G1 Climax (2015) B Block Breakdown

 After taking apart the A Block of this year’s G1 Climax tournament, let’s look at how the B Block shapes up. In comparison there are less sharp distinction between combatants and more of a mid range of wrestlers both technically sound and with hard hitting offense. You are not likely to see a high flyer take on a giant like you might in the A Block, but you will see a lot more evenly matched bouts. CHAOS has a strong presence in the B Block, which will likely produce matches with a lot of flair but camaraderie pervading. B Block is also host to some highly pedigreed combatants, including IWGP Heavyweight champion and winner of last year’s G1 Kazuchika Okada, former Intercontinental Champion and finalist in last year’s G1 Shinsuke Nakamura, current Intercontinental Champion Hiroki Goto. You can also find some boasting points around Bullet Club mainstay and one half of the current IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team champions Karl Anderson, and former Never champion Tomohiro Ishii. Veterans with plenty of past championship runs to their name, Yuji Nagata and Satoshi Kojima make less likely candidates for wining the tournament but can still hold their own against anyone in their path. Tomoaki Honma exploded onto the G1 scene last year, and though he went without a victory he kept up with everyone he competed with and looks to make a stonger showing this time around. Newcomer to the tournament, Michael Elgin brings his experience in Ring of Honor to shake up the otherwise familiar tournament landscape, and finally Yujiro Takashi represents the Bullet Club more known for his smarminess and underhandedness than anything, unlikely to win, but full of potential to spoil things for others on the slate.

I’ll run down the matches of the competitors in the tournament thus far, starting with the participants holding the most prominence, and then go over my expectations for the tournament as I did after looking at the A Block.

Kazuchika Okada: Okada started the year on a down note, having just lost to Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom in a match that many believed would cement his top spot in the company. But the rest of the year ended up being a come back story as he the psyched out ‘Rainmaker’ got over his insecurities and emerged victorious from a back and forth program with ‘Bad Luck’ Fale. He went on to step to and defeat AJ Styles at Dominion to regain the Heavyweight title, which he had lost to AJ in the previous year. Appearing at the top of his game, a win in the tournament again would leave him with all the cards in the company.

Match 1: Okada defeated Michael Elgin with the Rainmaker lariat.

Match 2: Okada defeated Tomoaki Honma with the Rainmaker lariat.

Match 3: Okada defeated Satoshi Kojima with the Rainmaker lariat.

Match 4: Okada lost to Hiroki Goto who won with the Shouten Kai.

Match 5: Okada lost to Karl Anderson who won with the Gun Stun,

Match 6: Okada defeated Tomohiro Ishii with the Rainmaker lariat.

Total points: 8

Shinsuke Nakamura: Nakamura, my prediction for the winner of the B Block, has had a dynamic ride, having perhaps the biggest amount of crowd support in his native Japan and absolutely getting the largest pops during the rare US appearances he has made with the ROH promotion. He had a long run with the Intercontinental championship until recently dropping the title to Hiroki Goto and failing to recapture it. The next title for him to recapture would seem to be the Heavyweight championship, and there is little doubt he is in the upper echelon of wrestlers who could convincingly run with it.

Match 1: Nakamura lost to Karl Anderson after being hit with the Gun Stun.

Match 2: Nakamura defeated Yuji Nagata with the bomaye knee strike

Match 3: Nakamura forfeited to Michael Elgin due to injury.

Match 4: Nakamura defeated Tomohiro Ishii with the bomaye knee strike.

Match 5: Nakamura defeated Hiroki Goto with an armbar submission.

Match 6: Nakamura defeated Yujiro Takashi with the bomaye knee strike.

Total points: 8

Hiroki Goto: Goto has been at it for a while, not quite achieving top level victories but being continually impressive with his unique hard hitting offensive maneuvers. Until now, though, as he successfully defeated Nakamura for the Intercontinental championship and retained it in a few rematches. Prior to that, Goto teamed with Katsuyori Shibata to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team titles  from the Bullet Club’s Anderson and Gallows, but lost them in a rematch that followed. Now, Goto is looking to prove that the Intercontinental title is on par with the Heavyweight title, talking of unifying the belts after achieving victory over Okada.

Match 1: Goto defeated Yujiro Takashi with the shouten kai.

Match 2: Goto lost to Karl Anderson who hit the Gun Stun.

Match 3: Goto defeated Tomoaki Honma with the shouten kai.

Match 4: Goto defeated Kazuchika Okada with the shouten kai.

Match 5: Goto lost to Shinsuke Nakamura (See Above).

Match 6: Goto defeated Satoshi Kojima with the shouten kai.

