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.
3. Jay White & Juice Robinson Had the Match of Their Lives
The last time Jay White defended his IWGP US Heavyweight Championship, he followed a match that featured Kazuchika Okada and Minoru Suzuki in a tag against each other. The star power of Suzuki and Okada essentially killed the crowd before the match, and White and Hangman Page were able to deliver a good match, but with a dead crowd.
White and Juice Robinson were determined to make sure that didn’t happen here. They succeeded, probably more than their wildest imagination. The amount of heat that Jay White got in this match was absolutely incredible.
Juice Robinson spent the majority of the match selling and taking a brutal beating at the hands of White. White sent Juice into the guardrails at ringside several times, going through them entirely and crashing to the floor. White suplexed Robinson into another guardrail and knocked Jim Ross over. This caused Josh Barnett to stand up, declare that White “****ed up,” and stormed the ring looking for a fight.
When White ran away, the crowd booed him even more, anticipating that Juice would eventually make a comeback. A good portion of the match also saw white working over Juice’s hand, which he broke at the NJPW Kizuna Road shows by slamming Juice’s hand with a chair.
By the time that Juice finally scored the rollup pinfall to get the win, the crowd was begging for White to lose. Juice also, in a promo at the press conference, told everyone that he beat Kenny Omega with a rollup at last year’s G1, and he could do the same here. He did, and it was brilliant. I also thought this match was 5 stars, which is saying how great I thought those two men did. This was a big match for the two.
4. The Bullet Club is Fine (Sort of)
The end of the Cody vs. Kenny Omega match saw Omega reign supreme in the war of the Bullet Club. Omega made a definitive statement that he is, without question, the leader of the Bullet Club. The IWGP Heavyweight Champion made his first successful title defense in what was a very good match. While not as good as the previous two matches, I would say it was pretty close.
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After the match, Kenny helped Cody to his feet and shook his hand, showing respect. Omega proved to a real babyface hero because he was still willing to forgive Cody after everything that Cody had done to him. The lies, the attempts to turn Kenny’s friends against him, and everything else, still didn’t stop Omega from forgiving his Bullet Club brethren.
Omega cut a promo after the match, calling Cody a valiant fighter who deserved respect for his efforts. It seemed that all was well in the Bullet Club, as Cody and Kenny had a small reconciliation, and everyone seemed to be on the same page for the first time in a very long time. However, that did not last very long, as Haku, Tama Tonga, and Tanga Loa came out to greet Omega and The Young Bucks.
After initially looking like they were going to congratulate Omega on his win, soon thereafter they attacked. The Tongans (now calling themselves the Bullet Club Firing Squad) beat all three men down without mercy. Hangman Page and Marty Scurll tried to make the save, only to get beaten down too. The same happened for Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi. Finally, limping own the aisle, Cody walked to the ring with anger in his eyes. He grabbed a chair and he looked like he was going to hit Kenny with it. However, Cody made the save and attacked the Tongans. This didn’t last long, as the weakened Cody was outnumbered and beaten down too.
Haku picked up Omega and hit a spike piledriver onto the chair, leaving the leader of the Bullet Club in a heap on the mat. This angle was insane, and absolutely fantastic. There are a lot of questions coming out of it, but seeing Haku beat people up is fun. Clearly, this is what Mark Cuban meant when he praised NJPW’s storytelling.
5. Kenny and Cody Reunite
One of the most striking things that happened on the show took place after The Firing Squad left the ring. Cody Rhodes stood up and pulled Kenny to his feet, and both men hugged. You could see real emotion in Cody’s eyes as the two men finally made peace with each other. This stage of the journey has seemed to end in friendship again.
After recovering from the attack, every member of the Bullet Club (minus Fale and Taiji Ishimori) hugged. It seems like Bullet Club Elite is indeed fine. Omega, the Young Bucks, Cody, Marty Scurll, Hangman Page, Chase Owens, and Yujiro Takahashi all left the ring together as one group. It seems that what finished and cemented the reunification of The Bullet Club was the attack by the Tongans.
Next: Injury Update on Hiromu Takahashi
What does all this mean for the Bullet Club? Where does Bad Luck Fale & Taiji Ishimori stand on this event? Time will tell. My guess is that Fale and Ishimori will both be members of the Firing Squad, as Tama Tonga was the one that brought Ishimori to NJPW. Regardless, this was a huge angle to close an absolutely fantastic show.