NJPW G1 Climax 23: Day 4
NJPW G1 Climax 23: Day 4 (8/4/2013)- Osaka, Japan
BLOCK B: Toru Yano vs. Yujiro Takahashi- 4/10
I would call this a decent heel vs. heel match, but no one can possibly be a heel when facing off against Takahashi. He is such a great heel that I was perfectly happy when Yano won with a low blow.
BLOCK B: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Karl â€"Machine Gun†Anderson- 6.5/10
Tenzan seems to have been hurt after the match.
BLOCK B: Shelton Benjamin vs. Yugi Nagata- 6/10
Shelton worked over Nagata’s leg and won via anklelock, and after the match some young boys jumped into the ring with ice-packs and quickly unlaced the boot of the ankle Shelton had been working over, so I assume that this is a work, but if not, that would make two injuries on this show already. Not good under any circumstances, but even worse when you are only half way through a huge round-robin tournament.
BLOCK A: Satoshi Kojima vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.- 6/10
BLOCK A: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomohiro Ishii- DUD!
Yes. You read that right. A dud. Now, for those of you haven’t already closed the window and stopped reading, I am going to tell you exactly why I F*CKING HATED this match.
BOlieve it or not, I actually liked the first exchange or two, until Shibata hit the 93 million forearms in the corner and the ref stepped in (why he just started yelling and not counting for a DQ I’m not sure). Starting with that spot, there were multiple times where the referee stepped in to stop Shibata, presumably out of concern for Ishii’s health, but rather than stop the match and award Shibata the win via ref stoppage, he just decided to give Ishii some time to recover, then let Shibata start pounding on him again. JUST STOP THE F*CKING MATCH! It’s like HBK at Wrestlemania XXVIII all over again, but not quite as annoying.
Then they got to the big trading of strikes. The whole standard â€"take turns chopping/kicking/forearming each other as hard as we can†spot makes sense when the two guys doing it are so fired up with competitive spirit that it causes tunnel-vision and they temporarily forget obvious things like â€"letting your opponent hit you will not help you win the match†because at that moment all they care about is proving that they are tougher and can chop/kick/forearm harder. In order for it to work, the guys need to be fired up. To just so calmly take turns kneeling down so that the other guy can hit you, then calmly get back up and hit him drops all pretenses of this being an athletic competition whose goal is to win. It's like all of the players in a basketball game just trying for cool dunks and not taking any other types of shots at all.
Then Ishii gets all fighting spirit and starts fighting back and he puts Shibata down with a bunch of kicks to the chest and then Shibata gets back up and he knocks Ishii down… and of course, after spending all match forearming Ishii in the head, which submission hold does Shibata decides to apply? A Boston Crab. WHAT THE F*CK?
Then, after an STF by Shibata, they fighting spirit out of each others' German suplexes (Wow. This makes me hate that Tommaso Ciampa vs. Brian Cage match from the 2013 Battle of Los Angeles even more). Then they do a double-down after a big lariat, and Ishii, who has been getting forearmed in the head all match… starts clutching his back in pain because that one Boston Crab has apparently affected him more than all of those forearms which almost knocked him out twice.
They go back to trading forearm shots, and after a flurry of forearms shots to the head followed up by a kick to the head knocks Ishii down, Shibata goes to pin him… and he kicks out at one. He then winds up giving Shibata another big lariat and goes for the pin, but Shibata also kicks out at one. Then they went right to a double-down (and NOW Ishii decides to start selling his head).
They crawl towards each other and exchange forearms as they get back to their feet, with Shibata seemingly getting the better of the exchange… until Ishii, the man who has spent the majority of the match getting forearmed in the head (and was just selling it to remind us of this), gives Shibata A F*CKING HEADBUTT… and just that one headbutt sends Shibata down. Shibata returns the favor soon afterwards and we get another double-down.
Shibata locks in a sleeper, and Ishii actually did a fantastic job here, drooling all over the place. It made for a good false finish... until he made it to the ropes... and then after Shibata kicked Ishii in the head, Ishii no-sold it and hit an enzugiri on Shibata… which Shibata totally no-sold and hit Ishii with a running knee to the head… which Ishii no sold… so Shibata kicked him in the head… and Ishii fighting-spirited right back up and hit a big lariat… and Shibata kicked right out, making you feel like an idiot for buying into the sleeper as a false finish because apparently these f*ckers' heads are invulnerable.
Ishii then hit another lariat for a two-count, then picked Shibata up and hit him with a brainbuster for the three-count… with Shibata kicking out immediately afterwards.
