G-1 Climax

[Shining Wiz]

 

I've enjoyed all three nights I've watched so far but I've learned to accept that just about everything is going to be overrated. Even the strong matches. I suppose that's just the price you pay when dealing with a super over promotion with invested fans. Everything is going to be nudged up a bit.

 

I think this is the best way to view New Japan.

 

If you go in looking at the snowflakes and talk it is very likely you will be disappointed. I've seen this consistently with friends and non-hardcore (at least at our level) fans I know who have given heavily pimped NJPW matches or shows a try and responded with shoulder shrugging or "What the fuck?" reactions.

 

That said they employee some strong talent, put on some good shows, and will occasionally knock a match out of the park. My rule of thumb is to subtract a full star or so from every hardcore NJPW fan rating if you are talking about snowflakes and usually that's closer to where I stand on the matches

It makes sense that people who enjoy a promotion and are invested in it are going to think more highly of it than someone who isn't. The same can be said for almost any promotion......or, anything really.

[Dylan Waco]

That is very true. I also think when you are watching these things in real time (or even near real time) with your friends live tweeting, the good is enhanced and the bad feels worse. That's not a knock on New Japan, just my perception of how/why the product is so hot and highly rated by many people.

[Shining Wiz]

Agreed. It is the nerd wrestling fan choice du jour.

[Shining Wiz]

Anderson over Okada??? That was....unexpected.

[Badlittlekitten]

You're not supposed to punch in New Japan, it's "illegal".

 

Also, i'm sitting here scratching my head at the idea of Gallows carrying anybody in New Japan, where his entire run has ranged from mediocre to flat out dreadful. And this coming from somebody who likes him. You mentioned it was your first time seeing him here, but trust me when I say he's been one of the five worst guys on the roster his entire run, and hasn't done much to change that on this tour. He's been better than Fale, but oh boy talk about low bars.

 

 

They should change the rules then. Or at least work out how to work a match without them tedious shitty forearms. It's boring rubbish.

 

It wasn't a Gallows carry job. That's what I said!

 

I watched Styles vs Okada after all the hype and I enjoyed it. Good not great. I haven't seen enough AJ to say it was his best performance but he's certainly working at a sexier cooler pace. There was a nice sense of escalation to the match and it was crisp as always. He really needs to sort out that hair of his though. Okada was Okada. He's fine but his offence looks daft and contrived. There's something about his body language that rubs me up the wrong way. It just looks like he's oh so bored of this wrestling nonsense and wants get down the pub for a pint ASAP, or get the perfect photo opportunity, or get his dick sucked, or whatever. I don't believe in him. He's more phony than Randy Orton.

 

Not being a regular NJ viewer the ref bump amused me like they always do. Poor old refs! Those plucky polystyrene men. I can imagine how annoying these Bullet Club spots must be to fans, but boy! Did Takahashi get a lot of heat! And we got a happy ending.

 

3 and 3/4 stars if you're into that sorta thing.

[Shining Wiz]

Have to admit disappointment in Tanahashi/Shibata, but it may have been the match I had the highest expectations for in quite a while. Might require a rewatch. Best night of the tournament so far though, and Ishii/Honma will be hard to top for match of the tournament.

 

If I cared to rank for matches for match of the year, I assume that would e at the top of the list.

[W2BTD]

 

 

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

 

You're not supposed to punch in New Japan, it's "illegal".

 

 

Punching is illegal, just like outside interference. Rules in wrestling exist to be broken.

 

Punching is illegal everywhere.

 

 

Sure, but it's something they all just adhere to, sort of like how they don't choke in WWE. It's something you see come up all of the time when people first start watching NJPW or haven't seen it in a while, because the forearm thing comes off so jarring & different. People understandably don't understand that it's just the way it is there, they don't do punches, they do forearms instead.

[kjh]

Anderson over Okada??? That was....unexpected.

 

Not too surprising given that all Gedo & Jado G-1s have ended with almost everybody in both blocks still in the hunt to qualify for the finals on the final night of the tournament. Okada was due a loss and it makes up for Anderson jobbing to Archer & Tenzan.

