NJPW G1 Climax 2015 Final Thoughts and Where They Go From Here

With the dust settled and many words spilled, it is time for one last consideration of this year’s G1 Climax tournament. An introduction to the concept and the happenings throughout have been well documented throughout these pages.

Here is a quick rundown of some takeaways:

Different from last year: The biggest difference for the G1 since its last incarnation was the format of having more shows, an undercard of non-tournament matches with the wrestlers in tournament matches on the following show, and less wrestlers in the tournament. I’ll speak a bit about each of these features.

The larger amount of shows did get to be a bit overwhelming, but with it was entirely possible to follow the entire tournament without watching the undercard matches. So, 5 matches per show is a pretty manageable amount of action to follow. There was plenty of good stuff within the undercard matches, though, so they are welcome for those with time to catch them. Their main purpose was to foreshadow who would be fighting on the next night’s show, and often featured some heated interactions between those wrestlers. The Junior Heavyweight talent and up and comers like Sho Tanaka and Ryohei Komatsu also had a chance to hone their skills. Watching their development is fun, if one has the time.

Especially on the last few shows, the undercard matches featured some great interactions between the members of CHAOS and the Bullet Club, and KUSHIDA being in action is always a good thing.

The reduced number of competitors would be due largely to the Suzuki-Gun faction being off working in the smaller promotion NOAH. I find the absence of the faction, in general, to not be a detractor. While certain talents would have been welcome, something I’ll discuss further in a bit, The removal of one of the factions made things feel more focus. You have CHAOS, the cool and somewhat lawless faction, the ruthless Bullet Club, and the NJPW wrestlers who represent the company itself. Another ruthless group like Suzuki-Gun in the mix would be redundant. With less people in the tournament, and a mere 5 tournament matches per show, it was easier to follow the smaller stories of each participant.

Another major change was the arrival of the NJPW World streaming platform, well in time for all of the G1 to be broadcast. While on one hand this is a total win – no scrambling to catch up on video upload sites like Daily Motion, which may or may not be updated on time by those saintly figures who took up the cause of getting the shows on there; and no paying the exorbitant price of buying each show on a legitimate provider. Plus with World in effect, the company’s efforts just seem to be at another level, production aiming to impress the international audience. Most of the time. Perhaps it’s inevitable, I can’t say I understand the logistics, but a good number of shows were broadcast with only a single wide shot camera angle in use and the absence of commentary. Sometimes, the camera work was top notch but commentary was not there. In the case of commentary, it truly heightens the emotional story being told in the ring but its absence didn’t hurt too much. The one camera angle really takes me out of the matches, though. The same goes for house shows leading up to a major event; I’m getting to a point of wanting to just skip those. They force you to miss so many important details like the wrestlers’ expressions. And if you find yourself watching on a small screen like say a mobile device, you cam barely make out who is wrestling or what is happening in the ring. NJPW seemed to mitigate the situation by reserving these shows for less important matches. But that’s the thing, even though some matches will be bigger than others by nature, attention shouldn’t be drawn to it. Every match should have potential to be a surprise blow out epic proportions. I hope then that the means can be found to present each G1 show with a variety of cameras in place.

As far as who was involved in this year’s tournament, a lot felt the same as last year but that is a nice feature of NJPW: getting to know this fairly consistently booked talent roster. Ibushi being in this year gave great exposure to his unique dynamic wrestling style. Michael Elgin’s well-documented success story was also fantastic. For someone with a lot of baggage attached due to whatever has happened along the way of his Ring of Honor career, he successfully jettisoned it and did an amazing job playing small but tough, relentless powerhouse. He showed respect to a lot of the talent he wrestled against, shaking hands with Yuji Nagata and Hiroki Goto, who he will wrestle again at ROH’s Field of Honor event in Brooklyn. Tomoaki Honma returning and getting that fantastic win against Tomohiro Ishii was an amazing moment to witness. Still he did not achieve that momentum level as last year; it is time for him to get more wins and serious singles programs with others on the card.

