G-1 Climax

[Badlittlekitten]

Loved Styles/Suzuki. Even the ankle lock silliness had a neat pay off. The finger work was a nice twist and AJ's selling down the stretch was great. The build to the finish was excellent. I've always been kinda indifferent to AJ but he's fast becoming one of my favourite guys on Earth with this tournament. Suzuki has an amazing face.

 

Couldn't get into the main. I'm starting to side with ohtani's jacket on Ihii. Hasn't don't much for me this tourney.

[Dylan Waco]

Night 6 and 7 were on opposite poles.

 

I thought Night 6 was a legitimately bad show up until the last two matches. The only match on the undercard I would call above average is Kojima v. Shibata and that was a heavily flawed match that was trending toward pissing me off when it ended. I was all set to bury the show wholesale when AJ came out and had a borderline great match with Tenzan of all people. I also like Tanahashi v. Ishii, though I thought it really illustrated the flaws of Tanahashi as a worker more than any other match in the tourney. Still it was not a good show.

 

Night 7 on the other hand was an awesome show, likely my pick for best of the tournament and best of the year from anywhere. What I liked about it beyond the quality of the matches was that it had a real variety show feel, with a wide disparity in terms of what sort of matches you were getting. The Korakuen Hall crow really added to the show too as they were red hot for everything. The only match I didn't care for was Anderson v. Yujiro, but that was kept short, and was more than made up for by the rest of the show. I thought the Yano match was really fun. Honma v. Fale was a really great and perfectly excited underdog v. monster match. Makabe v. Naito was probably my favorite of the more typical New Japanish main event style matches in the tourney. Gallows v. Davey Boy Smith was really fun and felt like something those two would do on an indie show which I consider a plus. Kojima v. Shelton was JIP, but short and fine. The best four matches on the show ranged from great-to-MOTY level. Nagata v. Shibata was way better than I was expected based on reviews, especially because I don't like Nagata at all. Tenzan v. Goto I thought was an incredible match that would have been the MOTN on most shows in the tourney so far. Nak v. Ishii started off slow, and I could see why some wouldn't like it, but I absolutely loved it based on the second half which I thought was tremendous. And then there was Suzuki v. Styles which was an amazing match that managed to combine the more sports entertainmeny aspects of this years New Japan, with the shooter routine of Suzuki and the flashy stuff of Styles perfectly. The fact that they worked a match with run-in's and a ref bump, where finger manipulation was pivotal to the story of the match, and there was an ankle lock reversal sequence and it some how all worked is pretty incredible. Suzuki gave us his once a year reminder that he's tremendous when he wants to be, an Styles is slowly rising up the charts as both a Wrestler of the Year and Most Outstanding Wrestler contender. Serious MOTYC. Really a great show.

[tim]

I actually liked Day 6 a lot, then again I seem to be easy to please with these shows. That first 3 match stretch really was dire though. I also seemed to like Ishii/Tanahashi more than most, it had nothing like the super-intense home stretch and satisfying ending of last year's match but was more consistently good the whole way through. Day 4, Day 7 and Day 1 really might be my top 3 shows of the year from a pure-wrestling standpoint, and in most other years they would be but it's hard this year because this was a year where Wrestlemania was really what WRESTLEMANIA should be and had those intangibles that make it hard to rank against cards that are just full of great work, as great as the work may be.

 

As much as I loved last year's G1, this one takes it for me. Being able to watch every show live (since Day 4) also helps. Up to today's show I was thinking the very best matches of last year's were better (Ishii/Tanahashi, Ishii/Shibata, Nakamura/Ibushi) despite this year being MUCH more consistent, but after tonight and Ishii/Nakamura and Styles/Suzuki joining Ishii/Honma as the elite matches of this tournament, I think its best matches match up just fine. And this tournament has way more matches just below that level than last year did. The top shows are delivering just as well and the "B" shows are delivering MUCH better.

 

What are some of the best G1s of the 90s? Is there anything that can stand up to this? A number of upcoming days look great too, and the final day should be awesome with the added secondary final. Hopefully some other cool stuff gets thrown on the card too, some multi-man tag involving the G1 participants or something.

