#g1 climax spoilers

[spinebuster]

watching w japanese comms so idk who this white boy sanada just beat is

[sycamoretrees]

G1 34 block matches cross stitch complete! A Block in reds/yellows and B Block in blues/greens.

Each wrestler is represented by a colour in the outer strips (I used the same order that NJPW did on its results cards), and then where two colours/wrestlers would intersect I recorded their match result, with the winner's colour taking up 3/4 of the square.

(more info and photos under the cut)

I was inspired by my good pal @benchwarming who started this beautiful cross stitch project tracking race results over the F1 season. Wrestling mostly doesn't have the same kind of consistent data points/formats, so I'm glad the G1 allowed me to join in on her very cool idea!

I used FlossCross to mock up the overall design. Because it's just a bunch of evenly-spaced squares I didn't really need a 'pattern', so I made this spreadsheet to track the results (I printed out a physical copy and highlighted the winner as match results came in):

Here's the NJPW results card for A Block as comparison - my piece is essentially just the outlined half of their format (which ngl I find very hard to parse)(not that mine isn't also)(I think this is just a hard dataset to represent) without the duplicate results on the top right.

Back view:

Mostly tried not to travel further than a square or two, and used a combination of loop starts, pin stitch finishes for some of the single stitches, and weaving in ends.

[allelitewrestlings]

EDDIE KINGSTON enters the G1 Climax 33 — announced at NJPW Dominion (2023)

[heelrollins]

G1 Climax 33 Winner: Tetsuya Naito

[livelaughlariat]

Some examples of excellent New Japan camera work in an (of course) excellent match.

[hugcollector]

"Just when you think you've got it back, your mojo is coming back... you feel the people, and you feel the fighting spirit. And then... you let... the people down. You let the only family that you have down by telling them that you're okay when you're not!"

"Cause I'm... I'm not okay... I'm not okay... I'm not okay."

El Phantasmo's Backstage Comments - NJPW G1 CLIMAX 34 7/28/24

[novampiresremain]

heard the news about zack. HE REALLY DID IT??

[fang-revives]

G1 Climax Night 1 Spoilers

Could not be happier with Tsuji vs. Takeshita honestly, such a compelling match and feels like a great start that they had Take go over and built him as a longer standing vet than Tsuji. I don't think he'll win because of the way NJPW tends to book their guys but I would be very very happy to see him be a strong contender for most of the front half of the matches :") Would ALSO be thrilled to see him go to the semis against Tsuji and have Tsuji come out on top...that was literally in my fantasy booking sheet (but I had them tie this match...)

[nextstopwonderland]

CONGRATS TO THE GUY BOTH ME AND BRYAN ENJOY WATCHING THE MOST!!!

“He’s the guy I enjoy watching the most.” - Bryan Danielson discusses his personal G1 favorite, Zack Sabre Jr.

[blueikeproductions]

Some more anecdotal thoughts on TFONE.

Spoilers still.

The concept of the Worker-Bots being lower class, and several characters having serial numbers over names suggests this is meant to be wide spread. Only D-16 and B-127 seem to be this for some reason, with Elita-1 sorta meeting half way. Instead of Orion Pax, you’d think he’d also have a serial number in C-01 or the more on the nose OP-1984. Jazz is a miner and still named Jazz, rather than J-06. Sideswipe could be SW-04, Arcee RC-86, Ironhide, I-98, and so forth. Maybe I’m looking too much into it, but you’d think considering the “demeaning” nature, Sentinel would go farther and strip them of their very names as well as their Cogs.

Sentinel never actually Transforms into his Vehicle Mode at all, and is exclusively in Robot Mode throughout the movie. His wings and jet boosters in his feet make it clear he’s a jet like his toys, but the only thing he turns into is his heavy artillery Apex Armor like mode in the climax.

Despite having a toy that shows the Quintessons can Transform, it’s unknown if they can in the actual film. This feels like an unintended side effect of retconning them as being descendants of Quintus Prime, as technically that should mean they’re Cybertronian, and therefore be able to Transform. The EarthSpark ones are unable to as far as we can tell, with the only Quintus descendants that can being the Terrans. Unless the Quints go the way of the Echidnas and Owls in the Sonic movies, maybe that’s something reserved for a possible TFTWO. Maybe their ship Transforms into a robot called Quintus Maximus, I ‘unno.

