The Oscars air this Sunday night. What better time then to share some semi-controversial opinions on the films of 2016. I'm trying to make these mostly positive but if I snipe at a movie or two along the way you'll have to forgive me.
Sing Street Is Better Than La La Land
THIS SHOULD NOT BE A CONTROVERSIAL OPINION! La La Land is okay at best (good acting, okay dancing, not so great singing). I guess if you live in LA or have strong opinions about modern jazz you can make the case for La La Land. Otherwise I'm not sure that I see the appeal. But I'm not here to trash La La Land. I'm here to praise Sing Street.
This opinion is actually originally that of my friend Bernard, whose evangelism for Sing Street is what made me seek it out in the first place. What I found was a sort of melding of The Commitments, The Breakfast Club, and the Spotify playlists that my fiance just barely tolerates on long road trips. The story of kids in 1980s Dublin who decide to form a band hit me in all the right places and featured original songs that I genuinely liked. It's so disheartening that Sing Street hasn't gotten much award recognition, including being shut out in the Best Original Song category at the Oscars. If you haven't seen it: stop reading, boot up Netflix, and give it a watch.
Arrival Should Win Best Picture
Not just because it's my favorite movie of the year. It also carries with it an important message. Denis Villeneuve, who so often opts for style over substance, happens upon a script here that suits his particular brand of visual filmmaking. The way he gradually unfolds the mystery of the aliens and their language is nothing short of masterful.
The film is a tribute to the power of communication and the exchange of ideas (something that is sorely lacking in this modern world). The showcased communication is between the aliens and the tag team of Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. But the film is abound with issues related to communication (and lack thereof). The stations around the world sharing (and not sharing) their discoveries. The propaganda radio influencing some of the soldiers on site. And, of course, the pivotal phone call at the climax of the movie.
Arrival checks all the boxes needed for a "best movie of the year." Great photography, great script, powerful performances, an imaginative and timely premise, excellent technical execution, popularity with audiences, potential for rewatching for years to come, and a general burning into the psyche.
I am already mourning its upcoming loss to La La Land.
Amy Adams Gave the Best Acting Performance of the Year
See Above. Amy Adams carries Arrival in a performance that showcases the full range of emotion. I can't say enough great things about it. It bested every other piece of acting in 2016 - male or female, film or TV. And yet somehow she missed out on Best Actress contention so that Meryl Streep could get her annual nomination. Did she somehow "split the vote" because of her role in Nocturnal Animals?
Complaints about the Oscar nomination selection process (not to mention how the winners are chosen) are banal at this point. But this isn't Michael Fassbender in the little seen Shame being passed over. This is the lead actress, nominated five times prior, in a film that's nominated for Best Picture and took home nearly $175 million worldwide. If that can't land someone a nomination I'm not sure what can.
Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen Should Do a Movie Together
Two of my favorite actors turned in two of their best performances in 2016. Colin Farrell, a favorite of mine since he decided to be a huge weirdo just over a decade ago, added another weird, wonderful film to his weird, wonderful pantheon in The Lobster. And Viggo Mortensen added another film to his "I'm fine with full frontal nudity" pantheon in Captain Fantastic.
To any Hollywood producers or oligarchs with a casual interest in film reading this: put these two in a movie together. Please don't make it a super hero movie or a big ensemble piece where they barely interact. No, this needs to be some version of The Sunset Limited where it's just the two of them onscreen being awesome for the entire run time. I humbly volunteer to write the script.
The Kid from Manchester by the Sea Should Absolutely Win Best Supporting Actor
That movie does not work without him. For as good as Casey Affleck is, there are a lot of ways that an accomplished actor could take that lead role. You can imagine a young Al Pacino or a mid-career Joaquin Phoenix taking a spin. Even a moody version with Sean Penn (not to mention an angsty Emilio Estevez version in like 1990). This is not bad company to be in and it's not meant to shortchange Casey Affleck. He is excellent most of the time (onscreen, anyway) and especially excellent here.
But this movie works because of Lucas Hedges. It works because you can feel sorry for him, you can think he's a dick, and you can think he's hilarious all within thirty seconds of each other. With the wrong young actor this movie would have been a disaster. Not a lesser movie. A disaster. Okay maybe not the whole movie. But all the scenes involving the kid would be (which is most of the movie). If you felt too sorry for him, or felt that he was too jokey, or if he strayed too much into asshole territory the movie just wouldn't work. A lot of the credit should go to Kenneth Lonergan's writing, of course. But Lucas Hedges walks the tight rope of the script in a way that few young actors have ever been able to do.
Look, I know that Mahershala Ali is probably going to win the category. There's no doubt that he turned in a great performance as well. But he's not even in two-thirds of Moonlight and the quality of the movie changes only slightly without him.* Lucas Hedges is an incredibly effective counterpoint to Casey Affleck's lead performance. In other words, he's exactly what a supporting performance should be.
*To argue with my own point - one could argue that Ali's presence haunts the rest of the movie like a specter and that a less impactful actor would have not had the same effect. This is a fair point. Another point is that Ali's performance is arguably the high point of Moonlight and that if the film is going to get any Oscar recognition he's as good an aspect to single out as any. I hope this doesn't undermine my "absolutely" in the title of this section too much!
Scorsese Goes "High Brow" with Silence and the Result Is One of His Best Films
That's not to say that I think it's better than Goodfellas or Taxi Driver. Those are classics in their own right that sit in a rarefied air. But they're decidedly middle brow. They trade in violence and profanity while also telling stories and creating images that are unforgettable. There is nothing wrong with middle brow movies. Hitchcock, Coppola, Tarantino, and many others have made legendary careers in this area. They're among my favorite filmmakers.
