G1 CLIMAX 25: DAYS 2 to 5

Fujiwara Armbar is a professional man with a filofax and many meetings to take and right now does not have time to provide premium express content solutions on the matter of New Japan Pro Wrestling's annual heavyweight wrestling tournament. However he was good to fax me the following comments on the back of what appears to be the invoice for 365 pairs of size M black underpants with a note made out to 'John at Bearhugger'.

G1 CLIMAX 25: DAY TWO
Twin Messe, Shizuoka
23rd July 2015

The opening round of Block B fixtures are being presented by a single camera with no commentary in a venue with little atmosphere. Hmm. As much as some may say this is more of a pure experience, I return with i. fuck purity and ii. the televisual production is what replaces the atmosphere of being there. This feels more like standing near the hard camera wearing ear defenders.

G1 CLIMAX 25: DAY 1

G1 CLIMAX 25: DAY ONE
Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Centre, Sapporo
20th July 2015

Press conferences watched, alarm clock beeps at 7.30am, coffee is made, where is the bread, where IS my sodding bread? I'll do this on an empty stomach then. Assholes. ANYWAY. 364 days after the commencement of last year's tournament, in the same venue, the enlarged charabanc containing the New Japan roster rolls back into Sapporo to commence another edition of the greatest wrestling tournament shut UP PWG fans. 

This review should be a rather short entry in the canon. The new format of the G1 has taken the sting out of the chances of any one night being completely blow-away awesome. At first I received the idea well, because I do believe it is important to spread these guys' workload out and let everyone recover, talk about what they're going to do out there and generally give everyone a great time. But they're all working every night, half of the time in tag matches, so it feels almost like a cruel joke.

G1 CLIMAX 25 PREVIEW

One year ago the beginning of the greatest wrestling thing that has happened in my experience of watching this sometimes baffling pseudo-sport began: the tournament to top all tournaments, 111 beautiful golden memories culminating in a pulsating, trouser-rendering final that left me giddy and bereft of three weeks of my life but also strangely elated beyond any place art or sport had taken me before.

2014 winner Kazuchika Okada

All of this madness was simply for the right for one guy to go to Wrestle Kingdom 9 with a gaudy briefcase containing a contract stating his legitimacy as title challenger, which he promptly lost, bursting into tears having shinned up the biggest mountain in sight and finding, after several exasperating months, that it was a mere foothill.