Kota Ibushi vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - G1 Climax 28 Final
Added 2025-02-12 17:00:05 +0000 UTCWatch: https://streamable.com/0g1mcl
Comments
I’m about 12 minutes in and I gotta be honest, this match has not hooked me yet. They’re both very grunty men lol. Oof, it put my to sleep. I wanted to like this I really did but it just moves at such a slow pace.
Steamed Ham Champion Dillon Haggett
2025-02-19 13:44:49 +0000 UTCYeah, I hear they had a pretty awesome show recently too.
Ian Hernandez
2025-02-16 01:52:01 +0000 UTCGuys, I think your reactions to NJPW are my favourite. I haven't seen a lot of it myself, so it's cool to learn and be astonished along with you both. This video also showed us that you're both developing your own individual wrestling perspectives. Keep up the great stuff!
City and Local
2025-02-14 19:52:27 +0000 UTCWhen New Japan is on it, no other wrestling company comes close to their level of quality
Budman
2025-02-14 17:58:44 +0000 UTCMan, I don’t want to bum you guys out, but New Japan in the 2010s is so nostalgic for me. This was such an era bro. New Japan just felt so cool, so epic, the matches were so just on another level compared to anything going on here at home, and I always remember trying to avoid spoilers so I could watch the matches on AXS TV, which is where they would air back then, and more recently although that has stopped again. I never did subscribe to NJPW World, didn’t want to spend money on the service, plus it was all in Japanese back then and would have been hard for me to navigate, so the weekly television show was my only option, but this was such a goaded time for me as a wrestling fan.
Ian Hernandez
2025-02-14 02:50:58 +0000 UTCWe've seen other matches from G1, but didn't know the details of how it worked, so thanks 😄
Tallywags
2025-02-13 21:55:12 +0000 UTCGo Ace!
Steamed Ham Champion Dillon Haggett
2025-02-13 16:50:57 +0000 UTCNot sure if you’re too familiar with the G1 Climax but it’s basically New Japans big annual tournament, best tournament in wrestling in my opinion. So generally it’s 20 men split into 2 blocks (A & B). In each block you have 9 matches (facing each in your block, round robin style). Win - 2 point Draw - 1 point each Loss - 0 points The men with the most points after all matches win their block and the winners of each block face each other in the finals, in this case Tanahashi (A block winner) and Ibushi (B block winner). It’s such a gruelling tournament and it’s very prestigious now at this point so that’s why it feels like a big title match.
Josh Tiley
2025-02-13 01:39:02 +0000 UTCTanahashi has a strong case for a top-10 greatest in-ring wrestlers of all time. He maintained an acrobatic, physically demanding style for about two decades. Few could pull off, and I would say AJ Styles is one of the only other examples I can even think of. Though both eventually had to tone down their high-flying offense by this point (2018), with 2025 Tanahashi struggling to walk. AJ was even more acrobatic, but Tanahashi excelled at drawing out crowd emotion. Most wrestlers can’t sustain that style for that long without an unlucky injury cutting their peak in-ring years short. Tanahashi is also exceptional for also being a legit massive draw. I think that's why he got to win here. Basically rewarding him for not only saving the company, but growing it back to the #1 Japanese promotion. Also, next Wrestle Kingdom main event was Tanahashi vs Omega, so that probably played a part too.
.
2025-02-13 00:12:50 +0000 UTCThis was old man tana who was still the best before he became the really old man tana who tries and we still love him
Michael Hay
2025-02-12 19:20:30 +0000 UTCThat's really good to hear 😊 I was at first pretty disappointed, but they both ended up looking really good so how can someone me bad after watching that? Lol
Tallywags
2025-02-12 19:07:53 +0000 UTCOh one thing else i almost forgot to mention: You have just witnessed Murder Ibushi for the first time! Remember that part when Ibushi snapped, he hit Tana really hard & kick him to the corner, notice his face being unfaded/no emotion. That usually happens whenever his opponent hit him hard enough/anything to make him beyond mad, he just turns to that mode & goes straight for the kill
Nathan Morningstarz
2025-02-12 19:00:29 +0000 UTCFirst thing first, i kinda feel bad for Tally rooting for Ibushi lol. I watched that match live in real-time & rooted for Ibushi too, a bit down for the result but could not be against Tana winning. To describe what is each man position into this match, imagine Ibushi like 2018 Seth Rollins in the sense of being a beloved workhorse but longing to be rewarded with a World Title win while befriending to the World Champ himself (Omega to Ibushi, Roman to Seth); meanwhile, Tana is similar to Cena's 15-17 run as he could beat 99% of the roster but struggle against its top 1%. Tana at the time after passing the torch to Okada, still perfomed at high level around the upper-card but always failed to be back at the top against the younger & hungrier top stars. That year G1 was like his one last chance to ever win the big one again, so everyone wholeheartedly rooted for him. The match of course to nobody surprise was a classic. Tana always do best in this big New Japan epic style/formula (30-min main event, starts slow but the heat goes up & up until the crazy pace towards the final act...), while Ibushi is just a genius in the ring & perfect dance partner to Tana. I don't want to spoil what came next for these guys (specifically Ibushi as God had a different plan for him) after this in case somebody submitted matches, but to Tally who has supported Ibushi so far don't worry he would have his own moment 😉
Nathan Morningstarz
2025-02-12 18:51:07 +0000 UTCYeahhhhhhhh Go ACE One of the greatest Babyface performances I've seen in my life by Tana And Kota plays stiff and mean so much better than I thought he ever could
Paul Watson
2025-02-12 18:37:39 +0000 UTC
