Original Date Sent: July 19th - August 16th, 2015
Sent to: Some fellow Japanese wrestling fans who were also following along with the tournament.
Context: The G1 is New Japan Pro Wrestling's annual summer tournament. This year all the shows aired live on the New Japan World service. I watched a whole bunch of stuff and reviewed it as I went. This is by no means a complete review, just a few matches from each day of the tournament (with a full go at the Finals). These started out as informal one-liners and got more complex as the tournament progressed. These are pretty spoiler free as they mostly served as match recommendations along the way.
Night 1 - Two big matches to check out here.
AJ/Shibata - Great dickhead heel vs striker match. Really smartly worked match with some excellent limb selling by Shibata. AJ is so over with this crowd. The turning point of this match is so painful looking. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it.
Tanahashi/Ibushi - Disjointed and spotty to start but really gets going in the second half. Some really cool spots here strung together in a way that I hadn't seen before. Really fun finish. Would be the best finishing stretch of the month if not for Okada/AJ at Dominion.
Night 2 - Feels pretty skippable. Two hard cams with no commentary. This one is really just for die hards.
Okada/Elgin - This was okay, I suppose. Pretty tepid. Okada pretty much mailed it in here as he's wont to do. Elgin does some nice power spots here and seemed to make a positive impression on the crowd. If you're curious about Elgin in Japan this is worth the ten minutes it takes to watch.
Karl Anderson/Nakamura - This was better but not must-see or anything. Crowd is more into it. Both guys seem to be having a little more fun. It's interesting how well Anderson can work the Japanese crowd in comparison to Elgin.
Night 3 - Much better camera setup. Still no commentary, but a much larger and more engaged crowd helps mitigate that. Pretty strong slate of tournament matches here.
Ibushi/Gallows - Probably the best match of Gallows's career. That's not saying much. Ibushi does a great job bumping for the big man and his comeback spots are a lot of fun.
Makabe/Fale - Not terrible. Not worth watching if you're pressed for time though.
AJ/Yano - This was actually a lot of fun. YTR's shtick can sometimes get tiresome but he's firing on all cylinders here.
Shibata/Naito - Naito's new heel persona has been an interesting turn for him (as he was basically the poor man's Ibushi before that). However, it had been hurting the quality of his matches. This is the best thing he's done since his heel turn and it's mostly thanks to Shibata beating the crap out of him for the entirety of the match. Won't be one you're telling your grandkids about but it left me wanting to see these two have a rematch at a bigger show.
Tanahashi/Tenzan - Tanahashi plays the heel from the very beginning against the ever-popular (and very old) Tenzan. It's the sort of move that John Cena has adopted as of late. A fun, well-worked main event with a very hot crowd.
Night 4 - Back to the crappy camera set up and no commentary. Ugh. Skipped a couple matches because of this.
Goto/Anderson - By the numbers G1 match. Some big spots that I didn't expect here but nothing to write home about other than that.
Nagata/Nakamura - These two have such great chemistry. The crowd is really into everything they do. This especially gets hurt by the lack of camera work since both guys rely so much on facial expressions and technical matwork - neither of which are maximized by the hard cam. Kind of a weird finish too, but doesn't really hurt the match.
Okada/Honma - Going in, I was a little surprised that this was main eventing over Nagata/Nakamura. This is a really interesting match on an existential level since Honma pretty much was Okada back in 1999 - a blond haired ace leading the resurgence of a Japanese company. This match also illustrates a fundamental difference between Okada and Tanahashi. In the previous night's match, Tanahashi immediately jumped into being heel given that the crowd was likely to support Tenzan heavily. Okada plays things pretty straight until later in the match before realizing that it's for the best to have Honma be a true face. It'll be interesting to see if Okada is willing to embrace his heel side from time to time as he becomes more entrenched as one of the top stars in the company and faces more underdogs in situations like this. Match itself is fantastic. If you check out anything from this show, make it this one.
