El-P

For fuck's sake. I haven't watched any NJPW since the Dome show, but these G1 finals are ridiculous. Glad to see Naito is still the greatest big match worker in 2017. And Tanahashi, as banged up as he is, working such a great match is mind-blowing too. Sometime, I guess you just have to believe the hype. MOTYC.

Ok, I'm sold. Another great match, another MOTYC, Omega really has come a long way since his overactive junior days. Great story, great selling, great spot progression (mostly, although I didn't like the piling up of neck spots after the huge reverse hurricanrana outside, this spot was enough to warrant a great nearfall), great execution (yes, it does matter), great drama. I love to be proven wrong in these matters.

The Starrcade series leading up to the infamous 97 edition was something else. Schiavone's show won me over once again. The clusterfuck that was Hogan vs Sting at 97 is still fascinating to this day, especially with the 2017 commentary. WCW, still miss ya...

Donald Trump as half the brain Sid does apparently.

Yep. Really, the whole Montreal crew story is fascinating and remains a story to be told (not sure the Pat Laprade book talks about this part of the story, I haven't read it).

I went in with negative preconceptions. Not a huge fan of either. Not a big fan of the first match. Insane hype. One hour... And yeah. Turned my head around. MOTYC, easy. All-time classic ? Probably. They did a wonderful job pacing the hour, made a great use of teasing two huge spots from the first match, gaining time in the process. Great selling down the stretch (come on, who cares about the knee stuff, it was nice to waste a bit of time at the beginning with a sub-plot and Okada was terrific selling it, but it wasn't to be the whole story, especially when you go one hour). Nice twist with the Cody Rhodes stuff which allowed that Rainmaker to be protected. Awesome, classic finish. Not a dull moment in the entire hour, and although you can pinpoint a few flaws (average execution at times, yeah, sorry, it counts; typical no-sell stuff inherited from Kobashi), it was a pleasure from start to finish. Yeah. Pro-wrestling at its best. (Kevin Kelly is a pretty fucking terrible announcer though)

Yeah, but your neck tattoo, black eyeliner, and Harley Davidson budgets are so much smaller than Taker's. Not to mention budget to remove/change your neck tatoo when you dump our wife for younger woman. But yeah. "We have very different lives", as they say...

Ok. So, the Montreal Forum some year in the late 70s or the early 80's.

"Ça pas d'bon sens !" Raymond Rougeau (every WWF Superstars episode ever in the 90's)

This. The benefit of choosing a venue like Korakuen Hall is the diverse footage you'd be able to get... They had a little of everything in he 90's -- some smaller All Japan shows headlined by multi man matches, smaller New Japan shows, UWF-I, IWA Japan, FMW, possibly some Michinoku Pro, etc. Aslo keep in mind there were days when multiple organizations ran multiple events on a single day in Korakuen. Exactly. So much fun, so much variety. Also, the Korakuen crowds were always hot as hell back then.

What shows couldn't you just buy from Jeff Lynch? Last time I bought anything from anyone wrestling related (including that good ol' Jeff Lynch) was about 15 years ago.

Korakuen Hall, 1993.

I'm well aware of that. But the idea of totally broken down Taker coming back at Mania *again* because he would *need* the 1M$ payoff is kinda ridiculous. Either that or he really sucks at investments... Like I said before, Ray Rougeau = smartest wrestler ever : retired at 35 and set for life.

Finally watched this. For most of the match, I thought it was basically the best of current New Japan big match style, with a simple yet great story told : Shibata hits harder and is a better wrestler, but Okada can take a beating and come back, not always in the fairest way. Yet there is one thing at the very end that keeps it from reaching the MOTYC level for me : Okada's final win comes from... not doing much. I have a hard time buying his offense putting down Shibata like it finally did. It seems too easy. Okada is excellent at taking a beating, countering stuff, selling, but not exactly the most impressive offensive worker. There's something unengaging about his offense to me. Hell, unengaging in general. So yeah, Shibata did great, although his matches are very much patterned (and that's coming from someone who hasn't watch any NJ since the 2017 Dome Show, but had watched the 16 G1 entirely) and as an old-school Takada (and shoot-style in the broadest meaning, hence Takada) fan, the early matwork was kinda there. Shibata's shit looks great but it's also very gimmicky as in "he plays the role of the no nonsense wrestler", we get it, but it always leads to the same sequences in every big matches. They did the best with their stuff though and had a legit great match in the process, but Okada not being *that great* and Shibata being what he is keeps it from reaching MOTYC status to me (as snowflake goes, that means it would probably plateau at ****1/4 to me) Kevin Kelly mentionning 5* and 6* matches automatically makes him completely shitty BTW.

Maybe they just shot it at Vince's house like those DiBiase vignettes.

The Kanellis = Lanny Poffo. I say good for them !

Amazing. When is Maria scheduled to deliver ? And then how much time will they let her before calling her back on TV (I guess once she'll get in "WWE shape"), as obviously they wanted her rather than him.

Yeah, they need to live in palaces and shit in golden toilets... Reminds me the very few times I saw that stupid reality show with the Bellas and how I was appaled by the lifestyle of John Cena. I wouldn't trade my place with his, really. Who needs all that shit ? Anyway. It struck me as a completely inane remark from Meltz that wasn't wrestling related, really.

About Taker's finances "may be not the best" (and him coming back at Mania for a payday again) : "Unless you have 10 million $ in the bank, you're always gonna worry about your finances." WTF ? Give me a single million and I'm so done.

Yeah, strikes me as totally ridiculous on every level, to say the least.

I believe NJ's very first PPVs were in the early 00's. Before that, it was all on the TV shows and tape releases.

CD's are still going strong in Japan too. Totally different culture.

Yeah, Meltz was brutal with Dustin, to the point he really comes off having a terrible bias against him. Really ridiculous. The Goldust episode was still too long and result-reading heavy, but there was some interesting stuff there. It's striking when you roll back his entire career how much crazy shit Dustin was a part of, including that godawful TAFKAG stint that I mostly erased from memory (apart from the Mania 14 match), and how much the real life issue played a role into his on/off pushes. I like that Bruce hated the "shoot" interview which killed the character dead and that he shit on most of Russo's nonsensical booking in 98/99. Quite a fascinating and unique career when you think about it, although it also put a light on the fact that no matter how good Dustin's WCW work was, he had long periods of not really delivering anything that good (especially if you put the late WCW and TNA stint in the middle of it). And when he got back in the best working shape of his life he wasn't given much opportunities to shine.

Another all-time great Grumpy Mutoh Fuck-Off performance indeed.

I'd drop Mutoh in the "underrated" crowd, honestly. Despite the bad tendencies and goofiness, always been a Keiji Mutoh/Great Muta fan. He has his share of infamous "Grumpy Mutoh" performances where he lays an egg in the middle of the ring. This include the famous job-to-Takada match at the 04/01/96 Dome show. I find him oddly endearing in his absolute lack of giving-a-fuck- in these.