What I did not miss about Suzuki-Gun being included is how their matches became a routine of having outside interference from TAICHI or Taka Michinoku, and also having the sense that there are just more guys whose stories did not matter much. I thought Davey Boy Smith did an excellent job last year but his being in a tag team made his matches seem a lot less important. Shelton Benjamin is a fast working wrestler who also grabbed my attention in last year’s tournament, but did not seem like a big deal. If it was just Minoru Suzuki coming in, I guess that would be welcome. His career carries the weight of wrestlers like Hiroki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata and even if he was not expected to win, one could suspend disbelief while watching his matches.

Something that didn’t sit that well was standout talent who seem poised at the next wave of big stars in the promotion, Kota Ibushi, Katsuyori Shibata, and Tetsuya Naito had some amazing key wins but later in the tournament started taking losses to wrestlers of either lesser importance, like Doc Gallows, or veterans who are clearly less capable than they used to be, like Hiroyoshi Tenzan. I would consider, though, that perhaps there is a conscious effort in effect to make everyone in the tournament look a bit more on the same level as one another, and in a positive way. Certainly there are big discrepancies of point totals, like when you compare Honma and Okada. Or even if you compare Nagata and Kojima’s points with current main eventers Shinsuke Nakamura and Goto. I guess this occurred more in the A Block where a lot of guys taken less seriously, such as Toru Yano and Gallows, competed. This is not necessarily bad. Those wit remarkable performances will be remembered for being remarkable. Shibata, Naito, and Ibushi still have the potential to break out between now and Wrestle Kingdom in January. Meanwhile, where WWE has a tendency to make its wrestlers look bad, here NJPW seems to be making an effort to ensure everyone in this picture poses some level of threat. Yano has his sneakiness, Takashi  Yujiro has his cheating, Gallows got a bit more stock as a domineering monster (particularly in his match against Shibata), and Tenzan, Kojima, and Nagata have their experience and determination.

The story told overall was an elegant one that, if you listen to some more insightful heads in and around the wrestling business, was a no brainer booking job. Hiroshi Tanahashi climbed to the top of the A Block, closely rivaled by former IWGP Heavyweight champion AJ Styles. In the B Block, current champion Okada Kazuchika dominated his section of the tournament, with former Intercontinental champion and CHAOS cohort Shinsuke Nakamura rising from the pack of other contestants to challenge him. Nakamura won in a reversal of their match in last year’s G1 Finals. Tanahashi and Nakamura, long time rivals, would battle in the finals for the right to challenge for the title at the landmark show Wrestle Kingdom 10. In an extremely long, hard fought battle, Tanahashi emerged victorious. Now Tanahashi can challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight title, a belt he lost to AJ Styles earlier this year. But the man he will challenge is Kazuchika Okada. His opponent, whom he triumphed over at last year’s Wrestle Kingdom. Many called for AJ and/or Nakamura to be in the finals, many of whom expected Nakamura to win. I think Tanahashi is being seen as the old guard, John Cena-type figure that some have grown tired with. Don’t look for any indication of that in the arenas where they have been performing, though, as fans have been visibly thrilled by each Tanahashi win. Nakamura represents the future to them, or they just think he is cooler. But the way things went down tells the simplest and strongest story. Tanahashi challenges for the title and to prove he is not finished being at the top quite yet. While Okada holds the title, he could not get the job done defeating Tanahashi on the grandest scale of Wrestle Kingdom last year. The end of that emotional match saw him looking up at his senior. This match is a chance for him to correct that and truly stand as the top wrestler in the company. There is time for Nakamura yet.

This vision became clear when some magazine cover was making the rounds online, showing Tanahashi, Okada, and Nakamura standing as what looked clearly like the top 3 wrestlers in the promotion. Add to that AJ Styles, the newcomer and someone from outside of Japan, which might give him slightly less public standing outside of pro wrestling. With Tanahashi and Okada’s story ready to go another round, that might leave a match between Styles and Nakamura as a natural number two. There has been no conflict between the two yet and no clear direction has been marked for them yet, or the rest of the Bullet Club for that matter. This could easily be their next chapter. If Styles got his hands on the Intercontinental Championship from Hiroki Goto, and some upcoming special shows leave the opportunity for that to happen, that may add easy stakes to a battle between Styles and Nakamura.

Despite a few reservations, the G1 Climax was an awesome month long spectacle with many improvements from the last year, which served to set up the next gigantic Wrestle Kingdom show.

