July 2014

IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Tetsuya Naito - G-1 Climax 2014 Day 2 The champion comes in with a loss and looks to get things back on track against Naito, who seemed poised on the cusp of breaking out earlier in the night. In fact at the 2014 Dome Show, he was the challenger for Okada's IWGP Championship, but the fans selected the Tanahashi/Nakamura I-C match as the main event, which showed that in the fans' eyes Naito just was not quite there yet. From what I read, his career was on the verge of collapse until a series with the hard-hitting Ishii over the NEVER title resuscitated his career. I have seen about one or two Naito matches, but don't rem…

more detailed diving here Nyuto is mostly a Mutoha/EXIT guy. Despite him looking like a fairly short and unflatteringly sleazy man (and, well....that's not wrong either) he is one of the more random mat-workers that Keita has had to face up against so he can't just do the usual dominant routine he'd otherwise do at this point and time given Nyuto is a bit less athletic and isn't really inclined for that sort of stuff. Keita's fine with that because that just means he gets to be even meaner with legit Grovit applications and loads of nasty arm work that Nyuto definitely wasn't having fun with at all. Eventually Nyuto has enough of this and goes for his kicks instead w…

This is the second match between the two, I'd suggest watching the first one for context. Keita was really like "let me wrestle a classic NWA-style Broadway on some mats in front of 25 people" and no one could stop him. I mean for one, this is a 61 minute match legit, no gimmicks included, every bit shown and recorded, two out of three falls for the win. It's also done in complete and utter silence for most of the duration, so that's doubly weird. However.....I didn't think this was bad at all. In fact, I thought it was seriously impressive for the fact that this was so low-budget indie that it almost hurt. The first 20 minutes are based around the two purely just g…

Went to New Japan live on Friday in Lowell and had a blast! Now I am interested in modern New Japan again. I remember really loving this series. This review is from February of 2015. Tomohiro Ishii vs Tomoaki Honma - G-1 Climax 2014 Bring on the rematch BABY! I actually preferred the offensive layout in this match as opposed to the previous because they really built to the Honma offense well and it was a tighter match, but this match does not have the same level of world-class Ishii selling. Ishii sells in this one per usual, but the 5/3 match was something special. There is definitely a ***** match if you combine the two of these matches, but as it stan…

Well I was ignorant of Honma's 2014 injury replacement G1 miracle run but I'm beyond happy to discover it years later. It all starts here against the most daunting of opponents but Honma takes it head on to the delight of the fans as you might expect. They take the simple approach that worked so well in their 2004 match and apply it to a match designed to set the tone for the entire G1 for both men. Tanahashi is clearly the superior but isn't afraid to grind it out either. They build to some great hope spots for Honma and a wonderful little finishing stretch. On its own this isn't essential viewing but in the context of this G1 I'd say it is.

Open The Twin Gate Champions SHINGO & Akira Towaza vs Eita & T-Hawk - Dragon Gate 7/20/14 I like exposing myself to as many styles of pro wrestling as possible. I did find some bright spots in Toryumon and Dragon Gate in 2000s. I think they had some fun characters and some awesome highspots. This match was lacking in both. I think one peculiar aspect of 21st century workrate is the emphasis on action above everything else even highspots. There really were not that many highspots in this match. I was really only slightly surprised once. I thought they were going to do a Doomsday Device, but instead one of the Millenials did a moonsault to the floor on Towaza. …

IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles vs Kazuchika Okada - G-1 Climax Day 1 2014 I was super pumped to get started on some AJ Styles in New Japan and what better place to start then where he really opened people's eyes in the G-1 Climax. Coming into this match. AJ Styles was riding a two match win streak over Okada having defeated him for the title in early May. I have seen about three Okada matches in my life, two were back in 2012 when he broke out and then one a couple months ago when he was a young boy. I don't have a real feel for him. This match while great did not really lend me anymore insight than I had previously. He seems like he is an all-around capable w…

Not as good as their G1 match from the year before. Still really good though - Shibata gave Tana a nice beating, which Tana sold well & his comebacks were good. I thought the match was missing some urgency though, which was very surprising considering who were involved. I enjoyed it a ton, but it did not reach the greatness of their 2 previous matches because of that. The match also has a couple of absolutely incredible visuals w/ Tana's entrance being the first one; Shibata just standing in the middle of the ring, eyes closed while Tana goes to the corner behind him to do his pose was amazing. The 2nd amazing visual was Shibata's incredibly violent looking & soun…

This match for the WWE Heavyweight Championship made me a little bit sad. The story going in is that the Authority wants to screw Cena out of the title by pitting him against 3 other guys - the typical situation where he doesn't even have to take the fall in order to lose the belts. Orton and Kane work together early on, with the latter making sure the former's pinfall attempts go without interruption. However, the crowd doesn't really care, because while the heels get their heat on Cena, they are chanting for Roman Reigns. They are hot for the interactions between Cena and Roman, and they teased them duking it out twice in the match before it finally happe…

This RULED. Shelton actually surprised me by how good his performance was. The grappling throughout the match was really great, thought it had a lovely sense of urgency to it, and the 2 just gelled super well in that regard. The grappling eventually lead to Shelton working on top, and this is where he totally surprised me; his work over Shibata was AWESOME with a big A! Him swinging Shibata to the guardrail was absolutely brutal. Best performance I've seen from him. His best match too - it's between this & the HBK one. ****

Nakamura & Shibata have quite the intense history with each other, and it showed here. They beat the crap out of each other w/ their strikes & wore each other down with their submissions. It's a great time from start to finish. ****

This is #3 in their trilogy of matches but it had some cool power vs. technique dynamics. Sekimoto uses his beefiness to try and keep Suzuki grounded but Hideki's too slick and works over the arm a decent amount, standing on it, standing on Sekimoto's face because . Sekimoto doesn't really sell the arm though and starts throwing his muscle around, using Suzuki's own double arm suplex. They trade strikes and suplexes, and in the end, Sekimoto uses the deadlift German suplex to pin Suzuki. Decent match but typical Sekimoto match.

This was a spectacle. Truly a Guerrilla Warfare, because when it was over, it truly felt like Candice & Joey had won a war against The Bucks. Candice with that face covered of blood holding the tag title belt is probably the most iconic PWG image of all-time. Not much else to add, just a fantastic match. ****1/2 "Gummy bears are stupid & delicious." - Kevin Steen