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

[sevendaughters]

wonder the Gedo-Okada split is pretext for Gedo hooking up with his old Team No Respect buddy Lion Do...

[Beech27]

Hubris in the face of a god is never a good idea, so I probably should have avoided my “Ibushi’s got this!” pronouncements. But then that kind of sports fandom superstition speaks to the investment I had in all of this, which is... good? 

So, yeah, the match was great. Leg work, as you do, and Ibushi sold it enough—and sold that it wasn’t enough. So Tana had to wade into strikeier waters, which theoretically wouldn’t favor him, and an artillery war, which got him spiked repeatedly. It felt, weirdly, almost Ishii-like. Like Tana was bested again and again, but just found a well of resilience that enabled him to not lose, and eventually, to win. And that’s a good story, masterfully told, even if it’s not the one I wanted. 

As ever, fascinating to see where we go now.

If Okada vacates Chaos leadership, does White step up and in? Could he actually take the briefcase from Tanahashi? (No, but.)

Ibushi joins Naito in the “What now?” queue, after losing the match everyone just knew they’d win. 

Will Ibushi challenge for the title at any point? Of course he could, but it feels like he wouldn’t want to, now. (MSG main, though...)

Proud to announce that I, too, will be challenging for the US title. 

[Jiji]

There was a moment when Ibushi was finishing his death combination that Tanahashi looked over to the corner and subtly nodded to an off-screen Shibata. I think it was before the lawn dart. It was at that moment, I knew Kota Ibushi fucked up... Er, was losing. 

Agree that part of what made this superior was Tanahashi not settling with the leg work. The emotions during the big strike exchange were immense too and they followed the same pattern as their IC match. I really thought Kota would avoid the second High Fly Flow again. The inevitability was so sinking after the second one connected. 

I can enjoy a match and tournament and still feel emptiness. Tanahashi is a fucking legend but this feels wrong. 

[FlaeBlazer]

Is this the best G1 Final?

I’m not sure if it’s better than Omega vs. Naito last year, I gotta rewatch both but they are at least on the same level based on the live viewing of this match.

[Jiji]

I think it was better than last year's. This had more emotion and didn't have the two 'hey these guys almost died' half botches. 

I'd have to watch 2015's final again and I think Omega/Goto is real close too. 

[sevendaughters]

I was very surprised by the ending. I even thought Ibushi is going to hulk out of the HFF, and because Omega-Ibushi felt a little restrained and hinting at a Dome-sized match it is even weirder. But sometimes you have to put aside 'what direction is the company going in?' and just mark out for your favourite wrestler. AISHEMATSU!

DOME CARD PREDICTIONS (i am never right)

Omega (c) vs. Tanahashi, IWGP Heavyweight
Chris Jericho (c) vs. Naito, IWGP Intercontinental
Okada vs. Ishii, some kind of CHAOS explodes thing
Ishimori vs. KUSHIDA, IWGP Jr. Heavyweight
some rotten BC vs. BCOGz tag
Young Bucks (c) vs. G1 Tag League winners (let's go Suzuki/Sabre)

[sevendaughters]

I think the best final was 2015. Another one that I didn't expect Tanahashi to win.

[Jiji]

I guess they could be holding off on Omega/Ibushi iv for MSG. 

Naito, Ibushi, and Okada need big matches for the Dome now. Jericho will face one. Perhaps we get Okada vs. Ibushi? Jericho vs. Tanahashi at MSG would be insane too. 

[FlaeBlazer]

So is Okada going full blown heel? His mockery of the crowd during this tournament, his bullying of Rey Mysterio in that match and now he’s dropped Gedo. He was getting serious heel heat tonight. The boos when he dropkicked Rey were amazing. You gotta think that’s the direction, right?

[FlaeBlazer]

3 minutes ago, sevendaughters said:

I think the best final was 2015. Another one that I didn't expect Tanahashi to win.

How would you rank the last three (Omega/Goto, Omega/Naito, Tanahashi/Ibushi) with your ratings for them?