Twitter: @mondocurrymark

Destination Philly

Back in May, I had the thrill of hitting the I95 and driving down from New York City to Philadelphia for the second of the two night stand War of the Worlds event put on by Ring of Honor, and featuring members of the New Japan Pro Wrestling roster. Being a huge proponent of NJPW, and having had an absolute blast when the two promotions' top talent locked up at last year's first incarnation of the event at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom, I was going to go to great lengths to check this out. While I would've preferred to see this meeting of wrestling worlds go down in New York City again as opposed to its smaller yet extremely wrestling-centric neighbor to the south, it's always good to have an excuse to jet down to Philadelphia for a cheesesteak...or two...and other fine eats, some record store rummaging, and taking in the vibe of a generally more laid back hostility-free scene.

So, day off from work sorted out, I loaded up the war machine and, as it's never a good idea to venture into the Wasteland alone, made room for Chocko, also known as the 'Underboss' of the Mondoverse, who held things together on a lot of fronts: navigator, photographer, food wrangler, enforcer. The eater of sandwiches and I quickly made our way down to Old City to try the cheesesteaks at Sonny's Famous Steaks, and pick up some entrance theme music options at the charming a.k.a music. From there we made our way toward South Street, then further off the grid for an obligatory recharge and re-caffeination session at vegan cafe Grindhouse, where the thrash and death metal background music also helped get the blood pumping. This has become an unlikely but obligatory pro wrestling pilgrimage stopover spot, originally stumbled upon when an exhibition of photos by Zia Hiltey featuring El Generico and Chikara Pro activity was being held there. Finally it was over to the strip of auto shops and warehouses, which were definitely on the edge of something if not 'town', where the ECW Arena stood in wait.

This was definitely Road Warrior territory. If not Fury Road, perhaps Fury Row, which is a slightly less unsettling part of town than Muffler Row (link to FOTpedia). With the line of warehouse structures on one side, there is a view across the way to a dim industrial expanse. The street that fills the gap in between had become a jagged jamming together of parked cars in an arrangement that ever so slightly tipped its hat at organization by the time we arrived. Standing around and on top of the vehicles were wrestling fans aplenty, many of which were wearing Bullet Club t-shirts, most of whom were White. Essentially the ECW Arena resembled a strip club from the outside, and an emptied out warehouse space inside. Once inside, after 2 or 3 laps around the venue, we determined the narrow sliver of seats that was our section, where indeed nobody was sitting, and got to watching the show.

Wrestling

The unannounced opening match put the masked Latin Lover against recent new prospect turned House of Truth member J Diesel. The heel claimed a moderately hard fought victory for Team Truth.

Next up was the official opener of the show: The Decade's Adam Page taking on NJPW via New Jersey star Watanabe. Adam Page was accompanied by newly christened Decade young boy Colby Corino, which is important to note because the most memorable moments of the match involved him interfering and getting blasted by Watanabe. First, he received a 'Holy Shit' chant inducing German Suplex on the floor. Afterwards, as the victorious Adam Page, who won with his Inverted Backdrop Pile Driver finisher, was leaving the ring, Colby was pulled in by Watanabe for a lariat. Hitting a kid with the build of a scrawny teenager did not do much to put Watanabe over as a baby face, nor would I say it added much value to the ROH brand when Moose would destroy Colby with repeated power bombs outside the ring in their confrontation at Global Wars a few days later.

ROH's Michael Elgin took on NJPW's junior heavyweight KUSHIDA next. It was a dynamic match with KUSHIDA hitting a lot of high spots and Elgin landing some brutal looking throws and slams. KUSHIDA's manner was plenty aggressive, slapping away a handshake as the match started, and charging straight into the fight with the physically overbearing Elgin. Despite some intense back and forth sequences, Elgin defeated the small opponent.

The next match pit legitimate NJPW major player Tetsuya Naito against reDRagon's Kyle O'Reilly. While O'Reilly was in effect representing ROH, it pleased me that this was a match that could have appeared right on the bill of a not-so-typical NJPW show in Japan, since reDRagon have a consistent presence in the promotion's Junior Heavyweight division.  The match incorporated a lot of humorous elements, and the heel/face dynamic seemed to shift during the match, adjusting according to audience reactions. As Naito is much less widely known than a Hiroshi Tanahashi or Shinsuke Nakamura, a lot of those in attendance didn't know what to make of him or what to expect. He and O'Reilly pantomimed powering down and up in reaction to the chants of their own or their opponent's name. Naito seemed to enjoy playing up a goofy villainous persona, exaggerating his shining eye gesture arrogantly, and O'Reilly received a 'Sleazy Kyle' chant as he started strutting around the ring, something I believe he started doing to mock rivals The Addiction. In the end, Naito won the match with his Stardust Press finisher off the top rope. The two shook hands amicably afterwards.

