NJPW World

[Linus]

Day 5 thoughts:

 

Naito vs Tanahashi was GREAT. Ibushi vs Styles was good, too. I liked Makabe vs Shibata, and the opening tag was good. I don't even want to talk about Fale vs Gallows

 

And how about that Yano, eh? WHAT A GUSHER!

[paltaper]

Day 5, Sunday, July 26: Hiroshima Green Arena: BLOCK A matches:

 

Multiple cameras and commentary!

 

Here's the 07/26/15 show on NJPWWorld.com

 

Doc Gallows vs. Bad Luck Fale:

Battle of the big men, could go either way quality wise. Let's hope they keep slamming into each other and have a tough guy match! They did! Doc brawled him outside and threw guardrails at him. Fale returned the favour. Doc went up for a Vader bomb but was caught for a Bad Luck Fall, though it was thwarted. Fale hits a chop to the cheat for the win, called a Grenade by commentators, but nowhere close. People will say this was bad, I'd say a perfectly good pro wrestling match. *1/2

 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Toru Yano:

Yano squirted water at him immediately and slapped him in the back of the head to get on his tits. Then as soon as Tenzan tried to get him, Yano begged off into the ropes. Holy shit! Tenzan hit a concussion inducing shoot diving headbutt to a downed Yano, the result? Blood everywhere! Tenzan got juice and Yano was bleeding like he'd been transferred to BJPW. Serious juice pouring out. They finished up quick with the nutshot finish for Yano. ** FOR THE BLOODMARK!

 

Togi Makabe vs. Katsuyori Shibata:

They beat each other up as expected. Good tough guy action, very few spots. Shibata is everything KENTA wishes he was. Shibata brought the fire as always, showing a lot of fire with leaping kicks to knock Makabe off the apron, top rope etc. Shibata caught another opponent in the sleeper/Penalty Kick combo for the win. Good battle but very short. **

 

Kota Ibushi vs. A.J. Styles:

A big test for AJ, can he construct a logical match with the king of the flip flops? AJ crisp on everything as usual. AJ essentially gave him a chokeslam neck first on guardrail. What the fuck were they thinking? Big kicks by Ibushi. AJ with a MEATY apron clothesline and a sweet diving forearm. Hayabusa tributes galore! Cool spinning stomach breaker. AJ teased an apron tombstone. Moonsault off second to floor by Ibushi. AJ teased a superplex to floor, blocked a super frankensteiner, hit a lariato, and hit a weird reverse tombstone for 2.8. AJ missed a springboard 450 for 2.5. Pele kick exchange, and a Bloody Sunday for 2.8. Super frankensteiner and a Hayabusa splash for an Ibushi win. Good match, great execution. Low on build up and selling. **1/2

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito:

Tanahashi went up for a High Fly Flow to the floor, but Naito just walked off and lay down out of reach. You'll never get booked in PWG Naito if you don't help fulfil every spot! Rude awakening on a non breaking table outside by Naito. Some serious budget on grooming in NJPW with all the coloured hair going on: Naito, Tanahashi, Yano, Honma, Makabe, Yujiro, Fale, Ibushi, Tenzan, Okada, Kojima...Jesus Christ! Naito spit on him, icky! Followed up by two more right on the face! Tanahashi kept slapping him, trying to get him to fight the true fight. High Fly Flow to the floor! Naito in charge for a long time. Sling Blade and High Fly flow, second one met with knees. Big German by Tanahashi. Spitting exchange! Tanahashi on the ascension, only for Naito to hit a ludicrous gravity and logic defying move where he took over Tanahashi's brain like he was a parasitic spider and caused him to help lift him up in the air. Uh, ok. Good match! Kept from being epic by Naito shenanigans and lack of selling, but that should pay off down the line. Naito beat up Tanahashi more after the match and put the boots to Red Shoes too, should've really put the boots to him and I'd have given more stars! **1/2

 

Good show, was alive feeling for a change. Cameras and commentary really helped. Recomended!

