I’m definitely not watching live, but I’m gonna try pretty hard to keep up with the G1 this year.
Night 1 report: Holy shit, the headlining Okada/Marufuji (who’s on loan from NOAH) match is dope as hell, at least from the perspective of someone (like me) who hasn’t seen Marufuji before. If you watch one match from this show, make it this one. I also really enjoyed the Tanahashi/SANADA match.
I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing Marufuji in a couple years or so, but he’s always, always entertaining and awesome.
Where can it be watched?
NJPW World! It’s a subscription-based streaming service. Its 999 yen a month, which has been working out to between $8.35 and $9.75 a month depending on exchange rates. I use a credit card but i beleive it can accept paypal as well.
http://njpwworld.com/
I found it easy enough to sign up using Google translate, but here’s a reddit thread linking to some helpful instructions: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/2nxb1q/how_to_sign_up_for_njpw_world_compliments_of/
and here’s a PDF of the walkthrough from the site: http://img-cache.njpwworld.com/njpw/images/english.pdf
Thank you! Now to convince the wife…
Night 2 (B block): Nothing that set my world on fire, thought I really did enjoy the Nagata/Naito match. I feel like this may be a good year for Nagata (aka “my favorite NJPW Dad). I also liked the EVIL/Elgin match, mostly for the ending (which was brutally stiff).
I love Shibata but that was cancelled out by my strong dislike of Honma, so that match (which headlined the show) was a miss for me personally.