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[ghostmind]

Does Honma have new entrance music?

EDIT: Sounds great - perfect for the new Age of Honmamania!

 

[RP912]

Watching some of the G1 before I head to bed.

 

[Trevelyon]

Ah, brilliant! Looking forward to Shibata/Styles tonight.

 

[CoolBatteryCharge]

First time actually staying up to watch New Japan live. Two pretty cool match ups I'm really looking forward to.

 

[ghostmind]

WWE being mentioned... and not just because David Finlay is in this match.

 

[ghostmind]

Lots of new ring gear being debuted tonight. Goto's looks slick, though he keeps on having to lift his hood to see where he was going.


... recalls Gallows' polka-dot outfit from last year... <shudder>

 

[kunonabi]

this is buffering like crazy for me. I might have to watch the replay later if this keeps up.

 

[Aiii]

Looks like a busy morning at work, hope I'm not called into meetings during the better matches.

 

[lupin23rd]

Yujiro without a pretty valet makes me sad.

 

[ghostmind]

The new Bullet Club intro for Karl Anderson is too sweet.

 

[lupin23rd]

The new Bullet Club intro for Karl Anderson is too sweet.

Looks like he saw a new Maria in the crowd.

 

[CoolBatteryCharge]

LOL at Anderson yelling "I got new shit!"

 

[Aiii]

I'm not sure who my favorite referee is, Lil' Naitch or Tiger Hattori.

 

[Rhaknar]

Ah, brilliant! Looking forward to Shibata/Styles tonight.

Oh my

 

[ghostmind]

Taguchi.... ew.

He needs a new gimmick BADLY. This "Funky Weapon" persona, and ass-based offence is dumb.

 

[ghostmind]

They made Elgin look really strong in his debut.

 

[British Monsoon]

Happy for Elgin, he's going to get over fine with the New Japan crowd - they reacted well for all his big spots, even the half-botched fall-away slam/Samoan drop. Some enjoyable stuff in those tag matches, I'm hyped for Kojima vs Ishii now.

 

[Aiii]

Would it really hurt NJPW to hire a guy to add some subtitles to their pre-recorded promos?

Come on, I understand getting two extra English commentators on staff and allowing another language feed to go to the stream takes too much money and effort. But adding subs can't cost that much.

 

[ghostmind]

Makabe has the best battle cry - "FUUUUUCK!"

 

[British Monsoon]

That Tenzan/Gallows match was the drizzling shits, although to be fair it did look like Tenzan's knee gave out. Not the best of starts to the G1 ever, but the next 3 matches should make up for it.

 

[CoolBatteryCharge]

Yano will never not be fun to watch.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

This dude has a Black Mask outfit on looooool

Naito pls

 

[ghostmind]

Naito's energetic entrance music is perfect with his new persona.

EDIT: Naito's just gonna have a nap for a bit...

 

[CoolBatteryCharge]

...WAIT A MINUTE THERE. That didn't seem right.

 

[ghostmind]

Shibata going hardcore with that sleeper.

 

[CoolBatteryCharge]

That toss into the corner. Oh my good lord.

 

[miserable]

HIGH FRY FRO

 

[ghostmind]

A solid start to the tournament - while some of the matches weren't great (Gallows vs.Tenzan, and the Hall & Takhashi vs. Goto & CNJ tag match), the good matches elevated Day 1 as a whole.


Day 1 Top Matches
Tanahashi vs Ibushi
Shibata vs Styles
Naito vs Fale

 

[miserable]

the japanese sure love that air guitar

 

[Aiii]

Ibushi needs to get a solid run with the IWGP belt already. #PushIbushi, it's time!

 

[RP912]

Seen the opening match and fell asleep lol. I'm playing catch up now.

 

[slightconfuse]

Catching up on the G1

Tanahashi is going to take out all of DDT's aces . Ibushi is dope as always.

Styles and Shibata was amazing as expected,moved the end.

Yessssss my boy tenzan.

