By Tokyo Wrestling Fan @twf87, Laura Maura @LauraNMauro, and Mike Grindle @MikeGrindle
The G1 Climax has reached the half-way point now, and there have already been some top quality matchups. After the first seven shows mainly took place in Tokyo the tournament went on the road for nights eight to eleven, stopping in the home prefectures of SANADA and Kazuchika Okada. Once again I was joined by my colleagues Laura Mauro and Mike Grindle to provide analysis of nights eight to eleven of the G1 Climax 28.
G1 Climax Night Eight, Ao-re Nagaoka, Niigata (3,106 attendance)
Hirooki Goto def. Toru Yano, 2:17
Tetsuya Naito def. Tama Tonga, 10:06
Zack Sabre Jr. def. Tomohiro Ishii, 14:35
Kenny Omega def. Juice Robinson, 15:31
SANADA def. Kota Ibushi, 22:23
The G1 Climax returned for night eight in Niigata, at the start of the western leg of the tour. The opening match was between Goto and Yano, in a fast-paced, fun match that featured Yano doing his best to catch Goto out with roll ups and a general return to his cheating ways. Goto recovered from a shaky start and quickly put Yano down with an ushigoroshi and a GTR for a win and two more points under his belt. The second match of the night was Tama Tonga against Tetsuya Naito, and so far during this tournament I’ve been underwhelmed by Tama. However, this was a Tama match that I actually quite enjoyed, and while there was still plenty of cheating it was done in a less obvious way that didn’t just result in an automatic DQ. In between trying to cheat Tama and Naito had some decent wrestling, then EVIL and BUSHI came down to even the numbers for Naito, who got a win following a Destino. I think Naito and Tama could have a good match if they fully focused on the wrestling, their styles are quite complimentary.
The third match saw Tomohiro Ishii take on ZSJ in a rematch from last year’s G1. This was another really enjoyable match – Ishii has yet to put on a bad match in my opinion – and Ishii somewhat surprisingly stood up to Zack in terms of technical wrestling. He even broke out some submissions, catching Zack in an ankle lock, and nearly forcing him to tap. ZSJ was lured into some strike exchanges with Ishii, which he obviously came off second best in, but he finally forced Ishii to tap out to an armbar after a punishing bout. The semi-main event pitted the undefeated Kenny Omega against the winless Juice Robinson. Last year Juice got a shock win over Kenny with a roll-up, and that was teased in this match, including a close roll-up from a One Winged Angel attempt. Kenny shook hands with Juice to start the match, but quickly dropped the pretence of sportsmanship by targeting Juice’s injured hand. Juice weathered most of what Kenny threw at him, and came very close to hitting Pulp Friction, but ultimately a V-trigger followed by a One Winged Angel put him down for the three count. This was a decent match, and the crowd were vocally behind Kenny, but for me it never got into top gear and lacked some heat to make it a great match.
The main event saw SANADA take on Kota Ibushi in the B Block “handsome battle”. SANADA, who is from Niigata, was extremely popular with the crowd, even more-so than fan favourite Ibushi. This was an interesting match, since both wrestlers had technical skill and high flying ability, so the early portion of the match was quite slow and methodical as they felt each other out. The match was very even throughout, with SANADA getting the Skull End locked in at one point only for Ibushi to escape, and Ibushi hit a Last Ride powerbomb for a very close two count. He nearly managed to connect with the Kamigoye, but SANADA dodged his attempts, and finally caught Ibushi in the Skull End in the centre of the ring. Ibushi fought but couldn’t escape, and as he started to fade SANADA leapt up, climbed the turnbuckle, and hit a moonsault to claim victory in the style of his mentor Keiji Mutoh. This was a very good match, and SANADA really stood out as having taken a step up from last year’s G1. After the match he cut a promo saying how much he liked Nagaoka and promising to win the G1. The results of night eight meant that Kenny Omega stayed on top of B Block with 8 points, SANADA and Naito on 6 points, ZSJ, Goto, Ishii, and Ibushi on 4 points, Yano and Tama on 2 points, and Juice still languished on 0 points.