Due to copyright jargon, the series usually can’t use the terms Transformer or Transform in non modern animated media super well, leading to clunky ways of describing themselves. The EarthSpark and TFONE books have resorted to calling the species “Transformers Bots” which sounds like a bad SyFy parody show. While G1 and Beast Machines in particular freely refer to the species as “Transformers”, more modern material like Prime and EarthSpark imply the Transformers call themselves “Cybertronians” while “Transformer” is a term coined by humans. Though in RiD15, the Bee Team, in particular Fixit, off and on refer to themselves as Transformers, confusing the matter. TFOne goes nuts, not even trying to hide who they are and what they do, with the species collectively called “Transformers”, their Cogs “Transformation Cogs” like in G1 (they never once call them “T-Cogs” like in Prime), with Optimus able to actually say “Transform and Roll Out!” Megatron sadly never gets to say “Transform & Rise Up!” like his Animated self (and to a lesser extent his Prime self), but Megatron nevertheless adapts Rise Up! as his team’s battle cry.

A little boy in the theater I was in got really excited when the Autobots stumbled on the deer-bots, like he was pumped. Where’s the deer-bot toy, Hasbro? You have a customer.

Like other media, it’s not super clear if these examples of Cybertronic fauna can Transform. They’re not shown to, but nothing suggests they can’t either. They probably would turn into humanoid robots if they got toys, but I like to think, similar to Cyberverse, the deer turn into little cars or something.

The organic plant life is never explained, though Orion and the others don’t recognize it either, and remark in surprise something non metallic can live on the surface. Some fan theories suggest the plant life was due to the Quintessons’ maybe attempting to terraform Cybertron, but the how and why remain unclear. It might just be a throwaway reference to Beast Machines and Galaxy Force, both famously incorporating organics into Cybertron at series end.

The Allspark is never referenced in the film, so how the Transformers reproduce is never specified. Presumably the Allspark still exists, but then again some modern media is slowly moving away from it. IDW never used it in either of its G1 main line books, instead having Vector Sigma, the Matrix, the Moon Bases and Cybertron itself generating life. The Allspark was in TFP and RiD15, but wasn’t crucial to the plot. Prime ends with Optimus and Wheeljack casually fetching the relic in a sector in space, with its (now empty) container used to trap Unicron’s Spark. EarthSpark showed the Allspark existed but quickly tossed it aside, favoring the OTHER life giving relic, the Emberstone. Skybound has yet to reference the Allspark, but going by how close it’s sticking to 80’s material, Vector Sigma is pry more likely. The TFONE Matrix is similar to the Allspark in that it’s connected to Cybertron’s naturally flowing Energon, and without it, Cybertron is doomed to dwindling resources. What this means if the story continues and the Transformers leave Cybertron for Earth we have yet to see.

How the Autobots and Decepticons get their names is a bit clunky. The Decepticons get it in a similar way to IDW, the one reference to it, where they take it from the “deception” of Sentinel and Orion. The Autobots seems to be more spontaneous, it seemingly coming from Orion, now Optimus, reflecting on the miners’ new autonomy with their Cogs, dubbing them “Autobots”. How the Autobots get their logo isn’t known either, the logo just pops up as the credits roll. The Decepticons get their logo from Megatronus Prime’s face mask, as D-16 was a fan boy, collecting related merch. Sentinel, out of spite, torches a crude version of the mask on D-16’s chest which completes the origin. Ironically, as Megatronus never becomes The Fallen and is legitimately heroic as far as we can tell, his symbol being used by Megatron as it is, intentionally by the writers or not, mirrors a similar situation with The Punisher’s logo.

Double checking it, Zeta Prime is apparently a replacement for the 13th Arisen Prime. My guess is they replaced him because without The Fallen, The Arisen word play doesn’t work. Plus, having Orion Pax be preordained to be Optimus like he was in Aligned doesn’t fit here. Zeta Prime isn’t depicted as being the sociopath he’s portrayed as in IDW, but we don’t see a lot of him either, so it’s hard to say for sure (though I doubt he’d be carrying the Matrix if he was). What is for sure is they make it clear, until a future movie retcons it, that the Primes were all benevolent beings shepherding the Transformers. None of that “The Primes are all corrupt and horrible!” nonsense. Sentinel is the only one depicted as being corrupt, but he’s also not a (true) Prime either. Optimus is depicted as the true successor to what the Primes stood for, vs Sentinel who was in it for his own greed. This somewhat mirrors stuff like Nova Prime, though it’s more streamlined so casuals can understand it.

