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


Raziel

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Possible (and untestable) thing I find a bit funny: Perhaps more people would have come if they thought the outcome we got was possible. Maybe they just didn’t want to see Tanahashi lose to Okada again, and assumed that was the outcome. Whatever their respective drawing power, there’s no doubt who’s more beloved.

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12 minutes ago, Beech27 said:

Possible (and untestable) thing I find a bit funny: Perhaps more people would have come if they thought the outcome we got was possible. Maybe they just didn’t want to see Tanahashi lose to Okada again, and assumed that was the outcome. Whatever their respective drawing power, there’s no doubt who’s more beloved.

Undeniably this is a factor. I thought Okada was coming out on top for sure.

I honestly feel kinda bad for Okada because no matter what he does, he’ll always be in the shadow of Tanahashi. As somebody who’s favorite wrestler is Okada, it’s true. He could get every accolade in the book but the NJPW fans will never love him that way and it hurts to know that because he’s my favorite but it’s true. I feel Gedo is probably disappointed that his Ace doesn’t get the admiration that he probably deserves. Like it’s actually kinda depressing as an Okada fan to see his face offs with Tanahashi recently and not a single person in the building is cheering for him. The weird thing is I feel Okada is less popular than he used to be which is odd because he’s so much better now.

Like the Okada/Tanahashi matches in 2013-2016 would get split reactions but now Okada gets absolutely embarrassed. It seems he was way more well-liked by the audience in 2013-2015, then he has been since he became ace.

He’s extremely well-respected and he puts butts in seats but I just wish the Japanese fans liked him more.

Is this how Roman Reigns fans feel?

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1 hour ago, FlaeBlazer said:

Like the Okada/Tanahashi matches in 2013-2016 would get split reactions but now Okada gets absolutely embarrassed. It seems he was way more well-liked by the audience in 2013-2015, then he has been since he became ace.

He’s extremely well-respected and he puts butts in seats but I just wish the Japanese fans liked him more.

I could say that Okada’s just won too much, but I think it’s more complicated than that, so I’m gonna take a somewhat wayward shot: I think fans were generally happy to see someone get on Tanahashi’s level, give him a worthy challenger, and share the mountain top—but they didn’t want to see Tanahashi pushed off that peak. He’s a brilliant babyface, first of all, but more importantly he’s basically sanctified by the company’s official canon, in which we’re told he’s the savior of New Japan. He didn’t found the company, but they basically credit him with founding this version of it. In that sense, he’s nearly on the tier Baba, Inoki, and Misawa were. How can you not support them in their own home? So my guess is some segment of the fans resent that Tanahashi lost his ace status so decisively before his body removed the choice, and that Okada so quickly set about demolishing his records.

I’d also add that Okada’s still kind of a heel? Tanahashi is the god who will do you the favor of condescension, even if he can’t truly be on your level; Okada’s just a rich savant who brags about how much you should love his success. (I know he isn’t *really* a heel, but.)

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I think my questioning Okada is partly fueled by how I see the majority of fans perceive him and how Gedo has invested so, so much in him. He's the third or fourth, maybe even fifth most popular guy in terms of crowd reactions and he just broke records for being the dominant champion on top of displacing the beloved Ace prematurely, as Beech mentioned. It takes years for wrestling companies to really build up support and increase attendance numbers. Tanahashi got the ball rolling and attendance figures continue to rise but is it because of Okada? Do you think if Naito were in his spot, would they be doing even better business? I know I'm taking a (slightly?) irrational position and arguing against the stats you provided (and I do appreciate them! I didn't think he drew that well especially against the likes of Bad Luck Fale with Omega/Ishii as the co-main) but to me it doesn't seem like with just how much they've put into Kazuchika Okada, his drawing power is paying serious dividends. And I'm not arguing that they should push Naito, or anybody else for that matter, into the god tier as they have with Okada, because it's not great to repeat such reigns so close together and it doesn't fit Naito's personality. Outsiders and rebels can't be figureheads or else they are no longer outsiders. Although there's some fun potential in Naito becoming The Man and resenting himself for it (or his faction resenting him). I don't want the title flipped around like a hot potato but I think with such a strong core of stars at the top of the card between Okada, Omega, Naito, Tanahashi, and Ibushi, you probably shouldn't have somebody dominate like Okada has for a while. 

And don't get me wrong, I think he's the best wrestler on the planet who just completed the best title reign in the history of the televised era of pro-wrestling. He's one of the very best of all time. But it doesn't exactly translate into adoration from the fans and I'm not sure he has to be as protected and pushed ahead of the rest of the roster as he has been. I think a nice diversion with Jay White to start the comeback path and then a feud with one of the more established stars would him some good. It would give him time to flesh out his character and round out the time needed to execute his "finding oneself/new identity" story they seem to be taking with him post-title loss. It would also maybe stop fans from resenting him for being the golden child, even though that's usually way less of a problem in Japan than it is in the west. I really do wish I didn't forget the little Japanese I learned way back when so I could just glean basic shit the Japanese fans are saying about the company. Apparently it was near unanimous support for Tonga choking the heckler for instance. "Conform, bish" was basically the takeaway from that.