G1 Climax Night Nine, Act City Hamamatsu, Shizuoka (2,800 attendance)
Minoru Suzuki def. Michael Elgin, 14:10
EVIL def. Hangman Page, 15:40
Bad Luck Fale def. Jay White, 11:42
Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Togi Makabe, 12:00
Kazuchika Okada def. YOSHI-HASHI, 19:40
The G1 moved on to Hamamatsu for night nine, and Minoru Suzuki and Michael Elgin opened the show with a hard-hitting bout. Elgin won his first two matches, but then lost to YOSHI-HASHI, whilst Suzuki had the momentum coming into this match having lost his first, but then won two in a row. Both men hit hard, so Suzuki targeted Elgin’s right arm in order to stop him utilising his big chops and strikes. This was pretty effective, and Suzuki got the better of most of the striking exchanges, although Elgin was able to fight through the pain and deliver some hits with his right arm nonetheless. Suzuki got the win in this match after a sleeper hold and a Gotch-style piledriver to move up to 6 points. In the next match EVIL took on Hangman Page, in a match that had a pretty slow start but a hot finish. There was quite a long feeling out process, and then some brawling on the outside to start the match, but the match picked up steam when Page hit EVIL with a moonsault from the top turnbuckle to the outside. Page and EVIL both have some good lariats and strikes, and the crowd particularly popped for Page’s Buckshot Lariat. EVIL got a near fall with Darkness Falls, and then finally hit an STO after a big lariat for the victory.
The third match saw the two resident bad boys of A Block, Jay White and Bad Luck Fale, go head to head in a match that was probably one of the better interference heavy matches of the G1 so far. Jay took the initiative early on by attacking Tanga Loa before the bell rang, and he managed to keep Fale off balance by attacking his leg and trying to ground the big man. There was the requisite ref bump after Jay tried to hit Fale with a Blade Runner, which led to Tanga Loa and Tama Tonga rushing the ring to attack Jay. Jay managed to fight off the attackers and hit Fale with a low blow, but then fell victim to a Gun Stun, which allowed Fale to hit a Bad Luck Fall to pick up only his second win this year. During this match the English commentary was knocked off the air, so most of this match had no commentary, just the sounds of flesh hitting flesh and Jay and Fale battered each other. Interestingly no one from CHAOS came out to help Jay when he was attacked by the Tongans. The semi-main event featured Hiroshi Tanahashi and Togi Makabe, who both debuted in the G1 around the same time in the early 2000s. Tanahashi went on to win two G1 tournaments, and while Makabe never managed to win overall, he’s been performing at a high level this year. The crowd support was split quite evenly between Tanahashi and Makabe, who had a decent match, but one that never really got beyond that. There were some good spots of Makabe hitting hard, and Tanahashi managing to stay one step ahead of him with his speed and technique. Makabe managed to hit Tanahashi with a spider-belly to belly suplex from the top turnbuckle, but he missed the follow-up King Kong Knee Drop, which was the opening that Tanahashi needed to hit a pair of High Fly Flows for the victory. In keeping with many of the A Block matches so far, this was good but lacked a certain something to get it to great.
The main event of night nine again featured Kazuchika Okada, this time taking on his CHAOS teammate YOSHI-HASHI. The story of YOSHI-HASHI this G1 has been that he is an epic underdog, and between the Elgin match and this match he’s impressed me on recent shows. This match had a slow start, as Okada controlled most of the opening ten minutes, and clearly looked down on YOSHI-HASHI. The crowd was surprisingly behind YOSHI-HASHI, and when he kicked out of a sitout Rainmaker by Okada there was an audible pop. I appreciated YOSHI-HASHI’s fire in this match, and he clearly was desperate to win, although I’m not sure that they really did enough to convince me that was a possibility. The Butterfly Lock still looks like a weak submission, and despite Okada’s best selling it never seemed likely that he was under threat of tapping out. Okada finally triumphed after hitting YOSHI-HASHI with a rolling Rainmaker, which seems to be one of his new favourite moves of the tournament, and then a full Rainmaker. At the end of night nine Tanahashi and EVIL topped the block on 8 points, Okada, Suzuki, and Jay were on 6 points, Fale, Makabe, and Elgin were on 4 points, and YOSHI-HASHI and Page were on 2 points.
