Hello everyone, I'm Robbie Jordan, and this is your Open Assistant Podcast, where we do everything. Welcome. Today I'm joined by Helen Hunter to talk about the fallout from New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 tournament. We talk about Kota Ibushi's victory, give our awards for the best and worst of the tourney, and make some predictions for Wrestle Kingdom.
We also touch on Juice Robinson's best choices and who or what is the Great Okan. It was a great time talking to Helen, as always. On to the discussion. Hello everyone, I'm here once again with Helen Hunter to talk about New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Helen, how are you doing? I'm doing a-okay. How are you? I'm all right.
I'm doing all right. I'm compulsively checking 538, the election map over and over again. Yeah. All right, let's, we, we can, we can have our real, after we're done with our wrestling podcast, we can record a politics podcast.
Yeah, let's go back to the happy place. Back to that. I was just gonna say, it's been a really indulgent time for me in terms of, like, escaping reality because, like, my three favorite competitions have somehow synced up, like the G1, the NBA playoffs, and the Great British Bake Off for a period of time. We're all on at the same time.
There's a lot of competition lately for our attention. Yeah. We are, we are doing our post-G1, G1 special, special. We're gonna talk about all our thoughts and feelings and give some awards out for just having some fun.
We don't, unfortunately, Kota Ibushi, if you want to come and collect a reward, a reward, I don't have one for you other than my love. And it's so much love. It is a lot. I'm gonna say, I can't stop loving.
Oh, no. Let's start, we'll start, I mean, there's no, there's no use in putting it off. Kota Ibushi. Yeah.
No use in putting off the discussion. Kota, victorious twice in a row. Two years, two years running. G1 champion.
And I believe that was your prediction in the last podcast, right? Except you had him winning over Tanah. I did. I had him beating Tanah, which that's, that says something to me as well.
But yeah, I did think Kota was gonna win and Kota did end up winning. I just kind of, I don't know. I, going into the final when it was him and Sonata, you know, there was a piece of me that was going like, oh man, I'd love it if Sonata won, finally get that push that he always gets. He's on the precipice of a push pretty much all the time.
He never quite gets over it, the hump there. He just, he's always bridesmaid, never a bride. But I was still going like, no, come on, Kota, you can do it. Come on, Ibushi, I love you.
Please win. I mean, there's nothing not to love about Ibushi. He's been, he's been one of my favorites for the entire time that I've been in New Japan, which has been like two and a half years. Not that long.
I was a really big, like, golden lovers fan at first. And yeah, he's just like, he's so wholesome. And I just, I wish him all the success. So it's exciting to see him, like, first person to be in the finals three years in a row.
And he's among only two others who have won two years in a row. And yeah, really exciting to see him and Naito at Wrestle Kingdom. I mean, maybe. You don't know.
Yeah, but has anyone ever really, like, taken the title shot away? No, it's never happened. Literally zero times. Yeah, so I'm not, I mean.
I mean, but it's Jay. Oh my gosh, yes. It's Jay. Jay is the one in Power Struggle.
We're gonna, we'll probably talk a little bit about Power Struggle at the end, but coming up in three weeks, two weeks, two and a half weeks. Jay is the one trying to get that, take the briefcase away from him. And it's not, it's not Ishii. It's not Goto.
Like a lot of the users, it's like, oh, it's Goto. I'm like, Goto's not gonna take, not, Goto's not gonna headline Wrestle Kingdom. I'm sorry, Goto, I like you, but you're not, you're not headlining Wrestle Kingdom. But Jay?
I can see Jay headlining Wrestle Kingdom. No, I mean, totally. It's a complete possibility. You're absolutely right.
I don't think he's gonna, I don't think Kota's gonna lose it. They don't, they generally, winning the G1 is very, very important and they don't wanna ever, you know, sidetrack people away from that momentum. They wanna give, they wanna give those guys that momentum and let them, and I'm pretty sure that my guess is that all of this, like a lot of all this buildup was basically told to Ibushi when he signed a long-term contract in New Japan. They're like, okay, we want you, Ibushi.
He's like, well, I want this, this, and this. And they're like, all right, you can win the G1 two years in a row and then we'll have you main event Wrestle Kingdom a bunch and you'll be champion at the end of it, which is my prediction. Right now I'm calling it. Kota Ibushi is walking out, walking out of Wrestle Kingdom as IWGP heavyweight champion.
It's happening. Oh man. I could definitely see it for sure. And I could see that whole scenario being true.
Yeah. I think there's a merchandising thing too, in terms of like keeping the briefcase with one person for however many months. Because I'll tell you right now, like I own, I own a bag that is styled after last year's Ibushi briefcase. And it would be a real pain in the ass to have to, like, print a number of those if it kept changing hands.
There's always, in wrestling, there's always the, you have to think about the merchandise and how it affects the booking. That's very true. I'm very happy with Kota winning. I'm also interested what it means for Sonata, that he was a finalist.