The next match would be the seemingly suddenly placed 4 Corner Survival match between Mark Briscoe, Jushin 'Thunder' Liger, Jay Lethal, and Shinsuke Nakamura. I don't think fans expect this one to appear so early on the card. It might've been done strategically to send a few more people to the autograph area during intermission to get a picture with Nakamura, but it also ended up leaving me and perhaps several others a bit exhausted as the second half of the evening approached. Nakamura was by far the most over individual on the card that night. I stress 'individual' because the collective of The Bullet Club, and maybe even the Bullet Cub's not so secret weapon, The Young Bucks, got a reception that rivaled or surpassed the former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion's. But the crowd was roaring as Nakamura came out to the ring and as he wrestled.  The match was fun without generating any overly heated interactions between participants. Lethal and Nakamura danced around one another a bit, working taunts. At one point there was collusion between Mark Briscoe and Lethal as the two double teamed Liger in one of the corners, but Lethal, true to form, knocked Briscoe from the turnbuckle to underhandedly take out his peer. In the end Nakamura took the victory with a running bomaye knee to Liger.

At intermission time, the audience was urged to purchase 'Okada bucks' to throw during his ring entrance. As the break drew to a close, the ROH's svelte resident underdog Cheeseburger hyped the crowd with t-shirts being launched into the crowd til he was interrupted by veteran Brutal Bob. He ran down his former tag team partner, took a t-shirt for himself and knocked Cheeseburger out, setting up for a feud that would play out in a match appearing on ROH television not long after.

The first match after the intermission was a hot one, putting ROH regular Rodderick Strong VS NJPW ace Hiroshi Tanahashi. This extremely competitive bout was a definite highlight of the night, and from accounts I've heard, of the entire series of joint shows in both Philadelphia and Toronto. The drama was heightened when Rodderick was cut, his facing quickly covered by a slick layer of blood. The injury seemed unintentional but seeing Strong fight through whatever additional damage must have been incurred was riveting. Both combatants had loud cheers from the crowd going in their favor. Toward the end of the match Tanahashi hit signature moves in his arsenal: a Dragon Screw Leg Whip and a Sling Blade. Strong pulled out his running Drop Kick blast dubbed The End of Heartache and covered Tanahashi for a convincing near fall. Tanahashi would win the match with a High Fly Flow Splash off the top rope.

The Addiction, Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian, came out next to defend the Ring of Honor Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against CHAOS duo Kazuchika Okada and Gedo. The match was an excellent showcase of  Daniels' and Kazarian's work as a heel tag team. They hit a multitude of impressive double team maneuvers. They also continually trash talked their overseas opponents without missing a beat. Unsurprisingly the match was built around The Addiction double teaming Gedo and keeping him isolated, though the veteran and now behind the scenes maven of NJPW did fire off some impressive offense of his own, until he got the hot tag to Okada who blasted through both Daniels and Kazarian. It would not be enough, though, and the reigning ROH tag team champs would pick up the victory with Gedo being pinned. Afterwards, however, Okada ran back in and took out the celebrating heels, leaving Daniels laid out by a big Rainmaker Lariat.

The penultimate match had ROH Heavyweight Champion Jay Briscoe defending his title against reDRagon's more experienced half, Bobby Fish. The match was fighting an uphill battle in a few respects. It was drawing near to the end of a long show, but not quite the main event; it had a fairly predictable outcome; and just as the early match between Naito and O'Reilly could have been part of a typical NJPW show, this one could have easily been featured along the route of your average ROH tour.  Which has far less exotic implications. There was also some pretty strong anti-Briscoe sentiment in the crowd. I don't know if he's been a polarizing figure throughout his title run or if a particular contingent of jerky smart-mark fans in Philly were intent on creating friction. No matter, the two put on an excellent match. Fish was as credible a challenger to the Heavyweight title as anyone, which I hope NJPW officials took note of. While neither he nor O'Reilly are booked for the upcoming G1 Climax Tournament (they did make a huge mark during the Best of the Super Juniors series), they could easily hold their own in competition against NJPW's heavyweight roster members. There were some deadly looking maneuvers executed on the ring apron. Eventually Briscoe won with the Jay Driller Driver finisher to retain the title. The action was not quite over yet, as Moose made his way to the ring. There was an exchange of words leading to Moose leveling the champ with a spear. Jay would then pick himself up and, not carrying himself with the diplomacy of a John Cena, give the hostile audience a piece of his mind before making his way to the back.

