G-1 Climax

[Jmare007]

Upper deck was dark so I couldn't tell if they were people there. Lower section and ringside was full.

 

SSS claimed 18k, so did purolove.

 

 

Only watched the Final. The last third was great, the rest was fine.

[KrisZ]

J-E DOUBLE F J-A DOUBLE R E DOUBLE T

 

Jeff leading a Memphis invasion with Brian Christopher, Bill & Jamie Dundee, Doug Gilbert, & Tommy Rich needs to happen.

[pol]

The Jarrett angle was absolutely great, probably the best thing on the show actually and a strong contender for angle of the year. The Bullet Club guitar was a fantasic visual.

[KrisZ]

Jeff Jarrett vs. AJ Styles for the IWGP Heavyweight Title main eventing the Tokyo Dome would make heads explode

[ohtani's jacket]

Watched the final this morning. It was a very good match; on the cusp of being excellent if Okada had been tidier. I didn't have a problem with the build though it was generally more interesting when Nakamura took over. The finishing stretch was great and Okada's athleticism is unreal at times. I thought they could have lead into the finish slightly better, but it was memorable enough. Okada still looks a bit awkward at times -- a combination of his lankiness, execution and tendency to repeat place holder spots like using the guardrail -- but he's showing improvement.

[Sean Liska]

I feel like this is the one place on the internet where I can find some other people legit excited about seeing Jarrett working against the NJPW guys.

[fxnj]

I'm shocked people are digging the Jarrett angle. WWE/TNA soap opera bullshit like that is not something I want to see in my puro. Maybe it was having to stay up until 6 am to watch it, but that and the mostly disappointing undercard matches had me ready to turn the thing off before the main event.

 

Glad I kept watching though, since Okada/Nakamura was a fucking masterpeice. Great character work from both guys and I love how it slowly built from that tentative shoot-style beginning to the molten stretch run. Between the match and the promo afterwards, Okada came off as a serious bad ass to me.

[JaymeFuture]

Not a fan of Nakamura losing, I really think this was his time. Excellent match in the finals however, just fantastic drama as Shinsuke kept getting closer and closer with the Boma Ye before getting absolutely shitcanned at the end.

 

I haven't been a fan of the Bullet Club at all on this run, I think this angle is being way too overexposed. So on that note, the Jarrett/D'Amore angle doesn't bother me so much, and at least is they're trying to make the BC viable, then it gives Tanahashi something important to do.

 

Poor Ishii needs to go home and heal the fuck up. That superplex was terrifying.

 

And on a similar note, Honma's brainbuster on Naito was fucking brutal.

[pol]

Kinda surprised at so many people digging Okada/Nakamura, to me that match was the epitome of what I've seen OJ say before about New Japan big matches having dull builds but awesome stretch runs. The opening couple minutes of matwork was fine, but everything in between that and the flying armbar seemed like both guys taking turns to run through their default early-to-mid-match offense with no sense of struggle. May have to give it another shot given the universal praise.

[KrisZ]

I'm not digging the angle I just think it is hilarious that Jeff Jarrett is about to get a mega push in New Japan

[Sean Liska]

Kinda surprised at so many people digging Okada/Nakamura, to me that match was the epitome of what I've seen OJ say before about New Japan big matches having dull builds but awesome stretch runs. The opening couple minutes of matwork was fine, but everything in between that and the flying armbar seemed like both guys taking turns to run through their default early-to-mid-match offense with no sense of struggle. May have to give it another shot given the universal praise.

Yeah, I don't get the hype for this one. Last 8 minutes or so was a lot of fun but nothing of relevance seemed to happen in the first 13. Much preferred other stuff I watched last night like Nagata-Ishii and Honma-Shibata. NJPW matches seem to click better with me when they're under 15 minutes.

[JaymeFuture]

Just wanna throw this out there (and didn't want to start a new thread unnecessarily) - this week we're going to take a gamble on the podcast and talk exclusively about the G-1 Climax and New Japan, since there are a lot of people talking about it. So three questions to you all if you wish to answer:

1) Who do you think was the star of the G-1 Climax?

2) What was your favourite match of the G-1?

3) What do you think New Japan's direction will be between now and Wrestle Kingdom?

Elaborate as much as you like, I'll be reading your thoughts on the show.

[stomperspc]

 

Kinda surprised at so many people digging Okada/Nakamura, to me that match was the epitome of what I've seen OJ say before about New Japan big matches having dull builds but awesome stretch runs. The opening couple minutes of matwork was fine, but everything in between that and the flying armbar seemed like both guys taking turns to run through their default early-to-mid-match offense with no sense of struggle. May have to give it another shot given the universal praise.

Yeah, I don't get the hype for this one. Last 8 minutes or so was a lot of fun but nothing of relevance seemed to happen in the first 13. Much preferred other stuff I watched last night like Nagata-Ishii and Honma-Shibata. NJPW matches seem to click better with me when they're under 15 minutes.

