We’re in Nagoya, Japan. I probably shouldn’t have joked about receiving any more injuries or unpleasantness during G1 as the very next day I put my back out during a horrendous 12 hour shift at work. The last two hours of which I was trying to be in denial about. So I couldn’t sleep properly and now it hurts to breathe. I must compile a list of damage come the conclusion of G1, just to see how mentally and physically draining the whole thing is. Although a lot of it is down to having a full time job at the same time I feel as if I’m incurring damage at a similar rate to the G1 performers. Before we get underway here’s what the Blocks look like after eight days of G1 action:
BLOCK A: Tetsuya Naito 6 Bad Luck Fale 6 Katsuyori Shibata 6 AJ Styles 4 Hiroshi Tanahashi 4 Kota Ibushi 4 Togi Makabe 4 Hiroyoshi Tenzan 2 Toru Yano 2 Doc Gallows 2 BLOCK B: Tomohiro Ishii 6 Kazuchika Okada 6 Karl Anderson 6 Hirooki Goto 6 Shinsuke Nakamura 4 Yujiro Takahashi 4 Michael Elgin 4 Yuji Nagata 2 Satoshi Kojima 2 Tomoaki Honma 0 Perhaps predictably there’s no run-away favourite as NJPW like to keep the Blocks tight and leave people guessing. Seven people tied on three wins a piece and you could argue that none of them will be in the final. Time will tell. Naito remains the most intriguing story, even if I don’t care for his heel act like others do, as he’s been up against all the big hitters already and still has a share of the lead. Also, before we get underway, here’s a list of injuries so far that the competitors have sustained. Shibata: elbow and knee. Tanahashi: neck. Ibushi: hand. Tenzan: head. Yano: head. Ishii: shoulder and thigh. Nakamura: elbow. Nagata: ribs. I’ll give an update on this later in the tournament, although I’m already missing small issues as there are various body parts taped up that weren’t nine days ago. Tomoaki Honma, Mascara Dorada & David Finlay vs. Satoshi Kojima, KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi This bout originally featured Yohei Komatsu and Tiger Mask IV but both have been scrubbed due to Tiger Mask IV injuring his neck yesterday. The match exists to set up Koji vs. Honma on Day Ten. With the anticipation of a potential Honma win rising as the tournament progresses, that could be a belter. They don’t spare the horses just because this is a meaningless tag and go full tilt with chops. Kojima makes a hilarious mistake just after that, bailing into Honma’s corner and expecting someone to tag in. He realises his mistake when no one does and casually strolls across the ring to get a tag from, fuck’s sake, Taguchi. The crowd seems lively and they’re really into Dorada’s high spots. They also get a laugh out of Taguchi accidentally hitting the Kokeshi on Honma. Kojima seems to have Honma’s number, regularly countering and bossing Honma with strikes. The whole match is filled with solid action and everyone looks good. Finlay gets caught out by KUSHIDA and beaten with the kimura. No shame in that. Good interaction between the G1 guys and KUSHIDA’s arrival into the undercards has freshened matters up nicely. Final Rating: *** KOKESHI COUNT – 2 missed. 2 hit. Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall) vs. Michael Elgin & Jay White No girl at all for Yujiro this evening, thus rendering him completely useless. Naturally this is to help shill the Elgin vs. Takahashi match on Day Ten. Given Yujiro’s recent G1 disasterpieces (thank you, Heidenreich) I’m not terribly looking forward to it. The preview doesn’t do much to alter that with Elgin looking a little rough around the edges when leaving his powerhouse base. Plus Yujiro sucks. Jay vs. Cody isn’t much fun either with them making a royal mess of the timing on some spots. Cody looks clumsier than usual. The whole thing is a drag but at least they don’t kill the crowd, who clap along for the babyfaces. Jay continues his very worst habits, and gets caught talking on camera quite a bit. I wouldn’t feel bad, Jay, it happens to John Cena every week and he’s an icon. The good thing, for me, is that Jay is developing into a ring general at a very early age. Elgin really gets the crowd going by doing his double Samoan drop spot, which the crowd love because of Cody’s size. A dead-lift powerbomb is considerably less successful but the crowd are getting into Elgin, which is a good sign for his later matches in the G1. The match gets better as it progresses, although there’s still too much talking and the Elgin & White team is entertaining. Yujiro finishes Jay off. Hopefully Elgin can work miracles with Takahashi