Night 5 - The Hiroshima show. Expect a hot crowd for this one. I skipped Fale/Gallows and Yano/Tenzan. The top three matches are all a lot of fun though.
Shibata/Makabe - Nice little slugfest here. Makabe's strikes are sometimes lacking but Shibata more than makes up for it. Good god, I would not want to step into the ring with that guy.
AJ/Ibushi - I actually liked this a little better than their much-praised title match from earlier this year. Ibushi's lack of selling bothers me but other than that this match is a lot of fun. Others thought this was a much better match than I did.
Tanahashi/Naito - Rematch of the 2013 G1 Final. Naito's "petulant hungover frat boy" gimmick is in full effect here. This is surprisingly stiff and features more spitting than a Chipper Jones at-bat. You can really feel the bad blood. Very good match. Definitely worth checking out.
Night 6 - This deathmarch continues! The unimaginable Nakamura/Elgin match slated for this show was cancelled thanks to Nakamura's elbow injury that may keep him out for the rest of the tournament, Yano & Tenzan busted themselves up in sickening fashion a couple nights before, and it looks like Ishii is injured as usual. No commentary for this one but a full camera team.
Honma/Goto - The type of fun matchup that makes the G1 so interesting. The match isn't great or anything. It's sort of like one of those matches that happens on Raw sometimes where you're like "that was really good...but I'm not sure why they were wrestling." As to be expected with these two it's brutally hard-hitting at times.
Anderson/Ishii - Kinda like the previous match in a lot of ways only they did a better job of building the drama and it had a better finish. Karl Anderson has cooled down significantly since it looked like he'd be the next great American gaijin in the wake of his 2012 G1 Final appearance and his stellar showing in an IWGP title match against Tanahashi in 2013. But he's proved during this tournament that he's still got it as a singles wrestler.
Kojima/Okada - Okada works heel here from the get-go which is a good sign for his future development as a top guy. It's also a nice throwback to the character that fans first fell in love with back in 2012. This match is psychologically sound but it feels like it's being wrestled in slow motion at times. Kojima just hasn't aged into the Grumpy Old Man stage that prolongs the effectiveness of other fading Puro stars.
Night 7 - Similar camera setup to the previous night. No commentary again. So far Block A has provided better matches than Block B. Let's see if that continues here.
Ibushi/Shibata - This match is FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC. Find it as soon as you possibly can. Ibushi's no-selling normally bothers me but Shibata finds the perfect way to counteract it: beat the motherfucking piss out of Ibushi for real. And to his credit, Ibushi proves that he can work that Shibata/Goto/Ishii/Honma style of slugfest that leaves you cringing every couple seconds. Remember that scene in the most recent Rambo where Stallone hijacks an anti-aircraft gun and turns it on a Burmese Deathsquad, liquefying hundreds of genocidal junta goons in a matter of moments? That's pretty much this match. Builds to a fever pitch finish. Easily the best thing since the two great matches on Night 1.
Tanahashi/Fale - This was not very good. Dead crowd, too much interference, not enough Fale getting bashed in the face (which is just about the only time he's useful).
AJ/Naito - Rematch from the Tokyo Dome. This time Naito is rocking his new persona and AJ has been rehabilitated as a top star in the promotion. Crowd doesn't really know what to do with the whole Heel vs Heel thing. Match is mostly fine though Naito purposely slows things down and AJ doesn't really help to speed it up. Worth a look if you like both guys.
Night 8 - I have got a lot of catching up to do! Full camera and commentary tonight. Block B finally seems to be getting into the top-end matches after a relatively weak start.
Elgin/Honma - This was a lot of fun. Honma is the perfect guy for Elgin to work with since he can take a beating, has a myriad of hope spots, and can handle most of the crowd work. Elgin has done well for himself this tournament. I don't think NJPW will be clamoring to give him a push but he certainly hasn't hurt his stock.
Nakamura/Ishii - Pretty good match that built to a nice finish. Best thing about this is that Nakamura appears to be healthy despite a taped up elbow.
