4th August 2015.
We’re in Sendai, Japan. I’m watching live today thanks to a back problem I picked up at work on Sunday, something that has royally buggered up the last couple of days. I can’t move much and when I do it hurts. The only positive regarding this incident is that I can see G1 live this morning. A perk, of sorts. Here are the Blocks before we get underway. 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 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 focus is on Block B tonight with a couple of huge matches. Nakamura vs. Goto continues their recent rivalry where Goto took the IC title off Nakamura and then retained it. The match has huge ramifications in Block B, with Nakamura potentially drawing level with Goto if he wins. Anderson and Okada meet tonight and they’re dead level on points at the top of the Block. Anderson has stated his intent on Twitter, saying he’ll cheat to win if necessary. David Finlay vs. Ryusuke Taguchi This was originally billed as a tag team contest but Tiger Mask’s injury was worse than suspected so he misses tonight as well. Apparently it’s a neck injury and the finger of blame is once again being pointed at AJ Styles, the man who broke Yoshi Tatsu’s neck last year. This means Jay White misses out on a tag match and we get an actual singles contest on the undercard. Not only that but a junior singles contest. Finlay grasps this opportunity to showcase his personality, by lifting Taguchi’s hip attacks. Why did Taguchi have to be the one to get this showcase? He does try and do a bit of mat work to mix up the relentless hip attacks but I really take umbrage with his approach to wrestling. The way he works is a mockery of strongstyle, which is ok because Yano mocks strongstyle and he’s entertaining, but it also makes matches mean nothing. And all his moves look awful. Taguchi at least puts effort into his contests but the sheer number of irritating spots he produces are a grind. The countering isn’t bad in this one and Taguchi manages two really slick counters into the anklelock, the second of which finishes. Final Rating: ** CHAOS (Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Yohei Komatsu This is to hype Shibata vs. Yano on Day Eleven. Yano is a world class troll who goes after people who take life too seriously…and he’s in the ring with Katsuyori Shibata. BREEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKK! Shibata gets in a few leg kicks so Yano tags out. Komatsu looks like a younger, smaller version of Shibata so they’re ideal as a team. Naturally Komatsu eats the heat, thanks to an assortment of wacky Yano cheating. Shibata helpfully kicks Yano in the side of his head that wasn’t bleeding profusely two days ago. He’s a lovely man when you get to know him. Unfortunately, despite mentoring by Shibata, Komatsu is still a young boy and gets picked off by YOSHI-HASHI’s lariat and senton finish. The real story here is how exciting Shibata and Komatsu were as a team. Komatsu would be awesome as Shibata’s protégé. A vibe I got from them here was the big brother, little brother relationship that Kenta Kobashi and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi used to have in All Japan and they had some corking matches. Final Rating: **1/2 Tetsuya Naito & KUSHIDA vs. Kota Ibushi & Mascara Dorada Naito vs. Ibushi is on Day Eleven so that match requires hyping. Miserable Naito couldn’t even be bothered to dress up as Skeletor this evening and wrestles in his t-shirt. He knows how to grind my gears. He’s dyed his hair red. For some reason that annoys me as well. Naito’s deliberate pacing grates at Ibushi too and the match ends up being more of a junior showcase with KUSHIDA vs. Dorada being about flipping excellence. Naito is in one of *those* moods but Dorada actually drags him into a few sequences including a ridiculous head spike off a tornado DDT. Tranquilo, Mascara! There are times when Naito doesn’t push the character far enough and during most of the G1 tags he could easily get away with refusing to tag in at all. I think that’s what frustrates me the most about the gimmick. It doesn’t really make sense. While Naito sulks KUSHIDA and Dorada have a genuinely good match. You’d think they were building to a match at the G1 Final. I’d completely forgotten KUSHIDA was defending against Ricochet at that show. Dorada isn’t in Ricochet’s league so KUSHIDA traps him in the kimura and gets the submission. So, I guess that was building towards nothing then! Naito, dickhead that he is, goes on a rampage post match. That’ll be three of your finest stars in anyone’s snowflake currency. Final Rating: *** Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Togi Makabe & Captain New Japan vs. Bullet Club (AJ Styles, Bad Luck Fale, Doc