G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 2

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY TWO
Aomori Prefecture Budokan, Aomori
July 23rd 2014

Aomori, at the northernmost extent of Honshu and birthplace of famed New York Mets pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, plays host to Day Two. The last time NJPW visited the city itself (having been within the Prefecture a couple of times), Rocky Romero's tag partner was Davey Richards, Wataru Inoue wrestled and Yoshihiro Takayama was part of Suzuki-gun. How times change.

Wataru Inoue

With a stacked card and a good house ready for anything, Day One of the 24th G1 Climax delivered in spades. On paper, day two of the tournament appears to be the one with fewest obvious marquee matches, with star names and favourites mostly spread out. However, the momentum has been set and NJPW has delivered this year with an apparently weak card on more than one occasion. Minoru Suzuki and Katsuyori Shibata have been granted the night off to go fishing, have a beer and saka otoshi everyone in sight.

This broadcast has more of an overt pre-show attached to it, with one of the commentators looking fantastic in a Simpsons tie. They interview a father (wearing Argentine football gear) and son and ask both for their picks. Gedo & Jado join at the commentary position, the latter to crack jokes and have fun, the former to put Okada over some more.

Tomohiro Ishii: cooking up a whole pan FULL of whoop ass

A: Satoshi Kojima - Tomohiro Ishii
Previous beef: Kojima won their 2013 encounter in revenge for Ishii's defeat of Kojima in the first round of the New Japan Cup earlier in the year.

Ishii, an opening night loser, attacks from the off, smashing Kojima with a powerslam reversal. A smart cookie behind the compact and muscular physique, Kojima rolls out to the floor to buy time but Ishii is on him immediately. As Ishii clambers back onto the apron, Kojima screams like a banshee and lariats the legs of Ishii, following that up with a brutal apron DDT.

Now, I'm not going to recount every sequence and move thrown. Suffice to say that that opening sequence was just a table-setter for a really fine opener between the safest hands outside of the regular main event scene. Ishii murders Kojima with a hanging second rope brainbuster for a two-count, the same amount of time Kojima manages to hold down Ishii after a spicy top-rope Koji Cutter. 

Credit: Bootaaay on the NEOGAF forum

A great back-and-forth encounter that almost made me sad upon realisation that one guy probably had to definitively lose. Kojima's brutal lariat was teased and teased and looked an inevitability until it was thwarted a final time as Ishii delivered the final blow, picking up the win with another crushing brainbuster. ***3/4

Ishii [2] d. Kojima [2]

Shelton (X) Benjamin: remember how good this guy was?

A: Bad Luck Fale - Shelton Benjamin
Previous beef: Fale smashed Benjamin in little over four minutes in this year's New Japan Cup semi-final, representing their only real encounter.

A huge clue to the quality and excitability of the crowd is their perpetual excitement during this match, popping for the usually unrated Benjamin. Once again, Benjamin looks very solid and manages to work more than just a credible match in dominance of his larger, but inexperienced, opponent. Avoiding the Grenade, Benjamin lays down a solid marker for the tournament by breaking Fale's resistance with a lovely superkick and hitting Paydirt for the kill. **3/4

Benjamin [4] d. Fale [2]

B: Hirooki Goto - Yujiro Takahashi
Previous beef: met in the Blocks in the 2010 G1, with Goto taking the win. Goto smashed Takahashi in a tag match earlier in 2014, though Takahashi has since joined Bullet Club.

Wins on opening night in fine matches for both men heightens the expectation for this one, with Goto emerging looking more pumped up than all of his outings in 2014 combined. Takahashi, needing to do his little heel routine early in the match (biting, posing), gets things off to the same start as all of his matches as of late.

Fortunately the routine works more on the live crowd than it does in my living room, pushing the heat up early for a match that turned out to be a really solid and mature outing for both guys. Takahashi dominated portions of the match,  displaying the similar fluid and proactive approach as his Day 1 outing with Naito, only without the botching.

Goto, fighting from underneath, generated much more warmth as a babyface in peril rather than a stout warrior of unflinching conviction. It helps his fighting spirit spots stand out and supercharges the crowd when he blocks Takahashi's finish and leads through the end sequence, dropping the NEVER Openweight champion with an amped Shouten Kai. Goto wins the match, one which layered its drama intricately and played its most effective cards right at the death. ***3/4

Goto [4] d. Takahashi [2]

B: Lance Archer - Tetsuya Naito
Previous beef: Archer bested Naito in the 2012 Block stage, gaining revenge for the Naito's victory in 2011.

Archer makes his G1 Climax 24 bow with new ring attire (all white) but makes it clear that he's just as much of a Suzuki-gun asshole as ever. Naito, defeated on night one, emerges to the kind of pop NJPW probably envisioned the man getting in the more urbane and smarky parts of Japan. Despite having a truly shocking haircut and ring gear, I like Naito almost as much as the pockets of female support who continually interlocute with his name. Hopefully his time will come.