Goto/Okada - Kinda by-the-numbers to start but builds into a really hot finish. Goto actually felt like a main eventer here. Definitely the best match of this particular show. Interestingly enough the Osaka crowd is HUGELY behind Goto here. This tournament has done a lot for Goto and if Nakamura's health fails again I wouldn't be surprised to see him win the block.
Night 9 - So far behind that I skipped all the way to the main event. The undercard looked really unspectacular to me with most of the matchups featuring one of the talented guys in the block taking on the one of the really untalented guys in the block. Though you could argue that this applies to the main event as well.
Tanahashi/Yano - This comedy feud has been going on for the better part of 2015. This was probably the most elaborate of the matches. A solid example of a Japanese comedy match. I think that YTR/AJ was better than this if you only feel like watching one comedy match though.
Night 10 - This gets me caught up! Phew! Wrestling is exhausting.
Ishii/Nagata - This just kinda faded into the wall of wrestling from these past few weeks until the AMAZING slap exchange near the end of the match. The last couple minutes are worth watching but this is pretty skippable.
Okada/Anderson - Rematch of the 2012 G1 Final here. Decent enough. Not great though. Okada is at his best in BIG matches and that's not really what this is. Also helps explain why he so often underwhelms in the G1 (minus the very good Final in 2012 and my Match of the Year last year in the Final).
Goto/Nakamura - I didn't think that this was as good as their match at Dominion last month. Solid main event though. However, Goto felt like not-as-much-a-top-guy here as opposed to two nights previous.
Night 11 - Single cam setup, no commentary. Interesting slate of matches.
Yano/Shibata - This was...bizarre. Every single thing about it.
Makabe/AJ - Pretty good match. Probably would have liked it even more if I was a) a little fresher while watching it and b) if it was presented in regular form. It's amazing how well AJ has solidified his position as one of the top guys in the company. There's not even a question about it at this point. And it's even more amazing when you consider that he was virtually an afterthought heading into 2015.
Naito/Ibushi - Two of the guys who have been the most impressive (for different reasons) this tournament face off here. Ibushi has been spectacular in the ring while Naito has gone a long way in establishing his delightfully devious new persona. Naito has gone from an off-brand Ibushi to standing on his own two feet at a shockingly rapid pace. This winds up being a pretty typical Ibushi match - which happens to be a lot of people's cup of tea.
Night 12 - I believe that this is the last night on the schedule that includes the crappy camera work. Also, things are starting to take shape in the standings as the top contenders separate themselves from the lesser competitors.
Honma/Anderson - Super fun match. Great one to wake up to. Anderson at his best and Honma being Honma. Rapid fire finishing sequence. Hot crowd. Didn't drag on too long. The platonic ideal of a G1 match.
Nakamura/Takahashi - This is the first Yujiro match I've watched of this tournament. He's one of those guys who does everything well as a wrestler except the "wrestling" part. Nakamura does a decent job carrying him here, though it seems like the Boma-Ye has reached Attitude Adjustment levels of ineffectiveness.
Ishii/Okada - Stablemates collide here. This match was fucking awesome. Both of these guys tend to fall into formula. That didn't happen here. Ishii brought out the hard-hitting side of Okada and Okada reined in Ishii's tendency to just stand in the middle of the ring and throw strikes until the crowd is tired of it. Came off like a true main event. Surprised this isn't getting hyped up more in the usual online circles. I suspect a lot of people skipped this show or didn't pay much attention to it thanks to the poor camera work. Or it happened on a Friday and other people are waiting until the weekend to watch it. Either way, this is definitely one to check out.
Night 13 - Back to top-level camera work here but still no commentary. This gets me caught up once again!
Ibushi/Fale - The nice thing about Fale is that he's not totally useless. Good wrestlers can have a halfway decent match working around Fale's limitations. And that's pretty much what happens here.
Yano/Naito - Yano starts off by trolling Naito hard and the crowd just eats it up. Fun stuff here. YTR is everything that Colt Cabana wishes he could be and Naito is such a dick.