[salixianlegume]

So I watched Transformers: One

Spoilery stuff under the cut! Above it will be general thoughts.

First of all: Movie good. Especially for Transformers Fans.

(The person I went with, who is not a mega-fan like I am, but has consumed most of the movies and a few TV shows, called it the best movie they'd seen all year, so there.)

The music is solid, there are some absolutely gorgeous visuals, and the pacing is quite good (there are a few things that feel like they move a bit fast, but acceptably so for a movie). Though I'm not a fan of casting movie stars as voice actors, the performances did not take me out of the movie at all.

For a Transformers fan, there are a few lore gags that got a chuckle out of me, and there was lots to discuss regarding some choices they made with my movie-fan friend.

That said, despite the franchise nods, I believe that it is still VERY accessible for non-fans, and they managed this without much expositing. Essentially, going in, the following is what someone should know, but isn't essential: "On an alien planet called Cybertron, there are a bunch of robot aliens. A lot of them can turn from being human shaped into a vehicle. Because they are robots, they can live a long time, but they can also die. The food they eat is called energon, and their heart/soul is called their spark."

Most of this is already picked up from cultural osmosis, so non-fans are pretty much set to go.

So yeah, non-spoiler bit over, grab a friend! Go watch it!

Okay, spoilers.

I thought it was interesting that, at the beginning of the movie, D-16 is the rule follower, while Orion Pax is the troublemaker. That said, it was a good choice. It makes D-16's decent into violence make more sense. He was BETRAYED, he is ANGRY, all the work he's ever done, all the rules he's ever followed, the man he idolized-- it was all a lie!

For Orion, though, yeah, he's angry, but he was always looking for more, anyway. Also, even in the beginning, Orion's getting in trouble to help people; he puts his life on the line to rescue Jazz, and sacrifices a chance at winning to help D-16. He's a helper, he doesn't want people to die! So while him trying to save Sentinel in the climax is a little odd, it makes some sense.

Elita One is... kind of a bitch, and I like her for it. Interestingly, though the other three of the quartet use their alternate names during the movie (Orion Pax, D-16, B-127), Elita doesn't use "Ariel". This is probably due to Ariel being kinda... an organic, normal-ass name. It also gives them one less name change to justify. Like, they don't even go to "Bumblebee", B-127's just "B", so yeah, I think "Elita One" from "Ariel" would have been hard.

Bee is... annoying, but tolerably so. He's like the little brother mom said you had to take along, but little brother is actually trying to behave.

Obviously, we couldn't see much of the Elite Guard (ie Proto-Decepticons) without utterly shattering pacing, but I wish we could have seen more of Starscream, Shockwave, and Soundwave. Like, I didn't really get the impression that these guys were as powerful fighters as they were supposed to be, given that the quartet was easily able to keep up with them, but it's a minor quibble.

Shockwave is such a wimp though, it's funny. It's implicit that this man is a nerrrrdddd.

And no Soundwave boob goblins. :(

In other missed chances, when D-16 said that if he could transform, he'd turn into a shovel to beat Pax with, they could have gone with the good ol' "gun and shoot you" for a G1 reference.

Overall, though, very good. Does for Optimus and Megatron what (as far as I can tell, I never watched it, only heard about it from fans) the Clone Wars does for Anakin and Obi-Wan. Like, you know in many modern continuities they were friends, but now you *know*.

Worth the ten year development hell. :D

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax A Block finals preview

Tetsuya Naito (5-3; 10 points) vs. Great-O-Khan (4-4; 8 points) - Naito is the IWGP world champion, and Khan is the KOPW champion, but titles aren't at stake during this tournament. In singles matches, these two are 1-1 against each other.

