NJPW G1 CLIMAX 27, 7/21/17 (Day 3)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Initial reaction while watching live (but posted way later) review of Day 3’s G1 matches. Looking forward to some good stuff here. Will Tanahashi’s arm survive the Bad Man, or will he end up jobbing the tournament like Leona in Z1? Will Ishii and Makabe kill each other? Can Nagata keep up the badassery from day 1? How many times will Ibushi say he’s sorry after tonight’s match? Does YOSHI-HASHI even stand a chance? At all? Let’s find out.
G1 Climax – Block A: Yuji Nagata [0] vs. Hirooki Goto [2]
Some back and forth matwrestling gets the crowd going and Goto lands the first strike and that just pisses Yuji off and he goes straight into destroying Goto’s left arm. Goto just isn’t having any of it and after landing a stiff lariat to the outside he begins trying to wear down Nagata. Nagata should have went for the damn right arm because these lariats HURT. This will be his downfall. Goto slaps Nagata on the top of the head and Nagata’s blood vessels begin to burst. He’s FUMING. Goto will pay severely. Nagata goes apeshit with kicks, keeping Goto down on the mat and then we begin an elbow war. A few suplex exchanges and near falls including a close count after Goto hits the Ushirogoshi, and Nagata must realize he isn’t gonna out-slug Goto so he goes right back to that left arm as soon as he can make it happen. Smart. Crazy eyes Nagata drags Goto right back to the middle of the ring with the wakigatame and continues destroying the left arm of Goto which he should have just kept doing from the start. He’s got the crowd going NUTS now and hits a dragon screw, Thunder Death Driver, and Exploder for near victories. DAMN these opening matches have been great. Goto buys himself some time to recover. Elbow exchanges from the mat ensue and Nagata just will not go down. Finally Goto lands a lariat that takes Nagata to the mat. He catches a kick and hits an enzugiri. With the end in sight Nagata goes for the exploder but Goto counters into a sleeper hold but his left arm isn’t strong enough to keep the hold secure. Nagata tries to get out of the hold but Goto says NOPE and hits the GTR for the victory. I really did like this and I wanted to like it so much more but the psychology was all over the place. Nagata working the left arm of Goto essentially did nothing, and Goto really only sold the damage one time. Great action, great transitions – definitely a fun match though and worth a watch. ***1/4
G1 Climax – Block A: Togi Makabe [0] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [0]
SLUGFEST, baby! And for the 11th time in a row this G1 we get someone thrown into the guardrail on the outside. That’s what it feels like at least. Change it up a little, damn. About 8 minutes in next to nothing has happened and we get a random top rope brainbuster by Ishii. What? That was so out of place it made Ibushi’s top rope piledriver make sense. MOAR SLUGFEST~~. Makabe can’t keep Ishii down. Now Makabe goes to the top rope for a spider German but Ishii doesn’t want any of that shit so they trade elbows until Makabe tosses Ishii off the top and leaps but Ishii evades. This match is losing me a little. Makabe took a brainbuster from the top rope and has no-sold every second of it while Ishii is acting like a truck drove over him. I’m not convinced by any of this. Yes I’m going back to that. We do get some fun exchanges at the end and Ishii lands a branbuster for the win. The end of this salvaged it a bit but it did lose me about halfway through. Crowd was hardly into it, either. Skip this. **1/4
G1 Climax – Block A: Kota Ibushi [0] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [2]
ZSJ is now a threat after the beatdown he gave Tanahashi. A submission master. Ibushi clearly wants none of Zacks shit so he punches him right the fuck across the face and Zack wonders what the fuck just hit him. Zack returns the favor with a nasty neck screw and leg hold. ZSJ simultaneously works the neck and the leg of Ibushi but too close to the ropes and Ibushi breaks every time. I haven’t seen too much of ZSJ but damn I’m loving his work. Half Boston crab while standing on the back of Ibushi’s freaking neck. Love how he just digs his elbow into Ibushi’s neck like he was doing to Tanahashi’s arm in Day 1. Freaking badass. Ibushi then returns the favor with a stiff kick in the face. He attempts a backflip onto Sabre but Zack is ready and Ibushi almost gets caught in the triangle hold but again gets the ropes. Fantastic. Every attempt at offense by Ibushi is countered into a submission by Zack. Ibushi needs to keep his offense on the ground and all he can do is throw in a kick or a stomp when an opening presents itself, but he does it with as much strength as he can, wearing Sabre down little by little. Zack has put damage on Kota’s neck and arms. Every hold he applies is GREAT. He catches a kick and throws Kota one of his own. Now Zack is just toying with Ibushi, pushing kicks into his face on the mat and throwing uppercuts. A true badass at work. Ibushi begs for more. Kota is attempting everything he can but Zach continues to counter and Ibushi doesn’t know what the fuck to do next because he has to adapt to Sabre’s style. He just looks defeated as he sits on the mat, waiting for Zack’s next move. He catches a kick and manages to hit a lariat to buy some time. IBUSHI, IBUSHI, IBUSHI. He lets out a scream and charges at Zack, hitting an absolutely devastating knee strike, but again, anything further is not allowed by Sabre. Zack continues to try and tap Ibushi out with a triangle hold, applying it mid-air, but Kota displays his power lifting Sabre up and slamming him down to the mat with the GOLDEN STAR POWERBOMB. WRECKED. 