Before doing a match by match, there's a few other things to bring up:
-Despite not being able to understand a damn word they said, the Japanese commentary is MUCH better than anything in the States. They weren't taking selfies and plugging an app during matches, they weren't being horrendously bored and making bad jokes to amuse themselves, they weren't struggling to find things to say (or at least that I know of), their excitement made the matches feel really intense and a hell of a lot more exciting than they should have when you consider the quiet crowd. That's something you can't get anywhere else.
-Speaking of the crowd, the respect they had for everything was a great part of Japanese culture. Pretty cool to see the crowd show respect for the wrestlers instead of trying to get themselves on Youtube all the time as they chant for the ice cream man. Japan 2, America 0.
-These guys being able to fill out the MASSIVE Tokyo Dome cements NJPW as the biggest pro wrestling promotion in the world. It's amazing to imagine wrestling filling a stadium like that in 2014... but when you see the show it's not nearly as surprising.
-The set kicked ass.
-The characters on this show are are awesome. There's just enough personality to each guy to make it feel a little cartoony and keep everyone separate, but it doesn't overshadow them as wrestlers and they still feel human. GREAT! I love how seriously they take the wrestling on this show, it doesn't feel too serious and they don't act like a bigger deal than they are, but it's still treated with importance.
Anyway, onto the match-by-match.
-If NJPW was going to appeal to me, the best way to open the show was with Alex Freakin' Shelley coming out of a Delorean. FUCK YEAH! 10/10 show confirmed. Anyway, this was the match for you if you're a chaotic spotfest lover. Not much in the way of tags but it was non-stop action and tag moves galore, every team seemed perfeclty in synch with each other, not much to add since recapping the insanity of this thing would be impossible. The big suplex spot was silly but that's a nitpick. Knew everyone in here except the Japanese guys (Kushida is a great replacement for Sabin) and they felt totally in place. In the end the Bucks did what the Bucks do and walk out with the belts. Great stuff.
-I'd love to turn on an Indy show without seeing some ex-WWE guy that I have no reason why they signed, first Matt Hardy, now Festus/Gallows/Isaiah Cash/DOC/Doc Gallows... seriously this guy's been terrible in a bunch of promotions and now he gets to suck in this one. Yayyyyyyy. The rest of these guys felt like wasted potential in the States, but amazing how despite being on wrestling's' biggest stage just being asked to come out and do your thing makes the guys who had negative charisma in the "E feel just fine. Davey Boy looked really out of shape and did nothing while Karl Anderson did an awesome job of being a bitch heel and seemed like a good brawler while Lance Rock proved he's a star in this match. The guy was a total beast in there and devastated everybody, so of course he takes the pin. Good stuff for a big man match.
-As a red-blooded southern American male, seeing Rob Conway come out with an entourage of guys and proudly representing the Red, White, and Blue irked me. I was begging to see this "Murrican get his ass kicked while Satoshi Kojima came out in his Japanese robe and seemed like a pretty silly dude, so this felt like a big face vs heel match. The crowd was REALLY into Kojima and I came away impressed with him. Am not sure what else was going on with this ring announcer going apeshit at the commentary table and why he punched Harley Race, but it was a cool touch.
-One of my favorite things about this show so far has been the variety. There's literally something for everybody unless you're a big womens' wrestling fan. We had a chaotic spotfest, a brawlin' big man bout, a Japanese hero vs the evil conqueror, and now here comes 2 guys from the Gracie Academy to face 2 other dudes in a technical showcase. To be honest, this match bored me. If you enjoyed it that's great, but it just wasn't for me. The finish looked weird with the chokeout DQ that clearly didn't happen followed by them yelling at Japanese and setting up an angle. Hey Stop, if you can tell me what's going on here, I'd love to know.
-Then my favorite theme music ever with the most badass titantron for
Minoru Suzuki, and that got me all excited... then it got even better when Shelton Benjamin was with him! Shelton in NJPW? Oh hell yeah! They kicked the dude on the side but if you think I'm gonna boo Shelton Benjamin and kick ass theme music you're sadly mistaken... it would take some other sort of legend to get me to boo that... Then the Japanese icon Great Muta came out with some dude that looked like an extra from a KFC ad! Wooo yeah Muta! Hot damn, for his age he's kept himself in fantastic shape, too. Haven't actually seen his stuff but heard he was an incredible athlete back in the day. Those days are sadly long gone, so they had to improvise. (At least they tried!) They had a WWE-style tag match and then started using a chair and dudes started interfering, which took me back to the Russo days since I didn't know if there was a stip to this or not... oh, well, stuff like this is fine every once in a while. Anyway, they built up to Muta getting the hot tag and doing what he could at his age (a surprisingly large amount), we got the green mist and the nostalgia pop and for some reason this didn't annoy me like it always does in WWE. Wonder why? Props for the heels for being detestable enough to make me turn on them.
Anyway, the variety was wonderful, the wrestling quality was mostly a lot of fun, and the spectacle of the whole show could definitely be felt. The 2 hours this took just FLEW by and I can't wait for Part 2 later today, thanks for sharing this, Stop!
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