[KrisZ]

It's funny when AJ Styles leaves the shitshow known as TNA he looks like the guy from before TNA but with more seasoning

[ohtani's jacket]

Minoru Suzuki was outstanding in that AJ Styles match. I still have a hard time reconciling his feral look with the cocksure kid with the pompadour, but it's great he's embraced his inner mongrel. I loved his strikes in this match, especially the apron spot where it looked like he was going to do the Perro Aguayo Lou Thesz Press, but instead just kicked Styles. It's hard not to like a match where there's finger manipulation, especially when a finger gun taunt gets turned into a finger hold, and I thought Styles a great job of selling both the arm and finger damage. I'm not a fan of the fancy little flourishes Styles adds to every move, but they made for some great counters here with Suzuki catching the flailing arms. The match should have ended on that arm breaker as that was the nastiest looking hold I've seen in forever, but the desperation Styles Clash looked great, especially the way he only got half of it. Suzuki's initial counter to the Styles Clash was fantastic as well. The ankle lock reversals and the strike exchange at the end are modern day tropes, but just about anything can work in pro-wrestling if it's exciting enough. Even the lamest of run-ins couldn't prevent this from being a cracking match.

 

Incidentally, is it just me or is New Japan's audience predominantly middle aged?

[dawho5]

Styles vs. Suzuki was great. Suzuki was so absolutely incredible. His submissions all look so evil. I wish Styles would do less of the posing. The lack of a ton of nearfalls was really refreshing.

[Jesse Ewiak]

Honest question. Has Styles passed Sting in the category of "guy most fucked by spending 90% of his career in a company run by idiots?" I mean, between his New Japan run (especially if he keeps the title through the Dome and it draws) and his indie appearances drawing great, there's an argument that he could've been a HoFer if not, ya' know, TNA.

[stomperspc]

Night #8 was a very good show with a hot Osaka crowd.

 

• Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Ishii had a heck an opening match. I am a big fan of Smith’s offense and he showed off his power arsenal in this one by throwing Ishii around for a bit. Also really liked the knee lifts and how he used them to cut off the frequent attempted Ishii comebacks. Ishii’s selling of the shoulder was top notch. My favorite opener of the tournament thus far.
• Tenzan vs. Yano wasn’t much but was short and fine. Benjamin vs. Nagata didn’t do much for me but like [most] every match in the tournament so far, it was still more than watchable. Same for Kojima versus Gallows.
• Poor Naito – Osaka just won’t come around on him. He reacted more than he usually does (mainly because the jeering was so noticeable) and it made for a fun dynamic. I am not a big Goto fan but he looked good I thought. His timing seemed better than usual. High-octane match with some solid near falls.
• Styles and Archer had an awesome match. A.J. is so locked in right now. It is impressive. His ability to have strong but entirely different matches during the tournament has not been matched by anyone else. I loved the leg work. In terms of structure, this was the most “Styles in TNA” type of match he has wrestled during the tournament but obviously at a higher level than what he was doing in TNA. Archer also looked good, I thought. Part of that was Styles making him look good but he executed his big man offense well and sold the leg well, so he more than played his part.
• Makabe & Suzuki wrestled the sort of match you’d probably expect from them. It was a mix of brawling, some stiff shots, and a few clever spots. Good match.
• Shibata versus Honma was worked a lot like Ishii vs. Shibata from last year in that Honma was the underdog out to prove he could go toe-to-toe with Shibata. The crowd ate this up. I was not a huge fan of Shibata vs. Ishii (particularly the last several minutes) from 2013 and I thought this was a much stronger underdog vs. dangerous striker match. The one-count kick outs worked a lot better in this match than in the2013 Ishii match. The ending felt a tiny bit flat in that the match did build towards a Honma win that obviously didn’t pay it off. Shibata beat the crap out of Honma with Honma brilliantly fighting from behind like he has been all tournament long. I liked this a lot.
• Okada vs. Yujiro was good once it going. Yujiro continues to draw some great heat. I liked Yujiro attacking early and getting a jump on Okada. He followed it up by cheating and cutting corners wherever possible to keep the match even throughout. Okada was great at showing his increasing frustration over the direction of the match, before finally putting it away in the end.
• Tanahashi vs. Nakamura was very good. The reversal spots playing off of how well they know one another were executed and not as heavy-handed as they could have become.

