NJPW G1 Climax 28, LIVE AT THE BUDOKAN! 7/14-8/12

[The Natural]

15 hours ago, The Natural said:

I keep a list of my ***** matches and there's a list of the best matches ever. I'll have to update that having read @sevendaughters and @Beech27.

I’ve never posted my top ten greatest wrestling matches of all time before (the full list goes to thirty). All of the 30, I gave the full five.

10. John Cena (c) vs. Daniel Bryan. WWE SummerSlam 2013.

9. The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels. WWE WrestleMania XXV.

8. Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kenny Omega. NJPW Dominion 2018.

7. Kenta Kobashi (c) vs. Mitsuharu Misawa. AJPW, 20th January 1997

6. Kenta Kobashi (c) vs. Mitsuharu Misawa. AJPW, 31st October 1998.

5. Ricky Steamboat (c) vs. Ric Flair. NWA Clash of the Champions VI 1989.

4. Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker. WWF In Your House 18: Badd Blood 1997.

3. Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart. WWF WrestleMania X.

2. Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi (c) vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue. AJPW, 9th June 1995.

1. Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin. WWF WrestleMania 13.

---

Three honourable mentions:

13. Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kenta Kobashi/Go Shiozaki. NOAH, 5th November 2005.

12. Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Mankind. WWF In Your House 10: Mind Games 1996.

11. Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10.

[The Natural]

I enjoyed Ishii vs. Omega more on a second viewing.

[The Natural]

 

[sevendaughters]

yeah can't knock that list at all.

just realised that TK-Tamura and Undertaker-Mankind happened within 24hrs of each other. Wonder if anyone else has any examples of two of their absolute favourites, that are completely different, happening so close together.

[The Natural]

4 minutes ago, sevendaughters said:

yeah can't knock that list at all.

Same for you. Hart/Austin from WrestleMania 13, Owen vs. Bret from WrestleMania X and Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue make both lists.

[The Natural]

[Niners Fan in CT]

I'm finally caught up....   It's been a hell of a tournament.   My only I guess slight criticism is how so many of the Tama and Fale matches have ended the same way I thought it's run its course but other than that this whole thing has been great and understandably they want to protect the new stable.  Lots of upsets early on.  I wonder if there's maybe one more big upset left in the tank.  

SANADA is on my short list of guys that have been must-see.  Goto has had a hell of a tournament too.   I loved Omega/Naito,  Ibushi/ZSJ,  Ibushi/Naito, Omega/Ishii,  Goto/Ishii.  Some truly great matches.  

I'm caught up just in time for SANADA/Naito and then the big Tanahashi/Okaka match on Friday.  Can't wait. 

[sevendaughters]

today's show is the first one where I really care about the results. All the shows before I've been very much que sera sera, wrestling is great, let it unfold. When I say 'care' I don't mean 'I want it to go like x' but am just really keen to see what they do and how it plays out for the last day.

for the record I'm taking Juice, Goto, Ibushi, Yano, Naito.

[The Natural]

7 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I'm caught up just in time for SANADA/Naito and then the big Tanahashi/Okaka match on Friday.  Can't wait. 

I'm looking forward to Tanahashi/Okada as I've seen all ten of the big Tanahashi/Okada matches, four I gave the full five to. The chemistry they have, there's only one of their matches I didn't like. Here's the order I have them in:

10. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 7.

9. NJPW The New Beginning 2012.

8. NJPW G1 Climax 2013.

7. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9.

6. NJPW G1 Climax 2016.

5. NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2018, Night 2.

4. NJPW Dominion 2012. *****

3. NJPW Invasion Attack 2013. *****

2. NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling 2013. *****

1. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10. *****

[sevendaughters]

novel ticket selling strategy

[Archibald]

Good news for Elgin, his biceps isn't torn, just strained. Thou I saw some people saying that it is actually bad news... so I guess it depends on what you think about Elgin.

Kevin continues to bring up that Fale has not been submitted or pinned yet (Tama I think lost to Sanada and Naito while all Fale's losses have been due to DQ) so I guess that Suzuki on last day is going to force him to tap? In a way I think it is interesting, we all assumed that this is how they are going to protect Tama, but actually it is Fale who got protected when you break it down.