But to create something "high brow" is an entirely different challenge. And it's a place where Scorsese has stumbled in the past (there is plenty of forgettable Oscar Bait on his resume). But with Silence he combines his own history as a filmmaker (including the themes of faith and the struggle for an outsider to understand society) with those of influential filmmakers (there's a lot of Kurosawa here and hints of Dreyer as well (Silence is certainly closer to Ordet than it is to Raging Bull)). It's a film with strong images, a deliberate pace that forces the viewer to become part of the community being depicted, and bold challenges of faith and preconceptions.
It's no wonder this film didn't find an audience. It's incredibly challenging - not for its depictions of torture, which are many, but for its ideas. Plenty of crowd-pleasing films feature worse scenes of torture than those depicted here. No, this film alienates in other ways. The faithful shy away from being challenged by its ideas. The faithless have no desire to bathe in the earnestness of its convictions. That leaves the audience seemingly restricted to Catholics who care about the church's history as a geopolitical force (howdy), people who have an interest in the history of Japan (howdy!), and those who personally know Jesuits well through their education (howdy again!). Really though this is a film for people who want to experience a harrowing work of high art that excels in making you intellectually uncomfortable but ultimately strengthens how you think about this world and its history. Films, and works of art in general, that can be described this way just don't tend to be very popular.
Silence has been compared to Scorsese's earlier work The Last Temptation of Christ for good reason. Both struggle with tenets of faith. Both court controversy (though only Last Temptation was subject to a popular uprising). And both are a departure from Scorsese's normal fare. By casting stars and recognizable character actors in Last Temptation, Scorsese ties the film in superficial ways to the larger body of his work. Silence marks a departure in tone and style that is an incredible achievement for an artist this deep into his career to achieve.
Andrew Garfield Got a Best Actor Nomination for the Wrong Movie
Related to the Above. Andrew Garfield's depiction of priestly zealotry here feels far more genuine than his down home holiness in Hacksaw Ridge (as a side note, Hacksaw Ridge is one of the most violent movies I've ever seen - the makers of the most recent Rambo movie probably walked out of this one wiping the sweat off their foreheads and going "yeesh!").
Andrew Garfield does a lot of things well. The best of his talents at this stage in his career seems to be fiery righteousness. It's on display in Red Riding, The Social Network, and 99 Homes. It's on display a bit in Hacksaw Ridge, though it's rarely ever "fiery." This talent is the whole crux of Silence. It's the better utilization of his core talents, a better performance, and one that I'll remember far longer than the one for which he received an Oscar nomination this year.
Werner Herzog Is Still the King of Documentary Filmmaking
This was a really strong year for documentaries. The super poorly-timed political anti-thriller Weiner, the bizarre Tickled, the epic cross-section of 1990's race relations OJ: Made in America. But nothing hit me harder this year than Werner Herzog's meditation on volcanoes Into the Inferno.
Herzog is no stranger to volcanoes. His La Soufriere saw him travel to the island of Guadeloupe after it was abandoned due to a pending volcanic eruption. He also filmed a volcano in Antarctica in Encounters at the End of the World (where he met his comrade for Into the Inferno, volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer). The film features incredible photography of volcanic eruptions, lava flow, and landscapes transformed by volcanoes throughout the millennia.
But the film, like many of Herzog's projects, is about so much more than the nominal subject. Herzog explores culture, history, and religion in Vanuatu, Iceland, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and even North Korea. He sniffs out interesting characters and locations in his inimitable way - the best human bone finder at an archaeological dig, cargo cultists who sleep inside a volcano as an initiation rite, an abandoned church built to look like a chicken. It also features a central companionship between Herzog and Oppenheimer that I never tired of watching. Another one to head to Netflix for once you finish reading.
Doctor Strange Was the Best Comic Book Movie of the Year
Despite working for three years in the comic book industry (or maybe because of it) I have a rather low opinion of most comic book movies. That being said, 2016 was a solid year in that regard. Civil War was fun, Deadpool was even more fun, and Batman vs. Superman was a hellacious pile of garbage that was the polar opposite of fun.
But only one comic book movie this year was brave enough to cast straight-to-video action superstar Scott Adkins in a supporting role: Doctor Strange.
I liked it for other reasons besides that, of course. Benedict Cumberbatch does his most effective Sherlock knock-off yet. The script has a nice balance of humor and operatic self-seriousness that any good comic adaptation needs. And the special effects are imaginative enough to fit the source material.
And Scott Adkins is in it.
Enjoy the Oscars everyone! Especially those of you who are L.A.-dwelling jazz fans!
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Monday, February 13, 2017
The Last Two Weeks of Wrestling: Royal Rumble, NJPW New Beginning, NXT, 205 Live, Elimination Chamber
It's been an eventful two weeks in the world of professional wrestling. So let's take a look back by answering some questions (questions submitted mostly (entirely) by me).
Do you only write about pro wrestling now?
I promise that I will write about movies or something next time. Maybe I'll get angry about the Oscars or something.
What was the best match of the past two weeks?
I'd say Okada/Suzuki but it's not quite a slam dunk. The Cena/Styles match from the Royal Rumble (the end of which reminded me of Misawa double-killing opponents like Seagal in order to leave no doubt of the finish), the Elimination Chamber match (a violent spectacle), and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee (about ten violent spectacles packed into one match) all have a legitimate claim. I'll get to the highly praised Elgin/Naito match later.