I'm curious if it is just simply, oh, well, he's very popular. And we like Sonata. We'll give him, make him a finalist and make it a feel-good moment so that it's not evil functionally. Yeah, I was pretty surprised by that.
I'm not gonna lie. Looking back on it, it's like, okay, well, he had that new gear, which was like half awesome. And then, like, the jacket was so badass. But the mask, I don't think, was working for them.
It just was too small. It was very dainty. And like, I don't know. I don't, I think they could have done better with that.
But anyway, my point is, he's got, he's got the new, uh, the new gear, kind of some, like, different branding. He's less of like a ghost pirate now and more of like the cold skull, whatever that means. Um. But, I don't know, I was extremely surprised that he beat Evil.
Oh, and the other thing that's new is the, the, like, all the lights off and then people holding up their camera flashlights, which is a very cool effect, but that's new, right? Like, they, no one's been doing that until G1. No, I don't think so. I don't remember it.
I, I assume it's kind of like the, because it feels like it's referencing the jacket, you know, where it's like a bunch of little tiny mirrors on the jacket. And I, you know, I think that there's, it's the light and the darkness or whatever or something like that. I don't know. Or A, it looks cool, so let's have Sonata take it.
It's fine. Yeah, sure. I mean, people like him. I like Sonata.
He's great. But, I don't know. It was pointed out that almost all of his, all his great, really good matches in this G1 were always with great workers. He didn't really have, I don't know, I, I, I think there was some criticism that he is a very good wrestler, but not a great wrestler.
I think he, he shines when he is with somebody that he can, like, practice sequences with, like, kind of choreographed, fast sequences of moves. Like, he and Shingo do really well together. Um, he and, like, Osprey do really well together. Um, but yeah, he, he definitely, like, does extra well when he's wrestling somebody that can, like, boost him up during the match.
I mean, I think it's also like that, the, the cold skull, the dragon sleeper, whatever he's doing. It's not, you gotta lock it in, buddy. You gotta, you gotta. You cannot just, like, half-hold some guy's head under your arm and expect me to believe this is some terrible submission.
Yeah, right? I also, I still, like, can't get over the Paradise Lock. It's so goofy. It is very, like, it's very silly.
And, like, I'm not against silliness in wrestling, but it is, like, for having your, if you want to be, like, a, an ace of the company type guy, making the Paradise Lock part of your moveset is like, yeah, I, I, I lock a guy up and then his butt's up in the air. And then I drop, and then I dropkick him in the butt. I I'm 45, man. Just let me, I gotta go, I gotta go lay down, man.
You see what I did out there? Give me a break. I need a rest. My knees hurt.
He doesn't need to, like, make anyone afraid of him. Like, I don't know. I often think of him as, like, the DMX of New Japan. And maybe it's just because of the, like, barking dogs during his intro, but.
Oh, no. Like, he will fuck you up. Well, it's, it's, he's, he's the best, I consider, I think he's the best seller in, in all of professional wrestling. There's not a wrestler that sells better than Ishii.
I think he, he, it's nuanced. He's the best seller since Kawada. And Kawada is probably the best of all time. And Ishii might be better than him at this point.
It's, it's really incredible watching him work and seeing, seeing the layers and nuance of depth through how he wrestles matches and how he puts together a match and how he sells. And it doesn't matter to me if he wins or loses. Like, there's a lot of guys who are like, oh, I love them, and they're my favorite. And I want them to win, just like out of a fan.
Ishii is the guy, like, I really like Ishii, but I don't really need to see him win or lose. It's just watching him wrestle is always, it always keeps me glued to his matches. I just want to, it's like a craft thing. It's like watching, like, an incredible artist work.
It's like watching someone, like, chainsaw an ice sculpture right in front of you. You're just like, how are they doing that? This is incredible. One of my favorite matches, and again, I've only been into pro wrestling and New Japan specifically for like two and a half years.
But one of my favorite matches of all time was Ishii versus Kenny Omega in the 2018 G1, where he, like, busted up Kenny's face and he had to go get stitches in his lip. And I think, I think that Ishii won that one. I could be wrong. But like, again, it doesn't, okay, yeah, yeah.
It, it like, clearly doesn't matter enough to me to remember that he won specifically, because it was just such. That was a match that I like sat friends down to watch, like, you know, who were like, why are you into pro wrestling? I'm like, this is why. This is why.
Watch, watch this. 25 minutes of these people beating the living crap out of each other. Yeah, Ishii won that match, which set up his challenge against Kenny later on in the year, which is another fantastic match where, for, like, there was a moment in that rematch where I really thought, oh, like, could Ishii, would they actually have Ishii win this? That's not possible.
Of course they won't, but I'm still like, he's so, it was so good. I'm like, I'm buying into it. I didn't want to give a shout out. MVP is Ishii.
I'll give a shout out to Shingo and Minoru, who are both, like, Shingo in that, like, Shingo, like Ishii, is just this incredible all-around wrestler who can do everything. And Minoru, for being 50 plus and just putting out incredible matches throughout the entire, uh, entire tournament. Yeah, really wonderful. Now, the last time we talked, you, uh, we talked about how there weren't any tag matches this year.