[Jiji]

2 minutes ago, FlaeBlazer said:

So is Okada going full blown heel? His mockery of the crowd during this tournament, his bullying of Rey Mysterio in that match and now he’s dropped Gedo. He was getting serious heel heat tonight. The boos when he dropkicked Rey were amazing. You gotta think that’s the direction, right?

We can only hope. With BC and LIJ being more or less full fledged babyfaces and Suzuki looking heck of old, we could use some ornary folk near the top. And Okada's downward spiral into madness would be fascinating. 

[sevendaughters]

Just now, FlaeBlazer said:

How would you rank the last three (Omega/Goto, Omega/Naito, Tanahashi/Ibushi) with your ratings for them?

just prepping a post for later so I have this to hand

G1 23 Naito-Tanahashi  4.25 (note: Naito worked two v good matches this night)

G1 24 Nakamura-Okada 4.75

G1 25 Tanahashi-Nakamura 5

G1 26 Goto-Omega 4.5

G1 27 Naito-Omega 4.75 (if you check last year's thread I gave it 4.5 but watched it since)

G1 28 Ibushi-Tanahashi 4.75

[The Natural]

Didn't realize this had finished already. Misjudged the timing. I'm happy Tanahashi won. Go Ace...song still sucks!

[FlaeBlazer]

Will Tanahashi break the streak and become the first G1 winner to convert the Tokyo Dome title shot into a title win at Wrestle Kingdom?

Ever since the Tokyo Dome title shot and briefcase was instituted in 2012, the G1 winner is 0-6 in the Dome.

[sevendaughters]

Okada's certainly been doing a good job of cooling the crowds on him, and Budokan was certainly not with him on Friday, but he might be ridding Gedo to be seen as his own man. It must be so hard to write for a dominant champ after their major reign. You can't shit them back into mid-card. You have to keep them in this spot with a good storyline. Struggling to think of too many from across wrestling.

[sevendaughters]

Just now, FlaeBlazer said:

Will Tanahashi break the streak and become the first G1 winner to convert the Tokyo Dome title shot into a title win at Wrestle Kingdom?

Ever since the Tokyo Dome title shot and briefcase was instituted in 2012, the G1 winner is 0-6 in the Dome.

think there's more of a chance of Tanahashi being the first to lose the briefcase.

That said, there's only Jay White in line for a shot.

[Jiji]

WCW with Goldberg. Masterful.

NJPW kept Hashimoto strong too after his losing the title to Kensuke in '97.

[FlaeBlazer]

3 minutes ago, sevendaughters said:

think there's more of a chance of Tanahashi being the first to lose the briefcase.

That said, there's only Jay White in line for a shot.

You could argue Okada could leverage his way into a shot because Tanahashi didn’t beat him.

I remember in 2013, Tanahashi and Okada went to a draw in G1 and Tanahashi got a IWGP title shot at King of Pro Wrestling.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Okada as heel vs Omega would be one way to milk that matchup, especially if he is then the guy to win with the briefcase.

Of course they could go hot potato, have White beat Tana, then either EVIL or Suzuki beat White, then Okada beats them. There's time right?

There's part of me that thinks Vince is going to send a truck full of money to Omega's house, & he will go. I don't know how much Omega gets paid, but I'm pretty sure WWE will pretty much triple that now. Although Styles will probably go longer than he planned to when joining WWE, he's still one major injury away from part-time status. Daniel Bryan doesn't work a full schedule, & that situation just feels volatile - even if he re-signs. Throw in the MSG shenanigans, & I think they're ready to pony up the dough.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

On 8/11/2018 at 12:12 AM, ComingToAmerica said:

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

It appears Taichi shares my sentiments. Bless that man!

[EVA]

I’m traveling this weekend, so I haven’t had a chance to actually watch any of these shows, but I did want to hop on and point out that I called Tanahashi main eventing WK in the July omnibus thread, back when some people were talking about Tanahashi being done as a main event guy now.

GO ACE.  GO ME.

[Kyuubi]

THE ABSOLUTE MADMAN!