Lance Archer in the place that all overseas wrestlers are magnetically drawn to

The match between the pair is what I'd call, as a sincere non-pejorative, a classic indy bout between a smaller guy and a bigger guy. Naito attempts to run rings around the giant Archer, sometimes succeeding and sometimes being cut down mid-momentum. There's insufficient time to develop a killer narrative thread here but, to borrow a Jim Ross expression, the pair maximise their minutes effectively. Archer appears to have it won with a chokeslam, but Naito powers out and wins shortly after with a roll-up. Slight disappointment at the ending but an otherwise fine match. **3/4

Naito [2] d. Archer [0]

A: Tomoaki Honma - Yuji Nagata

Previous beef: not much. Nagata defeated Honma on a New Japan Cup tour in 2010, but since this the pair have often been exchangable as partners and opponents during house show tag matches.

A similar encounter to Honma's opening night bout with Tanahashi, only Nagata is a more capable a ruthless heel figure to generate sympathy from - though he offers slightly less in the way of smoothness and timing. Honma attempts to hit his Kokeshi headbutt and indeed the desire to succeed at this task at expense of doing the groundwork for victory becomes the windmill at which he tilts.

Honma is the best in the world in the little engine that-might-but-probably-won't role. Reversing a Nagata corner attack into a sitout powerbomb, hearts go into mouths until Nagata powers out and eventually wins with a Backdrop Hold. A good match with some hard slapping and kicking, though ultimately more of a short film of singles bout rather than a hard-hitting feature. ***1/4

Nagata [2] d. Honma [0]

A: Davey Boy Smith Jr. - Shinsuke Nakamura 
Previous beef: Nakamura defeated Smith Jr. on his way to victory in this year's New Japan Cup as well as defending his Intercontinental title against the Canadian in 2013. Smith Jr. holds one singles victory over Nakamura in the early stages of 2013's New Japan Cup.

Though a big fan of his father and two of his uncles, I've never been able to see Davey Boy Smith Jr. in the same light. Partly because I hardly saw him during his WWE run and partly because the younger Smith is a different kind of wrestler. Both powerhouses, sure, but Smith Senior was a bulked up mat wrestler whereas his son comes across more like a bodybuilder-turned-grappler.

Smith Jr.'s triumvirate of previous matches with the peerless Nakamura have drawn some of the biggest plaudits of his short career to date. I am pleased to report that the newest addition, though a little disjointed, is another fine affair with lots of give and take. As the opponents circle one another in the opening moments, Nakamura kicks Smith Jr. hard in the midsection. Unflinching, Smith Jr. kicks back hard, winding his opponent and showing him that whatever he tries, he's got a much bigger bomb to throw back.

There's some really good stuff here, with Smith Jr. hitting a great lariat to knock Nakamura off the apron. That muscular bicep is deployed once again in evading a Boma Ye, smashing Nakamura down as he scrambles to recover his flow. Power is Smith Jr.'s major calling card, lifting the not exactly light Nakamura up during a cross armbreaker attempt and powerbombing him back down to earth.

Nakamura is much too quick and canny in the most part, executing some rarely seen flips and counters. There's also not a wrestler working today that I'm aware of who can get more heat for his finisher by having the first one kicked out of. His whole body language alters in a second, his face ablaze with rage and confusion, before finishing the job seconds later. ***1/2

Nakamura [2] d. Smith Jr. [0]

Toru Yano: Best In The World At What He Does. Also the only person in the world at what he does.

B: Toru Yano - AJ Styles 
Previous beef: though Yano's CHAOS and Styles' Bullet Club are at war, Yano has been too busy fighting his own private war with Minoru Suzuki for so long that the two have not even laid eyes on one another.

Since breaking with TNA, AJ Styles has travelled the world's independent scene, taking on each locale's best young wrestler in an attempt to have match of the night. I'd estimate nobody in the world has potentially as many great matches that so few people own the DVDs of.

So it was with real mordant curiosity that I approached this match. Yano doesn't really have 'matches' in the traditional sense. He has a comic routine and a few spots where he gains the upper hand. But what that requires to work, just as much as a dropkick spot or a hurricanrana, is timing and confidence. But how do you put that across to a guy who simply just goes out to have great 'workrate' matches?

YOUR EYES ARE NOT DECEIVING YOU

That was a sincere question. However this match was laid out beforehand, it really worked wonders in front of the house. Sure, the crowd had gone wild all night, and they even cheered the heelish Styles as he mounted the turnbuckles for a pre-match pose. But you can still kill a crowd or at least disappoint them. This match didn't do that. Indeed, it showed that Styles can work fine matches with pretty much anyone with the basics down and it showed - in a moment of shock - that Yano can actually wrestle. A bit.

