Last week New Japan Pro Wrestling had their G1 climax and I've slowly been making my way through the shows that they've presented and I haven't been making awesome headway, but I have been making headway. So far I've watched Day 2 and Day 4, and I started with those because of the early hype for those shows and they live up to it. I've seen a couple of matches from Day 1 as well. My major thought coming out of those matches is that Tomohiro Ishii is the shit and I am now a fan of his. I've seen three of his matches and all of them were awesome. Day 1 vs. Lance Archer was a match where I didn't expect much from either man and it was just fun to watch. Day 2 vs. Tanahashi was fucking awesome and fit the main event perfectly. Loved to see Tanahashi play the heel and there were so many near falls which I love before Ishii won with the Steiner Driver. Day 4 had the match vs. Shibata which Meltzer gave 5* and while I think it was a good match I wouldn't go that far, but only because I liked a match on that same show better.
And that match is Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi. Nakamura is just awesome with everything he does in the ring and the way these two played off each other was awesome. Nakamura was a dick to Ibushi earlier playing to his size and strength advantage, and that made it all the better when Ibushi took control of the match and did the same dick shit to Nakamura. Near falls abounded in this match and then we get my favorite finish in all of wrestling which is the sequence of moves which are all finishers before getting the pinfall. Nakamura hits two flying knees off the top rope before just hitting the running knee he is known for to get the three count and it is just phenomenal.
Not everything is about having the absolute best match on the show and everybody on these shows is delivering. Toru Yano has been entertaining me a lot with his delightful cheating to win matches. His match against Takahashi was a delight of the two of them trying to out cheat each other and the crowds enjoyment of that. On a similar note I really enjoyed the Tanahashi vs. Devitt match. Captain New Japan's shenanigans to counter Fale's shenanigans were awesome. The best part was obviously Tanahashi coming to the ring on Captain's shoulders like Devitt does on Fale's, but he just made it a more fun match.
Naito has had some good matches, but both were flawed. His match against Ibushi was awesome except Naito spent a lot of time working Ibushi's leg and then Ibushi made his come back and was like, fuck that shit I'm not selling my leg, but still it was a lot of fun with a great finishing run. Then Naito's match against Suzuki was similar, but with Suzuki working Naito's leg and Naito not wanting to sell, but except for the inability to sell the leg injury during the match the action was good and had a hot finish and was fun to watch, which is always the bigger concern, although I would prefer to see damage sold than not.
Overall everything I've watched has been solid to great and that's impressive considering I've watched 7 hours of wrestling from the tournament so far. Even the short matches are well done. Shelton Benjamin vs. Karl Anderson was only like 7 minutes, but it perfectly sold a story of Benjamin knowing the ace crusher is going to finish him and avoiding the move whenever Anderson tries it. If you like wrestling watch these shows. If you don't like wrestling and want to see why people love it watch all of Day four of this tournament and you'll know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyGwpDkxS-4&list=TLL01jqrE72Ig
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