Tanahashi/Shibata - These guys had a Meltzer-certified Five Star encounter last fall. So obviously this one is worth getting hyped over. This very much feels like an old-school New Japan main event. The extended grappling sequence at the start. The manhood-testing strike exchanges. It's slower paced than you might expect going into it but the intensity level is high all the way through. For two guys who supposedly despise each other in real life they have very good chemistry in the ring. Really good stuff here even though it felt far from definitive. I'd love to see another go at this match at next year's Tokyo Dome show.
Night 14 - An intriguing Sunday card ahead. This might just be the best night so far.
Anderson/Elgin - Really nice gaijin vs gaijin match. The crowd really loves Elgin. In many ways this is probably his most impressive match of the tournament so far. Anderson and the Bullet Club do a great job heeling it up (as always) in order to get the crowd squarely on the side of the newcomer.
Okada/Takahashi - Okada, like most viewers, hates Yujiro. Yujiro does have a pretty sweet saxophone entrance going for him. Also, his sloppy, dangerous bumping helps make Okada's offense look all that much more effective. And his sloppy, dangerous offense makes it seem like he's going to literally kill Okada at any moment. There is interference all over the place with Cody Hall, Tama Tonga, and Gedo all getting involved. And god damn if this isn't a fantastic sports entertainment style match. Okada really rocks here. With a clear cut heel on the other side he's free to be the fiery babyface. I almost skipped this one but I'm glad I stuck with it. I don't watch New Japan for matches like this, but it's nice to know they're capable of executing it when they have to.
Honma/Nakamura - What a fascinating matchup. Nakamura beats the piss out of Honma from the very start. This built to a fever pitch in the second half as they started dropping bombs on each other. This was really awesome. Honma has become something like the Inverse Undertaker: no matter how sure I am that he's going to lose, he always convinces me at least a few times during an given match that this time he'll finally get the three count...
Ishii/Goto - The placement of this match as the main event is really interesting. They're really trying to portray Goto as a top guy during this tournament (and Naito as well). This isn't so much a match as a masochistic endurance test. These two absolutely destroy each other in one of the most brutal matches of this or any other year. This is like the finale of Rollerball come to life with the ring scorched by heat & fire and the crowd in a stunned frenzy. Ishii has a number of acknowledged classics, but this might be the best match of Goto's career (the Shibata series is the only thing that comes close).
Night 15 - This card looks kinda lackluster on paper. No commentary team but comprehensive camera setup.
Tenzan/Shibata - Good crowd heat but this was not great in and of itself. It ended and I remembered nothing about what happened.
Yano/Ibushi - Wow, blink and you'll miss this one. Once again, the crowd was on fire though.
AJ/Fale - Bullet Club members collide here. They do the whole split faction thing with the other Bullet Club bros trying to play peacemakers. But the crowd just doesn't know what to do and I feel like we saw a much better version of this in AJ/Anderson last year. Skip it.
Tanahashi/Makabe - The crowd is solidly on Makabe's side, proving that even rabid Japanese fans can be wrong sometimes. To be fair, Makabe is fired up here. Much like Randy Orton he's not afraid to mail it in sometimes. Luckily he decided to care in this match. It's also important to note that Makabe's offense looks much better when he's not being outshined by the likes of Shibata, Goto, and Ishii (Makabe is badly exposed in that type of match). He much better when he can hoss around with guys like Tanahashi and Okada.
Night 16 - Block B continues to bring the fire with a pretty awesome looking card. Same camera setup as last night and again no commentary. The other thing to watch out for here is that in the crowd there is a dude who is a dead ringer for Billy Corgan's late-stage doughy TNA booker persona.
Goto/Elgin - A preview for ROH's show in Brooklyn! The Tokyo crowd continues to love Elgin. It is interesting to note, however, the disparity between an indie guy aping the hard-hitting Japanese style and a guy who grew up doing it against some of the best. This was solid though.