And I was lamenting that because I liked it setting up kind of the drama for the next night, like a teaser for the next night. I've totally flipped on that. Um, I think it was like really tight and not overwhelming to have the tag matches this year. But I do think that it's, it totally allowed for better content, like quality of matches this year.
And I think that Minoru Suzuki, uh, like you mentioned the last time we talked that maybe he wouldn't have done the G1 unless he was able to take, you know, nights off. Um, I thought about that like the entire tournament because he was just doing so well, even the matches that he didn't win were just like, how did he not win that? I mean, he's Minoru is, like, he has that legitimacy that he's, you know, like, it's hard for him to get hurt by a loss, especially in the G1, when everyone, most everyone in the, in the, in is like extremely good wrestler and has their own, uh, you know, own legitimacy and kind of, I don't know, they're not invincible to bad booking, but Minoru can eat a lot of losses and it doesn't ever hurt him. He's still the legend.
He is still the, he's still so good at being a pro wrestler that it doesn't really matter that he lost. You're just like, I'm really impressed and I'm still scared by this man. He is, he's still compete, knows how to mean mug. He knows how to make himself look really scary.
Yeah. He has some of the best faces of all of the wrestlers. And even when he loses, he has just an incredible, like, schtick of going after the young lions, you know, turning tables over. And then his whole, like, he had really tight, good promos the entire time of kind of descending into this madman, like, totally.
I don't know. I, I felt like shades of Isuka a little bit where he's just kind of losing himself to pro wrestling. I like it. How can you not like Minoru?
He's the best. He's the king. I know. And then I don't know if you follow him on social media, but he looks like such a nice guy and posts his socks, like, every day.
Yeah, I've gotten, I've seen multiple of the socks, the socks posts. Oh, it's so great. I love knowing that he seems like a total homie. He's very, he seems like a very sweet person because people go to his, his, his, uh, clothing store, uh, you know, a lot of guys, a lot of, a lot of people visiting to, in normal, normal times, go to see New Japan.
They will stop by his clothing store and he's often there. And he will happily, you know, he's like, oh, I think if you're, if you're buying something, you'll happily take a picture with you and be nice to you. Yeah, I told my husband I would let him hold our babies. He put, he put, he put your children in a, in a sleeper hold and then Gas pile drive them.
A very gentle sleeper hold. Crazy. I mean, there, there's a picture of him in his, in doing that to his wife. So, who's also a professional wrestler.
So it's not, not a big deal. Oh, I didn't know that. Um, of course, who else could marry him? Who else would be married to Minoru Suzuki?
It has to be someone who's just as vicious and psychotic. You can't see me raise my hand. Most improved. Oh, okay.
Do you wanna go first this time? Sure. This one was very easy for me. Uh, Jeff Cobb.
Jeff Cobb was my answer. Okay, that was my answer too. Yay, synchronicity. He, man, I love this year's Jeff Cobb.
I didn't realize how much I missed him and he came back, uh, just better than ever. Yeah, he was, he was, he felt, it felt like he, he, he, he was one in better shape and two understood how to work for a Japanese audience or at least work in a Japan style, uh, more than he did in the past. Um, and they, his matches were almost universally better than they were before. And it's not like they were bad before, honestly, but they, he was, uh, he seemed to have, like, managed to, like, put together a little bit of this, of this New Japan version of himself.
It feels like it is more, it feels like a more complete package now than it did before. Yeah. And this is trivial, but his like salt and pepper beard was totally working for me. I loved it.
It's a good look. It's a good look. That's a person who has also has a salt and pepper beard right now. So.
You're a little biased. Yeah, I guess so. But he, he, he was, you know, seeing him, it's, it really, you know, after a while, you know, by the end of the G1, by the like, last few nights and you're watching these, the matches where they're not really, they don't really matter to the results. You know, the both, both wrestlers have been eliminated in some cases and they're not wrestling someone who's in contention, even.
It's just simply like, oh, am I going to finish better than I would? You can lose some of the tension you can, you're just, it's more just like seeing these, seeing the, the seeing the match for its, for a pure purpose. If you want to call it that. Watching Jeff Cobb pick people up and throw them does not get tiring.
It is always a fun thing to see. One of my bullet points in my notes was, uh, just how awesome it was to see him ragdolling Okada. Like it was nothing. Okada's a very big, Okada's a big man.
He's big. He's big. He's a large guy. Oh yeah.
Yeah. He's like six, three or something. Yeah. He's six, three, two 20 to 30 to probably He's so good.
And to be fair, he does hold like 10 million records throughout his heavyweight title reign. But like, I am of the opinion, the Rainmaker is the best finisher of all time. Oh, those are, man, those are big words. I think it does everything you want out of a finisher for a professional wrestler.
It is everything you could possibly want. It is easy and quick to apply. You can reverse it in 10,000 different ways. It looks impactful.