But Okada vs. Suzuki for the IWGP Heavyweight Title gets the nod. And not just because Okada is my favorite wrestler. Or maybe it does. I've said before that Okada is my favorite because I really care if he wins or loses his matches (similar to Daniel Bryan when he was still active). Going into this match I was sure that Okada would retain. I would have bet money on it if I were a gambling man and if I knew anyone or anywhere who would take bets of Japanese wrestling. Suzuki-gun's return felt like a place holder while they waited for Kenny Omega to return. And yet as the match went along I increasingly believed that Suzuki was going to take the title and have a mini-run with the belt. I thought Suzuki was going to tear my boy Okada's leg clean off.
The one nitpick I have is that Okada was jumping around a little too much at the end of the match (even if he was still selling a knee injury while doing so). Besides that it was flat out great. They told a story, they timed everything perfectly, and Suzuki reminded everyone why he's so great after a two year absence.
Worst match of the past two weeks?
I'm here to celebrate, not to denegrate. That being said, Iizuka was heavily involved in the NJPW shows including a singles match. So you can come to your own conclusion there.
What was the most unexpectedly good match of the past two weeks?
It's gotta be a tie between two matches from the NXT Takeover show - Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Bobby Roode and The Authors of Pain vs. DIY. I expected the main event to be dreadful and it was very good. I expected the tag match to be awkward and mediocre with a few moments of brilliance and I found it to be brilliant with a few moments of awkward.
Most overrated match?
I honestly loved the first half of Elgin vs. Naito on the New Beginning Osaka show. Naito working over the knee to counteract Elgin's power advantage is a smart way to structure a match. Only it didn't last. Once the match turned into infinite near falls it kind of lost the drama to me. In contrast to Okada/Suzuki it didn't feel like there was much of a story in the latter half of the match - just who could kick out of what increasingly ridiculous move. It reminded me of the Michael Elgin vs. Davey Richards match from a few years ago. If you like that match, you'll probably love this one. If you don't...well, come grab a coffee and commiserate with me, friend.
205 Live is...good?
It was for one week at least! I liked Mustafa Ali having to win his spot in the main event. I liked Brian Kendrick continuing to develop his "loathsome old guy at the office who got passed over for promotion too many times and now simply lives to shit ineffectually on all the bright-eyed young kids who still have a shot at being all the things he never could." And that main event was just awesome. Jack Gallagher's umbrella thing is silly but if it's what the bosses think is getting him good reactions then it is what it is. Gallagher/Neville should be awesome. Neville has been arguably the best guy in WWE in 2017 but fans have been only kinda sorta responding to it. Neville demolishing happy-go-lucky Jack Gallagher should go a long way toward getting those fans to care.
So overall a show that executed everything well, had a great main event in a style unique to the rest of the WWE main roster product, and made me look forward to next week's show. I'm not super confident that they'll keep it up, but for one week at least 205 Live was exactly what it should have been.
Was NJPW's New Beginning really a "new beginning?"
Not really. Most of the top champions retained and nothing set off in a bold new direction this year. There weren't even many shock upsets on the undercard. I guess they can't rebrand the event as "NJPW Business As Usual" though.
Have you turned the corner on Roman Reigns yet?
Oh heavens no. But I did enjoy his Universal Title match with Kevin Owens. The guy is willing to lean into a beating and make other guys look good, that's for sure.
For all that good will though, entering at the end of the Rumble was just a hilarious kick in the nuts on WWE's part to the point where it must have been intentional. "We don't want Orton to get booed so we better slot someone in there who the fans despise. Everyone is starting to like the Miz again so that's not gonna work...Alex Riley is long gone...We accidentally rehabilitated Sheamus...Roman, get on out there and give 'em hell!" It was such a good Rumble until then too!
Then the next night he goes and makes Samoa Joe look like a killing machine, even more than he did when legit injuring Rollins.
So there you have it...Roman would have been one of the great jobbers ever, I guess. He could have made a whole career on putting people over and making them look less awful in comparison. He just got stuck in a leading man role he can't escape.
Are Dragon Lee and Takahashi okay after that match they had?
I once went to a CZW show during finals week senior year of college. This was not as easy as it sounds as I did not go to school in Philadelpha. Or Pennsylvania. Or New Jersey. Or anywhere within six hours of the old ECW Arena. There was a particularly violent match where one of the wrestlers appeared to get hurt for real. After the show we went to the Oregon Diner and ran into some of the wrestlers and managers. After a quick "enjoyed the show" conversation (that was almost entirely one-sided) I asked Maven Bentley, "Is ________ okay?"
His response was a clipped, concerned "no."
I imagine a similar conversation happening in Osaka after this match.
This was a wild, out-of control, irresponsibly dangerous match. I refuse to believe that they walked away from this unharmed. These men are ghosts now. Please honor their memories by watching this match.
Have you watched any of the new Hidden Gems on the WWE Network?
I did a few mini-reviews on Twitter. A lot of the ones I saw are interesting in the novelty of the matchups but not so much for the inherent match quality. The best thing I watching on there was the Lightning Kid (Sean Waltman aka X-Pac aka Syxx aka 1-2-3 Kid) vs Jerry Lynn 2/3 Falls match. Still holds up all these years later. The Edge & Christian vs. Nova & Kazarian match is solid as well.
Any thoughts on Wrestlemania?
