NJPW Presents: Sakura Genesis - Will The Rainmaker's legendary reign continue?

[Hey_zeus]

I still think he needs an equalizer more than a "death finisher". The way he wrestles, he needs a strike or something that stops his opponent in his tracks and resets the control of the match. I think he tried to do that with his dropkicks but that's clearly not enough.

If we are going with All Japan comparison then I think he needs to develop Misawa's elbow, or Kawada's kicks, or Kobashi's various types of chops. As I mentioned, Tanahashi ended up using the dragon screw and leg work as his equalizer during his Ace run (which I admittedly didn't like much, but eventually I kinda got what was the point of his "pointless" legwork), it was far from a perfect weapon but he tried something out at least. Hashimoto had his size so he could always get pissed and beat the fukk out of his opponent to get things back to zero. Nakamura had his knees (and healing super powers), etc.

Okada needs to find something else besides the Rainmaker to mount his comebacks, if not he's gonna end up having John Cena matches in a context were that kind of thing wont work as well as it did in the US. Either that or he's gotta change the formula he's found for his big title matches.

I agree. In regards to Tanahashi's leg work, he did use to utilize the clover leaf at the time which I remember finishing some smaller venue matches back then if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Jmare007]

Shibata suffered a subdural hematoma and had emergency surgery.

A subdural hematoma is most often the result of a severe head injury. This type of subdural hematoma is among the deadliest of all head injuries. The bleeding fills the brain area very rapidly, compressing brain tissue. This often results in brain injury and may lead to death.

Hopefully this is the end of those headbutts.

Glad he's OK and yeah, he better fukking stop doing those dumb ass headbutts

 

[stro]

This breh really did a headbutt so hard in a worked match that he had to have brain surgery afterwards?

 

[Scottie Drippin]

Okada does have a tiered finish, but the way he goes about it is unique and one of the things I’m a fan of with his approach. With him, the levels are in the set-up. The normal finish is Tombstone-Rainmaker, level two is German and then even levelled up from that with rolling German’s to the Rainmaker (which is what got him over the hump against AJ), and the top level is the repeat lariats.


I agree with @Jmare007 , Okada’s issue right now is his story arc in these matches. This is being exasperated by how long he’s going, but if he’s going to be working under like this he does need to find a way to make meaningful comebacks that better suit the rest of what he’s trying to do. Now, this is a symptom of him working from over for essentially his entire career and dramatically altering the basic theme of his matches with these last three title defenses.


The thing is, I thought that he had figured out his comeback vehicle with the front dropkicks against Tenryu, but he’s moved away from using them in quite that manner, and in all likelihood, will figure something out very soon. I think he THINKS he's using them in that manner, but he still goes to them very late, making them part of his finishing run instead of part of the build up. He’s fixed each hole in his game every time they’ve presented themselves. Cutting the filler out of the middle stretch of his long matches is the next step.

 

[SalamiAttack]

 

[TheGodling]

Shibata suffered a subdural hematoma and had emergency surgery.

A subdural hematoma is most often the result of a severe head injury. This type of subdural hematoma is among the deadliest of all head injuries. The bleeding fills the brain area very rapidly, compressing brain tissue. This often results in brain injury and may lead to death.

Hopefully this is the end of those headbutts.

You know damn well that Shibata is going to walk into his next match like:

 

[The Rainmaker]

You know damn well that Shibata is going to walk into his next match like:

And then

 

[Jmare007]

Okada does have a tiered finish, but the way he goes about it is unique and one of the things I’m a fan of with his approach. With him, the levels are in the set-up. The normal finish is Tombstone-Rainmaker, level two is German and then even levelled up from that with rolling German’s to the Rainmaker (which is what got him over the hump against AJ), and the top level is the repeat lariats.


I agree with @Jmare007 , Okada’s issue right now is his story arc in these matches. This is being exasperated by how long he’s going, but if he’s going to be working under like this he does need to find a way to make meaningful comebacks that better suit the rest of what he’s trying to do. Now, this is a symptom of him working from over for essentially his entire career and dramatically altering the basic theme of his matches with these last three title defenses.


The thing is, I thought that he had figured out his comeback vehicle with the front dropkicks against Tenryu, but he’s moved away from using them in quite that manner, and in all likelihood, will figure something out very soon. I think he THINKS he's using them in that manner, but he still goes to them very late, making them part of his finishing run instead of part of the build up. He’s fixed each hole in his game every time they’ve presented themselves. Cutting the filler out of the middle stretch of his long matches is the next step.

EXACTLY. Spot on breh.

 

[Jmare007]

I agree. In regards to Tanahashi's leg work, he did use to utilize the clover leaf at the time which I remember finishing some smaller venue matches back then if I'm not mistaken.

He did, that's why a lot of people (myself included) felt with most of his finishing sequences. He would work the leg, had his opponent damaged and he pretty much never won a match with the Cloverleaf after 07'. It took me years to finally go and figure out he might've been doing all those dragon screws just to reset the flow of the match.

 

[SalamiAttack]

 

[TheGodling]

You could tell me that Shibata has microphones in his shoes and I would believe it, that's how goddamn hard his kicks sound.

 

[TheGodling]

And then

No buckets, just skulls.

 

[BrehWyatt]

I was watching this like thinking that Shibata might win via TKO, even though I knew the result of the match going into it.

At this point it was almost like watching the slow death of a title reign. And to generate that kind of sound/force when it doesn't look like he put that much effort into the swing is

 

[The Prince of All Saiyans]

I kinda wish they'd add english captions to the interview segments they show which were previously taped

might actually add something to the story if I knew wtf they are saying

 

[3Rivers]

-Surprised KUSHIDA lost in that fashion. Totally unexpected

-Sabre Jr/Goto was good. Guess we got Goto/Suzuki on deck

-Shibata kicking the shyt outta Okada was I expected Okada to win but still was somehow at the end. Gotta agree with @Jmare007 and his assessment of Okada. Great match regardless

Fale/Okada is something I'd be about in the G1 but as a title program?

And I would not be surprised at all if Fale got the W

Another thing, I know he's a young lion but it's funny as hell to me when a roided up Katsuya Kitamura gets tossed off Fale like he's a feather