White continues to abuse Yoh. I probably wouldn't mind 10minutes videos every few days that show their adventures and reveal that Jay is abusing him outside the ring as well. And it had cool ending, they figured how to make Jay look like even bigger asshole with Evil daring him to save Yoh from chair shot.

That last Okada and Tanahashi stand off in front of audience after the match with everyone chanting Tanahashi looked sad to me. I wonder why they do that, my natural reaction would be to avoid such segments because it just reinforces "not as good as previous ace" image.

Juice/Ishii and Goto/Zack were good. All men had better matches (not sure about Juice) this tournament and they probably won't be remembered down the line, but enjoyable watch nonetheless. Zack clearly hinted that he wants NEVER title match and Ishii has now defeated every champion in the tournament and it is assumed that he is going to challenge Kenny. Which means that, despite getting bunch of losses, Juice's only plausible title challenger is Tama Tonga since I can't see Ibushi or Naito challenging for it. And it doesn't matter how Goto/Juice turns out since they probably not doing champion vs champion there. And same situation for Goto as well, only Zack is plausible challenger.

Tama Tonga was alone in his match which was refreshing and well Ibushi wants to jump from big heights, nothing new there. So it was probably most exciting Tama Tonga match till... obviously Loa ran in because we can't have nice things. And Kenny ran in to help. And Fale ran in. And then Tama Tonga destroyed Ibushi. When he hit his pop-up gun stun you could hear audience gasp because they knew that thats it, but they couldn't believe it. Anyway, since Omega got destroyed by BCOGz... Yano had an advantage which... obviously resulted in a comedy match instead of a quick and justifiable Yano victory. Then BCOGz ran in again and gave the win to Yano. Both matches blended into each other and it felt very "american".

So yeah, NJPW are going with BCOGz. This was big night for them and they fucked up both Golden Lovers pretty hard, but... I would have expected them to get more heat than they did. Anyway, since this whole thing was rather surprising it was funny to hear English commentary team struggle with the math and missing like half possible outcomes and continuing to say that Naito would be eliminated with a draw against Sanada. I don't know if it says something about me or about them that I have these numbers in my head while team of 3 people doing this as a job (well not Charlton guy) have no idea whats happening.

Naito/Sanada was great. Crowd was behind Sanada (thou not really on Osaka level since Naito didn't get boos for his shit behaviour) and it was fun to see how he was not taking any of Naito's shit. Lots of Desnito attempts and Destino hits. Still not a fan of sleeper-> moonsault sequence. But I really like that rollup-> bridge sequence and for a split second I believed that he got it when he executed it. In the end crowd turned back to Naito which I remember happened as well in his match against Ibushi. So I guess fans want others to do good against Naito, but in the end they still want Naito to win. And they got what they wanted.

Evil bringing Hiromu's jacket was super nice. Sanada being on the ground during whole Naito's promo was also nice.

For final B Block night it probably comes down to Naito/Zack. If he gets his win back then Ibushi can't win, he can only spoil Kenny either with a draw or a defeat. This could be decent story. Ibushi never wanted any of this BC crap yet he was drawn in and they likely destroyed his chances of winning the tournament. And now his only option really is to let all his frustration out in upcoming match against Omega. Which could result in KoPW main event... Which unfortunately would fuck Ishii... But thats bigger story to tell.

[sevendaughters]

DAY 16 INSTANT REACTIONS

Juice-Ishii nice that Ishii tried to play heel (remember when he was a heel? seems a long time ago) to get the dynamic popping, but the Yokohama fans have always seemed a more serious lot so they didn't want anything else other than Ishii to win. this was good, a solid Ishii template match in parts, can do without the Pulp Friction or its unsatisfying counters, but good all the same. ***1/2

Sabre-Goto can't remember much about this though I wrote down "good, Sabre dominated a lot, Goto looks tired" ***1/4

Ibushi-Tama E-C-W! E-C-W! Good match here between the bollocks. Ibushi really looks great and I think this might be a title-winning push. Tama was fine. ***1/4

Yano-Omega despite being a tournament puritan I enjoyed how it flowed from the previous match and presented Toru Yano as the one man you do not want to see come down the aisle while Kenny is stricken. Some creative comedy, I was laughing but also bought into the finishes, Yano's V-Trigger sell was amazing! This whole thing is probably more overwrought and overbooked than I'd like but I was entertained by the little set pieces and stuff like Chase trying to run to each corner to put the padding in. ***1/4

Naito-SANADA good but not the blowaway LIJ feudstarter I was hoping for. Just a good main event with craziness reigned in ahead of the big weekend. ****

[Archibald]

People have been talking about LiJ feud starter for like a year now I think. My guess would be that nothing is going to happen any time soon asides of these "random" tournament matches once a year.