Lots! But I'll tackle that as things get closer and the card comes together more. And also after I write about some non-wrestling stuff.
Ask me about wrestling and other stuff on Twitter @fakemikecoast
Do you only write about pro wrestling now?
I promise that I will write about movies or something next time. Maybe I'll get angry about the Oscars or something.
What was the best match of the past two weeks?
I'd say Okada/Suzuki but it's not quite a slam dunk. The Cena/Styles match from the Royal Rumble (the end of which reminded me of Misawa double-killing opponents like Seagal in order to leave no doubt of the finish), the Elimination Chamber match (a violent spectacle), and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee (about ten violent spectacles packed into one match) all have a legitimate claim. I'll get to the highly praised Elgin/Naito match later.
But Okada vs. Suzuki for the IWGP Heavyweight Title gets the nod. And not just because Okada is my favorite wrestler. Or maybe it does. I've said before that Okada is my favorite because I really care if he wins or loses his matches (similar to Daniel Bryan when he was still active). Going into this match I was sure that Okada would retain. I would have bet money on it if I were a gambling man and if I knew anyone or anywhere who would take bets of Japanese wrestling. Suzuki-gun's return felt like a place holder while they waited for Kenny Omega to return. And yet as the match went along I increasingly believed that Suzuki was going to take the title and have a mini-run with the belt. I thought Suzuki was going to tear my boy Okada's leg clean off.
The one nitpick I have is that Okada was jumping around a little too much at the end of the match (even if he was still selling a knee injury while doing so). Besides that it was flat out great. They told a story, they timed everything perfectly, and Suzuki reminded everyone why he's so great after a two year absence.
Worst match of the past two weeks?
I'm here to celebrate, not to denegrate. That being said, Iizuka was heavily involved in the NJPW shows including a singles match. So you can come to your own conclusion there.
What was the most unexpectedly good match of the past two weeks?
It's gotta be a tie between two matches from the NXT Takeover show - Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Bobby Roode and The Authors of Pain vs. DIY. I expected the main event to be dreadful and it was very good. I expected the tag match to be awkward and mediocre with a few moments of brilliance and I found it to be brilliant with a few moments of awkward.
Most overrated match?
I honestly loved the first half of Elgin vs. Naito on the New Beginning Osaka show. Naito working over the knee to counteract Elgin's power advantage is a smart way to structure a match. Only it didn't last. Once the match turned into infinite near falls it kind of lost the drama to me. In contrast to Okada/Suzuki it didn't feel like there was much of a story in the latter half of the match - just who could kick out of what increasingly ridiculous move. It reminded me of the Michael Elgin vs. Davey Richards match from a few years ago. If you like that match, you'll probably love this one. If you don't...well, come grab a coffee and commiserate with me, friend.
205 Live is...good?
It was for one week at least! I liked Mustafa Ali having to win his spot in the main event. I liked Brian Kendrick continuing to develop his "loathsome old guy at the office who got passed over for promotion too many times and now simply lives to shit ineffectually on all the bright-eyed young kids who still have a shot at being all the things he never could." And that main event was just awesome. Jack Gallagher's umbrella thing is silly but if it's what the bosses think is getting him good reactions then it is what it is. Gallagher/Neville should be awesome. Neville has been arguably the best guy in WWE in 2017 but fans have been only kinda sorta responding to it. Neville demolishing happy-go-lucky Jack Gallagher should go a long way toward getting those fans to care.
So overall a show that executed everything well, had a great main event in a style unique to the rest of the WWE main roster product, and made me look forward to next week's show. I'm not super confident that they'll keep it up, but for one week at least 205 Live was exactly what it should have been.
Was NJPW's New Beginning really a "new beginning?"
Not really. Most of the top champions retained and nothing set off in a bold new direction this year. There weren't even many shock upsets on the undercard. I guess they can't rebrand the event as "NJPW Business As Usual" though.
Have you turned the corner on Roman Reigns yet?
Oh heavens no. But I did enjoy his Universal Title match with Kevin Owens. The guy is willing to lean into a beating and make other guys look good, that's for sure.
For all that good will though, entering at the end of the Rumble was just a hilarious kick in the nuts on WWE's part to the point where it must have been intentional. "We don't want Orton to get booed so we better slot someone in there who the fans despise. Everyone is starting to like the Miz again so that's not gonna work...Alex Riley is long gone...We accidentally rehabilitated Sheamus...Roman, get on out there and give 'em hell!" It was such a good Rumble until then too!
Then the next night he goes and makes Samoa Joe look like a killing machine, even more than he did when legit injuring Rollins.
So there you have it...Roman would have been one of the great jobbers ever, I guess. He could have made a whole career on putting people over and making them look less awful in comparison. He just got stuck in a leading man role he can't escape.
Are Dragon Lee and Takahashi okay after that match they had?
I once went to a CZW show during finals week senior year of college. This was not as easy as it sounds as I did not go to school in Philadelpha. Or Pennsylvania. Or New Jersey. Or anywhere within six hours of the old ECW Arena. There was a particularly violent match where one of the wrestlers appeared to get hurt for real. After the show we went to the Oregon Diner and ran into some of the wrestlers and managers. After a quick "enjoyed the show" conversation (that was almost entirely one-sided) I asked Maven Bentley, "Is ________ okay?"
His response was a clipped, concerned "no."
I imagine a similar conversation happening in Osaka after this match.