G1 Climax Night Ten, Aichi Prefectural Gymansium, Aichi (5,735 attendance)
Zack Sabre Jr. def. Tama Tonga, 10:59
Juice Robinson def. Toru Yano, 8:28
Kota Ibushi def. Tomohiro Ishii, 16:13
Tetsuya Naito def. Hirooki Goto, 13:26
Kenny Omega def. SANADA, 20:12
Night ten saw the G1 tournament head to Aichi, the home prefecture of Kazuchika Okada, and the opening tournament match saw ZSJ take on Tama Tonga. As Tama matches in this G1 go it was pretty good – lots of interference as expected, but ZSJ had some inventive counters for the Gun Stun, and nearly got a submission victory before Bad Luck Fale came into the ring and attacked him for a DQ. I’m still not really sure what the point of this Bullet Club OG story is, but hopefully there will be some payoff worth ruining all these G1 matches. Luckily the next match was a fun bout between Juice Robinson and Toru Yano, who had spent most of this G1 trying not to cheat and play fair. This lasted for a few minutes of the match, when he went back to his amateur roots, but soon he was back to his old cheating ways. Juice and Yano had some fun physical comedy between them, and Juice finally took off his cast in this match, which presumably means that his hand injury story will be coming to an end. Juice picked up his first tournament win after hitting Yano with Pulp Friction.
The next match saw Kota Ibushi take on Tomohiro Ishii, which was a rematch from last year’s G1, when Ibushi beat Ishii. This match began with Ibushi going to the outside and hitting one of his death-defying moonsaults from the balcony early on.
IBUSHI!! #NJPW #G128 https://t.co/wRupFhxVAb pic.twitter.com/RIa14wgkf7
— LARIATOOOO!! (@MrLARIATO) July 28, 2018
Once the two wrestlers made it back into the ring, it became one of the most physically impressive, and hard-hitting matches of the tournament so far. Ishii refused to back down from Ibushi’s strikes and dared him to hit him harder, and Ibushi tapped into that strong style side of him that doesn’t always come out when he’s focusing on his high-flying arsenal. Both wrestlers stole the others’ trademark moves – Ishii hit Ibushi with a Last Ride powerbomb and a Kamigoye, Ibushi hit Ishii with a brainbuster. I can imagine that the no-selling in this match might have put some people off, but to me it was another great encapsulation of strong style along with the Goto vs. Ishii match from last week. Ibushi finally eked out a win with a Kamigoye, and Ishii has yet to have a bad match in this tournament. In the semi-final match the defending G1 champion Tetsuya Naito took on the NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto. This was a decent match, but the crowd seemed a bit emotionally exhausted by the previous epic bout, and this match failed to reach the same heights. Naito and Goto didn’t seem to have great chemistry in this match, and at one point it looked like there was botch on a Destino attempt. Naito controlled a lot of the opening, and while Goto managed to hold his own, and even hit a reverse GTR, Naito got the win with two consecutive Destinos.
The main event featured the B Block leader Kenny Omega taking on the surging SANADA, who defeated Ibushi two nights earlier. This was another really good match in which SANADA showed again that he can hang with the top talent in New Japan – this G1 could well be a star-making performance for him. The audience was really hot for SANADA as well, especially after his victory over Ibushi. Towards the end of the match SANADA was able to lock in the Skull End, then he went up top for a moonsault in a repeat of the way that he beat Ibushi. This time Kenny dodged the moonsault, but the crowd really bought into the fact that SANADA might be able to beat the champion. Kenny absolutely punished his opponent with multiple V-triggers in this match, and came very close to hitting the One Winged Angel before SANADA reversed it into a reverse Frankensteiner. Finally Omega was able to get SANADA up and pull him into position for a One Winged Angel, which delivered him the victory. This result left Kenny unbeaten at the top of B Block with 10 points, SANADA, Naito, Ibushi, and ZSJ on 6 points, Goto, and Ishii on 4 points, and Yano, Juice, and Tama on 2 points.
G1 Climax Night Eleven, Takamatsu City General Gymnasium #1, Kagawa (2,555 attendance)
Bad Luck Fale def. Togi Makabe, 7:51
Jay White def. Hangman Page, 17:10
Minoru Suzuki def. EVIL, 12:13
Hiroshi Tanahashi def. YOSHI-HASHI, 12:36
Kazuchika Okada def. Michael Elgin, 20:56
Night eleven of the G1 tournament stopped in Kagawa, where A Block resumed again with Bad Luck Fale continuing the Bullet Club reign of terror over the G1. Once again there were a lot of shenanigans, as Tanga Loa continued to be a disruptive presence in the tournament matches. Makabe always refuses to give in against opponents who, on paper, are stronger than him and tonight was no exception as he tried to stand up against the bigger Fale. Makabe took out both Loa and Fale, but missed a King Kong Knee Drop and while the referee was down Fale hit him with his chain and pinned him. At least the cheating sometimes leads to wins. In the second match, Jay White returned to winning ways against Hangman Page, who keeps looking great in defeat. White controlled most of this match at a methodical pace, but when Page began his comeback things heated up and the crowd rallied behind him. Page’s moonsault off the top turnbuckle to the outside looks amazing, but he was unable to hit one when White was in the ring. Jay brought some chairs into play to attack Page’s injured back, and the crowd once again popped when Page kicked out of a chair-assisted cover. Ultimately Page was undone when the referee missed a low blow from White, which led to a Blade Runner and the cover. This was a decent match, but definitely didn’t need to go seventeen minutes.