but I wouldn’t hold your breath. Final Rating: *3/4 CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Hirooki Goto, Yuji Nagata & Captain New Japan This match is to set up two Block matches on Day Ten; Nakamura vs. Goto (a re-match of two recent IC title bouts) and Ishii vs. Nagata (which was brilliant last year). This crowd is seriously into the show, which makes it a pity their main event matches are so poor. A couple of shows from earlier on the tour could have used a crowd this hot. Goto and Nagata target Nakamura’s ‘injured’ leg arm, which Shinsuke sells like death. If you weren’t convinced this was a worked injury this should convert you. You’ll notice nobody worked Shibata’s arm extensively as it was really hurt and they didn’t want him to miss matches. Nagata and Ishii clearly didn’t get the memo about taking it easy in the tags as they wail on each other full force. Save some for the singles match! CHAOS target Nagata’s ribs, although it’s interesting to note Ishii isn’t interested in that. He wants to pound Nagata into defeat on Day Ten. That doesn’t preclude Nakamura from softening Nagata up with knee strikes. The match has a tasty sequence involving the jobbers as YOSHI-HASHI and Captain New Japan attempt to fluke pin each other. YOSHI-HASHI is less jobbery during G1 and takes CNJ with the senton. Good little contest, plenty of effort from the G1 guys. Final Rating: ***1/4 Bullet Club (Karl Anderson & Tama Tonga) vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Gedo) Another G1 match set up here with Anderson facing Okada on Day Ten. Anderson beat Okada during G1 last year, although one of Okada’s two G1 wins came at Karl’s expense (2012). So they’ve already got plenty of history. Based on previous encounters they have decent chemistry and Okada is comfortable doing moves with Anderson that he only uses when he’s comfy in his environment. It bodes well for Day Ten’s match. Tama is actually quite frightening when he’s mocking someone. His mock Gedo chant where he’s doing a Monty Burns thing with his fingers is freaky weird. Anderson’s Stonecold Steve Austin impression is rather lost on the fans, even when he does the double digit salute and yells “I’m stompin’ a mudhole in somebody’s ass”. Gedo plays the role of junior in peril, getting a BC beatdown. After Okada’s hot tag he and Anderson run some effortless counters. They have an understanding and it makes for smooth wrestling. Tama picks off Gedo though and finishes with the Headshrinker DDT. This was solid and made me remember how good Okada vs. Anderson usually is. Final Rating: *** G1 Climax Block B Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Kota Ibushi Pre-Match Pick: Ibushi. Kota’s performances so far have been dynamite and he’s been in the three best matches (vs. AJ Styles, vs. Katsuyori Shibata and vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi). All that effort will surely lead to him being at the top end when it’s all said and done. Tenzan meanwhile is already looking weary. If Tenzan wins they’d be level on points and that’s not right. Tenzan has these weird circles on his back, like he’s been attacked by a giant squid. Perhaps that’s part of his training regime? Clearly whatever he’s doing in training has worked as he becomes the first man to dodge the triangle moonsault during G1. Both guys seem out to prove a point. Kota that he can hang with true legends in the business and overpower Tenzan. While Tenzan wants to prove he can still hang with the young guys, despite his advanced years. So he uses everything in his arsenal, including headbutts with his busted up skull. Tenzan looks hurt and tired so Kota doesn’t use his speed as much, to keep Tenzan involved. When he does hit another gear it becomes apparent just how slowly he’s moving to make Tenzan look good. It’s all about respect. Ibushi manages to flip out of the Anaconda Buster, which Tenzan looks bemused by. He’s from a different time to these moves. Phoenix Splash finishes. Ibushi did what he had to here, making Tenzan look like a threat before taking it up a gear. In reality Tenzan just wasn’t on Ibushi’s level but in creating that illusion it made it more of a contest. Final Rating: ***1/2 Picks: 28/41. G1 Climax Block B Bad Luck Fale vs. Katsuyori Shibata Pre-Match Pick: Shibata. Anything else would be a god damn travesty. Of course Shibata’s share of the lead might get derailed by a silly loss at some point (like his count out loss to Fale last year) or he might be on course for the G1 win. I can but hope. As much as I like Fale’s