G-1 Climax

[Loss]

I'm not really following it, but considering how much talk of it there is everywhere, we should have a thread for people to post their thoughts. Have at it.

[BigBadMick]

Meltzer said the first night v Okada was Styles best match ever.

[BillThompson]

Other people whose opinions I trust more, read Dylan, said it was a good match, but nothing memorable.

[Coffey]

It wasn't anything memorable, IMO. I thought Makabe Vs. Goto was better & even that was flawed, slow starting & suffered from too many trading stiff shots spots.

[pol]

I really didn't see much in that Okada/Styles match and sure don't know what the hell Dave is talking about. Styles dick heel mannerisms were fun (although I don't know how well they'd translate to non-English speakers) and he made Okada's offense look awesome with his bumping, but his uninspired heel offense made for a dull heat section. Crowd was pretty dead throughout Okada's comeback (which was poorly built to), then finally came unglued for the very cool cross body over the guard rail spot. Both guys had better matches on today's show, which is surprising given their opponents were fucking Toru Yano and Tenzan. I thought today's show was really fun and far, far better overall than Monday's vastly overrated one - the relative absence of tedious forearm trading and fighting spirit spots was a large part of that.

[BigBadMick]

There's a big disconnect between PWO and Meltzer when it comes to modern NJPW, huh?

 

I really haven't watched as much as I'd like to so can't really comment further.

[Loss]

I'm sure there are some people here that like modern NJPW. We should just hear from them more.

[pol]

Ishii/Naito from February is my current MOTY and I'm inclined to agree with Dave that Ishii is the best big match worker on the planet right now so it's not like I can't get down with NJPW. I think they have a ton of very talented guys, it's just the excesses of the style (endless strike exchanges, fighting spirit spots, one-kickouts) are all things that really grate on me. Many of the matches are good in spite of those things though.

[Dylan Waco]

I like modern New Japan. I just don't think it's one of the greatest products in wrestling history.

 

I enjoyed the first night of the G1. I posted my thoughts on Twitter and Alan's board at the Observer, but I"ll C/P them over here:

 

Thought the first night of the G1 was pretty good overall, but it didn't blow me away. The big positives to me were that there were no bad matches on the show (and on paper there were a few I was really worried about) and the best three matches were the main events each of which may have gotten progressively better. The negative is that I didn't think anything before those three matches was better than average, and the tourney has a lot of guys I either don't want to see in it (Shelton, Yano, Anderson) or don't care about (Kojima, Nagata, Goto, Makabe).

More specifically the things that stood out while watching...

Ishii v. Fale was fine, but Fale running out of offense with several minutes left in the match is a bad sign.

Tenzan is still very over and while I wouldn't call the match with Anderson good or even as good as their match from last years tourney, it gives me hope for him having value in this tournament.

Nagata bores me to tears even when he is working hard.

I like Honma, but that Tanahashi match is being wildly overrated. It was pretty good, but Honma - even with limited opportunities - has had several matches I would rate as clearly above it just in the last couple of years. Raw has matches as good or better many (if not most) weeks.

Shibata was the best guy on the 7/5 NOAH show and I thought he put in a very good effort against Nakamura, though as with the aforementioned match I think the hype it's getting from some is generous to say the least. Not only do I not see it as a MOTYC, I'm fairly certain their have been 20 matches in New Japan alone this year I've liked more.

Amazingly I thought AJ v. Okada was the clear match of the night, the best Okada match of the year, and another really good performance from Styles. It was also the only match on the show I didn't really think was overrated, though I do agree with that Dave saying it was one of AJ's best careeer matches is a bit much

 

I haven't watched night two yet, but I was predicting on Twitter/The Board that Styles v. Yano and Okada v. Tenzan would both me unique and good matches and it seems that happened. I'll post my thoughts on Night Two when I watch it.

[JaymeFuture]

I am a big fan of modern NJPW, but the Day 1 hype was a tad much, maybe would have appreciated it more had I gone in blind like I'm planning to for Day 2. Okada/Styles match was really good, built to a fine crescendo. Was a little disappointed in Shibata/Nakamura, to be honest, never really seemed to draw in the people.

[Dylan Waco]

The copy I have of night two doesn't have Honma v. Nagata which is highly annoying

[Coffey]

There's not a single match on Night 2 that interests me. Next match I care about is on the 25th: Makabe Vs. Okada.

[pol]

There's not a single match on Night 2 that interests me. Next match I care about is on the 25th: Makabe Vs. Okada.