It was now time for the main event: The Bullet Club, represented by IWGP Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles and the Young Bucks Matt and Nick Jackson, who currently hold the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles VS The Kingdom: Michael Bennet and Matt Taven, in current possession of the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team titles and only just returning to action Adam Cole, all of whom were accompanied to the ring by Maria Kanelis. The match would be a hair raising, crazy affair of flying bodies and intricately laid out spots throughout. I was not disappointed by the in ring action in the least. That this match itself was booked, and as the main event, left me a little cold for reasons I'll explain below. In the meantime as far as what I could actually keep track of during the match, there was an ongoing tease of the Young Bucks offering the 'too sweet' salute to Adam Cole, who would contemplate it to the shagrin of his presumably less cool pals in The Kingdom. In an extremely meta move, Taven and Bennet had a Young Buck locked up in the corner with Cole sauntering over, and then taking things further than the Bucks' unceremonious back rake and simply did nothing, dismissing the tangled up foe. An attack on Maria Kanelis was hinted at many times, and after one too many interjections into the match she received a triple Super Kick from the Bucks and Styles. AJ did hit the Styles Clash to come close to finishing the match but Taven and Bennet managed to make the save and clear the ring, with somebody's championship belts in hand, allowing for Cole to get a cheap and dirty roll up pin on Matt for the Kingdom to emerge victorious. Matt Jackson was really the ring general in this match, with AJ just holding his own. It gives credence to Matt's nickname, The Indietaker. But at the same time, for my money I would've liked to see AJ in a singles match, or at least defending his title against 2 or 3 other opponents. He is just too good in my opinion to see somewhere in the mix of a multi-man tag team match.

The reason for my feeling less than enthused about the match has a lot to do with my general warming over on the Bullet Club. No bones about it, ROH did know their audience and booked a finale that would have their core audience in this city eating it up, but I would go so far as to suggest a better program could easily out there and could potentially raise the stakes of the game. Essentially you had the bunch of jerks taking on the bunch of jerks that are cooler. No real faces to get behind, no heroes, just the guys in school you would be more afraid to get a swirly from. So who does that make the better performers? The villains that get received as villains or the ones that everybody wants to get a high five from?

Naturally the fans get behind the cool jerks. I'm not saying there is no place for this sort of program in wrestling at all. It is a great hallmark of this modern period of pro wrestling. It does have its limits, though, and I think the Bullet Club has definitely maxed out its intrigue level. At least to a wrestling audience that one hopes to expand. Beyond a bunch of jerky white guys in cool t-shirts...who look up to a wrestling group made up of a bunch of white guys who started the cool t-shirt. OK, that all sounds very preachy delivered from high atop the soap box and I'm not trying to be entirely like that. I am well aware pro wrestling isn't nor has it ever been a bastion of progressive thinking or social change, nor should it be entirely. But can it show some leanings in that direction? I don't think it is necessarily that unthinkable a notion. For one thing, playing on the fact that this is an international show highlighting international talent from NJPW, I would've liked to see that talent elevated into the highest slot on the card. Perhaps instead of warring heel groups, a situation where unlikely teammates become strange bedfellows to engage in competition with their rivals from within the opposing company.

