8th August 2015.
We’re in Yokohama, Japan. Here are the Blocks as we go into the thirteenth day of exciting G1 action. BLOCK A: Katsuyori Shibata 8 Tetsuya Naito 8 Bad Luck Fale 8 AJ Styles 8 Hiroshi Tanahashi 8 Kota Ibushi 6 Togi Makabe 6 Toru Yano 4 Hiroyoshi Tenzan 2 Doc Gallows 2 BLOCK B: Kazuchika Okada 10 Tomohiro Ishii 8 Karl Anderson 8 Hirooki Goto 8 Shinsuke Nakamura 8 Michael Elgin 8 Yujiro Takahashi 4 Satoshi Kojima 4 Yuji Nagata 2 Tomoaki Honma 0 It’s all about Block A tonight and the focus is on two guys who had an epic battle during last year’s G1, which over spilled into the following PPV Destruction. Katsuyori Shibata beat Hiroshi Tanahashi during G1 only to lose a match at the PPV after G1. Both matches were on the list of MOTYC. They’ve got quite a lot to live up to and those matches were contested under hostile circumstances. The angle suggested both guys HATED each other. Interviews had them criticising each other’s style and career decisions. It was personal stuff. After the re-match Shibata shook Tana’s hand and thanked him for saving NJPW from the dark days. Ever since then they’ve co-existed and have barely had a crossed word. However, almost a year later, they’re locking horns again to decide the direction of Block A. Whoever wins has ten points and is one step closer to the G1 finale. Incidentally this is the last show to take place outside Japan’s capital before a staggering SIX NIGHT stand in Tokyo. Three in the Korakuen and three in Sumo Hall! Satoshi Kojima, Jushin Liger, Ryusuke Taguchi & Yohei Komatsu vs. Yuji Nagata, KUSHIDA, Mascara Dorada & David Finlay It’s a big group of guys to sell the prospect of Kojima vs. Nagata. Both guys are probably getting a bit desperate as their G1 campaigns have gone badly. Only three wins between them. They won’t learn anything new about each other this evening but both men have looked rather fatigued, perhaps an eight man tag is a chance for them to catch a rest night, on the sly. The juniors have a chance to steal the show and KUSHIDA and Dorada seem keen on doing so. Nagata and Kojima don’t take their night off, instead insisting on working a segment, which culminates in poor Nagata getting a kicking in the ribcage again. Nagata softens up Kojima’s arm in response and that’s a clue as to how tomorrow’s match will go. Around this interaction it’s a fun enough opener with the juniors and Young Lions proving points by doing entertaining stuff. Taguchi picks off Finlay for Dodon. That’ll do it. Final Rating: **1/2 Bullet Club (Karl Anderson & Cody Hall) vs. Michael Elgin & Jay White Anderson vs. Elgin on Day Fourteen. I’m not quite sure what to make of Elgin’s NJPW run so far. He’s fitted in well but being a gaijin there’s always the danger that NJPW will lump him in with Bullet Club. I hope to see him aggressive against Anderson. Cody is on his A-Game again, ducking the invisible machine gun bullets. He’ll go far. The crowd are into Elgin and his strongman rep. Anderson treats him like a “bad son of a bitch” so that’s good news. There is a reoccurring problem in wrestling where newcomers are treated badly by people looking to protect their spot. Anderson does the opposite of that here, which is probably why he’s so highly valued by New Japan to begin with. Anderson is the guy who can hang with the main eventers but also put over new guys. It’s nice to have him available to do this vital work in building a promotion. There should be more good pros like him around. The match doesn’t do much but it does get me interested in tomorrow’s match so it did what it set out to do. Considering they all speak English there are a surprising number of communication issues. Mainly surrounding Cody. Jay, once again, doesn’t look out of place working with a G1 guy, although he gets more interaction with Cody. There’s one thing about Karl Anderson’s move set that bugs me. Why is the Gun Stun more effective than the TKO? Surely the latter has more impact? But he never wins with it! Gun Stun puts Jay away after he kicks out of the TKO. See? Final Rating: **1/4 CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Hirooki Goto, Tomoaki Honma & Captain New Japan Two matches being hyped; Nakamura vs. Honma and Ishii vs. Goto. Both taking place tomorrow in Tokyo. You’d think they’d both be pretty entertaining match ups. Plus another opportunity for Ishii and Honma to butt heads. They’ve already snuck one of these in, earlier on the tour, and there will surely be another one before the Ishii vs. Honma match. That match is going to be amazing. Nakamura clearly wants to have fun with Honma here before it gets serious tomorrow so he does the Kokeshi, only with a kneedrop. Nakamura is a sensational piss-taker. Ishii’s approach to beating Captain New Japan down reminds me of a time where we were goofing around before an Indy show. Low-Ki was on the card and he comes out to see what all the noise is about and he’s there about two seconds before yelling “YOU THINK THIS IS A FUCKING JOKE?”* That’s what Ishii does to Captain New Japan. In forearms. Ishii vs. Goto is pleasingly violent and I have big hopes for their match tomorrow. The bits and pieces with Honma’s Kokeshi and Captain New Japan’s near misses is terrific and this is an easy pleaser. YOSHI-HASHI picks up yet another win with the senton. I probably don’t need to tell you who he pinned. Final Rating: *** KOKESHI COUNT – 2 missed. 