NJPW and ROH Present G1 Supercard: A Tale of Two Promotions

NJPW Needs Only Logic and Good Wrestling

Now to the comparison this has all been building to. For there to be a “Tale of Two Promotions,” you have to see how they stack up against each other. Ring of Honor clearly gave us good matches, but walked all over those good matches with poor decisions, bad calls, and insufficient talent leading their brand. Meanwhile, New Japan Pro Wrestling had none of these problems at G1 Supercard.

NJPW has a history of good storylines and logical booking decisions. One of the things that most endears wrestling fans to the company is their consistency, which is not an easy thing to maintain in the wrestling business. In an industry where fan reaction can shift at the drop of a dime, companies often have a tendency to change plans in the middle of executing a long-term story if things don’t seem to be going exactly as intended.

More from NJPW

• AEW WrestleDream event card and information
• The new Bullet Club is obnoxious and it hurts to watch
• AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II featured two epic matches packed with storytelling magic
• AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II Full Card Predictions: Which promotion wins the show?
• Three women’s matches that would work on Forbidden Door II

NJPW doesn’t do that. They know how to play the long game. Their long game at G1 Supercard began with Jeff Cobb’s validation as a top tier talent and capturing of the NEVER Openweight Title. It continued later in the night with a high-octane triple threat match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title. Taiji Ishimori was the champion going in, and found himself up against Dragon Lee and Bandido.

Back in 2017, Dragon Lee made a surprise arrival in NJPW and attacked then-IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi. He challenged Takahashi for the title one month later, but did not capture it. In that year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament he picked up a huge singles victory over Takahashi, the first singles loss for Hiromu since his return to NJPW in 2016. However, Dragon Lee did not win the tournament.

He made his way back to the title picture later in 2017, taking on Hiromu Takahashi yet again for the title at the G1 Special in San Francisco, but still failed to capture the title. As Dragon Lee continued to compete in his home promotion of CMLL, Takahashi remained a leader in the junior division for NJPW. He was champion as recently as August of 2018, when a shocking neck injury forced him to relinquish the title.

The vacant IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title was captured by Kushida, who lost it to Taiji Ishimori at Wrestle Kingdom 13 earlier this year. That was the path that brought Ishimori into this match, defending against Bandido and Dragon Lee. After nearly nine minutes of frenetic light-speed action, it was Dragon Lee who emerged victorious as the new IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion.

Perhaps what makes this most poetic is the reporting just over one month ago that Hiromu Takahashi was successfully recovering from his neck injury and his return to NJPW could be imminent. Dragon Lee failed several times to dethrone Takahashi, and now Hiromu could be returning to chase a title he never lost that’s around the waist of a man who never beat him. NJPW knows exactly what they’re doing.

NJPW long game continued in a match that technically was for the RPW British Heavyweight Championship, but featured two NJPW talents. Zack Sabre Jr. defended his RPW British Heavyweight Title against NJPW veteran Hiroshi Tanahashi. The two put together a truly spectacular match, and it led to Sabre getting an extremely important submission victory over an 8-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Great wrestling, and a result that laid the foundation for Sabre’s continued rise in NJPW.

In the penultimate NJPW match of the night, and undoubtedly one of the best matches at G1 Supercard, we saw Tetsuya Naito defend the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Kota Ibushi. There was no doubt we’d get an instant classic from these two, who are certainly in the conversation as two of the greatest wrestlers walking the earth today. They gave us everything they had inside Madison Square Garden, and Kota Ibushi finally picked up the win to capture a title he has chased since failing to defeat Shinsuke Nakamura for it in 2015.