This was a wild, out-of control, irresponsibly dangerous match. I refuse to believe that they walked away from this unharmed. These men are ghosts now. Please honor their memories by watching this match.
Have you watched any of the new Hidden Gems on the WWE Network?
I did a few mini-reviews on Twitter. A lot of the ones I saw are interesting in the novelty of the matchups but not so much for the inherent match quality. The best thing I watching on there was the Lightning Kid (Sean Waltman aka X-Pac aka Syxx aka 1-2-3 Kid) vs Jerry Lynn 2/3 Falls match. Still holds up all these years later. The Edge & Christian vs. Nova & Kazarian match is solid as well.
Any thoughts on Wrestlemania?
Lots! But I'll tackle that as things get closer and the card comes together more. And also after I write about some non-wrestling stuff.
Ask me about wrestling and other stuff on Twitter @fakemikecoast
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 11 Review
One of these years New Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom show will not carry the hype and anticipation that it has garnered these past few years. The company's annual trip to the Tokyo Dome has become a focal point for hardcore fans ever since the event became available for live streaming (which coincided with the company's renaissance).
There was speculation last year around this time that this renaissance may be coming to an end. Top stars Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles were WWE bound (what ever happened to those guys?) and so was the top tag team in the company, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Doom and gloom was in the air. But stalwarts Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, the latter of whom battled through injuries all year, continued to carry the load at the top of the card. Tetsuya Naito solidified himself as a top star. Kenny Omega stepped up out of nowhere to go from underwhelming Junior Heavyweight Champion to the top foreign star in the company and one of the marquee names of the non-WWE wrestling world.
Expectations are once again high. The card looks stacked. I've got my snacks all set to watch this one live. Let's see how it all shook out.
New Japan Rumble
This is sort of like New Japan's version of the Royal Rumble only in addition to over the top rope eliminations there are also pinfalls, submissions, and DQs. It's sort of like how you could change the Royal Rumble parameters for No Mercy on N64. Doing the English Language commentary for this so I know who everyone is when they appear.
First entrant is Michael Elgin, back from an orbital bone injury. Second out is "Mr. Ass" himself, Billy Gunn! Billy Gunn looks like a gigantic monster, even next to Elgin. What follows is a nice little 14-man rumble match that is mostly played for laughs. Highlights include Kuniaki Kobayashi renewing his 80's junior heavyweight rivalry with Jushin Liger, Scott Norton unleashing the first disgusting spot of the night by powerbombing Ryusuke Taguchi onto his head, and Elgin throwing Cheeseburger around like he weighs nothing at all (which makes sense given that Cheeseburger appears to weigh almost nothing at all). Elgin wins in his return from injury.
Tiger Mask W vs. Tiger the Dark
Supposedly this is Kota Ibushi vs. ACH. Ibushi could probably be one of the top stars in New Japan (or NXT for that matter) but instead he's following his dreams of being a total weirdo who wrestles when and where he feels like it. There's something admirable about that. Anyway, here he plays an animated character come to life wrestling another animated character come to life. Believe it or not, there is a rich tradition of this in Japanese wrestling.
Match itself was a little slow and a little sloppy, but they did enough cool stuff to get the crowd involved. Not a bad way to open the show but certainly not a match I'll be shouting for other wrestling fans to watch.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles
Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) (c) vs. Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta)
The Young Bucks enter carrying four belts each (IWGP Junior Titles, ROH & PWG tag titles, and the "Super Kick Party" Titles) and talk trash to the Hardy Boys on their way down the ramp.
This match was flat out great. So much fun. So inventive. Featured four great wrestlers taking big risks. The Young Bucks are always excellent (special mention should go to the perfectly executed "threaten to leave the match, superkick their opponents on the ramp, run back into the ring, and tease a countout victory" spot) but their opponents deserve a ton of credit. Rocky Romero is one of the guys who built the junior tag division and set the tone for the style. His hot tag in this match was about as fun as they come. And Trent Baretta went all out. His flip dive over the top rope TO THE FLOOR AND NOTHING ELSE was one of the more insane things I've ever seen a human being willingly do for my entertainment.
RPG Vice get the upset and I am very happy to be awake at 3:40am.
NEVER Openweight Trios Titles Gauntlet Match
Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & David Finlay (c) vs. CHAOS (Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay & Jado) vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Seiya Sanada & EVIL & Bushi)
First combination sees the Bullet Club facing off with the CHAOS team. Will Ospreay is easily the highlight here. Ospreay doesn't so much fly around the ring as effortlessly float. Despite how entertaining Ospreay is, the Bullet Club team wins the first pairing.
LIJ out next. Short little section with LIJ dominating and getting the win.
So out come the champions. Ricochet's first two minutes in the match make me think, "What was the name of that British Guy from earlier? The one who did all the cool stuff I liked?" David Finlay looks like the "Never talk to me or my son ever again" version of Chris Hero. Kojima is there to throw some chops, do the thing where he swears in unison with the crowd in Japanese, and eat the pin. LIJ are the new champs. Decent midcard bout. I now want to see a Ricochet/Sanada singles match.
Cody the American Nightmare vs. Juice Robinson
Yes, this is the former Cody Rhodes making his New Japan debut. For those who don't know, Juice Robinson competed in NXT as CJ Parker and is perhaps best known for breaking Kevin Owens's nose with a palm strike in Owens's debut match. This match now arguably replaces that match as his most high profile spot.
This kinda felt like a Smackdown match. So better than a Raw match but not quite a PPV match and certainly not a big NJPW show match. If you're curious about what a New Japan Cody Rhodes match looks like...this isn't really it.
