Night 12
Date: August 1, 2019
From: Fukuoka Citizen Gymnasium (Fukuoka, Japan)
Undercard Results:
Fale, Yujiro, & Chase def. KENTA, Connors, & Fredericks
ZSJ & Suzuki def. Archer & Kanemaru
Ibushi, Honma, & Henare def. Tanahashi, Umino, & Narita
Okada, Ospreay, & YOSHI-HASHI def. SANADA, EVIL, & BUSHI
B Block Matches:
Jeff Cobb def. Shingo Takagi
August is upon us and to kick things off for the G1 its Jeff Cobb and Shingo Takagi. You love good ol’ hoss fights? Then this is exactly for you! Both men just annihilated each other for the whole 12 minutes of action. It’s honestly been Cobb’s second best match of the tournament so far in my opinion, only behind his Ishii match. A 10-12 minute match time certainly works for Cobb and with a great opponent like The Dragon, it really gets the best out of him. Tour of the Islands takes the win.
Toru Yano def. Jon Moxley
“He’s done it again! He’s done it again! Yano wins!” the famous words uttered by Kevin Kelly as Toru Yano becomes the first man to defeat Jon Moxley in his New Japan career! Mox has proved that he can work both a serious and comedy match, I know that’s kind of established during his time with the WWE but it couldn’t be more apparent with this match. Him and Yano have a perfect chemistry of goofiness and madness. Yano tied up Moxley’s feet to Shooter (Shota Umino) outside with his signature tape and earned the count out victory. He gets the win and his 5,000 yen back. Now he has wins over the IC and US Champions. Yano Two Belts when?
Tetsuya Naito def. Juice Robinson
With YTR getting the win over Moxley, Naito and Switchblade’s hopes of winning the G1 are kept alive. I’ve mentioned earlier, Juice is a good wrestler but doesn’t nearly mesh well with styles of the other New Japan wrestlers and I guess this is just another case of that. Not all good wrestlers whenever pitted against one another will give you an instant classic, sometimes it just turns out to be decent. Which I’ll take all day rather than a Fale match but enough about the guy. Lots of teasing between these two though which I found fun, such as Juice taking a lot of his time removing three shirts, then Naito mocking the “Juice!” chant. The match itself was serviceable but nothing worthy of jumping out of your seat. Destino at 13 minutes and 47 seconds.
Jay White def. Taichi
It’s the battle of New Japan’s biggest douches. This is one of those matches that I’ve also looked forward to when the blocks were announced, not because it might turn out to be a classic masterpiece, but for the sheer aura of two heels going at it. I can say, it delivered as expected. If you’re expecting a clean match between two members of Bullet Club and Suzuki-Gun then you’re watching the wrong match. The interferences and other shenanigans actually added into the story. Gedo and Kanemaru played their roles just as well too, with the former even strangling Miho Abe in the hair, how dare he! Anyway, I think it speaks volumes to how great of a heel Jay is that he makes Taichi beloved like Tanahashi! How can someone even be able to do that? It’s rare to see Taichi work in the “babyface” role if you can even call it that but yeah, Switchblade was clearly the dominant heel here and in the end, got the win with a Bladerunner. A 15 minute clusterf*ck, but a good one at that.
Hirooki Goto def. Tomohiro Ishii
To end the night we have a classic matchup between Ishii and Goto. If you wanna know what strong style and fighting spirit is all about, then this match is the embodiment of that. Last year in the G1 they had a similar hard hitting affair, this year is no different. It’s always a treat to see these two each other in the ring and man do they make you feel like they hate each other whenever they go at it despite being in the same faction together. Elbows, chops, kicks, you name every imaginable strike and they’ll punish each other with it. This will probably go down as one of the underrated matches of the entire tournament but it’s definitely up there for me in terms of favorites. You can never go wrong with an Ishii vs. Goto match. Samurai Warrior gets a victory with a GTR, hoping we get a re-match for the NEVER title down the line.
B Block Leaderboard:
10 Points = Jon Moxley
6 Points = Naito, Cobb, Goto, Ishii, Juice, White, Yano
4 Points = Taichi, Shingo Takagi
