New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV 7/3/15 Review

1. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Yuji Nagata (7/26/14)

This wasn't much. Nagata made a bunch of goofy faces to the shock of everybody. Nakamura got dumped spectacularly on his head a couple of times, especially by a rough release German. Both guys looked sluggish throughout. Nakamura usually brings great energy to his stuff, but his kicks were moving in slow motion here (the missed ones looking especially embarrassing), and then the Bom Ba Ye's were among the ugliest and least painful I've seen. He would just sorta walk up to a kneeling Nagata and take a back bump while kinda sticking his knee out. If you didn't know a knee strike was supposed to be happening, you would not have guessed you had just seen a knee strike. The one that finished the match looked fine, but boy, not a great start.

2. AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito (7/26/14)

Well, this would absolutely have to be considered a miracle match. Because it was a really really good match, that had Tetsuya Naito in it. That's just absurd. Styles did an incredible job here, and really Naito did his part just fine. Naito comes into this with a big cut and bandage on his forehead, and Styles immediately goes after it, working him over with snug wrenching headlocks and shots to the cut itself. Styles is a dick in this, always going after the cut and it builds actual sympathy for the robot that is Naito. Naito's comebacks were placed really well, and his selling was shockingly good. I don't think I've ever seen Naito sell...well, anything before, and here he's able to believably hit his offense while also selling damage done and also wooziness from loss of blood. Really feels like a career performance from him. Styles is relentless and the build to the finish is awesome, with the struggle over a top rope Styles Clash being a real peak. This is something Styles can really hang his hat on, he came out of this one looking like one of the absolute best guys in the world, and this far exceeded any expectations anybody could have realistically had for this match.

3. Karl Anderson vs. Kazuchika Okada (7/26/14)

Mauro Schivaone calls this "The most important singles match of Anderson's career". This is a guy who fought for the IWGP Title twice in 2013. Those seem just a wee but more important than a single match in the G1 tourney. Man Okada has a really sloppy and ineffective top rope elbow and a feather soft dropkick, but this was probably the best I've seen Anderson look in a singles match, but it could have been because Okada looked lousier than normal. I suppose he fed into Anderson well, and their counters simultaneously goofy, and good, if that's possible. The Rainmaker really is just preposterous. How would you just not duck? It's one thing if a guy blindsides you with a lariat, but how many times in a match do you get hugged, spun around by your arm, and THEN clotheslined. It would seem really easy to go "Okay, Okada is hugging me...now spinning me around...I should probably duck". It's like Von Kaiser bobbing his head before a jab, or Great Tiger's little jewel flashing in Punch-Out!! Just duck to the side once you're getting hugged and spun. So yeah, the little do-si-do reversals were goofy but fun, I liked Anderson's running power bomb and front kicks. This was better than I expected it to be.

4. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (7/26/14)

This was really good right here. Shibata laced into Tanahashi the whole match, and I love when Tanahashi starts working subtle heel when he falls behind early in a match. The crowd always picks up on it too as they always start immediately booing and getting restless. Shibata goes for big kicks right away, and I love how he immediately went for the Penalty Kick and really missed with purpose. If Tanahashi hadn't ducked he would have been a PEZ dispenser. Tanahashi played it great by scrambling into the corner looking scared as hell, and then Shibata charged and whiffed on another kick as Tanahashi bailed to the floor. And before long we get like 10 straight minutes of Shibata kicking Tanahashi's ass all over. We get that nasty pump kick over the guardrail, some brutal shoulder shrug elbows in the corner (with the camera nicely zooming in on just how much Tanahashi's face is getting smashed) and then capping with a spinning backfist that would make Kong proud. Styles peppers in some nice comebacks, and the release German trading actually worked for me as I dug the way Shibata snapped up and sold later. It made more sense for him to instinctively pop up as he hadn't really taken much damage, but I thought he really effectively sold the "catch-up" damage. Tanahashi looked good throughout this, leaning into all of Shibata's strikes, making the Slingblade look actually painful, crushing him with a nice somersault senton, going all in on both HFF. But Shibata really looked killer through all this, right down to his nasty sleeperhold that looked like it was literally choking the life out of Tanahashi. I didn't have big expectations going into this one, but really loved it.

**NOTE: I felt the Shibata and especially Styles matches were worthy of inclusionon our Ongoing 2014 MOTY List. When I informed Phil he was predictably peevish, amusingly preferring to close the book on 2014 than be forced to spend time watching New Japan matches. I am not wholly unsympathetic to his plight, and I insisted it was not entirely my goal to trick him into watching poor quality pro wrestling. He told me he would consider it, which I read as thinly veiled code for "kindly fornicate yourself". Then we made fun of Makabe's "next level" sub-Abyss punches for 4 minutes.