entrance music, since he switched to wearing his Blues Brothers hat all I can hear is She Caught the Katy. And left me a mule to riiiiide. Hopefully Shibata will send him back to Joliet. Shibata decides on the Inoki-Ali defence but Fale proves himself smarter than one of the greatest boxers of all time by refusing to have anything to do with it. Fale would rather pummel Shibata and use his size to dominate. It’s not much of a contest but that’s on Fale rather than Shibata as the big man grinds through his offence. His clubbing forearms neutering one of the most realistic wrestlers of this or any other generation. They tease a repeat of last year by having Shibata almost counted out. There’s less set up than last year, no Grenade on the apron, merely Fale dropping him on the rail. Fale is cumbersome and is carrying too much weight so Shibata plays that into his favour by getting the Princess Bride sleeper. It works on Andre the Giant but not on Bad Luck Fale. He’s getting a ridiculous reputation in this contest. They manage one awesome counter where the Bad Luck Fall is countered, in mid-air, into the sleeper. PK! Shibata scores the big win that he so richly deserves for his performances in G1 so far. Glad to see both Ibushi and Shibata being rewarded for their efforts. I’ve seen this rated quite highly but it was sluggish despite being short and only had that one amazing spot to bring it back up. Final Rating: **3/4 Picks: 29/42. G1 Climax Block B Doc Gallows vs. AJ Styles Pre-Match Pick: AJ. It would be a massive shock if Doc beat his Bullet Club running buddy in this match after losing to Fale. There’s a structure to Bullet Club and Gallows is under AJ in it. AJ gives Doc the old ‘Too Sweet’ salute, showing this will be a friendly contest between the two Bullet Club members. They go with a power vs. speed story, which AJ is familiar at and did a lot against TNA’s bigger guys. Abyss springs to mind. AJ is able to use Doc’s strength against him by dodging the big man’s spots and wearing him out. AJ’s pseudo babyface act gets him a fair bit of support with Doc landing the odd move to keep it competitive. It’s not unlike Shawn Michaels in the mid-90s. Except AJ wants to take shortcuts as to not turn himself face, so he takes Gallows’ leg. Like with Ibushi earlier when AJ brings his most explosive offence, the size difference melts away and Styles looks unbeatable. AJ’s leg work is to set up the Calf Killer and you sense that’s AJ’s best shot at winning as Doc is probably too big to take either the Clash or Bloody Sunday. Having said that AJ pops off Bloody Sunday for the win. Using a secondary finish shows where Gallows belongs on the Bullet Club totem pole but also puts over Bloody Sunday as a legitimate finisher. There is respect after the match as Gallows endorses AJ as the potential G1 winner. AJ will turn himself face if he’s not too careful as he’s content to Too Sweet people on his way out, a marked contrast to many of NJPW’s top babyface stars who won’t even touch the fans. Final Rating: ***1/4 Picks: 30/43. G1 Climax Block B Tetsuya Naito vs. Togi Makabe Pre-Match Pick: Naito. Based on the booking, Naito is sure to win but I still hope Togi upsets him. Naito is wearing his suit and Skeletor mask and I don’t think he’s lost when wearing his full gear. The crowd despise him in Nagoya. I assume they’re yelling the Japanese equivalent of “HURRY THE FUCK UP” when Naito takes forever to take his damn suit off. Naito inserts more dramatic poses than William Shatner and Red Shoes gets so sick of it that he rings for the bell with Naito still unbuttoning his shirt. It’s old school heel stuff and it works on me because I can’t stand Naito. He’s doing a new age Ric Flair thing with the disrobing and the strutting. It’s a radically different gimmick to anything in NJPW and I can see, now, why people like it. But I can’t stand him. Which is, of course, the whole point. For years wrestlers have been aiming for good performances rather than negative reactions, which has taken a degree of heat out of wrestling. Sometimes you just want to hate someone. I think what really irks me is that Naito was a good wrestler before his heel turn. Another irritation is the treatment of referees in G1. They’ve getting shoved over and not calling DQ’s. Are they trying to be babyfaces? If a wrestler puts his hands on a ref, it’s a DQ. If you have no rules, how can people get heat by breaking them? I have the same issue with punches, especially in America, where strikes mean nothing. When someone gets punched in Japan