Really solid opener and such a bummer that American fans couldn’t sell out the show.
G1 CLIMAX 29: July 6
Watch: Sabre vs. Sanada, Tanahashi vs. Okada, Ospreay vs. Archer
Consider: Ibushi vs. Kenta
Skip: Fale vs. Evil
I believe it was Rocky who declared this “One is the most important rivalries in professional wrestling history.” It’s kind of wild to see this as an opening-night match, but at least it’s the main event.
It’s taken me a long time to come around on Okada. His douchey Rock-wannabe gimmick has always felt a little too authentic to me. But he’s fantastic to watch in the ring, so I’m really looking forward to seeing these two meet again.
Kevin Kelly tells us they’ve met three times before in the G1 tournament, and each time they’ve gone to time-limit draws. They’ve got 30 minutes on the clock for this one, and the crowd is hot for this.
I wanted to attend this event live, but holding this the weekend after 4th of July — when most people are traveling home (and not ready to begin a trip) — made it impossible for me. But seeing this opening makes me wish I’d been able to be there in person. This feels huge.
Tanahashi is looking old and wrestling older, but he manages to turn that into compelling body language charisma; you feel his struggle and you’re rooting for him to keep up. He needs your support to hold his own with Okada!
And Okada goes for the classic smug one-foot-on-the-chest cover. He pulls out the dragon-screw leg whip to turn Tanahashi’s move against him. NJPW talent do such a good job of subtly adjusting their style in face vs face matchups to give the crowd a clear favorite to root for, and before long, Tanahashi is able to return the favor. It’s a subtle, detail-oriented form of storytelling you could be forgiven for not knowing it exists if you only watch WWE.
Fantastic back-and-forth exchange between the two about 15 minutes in that has the crowd completely blowing up. But then Tanahashi goes on the top rope and the camera catches an entire section of the American Airlines arena sitting completely empty.
Okada hits two back-to-back rainmakers at 20 minutes, when I suddenly catch myself thinking “he’s not a natural blonde.” Then Tanahashi hits a dragon suplex and I start paying attention again. But I love how NJPW wrestlers and announcers can make something as small as “wrist control” a pivotal part of match storytelling.
I don’t like that a spinning tombstone piledriver is a transitional move, but at least it sets up a rainmaker and leads to a finish. Okada gets the 2 points and the announcers remind us that no reigning champion has won back-to-back since 2000, stacking the odds against Tanahashi regardless.
Solid main event, but I think I would still give my night 1 match of the night to ZSJ and Sanada by a hair. Okada and Tanahashi held some stature by nature of who was involved. Okada cut an endearingly sincere promo to close the show, in spite of his naturally heelish charisma. Rocky calls him the greatest IWGP champion we’ve ever seen.
This will be an interesting meeting of two recent signees. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Kenta outside of the WWE environment. I feel like the best we ever saw of him there was his NXT Takeover title challenge against Bobby Roode.
Rocky mentions these two first met in 2005 in Pro Wrestling NOAH. I was curious how they’d handle the dynamic, with the crowd hot to see both of them, but Kenta seems to be working heel in this matchup, though Ibushi doesn’t seem to be shy about fire with fire.
It’s so great to see Kenta so unshackled in these early minutes. WWE can suck the life out of anyone. Kenta is really trying to work heel but the fans seem to be too excited to see him with some passion in him, returning to the form that made him famous. In situations like this, you’d have to wonder why any NJPW main-eventer would ever sign with WWE again.
Kenta takes the win with a GTS in a match that was entertaining, but a little underwhelming following the surprisingly show-stealing ZSJ-Sanada match. +2 pts for Kenta. +5 to Kevin Kelly referring to Kenya’s WWE career as “5 years of anguish and frustration.” Nice sportsmanship to close the segment and redeem Kenta from his heel match work.
I try not to miss a Zack Sabre Jr. match. The guy is incredible and has such fantastic physical heel charisma. He’s like Bryan Danielson at his worst (best) and I love it.
I’m looking forward to seeing Sanada in this singles matchup.
The crowd is doing the Seven Nation Army chant to “Zack Sabre Jr” but like every crowd that does the chant, they can’t get the timing right and they rush back into the next round like it’s in 7/4 time or something. Just stop.
Dang, there’s an absolutely fantastic sequence of holds, submission attempts and reversals early in the match.