Total points: 8

Karl Anderson: Anderson has been one of the most impactful gaijin wrestlers to join the NJPW roster in recent years. Instrumental in forming the Bullet Club and arguably its leader now, Anderson currently holds half of the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team championship with fellow Biz Cliz member Doc Gallows. They have lots the belts to the combination of Goto and Shibata, and Ring of Honor’s Michael Bennet and Matt Taven of The Kingdom, but regained the titles back from each of these foes. While singles gold has eluded Anderson for some time, he seems to have the number of several top stars in New Japan and poses a threat to all who face him.

Match 1: Anderson defeated Shinsuke Nakamura with the Gun Stun.

Match 2: Anderson defeated Goto Hiroki with the Gun Stun.

Match 3: Anderson lost to Tomohiro Ishii in a hard hitting match after being leveled with a lariat to the back of his head, and then being  hit with a Brainbuster.

Match 4: Anderson defeated Yuji Nagata with the Gun Stun, after reversing an attempt at a Back Drop Bomb by Nagata into the effective finisher for the 3 count.

Match 5: Anderson defeated Kazuchika Okada with the Gun Stun.

Match 6: Anderson defeated Tomoaki Honma, catching his kokeshi Headbutt off the top rope and turning it into a Gun Stun for the pin fall victory.

Total points: 8

Tomohiro Ishii: Ishii, appropriately referred to as pitbull is known for his hard hitting style, seeming to leave everything in the ring. Sometimes it feels as though his matches have a dangerous number of suplexes and lariats, often times from the turnbuckle. Ishii has had a challenging year, losing the Never Openweight championship he held so proudly to Togi Makabe at Wrestle Kingdom. He regained the title when Tomoaki Honma wrestled in an ill Makabe’s place, but has since failed to recapture the title from Makabe in two rematches.

Match 1: Ishii defeated Satoshi Kojima when he interrupted a flurry of forearms with a Head Butt and then hit a Brainbuster for the pin fall victory.

Match 2: Ishii defeated Yujiro after kicking out of everything the Biz Cliz playa could throw at him, and hit a Brain buster for the pin and win.

Match 3: Ishii defeated Karl Anderson with a Brainbuster.

Match 4: Ishii lost to Shinsuke Nakamura after being hit by the bomaya knee strike.

Match 5: Ishii defeated Yuji Nagata after the two went through an emotional and harsh looking exchange of slaps, which Ishii ended with a vicious Headbutt. Ishii went on to nail a Brain buster to pick up the pinfall victory.

Match 6: Ishii losto Kazuchika Okada when he was hit by the Rainmaker lariat.

Total points: 8

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A noticeable difference in the A Block and B Block results is a lot more variation in the A Block whereas in B, there is steady solid, if slightly more routine work. Wrestlers are hitting their main finishers to bring most of the matches to an end.

There is also a lot less detail put into my accounts of what happened here than with the A Block. There were extremely good spots in matches and dramatic logical stories being told in ring, but the lack of range left a lack of particular moments in matches getting as much going. Another factor, which I should have assessed in the overview of the G1 is the occasional appearance on NJPW World streams of shows broadcast without commentary and through the lens of a single steady shot of the ring, or one or the other of these alterations. The B Block started in this mode, causing those matches to have much less of an impact. Hopefully World can limit the broadcasts of this nature. While the lack of commentary is ok, the single static camera angle often takes a lot of the intensity out of the matches.

There is a sense that the B Block has been undergoing alterations on the fly on account of an injury undergone by Nakamura, which knocked him out of his third round match with Elgin. Perhaps a testament to this year’s new format, Nakamura was able to sit out an event that featured A Block tournament matches and B Block participants in tag team openers. That plus a day off between events could have helped Nakamura recover in time for the rest of the tournament.

Like with the A Block, a tie between a few of the higher tier wrestlers is forming, making it a close race and what will likely be a race for points that comes down to the very last day before the finals.

I predict Nakamura will win the B Block, taking a victory against Okada in a match that would send either of them to the finals. This would find Nakamura returning the favor for his loss to Okada in last year’s finals.

I return to this visual I saw that suggests a Top 3 in the company: Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Shinsuke Nakamura. I think if you add the possibly less marketable in Japan’s mainstream, yet still integral presence of AJ Styles and you have a main event picture for the big Wrestle Kingdom show. Styles VS Nakamura would be an intriguing new match up, but I think the tried and true lock up between Okada and Tanahashi is begging for a sequel. That’s why I see Nakamura joining Tanahashi in the finals, and Tanahashi going on to win and challenge Okada to contest him for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on the biggest show of the year.

What do you think?

The (not so) Big Gun Down: We Are Suzuki-Gun

Here is another very quick look at a unique New Japan World offering that appeared in the viewing library following close on the heels of the Best of the Super Juniors. And it's a curious one. While not an all around knock out of a show, I'm all for the inclusion of more than less. Give people lots of options and let them watch what they want. So I wouldn't consider 'We Are The Suzuki Gun' as essential viewing, it is interesting to make note of.