Gallows & Tama Tonga) Tomorrow’s card has AJ vs. Togi, Tana vs. Doc and Tenzan vs. Fale. So we’re hyping three matches in one massive tag bout. We kicks things off with Tenzan going on a Mongolian Chop rampage. After that it’s about the frequent tags and introducing the various participants tomorrow to their opponents. Tanahashi brings the stupidity by trying to crossbody three people off the apron. What was he thinking? I know big babyface heroes make dumb decisions based on crowd support but that was incredibly stupid. This leads to Tana eating deserved heat off the Bullet Club. Sometimes it’s really hard to get behind a hero when he’s so dim. Togi and Gallows have a fun little aside in the middle of the match where they just batter each other. They’re not even hyping that match up yet. There’s a fun moment after that where Captain New Japan cleans house but is then massacred by the Bullet Club. Tama finishes him off with the customary Headshrinker DDT. He’s getting a lot of wins on this tour. Like YOSHI-HASHI. This was mostly filler, with far too many people involved in a short match, but it worked for what it was. Final Rating: **1/4 G1 Climax Block B Yujiro Takahashi vs. Michael Elgin Pre-Match pick: Elgin. I hope Yujiro never wins again. Mao is back so Yujiro has that going for him. His tour girls have been ultra-sleazy. Rather pleasingly Elgin absolutely hammers Yujiro from the bell. Unfortunately Cody Hall interferes and swings the match back into Takahashi’s favour. Yujiro working heat is one of the most dull and unbelievable things in wrestling, let alone the G1. It’s all so pedestrian. It makes Elgin’s comeback less thrilling. Yujiro takes over again and the transitions in the match have been pretty dire. Elgin gets some joy out of doing dead-lift spots but the crowd are totally out of it outside of those spots. Yujiro doesn’t look like he could butt heads with Elgin and any time they collide this is reflected. The Elgin bumps don’t feel right. Elgin gives it the old school try regardless and pounds Takahashi until he’s beaten him with the Elginbomb. Final Rating: **3/4 Picks: 32/46 G1 Climax Block B Satoshi Kojima vs. Tomoaki Honma Pre-Match Pick: Kojima. If Honma is to finally score a win in this tournament it’ll likely arrive near the end…or not at all. These guys get it right straight out of the gate with a barrage of elbow strikes. Kojima cannot maintain that pace, he is getting on a bit, and they have to settle for some light grappling to show Kojima is superior on the mat. When Kojima switches to Machine Gun chops Honma starts getting fired up. That shows Honma’s strength in a nutshell. He rides the plucky, leathery underdog steed into battle. The match is a decent back and forth but Honma can’t quite get the same sense of ‘almost’ into his spots that he does in his better work. The crowd is still suitably loud and it even follows the same basic formula but there’s something missing. The crowd get hotter as the match progresses because every minute he’s not losing, Honma might still win. Poor Honma goes after one of his flying Kokeshi’s but gets battered out of the air with a lariat and another one finishes. Honmania must wait for another day, victory belongs to Satoshi Kojima. Final Rating: ***1/2 KOKESHI COUNT – 3 missed. 2 hit. SUPER KOKESHI COUNT – 1 missed. Picks: 33/47 G1 Climax Block B Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yuji Nagata Pre-Match Pick: Ishii. Last year these guys had a belter and the only difference now is that it’s Nagata who comes in hurt, not Ishii. These guys are so intense that even the lock up’s have an epic feeling about them. Nagata, rather sensibly, goes after Ishii’s historically injured shoulder for his armbar. For starters that evens up the injuries but it also gives Nagata a big opening. They can’t really get into strike duels because of Nagata’s commitment to selling his ribs, which is unfortunate. It makes the pacing a little stodgy, but it’s a match still littered with elbows and kicks. The impacts on them are sickening too. All of Nagata’s kicks land with a tasty THUD noise that can’t be replicated by slapping the thigh. That’s the sound of shin bone smacking into chest flesh. They don’t do much in the way of resting and instead insert suplexes and powerbombs to break up the striking. It doesn’t have that ‘war of attrition’ feeling about the match but it’s tough to live up to expectations. As Nagata overcomes his rib issues, Ishii develops both knee and neck problems. He’s falling apart. Nagata’s selling in this one is less impressive than usual and he doesn’t stop himself hitting suplexes because of the ribs. Instead inserting a grimace after the move lands. Once they get into some serious FIGHTING SPIRIT, where both