DAY 1: Saturday, July 14th (A-Block) Tokyo
TOGI MAKABAE vs. YOSHI-HASHI (11:05): And here we are, only a week since New Japan's epic and awesome Cow Palace show in the states. The G1! What G1 even stands for I'm not sure (okay, I just looked it up and it stands for Grade 1. So...Yano is considered a Grade 1 athlete?), but it's the best wrestling tournament of the year and always features a few of the best matches of the year. Lately it's been the greatest thing since sliced bread for wrestling fans. The best match of 2016 was the Omega/Naito semi-final and the best match of 2017 was the Okada/Omega semi-final. The best match of 2015 was the Suzuki/Styles match during the tournament. Not sure what went wrong in 2016. But it's here, a month long tournament to crown a winner that will go on to face someone in October. Typically the winner goes on to the Dome in January to main event. And this was actually a good opener, surprisingly since neither guy has a chance to win and, let's face it, who the fuck cares about Makabe and Yoshi-Hashi? Apparently the Japanese crowds do, as they were hot for this (Makabe did, once, hold the championship a long time ago and is supposedly a popular late night TV guest in Japan). It certainly doesn't bode well for Yoshi-Hashi that he came in with his shoulder all taped up. He still has eight more dudes to wrestle and he's already beat up. This was hard hitting. Yoshi-Hashi did some hard slaps and Makabe does the usual grunting and body slams. It was entertaining. **1/2
HANGMAN PAGE vs. BAD LUCK FALE (8:04): This is Adam Page's debut in the G1. He's really turned into a sort-of star this past year. I actually saw him wrestle for ROH at the ECW Arena a few years ago and don't even remember him (he was in the forgotten opener). Page won by DQ when The Firing Squad, a new evil group with the Tongan's and Fale, showed up and beat him up. Before that there was a lengthy crowd brawl. It was short, okay. I guess this is the story line: that Fale will lose every match by DQ when his group interferes. I guess he should've told them not to interfere? Logic! **
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. EVIL (16:08): Elgin is in great matches once in a blue moon. Evil has never been in a great match nor ever will. This was hard hitting and dramatic and exciting late but pretty boring early. **1/2
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. MINORU SUZUKI (13:59): Short but exciting. They started out super fast but eventually Suzuki kept putting Tanahashi in the Sleeper Hold, probably because, at 50, he's a fucking tired, old man. The crowd loved this so I'm still wondering why this wasn't the main event. Suzuki hard slapped Tanahashi a zillion times but it didn't matter, Tanahashi won after delivering two High Fly Flows. **1/2
JAY WHITE vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (25:36): Jay White had a match of the year candidate last week against Juice Robinson in California. He also lost his U.S. title. And Okada lost his title to Omega in June and is now a lost soul, showing up at the California show holding balloons and coming into this match with hair tips dyed red. Okay. Unfortunately, this two either didn't mesh well or just couldn't follow up the last match. It was just okay and the crowd was kind of quiet for it. White won but even that wasn't too much of a surprise, as there's always a few surprise wins on the first two days of this tournament. And I think everyone knows Okada is winning this whole thing. Or is he...? **
DAY 2: Sunday, July 15th (B-Block) Tokyo
TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. TORU YANO (8:52): Yano is the clown, usually, but for whatever reason he went through this match as if he was a typical New Japan wrestler and this was a typical, classic, G1 match. Which was fucking odd...but ultimately it was more entertaining than the usual, silly Yano antics. Hopefully he doesn't wrestle all of his matches like this because, honestly, while this was a good match I just can't take him seriously. **1/2
TAMA TONGA vs. JUICE ROBINSON (14:52): A dud. Juice just had a classic (and his best New Japan match yet) last week against Jay White in California. The strange thing is...he has a broken hand. Why the hell is he in this tournament? I don't know. Maybe it's just injured or something. Tama Tonga pretty much had to win this match to give legitimacy to the new Firing Squad faction. The problem is that everyone in the Firing Squad are boring wrestlers. This match was no exception. *1/2
HIROOKI GOTO vs. SANADA (13:38): Good match. The crowd went wild for the final few minutes when both were delivering killer moves one after the other. Sanada is rarely in good matches and Goto is like a dark horse, occasionally he shows up in an excellent match out of nowhere. I will say that the B block is the superior division this year. They've got Naito, Ishii, Ibushi, and Omega. Those are four of the best wrestlers in the world. And I think Goto will probably have classics with all of them. Okada's still winning this whole thing but Ibushi is my pick to win the B block. **1/2
KOTA IBUSHI vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (22:58): Good, long, hard hitting match. You could tell it went long and both guy's were busting their asses because sweat was just pouring off of them by the end. That, or maybe the building didn't have AC. With Day 1's Suzuki/Tanahashi match and now this one, it seems the new killer move in the G1 is the hard, face slap. I suppose it looks better than the classic, WWE fake punch used way too much. Sabre is not a favorite of mine because too often his matches are boring for a majority, but I will say that at least his matches are unique. Ibushi has never been in a bad match in his life, has he? The final five or so minutes of this were quite the dramatic spectacle. ***
