[2023-08-13 NJPW] Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito

[Superstar Sleeze]

Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito - NJPW 8/13/23

Woah Sleeze is reviewing a match after 2015, what the fuck?!? Look, New Japan could present a shitburger in Korakeun Hall and I would still be on Cloud 9 watching pro wrestling in Korakeun. I get chills and emotional just thinking about the fact I will get to do that, BUT I might as well do a little research and see what is going on in New Japan to enhance the experience. I figured I'd start with last year's G1 Climax Final. Naito is definitely the more over of the two. I watched this while walking in 32F weather, it is a 34 minute match, so rather than a blow by blow account. These are the thoughts I had while watching it. 

Pros

1. Pacing. I thought both Okada & Naito did a great job pacing this 34 minute match

1a. Segmentation was really well done. They had significant control segments with clear transitions in momentum. Action had consequences 

1b. Tempo was a double edge sword, as you will see it will be in the Con section, BUT I did appreciate they took their time. This was not a perpetual motion match. Neither Okada nor Naito was running the whole time. They let things breathe. It did not feel like they were do a rehearsed choreography or stage blocking.

1c. They took what their opponent gave them. Nothing drives me nuts more than an opponent getting into position for the next move. Here that did not happen. I am so appreciative of it. They used a snapmare or a bodyslam to position their opponent how they wanted them. Or if thats where the opponent was that is how the spot flowed. 

2. Neck Psychology - The neck psychology was strong throughout. It was a good touchstone for the match. 

3. Highspots - Okada has his highspots down pat. The dropkick to the wrestler sitting on the top rope, the Tombstone, the standard dropkick, Emerald Flowsion and the Rainmaker. He is a Bret Hart style wrestler. You know the beats, you look for the beats, the beats are safe and any deviation to the beats is interesting. As you will see in cons there was not much in the way of deviation. I think Naito has improved since I last watch him, but in all honesty he does nothing for me. Besides Tranquilo, what does he do that shows charisma or anything of the way sparking excitement?

Cons

1. Transitions while clear were neither interesting nor eye-popping. Okada seems to like catching a charging Naito as his transition which is fine. A charging opponent should lose that battle 9/10 times, but it was not something that excited me. It was just ok we are transitioning to the next segment. Naito seemed to like to use running and speed to create his transition such as the swinging DDT. This kinda goes into my #2 point. I think the match could have been edited so that some of the selling was not oversold so much to make some of the transitions more meaningful

1a. The lack of missed moves also hurt the match. Missed moves are easy ways to create openings for the wrestler working underneath. The first meaningful missed move was 30 minutes into the match and was the Stardust Press which levelled playing field for the finish run. 

2. Modulation of selling. They oversold too quickly in the beginning which undercut some of the early transitions. 

3. If they were going to wrestle downtempo, they needed to tell a more interesting story. I love a good midtempo jam such as Tenyru/Mutoh '01, but you can NOT be hitting every single highspot cleanly. You need to deviate from the norm. 

4. Individual Charisma - This was a pretty soulless match. I am not the biggest Okada fan, but he has some money matches against Tanahashi. That's because Tanahashi is the paint to his blank canvas. Okada has a formula/structure (Tanahashi does too) but Tanahashi brightens it with his colorful charisma. These two are just as vanilla as they come. 

5. Finish Run - This is what I was most shocked about. I expected the last 5 minutes for them to go all out and then I'd be like yeah the first 30 minutes was solid, but in typical Japanese fashion that last 5 minutes rocked hard, but even that felt pedestrian. Pretty standard Okada finish run with the swing your partner round & round bullshit which can be good or can be lame. It was more the latter this time. 

It is not really a bad match per se. It is just kinda there. I am interested to see what people give it as a rating. I bet it was lower than your normal New Japan match. My estimate would be 4 stars which is low for New Japan. I am going three myself. I am going too look up what was considered their best last year and give that a shot. ***

UPDATE: VOW MOTY Rankings had this at #16!?!??! WOW! Ok so I am way off base. I need to know what others think about this match.