Honma vs. Shibata was probably my MOTN but Styles/Archer and Tanahashi/Nakamura were very good as well. The entire show was up there with the best of the tournament so far. The Osaka crowd was way into everything, which always helps.

[rovert]

Meltzer

It was the best tournament ever prior to Friday. It's something completely beyond that now.

Some more comments here:

https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/496138087487901697

 

What other contenders are there?

 

Also from the Observer's Daily Update:

--The last two nights were not just two of the best shows of the year, but they're probably two of the five best shows I've ever seen. This is the greatest tournament in pro wrestling history and it's not even a close call. Last years' was the best I'd ever seen and this year blows away last year.

[Dylan Waco]

No one has watched and reviewed complete G1's, carnivals, real world tag leagues, et. in real time like this until last couple of years. I have really enjoyed this years G1, but I hate comments like those from Dave because there is no interest in comparing anything or thinking in terms of perspective. It's just argument by assertion and if you question it you are a joyless dick. It's made even worse because of the fact that Dave doesn't see any value in watching old footage so if someone were to go back and watch one of those tournies, praising it at a high level, he'd likely dismiss it.

[ohtani's jacket]

The bar for wrestling tournaments is pretty low. The 1995 Champions Carnival and the 1993 Japan Grand Prix had decent reps back in the day.

[JaymeFuture]

Honma Vs. Shibata may have been my favourite match of the tournament so far. I love Shibata, but I was rooting so hard for Honma to finally win. Amazing to see how over the guy while having 'nil points'.

[KrisZ]

This G1 has had some really damn good shows but I think it's way too early to be throwing that praise around when we haven't had the finals yet. My biggest issue with the G1 and all the G1's booked by Gedo & Jado have been this even steven booking where everyone has to win....when WWE does it we all complain so where is the complaining here.

 

How quickly 1996 & 1998 G1's are forgotten

[ohtani's jacket]

Gedo & Jedo are doing it in the context of tournament. WWE do it week to week. Surely, most people are curious about who's going to win the tournament. I want to see Shibata take it out, but who knows. I think it's extremely effective booking. It's just a shame it's such a niche audience.

[stomperspc]

No one has watched and reviewed complete G1's, carnivals, real world tag leagues, et. in real time like this until last couple of years. I have really enjoyed this years G1, but I hate comments like those from Dave because there is no interest in comparing anything or thinking in terms of perspective. It's just argument by assertion and if you question it you are a joyless dick. It's made even worse because of the fact that Dave doesn't see any value in watching old footage so if someone were to go back and watch one of those tournies, praising it at a high level, he'd likely dismiss it.

 

The ability to watch the entire tournament in real time without a doubt has a significant impact on how people feel about it so far. As much as I have enjoyed the tournament, there are only a few matches that I might be inclined to re-watch for the pure fun of it sometime in the future. I haven't given it much thought, but I am near certain that I could come up with several other (if not more) tournaments from the past that had the same amount of high quality, memorable matches. I know I tend to have a different mindset when I sit down to watch a full show live or near-live as it pertains to the under card matches than I have when watching historical shows. If I could only watch this year's G-1 two months from now, I likely wouldn't have watched any of the Yano matches and even if I did, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed them as much as I did within their proper context and in real time.

 

There is also the issue that many tournaments (particularly past G-1's and Champion Carnivals) were never made available in full. It really isn't comparing apples to apples.

 

In general, that's why I at least try to shy away from hyperbole or large, sweeping comparisons. If someone says a match is "good" or "great" and describes it, that's good enough to go off of. Statements like "greatest tournament in history" or "this match I just finished watching two seconds ago is the MOTY" only serve to inflate expectations to sometimes impossible levels and force those that make off-the-cuff statements in the heat of the moment to defend them for all eternity (or else admit that their initial reaction was "wrong").

 

 

This G1 has had some really damn good shows but I think it's way too early to be throwing that praise around when we haven't had the finals yet. My biggest issue with the G1 and all the G1's booked by Gedo & Jado have been this even steven booking where everyone has to win....when WWE does it we all complain so where is the complaining here.