If you are new to the world of New Japan Pro Wrestling in the past few months, you might be asking who, or what, is a Suzuki Gun? Those rabid NJPW fans out there are familiar with the nasty heel group, led by Minoru Suzuki, as a group of wrestlers donned mostly in black, with little charm - far less than even the Bullet Club - and a tendency to use illegal objects to batter and choke their opponents outside of the ring, both during and after matches. There is a fairly large gaijin presence in the group, including Shelton X Benjamin and KES (Killer Elite Squad), the tag team of Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer. A few smaller Junior Heavyweight wrestlers are on the team: Taka Michinoku, TAICHI, and most recently Desperado, although in NJPW, I rarely see Michinoku or TAICHI in more than a periphery role. The surly group is rounded out by Iizuka Takashi, an older wrestler with a George 'The Animal' Steel-ish demeanor, who mainly stomps around and chokes people out with whatever pliable objects are in the vicinity.

The leader Suzuki himself has developed a bit of a charm about him. Maybe it's a combination of his cheesy but easy to sing along to 80's rock-like entrance theme, and his 'i just don't give a fuck' attitude.' Oh, and the fact that he is a legitimate threat of a grappler when it comes to in-ring action is important too.

After this year's Wrestle Kingdom, where Suzuki successfully defeated Sakuraba in an MMA shoot-style match, and the rest of Suzuki-Gun fared less successfully in a bout against a team of the strugglingNOAH promotion's wrestlers, the Gun up and split from NJPW, for an undetermined amount of time, to stage a takeover of NOAH. Of course, in the fake sport imitating life world of pro wrestling, NOAH itself was experiencing a takeover of sorts, or maybe more of a life preserver tossed their way, as NJPW took on a considerable amount of the company's expenses (I don't know the details nor do I know if any certifiable factual data is truly out there) and Jado, who with brother Gedo has been successfully booking NJPW of late, went to ply his trade behind the NOAH curtain.

While some fans speculated on a back and forth with NJPW, which would include the coming over of NOAH stars like Marufuji to NJPW events, Suzuki Gun has pretty much been all up in NOAH's business with no movement the other way. Suzuki Gun is not scheduled to be any part of the G1-Climax Tournament either so I would not hold my breath waiting for their return to an NJPW ring any time soon; maybe for some matches at the January, 2016 Tokyo Dome show.

I am tempted to go off on a strange tangent at this point, which will be shelved for maybe another time down the line, about how the NJPW brand could very well be undergoing conscious molding to gear it toward a female audience. An interesting, to say the least, move in an industry that has always attracted a predominantly male audience and has been leveled with many claims of chauvinism, probably more so in Japan than elsewhere. And, it would seem that having Suzuki-Gun elsewhere kind of sort of helps to achieve that end. In this group is a high concentration of talent that one would be hard pressed to describe as cuddly or cute or even 'hunky.' Meanwhile, we are left with a number of 'baby faces' both in the wrestling style and attractiveness sense. But again, going down this road and considering its implications is a trip best saved for another time.

So, with Suzuki Gun fully integrated into the NOAH shows, generating intrigue by shaking things up and claiming all of the company's championships for themselves, with Suzuki Minoru winning the Heavyweight Championship from Naomichi Marufuji, we get a show from what seems to be NOAH soil, shown on the NJPW World service, and seemingly put together or produced by Suzuki himself. It reminds me of those amazing All Tomorrow's Parties events where a band or artist headlines and curates the other acts on the show. Indeed it started out with Suzuki on the mic for a good 15 minutes in what could have been him doing a standup comedy routine. I certainly could not tell what the content was, but it generated plenty of laughter from among the audience.

The first match was the definite highlight for me: former NOAH champ Marufuji VS the anti aging superstar Yuji Nagata. This match really made it clear who is in control of the landscape, as the top NOAH star was unable to defeat the fading but still very capable NJPW representative. The two had a very physical, very technically sound fight to a draw due to time expiring.

A strange tag team match featuring all NOAH talent found two foreigners, John Webb and Jack Gamble, more or less battling among themselves, which their opponents, Genba Hirayangi and Hitoshi Kumano capitalized on to take the win.

Shelton X Benjamin and Taka Michinoku fought with a heavyweight and junior heavyweight alike, Takashi Sugiura and Daisuke Harada. There was some good back and forth action, with Benjamin getting into some heated exchanges with both opponents on the other team. In one pretty intimidating looking expression, an attempt was made to knock Shelton off the apron, to which e responded by extending his arms and pulling himself right back to the ropes with a dead-eyed stare. He and Taka were sent packing though as the other team picked up the win.

