Author: Nathan Paoletta

The G1 Climax has been going on over the last week.

The G1 Climax has been going on over the last week.

The G1 Climax has been going on over the last week. This is an annual round-robin tournament held by New Japan Pro Wrestling, split between Japanese wrestlers and gaijin  – I don’t know much about it, but a lot of my twitter friends are REALLY INTO IT so I’ve been learning by osmosis.

It’s kind of as if the Royal Rumble happened over 5 days, every match was full-length it and featured all of the best wrestlers in the world that aren’t currently booked to WWE.

Here’s the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G1_Climax

Anyway, there’s a person making astonishing gifs from the tournament, and here’s a gallery. Take a look! If nothing else, you’ll see some goddam amazing moves.

http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/z9dlt6orsrj2olyavtfk93xi80qm7fk6/

Here’s a match I just came across that I really like! And here’s why:

Here’s a match I just came across that I really like! And here’s why:

Here’s a match I just came across that I really like! And here’s why:

These are two of the most mythological wrestlers in WWF/WWE history. Neither guy is known for his incredible technical wrestling skill (esp not 1991 Undertaker), both of them have this “feel no pain” gimmick in their own way, but Taker is slow, plodding and methodical, and Warrior is juiced up, fast and brutal. It’s a total immovable object/unstoppable force kind of situation. So I figured “this is either going to be great or total garbage”.

Turns out it’s great! I don’t know the larger context, but it’s a “body bag” match, where you win by getting the other guy in a body bag. No DQs, no countouts, etc.

What I like about it is that everything in it makes sense in context of the characters. Of COURSE Taker is going to no-sell all those punches. Of COURSE Warrior is going to refuse to be beaten. And the finish makes sense too, as (spoiler alert) the Urn is the seat of the Undertakers “power”, whatever it is, and so that’s what Warrior needs to resort to to finish him off.

This is also worth watching to see Warrior hit Undertaker with 3 consecutive piledrivers. It’s like the best indy show ever.

Anyway. Great match!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZP5r8tXswc

Ok, wrestling fans! I’m working on getting the Kickstarter campaign set up, and I wanted to float y’all an idea.

Ok, wrestling fans! I’m working on getting the Kickstarter campaign set up, and I wanted to float y’all an idea.

Ok, wrestling fans! I’m working on getting the Kickstarter campaign set up, and I wanted to float y’all an idea.

I’m a big fan of using the video as a teaser trailer, and not just shooting my floating head yammering. So, my thought for the trailer was to get video of people cutting promos in-character and edit it together with some narration or overlays about how the game works. These would be short clips, I’d probably take 2-3 sentences out of a longer bit and stitch them together. I’m aiming for, like, 2 minutes max. 

So, are there any volunteers willing to cut a promo or two into their webcam and send it to me? Bonus points if you happen to have a luchadore mask on hand or something like that. You’ll get super-special thanks, a link/shoutout to whatever website or whatever you’d like associated with it, and maybe something else special if I can think of something cool!

Also/alternately, other ideas for a fun, short, energetic video?

Yet again showing that you don’t need to “make sense” to convey emotion and make a point in your promos.

Yet again showing that you don’t need to “make sense” to convey emotion and make a point in your promos.

Yet again showing that you don’t need to “make sense” to convey emotion and make a point in your promos.

(This Tower of Doom match, for the record, is absolute 100% garbage)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXfCvrWg75g

New playsheet and play reference files have been uploaded to my website.

New playsheet and play reference files have been uploaded to my website.

New playsheet and play reference files have been uploaded to my website. I’ll reconcile the rules PDF with them at some point, but the play materials are the more important thing to keep current!

Anyhow, check ’em out if you have a chance! For you patrons, these are new since the ones I sent out before Origins.

http://ndpdesign.com/playtest/