This is easily the most overrated match of all time. They completely overdid all of the no-selling, fighting spirit, kick-out-at-one stuff to the point where I didn’t care about the match because if you keep f*cking no-selling everything, all of your offense ceases to mean anything.
BLOCK A: Lance Archer vs. Hirooki Goto- 6/10
I assume that they rushed the finish here because of Goto’s injury, but the match was still good.
BLOCK B: Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki- 7.5/10
Suzuki went right after Naito’s injured knee and kept on it all match, and whenever Naito would fight back, his offense would get him in trouble because it always put pressure on his knee. Great stuff! That battle at the end with Suzuki trying to get Naito up for the Gotch-Style Cradle Piledriver was amazing. Suzuki really didn’t seem to take enough damage before he was put down, but other than that, this was a great match!
BLOCK A: Hiroshi Tanahashi (w/Captain New Japan) vs. Prince Devitt (w/Bad Luck Fale)- 7/10
Tanahashi came down the ramp on Captain New Japan’s shoulders, making fun of Devitt’s entrance… so when Tanahashi climbed the turnbuckle, Devitt hit him from behind with a guitar. I know that this is technically before the match starts, but normally if someone jumps someone, the bell rings and the match starts, and that attack is considered the beginning of the match... so shouldn’t this be an immediate DQ?
Anyway, the ref orders the bell rung to start the match, and Devitt, being a huge asshole, puts on Tanahashi’s ring jacket before he starts beating Tanahashi down. GRRRR! I hate that dirty heel!
Anyway, Devitt works over Tanahashi’s back and Tanahashi gets some quick, explosive burst of offense in which he works over Devitt’s neck. Tanahashi goes to the top rope to hit the High Fly Flow, but Fale grabs him by the throat right in front of the ref… and apparently this blatant assault on one of the wrestlers in the match did not warrant a DQ.
BLOCK A: Kazuchika Okada vs. Togi Makabe- 8/10
Okada works over Makabe’s back, Makabe makes a comeback and works over Okada’s neck. An awesome match, but not as good as their match at Dominion 2013.
BLOCK B: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibush-7.75/10
A great match, though I wasn’t thrilled with some of the no-selling from Kota at the end (though I did find it amusing that the only time Kota no-sold a bunch of strikes to his head was pretty much the exact same spot as the only time that Ishii did sell the strikes to his head).
A great show from New Japan. Consistently good to great matches all up and down the card aside from the horrific Ishii vs. Shibata match. I will never understand why people love that match so much.
BLOCK B: Toru Yano vs. Yujiro Takahashi- 4/10
I would call this a decent heel vs. heel match, but no one can possibly be a heel when facing off against Takahashi. He is such a great heel that I was perfectly happy when Yano won with a low blow.
BLOCK B: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Karl â€"Machine Gun†Anderson- 6.5/10
Tenzan seems to have been hurt after the match.
BLOCK B: Shelton Benjamin vs. Yugi Nagata- 6/10
Shelton worked over Nagata’s leg and won via anklelock, and after the match some young boys jumped into the ring with ice-packs and quickly unlaced the boot of the ankle Shelton had been working over, so I assume that this is a work, but if not, that would make two injuries on this show already. Not good under any circumstances, but even worse when you are only half way through a huge round-robin tournament.
BLOCK A: Satoshi Kojima vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.- 6/10
BLOCK A: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomohiro Ishii- DUD!
Yes. You read that right. A dud. Now, for those of you haven’t already closed the window and stopped reading, I am going to tell you exactly why I F*CKING HATED this match.
BOlieve it or not, I actually liked the first exchange or two, until Shibata hit the 93 million forearms in the corner and the ref stepped in (why he just started yelling and not counting for a DQ I’m not sure). Starting with that spot, there were multiple times where the referee stepped in to stop Shibata, presumably out of concern for Ishii’s health, but rather than stop the match and award Shibata the win via ref stoppage, he just decided to give Ishii some time to recover, then let Shibata start pounding on him again. JUST STOP THE F*CKING MATCH! It’s like HBK at Wrestlemania XXVIII all over again, but not quite as annoying.
Then they got to the big trading of strikes. The whole standard â€"take turns chopping/kicking/forearming each other as hard as we can†spot makes sense when the two guys doing it are so fired up with competitive spirit that it causes tunnel-vision and they temporarily forget obvious things like â€"letting your opponent hit you will not help you win the match†because at that moment all they care about is proving that they are tougher and can chop/kick/forearm harder. In order for it to work, the guys need to be fired up. To just so calmly take turns kneeling down so that the other guy can hit you, then calmly get back up and hit him drops all pretenses of this being an athletic competition whose goal is to win. It's like all of the players in a basketball game just trying for cool dunks and not taking any other types of shots at all.