it means something. Apart from with Togi Makabe, who has Americanised punches. When he needs to Naito handily outwrestles the clumsy Togi, countering his blunt offence with educated moves. Naito is the much better technician. That and his cockiness alone should be enough for his heel turn to work. What I don’t like is the Memphis levels of stalling. Jerry Lawler would be proud. Naito settles into a rhythm of actually wrestling before stopping off for a nap in the middle of the ring. That shit drives me nuts. Togi opts for the King Kong Kneedrop and Naito moves. The match starts to get a bit on the long side, for a guy like Makabe with a limited move set and ideas. I do enjoy him unloading with stiff lariats and suplexes though. Naito gets his head bounced off the ring post, is busted open and the Spider German sets up the King Kong Kneedrop for the surprise Togi win. Seeing as Naito had already bested a lot of the top guys I think he probably needed to lose here, in retrospect. The blood gave the finish the gravitas it required and the final stages of this were really solid. Final Rating: ***3/4 Picks: 30/44. G1 Climax Block B Toru Yano vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi Pre-Match Pick: Tanahashi. My tactic of always picking Tana hasn’t quite paid off but he’ll surely defeat Yano, following the culmination of their lengthy series this year; a blow off win by Tana. Yano’s busted head looks to be recovered as he’s not wearing a plaster anymore, instead opting to put some grease across it. He’s still worried about it though and hides in the ropes immediately. “BREAK, BREAK, BREEAAAAAAAAAK. BREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKK”. Yano continues the chuckles by failing to skin the cat. He’s a funny guy. He knows his limitations. Tanahashi is a crazy man for approaching the match with the tactics he takes in. Like attempting a crossbody against the ring post. What manner of madness is that, against a troll like Yano? Tana doesn’t modify his moves to reflect an injured mid-section and he doesn’t take Yano seriously at all. Should he? Probably not but it is the main event. Yano’s tactics in this one include hiding under the ring, trying to hold Tanahashi out of the ring so they both get a point for a double count-out and repeatedly using the exposed buckle. Yano’s low blow backslide is a remarkable near fall and both the pacing and intensity of the match make it far superior to the others in their series. They do a cute YTR pointing/skin the cat spot, which shows how in sync they are. That’s followed by a dragon screw spot with a chair and a ref bump that’s just beautifully orchestrated. Yano catches his own chair, which opens his head up again (should have kept the plaster on). High Fly Flow finishes. More colour! Plenty of hardway juice in G1 this year. This might be the best Yano singles match I’ve ever seen. Everything clicked and there was lots of fun and effort. Final Rating: **** Picks: 31/45 Here’s the updated Block A. BLOCK A: Katsuyori Shibata 8 Tetsuya Naito 6 Bad Luck Fale 6 AJ Styles 6 Hiroshi Tanahashi 6 Kota Ibushi 6 Togi Makabe 6 Hiroyoshi Tenzan 2 Toru Yano 2 Doc Gallows 2 Does that ever make sweet reading! Shibata takes the lead by himself with everyone else who can possibly win the Block still in contention, just one win behind him. My guys are all in the running still. If I had to pick three favourites here it would be Shibata, Ibushi and AJ. Those are three of my favourite workers anywhere at the moment. Summary: Before the show I was highly sceptical of NJPW putting on a good card with this line up but I’ll be damned if they didn’t deliver an extremely solid three hour show (7 matches over *** on my count). All the Block matches were better than they had any right to be, especially the closing Tanahashi-Yano match, which was nothing short of brilliant. Add in a series of strong tag team matches, a hot crowd and the entire night lived up to expectations and exceeded them. It might just be that I went in expecting very little that this show delivered so strongly but every G1 show has been at the very least ‘good’. Can they keep it strong for all 19 shows? Only time will tell but history is on their side. The last two years of this tournament has been magnificent and there’s plenty of stories still to come. Verdict: 89
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1st August 2015.
