TheG1 Special in San Francisco was full of unexpected moments and high spots. Juice Robinson fought Jay White in a battle that popped The Cow Palace when Robinson captured the IWGP United States Title. Unfortunately, Jim Ross suffered an injury during this match.
White sent Robinson into the steel guardrail right in front of the commentary position during their contest. Ross and Josh Barnett were calling the match when the railing came at them and hit a monitor down which knocked Ross out of his chair.
Barnett got angry at White and followed him into the ring. It was an intense moment that nobody saw coming, especially JR. The WWE Hall Of Famer says he couldn’t sleep that night because he was in so much pain and couldn’t even get his bag up in the overhead compartment on the plane as he traveled home.
Ross claims the spot during the G1 Special in San Francisco had nothing to do with the storyline and it wasn’t discussed with him beforehand either. JR says he might also have broken a rib. Hopefully, he heals up soon.
Hiromu Takahashi injured his neck during the G1 Special in San Francisco.
The injury occurred during a Phoenix-plex gone wrong from Dragon Lee and NJPW’s website reports Hiromu was taken to the hospital after the match.
The Los Ingobernables de Japon stable member continued to wrestle after hitting the top of his head and reportedly may have collapsed when he walked backstage.
According to NJPW, Takahashi is “in a state that can sit and talk with consciousness” — which sounds like a step in the right direction — while undergoing examinations.
– Post-match, The Young Bucks and Brandi check on both wrestlers. Omega helps Cody up. Cody heads out of the ring, looks at the ring for a moment and continues to walk to the back. Omega gets on the mic and says “This is my first title defense as IWGP Heavyweight Champion.” He was happy to do it in front of these fans. Omega says everyone deserves a second chance, even Cody. He continues no matter who the person is, we should stand behind good people and he will continue to give his very best. He thanks everyone for coming tonight and does his usual sign off.
From the back come Haku, Tama Tonga, and Tonga Loa, initially things look fine, but the three attack Kenny and The Young Bucks from behind. They beat up all three guys in the ring and having “Fire Squad” shirts on. Adam Page runs out and gets dropped. Marty Scurll tries to help out and doesn’t do much better. Tama yells “You did this!” at Kenny Omega. Loa now attacks Takahashi and Owens now! Tama brings in a chair and swings away on a couple people. Cody stumbles out from the back, Tama hands him a chair, Cody then smacks Tanga and Loa, but Haku stops him, they end up dropping Cody now. After the trio leaves, Cody helps Omega up and it looks like things are better between the two of them as the group gathers together. (transcript via WrestlingINC)
You can check out videos of the match and what happened afterwards below:
Kenny Omega completed a long journey when he defeated Kacuchika Okada at NJPW’s Dominion show to become IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Now Omega is the top name in New Japan Pro Wrestling and is set to defend his new title at the Cow Palace this Saturday. Omega’s match at the G1 USA Special will not only be for his championship, but the leadership role in The Bullet Club is up for grabs as well.
WWE had Kenny Omega in their developmental territory for a short time when he performed in Deep South Wrestling, but he left in 2016 after only a year.
Omega previously told WrestlingINC’s Aaron Varble he feels he would do well in adapting to WWE’s environment. He was recently a guest on The Ross Report where The Cleaner was asked about the possibility of WWE and Omega joining forces down the line.
“I’ve been keeping up to date on kind of the goings on and I always at the very least look at the highlights of every show, both brands, 205 Live, and even the NXT stuff. I’m really happy for everyone that’s doing well there.
“I was able to work in a fantastic program with The New Day [at E3] and they really brought something special to that sort of feud because all three of those guys are very special athletes, they’re very special performers. They have a special kind of charisma. They know how to work the people, work for cameras, work for the TV. When I think about the possibilities of what it would be like if I could ever mix it up with some of those guys it gets me excited. because they are a lot of great performers.”
Omega continued discussing Superstars in WWE, but also stated how good the talent is in so many other promotions as well. He said it would be impossible to have a bad match at this point due to the rich talent available. It would also be a missed opportunity if he wasn’t able to eventually mix it up with some of the top names on WWE’s roster
“A lot of the guys that even though they came up through the indies you know we were in different stages of our lives and we never mixed it up together. I could say you know if I could work with Seth Rollins at some point in time that would be a lot of fun.
“So when I think about the possibilities of stuff like that it does get me excited. Now every promotion has so many good guys. There’s really no way I would have a bad time going almost anywhere because the depth of the talent is just so deep. WWE right now has a very great collection of talent with guys and I would feel like it’s a missed opportunity if I couldn’t work with them at some point.”
A WWE vs. NJPW event sounds like an impossible pipe dream, but Kenny Omega says he’d love to see a working relationship form between the two companies so it could happen.
Omega took part in a media call to promote NJPW‘s upcoming live G1 Special in San Francisco on AXS TV and at one point said he believes now is the time to ease up on “us vs. them” mentality.
As you may have seen, Triple H recently said WWE was open to the idea of forming working relationships with other organizations … which naturally got people talking about an NJPW alliance.