In the battle of the troll king versus the earnest champion, Styles won with the Styles Clash as you'd probably expect. The minutes that elapsed from bell to bell were continuously entertaining, with moments where it credibly seemed that The Man With The Noblest Brain may have outsmarted the champion for the victory. An all-around triumph. Styles may not look back on this one as his finest hour, but it was the match where he showed Japan that he's got something else in his playbook. ***1/2

Styles [2] d. Yano [2]

B: Hiroyoshi Tenzan - Kazuchika Okada
Previous beef: Okada defeated Tenzan on his way to overall victory on opening night of 2012's tournament, their only singles match to date. Before Okada's foreign excursion, the two were often partnered together as master and student.

Okada nearly gets blown back through the entrance curtain, such is the force of the O-KA-DA! chants. Even better, Tenzan is over as fuck too, with every part of his moveset getting some kind of noteworthy vocal reaction. Two ex-champions of both the major title and the G1 going at it, the star of today versus an underrated star of a previous era in front of a hot crowd. 

Absolutely no complaints here about anything: everything was crisp and well-executed, Tenzan got to look fantastic in defeat, rolling back the years in terms of response and performance. Tenzan evades two Rainmaker attempts, the second one finding his mark with a thudding headbutt, but cannot evade a weary third effort. Another fine match. ***1/2

Okada [4] d. Tenzan [2]

B: Karl Anderson - Togi Makabe 

Previous beef: The pair have met in countless multi-man excursions in 2014 alone. Anderson was recently on the victorious side in an IWGP Tag Team match versus Makabe and his partner Hiroshi Tanahashi, as well as defeating Makabe and his stablemate Tomoaki Honma in last year's World Tag Teague Final. Singles contests are much less common, with Makabe defeating Anderson in the 2010 Blocks and in a non-G1 match during the 2009 tournament.

Early in the contest, Anderson has Makabe's nut three ways: he's physically dominating him, he's inside his head and he's zeroing in mercilessly on Makabe's weakened jaw. All Makabe can do in response is that thing he was probably the king of during the late 00s: get the crowd onside and summon up a shitload of intestinal fortitude.

Defeat for both men in their openers adds a little frisson of desperation to the encounter, displayed well in Anderson's top rope Gun Stun attempt (which looks more like an F5 from where I was sitting) that Makabe barely kicks out of. Makabe proves the most desperate to succeed, smashing Anderson with the Spider German followed by the King Kong Knee Drop for the pinfall. Makabe back in the (notional) Block B hunt, but where does Anderson go from here? Another good match too. ***1/4

Makabe [2] d. Anderson [0]

Hiroshi Tanahashi: has a little experience in the main event

A: Doc Gallows - Hiroshi Tanahashi  
Previous beef: This is the first singles contest between the two. Gallows got the better of Tanahashi for the IWGP Tag Team Championship at Dominion 6.21

Firstly we should talk about Doc Gallows trousers. What is going on here? They look, from a distance, like polka dot pyjamas. On closer inspection the dot is some kind of crest and the trouser actually cuts off above the boot. But they do not scream 'main event trousers' to me.

Aomori yells its last for Tanahashi's entrance, who is as popular as they come in these parts. Moving away from his subtle heel antics to get Honma over, Tanahashi starts to work full babyface to let the dastardly giant Gallows get his stuff in. What stuff he does have isn't the most impressive on the roster, but the two generate a decent bit of chemistry that takes in a comedy 'who can gain the high ground in a test of strength' spot and some rough stuff with a chair and some guardrails on the outside.

Tanahashi, being the flippin' Ace of the Bleedin' Universe, doesn't take the fall when Gallows hits the Gallows Pole because he is just made of sterner stuff. Can Gallows find his own personal Ishii Driller? His own Burning Hammer? His own Roaring Elbow? Of course not. Tanahashi, being a charitable sort, ensures Gallows does not go gentle into that Aomori night, hitting two High Fly Flows to finish the job and go screaming to the top of Block A. ***1/4

Tanahashi [4] d. Gallows [0].

So. No match totally tore the house down but nothing got more than 14 minutes, but every single match delivered something. I was royally entertained from beginning to end and didn't feel short-changed by a show that was priced like a house show but delivered on a much broader scale. 

In terms of performance and drama, this year's G1 Climax is shaping up very well. 6 in 10 on the night in terms of picks, 13 out of 20 overall, I think, though Voices of Wrestling seem to think I am 14 out of 20 but I won't pick them up on that.

A word about my ratings: I tend to start at a ** base point. I'll add about a quarter of a star for every couple of minutes that pass by without breaking my attention or taking me outside the bubble of what I'm trying to enjoy. That doesn't mean that simply working an entertaining 24 minute match will accrue enough quarter stars to get you to a ***** classic (I have very few of those) because there are also intangible factors such as importance, storyline and even personal like and dislike.

There are some inconsistencies to my methodology, I'll admit. Moments matter. Sometimes I'll add for something out of the ordinary or subtract if something really annoys me. I also favour intensely-contested and well-constructed brevity (10-12 mins) where possible, which is why sometimes I appear generous on shorter matches that deliver compared to longer ones with lulls. I try not to be overly-critical where possible because I recognise what a tough job people are doing.