Kojima the King

In what has to be considered a bit of an upset, Satoshi Kojima won the G1 Climax yesterday.

If you had read my pre-G1 post then you would know that I considered Kojima an outsider without much of a chance to make an impact. I assumed his time in AJPW would put him at a lower rung when he made his return to the Lion ring. How very, very wrong I was. Coming off a recent Triple Crown reign it seems that even in his growing age his success can't be come up short. He defeated both Hirooki Goto and Hiroshi Tanahashi in a single night to become the 2010 G1 Climax winner.

Kojima now returns to New Japan as a triumphant prodigal son. An instant contender for the IWGP Championship and a fresh face at the top of the card for New Japan. Some interesting matchups open up with his return, including rematches with Tanahashi and Goto. In so many cases the outsider was simply a strong hurdle for the "sekigun" to defeat in order to propel them to greater glory. There were no New Japan defenders that could bear the flag and an outsider has won the G1 for the first time ever. Certainly it's not an outsider like Shiozaki or Akiyama since Kojima started his career in New Japan, but it's a huge upset anyway.

Many had thought that Satoshi Kojima was reaching, or in fact well past, his glory years. Two Triple Crown and and IWGP reign behind him as well as Champion's Carnival and Fire Festival wins were thought to be as much as he would get. Maybe a few title matches, sure, but nothing like what happened. He still has the talent that made him famous though he is moving into the respected veteran ranks as opposed to (relatively) young upstart. In the modern New Japan landscape he's practically the elder statesman.

I've always been a fan of Satoshi Kojima since the first time I saw him, which oddly enough was in American promotion MLW. His match against... somebody... for the MLW Heavyweight title was really good. It was just about the time I was first getting into Puroresu and Kojima floored me. He had crazy entrance attire which included a 3/4 face mask, insane electronic music, an intensity in the ring I'd never seen, and of course an amazing name! I was a fan of Cozy Kojima from that match on.

New Japan is going to be interesting in the next few months. Kojima will stake his claim on the title as Makabe continues his badassery at the top. Nakamura and Tanahashi will continue to try and lead the company. Goto, Makabe, Nagata, Devitt and the rest will make their impact. The matches will be pretty damn good. I've heard the Nakamura vs Shiozaki draw at the night of the final was one of the matches of the tournament so a rematch is a no-brainer.