[sevendaughters]

14 minutes ago, Archibald said:

People have been talking about LiJ feud starter for like a year now I think. My guess would be that nothing is going to happen any time soon asides of these "random" tournament matches once a year.

yeah for sure. i was fantasy booking and it coloured my expectations.

[Beech27]

Well, I slept too long to watch Ishii and Juice, which at least gives me something to look forward to this afternoon. Juice versus the world would be interesting, but yeah I don't think very many people will actually end up challenging him. It kinda goes without saying that that doesn't make the belt look great, but I don't think we ever expected it to be much more than a short-term means to give Omega some hardware.

Goto is a fun opponent for ZSJ, because he's credibly tough and dangerous, but also canonically a bit of a dumb loser (not to be unkind). So you watch, aware that at any moment, he could collapse Sabre's spine--but also, that he could be tied up or rolled up. And look what happened! Sabre would be a fun NEVER champion too, since he (along with perpetual NEVER champ Ishii) is New Japan's best example of a junior by definition just deciding he isn't, and doing well anyway; and his grapplefuckery would be an interesting counterpoint to the years of brawling the belt has accrued.

Everything else was fine, though really only about the results for me. I'd have liked to have loved Sanada/Naito (rather than "only" quite liking it), but they seemed too hesitant and at times to be on different pages. I guess you could kayfabe that as neither really wanting to hurt the other, but it just made the elaborate sequences near the end look a bit bad, to me. I'm also a bit burnt on the Destiiiiii-Nooooooooooo counter sequences taking up so much of the final run in Naito's matches. Nobody's better at selling being in a submission for a long time than Naito, though, so the match had that going for it.

51 minutes ago, Archibald said:

For final B Block night it probably comes down to Naito/Zack. If he gets his win back then Ibushi can't win, he can only spoil Kenny either with a draw or a defeat. This could be decent story. Ibushi never wanted any of this BC crap yet he was drawn in and they likely destroyed his chances of winning the tournament. And now his only option really is to let all his frustration out in upcoming match against Omega. Which could result in KoPW main event... Which unfortunately would fuck Ishii... But thats bigger story to tell.

That's a great point about Ibushi, and kinda makes him the de facto face in the match against Omega. Not that Kenny's asked for this... but, well, everyone who has pointed out his rather selfish tendencies isn't wrong; he's wanted to have everything on his terms, without compromise, and this is the first taste of consequences for that. It cost Ibushi, whom he cares about; and now Ibushi will probably cost him a historic G1 finals appearance. That's some juicy pathos. Worth noting: There's another Long Beach show this fall, and with Kenny as their western ace, you could run the Ishii or Ibushi defense there--though both frankly feel a little too big for that.

I guess I'm expecting Naito makes the finals, now... which makes me feel like Jay might actually sneak in, since I think they'd like to avoid burning a(nother) Naito/Tana or Naito/Okada match. Although, the latter would be a pretty cathartic victory for Naito, should he get it, and would continue the long term suggestion that Wrestle Kingdom favors incumbents heavily, but the ascending star can make headway elsewhere.

In any case, I'm ready for the drama and general fuckery. Stoked for it. Also excited to see what random video packages/arrivals we get this year, because there's gotta be someone teased, right?  

[Raziel]

B block Scenearos:

Omega wins with a win over Ibushi (holds the tiebreaker over Naito)

Naito wins with a win over ZSJ AND an Omega loss or draw(Omega holds the tiebreaker)

Ibushi wins with a win over Omega AND a Naito loss (Ibushi holds the tiebreaker over Naito and ZSJ)

Sabre can't win as both Omega and Ibushi hold the tiebreakers over him and Naito.

