MID-Tier Match Reviews: Kenny Omega vs. Toru Yano – NJPW G1 Climax 2017

Back when I reviewed the unintentional comedic masterpiece that was Shawn Michaels versus Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam 2005 it underlined an important point about wrestlers as performers. One of the reasons Michaels is so celebrated these days is because he was dynamic: he could fit into almost any setting and make it work, whether it was serious or being funny. There have also been other guys who have tried to be both serious and funny like Kurt Angle, The Rock, Steve Autin, John Cena, and many others. Well now let’s look another guy who might fit into that mold in Kenny Omega.

Even though Omega has made a career out of competing in (mostly) serious matches, the man does have a funny side…that is, if you like his particular brand of comedy or weirdness. For the longest time he wrestled in an intentionally douchey way and carried himself like this over-the-top cartoon character. And yet he also managed to balance this weird behaviour with a seriousness in the ring and plenty of widely-praised performances. By 2017 he had shown plenty of seriousness, and yet the urge to be silly was too much for him to overcome, as seen with this unbelievable display of wrestling lunacy.

The Story

I’m assuming that most of you know who Kenny Omega is but might not know all that much about his opponent so here’s the QRD on him. Toru Yano is an accomplished Greco-Roman wrestler who won several regional and national-level titles in Japan. But instead of making a gimmick out of that, Yano became the pro-wrestling version of an internet troll. He does silly slapstick, cheats, and relies on over-the-top shenanigans to win. And he is very, VERY, good at his job: despite being positioned as an opening act or an undercarder for most of his career Yano also has a reputation as a spoiler, winning big upsets here and there when people least expect it. This makes him an important person in the G1 Climax: in a tournament in which advancing to the finals can come down to the tiniest difference in who got points how, nobody wants to lose and especially not to Yano.

As a result, a match with Yano can mean the difference between advancing and not so everyone needs to beat him as quickly as possible. So when Omega, a favorite to win his block following his incredible rise to superstardom beginning in the previous year’s tournament, faced down Yano he had to try and win as quickly as he could…or did he? Would Omega try and put Yano down decisively, or would the urge to engage in comedic nonsense compel him to entertain Yano’s wild ideas?

The Match

This took place on July 25, 2017. For whatever reason Dave Meltzer didn’t rate this, which is odd because you’d think he’d fawn over everything Omega did during his prime, including the unserious stuff.

The bell rings and Yano offers Omega a copy of his DVD Chaos Quiz. “PRESENT FOR YOU”, Yano exclaims as Omega rejects it. Omega can’t believe he’s in this position. Yano starts a “PRESENT” chant but then Omega kills the chant and screams “GET IT OUT OF MY FACE!” so Yano asks referee Red Shoes to hand it to him instead. Omega works the crowd and then reluctantly accepts it, pantomiming different expressions so that people can understand what’s going on. Then he teases throwing the DVD into the crowd but Yano stops him and yells “GOOD DVD, PLEASE OPEN!” Omega plays along but as he opens it something can be seen falling out. IT’S COCAINE white powder. Yano throws it in Omega’s face and gets a schoolboy cover for a two-count. Yano throws the ref into a blinded Omega who sets him up for the One-Winged Angel. Yano uses the confusion to land a low blow. Two-count. Yano removes all four turnbuckle pads as the ref deals with Omega. The ref gives Omega water to remove the “powder’ and when he regains his vision he sees all four exposed corners. Yano tries sending him into one but Omega stops short. We get a very silly routine involving both guys avoiding a corner. This goes on until Yano sidesteps to avoid a charge. Omega hits the exposed corner back-first.

They do a long hairpulling spot that gradually grows more slapstick as the crowd chants along. All the while Red Shoes warns them to break it up and when they don’t, he does a second-rope ax handle to break them up. Yes, the ref lands a wrestling move. Yano lands a counter atomic drop but then misses a corner charge. The “action” spills to ringside as Omega chases Yano in a bit that’s begging for Yakety Sax to be played. Yano goes under the ring but Omega pulls him out, only for Yano to hit him with an empty plastic bucket. Then they do an in-and-out-of-the-ring spot which is followed by Yano taping Omega’s ankles together. Then Omega does the same to Yano. Both guys can’t even walk now much less wrestle so what are they gonna do?

Both guys start hopping around and then trade punches. They even do a side headlock/off-the-ropes spot while hopping. Good thing no one ever sent video of this to Jim Cornette, he would’ve had an aneurysm. Yano goes for some kind of drop-down spot but Omega hops over him and turns it into a double foot stomp. Somehow Omega turns this into a suplex tease followed by a snap dragon suplex and then one of his Bullet Club buddies fetches him some scissors. Omega cuts himself free but then Yano rakes his eyes to steal the scissors. But before he can cut himself loose Omega hits him with a V-Trigger knee. He covers two but then Yano almost steals one with a counter roll-up.

Omega dropkicks Yano to the floor and then lands another kick once he’s back on the apron. But this time Yano can’t make it back into the ring by the referee’s count of twenty. Omega wins via count-out.

Winner after 11:31: Kenny Omega

Review

This was ridiculous, absurd, over-the-top, hokey bullshit but it was still funny. It was two goofballs experimenting with new ideas and trying something outside-the-box. If one assumes the position that wrestling must be 100% serious all the time then something like this clearly must be sacrilegious and doesn’t belong. But from time-to-time boundaries must be pushed, and sometimes that needs to be done not with legitimacy but with comedy. Yano has managed to get away with nonsense for years if not decades for two reasons: 1) his matches are almost always presented as unserious affairs featuring content that no one should be worried about and 2) Yano’s brand of slapstick and comedy is still grounded in SOME degree of wrestling logic: blinding, maneuvering around the referee’s field of vision, immobilizing his opponent, and otherwise getting any advantage he can get away with.

Everything he did in this match was based around his clearly disadvantageous situation or otherwise goading his opponents into making emotionally-charged reactionary decisions. This worked to his advantage here as Yano got a handful of close near-falls on Omega, who was someone MUCH higher on the totem pole at first. But once the novelty of the powder and then the tape wore off he was done since he no longer had the element of surprise. After Yano ran out of ideas Omega rightfully obliterated him without much effort and got a count-out victory. He didn’t even need to hit anything remotely close to a finisher: a simple dropkick to the face left Yano down for the count and unable to even make it to the ring. It was the right finish for such an absurd situation: after all, why would Omega waste time and energy landing any of his big moves when Yano was completely unthreatening once he got past his veneer of trickery?

Final Rating: **3/4

Even though this was a comedy match and thus not one to take all too seriously I still think it could’ve been better executed. They had something actually quite funny going with the opening exchange and even the nonsense with the tape was clever in spite of its clear over-the-top style. Yes, to many people this could be seen as blasphemous or out of place give the style that NJPW promoted. But Kenny Omega has shown that, like Shawn Michaels, he could be both serious and absurd without suffering any setbacks in his career or any damage to his reputation.

Thanks for reading.