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NJPW G1 Special in San Francisco


matt925

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Cody's going to win the belt and unite it with the ROH and NWA Belts at All In to create a new Triple Crown that no one will give a shit about.

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Yeah. He pretty clearly outclasses everyone else in there. Marty looks like a comedy guy; GOD are fine (fucking Haku with a club, though); Bucks can quip and move on; Page kinda bombed. Seriously, man, you lost all those singles matches you said went well; at least gimme the token “and at the G1 I’m gonna show I can do more than hang with the best!” Pretend you want to win a little. 

We also need Kenny to pick up his end of this. His interviews have been victory laps regarding the Okada match, and so transparently feuding with Naito that we may as well skip their G1 match. You could be forgiven for thinking he’s forgotten about this.

Weird thing that would concern me about this match: I was at Takeover, and Gargano/Ciampa was lacking live for me, because you really couldn’t see all the ~acting~ and face-making that match relied on. (They mostly had the video boards turned off.) So the wedding ring spot, for instance, dragged a lot. I worry this match could have a similar problem for the live crowd. Both Kenny and Cody are super broad actors, and will no doubt try to project. But still, I think the physical pyrotechnics of Hiromu/Lee might be easier to appreciate live.

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Yeah, that will be interesting to compare live. I also am having a hard time judging how far up I am and it'll make a huge difference in what I can get from the IWGP title match.

And, yeah, that was the first time Cody has come off as a true top guy. Perfect execution and he found that line between over-the-top heel and generic WWE heel trying to be monotone Chris Jericho. If he can stay within that sort of pocket, he'll have the character work nailed down. Then it's just the in-ring part that needs work. It was like the best parts of the old '96 nWo vignettes and Lucha Underground production. Neat video!

Completely agree with Page and Scurll missing the mark. Page came off like he's just happy to be here, when he's shown he can have a decent expression of intensity. Scurll is never going to be super serious wrestler man but that right there was too much cheese. I think he could look to Cody's performance and learn a lot. It's a thin line between fries and shakes or something.

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8 hours ago, Beech27 said:

Weird thing that would concern me about this match: I was at Takeover, and Gargano/Ciampa was lacking live for me, because you really couldn’t see all the ~acting~ and face-making that match relied on. (They mostly had the video boards turned off.) So the wedding ring spot, for instance, dragged a lot. I worry this match could have a similar problem for the live crowd. Both Kenny and Cody are super broad actors, and will no doubt try to project. But still, I think the physical pyrotechnics of Hiromu/Lee might be easier to appreciate live.

This is a really good take.

Kenny can project (so to speak) like Hiromu and Lee because he's as equally willing to wreck his body on main event high spots as he is to ham it up for the floor cam (and social media, and podcasts, and Youtube shows about old Neo-Geo games). When people talk about his once-in-a-something capital-C Charisma they're talking about a real sum-of-it's-parts thing. Cody isn't helpless as he's outright mastered the art of the modern internet promo, thanks in part to coming up immediately through the WWE system. He knows where the cameras are, he knows how to stay in character, but he can be downright un-Rhodesian in his inability to play to the cheap seats. It's why he's significantly more engaging with Brandi on the apron. Or Dustin. Or a dude in a bear suit. It's the reason why something as simple as dying his hair can change the way he's perceived. Yeah, he's doing the kind of facial-heavy overacting that good pro-wrestling is made of, but he was brought up too goddamned sensibly to reach the bleachers when the Bucks, Ospreay, and Hiromu have gone SPLAT~! enough times to have people cringing in Sausalito. He should just bleed more, man. If I'm Cody, I'm begging management to allow me to get enough color to make Daddy proud. I'm chasing horse aspirin with Anchor Steam in the locker room and sharpening my loose Bic blades on a setup with at least three different whetstones.

Another thought - US crowds are not conditioned to the top-down pacing of a Japanese card. White/Juice going on in between Hiromu/Lee and Cody/Kenny is another unfair death slot for NJPW's homegrown gaijin hope. I like the CHAOS/LIJ tag being where it's at in the card as a post-intermission cooldown match (featuring Okada and Naito for fucksakes, whaddaya do) but it isn't enough. And yes, I still think this card is gonna be good. I just think certain assets aren't being protected.

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They are in problematic situation since in Japan they can't giving as good booking for US title as they did when Kenny held it. Personally I thought that Kenny's matches were not that good for the most part, but he was placed high enough on the card to make it look like a big deal. Now since White is the champ it sits firmly as, most likely, weakest of all 5 singles titles. So while I like certain bits about White I can't deny that his title run has been somewhat cold. And all that would be okay, to an extent, if NJPW didn't want this title to be "main title" once (if?) they get to run proper USA promotion. So what happens is that cold program from Japan gets booked like hot program in USA and well nobody, naturally, gives a shit about it then.

And I wouldn't say that White is really responsible for that. I think same would be the case if other wrestler held it. It worked for few months with Omega only because he is Kenny Fucking Omega and not because there is some connection between that title and the fans. And since now RevPro titles are being added to the mix I can't see situation improving.

As for the video. Yeah, it made Cody look like a big deal. Others, well, they usually struggle to do good promos and character work as is, but when it was so sharply contrasted against Cody... they kinda looked like jobbers. Exception being YBs who did their own thing and Haku who appeared for like 2 seconds only.

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I get that White is the long term project and probably has higher potential but the time is right for Juice to get a big title win. That promo fired me the fuck up and there aren't many better at getting across the sport aspect of pro-wrestling in promos these days than Juice. JYUUUSU!

