NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling 2013: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
Tanahashi puts on an absolute masterclass in this one; quite possibly one of my favorite single match performances ever. Even before the match officially begins, his greatness shines - him looking up when the coin drops as Okada's long ass special intro in his theme ends was so great. Then the match starts & the real first big control section of it is by Tanahashi; he wears Okada down with HEADLOCKS. Okada slips up out of it a couple of times, but Tana always puts it back on. Absolutely loved that. Then as Okada has finally gained some momentum, starting to work a bit on Tana's neck, Tana swifts momentum back to him by faking a goddamn leg injury. It's one of my favorite things ever as he plays air guitar while showing that his leg works perfectly after dropkicking Okada on the knee. Then he goes to work on Okada's arm w/ a super focus - that continues to be the big story of the match, and Tana is seriously wonderful working the arm. Him just viciously STOMPING & HEADBUTTING it rules so much. Okada is pretty solid selling it too - thought that after Tana's first segment working the arm he could've shown the damage of Tana's work a bit more, but he wasn't no-selling it, so I can't complain. Okada's neck work is also really good & Tana's selling is great throughout - just a real masterclass of a performance by the man w/ the headlock stuff, the fake injury, amazing attack on the arm & selling. Go Ace! ****3/4
NJPW G1 Climax 2017: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega
This does not hold up at all on a re-watch. I understand why they played it like they did, but the whole narrative annoyed me big time - Okada comes into the match w/ an effed up neck & all, Omega works on it quite a bit, but still gets his ass kicked big time. It's a classic pro-wrestling "he won.. but did he really?" narrative, and it works for most cases, but here it flat out annoyed me watching it back. Okada's overall performance was pretty great - he sold well, his facial expressions were on point & all of his offense looked really good, gotta give credit to him for that, but the match structure is also just annoying in my eyes - Okada gets too much offense in for my liking & Kenny looks like a bitch for most of it. Kenny's overall performance is also really 50/50; the finishing stretch of the match w/ him just murdering Okada's neck with all kinds of vicious power moves, piledrivers & knees is WONDERFUL & comes with a great sense of urgency, but everything before that? Not good. Kenny's just too damn goofy w/ his over the top facial expressions & you can't escapes. So, so disappointed in this match. I actually had it as my #2 MOTY for 2017 when that year was over, so it's quite sad not seeing it at that level, or even close to it, anymore. **1/2
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