[2018-07-07-NJPW-G1 Special in the USA] Jay White vs Juice Robinson

[SmartMark15]

Great old school babyface vs heel match played out with more brutal spots. Loved the story working around Robinson's injured hand and how he wasn't allowed to use the cast as a weapon. All the guardrail spots felt fittingly brutal and added to the heat of the match. Cow Palace was absolutely eating up everything both guys did without being smarky or cool about it. They just booed the heel and cheered the babyface, what a joyous rarity in 2018. 

Even the little bit with Barnett didn't bother me so much as the crowd got seriously riled up and added to White's heat. Thought White was far more charismatic and natural in this match than I've ever seen him all year and he brought a decent chickenshit heel edge to this match. Juice was great to root for, his punches looked amazing, and I thought they played off the finish perfectly. Great title match and Jay White continues to build up some good faith on my end. 

****

[MoeTWrestling]

Would never want to follow D Lee & Hiromu and especially considering how cold Jay White was last time he was in the US, but Juice & Jay were up for the task and delivered a great match as well as a great spectacle. Crowd was super behind Juice with Jay being an excellent dickhead. They had a great layout with a great crowd and the commentary spot added a great deal to the story. Had a great nearfall with Juice hitting pulp friction and Jay kicking out. Was super scared they weren't going to pull the trigger on Juice, but thankfully they did to an insane reaction. Juice finally got the big win. ****1/4

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Well this was just incredible. Amazing dynamic w/ the broken hand of Juice; his babyface work is of course absolutely incredible & Jay White seriously showed up big time here. Let's just say that in January watching his match vs. Tana I certainly wouldn't have expected to have a match that's mostly dominated by him to be very, very high on my best matches of 2018 list. Phenomenal performance by the man. Fantastic work on top & all around masterful heel work. The crowd deserves lots of love, too - in the age that we live in where "cool" heels are getting cheered regularly, it was very cool to hear them give Switchblade an old school treatment w/ their chants & boos. Basically every element clicked perfectly & it resulted in a masterpiece. ****3/4

[nivvad]

Arguably the best Jay White and Juice Robinson performance, this was the most unique match on the card in my opinion. Nothing flashy here involving spots or crazy moves, but both men still mangaged to deliver a very compelling brawl between these former young boys turned bitter rivals. I still don't know if the Josh Barnett stuff was a work or not, but it definitely elevated the heat level in this match taking Jay to a nuclear place of heel. That in turn made Juice's comeback all that much more exciting, especially when he finally did what everyone wanted to happen but were unsure if it would happen, and that is win a title in New Japan. One thing is for sure that both men came out of this match looking like stars, ****1/2.

[Wahoos Leg]

Best match I've ever seen from either guy, and a performance White really desperately needed after a flat, uninspiring previous six months in the gimmick. White looked like a confident and compelling heel as never before, and the heat and intensity were off the charts. 

[Jmare007]

Yeah, this was pretty awesome. Juice did a great job as the babyface with his facial expressions, selling and timing for his hope spots. White did a good job too with the cutoffs and pissing the crowd off. Also loved how it only had 1 nearfall (that worked perfectly), and for a 2018 New Japan match, they kept the excess to a minimum and didn't went for a "your turn/my turn" type of match. Really glad I watched this.