NJPW ON AXS (6/16/17): Sakura Genesis Part 1
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Ryusuke Taguchi & Ricochet vs. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI (4/9/16)
What a match! Tokyo is HOT!!! It’s JIP right in time for Ricochet to go on an AMAZING run, just wrecking all of Los Ingobernables, what a freak. Rest of the match is a blast of an 8-man sprint with the crowd going wild for everything. Juice does an Unprettier that Naito lands on his head for and BEATS NAITO. Awesome. ***1/2
IWGP Tag Team Title: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima [c] vs. War Machine (Raymond Rowe & Hanson) (4/9/16)
War Machine looking like a couple of Wildlings is fantastic. God damn, Tencozy can still get the folks going. Classic shoulderblock-offs early, moving into War Machine freaking everybody out with big man flying spots. Hanson’s repeated running corner splashes was a pretty awesome spot too, get yourself over kid. War Machine’s finish is awesome as well. ***1/4
NEVER Openweight Title: Hirooki Goto [c] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (4/9/16)
The Zack Sabre Jr. 3-belt gimmick is GOLD – literally! This is a lot of ZSJ matwork which is half awesome half super weak-feeling. Liked the spot with ZSJ smiling at Goto applying the legbar and helping him sync it in. A few individual cool moments here, a solid championship match that never got anywhere past that. ***
NJPW ON AXS (6/16/17): Sakura Genesis Part 2
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Hiromu Takahashi [c] vs. KUSHIDA (4/9/17)
AWESOME 2-minute match, a non-stop sprint between the two most impressive juniors in wrestling – big flying, stiff strikes, and after just 2-minutes a win that felt earned and legit. AMAZING, must-see promo by Takahashi post-match… just legendary stuff, with fake tears, lamenting his absolute destruction of KUSHIDA. “The end of an era, and it happened so fast.” Hiromu Takahashi is a superstar.
IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. Katsuyori Shibata (4/9/17)
This is a perfect professional wrestling match, less a wrestling match than a wrestling horror film that has the onslaught of Wrestling’s Past terrorizing the protagonist of today who refuses to go down. Realistic, emotional, dramatic, and stiff as all hell, with sweat spraying off each guy’s body with each strike. It is absolutely tragic what happened to Shibata during and after this match, so sad obviously for the head trauma (yeah…) but also because said head trauma will be forever tied to this match. Maybe there’s something gross about finding such entertainment out of this match, a commentary on what we ask for from our wrestlers, modern day gladiators who must push themselves further and further until they break. But, fuuuuck. This is a special match.
It started as a great championship wrestling match – realistic hold-trading and matwork, Shibata applying and returning to a vicious headlock, his arms pulsating as he locked it on. Shibata plays up THE WRESTLER shtick with said headlock, some brutal elbows, and doing Antonio Inoki spots like the leg kicks and an Octopus hold. I loved how Shibata applied the figure-four here, holding Okada’s foot at the end – it’s so simple but screams in a not-so-cheesy way that this just might be REAL. Everything Shibata does for that matter feels so legit… there are no frills to his game, he is here to hurt you, and once in a while he’s going to be a dick about it. The crowd meanwhile is all about everything he is doing.
Over the last couple weeks I have watched basically all the big Okada matches in the last year, and yeah – guy’s a keeper. He’s a champion, a guy possessing all the skills of a great professional wrestler – charisma, charisma, charisma, and an amazing dropkick – but also a guy possessing that extra intangible that sometimes is hard to explain. I think it’s his selling. I really like his selling. A lot of his big matches – vs. Suzuki, vs. Shibata, vs. Omega x2 – are all about him facing off against these impossible odds, and the way he grits his teeth, looks exhausted, and delivers his offense on his comeback has everybody in the palm of his hand. One of my favorite things that he did here was after Shibata had wrecked his leg with a figure-four, he did this subtle slow run on an Irish whip into the turnbuckle, then managed a dropkick out of desperation and just laid there, his face somehow conveying that he finally had some breathing room. His crawling struggle to get out of Shibata’s armbar is incredible too, what a cinematic shot the New Japan camera guys got on that one.
There’s also an amazing shot somewhere in here of Okada climbing the ropes to do something to a downed Shibata, only for the camera to go back to a wide shot and Shibata has just APPEARED, back standing up, like some unstoppable ghost.
And the elbow exchanges, man. Those elbows. Though Shibata legitimately suffered a freaking brain injury here, Okada’s elbows looked weak in comparison to his shots. Okada is an absolute freak to have taken all of these. It was these elbow exchanges that transitioned this into a true wrestling horror film – I found myself covering my eyes with my hands and peering out in between my fingers.
And then, after all that… it went next level.
The true sign of a truly GREAT, EPIC, AMAZING, AWESOME wrestling match for me is the EXTRA – that extra spice that makes it something truly unique in professional wrestling, that extra seasoning that makes me turn off my jaded old wrestling fan glasses and absolutely flip out.
Everything was clicking – Shibata the Wrecking Ball, Okada the Ace that won’t go down, the crowd biting on their every move. And then they headed towards the close. Okada fought out of the armbar and just SAT in the middle of the ring, asking for more. Shibata threw a few disgusting kicks to Okada’s arm and then spit on his hand and just straight-up SLAPPED THE BACK OF OKADA’S HEAD. Professional wrestling might just peak when you’ve got two exhausted fellas sitting in the middle of the ring just throwing shots at each other. Loved Shibata’s sell when Okada finally cracked him with a good elbow, backing up like OH FUCK.
Shibata went for a PK only to run into a dropkick, which he just SAT UP in response to. Then he STOOD UP. They traded STRONG STYYYLE boots and shots until Okada NAILED an incredible German suplex. It seems like he’s going to go for a rolling German, but he just stays down for an an uncomfortable 20-seconds, one part fighting for the waistlock on Shibata and another possibly sensing that Shibata was hurt. The crowd rallies for Shibata, Okada hits a Rainmaker, and SHIBATA DOESN’T GO DOWN. HOW INCREDIBLE WAS THAT!?!?!?!
It’s absolutely uncomfortable but the Shibata shoot headbutt followed by the Shibata pause and slow realization that there is blood trickling down his forehead followed by him just looking up at the crowd, his wound on display for all to see, is something that should get a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He tried to end it with an Octopus hold, but Okada fought out and threw a Rainmaker SLAP. Both guys went down, and the zoom-in shot of Okada holding onto Shibata’s hand to prep him for another Rainmaker is another thing that should get a grant. Okada hits another Rainmaker and The Monster AGAIN refuses to go down, only to succumb to one more.
This was intense, this was beautiful, this was pro wrestling. *****