KENNY OMEGA vs. TETSUYA NAITO (23:19): These two last face each other in the G1 final last year. This was early in the tournament, though, so they didn't do as much dropping-each other-on-their-heads moves as usual, nor was it as good as their last two G1 matches, a final and a semi-final, but it was still the best match of the tournament so far and just plain awesome. This is the first year that they're having Kevin Kelly do English commentary for the whole G1 but I always watch it with the Japanese commentary. This match is the reason why. The announcers were frothing at the mouth and screaming in an orgiastic frenzy by the end of this. Omega countered The Destino multiple times, most notably into a pile driver. He also kicked out of a Destino. But nobody has yet kicked out of Omega's One-Winged Angel, and he won with it here. ***1/2
DAY 3: Monday, July 16th (A-Block) Sapporo
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. HANGMAN PAGE (17:17): Hard hitting, sure, but so-so. This show, which didn't particularly have any great matches, was in a really big building with a large, 6,000+ crowd. Maybe those in Sapporo are drunk (isn't Sapporo a whiskey?) or perhaps don't get to see New Japan live a lot, because six thousand for this card is revolutionary. The crowd was semi-dead for a lot of this match, as the Japanese are tough customers when two foreigners wrestle each other. **
EVIL vs. YOSHI-HASHI (12:37): The G1 would be a hell of a lot better if these two weren't it. Granted, Yoshi-Hashi has been wrestling with more fire lately since his good singles bout against Naito a few months ago. But this was mostly forgettable. The one memorable moment happened when Yoshi-Hashi tried to pick up Evil in the corner and got him up but couldn't hold on and Evil spilled up and over him and out of the ring and Yoshi-Hashi was pulled out with him. That was an amusing gaffe. *1/2
TOGI MAKABE vs. MINORU SUZUKI (14:58): The crowd was super hot for this, I guess because, like fans cheering for old/famous wrestlers like Hogan now, Makabe and Suzuki would have been wrestling in the main event for the title ten years ago. This started like a bar room brawl then went outside where Suzuki beat up Makabe with a chair then pushed the New Japan crew boys around. After that it got slow and dull with intermittent Makabe offense until he ended up coming back to win. **
BAD LUCK FALE vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (13:38): Boring. Okada had a legendary two year title run where he was regularly having four star matches. His one obvious bad match amidst that run was, of course, against Fale, the big bore. The surprise was that Okada lost for the second time already in the G1. Fale won after one of the Tonga's low-blowed Okada when the ref wasn't looking. I'm guessing that Okada is now partaking in a Rocky-esque story line. He lost the title. He's down, beaten, a lost loser. Cue the redemption, winning, title victory. This is New Japan, so that might take a year or two, though. *
JAY WHITE vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (24:02): The end of this was great. Tanahashi is still the king of drama during the final flurry of his matches. Before that, though, when Tanahashi's knee was hurt and White worked it over forever, the match dragged and the crowd sat on their hands. White has now beat Okada and Tanahashi in the G1, which is unheard of, right? This was better than their last match against each other, the truly bad Wrestle Kingdom match earlier this year when White debuted his "Switchblade" character, which I guess is a West Side Story caricature? But it wasn't much better. Still, the last few minutes were great. **1/2
A-Block Standings:
ELGIN: 2-0 EVIL: 1-1 FALE: 1-1 MAKABE: 2-0 OKADA: 0-2 PAGE: 1-1 SUZUKI: 0-2 TANAHASHI: 1-1 WHITE: 2-0 YOSHI-HASHI: 0-2
DAY 4: Thursday, July 19th (B-Block) Tokyo:
SANADA vs. TAMA TONGA (10:46): The Firing Squad interfered throughout this match, but Sanada got a roll-up pin at the end. I suppose giving the Tonga brothers a story line and group is at least throwing them a bone, because they've been pretty much lame these last two years or so in New Japan. But...but...they're lame! Still. Which means this was dull. And Bad Luck Fale and the other Tonga interfered but Tama Tonga still lost, which doesn't say much about their gang. This wasn't particularly good. *
ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. TORU YANO (10:34): Yano's first G1 match against Ishii was a regular, serious, hard hitting affair. Would he actually do that in the whole tournament? Nope. He went back to his comedy antics in this match, although the crowd roared their approval for it. This was your typical Yano match. I.E.: mostly forgettable but semi-amusing. *1/2
KOTA IBUSHI vs. JUICE ROBINSON (13:03): This was the match of the night. Is Ibushi the greatest wrestler on the planet? Perhaps. He did a Hurricanrana on Juice while the two of them were standing on the apron. Then he did a moonsault off the top of the metal pillar thing right behind the top rope down onto Juice amidst the crowd. This wasn't a classic or anything but it was entertaining. **1/2
TETSUYA NAITO vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (19:13): These two have had some all time great matches. Ishii is old now and it wasn't even the main event or anything so it ended up being a tad disappointing when considering they usually pull of four star spectacles. Good, alas, not great. **1/2
KENNY OMEGA vs. HIROOKI GOTO (19:25): Omega did a moonsault off of a guardrail in the stands down onto Goto and a few of the New Japan crew members. That was crazy. I guess he saw what Ibushi did earlier and wanted to top it. I'm not sure why Naito/Ishii wasn't the main event. I guess because Omega is the champ and this was a re-match of the 2016 G1 final. For whatever reason, none of the Omega/Goto matches in the past have ever been excellent. They've been good, just not what you're used to seeing out of Omega, the so-called, "best-bout-machine." **
B-Block standings:
GOTO: 1-1 JUICE: 1-1 IBUSHI: 2-0 ISHII: 1-1 NAITO: 1-1 OMEGA: 2-0 SABRE: 1-1 SANADA: 1-1 TONGA: 1-1 YANO: 0-2
DAY 5: Friday, July 20th (A-Block) Tokyo:
JAY WHITE vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (17:44): Well this A-block is pretty lackluster. They have Okada and Tanahashi, but that's about it. Sure, Suzuki is amusing albeit old. The highlight of Suzuki's match was the crowd singing along to his infamous entrance song. This match ended when White delivered a low blow on Elgin. It seems like, for whatever reason, there is a ton of ref bumps and refs being distracted during this year's G1. More than usual, anyway. This match was mediocre. Jay White just started the G1 and is already tired. He tried to lift Elgin on the apron for what looked like a cradle suplex type maneuver but couldn't lift him and they both ended up toppling off the ring and hard onto the floor. This whole show was pretty forgettable. Where's the no-announcing, fixed camera shows when you need 'em? **
