7 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Aug 18)
6. It's Raining Stars
In a move sure to upset WWE fans who accuse Dave Meltzer of bias for favouring New Japan matches - despite being literally biased themselves because many by their own admission have no frame of reference - the venerable Wrestling Observer institution went stark raving star rating bonkers this week, so impressed was he by the last three nights of the G1 Climax tournament.
The first semi-final, between Tetsuya Naito and Hiroshi Tanahashi, received the rare-in-itself *****. The second, the third entry in what must be wrestling's greatest ever trilogy in Kazuchika Okada Vs. Kenny Omega, was awarded ******. For the third time. What a phenomenal match that was, in particular. Okada's selling was genius. There's really no other way to describe it, given that the structure and relatively short duration made such perfect sense as a result of it. The final, between Naito and Omega, generated a measly *****3/4.
Never before has wrestling reached a pinnacle of critical acclaim over the course of three consecutive nights - roughly the equivalent of WWE presenting three of the very best matches in company history over the course of SummerSlam weekend. Best get your working boots on, Jinder. The closest anybody has came is Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat, who Meltzer rated as having two median five star bouts across one day in 1989.
And people will still miss the point and claim that this is some terrible broadside levelled at WWE. The real story here is that wrestling is absolutely brilliant. Imagine complaining about that...without even watching it.