There was more tag team awkwardness as Gedo and gainjin wrestler Zack Sabre Jr. took on Captains New Japan and NOAH, who is in fact Jado. Attention was drawn to this, as Jado turned midway through the match to trip up Captain New Japan, leading to Gedo and his partner to be the winners...and in effect Captain NOAH too? Or not really. While it was amusing, it kinda made me feel sorry for Captain New Japan, the big galoot. Not my idea of prime entertainment.

After a presumed intermission, can't be sure since the event was delivered as individual segments, a J-pop girl group came out, all dressed in red, to sing along, or maybe they were lip-synching (doesn't seem to matter) and perform a choreographed dance to some music blaring over the PA. As fans clapped along, it reminded me of my earlier sidetrack, and if NJPW is skewing toward pleasing its female audience, then this NOAH brand was definitely remaining a true to a stronghold of male fans. I could go off further on the weird lolita-complex attributed to adulr males that seems to be treated as completely acceptable running through Japanese pop entertainment, but here's probably not the time. In what I felt was the most true heel move of the show, the girls were joined by TAICHI and El Desperado, who posed and made a gesture of singing along with the group. They took on Jushin 'Thunder' Liger and Yoshinari Ogawa. The baby face heroes took the win, but were beaten viciously afterwards by Suzuki-Gun's TAICHI and Desperado. This is a trope that has been increasingly getting on my nerves: one team or single wrestler wins, but the other attacks afterwards. Then, who cares who won? I understand how it's a nice card to play ONCE IN A WHILE, to show how dastardly someone can be. When Owens attacked Cena after their rematch at the WWE Money in the Bank special, that was a good example of using this story telling convention to good effect. With Suzuki-Gun, it happens far too often, and in the case of the guys of lesser importance, it gets to be a bore.

A high point of the show ended up being a tried and true confrontation: KES (Smith Junior and Archer), who are in possession of the NOAH Heayweight Tagteam belts, against Tencozy (Tenzan and Kojima). It was a good match, nothing shocking or out of the ordinary, with KES picking up the win.

The main event was a strange one: Mr. Minoru Suzuki himself, teamed with Iizuka against the masked Maybach Taniguchi and Yoshihiro Takayama, the long blonde haired veteran, who I should now say is the "featured in the Sono Sion movie TOKYO TRIBE" Yoshihiro Takayama. This movie has been released in Japan some time ago, and for New Yorkers, it will be playing at the annual New York Asian Film Festival, and is a crazy feast of hip hop storytelling, crazy neon set pieces, and violence galore. That aside, this is far from a main event that can be said to be compelling. Heel/Face dynamics are out the window. I admire Suzuki-Gun for sticking to their heel identities, but they are clearly over with fans, so it was kinda like they needed to find wrestlers who have a similar shtick and are not as cool or likable, and could therefore get the fans cheering for the Gun. It is very hard for me to rally behind a guy who does a 'crazy man' gimmick and just runs around the ring and brawls. So Iizuka's inclusion in this main event at all brought the sudden realization that this show was not a very big deal; setting up for other thins down the line, I guess, but I'm not even sure how big a deal that could be.

Suzuki-Gun cheated blatantly. Minoru ripped Maybach's mask off, which basically pissed the fellow old and grizzled old Japanese wrestler off, after which he started gnawing away at Minoru Suzuki's head. At one point the masked wrestler had used a staff with a curved end to drive Iizuka into the corner before he could strike Takayama with his chain, or some other illegal object. Takayama and Maybach won. Did fans ]get excited for their victory? Was any sympathy generated over Suzuki-Gun's loss?? I couldn't say.

Again, I am glad for the variety and want more material on my NJPW World than less, but I do hope the powers that be realize that Suzuki-Gun's takeover will only be as compelling as long as there are dynamic a baby faces to have a rivalry with them. It will make these brand offshoots that much more enjoyable.

twitter: @mondocurrymark

NJPW The Story So Far This Year part 3 Drink From the Cup

The New Japan Cup is an annual staple of the company's program, which features a single elimination tournament of non title holders, the winner of which gets an opportunity to challenge for any of the company's titles at the next major event. This year that will be Invasion Attack.

New Japan Road was an event added to NJPW World shot in the unspectacular manner of limited camera angles and no commentary accompaniment. There was no Bullet Club presence on the show, though some among their ranks would make a showing at the upcoming New Japan Cup shows.

The show was opened by the lions in training, Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu. Tanaka won this one, causing Komatsu to tap out to a Boston Crab, that started with a single leg variation before both legs were secured.

Also of note, there was a good tag team match between Yuji Nagata and Captain New Japan and opponents Hiroki Goto and Kazuyori Shibata. Past matches involving Nagata and the team of Goto and Shibata have resulted in seriously heated exchange between Yuji and both members of the recently dethroned tagteam championship holding team. The match ended with Goto taking Nagata out of action with a sick looking lariat. Then Goto hit the Captain with his patented maneuver that flips his opponent out of a fireman's carry driving the back of the skull into his knee. This set up for Shibata to hit a nasty penalty kick to the Captain's chest and pick up the pin.