...

I'm just about to watch Ibushi vs. Omega from Peter Pan 2012 in anticipation for the match tomorrow. It starts at 11 PDT but I've got about 9 or 10 hours of sleep combined the past two days so staying up that late seems like a recipe for disaster. Probably going to try it again regardless, baby! I am so nervous and scared of what they do and I'm okay with either one winning, but feel like for maximum value Ibushi should probably still be alive for it. I'm going to stop complaining like a baby about booking that hasn't even happened yet, at least when it comes to specific matches like this, but it is nice to feel really invested in wrestlers like I did when I was a kid. I want Ibushi to win this bitch so fucking badly...

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2 hours ago, ComingToAmerica said:

It's my first G1, and it's been great but one thing I don't get is why Yoshi-Hashi exists.

Yoshi-Hashi is perfectly fine in a promotion where "perfectly fine" puts you down with the Jados and Yujiros of the world.

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2 hours ago, Oyaji said:

I think my questioning Okada is partly fueled by how I see the majority of fans perceive him and how Gedo has invested so, so much in him. He's the third or fourth, maybe even fifth most popular guy in terms of crowd reactions and he just broke records for being the dominant champion on tHop of displacing the beloved Ace prematurely, as Beech mentioned.

To get a sense of how popular Okada is, Here is a list of the top 100 most popular wrestlers in Japan from Number Magazine, a major sports magazine in Japan. Basically the Sports Illustrated of Japan to make an analogy. Tons of fans participated in the poll and people listed their three favorite wrestlers,  3 points for number one, 2 points for number two, and so on. This list was finalized in June this year.

Okada finishes 4th. The top 5 is Naito, Tanahashi who by far lap the field, then Nakamura, then Okada, then Omega. So he’s the third most popular NJPW wrestler which isn’t terrible. I do think the crowd would rally behind him if they keep the belt off him for a while. I remember seeing comments from Fraser Marriott (The G1 Ironman attending all the shows) that the fans were lukewarm on Okada’s new character because they thought that it was just a way to get him to the top again. Like they felt that it was sort of disingenuous. I remember he said the fans in Osaka were rooting hard for EVIL to beat him and eliminate him which isn’t a good sign.

So NJPW has to take it slow with Okada. People were tired of super Okada and needed something different. Hopefully they don’t push him back up too quickly or people will sour on him.

I actually thought that Okada was gonna win G1. I was sure of it. Judging by the crowd reception to Okada these last few shows if he had won G1, it could’ve potentially been disastrous.

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I had that poll in mind when doing my rambling. I'd think for a guy treated as a god, he wouldn't be a distant, distant third. That's my point. That'd be like Kawada and Tsuruta or Hansen finishing well ahead of Misawa in a poll for most popular All Japan wrestlers in '94.

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19 minutes ago, FlaeBlazer said:

I remember seeing comments from Fraser Marriott (The G1 Ironman attending all the shows) that the fans were lukewarm on Okada’s new character because they thought that it was just a way to get him to the top again. Like they felt that it was sort of disinenuous. I remember he said the fans in Osaka were rooting hard for EVIL to beat him and eliminate him which isn’t a good sign.

What do you think of this note?

I thought it was a very interesting note. If they had gone through with Okada winning, I really think it might’ve been disastrous for his crowd reaction considering that they weren’t behind him during this tournament.

11 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

I had that poll in mind when doing my rambling. I'd think for a guy treated as a god, he wouldn't be a distant, distant third. That's my point. That'd be like Kawada and Tsuruta or Hansen finishing well ahead of Misawa in a poll for most popular All Japan wrestlers in '94.

He definitely should be more popular given his push. The funny thing is the crowd was very receptive when he beat Tanahashi at WK10 so something must’ve changed.

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8 hours ago, Oyaji said:

And yeah, there are a handful of incredibly promising young lions right now and Umino (Red Shoes' only positive contribution to wrestkling aside from flipping off the OGs?) is right up there with Kawato. Uemura is ridiculously tight fundamentally speaking for somebody who just debuted too. What a factory to have and then you add that the company could always pluck wrestlers from other organizations whenever they want too. 

Not sure about Kawato. He has been struggling in CMLL since he was taken out of his comfort zone (basically in every NJPW match he had hot tag, fiery comeback and eventually would get pinned) and some people who watch it regularly have said that Hiromu by that time was on completely different level.

As for Okada and Tanahashi meeting again, I had one scary thought. Back in 2013, I think, they had their first G1 match that ended in a draw and as a result in KoPW they had a title match that ended in successful defence for Okada. So suppose Tanahashi wins G1, they can easily set up briefcase defence in KoPW as a callback to that match... and we could have our first G1 briefcase loser. They could do that and talking about how fans weren't behind Okada in G1... I wonder what reaction would he get for that.

