NJPW: 5 Takeaways from G1 Special Event in San Francisco

Credit: NJPW1972.com

Last weekend’s G1 Special in San Francisco was a huge event for NJPW, seeing some major storyline developments. Lots of questions have been left on the table for us heading into the G1 Climax later this month, as NJPW delivered another great show.

NJPW wanted to make their debut at the Cow Palace in San Francisco memorable, and they certainly achieved that task. With some great matches, and awesome angles, it’s going to be a show that people remember for quite some time. Now, as everyone looks towards the massive G1 Climax tournament itself, here are 5 major takeaways from the special.

1. Haku is Awesome

If there’s one thing that wrestling fans should never doubt, it is this: Haku is awesome. King Haku, or Meng as he was known as in WCW, is one of the toughest men to ever walk the planet, let alone wrestle. When he was announced as teaming with his sons (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) along with Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi for this show, I knew we were in for a treat. Even at 59 years old, Haku is still fun to watch.

He’s a perfect fit for the Bullet Club, which of course he’d be a member of. In the match against CHAOS, he hit a wonderful piledriver on Rocky Romero, and I was completely satisfied. Little did I know what was to come later in the show, but we’ll get to that in a little bit. Needless to say, Haku’s impact on the show was not insignificant. I thought he was just going to come in and do a few fun spots, but boy, was I wrong, as later in the show proved.

2. Hiromu Takahashi is Incredible

Hiromu Takahashi had an absolutely outstanding match with Dragon Lee that saw both men take a series of incredible bumps in the match. There was one bump in particular that saw Hiromu land directly on his head. After Dragon Lee performed the Phoenix Plex, or Steenalizer as it’s often known, Hiromu landed directly on his head in sickening fashion. Apparently, this broke Hiromu’s neck.

Hiromu somehow got up and continued the match, hitting an absolutely incredible Canadian Destroyer counter to a Last Ride Powerbomb attempt by Dragon Lee. He then followed it up with Time Bomb, finishing the match and defending hit title successfully. I truly hope he was okay. Head bumps like that need to be a thing of the past in wrestling. We don’t need to see wrestlers breaking their necks and ending careers long before they should.

I would have thought that people would have learned from the death of Mitsuharu Misawa, but please, no more head bumps. Hiromu and Dragon Lee still tore the house down, providing an excellent match that, sadly, was marred by the injury to Hiromu in retrospect. Nonetheless, I thought it was a 5 Star match.

I hope Hiromu is okay, and that the injury is not as serious as it looks. NJPW provided this update, which is encouraging to a certain extent — being able to travel across the Pacific Ocean with a serious neck injury is no small feat.