CHAOS was represented strongly in the two final matches: First Okada and YOSHI-HASHI beat the team of Naito and Taguchi, with Okada hitting the Rainmaker lariat on the previous Junior Heavyweight champion. Then, Nakamura, Ishii and Yano fought the ragtag combination of Tanahashi, Makabe and Honma. This was a very good match with Honma mounting impressive offense on the 'King of Strongstyle' near the end, including a flying kokeshi headbutt to the chest. The onslaught was broken up by an Ishii lariat, allowing Nakamura to eventually hit a running bomaye knee to the skull of Honma for the win.

New Japan Cup day 1

The March 5 show featured the opening round tournament bouts, which went at a rather brisk pace, surrounded by a mix of multi-man tagteam matches. The show opened with newcomers Jay White and Yohei Komatsu, KUSHIDA, and Liger taking on Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask, Rysuke Taguchi, and the fledgling Sho Tanaka. Macara Dorada continued his impressive showing with a corkscrew dive off the top rope onto Jay White for his team's win. Several first round tournament matches followed.

Bullet Club member Yujiro Takahashi defeated CHAOS' youngest member YOSHI-HASHI. Makabe defeated his stand-in at the NEW BEGINNING show, Honma with a brutal performance of his King Kong knee drop from the top turnbucke that landed scarily close to Honma's neck. When watching NJPW strongstyle wrestling, the physicality makes it easy to suspend disbelief and sometimes the reality of the action is impossible to deny. Here I would speculate if some genuine aggression was on display: disappointment at Honma's loss to Ishii, that would make sense as part of storyline, or irritation at Honma having such a great standout performance in his match for the Never title when he was just serving as a replacement for Makabe. The pain Honma sold after the match made me really question whether some unnecessary harm was carried out, or are these guys just that good at simulating credible athletic violence?  

Shibata defeated Kojima in a match where both of these guys hit each other with very hard hitting offense. Shibata won with a gift to fans of CM Punk and Hideo Itami/Kenta, first applying a sleeper hold to bring Kojima to near unconsciousness; then hoisting him up for a stiff looking GTS followed by a kick to the side of his head. Shibata's tag team partner Goto would defeat Nagata in good match, with Goto landing another one of his patented moves, lifting his opponent into a vertical suplex position and then swinging him forward to collapse under a neckbreaker-like move.

The tournament action would be broken up by another multi-man tagteam match pitting the members of CHAOS holding titles, Nakamura and Ishii, along with Sakuraba who here again would be included in the faction's ranks. They took on Captain New Japan, veteran Nakanishi (who used to be in a popular tag team with Yuji Nagata, but has held up far less well than the Anti Aging Hero), and Tenzan. What I recalled most from this match is Nakanishi landing some very difficult to believe offense on Nakamura, who could run circles around the lacking in mobility old timer. Ishii put down the Captain with a brainbuster and the pin. After the match there was some tension teased by Tenzan and Ishii, but it would follow that Tenzan, a popular veteran likely close to his end run, is inviting confrontation with more than one of his peers.

Back in the tournament, the high flying Ibushi and Naito defeated Bullet Club bullies 'Doc' Gallows and Karl Anderson respectively in their first round matches. Next would come two seemingly unlikely results. Tanahashi would lose to the far less agile CHAOS member, Yano, known for getting by with heelish techniques like low blows and tearing off the turnbuckle mats to slam opponents into the post back first, landed several very close pin attempts from out of nowhere. Then, he blocked a move by Tanahashi and yanked the former Heavyweight champion down by the hair, cradling him into an embarrassing pinfall victory.


Kazuchika Okada and 'Bad Luck' Fale had their first round match in the main event, and it was a match built to by several confrontations amidst tag team matches. This seemed like the moment Okada would gain retribution for failing to take down the Bullet Club heavy, but it would not come to be quite yet. Fale dodged a Rainmaker lariat and took out the fan favorite with a Samoan Spike finisher. The Bullet Club home team - AJ Styles and The Young Bucks presently doing ROH and presumably some indie shows in the US - would stand triumphantly in the ring with Anderson promising the tournament would be won by Fale. Here was an interesting move by the company, taking out its two top stars, promising to either put the tournament in the hands of next generation talent or the mega heel faction that dominated the one of the previous shows.


twitter = @mondocurrymark

A week in wrestling 2.22 - 3.1 MMM (Make Matches Matter)

