Woke up at a good enough time (4:30-ish) to catch the G1 Final. What I saw was a masterclass between two talents who have kept me at the edge of my metaphorical seat and my sanity as one way swung into another way and the pendulum kept shifting until the very end. Quite possibly the best match these two have had together that wove a brilliant tale and told a great story.
I want to talk about Kazuchika Okada first. Man… what a year he has had. The possibilities that come in regards to the road to Wrestle Kingdom have never been more wider now that the tournament has ended. Throughout the match, Okada played his role brilliantly. Brilliantly. I genuinely believed I was looking at the modern-day Jumbo Tsuruta in regards to the way Okada carried himself and the way he goaded Naito into hitting him more in the first ten-fifteen minutes of the match had an air of “final boss” to it that was unshakeable. I loved Okada in this match and, in my opinion, this is his best performance throughout G1 33.
Naito! Naito! Goddammit. I honestly did not have him figured into winning this but the more we got into the final stretch, the more at peace I was with him clinching the whole thing. The beaten down form was noticeable, he looked rather out-of-pocket at points. The last few minutes of the Ospreay match were genuinely worrying. But, goddammit, this man. This man, the whole reason of my getting into New Japan has done it again and it just feels right. I’ll admit to being lasped in my New Japan fandom in the last few years and hearing that roll call for the first time in a long time brought a smile to my face. This is what coming full circle feels like, watching Tetsuya Naito go into the main event of the Tokyo Dome once more challenging for the Championship. Beautiful, just beautiful.
I was hoping to just watch the match and then doze off again but I can’t sleep. Yet it was worth it. Probably my favorite G1 Final in quite some time.
5 comments
We are blessed to be part of this era.
Let’s all enjoy it while we still can
It was beautiful. FUCKKKK okay I’ll just copy and paste my cagematch review here
[10.0] “After that phenomenal bout Naito had with Ospreay last night, I was fully expecting this match to savour of anticlimax; remarkably, it overcame my expectations in an incredible way. It speaks to the genuine prowess of these men, both giants in their own right, to be able to pull something of such cosmic proportions together. This match took the breath out of my lungs. It was so much than a fight between two men: it was history, it was so much more; this was a match that truly deserved the prestige of a G1 final. A battle of attrition and will between two rivals, this pair of binary stars. That bitterness and disdain and emotion. At one point Okada was saying to Naito, “more, more”, telling him to hit him, and there was mockery but also respect in that, like he wanted Naito to prove that he still had more left to give. And that moment after the finish, Okada on his hands and knees, Naito kneeling across him with his eyes skyward, and them exchanging a brief glance. Christ. That was real.”
Naito this is the story you made in 2004 now 20 years later can you make your journey come to a conclusion?
Truly phenomenal.
One if the best g1 finals I’ve ever seen and they used the absolute best parts of their rivalry together, just 2 absolute masters of their craft putting on a shoe for an incredible crowd
Solid moty contender
Loved it. Knew these two could put on a performance unlike another and they did.