Then Ishii gets all fighting spirit and starts fighting back and he puts Shibata down with a bunch of kicks to the chest and then Shibata gets back up and he knocks Ishii down… and of course, after spending all match forearming Ishii in the head, which submission hold does Shibata decides to apply? A Boston Crab. WHAT THE F*CK?
Then, after an STF by Shibata, they fighting spirit out of each others' German suplexes (Wow. This makes me hate that Tommaso Ciampa vs. Brian Cage match from the 2013 Battle of Los Angeles even more). Then they do a double-down after a big lariat, and Ishii, who has been getting forearmed in the head all match… starts clutching his back in pain because that one Boston Crab has apparently affected him more than all of those forearms which almost knocked him out twice.
They go back to trading forearm shots, and after a flurry of forearms shots to the head followed up by a kick to the head knocks Ishii down, Shibata goes to pin him… and he kicks out at one. He then winds up giving Shibata another big lariat and goes for the pin, but Shibata also kicks out at one. Then they went right to a double-down (and NOW Ishii decides to start selling his head).
They crawl towards each other and exchange forearms as they get back to their feet, with Shibata seemingly getting the better of the exchange… until Ishii, the man who has spent the majority of the match getting forearmed in the head (and was just selling it to remind us of this), gives Shibata A F*CKING HEADBUTT… and just that one headbutt sends Shibata down. Shibata returns the favor soon afterwards and we get another double-down.
Shibata locks in a sleeper, and Ishii actually did a fantastic job here, drooling all over the place. It made for a good false finish... until he made it to the ropes... and then after Shibata kicked Ishii in the head, Ishii no-sold it and hit an enzugiri on Shibata… which Shibata totally no-sold and hit Ishii with a running knee to the head… which Ishii no sold… so Shibata kicked him in the head… and Ishii fighting-spirited right back up and hit a big lariat… and Shibata kicked right out, making you feel like an idiot for buying into the sleeper as a false finish because apparently these f*ckers' heads are invulnerable.
Ishii then hit another lariat for a two-count, then picked Shibata up and hit him with a brainbuster for the three-count… with Shibata kicking out immediately afterwards.
This is easily the most overrated match of all time. They completely overdid all of the no-selling, fighting spirit, kick-out-at-one stuff to the point where I didn’t care about the match because if you keep f*cking no-selling everything, all of your offense ceases to mean anything.
BLOCK A: Lance Archer vs. Hirooki Goto- 6/10
I assume that they rushed the finish here because of Goto’s injury, but the match was still good.
BLOCK B: Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki- 7.5/10
Suzuki went right after Naito’s injured knee and kept on it all match, and whenever Naito would fight back, his offense would get him in trouble because it always put pressure on his knee. Great stuff! That battle at the end with Suzuki trying to get Naito up for the Gotch-Style Cradle Piledriver was amazing. Suzuki really didn’t seem to take enough damage before he was put down, but other than that, this was a great match!
BLOCK A: Hiroshi Tanahashi (w/Captain New Japan) vs. Prince Devitt (w/Bad Luck Fale)- 7/10
Tanahashi came down the ramp on Captain New Japan’s shoulders, making fun of Devitt’s entrance… so when Tanahashi climbed the turnbuckle, Devitt hit him from behind with a guitar. I know that this is technically before the match starts, but normally if someone jumps someone, the bell rings and the match starts, and that attack is considered the beginning of the match... so shouldn’t this be an immediate DQ?
Anyway, the ref orders the bell rung to start the match, and Devitt, being a huge asshole, puts on Tanahashi’s ring jacket before he starts beating Tanahashi down. GRRRR! I hate that dirty heel!
Anyway, Devitt works over Tanahashi’s back and Tanahashi gets some quick, explosive burst of offense in which he works over Devitt’s neck. Tanahashi goes to the top rope to hit the High Fly Flow, but Fale grabs him by the throat right in front of the ref… and apparently this blatant assault on one of the wrestlers in the match did not warrant a DQ.
BLOCK A: Kazuchika Okada vs. Togi Makabe- 8/10
Okada works over Makabe’s back, Makabe makes a comeback and works over Okada’s neck. An awesome match, but not as good as their match at Dominion 2013.
BLOCK B: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibush-7.75/10
A great match, though I wasn’t thrilled with some of the no-selling from Kota at the end (though I did find it amusing that the only time Kota no-sold a bunch of strikes to his head was pretty much the exact same spot as the only time that Ishii did sell the strikes to his head).
A great show from New Japan. Consistently good to great matches all up and down the card aside from the horrific Ishii vs. Shibata match. I will never understand why people love that match so much.