MINORU SUZUKI vs. YOSHI-HASHI (13:44): Suzuki, of course, ended up hitting Yoshi-Hashi with a chair outside the ring amid the crowd. Yoshi-Hashi's shoulder is still taped up so Suzuki tore the tape off. What brutality! Suzuki matches in this year's G1 are all the same; they start fast, brutal, then slow to a crawl. Suzuki knocked out one of the crew guys after the match then, on the way to the back, was ready to punch announcer Kevin Kelly but didn't and Kelly flinched and cowered at his table. **
EVIL vs. TOGI MAKABE (10:16): This wasn't much of anything. Monotonous, back and forth action and fairly bland. *
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. BAD LUCK FALE (16:27): The Firing Squad interfered, which is the big story line in this tournament. Tanahashi attacked Fale's legs early. Eventually he was primed to win when Tama Tonga pulled the referee out of the ring. This caused Red Shoes to give them the finger and call the match a DQ. I'm so used to seeing outside interference and ref bumps in the WWE that it's kind of shocking to see it so widespread in this company. Granted, these two would not have had a better match without the shenanigans, so I guess it at least provided some sliver of entertainment. **
KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. HANGMAN PAGE (17:31): Page is in the main event, which probably tells you something about the A-block. Page did all of his patented moves; the top rope moonsault to the floor, the over-the-top-rope leap into a clothesline, etc. The crowd was kind of into it (this whole weekend's block of shows was at Korakeun Hall, the great, small, packed arena) late but it never really turned into anything all that great. The best part was actually when Okada came out holding a bunch of balloons. What is his gimmick? Fool? Loser? He has dyed red hair now and balloons. Maybe he recently watched last year's Stephen King's It movie. **
A-block standings:
ELGIN: 2-1 EVIL: 2-1 FALE: 1-2 MAKABE: 2-1 OKADA: 1-2 PAGE: 1-2 SUZUKI: 1-2 TANAHASHI: 2-1 WHITE: 3-0 YOSHI-HASHI: 0-3
DAY 6 Saturday, July 21st (B-Block) Tokyo:
TORU YANO vs. KOTA IBUSHI (8:23): Yano with the upset. God, how can Ibushi go through life knowing that the clown king pinned him? The crowd did love Yano. I'm not sure why, although I have a guess. I do watch a lot of foreign films, and I can't for the life of me think of a Japanese comedy. Maybe they're sense of humor sucks and that's why they don't make any good comedies? Is that why they think Yano is fucking hilarious, because they don't know good comedy if it slapped them in the face? Who knows? So they both ended up taking the protective padding thing off every corner of the ropes then threw each other into them. Yano gave Ibushi and a low blow. He also taped Ibushi's hands together. I suppose it was mildly amusing. *1/2
SANADA vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (10:45): Good match. This show was light years better than last night's dull show. The B-block is where it's at! They did a neat little sequence where they kept rolling each other up for a pin while also twisting octopus-like around, up, and over one another. This was short, so we didn't get any tiresome, long Sabre holds, which is a good thing. **1/2
TETSUYA NAITO vs. JUICE ROBINSON (16:43): Good match. It started a little slow as Naito worked over Juice's broken hand but by the end the crowd was hot and loud for this. Naito probably needs a new finisher, as The Destino seems to be easily reversed by everyone all the time. Naito also always does a flip when he gets clotheslined which is stupid but also cool looking. ***
KENNY OMEGA vs. TAMA TONGA (9:55): The Firing Squad came out and beat up Omega before the bell even rang. This caused Hangman Page and Chase Owens to come out for the save. Later, Owens, Page, and Ibushi came out for the save. This had more interference and ref bumping, which makes me wonder if New Japan has hired a former WWE writer. Tama Tonga wanted to slam Omega on a chair in the ring but the Red Shoes kicked it out of the ring. So Tama Tonga gave Red Shoes a Gun Stun neck breaker and got DQ'd. Semi-entertaining, semi-wild. And, really, Tama Tonga wasn't going to have a better match solo with Omega, anyway. **1/2
TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. HIROOKI GOTO (18:45): Brutal! This match was, realistically, twenty minutes of hard clotheslines. But clotheslines where they don't fall down. There was more, of course. Head butts. Ishii did a top rope suplex. But it was basically a classic, strong style match of hard elbows and punishment. The crowd did get into a frenzy late, which is always a good sign. Good end to what was the best show of the tournament so far. ***
B-block standings:
GOTO: 1-2 JUICE: 1-2 IBUSHI: 2-1 ISHII: 2-1 NAITO: 2-1 OMEGA: 3-0 SABRE: 1-2 SANADA: 2-1 TONGA: 1-2 YANO: 1-2
DAY 7 Sunday, July 22nd (A-Block) Tokyo:
YOSHI-HASHI vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (14:22): Pretty good match, which is shocking considering how slow and dull these A-Block shows are. I should probably just skip them until Okada/Tanahashi on the third to last night. Yoshi-Hashi has his shoulder all taped up...so maybe he shouldn't still be doing his patented Swanton Bomb? **1/2
EVIL vs. BAD LUCK FALE (12:13): Evil won by DQ. The problem with the proliferation of The Firing Squad interference is that it occurs during Fale matches, who's in A-Block, and Tama Tonga's matches, which are in B-Block. That means every show has The Firing Squad interfere, which is getting ridiculous. Also pointless is that Fale has only one once in the G1, which means the interference isn't exactly helping him. Bushi and Naito also showed up to interfere, getting some hot crowd pops but ending up both getting beaten down. This was mildly amusing. *1/2