OK then, the dust has settled from Fastlane. For about a week. I think there was some disappointment about the straight up loss of Bryan and the move forward with Reigns vs Lesnar. But not as much. Perhaps WWE has been plotting a strategic course to get fans accustomed to disappointment and able to rebound more quickly. If so, job well done. As I have mentioned, I am not that opposed to a Reigns vs Lesnar match; it’s definitely a more credible physical competition.  To me, the outcome of the match is more important. Do they force Reigns through the door despite lack of experience and a need to further develop his charisma and in-ring arsenal? Or do they keep Lesnar, the more interesting and dynamic performer, dominant either as an unbeatable heel or a turning face? This would require a Reigns heel turn, which the WWE looks very unlikely to pull the trigger on because they seem to so desperately want to market him as the next big thing. This is ignoring some basic pro wrestling logic of the recent and not so recent past: Heels get over. Look at when Reigns was most over, as a member of the ruthless heel group, The Shield. Making him truly kick ass as a villain will make him ease into the baby face role down the line that much easier.

Of course the decision of who wins is probably largely dependent on Brock Lesnar’s future with WWE, one that is increasingly questionable considering his walk out of a scheduled appearance on the last episode of RAW and a reportedly heated argument with Vince McMahon. The card of Wrestlemania and the future course of the WWE wouldn’t be so frustratingly up in the air if they would get to doing one simple thing well: consistently make both faces and heels appear impressive. One of the key words there is consistently. Had WWE been doing this over the past few years, a Dolph Ziggler or Cesaro or even a Wade Barrett may have been able to step up to the main event plate by now.

RAW had some terribly confusing storytelling when it came to the Randy Orton/Authority story, resulting in an angle that could’ve potentially charged things up coming off as very lackluster. It went something like this…Randy Orton comes out mad as hell at Seth Rollins, telling Steph and Triple H they can take their plan for reconciliation and shove it, and then basically saying, ‘ok, sure, let’s talk.’ And then basically getting back together for a run of the mill tag team match, with tease of Orton going on crazy on Rollins when…We already KNOW he is going to go crazy on Rollins. It wasn’t even a plan on Orton’s part to infiltrate the group and then hit Rollins when his guard was down. It was an illogical way to drag a story out longer, making Orton look lame, when they could’ve easily carried a program between them to Wrestlemania out by having them cut menacing promos and win matches against up and coming talent.

While I love NXT, this week was one in which I found some serious missteps. Better said, there were some good ideas carried out with what I felt was some shoddy execution. It’s a good move bringing in familiar faces like Brian Kendrick (as well as Rhyno last week) to give the new faces some seasoned work style to bounce off of. But having Kendrick suddenly face Finn Balor was a rushed program, and ended up being a wasted match. NXT would’ve been wise to bring Kendrick in for at least 1 match a week earlier, maybe more, to reestablish who he is and what he does. For many younger fans, it would be the first time to meet this character. That would give the audience something to react to, as NXT’s raucous audience has come to be regarded as a huge bright spot on the show. Instead, they mostly sat on their hands, and meanwhile on tv, the match was distracted from by this confrontation being set up by Kevin Owens and Alex Reilly. It was so painfully obvious what was happening, Reilly is not a very natural actor, and at the end, you could see the commentators, who kept going unnaturally silent to make room for this thing to happen, moving to set up for the attack by Owens to happen. I feel that having these shows taped is a tool that NXT should use to its advantage and edit bumps like this out.

NXT is still winning first place for its treatment of female wrestling. Becky Lynch fought Bailey and looked extremely impressive. Meanwhile, Sasha Banks and Flair are set to have a match that is sure to be excellent. Instead of outing them in outlandish in-ring stories, like in Lucha Underground, here they face each other in matches that showcase their skills and tenacity.

Meanwhile, I want to take a few moments to mention how great New Japan Pro Wrestling’s English weekly tv program on AXS. With a retro feel that brings to mind grittier and less flashy days of Saturday afternoon wrestling watching, the show has been introducing a modest cast of characters with backgrounds free of complexity. Though watching old broadcasts of matches on a monitor, the energy brought to the commentary by Mauro Ranallo makes it seem like he is right there with Josh Barnett calling the match in person and seeing it for the first time. It makes a huge difference in selling the action in the ring, which is already very good. The decision to go back to 2013 and show pivotal matches and rivalries has potential to bring the show up to the current day. A nice situation ripe for cross promotion could occur, in which the tv show stays a few months behind the up to date NJPW program. Then, the events shown on  NJPW World or on PPV, which will reportedly be arranged to happen again later in the year, can be promoted even better.