 

How quickly 1996 & 1998 G1's are forgotten

 

I'm with you on the even steven booking. This year it seems particularly pointless to book that way because unless they pull out some huge upsets over the final two days, both blocks are already down to being between two guys (Shibata still has an outside chance in Block A). I think there will be some suspense to the final day but not like last year where one block was almost entirely up in the air on the final night. Not sure what the point is in having a bunch of guys bunched up in the middle of the standings when it isn't even serving to create that much suspense for the final day.

 

I saw Meltzer praise the booking for how it has potentially set up a bunch of title challengers. That's good and all, but that could probably be done without doing things like having Fale beating Tanahashi, Shibata, and Nakamura, only to lose to Doc Gallows. I doubt they are running a Gallows vs. Fale Intercontinental title match coming out of this so all we are left with is Gallows getting a head-scratching win that will never be followed up on.

 

I get why they do it, but it doesn't seem to be the best way to go about things. Suspense can be created by having 2-4 guys at the top of each Block in a heated race without giving some guys wins that they would normally never get.

[WingedEagle]

I'm only through 5 shows and thus have the 2 all-timers Meltzer is touting still to come. Tourney's been great, but I haven't thought anything on the level of Tanahashi/Ishii or Nakamura/Ibushi which were the standouts last year for me.

 

How do others see this wrapping up? My gut is they're building for a Tanahashi/Okada final as its arguably the biggest match to sell the Seibu Dome on short notice, while at the same time giving Tanahashi a win over Okada in a non-title situation and setting him up to reclaim the title from Styles at the Dome show.

[Jesse Ewiak]

I think the reason why the G1 even-steven booking works is that this is the only three weeks of the year it works like that. The other 9/10 of the year, main eventers beat upper mid carders and so on and so forth, especially in singles matches. If New Japan booked like this for the whole year, it'd be a valid complain. But, when they do it in the context of a grueling tournament, where people are wrestling big singles matches almost every day, upsets happen.

[Dylan Waco]

I'm not saying it doesn't work well enough, but the level of outrage we would hear if the WWE booked a tournament like this would be otherworldly

[kjh]

I think a bigger problem than the parity booking is the booking of the final day where one wrestler after another chokes against a lesser opponent to miss out on the final before someone back doors there way in. To do that once to mix things up would be OK for a change, but that's happened four straight years now.

[Jesse Ewiak]

I'm not saying it doesn't work well enough, but the level of outrage we would hear if the WWE booked a tournament like this would be otherworldly

 

If they booked the other 11 months like New Japan does, I don't think there would be. Of course, if the WWE continued to book like they do and booked a tournament like this, yup, they'd get rightly nailed.

 

Also, there'd be probably also plenty of people on the Internet delighted to see Cena lose a few times clean in a mne month period.

[Russellmania]

I'm not saying it doesn't work well enough, but the level of outrage we would hear if the WWE booked a tournament like this would be otherworldly

Outrage from who? If WWE ran a tourney where a bunch of midcard guys (Cesaro, Ziggler, etc.) beat a bunch of main event guys (Cena, Orton, etc.) most internet fans would be ecstatic.

[Dylan Waco]

If the WWE ran a tournament with this kind of parity booking it would be viciously attacked by Meltzer. I don't even think that's an arguable point

[Jesse Ewiak]

If the WWE ran a tournament with this kind of parity booking it would be viciously attacked by Meltzer. I don't even think that's an arguable point

If the WWE had booked as strongly for most of the last two to three years as New Japan has, quibbles aside, I don't think he would. Again, if this was only the time that parity showed up in the booking.

[Dylan Waco]

I don't believe that for a second. This is a guy who says Tanahashi is the biggest draw in New Japan "by leaps and bounds" citing no evidence at all, when he has heavily scrutinized the drawing power of people like Punk and Bryan vis a vis John Cena (and others) for the last several years. Same guy went on Observer radio today and claimed American are incapable of having four star matches that are ten minutes or less, and also said (rough paraphrase here) there isn't a single guy in the WWE who could do what the tenth best guy in the G1 has done so far. Also said the five best shows of the year are from the G1, but more than that two of them (IIRC) were among the five best shows he's ever seen in his life. When Dave watches New Japan he watches it as a fan first and an analyst/historian second - if at all.

[funkdoc]

meltzer was wapanese decades before that term existed, nothing new there