This leads back to my eventual wish that the show had been held back at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Or somewhere else in New York City. Convenience aside, there is the fact that New York City has a lot more diversity and it stands to reason you would get a more diverse audience attending t the show. Again, I don't mean to come off as spouting a bunch of bleeding heart anti-White guy rhetoric. I am one, after all. But I definitely feel more comfortable in a mixed crowd than one where the vast majority looks and acts the same. Even leaving ethnicity out of the picture, I feel that New York City would bring a greater diversity of fan opinions and break up, even if just a little, that Bullet Club 'Boy's Club' in such full force at the ECW Arena. One thing I know to be a fact is that in New York City there is a huge Japanese population. And, as evidenced by the War Of The Worlds show last year, people in that community will come out to see the New Japan stars perform in person. I understand the Hammerstien has probably become cost prohibitive, but if another venue could be found within the 5 boros, I am confident the Japanese fans would find it and change up the crowd landscape a bit.

But if all this sounds like a whole lot of complaining, I really don't mean it to be. It was a fantastic show, and as our backs edged ever closer to the exit during the heel VS heel main event, we exited a bit ahead of the crowd so we could make a quick stop at Tony Luke's around the corner for a roast pork and provolone sandwich to go. That and the hilarity of The Best Show podcast, hosted by Tom Scharpling served as rocket fuel to get us back to New York City unscathed.

Meanwhile, I am pleased to have just found out NJPW wrestlers Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, and KUSHIDA will return to the east coast in late August for another ROH taping in Philadelphia right before ROH stages their second show at the MCU in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Perhaps some Japanese fans will flock to the distant fringe of the popular boro. Maybe ROH will get it a bit more right and push these guys to very important spots on the shows, and if the Bullet Club is still being presented as a major attraction, then maybe they will have them do something a bit more important. If fans really want a rehash of the NWO takeover era, then maybe they will actually play at taking over instead of hanging out.



'til then.


Several photos provided by Chocko (planetchocko.com)

Me on twitter: @mondocurrymark

Chocko on twitter: @njmisfit

G1 Climax 2015 reflection: pro wrestling is beautiful

180 matches over the course of a month. It would have actually been 181 but there was the one forfeit loss Nakamura had to give up due to injury. Add to that all of the undercard tag team matches and the number shoots well into the two hundreds. Watching all or most of these go down is nothing in league to the mental and physical duress undergone by the wrestlers and other talent participating in these shows. But to such a large number of matches in that short span of time does take a certain level of commitment and does leave a mark. When the dust has settled, stepping back and reflecting is a must.

This was absolutely the case as the final show of the tournament drew to a close.  Here in New York, t would be 2 AM when I pried myself out of bed and started up my Macbook, having just had an hour’s sleep.  In the dark I laid back in a position conducive to falling back asleep as I proceeded to watch the show get underway on that modest screen. The rush of watching this action as it happened live across the gglobe would be such that staying awake was no problem.

The show breezed briskly by right up to the intermission, which gave an opportunity to gather reinforcements in the form of coffee and leftover pizza. As the 4 AM hour came and went the dark was gradually replaced by a mellow grey. And then the weird epiphany-like sensations hit. Tanahashi was celebrating his victory after an incredible match with Shinsuke Nakamura as outside my place, the most wondrous sunrise was taking shape in the sky. A radiant pinkish orange flooding the sky with a warm welcoming light. The light made a unique path through window shade and furniture to cast a warm neon rectangular panel against a wall in my living room. All I could think was how this spoke sufficiently of the wondrous moment occurring in Sumo Hall and as a result in my own personal space.

Filled with adrenaline there was nothing to do but chase that sunrise. A few moments later, feet were shoved into sneakers, headphones attacked to ipod and placed over ears, and I was stumbling out into the street.  Japanese post-rock band Mono’s song, ‘Pure As Snow (Trails Of The Winter Storm), a song I’d encountered when my fantastic film fanatic alter-ego mondocurry heard it in a new by Sono Sion movie, Tag (Real Oni Gokko) was selected to fill my ears. It’s a lush, majestic, sorrowful and hope-inspiring sonic creation… yes all of those things, it really is worthseeking out to give a listen. About midway down the long sloping hill my apartment sits at the top of I gave up, the sun reaching its more standard position. And as the world around me was wrapped in stillness and solitude, the irrational surge of energy brought on by that cathartic wrestling program was finally subsiding, leaving me with a most unlikely realization:  Pro wrestling is beautiful. More specifically, New Japan Pro Wrestling is beautiful.