3 hit. *Low Ki is a good guy by the way. He’s just really serious about wrestling. I can totally imagine his disdain for certain gimmicks. I’d love to see him wrestle Captain New Japan. Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga) vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Gedo) Okada vs. Yujiro tomorrow. That’s not the main event right? That wouldn’t be good (it’s not, it’s Goto vs. Ishii!). Okada tries to make Yujiro look convincing by selling for him but it just doesn’t work. I’ve never known anyone look less convincing, in a major promotion, than Yujiro Takahashi when he’s dishing out offence. I just don’t buy into him as a worker. Everyone else out there is totally convincing. Gedo as the cheating veteran, Tama as the unhinged lunatic who thinks he’s a reptile of some sort and Okada as the confident star. Yujiro? What is Yujiro? He’s a sleazeball but his move set is generic. It doesn’t reflect the character and his timing is dreadful. He drags this match down and it never recovers. Even with Tama’s bizarre interpretation of Randy Orton’s whole stalking routine. His character has improved a lot recently. Tama even gets the pin here, as he’s done frequently during G1, by planting Gedo with the Headshrinker DDT. Final Rating: *1/2 G1 Climax Block A Bad Luck Fale vs. Kota Ibushi Pre-Match Pick: Ibushi. I couldn’t take another Fale win over one of the big guns. Beating Tanahashi was bad enough. Kota has been the star of this tournament. He deserves to win. Generally Ibushi tends not to wrestle the big hosses. It’s not a good match so G1 gives him a chance to switch it around a bit. He doesn’t change his style, nor does he for anything. Fale rather plods through the match. The only good thing about this tactic is it makes Ibushi’s comeback more dramatic. Lots of flippity flips and kickity kicks. It doesn’t help to offset the large chunks of Fale boredom. Ibushi might improve in this sort of match given sufficient time and experience but he’s had so little time slaying monsters, coming from DDT where everyone is short, that he finds it hard to come up with ideas. Fale hits a sloppy, awful looking Grenade and finishes, after several counters, with the Bad Luck Fall. Well, fuck me. I think I might have to go and grab a few beers to finish this show off with if that’s where Gedo is going with the booking. Final Rating: *1/4 Picks: 43/61 G1 Climax Block A Toru Yano vs. Tetsuya Naito Pre-Match Pick: Naito. I hope Yano wins, because it’d be as hilarious for me as I’m sure Fale winning was for internet trolls who don’t like Ibushi. Speaking of trolls; Yano is one. I find this hilarious when he’s upsetting people I don’t like but in NJPW they’re few and far between. By the time Skeletor has finished fucking around and actually taken his mask off I’ve scored myself a bottle of Mad Goose (Purity). A fine ale from a fine brewery. Yano’s chuckles start out by putting his robe back on to show Naito how wearing a robe when the match is supposed to be starting can be quite annoying. Then he beats Naito down before the twat has taken his shirt off and chokes Naito with the robe. It’s a pleasing start, showing that Yano has learned you cannot give Naito time and space to do his thing. Yano’s next tactic is imitating Naito’s poses. That gets him a dropkick in the spine. It was pretty funny though. Next comes the turnbuckle and they nail the YTR pose bit with Naito’s flying forearm going clean over the top. It’s beautifully executed. Not all the match can live up to that one spot with other counters being off-centre. Naito kicks Yano in the balls to stop the inevitable ball-shot receipt and finishes with Destino. A hit and miss match that sometimes clicked brilliantly and at other was clunky. Yano played his role to perfection and Naito cheated to win because he’s the heel. No problems with that. Final Rating: **3/4 Picks: 44/62 G1 Climax Block A AJ Styles vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan Pre-Match Pick: AJ. He’s a contender, whereas Tenzan has struggled. AJ has been a quasi-face for much of the G1 but gets fed up with the crowd loving Tenzan and heads back to the dark side. Even then the crowd chant his name. He’s garnered a lot of respect over the last year. Probably more than the entire of Bullet Club put together. AJ tries like hell to get some booing by pulling Tenzan’s hair and still gets cheered. AJ’s trash talking is glorious. In North America it came across as tame and dated but in Japan it’s perfect. As is his selling where AJ stumbles around after getting clocked with the heel kick. AJ is one of the best in the world at selling a head injury. Not for long but for long enough. AJ accidentally wings Red Shoes, for checking on Tenzan when AJ was in mid-air with a dropkick and the Bullet Club’s main man takes Unno to task for his error. The crowd STILL chant his name. “Oh shut up, I know who I am.” AJ’s leg work is building toward the Calf Killer, which makes perfect sense but he also utilises the Figure Four. He did used to pal around with Ric Flair so he probably picked up a few tips on that one. AJ even lifts the Mongolian Chops and does a better job of it than anyone else on this tour. Tenzan hits a headbutt in this match, probably the first time he’s really used that busted up dome as an offensive weapon since opening himself up against Yano. They run the Anaconda Vice spot, which Tenzan has used against just about everyone during G1. Mainly as a false