Real shit, this match was great. What I love about New Japan is that every one of their "aces" have extremely distinct styles so every match up between them feels distinct. I always felt after learning the history and the importance of Tanahashi that Kota was the ace that New Japan always wanted to succeed him after Naito did not wok out and Okada really didn't fit the same mold as Tana. Kota, for whatever reason just didn't commit to the company. The commentary about Ibushi in this match got me to realize how different their characters are with Kota being like a free spirit ronin and Tana being very orthadox and you can see it in their styles as Tana is always about breaking people down from bottom to top while Ibushi is flashy and bombastic. If you think about it, aside from the High Fly Flow, Tana's offense is hardly flashy at all. He is always consistent and I love that about him in comparison to a powerful Okada and a rapidly moving and bursting Naito.

I think Kota is becoming one of my favorite wrestlers. It doesn't matter the level or prestige of his opponent, Kota always brings his A game and never disappoints. Sure, I wish he would sell more, but that is a nit pick because he does sell initial blows enough. He is not Will Ospreay bad at it and he is not Will Ospreay insane at offense being unnecessary and too much.

Great match. Surprised about the result as I suspect most people are, but I remember being told that New Japan would never allow a foreigner and a free lancer to main event Wrestle Kingdom when I floated the match last year so I guess I understood why.

[Beech27]

Some things, after sleep:

-They literally put a golden star on the WK graphic. Come on. 

-To be honest, Shibata being there worried me a bit. I doubted you’d bring him out for no moment at all. Awesome to see he can support Tana’s weight though, and all the dojo attendees say he gets pretty involved with everything—even bumping. Not suggesting he’s coming back, but it’s encouraging that his body has come this far.

-As someone who was very devotedly in the “Nakamura should be the guy (post gimmick makeover)” camp, there’s a weird, almost happy nostalgia to staying up super late to see Tana beat your guy. And anyway, he’s so good, and the crowd is always so happy, it’s hard to stay grumpy.

-A friend who called this pointed out that Okada and Naito both had to pass the “Tana in the dome” test, so it makes sense that Kenny would too, if those truly are your current top triumvirate. Too bad for Ibushi New Japan always deals in threes that way, eh? 

-The idea of Okada baiting a briefcase defense out of Tana—“Oh, you need to prove you can beat me before you main event again. Don’t you agree? Don’t you think you can? You had me beat, right?”—would be one way to really, really go full heel.

-I kinda hate that every Kenny conversation comes back to this, but.... if he’s leaving, you could do worse than a happy nostalgia transition reign. 

-40 year olds are now 3-0 in the G1 finals—not that Ibushi’s a child. Combined, this was the oldest finals ever.

[Archibald]

Undercard was rather meh and it is not surprising that nobody talks about it. Asides of Okada getting booed out of the building nothing really interesting happened. Yeah, we had title change, but match was whatever and who cares. I was also sad that we got Naito/Suzuki instead of Naito/Zack in that tag match. Didn't really make sense to me.

Anyway, Okada splitting with Gedo is... nothing? So he just won't come out to corner him and I imagine he probably is going to start doing less tags as well. Whatever.

When Shibata appeared I went from 50/50 to 80/20 Tanahashi is taking it. I also half expected to hear few words from him at the end saying that he is going to make his return at WK13, but I guess I got too optimistic there. On the other hand, as already mentioned, it is great that he can carry Tanahashi around with no problems. Makes me optimistic.

So for the final. I liked it, but here is my weird problem with it. Tanahashi sold a lot and Ibushi sold very little. In context of this match it worked because it looked like old Ace just can't keep up anymore and has to go out of his comfort zone to even stay even. Great stuff, problem for me is that this is every Ibushi match. So at times I was like "Tanahashi just can't slow down this guy" and moments later I was "classic Ibushi, not selling anything". Still great match and I enjoyed it, but in my personal rankings it was slightly weaker than Naito/Omega, Omega/Goto and Tanahashi/Nakamura.

Edit: Oh, and I guess that Juice/Cody is happening at USA show maybe? Juice already had rather weak tournament so I rolled my eyes a bit when he got dumped again. Gedo really trying to make it look like Juice got lucky and isn't champion material. I get that the story is probably him growing up and proving that he is good champion, but at this point I'm not sure if we aren't closing the red line here.

[FlaeBlazer]

Was this Ibushi’s best match ever? Or is it still the Nakamura match at the Tokyo Dome?

It’s close for me.