MINORU SUZUKI vs. JAY WHITE (10:35): The Ace versus The Young Buck. What would this grizzled veteran teach the young pup? Not much, although he won fairly easily with his pile driver. This was only ten minutes and the first five were White rolling out of the ring then getting back in and holding the ropes and telling the ref to get Suzuki back. This was too slow. *
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. HANGMAN PAGE (12:08): Tanahashi hit two High Fly Flow's for the win. This ended up being just okay. Page is not really the type of guy to ever be in spectacular matches, and in this show particularly everyone on the card looked sluggish and tired (it was the fourth consecutive night of shows, and these A-Block guys wrestle on the under card of the B-Block shows in superfluous, mixed tag matches). Tanahashi is one of the all time greats, but even he is pretty much only half as good as he once was. **
KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. TOGI MAKABE (15:11): This was a basic match that turned out mediocre. Makabe is a brute but probably too old to still be in main events. Okada has yet to have a great match in this tournament, and I'm not sure he will until the last weekend. *1/2
A-block standings:
ELGIN: 2-2 EVIL: 3-1 FALE: 1-3 MAKABE: 2-2 OKADA: 2-2 PAGE: 1-3 SUZUKI: 2-2 TANAHASHI: 3-1 WHITE: 3-1 YOSHI-HASHI: 1-3
DAY 8 Thursday, July 26th (B-Block) Nagaoka:
HIROOKI GOTO vs. TORU YANO (2:17): Yano took the protective barrier off the ring post right away. At least this was short. I always feel kind of bad for these hard hitting, serious wrestlers that have to face Yano. Granted, they're probably just happy for the breather. *
TETSUYA NAITO vs. TAMA TONGA (10:06): Good match with more interference. It was fast paced which was good. Tanga Loa got involved and there was a ref bump. Naito eventually won with the Destino. **1/2
ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (14:36): Pretty good match. Ishii tapped out quickly at the end which kind of sapped any sort of drama at the end, but did make Sabre's arm bar seem super powerful. These two wrestled each other in England's RevPro promotion earlier this year so they at least worked seamlessly as they know each other well. **1/2
KENNY OMEGA vs. JUICE ROBINSON (15:31): Another good match, albeit not really in the realm of a typical, awesome Omega match. This was fast, though, which a lot of near-falls and drama. There was one suplex/flip that Juice delivered that sent Omega right on the side of his head in a sick angle. It's kind of shocking that there hasn't been a major injury to one of these G1 guys in the last few years. These middle tournament shows do kind of slow everything down a bit until they rev it back up at the end. **1/2
SANADA vs. KOTA IBUSHI (22:23): Good match and the best of the night. The last G1 show was on Sunday so they had three days off and it kind of showed. This was fast paced throughout with a hot crowd. Ibushi is, so far, probably the star of the G1 thus far, as he pretty much has good matches with everyone. His top rope moonsault to the floor was so perfect it's almost as if he was born to do this. Sanada ended up winning with his awkward looking top rope moonsault. And, really, you can't go wrong with a match where both guys are doing fucking moonsaults. ***
B-block standings:
GOTO: 2-2 JUICE: 1-3 IBUSHI: 2-2 ISHII: 2-2 NAITO: 3-1 OMEGA: 4-0 SABRE: 2-2 SANADA: 3-1 TONGA: 1-3 YANO: 1-3
DAY 9 Friday, July 27th (A-Block) Shizuoka, Act City Hamamatsu
MINORU SUZUKI vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (14:10): This was okay match. Way to kick things off, A-Block. The A-Block is like the red-headed, step-child no parent wants. Elgin has lost some weight and looks about as good as he's ever been. Suzuki is just an asshole. Pushing refs, hitting his opponents with chairs while in the crowd. His shtick is a little old, though, since he isn't having stellar matches this year. **
EVIL vs. HANGMAN PAGE (15:40): Decent match, albeit workmanlike and basic. By the end it was mildly watchable. **
BAD LUCK FALE vs. JAY WHITE (11:42): Another ref bump. Considering even when there isn't a ref bump the wrestlers still push the refs around...does this mean we'll be seeing a referee story line? Like, they join a union or something? I doubt it, as NJPW doesn't really do story lines like the WWE does. The Tongans ended up interfering to help Fale get the win. *
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. TOGI MAKABE (12:08): Tanahashi won after two straight High Fly Flows. That was cool. The rest was just average stuff, really. Nothing to see here. **
KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. YOSHI-HASHI (19:40): The last time Yoshi-Hashi was in the main event was probably that ROH show in Chicago last October. They announced that Omega would be there defending his U.S. title and the show sold out. Then they announced his opponent: Yoshi-Hashi. Groans were heard around the world. And even Omega knew this was lame so he threw out the kitchen sink during that match. It had multiple people interfering and tables broken and it still turned out to be just a little better than average. Yoshi-Hashi must have read all of the negative buzz about him on the internet because after that he suddenly started to look a little bit better in the ring. He actually had a good match against Naito earlier this year and here he is, in the main event, kicking out of a fucking Rain Maker. Remember when Naito kicked out of the Rain Maker and Dominion two years ago and it was a total, utter shock? Now it's old hat. At least, it is with the red-haired, balloon toting loser, Okada, who's slowly crawling back to his former, elite self. This turned out to be a pretty good match by the end, and by far the match of the night on this lame show. Finally, after two more Rain Maker's late, Okada won. **1/2
A-block standings:
ELGIN: 2-3 EVIL: 4-1 FALE: 2-3 MAKABE: 2-3 OKADA: 3-2 PAGE: 1-4 SUZUKI: 3-2 TANAHASHI: 4-1 WHITE: 3-2 YOSHI-HASHI: 1-4
DAY 10 Saturday, July 28th (B-Block) Aichi:
ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. TAMA TONGA (11:00): The Firing Squad apparently cares more about being destructive than victorious. At the end, Bad Luck Fale just waltzed in and delivered his finisher to Sabre and Tama Tonga was DQ'd. Before that there was another ref bump. The crowd fucking loathed the interference. Is this going somewhere? Because...after all of this bullshit does anyone actually want to see anyone wrestle The Firing Squad anymore? *
JUICE ROBINSON vs. TORU YANO (8:30): Pure comedy. Of course. These Yano matches would probably be unwatchable if it wasn't for the hot crowd. Why do they love his antics? Juice does, or, at least, he fed into it. He put Yano over his shoulders and spun around for awhile then they both walked around awkwardly punching at air. I suppose it's something different than the usual brutal, hard, serious drama. *1/2
KOTA IBUSHI vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (16:14): This was by far the best match of the tournament so far and one of the year's best matches. Why this wasn't the main event is beyond me, although I guess since Omega is champ they want to make it seem like he's the king and should be in the spotlight. Another thing is: why haven't they ever given Ishii the title? And why is he never in the main event? He's too old now, probably, but the last time I even remember him being in a main event title match was in Long Beach last year when he lost to Omega. Ishii is awesome, of course, and Ibushi is even better. Ibushi is so far the star of this tournament and he proved it early by doing a moonsault in the crowd off of a ten foot wall. Then they got back into the ring and just beat the living shit out of each other. Hard slaps, hard elbows, hard kicks. Ishii gave Ibushi a top rope suplex and Ibushi got right back up. So, yeah, there wasn't a hell of a lot of selling here, but this was just an awe-inspiring, dramatic, super brutal masterpiece. ****
TETSUYA NAITO vs. HIROOKI GOTO (13:27): Good luck following the last match. And this was dull. Goto kicked out of a Destino, which everyone seems to do these days. This was just kind of slow and kind of flat. **
KENNY OMEGA vs. SANADA (20:12): Good main event. It started a little slow with mat wrestling, but by the end it was in the usual, NJPW high drama realm. Sanada is not the greatest at anything, especially showcasing emotion or delivering any kind of story, but he hung in there with the best. The last five minutes of this were excellent. Omega won with a sloppy looking One-Winged Angel and remains the sole undefeated wrestler in the whole tournament. ***
B-block standings:
GOTO: 2-3 JUICE: 2-3 IBUSHI: 3-2 ISHII: 2-3 NAITO: 4-1 OMEGA: 5-0 SABRE: 3-2 SANADA: 3-2 TONGA: 1-4 YANO: 1-4
DAY 11: Monday, July 30th (A-Block) Takamatsu
BAD LUCK FALE vs. TOGI MAKABE (7:51): Fale won thanks, of course, to more outside interference. By the end the ref was out and Fale just used a chain to hit Makabe with and the ref woke up and counted the pin. Since this A-block is so bad, I was thinking...why not just forget the Super Jr.'s tournament and have those guys wrestle in the G1? Instead of Makabe you could have Will Ospreay. Instead of Bad Luck Fale you could have Dragon Lee. That also goes for Yano, Tama Tonga, and Evil. It would make the G1 the greatest wrestling tournament of all time. It kind of is already, but still. There's matches like this in it now. *
JAY WHITE vs. HANGMAN PAGE (17:10): White used a steel chair in the ring. Why do they even bother with referees in this tournament? They're practically the 21st competitor this year. White low-blowed Page for the win. This was just okay. *1/2
MINORU SUZUKI vs. EVIL (12:13): They of course brawled in the crowd. Evil eventually put Suzuki's head in a chair and hit that chair with another chair. This match, and show, was kind of stale to put it mildly. *1/2
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. YOSHI-HASHI (12:36): This was pretty basic stuff. Like most Tanahashi matches, the final few minutes were pretty intense and entertaining. But the rest of it was mediocre. **
KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (20:56): By the end this turned into a really good match, but the early part was pedestrian. It does seem that, usually, the longer the match the better it is. Maybe WWE should take note? Because this match didn't really turn into anything awesome until the fifteen minute mark. **1/2
A-block standings:
ELGIN: 2-4 EVIL: 4-2 FALE: 3-3 MAKABE: 2-4 OKADA: 4-2 PAGE: 1-5 SUZUKI: 4-2 TANAHASHI: 5-1 WHITE: 4-2 YOSHI-HASHI: 1-5
DAY 12: Wednesday, August 1st (B-Block) Kagoshima
TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. TAMA TONGA (10:32): This was almost by far the best Firing Squad match of the tournament so far. I guess blame Ishii, who can't really have a bad match if he tried. Tanga Loa interfered so Ishii just pulled him into the ring and started to beat him up while the ref jumped around frantically not really trying to stop him. A chair ended up in the ring. Tanga Loa pulled out the referee during a count. Bad Luck Fale showed up and gave his finisher to Ishii. Eventually, after all of this, Tama Tonga won. This was at least more entertaining than the usual Firing Squad bullshit, probably because Ishii kept getting back up and fighting back. **1/2
JUICE ROBINSON vs. SANADA (12:36): This was totally forgettable. I literally watched this and then came back to the show an hour or so later to finish watching it. I was fast forwarding through the show to get to where I stopped watching and noticed that Juice and Sanada were wrestling. I just watched it an hour ago and had already forgotten if I watched it. What does that tell you? The only thing I still remember from this is that for some reason Juice unwrapped his broken hand and teased using it. Why would a broken hand be more powerful? Wouldn't it be less powerful? 1/2*
TORU YANO vs. TETSUYA NAITO (8:28): Yano ended up with his wrist taped to a guardrail outside the ring and couldn't unwrap it fast enough to beat the count so he dragged the whole guardrail into the ring. Ha ha! So hilarious! I don't hate Yano like some people probably do, but it's a little annoying to have to sift through his matches to get to the good stuff. *1/2