[Archibald]

Okada/Naito with Naito winning could be great, but if that match is going to happen then I'll just assume that Okada wins till the moment that Naito's hand is raised. I don't think that Jay is making the finals because Evil hasn't done much this tournament and beating the shit out of Jay during semi-main of the final day at Budokan would be pretty good way to cap off otherwise not very memorable tournament.

Speaking about Omega. There is this one thing that bugged me at Dominion that I later forgot about, but now remembered again. During his promo video, towards the end when Ibushi asks what it costed him he says that it costed everything, or something along those lines. Point is that then video shows Bullet Club logo fading and Best Bout Machine logo appearing in the end. At the time I felt like it means that Omega is done with Bullet Club. But exact opposite happened. He made peace with Cody and now is in another civil war with BCOGz.

So you know, you can easily have Ibushi saying how he thought that this BC thing was done with after Wrestling Dontaku or how thats what he was lead to believe... yet it never ends, Omega does not want to let go. Basically as you said, Omega wants to have everything. But since you can't have everything you have to make a decision and let some things go, because if you wont then others will do it for you. So in the end the question would be, was being the champ and the leader of BC more important than Ibushi's friendship?

For US show I wouldn't be surprised if for main event we will get Omega/X vs Ibushi/X as a teaser for KoPW and Juice defending against someone in semi-main. At the moment only really viable challenger is Tama, but I'm not sure if they really will hold it off till then instead of running it at some Destruction show. But I guess Juice/Tama would go over better in USA than in Japan.

Granted, all this is assuming that Naito or someone from A block wins the tournament.

[Pete]

For all the incredible action over the past few weeks, Omega/Yano might wind up my favorite match of the whole shebang. There's no reason whatsoever for a match to be that compelling and that fucking funny at the same time. Loved Yano's HAI GAIS WATS GOIN ON IN DIS RING reaction as he bopped down to ringside.

I'm going to assume that everyone in the universe runs in on Omega/Ibushi... Tongans, Elite, BC B-Team, possibly even LIJ.

[sevendaughters]

8 minutes ago, Pete said:

 

I'm going to assume that everyone in the universe runs in on Omega/Ibushi... Tongans, Elite, BC B-Team, possibly even LIJ.

all sub-factions in different shark cages hung above the ring

[Beech27]

6 minutes ago, Pete said:

I'm going to assume that everyone in the universe runs in on Omega/Ibushi... Tongans, Elite, BC B-Team, possibly even LIJ.

There's an extremely negative-percent chance of it happening, but man, Ibushi being the one to turn on Kenny, leading to a swaggering, sadistic heel run where he just preens and kicks/knees people to death (he's a Nakamura fanboy, after all)... I mean, if the whole BC ethos is that they're oppressed outsiders, and Ibushi has that perpetual quasi-kayfabe stigma holding him back... (I'm gonna talk myself into wanting this, which is really dumb)

[sevendaughters]

they've sold that show out on the Kenny-Ibushi match, it would be like the Vader-Inoki riot if they screwed that one up.

[Beech27]

Well, that would rule, but I agree.

One other thing: It occurs to me that we--and the internet at large--haven't seriously entertained the idea that Kenny could just win this whole thing. I still don't think it's likely, but we're in plausible territory now. A Naito loss/draw, then a draw with Ibushi, and a win over not-Okada, then he opts to face Ibushi at WK...

Anyway, they've clearly got me hooked, but I should probably stop writing preemptive fanfic. Each block has three living competitors, and I can talk myself into any of them winning the whole thing. The G1: Pretty good.

[Infinit]

Soooooo...does this mean Yano gets an IWGP title shot??

[sevendaughters]

1 minute ago, Infinit said:

Soooooo...does this mean Yano gets an IWGP title shot??

I bet he does. Gives Kenny a bit of a break too. Pair that with a big serious match and that's a Destruction headliner.

[Pete]

21 minutes ago, sevendaughters said:

I bet he does. Gives Kenny a bit of a break too. Pair that with a big serious match and that's a Destruction headliner.

Just lost my shit picturing Yano cutting promos on Omega like Da Crusher, how he's training by drinking the right beer and running back and forth at his bar.