Is NJPW the best puro product currently?

[conker8]

What are the odds I would like any of that stuff? I'm not trolling, being serious here

You might like Ishii/Archer and Suzuki/Nagata.

[rzombie1988]

I reviewed The G1 Climax 2013 Day 2 here:

http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/nj...esults-and.html

 

Overall thoughts: Pretty great show with lots of good stuff up and down the card. The main event is must see and the last 4 matches or so are all really good. Check this one out.

 

Some shots from the show:

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Cruising through the .gifs of Day 1 I must say I really like the set up for the German suplex in the Lance Archer vs. Tomohiro Ishii. It was a nice way to make the move believable.

 

EDIT: Also that .gif of the kick from the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Karl Anderson is so over the top.

[rzombie1988]

I reviewed Day 3 of the G1 Climax here:

http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/nj...esults-and.html

 

Overall thoughts: The good and bad stuff here was about equal. Goto/Kojima, Smith/Tana, Naito/Nagata were all good but the Benjamin, Tenzan and Shibata matches were disappointing. I do recommend checking out the three I mentioned though as they were good and were worth the time. Stay away from the first two or three though.

 

Some shots from the show:

[rzombie1988]

I reviewed Day 3 of the G1 Climax 2013 here:

http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/nj...esults-and.html

 

Overall thoughts: Well what can you say. This was a great show and literally everything was good here. NJPW booked this really well as they put the stuff that wouldn't be so good out first while saving the good stuff for top half. However, the stuff that wasn't supposed to be that good was and therefore made for a great card. Everyone really performed well and the Shibata/Ishii match is a MOTYC and is guranteed at worst a share for my MOTY. Definitely see this show as it's one of NJPW's best.

 

Some shots from the show:

[Loss]

Does anyone in New Japan have a non-douchey hairstyle?

[rzombie1988]

Does anyone in New Japan have a non-douchey hairstyle?

Ishii.

 

This is Japan though. EVERYBODY under the age of 30 has a douchey hairstyle.

[Guest TheGreatPuma]

I haven't been able to watch it at all due to time but this G1 Climax has been incredibly fun so far. Awesome matches, personalities and upsets I haven't seen coming. Upsets I wanted to happen too:) Gotta love it!

 

And I second the love for Ishii and Shibita. Now I have yet more people to care about in NJPW. Just finishing watching Devitt and Tanahashi usually I hate interference especially in NJPW King of Sports but this works (just don't let anyone else do it) and Devitt's personality is off the page greatness right now.

 

Naito vs Ibushi was my type of match from earlier on in the tournament. Loved that too.

[Dylan Waco]

I did like Ishii v. Tanahashi well enough, but I have no clue what about that is supposed to be a MOTY and I don't even mean that in a douchey, dismissive way. It really seems an odd match to tout that level and I say that as someone who would probably have it in the top three of NJPW singles matches I've seen this year. I thought I would one of the bigger Ishii fanboys around and loved that he won decisively, but is his underdog story the reason for the hype or something else? Also Tanahashi's offense in that match...holy fuck was it bad.

[Guest TheGreatPuma]

Nakamura vs Ibushi had me marking out too. NJPW is so awesome at bringing the excitement. The crowd, the wrestlers, the tension, the passion, the personalities, the in ring work, the micing of the ring and the camera work are in such awesome synch for me. I can see why they're gaining so much popularity.

With. NJPW their camera work has always been terrific and I felt like giving them credit for that tonight. You can even go back to the early 80s and watch TheGreatPuma and it's way better camera work than what other organization do today or did since than imo. The way the wresting comes across and comes to life. Kudos to them.

[MJH]

I thought Tanahashi/Ishii was way too fucking even. Had I come in cold with no idea of either guy, I honestly don't think I'd've connected to any underdog story there. The crowd ate it up, the match was fun, and I can understand people more involved in the product marking out for the upset... but Ishii was kicking his ass every bit as much as vice versa... the match needed a lengthy, comfortable period of Tanahashi dominating, and it had nothing of the sort.

[WingedEagle]

I loved Tanahashi/Ishii. For folks coming into it cold, it definitely wouldn't mean as much. But the Korakuen crowd and presumably many watching via the all in G1 sub package are quite familiar with the product and thus the upset came across as a big deal precisely because he didn't dominate the whole match and thus the likely outcome of Tanahashi winning wasn't threatened early on.

[rzombie1988]

I reviewed Day 6 of the G1 Climax here(Yeah, I know, I'm a few days behind):

http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/nj...esults-and.html

 

Overall thoughts: Good show overall with Ishii/Davey being the highlight. Okada/Shibata and Goto/Tanahashi were disappointing though.