We’re in Osaka, Japan. It’s a sad today as the wrestling world has lost one of the all-time greats; Roderick Toombs, better known to the universe as “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. His untimely death, at the age of 61, leaves the world without one of the icons of wrestling. A man who helped introduce me to the world of American wrestling. Without the big personalities like Piper and Randy Savage, I may not have fallen so in love with the business as a kid. I never liked Hogan, but I always loved Roddy Piper. He came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. When we thought we had all the answers, he changed the questions. Rest in Peace, Roddy. The G1 continues today after a two day absence, during which the condition of Shinsuke Nakamura has been fiercely debated. If you had any doubt which side of the fence I was on, I pretty much thought it was a work from the first time it was announced. His match against Yuji Nagata was relatively uneventful and missing dates, and a match from the tournament, gave favourite Nakamura a bigger hill to climb. It’s classic booking. Nakamura returns tonight to face his CHAOS team-mate, and close friend, Tomohiro Ishii. What a story they’ll have ready for us later on. Before we get underway here are the Blocks: BLOCK A: Tetsuya Naito 6 Bad Luck Fale 6 Katsuyori Shibata 6 AJ Styles 4 Hiroshi Tanahashi 4 Kota Ibushi 4 Togi Makabe 4 Hiroyoshi Tenzan 2 Toru Yano 2 Doc Gallows 2 BLOCK B: Tomohiro Ishii 6 Kazuchika Okada 6 Karl Anderson 4 Hirooki Goto 4 Yuji Nagata 2 Satoshi Kojima 2 Shinsuke Nakamura 2 Yujiro Takahashi 2 Michael Elgin 2 Tomoaki Honma 0 Tonight’s line up sees Block B under the microscope and has the most fascinating line-up of matches since Block B started. Every match has something going for it and at the top end of the card, there is so much at stake. After Nakamura vs. Ishii, which has massive ramifications on the Block, is Goto vs. Okada. The two principle singles champions of NJPW. The IWGP champion, Okada, facing off against the man who wants to unify their belts; the IC champion Hirooki Goto. Already there have been suggestions this won’t go like their normal matches; Goto is plucky but ultimately can’t overcome Okada. Plus Honma is in action, attempting to get his first ever G1 victory, and indeed his first ever major singles win for New Japan. Bullet Club (Doc Gallows & Cody Hall) vs. David Finlay & Jay White Doc is wrestling Bullet Club buddy AJ Styles tomorrow night so he doesn’t require a hype match this evening. Instead paired up with a young lion against two young lions. It speaks volumes about his spot on the roster and makes you wonder why he got booked into G1 in the first place. Being partnered with Cody gives the Bullet Club duo a big size advantage and they provide a very different match to the usual Young Lions contest. Jay White embraces his underdog status magnificently. I’ve said this before, but he’s shaping up to a splendid talent. Finlay is working on his beefy uppercuts too and he’s getting popped for hitting strikes, which is great for a Young Lion. Cody is easily the roughest of the Young Lions but his genes give him a massive natural advantage and he’s starting to carry his size well. It’ll be interesting to see how all the Young Lions develop as time goes by. They certainly seem like a good crop at the moment though. Cody has trouble selling and bumping for smaller guys but that’s normal. Gallows finishes Jay off with the Mehshugganator and this was actually pretty good. Final Rating: **1/2 Kota Ibushi, Tetsuya Naito & Mascara Dorada vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Togi Makabe & Yohei Komatsu More setting up of bouts for Day Nine here with Ibushi scheduled to meet Tenzan and Naito competing against Makabe. In terms of line-up’s, tomorrow’s is one of the weakest on the tour. The biggest single potential moment of excitement is that Togi Makabe might tee off on Naito in spectacular fashion. No suit for Naito this evening but he actually looks motivated and TAKES HIS FUCKING SHIRT OFF! Holy shit. Way to sell the Makabe match! Then he immediately bails when Togi tags in. One of the, many, things that grate at me about New Naito is that he wrestles in a t-shirt. Dorada and Komatsu are in this match to bring the workrate and thrills and that’s what they do. The surprising best moments come from Ibushi, who decides to sell for Komatsu, reminding us it’s not that long since he was a killer junior. One day someone just casually announced KOTA IBUSHI IS NOW A HEAVYWEIGHT and he stopped being fodder for the bigger guys. Even though he was still junior heavyweight champion. Togi also brings the goods, absolutely pounding