It doesn't really hurt either of the wrestlers too much. Like winning the angel looks impressive, but I don't wanna get dropped on my head, Kenny Omega, I'm sorry. I'm sure that the other guy is like, I'll get fine, wrestle Kenny. But if Okada delivered a Rainmaker to me, I'd probably, it would hurt me.
I wouldn't, I couldn't, I won't die from it. If Kenny Omega dropped me on my head, I might die. It could happen. So that's the important part of a finisher for me is that like, it actually doesn't, it's not that dangerous, honestly.
I love the Rainmaker. I love Okada. I love the Rainmaker even more. And Okada's like, yeah, that really cool move I do that sets up so much on my matches that affects how I'm a really good wrestler because I'm really good at transitions and in my big power moves that really demonstrate my size and how I'm taller and have longer arms and legs than almost everyone else I'm wrestling.
The Rainmaker demonstrates that. The Money Clip does nothing. It looks like crap. It's boring.
It's not like it. I don't care how much Shingo like coughs up spit, it doesn't make me believe that it's a good submission. It looks like crap. Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, one of my favorite things about the Rainmaker is the camera work when he sets up for it. It just like, it gets, it gets me so hyped. And if I had Taichi tearaway pants, I would tear them away every time that happened. Like, Rainmaker.
It's so good. And then, and then Okada's like, no, I'm not gonna do it. And I'm like, well, I guess all your matches are gonna kind of be kind of boring. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. To play devil's advocate here though, how do you make it so that Okada doesn't dominate literally everything then? I mean, he's had G1s before where he's been using the Rainmaker and he doesn't go to the finals. Um, I would also just, you can easily just have the commentators explain it away that people have scouted, like, he doesn't hit the Rainmaker.
Or he hits it only when he wins, he hits the Rainmaker, and everyone else, because he's been around, he's not a young buck anymore. He has been around for a long time now. Now everyone knows the Rainmaker. They know it's coming.
And they've scouted it out. So whenever he loses those few matches, he didn't, it's not like he lost a bunch of matches because he was using the Money Clip. He still won most of his matches using contention for most of the tournament. Just have him lose because he doesn't hit the Rainmaker.
And like, I, I'm fine with that as a finish versus this, him trying to use this Money Clip and I'm, I've got a, everyone's talking about how much they love that Shingo match. Mm-hmm. And it was good, don't get me wrong, because Shingo's great. And Okada is, is, is great when he is normal.
But I don't, when I see Shingo, like, passing out to the Money Clip, I'm like, oh. Yeah, give me a break. Oh, come on, man. Shingo, really?
Okay, so after we did our first, our G1, like, preview podcast, I did a, like a tarot read to try to predict, you know, what would happen. And let me preface this by saying, I don't do this very often. I'm not a tarot expert. I'm also not, like, even a real believer in it.
I just thought it was fun. Um, and the first card that I picked was the Ace of Pentacles Reverse, which, uh, I interpreted into, it, it can often apply to, um, uh, representing insecurity in the status quo, moving into a new era. Uh, it's also literally, uh, like a gold coin. Uh, and when a card is reversed, it often has, like, more negative connotations.
So one could look back on it and see, um, that the, the man who literally makes it rain money is having some insecurities and trouble moving forward. Uh, a.k.a. the Money Clip sucks. That's also a takeaway there.
Um, my prediction, my, my tarot reading also, the last card predicted, uh, or my interpretation of it was that, um, Ibushi would win. So. And that was the Empress. The Golden Star himself.
I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm ready for, like, Okada has also said, like, oh, I'm not interested in going after the titles when they're together. He doesn't want to, he doesn't feel like he should be sullied with the Intercontinental title. He only wants the heavyweight title, and I fully, I don't, I do not expect those titles to still be together by the last night of WrestleKingdom. I'm very curious to see how they split those up.
That's the thing I'm most, like, there's, like, some things you're like, eh, Ibushi's not gonna lose the briefcase before WrestleKingdom. I could completely see Naito losing the Intercontinental title before WrestleKingdom. That is absolutely a thing I, I think could happen. I don't know how, but I could see it.
Like, maybe, like, he just goes, like, oh, well, I'll wrestle you, but only for the Intercontinental title. I don't feel like, you don't, you don't deserve the heavyweight shot or something. Huh. I don't know, that's a possibility.
And there's two nights of WrestleKingdom. Maybe Naito wrestles for, defends the Intercontinental title on the first night, and the heavyweight title on the second night. Huh. But then, that, that, and then he, but he wins the Intercontinental title and loses the heavyweight.
It's possible. Split up those belts again. Um, next category, biggest surprise. Oh, man.
Uh, you go first this time. I'm just gonna say Taichi in his performance. Oh, okay. I, I wasn't expecting a lot from Taichi in his matches generally.
I don't, they're full of a lot of him avoiding wrestling for a long time. That's what Taichi matches were. Where Taichi trying not to wrestle for the longest amount of time. But he, that was not, like, I feel like that part of it is that, you know, he beat Suzuki in their match.