 

Night 2 was far better than it looks on paper. There should be a "Show That Exceeded Expectations of the Year Award" for this show.

[Stiva]

The copy I have of night two doesn't have Honma v. Nagata which is highly annoying

 

Not sure how out of line this but the torrents of the show going around have it.

[Dylan Waco]

Probably not something we should be discussing outside of PM

[W2BTD]

Night 1: http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2014/07/21/new-japan-g1-climax-24-night-one-review-results-721/

 

Night 2: http://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2014/07/23/new-japan-g1-climax-24-day-2-review-72314-in-new-japan-we-trust/

 

Tournament is off to a great start.

 

Night 1 was a very good show, with an excellent second half. Okada/Styles was nowhere close to the best Styles match of all time, that's absurd. I don't even think it was the best match he's had against Okada. But it was very good.

 

Night 2 far, far exceeded expectations and was one hell of a fun show all the way through. No great matches, but everything met or exceeded expectations with the possible exception of Anderson/Makabe which to me was flat.

 

If the good shows on paper deliver as expected, and the bad shows on paper are as good as Night 2, this will be another great year.

[Coffey]

There's just so many guys in the tournament this year that I'm apathetic too. Made worse by the injury to Ibushi getting replaced by Honma.

 

Outside of Styles, the whole Bullet Club stable just sucks to me. I'm never going to care about Anderson, Gallows, Fale, Takahashi or Tonga (although I like his new facepaint look).

 

Not real high on the inclusion or Shelton Benjamin or Yano either. That dude is the shits. Up there with Iizuka & Capt. New Japan for fast-forward material to me.

 

Any match-up between Suzuki, Styles, Tanahashi, Okada, Shibata, Ishii, Makabe & Nakamura I'm down with. Everyone else in the tourney is very "meh" for me. Including Goto, whom my friend John loves but I feel like he's lost a step & his selling is the pits.

[Stiva]

Ishii/Kojima was a really good opener but I think it's being overrated in places. I thought Ishii looked great selling Kojima's stuff, some of which I thought looked great (the DDT, especially) and some that fell flat. The crowd being so hot really helped too but i agree with the review that the pacing was just right to never get boring.

 

Benjamin/Fale, I thought was really bad though. Fale's offense fucking sucks beyond belief and, thankfully, the match was short that he didn't run out of it but man, aside from the Vader-style rights and lefts in the corner, nothing works for me. I thought Benjamin was OK but man, I hate his finish and I don't think it worked as a flash finish here. I can't help but think that I'd just prefer TAKA working all his matches ahead of him.

 

Only this far into Day 2 atm but I will say that I enjoyed Day 1 and am currently enjoying this more than I did last years for whatever reason. Maybe it's because I'm a real wrestling binge mood right now but it's ticking the right boxes for me.

[Dylan Waco]

I don't feel compelled to do full reviews of these shows at this time. If people want very brief snippet thoughts on each match they can check my Twitter (@DylanWaco). Instead I'll just continue to give my general thoughts.

 

Over all I thought Night Two was better than Night One. Night Two definitely had lower lows, and I think the undercard matches on the show have been wildly overrated as a whole (generally I think hardcore NJPW fans elevate the average to good and the good to great in most cases) but it had more good matches and I think what made it for me was the variety and oddball nature of some of the match ups.

 

The worst match on the show was Shelton v. Fale which was just dreadful. My favorite match on the show was AJ Styles v. Yano which was completely fresh and different, and felt like the sort of match AJ would have had in a Georgia rec center fifteen years ago opposite Iceberg. I'm not necessarily saying it was the best match on the show, but I loved the way it was worked. Similarly I really enjoyed the front and back end of the Tenzan v. Okada match, though it went too long so they had to cram in some clear filler that keeps it from being a really special match. Nak v. DBS was well put together over although DBS is still missing something for me in the NJPW setting (and Nak's knee finishes did not look great). Honma remains one of the only guys who does the fighting spirit stuff well, though I fear he's not winning anything until the last night in the tourney an they are going to wear out his act before then. I liked Ishii v. Kojima, though Kojima looked really bad at times in that match, and would be getting absolutely crushed by a lot of the same people praising him if he was a WWE guy pulling such weak looking shit. I would say six of the ten matches were above average, with a couple of others at the middling level (though I did like the finish of Anderson v. Makabe and as a whole it was better than I would have guessed), and a couple of matches I thought were pretty shitty.

[Badlittlekitten]

I wish these forearm pervs would take a look at Gallows and learn the art of PUNCH!

