Vs. Naito - G-1 finals 2011
Vs. Sakuraba - Wrestle Kingdom 7
Vs. AJ Styles - Wrestle Kingdom 10
Vs. Ibushi - G-1 Day 4 2013
Vs. Ibushi - Wrestle Kingdom 9
Vs. Tanahashi 4/6/14
Vs. Nagata - G-1 day 4 2014

Those are all matches I'd give at least ****1/2. I'm sure that's not it either. He has a great match with Tanahashi in early 2009 that I forget the date of.

It's time! It's time! It's G-1 time!!!! Yes, that special time of year is upon us where NJPW's greatest face off in a now nearly month long round-robin tournament.


One thing's for sure, we will get a Tanahashi vs. Okada match but it won't be the final. My pick for the final is: Shibata vs. Okada with Shibata going over.

I'm going to try to watch every single match but it may be tough because life's busy atm. I'll at least watch and give ratings itt to every match that gets *** or higher.

Can't wait for everything Nakajima in this tournament! Nakajima vs. Shibata is going to be out of this world. Honestly, Block A looks kind of ****ty. I've never seen Sanada wrestle, though and apparently he's decent.

Yeah, it looks like they decided that if Okada and Tanahashi are both in the same block, the other block would have to be stacked to compensate for that.

I took a watch at Day 1 of the G1 Climax. I say it was a really good start. Not going to mention results, but Tenzan/Ishii was surpsingly great (given that Tenzan was not really the best of performers in the last few years and that he was a substitute for Kojima due to Kojima wanting to be a bro for him and give Tenzan one last shot at glory), Tanahashi/SANADA was great, and Okada/Marufuji was great.

I don't know if I can stay up at around 1-2AM to watch 19 days of this, but let's see.

I have watched Ishii/Tenzan and Tonga/Makabe. I definitely concur that the former was a great match. I'm not too surprised. Tenzan can really turn it on at times. He had some great matches in the 2014 and 2013 G-1's. I've seen someone rate Okada/Marufuji at ****1/2 so looking forward to watching in a few hours.

Day 1 was really good but there's no chance I'll be able to watch all of this, just so busy right now. I still haven't watched any of LU season 2. If someone who does watch it all can do a break down of the must see matches then that would be really appreciated.

Well Meltzer will always keep us updated on that. I'm sure I'll relay as I watch (if I do). His Day 1 ratings:

Tenzan vs. Ishii - ****
Makabe vs. Tonga - ***
Goto vs. Bad Luck Fale - **3/4
Tanahashi vs. Sanada - ****1/4
Okada vs. Marufuji - ****1/2

I thought Tonga/Makabe was a pile of ****. I liked Tonga as a face a couple of years ago but it seems like he's just completely out of sorts as a heel. I felt (and still feel) that way about Karl Anderson.

The July 22nd day of G-1's is going to be carried free on NJPW World. Headlining matches will be:

Nagata vs Naito

Shibata vs Honma

Shibata vs. Honma was so ****ing good two years ago. Hopefully Honma can bring the magic again.

It's free tonight and just started - http://njpwworld.com/lp/l_live_66_3

Those results tho

^^ Yep, I'm doing a pick'em of G1 at SquaredCircle, and so far, I'm 2-8. Day 1 was a great surprise regarding the results. Day 2, there were some results I had to grumble a bit, even if they were entertaining matches to watch.

Shibata vs Nakajima just finished and was ****ing awesome. Watch it.

Downloaded and about to settle in and watch. This is the match I've anticipated most. Funny seeing how they didn't main event. I wonder why.

When I go into a NJPW match, I usually do so just hoping to see a great match. I don't care about who wins or loses. Here I wanted Nakajima to win despite wanting Shibata to win the tournament (I doubt he does). That was until Nakajima did the forearm/elbow + running kick in the corner combo that is a Shibata signature. After that I had the same reaction that the previously dead crowd did...I came to life and wanted Shibata to kill Nakajima.