 

Some shots from the show:

[rovert]

This

is

praise

 

Meltzer:

--Will have more later on this but Tanahashi vs. Okada is the current equivalent of Thesz vs. O'Connor, Jack Brisco vs. Dory Funk Jr. and Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat. I'm not listing Misawa vs. Kobashi because as good as Tanahashi vs. Okada is, until they repeatedly win match of the year, I'm not putting them in the same category.

[rovert]

This

is

praise

 

Meltzer:

--Will have more later on this but Tanahashi vs. Okada is the current equivalent of Thesz vs. O'Connor, Jack Brisco vs. Dory Funk Jr. and Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat. I'm not listing Misawa vs. Kobashi because as good as Tanahashi vs. Okada is, until they repeatedly win match of the year, I'm not putting them in the same category.

[rzombie1988]

I reviewed Day 7 of the G1 Climax here:

http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/nj...and-review.html

 

Overall thoughts: This was one of the lesser days of the G1. There were only two matches I liked here and I just was not into this one at all. This one also had a house show type of feel to it.

 

Some shots from the show:

[Dylan Waco]

This

is

praise

 

Meltzer:

--Will have more later on this but Tanahashi vs. Okada is the current equivalent of Thesz vs. O'Connor, Jack Brisco vs. Dory Funk Jr. and Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat. I'm not listing Misawa vs. Kobashi because as good as Tanahashi vs. Okada is, until they repeatedly win match of the year, I'm not putting them in the same category.

 

They've yet to have a match I've even liked.

[tim]

I generally liked the one that got five stars although I wouldn't even say it's a particularly good match. Just watched the G1 match and it's a match I enjoyed watching and honestly WANT to say is great overall because I think it did a lot of things really well, but there's too many flaws, not the least of which being shitty offense from both parties. Although a lot of the last 10-15 minutes or so were a lot of fun I thought, and Okada sold the leg surprisingly well. So I definitely liked it based on its strengths, but it's totally one of the NJ matches where they try to make up for a boring and meandering first half with a near-fall-full hot second half.

[tim]

And Jesus Christ for a guy for whom "shitty offense" is at the top of his flaws list, Tanahashi does NOT need to be using the Styles Clash of all things.

[WingedEagle]

Am I the only one who thought Naito/Suzuki on Day 4 was better than Ishii/Shibata? I love Ishii and generally like Shibata, but that just felt like an excuse to concuss and beat the crap out of each other for 15 minutes. My thoughts on whether that's a good idea or not aside, I'm able to enjoy it do a certain extent when done well, which it was here. But Suzuki put on a clinic in carrying a thus far unimpressive Naito to his best match since last year's title challenge vs. Okada.

 

If Suzuki could teach everyone the importance of timing and pacing, the world would be a better place.

[rzombie1988]

I reviewed Day 8 of the NJPW G1 Climax 2013 here:

http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/nj...and-review.html

 

Overall thoughts: There was sadly more bad than good on this show. The main was good and should be seen and I liked Ishii's match, but Ibushi was awful and the usual suspects weren't much better in the bad match department. The crowd wasn't totally there until the end though and I didn't like NJPW leaving Shibata totally off the card due to Goto's injury.

 

Some shots from the show:

[MJH]

I just watched Shibata/Ishii and I get the hype. I don't agree with it but with them knocking six degrees of shit out of each other and the crowd going crazy, it's a hard match not to enjoy. But still, that's all it really comes down to: two guys beating the fuck out of each other and see who falls first. I mean, one can be all smug and say "well, isn't that what wrestling always comes down to?" but it's as if these guys have seen Kobashi/Sasaki or whatever and decided to ape that in appearance only. I mean, sure, that match has had plenty of detractors, but if we take out that it was two big powerful heavyweights in the Dome (which is a perfect setting for such a match), they didn't chop the hell out of each other, they composed and structured the match in such a way as to where they mirrored one another (Kobashi/Misawa 10/97 being a more obvious version of such a structure, though Cena/Batista did it too at one point, I want to say the SummerSlam match?), building to the OK Corral stand-off and the key spot after which one guy is done for (in the Cena/Batista one it was the powerbomb counter off the top). Say what you will about the "no-selling" etc... it was thought-out and structured. Shibata/Ishii didn't have any of that. One guy might have a short period of control, the other would hulk up, win the next dueling sequence, rinse and repeat until the finish. And that's it. It was a good match, for reasons already stated and the dueling sequences were strong from an action perspective... but it's missing that key structure to make it anything more than two tough guys twatting shit out of each other, y'know?

