New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV (Part 02): Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (IWGP Intercontinental Championship)
To Open
I've been waiting all week for this damn match. I was heartbroken last week give that AXS spoiled the damn thing...yet I still enjoyed the way they got to the ending.
What you read now are my first impressions as I watch the match unfold.
Anyway, on to the match. They treated this thing very seriously. Unlike the Neverweight title, each wrestler in the IC match received formal introductions.
This felt important and if you look at the wrestlers' faces you can tell that they take this bout very seriously. (They also gave the bulk of this week's broadcast to this match.)
Btw, I love how they open the match with standing armbars. Dude looked legitimately trapped.
Nothing about this match seemed stereotyped. I saw them wrestle last week yet this second match up still feels fresh.
Nakamura
Early in the match, Nakamura kicks Tanahashi in the ass. No. Watch. It is hilarious, simple, and explains his character.
Dude is smart and mischievous.
Btw, when Nakamura cries in pain it sounds like someone is cuting off a limb. Check the Dragon Screw Leg Whip at the 37 minute mark. Damn!
And the Boombaya is such a simple move, but he makes it look nasty. There were 2 instances in this match where I marked out-loud.
Tanahashi
Nakamrua is my dude, but I have grown to appreciate Tanahashi. Grabbing hair? The audience and the ref were slightly taken aback because he grabbed Nakamura's hair.
I loved it!
That's how you keep your character fresh. It shows that this match is important and that the good guy can get ugly when it matters.
And the fans even booed him!
In fact, the longer this match ensues the more I think he's turning heel. He's brought a viciousness to his style that wasn't in any of his other matches.
Yeah, he's gone full heel. Only heels look to the crowd and mockingly applaud--and that looked like a full mock.
He's dominated most of the match, and it reminds me of the Flair/Anderson approach where you snipe a body part and then keep attacking it.
To Close
While last week's match proved to be a technical spectacle, today's match told a unique story. When two heroes go at it too often, one of them will break.
One of them will try to dominate at the cost of his reputation.
I love how New Japan Pro Wrestlers create variations of their finishers. The High Fly Flo to a leg,
However, I still say that they need more submissions. I have yet to see a submission that decides a fight. If they start doing that then these matches will become more dramatic.
In sum: It was ugly in an old school way. It felt like my NWA came back to life. Loved the wrestling and I loved the story.
To Open
I've been waiting all week for this damn match. I was heartbroken last week give that AXS spoiled the damn thing...yet I still enjoyed the way they got to the ending.
What you read now are my first impressions as I watch the match unfold.
Anyway, on to the match. They treated this thing very seriously. Unlike the Neverweight title, each wrestler in the IC match received formal introductions.
This felt important and if you look at the wrestlers' faces you can tell that they take this bout very seriously. (They also gave the bulk of this week's broadcast to this match.)
Btw, I love how they open the match with standing armbars. Dude looked legitimately trapped.
Nothing about this match seemed stereotyped. I saw them wrestle last week yet this second match up still feels fresh.
Nakamura
Early in the match, Nakamura kicks Tanahashi in the ass. No. Watch. It is hilarious, simple, and explains his character.
Dude is smart and mischievous.
Btw, when Nakamura cries in pain it sounds like someone is cuting off a limb. Check the Dragon Screw Leg Whip at the 37 minute mark. Damn!
And the Boombaya is such a simple move, but he makes it look nasty. There were 2 instances in this match where I marked out-loud.
Tanahashi
Nakamrua is my dude, but I have grown to appreciate Tanahashi. Grabbing hair? The audience and the ref were slightly taken aback because he grabbed Nakamura's hair.
I loved it!
That's how you keep your character fresh. It shows that this match is important and that the good guy can get ugly when it matters.
And the fans even booed him!
In fact, the longer this match ensues the more I think he's turning heel. He's brought a viciousness to his style that wasn't in any of his other matches.
Yeah, he's gone full heel. Only heels look to the crowd and mockingly applaud--and that looked like a full mock.
He's dominated most of the match, and it reminds me of the Flair/Anderson approach where you snipe a body part and then keep attacking it.
To Close
While last week's match proved to be a technical spectacle, today's match told a unique story. When two heroes go at it too often, one of them will break.
One of them will try to dominate at the cost of his reputation.
I love how New Japan Pro Wrestlers create variations of their finishers. The High Fly Flo to a leg,
However, I still say that they need more submissions. I have yet to see a submission that decides a fight. If they start doing that then these matches will become more dramatic.
In sum: It was ugly in an old school way. It felt like my NWA came back to life. Loved the wrestling and I loved the story.
Like, not a worked punch, because this is Puro and stiffness is tradition, he just shoot punches them in the fukking face and that's a part of his normal act. Or how about at WK when he stuffed his boot in Kota's mouth so he could kick his teeth? Or that he's broken Tanahashi's orbital eye bone with the Boma Ye? That's much more than Shibata who doesn't even kick people in the head like so, so many others do. Aside from his dropkick in the corner which is really safe anyway Shibata kicks the chest almost exclusively. Even his Go To Sleep is to the chest.
And I don't just feel that way about NJPW, I feel that way about every company. You have to try to see it through their specific scope in order to REALLY understand why things are happening, appreciating them when they do, and getting a feel for how it goes down. I get that as an acclimating device making associations helps but I feel like dudes will really rob themselves of the experience if everything is "This guy reminds me of this guy" and so on and so forth. These different styles of wrestling share some core principles and intersect in ways that you wouldn't even expect from the onset but they're so inherently based in their own cultures you really have to try to see it that way. Y'know, developing the palette and shyt.
