AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki reappraised

This entry is a little bit different than my standard 'review of an event' fare. The August 1st 2014 match between Minoru Suzuki and AJ Styles as part of the annual G1 Climax tournament has been living inside my head for a few months now and I think that it's time to write it all down. 

There's a few paragraphs before I start to talk about the match itself. Feel free to jump them, though I think it's discursive self-critique at its very best! 

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 11

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY ELEVEN
Bunka Gymnasium, Yokohama
8th August 2014

It's the last day of regular competition at this year's overwhelmingly successful G1 Climax and the names of the finalists are yet to be decided (shocking, I know!). Usually the finals take place right after the final Block matches, meaning that the final night has more people in contention than we have tonight. The downside of that is that more of these matches are 'meaningless', but the upside is that people know that the final is guaranteed to be star-studded and the last run on Seibu Dome tickets can commence.

Here are the brief permutations: in Block A, if Hiroshi Tanahashi wins, he wins the Block. If he loses, the winner of Bad Luck Fale and Shinsuke Nakamura wins. Should Tanahashi lose and Katsuyori Shibata win, Shibata would take the runners-up slot. In Block B, if Okada wins, he wins. If Styles wins and Okada loses, Styles wins. If both lose, Okada wins. Here, courtesy of the amazing @matsu_bomaYe is the potential finalist club having a break.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 8

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY EIGHT
BODYMAKER Colosseum, Osaka
3rd August 2014

It's quite possible that I'm not fully ready for Day 8 after such an excellent show at the Korakuen on the 1st. Reports I've seen online suggested that after cheering themselves into a frenzy for Tenzan-Goto, Styles-Suzuki and Nagata-Shibata, the crowd was pretty much blown out for the main event. I wasn't but I can understand if someone else was: it was insane. People aren't even really talking about Naito-Makabe and it was brilliant.

I SIGNED KENTA RIGHT HERE IN OSAKA JAPAN BROTHA

The wrestlers, hopefully, will have no such problems tonight. They absolutely bloody love their wrestling in Osaka and people who consider such things consider the Osaka crowd for New Japan Pro Wrestling to be the gold standard in worldwide audiences. A little bit smarky, sure - they wrongly hate Naito - but vocal as hell and capable of pushing the in-ring work on to greater heights.

G1 CLIMAX 24: Day 6

G1 CLIMAX 24: DAY SIX
Act City, Hamamatsu
July 31st 2014

Approximately halfway between Tokyo and Osaka lies Hamamatsu, birthplace of the founder of Honda, they of the frequently product-recalled cars. New Japan had a great house in this very city earlier in the year for an Anniversary tour house show notable for nothing more than a singles victory for Captain New Japan. Last year's G1 also got under way in Hamamatsu, headlined by Prince Devitt cheating his way to victory against then-champion Kazuchika Okada.

Minoru Suzuki hits the saka otoshi on Yujiro Takakashi (credit: Yahoo!)

A couple of rumours have been doing the rounds, possibly a work, on the health of Hiroshi Tanahashi and Togi Makabe. It'll be interesting to see how either bears up, especially Tanahashi given his headline match this evening against the very physically-demanding (but safe!) Tomohiro Ishii. This said, Tanahashi does get the following night off.