[Guest]

Ibushi/Shibata was a war. Love it.

[paltaper]

Ibushi/Shibata was a war. Love it.

 

Gonna watch it now  *Watched- damned if that wasn't the best match so far, great stuff!*

 

 

Day 6, Tuesday, July 28: Beppu B-Con Plaza: BLOCK B matches:

 

Multiple cameras but no commentary

 

Yuji Nagata vs. Yujiro Takahashi:

No girl with Yujiro, budget cut to match his talent cut. He has the hotty Cody Hall with him though! Pretty basic match. Nagata with an Exploder into the buckles. Yujiro tried a nutshot, and got the win with a body slam basically. Ok. *

 

Hirooki Goto vs. Tomoaki Honma:

This should be good. Was good, mostly back and forth. Honma hit the top rope heatbutt, but all for nowt as he was Shoten Kai'd for another loss. Felt like it could've done with 5 more minutes overall. *1/2

 

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Karl Anderson:

This could be strange, don't see Karl wanting to get too hurty. Ishii dropped him on the ropes during a superplex attempt last year after his shoulder injury-causing Karl to do what he called his first ASAI MOONSAULT! Not a big fan of the chubbed out tattoo comedy era Anderson so much though. You could close your eyes and imagine this match and it was exactly that. Not bad, just lacked fizz. Anderson hit a few gun stuns, but fell to a Sliding D and Brain Buster for the win. *

 

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Michael Elgin:

No match, Nakamura already injured

 

Kazuchika Okada vs. Satoshi Kojima:

Will these guys try to make up for the loss of the semi-main? DDT off the guardrail by Okada. Koji Cutter after a while. Not quite Okada like elbow off the top by Kojima, followed by a brain bustah. Some great selling by both, some guys in this tournament could learn from these guys. Okada hit a Tombstone pile driver and roared out before getting up to Rainmaker Kojima's ass for the win. Good battel~! **

 

Not much to see on this show. Move along people!

Edited July 30, 2015 by paltaper

[air_raid]

AJ teased a superplex to floor, blocked a super frankensteiner, hit a lariato, and hit a weird reverse tombstone for 2.8.

 

 

Old school piledriver. Go check out the one Rick Rude did to the Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam '89, it will make your eyes water.

 

Though the ones you could perform on WWF Superstars for the Game Boy were even more hideous. Right button out of the headlock, if memory serves. Left for suplex. Which when you were playing as Perfect, you pretended that it was the Perfect Plex. In the same vein, utterly senseless that everyone had a different move off the top rope and they gave Savage a knee drop instead of an elbow.

 

But yeah.... Ibushi v Shibata. Give Shibata a run, I dares ya.

Edited July 31, 2015 by air_raid

[Linus]

Day 6 thoughts:

 

Decent stuff in the prelims (am I the only one committed/stupid/brave enough to watch them?).

 

Takahashi/Nagata was BORING. Ishii/Anderson & Goto/Honma were okay. Really dug the war that Kojima had with Okada.

 

Crowd was too quiet.

[Guest]

 

Decent stuff in the prelims (am I the only one committed/stupid/brave enough to watch them?).

 

 

I would've liked to be all completist about it but there's only so many times I can watch Finlay's son tag with Jay White to face Liger & Tiger Mask. Terrible formatting. At least in future shows, they have some more ROH people booked for the prelims

[KingofSports]

Nakamura's back. So much for 26 days out.

[Accident Prone]

So after a busy weekend i got myself caught up this morning on the past two G1 days. Nothing spectacular that i saw but some matches are of a good/great quality and are worth your time.

DAY 8

I don't know if all the G1 shows do this, but this one had a neat video package to set up the champion vs champion main event. It really added a lot to the spectacle of it all. Skipped Takahashi/Kojima, obvs. Nagata/Anderson was a bit weak; nothing bad, nothing good, just acceptable wrestling. Honma/Elgin was awesome, Elgin's best G1 match to date. It looks like Honma is losing all his matches again this year except for the final day where he'll beat Takahashi. Nakamura/Ishii and Okada/Goto were both BIG TIME MAIN EVENTS and they delivered all the goods. This was a great 1-2-3 punch of a show when you take off the first two matches.

