[2018-07-14-NJPW-G1 Climax 28] Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White

[SmartMark15]

When I'm wrong, I'm wrong. After his Dome match with Tanahashi, I thought Jay White was the blandest, most ridiculous looking trying-hard indie loser on the whole New Japan roster. But the guy just keeps coming back with great performance after great performance and this was undoubtedly a great performance. I feel like White actually kind of outshined Okada on this particular outing.

Okada and White both start hot with the near-hits of both their finishers and I enjoyed the fresh attitude Okada brought to the match along with the more stripped down red-themed version of his look. That new Okada did start to fade away as the match went on though and portions of this match just became another Okada-formula match. Possibly the worst segment of the match were the trading Cobra Clutches. You could feel the crowd back away entirely from the match as no one really buys into Okada's submissions at all. 

Where the match excelled, however, were Jay White's heat segments because my god, the heat is real. Using the vinyl ring apron to suffocate Okada, further abuse of the guardrails and his continued disregard for ringside staff, and absolutely everything about the finishing stretch was just such old fashioned heat that it played off fabulously. The live crowd rightfully detested Jay and completely bought into his character.

I, for one, am sold and look forward to what he can bring to this G1 run. 

****

[Boss Rock]

Jay White all of a sudden becoming a good heel against anyone other than David Finlay is indeed one of the strangest developments of 2018. Very good match between these two as the more cut-loose Okada tried to mess around and big league Jay only for the latter to brush it off and dominate. Rather than just aimlessly chop and do saitos like he used to, Jay instead frequently targeted the midsection and neck of Okada, trying to take the air out of him (the aforementioned ring skirt spot was great). Okada was fired-up with his comebacks, clearly angered by Jay's disrespect and hit a bit harder than he usually does. The finish also worked perfectly in establishing Jay as a heel and protecting Okada in defeat.

****-****1/4.

[soup23]

I didn't like this much at all. I thought the opening of OKada being a prick to White was good as maybe the senior of a faction taking the young upstart to the woodshed. Then White takes over and starts going after the back and he does a bunch of stuff that is flashy and trying to be violent but he still fails to convey either the reckless violent nature of a FUnk inflicting violence or a cerebral extreme of someone like Suzuki. After the White work we go to the finishing stretch with even more bells and whistles but everything felt hollow. The ref bump was heavily praised on twitter but it seemed nothing out of the ordinary for me and WHite looked like he really deliberately hit the ref and didn't make it look convincing otherwise. White also picked up the upset win which was insanely predictable given the booking in the past few years. I liked the Juice match a good bit but thought this was a step back and pretty big thud to end NIght 1. **3/4 

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This had a couple of cool singular moments, such as Okada's SCOOBY DOOBY DOO -dive, his 90's HBK headlock break -spot, White almost suffocating Okada with the ring skirt, White's slaps to Okada's head before locking in the Muta Lock, but overall this was very bland. Most of it is White on top, and while he just recently had a tremendous performance doing that vs. Juice - here he was very, very dull. There really isn't anything to complain about; the selling was fine, the dynamic they went with was fine on paper, but the way it came off just wasn't very interesting. **

[nivvad]

Another New Japan faction in peril after a devious result. Jay was pretty good here as he always is in his work, and of course Okada was there too, but his role was more about making Jay look as good as possible. I don't think the match needed to go as long as it did, and the finish was just a big "meh" from me. I get they're trying to establish Jay as a top heel, but the execution is just not what New Japan should be about, ****1/4.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

This was alright, which is about as bad as a match with Okada in it can ever be.  Would probably put it in the **1/2- *** range if I had to assign a rating.  Was probably the best match on this show but it was a really nothing show.

[William Bologna]

I really enjoyed this. It had good character work and violence, which are the things I want out of a pro wrestling match. Jay White did a whole bunch of little things that I popped for (replacing the ring apron, for instance).

Did you ever see the Tanahashi vs Taiyo Kea match from 2007? I watched it a year or so ago, and there was something about Kea's offense. He wasn't doing anything fancy, but all the stuff he did do just kind of looked like it stung. He was quietly cruel. It wasn't the outre, supervillanous sadism of Minoru Suzuki, but he was hurting someone and taking pride in his work. Jay White had that going on - everything he did looked like it hurt just a bit more than I thought it would.

My only complaint is that Okada couldn't muster enough violence. White was being such a bastard, and I wanted to see him punished. I thought I would when Okada started laying into him with elbows, but after a couple of those he awkardly called a spot and they started running. I liked this Okada better than the titleholding version, but I wanted more viciousness than he brought.

[asteroidcitizen]

I actively disliked a lot of things about this match, though there were a few nice things in there, particularly early on. White does some nice heel work at various points, but has some bad habits in terms of just doing flashy moves for no real reason - like in the Juice match, I felt he lost focus as the match went on. The finish was convoluted and silly, and yet another case of NJPW making its refs look dumb, and the whole thing came off as flat when it should have been a big moment - didn't help that the whole thing went too long. I thought Okada was generally quite good here, which helped save it from being outright bad, but overall I thought this was a below average match.

[Tenese Sarwieh]

It took some time but Jay White has come in his own dealing character work. I can let the flashy moves slide cause he's this sneaky cocky youngster who thinks he's the shit. I feel he will have a big G1 outing. Okada did well also being the sympathetic babyface. 

[Childs]

This started well with the character-driven one upsmanship and White's initial control section. It went slack in the middle. But then they got it back once White took it to the floor, Okada tried to rally and White finished it by going full dirtbag. Ultimately, it worked to set up the tourney and further White's story. 

[WingedEagle]

Okada's character work here was very strong, from the early parts where he wasn't taking White seriously to his selling White's attacks, which between the various suplexes and vicious whips around ringside was pretty strong.  On the other hand, this felt a few minutes too long and I don't think the antics with the ref at the finish did anyone any favors.  Give White a strong, clean win or don't bother.  Well below the White/Juice match from San Fran and my expectations for this night, but still very good.

***3/4

[Big Pete]

Cometh the hour, since 2018 kicked off, this was the match Jay White was looking forward to and when the moment arrived the young Kiwi stepped up to the plate. There's still a lot of seasoning required in his game, but White's got a lot of the fundamentals down and what's important is that his rough, dickish and opportunistic ring persona is very believable. If they can find him a better finisher than the Sister Abigail, it will take his game to another level.

Also enjoyed Okada's performance and how he was unable to really gather any sustained periods on offence. There were a few moments where he fired up and put Jay in his place, but he's just so burnt out after his reign he'd leave himself open for an easy counter. I'm enjoying the narrative of Okada being the burnt out star athlete and how other wrestlers are using the opportunity to knock him down a peg. It's great story-telling and you rarely see it done well.

*** 1/2

[Wahoos Leg]

Like many Okada matches and New Japan main events as a whole, this was about 5-10 minutes longer than it needed to be. White continues to come into his own as a heel after six months of floundering, and while it was technically good, it didn't really do it for me. Maybe because I'd already been spoiled by the result? The match was mediocre but the greater story -- with Okada looking somewhat like a shell of his champion self and White making good on the promise he laid down when he joined Chaos -- was good.