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NJPW 2017 G1 Climax 27


Raziel

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I think NJPW could eventually do with a Dragon Gate style amelioration of all known factions and and cliques. Shake things up a bit. They're good at rebooting things that get a bit tired. A fourth BC leader is a bit overkill if the damn thing is for life. CHAOS hasn't got the same energy without that Nakamura-Okada tension at the top. It was meant to feel like a bunch of guys who actually hung out. Now Goto and Will Ospreay are in there it's just...not that. LIJ are in their salad days right now so I can accept them staying where they are. Suzukigun...I mean I love Minoru but their takeover freelance invader thing nearly flatlined NOAH and isn't getting anywhere here anymore. Whisper it quietly but I enjoy Taguchi Japan more than most actual factions.

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instant day six reaction, take it with a pinch of salt if you prefer your opinions with a bit more distance and reflection

Kojima-Elgin Cozy is killing the opening spot and am not sure why he gets the Nagata job spot (could be a booked slow start), he can obviously put together good matches with this crop of young tyros. MIKE~ is very much in his element here with Baseball Elgin a dot in the rear view mirror. Brought the crowd, who probably needed an intermission after a 5 match opening half, back well. Kojima sold the hell out of all those bombs at the end. ***1/2

Tama-EVIL pet peeve of mine, even in worked contests, is ineffectual officials. This brawl went all over the city of Fukushima, more-or-less, with loads of cheating and the ref getting hit and enough room for 6 count-outs. I'm not saying every match should be a UWF style in-ring classic. I'd just like to see refs call it more like a shoot. Anyway, when they got it back in the ring it was alright. Tama's doing great at getting the change in his character over and I'm ok with them taking tournament matches as character dev. real estate as long as they don't mind me marking them down. End tease and final sequence was good. **3/4

Juice-Suzuki when Juice limped out to the ring I rubbed my hands together as who better to work over a crocked limb than Suzuki? unfortunately instead of being 10-12 mins of grim limbwork this followed the same pattern as the previous match, except it looked rougher and wilder bcs Suzuki. A much-more one-sided contest than we're used to and probably more interesting for it: Juice had some fire spots but Suzuki just soaked up the strikes, ground Juice into paste, and finished him. I know Minoru is old and takes half a G1 off so I cut him some slack. Interesting but not necessarily 'good'. **3/4

Kenny-Yano comedy match that was mostly pretty inventive. best unspoiled but it's one of the matches where Yano has stuff planned out. ***

Okada-SANADA strong main event match that had me buying into a couple of the lines it was trying to sell me on. crowd clearly bought into the threat of SANADA too which made for a stronger contest. Sad thing is this was really good but in Okada's year it will be forgotten about. But if they have any plans on this being a long-term feud then I'm sold on its potential. ****1/4

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It's also very bro of him. Which, of course, is perfect. 

-Both Kojima and Nagata have had great tournaments. I'm pretty much roped in by the end every time, hoping they win despite "knowing" they won't. I'm grateful for any match that keeps me that firmly rooted in the present, rather than, y'know, letting my mind wander to likely outcomes, future prospects, annoying smark bs, etc.

-I think one of the other outcomes of too much crowd brawling is that, in venues like this that really have no elevated seating, a massive portion of the audience is taken out of the match, because they can't see for minutes at a time. Still, Evil is getting really good at stringing together a compelling finish, and MiSu is always compelling to me.

-I loved Omega/Yano. The props were fun, but the send-up of various strong style tropes was even better. The Cleaner hasn't scrubbed away DDT completely.

-You hear about the Orton test, in WWE. Put a guy across from him, and just see if he fits. I suppose something similar could be said of Okada in New Japan; there's something to standing in the ring with him and just looking like you belong. Sanada passes. 

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Yano/Omega might be my favorite match of the G1 so far, not the best but damn was that fun to watch. 

SANADA is good, he's passed EVIL as my third fav LIJ member but it will be hard to pass Takahashi as #2. 

As I was watching I was thinking that they could possibly turn Elgin and have him be the new leader of the Bullet Club and then I come here and see people are already discussing that.I don't know if Tonga could be the guy to lead BC but Elgin could be a top of the card guy if Cody won't do more dates or if they do a leader by committee made up of Tonga/Rhodes/Fale that might work all three are equals at the top, you could still plug Elgin in there too I guess. Riddle is charismatic enough to come in and be a leader, I'm not sure who else is available that could be plugged right in. In an ideal world Rusev would demand his release and be the new leader but that's not the world we live in, disbanding BC is also a fine option but it's a money maker and some of those guys would probably just drift without the group. 

ZSJ fits in Suzuki-gun better cause he's a little asshole and he's becoming more Suzuki-like in enjoying torturing his opponents. I hope the two of them go into the Tag League together, team fuck your joints. 