This strange experience as night turned to day, touched by sadness and insecurity and brilliance and optimism, was not likely the intended effect of the show. IIt was planned with its local crowd in mind, arriving in a mid afternoon blaze of sun and filing out in the darkening evening, where perhaps snacks or suppers awaited before an exhausted sleep would take hold. But an effect of the New Japan World streaming service, now approaching its one year mark, was to open a portal transporting me to the show and the show to me and allowing me to view in tangent with this awesome natural phenomenon that I would have otherwise missed entirely, in the standard mode of Sunday morning slumber.

New Japan Pro Wrestling has been putting out nothing short of an amazing product, at least as long as their World service has been active, but probably a bit further as well. So it is not that large a leap to find this strange feeling of transgression occur at the end of one its shows. While the singular experience may not replicated any time soon, it served to make me consider how NJPW has been a form of solace for me on account of its consistent quality. It’s been something akin to a buoy, keeping at the very least this fan afloat. In a reality peppered with unreliabilities – tragic occurrences, uncertainties over the future, the sudden abandonment or change in personality of those you trusted in – this wrestling promotion has been a steady source of unwavering quality, the effort of many individuals working together to ensure the best or close to it is achieved. Even if there are some low points or head-scratching moments within the mix, a crescendo or ‘main event’ if you will is always there hitting the high water mark.  Not only is this level of quality consistently high, it always gives the sense of striving for something even greater.

I believe this can be accounted for on two major fronts. The first I believe, is an incredible talent pool who believe in what they do and are insistent on never phoning it in. The names Tanahashi, Nakamura, Okada, Styles, Ibushi, to name only some, have been delivering nothing short of ‘match of the year’ contenders when they get in the ring on the major stage. They always appear physically and mentally exhausted after the big shows they wrestle in because they have clearly given it their all. If something works great they may continue to use such a tool in their arsenal but they always  add something new to the equation the next time around.

The other thing that I firmly plays a large role in making NJPW so consistently good is its adherence to some core beliefs about how pro wrestling should be presented. While lack of change may be frustrating at times, it has ensured that when those big moments come in the critical matches of each major show, they are not disappointing. The most significant of points that are insisted on are that the most important story is the one inside the ring, and the force driving that competition in the ring is also to win inside the ring and be the best. Always. It is not because somebody kidnapped someone’s daughter, or the regime controlling the company is tyrannical and needs to be usurped, or a representative of another country is under orders to demonstrate that nation’s dominance over another. Those can be fun, and one could argue they have an important place in keeping pro wrestling somewhat relevant to the mainstream. But in the bubble that New Japan Pro Wrestling has created for itself, wrestling is real. Even if the competition is staged and predetermined, the effort put into making this a convincing, compelling athletic competition that suspends ones disbelief about what they are watching is 100 percent genuine. Thus you have a competition with results that feel real, and those presenting it have shown a tremendous commitment to making it so. And there you have the G1 Climax, where this commitment was adhered to on a scale as grand as a 181 match tournament. And of course that fits in to a bigger picture mapped out and connected together over time, but one could argue the G1 is its crowning achievement.

While NJPW has been doing well for a while, and I have witnessed some of it on video upload sites and the very occasional ippv purchase I feel it is worth focusing on this time period commencing with the inception of NJPW World because that has opened the promotion’s activity up to such a wider audience. The promotion and wrestlers in the promotion are most definitely aware of that and it no doubt has an effect. Its launch time was curious, right around the end of 2014 in time to build up a bit of momentum before the big culminating event Wrestle Kingdom occurred in January of 2015. It should be noted that although Wrestle Kingdom occurs in January it marks the conclusion of many stories that have occurred throughout the prior year. A lot of the company’s 9^th Wrestle Kingdom’s success could be attributed to the PPV push it got as Jeff Jarret worked very hard to promote it in tandem with his Global Force Wrestling project. Therefore, I am very interested in the next Wrestle Kingdom and see it as the first that is truly part of this  ‘NJPW World era.’ It is the first of these big events that will have had a year long build up told via this international streaming service. And a huge part of it has been the unfolding of the G1 Climax.

It may seem some faulty logic: that a wrestling show made available internationally leads to watching it end as a beautiful sun rise occurs leading to the belief that NJPW may be at the top of its game right now and is putting out the best wrestling there is in the world. Yet before you dismiss it, I strongly suggest you find your way to a bit of the G1 Climax, as much as you think you can handle, and see what it does for you.

 twitter: @mondocurrymark