What does NJPW do so well, allowing the company to garner so much praise and support in recent days? A few crucial elements stand in direct contrast to what WWE is doing. One is the way the talent makes the matter of winning or losing seem extremely consequential. Victories are always made to appear hard fought, as though an extreme amount of effort was expended in overcoming the opponent, even when the outcome was none too unpredictable. This speaks to another stark difference in NJPW and WWE booking: New Japan matches end and lose in decisive fashion. Even if there is cheating, and with heel factions like the Bullet Club and Suzuki Gun there almost always is, the matches still have a clear winner and loser. The winner is triumphant, the loser is despondent.

That leads me to a major disappointment with much of the WWE Fastlane special: there were so many matches with endings that were trivial. Roll ups, disqualifications, and basically a bunch of calculated maneuvers that set up rematches at Wrestlemania. Watching Fastlane was almost entirely like an infomercial for the conflicts that might happen at Wrestlemania 31.

Finally, Ring of Honor is sitting on a goldmine of potential greatness, with Alberto El Patron (fka Del Rio) joining their ranks, NJPW’s Bullet Club members AJ Styles and the Young Bucks appearing often, and most recently Samoa Joe signing with them. If Eric Bishoff were booking ROH, we might get Joe and Alberto throwing on Bullet Club t-shirts and joining with the popular team. But it seems more likely the company will realize the potential rivalries that could be developed between the Bullet Club and these recent acquisitions.

I feel that ROH has some serious momentum. But some of its distribution practices are counterintuitive. Its TV product, for example, is not available to me and let’s just say, my being located in a major metropolis, that is a lot of potential viewers not getting to see their show on TV. One can watch episodes on their website, and I often do, but the ones available to the public are from the week before. That means if I were to, say, mention the great match between ACH and Alberto El Patron, I would be talking about something that happened a week earlier. That also means the episode that is supposed to promote tonight’s PPV event will appear online after the event happens(!?).

Content is well protected, rarely if ever appearing on youtube or daily motion. Yet, when Lucha Underground becomes readily available on such sites on a regular basis, it allows many more eyes to be on the show, giving it a buzz and a bigger following than its home station’s limited cable carrier access allows. While Ring of Honor does allow and encourage fans to subscribe to a service that unlocks all episodes of the tv show, I and I’m sure others like me are not drawn in when the viewing platform is just an in-site player. This does not put the company up to speed with services like that of NJPW and WWE, who make PPV events available as well as a huge array of archives and live streaming content. I know ROH is restricted by a limited budget in comparison so I am not suggesting they go into the streaming service game. But lifting the curtain a little and allowing access to the product on a timely weekly basis would no doubt get more people interested in the program, willing to order the PPV’s and do other things to bolster their business.

Twitter: @mondocurrymark

Welcome To The New (Japan) World

At the start of 2015, signs really do seem to be suggesting that wrestling is entering a new world. Yes, that’s a reference to New Japan Pro Wrestling and its WWE Network-like streaming service, launched at the tail end of 2014 and likely to have received a boost in subscribers with the occurrence of Wrestle Kingdom 9; but it goes beyond this. A startling number of outlets for quality wrestling are orbiting the once unparalleled WWE, with increasing velocities and more than a slight chance of causing some collisions. Although WWE is still the biggest fish in the pond, other organizations, with their growing prominence, have potential to exert a force from without on the WWE, hopefully leading them to up their game. If not, fans have the option to take their chants and go home. And dedicate their viewing to more exciting territories.

It’s as good a time as ever to start looking at a few of the varied promotions out there and highlight what’s going down by reacting to the highs and lows. By no means will I try to be first with reviews nor am I interested in breaking news. There are plenty of places out there for that with far more experience and resources. What I hope to bring is some interesting takes on what’s out there from one singular perspective and build a community of likeminded fans with some critical thoughts and a bit of a sense of humor.

This week has been extremely eventful for the promotions I hope to keep track of with NJPW having their biggest event of the year, made available to international audiences via Pay Per View and New Japan World for the first time, TNA airing their first episode of Impact on its new host station Discover America, and Lucha Underground holding a critical show in its narrative, one which would name their first championship belt holder. I find I cannot just ignore the WWE so I also plan to give a look at a few of the goings ons over there and, like other proponents of NXT, I’ll treat it as a separate program as well. Despite the fact that it is under the WWE umbrella, its uniqueness and high quality earns it a distinct look. I’d also like to include Ring of Honor in the mix, though the challenge of getting eyeballs on their product will be a theme I revisit, as I am not in range of their tv show and find accessing the re-broadcasts on the website to be a less than stellar experience.

And now, the good, the bad, and the weird for the week of January 4 – January 11, starting with New Japan Pro Wrestling.