Neither of these guys can take first place in the block. But that's okay, because in this year's tournament format, you only have to make the top three to advance. The second and third place wrestlers will square off on August 15, for the right to face the first place wrestler on the 17th, to determine the A Block winner. Then the A Block winner meets the B Block winner on the 18th, for all the marbles.

Naito can secure a spot in the top three with a win or a draw. If Khan wins, however, both men will be tied at 10 points, and none of the tie scenarios break in Naito's favor. If Khan and Shota Umino both win tonight, then Khan will make the top three. If Umino doesn't win, Khan can still advance, as long as Shingo Takagi doesn't defeat Jake Lee.

It's possible that by the time this match starts, Khan will already be mathematically eliminated. But since wrestling is fake (citation needed), it's more likely that the undercard matches will just happen to work out so that the stakes in the main event are as high as possible. Khan has been on a roll lately, after a poor start in his early block matches, so I get the feeling that's a key plot point.

I'm not expecting either of these guys to win the G1, or even make it to the finals. So in that sense, it doesn't matter which of them advances to get beat by somebody else. (I mean, it matters when Naito loses, because he's the world champ, but he's bound to lose one more match in this tournament, so it makes no difference if it happens tonight or later.) I guess my personal preference is to see Khan squeak through. But every time I think it's time New Japan is going to start pushing Khan, they pull the rug out from under me, so I'll believe it when I see it. The safe bet is Naito.

EVIL (5-3; 10 points) vs. Shota Umino (3-5; 6 points) - Evil can clinch second place with a win or a draw. Even if he loses, he's still in good shape, unless Shingo Takagi beats Jake Lee. Shota is mathematically eliminated, so all he can hope to do is play spoiler for the most hated man in the tournament. So I'm pretty sure that will be the story of the match, with Umino valiantly fighting for the fans by saving us from watching more House of Torture matches.

If you've been following the tournament--or hell, if you've watched any of Evil's singles matches in the past four years--you know how this is going to go. They'll do some standard babyface vs. heel stuff, and you might almost forget about the House of Torture bullshit, and then they'll do all of that bullshit all at once. The worse part is none of those bullshit spots will affect the outcome; Shota will kick out of all of it, and then either hit his finisher or slip on a banana peel and walk into Evil's finisher. Unless you're watching live, you'd be better off just skipping to the end.

I believe New Japan is ballsy enough to tease the idea of Evil winning the G1, but I don't believe they'd take it so far as to let him reach the finals. So he could win here. But they already kind of did that tease last year, so I'm hoping they got it out of their system. Besides, it's dumb as fuck that Shota is still fighting to stay out of last place in the G1 Climax. If he can't go out with a winning record, at least let him go out with something. So Umino is the "hope for the future" pick, and Evil is the "lol NJPW" pick, depending on your point of view.

Shingo Takagi (4-4; 8 points) vs. Jake Lee (4-4; 8 points) - Both are hoping to win and get into a multi-way tie for third place at 10 points. Unfortunately for Jake, he's only beaten one of the other guys who might finish at 10, so none of the tie scenarios will do him any good. Shingo needs Naito and/or Evil to lose. Ideally, he'll also want Sanada to stay below 10 points, to avoid the more ambiguous tie scenarios.

I could base my prediction on which outcome builds up the drama of Great-O-Khan potentially advancing at the end of the night. However, I think the real bottom line is that Lee just jumped over from Pro Wrestling NOAH, and New Japan has to demonstrate that he's still a step below their best guys. I'm picking Shingo.

Zack Sabre Jr. (6-2; 12 points) vs. SANADA (4-4; 8 points) - In career singles matches, these two are tied at 3-3-1. Win, lose, or draw, Sabre has already clinched first place in the block. If Sanada wins he could potentially be tied in third place with 10 points, However, most of the tie scenarios don't work in Sanada's favor.

Sanada's best path forward would be if Naito wins/draws, Evil loses, and Takagi wins. That would leave Evil, Takagi, and Sanada tied for third place, with each of them 1-1 against the other two. This possibility comes up every year, and I don't think they've ever established how they would resolve it, because it never ends up happening.

So I don't think Sanada is going to make it into the top 3, but that doesn't mean he has to lose this match. Indeed, if Sabre wins the G1, he'll need someone who beat him in the block matches to challenge him during the fall, and I think Sanada would work well in that role. Nevertheless, I could see this bout going either way.