And I feel like maybe we're gonna Taichi-gyun in the near, sometime in the near future. Um, and so they, he's, he's being pushed to wrestle, you know, a more serious style. A style more similar to Minoru, honestly. But I was really pleased with all the, I was, I, for once in my life, I went into Taichi matches going, man, I'm, I'm interested to see what he does.
Let's see what's going on. I'm excited. He was definitely formidable. Um, especially for somebody who, like, kind of negs himself so much.
Uh, yeah, my, uh, my husband really likes Taichi. And, um, I don't tend to refer to him because I think he's an asshole. And there are other assholes I like better. That's fair.
That match with Jay. That match with Jay. Oh, my God. It's so good.
It was like watching two, like, mimes just mimic each other. It was great. They were just, they're just like, who can out-asshole each other? Who can do it?
That's great. What's your answer? Oh, um, so my answer is, uh, the biggest surprise for me was that Evil didn't defect and start his own. Like, that Bullet Club didn't split.
Right. Still, still a whole. I honestly, like, I was getting really hyped by the end of the tournament. I was like, holy shit, my, like, Jay White versus Evil in the final is, like, going to happen.
They are, they're teasing it in the promos. And, like, I, I knew as soon as, as soon as Evil became part of Bullet Club, it basically started this like timer in my head of, like, oh, at some point we're gonna get, like, Evil and Jay White just, like, going at it. And it's gonna be so fun. And I really thought it would happen by the end of the tournament.
And it didn't. Do you, I, I'm, I see when you say surprise that Evil hasn't started his own faction. I don't, if there's a split, I don't think Evil is gonna be the one leaving. I think Jay, I think, I think Jay leaves if anyone goes, turns face.
What? Turns face? Mm-hmm. I, man, I don't know about that.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, King Switch. Uh. Okay. All right.
I see, I see what you're doing there. But I will eat my hat if he ever becomes a face. He, like, he thrives as an asshole. And in this whole tournament, I have totally come to being like a Jay White fan girl.
I mean, I was already It was like very much, you could just lapse into being that cool guy as a wrestler instead of just being a complete asshole. Also, I do want, like, the shirt, King Switch, Jay, I see what you're doing. It's not, you're not, I don't, are you trying, are you, like, is that trying to be, are you trying to be, like, clever with that? Or, we see you, Jay.
We see you. That's it, it's like, you're selling this shirt to millions of people theoretically, all right? Just, we know what you're saying. It's a, There's no subtlety in wrestling.
I guess that's right. It doesn't work that way. There sometimes, just a little, little, little hints there, there. Well, let's see, I got, I'm striking things through my bullet points as we talk.
Oh, wait, I want to, while we're on the subject of Empire, The Great Okan. Yes, yes, yes. Go on. Uh, okay.
Was, was one of my young lions. I mentioned this before, like, Watto was, was one of the guys I was, who was a young lion when I first started watching New Japan, and then he went away into, he went to England, and RevPro, and he did this gimmick, um, with this, like, Mongolian mythological character. Okay, okay. This kind of clears some stuff up for me.
So he's, I didn't realize he did excursion in Britain, that he was in RevPro, because one of the questions I had written down was, like, why does he have this Irish naming convention? Like, The Great Okan. I honestly still don't really know. Like, that's, that's just what he was in RevPro.
He was like a big myth, he was like an undertaker type. It was just like a big guy with a weird mythologically monster-y type. It was like Mongolian inspired, because he uses a Mongolian chop, and that's, apparently that's a, that's a, it's a look from Mongolian myth, some character dresses, like in his, he, he switched it to Okan here, because Kaan is much more easily recognizable as, as, you know, Genghis Kaan Mongolian. Easier.
Okan is, I think, again, I don't know, it's all confusing. And that's the thing. Like, he comes out that first time in his suit, and you're like, okay, he looks, he looks pretty good in a suit. Um, he's big.
And then they have the match on the night of the finals, and he's dressed just like he was in RevPro. And I, I don't know about this. I don't, I feel like this is just Master Watto again. Oh, 100%.
He absolutely looks like a wrestler from 1910, in his, like, in his entrance gear. The first night when we first saw him, he kind of reminded me of a, like a mob boss, but from like a 1990s video game. But, um... Like floppy, I think it was something like, like pants like a gin would wear.
But, um, yeah, I gotta give credit to my husband, who's like, yeah, he looks like he wrestled like a hundred years ago. I mean, it's, Gedo loves Memphis, and, like, deep south, and, like, they had these types of gimmicks. And, just, no, please, like, let him just be in the suit, man. I don't put, don't make him wear that, like, Orientalist weird costume or whatever it is.
Like, I don't like it. Please, not another. Like a black over his face with, like, a question mark on it. Like, you can use, like, a question, like, it's not bad, like, to have an entrance mask.
That's fine. Like, a bunch of guys do it. But, and even the question mark's not terrible. Like, it could be something, but...