Nakamura/Kojima - Nakamura might be the truest tweener in the world right now as he works like he's gonna work no matter what the circumstances - and it either makes him a face in a given match or a heel. Kojima stepped in a time machine before this match or something. It didn't take him all the way back to 2005 or anything, but it took him back to 2011 or so. The dude can still throw a mean lariat and the crowd loves him. This made for a pretty fun match.
Nagata/Okada - Okada, decidedly not very good at being a tweener, plays a pretty clear heel here to the ever-popular Nagata. Nagata has looked his age in this tournament (the guy wrestled in WCW) but he was much more spry here. This is slow-paced with Okada working over the ribs of Nagata. Nice match here, though nothing to write home about.
Ishii/Honma - Rematch of the absolutely insane Five Star bought from earlier this year. Believe it or not, this took awhile to get going. It's like they were overthinking it. Nowhere near as good as their previous match (which is a harrowing match on an all-time scale) but a lot of fun regardless. And an emotionally charged finish that has been building for quite awhile.
Night 17 - The final night of Block A with AJ Styles and Tanahashi being the only two with a shot at winning (there is a highly unlikely Naito scenario as well). This is the first of three shows in a row at the Sumo Hall and the fourth show this week in Tokyo. It's a pretty weak looking card to be honest (Block A was really front loaded this year) so I'm skipping a lot of it.
Shibata/Gallows - I really just wanted one more Shibata match before the tournament ends. Plus, this seems like the type of situation where Gallows could actually work well. He doesn't have to do anything complicated - just hoss around the ring and get kicked really hard every so often. And that's pretty much exactly what this was. Not a bad match.
AJ/Tanahashi - Here we go! Predictable booking or not, this is the match that everybody wanted to see decide Block A. The last time these two met AJ took the Heavyweight title off of Tanahashi in one of the most shocking matches of the year. As expected this match was very very good most of the way. Had a very nice pace to it as it built toward the finish. And man, what a finish. The crowd was absolutely insane for the last few minutes of this and with good reason.
Night 18 - And now we get the final night of Block B. Goto, Anderson, Nakamura, and Okada are all still in contention, but this really comes down to the winner of the Okada/Nakamura match. A few interesting matches here as Block B comes to an end.
Ishii/Elgin - This sort of feels like a trans-Pacific mirror match with two squat bald dudes with no necks from different cultures squaring off. This match is pretty much exactly what you'd expect it to be. It's a nice way for Elgin to cap off his dream summer and I'd be shocked if he wasn't welcomed back to New Japan in the very near future. Hell, I'd watch an Elgin/Shibata match. He wasn't great with the main eventers since he never felt like he was on their level. But Elgin fits right into the midcard with guys like Goto, Ishii, and Honma. This was an awesome match.
Goto/Nagata - Goto has had a really great tournament turning in multiple Match of the Year quality contests. It helps to make up for last year when he was supposedly slated to make the finals before breaking his jaw. It's just one of the many bad breaks that Goto has had in his career. Hopefully he parlays this success into a nice run with the IC title. Pretty nice match here though it won't be one that stands out in my mind when I think back on this tournament.
Nakamura/Okada - The defacto semi-final match. Nakamura must win. Okada advances with a win or a draw. We'll see if that plays into the story of the match. It'll be even more interesting to see who the crowd backs here. Okada gets some early chants as the opening bell rings. This is a rematch of last year's G1 Finals which happened to be my pick for the best match of 2014. I was in Washington DC having just finished off a long night of World War One discussion. I stayed up all night with the great Hawaiian Brian. We woke up the whole house during the finish of the match. Okada hit three straight Rainmakers matching the torrential downpour that enveloped the Seibu Dome on that evening. This year the match starts with the two seeming to hold back on each other - understandable given their status as stablemates who have only faced off twice before. Okada breaks the truce first to a chorus of boos. It looks like he'll be playing heel here. He's been doing that quite a bit this tournament and I wonder if that will be permanent now that his business with the Bullet Club seems to be resolved (the one post-tournament edit I'll make here: maybe it's not quite over...). The middle of the match was very well done with both guys mixing up their usual routine. As for the third act...wow. Just brilliant. These two are wrestling geniuses and they have fantastic chemistry. Okada is my favorite wrestler and I live and die by the results of his matches in a way that I have for few others in my time as a fan.