Absolutely beautiful subtle heel move as Sanada’s wristband comes off and Sabre just kicks it out of the ring, sending Sanada out to regroup and reassemble. These guys are such pros.
Sabre is so fluid — it’s amazing to watch him flow through a match from hold to hold. And Sanada is right there with him with the holds and reversals.
Interesting how New Japan World blurs out middle fingers but leaves the f—s and sh—s. I guess fingers are the universal language.
Sabre is SO GOOD at his physical heeling, and so dangerous at turning his goading into successful baiting into a submission.
I’m so conditioned by WWE booking all their faces to be idiots that whenever I see a face gloating over a successful move, I’m legitimately surprised when a heel doesn’t use that wasted time to regain the advantage.
I haven’t written much the past five minutes because it’s been so good, so fluid and so balanced. The crowd is really waking up and Sanada has turned a marky ZSJ crowd into solidly pro-Sanada.
Winner: Sanada bridging Sabre into a roll-up reversal. +2 pts. Sabre takes out his frustrations on various officials and other staff around the ring.
In full transparency I’m only watching this match to be a completist. I’m not really into either of these guys. I’m mostly watching this because I’m intrigued by the upcoming Evil and Sanada match, and I figure I should see how Evil does leading up to that.
I’ve always felt like Bad Luck Fale has a real “I’m a sort of D-Lo Brown-esque category of loser” vibe to him. The announcers seem to agree as they promise this match will go nowhere near the 30 minute time limit. Thank you for that.
Fale may be a slow fat guy, but he does know how to leverage his size to come across as sincerely menacing. He does the great heel move of going for the pin by standing with one foot on the chest of Evil. When I was in 7th grade, Aaron Shigley went for a pin on Brian McConnell with that move in PE class, and Mr. Kecheley grabbed Aaron by the shirt and slammed against the wall and told him never to pull a stunt like that in his class again. It was awesome. But Aaron was way cooler as a middle schooler than Fale is as a fat old adult.
While I was reminiscing about middle school PE class, Evil turned the tide, but not quite enough to end this stinker. Camo-pants Fale won’t stay down. Now Fale is threatening to use a chair. I’d rather see him just lose straight up, but whatever it takes to end this.
Great move in the history of absurdity when Evil positions the ref to hold Fale’s leg as Evil takes Fale down. It managed to come off as pretty believable, but then we move into a folding-chair segment.
Winner: Bad Luck Fale with the Bad Luck Fall in 11:33 seconds for +2 points. If I were Evil, knowing I’m a mortal with a finite number of matches left in my life, I’d be a little bummed that I just spent one on putting Bad Luck Fale over. But such is life.
I’m a few weeks behind on the G1 tournament, so I’ve got a bottle of Bushmills and my New Japan World subscription teaming up for a “let’s make up for lost time / I have no interest in watching the Raw Reunion” evening.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Lance Archer match. I don’t recognize him at all. But he has more presence than a lot of big men — plenty of them seem content just being big, whereas he’s pairing some personality with his size.
Ospreay is probably my favorite wrestler active today, so I would be watching this regardless of who he was facing.
I’m legitimately surprised at Archer’s athleticism; they’re putting together a great story of the intimidatingly well-rounded big guy against the athletic smaller guy.
The audio mix is weird in this match. The crowd is completely drowning out Kevin Kelly. I’m not sure if it’s on my end or if they’re overcompensating on the production side for the poor ticket sales.
Seeing these two in the ring together, you wouldn’t expect Archer to be able to hold his own in a competition of speed, but that’s what’s happening. And Ospreay’s doing a fantastic job of selling Archer’s dominance.
Ospreay’s reversal of Archer’s powerbomb attempt on the ram was beautiful. Loved the Amazing Red shout-out too. I haven’t seen him wrestle since the early NWA-TNA Wednesday night $10 PPVs.
Archer’s “everybody dies!” mid-match battle cry was ok the first time, but he keeps saying it. I feel like that’s one of those things that gets less intimidating each time you have to say it, because implicitly your need to repeat it shows your opponent is doing a good job of not expiring.
Apparently Ospreay is the only man to ever kick out of Archer’s finishing move. I’m not sure I would have cashed those chips here but that was generous of Archer to give that to Ospreay for this moment.
Winner: Archer with the Iron Claw in 18:17. +2 points
Ospreay remains the greatest active wrestler, in my opinion, but this was a great showing for Archer. Either I’ve really never seen him wrestle before or he really showed up tonight. Either way, good match, and it sets up Archer as a scary competitor in the tournament.
