The G1 Climax - First Day

[Guest PlatypusFool]

My opinions... match info from strong style spirit...

 

NJPW, 8/3/02 (PPV/WPW)

Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium

6,200 Fans (Sell Out)

 

1. Masahito Kakihara & Masayuki Naruse beat Blue Wolf & Wataru Inoue (5:50) when Kakihara used a crab hold on Wolf.

 

2. Koji Kanemoto, Jado & Gedo beat Jushin Thunder Liger, Minoru Tanaka & El Samurai (14:32) when Jado used a crossface hold on Samurai.

 

3. G1 Climax - Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi [2] beat Shiro Koshinaka [0] (8:52) with an inside cradle. - Interesting choice to put the reletive rookie over an experienced veteran, but certainly a good one. It looks like they booked a shock win, with the short match and the rollup pin, which might not be a great decision as it makes Tanahashi look less than good against a guy who doesn't mean too much now. However, he did go over, which means loads.

 

4. G1 Climax - Block A: Hiroyoshi Tenzan [2] beat Yutaka Yoshie [0] (15:53) by referee stop. - The buffalo sleeper knocked out Yoshie, which explains the referee stop finish. Another interesting choice. If Tenzan is to win the tournament convincingly, then having a lowly ranked guy like Yoshie take him so far was a bit odd. On the other hand, if Tenzan was given nearly all the offence in the match, and Yoshie was just presented as having stamina, then it can be easily forgiven.

 

5. G1 Climax - Block B: Kenzo Suzuki [2] beat Tadao Yasuda [0] (0:37) with a spear. - Hahahaha, goodbye Lurch old friend. I'm glad they dont look like they are taking him seriously in this tournament, and he just serves as a whipping boy throughout. He'll get a token win, probly over someone very low ranking, but Suzuki isn't exactly the highest ranked guy in the world.

 

6. G1 Climax - Block B: Manabu Nakanishi [1] vs. Osamu Nishimura [1] went to a draw (30:00) when the time limit expired. - Another good choice here, and it sounded like a good match as well, nothing else to say except the fact that I'm really getting to like Nakanishi.

 

7. G1 Climax - Block B: Yuji Nagata [2] beat Masahiro Chono [0] (16:00) with the Nagata Lock II. - Hmm, not entirely sure about this one. Perhaps Chono should have gone over here, or at least not submitted. The Team 2000 leader should look very strong, and has already jobbed to Nagata recently. Although Nagata needs to look very strong in the tournament as well, he can go over every single other person in this tournament, and should be able to do it with ease, which is why I don't think he needed this win too much.

 

8. G1 Climax - Block A: Kensuke Sasaki [2] beat Yoshihiro Takayama [0] (12:11) with a Northern Lights Bomb. - Sound match, apparently, and probly the best token worked shoot they could have done. I like Takayama, but they probably made the right choice here, as he isn't ready to go over the established shooter yet.

 

All in all it sounds like a great show, although it probly wont end up quite as good as it looks on paper. There should be a good few ***+ matches there, and I'll be purchasing it ASAP.

 

Anyone have any other opinions on all this?

[Guest BionicRedneck]

Yeah, that sounds like a good show.

 

TENZAN~!!! to win the whole thing

[Guest Black Tiger]

Yasuda jobs AND gets his ass kicked by two young lions. Sounds great to me.

 

Tenzan vs Yoshie and Takayama vs Sasaki both looked like good matches. Yasuda getting beat in less than a minute and getting beat down by two young lions is a hell of a mark out moment for me.

 

The Block A match that I'm interested in is Tenzan vs Takayama, whoever wins is my pick to win the block. Takayama has a GHC match in september and he will wind up losing if he jobs too much in NJ because it won't make the GHC look credible (like Ogawa adds any more to it). Tenzan is the leading pick to win this year, as he is desperatly in need of some sort of elevation, he's spent the better part of six years playing Chono's little puppy dog.

 

I don't see the point of Nagata in the G-1, he's already the NJ Ace and IWGP Champion, let a younger guy use it for elevation. I don't have an issue with Chono losing because he got a pin on Nagata not too long ago in a six man.

[Guest Jubuki]

Chono also won the match they had in the 5-on-5 in May. I'm honestly surprised Chono even got the G-1 loss from last year back, let alone in a setting as big as that.

[Guest PlatypusFool]

Ah ok, so I was wrong about Chono losing recently, but I'm pretty sure I got that info from one of the big puroresu sites anyway, so don't blame me