The NJPW Review: G1 Long Beach Special Night 1 07/01/2017

This is a very special event as it is the first time NJPW is running a show in America by themselves. Of course there is the ROH co promoted War of the World shows but even before that, in 2011 NJPW teamed up with JAPW to present the East Coast Invasion tour where they would crown the first ever Intercontinental Champion. This go around they are going to crown the inaugural United States Champion at the end of an 8 man tournament. Enough talk, let’s get into the review!

CHAOS (Will Ospreay, The Briscoe Brothers, Trent Baretta, and Rocky Romero) vs Bullet Club (Marty Scurll, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, and the Young Bucks)

This was a nice opener to get the show started as it showed a lot of fire but I didn’t expect anything else. This was used as a setup for the title match on Night 2 between The Young Bucks and Roppongi Vice. Match started off with Ospreay and Marty Scurll which is always an awesome pairing. If anyone watches a regular NJPW show they would know there is a lot of undercard tag matches and this was a good way of both expressing that and still appealing to the American audience. Romero gets the win for his team on Matt Jackson of the Young Bucks to get them an advantage going into the title match.

Match Rating: ***1/2

Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL, Hiromu Takahashi and SANADA) Vs. Dragon Lee, Jushin “Thunder” Liger, TITÁN and Volador Jr.

This didn’t really get much time to be anything other than something to put over LIJ which is cool I guess. I mean I like LIJ don’t get me wrong but NJPW could’ve used this platform to get over Dragon Lee and the other luchadores huge but it’s whatever, i’m not stressing. Match ends quickly after the ref is distracted and a chair comes into play allowing Takahashi to hit the TIME BOMB and get the win for his team.

Match Rating: **

Jay Lethal vs Adam Page

This is the first of 4 first round matches on the card to see who moves on in the IWGP United States Championship tournament. This would be a main event of ROH TV (which isn’t saying much) and here it is randomly placed in the middle of a NJPW card. The commentary hyped up the fact that Lethal wasn’t fully healthy so he was going to try to get out of here quick and he did. Page did put up a fight but it was mostly Lethal offense including a really bad looking Lethal Injection attempt. Jay Lethal moves on to the surprise of literally no one. I like Jay though so i’m fine with it.

Match Rating: ***

Juice Robinson vs Zack Sabre Jr.

Another match in the tournament sees us get a weird match up here with former CJ Parker and rising star Juice Robinson against one of the best wrestlers in the world and technical wizard Zack Sabre Jr. I honestly wasn’t expecting much but both wrestlers came with some heat and it made for a really solid match. The crowd was unbelievably behind Juice with “Juice” chants overriding the chants for ZSJ. Juice really showed out here and showed he ready for a bigger role soon.

Match Rating: ***3/4

Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA, Jay White, and David Finlay vs Billy Gunn, Yoshitatsu, Sho Tanaka, and Yohei Komatsu

This was pretty bad and I mean it has an old ass (no pun intended) Billy Gunn and fucking Yoshi Tatsu. They are woooooorst man I swear. It was evident when Gunn was supposed to catch Tanahashi on a cross body but just let him a fall. Just to let you know they are facing off on Night 2 so this isn’t a good sign of things to come. Ok enough about the shit in this match, let’s get to the good AKA Dave Finlay and Jay White having a nice showing. They need to bring back Jay White to Japan and team him back up with Finlay and boom you got another great team in the Jr. Division.

Match Rating: **1/2

G.o.D (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) vs War Machine (Hanson and Ray Rowe)

These two teams have had some intense battles in the past and they upped it here when War Machine demanded a No DQ match which they got. This was a usual tag match between these two and I still loved it. The finish was so dope with a Fall Out through the IKEA coffee table (shout out to the Spotlight Series host, Ryan for that one). War Machine being champions again is best for business, they are so damn good in Japan and are the best in the Heavyweight Tag Division do it only makes sense.

Match Rating: ***3/4

Tomohiro Ishii vs Tetsuya Naito

3rd match in the US Title tournament and boy are we in for a treat. These two guys are some of the best NJPW has to offer and they showed it here with an amazing match. Naito and Ishii work the big guy/small guy dynamic so well, it’s insane. I was fine with either guy winning because as I said they are two of the best in the promotion but Ishii gets a win here and I was so happy.

Match Rating: ****

Michael Elgin vs Kenny Omega

These two are no strangers to each other and here they meet in the final match of the US title tournament. Wow, just wow. That is all I can really say for this match it was so damn good. I expected a lot and they still surprised me and topped everything they’ve done. The multiple V Triggers Omega hit on Elgin were straight brutal and the Avalanche Elgin Bomb made me jump out of my seat. Match of the night so far.

Match Rating: ****3/4

Kazuchika Okada vs Cody

Now I am not a big fan of Cody and i’m not afraid to admit it but Okada is the single greatest wrestler in the world, there is no one on his level so if anyone can give him Cody a good match it’s him. Cody played an amazing heel during this match constantly dipping from the ring and going to kiss his wife and other antics. The action was very high paced and once it looked like Cody was done for none other than Kenny Omega came out and had a white towel looking to throw it in like Cody was going to do at Dominion during Kenny’s match with Okada. Cody refuse this gesture and seemed visibly upset with this action. There was use of each others finishers like Cody doing the Rainmaker that really got me more into this match. Okada finally putting Cody away with the Rainmaker.

Match Rating: ****1/2

All around this was an awesome show, it had this special feeling about it that really put it over the top for me. Seeing these guys come out in a new area and showing why NJPW is the best brand of professional wrestling in the world was awesome. Those last three matches were worth it alone but some of the undercard stuff was fun too.