That's like a handkerchief. Yeah, like, it's the things, everything combined together, like, oh, this is a net negative, and it does not look imposing. And I think it's supposed to. He's supposed to be, like, the big enforcer type in this new faction.
And you're just like, no, I'm not scared of you, Great Okan. I guess we'll just have to see if he has, like, the swagger to keep it up. But I totally agree with you. Right now, I'm about as skeptical of him as I am of Master Watto.
Like, it feels like there's a line. It's like a fine line. And evil is on the right side of the line. Evil is able to, able to take, like, that, at first, was kind of goofy with his scythe, and the gothness.
And, like, it's just, it's, it kind of became goofy, but he was able to carry it and make it work. And then on the other side of the line is Master Watto and Great Okan. And, like, they need to get over to the evil side of that line. They need to find a way.
Oh, man. You're reminding me of, when I first started watching wrestling, my husband and I, like, we were on a road trip. And I was, I made a graph that was plotting wrestlers. And, like, the X-axis was, like, uh, like, preppy to meathead.
And then the Y-axis, or no, no, it was, like, nerdy to meathead. And the Y-axis was, like, scary to not scary. And we found that there was, like, a spot in that graph that we called the Halloween zone, where it was, like, Ishii and Evil and, um, uh, like, Bray Wyatt, if you're still watching, like, WWE at that point. And, yeah, I wonder what, what the, what the Great Okan would have to do to be more fearsome, I guess.
Just, just the change, the gear is the first step. I think, like, like, that would probably get you 50% of the way there, is just making it so he doesn't look, or, or figure out a way to explain it. Like, how, that's, and that's the problem. There's no one in that faction right now that can talk.
Like, Will Ospreay is not a good promo still. Um, Bea Priestley is, again, they're both fine, they're not good. Um, Great Okan is gonna be in, in, like, he's so far, has just gone, like, I am big and I yell, kind of thing. He doesn't really, he hasn't really done promos.
So I don't know, maybe if he can cut a promo that can kind of, but I don't think they're gonna let him. They want him to be that big monster guy. They don't want him to be, like, eloquent and cut promos about. They need a talker in that faction.
They need someone who can cut promos. I don't know what it's gonna be. Um, and they can't, they don't have enough wrestlers at any, you know, they only have two guys. They need to have at least three because that's, so they can fill out the trios matches.
Six-man tag matches. They need a third guy. Um. I wonder how this will develop.
I'm, I'm curious. Because, like I said, Funk Osprey, I would, I would be fine not having him around. However, he is great to make fun of. And his, you're right, he's like, not, he thinks he's better on the mic than he is.
Um, and he's, he's absolutely insufferable with his, like, Kenny Omega, I'm, like, the best wrestler right now. And his costume is too much. It is way too much. I was, the, I was, like, literally, like, you're just doing, like, they, they, I really think that New Japan is just telling him, like, just do Kenny Omega.
You're gonna be Kenny Omega now because Kenny left. Because Kenny wanted to be paid more than what we were offering. It's much better. Yeah.
He even, like, talks as he's doing his entrance. And that's one of my favorite things about Kenny, is the, like, talking to the mic and you can't hear what he's saying, but you don't really need to. Uh. I mean, yeah, as he's, like, winding up his, his entrance when, about the fireworks, the pyros about to go off.
And Kenny's just, like, yelling at the camera and you have no idea what he's saying, but you're just like, oh, I'm charmed. I love you. I know in my heart what he's saying, you know, like, I don't really need to know. Yeah, that's fine.
That makes sense. It's making me like him less because, like, I fucking love Kenny Omega. And I miss him, like, every day. I miss him in New Japan so much.
We're about to get the cleaner back in AEW, so that's okay. Okay. He's gonna, he's gonna murder Joey Janela tomorrow night. They're, they're having their own miniature.
I need to fight my shit together and watch Make EW. They're having their, their mini tournament to, they're having their mini tournament starting tomorrow night for number one contenders. Um, Kenny's. I'm, Kenny and Hangman are both on the opposite sides of the bracket, so many people are predicting that they're gonna end up facing each other for the, and, I don't know.
I'm, I'm as, I'm fully expecting Kenny to just V I want more. I want more for my boy. I loved you. I watched him at FCW in little 100-seat armories in Eustis, Florida, when he was CJ Parker and was an environmentalist.
Like, I want him to have titles. I want him to be a big shot. I don't know. He's certainly earned it.
He's put his time in. He has. He's put in the work. Nothing against the Blues Brothers.
Oh, absolutely not. Great film. Great. I mentioned this at the start.
Tanahashi finishes with a losing record. Yeah. I'm not that surprised, to be honest. I mean, he's been riding this arc for, like, more than a year now of just kind of winding down.
I was pretty surprised that he beat Zacky Brutonier in the last night of the B-block. But that felt good. It kind of wrapped it up nicely for him, even though he finished in the negative. Yeah.