[ohtani's jacket]

Honma vs. Ishii was pretty good, but it was mostly two thickheaded guys trying to injure each other. I don't know much about Honma, but his gimmick seems to be that he has no sense of self-preservation. The strike exchanges were shit, especially the chops, but they fired up the crowd. The high impact stuff was good, but a bit telegraphed, and I didn't bite on any of the near falls. I like Ishii, but I think he's a bit overrated in some circles. Mind you, just about all modern wrestling is overrated. In ten year's time when people start revisiting this stuff, we'll probably see a more accurate appraisal of the work, similar to how not every Joshi match in the 90s was **** 3/4 ala Mike Lorefice.

[Dylan Waco]

Just finished night four and I have to say it was a great show and a serious show of the year contender. I have a pretty fixed top tier when it comes to MOTY this year, and nothing on this show cracked into that level, but I do want to watch Ishii v. Honma back to back with their first match, because I absolutely loved this go round. To me that was the match of the night, but I expected that going in. What was far more surprising was Nak v. Nagata and Syles v. Naito, both of which saw Nagata and Naito - two guys that more often than not annoy the shit out of me - really put on solid performances against top level opposition. I kind of feel like the wrong guy won both matches (Nak coming back with little fatigue after the late head drops, was the one major problem I had with Nak v. Nagata), but in terms of match quality alone both really delivered, with Naito's cut adding to his match. I was also really surprised in that I thought Okada v. Anderson was on pace to being close to the level of the other big stuff on the show if not for a cringy finishing stretch and some flat moments here and there in the body of the match. Still it was much better than I would have guessed, as was Kojima v. Fale which was a legitimately good match an the best individual Kojima match of the tourney. I also loved Yano's "cheat, cheat again" win in the sprint v. Goto, and the rest of the undercard was perfectly watchable.

 

As for Shibata v. Tanahashi? Well I definitely liked it, but I think it suffered from being overhyped. This was a match that I thought really could have benefited from Tanahashi having better offense as you kind of wanted to see him go toe-to-toe with Shibata but he just doesn't have that in him. I thought the match layout was good, though the first half of the match didn't grab me the way I would hope. They did do a lot of really good stuff in the second half, and the finishing sequence was legitimately great which helped the match a lot. On first watch I didn't see anything in it that would make me put it at the level of Ishii v. Honma, and to me it was closer to the level of Naito/Styles and Nak/Nagata. If Anderson and Okada didn't have that dance routine finishing stretch I could actually see an argument for Shibata v. Tanahashi as the fifth best match on the show, though I could also see an argument for it as high as two.

 

For those who are following along I'm interested to hear who they would rate as the MVP of the tournament up to this point. I'm pretty torn myself.

[ohtani's jacket]

Tanahashi/Shibata was a great match. That ending was incredible. I can't believe they worked an awesome finish out of a New Japan strike exchange.

[stomperspc]

NIGHT #3

 

• Naito vs. Yano was fun and different. I like little threads that carry throughout a tournament, which I am guessing Naito's busted open forehead will become.
• Shibata vs. DBS Jr. was a good match, but I have it a notch or two below the Nakamura/DBS Jr. match from the night before. DBS Jr. is underutilized both in NJPW and in the US.
• Didn't think that Fale/Nagata was anything special but also didn't think it was anywhere near as bad as Dylan makes it out to be. I was surprised to read both extreme reactions after watching it live. I can see why people liked it since on both offense and defense Nagata moved as fast as his 45 year-old body would allow him in an attempt to cover up for Fale's limitations. It just didn't result in anything truly great. I thought the match was more than watchable though.
• Goto/Suzuki and Tanahashi/Kojima were both fine if not unmemorable. Kojima has really looked solid in the tournament, though. I am not surprised at how hard he is working, but rather that the work has resulted in solid or better matches each of the first three nights with 3 rather different opponents.
• I enjoyed Makabe/Okada live, but not as much as others apparently. It was a good main event largely because Okada is such a solid singles, main event performer these days. He's rarely going to have a disappointing match in an upper card singles position.

