{"id":44365,"date":"2017-07-02T00:41:21","date_gmt":"2017-07-02T05:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=44365"},"modified":"2017-07-03T16:30:37","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T21:30:37","slug":"71-njpw-los-angeles-calif-holt-report-person-notes-crowd-reactions-match-observations-venue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/07\/02\/71-njpw-los-angeles-calif-holt-report-person-notes-crowd-reactions-match-observations-venue\/","title":{"rendered":"7\/1 NJPW in Long Beach, Calif. HOLT Report: In-person notes on crowd reactions for each match, other observations from venue"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1119707895\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING &#8211; G1 USA &#8211; NIGHT ONE<br \/>\nJULY 1, 2017<br \/>\nLONG BEACH, CALIF.<br \/>\nAIRED LIVE ON AXS TV<br \/>\nREPORT BY TED LONDON, PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT<\/h3>\n<p>Early arriving crowd. This was my first time at this venue. The matches were held in a convention hall, so everyone was at the same level. The only elevated areas were the ring, the entrance ramp, and one platform for cameras. Jim Ross and Josh Barnett were already in place when I arrived, almost an hour early. Almost 50 percent of the crowd was wearing Bullet Club t-shirts. The merch stand seemed to be almost 200 deep in a single, long, snaking line. The seating area was completely full with people standing in the back.<\/p>\n<p>(1) Trent Baretta &amp; Rocky Romero &amp; Will Ospreay &amp; The Briscoes vs. Young Bucks &amp; Marty Scurll &amp; Takahashi &amp; Bad Luck Fale.\u00a0The crowd was very excited. Evenly divided between the two teams. Multiple &#8220;Too Sweet&#8221; chants. Loud dueling &#8220;Let&#8217;s Go Young Bucks\/RPG&#8221; chants. Lots of time where wrestlers were resting outside the ring, almost hiding on the floor opposite the hard camera.<\/p>\n<p>(2)\u00a0Titan &amp; Dragon Lee &amp; Volador Jr. &amp; Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Takahashi &amp; BUSHI &amp; EVI &amp; SANADA.\u00a0The crowd was rooting for Liger&#8217;s team, with Liger getting the biggest pop. Chants for Liger, and a loud Lucha Libre chant. Big pop anytime Liger entered the match.<\/p>\n<p>(3)\u00a0Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page.\u00a0Crowd heavily behind Jay Lethal. Multiple chants for Lethal and &#8220;Wooos&#8221; for his offense.<\/p>\n<p>(4)\u00a0Juice Robinson vs. Zack Sabre Jr.\u00a0Crowd 60\/40 behind Juice Robinson. There was a long &#8220;Zack Sabre Jr\/Juice&#8221; dueling chant at the start. A huge BOO when one fan tried to start a C.J. Parker chant. Lots of chants for Juice Robinson, but the crowd was into the match so there was no apparent feeling of disappointment with the finish.<\/p>\n<p>(5)\u00a0David Finlay &amp; Jay White &amp; KUSHIDA &amp; Tanahashi vs. Tanaka &amp; Komatsu &amp; YOSHI-TATSU &amp; Billy Guinn.\u00a0Biggest cheers of the night so far for Tanahashi. A mix of cheers and boos for Billy Gunn when he was introduced. Crowd loudly behind team Tanahashi. Individual cheers for all four members of the team.\u00a0When Billy Gunn tagged in it was the loudest boos of the night by far. If there was any doubt on how the crowd would react <span data-term=\"goog_2018535234\">tomorrow<\/span>, that doubt is gone. This crowd does not want to see Billy Gunn.<\/p>\n<p>(6) Guerrillas of Destiny vs. War Machine.\u00a0The crowd was behind the G.O.D. and popped big for the no DQ stipulation. The crowd popped big for the ending. It took a while to clean up all the wood splinters from the shattered table.<\/p>\n<p>(7) Ishii vs. Naito.\u00a0Huge Pop for Referee Red Shoes. Biggest pop of the night so far was for Naito. The crowd was heavily rooting for Naito, but clearly respecting Ishii. The crowd was very much into all their near falls. Good applause and respect for the finish, although a letdown for the crowd.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1662781770\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>(8) Michael Elgin vs. Kenny Omega.\u00a0Pro-Omega crowd. They like Elgin, they just like Omega more. Huge pop for Red Shoes pushing the Bucks away from the action. Loud &#8220;Kenny&#8221; chant to start the match. Very funny &#8220;That was 20!&#8221; chant after Elgin got back in the ring late. Dueling &#8220;Big Mike\/Kenny&#8221; chants.<\/p>\n<p>The entire crowd was on their feet for the last three minutes of the match and erupted in cheers at the finish.<\/p>\n<p>(9)\u00a0Okada vs. Cody.\u00a0Cody came out to lots of boos, and huge applause for Okada.\u00a0 The crowd was fully behind Okada. When a &#8220;Cody&#8221; chant started, it was overwhelmed by boos. Then a loud &#8220;F&#8212; You Cody&#8221; chant started. Later a dueling &#8220;Let&#8217;s go Cody\/Okada&#8221; chant started but it was about 80 percent Okada, 20 percent Cody.\u00a0The fans were all on their feet once Omega came out for the remainder of the night.\u00a0 A loud &#8220;Throw the Towel&#8221; chant started after Omega came out. And a &#8220;You F&#8212;ed up&#8221; chant after Cody threw the towel at Omega.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FINAL NOTES:<\/strong> Very good crowd. Into all the matches. Cheering in the right places without trying to get themselves over.\u00a0 However, the crowd was not as loud or as hot as I expected them to be.<\/p>\n<p>Most Over:\u00a0Kenny Omega, Naito, Okada, Tanahashi, Young Bucks<\/p>\n<p>Biggest Heat:\u00a0Billy Gunn, Cody. My perception is NJPW fans don&#8217;t want to see ex-WWE wrestlers.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Send results from live events you attend or HOLT reports from televised events you attend to pwtorch@pwtorch.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1510919705\"><div id=\"pwtor-2994386484\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING &#8211; G1 USA &#8211; NIGHT ONE JULY 1, 2017 LONG BEACH, CALIF. AIRED LIVE ON AXS TV REPORT BY TED LONDON, PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT Early arriving crowd. This was my first time <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/07\/02\/71-njpw-los-angeles-calif-holt-report-person-notes-crowd-reactions-match-observations-venue\/\" title=\"7\/1 NJPW in Long Beach, Calif. HOLT Report: In-person notes on crowd reactions for each match, other observations from venue\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,9,14],"tags":[949,2169,5423,306,171,2371,87,404,201],"class_list":["post-44365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-results","category-results_japanliveevents","tag-billy-gunn","tag-cody-rhodes","tag-ishii","tag-kenny-omega","tag-michael-elgin","tag-naito","tag-new-japan","tag-njpw","tag-okada"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2017\/06\/G1Special_2017_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44365"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44468,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44365\/revisions\/44468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}