Naito and not taking any shit from him whatsoever, happily blindsiding the punk bastard when he’s playing to the crowd. It seems Tenzan fucking hates Naito too, at one point shoving the ref over so he can stomp Naito in the head. I like that the old guard hate Naito’s mentality as it’s entirely in line with my old school mentality. As I mentioned earlier, the match is at its best when it’s Dorada vs. Komatsu, with the Young Lion busting out some cool roll ups for near falls, making me briefly think he’ll win, before Dorada scores the victory. Final Rating: **3/4 Tangent: Naito vs. Old Lions is a brilliant storyline and better than anything he’s done in this heel turn. Makabe and Tenzan both looked suitably wound-up by Naito’s antics. I’d love to see a protracted feud there, unlike the rest of Naito’s interactions where he spends too long stalling and taking the steam out of super-workers. I could totally see a Tenzan, Kojima or Makabe program working beautifully. Bullet Club (AJ Styles, Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga) vs. Katsuyori Shibata, Captain New Japan & Tiger Mask IV This is to hype up Shibata vs. Fale on Day Nine. Shibata has been outstanding so far in the G1 but is starting to run out of quality opponents. His only remaining shot at a wonderful match is Hiroshi Tanahashi and they’re friends nowadays, removing a lot of the rage from the match that was so good last year. Fale isn’t an interesting opponent for him, whatsoever, so it’s an uphill struggle to get me into that match. Captain New Japan is such a jobber he gets announced before the junior Tiger Mask, which confuses the cameraman, ready to zoom in on Tiger Mask before having to rapidly change direction. Shibata reveals his tactical plans for Fale early; lots of leg kicks. I find it hard to care about any of this as AJ gets paired off with Captain fucking New Japan and that just seems like a complete waste. AJ amuses himself by destroying Tiger Mask’s knee but he’s just too good to be wasted in a match like this. I appreciate him putting effort into what is, essentially, a rest night but the only thing that’s really cool about it is seeing him work Tiger Mask. It makes me excited for Rev Pro putting on AJ vs. Liger in October. The eventual back and forth with Shibata is brilliant, making it unfortunate that their Block match took place before Shibata was 100% recovered from his elbow injury. While they accomplish nothing toward the Shibata-Fale match, AJ Styles is terrific throughout, as always. Tama gets the pin on Captain fucking New Japan with his Headshrinker DDT, showing NJPW wanted to give him some love for not booking him in the G1. Final Rating: ** Tangent: Tama Tonga is an idiot. Having been given these little moments to prove himself, he then goes and does something monumentally stupid. In this case, throwing the referee out of the ring. Thus merely mimicking the actions of Tetsuya Naito, rather than giving Bullet Club their own persona. Something the group has permanently struggled with as it’s always been seen as an nWo knock-off. The referee assaults should definitely be kept to a bare minimum as that kind of thing can be overdone in a hurry. CHAOS (Toru Yano, Gedo & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi This merely exists to shill the Tanahashi-Yano main event on Day Nine. Not that it needs shilling as they’ve wrestled each other constantly since Yano knocked Tana out of the New Japan Cup. Taguchi needs to stop aping Shinsuke Nakamura. Either that or NJPW need to hire Chinsuke Nakamura for him to work with. If you’re unfamiliar; Chinsuke is a Nakamura impersonator who DDT hired to wrestle Kota Ibushi earlier in the year, because DDT thinks that kind of thing is funny. To be fair, it is. They worked most of their match in slow motion. Worryingly the best wrestling here comes from KUSHIDA, starved of action so far in G1. I persist KUSHIDA would have been a good guy to have in the G1 itself. Who cares if he’s a junior? Most of the match is Taguchi being Taguchi and I’m not interested in that. The crowd seem to find him amusing and it gives them a break in the seriousness so at least there’s that. Plus KUSHIDA goes over by hooking Gedo in the kimura. Needed more KUSHIDA! Final Rating: *3/4 G1 Climax Block B Yujiro Takahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima Pre-Match Pick: Kojima. Mainly because I don’t want Yujiro to get any more points. I’ll be wrong at some point but seeing him job is fine by me. Still no Mao, and Yujiro’s latest tour babe looks bored in a