guys no sell only to stumble and collapse the match develops that special feeling of last year’s. A big old slap-fest follows, which is fucking glorious and Ishii wins it with a fucking headbutt. Nagata survives a few lariats but falls prey to the brainbuster. BOOM! MOTN. Final Rating: ****1/4 Picks: 34/48 G1 Climax Block B Karl Anderson vs. Kazuchika Okada Pre-Match Pick: Anderson. Okada has to lose a certain number of times or he’d just win the Block and challenge himself? I’m not even sure how that works. Anderson is someone who’s capable of beating Okada, has done before and Bullet Club can always cheat to justify it. You can tell they’ve put some thought into this match from the opening sequence where Okada does his ‘clean break’ bit only for Karl to ape it. Anderson’s tactics regarding Okada are well thought out. Anderson knows Okada’s spots and weaknesses and he genuinely looks to have out-prepared Okada. Not that Okada seems to come in to any match with a plan. He’s so self-assured he just comes in and figures he can beat anyone without much thought. When it’s a straight up fight, in the ring, that’s exactly what happens. Okada has size, strength, agility and speed. It’s very difficult to get the drop on him. The only issue I ever have with Okada, technically, is that he’s a bit obvious about his hand slaps when he’s hitting kicks. Anderson is keen to not give Okada any time and when he does the Rainmaker pose, there’s Karl trying for the Gun Stun. Anderson knows that opening is always there and went for it. The eventual Gun Stun attempt, some time later, is countered into the Tombstone. RAINMAKER! And that’s it. Holy shit. That was abrupt. The whole match was smooth and tidily constructed. I’m more than a little surprised that Okada won. I know he’s staying strong right up to the last Block match but how strong? Final Rating: ***3/4 Picks: 34/49 G1 Climax Block B Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hirooki Goto Pre-Match Pick: Nakamura. Although part of me thinks Nakamura could lose to give him a massive uphill struggle over the remaining shows but that would also mean Okada getting beaten by someone other than Nakamura and that boat has sailed. Nakamura decides to sell his elbow a bit in this one, which gives Goto an opening for counters that wasn’t present in either of their previous matches this year. This being Nakamura, who might be the King of Strongstyle but he’s not the King of Selling, he keeps forgetting about it. You’d think that tape around his elbow would remind him. Most of the match is Goto working heat, which is at least better than Yujiro working heat but the crowd are anxious to see Nakamura kneeing him in the ribs from strange angles. Goto eats a few kicks to the head but blocks Boma Ye. I’m not keen on the way he does that, by grabbing the knee as Nakamura approaches. It looks weird. Goto seems to have Nakamura’s number and the near falls cause some of the lady folk in attendance to have kittens. Goto gets caught in a flying armbar though and can’t get to the ropes. Goto is forced to tap and Nakamura gets the win he needed. Interesting to see Nakamura switching tactics on Goto but he could have done some work on the arm to set up the finish. Final Rating: ***1/2 Picks: 35/50. 4/5 on the night with only my own second-guessing preventing a clean sweep. Okada to lose? What was I thinking? Before we head out here’s the Block standings; BLOCK B: Tomohiro Ishii 8 Kazuchika Okada 8 Karl Anderson 6 Hirooki Goto 6 Shinsuke Nakamura 6 Michael Elgin 6 Yujiro Takahashi 4 Satoshi Kojima 4 Yuji Nagata 2 Tomoaki Honma 0 CHAOS are dominating proceedings after tonight’s results. Ishii beating Nagata pretty much confirms he’s going nowhere. Okada over Anderson makes it tough for Karl to get back into the mix and Nakamura’s win over Goto means Okada has to lose another match to allow Goto to catch him at all. Also, sad news at the bottom as Tomoaki Honma is officially eliminated. Summary: Good show, pretty much from top to bottom. Block B has generally delivered during this tournament. I suspect my problems in enjoying and rating the show stemmed from personal issues (bad back, interruptions, accusations) rather than a fault at the New Japan end. Ishii vs. Nagata was MOTN but didn’t quite live up to last year’s match between the two. There is a feeling that this year’s G1 is underperforming compared to the last two years. However, the last two years were the two best wrestling tournaments, ever, so that’s not so much of an issue. We can’t possibly expect a barrage of ***** classics during every GI. Can we? Verdict: 84
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AuthorArnold Furious Archives
April 2016
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