I just, it's more like, it's just, I've gone back, and when I first started watching New Japan, I went back and I did a podcast about Tanahashi. And I watched probably a hundred Tanahashi matches. And, like, you just get used. And for, like, it's been years, like, literally since I've become a fan, like, five years ago, every year people are like, this is the year they're gonna wind down Tanahashi.
He's getting older. His body's starting to break down. He's moving slower. This is the year that he's gonna, this is gonna be it.
This is the last G1. And it never's happened. It just keeps, it just keeps happening. Like, he, like, he continues to do well, continues to win more matches than not.
And every year, I'm like, I'm gonna, this is the year, right? This is the year. And it never is. It never is.
But no, this is the year. That year finally happened. And, like, it is, the ace of the universe is winding down. And I don't know how to handle that.
Aw. Well, we're all in this together, Robbie. I know, I know. I know.
And there's part of me that wants Tana to wind down. Like, his knees, I can't. Every time he went up to do a high fly flow. Oh, I know.
Especially when he went to the outside with him. Oh, I know. I'm like, no, Tana, don't. You don't have to do, we love you.
You don't have to do this anymore. I think the first night of A-block, he did, like, three. Or the first night of B-block against Naito, he did, like, three. It was pretty early on, where it was just like, dude, you don't, yeah, like, you don't, you don't have to do this.
We love you. Yeah. I mean, I think that, it's just, it feels like this is a, and not a lot of people are coming attention to it, but I feel like it is a, it's a shift. It's a change.
It's gonna, like, there seems to be a lot of, a lot of that this year, where there's, like, things that are, like, you're seeing movement from some of these older wrestlers out. Like, Taichi beats Suzuki. Tanahashi has a losing record. Like, I feel like there is change afoot.
There's the old guard is being propped. There's no, no, there's no Makabe. There's no, the, the third generation. None of those guys are in this.
They're all, none of those guys. We call them the dads. The dads. The New Japan dads.
None of them are in this in the G1 this year, even on. Like, they had a, a limited roster. That's why Yuji's in there. But, I mean, I don't know.
Did you read that interview with Naito? No. Where he literally just says, like, that's why we're, like, COVID's the only reason he's in that, in the tournament, right? Like, we all know that, right?
I'm just, I'm just gonna say it. And I'm like, Naito, man. I mean, it's true. It's true.
You don't have to be, like, mean about it. He's like, well, maybe he'll do better than we expect. I'm like, no, he won't. Yuji's not going to do better than we expect.
Um, he did win one. He did. Which is, I mean, that's about as much as I expected. I think I had every, no, almost no one goes winless.
They, they generally throw people a bone, even the, the, the lower guys. Um, that's my final big bullet, bullet point is, was, this is a question I have for you. Was there too much interference over the tournament for you? Interference?
Like, people interfering in matches? Yes, yes. The heel, heel chicanery. Uh, I mean, I think part of the story with Evil is that he is, like, harnessing evil to be as successful as he is.
So having, uh, all of those, like, low blows totally made sense to me. It didn't bother me that it was happening. Um, I think the answer to that is no. I didn't feel, like, I don't know.
I have mixed feelings about V Priestley being there where I, like, am annoyed by her. I'm, like, marking out to her and Will Ospreay, like, working together because I don't like either of them. But it also made me excited to have a woman ringside who I don't think we've seen since, like, Cody was in New Japan with Brandi. Uh, and I'm excited at the prospect that maybe, maybe, just maybe, we might get some shows where, like, there's a stardom match at the beginning or some kind of crossover.
I would love to see that. Yes. I'm, I'm, I subscribed to Stardom's service and I'm, to watch their, you know, their tournament. And I still, well, they'll like that.
I had a, I, do you want to hear the only, I don't know, it's, it's like when it comes, you're like, oh yes, do you want? And then this year, you're like, oh man, this is a lot of wrestling. I gotta schedule this out. When am I gonna watch this?
Um, I, it's mostly, it's mostly the B block where you have Evil, Kenta, and Yano all wrestling on the same night. And, like, I, you know, Yano's Yano and every match with him is gonna be this, like, silly, run around the outside with tape and see if the other, other wrestlers can, like, counteract his goofery, his clownery. But when you got Evil and Kenta doing varying levels of cheating and then Yano himself also doing varying levels of cheating all in one night. And when they all are wrestling other people, especially it, like, by the end of the night, you're like, okay.
You know, they tried to, I think, understood that somebody's, like, that it was a problem. So they tried to, I think, book matches that were different, layout matches that were different from each other than had as much cheating. But after you watch so much wrestling over this, the course of this tournament, and there's, I, I stopped counting how many nut shots there were. There's so many low blows.
And you're like, okay. Like, I'm, at the end of the day, Evil and, you know, none of the heels advanced. You know, it was, I mean, I think there was, I forget, I think it was 2017 was the year where there was almost no cheating. It was a, like, very, like, maybe, Yano, that was it.