I didn’t buy anything last week, but there was a good haul this week!
Speaking of hauling things, that leads me to Avengers #17, where Shadow Colonel has been carrying a junior version of Man-Thing on his back (and I just noticed it this issue).
I have been enjoying—but souring—on this arc as the weeks have gone by, but I am going to change my attitude. I have been feeling nostalgic for the comics arcs of my youth, when not everything was leading to or participating in some company-wide crossover. I was reminiscing just this morning actually about the Avengers stories back in the 300s or so, which are mostly forgettable and inconsequential, and really seem to only be existing for the sake of existing, and finding that incredibly charming.
Here I was, getting tired of this silly vampire story with this silly vampire characters, appearing to not really lead anywhere except for putting a new Avenger on the team, when right before my eyes, there was exactly the type of story I’d been nostalgic for!
Remember when it was such a huge deal when a cover would be teasing a new member of the team? That was such a great gimmick! I’ve been appreciating Jason Aaron’s run so far as a fun, mostly lightweight throwback—and boy is he ever hitting the bullseye. (more…)
Let’s kick this off with Uncanny X-Men #13.
I mentioned last issue that the tone here was reminding me of the Australia era, and here we find out that the X-Men are squatting in the back of a bar! This totally is the return of the Australia era!
Except they almost literally brought back the Jim Lee era, when Wolverine digs up some old uniforms from the basement that align with the Savage Land / Shadow King / X-Men #1 period. I’m not sure if this is intended to just be fun fan service or something more significant, but it felt a little cheap to me.
Other things that made me roll my eyes a bit:
Yet another discovery of a Madrox clone.
Yet another psychic shield.
Dark Beast.
There was also a misalignment in the dialogue that left me confused. Early in the issue, Cyclops presents a list of threats to identify what will be left if the X-Men cease to exist. Wolverine says “it’s a kill list,” to which Cyclops says “No, it’s not. We aren’t solving things that way. Not anymore”—a clear distancing from who he was before he died.
Then later in the issue, Cyclops and Havok are talking about what to do with their Dark Beast prisoner. Alex says “We can’t be taking prisoners anymore,” and follows up with “the way you were [referring to Cyclops], what you made the X-Men at the end. We can’t go back to that. I won’t let you.”
So I’m a little bit confused, but not like “Where is this story going?” but more like “Is there a writing or editing mistake?” (more…)
It was a pretty small pile this week, but at least enough to call for some segues.
Speaking of things flowing into each other, that leads me to Heroes in Crisis #6, where the blood from all the murdered heroes created a big ol’ mess.
When I was a kid, my dad would get claustrophobic on airplanes, so we took nearly every family vacation by car. I visited all 48 contiguous states by car by my early teens. And I tell you, when you’re driving around 20 hours or so en route to Disney World, it doesn’t matter how much fun Disney World is going to be; those hours in the middle are really boring.
And so I have no doubt that the ending to Heroes in Crisis will be delightful, but I’m getting really tired of these middle issues where nothing happens. I don’t dispute their purpose—we’re getting a lot more character moments that are filling in some of the gaps. But this issue, we get a poetic monologue from a caveman. (more…)
Now it may seem as if the streak ended, and technically it did, but I only bought one comic the week before this last one, and considering the entire gimmick of this review column is the ragged segue from one issue to another, you can’t exactly have a segue when there’s only one thing to talk about. So I saved last week’s issue for this week.
So we’ll start with last week’s lone issue, The Batman Who Laughs #3, the mini-series spin-off from Dark Knights: Metal. I have two things I really like about this series and one thing I don’t.
Good thing 1: This series is essentially Batman vs. Batman, and even though there have been a number of iterations of that over the years, I don’t really get tired of them—provided the premise is around the challenge of catching up with someone who is always one (or more) steps ahead, simply by virtue of being the same guy with all the same strengths and usually freed from some of the constraints that our Bruce imposes upon himself.
Good thing 2: Scott Snyder’s skills with setting the horror mood are perfectly suited to a story like this. Nice Batman can’t keep up, can’t keep from falling further behind, and now can’t stop himself from slipping further into the Joker’s seemingly inescapable trap. That’s bad! Scott Snyder is made for that stuff.
But the thing I don’t care for is how Snyder has turned the Joker into this weird invincible metahuman. (more…)