New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV 7/17/15 Review

1. AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki  (8/1/14)

Well this one isn't exactly a secret, as it was one of the best wrestling matches of 2014. Everything clicked, we all learned to love, laugh. Young men went to war, came back forever changed. Here's a link to our review that placed it on our MOTY list. Also, the TV version here completely edits out all of the awesome and brutal arm work that Suzuki does. Clipped matches are for the birds in 2015.

Bright, Shiny Original Review

2. Hirooki Goto vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (8/1/14)

Wow. This was just a...shockingly great match. I don't remember the last Tenzan singles match I liked. I don't really like Goto. And the heavens converged and both men were interesting, and a fascinating little underdog story developed where the whole crowd started wildly pulling for Tenzan and Tenzan responds in great little ways, showing actual emotion that is rarely present in his matches. I can't remember a match where he throws tighter strikes. Usually his strikes just don't look good. The Mongolian chops look like silly arm flapping, the headbutts look like a man stomping his foot while throwing his head somewhat towards his opponent. And now suddenly he's lacing into Goto with chops, throwing cool headbutt variations (never recall him throwing an awesome headbutt to the stomach, and the thrust headbutt where he catches a Goto kick from his knees, stands up and just blasts Goto with one was killer). Goto drops him over a knee with a death valley driver for a nice nearfall that surely seemed like the finish. After Tenzan kicks out you can hear the crowd just pick up huge, and the Tenzan Driver kickout has people losing their minds. Finish run is really great and I loved the Anaconda Buster here. I went into this match skeptical that they would clip the hell out of Styles/Suzuki just to squeeze in a freaking Goto/Tenzan match....and then this match goes and kicks all kinds of ass.

3. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (8/1/14)

Man, what a great night of wrestling. This was another awesome match, and the first Ishii match I have seen live up to his online hype. People whose wrestling opinions I trust seem to enjoy Ishii a lot, but he always leaves me a little flat relative to the praise he receives. He comes off as the 7th or 8th best guy on an old WAR show. He's got that great Masa Saito burly asskicker vibe to him, which makes me always WANT to think he's awesome, but then he always falls short. Not here. Here he had these wonderfully timed comebacks, some absolutely nasty shots, and some impressive selling. This match was much more about the impressive selling and development. Ishii was just the perfect foil to Nakamura's schtick here and this match just kept getting better and better the longer it went. How many matches can you say that about? Ishii put on a real selling clinic, his sell of the draping DDT was Tenryu-esque, and seeing Ishii sell being loopy after taking knees to his head is a real treat after seeing hacks like Davey Richards attempt the same. Ishii also doesn't put up with Nakamura's usual shit, chopping him in the throat and at one point hitting one of the greatest cutoff spots as he blows up Nakamura with a dropkick while Nak is arching his back in the ropes. Nakamura was excellent here as well, throwing all sorts of big time knees, and leaning so far into Ishii's lariats and suplexes that I don't know how he was able to walk afterwards. Ishii looked like he flat out broke Nak's neck on a couple different occasions, some of the nastiest lariats I have ever seen. Nakamura kept coming up with plausible ways to sell the lariat damage, and then doing the same with all of Ishii's great suplexes. That superplex was tremendous. This match felt like the first time I've understood the "Please don't stop" chant, as I just did not want any of this to end. Both men matched up perfectly, and this was flat out great.

What an awesome hour of wrestling TV. Easily the best show they've aired on AXS TV. Three really great matches, albeit with some really foolish clips. It would have been far wiser to just air more of each match instead of a lame backstage Styles promo or full entrances for guys like Goto. Who would would rather see 1 minute of entrance when they could be seeing an extra minute of a match? For the record, my reviews are of the FULL version of each of the three matches, which I just went and found elsewhere.