Jordan’s NJPW G1 Special 7/1/17 Review
NJPW G1 Special 7/1/17 Review
Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Marty Scurll, Yujiro Takahashi, and The Young Bucks) vs. CHAOS (The Briscoes, Roppongi Vice, and Will Ospreay)
My Thoughts: This was a really, really awesome opening contest that did its job of getting the crowd hot for the night. Everyone got some shine (save Yujiro, really, but that’s perfectly fine) and got to do their signature stuff. We had a great opening stretch between Scurll and Ospreay who have so much history together. We got plenty of cool dives and an awesome spot of Fale hitting the Bad Luck Fall on Trent all the way to the men on the outside of ring. This was a really well done, hot opening match. One of the best New Japan openers I’ve seen in quite some time. Fantastic and exciting way to start the show. The only thing that bugged me in this match was that JR and Josh got The Briscoes mixed up the entire match. Also the finish was a little too sudden but I’ll get over it.
Rating: ***3/4
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi, EVIL, BUSHI, and SANADA) vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Dragon Lee, Titan, and Volador Jr.
My Thoughts: JR continues the fucking names up trend as he refers to EVIL as BUSHI in his entrance and then got corrected by Josh in a very unconvincing manner. This was another entertaining tag match. We started off with a nice little stretch between Volador and BUSHI. Liger got to have his moment with the crowd being extremely behind him. Titan really impressed me in this one, I’d love to see him do more Jr. Heavyweight stuff in New Japan. The exchange between Dragon Lee and Takahashi (albeit somewhat short) was excellent and I love that this rivalry just never ends and it’s really cool as it has gone across CMLL, ROH, and NJPW. The right team won here as well.
Rating: ***
Hangman Page vs. Jay Lethal in a First Round Match in the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament
My Thoughts: This was a pretty solid match overall, but it was a bit clunky at points. It wasn’t god awful, both guys put forth a decent effort. Lethal sold his ribs well and Hangman Page did some nice rib work. This was competitive the whole way through for the most part which I also enjoyed. Lethal persevered through injured ribs and came out victorious. It’s a nice story. The spot with Lethal slipping on the Lethal Injection was puzzling as I didn’t know whether Lethal did that on purpose or not. I think this opens up two real possibilities: 1) Lethal perseveres all the way to the finals but comes up short or 2) Lethal perseveres all the way through the tournament and wins the US Title. I would’ve liked to see Page advance but this does set up a good story within the tournament.
Rating: **1/2
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Juice Robinson in a First Round Match in the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament
My Thoughts: This was a very good match here with Sabre looking fantastic and Juice not looking too bad himself, his highlight being a one armed powerbomb. Sabre absolutely tortured Juice’s arm in this match and it looked so painful and so good. Juice sold it really well too. What I appreciated so much in this match was the continuity because this match had a lot of it and it paid off in the end as Sabre locked in a nasty version of an Octopus stretch and made Juice tap out. Sabre deserved to win this so I’m glad he came out victorious.
Rating: ***1/2
Billy Gunn, YOSHITATSU, and The Tempura Boys vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA, Jay White, and David Finlay
My Thoughts: This was a really dysfunctional match if I’m being honest. It felt like no one in the match really got to shine besides KUSHIDA. Billy looked sloppy which is odd considering he didn’t look too bad in his other NJPW matches. This was a bit of a homecoming for Jay White, Sho Tanaka, and Yohei Komatsu as they’ve been on excursion for quite some time and haven’t worked a New Japan show in a while. It’s time for Finlay to go on excursion! The Tempura Boyz looked really solid and will make a great addition to the Jr. Heavyweight Tag division when they return full time to NJPW. The finish was an almost missed by the camera, extremely sloppy Flatiner from White and it wasn’t White’s fault, it was all on Tatsu. Tatsu really drug the quality of the match down when he was in there. He and Gunn were heavily booed, and I don’t blame the crowd. Definitely the lowlight of the show thus far.
Rating: **
Guerrillas of Destiny (C) vs. War Machine for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
My Thoughts: JR incorrectly stated that War Machine are 7 time ROH Tag Team Champions. What the fuck JR. This was an enjoyable match that was somewhat clunky at points but they got through it. It looked as though GOD would get lost in the chaos at some points but they recovered quickly. It was hilarious when Chase Owens interfered and JR and Josh had no fucking clue who he was and neither did the crowd. It was funny but I also like Chase so it was somewhat sad too. This was really interesting because they changed it to a No DQ match at the last second and New Japan does not typically do a kind of match like this, though it wasn’t as odd because this was in the US and US crowds are used to matches like this. This was good, they didn’t go out of their comfort zone, and the finish was awesome. I didn’t expect new champs but I’m glad we got them!
Rating: ***
Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii in a First Round Match in the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament
My Thoughts: This match was really great. These two work so, so well together and they proved that again here. Naito was cocky as Naito tends to be and kept smacking Ishii’s bald head and really not taking him seriously which led to Ishii overcoming the carefree Naito and advancing in the tournament. The story was really well done and we got some great near falls and some fantastic, hard-hitting, competitive action. Ishii delivered some brutal offense in this one as well, including a couple nasty headbutts and Naito looked like the star he is. Overall this was definitely the best match on the show thus far. Also, #PainfulDump.
Rating: ****1/4
Michael Elgin vs. Kenny Omega in a First Round Match in the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Tournament
My Thoughts: God damn was this match great! Competitive, brutal, they had each other scouted so well, they had some fucking sick spots like the German on the apron, the crucifix powerbomb off the top rope, the V-Triggers were brutal, they had some excellent exchanges, this was everything you could want out of a wrestling match. They had some very good near falls as well. The only things that really bugged me were a few clunky spots that I’ll forgive and the crowd heavily booing Big Mike. I love Kenny too but it sucked to hear the crowd totally against Elgin who is one hell of a wrestler. These two have yet to put on a bad match. So damn good.
Rating: ****3/4
Kazuchika Okada (C) vs. Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
My Thoughts: First off, I thought it was so fucking funny how JR and Josh could not stop referring to Cody by his last name and having to correct themselves over and over. This was a good match, Okada looked phenomenal and Cody put forth yet another solid performance, actually kind of stepping up his game for this one and you could tell. This was Cody’s best outside of WWE effort yet and his best NJPW match. They had a really exciting exchange a little over halfway through the match but failed to capitalize right after that and it lost a lot of steam, as Cody matches tend to do. Cody hitting the Rainmaker, Okada hitting the Cross Rhodes, and Cody going for the One Winged Angel were all great spots. The callback to the “throwing the towel in” thing from Dominion was really well done as well. Cody is a showman and he’s very good at being a showman, and he’s a good wrestler, but as of right now he is not a GREAT wrestler. Okada is the best damn wrestler in the world and Cody had barely a better match than Okada did with Bad Luck Fale. That says a lot. This was a good way to end the show though, as it was a good match.
Rating: ***1/2
Overall Thoughts: This was an overall really good show with a killer opener, a pretty good undercard, two above average matches (and MOTY contenders, at that), and a good main event. The crowd was into the whole show and everyone put forth fantastic effort (besides Gunn and Tatsu). I also loved that we didn’t get any commercials during matches, we got them all in their entirety. I did really miss Kevin Kelly and Don Callis on this show though. JR and Josh did a fine job but fucked up far too many times.
Overall Rating: 8/10
