NJPW - G1 Special USA 2017 Night 2 DVD

This was night two of a two night event held in Long Beach, CA promoted as the first official event as part of New Japan Pro Wrestling expansion into the United States while it should be noted that Jim Ross & Josh Barnett did the commentary for this event based off a tournament to crown their first United States Champion.Jyushin Thunder Liger, David Finlay, Kushida vs. The Tempura Boyz & Yoshitatsu - This was a back & forth opening match where everyone had an opportunity to showcase themselves with plenty of aerial offense to the outside & off the top rope with one team utilizing submissions while the other using double team offense & combinations in a fast paced match.Kenny Omega vs. Jay Lethal - The first semi-final match in the title tournament with Omega not having the Young Bucks in his corner while Lethal came into the match with his ribs taped which Omega targeted immediately with strikes & using his surroundings directly to that area of the body along with stretches & power offense while Lethal relied on his trademark offense including one move constantly that broke the outside guardrail before he was able to focus on an area of the body himself in a competitive match.Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr. - The winner of this match would be Omega in the finals later in the night as ZSJ attempted to trade strikes only to end up hurting himself & Ishii showing little to no effect while returning to attempted beating causing ZSJ to resort to his submissions style working over one area of the body with various stretches & joint manipulation along with effective strikes while Ishii continued to deliver his "stiff" shots & power offense with such impact that it would continue to show heavy effects such as turning ZSJ inside out on more than one occasion.Dragon Lee, Jay White, Juice Robinson, Titán, Volador Jr. vs. Los Ingobernables De Japon (Bushi, Evil, Hiromu Takahashi, Sanada, Tetsuya Naito) - The C.M.L.L. team relied on their lucha libre with aerial maneuvers to the outside & fast paced offense in the ring while L.I.J. resorted to taking shortcuts from brawling outside of the ring to double & triple teaming in a fun tag match that's more significant now for one person showing early signs of their future persona while not leaving the match unscathed.Michael Elgin & War Machine vs. Bullet Club (Hangman Page & Guerrillas Of Destiny) - It should be noted that Haku accompanied the Bullet Club to the ring while Chase Owens stayed at ringside as Page attempted to give an early cheap shot only for Elgin to give an impactful response as the team of War Machine & Elgin used their superior size & strength easily overpowering their opponents from tossing them around & even using them against each other more than once while Bullet Club would use their superior speed & showcasing some power of their own in a back & forth match.I.W.G.P. Junior Tag Team Champions Young Bucks vs. Roppongi Vice - It should be noted that the Bucks were also the current ROH Tag Team Champions as both teams had been feuding against each other for close to 2 years which was showcased early on as they had kept countering each other's offense leading to stalemates causing the Bucks to get more aggressive by brawling on the outside including an impactful move that would injure one opponent's back which the Bucks continued to target with their high risk & double teaming offense along with submissions & using their opponents against each other as RPG Vice fought back with their own double team offense along with impactful maneuvers both in & outside of the ring in a competitive match with a surprise & career changing announcement afterwards.Chaos (Kazuchika Okada, Jay & Mark Briscoe, Will Ospreay) vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Cody, Marty Scurll, Yujiro Takahashi) - The Bullet Club were having some fun with the crowd & their opposition early on to the point where one of their opponents enjoyed a beverage waiting for the action to happen as the Club would use distractions & shortcuts to get the advantage but still continue to have fun at their expense to the point where the commentators referenced R. Kelly of all people as Chaos continued to use fast paced offense & take advantage of their opponents continuing to showing off with this ultimately coming down to one team catching the other in a fun match.I.W.G.P. Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Billy Gunn - Tanahashi attempted to ground his opponent early on going back to the same maneuver before Gunn was able to target a hurt area of the body taking advantage of his surroundings & different locks as both men exchanged unusual methods to stop their opponent in their tracks along as Tanahashi went aerial while Gunn relied on his trademark offense in a match that just never left first gear.I.W.G.P. United States Championship Match: Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii - The Young Bucks accompanied Omega to ringside for this match as both men avoided each other's offense early on with Omega attempting to intimidate only to get a physical response with Ishii taking the match through the crowd only for Omega to also use his environment to this advantage on more than one occasion & showcasing his own toughness begging Ishii to throw everyone he had at him while Ishii continued to fight back including almost escaping danger by the skin of his teeth (literally) as both men got more intense as time went on delivering offense with Omega either going aerial or delivering with such impact that even Josh Barnett on commentary said that "he knee'd the soul of out Ishii" while Ishii delivering such impact that he's either turning his opponent inside out or using his offense against him in a match that was nothing less than physical & highly competitive that you saw them beat each other into exhaustion.This was what you typically expect from New Japan Pro Wrestling as you got different of professional wrestling from "strong style" to submissions & lucha libre along with some fun multi-man encounters with the only negative being the Intercontinental Championship match falling flat compared to everything else & not the standard of a Tanahashi match but past that, I would recommend.