Yano cheated and no one else did. And it was, like, universally the best year of the G1 ever. And I think, I kind of just, sometimes I just wanted, like, I think part of it is just, like, I just want to see Evil and Sonata wrestle, like, a pure match. Yeah.
And, like, I get the character stuff is selling, you know, Evil is, is evil now. But I just, there's a part of me that's just like, I want to see Evil wrestle Sonata in just, like, a pure wrestling match and the best man wins, whoever that may be. Huh. I think you, you raised a very fine point.
It's not that it's wrong. Like, the cheating, it's fine. It's fine. I think Gato, Gato really likes, again, likes the Mid-South, the, likes the Memphis stuff, which was full of that.
It's like, all the heels, they are always trying to do low blows. They always have Dick Toe, Dick to go. Um, running around with his, his, uh, his little strangler, whatever, the spoiler thing. Um, it's, there's a, you see the complaints here.
Yeah. Okay, I have, I have one thing I want to talk about before we wind down. Bring it up. Um, Kenta's promos and his relationship with the camera people.
Yeah. Yeah, Kenta, all right. We need to have a talk. Kenta, you're great, Kenta.
Okay? It's not, it's not you, it's me. You need to, we're, you're getting a little, I think you're, you're coming on a little too fast, I think, sometimes. With the, like Homage to Suzuki's match with Tanahashi back in 2011, I want to say, because there was no near falls in this match.
No one, there was no attempted pins until the end of the match. Neither of them tried to pin the other until Kota hit the coming way. And then one, two, three in a very sexual pin, as well. And Minoru was like smiling like cack, like evilly as Kota basically has him like a pile driver position.
And you're like, what is happening? What is going on? But I feel like Kota is like homaging Tanahashi in that match, like saying, I want to do that as well. I want to do that same kind of thing.
Also Kota versus Taichi, where they just kicked each other for 20 minutes. Oh my God. I love that kind of novelty. I mean, yeah, it was, it was great.
Really fun. It was so much fun where they're just, like, they're both just like, yeah, I guess we're just gonna kick. And, and Kota going into the finals with like a big bandage over his thigh because he let Taichi kick him in the leg for 20 minutes straight. And you're like, oh my God, I bet his leg looks like mincemeat.
Kota's like, yeah, it's Kota like, what, pain? Eh, just walk, you walk it off, it's fine. It's like a, it's like hit that quote from him about when he twisted his ankle in last, in like the first match of last year's G1. And he's talking about like, oh yeah, I just, I couldn't walk yesterday, but today I took, I took some steps.
There were some tears, but I took steps. And I'm like, what are, what are you, Kota Ibushi? How? Has he, has he become God?
I think that, that question will be answered at WrestleKingdom. It's, he, he never ceases to entertain me in the things that he says, um, and that his brain is kind of like a mystery to me. Uh, I don't know what it means to become God, like not a God, but God. Um, and yeah, I'm interested in seeing, I mean, how having this championship affects his behavior and his promos between now and WrestleKingdom.
And honestly, I, so, um, I might give birth, like, around WrestleKingdom, and I'm extremely hoping that it doesn't happen because I don't want anything to interfere with me watching these matches. Well, at least you have your priorities straight. I know, right? Everyone keeps being like, oh, it would suck for them to have a Christmas birthday.
And I'm like, no, no. I just, like, they can be born on Christmas. I just don't want them to be born on January 4th and like fuck up WrestleKingdom for the rest of my life. Well, then you just, you just make them, make sure they're wrestling fans.
And then it's a part of their birthday celebration is. Oh, we fully plan to ruin them. Okay, good. That's, that's good to hear.
I like to hear. I already have some Minoru Suzuki, like, baby outfits. Oh, that's even, that's spectacular. You need to get them some Ray-Bans so that.
To put on their tiny little heads. Yeah, get their tiny little heads with the tiny little Ray-Bans. And then they're wearing the, the Suzuki gear. It looks, it'll look perfect.
Matching King shirts, though, with the, okay. Now I'm just like fantasy booking your children, your future children. I was thinking like little black diapers, like Minoru Suzuki. Little black booties.
Yes, of course. No, no knee pads, all right? We don't wear knee pads around here. Um, let's give a sec before we start talking about dressing up babies as uh elderly wrestlers.
Um, G1 is always great. It's always fun. It gives you so much to, to watch. It gives you so much to think about.
And there's so much, there's so many little things that we have not even touched on. There's dozens and dozens of little tiny things sprinkled throughout the tournament that are just so wonderful and feel like little tiny treats on top of the main courses. I'll miss it. I'll miss it until next year.
Hopefully. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. Knock on wood.
Next year's G1 on schedule. Normal. Everything's, everything works out. Let's hope so.
Let's hope so. Um, my final question for you. Yes. I already answered this question, like first thing.
Does Kota Ibushi walk out of Wrestle Kingdom as champion? I would like to see it. I was hoping he would do that last year. Um, yeah.
I, I, I will, I'll put my money down. Okay. I mean, you look at Kota, like, how he looks like he should have that belt around his waist. Oh, yeah.