The Miller Report - Ambrose News, Matt Hardy Retiring & More
2. Hiroshi Tanahashi Wins The G1 Climax
It was a strange tournament, the G1 Climax. We were treated to some of the best wrestling matches of the year, arguably of all time, and some worse booking than even Monday Night RAW in the early second hour.
Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale essentially wrestled like edgier versions of Carmella, which was as bad as it sounds, and yet the likes of Kota Ibushi and Tomohiro Ishii put forward a spate of incredible and insane performances that would have lived on forever, were there not somehow bettered in a matter of days. It was an amazing and worrying time to be a fan of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
It was also a wonderful time for long-term fans of Hiroshi Tanahashi, who emerged to win the whole thing in an unexpected but not no less glorious character arc. The man was in such awesome form that he could have sold the Young Bucks to Jim Cornette, and every last move he delivered and received mattered.
Tanahashi has signalled his intent to defend his briefcase against career rival Kazuchika Okada, the man who had surpassed him two years ago. Gedo has managed to book a new trilogy of a rivalry once thought exhausted.