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Losing the title would also free Jay up for a stronger G1 run, somewhat paradoxically. So even if the loss hurt him—and you’re right that it wouldn’t—he could just beat Okada before anyone in Japan noticed, and then he and EVIL figure to stay in it until the last night. 

Juice’s long term potential is interesting. He’s a great advertisement for New Japan when recruiting talent, but is sorta blocked by Omega, White, ZSJ, and (maybe, if they promote him) Ospreay. I wonder if New Japan sees him as more or less likely to leave, given his NXT history?

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If White loses then, if I'm not mistaken, A Block wouldn't have any singles champions since Juice, Omega, Goto and Ishii (RevPro) are in B block. Thou I suppose it is possible that Suzuki will beat Ishii in upcoming SSE: UK shows, thou I think that is not very likely and that they are probably building towards another Ishii/Zack match which could be set up in B Block as well.

Anyway, point is that A Block might become rather dull if no title matches could be set up there.

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That’s a good point. Somewhat popular twitter speculation is that all the belts are being protected from Okada running up a perfect score in the block—since he’d challenge for none of them—but I kinda hope that doesn’t happen. Dude’s been sad for a few weeks; not enough trouble for a redemption angle. 

To the card at hand, though: Anyone want to speculate on the tag title booking here? The Bucks pretty easily ran over EVIL and SANADA to win the titles, so you figure the LIJ boys need to get that back—but the crowd is gonna be 200% behind the Bucks, and both EVIL and SANADA can have strong G1 runs to compensate. I guess this is why New Japan tends to avoid rematches.

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At first I was thinking LIJ get the belts back but I think this might be the beginning of a big run for the Bucks. With the Bucks' presence to anchor the heavyweight tag division, EVIL & SANADA can go back to mostly singles competitors and it's perfect timing on the eve of the G1.

Okada running the table would make sense but I don't think/hope we get it. Tanahashi should absolutely pull off the upset or take him to a draw. I know the hair match was something you just pulled out of nowhere but it's such a perfect way to bookend their feud. GRUMPY BALD TANAHASHI needs to happen.

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Problem with YBs as champions is that they wrestle a lot elsewhere and usually appear only on big NJPW shows while NJPW is clearly building towards smaller titles main eventing smaller shows. I'm not sure if I remember right, but I think that Desperado/Kanemaru now have longest jr. tag titles run in last few years which is partly due to YBs winning and losing those titles 2 times a year.

And I'm still mad about YBs controlling 90% of the Dominion match till injuries started so if they win again then I'll get mad again. You don't build up someone for strong G1 by having them lose badly two matches in a row.

Okada being "protected" from other titles is interesting, but it probably makes sense only if he is not winning the G1? Because otherwise he'd obviously just ignore those potential title matches in order to get ready for briefcase defence at KoPW and WK main event. Besides, it is not like you have to take a title shot. Elgin defeated Omega last year in G1 but we never got a rematch between them for US title so Okada might as well say that he is not interested in US title and move on, would probably even be good for his character to show that he is entirely focused on getting back "his" title and won't be distracted. Which does not mean that he should be constantly involved in title defences or chasing, he can still do some side stuff like what Tanahashi did with early Bullet Club.

I mean, Okada beats White on first day, says that he is going to win G1 and does not care about any other title. White gets mad for being not only defeated, but also for being disrespected in this way that can continue building up towards something.

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7 hours ago, Archibald said:

Problem with YBs as champions is that they wrestle a lot elsewhere and usually appear only on big NJPW shows while NJPW is clearly building towards smaller titles main eventing smaller shows. I'm not sure if I remember right, but I think that Desperado/Kanemaru now have longest jr. tag titles run in last few years which is partly due to YBs winning and losing those titles 2 times a year.

That's a good point. I wonder if they will tag with Kenny during his non-singles G1 matches? He and Ibushi could tag for the most part--with one obvious exception--and there could still be other BC guys depending on how this match/post-match shakes out with Cody.

5 hours ago, alstein said:

Wondering what a draw would do for Jay White?  I think a draw might do more than a win.

I'm gonna give the lame answer and say it depends how they do it. A roll-up/flash-pin probably does him no favors, but the Rainmaker has a very obvious counter into the Bladerunner, and in that way the finish could parallel Evil's win last year. The most important thing, though, is probably that the crowd is hot and the match is good. (And maybe, also, that he nudges forward his Chaos ambitions, character-wise.)

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So apparently I’m one of the axs ticket giveaway winners. I’m tripping trying to figure out if it’s ringside or row 6-22. In the fine print on the contest it says there’s two pairs of tickets, and it laters says “arv $300 each”. So at first I was like oh shit ringside! But that probably means $300 for each winner, meaning two $150 tickets, right? But you’d figure they’d have really good seats to give away. I don’t know, I’ll find out soon enough but if they are just random floor seats I may just stick with my dress circle tickets. That was an exciting email to open this morning though. 

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Goto/Cobb was a real solid match.  Goto heeling it up to get the crowd behind Cobb helped a lot.  

I enjoyed the Tanahashi tag more than I was expecting.  Marty and Hangman brought some fun tandem offense.

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Fuck whoever laid that tag match out right the hell off.  That was fucking shit.  That is about as mad as I've ever been at a NJPW match ever.  This entire Bucks heavyweight run has been ridiculous, and not in a good way.

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LOL they’re coming back for another show in Long Beach in SEPTEMBER.  They have learned nothing.  Well, at least they’re going back to the smaller building.  And maybe they’ll book a stronger card.

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