Ring of Honor World Title
Kyle O'Reilly (c) vs. Adam Cole
I saw these guys have an incredible match live several years ago that left Adam Cole bleeding out of his mouth so much it looked like he was starring in the feature length remake of the cornfield scene in Casino. O'Reilly recently beat Cole for the ROH title. O'Reilly has been a New Japan regular for a few years now and Cole started with the company only in the past year or so. Both are rumored to be heading to WWE in the near future.
This is objectively better than the previous match but the crowd doesn't seem to be feeling it. That especially hurts in a big dome environment such as this. Cole wins the title back. Skip this and watch that other match between these two that I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
IWGP Tag Team Titles
Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa) (c) vs. G.B.H. (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano)
There was a lot going on in his match. Constant action punctuated by Yano's signature comedy spots. I know that not all NJPW fans agree with me on this but I love Yano. I want to hang out with Yano in real life. I want to play trash can wars and eat things wrapped in pizza with him. So I was glad to see he and Ishii win.
Pretty good match. Never lagged and the crowd is officially back on-board with this show.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title
Kushida (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi
Takahashi spent a couple highly regarded years on excursion in Mexico wrestling as Kamaitachi. He now returns to Japan to take on the ace of the junior heavyweight divsion, Kushida. Kushida has set the goal for himself to be a Liger-style ace in that he can have a great match with anyone in any style. He's had great, but very different, matches with Kyle O'Reilly and Ricochet in the recent past that speak to this.
Well Takahashi is a different style altogether. The great thing about him is that everything he does feels like it's reckless and out of control - a welcome change from the rehearsed feel of other high-flyers. It's one of the reasons that his feud with Dragon Lee stood out so much in the world of Lucha Libre. However, that can also backfire as he'll occasionally just blow a spot outright (as he does here when going for a top rope rana or his sunset flip powerbomb to the outside gone awry). It's up to Kushida to rein him in. He's mostly successful. This starts out fast and continues to build in intensity. Takahashi does crazy stuff and Kushida tries to fit it into the "Kushida match" template with a few twists along the way.
By the time Takahashi pinned Kushida I was hoping that these two would feud all year. This is a great match that left me feeling like these two may have even better matches in the future.
NEVER Openweight Title
Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Hirooki Goto
Goto is the biggest choke artist in wrestling. He's the Scott Norwood of wrestling. The Greg Norman of wrestling. The Nick Anderson of wrestling. The Tony Romo of wrestling. Every big Goto match is him doing an impression of John Starks in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals. Shibata is his best friend from high school who enjoys nothing better than kicking Goto's loser ass into dust.
The match got off to a relatively slow start but good lord do they amp it up once Shibata starts teasing Goto by tapping him in the face with Kawada kicks. This becomes so violent that even Alex and his droogs would wince. The finish sees Goto destroy Shibata with about a dozen headbutts followed by two rounds of finishers.
This is one goddamn hell of a match. Check it out if you like violence or are fascinated by violence or if Hacksaw Ridge wasn't violent enough for you.
IWGP Intercontinental Title
Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
All you really need to know about this match is that Naito used to be a low rent Tanahashi and now he is in his rebelious teen phase which has made him much more popular with pretty much everyone but Tanahashi.
Tanahashi wrestles the first section of this match like Bret Hart in 1997 - old, out of touch, inadvertantly the heel because this modern world has passed him by. It's the right way to go given how popular Naito has been in his current role. However, the first section of the match doesn't feel right. These two actually don't seem to have all that much natural chemistry.
But chemistry be damned. This is a pair of the best main eventers in the world and they are going to will themselves to a great match. Naito bumps like a maniac. Tanahashi pretends that he has about half the mileage on his body that he actually does. By the time they start trading finishers the crowd is at a fever pitch. Just as a dead crowd in a dome can sink a match, a passionate crowd can push a match to the next level.
Naito ends up winning after a breathless, outstanding finishing stretch. Stick with this match. It's well worth waiting for it to heat up.
IWGP Heavyweight Title
Kasuchika Okada (c) vs. Kenny Omega
Omega won the G1 in order to earn this shot. He has been doing interviews all over the world saying how he's the guy who can take New Japan global. That sounds great to me! However, Okada is my favorite wrestler and I want him to win every match ever. Last year Okada had perhaps the best match I've ever seen on the main event of this very show. Can he do the same this year?
In contrast to the earlier Tanahashi/Naito match, these two do have great chemistry together. There is a buzz in the early going. Everything they do just clicks. The headlock spots. The teasing signature moves that don't quite work yet. The brawling on the outside.
The larger story of the match is that Kenny Omega is the arrogant challenger who has already won the match in his mind. There is no respect shown to the champion or his previous accomplishments. In the mind of Kenny Omega this is a coronation rather than a contest. It's actually somewhat similar to the dynmic of the early matches in the legendary Tanahashi/Okada feud. The middle portion of the match works in this context. Omega is in disbelief that Okada would have the audacity to kick out of his mid-tier moves. This section is capped off by Omega hurtling himself to the outside with a giant moonsault onto Okada.
I didn't take notes on the final third of the match so much as scrawl down moves in between the drops of sweat that now stained my notebook. Kenny Omega gets sent ass over heels out of the ring through a table in a ballsy display that could have gone wrong in so many ways. Okada hits a top rope shotgun dropkick. Omega gives Okada a devastating top rope dragon suplex directling onto his head and neck. It's taking everything I have not to type this whole paragraph in ALL CAPS~! Okada hits a perfectly timed, perfectly executed dropkick and I'm punching the air around me. Both guys are throwing bombs. Knee strikes and Rainmakers and tombstones all over the place. FINALLY Okada manages to get the win.