NIGHT #4

• As an aside, I took a cross country red eye flight Friday/Saturday. I have never been able to fall asleep on planes (or in cars for that matter), so I watched this live on from 35,000 feet in the air. I had a couple of buffering hiccups but otherwise a perfect stream. It is hard to take Meltzer's reports about how there are a ton of streaming problems still with U-Stream and WWE Network seriously when US Airways questionable Wifi produced a very good stream for me from California all the way to Pennsylvania. I think the plane is now probably the "oddest" place I have watched live pro wrestling from . . .
• I liked this show quite a bit, but I am not sure I thought it was appreciably better than Night #1.
• Ishii/Honma was very good. I need to go back to watch the Dontaku match since at that the time that was my favorite Ishii match but I think this one was probably a bit better. Honma has such a great underdog presence about him. How can you not root for a guy who looks absolutely pained every time he misses the head butt, only to smile wide-eyed the few times he is able to hit it? As others have said, these guys didn't hold back on the hard shots or big neck bumps but relatively speaking I don't think they went "too far" either. Not a MOTYC for me necessarily, but a very good match nonetheless.
• Undercard was all fine and about on par with Night #1.
• Loved Styles/Naito in the sense that it was exactly what it should have been. Styles was really great at callously working over the cut. Both the booking and Styles' own work is really effective right now in building heat on him for his eventual title loss. Styles was going to lose a few times in the tournament because everyone does and because he will likely have at least one title defense before dropping the title.
• I liked Shibata/Tanahashi but I'll have to watch it again (watched it initally while waiting to transfer flights in Philly and had been up 24 hours straight at that point so my judgment might have been off). It felt like a huge match as everyone else has said. The contrast between the two makes for a strong dynamic. You can't get much more polar opposite than the guy in the back tights, who never smiles and places an emphasis on hard-hitting wrestling and the guy with the colorful ring gear, who plays air guitar and places a premium on showmanship. In terms of feeling like a big match, this beat everything in the tournament but some of the work annoyed me (particularly the strike exchanges).

Best Matches So Far (Through Day #4)

• Styles vs. Okada (Night #1) - Just watched this again and didn't like it as much as I did live, but was still a really good match. I agreed with Meltzer (and still do) that it is one of Styles' best performances but that is more of an indictment on how few top notch singles matches Styles had in 10+ years in TNA. This match is up there with July 2005 Jimmy Rave Match and June 2003 Paul London ROH matches for best Styles performances of his career.
• Nakamura vs. Shibata (Night #1)
• Nakamura vs. DBS Jr. (Night #2)
• Shibata vs. DBS Jr. (Night #3)
• Honma vs. Ishii (Night #4)
• Styles vs. Naito (Night #4)
• Tanahashi vs. Shibata (Night #4)

BEST PERFORMANCES

 

Too small of a sample size to list an "MVP" so far, because it is hard for me to distinguish between the best and 2nd best guy when everyone has only had 3-4 matches and some guys have wrestled higher quality opponents. Having said that, in some sort of loose order it would be something like this:

 

Shibata, Styles, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Ishii, Okada

[Badlittlekitten]

I've been catching up with all the highly pimped matches of the tournament so far, there's been a lot of fun but nothing MOTY worthy. Is it fair to rate AJ Styles as MVP of the tourney so far? His matches have either been one of the best or THE best of the day and they've all had a different feel to them. AJ/Yano might actually be my favourite match so far (after I've erased that embarrassing phantom baseball slide from memory.)

 

I hear he's had a lukewarm reception since joining the roster but he crowds seem to be getting into his shit. Maybe this tournament can turn it around.

[tim]

I was away on a trip last week so am catching up now. Just starting to watch Day 1. Really liked Ishii/Fale. Easily the best Fale match yet and it was all because of Ishii. Him sauntering up to Fale at the beginning was great as well. Seeing him adapt to a big man vs. little man match so well definitely solidified him as the best in the world for me.

[JaymeFuture]

Agreed that nothing strikes as MOTY stuff so far, but there is an awful lot of very good. Honma is having a great tournament, shame he has nothing to show for it yet.

[stomperspc]

Good show this morning, but not at the level of Nights #1 and #4.

