Suzuki struggling in YOSHI-HASHI's submission, I nearly bought that; he was terrific. YH - similar to their pull-apart to set this up, has no business trading strikes or playing tough guy against Suzuki. At the end of this poor YH looked beat up, busted lip, puffy face and all. A good Korakuen main - built to with the promos during the show and with the sneaky-fun DBS Jr. / Desperado tag against Okada/Gedo from earlier in the show. ***1/2

Similar to Chad, my main takeaway was that Okada had little idea how to make anything compelling with someone like Makabe. The dead lift into the inverted neckbreaker is such a weird spot when it isn't fluid from a counter. Again its Okada eating heavy stuff (really nice high arching German into a bridge by Makabe) , kicking out, no-sell dropkick, no-sell all previous damage, rainmaker and advancement to the finals. Not particularly good.

Nakamura's work was just so much more interesting than Okada here, which probably isn't surprising for 2012, but nevertheless it really stood out. The first eight minutes or so are very methodical and the crowd could not give less of a shit about Okada working slowly on the neck and clinching on holds (and it's probably too early in Okada's rise for them to really care about even the pre-lock up stuff). They are ready for Nak to work the midsection, and I dug it also. Flapjack here isn't even a transition, Okada just uses it off the ropes and then goes for a cover, which I don't usually like off such reg move as it kills the momentum. Really good elbow from Okada and a nice flurry from Nak that segues into a new transition (!) as Okada dropkicks him coming off the top rope and then goes into his signature power stuff. Really good layout. Nak is all over the Rainmaker attempts, since they're buddies and all, and his weaponized knee is a constant great counter to it. Big knee off the top rope with Okada's delayed sell off the big dropkick to pop the crowd. Real nice. Another smooth counter - Nak charges the corner and Okada seamless moves into the inverted neckbreaker. Good finish to a very good match with Nak's experience winning out as they both try to fire off their game changing finish.The second half feels like a preview/condensed version of a 28 minute epic and it's really well done. ***1/2

This is, somewhat expected given the G-1, an abridged version of their first match, although nowhere near the limb focus they built before. Okada does the same neck spot with kicking the rail, although Naito does have some big knee spots - like a charging dropkick outside to Okada's draped over the rail. Okada sells this great, even feigning being able to pull himself up with the ropes during the 20 count. I couldn't even recall what else Okada did, but the finishing stretch felt better here than their previous matchup (Marty used a good phrase for Naito's in the prior - "tacked on"), with Naito coming up with different counters to the Rainmaker and building off the previous match by hitting Destino a second time and connecting with Stardust. Crowd is pretty hot for both guys, even with Okada as a heel. ***1/2

I use Chromecast - works great, both from my laptop and using my phone (the NJPWorld app is only for chromecast)

Okada starts off trading strikes with the bigger guy and it goes how you'd expect; he tries to hang in there and does a nice job selling for Tenzan. Similar mapping to the Goto match, Okada takes a bunch of punishment and looks pretty strong surviving, but his offense is pretty blah here. There's a real awkward transition where he just picks Tenzan up for the inverted neckbreaker and it's nasty looking. Later Okada gets flipped over and nearly doesn't make the full turn. Rainmaker is reversed into a wicked headbutt (camera angle helped), but Okada just shrugs that off and hits his dropkick and the rainmaker to win. Similar model to the Goto match with Okada getting less offense in due to the size difference.

Last stop on the Kizuna Road tour and I was most interested in here in the Okada/Anderson interaction as I know they have some big matches upcoming with the G-1. They get a decent chunk of this match with Anderson booting Okada hard in the corner, and Okada reversing his powerbomb into the inverted neckbreaker. Anderson gets off a bunch of neck breakers and does hit his big power bomb but Yujiro breaks up the pin, which makes him look pretty strong. Naito wins with Stardust on Yujiro. This was perfectly fine.