That is the most emotionally draining experience I've ever had watching a wrestling match. Go out of your way to see this. It's as great a match as you'll ever see. We'll be talking about this one for a long, long time.
Thanks for reading everyone. Gonna go try, and fail, to sleep.
There was speculation last year around this time that this renaissance may be coming to an end. Top stars Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles were WWE bound (what ever happened to those guys?) and so was the top tag team in the company, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Doom and gloom was in the air. But stalwarts Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, the latter of whom battled through injuries all year, continued to carry the load at the top of the card. Tetsuya Naito solidified himself as a top star. Kenny Omega stepped up out of nowhere to go from underwhelming Junior Heavyweight Champion to the top foreign star in the company and one of the marquee names of the non-WWE wrestling world.
Expectations are once again high. The card looks stacked. I've got my snacks all set to watch this one live. Let's see how it all shook out.
New Japan Rumble
This is sort of like New Japan's version of the Royal Rumble only in addition to over the top rope eliminations there are also pinfalls, submissions, and DQs. It's sort of like how you could change the Royal Rumble parameters for No Mercy on N64. Doing the English Language commentary for this so I know who everyone is when they appear.
First entrant is Michael Elgin, back from an orbital bone injury. Second out is "Mr. Ass" himself, Billy Gunn! Billy Gunn looks like a gigantic monster, even next to Elgin. What follows is a nice little 14-man rumble match that is mostly played for laughs. Highlights include Kuniaki Kobayashi renewing his 80's junior heavyweight rivalry with Jushin Liger, Scott Norton unleashing the first disgusting spot of the night by powerbombing Ryusuke Taguchi onto his head, and Elgin throwing Cheeseburger around like he weighs nothing at all (which makes sense given that Cheeseburger appears to weigh almost nothing at all). Elgin wins in his return from injury.
Tiger Mask W vs. Tiger the Dark
Supposedly this is Kota Ibushi vs. ACH. Ibushi could probably be one of the top stars in New Japan (or NXT for that matter) but instead he's following his dreams of being a total weirdo who wrestles when and where he feels like it. There's something admirable about that. Anyway, here he plays an animated character come to life wrestling another animated character come to life. Believe it or not, there is a rich tradition of this in Japanese wrestling.
Match itself was a little slow and a little sloppy, but they did enough cool stuff to get the crowd involved. Not a bad way to open the show but certainly not a match I'll be shouting for other wrestling fans to watch.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles
Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) (c) vs. Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta)
The Young Bucks enter carrying four belts each (IWGP Junior Titles, ROH & PWG tag titles, and the "Super Kick Party" Titles) and talk trash to the Hardy Boys on their way down the ramp.
This match was flat out great. So much fun. So inventive. Featured four great wrestlers taking big risks. The Young Bucks are always excellent (special mention should go to the perfectly executed "threaten to leave the match, superkick their opponents on the ramp, run back into the ring, and tease a countout victory" spot) but their opponents deserve a ton of credit. Rocky Romero is one of the guys who built the junior tag division and set the tone for the style. His hot tag in this match was about as fun as they come. And Trent Baretta went all out. His flip dive over the top rope TO THE FLOOR AND NOTHING ELSE was one of the more insane things I've ever seen a human being willingly do for my entertainment.
RPG Vice get the upset and I am very happy to be awake at 3:40am.
NEVER Openweight Trios Titles Gauntlet Match
Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & David Finlay (c) vs. CHAOS (Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay & Jado) vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Seiya Sanada & EVIL & Bushi)
First combination sees the Bullet Club facing off with the CHAOS team. Will Ospreay is easily the highlight here. Ospreay doesn't so much fly around the ring as effortlessly float. Despite how entertaining Ospreay is, the Bullet Club team wins the first pairing.
LIJ out next. Short little section with LIJ dominating and getting the win.
So out come the champions. Ricochet's first two minutes in the match make me think, "What was the name of that British Guy from earlier? The one who did all the cool stuff I liked?" David Finlay looks like the "Never talk to me or my son ever again" version of Chris Hero. Kojima is there to throw some chops, do the thing where he swears in unison with the crowd in Japanese, and eat the pin. LIJ are the new champs. Decent midcard bout. I now want to see a Ricochet/Sanada singles match.
Cody the American Nightmare vs. Juice Robinson
Yes, this is the former Cody Rhodes making his New Japan debut. For those who don't know, Juice Robinson competed in NXT as CJ Parker and is perhaps best known for breaking Kevin Owens's nose with a palm strike in Owens's debut match. This match now arguably replaces that match as his most high profile spot.
This kinda felt like a Smackdown match. So better than a Raw match but not quite a PPV match and certainly not a big NJPW show match. If you're curious about what a New Japan Cody Rhodes match looks like...this isn't really it.
Ring of Honor World Title
Kyle O'Reilly (c) vs. Adam Cole
I saw these guys have an incredible match live several years ago that left Adam Cole bleeding out of his mouth so much it looked like he was starring in the feature length remake of the cornfield scene in Casino. O'Reilly recently beat Cole for the ROH title. O'Reilly has been a New Japan regular for a few years now and Cole started with the company only in the past year or so. Both are rumored to be heading to WWE in the near future.
