I'm fairly sure that was the 7/8/94 match between Liger and Sasuke.

It wasn't just the ending I had a problem with. They spent like 15 mins or so working Okada's leg only for it to mean nothing and be fine for the rest of the match. I think it was a very good match and deserves a bunch of praise but it's not perfect or better than the first one and the finish was ****. I don't think it was better than Naito/Omega either and would kind of rather see those two feud at this point.

Nice. Congrats.

Hiromu/Kushida>>Naito/Tana>>>Okada/Omega

Another match where Okada no-sold a leg beating? Can't say I am surprised ... I haven't been a fan of Okada since Wrestle Kingdom.

Apparently you have to forget wrestling is fake ala Shibata to get Okada to sell for you.

Any news yet on where Adam Cole is likely to sign?

(Disclaimer - I know no-one cares)

I was a huge wrestling fan through the 90's/00's, lapsed a bit, came back for CM punk, went mental for Bryan, lapsed again (Roman Reigns [boooooo]). Had a few beers and decided to watch Okada v Omega 1 + 2. I'm sick of hearing about it and this thread reminded me.

A huge part of wresting for me has always been the storylines, interested to see how these hold up!

I think someone who hasn't watched much if any NJPW and is (or was) a WWE follower will be blown away by both matches.

Btw, after you do watch those matches, then watch the Tanahashi/Naito matches this year from the same events that Omega/Okada took place in. It will be a good pleaser and had a good backstory story to it. It's like NJPW's version of the Jericho/HBK feud of 2008. Just less throwing a person through a tv screen and hurting a person's eye, and more belt-trashing/disfiguring.

[Okada v Omega 1]

The early stuff looks really choreographed... waiting on the other guy to hit his mark etc. English commentary isn't great so far, have heard the Japanese commentary is better (even if you don't understand it).

The ringside setup is a bit weird with the fans so far away, the photographers (real?), feels empty. Awesome DDT off the guardrail though.

Omega just looks like a megastar, style, mannerisms, look etc. I kind of get it. Man, that dropkick off the top rope (to the head) can't have been safe.

Been trying not to focus on Omega and say something about Okada - he's like an exciting Randy Orton. Is that it?

Omega has awesome facials. I like the pacing here, Okada's out the ring for a while. Then dies? I knew that wasn't the end of the video but after the bump under the table then that powerbomb...

Seriously, Omega's expressions are on another level, really cool. Crazy bump to the outside onto a table, Okada's first chance to take control. Daniel Bryan dropkick gets two, Omega sells it so good. Crowd wanted Okada's finisher so bad there (pretty sure it's only a clothesline).

Omega just superplexed him so unsafely. OK, watched it a few times and looks almost safe. Did they mean that? That's right on the line of cool move/dead.

Man that was a cool dropkick by Okada. Back and forth, Okada almost hit the Clothesline From Hell (sorry), TOMBSTONE! Hits the clothesline, seems to be a big deal. Never liked that finisher.

Another tombstone. No! Reversed into a ... turtle tombstone? Sorry, not up on move names. That had to be it, actually "marked" a bit for that.

WTF! Awesome knee, how was that not it. Okada hit the Rainmaker, I get why it's a finisher now. Omega fighting back, man those knees... another Rainmaker! Misses the next one, Omega with the dropkick of his life, I heard that knee! Wtf, another tombstone to Omega! Rainmaker finishes it.

Man, that was awesome. Actually awesome! Don't have it in me to watch the second one tonight.

Sorry for the sub-par write-up.

Cheers for the recommendation, will definitely give them a watch.

TI, you make me want to watch that match again lol. It was such a great spotfest. It didn't seem to be a very safe match and Okada took a beating on his neck between the dropkick to the back of the head that you mentioned:

and the dragon suplex from the top

and numerous other spots. This spot had me saying "holy ****" when it happened:

My favorite spot of the match:


Okada has the best dropkick in the business imo.

....


When they showed the replay of this move, I couldn't believe it. Okada was a couple inches away from a very severe injury. I remember Matt Striker's epic call of this: "when he's getting neck fusion surgery, he'll remember this moment". Such a great call. fwiw, they caught a lot of flack after the match online for doing such an unsafe move in the name of a great match.

Is there a dailymotion link for the second one? Can't find it.

That was my only exposure to NJPW apart from Tanahashi years ago (vs Okada, ironically I remember not liking it because of his finisher). I get it, the only other match I'd rate that high is Punk v Cena on Raw (where Punk piledrived Cena) and Bryan at WM30 (I give that match all the stars for how invested I was).

Omega is next-level. His facials are perfect, he's just got that superstar quality. He has to be in WWE this time next year right?

The Rainmaker is the WOAT finisher so I feel you on that.

You strike me as a guy should love himself some Tetsuya Naito.

It's hard to say.

