Current New Japan

[Control21]

Oiwa vs Uemura was a modern day Thesz vs Gagne. All-time match. The battle over simple holds and reversals.....*chefs kiss*

[sek69]

Part of me wonders if this was a subtle Dory Funk Jr tribute, as this seemed to be laid out like at late 60s early 70s NWA world title match. Oiwa seems like a "if they miss on him it's promotional malpractice" kind of guy, so lets see what New Japan does next. 

[Timbo Slice]

I’ve only seen the highlights, but the finishing stretch where the battles were between wristlocks and headlocks (I wish there was some slightly better selling with Oiwa given the arm work) seemed like spiritually correct pro wrestling. The kids are alright. 

[Jmare007]

Yup, that match had A LOT of pressure and responsability going for it and they fucking pulled it off. 

Incredibly rewarding as a final after watching them all tournament long. 

7 hours ago, sek69 said:

Part of me wonders if this was a subtle Dory Funk Jr tribute, as this seemed to be laid out like at late 60s early 70s NWA world title match. Oiwa seems like a "if they miss on him it's promotional malpractice" kind of guy, so lets see what New Japan does next. 

Nah. They both been working like that for a while and the G1 was the moment where it "clicked" for them. Even if you just watched them during the tournament, you would've guessed they were going to have that exact type of match.

The question was if it was going to click with the audience and thank Terry Funk it did. 

[El McKell]

Obviously parachuting in after not watching any NJPW since WrestleKingdom isn't ideal, but I watched the G1 final last night and I felt like it was definitely very good but not great. I think they should have found some smoother way to transition from the old school grappling in the first half to the big bombs and nearfalls NJPW main event style in the back half.  Still good because they did that first half excellently and second half pretty well.

& in nitpick corner too many headlocks being escaped from by pushing the guy off into the ropes.

[Owen Edwards]

On 8/16/2026 at 3:30 AM, Timbo Slice said:

They literally had an AI Antonio Inoki video where he referred to himself as “the original AI”. K. 

is Robo-Inoki wrong, though?

[donsem43]

If you haven't watched the G1 final, New Japan put it up temporarily till October 13. You can toggle between English and Japanese commentary in the settings:

 

As someone who was also parachuting in to watch this, I found this to be more like a 90's New Japan main event than some 50's/60's title match. In fact, after I watched this I went back and watched the first G1 final to find that match had a similar vibe to it. My main critique of the match is that they really could have used some more creative escapes or attempts to escape. There were times during the match that felt like either one of them were banging his head against the wall with how he tried to get out of a hold or how he was trapped into it in the first place. That being said, they did a tremendous job squeezing drama out of the finishing stretch which was a enough to push it into great match territory. If New Japan main events start moving in this direction I'll start watching but I'm not keeping the porch light on. Definitely worth the watch if for no other reason to satisfy any curiosity even if you find current main event wrestling exhausting.