pink two-piece. My guess is she’s a stripper. I’m not keen on Yujiro’s tour girls. Mao has far superior personality. Yujiro is so dull the crack production crew, so called because of their obsession with ladies backsides, focus on Takahashi’s escort for the evening who he’s set up on a ringside chair. Like with most Yujiro matches I find my attention wandering during the contest. Kojima looks tired and unprepared to push the pace. Kojima still works in his trademark spots but the match is dominated by Takahashi and his pacing is not entertaining to watch. Block B has suffered because of Yujiro being in it, generally dragging down the pacing and excitement of every match he’s involved in. Kojima takes his sweet time on a comeback, batters Yujiro with a lariat and Cody Hall pulls the ref out. WHY ARE THESE NOT DQ’S? Fucking Bullet Club. Yujiro hits a low blow and the Miami Shine finishes. Again, why is it not a DQ for blatant outside interference? Total logic failure and a gaping storyline hole. I’m not just saying that because it’s already wrecked my predictions for the evening. Final Rating: * Picks: 23/36 G1 Climax Block B Karl Anderson vs. Yuji Nagata Pre-Match Pick: Anderson. Time for him to get back into the mix after a high profile loss. Hopefully without outside interference as the Bullet Club cheating is starting to cast a shadow over this tournament, which is completely unwelcome. It’s perhaps predictable this match is a little sluggish, by design, with three big marquee matches following it. Nagata is still selling his ribs so that gives Karl a target. Nice to get some body part continuity between shows. Nagata is great at selling and the injury gives Karl a chance to slow things down and taunt the veteran. It’s what he does best. His mocking salute is quite wonderful. Especially as he can’t stop doing it once Nagata recovers and he’s left saluting and in shock. Luckily the match is built around logic and Nagata, limited by his inability to hit suplexes, instead focusing on his super ground game. Karl’s counters are all nicely logical too, timed escapes when Nagata’s ribs slow him down. Nagata keeps trying for big moves but gets flattened with the Gun Stun for his troubles. This was far from exciting but made sense throughout. Nagata’s rib injury has produced two fine selling displays and pretty much taken him out of contention. Final Rating: ***1/4 Picks: 24/37 G1 Climax Block B Michael Elgin vs. Tomoaki Honma Pre-Match Pick: Elgin. This is Honma’s biggest chance at a win in the tournament so far. You sense if he does win it’ll be during a big show and Osaka is pretty big. These guys are both big hitters, in terms of striking and charging into each other. It’s a good match up. They try and mimic each other’s spots a bit with Honma lifting the stalling suplex, which looks horrifically dangerous but nobody dies. Elgin mostly overpowers Honma including his ridiculous suplex from the outside in, where Honma gets jacked up over the top rope. It’s moves like that which have gotten Elgin over. Where he’s impressed me is going toe to toe with the likes of Honma and not looking out of place. It usually takes gaijin a few tours to get used to the striking. Elgin is right in there. When they get into the strike duels the match is not unlike the Honma-Ishii match from earlier in the year, which was so outstanding. There’s an excellent spot where Honma attempts a Kokeshi, gets caught in mid-air and thrown by Elgin. It’s virtually hardway and sensational stuff. From there Elgin overpowers Honma on his way to victory. I feel bad for Honma but surely they’re saving a big win for later in the tour. Final Rating: **** KOKESHI COUNT – 2 missed. 3 hit. SUPER KOKESHI COUNT – 1 missed. Picks: 25/38 G1 Climax Block B Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shinsuke Nakamura Pre-Match Pick: Nakamura. He simply has to win all his remaining matches if he’s to contest G1 this year. His entrance seems to hold more gravitas in this match, everyone safe in the knowledge that Nakamura is back. His potential tournament ending injury is nowhere to be seen and he throws his arms around like a lunatic just walking to the ring. I think it’s safe to say that was a work. They’ve taped his arm up but all the wrestlers in G1 have something taped up by Day Eight. I notice it’s the left elbow, which won’t interfere with a single spot that Nakamura does as he’s all knees and right elbows. Ishii doesn’t work the injury as that’s not in his tactical wheelhouse. Ishii’s tactics involve battering the opponent until