NJPW G1 Climax 2023.

[The Natural]

Spoiler

Yay me correctly calling Tetsuya Naito to win the G1 Climax in the opening post of this thread.

 

[The Natural]

Spoiler

EVIL stole SANADA's IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. If EVIL destroys that ghastly thing, I'll never say anything bad about EVIL again.

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by The Natural

[dragonzombie]

Kaito Kiyomiya and Ryohei Oiwa tag team in NOAH soon. Maybe.

[Salads]

Not sure if we are still spoilering so spoilering.

Spoiler

Okada against Evil was good stuff thanks to Okada being the archetypal overcoming the odds babyface, which is notable considering he was heeling it up the next night in the same building. Full marks for selling strikes to the nuts like they should. It's a simple one really you go down and you stay down but sometimes that's forgotten.

Forgot to mention about Okada's post match comments in the ring after his victory over Zack. Told the fans that this was a 20+ minute match and therefore the kind that couldn't have happened in the group stages. It lasted all of 21:46 and you know TV champ Zack would've cut that down if needed!

Saw a stat after the semis that Okada was 7-6 over Naito, which made the final result clear to me. The hot crowd at Sumo Hall fully in Naito's corner kind of makes a mockery of the idea of anyone else winning. Perfect timing for Naito who is clearly on the decline but can still go when needed. Makes days like these seem like a well signposted last run to be savoured rather than being a case of the same old faces.

All the t-shirt Naito and dodgy knees jibes mesh well with his lazy (rather than drunken) master act, and as matches where he shifts into top gear become less frequent over time they may end up surprising even his own fans. Saw some that thought the mishap at the end of the Ospreay match was a work, so maybe when you sell everything with glassy eyes like you're regretting wrestling as a career choice even temporary KOs can just add to the drama. Were it not for the audible I would say it didn't affect the match a great deal, and it added to the relief when Naito made his apparently fully conscious comeback.

Wasn't enamoured with three destinos for the finish to both nights, but he's still teasing the stardust press so maybe that's the fairytale payoff for another dome win.

The UK title could be a gimmick change for Will's reign but I can see it sticking (if so I love the idea of the supposed IWGP committee okaying the pitch). My speculative take is that Ospreay gets whatever he wants next year and that involves New Japan investing in / supporting the UK in some way like they're doing with NZ/Australia. Helps avoid confusion with the NJPW Strong title and helps them get first dibs on non-NA foreigners who don't have better paying competition at home. New Japan as Rest of the World Pro Wrestling hasn't been bad.

May give thoughts on the tournament as a whole later, but thanks all for the tips regarding the Sumo Hall tag matches that I would otherwise have skipped. Boltin, Fujita, Oiwa, and Tsuji all getting some shine.

 

[Teflon Turtle]

I'll stick with the spoiler tags too:

Spoiler

I gotta admit I was a bit burned out by the time the final G1 event rolled around and wasn't as diligent about watching the undercard tags today. I might have to go back and re-watch a few things. I sort of had the matches on in the background today, so I have a general idea of what was set up for the autumn cards but don't have any immediate thoughts on the undercard matches themselves.

That final, however...so Naito goes out and has two classic matches in roughly a 24-hour span, the second of the two he may have done concussed...?!

I don't know what to think, honestly. I saw some photos that suggested he may have eaten more than one kick from Ospreay harder than intended, versus just the one that he seemingly ducked in to. If it truly was worked, I guess Naito either jumps close to the top of the all-time great sellers list. Or it's somewhere in between and he just got his bell rung a bit without being severely concussed...or he actually got a concussion and he went out and did 35 minutes with Okada right after. Seems insane no matter what the truth is.

At the outset, they were seemingly wrestling like Naito wasn't coming in at 100%, legit. But, all I could think about as I watched the match was - again, regardless of the truth of the matter - about how impressed I was with the level of mastery of both guys. The hot crowds continue to make a huge difference, too. During the clap crowd era, NJPW got a ton of flak for all of the matches going too long. In this one, Okada and Naito milked everything since they had the crowd from the outset, paced themselves, sold pretty well. The crowd stayed into the match the whole time. It was crazy how this match felt like it was just getting started at the 20-minute call, in the sense that I barely registered that much time had passed. Whereas with silent crowds, the long matches felt eternal. 

Also, Naito winning was the right choice, but I'm really curious to see what happens with Okada the rest of the year. Back to the six-man tag scene for a little while with Ishii and Tana, then what? It seemed the story was that Okada was entering his grumpy veteran phase, but I'm wondering if I've been reading it incorrectly. To me it was supposed to call to mind the grumpy vets of past eras...Jumbo, Tenryu, and so on. Yet, the air of invincibility, that insurmountable nature, doesn't appear to be there right now with Okada having dropped some big matches lately. They've got me wanting to see where it all goes. 

 

[Teflon Turtle]

Edit: double post. Sorry!

Spoiler

 

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by Teflon Turtle

[lostinube]

Spoiler

If the end story is Naito vs SANADA for Wrestle Kingdom, then it wouldn't have been totally out of place for EVIL to have been in the final:

Naito goes through EVIL and then defeats SANADA, thus cleaning up all LIJ business up to that point and, in modern wrestling terms, "finishes the story."

I'm fine with the three Destinos in both cases because the first two were (I'm pretty sure) reversals and he only hits the one real Destino to end the match. And he hadn't been using it much up to that point, pinning both ZSJ and Tanahashi with his spinning ddt roll-up.

Okada not being in the title picture really should be a chance for him to go out and have some outside dream matches ala Forbidden Door. NJPW has had wrestlers go out and do everything everywhere, especially this past year or so. Heck, send him, Tanahashi and Ishii out to defend the Never Three-man title to make it the most prestigious three man title in Japan (sorry Open the Triangle Gate). That would probably pop a few houses.

 

[The Natural]