While this falls outside the "Learning to Love Okada" look-back at his singles work, I casually watched this exhibition and made a couple mental notes. Firstly, it was predictably worked very light, but it was still an interesting card on paper. Next, this was not a resume-padder for Nakamura. He was out to lunch, really bad kicks, not good at all. Okada worked in peril and was fine here for what this was - good bump by [insert AJPW wrestler name here] on the Rainmaker to finish also.

Tremendous match, Tanahashi is so f'n good here. There are a lot of callbacks to their New Beginning match that they build off of here. Okada slips out of the opening matwork and is pretty proud of himself. Tanahashi makes sure he wrenches him real good next time and he goes after the leg HARD early - ring post, real aggressive stuff. Love Okada's facials and selling here. I think Okada sold better overall in the NB match, and it's really the only knock on the match for me. This time he picks up Tanahashi to seat him up top to hit his dropkick. He uses the railing like in the Naito match and works the neck stuff in. These guys have great slug-offs with each other. Tremendous drop kick from Okada, jesus the elevation. One of the best i've ever seen. I love their upper cut trading as Tanahashi tries to fight back and Okada wins this sequence actually, keeping him down. This is great segue into Tanahashi's cutoff - a running dropkick to the knee where Okada does a 360 flip. HFF to the outside, knee work sequence #2 but Okada is right with him, really good back and forth. They feel like equals (to Chad's point). Inverted neckbreaker morphs into a sling blade. Now Tanahashi wrenches in the raised cloverleaf - looks like the end, but he gets the ropes. HFF #1 to the back hits, but the second is knees up like at NB. Okada races to hit his power stuff, but its not keeping Tanahashi down. Now to the tombstone - Okada struggling (perhaps the knee), Tanahashi plants him with it this time out. There's a Dragon suplex in here by Tanahashi that nearly gets three. Okada is *so* good looking for the Rainmaker late, great reversals and counters before Tanahashi gets him with another sling blade into the HFF and the win. Okada regularly shrugging off all of the knee work is the only blemish for me. Tanahashi is amazing. ****1/2

And hey - here's our dedicated page to BOTH Strong Style shows: http://placetobenation.com/strongstylepod/ I had a chance to listen to SSH yesterday on the NJPW Attack on East Coast tour of 2011 - very timely, and learned a lot (and couldn't believe the IC belt originated there given its prestige today - sorry MVP).

I liked Okada's performance here a good bit. The first eight minutes or so here are pretty dull with Goto on top, but I liked how after being dumped outside Okada quickly tried to go into the crowd with Goto - an advantage he used to transition in both the Tanahashi and Naito matches prior. It doesn't work here, so it's more Goto working him over. The work is by no means light, it's just pretty plodding and I do think Okada sells and bumps really well for Goto. The transition that does work is the top rope drop kick (again) and then it's Okada on the neck and, what I presume is Red Ink - his submission (from what I could gather). He hits a great dropkick to a charging Goto also in this match. Couple other Okada notes: he (also again) uses his tombstone as a cutoff move and transition right into Heavy Rain. They flub a Rain Maker sequence, but he never waivers and gets Goto into a different position to then do the spot. Okada doesn't get a ton of suplex heavy work in the rest of the way; he takes all of Goto's power moves and they feel much more in place here than when Naito ran through his against Okada. Top rope finisher was cringe inducing and man that look like it stung Okada (so much so that the kickout seemed like a no brainer the way he was curled up). Late in this match Okada has transitioned into exclusively looking for his home run, which is reversed into a headbutt that the crowd cannot believe. Okada kicks Goto's forearm, then ducks another lariat (with said forearm) and then counters him into the Rain Maker for the win. Interesting how this felt much more like a survival than the Tanashi/Naito contests. ***1/2

The crowd popped for Kojima this morning too - and they REALLY popped for the Ibushi reveal, that was awesome. Gotta think DBS Jr is the first alternate due to injury or what not. ZSJ seemingly took his spot.

The Rainmaker pose is starting to get more and more over. Short throwaway Korakuen Hall main event with Okada throwing some stiff kicks to the face and a super nasty tombstone at poor Captain New Japan. The Captain gets in his big moves, which was a little surprising (the crowd dug it), and gets credit for taking a good bump off the Rainmaker.