The G1 comes to an end with Nakamura versus Tanahashi

I'm not going to cover Night 18 in much detail here. Both Goto and Anderson lost which guaranteed the main event of Nakamura versus Okada would determine the B Block winner. After a long match, Nakamura made Okada tap with an armbar. The Nakamura / Tanahashi rivalry continued into Night 19's main event.

The G1 Climax brought two very familiar foes together again.
Image credit: NJPW.

Two interesting notes came on the final night in addition to the action. Delirious made his first New Japan appearance in his first onscreen role as booker of ROH. He announced a 2016 ROH/NJPW crossover show in Japan, clearly in answer to the success of the ROH/NJPW American shows.

Later in the night, Genichiro Tenryu made his way to the ring. Thirty-nine years into his career, he is now on his path to retirement. He is probably one of the best traveled talents in Japanese wrestling, but of late has stuck to running his own Tenryu Project promotion. But with his retirement set for November 15th, he picked his final opponent as none other than IWGP Heavyweight champion Kazuchika Okada.

Kushida is the Best Super Junior of 2015!

Kushida (sometimes romanticized KUSHIDA) is one of the best light heavyweight wrestlers in the world today. Trained by Tajiri as the breakout star of the now defunct SMASH promotion, he moved on to New Japan Pro Wrestling a few years back. Since that time he has most famously been the tag partner of Alex Shelley in the always amazing Time Splitters. He even gets to rock an awesome Marty McFly jacket every now and then.

For the last couple weeks, he has participated in the always great Best of the Super Juniors tournament put on by NJPW every year. He performed amazingly well in his Block, topping the chart and moving on to the finals against an American independent stalwart Kyle O'Reilly. The result was the biggest match of both young wrestler's career as they main evented a New Japan card.

Check out the awesome action and see why Kushida deserves more attention both in Japan and internationally.


Best of the Super Jr. Final: KUSHIDA vs Kyle O'Reilly by purocentralFor his win, Kushida earns a title shot against Kenny Omega on July 5th at the next major Dominion show. Expect another epic encounter that night as Kushida finally takes his place as a major juniors star in NJPW.