I’ll piggyback off what Spanner said and say that Shibata’s second run with the company from 2012 and onwards is highly intertaining, especially his matches with Tanahashi. Those two guys did not like each other and I honestly think you can tell in the matches. Shibatas run since 2012 is probably one of the more significant runs you will find in NJPW that didn’t actually have a world title run associated. His specific brand of strong style was really unique and the dude had an incredible aura to him.
As for specific matches I’d say check out:
his match against Kazuchi Sakuraba at Dominion in 2015, his 5-star war with Tomohiro Ishii (Ishii is coincidentally perhaps the most underrated in ring performer in the world and absolutely worth checking out in his own right), his 3 singles matches against Tanahashi in 13-14 (match 1, Match 2, match 3), and finally his crowning achievement in the ring against Okada from Sakura Gensis this year.
The Okada match can be tough to watch when you know what happened to Shibata afterwards, but I still humbly maintain that it is one of the true great matches we’ve seen in the past decade and possibly the best strong style match ever. I wouldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to watch it again, but it is absolutely worth coming back to, even if the fallout was tragic.
Outside of that, you should definitely check out some of their Junior division, specifically the best of super jr cups from previous years, the junior tag title matches from the past 3-4 wrestle kingdoms, and Hiromu Takahashi and Kushida feud from this year.
It’s ridiculous, because the fucker has put on absolute masterpieces for years but he just was never quite given his due for some some reason. He’s basically been the god king of carpenters for years, quietly being one of the best wrestlers in the world and consistently putting on MOTY contenders, while allowing his opponent to get all the shine in most cases. perfect company man, through and through.
I do hope that they give him a run with the IC title at some point in his career, even though it would go against his role in the company as the hand that gets everyone over and could pull a decent match out of a bag twizzlers. It would just be so cathartic to finally see him get his due as one of the best in the world because his skill level honestly warrants it.
His series of matches with Togi Makabe elevated the NEVER title in the same way that Nakamura elevated the IWGP Intercontinental title.
He had absolutely remarkable title defense against Tomoaki Honma; who up to that point was a comedy character with a background in deathmatches and became a super hot fan favorite after the match.
The same can be said of his matches with Shibata. Shibata became a huge fan favorite early to mid 2016 die to his wars with Ishii for the NEVER title.
And that does not scratch the surface of how well he performs at G1 Climax, including a spectacular five star match with Okada last year that got over looked because of how nuts the last two days ended up; That match is one of the the top three bouts from the greatest G1 Climax of all time.
Ishii has fought at least one match a month for almost 20 years. That level of longevity just does not happen in Japan with their “strong style” wrestling.
Kenny is such a damn good dude. Only makes all the hate he gets from guys like Cornette even more ridiculous. Wrestling history is littered absolutely terrible people, and yet people are willing to get up in arms over a 5 minute exhibition match against a 9 year old girl.
I forget who said it but they said something along the lines of, with someone as progressive & talented as Kenny there should be no excuse for wrestlers or fans of wrestlers who may be good in the ring but hold on to regressive politics. I think that argument is fair.
I’ve spent a good deal of the last week watching both New Japan matches and lessons on friendship and encouragement in Steven Universe. Seeing those two things at the same time in that tweet broke me.
G1 keeps trucking along and pulling out bangers left and right.
Juice Robinson continues to baffle me by how good he’s gotten over the past year. I went from absolutely hating his guts to actively cheering for him during his matches. He’s an incredibly effective babyface, and his match with Kojima was awesome.
SANADA is one of the best athletes in pro wrestling today and I can’t wait for him to turn into top card player because he’s bound to improve by working with guys like Naito and Hiromu as much as he does.
Kenny and MiSu had the best match of G1 so far, and it further solidified the kind of year Kenny has had. fucking spectacular stuff from top to bottom.
Everyone’s right, you’ve got to check out Ishii. You also need to check out the KUSHIDA/Takahashi series for the Junior Heavyweight title starting from Wrestle Kingdom this year, they’re bonkers good.
The G1 Climax continues to be good. ZSJ’s making himself out to be really amazing in his biggest event with the company so far, and Kota Ibushi is possibly not capable of having a bad match.
Tetsuya Naito is on goddamn fire, though. Definitely think he’s gonna be the winner this year.
If you’re like me, you’d probably like to know what those delightful Japanese wrestlers are saying in the ring and in their promos, but lack the linguistic know how to figure it out. Fret no more, because Thelionmarks.com translate all japanese promos and parts of the Japanese commentary from each event, and their podcast goes in depth with different wrestlers each episode. The most recent episode centers around none other than the god emperor of death, the super athlete, the master thief, DVD producer extraordinaire, YANOOOOOOOOO TORUUUUUUUUU.
