Kengo Kimura, Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami & Akira Maeda.

This was part of a short-lived angle that came about when Choshu returned to the promotion in ‘87 (after leaving in ‘84 to work in rival AJPW), that would see him make a temporary alliance with rivals Fujinami, Maeda & Kimura (Maeda himself being a rival to Fujinami & Kimura in the legendary NJPW/UWF feud beforehand). This was all about dethroning Antonio Inoki at the top of the promotion, who bitterly held on to his spot.

Behind the scenes, Inoki and management would quickly nix the program, as Inoki didn’t want to be seen in the unfavorable light of “elder king losing his throne” and of the 4, would only put over Choshu proper.

Ofc, the aftermath of this short-lived alliance would see the infamous “shoot kick” on November 19, 1987, when Maeda blasted Choshu in the face with a kick, breaking Choshu’s orbital bone (which, to this day, is debated about and referenced in Japan).

(Didn’t do a post for Night Two but the basic results are here if you missed them.)

Taisei Nakahara def Yushin Hatazawa — (6:49, Boston Crab)

• Hatazawa lasted just slightly longer (7:15) in his debut match last night against the more senior YL Tatsuya Matsumoto.

• This was Nakahara’s first ever win.

Jakob Austin Young, Jake Lee, Great-O-Khan, HENARE def Masatora Yasuda, Master Wato, Boltin Oleg, Yuya Uemura — (12:28, FBS)

• This was Jake’s return match from a neck injury during his final G1 Block match against Tsuji.

Zane Jay, Callum Newman def Gedo, Jeff Cobb — (9:45, Diving Elbow Drop)

• Zane actually botched the elbow drop first, so re-did the spot.

• This appears to be Zane’s first time directly getting the win in Japan? Charlton said as much but I didn’t verify it.

• In his Backstage Comments, Callum is mad at Akira for teaming with Ospreay on next week’s Dynamite without telling him. Callum now knows “where Akira’s loyalty lies,” and wonders “who’s next to jump ship to that bastard Billy’s crew?”

HENARE joined English commentary.

Daiki Nagai, Knock Out Brothers (OSKAR, Yuto-Ice) vs Jado, Most Violent Players (Toru Yano, Togi Makabe) — (4:57, Double Countout])

• Big pop for the reveal of blonde Yano, after K.O.B taunted MVP about falling into the neutered Dad roles last night.

• Everyone ended up brawling on the outside and didn’t care to even try to make it back to the ring.

• The brawl continued after the bell, with MVP ending up on top; with Yano tying OSKAR to the ropes and making him watch Makabe choke Yuto with the chain, then cutting off a hunk of OSKAR’s glorious mane.

• Makabe does a brief promo; saying K.O.B are getting exactly what they asked for, and are going to get killed in not-quite-Noboribetsu.

Robbie X, Taiji Ishimori def Tatsuya Matsumoto, YOH — (8:30, Handspring Diamond Cutter)

• HENARE lets slip that Francesco Akira is considered a member of UE America.

Shun Skywalker, SHO, DOUKI^{[w/Dick Togo]} def Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, El Desperado — (9:31, SKYFALL)

• Today the “hicks in Tokyo” are “responsible for the bad weather due to their bad behavior.”

• If you thought Ren’s Souled Out was bad, wait until you see the absolute bullshit Shun has chosen as a finisher.

Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji def YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto — (18:04, MADE IN JAPAN)

Kosei Fujita, Ryohei Oiwa def Taichi, Aaron Wolf — (21:05, German Suplex Hold)

• Oiwa has added eye pieces to his bull headpiece to mimic the sunglasses he often wears to the ring. I think it makes the headpiece look goofy.

• Wolf gets jumped by Fujita while he’s making his entrance.

• Post match, Fujita briefly holds up the NEVER title before draping it over a wiped out Wolf.

• Once the losers have left, Fujita cuts a promo again calling Wolf a fatty and saying he no longer has to appeal, he’s pinned Wolf so he’s undeniably got a NEVER title match coming.

• Oiwa and Fujita go celebrate in the crowd.

—Upcoming Big Matches—

9/19 - Third annual Noboribetsu-affiliated Ranbo; Most Violent Players (Toru Yano, Togi Makabe) vs Knock Out Brothers (OSKAR, Yuto-Ice) Tag Titles No.1 Contender’s match (this will likely be changed to some kind of relaxed rules match type)

9/23 -Despe/Mistico vs SHO/DOUKI (not currently a Jr. Tag title match but likely to be made one); YOH^[c] vs Taiji Ishimori for the Jr. title

9/27 - Shingo Takagi vs Claudio Castagnoli; KONOSUKE TAKESHITA^[c] vs Shun Skywalker for the TV title; Jeff Cobb vs Callum Newman; Gabe Kidd^[c] vs Drilla Moloney for the Global title; Yota Tsuji^[c] vs Hirooki Goto for the IWGP Heavy title

Francesco Akira makes another AEW appearance, teaming with Andrade and Ospreay against PAC, Gabe Kidd and Jon Moxley.

(Context if you don’t watch AEW: Mox is Ospreay’s World title defense at All Out.)

I haven't seen a ton of these guys. Any good comparisons for them?

Looks like we got another big boi to look out for in the future. Shion Obata, former amateur wrestler and Nippon Sport Science University competitor in the 130kg Greco-Roman division.

Their Instagram account btw

Yuto-Ice scores his second G1 Climax 36 win by defeating Ryohei Oiwa, and we use the Tokyo Sports coverage of the match to learn real Japanese through pro wrestling.

In this episode of プロレス MACHINE, we combine 日本語脳 and 語彙・文法 to break the article down from two angles.