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44 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Watch Davey Richards change his mind about being a doctor and show up as the new head in six months

Assuming he isn't already pulling an Eddie Gilbert by faking a retirement to get out of GFW.

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Da Meltz better be ready to break the 6 star scale with that Yano/Omega match. So much fun.

Lots off gaga tonight as opposed to great matches, which is fine. It's a long tourney and comedy and brawling into the crowd varies stuff up a bit.

It will be interesting to look back on that Sanada/Okada match when they are main eventing Wrestle Kingdom down the road.

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Is it just me or are the matches this year (at least to date anyway) far less formulaic? I remember when I was getting back into New Japan in 2013 or so and finding that so many of the matches just flowed together. This year, I feel like there is a far greater variety in styles, characters are differentiated more, and there are long term storylines being set up and paid off. Maybe I'm just more attentive now but I am finding this to be the easiest G1 to watch since Akiyama's run in 2003. The last two had some excellent matches, no doubt, but a lot of the same in terms of match structure. Speaking of, that stretch of G1s from 2001 through 2003 was un-fucking-real. The company was heading down the toilet slowly due to INOKIism but those tournaments were so great.

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definitely enjoying watching the shows from top to bottom where possible. there's a good mix of light and shade. as i indicated in my first post here, there were 4 matches in contention for MOTT that featured 8 different guys (now up to 6 matches featuring 9 different guys with loads of time left). some of the guys even know how to work 3.5-4 matches without taking months off their career. i have my qualms (restore intermission, maybe spread the G1 bouts over the evening? take yesterday for instance, I'd have had EVIL-Tama on before the tag with Tanahashi and Goto) but yes i agree with that basically.

i also have a bootleg of bits of G1 2005 and what i have seen of that is good. Kawada guested and did some great stuff with Nagata and Suzuki.

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another instant take on Day 7, feel free to tell me off if I'm posting too much for a newcomer.

sound issues with the broadcast, commentary went wandering into pixellated mode and the crowd was clearly hot but mic'd poorly. this affects me as i love to hear the crowd as loud as possible. however still some good stuff!

Ishii-YOSHIHASHI this got good when Tacos realised he had to get rude if he wanted to get anything but disdain out of the grumpy pitbull. nice use of a Kawada spot and a good contest that will be overlooked come tournament end but had me involved. ***1/2

Sabre Jr-Fale seen some raves about this and it is definitely a different vibe to anything gone before so I'll give it credit there - but my disbelief could not be upended. also his shoulder was up. **

Makabe-Ibushi don't know whether Ibushi is doing less mad stuff for the sake of the tournament or his health but it shows the quality of the man that I'm not missing it. brought the best out of Makabe as he always does and I thought the last few mins were good. ***3/4

Nagata-Naito a pleasure. pissed-off Nagata and cocky-provocateur Naito always a good mesh and two or three things here made me go woah. we all know he's great but i can't remember when Nagata was last this consistent. even in those tags with the big boy yung lions he's solid. ****

Goto-Tanahashi only thing stopping Nagata from being G1 MVP right now is Tanahashi. it's in the established style of NJPW main events of the last 4 years but there's lots of great expressive drama and no overkill at all. Goto isn't just in there too but feels trite to say underrated. ****1/4

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I love that in the middle of this hard-hitting, uber-intense tournament, Omega and Yano pulled off a 10-minute comedy match centered around hopping back and forth with their feet tied up. And yes, people bit on all of Yano's near-falls. Tremendous.

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Omega/Yano was tremendous. If we were still doing the top 20 puro matches of the year poll, I'm almost certain it'd fit somewhere in mine.

-It's not fair, but I can't look past Yoshi-Hashi's church wife haircut. And Ishii, while he's had a banner year... feels a little exposed having this many singles matches so close together, maybe? The exchanges are stiff and the crowd gets into it, but they're also the same every match. So, this didn't really hit for me.

-ZSJ using Fale as a jungle gym was the obvious thing to do, and it worked pretty well when they stuck to it. The finish missed, though, because Fale's shoulder was clearly up--if they were ever down to begin with. 

-Surprised Makabe got the win here, to be honest. I liked that the finish was decisive, though. The G1 needs that. If anyone can string together a few of their big moves and hit a finisher, it's over. (It's also possible I'm assuming Ibushi's in line for a bigger heavyweight push than is rational, and this shouldn't be surprising at all. Oh well. Wishful thinking.)

-Nagata's a bit of a man out of time, between the past legends and the Tanahashi/Nak--->Naito/Okada crop that elevated the company (back) to where it is now. So it's really satisfying to see him get this run, work so damn hard, and have it received so well. 

-Speaking of Tanahashi... this was compelling before it started. The weakened, descending ace, vs. the perpetual bridesmaid, increasingly desperate as his potential becomes his past. That works! And they worked. 

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