 

 

I am going to watch the match again at some point, but I didn't find the action in the first one-half or two-thirds to be any more superficial or cursory than normal. That goes for matches in all styles/promotions, not just New Japan. There was about 2-3 minutes of opening mat work/feeling out stuff, they then went "Okada offense - Nakamura offense - Okada offense" for the body of the match, and started the extended stretch run after Nakamura cut off Okada's second stretch off offense with a backstabber. To me, that seemed like a fairly normal way to lay out a match that isn't focused around limb work. Even then there were a few at least cursory attempts to set up stuff later in the match, such as Okada's offense (more often than not) targeting the neck to wear it down for the Rainmaker. I agree that nothing from the early going had a direct impact on the ending stuff, but I also don't think that is particularly abnormal for any style or promotion. I thought they did a fine job keeping the work during the body interesting, but like I said I probably need to re-watch.

 

I do completely agree with the sentence in bold and not just for NJPW. In general, I enjoy a compact 15-minute match over the alternative. I understand why they felt the need to go 20+ here however and relatively speaking, I thought they filled the time well.

[Russellmania]

I see people complaining a lot about "dull builds" or pointless mat work followed by hot finishing stretches and I gotta ask...is that really unique to current New Japan? I feel like if we're being totally honest with ourselves that could be said about a lot of japanese pro wrestling all the way back to the 80's, even a lot of the stuff that people consider all-time great matches. I mean I look back at early 90's All Japan and outside of a few matches where limb work played into the finish somehow, I can't really think of a lot of matches that had memorable early or middle parts or mat work that went anywhere. New Japan juniors in the 90's were pretty guilty of this as well.

[pol]

For me it's not necessarily even about the early-to-mid-match work having to be memorable or play into the finish, it just has to hold my interest. Especially for a 20+ minute main event style match, I expect to see more than the typical "I do my shit, you do your shit" style layout you'd expect to see on a meaningless WWE TV match or something. I actually think New Japan can be pretty good about this sometimes with the guys playing on their standard spots in novel ways with familiarity counters and such.

[ohtani's jacket]

I actually think New Japan can be pretty good about this sometimes with the guys playing on their standard spots in novel ways with familiarity counters and such.

 

That's mostly what Okada and Nakamura did. It's just not that novel because New Japan workers counter each other's moves in every match.

 

Personally, I'd rather watch longer New Japan matches as I think finishing stretches like that need a wider arc, but from what I've seen only Suzuki and Nakamura have the tools to work an interesting build. Suzuki with his matwork and Nakamura with his kicks.

[ohtani's jacket]

Watched Ishii/Nagata. First Nagata match I've seen in god knows how many years. I dunno about that anti-aging hero t-shirt as he looks pretty bad for 46. Match was loaded with crappy strike exchanges. Ishii should stick with the headbutts, chops and slaps and ditch those god awful forearms. This was okay as a bare bones sort of bout, but there's no way that a guy with a separated shoulder doesn't tap out to a cross arm breaker. That was ridiculous. Then Nagata did a brainbuster on the shoulder and Ishii still kicked out. Finally, he dropped his selling to burn through a stretch run and put Nagata away. Not very impressive, but he wasn't in much state to be wrestling. Nagata was out of position on a lot of Ishii's stuff and had to keep wriggling about, which was distracting. All told, kind of average.

[Shining Wiz]

Finally got to watch Styles/Suzuki......great match. Actually managed to work in some bjj spots without ignoring their actual purpose.

 

 

As for the comment above regarding separated shoulders and cross arm breakers.....as someone who has been in one with a separated shoulder, you are far more concerned about your elbow, since the move generally puts no pressure on your shoulder.

[dawho5]

Yeah, the variation where a guy puts his feet on your side and pulls straight towards himself like a madman is the one that would attack the shoulder. An armbar would be attacking the elbow.

[ohtani's jacket]

Fair enough about the cross arm breaker.

[Superstar Sleeze]

The Bullet Club needs more Scott Norton

[KrisZ]

More Jeff Farmer as well

[BoneSoldier]

The Jarrett angle itself was what it was, but I popped big at the prospect of him working in New Japan. People hate on Jeff Jarrett for a litany of reasons, and I think it's caused a lot of people to forget or ignore what an awesome performer he is. I am legitimately excited to see a Jarrett/Tanahashi singles match.

 

Okada/Nakamura was excellent. I think the only matches I liked better the whole tournament were Styles/Suzuki and Ishii/Honma.

[Coffey]

Not a fan of Nakamura losing, I really think this was his time.

 

Yeah, I'm not high on it being Okada again either. Nakamura, Ishii (if he wasn't hurt), Shibata...something new would have been nice. I feel like I've already seen Styles/Okada enough times now. Maybe Styles will lose the belt before Jan. 4th? Doubtful but never know. At least it wasn't Bad Luck Fale, I guess...

[Loss]

Without having watched the G-1, did Jeff Jarrett point to his head a lot to show how smart he is? Because without Jeff Jarrett pointing to his head a lot to show how smart he is, he just wouldn't be Jeff Jarrett.