When asked about the WWE exec’s comments, Omega was on the exact same page.
“I definitely would want to see that,” he answered. “I think that nowadays, with the popularity and respect level of other sports — for example basketball, or baseball or soccer — I feel that it wouldn’t be out of place for pro wrestling to stand at the same level as those sports. And I think the only way we stand a chance at doing that is if we really band together and give them the best of the best.”
The Cleaner went on to say most “dream matches” currently on fan wishlists are, for the most part, people who compete in different promotions. This includes matches like The Elite vs. New Day or Tommaso Ciampa vs. Kenny Omega.
“I think that now is a very good opportunity to cash in on that. And I believe that both parties benefit.”
The official Twitter account of the upcoming All In event on September 1 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois (just outside Chicago) announced on Wednesday night that they have licensed production to broadcast the event in some capacity.
An announcement on how the event will be broadcast will be made in the coming weeks.
Vader aka Big Van Vader — who wrestled in WWE, WCW, NJPW, AJPW and all over the world — has passed away at the age of 63-years-old … this according to his family.
One of Vader’s children tweeted from his account saying, “It is with a heavy heart to inform everyone that my father, Leon White, passed away on Monday night (6/18/18) at approximately 7:25pm.”
Adding, “Around a month ago my father was diagnosed with a severe case of Pneumonia. He fought extremely hard and clinically was making progress. Unfortunately, on Monday night his heart had enough and it was his time.”
As you may recall, Vader underwent open-heart surgery in March. Vader spoke in-depth with Bill Apter about the surgery before it happened and called himself a “walking time bomb” due to having ten clogged blood vessels.
The G1 Climax is a 20-man round robin styled tournament that is considered NJPW’s most prestigious tournament of the year. The winner will receive an opportunity to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 13. Once the G1 ends on August 12, the winner does have to defend their title opportunity until next January, so winning the G1 doesn’t necessarily guarantee a future title shot.
Over the last couple days NJPW has announced the participants, blocks, and now the full cards for the tournament. You can see when every match takes place by clicking here.
Here are some of the key match-ups to look out for in the tournament:
* Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White (July 14)
* Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito (July 15)
* Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White (July 16)
* Hirooki Goto vs. Kenny Omega (July 19)
* Kazuchika Okada vs. Hangman Page (July 20)
* Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii (July 21)
* Togi Makabe vs. Kazuchika Okada (July 22)
* SANADA vs. Kota Ibushi (July 26)
* Kazuchika Okada vs. YOSHI-HASHI (July 27)
* Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kota Ibushi (July 28)
* Michael Elgin vs. Kazuchika Okada (July 30)
* Hirooki Goto vs. Kota Ibushi (August 1)
* Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki (August 2)
* Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kenny Omega (August 4)
* Kazuchika Okada vs. EVIL (August 5)
* Tetsuya Naito vs. SANADA (August 8)
* Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (August 10)
* Kenny Omega vs. Kota Ibushi (August 11)
* A Block vs. B Block winners (August 12)
A Block
* Hiroshi Tanahashi (17 time entrant, 17th consecutive entry)
* Togi Makabe (15 time entrant, 15th consecutive entry)
* Michael Elgin (4 time entrant, 4th consecutive entry)
* Kazuchika Okada (7 time entrant, 7th consecutive entry)
* Jay White (G1 Debut)
* YOSHI-HASHI (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
* Bad Luck Fale (5 time entrant, 5th consecutive entry)
* Hangman Page (G1 Debut)
* EVIL (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
* Minoru Suzuki (8 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)
B Block
* Juice Robinson (2 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)
* Hirooki Goto (11 time entrant, 11th consecutive entry)
* Tomohiro Ishii (6 time entrant, 6th consecutive entry)
* Toru Yano (13 time entrant, 12th consecutive entry)
* Kenny Omega (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
* Kota Ibushi (4 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)
* Tama Tonga (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
* Tetsuya Naito (9 time entrant, 9th consecutive entry)
* SANADA (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
* Zack Sabre Jr. (2 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)
WWE’s The New Day appeared alongside Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks in the latest episode of Being The Elite … but if that wasn’t enough to work you into a frenzy, a potential wrestling match between the two teams was also teased.
Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods are involved in a standoff with Omega and The Bucks ahead of their Street Fighter V showdown at EC3 at the top of this week’s show.
The most interesting moment happens at the end of the video, however, as Omega touts his victory over New Day and Nick Jackson questions if there’s something “better” they can defeat them at.
“The fans want it. I know I want it,” Nick tells Kenny and Matt. “We’re three athletes: think about it. We can beat them at something else.”
“It would have to be neutral ground,” Kenny responds.
Matt mentions a wrestling match … but the video ends and we’re left hanging!
It’s worth noting Triple H said last week that WWE would be open to inter-promotional opportunities with other companies. WWE also hyped The Bucks and Omega on their social channels last week. Is this impossible dream match becoming more probable?
Watch the latest episode of Being The Elite below. The match tease happens in the last minute or so.
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