New Japan iPPV thread

[Forrest]

Any NJPW regulars who can fill me in on Tomoaki Honma? I know he's pretty revered for his days in Big Japan, but I'm clueless to his NJ run, and he's been my favourite story running through this G-1. Can someone recommend the New Japan Honma matches I should be checking out?

[Merzbow]

I'm new to NJPW myself but check out Yuji Nagata & Tomoaki Honma vs. Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata from Dominion earlier this year if you haven't already, it's brilliant.

[macca663]

 

 You should check out Tomoaki Honma vs Masato Tanaka December 23, 2011. Main event at Korakuen Hall.

[Diego]

What are the best matches to check out from Day 8 & 9? Haven't got the time to watch them all unfortunately but there have been some right crackers during this tournament.

 

Been following Ultimo the Greats recommendations and they've been spot on so thanks!

[KingofSports]

 Can someone recommend the New Japan Honma matches I should be checking out?

 

Can't say I'd necessarily recommend any of these, but of the stuff I've 'rated', the ones below seem to be some of his better matches..mostly tags at that. Not really a fan of his since late 90's/early 00's BJW & that possibly hasn't aged too well.

10.06.11: Hirooki Goto / Tomoaki Honma v Hiroshi Tanahashi / Yuji Nagata

07.04.13: Tomoaki Honma / Togi Makabe v Yujiro Takahashi / Masato Tanaka

09.11.13: Tomoaki Honma v Katsuyori Shibata

09.02.14: Tetsuya Naito / Tomoaki Honma v Tomohiro Ishii / Yujiro Takahashi

03.05.14: Tomohiro Ishii v Tomoaki Honma

21.06.14: Tomoaki Honma / Yuji Nagata v Hirooki Goto / Katsuyori Shibata

&

from All Japan:

23.02.03: [Elimination Match]: Sanshiro Takagi / Tomohiko Hashimoto / Tomoaki Honma / Kazushi Miyamoto v Shigeo Okumura / Hideki Hosaka / Ryuji Hijikata / Yuto Aijima

[ultimo the great]

I'm a convert to Honma this year, a year ago i wouldn't have been bothered if they'd ditched him to be honest. I saw his BJW stuff late on and by then the new breed of BJW guys had topped his matches with Yamanaka.

 

Glad to be of service Diego

 

I fucked up which day the 8th show was on and have been catching up ever since

 

Oh Osaka how i love you. Osaka crowds are always on fire

 

NJPW, 03.08.2014 (Day 8)

Ishii/Smith Jr: Good start to the show, blended well. probably Smith's best of the tournament not sure how Ishii finished the match.
Tenzan/Yano a typical Yano match with a fun finish.
Nagata/Benjamin This shocked me how good it was, it's not MOTYC level just a surprise to see these guys click. Benjamin on another level from his showing last year.
Kojima/Gallows Decent
Goto/Naito: Poor Naito, Osaka just fucking hates him Fine but expected more.
Styles/Archer: fine, didn't do alot for me.
Makabe/Suzuki: Good match with some great spots, Makabe finally doesn't look in pain.
Honma/Shibata Oh fuck me was this great. Crowd on FIRE. MOTN
Okada/Yujiro Fine, passable for Yujiro.
Tanahashi/Nakamura Good match, down from their matches earlier in the year, great last 5 minutes.

 

It's not a shock to anyone but another very good show.

 

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NJPW, 04.08.2014 (Day 9)

Honma/Smith Jr After Ishii/Smith maybe i expected too much from this. It's ok
Archer/Yujiro: as much as i'm going to leave the G1 more positive towards Archer, this wasn't good. skip it.
Nagata/Gallows It's ok. skippable.
Makabe/Tenzan: At this point i was starting to think it's a "lets take it easy day" this confirmed it.
Naito/Suzuki: Finally a good match.
Shibata/Fale: this started well but   spoiler SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read
BOOOOOOOO!!!! crowd summed it up
Kojima/Nakamura decent, had it's moments but not as good as expected. both looking knackered.
Styles/Anderson not a fan, they go for indy epic and...i bored very quickly. some will like this but it's the sort of match that leaves me cold.
Tanahashi/Benjamin: Decent. again the tour looks to be catching up with them.
Okada/Goto Very easily MOTN, probably wouldn't be in the top 10 for the tournament but the highlight of the show.

 

At this point, the worst show of the tour.

 

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For long term puro fans. the way the arena is set up and how shit the crowd are i thought this was a BJW Yokohama Bunka show.

 

For newer fans: crowd too far from the ring, small quiet crowd in a big building.

 

To save me saying "it's a day off" and "they look tired" this is the worst show of the tour. it's not bad but it was a struggle to sit though at times.

