NJPW G1 Climax 2014 Day 12 - Finals Recap

HOLY SHIT THIS BUILDING AND SET LOOK AMAZING! First few matches are nothing special. Maria's ass is still fine though. TIME SPLITTERS-ReDragon should be a blast. Shame that their awesome intro is marred by that CG tron from about '94. SUPER FALCON ARROW! Kimura for the win there - ReDragon looked great in there, hopefully they get more NJPW dates. Time for New Japan to JOIN THE FORCE! Nice of them to prepare a Flashpoint presentation for a tron video. GFW! GFW! GFW! GFW! GFW! Like all WEALTHY AMERICAN BUSINESSMEN, he has someone carry his guitar to all formal meetings. Jeff looks fantastic for 47 - he basically looks the same as he has since about 2000 or so.

Naito's pyro display is impressive. Shame his jacket, shorts, and boots have all that winged crap on them, sure it stands out, but it looks stupid. This isn't doing much for me, but I dig the reverse DDT>Stardust press finish. Naito's sliding single-leg dropkick looked pretty weak. Karl Anderson's bullet hole tron looks fantastic - one of the best things about this show has been the use of the giant set. It's the best-looking sets this year, on par with WM or the Tokyo Dome show. Karl saying "WE'RE THE REASON YOU BOUGHT THIS SHIT!" and then saying excuse me to the camera man made me chuckle. Ishii can barely move his arm getting into the ring, this is going to be tough to watch. The versus graphic while both guys are mid-ring right before the bell rings is a nice touch that makes every match seem important. Ishii can't do a thing here. Hogan at BFG '11 has more overall mobility. Anderson's forearm busted Ishii's nose open badly. Forearms. SLIDING LARIAT! Okay - Hogan couldn't have done that 3 years ago. GUN STUN COUNTER OUT OF A SUPLEX - nice finish, rough match though.

Shibata-Goto should be a lot of fun. I've loved Shibata throughout this thing, and can't wait to use him in FPR later after altering his moveset a bit. Well, that was stiff. Lots of forearms, kicks, a couple of GTSes and PENALTY KICKS. This would have been more fun to watch if it was in a game - knowing the actual guys are in agony makes it hard to do. Love Shibata helping Goto to the back. AJ's new black, white, and red gear is pretty good. Tanahashi's white, black, and red look is one of the best ones in the business. His gear is fantastic too, and shockingly easy to make in FPR. Love Tanahashi teasing a return to using the Clash against AJ. Tanahashi counters the quebrada DDT! This is just a blast to watch. Flying and counters, suplexes and counters. DRAGON SUPLEX GETS 2. REVERSE TOMBSTONE FROM AJ! FROG SPLASH FROM AJ GETS COUNTERED! HIGH FLY FLOW COUNTERED! VICTORY ROLL CRADLE FOR THE CLASH GETS THE WIN FOR TANAHASHI! Bullet Club attack time. Clash hits. Jeff's out. BULLET CLUB GUITAR! This was a blast - gotta do this match in FPR now. This turned out great in FPR form as well.

Okada's out first, which means that Nakamura gets the final intro! Okada's gold-heavy intro is fantastic - it's among the most major league-looking in the business, and is very much aided by WWE downgrading production with their entrances while New Japan is thriving. NJPW can spend less and look even more major league than WWE. Nakamura gets flames AND smoke for his intro. Love Nakamura flipping out using the ropes to avoid a tie-up going in Okada's favor. Okada teases a slap, BUT GIVES HIM A CLEAN BREAK! Okada turns Nakamura's limp-bodied clean break against him by going for a front chancery and then nailing him with a DDT! Guardrail camel clutch by Okada! Nice selling from Swagsuke for Okada's top-mounted dropkick. Player's kick from Okada against the guardrail - so that's something to give him for WWE 2K14 CAWs in the Rumble. Forearm exchange leads to a flapjack and Nakamura getting a scissored sleeper. Triangle armbar and knees give Nakamura an edge. Boy is his moveset just perfect thanks to FPR - you can set up knees from anywhere thanks to them having the foresight to logically make pro wrestling/MMA hybrid movesets available. More 'Taker opponents should have sold the tombstone by going completely limp like Swagsuke did.

RAINMAKER COUNTERED INTO A FLYING ARMBAR, WHICH OKADA AVOIDS BY HOLDING ONTO THE ARM! Nakamura turns it into a triangle and nails a Bomaye knee to the back of the head! FOREARMS FROM NAKAMURA! Back and forth exchange - about the 9000th over the past 2 weeks. Okada hits one dropkick, but misses another and eats a sliding Bomaye for 2! FLYING BOMAYE! Corner to center variant is countered by a dropkick! God I wish there was a new Firepro so we'd have a corner to center Bomaye in a game. Bridging German gets 2.5 for Okada! Okada holds on and turns it into a Rainmaker that Swagsuke counters with a high knee. Corner to center is countered again with a leg hold - no Dragon Screw though. Backslide gets 2! RAINMAKER INTO ANOTHER RAINMAKER! THIRD RAINMAKER LEADS TO A THREE! OKADA'S GOING TO THE DOME! It'll either be Okada-AJ or Okada-Tanahashi, although with AJ being so strong and really exceeding expectations after coming in with cold-ish matches due to folks not knowing his moves, maybe they could make it a 3-way.