KENNY OMEGA vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (15:14): Omega won, which means he's still the only undefeated wrestler in both blocks. He's going to have to lose eventually to someone. Probably Ishii? He better not lose to fucking Yano. This match was entertaining by the end but mostly kind of boring with Zack suddenly turning Omega's forward motion into a submission and the crowd gasping every time. **
HIROOKI GOTO vs. KOTA IBUSHI (18:09): Good main event. As per usual in all good NJPW matches, the last few minutes were spectacular. Ibushi did all of his patented moves; the top rope, flawless moonsault to the floor, the knee to the head. By the end they were delivering devastating moves to one another and kicking out and it was pretty awesome. ***
B-block standings:
GOTO: 2-4 JUICE: 3-3 IBUSHI: 4-2 ISHII: 2-4 NAITO: 5-1 OMEGA: 6-0 SABRE: 3-3 SANADA: 3-3 TONGA: 2-4 YANO: 1-5
DAY 13: Thursday, August 2nd (A-Block) Fukuoka
MICHAEL ELGIN vs. BAD LUCK FALE (11:13): Elgin won by DQ after The Firing Squad beat the shit out of him with a chair. His shoulder was taped up so of course they hit that with the chair. Before the DQ it was a typical, big man/hard falls type of match which you either love (like Vince McMahon) or you find tiresome. **
HANGMAN PAGE vs. TOGI MAKABE (9:10): This was decent. Page is the new G1 face, so he came out serious and hard hitting trying to show that he belongs. He does, I guess, albeit he hasn't had a great match yet. So this was pretty much just ten minutes of hard clotheslines. If that's your thing. **
JAY WHITE vs. YOSHI-HASHI (9:48): White did all of his villain stuff here. He gave Yoshi-Hashi a low blow when the ref wasn't looking. He attacked Yoshi-Hashi before the bell rang. Why does Yoshi-Hashi come out to the ring holding a staff? He never uses it. I guess he thinks it looks bad ass? This was mediocre. 1/2*
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. EVIL (12:57): Evil will never be in a great match. Because Tanahashi is awesome the crowd got into this because of him but Evil sucks. All he does his clothesline his opponents. When Tanahashi jumped over the top rope to climb up for the High Fly Flow the crowd was ecstatic. And that was the only high light. *1/2
KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. MINORU SUZUKI (18:20): This was just okay. Even during Okada's legendary two year title run when he was having four star matches left and right, one of the few duds was his 45 minute bore against Suzuki where they just did submission holds for years. The beginning of this made me wonder if Suzuki has subscribed to the WWE Network and has been watching old ECW shows. Suzuki took Okada into the crowd and threw a guardrail on him and hit him with a chair then threw him across chairs while people scattered. Why weren't they chanting, "ECW! ECW!"? After that they eventually did a slap fest and some back and forth attempted pile driver reversals. This never turned into anything great but it was entertaining in spots. **
A-block standings:
ELGIN: 3-4 EVIL: 4-3 FALE: 3-4 MAKABE: 2-5 OKADA: 5-2 PAGE: 1-6 SUZUKI: 4-3 TANAHASHI: 6-1 WHITE: 5-2 YOSHI-HASHI: 1-6
DAY 14: Saturday, August 4th (B-Block) Osaka
SANADA vs. TORU YANO (5:22): Yano attacked Sanada when he was doing his entrance. Eventually, Sanada tied Yano's arms and legs together around a ringside guardrail and he was counted out. Funny, because I was just saying to myself during the last show how I'm sick of guys dramatically beating the count out in New Japan when no one ever gets counted out. 1/2*
HIROOKI GOTO vs. TAMA TONGA (11:15): Goto won by DQ when The Firing Squad interfered. They threw the ref into the guardrail at ringside and so the bell rang. But then Red Shoes came in and they still wanted him to count 1-2-3 for Tama Tonga. Red Shoes gave them the double middle finger salute then rang the bell for the DQ...again. I don't know...I'm sick of TFS's antics. 1/2*
ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. JUICE ROBINSON (13:39): Sabre won by submission when he stretched Juice's leg backwards. This was average stuff. *1/2
TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. KENNY OMEGA (22:42): Good match. It started a bit sloppy but by the end it was enthralling. The last five minutes or so was the best wrestling you'll ever see. Typical New Japan, really. They build to a crescendo. Omega apparently fractured a bone in his foot when he did a Terminator dive onto Cody last month during the San Francisco show. I didn't know up until this show and still couldn't tell. He did another Terminator dive and seemed like he was walking and moving around fine. Maybe he's getting a cortisone shot before his matches in his foot or something. Ishii won here which was Omega's first loss in the tournament. He won with a brain buster. This was not as memorable as their match last year in Long Beach. But, granted, that one had a Dragon Suplex through a ringside table. Still awesome, though. ***
KOTA IBUSHI vs. TETSUYA NAITO (25:09): I was wondering why Ishii/Omega wasn't the main event. Ishii is never in the main event. It's like he slept with a New Japan executive's daughter years ago and is still paying the price or something. But this was in Osaka, and Osaka hates Naito because of his history pissing them off, so of course they put Naito in the main event. I remember these two wrestled on Day 1 or Day 2 of last year's G1 and it was sick; they just kept slamming each other on their heads. Well nothing has changed. Perhaps these two shouldn't be allowed to wrestle each other. Ibushi did a German Suplex that put Naito right on his head and then spiked him right on his head later. Like the previous match, this started slow but built into a dramatic frenzy with a ferocious crowd. Good main event. ***
B-block standings:
GOTO: 3-4 JUICE: 3-4 IBUSHI: 5-2 ISHII: 3-4 NAITO: 5-2 OMEGA: 6-1 SABRE: 4-3 SANADA: 4-3 TONGA: 2-5 YANO: 1-6
DAY 15: Sunday, August 5th (A-Block) Osaka
YOSHI-HASHI vs. BAD LUCK FALE (8:31): They had a basic match until the end when Tama Tonga just brazenly interfered by walking into the ring and hitting Yoshi-Hashi with a chair and causing a DQ. I'm not sure the motivation for this. 'Hey, Fale, we'll interfere and cause you to lose the match...but we'll wait and let you two have a match for seven minutes before we do this.' Why not just beat up Yoshi-Hashi in the beginning? This Firing Squad junk is getting too stupid to even contemplate. It's almost turning into...gasp...a typical, non-logical WWE story line. Even if they didn't DQ this match was going nowhere. After the match, Tama Tonga went into the crowd and choked a fan. I guess Japan doesn't have lawsuits? And the fans around the choked fan were laughing. That was amusing. *