 

I tried watching day 1. Enjoyed the opening two matches oddly enough. Ishii is awesome and it was cool seeing him try to chop down the giant Fale. I felt bad for the poor egg when he was left stumbling to the back in agony . The novelty of watching Gallows in Japan for the first time was enough for Doc/Benjamin to be of interest, and to be fair it wasn't a complete Doc carry job.

 

Suzuki's a don but it feels like I've seen his Yano match a hundred times. I lost interest after that.

 

The rosters massively weak and stale at the moment. Half these guys I have no interest in. There's also something very hollow about the presentation and gimmickry. Skipped forward to Honma/Tanahashi which was disappointing. Gave up when Nak/Shibata started no selling germans.

 

I really enjoyed last years tourney. Did this catch me in the wrong mood or is this roster as stale as it feels it is?

[Dylan Waco]

I do think the roster is really stale. There are lots of guys who I either don't like or don't want to see work at all. But worse than that they haven't really successfully elevated anyone since Okada, so the roster feels really weak relative to the top tier.

[soup23]

I do think the roster is really stale. There are lots of guys who I either don't like or don't want to see work at all. But worse than that they haven't really successfully elevated anyone since Okada, so the roster feels really weak relative to the top tier.

 

Not even Ishii?

[Dylan Waco]

I think Ishii has had a great year, but he's not at the level of Nak, Okada or Tanahashi. He could be but he isn't. The goal of this tournament should be to get him and at least one other guy there. My top choice even though I'm not a huge fan of his would have been Ibushi. Now that Ibushi is out I"d go with Shibata

[stomperspc]

I thought Night #1 was really good. I struggle to sit through any full show these days without a break or getting distracted for a couple of matches, nonetheless a show that starts in the middle of the night. The fact that this three hour show flew by and kept me engaged the entire time is as big of a compliment as I can give. I thought it was paced very well, had a lot of variety, and there was very good action throughout. Styles/Okada was the only match I thought was "great" but I didn't think anything was bad and the second half was a ton of fun. Average or bad New Japan shows can be a bit monotonous but this show didn't have that problem, particularly the second half. Nakamura/Shibata had a lot I liked and some parts that I didn't, but there was definitely more good than bad. Styles was really great in the main event versus Okada, which on first view I liked as much as any New Japan match this year.

 

Just finished watching Night #2 on demand. Great crowd and a fun, easy to watch show. Nakamura/Davey Boy Smith Jr. was my favorite match (second best match of the tournament so far) and the best Davey Boy New Japan performance this year. He's not a top level guy by any means, but I am continually baffled why Smith doesn't get more work in the US. He has some name value, a good look, and can work a few different styles well.

 

Yano/Styles was fun but I am not sure I get the comparison to 2000-era Styles indy matches. I watched a lot of 2000 and 2001 Styles indie matches in the past year when re-watching the 2000 decade in US indies. 2000 A.J. Styles would have tried to force all of his stuff in even if Yano couldn't take it or if it just didn't fit into the match. In this match, he dropped a lot of his usual stuff and worked the match in the way to get the most out of Yano. He's done a good job of that since leaving TNA. 2014 Styles is a lot more mature of a wrestler in terms of knowing how to work the right match with the right opponent than he has been any other time in his career.

 

As for the staleness/weakness of the roster comments, like others have said in general I am not too high on a lot of guys on the roster. Before the tournament started I would have said I had little interest in any Tenzan, Kojima, Yano, Benjamin, Yujio, Archer or Karl Anderson singles matches but at least two days in, I have enjoyed pretty much everyone. Naito got a good little match out of Archer today. Tenzan and Kojima have had really smart, veteran matches. Benjamin still isn't any good, but I haven't hated his matches. Yujiro/Naito was fine on Day #1. I agree that it is not the most exciting G1 roster in history, but so far I think everyone has delivered rather well.

 

Very excited for the rest of the tournament.

[Dylan Waco]

I thought that Naito v. Archer match was off point, and I'm actually fairly surprised people were high on it. I thought the transitions were really weak and a couple exchanges looked off time to me. I liked the idea of the match, but didn't think it was executed that well, though the build to the chokeslam was something they delivered well enough. Still thought it was a middling-to-weak match.

 

I haven't watched AJ Styles indie matches from that era since they happened so I'll take your word for it. My point was more or less that the match was worked as a flashy/"real" wrestler v. a bullshit artist, limited heel which is something I expect to see on an episode of Anarchy, not a New Japan post-intermission match