G1 XClimax finals

[Guest Black Tiger]

New Japan finally restored some of my faith today, by having one of the established wrestlers take the G1 instead of one of the new 3 Muskateers. I've got nothing against pushing young guys, but with those three (espeically Nakamura) its getting to the point of pushing down the fans throats.

 

Tenzan got to avenge his previous two losses to Nakamura, in the quarter finals, then Shibata in the semi finals, and then Tanahashi in the finals to take the G1 for the second year in a row. One thing about New Japan, they always do the unpredictable.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I would've been seriously pissed had it been Nakamura vs. Shibata in the finals. At least Inoki still has some shred of sanity.

[Hawkius Maximus 0]

Tenzan winning is easily the worst thing they could have done in the tournament. The man will never be a draw after how they completely ruined him with the IWGP title. Nagata winning would have been 100x times better booking.

 

They have lightning in the bottle with Tanahashi & Nakamura. Tanahashi is one of the best new comers in years, and Nakamura has credibility that 95% of all other pro-wrestlers WISH they had.

 

This does nothing for anyone, and having Tenzan go over Shibata, Nakamura AND Tanahashi in one night is plain HORRIBLE booking and demeans them with no real reasoning at all. If Tenzan wins the IWGP title AGAIN, what does that do? Nothing. Tenzan has had two horribly booked reigns where he losts them both with a combined one defense. If tenzan challenges and loses to Fujita what does THAT do? Tenzan killed pretty much everyone in the tournament and then he loses to a OUTSIDER?

 

Tanahashi, Nagata or Nakamura should have won, then took the title off of Fujita to kick off a new era for the promotion but NJPW continues to book themselves into corners with these big events. It's quite sad that they have one of the best rosters in the world and they continue to make horrible decisions and use outsiders with half the skill so much.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

Demeans them? The New Three Musketeers outside of MAYBE Nakamura were all very clearly elevated by this tournament, ESPECIALLY Shibata.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Seriously, there guys didn't get out of the first round last year. There was definate progression for them this time around.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

"Tenzan winning is easily the worst thing they could have done in the tournament."

 

I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure having Kanemoto, or worse, 53-year-old Tenryu win would have been worse.

 

"The man will never be a draw after how they completely ruined him with the IWGP title. Nagata winning would have been 100x times better booking."

 

...accept you're overlooking that Nagata is yet another guy years removed from any hint of drawing power thanks to shitty booking...

 

"They have lightning in the bottle with Tanahashi & Nakamura. Tanahashi is one of the best new comers in years, and Nakamura has credibility that 95% of all other pro-wrestlers WISH they had."

 

I'm assuming you mean Nakamura's shoot cred. It's interesting to bring that up at after a shooter, Fujita, got the top strap and business didn't improve, even though Fujita's shoot cred is probably greater than Nakamura's. Do you really think a K1 fans cares about seeing Fujita wrestle because he KOed Sapp, or seeing Nakamara wrestle because he choked out Ignashov, or even seeing Sapp wrestle because he KOed Hoost? MMA fans don't give a shit about New Japan, whether their wrestlers have shoot cred or not.

 

As for Tanahashi, he did beat both Tenryu and Sasaki on the way to finals. Lightning in a bottle or not, the guy is getting a push, and so are Nakamura and Shibata, for that matter.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

When I read who won, I could only think of two words....

 

THANK GOD.

[Guest Black Tiger]

I'm hoping this G1 win does something productive here, Tenzan really got cut off at the knees in terms of possibly being a top guy, I'm not saying he would have been the answer to the attendance problems, but he was never given an adequete chance to see if he could be. I recall that back in 2002, Nagata vs Yasuda as the main event drew 4,000, while Tenzan vs Yasuda from a month before brought in 6,200.

 

If by some stroke of genius/insanity, he does get the IWGP title again, this is the time to finally try to cement him, and give him a proper run.

 

It's interesting to bring that up at after a shooter, Fujita, got the top strap and business didn't improve, even though Fujita's shoot cred is probably greater than Nakamura's.

 

I'm not sure if you're talking about his 2001 reign or his current reign. I don't know about his first one, because I was very new to Puroresu at that point, but one business problem with this reign is that he's never around. He's got the top title, but he's not working any shows.

 

Do you really think a K1 fans cares about seeing Fujita wrestle because he KOed Sapp, or seeing Nakamara wrestle because he choked out Ignashov, or even seeing Sapp wrestle because he KOed Hoost? MMA fans don't give a shit about New Japan, whether their wrestlers have shoot cred or not.

 

Totally agree with you here, its nice to hear a voice of reason, after all these months and months of Zach and Stu screaming that MMA and Wrestling are the same thing, since both are fighting codes. Speaking of which, I'm still waiting for Nakamura and his K1 win to start bringing in the masses of fans

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

I personally was excited to see that Tenzan won the G-1. What kind of an impact will it see? I don't think anyone can answer that unless they give him a IWGP run this time and actually book it the right way. But I don't know if ANY solution they have will help their attendance debacle.....