HANGMAN PAGE vs. MINORU SUZUKI (12:05): This had to be Page's biggest win ever in his entire career. Not that Suzuki is even well known in the U.S. or anything, but he's still a legend in wrestling. Page did a moonsault off of the entrance way onto Suzuki and El Desperado. Page, as he's been doing all tournament, has tried to show that he belongs and can take it. Suzuki sure gave it to him, delivering some wicked elbow shots to the neck. And of course there was the usual, Suzuki, ECW style crowd brawl involving the steel barriers and chairs. This was semi-entertaining. **
JAY WHITE vs. TOGI MAKABE (16:03): White used a chair when the ref wasn't looking and got the win. Both of these guy's haven't had any great matches in the tournament so far, and with only one more A-block show left, don't expect one. This was forgettable. 1/2*
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (16:03): Good match. The reason, probably, is that Tanahashi gets more of a crowd reaction than anyone on the roster. That usually makes average matches a little bit better. And this certainly wasn't anything special, but with the hot crowd and the exciting last few minutes, it turned out to be good. The one major problem was how Tanahashi won. He won with a schoolboy roll-up, but it was an awkward one. Elgin stopped for a moment and then realized he's supposed to get rolled up and lose now so he sort of went into the roll up himself. Lame finish, good match. **1/2
KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. EVIL (18:27): The last five minutes were stellar...if you love clothes lines. Okada had to win here or else Tanahashi would have wrapped up the A-block. Okada delivered Evil's finisher and Evil attempted a Rainmaker...although, perhaps it was just a clothes line. What is the difference? The end had a bunch of reversals...like Evil reversing The Rainmaker into...his OWN clothes line! So the end of this was dramatic and exciting. And so now, of course, it's set up that who ever wins between Okada and Tanahashi on the final A-block show will most likely win the block. Jay White has beaten both Okada and Tanahashi, so if he wins he could leap them both and be in the final. I can't fathom how awful that would be if Jay White is in the G1 Climax final. **1/2
A-block standings:
ELGIN: 3-5 EVIL: 4-4 FALE: 3-5 MAKABE: 2-6 OKADA: 6-2 PAGE: 2-6 SUZUKI: 4-4 TANAHASHI: 7-1 WHITE: 6-2 YOSHI-HASHI: 2-6
DAY 16: Wednesday, August 8th (B-Block) Yokohama
TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. JUICE ROBINSON (12:24): This was a good match. It's tough for Ishii to be in a bad match, and this one worked because it was back and forth and non-stop action. Juice stood toe to toe and produced his best match of the tournament. **1/2
ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. HIROOKI GOTO (10:43): Pretty forgettable, honestly. Sabre, Jr. and Goto haven't done too much in terms of entertainment in this year's G1. *1/2
TAMA TONGA vs. KOTA IBUSHI (14:17): Ibushi did a moonsault off of the balcony onto Tama Tonga and two of the New Japan ring side crew members. That was the highlight. The Firing Squad of course interfered. Bad Luck Fale came in and then Kenny Omega ran into the ring to save his tag team partner, Ibushi. All of this happened without the ref seeing anything, since Tama somehow got the pin. **1/2
TORU YANO vs. KENNY OMEGA (9:04): This was one entertaining match. Omega was lying on the mat unconscious thanks to The Firing Squad in the last match. So Yano comes in and tries to pin him quickly but Omega miraculously kicks out. Then we get tons of comedy. They hit each other with the protective turnbuckle padding. Yano suplexed Omega onto four of those turnbuckle mats in the ring and Omega got up and looked around because he was just suplexed onto fucking foam, of course it didn't hurt. Then Yano taped Omega's wrist to a ring side crew member's wrist. Omega had to carry the crew member into the ring to beat the count then used him to clothes line Yano. This was all ridiculous. Tama Tonga shows up and gives Omega a Gun Stun then drapes Yano over him. The ref, apparently, missed all of this, as he counts the pin for Yano. This means that Yano has beaten Ibushi and Omega in this tournament. ***
TETSUYA NAITO vs. SANADA (19:52): Good main event, albeit not great or anything. The crowd was a bit quiet through a lot of this, although by the end it was dramatic and exciting and the crowd got into it. There were a lot of near falls by the end, like when Sanada delivered a Destino and Naito kicked out of it. I still think Yano/Omega was the match of the night...which is a fucking shocker. Going into the last B-Block show, Omega and Naito are tied in the lead with Ibushi and Sabre, Jr. tied for 2nd. Omega already beat Naito, so he would go to the finals if they tie. Usually the champ doesn't end up in the finals, so it'll probably be Ibushi winning it. Probably. Maybe. We'll see. **1/2
B-block standings:
GOTO: 3-5 JUICE: 3-5 IBUSHI: 5-3 ISHII: 4-4 NAITO: 6-2 OMEGA: 6-2 SABRE: 5-3 SANADA: 4-4 TONGA: 3-5 YANO: 2-6
DAY 17: Friday, August 10th (A-Block) Tokyo
TOGI MAKABE vs. MICHAEL ELGIN (8:46): Just another, typical big, strong man match. If that's your bag then you'd be in heaven. So this was same-old. Hard-hitting, short. It was okay. *1/2
YOSHI-HASHI vs. HANGMAN PAGE (10:22): Both of these guys have tried really hard in this tournament. Unfortunately, neither one has had a great match. They're not boring, so this wasn't awful or anything. The problem with this show was that only three wrestlers could win the A-Block; Jay White, Okada, or Tanahashi. Which meant the first three matches were meaningless. *1/2
MINORU SUZUKI vs. BAD LUCK FALE (8:51): More Firing Squad interference! I hope this story line is going somewhere. Er...actually, I don't, because I never want to see The Firing Squad again. All three of them are fucking boring. Suzuki was attempting his piledriver finisher when Tama Tonga brazenly entered the ring and attacked him. This was midly amusing. **