 

• Good crowd. The crowd reactions have been a nice surprise so far. I don't think there has been a "bad crowd" yet during the tournament and more often than not they have been way into everything.
• Gallows looked as good as he has looked to me in New Japan in the opener versus Ishii. His timing was there in a way that it hasn't often been in this promotion. He got some decent heat too which hasn't come too often. Not much a match in the grand scheme of things but both guys looked good.
• I thought Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Kojima was fun. Without any blow away matches, one reason this tournament has still been a strong one so far is because of the solid performances up and down the card. DBS Jr. and Kojima are two guys who have been solid at least the whole way through. It makes the shows much more enoyable to watch in one sitting when the under card is filled with easy to watch (even if they are ultimately unmemorable) matches. Smith wrestled more as a power guy here than he maybe did versus Shibata and Nakamura. He's got good power offense and like I've said before, deserves a higher profile.
• Tenzen/Archer wasn't much. Didn't care for Yujiro/Suzuki at all. Yujiro is easily the worst regular on the entire roster. I think he can serve a purpose as a low card comedy heel (and he does get decent heel reactions here and there) but working competitive matches in this environment is way out of his comfort zone.
• Yano/Anderson was fun, as all the Yano matches have been. I am not a big fan of Anderson's shtick in general, but him putting on Yano's coat and impersonating his mannerisms was genuinely funny. I hope this mini-weak streak of Yano's in the G1 leads to a NEVER title match with Yujiro where the story is that only Yano has the chance of being able to out cheat Yujiro.
• Shelton Benjamin finally loses! There were a couple parts of this match I liked but it never really gelled for me.
• Styles/Goto was okay but was missing something particularly before the stretch run. The final minutes were strong and the crowd really got into it. Goto's top rope Canadian Destroyer was visually and athletically impressive, but man that is a poor move that somehow just won't die. I've already seen more than enough Canadian Destroyers in the US indies and Mexico over the past ten years to last a life time. Don't need to see it become a regular New Japan move as well.
• Fale versus Tanahashi was okay, but I thought Fale has his worst performance of the tournament. His offense looked sloppy and he just seemed a bit off the entire time. His bump on Tanahashi's skin-the-cat head scissors was pretty great, however. Tanahashi's comeback culminating with the high fly flow to the floor was fun. Is any finisher more protected in all of wrestling than the Bad Luke Fall?
• Nakamura/Honma was another good Honma match. Best match of the night up to this point. They were a bit out of sync in a couple of spots but that didn't kill the match or anything. Good series of false finishes at the end. They got me buying a couple of times that Honma might get his upset win in this one. I am thinking he might go over Shibata now for his win signature win which would make sense. Shibata is good at giving a beating and Honma is good at taking one, so Honma can get get beat up the entire match only to survive and pull out his one big, upset victory.
• With the exception of one miscue that they recovered fine from, I though Naito/Okada was a very good match. I want to watch it again, but on first view I thought it was significantly better than their Dome match (which I also liked). This was more your typical "New Japan style" match (if there is such a thing) in terms of the fast paced and extended ending with lots of reversals and near falls. Like any style, it has its good and bad moments but on my initial watch I think this was one of the positive examples of that type of match.

Naito is definitely getting an IWGP Heavyweight title shot at one of the Destruction shows in September. I've been assuming that the entire time (I correctly had him beating both Styles and Okada in the VOW contest!) but now that things have actually played out, it feels like a lock. Okada's title shot waits until October (Naito gets first crack since he beat both Styles and Okada in the tournament) where he likely wins it. I also predicted a three way tie at the top of Block B between Naito, Okada and Styles with Naito winning the head-to-head tiebreaker, which is also looking like a real possibility at this point.

[pol]

Okada really needs to switch up his finishing stretch formula a bit. When the first Rainmaker attempt ALWAYS gets countered it kinda ceases to mean anything.

[Badlittlekitten]

Is Davy Boy Jr any good as a face? His over the top "LOOK AT ME I'M A HEEL RAAAAHHHH!" shtick does my head in. Same with Archer. I agree with stomper that DB/Kojima and Gallows/Ishii were solid if unspectacular.

 

I should probably go back to night one and watch the Suzuki match because Yano's been a pudgy burst of joy the last few days. That finish doesn't get old. Even Anderson was watchable.

 

If this is the form AJ Styles has been on since leaving that shithole then I'll have to check out more 2014 AJ Styles. Another good night for him. I don't like Goto. In fact I usually amuse myself during his matches by pretending he's Meiko Satomura with a moustache (is that racist?). But this was a good match, not one of AJ's best as the first half was kinda forgettable, but the closing stretch was electric. I think the NJ fans are starting to take to AJ.