This is objectively better than the previous match but the crowd doesn't seem to be feeling it. That especially hurts in a big dome environment such as this. Cole wins the title back. Skip this and watch that other match between these two that I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
IWGP Tag Team Titles
Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa) (c) vs. G.B.H. (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano)
There was a lot going on in his match. Constant action punctuated by Yano's signature comedy spots. I know that not all NJPW fans agree with me on this but I love Yano. I want to hang out with Yano in real life. I want to play trash can wars and eat things wrapped in pizza with him. So I was glad to see he and Ishii win.
Pretty good match. Never lagged and the crowd is officially back on-board with this show.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title
Kushida (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi
Takahashi spent a couple highly regarded years on excursion in Mexico wrestling as Kamaitachi. He now returns to Japan to take on the ace of the junior heavyweight divsion, Kushida. Kushida has set the goal for himself to be a Liger-style ace in that he can have a great match with anyone in any style. He's had great, but very different, matches with Kyle O'Reilly and Ricochet in the recent past that speak to this.
Well Takahashi is a different style altogether. The great thing about him is that everything he does feels like it's reckless and out of control - a welcome change from the rehearsed feel of other high-flyers. It's one of the reasons that his feud with Dragon Lee stood out so much in the world of Lucha Libre. However, that can also backfire as he'll occasionally just blow a spot outright (as he does here when going for a top rope rana or his sunset flip powerbomb to the outside gone awry). It's up to Kushida to rein him in. He's mostly successful. This starts out fast and continues to build in intensity. Takahashi does crazy stuff and Kushida tries to fit it into the "Kushida match" template with a few twists along the way.
By the time Takahashi pinned Kushida I was hoping that these two would feud all year. This is a great match that left me feeling like these two may have even better matches in the future.
NEVER Openweight Title
Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Hirooki Goto
Goto is the biggest choke artist in wrestling. He's the Scott Norwood of wrestling. The Greg Norman of wrestling. The Nick Anderson of wrestling. The Tony Romo of wrestling. Every big Goto match is him doing an impression of John Starks in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals. Shibata is his best friend from high school who enjoys nothing better than kicking Goto's loser ass into dust.
The match got off to a relatively slow start but good lord do they amp it up once Shibata starts teasing Goto by tapping him in the face with Kawada kicks. This becomes so violent that even Alex and his droogs would wince. The finish sees Goto destroy Shibata with about a dozen headbutts followed by two rounds of finishers.
This is one goddamn hell of a match. Check it out if you like violence or are fascinated by violence or if Hacksaw Ridge wasn't violent enough for you.
IWGP Intercontinental Title
Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
All you really need to know about this match is that Naito used to be a low rent Tanahashi and now he is in his rebelious teen phase which has made him much more popular with pretty much everyone but Tanahashi.
Tanahashi wrestles the first section of this match like Bret Hart in 1997 - old, out of touch, inadvertantly the heel because this modern world has passed him by. It's the right way to go given how popular Naito has been in his current role. However, the first section of the match doesn't feel right. These two actually don't seem to have all that much natural chemistry.
But chemistry be damned. This is a pair of the best main eventers in the world and they are going to will themselves to a great match. Naito bumps like a maniac. Tanahashi pretends that he has about half the mileage on his body that he actually does. By the time they start trading finishers the crowd is at a fever pitch. Just as a dead crowd in a dome can sink a match, a passionate crowd can push a match to the next level.
Naito ends up winning after a breathless, outstanding finishing stretch. Stick with this match. It's well worth waiting for it to heat up.
IWGP Heavyweight Title
Kasuchika Okada (c) vs. Kenny Omega
Omega won the G1 in order to earn this shot. He has been doing interviews all over the world saying how he's the guy who can take New Japan global. That sounds great to me! However, Okada is my favorite wrestler and I want him to win every match ever. Last year Okada had perhaps the best match I've ever seen on the main event of this very show. Can he do the same this year?
In contrast to the earlier Tanahashi/Naito match, these two do have great chemistry together. There is a buzz in the early going. Everything they do just clicks. The headlock spots. The teasing signature moves that don't quite work yet. The brawling on the outside.
The larger story of the match is that Kenny Omega is the arrogant challenger who has already won the match in his mind. There is no respect shown to the champion or his previous accomplishments. In the mind of Kenny Omega this is a coronation rather than a contest. It's actually somewhat similar to the dynmic of the early matches in the legendary Tanahashi/Okada feud. The middle portion of the match works in this context. Omega is in disbelief that Okada would have the audacity to kick out of his mid-tier moves. This section is capped off by Omega hurtling himself to the outside with a giant moonsault onto Okada.
I didn't take notes on the final third of the match so much as scrawl down moves in between the drops of sweat that now stained my notebook. Kenny Omega gets sent ass over heels out of the ring through a table in a ballsy display that could have gone wrong in so many ways. Okada hits a top rope shotgun dropkick. Omega gives Okada a devastating top rope dragon suplex directling onto his head and neck. It's taking everything I have not to type this whole paragraph in ALL CAPS~! Okada hits a perfectly timed, perfectly executed dropkick and I'm punching the air around me. Both guys are throwing bombs. Knee strikes and Rainmakers and tombstones all over the place. FINALLY Okada manages to get the win.
That is the most emotionally draining experience I've ever had watching a wrestling match. Go out of your way to see this. It's as great a match as you'll ever see. We'll be talking about this one for a long, long time.
Thanks for reading everyone. Gonna go try, and fail, to sleep.
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