AJ Styles had two reigns at the top of New Japan as IWGP Heavyweight Champion, and the two were contrasting to say the least. The title was thrust on him as soon as he arrived in the company, despite the crowd not being too clued-in on who he was, and it took a great series in the 2014 G1 Climax for them to warm up and accept him. As a result, his second reign was far more successful, and it was his main event title defence against 2015 New Japan Cup winner Kota Ibushi that really cemented his reign as something special. NJPW had long been the land of the Big Three (Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada and Shinsuke Nakamura), but Styles and Ibushi managed to sell out the Sumo Hall in Tokyo a full week before the show. Any doubts about Styles and his drawing power in Japan died right then and there. The match was fantastic. A lot of Styles matches in New Japan saw him focus on setting up for his Calf Killer submission, only to hit the Styles Clash out of nowhere and this was no different. The Clash was so hugely protected in New Japan that any and all teases of the move would get a big reaction. The protection of finishers is something WWE needs to re-learn. Styles would pick up the victory after a finish that simply needs to be seen. Ibushi seems to have the match won and goes up top for his Phoenix Splash finish. Kenny Omega, longtime buddy of Ibushi in other companies but firmly on the Styles side at this point, leaps up to distract Ibushi. He manages to do so long enough for Styles to recover, at which point Ibushi has already leapt off for the splash. Styles catches Ibushi MID-SPLASH, Styles Clash, done. Stunning. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2lsl70
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