 

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NJPW, 06.08.2014 (Day 10)

Kojima/Honma short but decent
Smith Jr/Fale SKIP
Tenzan/Naito Decent
Suzuki/Anderson Fine
Makabe/Yano SKIP
Styles/Yujiro: a struggle. Styles worst match of the tour.
Okada/Archer MOTN at this point and it was decent at best
Tanahashi/Nagata good match. MOTN.
Ishii/Shibata when does wrestling go too far with being stiff? i don't know if Ishii's injury coming in put me off the ridiculous stiffness but it didn't work for me. Some will probably love it. i'll maybe rewatch it in a few days and see if i change my mind. just went too far personally. I loved their matches last year, LOVED them.
Nakamura/Gallows: expected a crap match but passable in the end.

 

Speaking of the Yokohama Bunka Arena, tomorrows show is there.

 

Predictions

 

I predicted on twitter a Okada vs Tanahashi final after day 9, after day 10 i'll be surprised if it's not them.

 

Nakamura vs Okada would be a very dumb move, giving away your biggest (never happened before) match with so little build up. Are they that crazy? they did put Fale in the final of the NJ Cup this year so who knows..

 

Final Card

1. G1 Climax – Block A: Tomoaki Honma vs. Shelton Benjamin
2. G1 Climax – Block B: Toru Yano vs. Yujiro Takahashi
3. G1 Climax – Block B: Hirooki Goto vs. Lance Archer
4. G1 Climax – Block B: Tetsuya Naito vs. Karl Anderson
5. G1 Climax – Block A: Yuji Nagata vs. Tomohiro Ishii
6. G1 Climax – Block A: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Doc Gallows
7. G1 Climax – Block A: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Bad Luck Fale
8. G1 Climax – Block B: Togi Makabe vs. AJ Styles
9. G1 Climax – Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.
10. G1 Climax – Block B: Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki

 

 

 

[ultimo the great]

 

 Can someone recommend the New Japan Honma matches I should be checking out?

 

from All Japan:

23.02.03: [Elimination Match]: Sanshiro Takagi / Tomohiko Hashimoto / Tomoaki Honma / Kazushi Miyamoto v Shigeo Okumura / Hideki Hosaka / Ryuji Hijikata / Yuto Aijima

 

 

God remembering that makes me feel old Mike Awesome back in All Japan, Hashimoto/Muta not being very good, i think i even remember who i got the show off

[AshC]

Have fallen way behind, to the point I'm only watching the second halves of shows now. 

 

Day 7's second half was blinding. Incredible considering Tanahashi had the day off.

 

The heat for Styles and Suzuki was off the charts; I don't think I've seen AJ have a better, non-gimmicked singles match.

 

I keep enjoying Bad Luck Fale matches; his one with Honma was great.

 

Need to speed through some of these other shows, but simply don't have the time. :-(

[The King Of Swing]

Making my way through day 9 and what a shit finish to Shibata Vs. Fale, the crowd reaction summed it up perfectly.

[ultimo the great]

NJPW, 08.08.2014 (Day 11)

 

Honma/Benjamin: Match was fine SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read
Really shitty way to open a show, you could have heard a pin drop when Honma lost. Honma deserved a win. One of the stars of the tournament.
Yano/Yujiro: i can do without ever seeing them in a ring together ever again. How many times this year? ZZzz
Goto/Archer: Decent, helped get the crowd up again.
Naito/Anderson: Again decent, love the finish.
Nagata/Ishii Good match, left you wanting to see them when they're both 100%
Shibata/Gallows Fine.
Nakamura/Fale once again Nakamura gets a match out of the lump. not as good as the New Japan Cup final but good.
Makabe/Styles a match that didn't suck, a match that didn't really work but was ok in the end
Tanahashi/Smith Jr. Like the show as a whole decent, not too memorable. Have a feeling people who like Smith more than me will get more out of it though.
Okada/Suzuki The highlight of the whole show, very easily MOTN. Crowd into it more than any other match. Surprised it only went 17minutes it felt longer, not in a bad way.

 

 

Forget what i said a few posts back Nakamura/Okada have had a match, a long time ago, it was easy to forget..........................................................................2012 G1

 

The fucked up thing is i must have watched it, i watched most if not all of G1 that year. I'm blaming Meltzer he must have mentioned they haven't had a match before recently. someone must have planted that in my head surely?

 

We have a final then. Still think they should have held off on Nakamura/Okada, break up Chaos and have them at the dome for the title but should be a great match to finish off the G1 with.

Really shitty to see Honma not even get a single win out of the whole thing, the only guy not to win at least 4 matches. bullshit.