*space for no wall of text*

He immediately destroyed Nakajima's face and it was glorious. I haven't watched a Shibata match in a couple of months so I wasn't expecting what came next. Nakajima delivers a sick backdrop driver where Shibata lands on his ****ing head. Shibata immediately stands up and delivers a German. I've never been taken out of a match so quickly. I loved that spot in the original match where he did it vs. Ishii, but here, not so much. It felt like there was so much hate after that spot mentioned above and you can argue that that hate makes Shibata get up and do his thing but it seemed ill timed. Hated it. They deliver their dual kicks to the face which was awesome!

The arm work at the beginning went nowhere as Shibata just uses his sleeper like nbd > penalty kick > over. I was expecting Nakajima to kick out at 1 because it's a Shibata match but naw.

Fun sprint. I'd recommend as it's easy to sit through and a really good match but I wouldn't call it great. As much as I'd love to, I can't give it over ***1/2. Disappointing.

I loved it but I also haven't seen their first match. Guess I'll have to find that now.

I meant the original match where that spot happened which was vs. Ishii in the 2013 G-1. To my knowledge this was the only meeting between Nakajima and Shibata.

Oh I see. I haven't seen that match either. I just started watching Battleground instead of day 3.

Battleground was a bad choice.

Ok I switched over to G1 because twitter is blowing up right now and wow. Don't read this until you've watched it.

Downloading now but I question how a card like this:

NJPW G1 Climax 26 - Day 5 (A Block)
2016.07.25 Fukushima Big Palette

1. David Finlay vs. YOSHI-HASHI
2. Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata, & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson, KUSHIDA, & Michael Elgin
3. Captain New Japan & Tomoaki Honma vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Kenny Omega
4. Katsuhiko Nakajima, Gedo, & Toru Yano vs. BUSHI, EVIL, & Tetsuya Naito
5. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Bad Luck Fale
6. Togi Makabe vs. SANADA
7. Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Naomichi Marufuji
8. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tama Tonga
9. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hirooki Goto

can be anything but bad and unremarkable. The only thing I can come up with is a serious injury to Okada or Tanahashi and I'm certain it's not that based on the hype in your post. I'm intrigued enough though.

I only watched the last 3 matches and it wasn't great.

That spoiler might not be as crazy to you as it was to me.

I watched the last match. I thought it was > Nakajima/Shibata. Okada is a superstar. I don't get anyone who doesn't like that guy. He oozes charisma, his move set is logical, he can sell, has great expressions.

can I assume spoiler is in the last 3 matches?

edit: It's not Tonga winning clean over Tanahashi, is it? Pretty much expected that with some observations I'd read a couple of days ago.

edit 2: Read the spoiler as the other matches and people involved don't make me care about anything. I read that they're doing a old man redemption story line for Tanahashi so I figured he's been losing all of his matches similar to how Okada did the same early last year. Means nothing for Tonga.

Oh I haven't read anything and G1 is the first NJ stuff I've watched since like feb so Tanahashi losing so much was surprising for me.

I should probably stop posting now.

I appreciated the post. Got me to watch some. I wasn't expecting much out of Goto/Okada and it was pretty great imo. Dropkick to the back of the head was awesome. I should really start watching NJPW again since apparently I love these guys. So much better than WWE.

So did anyone here watch Day 8 of G1 Climax? I think this was probably the best day of the bunch so far. After the first match, which was Yano/Honma, every match on that card had some good background going into it moreso than just grabbing the two points in the standings.

EVIL/YOSHI-HASHI was solid for the two guys that are underlings of the top stables, Nakajima/Nagata was really solid and I always like seeing Nagata fired up and demanding respect against the younger wrestler. Elgin/Omega seems to work well together if you get passed any of the Bullet Club numbers game antics. I quite enjoyed their ladder match and this G1 match. Naito/Shibata was really great since no-nonsense Shibata, despite having an injured shoulder and leg, has no time for any Naito's stalling game tactics and Naito was a great heel to a tee that can get into Shibata's head and lure him into making a move that Naito will make him pay for dearly.

Overall, great show. A great showcase of probably the best month of wrestling overall of the year.

Meltzer gave Ishii/Okada 5 stars.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4n...6-day-13_sport