 

Skipped the Shelton and Archer matches. Watched Tanahashi/Fale hoping it would be a secret gem. It wasn't but I liked the Fly Flow into the choke spot.

 

Honma/Nakamura was good but didn't hit the level that they're capable of. Such a shame about the end, it was getting hot until they messed up that cradle pin thing and they didn't recover well.

 

Yeah, the main felt like a typical New Japan Main Event. And you know what? It was mint. There were a couple of sluggish looking spots here and there but it never felt like there was any filler. They did well in building up to a desperate finishing run, both throwing it all in, but never going overboard. Naito could have at least acted groggy/fatigued when going up for his finish though. Dat ain't the time to stand around doing silly posing. No real complaints otherwise.

 

Good night overall. Good crowd too. I'm getting soft.

[Dylan Waco]

Just finished Night 5 which I worked my way through rather slowly. Honestly I thought it was at about the same level as Night 4. 4 had the best match, and the better main event (easily), but I think Night 5 MIGHT have had a better mean for what that's worth. Night 5 had the best opening match of the tourney with Ishii v. Gallows, the two biggest miracle matches of the tourney with Shibata v. Shelton and Tanahashi v. Fale both being in the very good-to-great range (I thought Tanahashi was rock solid as the guy getting mauled v. Fale, among the best performances I've ever seen from him really), and a Honma v. Nakamura match that was one really ill timed blown spot away from being a Japanese MOTYC. AJ v. Goto was also way better than I expected, I thought Tenzan put in his most complete match of the tourney and while Naito/Okada was sort of a "preach to the choir" NJPW main event on speed it did deliver on a big moment at the end. Really good show

[Coffey]

I liked Night 4 the most so far. Have yet to watch Night 5. Tomoaki Honma has been a great substitution for Ibushi & I can't imagine him not being in the tournament.

[stomperspc]

Solid show today, but nothing standout. So much wrestling in a short period of time leads to everything blending together in my head, so I am not sure where I would rank Night #6 relative to the other shows, but it was definitely below the best couple of shows.

• The Gallows & Fale match had no heat. I think they had some strong ideas for what was ostensibly a "friendly" big man vs. big man match. The heat hurt and the execution was not quite there either. Not a very good match.
• Nagata vs. DBS Jr. was solid. Liked the first minute of the match. Middle part was only okay, but I thought they did a strong job over the last several minutes. Smith's offense looked very good yet again.
• Kojima versus Shibata was good. Shibata's instance on popping up from a back drop suplex in every single match is really annoying. His annoying tendencies aside, I was indifferent to Shibata coming into the tournament but he has had a very solid run thus far. The crowd (which was fine, but down from previous nights in terms of response) got into this match more than any of the other matches on the card to this point. There were some good near falls down the stretch that the crowd bought. Shibata likely has a couple of losses coming his way soon. I am thinking he beats Ishii for payback from last year, loses to Fale, and Honma scores his one upset win of the tournament by beating Shibata Sunday in Osaka.
• Karl Anderson loves his complicated finishing sequences. I didn't think the overall match was that great, but it wasn't terrible. If you are annoyed by finishing sequences that are overwrought with reversals, you probably won't like the last minute or so.
• Nakamaura & Benjamin was solid I thought, Benjamin's 2004 WWE-style submissions and reversals feel out of place in New Japan at points, particularly against someone like Nakamura. I enjoyed the match though for what it was.
• Styles looked very good once again, this time versus Tenzan. Styles kicked the guardrail in frustration after bailing from the ring. That's my favorite heel pouting spot. The segment at the beginning with Styles' Mongolian chops being ineffective on Tenzan was a lot of fun. Another (at least) solid Styles match to add to the list. Okada vs. Yano was in the same vein. Some fun and creative spots that played well off of the natural dynamic.
• Ishii vs. Tanahashi felt like it was missing something. If you break the match down into two or three minute segments, there were more segments I liked than I disliked, but it just didn't really come together for me on first watch. A little too many forearms for my liking, particularly considering that neither guy has great looking forearm smashes to begin with. The crowd was into the near falls and there were some pretty strong ones. I kind of want to watch this again, but I thought it was "just" good the first go around.