Seibu Dome show as a whole. First 3 matches are filler, never seen Adam Cole, Michael Bennett or Kyle O'Reilly and haven't seen Bobby Fish since his Noah days so not expecting anything. If they have anything left (SOMEONE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TELL ISHII TO TAKE A DAY OFF) Naito/Honma, Anderson/Ishii & Tanahashi/Styles should all be worthwhile and Shibata/Goto might steal the show.

 

[pgi86]

G1 Climax final day spoiler (it's not a match result):

 

 

So, Jeff Jarrett and Scott D'Amore just joined the Bullet Club...

 

[TheTagRope]

To add to the above comment.

 

 

Even Jeff Jarrett's guitar joined Bullet Club, remarkable.

 

 

[The King Of Swing]

Way too much filer on that show for my liking, I fast forwarded almost everything until the final.

 

Maria Kanellis has a wonderful arse

 

Result spoiler.

 

 

The final was a very good match though personally I wasn't happy with the result since Nakamura was my pick all through the tournament and I'm bored shitless of Okada.

 

 

For the love of god I hope that they cut the number of entrants down drastically next year, days 8-11 were a massive struggle to get through and I know I have said it before but that clown who sings the intros needs fucking off.

 

All in all a decent enough tournament.

[AshC]

 

THAT reversal in the final rocked my world!

 

[ultimo the great]

Whole thing is probably spoiler

 

 

 

I really hate to end this on a bad note but for me it was possibly the worst show of the tour. The last show was a tired effort, this went up to exhaustion. I was starting to fear a big fuck up and we nearly got one. So many things not going right in the last 5 matches, little slip ups, moves not hitting as they should, tired sloppy strikes etc

I didn't watch the Jr Tag Title match, to save a long explanation it was due to time. I'll watch it tomorrow probably.

G1 CLIMAX 24 FInal

Archer/Smith/Michinoku/Desperado vs. Tenzan/Kojima/TM4/Taguchi: Pretty much an iPPV level dark match
Fale/Gallows/Yujiro vs. Bushi/Nagata/Nakanishi: Filler
Suzuki/Iizuka/Benjamin vs. Yano/Sakuraba/YOSHI-HASHI: Filler

The Maria Kanellis Arse Invitational: Liger/C'N NJ vs. Cole/Bennett if you're in love with Maria's arse you'll love this as much as the cameraman (i'm not, i prefer more meat on the bone) Would be a fine lower card match on most iPPV's but this wasn't your average iPPV.

Naito vs Honma started well enough, the crowd were into it but it fell apart. VERY stiff looking brainbuster from Honma followed by Naito not getting out of the way quick enough for the diving headbutt. Didn't look good

Ishii vs Anderson Zero pleasure from this. Ishii looked in serious pain throughout, Anderson broke Ishii's nose on the first maybe the second move which produced quite a bit of blood, then Ishii went for a superplex and both crashed to the mat Anderson was VERY lucky not to land on his head and to top it off with Ishii in the corner huddled over in pain they zoom in on a woman crying her eyes out. If this was a work it would be fantastic. it wasn't.

Goto vs Shibata Not good, super super stiff but not good. Both tired, Shibata looked to have injured his pec maybe a rib as well during the match and if Goto's jaw is still in place i'll be surprised. As stiff a Go 2 Sleep as you've ever seen and Shibata's spinning chop has never been stiffer.

Tanahashi vs Styles: Have you ever watched a match between two guys half asleep? I expected this to be an all out fast paced match that i was either going to like or moan endlessly about. Just about decent. If you've ever dreamed of seeing these two have a match SKIP THIS and wait for next time. The less said about the crap afterwards the better.

Nakamura vs Okada This started like the last one, plodded along again both guys dead on their feet but the ending was kind of fitting, two guys knackered after a long tour desperate to win giving everything and the last 5 mins was a great way to end the tour. Those Rainmaker reversals JESUS!

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I can't believe i watched every G1 match. I started out thinking of just watching the matches i wanted to watch then after that first show being so much fun it was a breeze up until day 9. the last 3 to 4 shows have been a struggle. They need to cut this down next year, they probably won't. Two Blocks of 8 is enough, this was crazy.

Best Wrestler: Nakamura

Best Show: Day 7 at Korakuen

Surprise of the Tournament: Tenzan: not only lasting the whole tour but stepping up and having the best singles matches he's had in years.

Best Match: i'm gonna need a longer think

Worst Wrestler: Gallows

Worst Show: The Finals

Worst Match: Gallows vs Fale

Worst Moment: Honma not getting the win on the final day.

Time for some rest away from wrestling, this was about 2 or 3 months worth for me in the space of 20 days. No New Japan iPPV now for 5 weeks.