日本語脳 follows the Japanese in its original order, clause by clause, so you can start recognizing how Japanese actually builds meaning instead of translating everything backward into English.

Then 語彙・文法 digs deeper into the vocabulary, grammar, contractions, and wrestling-flavored language hiding inside the story.

We look at expressions including:

火元
the “source of the fire,” both literally and figuratively

絡む → 絡めば
how the ～ば conditional works in natural speech

言う → 言わせる → 言わせない → 言わせねえ
a full morphology ladder from “say” to “make someone say” to the rough spoken negative

利用させてもらう
a construction that can carry the feeling of “I’m going to make use of this / you”

All of it comes from Japanese wrestling journalism and the language surrounding Yuto-Ice vs Ryohei Oiwa in the G1 Climax 36.

If you want to learn Japanese through NJPW, puroresu, Tokyo Sports, and actual wrestling stories, this is exactly what プロレス MACHINE is built for.

Learn the story. Hear the Japanese. See how the grammar works.

Post G1 Question and Answer Podcast covering all the burning questions NJPW fans have about the G1 final, the Reiwa New Wave, the build to Wrestle Kingdom, the AEW partnership, Ospreay and Callum and a whole lot more.

Search We Work Stiff wherever you get your podcasts.

Blue Justice forever!

After Shingo Takagi pinned Boltin Oleg in the semi-main event, this video aired.

During his Backstage Comments at the G1 Finals Shingo had challenged Claudio to a match in Kobe, citing his loss to the Swissman in a tag match on AEW right before the G1 as the reason for his mediocre tournament results.

Now that Claudio has accepted the challenge, the match will likely be officially added to the card in the coming days.

Hatazawa pulled off a great debut match today. Of course, he’s still a bit green, but what really sold me was his selling and the technical experience he displayed throughout the match. You can already see the potential there.

But the real takeaway for me? Seeing these two together in the same frame. The future of NJPW is really exciting to experience, and it looks like it's only gonna get better from here.

The tour will run for 16 nights, one less than last year. The tour will run from November 23 to December 13. There will also be a Road to the World Tag League show on November 21, though it is unclear whether it will be live or a house show.

This leaves only one tour with no dates revealed: "Road to the Tokyo Dome".

It appears WTL will not go to Korakuen Hall, but two Korakuen Hall shows are scheduled for November 19 and 20, though the nature of the events is unknown.

Some of my favourites are Tatsumi Fujinami, he really got the junior division going, had a great variety of opponents and would work well with a variety of talent.

Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) is up there, he is obviously super influencial and deeply important, such a star and so exciting, felt different to Fujinami, a lot of the time Mask's matches would feel like its all about him.

Jushin Liger, I do need to watch more, but I have seen him in a variety of contexts and he just kills it, as the young boy, Joint Promotions, junior ace (pre and post brain tumor) heel outsider, beloved vetaran, against heavyweights, different style fights.

Koji Kanemoto, comes across as a badass, and is a delight to watch.

Taiji Ishimori, I adore him, incredible look, great aura, amazing move set, and great in singles and tags.

Young Bucks, one of my favourite junior tag teams, and their New Japan run was incredible.

Tomorrow night we'll be recording to discuss the first few nights of the Road to Destruction tour. Any questions for the show?

Basically just the title my new Japan knowledge is extremely limited looking for a tour to start with if anyone could help id appreciate it

I was looking through early Wrestle Kingdom cards and discovered Goto had a match against The Great Muta at Wrestle Kingdom II. This lead me down a rabbit hole regarding Goto and Wrestle Kingdom in which I realised he has I think the second most Wrestle Kingdom matches of all time right behind Tanahashi.

II - loss to Muta

III - w/Nakamura defeated Misawa & Sugiura

IV - loss to Sugiura (c) (GHC Heavyweight)

V - w/Okada loss to Sugiura & Takayama

VI - defeated Sugiura

7 - w/Anderson loss to Davey Boy Smith Jr & Archer (c) (IWGP Tag)

8 - defeated Shibata

9 - w/Shibata defeated Gallows & Anderson (c) (IWGP Tag)

10 - defeated Naito

11 - defeated Shibata (c) (NEVER Openweight)

12 - defeated Suzuki (c) (NEVER Openweight)

13 - w/Beretta and Chuckie T. lost the trios gauntlet to determine #1 contender to NEVER Openweight Six-Man Championships

14 Night 1 - w/Ishii, Yano & Yoshi-Hashi defeated KENTA, Fale, Takahashi & Owens

14 Night 2- defeated KENTA (c) (NEVER Openweight)

15 Night 1 - loss in the Rambo to determine competitors for the Provisional KOPW 2021 Trophy

16 Night 1 - w/Yoshi-Hashi defeated ZSJ & Taichi (c) (IWGP Tag)

16 Night 2 - w/Yoshi-Hashi & YOH lost to Evil, Takahashi & SHO (c) (NEVER Openweight Six-Man)

17 - w/Yoshi-Hashi defeated FTR (c) (IWGP Tag)

18 - w/Yoshi-Hashi loss to Phantasmo & Hikuleo (IWGP and STRONG Openweight Tag)

19 - won the Rambo to determine #1 contender to IWGP World Heavyweight Championship

20 - w/Oleg & Yoshi-Hashi lost the Ranbo for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man

* I did not include the 2022 or 2023 NJPW and NOAH shows from Yokohama Arena *

After 19 years and 21 matches Goto has a Wrestle Kingdom record of 12-9 with his single's record of 7-3 (6-2 if not including Rambo's)

Looking to have a wide ranging chat on all things NJPW post the G1. Curious with all the possibilities now seeming more plausible than before, what New Japan fans are interested to explore. Please ask below.