NJPW G1 Climax 34 Preview & Predictions

It's time once again for NJPW's vaunted G1 Climax tournament, what has historically been the most fun four weeks of wrestling all year.  The company in recent years hasn't exactly earned that title, but there's always hope....

Thank Christ, New Japan has returned to the classic two-block format this year, as that four-block experiment the last two tournaments stunk.  So right off the bat we have an inherent improvement in the 2024 edition.  Also you'll notice some stunning omissions in this year's field.  For the first time since 2001, we'll have a G1 Climax without Hiroshi Tanahashi.  End of a fuckin' era.  Also for the first time since I think 2009 there's no Tomohiro Ishii, historically one of the tournament's perennial MVPs.  Time marches on, as they say.  Couple that with the absences of recent AEW signees Jay White, Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay, and this field looks VERY different from last year's.  But that actually sets the stage for a very refreshing tourney.  We'll see some new faces and many others who have only just begun their G1 tenures.  Also the winner is somewhat hard to predict this year, which is always fun.

Let's look at the blocks below:

Block A: Shota Umino, Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Sanada, Great O-Khan, Zack Sabre Jr., Gabe Kidd, Jake Lee, Evil, Callum Newman

Block B: El Phantasmo, Hirooki Goto, Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura, Jeff Cobb, Henare, David Finlay, Ren Narita, Konosuke Takeshita, Oleg Boltin

 

As usual I'll only go through the individual names who have a snowball's chance in hell of winning this thing (or at least their respective blocks), rather than the entire field.  

Block A: Shota Umino, Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Sanada, Zack Sabre Jr.

Block B: Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura, Jeff Cobb, David Finlay

Oscar Film Journal: The Long Voyage Home (1940)

Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Still toiling back here in the 1940s and still on the theme of "films photographed by Gregg Toland," today I'll be reviewing one of John Ford's lesser known films, The Long Voyage Home, starring John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, and a host of character actors as a ragtag group of merchant marines tapped by the British government to deliver a shipment of explosives to London, around the start of World War II.  The sailors are a rowdy lot, prone to drunken debauchery and very bad decisions.  Case in point, while the ship is docked in the West Indies at the film's outset, Mitchell's character Driscoll, the group's de facto leader, sneaks ashore one night to arrange for a host of native female guests to smuggle booze aboard the ship so the crew can party.  Later in the film the crew, prone to mob mentality, begins to suspect one of their own, a shifty Englishman named Smitty, of being a German spy because of his secretive behavior.  Smitty isn't, but that doesn't stop them from tying him up and raiding his possessions, determined to prove his guilt at all costs.  In the film's third act when Wayne's character, a rather dimwitted Swede named Olsen decides to return home after ten years at sea, but he and the group can't help getting roped into one last blowout at a seedy tavern, where the waitstaff and a sailing agent have ulterior motives to keep Olsen from leaving.

WWE Money in the Bank 2024 Preview & Predictions

Time for another skimpy five-match B-PPV from WWE that everyone will claim is the greatest piece of "cinema" they've ever seen....

It's another internationally hosted show that's light on star power and outrageously expensive to get a ticket for, WWE Money in the Bank.  The most tired gimmick in WWE gets another go-round, in its 19th year of existence.  Jesus, next year will be the two-decade mark, for a gimmick that's barely ever elevated anyone.  So we have two ladder matches, a World Title match, an Intercontinental Title match that should steal the show, and a trios match to set up one of the weakest SummerSlam main events in recent memory.

Women's Money in the Bank: Iyo Sky vs. Chelsea Green vs. Lyra Valkyria vs. Tiffany Stratton vs. Naomi vs. Zoey Stark

This one could not be more telegraphed given how weak this field is.  Iyo's already won MITB, and of the remaining five women Tiffany is the only future main eventer.  She and Iyo will do some cool spots, but man is this lineup thin.

Pick: Tiffany

Oscar Film Journal: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

And we're back with another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!

Today's subject is a film I resisted watching for many years due only to the fact that it beat out It's a Wonderful Life for Best Picture of 1946 (along with an astounding eight more trophies).  But I finally gave it a whirl after learning that the cinematographer on this film was Gregg Toland of Citizen Kane fame.  I'm talking about the post-WWII drama The Best Years of Our Lives, starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Theresa Wright and Virgina Mayo.  

TBYOOL was one of the first films to tackle the subject of war veterans struggling to readjust to life in the world after coming home from battle.  In the opening scenes we're introduced to three vets all headed to the same hometown, who quickly form a bond during their flight.  March's character Al Stephenson is a middle-aged husband and father of two who left a lucrative but unfulfilling banking job to enlist, and now finds everyday civilian life rather dull unless he's heavily alcohol-medicated.  Andrews' character is Fred Derry, a bomber pilot who suffers from PTSD and has no viable job skills, whose vapid, gold-digging wife seems uninterested in him without his uniform.  The third vet is a young sailor named Homer Parrish (played by actual veteran Harold Russell, in his feature debut), who lost his hands and had them replaced with hooks (Parrish actually suffered this disability in real life), and can't bring himself to resume his relationship with fiancée Wilma, fearing that she won't want to commit to taking care of him.

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 Review: Swerve and Will Have Arrived

Never doubt AEW when it comes to PPV.  Just don't do it.  This company is untouchable at putting on absolute banger shows.  Case in point the 2024 edition of Forbidden Door, a ten-match main card (plus some very fun pre-show bouts) where the worst thing on the show was the perfectly fine opening match.  The match layout also made it fly by, as they saved most of the longer matches for later in the show.

After an enjoyable Mariah May-Saraya tournament match that saw May steal a win with a rollup, and a blazing lucha trios match featuring the legendary Mistico, Forbidden Door kicked off proper with hometown hero MJF vs. technical lucha wizard Hechicero in a fast-paced clash of styles.  This only got ten minutes but they had enough time to tell the story of Hechicero targeting Max's recently rehabbed shoulder, and Max keeping up with Hechicero's technical prowess.  Max escaped a double arm submission and hit Adam Cole's Tequila Sunrise destroyer and his own brainbuster to win the match and foreshadow his impending date with Cole.  Solid stuff to get the PPV started.  ***1/2