As I stated before, Kenny Omega is basically a Japanese person/wrestler in a gaijin's body. If the WWE writing can give him the ability to let him be as creative as possible, without neutering what makes him great, then he's basically going. If not, he's mainly staying put in NJPW and I don't think he minds it one bit. He's got a great platform in NJPW to let his charm shine as well as it should. WWE wouldn't give him a 45-60 minutes match with their top guy with the highest prize on the line. It is just not in them.

On the other hand, him and Xavier Woods have been jawing at each other in the last few years, especially when it comes to fighting video games like Street Fighter and Tekken and WWE would have to be blind to not have them feud with each other if Omega does go to WWE (oh wait, this is current WWE we are speaking of. They would have a high chance of squandering it).

I feel Omega would be treated very well given how AJ and Nak have been pushed. WWE clearly values NJPW studs way more than any other type of outside talent.

Yeah as someone that's watched like 3-4 ppvs from NJPW in the last two years and only a handful of matches from Nakamura or AJ before that, Naito is by far the best thing in that promotion to me. I've liked his match more at WK and this last one. I recognize I'm in the minority on that, but I like what I like.

Finally had the chance to watch Okada-Omega II. I went in a bit pessimistic because of what I had read in this thread. I think a BIG part of the backlash is actually because of Meltzer and his (ridiculous) 6-star/6.25-star ratings. Both matches should simply have been given 5 stars ... and yes, the rematch deserves it, too. I don't know whether it was better than the first match (I'm leaning no), and I could nitpick it if I wanted to, but geez, the guys went out there and killed it again. I really loved how they switched up a lot of the sequences from the first go, but also retained a few as well.

I also didn't mind Okada's (lack of) knee selling. It wasn't an overly massive knee attack, like the Okada-Suzuki match was (and I HATED that match). I mean, yeah, again you can nitpick and not be wrong, but meh.

Now I've got to watch the other two Dominion matches that got rave reviews.

KUSHIDA vs Himoru

I didn't think the knee part was that bad. I've seen some people say that it was worked on for 20 minutes or whatever but iirc it was only a few minutes with some strikes and a figure four. It ended up being pointless but it was (or felt) like such a small part of the match that I didn't care.

my comments were before meltzer came out with lol6.25

I watched it again over the weekend and still feel the same way I did. Ending is garbage both as in ring storytelling (snaps up dropkick, rainmaker no problem, too tired to cover until time expires) and as a customer (I felt robbed of any sort of ending. I'd prefer a countout ending over that). Unfortunately, being the ending it's the thing that leaves the taste in your mouth and it erased a lot of the good feeling the first 4/5ths gave me.

Naito/tanahashi was better on both counts to me.


End of the day it's whatever though. Was still good overall

So, NJPW has announced the wrestlers for the big G1 Climax tourney.

https://streamable.com/fony3

For me, this is probably the greatest wrestling tournament in the world, right now. Sure, there are some wrestlers that some people wouldn't want in the tourney (Makabe, Bad Luck Fale, maybe Tama Tonga, and Zack Sabre Jr.), but you got the usual guys that you can rely on to deliver at the right moments (Okada, Tanahashi, Naito, Omega, Ishii, Goto, if he's motivated, Suzuki, if he does not have his cronies,).

Yuji Nagata and Satoshi Kojima can play the role of feisty old man very well that has no problems beating guys up and getting fired up against the younger talent, even if the old guys may not win a lot. EVIL, SANADA, Elgin and YOSHI-HASHI can be decent-to-great and Juice Robinson has grown nicely as a wrestler. Yano always makes things really interesting since you cannot really predict on who's going to win if he's in the G1 since he is capable of landing that surprise victory over the upper-card guys more often than not.

The biggest kicker is that KOTA IBUSHI is in the tourney again!!! Man, I haven't seen him in NJPW in almost two years. He can bring the goods and look the f' out if he goes against Kenny Omega.

I wonder where Ibushi has been all this time...... I know he's still wrestling in his home promotion of DDT from time to time. I mean it's not like he was wrestling in a tournament for a rival company or wrestling as an anime wrestling character or something.......

Oh yeah, I'm hyped for the G1 Climax.

If they don't put Ibushi and Omega in the same block, they are idiots.

Also hyped for the G1.

Tanahashi/Naito was as advertised, fantastic. I absolutely love Naito and Tanahashi was spot-on. Also, I think I enjoyed the first 10 minutes even more than the rest of the match, not that it ever dragged or anything, just that the first 10 minutes were about perfect.

Definitely better than Okada-Omega II.

Update on Shibata:

^^ Read that and yup, that's depressing news.

Brighter news though. Honma is looking to get back into wrestling shape and he's going to do it with the help of his friends and it's a good bunch. Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, Ryusuke Taguchi, and Jushin Thunder Liger.