NJPW on AXS TV: Episode 7

New Japan Pro-Wrestling on AXS TV

Episode 7, February 27th 2015

Naito talks about admiring Tanahashi and being his fan. He mentions the toughness and major struggles to march through the grueling tournament.

G1 Climax 23

(2013/8/11)

G1 Climax 23 - FINAL: Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Great match that would’ve been amazing if Naito was a slightly better seller, in both physical and emotional fashion. He sold the damaged leg (mostly) good, although it could’ve been better, but emotionally his displays were kind of empty and dry, his facial expressions left a lot to be desired. Tana took advantage of his right leg and he did it fine, like he always does, Naito sold it very strong at first and then kind of sporadically as the match was moving away, although he did his best to make the selling subtle at times, gotta give him credit for that. He also sold it after the match and backstage, for whatever it’s worth. So yeah, the physical aspect of it was good, but like I said, emotionally I wasn’t feeling him, he did very little to make me emotionally invested into him and his struggles to overcome the Ace of the promotion. The fact he has the punchable rat mug certainly doesn’t help to be honest, so he really has to dig very deep and do his best acting efforts possible to make people love him. Sometimes he pulls it off, sometimes he doesn’t, waddaya gonna do. That’s why Tanahashi has tons and tons of charisma, enough for both, lol. The match had some great moments for sure, such as Tana’s outstanding plancha, the Frankensteiner reversal into Styles Clash, the opening catch game was good enough, etc. The tournament had at least a dozen of better matches, but this one was far from failure, it felt big enough and they got the crowd invested.

****

Tanahashi is shown backstage, he can’t even stand on his own but he says he’s okay and not tired at all. LOL.

Naito is doing the post-victory promo inside the ring and gets emotional talking about returning from the difficult injury. He mentions the heavyweight belt, Okada and Masato Tanaka.

Backstage, Naito is celebrating and then getting emotional again.

To cap off the episode, Naito’s reflecting on the match and talks about having to go through the pain and all that jazz.