As for what changed with Okada. It might sound funny, but for a long time I liked Okada more than Naito while nowadays I spend more time writing about how Naito should get more things and how Okada ain't drawing what he should draw. To me most of the things till WK10 felt like a struggle. Young guy trying to climb tallest mountain there is and he eventually managed to do it, it was great moment. But after that it started to feel like he is not struggling anymore, he is just given things. It is hard to explain it since you know they still have matches and things like that, but it shifted from "Okada is trying to be the best" to "Okada is the best and everyone else is just built up to challenge him temporary before another guy can be built up". There is less drama and most of it we have to invent ourselves, like I remember how we spent some time here speculating on how Sanada could end up winning the title in Osaka... when you look back at it it feels like meaningless fan fiction.

Now Omega finally managed to best him, but considering Okada's booking till this point... obvious outcome was Okada winning G1 and taking his belt back at WK. Only a superficial change. Granted, now he is not even in G1 finals so maybe things will get better, but then, there is that scary scenario that I wrote about above and if that happens then we are back to where we were 6 months ago.

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What the world has been waiting for:

Spoiler

 

The audio mix, lol. Goodness gracious.

The few times I've seen him early days in CMLL, yeah Kawato looked a little lost. Still, I think his babyface fire and technical ability are great for a 21 year old (conversely, Hiromu was 24/25 when he was in Mexico and in his 4th year as a pro so it's a little unfair to compare them straight up) and while versatility is a huge plus (KUSHIDA can do anything, anywhere for instance), it's not the end of the world if he struggles with the lucha libre style in opening trios matches. Also, I haven't forgotten about that bronzed, muscle bound freak Kitamura. He's a crowbar in the ring but a glorious one at that and I wish him a speedy recovery. Concussions are the drizzling shits.

edit: I won't go as far as The Dave when he compared Kawato to a young Nobuhiko Takada. 

double edit: Juice was asked about the Fire Pro release. "It's coming out with Playstation... I'll have to get a Playstation so I can play myself... Play WITH myself... I think I'll end it on that." PG JYUSU!

triple edit: I don't know what I was looking at earlier... Show doesn't start until 2:30 AM PDT. Derp. 

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I don't want to say that Kawato is going to be bad, but lots of people (yeah, including The Dave) talk about him like he is going to get Junior division to another level. I think he will be a solid hand, but I don't see him being the ace of division unless big talent drain happens for one reason or another.

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Hmm, I am a lot higher on him than you are, I suppose. I look forward to his return to see how his career develops. Even if he tops out at like a Wataru Inoue level, they keep producing such promising talent that looks so polished by the time they're ready to debut they'll be in a good position for the foreseeable future. Umino's selling and fire are just as good as Kawato's even if he hams it up to the Nth degree, much like his dad. 

The post-match interviews are up on YouTube and World. The comments from Okada and Tanahashi are incredible, as you'd imagine. Okada said everything that needed to be said without saying anything. Tanahashi was very emotional and I adored his message.

 

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I'm also watching those interviews and I found The Elite one interesting in a sense that you see sharp contrast between Ibushi and everyone else there. And I liked his line that he hopes that tomorrow never comes.

Zack (and Fale) obviously didn't get the memo that he should stop calling people dickheads and using F words. Naito makes a short point about being two time winner in a row, that hasn't happened since 2003-2004 when Tenzan done that. If Naito wins it would also be his third (and Tanahashi's as well) win which would tie him with Tenzan as well. On the other hand champion hasn't been in G1 Finals since 2007 Nagata and hasn't won entire thing since 2000 Sasaki. So this has potential to make some history. Only guy who wouldn't make history would be Ibushi, but arguably he would benefit the most from it.

I also found Evil's promo interesting. He was talking during this tournament about how he will change the course of NJPW and break the traditions of big 4 and factions leaders. After his match with White he admits that if White had won then maybe he could have done it, but Evil won't let anyone else do it, he has to do it.

And yeah, great stuff from Tanahashi.

 

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There was some real gravity to Ibushi's interview. He meant that shit. I'm gonna nap until 3 something and quickly catch up on the undercard tags I miss. I need to see this live.

I know Ibushi said he wanted this to be different from their other matches but I just finished watching both the '08 and '12 encounters... I forgot some of the bumps they took in the first one, holy shit. The suplex Ibushi hit Kenny with on the chairs by the van outside was so, so gross. Almost 90 degrees gross. I laughed when Universe's footage for the Budokan match clipped out the moonsault off the balcony.

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Whoa, that's another Goto match in which his opponent more or less dominated and then won. Interesting but I like giving JYUSU and the US strap some shine at the end of a frustrating tournament. He also reluctantly attacked Goto's beaten up elbow which is a sign of some pragmatism.

His interactions with da children are adorable. 

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