they can’t stand anymore. Limb work doesn’t suit him. Nakamura is generous to his friend, and CHAOS running buddy Ishii, by selling his strikes huge and allowing Ishii to virtually no sell all Shinsuke’s offence. Apart from the knees, of course. Nakamura’s knees are the hardest substance on earth. They slowly build toward a war with both guys taking moderately big bumps and a constant barrage of strikes. As per usual Ishii crumples to the mat complaining of an injured shoulder. It’s the story of almost every Ishii match and he’s so convincing it’s always hard to tell if he’s selling or he’s hurt. Even though he does it in literally every match. I think a lot of it stems from last year’s G1 where Ishii legitimately injured his shoulder and had all manner of problems with it. Nakamura sells as if he’s fatigued and yet he should be quite fresh coming in. He catches Ishii with a high kick and a pair of Boma Ye’s but Ishii KICKS OUT! That felt like a total finish. To the point where I was ready to summarise the match. From there they head into dramatic counters, keeping the audience guessing and teasing near finishes. Ishii looks to have it only for Nakamura to counter one more time and hit Boma Ye to end Ishii’s 100% record and begin his comeback. Very good match but last year’s was a lot better. Final Rating: ***3/4 Picks: 26/39 G1 Climax Block B Hirooki Goto vs. Kazuchika Okada Pre-Match Pick: Goto. In my pre-tournament picks I’ve only gone against Okada twice. I think he’ll probably have to lose again somewhere else but this one certainly has the feeling of a contest it wouldn’t kill him to job in. Okada looks mildly disinterested, suspecting his big match record against Goto is too good for the IWGP champ to lose. He’s not lacking in confidence. There’s a reason for that and when they spill outside Okada hits a frankly ridiculous dive over the rail. I know AJ Styles has been doing that guardrail jump for years but Okada is much bigger and it makes for an impressive visual. Moments like that make amends for every moment where Okada doesn’t appear to be giving it the G1 effort. By making the tour so long New Japan may have shot themselves in the foot, causing the effort levels to suffer due to the sheer amount of wrestling that’s expected of the talent. Either that or this match is going to a 30 minute draw and they need to kill time. The sequences in the match are quite familiar, as if I’ve seen it before, and Goto doesn’t seem in a terribly creative mood. Although Okada does, finding counters for almost everything Goto throws at him once the pace increases. It’s almost as if they’ve gone out of their way to prove that Goto isn’t on Okada’s level, no matter how hard he tries. RAINMAKER POSE! Naturally that’s countered, into Ushigoroshi. As smooth as I find Goto during strikes and counters, I find his big spots to be unusually cumbersome and overdone. Apart from Shouten Kai, which is why it’s brilliant as his finisher. Okada goes after a second Rainmaker attempt, which earns him a HEADBUTT TO THE JAW. That looked pretty sick. Okada gets out of Shouten Kai, but another Rainmaker misses, and another headbutt rattles Okada. SHOUTEN KAI! Goto wins! This was a wee bit slow to get going but the last five minutes were magic. Final Rating: ****1/4 Picks: 27/40. 4/5 tonight with only the bastard Yujiro ruining things and he should have been DQ’d so that’s bullshit. Here’s the updated Block to take us out. BLOCK B: Tomohiro Ishii 6 Kazuchika Okada 6 Karl Anderson 6 Hirooki Goto 6 Shinsuke Nakamura 4 Yujiro Takahashi 4 Michael Elgin 4 Yuji Nagata 2 Satoshi Kojima 2 Tomoaki Honma 0 The Sword and Guns wins brings parity to the top of the table. With Nakamura besting Ishii, Okada had to be kept in check. It keeps the group tight and unpredictable. Although Nakamura is still the firm favourite. Tangent: A headache beset me during this, making it doubly tough to write up. Add that to the list of G1 injuries. What’s next, Carpel Tunnel? Summary: All four of the main events delivered, to differing degrees. The undercard was mostly disappointing and I was particularly enraged with the bullshit finish on Takahashi-Kojima. Those Bullet Club interference moments need to be addressed before they get out of hand. They’ve been doing this for years! It was frustrating around the IWGP title but doing it during G1 effects an entire tournament. Not that I was keen on Suzuki-gun doing the interference thing either. Verdict: 78 |
AuthorArnold Furious Archives
April 2016
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