Leave your feedback here for the NJPW’s G1 Special in San Francisco and download the podcast with me, Dan Lovranski and Mike Murray later tonight on the POST Wrestling Café feed.
What did you think of the show?
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Chris from Virginia
There were a lot of really great matches tonight in my opinion. While Kenny vs. Cody wasn’t Kenny’s best match, it was better in my opinion than their Supercard of Honor match. Dragon Lee and Hiromu exceeded my expectations as did Juice and Jay White. This was the best overall show NJPW has done in America since last year in my opinion.
But I have a couple questions: 1) They announced two more shows coming up this year in the US. Granted one of them is a Young Lion’s show. Do you think they are doing too many shows close together in the States, especially in the same area? 2) Do you think they will try to do the Cow Palace again in the near future given that they reportedly had issues on getting the place sold out?
Thanks and look forward to hearing your review of the show.
Mj
The thing I’ll take away from this show the most was how JR and Barnett pretty much did a 180 on the product that is New Japan Pro Wrestling after the Jay White incident. Whether shoot or work - it definitely felt real - the cursing and subsequent mocking of the match and rules and going off the air was a horrible look for everyone involved. With all due respect for JR he needs to be done calling this company’s events and I understand he’s an AXS guy and the comparison to Kevin Kelly isn’t fair but his true feelings showed tonight regarding the style NJPW has gone.
As for matches: Hiromu and Dragon Lee had an unbelievable juniors match. The Bucks vs LIJ was better than the first matchup. Those two really stood out.
Jeff Cobb looked good.
Naito felt like a big star.
I have no idea why they tweaked Suzuki’s music and talking over Kaze Ni Nare was another disappointing move by JR
Okada felt very strange without the title. Also weird new music and balloons in his entrance felt silly
If they were going to run that big an angle why wasn’t Fale there? A gang style beat down by 2 guys and Haku was a bit farfetched.
The main event looked unnecessarily brutal with weapons. Kenny took the ladder back into his face. Cody looked out cold when the table didn’t break on the outside. Brandi and Nick looked genuinely mortified. Either incredible selling or incredibly scary. I don’t get why Kenny and Cody feel the need to go more WWE style than Strong Style in their matches. Cody isn’t limited in moves and their in ring is good together without weapons or interference.
Compared to most WWE network shows this was much better due to in ring but some of the chances and swings they took tonight felt off compared to execution of Dominion and some other shows in the US
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Chris from Melbourne, Australia.
A good show from top to bottom in-ring, hard to top Hiromu Takahashi Vs Dragon Lee for my pick for Match Of The Night.
While I was listening to the Japanese commentary even that couldn’t spare me from Ross & Barnett. During the “intermission” they just seemed to be talking because the camera was live rather than informing the viewers of the upcoming main events.
Also Barnett getting involved with the White-Robinson match just came across as “WWE Commentator style B.S.” just what was the explanation on the English commentary?
Question: After 4 live shows and countless TV voiceover together should NJPW just cut ties to Ross & Barnett calling on NJPW World? I personally would rather have Kelly & Callis call the US shows in English for NJPW World.
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Lara from Vancouver but Temporarily a San Fran BART Train
What an incredible show to see live. I was pessimistic as heck about a month ago and John told me to just be patient… and he was right.
This is the first US show that felt like an actual New Japan show.
Getting to see the Tongan Death Grip live is a dream come true. Haku was the star for me tonight. He’s always been a favorite of mine so to see him be a beast again in that post Main Event beatdown was great.
Takahashi vs Dragon Lee was great but scary nuts… I hope both are ok… btw Dragon Lee wrestled three times the night before to win King of Indies… so this was his 4th match in 24 hours.
Jay White finally found his character tonight and he and Juice stole the show.
To me every match delivered at least something good… and the main event found a way to tell a good story and have some crazy spots.
The crowd was also incredible.
All in all I saw 14 out of my top 15 favorite wrestlers live tonight for the first time. I am so happy
10/10
3 Likes
Burney from Chicago
I really liked this show a lot. Young Bucks vs Evil and Sanada was really good.
Takahashi vs Dragon Lee went way above my expectations.
Tonight was the first time that I actually enjoyed a Jay White match. Although that JR and Barnett thing was really weird and I’m not quite sure if that’s a work or a shoot.
Cody and Kenny was better then SuperCard of Honor and I love the story telling going on with the Bullet Club.
I gave this show an 8 and would’ve gone as high as a 9, but the cuts away during crucial parts of the show really bothered me. My only frustration with NJPW is their need for a director(or a much better one), especially on these AXS shows.
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Who was the 15th that you didn’t see?
@MJfromNJ is right the 15th was Ibushi.
I also wanted to see Taichi… but he’s not on a fav 15 list XD
2 Likes
Questions since you were there live:
- was there talk about what was going on with Barnett during the White match?
- was anyone aware of how hurt Hiromu was
- was there a consensus top thing talked about leaving the venue?
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No one in my section had any idea wtf was happening with Barnett shit was wild. No one hated it though near me.
No one I talked to had any inclination that Hiromu was seriously hurt.
What you mostly would expect buzz was about Juice/Jay and Takahashi/Lee, though personally all I wanted to talk about was Haku and the post main event Tongan 3 Man Death Squad.
Oh and what you might not have seen on TV is that Juice jumped the barricade and celebrated his title win in the crowd for like 5-10 minutes. He came right to my section. I got to touch him and everything.
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I saw a video of this online and thought it was incredible. He’s done it in Japan and continuing the tradition in the US, particularly after a big win like that was great. He felt like a MADE man at the Cow Palace. I could see him being pushed heavily for the Sept 30th show. Juice and Cody could be a great match-up for the American audience in Long Beach.
As for the commentary jim ross anmounced Jay white as the new us champ (minutes after he lost the title ) and confused bushi with sanada (a mask less wrestler).
The matches were all good. You can tell the bullet club book their own stories. Its cohesive and im.confident in the payoffs. So much better than an army of writers, wrestlers controlling their own creative. Cody had no problem jobbing cuz it served a greater purpose. Great ending! Even if it was buried by the commenrators who were just weird all night.
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I was thinking about this and wonder if anyone ventures a guess - the rest of the Bullet Club who has not been featured and flat out left off big shows has agreed to go along with the broader story with this payoff and fall out in agreement for the group to remain under one brand and they all share in Merch money. Chase Owens has a shirt in hot topic which seems so weird to me but then again, he’s been a bit player while the BTE crew has been crushing it and getting all the story time.