1. 2. 3. A great struggle for Ibushi. This match strengthened both guys continuing to establish ZSJ as a threat and establish Ibushi’s finisher for down the road for what will probably be a longish run through the G1. I want MORE. This was freaking SO GOOOOOOOOD. More time and this is an easy MOTYC for sure. ****
G1 Climax – Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi [0] vs. Bad Luck Fale [2]
GO ACE! Tanahashi goes for a quick roll up but nope. It isn’t long before Fale focuses the arm, doing whatever he can to weaken the IC champ. Tanahashi manages to hit a German suplex on the 152kilo monster but then tries to lift Fale and falls over. Fale puts all his weight on Tana with a hip drop and jumping body press but Tanahashi survives. Tanahashi hits the Sling Blade, countering a powerbomb, and Fale rolls to the outside. Tanahashi flies off the top rope onto Fale, but lands on his elbow and he is in PAIN on the floor. Fale slowly gets up to the ring apron. Tanahashi springs up at the same time and just as Fale is about to climb in the ring, Tana hits the SLING BLADE on the ring apron and gets back in the ring before the 20 count!!! Countout victory! Top notch booking these last two matches. Of course Tanahashi has a glaring weakness right now but he’s still THE MAN. GO ACE! **3/4
G1 Climax – Block A: Tetsuya Naito [2] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [2]
Naito’s theme and ring entrance fires me up. HASHI takes a kick to the head and a reverse neckbreaker as Naito begins the beatdown. Naito lays down in the middle of the ring like just doesn’t give a fuck while HASHI is getting counted out on the outside. Once back in the ring, Naito gets up like WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE, and the crowd agrees, chanting Naito’s name. YOSHI makes a comeback and shows that he ain’t going down that easy. YOSHI controlling this portion of the match is actually kinda boring. He isn’t moving with intent and he’s allowing far too much downtime in between the action. Naito is selling his ASS off for YOSHI though. A lengthy counter exchange leads to a back stomp by YOSHI and Naito is writhing in pain on the mat. SHOULDER BREAKER. JACKNIFE POWERBOMB. Kaonto tuu. More NAITO chants. Naito pulls off a few power moves and raises his eyebrow at the chanting crowd before taking a loud ass kick to the neck from YOSHI. He heads for the top rope but Naito won’t let anything happen as he climbs up with him. Frankensteiner and Gloria powerslam and a two count. He goes for the Destino but YOSHI counters. Naito clutches his shoulder on the mat and YOSHI clutches his neck. Elbow strikes as both men stand tall. YOSHI lands some kicks and drops Naito for a two-count. He applies the Butterfly lock and Naito can’t reach the ropes, he stands and goes for a reversal but YOSHI counters into a falling backbreaker. SWANTON BOMBUUUUU, and Naito kicks. Butterfly lock again, extending the somewhat injured shoulder of Naito and the referee yells for Naito to give up. He inches towards the ropes but YOSHI drags him right back in the middle of the ring. Naito gets as close as he can to the ropes, digs deep, and reaches them. He goes for the KARMA but can’t lift Naito in the air so just lariats the fuck out of him for a two count. KARMA. NO. REVERSE DDT. 1. 2. NO!!!! HE CAN’T BELIEVE IT. DESTINOOOOOOOOOOOO. NAITO TETSUYA! OK so the first half of this match was really kinda boring. YOSHI dictating the pace just did nothing for me. I was bored even though Naito was doing all he could to put YOSHI over by selling like crazy. Even near the end YOSHI would just throw on the Butterfly lock a few times, not even convincingly, and it wasn’t at all believable that Naito would submit, even through the struggle to get to the ropes. If it wasn’t for Naito this would be damn near unwatchable, aside for maybe Okada being in Naito’s spot. Naito CARRIED all of this and he did it damn well. I think the length of this match and the stage it was on exposed YOSHI a bit. Naito’s performance, though, was really good and should be seen. **3/4
Final Thoughts: Ibushi/Sabre was FANTASTIC and it would have benefited greatly from another 5 minutes. I LOVED the booking of the show overall with the G1 matches setting up so much for later on. Sabre and YOSHI are still huge threats and Ibushi has established his finisher today and I think he goes on a long run now. For me, Naito/YOSHI was nowhere near main event caliber, even though Naito’s performance was really good. Makabe/Ishii is skippable IMO, and Goto/Nagata was good although could have been so much better if it wasn’t for so many inconsistencies. The show served its purpose though as an early G1 show, and we will probably see down the road that this show did a ton for this tournament.