Yano still the best

 

[British Monsoon]

Ricochet has been booked for the last 3 days of the G1, appearing on the undercard on August 14th & 15th before facing KUSHIDA for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title on the 16th;

Also, BUSHI makes his return to in-ring action after being out injured for eight months;

He'll be teaming with Taguchi & Dorada against Tiger Mask, Komatsu & Sho Tanaka.

 

[Rhaknar]

catching up on this, Tanahashi v Ibushi was fucking DOPE as expected, I dont even care that tanahashiwinslol

edit: whats up with all the tag matches on day 1?

 

[Gonzalez]

edit: whats up with all the tag matches on day 1?

It's sort of reminiscent to how All Japan used to run the Champions Carnival during it's heyday. Rather than the league taking place in a week, and almost all the participants performing on every show in a league match, they instead would spread the singles matches out through the entire tour. All Japan did it to make money, but from what I'm reading New Japan is doing it to avoid injuries.

 

[British Monsoon]

Day 2 of the G1's starting in 10 minutes! Here's the card;

NJPW, 2015/07/23
Twin Messe Shizuoka

1. Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Yohei Komatsu & Jay White
2. Togi Makabe, Kota Ibushi & Captain New Japan vs. Doc Gallows, Bad Luck Fale & Cody Hall
3. Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs. AJ Styles & Tama Tonga
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito & Máscara Dorada vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Katsuyori Shibata & Ryusuke Taguchi
5. G1 Climax - Block B: Satoshi Kojima vs. Tomohiro Ishii
6. G1 Climax - Block B: Hirooki Goto vs. Yujiro Takahashi
7. G1 Climax - Block B: Yuji Nagata vs. Tomoaki Honma
8. G1 Climax - Block B: Kazuchika Okada vs. Michael Elgin
9. G1 Climax - Block B: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Karl Anderson

 

[CoolBatteryCharge]

Not a super exciting card for me, but still looks like a fun one.

 

[Aiii]

LETS DO THIIIIIISS!

This a house show?

 

[Foffy]

Dat Tenzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz freeze. I died.

 

[Aiii]

This camera angle is horrendous.

 

[Foffy]

This camera angle is horrendous.

It is. I almost want to not watch this day's event. :/

 

[CoolBatteryCharge]

Day 2 seeming really low budget.

 

[British Monsoon]

This year they added more shows to the tour (19 in total), but not all of those were picked up for broadcast, so no production crews from Samurai TV or TV Asahi - hence the cheap production.

 

[miserable]

no commentary?

 

[British Monsoon]

See above - no TV production crews, so no commentary. Tomorrow's show is on Samurai TV, so it'll have multiple cameras and commentary. Saturday's show is another single-cam show, but it's the last one this month.

 

[CoolBatteryCharge]

WOW. I did NOT see that coming.

 

[British Monsoon]

Yeah, I hadn't predicted that one either - still think Shinsuke's winning his block, though. Pretty good day of G1 matches, better than Night 1 overall. Elgin/Okada was actually pretty great, loved the main event as well, once it got going.

 

[ghostmind]

Finally got around to finishing Day 2 - the lack of announcers and single cam hurt this show - in fact if it had been a full production I may have rated it higher than Day 1. Elgin is a lot more entertaining to watch than I expected, and I'm looking forward to his match ups with the rest of the roster. And would it hurt to give Honma a win?

Day 2 Top Matches
Elgin vs Okada
Nakamura vs Anderson

 

[Empyrean Heaven]

Yeah, I hadn't predicted that one either - still think Shinsuke's winning his block, though. Pretty good day of G1 matches, better than Night 1 overall. Elgin/Okada was actually pretty great, loved the main event as well, once it got going.

I think it's just to build tension for Nakamura since he's pretty much everyone's pick to win the thing. He and Okada could go the rest of the way undefeated, and Nakamura could beat Okada on the final night, they would tie in points but Nakamura would move to the finals because he won the head-to-head matchup.

Or, Okada could get beat by Goto, who is pretty much the only other person in the block I could see him lose to other than Nakamura.

 

[CoolBatteryCharge]

Toru Yano vs AJ Styles sounds like good dumb fun.

EDIT: HONMAMANIA IS RUNNING WILD