Night 19: G1 Finals - The third straight night in the Sumo Hall and the sixth night in Tokyo in eight days. Usually that means a tired crowd but they seemed to be up for just about everything here - especially during the vastly superior seond half of the card. One non-wrestling thing of note was an appearance by Genichiro Tenryu (who was old even in 1989) challenging Okada to be his opponent in his retirement match.
Mascara Dorada & Taguchi & David Finlay vs. Liger & Tanaka & Komatsu - A mishmash of Young Lions, old guard juniors, and, uh...Mascara Dorada. This was basically just a collection of spots that turned out to be kind of a muddle. At the very least it looks like they're trying to add a little bit of character to the perpetually bland Taguchi.
Tenzan & Kojima & Captain New Japan vs. Nagata & Nakanishi & Jay White - My main man Jay White! Everyone else in this match is ancient, but plucky Kiwi Young Lion Jay White is in here for some reason too. I really want to see the kid wrestle someone good someday. Guess he'll have to settle for the Senior Tour until New Japan's version of NXT gets off the ground.
Yoshi-Hashi/Elgin - A nice cap to the tournament for Elgin. Yoshi is fairly over for a guy who never wins (sort of like a JV Honma). This was fun and the crowd really got into it. I'd expect Elgin to come back to Japan soon.
Sakuraba & Ishii & Yano vs. Takahashi & Tama Tonga & Fale - Multiman undercard hell continues. This was pretty dull other than YTR's antics.
Goto & Shibata & Ibushi vs. Honma & Makabe & Naito - Naito and Honma on the same team makes for a weird dynamic given that one is a dickbag heel and the other is about as underdog a face as you can get. This was so much fun. All the mini-feuds tied together in a way that was reminiscent of those old Survivor Series matches filtered through the great early 90s All Japan multiman tags. Of all the matches on the first half of the show this is the one to watch.
ReDragon/Young Bucks - Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles on the line here. Cody Hall interferes for the Bucks quite a bit and is put to good use at one point when he fireman carries O'Reilly right out of the arena. This started off as a run-of-the-mill, well-executed Jr. Tag match. But these two teams do this style better than anyone else and it's well worth tracking this one down.
KUSHIDA/Ricochet - KUSHIDA seems to be leading a Renaissance in the Jr. Division. A match with Ricochet should go a long way in helping that cause. These two did a great job of mixing high-flying, hard-hitting, and submission style. This was really good stuff. We're not matching the 90s heyday of the Jr. Division quite yet but KUSHIDA continues to represent the belt well.
Okada & Taven & Bennett vs. AJ Styles & Gallows & Anderson - This was pretty good when it was just AJ and Okada. However, the Heavyweight Tag Division continues to drag down these cards. Very interesting finish on this one.
Tanahashi/Nakamura - It's been a long month to get to this point. And it's all for the top two stars of the past decade to face off. Sure, it may have been better to get some new blood in the Finals. But, booking aside, this should be a hell of a match. Nakamura toys with Tanahashi in the first section by showing off his superior mat skills. Tanahashi then gets the upper-hand by working the knee. Nakamura in turn counters that with his superior striking skills. So the dynamic of the match then becomes Nakamura asserting his manhood while Tanahashi has to rely on shots to the knee and big bombs to stay in the fight. Nakamura controls but Tanahashi always has hope of making a comeback. It's an interesting way of portraying the company ace as an underdog. This theme played out over the course of the whole match. Things built to a peak for a convincing set of false finishes and then somehow it peaked again for the actual finish. The storytelling, intensity, and passionate crowd all combined to produce a match that may well be remembered as a classic.