 

There was a match in the Carnival in I think maybe 2010? Pretty sure it was Kono and Sanada, two young guys, neither being particularly great or anything, and inexplicably asked to do a TLD. And like them, it's not especially strong a match, you can see both guys inexperience and weaknesses all over the place, but what made it stand-out to me was that, watching it, everything they did made sense. It was as if Kobashi or Kawada came in to play agent for the night, sat them down, and bullet-pointed the whole thing out for them. Maybe they just stumbled onto it, who knows, but it's something I don't see in 90%+ of contemporary Japanese stuff, in any of these big pimped recent New Japan matches. It's all action-based and goes no further. It's fun, the matches are enjoyable, but it's the easiest thing to fix (I mean they work these matches out in advance so there's no Flair/Steamboat "winging it" excuses) and no one seems to be doing it.

[rzombie1988]

I reviewed the G1 Finals here:

http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/nj...y-9-finals.html

 

Overall thoughts - This was a great night of wrestling. There were multiple good matches and a good crowd. I was very disappointed by Tanahashi/Shibata but hopefully they will meet again. As a whole, the tournament has been pretty great but there were clearly "big show" days and "house show" days. Still, we got the amazing Shibata/Ishii spectacle and the fabulous Tanahashi/Ishii battle. This was a great G1 and quite possibly the best G1 yet.

 

Some shots from the show:

[rvd356]

So fuckin Akebono won the Triple Crown Championship on October 27. 1 day shy of the 13th anniversary of the Tenryu/Kawada TC championship tourny to try and save AJPW after Misawa gutted the promotion. Here's the Suwama/Akebono title change if anyone wants to see how bad it's got for All Japan(PWF?):

 

Yeah the fat fuck that makes Viscera look like Hashimoto or Tensai look like William Regal. I don't get it, is Vince Russo booking in Japan now? I guess they are taking WWE's 'bigger than life'(read it on 411 today) approach explaining why Big Show is getting a monster push & why Khali has been on Raw.

 

Basically the last 3 PPV's bombed headlined by Orton-Danielson and WWE is of course blaming Bryan because Orton is a household name and proven to be box-office I guess. I guarentee Cena-Danielson would have 25% more business with similar shit booking. Heck I don't think Undertaker or even Steve Austin 2013 could have drawn much more money with the exact same booking: stacked odds, Orton as Trips/Stephanies corporate champion, also the Shield as henchmen.

 

But let's get to the point. Triple H & Stephanie are trying to play some married couple version of 'Chairman Vince McMahon' but they lack all the charisma of that character that made him a top 5 ALL-time heel. I know Vince is phasing himself out and giving the character to Trips but it just doesn't fit. Everytime Vince is on TV the ratings jump. People remember the jackass boss that went to war with Austin & Foley & had the family on board with Triple H's awesome 2000 run, basically the end of WWF's real 'mainstream' window before the Monday Night War ended, the XFL, the crazy Costas interview, 9/11 & the recession and the catalyst of him teaming up with Austin in 2001 and killing off ' Attitude' when it could have kept going in some form. Remember the awesome Raw(with an awesome rating) last year where he had the Street Fight with CM Punk and helped Punk look like a huge deal, straight out of 1999/2000? Let's get some more of that, have Trips around as the protege for awhile, he's just not ready to be 'Mr. McMahon' although Hall, Nash & Waltman as 'The Stooges II' would be awesome.

 

WAY off topic, damn. Green stuff gets to me at night.

[RyanClingman]

EDIT: Looking through this thread I may have misunderstood the point by ignoring the dates, sorry about that.

 

I don't know how many people will agree with me on this one, but from my perspective the crowning jewel of New Japan over this hot period has been the Tanahashi/Suzuki match from King of Pro-Wrestling last year -- honestly an all time favourite. The thing about that match is that it encompasses so many great things about all different styles of pro-wrestling. A lot of a the limb work and slap spots are what you would expect out of a big puro match, but the overall match layout reminds me of a classic North American match; it is something that should be at the top of your list. Some other great matches were Sakuraba/Nakamura from the January 4th Tokyo Dome show this year, which was a match worked in a pseudo shoot style manner, which was off the charts. Naito and Okada had a great, not close to the level of the other two, but still very good, on 2012/04/03. If you are looking to sample the top acts right now then you should probably go for the Okada/Tanahashi match from Invasion Attack, which from my perspective is the match of the year this year. Nothing major has been going on in the Junior division, but Taguchi and Ibushi had a very spotty, albeit very good for the style, match in the BOSJ a few years back, as did Taguchi and Low Ki in 2011.

 

Another great match that you should probably seek out if you want to become familiar with the workers in New Japan is an outstanding heavyweight six-man from the 06/06 BOSJ show last year when it looked like they were building to Tanahashi/Naito. If you want to see men bludgeoning each other to death then Ishii/Tanaka from early this year/late last year is for you together with Ishii/Shibata from the G1. There is also a very a very good Suzuki/Okada IWGP title match that is incredibly underplayed from earlier this year.