EVIL vs. JAY WHITE (11:36): Evil won, killing Jay White's chances of winning the A-Block. White did all of his villanious maneuvers here; the low blow, using a chair, knocking out the ref, etc. It wasn't anything special. *
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (30:00): Really? A thirty minute draw? Ugh. I guess I wouldn't be mad about it if they hadn't done this two year's ago the last time these two wrestled in the G1 tournament. And would it kill this company to put a countdown clock up on the screen or something? I guess it's my fault, as I listen to the awesome Japanese announcers who probably were shouting how many seconds were left. This did start dull and slow. And it was average for a long time. The last ten minutes were of course the greatest wrestling in the history of the world, though. Tanahashi did a High Fly Flow from the top rope to the floor. They reversed Tombstones in the ring. They reversed Rainmakers. Tanahashi hit a High Fly Flow to Okada's back but Okada kicked out. Tanahashi was going up to the top rope for another High Fly Flow when time ran out. A draw. Tanahashi wins the A-Block. The best matches these two have had were probably three or four years ago, but even a lesser Okada/Tanahashi match is still a near masterpiece. ***1/2
A-block final standings:
TANAHASHI: 7-1-1
OKADA: 6-2-1
WHITE: 6-3
SUZUKI: 5-4
EVIL: 5-4
ELGIN: 3-6
FALE: 3-6
MAKABE: 3-6
YOSHI-HASHI: 3-6
PAGE 2-7
DAY 18: Saturday, August 11th (B-Block) Tokyo
TORU YANO vs. TAMA TONGA (5:08): Not only did The Firing Squad interfere, but the new president of New Japan, some white guy, came out to stop them. Are they going to go with a Vince McMahon vs. 'Stone Cold' type of storyline now, with the boss versus his own wrestlers? God, I hope not, as the WWE has offically killed that gimmick. Before the DQ finish this wasn't exactly going anywhere. I can officialy say that The Firing Squad antics made this G1 less entertaining than usual. 1/2*
JUICE ROBINSON vs. HIROOKI GOTO (10:36): This was a good match that was pretty much all action. These two were eliminated from the tournament but decided to still put on a show. **1/2
TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. SANADA (17:00): This was excellent. Ishii can really do no wrong. The only minor complaint was that Sananda was a bit sloppy at times. This had a billion near falls and reversals and by the end it was awesome stuff. ***1/2
ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. TETSUYA NAITO (18:17): These two have wrestled before in England and in the New Japan Cup that Sabre, Jr. won, so they know each other well. With that said, this wasn't their best match. Sabre, Jr. surprisingly won after reversing a second Destino into a Zack Driver. A lot of this match was Sabre, Jr. just being his usual, human pretzel self...which you either love or hate. The problem with the submission holds is that the action grinds to a standstill. But you know what you're getting with a Sabre, Jr. match and this was about as good as it gets for that type of match. **1/2
KOTA IBUSHI vs. KENNY OMEGA (23:13): These two wrestled each other at this very building, Budokan Hall, for DDT in August 2012. It was probably most famous for Ibushi being told he couldn't do a moonsault off of the balcony but doing it anyway and then being banned from the building for a few years afterwards. These two haven't wrestled each other yet in New Japan and I was hoping it was going to be earlier this year at Wrestle Kingdom. Jericho showed up and plans changed but now, finally, we got an Ibushi/Omega match. It was short, and I believe with ten more minutes they could have had a better match, but this was still one of the greatest matches you're ever going to see. The reason is that these two know each other so well that they trust each other to do the craziest, most brutal, insane moves to one another. This was literally insane in the I-can't-believe-they-just-did-that-and-they're-not-dead way. One particular, painful maneuver had Ibushi doing a standing moonsault onto Omega but landed hard on Omega's chest with his knees. Ibushi also did a Super Tiger Driver from the top rope which was crazy. And that's what the end of this match was; just the two of them delivering non-stop, back and forth, ridiculously brutal moves until finally Ibushi won. This was everything we wanted and more. Ibushi ties Omega, Naito, and Sabre, Jr. in total wins but since he beat them all he wins the B-Block. ****
B-block final standings:
IBUSHI: 6-3
OMEGA: 6-3
SABRE, JR: 6-3
NAITO: 6-3
ISHII: 5-4
JUICE: 4-5
SANADA: 4-5
GOTO: 3-6
YANO: 3-6
TONGA: 3-6
DAY 19: Sunday, August 12th (Finals) Tokyo
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. KOTA IBUSHI (35:00): I think that this was the best final match in the last few years. And that's saying a lot considering last year had Omega/Naito tearing the house down. Tanahashi wins which means he's going to the main event of Wrestle Kingdom. My prediction was Okada beating Ibushi in the finals...so I was half right. Tanahashi is, of course, older and a bit slower so a lot of people thought his glory days were over, especially considering he hasn't had the title in three years and at Wrestle Kingdom earlier this year he was stuck in the mid-card fighting Jay White. But the crowds love Tanahashi more than anyone else on the roster. He's their Hulk Hogan icon...so putting him in the main event of the year's biggest show isn't exactly a bad move. He did prove in this match that he can still deliver a classic...although facing Ibushi certainly helped. Omega verse Naito, Ibushi, or Okada at WK would probably be a better match. But Tanahashi/Omega was great the last time they faced each other on a big show in the main event (two year's ago). As for this match...the hot crowd helped. The long match helped build the drama and excitement to a feverish pitch at the end. Ibushi did all of his brutal moves and Tanahashi at least took it. He won with a second High Fly Flow in a great main event. ***1/2
The *-Ratings Results
****- 2 matches
***1/2- 4 matches
***- 9 matches
**1/2- 21 matches
**- 21 matches
*1/2- 14 matches
*- 10 matches
1/2*- 6 matches