DAY 9

HOLY CHRIST...A GOOD TENZAN MATCH! It's against Ibushi though so no suprise there. Typical Old Veteran vs Up-And-Comer style match but without the story this would not be as good. Skipped Shibata/Fale because of FUCKING FALE. People like him and i honestly cannot see why. He looks like dogshit and he moves like dogshit. Styles/Gallows was good but let down by them rushing the initial 'Hey, w'ere on the same team and we respect each other!' stuff which i usually really like to have a slow burn. There's also some BIG TIME SPOT CALLING in this match. Makabe/Naito was all right with a great start, great final few minutes and boring middle. Couldn't be arse to sit through ANOTHER Tanahashi/Yano match so i fast-forwarded to catch the end. Looks like i didn't miss much. Below average day.

So far, i'd say Ibushi has been the most consistently entertaining performer, followed by Styles, Shibata and Honma.

I've also realised that i'm going to miss the final few days of the tournament (and that includes the finals) as i'm at a festival so my thoughts on those will be a tad delayed.

[Linus]

Day 7 thoughts:

 

Well, Ibushi versus Shibata is a MOTYC and no mistake. Just a WAR.

 

I enjoyed Naito versus Styles, too, because Naito is a terrific dick.

 

Undercard was good, too. You're all missing out on some fun stuff there.

[Guest]

Elgin/Honma was ace. i know some people are down on it but Elgin is a pretty good addition to this year I think. Nobody can make an argument Gallows, Takahashi (awesome entrance theme aside) and Tenzan are better participants surely. Elgin should actually stay in Japan, ROH don't really know how to use him I don't think. Also like Honma a fair bit, he's really good fun and looks and sounds mental. Give him a win you meanies!

 

Shibata/Fale was actually worth a watch. Much better than Gallows/Styles. I know Tanahashi is a megastar but really gonna make the main event Tanahashi/Yano? No proper chemistry for day 9, the first two matches containing Tenzan and Fale respectively were actually the best ones. The fact the Fale match was better than the Styles match on this card points out how good Shibata is and how bad Gallows is - defo the worst of the bunch in my estimation.

Edited August 3, 2015 by sj5522

[Cobra1000]

IS Doc Gallows any good? I keep reading that he's amazing but he's literally done nothing special in this G1 which you think would be his time to stand out. Am i missing it? He just seems normal.  Probably doesn't help that the Bullet Club shenanigans are becoming mighty tiresome to me.

 

I'm not sure about Elgin, he doesn't seem to fit in New Japan. I really like him, but he just smacks of indie wrestler. He doesn't really look the part of NJ does he? I know thats probably a small, stupid criticism but oh well. He certainly delivers in the ring anyway. 

 

Styles is still well, phenomenal anyway. Who we all think is gonna win?

Edited August 3, 2015 by Cobra1000

[air_raid]

I know Tanahashi is a megastar but really gonna make the main event Tanahashi/Yano?

 

Yeah, that's how G1 "B" shows work. Tana, Okada or Nakamura vs A.N.Other goes on top.

 

Unless you're in Yokohama. Then you put Makabe on top, obviously.

 

Who we all think is gonna win?

 

Head still says AJ. Heart is starting to say Shibata.

Edited August 3, 2015 by air_raid

[Linus]

I see nothing in Gallows. He's better than Fale, but that's not saying much. Anderson and Tama Tonga are kind of middling, and if you like Styles you like Styles

 

Elgin's been great so far. He needs better gear - less pleather! - but he's a good hand.

 

I can see Okada or Nakamura winning Block B, but Block A is more open. It's Naito, Ibushi, or Shibata for me. Overall, Christ knows!

[Accident Prone]

Tanahashi or Styles are my picks. Although I'd love Ibushi to crawl his way up and get the massive rub.