In the third match Minoru Suzuki and EVIL faced each other in a rematch of last year’s G1, when EVIL defeated Suzuki. Suzuki and EVIL went at it before the bell rang, and the fight spilled outside the ring, where Suzuki used chairs and guard rails to beat down his opponent. In the early part of this match Suzuki focused on EVIL’s arm, attacking with weapons and submission holds, which hampered EVIL’s striking ability. There were some decent sequences between the two, but this match, like the two preceding ones, started off quite slowly and featured a lot of brawling outside the ring that contributed to the slow pace. In the closing stretch Suzuki countered Darkness Falls, then locked in a sleeper hold, which EVIL escaped, but another sleeper and finally a Gotch-style piledriver sealed the revenge victory. The semi-final match saw Hiroshi Tanahashi take on YOSHI-HASHI, in another rematch from last year’s G1. This was a good match, because it didn’t feature any shenanigans outside the ring, and they did a decent job of making me believe that YOSHI-HASHI might get an upset victory. In what may be karmic retribution, YOSHI-HASHI’s attempt at a Butterfly Lock was countered into a rollup by Tanahashi for the win, so maybe now he will stop using it as his main submission. Tanahashi demonstrated that he had more ways to win than just the High Fly Flow, and he didn’t dominate this match as much as he might have done. The crowd really got behind YOSHI-HASHI as well, cementing his run in this year’s G1 as a plucky underdog who just can’t quite get the job done.
The main event was another match featuring Kazuchika Okada, who despite his current slump has main evented the majority of the A Block shows. His opponent on night eleven was Michael Elgin, who started the tournament strongly but has faded since then. This was a good match, which featured some exciting high spots, and the crowd was split quite evenly between Okada and Elgin. Like all the other matches on this card though, there was something a little off with the pacing, which could simply be the toll of eleven consecutive shows on all the wrestlers. Elgin came close to victory with a Splash Mountain, and he nearly hit a Burning Hammer, before Okada hit what has become his new trademark – a rolling Rainmaker followed by a Rainmaker for the three count. Okada still looks not himself in the ring, and this may go some way to explaining why he’s not putting on quite as high quality matches as he has done in the past, but both men gave a good enough showing to get the crowd very excited. At the end of night eleven, Tanahashi was top of A Block with 10 points, Okada, Jay, EVIL, and Suzuki were on 8 points, Fale was on 6 points, Makabe and Elgin on 4 points, and Page and YOSHI-HASHI were eliminated from contention on 2 points.
Standings
A Block B Block
Hiroshi Tanahashi, 10 pts. Kenny Omega, 10 pts.
EVIL, 8 pts. SANADA, 6 pts.
Kazuchika Okada, 8 pts. Kota Ibushi, 6 pts.
Minoru Suzuki, 8 pts. Tetsuya Naito, 6 pts.
Jay White, 8 pts. Zack Sabre Jr., 6 pts.
Bad Luck Fale, 6 pts. Tomohiro Ishii, 4 pts.
Togi Makabe, 4 pts. Hirooki Goto, 4 pts.
Michael Elgin, 4 pts. Juice Robinson, 2 pts.
Hangman Page, 2 pts. Toru Yano, 2 pts.
YOSHI-HASHI, 2 pts. Tama Tonga, 2 pts.