[Badlittlekitten]

Crowd was eerily quite for the opener, felt like I was watching modern joshi. Apart from a couple of ugly looking spots I thought Fale/Gallows was fine for what it was. Speaking of joshi, New Japan LOVE their outside brawling spot don't they? The barricade comes into use in practically every match.

 

Shibata/Kojima and Styles/Tenzan were the best matches from night 6 that I watched (skipped Anderson/Goto, Shelton/Nak and DBS/Nagata). AJ and Shibata are having cracking tournaments. Enjoying AJ's trash talkin'.

 

I didn't like the pointless leg work in the first half of Suzuki/Archer but the back end was good, especially the reversals built around Suzuki's sleeper. Yano/Okada was Yano's worst match yet. Felt like he had too much offence and it didn't work.

 

I honestly found the main quite boring. I'm sick of the forearm/slap trading at this point and they kept reaching into that well. I didn't buy Tanahashi working an Ishii type match and getting the better of him. His offensive deficiencies were exposed here. We saw that silly spinning takedown thing, what, three times?

 

A couple of really good matches but a poor night overall.

[stomperspc]

Today's Korakuen Hall card was pretty much a second half show, even more so than usual.

 

A.J. Styles versus Minoru Suzuki is of course getting a lot of hype. The match had a big time feel from the start, as much if not more so than any match in the tournament thus far which was sort of surprising. I won't spoil the match for those who haven't seen it, but will say that it has a unique intensity to it that really works. They did not necessarily lay out the match as one might expect but the layout they did go with was very good. Both Styles and Suzuki wrestled their style of match for the most part, but were able to blend and adapt just enough to each other's stuff. I want to watch it again at some point, but my initial reaction from the live viewing was that it was the best match of the tournament so far and a MOTY contender. I wouldn't go ***** or anything but it was a very strong match and worth going out of your way to watch.

 

Other thoughts:

• Korakuen crowd was great, particularly from Goto/Tenzan on. With the exception of booing Naito (though even that was not as bad as it has been at places over the past year), they were way behind the faces and/or underdogs.
• Nothing very memorable on the first half. As has been the case with the tournament so far, nothing was downright terrible but the first four matches weren't much.
• Teznan vs. Goto was the only noteworthy pre-intermission match. The Korakuen crowd was way behind Tenzan which helped a lot. Tenzan moved slow but worked as hard as he good. Fans really wanted to see him win which elevated an okay match into something slightly more memorable.
• Honma continues to be way over in the underdog role and also continues to put on very good matches. He and Fale had the exact match they should have had. Fale was a bit more on his game tonight. Honma's bump on the Bad Luke Fall is worth seeing/
• I didn't care much for Makabe/Naito. Thought the match was unfocused and while there were solid parts to it, the match as a whole didn't do much for me.
• Nagata vs. Shibata was hard-hitting as expected. There were some really good parts but also Shibata's more annoying tendencies (no selling, forearm exchanges, jumping up from backdrop suplexes, ect.) were also on display. Fine for what it was.
• Ishii vs. Nakamura tried to go all epic and for the most part succeeded. Definitely the second best match of the night. Ishii kicked out of a bunch of stuff but it generally flowed well and didn't seem out of place. The execution was more or less spot on.

[Badlittlekitten]

Fucking hell, is Honma alright?? That was a horrific bump for the finish. I've yet to watch the rest of the card but I'm surprised how cool you are stomp about Fale/Honma. I thought it was an awesome match. Feels like I finally 'get' Honma.

[stomperspc]

Fucking hell, is Honma alright?? That was a horrific bump for the finish. I've yet to watch the rest of the card but I'm surprised how cool you are stomp about Fale/Honma. I thought it was an awesome match. Feels like I finally 'get' Honma.

 

Didn't mean for it to come off the way. I thought it was a good match and better than Fale/Tanahashi.

 

Honma really gets the underdog role. He doesn't try to do too much to get over. He just bumps his ass off and makes well-timed fiery comebacks. Those elements partnered with a general likableness and very good facial expressions make all add up to the total underdog package. The pained look on his face when he misses the Kokeshi and the look of complete elation when he hits it is a wonderful contrast that works perfect for a guy in his role. I almost hope they only give him one win in the tournament and make it a big won (ie. Shibata) because it will mean so much more that way.