New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 7 Workrate Report

1. Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (8/11/13)

So let me say that there was a GREAT moment in this match, after for TNA legend Naito had gotten his knee worked over a bit by Tanahashi, and Tanahashi shot him into the ropes, Naito did one of the greatest injured knee sells I'd ever seen. It looked so damn real, as he could barely make it running to the ropes, bounced back and just crumbled awkwardly onto his head and shoulder, at Tanahashi's feet. It was so wonderful and so perfectly pro wrestling. I rewound it a couple of times to see it again, really pay close attention to it. I called Rachel into the room, showed it to her and she asked if he had actually hurt his knee. It was a great, great moment.

But it happened just 4 minutes into the match. And there's no way Naito was going to be able to pull this off for another 30 minutes. He opened with "torn meniscus and shattered patella" and he still hadn't done any offense. It was a great spot in a vacuum, but he bit of wayyyyy more than he could ever possibly chew. It also meant that for the rest of the match I had to hear Mauro and Josh cry tears for Naito's poor, devastated knee. At one point Barnett even called it "emaciated". This all would have been news to Naito who was up, running around and doing all of his moves just fine. I mean the Koji Clutch he uses a lot would put an insane amount of pressure on his poor, emaciated knee. Oh, Naito will occasionally shake out his knee or sell it when it's convenient for him and won't get in the way of a Stardust Press.

I liked Tanahashi in this, but although I enjoyed his leg work there is something to be said about knowing your opponent's limitations and him going so hard after Naito's knee was a solid match plan in theory, but Naito isn't good enough to reliably work it into the frame of the match. Tanahashi has been far more enjoyable in these shows than expected, as he's tightened up some things in the last couple years (the HFF generally looks great, especially his crossbody version to the floor, the Slingblade actually looks like a real move now, his commitment to "missed" moves is really great as he flies painfully into opponents' knees on missed splashes), but man was Naito garbage. He has no clue how to competently work a match, he can't execute moves very effectively, his offense doesn't make tons of sense as a whole, he is a complete statue in terms of charisma, shows no passion, and seems to get lost at times (with the worst offense being a missed…something…as I believe they were both doing a crossbody spot but both men bumped too early and it ended up looking like both guys got hurt by the invisible monster in Fantastic Planet). Bad match. But man, that one moment was GREAT.

Oh, and while a lot of Barnett's jokes fall flat, he actually made me chuckle out loud when Naito locked on the Koji Clutch and Barnett yelled "Shades of Joe Stecher!" Good one. Mauro also made me laugh out loud, but unintentionally, because it's hard to keep a straight face during his Japanese over pronunciations. My favorite of his this week was "En-Zwee-GIDI" on an Naito enziguiri.