Cubed Circle Newsletter Issue 196 – G1 Climax 25 Chugs On (Kind Of) In this week's newsletter we cover three eventful nights from the 25th annual G1 Climax, the best Tetsuya Naito match of the year, Mid-South from '82, Nakamura's injury, RAW ratings for July 2015, RAW, and NXT! – Ryan Clingman Cubed Circle Newsletter NJPW Follows Promising Couple of Shows with Worrying Series of G1 Events Ryan Clingman At the time of writing I am five days into the 25th G1 Climax tournament, and whilst it has certainly been fun from a viewer standpoint, it would seem, at least during the first third or so of the tournament, that the company would have been better off remaining with their previous model of all G1 cards, that has been refined over the past three or so years. 1 Running 19 shows has made smaller venues a necessity, one that has impacted match quality somewhat, particularly with major match-ups such as Okada/Honma and Styles/Shibata. The larger issue here, however, is that with more dilute cards, attendances have been disappointing with smaller shows in buildings such as the Hiroshima Green Arena, failing to fill draw to capacity. The spread out approach seems to have made little difference to injury rates either, as Tenzan suffered a knee injury, Shibata had to work with an injured elbow, and perhaps most importantly, tournament favourite, Shinsuke Nakamura has injured his arm resulting in a forfeit to Elgin on the eighth night of the tournament, as well as a missed under-card tag on night five. NJPW isn't truly to blame here, however, as many, including myself, saw this as a positive change heading in, as logically fewer G1 matches per show meant fewer injuries, and more shows meant larger total attendance for the whole tournament, and thus more revenue. But, it would seem that audiences in bigger and more popular buildings in Osaka and Tokyo seem to be selling fairly well This will be an interesting historical note, as the G1 has traditionally been an event that sells mainly on roster potential, and less on individual match-ups, which is a trend that seems to have followed through into 2015. The tournament's top matches thus far, however, have been far from duds, with Ibushi and Tanahashi putting on great matches almost every night, with possible match of the year contenders against each other, and in the case of Ibushi, AJ Styles too. Tetsuya Naito has also made an astonishing transformation from an extraordinarily talented, albeit fairly plain babyface, to bizarre charismatic heel, who manages to make the entirety of every singles match worth while. Shibata has also had a good tournament thus far, as have the usual candidates of Okada, Honma, and Ishii. Michael Elgin has too gotten over with his offence stronger in Japan than perhaps he ever has in the United States. There have also been a few non-G1 related positives on the under-cards of each show, namely the continued improvement of Yohei Komatsu, Jay White, David Finlay Jr., and Cody Hall. However, there is only so much that can be done with all-black young lions, and while Tanaka and Komatsu have super star potential, if New Japan is to replenish its aging roster it must send Komatsu and Tanaka away on their excursions as soon as possible. Of course, whilst the New Japan roster is aging, it may not be as large an issue as one would think when Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito are still relatively young, and in both cases, growing as stars. In fact, Okada is arguably the company's current top star. Then again, a couple of stars does not a complete roster make, and even with the likes of Shibata, who hasn't taken nearly as much physical strain as Tanahashi and Nakamura, the risk of stagnation and decline still remains. On a positive note, the G1's finest nights are still to come, and perhaps by the tournament's conclusions many of the above fears may have been calmed. The short term concern of everyone at this moment should be on Nakamura, and whether he will be able to compete in the remainder of the tournament, as even missing two tournament matches may plunge the entire B block, and perhaps even Tokyo Dome direction depending on the severity of the injury, into chaos. NJPW G1 Climax 25 Day 3 July 24th 2015 Kyoto City Budo Centre, Kyoto Ryan Clingman 1. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Yohei Komatsu & Satoshi Kojima vs. Michael Elgin, Jay White, Mascara Dorada & David Finlay It may not be entirely evident now, but if Jay White continued on his current path I suspect that he 2 will grow to become one of the better gaijin in all of New Japan -- he is a top prospect. David Finlay and Jay White also have significant tag team potential. This crowd, whilst equitable in size to that of the second night was far more responsive. Elgin power slammed Kojima and Komatsu simultaneously! Elgin accidentally lariated David Finlay, which Kojima capitalised on with one of his own to get the pinfall. *** ¼ 2. Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Cody Hall & Yujiro Takahashi Hall got the heat on HASHI with some ground and pound. Ishii ran wild as only Ishii can with forearms, chops, suplexes, and tremendous fire. Ishii broke up a Hall pin following a discuss lariat. HASHI countered the Border Toss and Ishii ran in with a sliding D for a nearfall. HASHI then pinned Hall with a monster senton that greatly over-delivered. *** ¼ 3. Hirooki Goto & Captain New Japan vs. Karl Anderson & Tama Tonga Anderson pinned New Japan with a gun stun after minutes of a slow and forgettable tag match. ** ½ 4. Tomoaki Honma, Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada & Gedo This is quite clearly the best non-G1 match-up of the tournament thus far. Honma wanted Okada, which got a great reaction and majority "Honma" chants. Okada avoided a headbutt and went for the Rainmaker, but Honma ducked leading to the mutual tags to Taguchi and Gedo. Gedo requested a hug, but Taguchi was distrusting, so to demonstrate his good faith, Gedo decided to hug the referee. Taguchi tried for his own Kokeshi alongside Honma, but too missed as Okada brawled with Honma into the crowd. Taguchi avoided a Boma Ye and Rainmaker, both from Shinsuke before tagging Honma in. A series of nearfall followed with Honma taking an eye-poke from Gedo and landing the top rope Kokeshi on Gedo for the win!!! *** ½ 5. G1 Climax A-Block Match: Kota Ibushi (0-1) vs. Doc Gallows (0-1) Gallows overpowered Ibushi early with some uncharacteristically stiff kicks and a throw or two to the outside. Strangely, in this match the announcers could clearly be seen at ringside with headsets on, and yet there was no commentary. Ibushi made his comeback with a big dropkick and moonsault to the outside. Ibushi landed a bridging German for two. Ibushi pinned Gallows with a roll-up in the best Gallows match I can recall seeing in the past year. *** ¼ 6. G1 Climax A Block Match: Togi Makabe (1-0) vs. Bad Luck Fale (0-1) Fale took Makabe straight into the crowd. The match transferred back into the ring where Fale wore Makabe down with strikes. The pair traded forearms, but Fale ended up pinning Makabe with a Border Toss. ** ¾ 7. G1 Climax A Block Match: AJ Styles (1-0) vs. Toru Yano (0-1) 3 Yano made some unintelligible noises directed at Styles and the referee, before being flattened out on the floor. They did a lot of work out on the outside, with Red Shoes stopping Styles from introducing a chair. Red Shoes got in the way of the action, hit his arm, but safely rolled to the floor still conscious. Styles killed Yano with an exploder into an exposed buckle. Styles submitted Yano shortly after with the calf killer in what was as close to a night off as any healthy performer is going to get in this tournament. *** 8. G1 Climax A Block Match: Katsuyori Shibata (0-1) vs. Tetsuya Naito (1-0) Naito came out in his black dress clothes and skull mask. He began to undress slowly, but Shibata was having none of it and kicked him to the outside. This has to be one of the stranger gimmicks for a major company's top start in quite some time. Naito then, in dress clothes, landed a dropkick to the leg of Shibata on the floor to great heat before undressing in the ring. Naito fired off with forearms, but Shibata was having none of it from some weirdo in a suit. Shibata cut into Naito with two sets of forearms, but was then cut off himself by a boot to the face. Shibata removed tape from his elbow and then kicked Naito seemingly as hard as he could before almost standing on Naito's head in the buckle. Shibata avoided Naito's kick in the corner and landed a double stomp and running boot. Naito locked in his serial killer knee lock. Shibata unloaded with forearms, but was slapped repeatedly, which only fuelled Shibata to a higher degree, allowing him to lock in a sleeper. Naito began to fade and took the PK for the Shibata victory. Shibata bowed to Naito's prone body on the way out. **** 9. G1 Climax A Block Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi (1-0) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (1-0) Both of these men were super over as expected.