Gabe Kidd (3-5; 6 points) vs. Callum Newman (2-6; 4 points) - Both men are mathematically eliminated. Kidd holds the STRONG men's title, which isn't at stake here, but a win for Newman would definitely put him in contention later. To me, it seems like you might as well give Newman that win and a title match down the line. But on the other hand, Kidd has really shown me a lot in this year's tournament, so I'd rather see him go out on a win.

Konosuke Takeshita & Jeff Cobb & HENARE & Francesco Akira vs. Ren Narita & Yujiro Takahashi & SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - This is basically a preview for Takeshita vs. Narita on August 14. It's also something of a mismatch, with three G1 guys (Takeshita, Cobb, and Henare) on one team and only one (Narita) on the other.

It took me the whole tour to figure out why Takeshita has been teaming with the United Empire. Takeshita is in the Don Callis Family in AEW, alongside Kyle Fletcher and (formerly) Will Ospreay. Fletcher and Ospreay were in the United Empire, and are still on good terms with that faction. I guess that's also why Takeshita hasn't been portrayed as a merciless heel, the way he is in AEW.

Akira could potentially do the job in this match, but on the other side Yuj, Sho, and Nobu are all easy pickings. So this ought to be an easy win for Takeshita's team.

David Finlay & Gedo vs. El Phantasmo & Jado - Finlay and Phantasmo will meet in their final block match on the 14th. ELP has spent the whole tournament climbing out of a deep depression, and now that he's emerged he'll be finishing up against Finlay, the original author of his misfortunes. Nothing will get settled here, of course, but this should give us an idea of whether Finlay needs to be worried about Phantasmo on the 14th. If it was up to me, ELP would run wild and pin Gedo, but it's not up to me, so I could also imagine Finlay pinning Jado.

Yota Tsuji & BUSHI vs. Hirooki Goto & Hiroshi Tanahashi - Tsuji's next block match is against Jeff Cobb, and Goto's next block match is with Henare, but those guys are otherwise indisposed. Tanahashi was a mainstay in the G1 Climax, but he didn't make the cut this year. Bushi isn't in the tournament because it's for heavyweights and he's a junior heavyweight, which is how you know he's the guy who will get pinned here.

Yuya Uemura & TAKA Michinoku vs. Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano - This was scheduled as a preview of Uemura vs. Boltin on August 14. However, both matches were cancelled after Uemura suffered a right arm injury on the 10th.

[sycamoretrees]

Things Walker Stewart Said On G1 Commentary

Night 1 Osaka-Jo Hall 20.7.24

'Talking fur on the back, we're talking about an animal that loves this sport.'

'But an entrance being made in a way which only an entrance can be!'

'Jake Lee might be a cunning linguist in every single sense of the term... that is one hell of an athlete just the same.'

'No one knows psychology better than David Finlay in a professional wrestling ring, and especially outside of it as well.'

'It is the opening night of the G1 Climax for a damn reason!'

'Wherever Evil may appear, Dick is to follow!' (editor's note: Dick was in front)

'It's truly a shifting - a changing of the guard, and you recognise it as such because of it!'

'The raging fire burns down the monastery that Yota Tsuji attempted to build tonight.'

Also he is yelling all of these.

[allelitewrestlings]

Eddie Kingston (4-2) defeats Tama Tonga G1 CLIMAX 33 • AUGUST 2, 2023

[greed7-13]

G1 Climax 34 Night 3 Spoilers below the cut!

I just wanna say, I loved and hated sad!ELP on commentary for night 3 of the G1 Climax.

Loved it because there was some super funny silly moments (him translating for EVIL when SANADA got invited into HoT) as well as the monster can representing his insides.

But I hated it because GODDAMNIT I JUST WANNA HUG HIM AND I WANT HIM TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS! He gave some super sad boi quotes and the other guy on commentary left him hanging multiple times.

GAH El Phantasmo I hope you get happier and get more friends! Remember though too YA STILL GOT JADO!

[busaikuknee]

usually don't tag my text posts but i'll keep everything under the g1 climax 33 tag in case you're trying to avoid spoilers

anyway!

NARITA UMINO TIME LIMIT DRAW...perfect result, no notes.