Final Thoughts
LM: Week 2 has definitely established B-Block as the one to watch. That’s not to say there’s nothing worth watching in A-Block – Jay White has more than found his feet and continues to impress with each outing, Suzuki and Tanahashi are always worth watching, and although Yoshi-Hashi’s tournament is more or less over, it’s been enjoyable watching him find his fire – his Night 9 match against Okada was surprisingly compelling. But B-Block is where all the best action has been, and most of it has been from Ishii. His match against Ibushi was nothing short of spectacular – matching one another strike for strike in an absolutely brutal encounter, complete with an Ibushi balcony moonsault. Probably the best match of the tournament so far, and that’s on the heels of Ishii vs Goto, which was also edge-of-seat stuff. Ibushi also impressed against Sanada in what the English commentary team referred to as a ‘handsome battle’ – I can’t argue with that assessment. (Far be it from me to watch wrestling just for the good-looking men, but damn.) Sanada might just be one of the most underrated in the tournament – he’s incredibly versatile and matched Ibushi in both speed and strength, which is no mean feat. And though I’ve not been particularly keen on Tama Tonga this tournament, his Night 8 match against Naito was the most enjoyable he’s been so far. Overall, I think Ibushi and Ishii have been the G1 MVP’s so far, with a string of superb matches between them.
Outside the main tournament, I’ve been enjoying the hints that Roppongi 3K might be heading for a split sometime soon – even though a big part of me wants to see them get a decent title run first. It seems clear that Sho is ready for a big push, though I admit I rate Yoh a little more highly – it’s a close-run thing, though, and like Rocky (who has been an excellent addition to the commentary team) I’m not about to choose between them. The ongoing saga of Yoh and Jay White: Worst Tag Team Partner Ever is a nice touch and adds depth to both characters – I foresee a Jay White coup in the near future. CHAOS better watch out. Switchblade could well emerge from the G1 as the most improved, both in-ring and in character terms. Oh, and it was nice to see Satoshi Kojima, albeit briefly; I hope to see him back in action in the not-too-distant future.
MG: The gap in match quality between the two blocks is becoming more apparent as the tournament wears on, with the B block far outshining the A block this year. It’s not so much that A block is bad, though, it’s been very decent, if just a little inconsistent. Instead, it’s more a case of the B block being so outstanding that nothing can touch it. Pretty much everyone in that block has been on top form, and they seem to be getting better as the tournament goes on. Heck, even Tama’s shenanigan filled matches have at least provided some variety to proceedings.
One man has stood above everyone else though, and that man is Tomohiro Ishii. Ishii had a very low key 2018 within NJPW up until the G1, mostly being found within multi-tags, but man has he made the most of his chance to shine in this tournament setting. As I mentioned in our last review, his match with Goto was my match of the tournament. Well, you can scratch that because his match with Ibushi was even better, stealing the show on what turned out to be one of the best nights of the tournament, with Omega/Sanada and Naito/Goto producing big as well.
Of course having the best matches doesn’t win you the G1, so who is actually going to win their respective blocks and the tournament? Jay White currently holds big tiebreakers over Okada and Tanahashi, and he alongside those two men seems to be the most likely finalists from the A block, whilst Ibushi and Naito seem the most likely finalists from the B block despite Omega’s current standing (champions just don’t go through in this day and age). I can’t see New Japan giving the G1 to Ibushi due to his freelancer status, but any of those other aforementioned stars could potentially win it at this point, with my personal pick being Okada.
TWF: As my colleagues have mentioned, there has been a growing gap in quality between A Block and B Block this week, and A Block matches are becoming a bit of a chore to watch. I think that New Japan could have done a better job of mixing the quality of wrestlers and storylines in this year’s G1 – Juice Robinson and Tomohiro Ishii in A Block in exchange for Hangman Page and Togi Makabe could have made things very interesting for instance. Nonetheless, there has been good to great quality wrestling on every show so far, with Ishii vs. Ibushi and SANADA vs. Ibushi being two of my favourite matches this week. Ishii is still my favourite of the G1 this year, but SANADA has really impressed me this week in his matches against Ibushi and Kenny.
With A Block a match ahead of B Block, YOSHI-HASHI and Hangman Page have now been mathematically eliminated, despite their good showings in the tournament so far. Since Juice Robinson and Tama Tonga both lost to Kenny Omega, they’re effectively eliminated from B Block contention, as is Yano if he loses another match. Right now Tanahashi leads A Block, but with a final night match against Okada I don’t expect that to stay that way for too long. EVIL has a tough schedule left, with matches against Tanahashi, Okada, and Jay White, so he could have a hand in helping decide who wins the block (or take three consecutive losses). It does feel like Ibushi and Naito are being primed to win B Block, and the match between Naito and SANADA on August 8th has big implications. ZSJ still has matches to come against Omega and Naito, so he could potentially play spoiler for either of their chances of winning the block. B Block has some very big matchups still to come, including Ibushi vs. Naito and Ibushi vs. Kenny, as well as the aforementioned LIJ match, so the match quality promises not to drop much over the next eight shows.