The Good

NJPW Far be it from me to offer anything all that different from the heaps of praise already bestowed upon the increasingly hot promotion and this powerhouse, delivering a solid card of technical wrestling and two main events that have many describing as match of the year candidates. The one that took top honors in my book, and quite possibly being the best pro wrestling match that I feel I have ever seen is Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kota Ibushi. It starts with the creative and intensely charismatic entrance of Nakamura, bringing out the ‘King’ in his ‘King of Strong Style’ moniker, and doing so with peculiar flair that many would shy away from. Then, the realness of the rivalry between him and Ibushi came right out with Ibushi shoving away Nakamura’s patented leaning head clean break, and then Nakamura returning the favor by suckering him in with an insincere handshake and a stomp to the back of his head. Ibushi would continue with several taunts, mocking the intercontinental champion’s numerous mannerisms. Both would begin hitting each other with alarmingly stiff shots, specifically a series of punches that actually gave credence to the old school rule of closed fist punches being an illegal maneuver. Ibushi also not only recovered from some of Nakamura’s most intense throws, but did so with a maniacal grin spreading across his face. One jaw-dropping sequence found Ibushi hitting Nakamura with Nakamura’s own back drop suplex, mimicking some of Nakamura’s trademark ring entrance theatrics, and then delivering a running knee at such high speed, the camera couldn’t keep up fast enough to show the point of impact. These two pushed themselves and the art of choreographing a dramatic and physically demanding fight simulation. Their continued confrontations will no doubt be legendary and highly sought after on whatever platform its available.   

I’m gonna give a couple more mentions, though keep in mind, I am pointing out a couple of extremely strong points amidst a whole show and roster of strong points. No way to report it all, these are just a few personally highly reqarding aspects. First goes to the team of Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly, Reddragon, who are tag title holders in both ROH and NJPW. In a four way tag team match filled extraordinary coordination and technically impressive feats, I was glad to see Reddragon come out on top, with their style combining quick paced high impact strikes and sharply executed throws. In the final minutes of the match they pulled off a number of impressive double team maneuvers beginning with Demolition’s classic finisher with the elbow from the second turnbuckle replaced by a stomp. Then, they pulled off a dizzying multi-step sequence with O’Reilly hitting a double underhook DDT as Fish assisted by hoisting the opponent up by his legs; then off the impact of the DDT, Fish lifted the opponent up into a vicious back suplex as O’Reilly kicked him up and away. Finally came their often used finished, Chasing The Dragon, in which O’Reilly holds an opponent up in a suplex position, Fish hits a roundhouse kick to the back of the opponent’s head, followed by O’Reilly doing a brainbuster. The kick comes across like an executioner hitting the switch to trigger a guillotine to come crashing down, precise and brutal. Very impressed by this team and looking forward to more in Japan and the US.

Another honorable mention goes out to jr. heavyweight challenger and now champion Kenny Omega, now ‘The Cleaner,’ who prior to Wrestle Kingdom 9 joined the Bullet Club and adapted anew heel persona. He fuly owned the sleazy look and mannerisms of his newly invented character and they were highly entertaining. While working a style that involves cheap shots and dishonorable tactics, Omega found well placed spots to hit impressive maneuvers in line with the cruiserweight style, including a lightning quick snap full-nelson suplex and a fantastic finisher that takes his opponent from the top of Omega’s shoulders and flips him into a driver-like slam. Kenny Omega looks to bring some heated storytelling top the Jr. Heavyweight title scene along with a very impressive arsenal of moves.

     

The Bad

NOTHING on this show struck me as outright bad. I could see how the Omega’s opponent Ryusuke Taguchi lacks direction, with a move-set that is all over the place, echoing several American wrestlers, but without a clear unifying aesthetic of his own. This has been brought up by the hosts of JAW (Japanese Audio Wrestling), a great show that airs monthly on LAW Radio, and perhaps the notion got into my head while watching this match. It definitely came through as he tried to mock Omega’s heelish posturing. It came off as lacking in passion as the villain in the fight an circles around him in the charisma department.

The Weird

Minoru Suzuki’s opponent, Sakuraba brought an MMA background to a match that was supposed to bring the influence of that style of combat heavily into the mix. He himself is a pretty diminutive figure and without much background on him, it could be difficult to be engaged by his appearance or grappling style. The mask he wore out to the ring seemed like a nod to old school Scifi superhero shows. I wonder what effect that has on the audience in Japan but it was a little difficult to grasp a vibe from for me.

I watched the show on New Japan World and after the impressive show, which had so many more bright spots than the ones mentioned above, I will check out all future events that are aired. If this quality level continues, and I see no reason why it wouldn’t, there is potential for New Japan to bring a few shows to the US via Pay Per View per year. I would not hesitate even a little, though, to pick up ‘World to fill in the gaps.

That’s it for now. I hope to weigh in on this Lucha Underground and TNA’s first offerings of 2015.

There’s no community without an ‘I’ and a split apart ‘you’ so please bring your opinions, dissent, hat tip, ridicule, questions and what have you to the comment section below.

Shout at me on twitter at @mondcurrymark.

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