finish. It’s the part of the match where everyone thinks Tenzan has a shot at winning. As soon as they’re out of it AJ hooks the Calf Killer again for the tap out. This made sense and there were only a few communication issues that hurt the flow of the match. Final Rating: ***1/4 Picks: 45/63 G1 Climax Block A Doc Gallows vs. Togi Makabe Pre-Match Pick: Togi. This will not be pretty. Both guys throw a lot of gimmicked punches. One of the reasons why I watch Japanese wrestling is to get away from matches with lots of gimmicked punches. And that’s all they’ve got going on from a storyline and a workrate perspective. At least Togi takes a couple of mean bumps into the rails but AJ and Tenzan did that…and a lot more too. Doc inserts a chinlock and the match just dies. It’s dull. Togi seems to have marginally more enthusiasm but Doc is on a list of guys I’m hoping aren’t in the G1 next year. It needs to be more elite. Doc casually throws his finish in the middle of the match for no reason (has he been watching Tiger Mask?) and Togi just kicks out. DVD and a King Kong Kneedrop later and this is mercifully over. It was a short match but they did nothing useful with their time. Final Rating: *3/4 Picks: 46/64 G1 Climax Block A Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi Pre-Match Pick: Honestly, I think it’ll be a draw. If I was forced to pick one way or the other I’d go with Tanahashi though. There is a thirty minute time limit but no matches finished even last year and there are none so far this year either. But this is a rubber match on their most recent series and I get the feeling they’ll want to extend that. They go to the mat, as they did yesterday in the tag, and it’s great. Tanahashi is capable on the mat, more than most give him credit, and Shibata is amazing. I could watch them do thirty minutes of amateur switches. The slow burn on the early going, with strenuous countering of simple holds like headlocks, reflects my suggestion it might be going broadway. The whole thing is a battle. A complete throwback. Tana is really aggressive, keen to not fall into the same defeat he suffered last year but Shibata seems very calm. He doesn’t want to get drawn into a slugfest, which is how he won last year, instead wanting to school Tanahashi in the ways of mat wrestling. Will that cost him? When it does get into striking, that’s where Shibata gets even more dominant. Although Tanahashi has specific counters in mind for trademark Shibata spots. In particular the corner dropkick, where he wipes out Shibata’s knee. Shibata is in a rare mood. He wants to control. Tanahashi has to use his wily veteran moves to try and stop Shibata. They re-run the corner dropkick, in reverse with Shibata pulling out an insane double stomp counter, then re-run the earlier counter spot with Shibata turning to casually batter Tana back into the corner before hitting the dropkick. Sensational stuff. Some of the striking is world-beating stuff. Shibata’s kicks are insane and Tanahashi isn’t past throwing a slap that’s strong enough for a takedown. They work so hard in the first ten minutes that I think my draw is off the cards. The sheer effort seems aimed at a shorter match. Tanahashi has a game plan and that’s to work the knee. Whether that’ll have an effect on a former shootfighter remains to be seen. Will Shibata give up to Tana? It’s unlikely. But limiting Shibata’s movement will also buy time for the High Fly Flow. The competiveness in this match is wonderful. Both guys give the impression that a win here means everything. Last year was about ideologies but now they’ve gotten past that (who has the better style?) it’s all about an even more competitive friendly rivalry. Who is the better wrestler? Styles be damned. Tana gets the first big shot at finishing but his High Fly Flow gets knees and Shibata goes right into the sleeper. Surely he hurt his knees in the process though and Tana has worked them all match. A minor criticism. PK misses and they head into an insane sequence where Shibata becomes so obsessed with getting the sleeper that Tana pins him defensively, kinda like Bret Hart over Roddy Piper. Final Rating: ****1/2 Fuck, I thought that was going to be a draw. Picks: 47/65 Let’s see what that momentous victory does for Block A: BLOCK A: Tetsuya Naito 10 Bad Luck Fale 10 AJ Styles 10 Hiroshi Tanahashi 10 Katsuyori Shibata 8 Togi Makabe 8 Kota Ibushi 6 Toru Yano 4 Hiroyoshi Tenzan 2 Doc Gallows 2 Well, it’s a friggin’ disaster for my boys Shibata and Ibushi. Shibata has gone from sole leadership to dropping back into the middle of the deck with two back to back losses. Damn it, I was hoping it would be his year. Next year, man, next year! Four guys on ten points, of which both AJ and Tana, my pre-tournament picks, are there. Naito has been a revelation during G1, even if he’s not been brilliant in the ring and Fale mysteriously keeps winning too. Summary: Essentially the only reason for turning up was Shibata vs. Tanahashi and it was excellent…even if the wrong guy won (from a certain perspective). AJ vs. Tenzan was pretty good, as expected and everything else is a pass. But hey, we’re in Tokyo tomorrow and the G1 starts to get super, super serial. Sadly my boys probably won’t be involved at the conclusion. Verdict: 68
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AuthorArnold Furious Archives
April 2016
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